Exhausted...

Hi everyone,

Today I discovered the maps in my guidebook are not to scale and because of that I did a lot of walking--all around what the book calls Bourbon Madrid and then back to the Puerta del Sol (just to see if I could make it there on foot). So here's the link to all of today's pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2123913&l=d3ac5&id=71208608

Enjoy!

More wandering...

Last night I decided that I was going to find the Templo de Debod today and I did! It's an Egyptian temple from 200 B.C. that was given to Spain and it was tiny but also very interesting. In the process of finding it I stumbled across the Plaza de España and a statue of Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz. I think that Sor Juana is one of my favorite women from history and if you've never heard of her you should google her and read some of her poetry.

After finding the temple I took a long walk back to Calle Mayor and Puerta del Sol because I needed to buy a few more clothing items because my luggage is still missing. It started to snow a little bit more (it had been snowing on and off all morning) and I thought it was so funny because everyone around me started walking under umbrellas. That's just not something you see everyday in Wisconsin. However, I stopped laughing once it warmed up a bit and started to rain. Then I just went home to eat lunch. I decided because I love bocadillos so much I should just make them at home myself. I bought bread, chorizo and Manchego cheese and my little sandwiches were amazing.

Later, the two other ISA students in this residencia asked me if I wanted to go see a movie with them and I did. We had quite the adventure looking for the theater we were supposed to go to, but it was well worth it because the theater had the coolest display of old movie projectors. Some of them looked like pieces of art.

Here's the link for more of today's pictures (I didn't post many because the weather was so unpleasant): http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2123801&l=982a7&id=71208608

A quick side note: I came to Madrid a week before my program actually started which is why I have all of this time to explore things. I will be starting school next week.

Gallivanting around Old Madrid

Today was a beautiful day. Blue skies and in the 40's and I am exhausted. I left my residencia at 9:45 to go to the ISA office and didn't get back until 5:30. I took the metro to the ISA office and didn't have any problems at all. It's really quite easy to figure out as long as you know where you want to go and you make sure the train you're about to get on is traveling in the direction you want to go (I almost got on the train going in the opposite direction but caught my mistake in time). The ISA people are really nice and are working hard to get my luggage back for me--yeah, it's still not here yet. After visiting the office, I bought a few things to wear, but I didn't want to spend a lot of money on clothes because I have so many that I packed. The shopping near the Puerta del Sol is pretty fabulous though and right now it is especially great because of the "rebajas," which are huge sales going on through January. It was so crowded in every store I went in and clothes were strewn about everywhere. Oh! before I went shopping I stopped in this little cafe-type-place to get chocolate con churros. Well, they didn't have the churros and I was disappointed, so I had some other sort of breakfast pastry instead and the chocolate. It was really good, but the hot chocolate was so thick. It kept me full for hours.

After shopping a bit I decided to wander up the Calle Mayor. I re-visited the Plaza Mayor (which was really empty today compared to yesterday--you can see my video of it below) and then I walked and walked until I stumbled upon the Palacio Real, which was immense. I didn't tour it though because the admission was 10 euros, but if I wait until I get my student i.d. next week it will only be 3.50 euro. Then I wandered through the Plaza del Oriente and back down the Calle Mayor. I went to a really huge music/movies/video games store and had lunch at a place called Rodillas. I got a bocadillo (sandwich) and diet coke for 5.55 euro. The bocadillo was really filling and it was called bacon with cheese, but the bacon was more like a cross between ham and canadian bacon and it had this really good spread on it. I was really excited because as I was walking home today I found a Rodillas near my residencia.

Speaking of walking home, I managed not to get lost all day until walking from the metro station to my residencia. I went up one street too far after leaving the metro station (and it never crossed with the street that I live on) and was so confused for about 15 mintues until I finally stepped into a pharmacy to consult a map.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do tomorrow yet. I had planned on going to the Prado and Reina Sofia art museums, but the ISA directors told me to "be patient" and wait until next week after I get my student ID card so I can get a discount on admission. They suggested that I go to the Templo de Debod or the Parque del Retirio (as one ISA guy said, the park is "muy muy gratis").

