... doing old New York Magazine crosswords while I clean my room.
... driving.
... air conditioner rain.
the pipettes & the 37 degrees Celsius.
watching birds fight.
reading................
the ItaliaBus aka the Q46.
Olympics season hey o.
magazine clipping.
I've got my head straight yessir...feelin' groovy.
After the Andalucia funtimes came the hysteria of finals and goodbyes, which was bittersweet and hasn't truly hit me yet. Afterwards, trips with my beloveds to London and Positano (with a little side adventure of my own in Naples and Pompeii). And a reunion with mommy so I could show her my favorite cities in Europe.
I will miss Spanish figs and oranges, which explode with crisp sweetness, and the easiness of sitting in a plane for an hour and finding a new culture. I will also miss drinking good coffee in the morning with a valenciana for breakfast while reading El Pais.
But I think I pledge allegiance to the flag. What is this, really? I am lucky and surround myself now with what I like: curious people, melting-pot diversity (ok, let's argue this another day, I'm tired), efficiency, jaywalkers, four-way pedestrian crossings, no euro-to-dollar conversion, women who exercise, farmers' markets, fashion risk-takers, political correctness, good dancers, pad thai. Bagels, good street art, dream shopping, dim sum, big dogs, that is what I live for. Hi NY!
Hello hello, it's been a while, I know. Let me tell you about Andalucia a few weeks ago. I went to Granada and Cordoba over a weekend in May, traveling by myself mostly but meeting Jaliz in Cordoba. Bus rides are a different animal in traveling--they are like going to a tiny cinema with the same anticipation of having a good experience. Things go a little slow but end faster than you'd expect.
"Been so long" (Vetiver, 2009)
In Granada I mainly visited the Alhambra (of course), which is a giant old Moorish fortress/palace that has fortunately been preserved. On Friday I took a bus from Madrid, and the views on the way were the best I had seen in all of Spain so far. That night I went on a night visit of the Nazareth Palaces, which was a little spooky because of minimal lighting, but of course I was flanked by 500 other tourists so it was less scary. Getting lost while trying to figure out where the Alhambra was and wandering through the dark gardens at night by myself was really terrible at first though.
So the next day was the daytime part of my Alhambra visit and I found the entire place had changed overnight. What was spooky, dark, was now overheated with a lot of children running around. The gardens of the Generalife are great with some flowers I had never seen before. I wish I could bring home a bouquet of everything I had seen!
There really isn't much in Granada besides the Alhambra, unfortunately. I did go to a super great spice store near the cathedral though, where I bought some saffron for future paellas (visit me--I'll be cooking next year!). On Saturday then I went to Cordoba and stayed with Jaliz. And I really chose a great weekend to be in town, because it was the week of the patio flower shows!
The Mezquita in Cordoba is really amazing, what I'd imagined but much better. I remember in 8th grade art history looking at slides of the Mezquita and being intrigued by the shape of the arches but I was really standing there years later in its smell of incense and juxtaposition of Christianity and Islam. Very wild.
And now I've got one suitcase packed. Writing again as soon as I make more progress!
Here I am googling "how to cook meat" and "how to cut scallions" when tomorrow I have a solid 5 hours of cooking from scratch for my host family. On the menu: chive potstickers, scallion pancakes, and tapioca dessert soup! Can't wait to update regardless of how things turn out! (I also owe everybody the details of my trip to Andalucia)
On another note, this is my shameful obsession of the week. Boy, I had resisted Miss Lips for a LONG TIME.
"Blue Jeans" (Lana del Rey, 2012)
UPDATE:
I wasn't kidding when I said 5 hours! Wish I had made the pancakes and dumpling skins a little thinner, but the tapioca dessert was surprisingly legit. And no, I don't have pictures so you'll have to take my word for it, and that's because it was too crazy in the kitchen and everyone was in a rush to get lunch going (woops, the food wasn't ready until 3:40pm). I'm feeling pretty good about cooking next year and if worst comes to worst I'll have my favorite: baby carrots with peanut butter!
