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February 12, 2008
Royal Palace
Montserrat
Weekend in Madrid
I went to Madrid this past weekend with my program about 60 students, almost our entire program went. We left on Friday morning at 9am (meaning we didn’t have class that day!) and got on a high speed train to Madrid. The trip took about 5 hours and consisted mostly of sleeping and talking and eating the lunches that our Senoras made for us.
When we got to Madrid we took a smaller train to our hotel. The hotel was pretty nice, we had a huge bathroom and a real shower!! My shower here is the kind you hold, it has a place to put it in the wall, but you have to balance it just right to get it to stay. One of the funny things about hotel rooms here is that when they have twin beds the beds are often right next to each other in the room, only about five inches apart. So even though you are sleeping in a different bed with different blankets and sheets you almost feel like you are sleeping with someone else. Needless to say the boys all pushed their beds farther apart as soon as they got to their rooms.
Right away we went to walk around and found a cool park with some nice fountains and a ton of sun! It was absolutely gorgeous during the days probably around 60 in the sun and very comfortable for short sleeves. But at night the temperatures went down to around 30, which is much colder than it is in Barcelona. Then we took a walking tour of the city where we saw the town hall, a square that used to be a market place, a convent, and then we ended in down town Madrid in the business district. All of the buildings are so elegant and imposing. The majority (especially downtown) where made of white stone which was pretty and made the city look cohesive.
The next day we went to El Prado. Which is the biggest and most important museum in Madrid. Although it has a large collection of art from around the world, our guide focused on three Spanish painters who where well known in the middle ages. Velásquez who was the royal painter for most of his life was my favorite. He was unique because he lived in the place and walked past his paintings every day. So he was one of the few painters who has a chance to change his work as he improved over the years. Several of the paintings had been restored to the point where you could see a shadow of where the original painting had been. In some places he had changed the positioning of a leg, or a cape, it was really cool to see the alterations
We also saw a few pictures done by Goya, who was also a royal painter for a while. The pictures that I found the most interesting were painted for the “prime minister� at the time. He was an official appointed by the king to organize parts of the government and a pretty important guy at the time. Well this guy had Goya paint a picture of his mistress for him, she is laying naked on a chaise in a pretty provocative way. But anyway a few years later there was a conservative kick in the country and it was inappropriate for the minister to have this picture hanging on his wall. So he had Goya paint the exact same picture except with clothes on her this time. Now he was a pretty clever guy because he managed to rig up a pulley system, so that when strangers were in his room he had the clothed picture down, and when only his friends were in the room he would pull the other picture down instead. I found it quite funny.
The last painter was El Greco, which means the Greek. He was from Greece but painted all of his life in Spain, so most of his pieces are here. Most of his artwork was religious, but it had the most intense colors that I have ever seen in paintings. They were practically neon, and they were the main focus of many of these religious paintings, which I found much more entertaining that the usual dulled and modest colors.
The next day we went to see the royal palace. Which is about the coolest building that I have ever been inside of. We saw about 10 rooms, each of them amazingly decorated with the most luxurious fabrics and marble and paintings that I have ever seen. I will tell only about the more interesting ones. The throne room is very cool, the walls are covered in red velvet and there are huge mirrors all over the room with gold frames that are elaborately carved with scenes of the seasons. The ceiling has a Fresco that represents all of the different regions of Spain, and the floor is a carpet made exactly to the specifications of the room. Another room was covered in dark blue fabric, one in pink, one in light aqua, all with elaborate carpets and frescos and paintings. Most of them also have these amazing marble floors with great designs on them that are hidden under the carpets! One thing that is unusual is that all of the window frames and the molding is made of marble (there is literally no wood in the structure of the building). Another very cool room has embroidered walls that took 34 years to make, and a great ceiling that has a vine and flower design sculpted on it. There was a gigantic dining/ball room, a billiards room, and a smoking room. My other favorite was a room whose walls and ceiling were completely covered with porcelain figures. Apparently porcelain is pretty temperamental stuff and the Spanish only know how to make it well because it was the dowry of some princess that married into the family at some point.
It is weird to be inside of the palace, because I honestly never thought that decorations like that could exist. It is so over the top gaudy and luxurious that is it actually pleasing to the eye. Obviously not to live in every day, but every room was so intricate and fun. Another random fact about the palace is that it contains about 600 clocks. One of the kings used to love them, and he liked to take them apart and put them together as well as collect them. There is a very cool one that is a statue of Atlas holding the world on his shoulders, but the world opens up to reveal the 7 (at the time) planets revolving around the sun. We didn’t get to see it open, but it sounds very cool.
On Sunday we went to a very cool but very crowded market that sold all kinds of stuff. Some of it was complete junk—literally. Car parts and wires, electrical outlets, duct tape—we pretty much decided that they need a Target here really badly. But there were also some cool things like jewelry, scarves, purses, dresses, and pottery. I bought a scarf and a necklace for 4 euros total.
We took the train back that night, and I pretty much fell asleep the minute my head hit the pillow, but it was a great weekend.
February 4, 2008
My Birthday
Hey Everyone,
Sorry to have ignored my blog for so long…I don’t have internet access in my homestay, so I have been forced to cut back on my computer use drastically. The family that I am living with is great. It consists of a woman, her 13 year old daughter, and their cat! The mother runs her own massage therapy/nutritional advice shop. At least that is what I have gathered with my Spanish. She is originally from Argentina, but came to Spain thirty years ago to get away from the political unrest that was going on in Argentina at the time. The daughter is funny because she sings American songs all the time, but she doesn’t speak English well, so I wonder how much of them she actually comprehends. Most of the students in my program live with families also. It is a little hard because we all live in different parts of the city, but it is great because the families cook for us two meals a day. I have been trying all kinds of different food, and some really weird vegetables. They eat a ton of fruit here, which I love!
This weekend (and my birthday) was great. Two of my friends came to visit me, one who is studying in London, and one who is studying in Lyon. It was great to get to show them around Barcelona, and I realized how much of the city that I have learned to navigate. We went to see La Sagrada Familia, which is a gigantic cathedral that was designed in the beginning of the 20th century but still isn’t finished. It is the most unique looking building I have ever seen, there are four spires that stick up into the sky, and the entire surface of the building is covered in sculptures. It is so incredibly detailed, there are religious figures and scenes all over the walls, intermixed with carved plants, vines, and animals.
We also went to this little beach town about 20 minutes outside of Barcelona by train called Sitges on Saturday night. The town hosts a four day festival for carnival (basically Mardi Gras) and it seemed like everyone was there! It’s funny because instead of masks and beads that we would wear for Mardi Gras, everyone wears costumes—Halloween style. We met a bunch of smurfs and a group of cows… It was really fun to people watch and explore the town. And it was nice to have friends from home with me on my birthday, it made it feel more like it actually was my birthday, rather than just another day.
I am taking five classes while I’m here. Spanish, which is fun because my class only has 12 people in it. So instead of lectures, most days the class is more based on conversation. Art History of Spain, which so far has been more history than art but is pretty fascinating. People have been in Spain for a very long time, and it is interesting to see how their customs have transferred through the years. Then I am taking and international marketing class, and international management class, and an international strategy class. They are all pretty interesting so far, it is nice to see a different perspective of business, and to realize that companies other than General Mills and Target actually exist. lol. It is fun because my three business classes are all with the other people in my program, it is like being back in high school where you know everyone in your classes.
I will make sure to write again soon!
Kelsey