Check out all of the pictures I took today by visiting this link (even if you don't have Facebook you should be able to see the pictures if I set up everything correctly--if the link doesn't work let me know). And because I'm an English major I feel the need to say that all of the information in the captions is from my guide book, my friend, or ISA information...and maybe Wikipedia hahaha:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2123658&l=32e96&id=71208608

Pictures of my room

As you all can probably tell I have a very small room, but it is really comfortable and it just kind of feels like it was meant for me. I have a really nice view of the street, so this morning I just sat and people watched. I discovered a lot of people own big dogs (even though they live in these relatively tiny apartments).

I still have not gotten my luggage and I need to go to a meeting tomorrow with the study abroad company, so I bought some laundry detergent and did my laundry in the sink tonight. So yes, I went to the grocery store and bought my first groceries today--apples, granola bars, Golden Grahams (yes they have them in Spain), Coca-Cola Light, orange juice, almonds, some microwavable meals (with beans and chorizo so they're different than what we have in the US) and laundry detergent. All of the stuff cost me 20 euros (to get a feel for how much stuff is in Madrid). I kinda freaked out while I was checking out because I do not know what coins are what and I really didn't even know if I was handing the cashier the right ones or not.

Also today a friend and I went around Madrid and I figured out how to get downtown (to the Puerta del Sol y la Plaza Mayor and the ISA office) and I also figured out how to get to school on the bus and the metro. I'm going back downtown tomorrow, so I'll put up some pictures then. We were kind of in a hurry today, so I didn't want to stop and take pictures of everything. But I just have to say that I live in a beautiful city and today was a great day.

Finally!

Hi all,

I finally made it to Madrid. I was stuck at Heathrow for seven hours more than I was supposed to be and arrived in Spain 11 hours later than I had planned, but I made it (and I made three new friends in the process). However, my bags did not make it. Apparently they never even left Chicago. So yeah, that's a bit of a problem. Luckily I have shopping plans tomorrow.

My residencia (where I'm living) is absolutely fantastic. The lady who owns it is an absolute sweetheart. I have my own room. It's tiny but nice and has a balcony overlooking the street. My neighborhood seems pretty nice too. Even though it was past 9:00 when I got settled in, a friend and I went out for dinner and we ate some tapas-type-things--a tortilla española (I think--it was a combination of eggs and potatoes) and some croquetas (which were fried deliciousness). Both were yummy.

I will post pictures of things tomorrow. I'm just too tired tonight.

Delayed...

So yesterday my direct flight to Madrid from Chicago was cancelled. Luckily (?) they put me on a flight to London and then on to Madrid. So now I am in London! However, I am stuck here. Boo. All of the flights to and from Madrid are delayed because the airport shut down yesterday due to snow. (If those people lived in Wisconsin they would have a major melt down seeing all the snow we've gotten.) So yeah, at least I'm across the Atlantic now and I'm just chilling out at Heathrow until I know what's going on.

I did have a nice flight to London. I sat next to this guy named Joe who was really funny and took a lot of xanax. He helped me navigate this airport until we had to part ways.

This morning as we were landing we were flying directly into the sunrise and it was pretty beautiful.

I'm leaving tomorrow!

Hi everyone,
Weather permitting I fly out tomorrow afternoon. It's an eight hour flight and then there's a seven hour time difference between here and Madrid so I arrive at about 8 a.m. Pretty much I plan on knocking myself out with Tylenol P.M. on the plane because I want to be able to stay up for the rest of the day when I get there.
Right now I'm writing this post as a distraction from packing. It's rough trying to fit five months of your life into two bags that have to weigh less than 50 pounds. All I know is that there is one thing in the above photo that will definitely not being coming with me!