After much puente goodness I am back in Madrid! I am really glad I went to Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca because I learned that not all of Spain is gloomy and Castillian and inefficient. I'm sorry that I have developed a bad attitude towards Madrid but I am without a doubt more in sync with people the more northerly I travel. Barcelona is great and creative and I dare say it's in the vein of Paris and New York. Palma reminded me of Long Island: you go because there might be a few interesting things to see but really you go to get some sun. Madrid is, oh god, I've been studying abroad in the Newark of Europe for four months...
Roof of La Pedrera
Model of La Pedrera
Detail of the Sagrada Familia
Casa Battlo
Barcelona was very colorful and wacky. The bicycle-friendly streets and diversity of people, among other things, signaled the first Spanish city I've been to that had real international/European leanings. I guess I needed to get away from the Madrid I think I know, which is insular and artificially modern. Do you remember my going on and on in January about loving the punks and the fashion in Madrid? I forget if I've written about this but sometime ago I've realized that everyone dresses the same and the punks are no more than 13-year-olds in 20-year-old bodies who organize dance parties aka protests with their friends because that's what the other cool kids are doing.
The Catalans should be proud, despite what my Madrilena host family tries to tell me. I'm not saying I know from 3 days of tourism that I know Barcelona and its people, but I appreciate the openness (cultural, creative, spatial) that lends itself to the advancement and intrigue of a city. Here's another reason why I love Barcelona so much: I left my purse on the street. Yes, an open street, where I was sitting on some steps (my feet had been dying from some bad shoes bought in Madrid, of course). An hour later, realizing I was feeling a little lighter than usual, I returned and asked a nearby cafe if they had seen my purse. And but of course they say oh yes and give it back to me with camera and cash still inside and the man who returned it gave me a little wave and life was back to normal. It's a miracle that I am able to upload my pictures right now.
Cala Mayor
Palma is a vacation island. It is filled with English tourists and Spanish retirees. This means that I spoke a lot of English and went to the beach and rode bikes along the coast and ate great Indian food and lots of ice cream. And life can't be anything short of incredible when you do things like that for three days. The Palma experience was topped off with a nice upgrade in my flight back to Madrid (a sign of better days to come?), with my 3-hour layover in Barcelona replaced by a direct flight to Madrid in business class! Thanks again Air Europa.
Coast of Palma
I would write more but I am very quickly sinking in my university work hole. So hasta luego! x
What is crazy is looking up the directions to the airbnb in Barcelona and finding that I get on the bus in the direction of Metro Zona Universitaria and get off at Calle Aribau. Touché, Miz Laforet, you already know I'm on a working holiday, what else do you want from me this weekend...
I have my usual procrastination problems again. Which, to be fair, has not be completely unpleasant and has gotten me some shopping done (chores in Spain, man) including the time I went to CASA HERNANZ, a really beautiful old-school espadrille shop near the Plaza Mayor. I am wearing a pair of flat ones that I bought for 11.75€ from the lady who is probably still grumpy about having to search high and low for dark red for Miss Bigfoot. Considering my suede fetish, I might go back and clear them out. SUEDE NOW, DAMELO.
A bittersweet last art history class this morning. I love this professor. She's quite known for her work on feminist art. But what I loved most about this class was how she made contemporary art less flakey and I think it deserves more respect from popular culture. It suffers from being too self-referential most of the time, which is a shame. I am still in a bad mood from missing two literature classes in a row this week (a very frustrating thing for me is to run into MTA Syndrome wherever I go), but that's another good one too. Despite what I usually say I might mention that the Autonoma is in fact a great university and I would recommend it to anyone thinking about Spain for whatever reason.
I'm really dead from study abroad. I even sound dead. I'm down in a valley. WAKE UP.
Get Free (Bonde do Role remix)
Good. Now that everyone's awake, I'll leave you for some well-deserved beach time and dream of the summer and senioor yeaaar. And you!
