School and Real Madrid

Hi everyone,

Today was a good day. The sky was blue again and the temperatures hovered around 40. (Sorry to all of you in Wisconsin with temperatures that are like -40.)

In the morning I decided to take the bus to school to see how long it would take. Once I got to campus I just walked around for a while. Even though the buildings aren't the prettiest ones I've ever seen in my life (they aren't the ugliest either), I really liked the atmosphere on campus. Because I was off of the busy streets, everything seemed to be a bit more relaxed and I just felt really comfortable there. I think it's probably because school is familiar thing for me and I pretty much know what to expect with it (even if it will be a little different than what I've done before). One thing I especially liked about campus, other than the view of the mountains, was all of the graffiti. I think it's funny that the UWO administration freaks out about sidewalk chalk; they would have a fit if they saw all the graffiti here. The graffiti is so political in nature...and I guess I just have a different view of it since I read Julio Cortázar's short story "Graffiti."

I had planned on going to two museums after going to campus, but it was just such a nice day out that I didn't want to be stuck indoors. Instead I took the metro down to a part of town I hadn't been before. It was a more commercial area than the other parts of the city that I've seen.

After wandering for a while, I finally stumbled on what I was really looking for--El Estadio Santiago Bernabéu: Home of the Real Madrid fútbol team. Quick side note: I had never really followed soccer until last year and the reason I became so interested in Spanish soccer was because I did this project on the social and political history of Soccer in Spain for my Spanish Civilization class. Anyway, I decided I should take the tour because I wasn't going to the museums and it was a great decision. That stadium just had so much energy. This Italian guy became my tour buddy and we had a blast. A lot of people will probably hate me for saying this, but this stadium was 100x more interesting than Lambeau.

After that I took the metro home and was starving because it was after 4 and I hadn't eaten since 10, so I did something I'm a bit ashamed of--I ate at McDonalds. But I only did it because it was practically right outside of the metro station! It's good to know though that half-way across the world french fries and McNuggets taste the same.

Here are my pictures from today: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2124089&l=cf13b&id=71208608

Oh! And I'm very excited for tomorrow because I get to meet the rest of the kids from my program. Hooray!