the first week of April

So I had all of my midterms last week (three of them) and was observed for my teaching class. So those are all my grades until final exams and papers in May. Last Friday I met with a tutor for my University class. She’s a grad student in history who took my class a couple years ago. We’ll meet about once a week and she’ll help me prepare for the final exam in that class.

At noon last Friday I took the AVE train to Madrid. I was on the same train that Martha had taken exactly one week earlier. My program gave me the train tickets and a hotel in place of the trip to Morocco that everyone in the magazine group gets. Two other students were sent to Madrid along with me to interview a Cuban writer who fled Cuba because he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for criticizing the lack of free speech under Castro. I had the nothing to do, though, just a free weekend in Madrid. A friend of mine from Madison, Chris, is studying in Milan this semester and came to Spain on his spring break. He flew to Madrid first so we met there. I met up with him on Friday afternoon and we walked around the city. It was my third time there this year so I know the place well by now.

There was great weather there, in the 80s, and with the daylight savings now the sun sets around 8 pm. The first thing I noticed was that Madrid was busier than I have ever seen it before. There were tons of people out and every sidewalk and café was packed. We found a cheap tapas bar and I ordered tortilla española, croquetas, patatas bravas and a cheese plate so that Chris could sample some of the typical tapas. A free tapa came with our drinks too. We were both really tired so we headed home early that night. The continental breakfast at my hotel was amazing. Breakfasts in Spain (and France, Portugal and Italy) are small, nothing more than a coffee and a piece of pastry or toast. For the first time in a long time I had a big breakfast – croissants, little apple pastries, montaditos, toast, ham, cheeses, jams, donuts, eggs, bacon, chorizo, yogurt, flan, fruit, cereal, and cheesecake. I couldn’t sample everything from the giant spread of food, but I did eat a lot.

On Saturday we went to the bus station so that Chris could buy a ticket to Sevilla for the following day, and then we went to the Parque Retiro (a giant city park). We saw a couple buildings in the park - I had never seen them before and one had an art exhibit. We also saw the big lake and the giant Alfonso XII monument. We have a mutual friend from Madison who is studying in Madrid this year and she met us in the park. We walked around, went inside a big church, saw the place were Miguel Cervantes is buried, and saw the oldest cinema in Madrid (it was closed so we couldn’t see the museum inside). We bought baguettes, cheese and fruit at a big market and then had a picnic outside the Prado museum.

Chris and I went inside the Prado and we spent a few hours there. I had been there once last fall and once a few years ago but I still haven’t seen everything in there. I was excited to revisit some of the Spanish paintings after taking half a semester of my Spanish Art History class. We started in the Baroque section, and then saw the Renaissance and Gothic art, and I finally saw the top floor of the museum were there is a bunch of Goya paintings. There are a lot of Italian, Flemish and Dutch paintings too. There were dozens of paintings that I recognized from class and it made a huge difference to know a little about most of the Spanish painters and their major works. The museum was packed with tour groups and there was someone I knew from Sevilla there with his parents.

After the Prado we went to my hotel and watched TV for a while. The hotel had two English channels, a German channel and one Japanese Channel in addition to the Spanish channels. That night we walked around the shops in the Chueca neighborhood. There were so many people out that it was hard to move on some streets. We found a cheap bar and had a calamari bocadillo and grilled ham and cheese sandwich (more typical Spanish food) and the looked for a sports bar. A highly anticipated futbol game was on that night - Real Madrid versus Barcelona in Barcelona. The two teams play each other twice each season and they are the two biggest games of the year. One of the coolest things is to be in Europe during a big European futbol match, people get really into it. We walked around looking for O’Neill’s, an Irish pub we saw earlier that is supposedly the biggest and best sports bar in Madrid. We found three other Irish pubs, O’Connell’s, Flaherty’s and Dubliner’s (but not the one we were looking for) and checked out a few other bars that had the game but each was either was too crowded or had just a tiny TV. We settled on the third Irish pub we found, Dubliner’s, and watched the game with a loud crowd of Spanish, British and Irish people. It was tied 1-1 at half time and we left to walk to the other side of the city to catch the second half somewhere else. In the Malasañas neighborhood we ended up in another Irish pub, this one was full of Spaniards, and we were able to see the end of the game, which ended in a tie.