Hmm there's a rumor going around (i.e. I read this in the course catalog) about Intro to Cantonese being offered in the Spring. Every cool person's gonna take it!
J. Crew don't do this to me! Don't introduce free world-wide duty-free shipping around the world. Christ, just don't do it. I have my Art History presentation on Nam June Paik and so many little essays due Monday. And it's not just my workload. NJP is a cool dude.
It's just that I've gone a bit far with on the shopping front. It is All Quiet on the Western Front indeed, mostly because of my losing battles against instant gratification. For $ conservation purposes I've even given up da Williams juice. See you at the Herring x
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Or Positano. Who am I kidding.
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And yet I still feel deprived. My favorite things to shop for are dresses (surprising, yes) and more than graduation--or anything really--I look forward to Senior Week. I can't wait to bust out the dresses I've accumulated over the years and rarely worn (it's Williams...) and see the fellas in shirts and ties and jackets. And I don't want to graduate anyway, I don't know why I even mentioned that...
Oh right, I didn't explain why I feel deprived. It's because in Spain the leather and suede is very nice but I'm not looking for a leather dress or anything. I'm also not trying to look like an Urban Outfitters / Anthropologie catalog, which is the scene here in Madrid. It is all about the cult of different. And I did just make that term up, and I hope you understand what I want to say. The cult of different is what Urban Outfitters sells, except in Spain UO is replaced by Stradivarius, Bershka, Esfera, etc. Zara I can tolerate on some days because it can get quite nice.
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"Common People" (Pulp, 1995)
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Today I woke up at 1:30pm because it is a Friday and that means it's the weekend already. So much fun. I'm going to another flamenco show tonight!
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Since coming back to Madrid I think my Spanish has sprouted a bit. Hey, the long absence from "vale" was a little sad! Plus, experiments in French and Italian have given me the extra motivation to just go for it while I'm in Spain.
Speaking of France and Italy (but I'm really just looking at you, Italy), I already feel less disgusting from my Semana Santa! The end to the food coma is near, I think, if only barely...
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Yesterday I found out the one of the porteros is a Jehovah's Witness! He is the nice one who actually looks Spanish. I didn't know JWs existed in Spain. The other chubby portero is not nice. I think my host brother and his friends bullied one of them and got in trouble on Wednesday. Regardless of eleven-year-old politics/parenting, I hope it was the chubby.
After my lovely time in Paris I spent a delicious week in Rome. City of pasta and pizza and gelato. Favorite restaurant: Alfredo e Ada! Favorite gelateria: San Crispino! My artichoke lasagna at AeA was just the best meal I've had in a long long time, probably since I've been in Europe. And oh man! I would say everything is amazing at S.Crispino, but I've honestly only tried Honey, Basil, Whiskey, and Ginger Cinnamon...Oh my fatty boom boom suffers from the trip to Engorgement City.
Roma is muy muy distinta. Ademas de ser la capital de comida barata y buena, es famosa por el Coloseo y varias ruinas antiguas. I felt every minute very bad for my ignorance of Italian history, or even frankly any working knowledge of Rome. Atop the Musei Capitolini and again at the Parco Gianicolo, I saw breathtaking views of the city. But without knowing how to place myself or my surroundings, I felt only superficially engaged with its character.Then again, I could always give myself a second try after some research!
Gull visit at the Musei Capitolini
At times I was definitely also guilty of taking advantage of the city: the tram/bus system only nominally costs money (or as Em puts it, "works on the honor system") and the museums cost me almost nothing because of my Art History papers. That sure was one week where I was very very glad to be a student at the UAM's Facultad de Filosofia y Letras.
Detail of the Sistine Chapel
Going to Easter Mass at St. Peter's Square was ridiculously fun and crazy. I was extremely lucky to come by a ticket at the last minute on Sunday morning and the Mass really made me feel thankful for my super friends and good fortune. I know nothing about churches and Jesus and Catholicism, but it was nice to be at a rite that reminds the people to be good to one another and celebrate life. Maybe someone might later confirm this for me, but that's what I always blindly assume religion is about. Seeing the Pope was also muy loco and I am still in awe that I had really gone on a world-famous pilgrimage of sorts and saw with my own eyes such a grand figure of authority. Like Jaliz says, this should be on everyone's bucket list.
