happy 29-M!

El Rey Juan Carlos

How cool is Juan Carlos? Such a boss. Anyway, my spring break starts today. With doble besos I bid Madrid and you adieu. x

"Baby" (Devendra Banhart, 2009)

lessons in motivation and luck and humility and goals and superstition

"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.

a fire party

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.

zeegzaag

"People's Flowers" (Richard Estes,  1971)

"Structure that Eats" (Giovanni Anselmo, 1968)

"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?

Nuca

Pardon my messy room. This is my friend Nuca. 

A wolf-dog.

She is Tramp in real life.

Update May 8, 2012: Nuca is a type of Griffon crossed with Drahthaar. Good discovery of the day.

Dos meses

"Ai se eu te pego" (Michel Telo, 2011)

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.