Soon after, our Madison friend and a few of her friends met up with us and we went to a cool bar. The Madrid students seem to have a very different study abroad experience than mine in Sevilla. Their program is all Wisconsin, Indiana and Purdue students and other Universities, states or regions have their own programs in Madrid. Some American Universities even have their own campus in Madrid. They have classes similar to mine, with a mix of Americans, Spaniards and Europeans, but they all live in apartments. Even though Madrid and Sevilla are only a few hundred kilometers apart, the culture and language varies a lot between Castilla and Andalucia. And Madrid is just a huge city too. Anyways, I caught the last metro back to the other side of the city. When I got off the metro I walked towards the exit with two Italian guys, only to find that the gate to the sidewalk was locked. So we turned around and headed towards another exit. A group of Spaniards were walking by us and I told them that the exit we just tried was locked. They stopped in their tracks and told us that the exit they just had tried was locked too. We got a little worried and kept looking for another exit. It was 2 in the morning and the metro reopens at 6 so we figured that if we really were locked in we’d only have to wait four hours until we could get out. We tried another exit. Another locked gate. After hoping some turnstiles we found the fourth and final exit, and thankfully, it was open.

On Sunday I ate another huge breakfast. They had a different kind of cheesecake this time. And then I took the AVE back to Sevilla. I met Chris outside the Cathedral later in the afternoon and we went to the top of the Giralda. That night, Sevilla’s two soccer teams, Sevilla FC and Real Betis, played each other in a league match. The city is evenly split between the two teams and there is a lot of bad blood between the opposing fans. We went to a Mexican restaurant before the game for some food and saw the first part of the game in a packed little bar and then we went to a tapas bar and had some papas ali oli and grilled shrimp. We made a quick stop at my house during halftime, Chris met a few family members, and then we went out for the rest of the game. Betis won 2-1 so my family was really excited that night.

On Monday Chris and I walked around Plaza de España and the big park, got montaditos and then went to my English class. We had a really good time teaching English together. My Italian student is going back to Italy this Sunday though because her four-month internship is up. I remember it being really hot that day, in the mid 80s. That night we went to a lecture by the Cuban writer who was interviewed in Madrid by my classmates two days earlier. A couple professors spoke and introduced him but before he could speak an organized group of pro-Castro communist students started shouting and holding up signs and banners and called him a “yankee” and a “terrorist” and they wouldn’t let him speak and there was lots of arguing and the whole thing was canceled. So ironically, the guy fled his country because of the lack of free speech and comes to Spain and they won’t let him speak here either. It made the front page of two newspapers the next day. That night we ate at a cheap Italian restaurant and we split a pizza – my first in a long time. It was so nice to eat out with someone and have something other than salty meat and potatoes.

On Tuesday I went to two classes and met up with Chris afterwards. I went to show him where the bus stop is for the shuttle that goes to the airport because he was flying home the following day. The bus stop was gone and the sidewalk was all torn up where it once stood. It was weird, it was there one day and gone the next. It turns out that several bus stops were moved, some permanently and other just temporarily because certain streets are now closed for Semana Santa. Chris came over for lunch that day to eat with the family and was fascinated by everything. We had a very Spanish meal - gazpacho, paella, pork chops and oranges. Chris had never tried gazpacho or paella before. We watched some of the Simpson’s and Spanish talk shows on TV and then went out again. I went to class and then walked around with my host sister Alicia looking at restaurants. We asked around trying to find a place to make reservations for 19 people next Saturday night for my host family and the five Delahunts.

Chris and I cooked couscous at his hostel, which was a really nice place. It opened recently and we ate on the roof, in the open air, with a view of the illuminated Giralda towering over thousands of rooftops. The buildings in Sevilla are so tightly packed that you couldn’t see a single street from the roof. We went out again, one last time. We saw the end of a Champions League game at a sports bar. Two Spanish clubs have advanced to the semifinals of the Champions League, which is sort of like a Europe-wide soccer version of March Madness that happens over several months while teams play their regular season games. The Cinderella team this year is Villarreal, which is a little town of 50,000 people somewhere in eastern Spain, I’m not even sure where exactly. They are in the semifinals along with Barcelona, Arsenal (a London team) and AC Milan. The European soccer leagues are all really top heavy. In every country the same few rich teams stack their rosters, dominate the smaller teams and win every league title. What Villarreal has done is unbelievable and if they win it all the world is going to come to an end. What’s even better is that the final game could be two Spanish teams.

So Chris left Wednesday morning and now the heart of April gets underway. Without a doubt, this is going to be the craziest month of my life. The month started in Madrid, followed by four days of class, four days in London, four days of Semana Santa, four days of class, five days traveling with my parents and four days of Sevilla’s Feria. And then I turn 21 years old. It’s one big party.