Easter Mass in St. Peter's Square
Happy Sunday crowd
Nevermind not waiting two hours in line to see the inside of St. Peter's Basilica (which is still a shame), I am more content having seen the ultimate Pascua.
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Well now that I'm back to the same old in Madrid, I figure I should get more actual work done. I realized today that I have an "exam" tomorrow in my internship class. This is the class where Miss Cristina tells us that Italian olive oil is Spanish olive oil with an Italian sticker and that the Spanish are more hardworking than the Americans. While I leave this debate to other more qualified ladies and gentlemen, enjoy my favorite animal video of the week. I won't hammer on about my work tonight because I really don't know what my assignments are. x
Today I'm back in Madrid after Semana Santa! It's great to be "home" after 11 days of constant planning and street navigation. I have also apparently come back to Spain with some color! (red.)
Montmartre
Paris was beautiful! I could see myself coming back over and over again. It might be a combination of things. Great museums. Fashion everywhere. It's like a switch went off in my brain the moment Jwow and I stepped off the bus. Oddly enough, I feel comfortable and welcome in Paris, despite what everyone's told me of French people. One girl saw that I didn't understand her directions to the Catacombes and went out of her way to walk us over and point to the right building! The people I met were very smiley and helpful and not snobbish at all when I revealed my nonexistent French skills. Every moment of every day was just right in Paris, from wandering up and down the labyrinthine streets to window shopping to eating Vietnamese food (!). Paris and I said our bittersweet au revoirs with a surprise upgrade on my Easyjet flight out. A very smooth trip indeed.
There's also the question of race. In Paris I didn't expect to feel so normal, but this became my break from the perpetual stares I get everywhere in Spain. I was one in a million wonky Asians walking around and nobody interrogated me about where I come from for once! It felt like New York. A real city. Paris is another New York City. It just feels like home.
The Pantheon
But of course I wouldn't know Paris as a home, seeing as I was only there for four days. Jaliz and I plowed RIGHT through my babycity. We were supertourists. And good girls (Laduree only once; favorites are vanilla, caramel, and pistachio). More updates on Semana Santa later, I am le tired.
"Everybody is a star" (Sly & The Family Stone, 1969)
This song has been a part of me for a long time and it never fails to give me security and hope.
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Blanca and Isabel have decided that what I need in my life is horse shampoo. Used it once, and I know already they are right. I know lots of people were into horse shampoo a while back, but I thought it was just a silly trend. But hey, Blanca is a vet.
In Nuevos Ministerios I browsed El Corte Ingles(surprise, surprise, what else do I do...) on Friday and found these amazing leather shorts for like 400 euro:
Alice by Temperley: too expensive
Didn't buy, obviously. I have to get my act together for Semana Santa aka Wallet Destruction Week. I did however buy a chirimoya for dinner! This fruit tastes like a bubblegum-flavored watermelon. Crazy, guys.
Chirimoya, native to the Andes but grown in Spain too
Sat in my room yesterday watching "The Walking Dead" and eating pastries after a wonderful hike in the Guadarrama and I was in heaven. Today I went book shopping (Tiempo de Silencio in Seix Barral for 3 euro!) and got back into the reading funk. I WILL finish Laura y Julio by the end of tomorrow. I've decided not to weigh myself down anymore with a book that I can't read.
Las Fallas in Valencia is one of the most amazing things I've ever seen in my life. On the evening of Saint Joseph's, every cardboard and paper-mache doll is burnt in the climax of a crazy city-wide party. I had to skip work and am lying in bed recovering from the massive fireworks, explosions, and fires, and food-wise, all the paellas and orxantas and drinks and bunuelos de calabaza. Spain is a good time.
