Madrid

This past weekend I got to go to Madrid with my program. It was great traveling somewhere else in Spain and I really liked the city. It's definitely different from Barcelona; we were all discussing which we preferred and some people liked Madrid better or vice versa. For some of us though, including me, it was difficult to say which was preferred because we were only in Madrid for the weekend, not living there. I think I prefer Barcelona as far as living, from what I can tell, but again it's hard to say definitively. We did have perfect weather, the parks there are absolutely gorgeous, the nightlife was really fun, and I got to see friends from Northeastern that are in Madrid through our international business program. I was actually in their program freshman year of college and would have been there with them now had I not switched to regular business.

We left Friday morning and got to take the Ave train, which is their high speed train cutting the travel time in half (3 hours opposed to 6+). We arrived in Madrid around noon and had some free time, then went on a walking tour around the oldest part of the city. The palace was very impressive, I didn't get to go inside, but it's huge! Our tour guide said there are about 2,500 rooms in it. Friday night I went out for tapas with about 12 people from our group. In case I haven't explained tapas or you're not sure what they are, it's a very traditional Spanish way of eating, and I love it. Things come in smaller portions and generally a table will order several different things and everyone shares it all. So the dinner was a lot of fun, and after that I went to meet up with my friend Thad from NU. We went to a club called Kapital, a night club with seven floors and different music on each floor. It was a pretty crazy place, but we had a lot of fun dancing all night. Saturday we went to a contemporary art museum called Reina Sofia and saw more of Dalí, Picasso, and Miró's work. We all took a siesta after that and then went out again for the night. We were celebrating our friend Anjali's birthday and actually ended up at Kapital again, it was fun to experience the club and dance with a new group of people too!

Sunday we had the day to ourselves and it just so happened to be the day the sheep were crossing through Madrid. Twice a year, in the fall and the spring, the shepherds bring the sheep from the mountains (going south for the winter and back north for the summer) and pass through a main street in Madrid on their way. The streets close down and lots of people come out to see all the sheep, I got some great pictures of them and one with one of the shepherds! After that we got some lunch and then spent the afternoon hanging out in a park called El Retiro. It was huuuge, with a lot of different sections. There was one place that had open water and row boats, statues and fountains, another area with very structured landscape, and further in an area with just dirt pathways, moats and waterfalls, and lots of trees. We just walked around it for awhile and relaxed in the good weather before heading back to catch the train.

It was fun experiencing a new city in Spain and I really wish I had more time to go to other cities. Unfortunately I don't have any free weekends left before I leave! Well I guess that's not really an unfortunate thing so much as a lucky thing considering I have great plans for each weekend I have left here.

I'm definitely settling in again and getting past the weird homesickness I had for a lot of October. I never felt like I wanted to go home or anything, but I was missing Boston and my family a lot. I still do, but I'm appreciating Barcelona more especially after spending a couple weekends away. Realizing that I'm halfway done here has also changed my perspective a bit. It's crazy to think I have so little time before I go home, and it's made me truly look forward to each day that I have left.

I'm excited for this weekend because my friend Steph is coming to visit and that gives me the perfect excuse to do all the "touristy" things that I haven't gotten around to doing yet. Lucky for me, the touristy things here are things even the locals do because they're all beautiful places to visit and see.

This week I have a bunch of little things to get done. Emails to catch up on, tests to start studying for, pictures to post, and some things with classes to figure out-like what I'm taking in January! Oh and I voted today! I never received my ballot that I was supposed to get for some reason, so I had to do go online and print one out, then figure out how to correctly package it (a couple envelopes are involved) and then figure out the Post Office over here. It actually went much more smoothly than I thought, and it feels soo good to finally have my vote sent in. (I did do it express so I promise it will get there in time! Within two days actually.) It's great to see how many people are voting from abroad, especially people I know from places like Colorado, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. I can't believe it's only a week away! Scary kind of...

Well I'm very happy to hear that even more of my family members are reading and enjoying this now! I really love being able to share this experience with you, and I truly appreciate hearing the feedback too. Keep checking out the pictures, I'm going to be posting some from Madrid as soon as I have the time. Miss and love you all!