"The Burial of the Count of Orgaz" (El Greco, 1586)
"The Shore" (Maurice Prendergast, 1915)
"I am trying to break your heart" (Wilco, 2001)
Yesterday I disactivated my extraneous phone service. Today I ran into a friend from art history on the bus. Or, she got on the 27 and I almost screamed. I am a fatalist but please don't think fatal but fate. We talked about the weather and Madrid is too hot for March. These people are telling me that in mayo it will enmarzear which belies their climate change beliefs. I don't prefer climate change, but hot begets hot brings hot.
"Al otro lado del rio" (Jorge Drexler, 2004)
"Our day will come" (Amy Winehouse, 2011)
Today I made my propia jornada de arte in situ. Went to the Thyssen-Bornemisza where I had found the Estes and Prendergast. The interior is painted all salmon like the walls of my own room in Nueva York. But I shouldn't say mine are salmon, but naranja festiva. I dragged my crazy culo to the Reina Sofia to meet my class for a secret. And the secret was an insider's tour of a basement in which they bestowed upon us secrets of Spanish museum administration. Like, appreciate this now y'all, there are 3 main departments and within every department there are 3 branches and in every branch there are 3 subdivisions. That, the Golden Rule Of 3, was the most important thing they emphasized during the Powerpoint presentation, or I suppose...And did you know that guided visits for the blind are still a mystery logistic-wise for those leading the way. Describe fire...it is red, what is red...it is flames, what are flames...it burns, like my meth nose? Hehaw jokes. "Pues lo mejor que se puede hacer es describelo con palabras, y esto es bastante bien." What words you say, miss. I fled Thursday's arte in situ at the Academia de Bellas Artes after 4 hours of being surrounded by people on top of people. Have you seen "Cinderella," where she sprints barefoot and the carriage turns into a pumpkin because the clock is striking twelve?
Seguro que hais oido esta cancion! Cuando salgo, no puedo evitar la voz de Telo. I love this. I need "Ai se eu te pego" to happen at Williams next year.
For the first weekend of March my friends Jaliz and Olivia came to Madrid to visit me! Yes! Willy B in Spain! We went to the Palacio Real in the city and the Catedral de Almudena next door. The Palacio Real es impresionante--everything is basically gold-coated and very much in the same vein of things as the palace in Aranjuez. In fact, many of the rooms had the same themed decor as the palace I had visited in February. Palaces apparently can be lovely but brassy. I wish I were brassy too, enough so I could get a single picture of the interior, which is forbidden.
Palacio Real en Madrid
The Catedral was much more interesting. Fue construido en los 90s, asi que todo es un poco ironico con toques pasteles. It's evident that something is a bit off when you enter this place. But I actually enjoyed this more than the royal palaces because the interior was so unexpected. After the cathedrals in Toledo, Salamanca, Sevilla, tal, y cual, the Almudena appeared to be the rebellious teenager in a family of old Castilian austerity.
Inside the Catedral de Almudena
Then this Friday the program took us to El Escorial, another royal palace of sorts that also serves as a monastery and mausoleum. It was not the most interesting place for me because I did not turn into a history buff before coming here. Come here if te gustan difuntos y una falta tremenda de calefaccion.
Inside El Escorial
And yesterday I went to Cercedilla for a little hike. It is really lovely. It is only 30 min by car from Manzanares El Real, but wow what a difference that makes. Gone are the boulders of La Pedriza, which are replaced by a more familiar terrain. It looked more like the forests in the States, except this is Spain so things are in fact a bit dustier.
Cercedilla
Kaitlyn and I at Los Miradores in Cercedilla
One more thing: please tell me I am not crazy when it is 60-something degrees outside and I decide to wear shorts. I won't front like I'm a real Spaniard. I can't wear black skinny pants for much longer. AH.
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The Mezquita in Cordoba is really amazing, what I'd imagined but much better. I remember in 8th grade art history looking at slides of the Mezquita and being intrigued by the shape of the arches but I was really standing there years later in its smell of incense and juxtaposition of Christianity and Islam. Very wild..jpg)
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