A Week in Madrid + Toledo

First, a tragedy: I think my camera's broken.

Yeah. Moving on.

I said I would post about classes, but a lot happened last week so I'll write those down before I forget.

Last Sunday, Joslyn and I went to a little café in our neighborhood to do homework. Nothing exciting, but it's a nice place, and we went back yesterday evening: I won't be surprised if it turns into tradition. :)

My friend Margit (from Colby) has been here for Jan Plan and so I got to see her a bunch of times, which was fantastic. She spent last spring (with Hamilton, like me) as well as the summer here in Madrid, so she filled me in and showed me around, etc. I'd met up with her the week before as well, but lastWednesday, we went to a scrumptious chocolatería called Cacao Sampaka; Friday, we had lunch with her boyfriend, Chema, and his British roommate, Yoni, and then walked around a ton after more dessert. (Desserts here are AMAZING.) It was all really great; I'm glad I got to see her.

One of the classes offered at Hamilton is Contemporary Spanish Theatre; I really wanted to take it, but it coincides with my E.U. class so I can't. Every so often the class goes to real productions in Madrid, and for the first one Luis (director) bought a few extra for the first few students who asked. :) So I got to go. The genre of the piece was Zarzuela, a type of Spanish musical, and the show itself was called "El dúo de la Africana." We didn't really understand any of it. But that's ok! Paco (director) took the whole group out for drinks afterwards and afterwards I went to dinner with Will, Elizabeth and Marie at Vips (a Mexico-based chain, ha).

Wednesday (after the chocolate place) we went out again because the twins (Elizabeth and Marie) were going to Paris for the weekend and wanted to do something before they left. We found a nice bar whose name I don't remember, and it was fun. The downside of all this though: it makes all our clothes smell like smoke, yuck.

(For Mamu: I'm not actually drinking. :) Jeez!)

On Thursday was a big celebration for the Chinese New Year, and Joslyn helpfully planned an outing for a bunch of people. After a half-fiasco at the Chinese restaurant -- they had to open early for us; and we all had to order through Tiffany, the only girl who spoke Chinese; and one of the soups was almost too spicy to touch -- we got to the stadium, which is really near our house. The event was interesting... at least the parts with song and dance in costumes. Most of the rest was in Chinese, so nothing much to say there, but I liked at least being in a huge place with a ton of people. Is that weird?

Saturday, we (Joslyn, Will and I) took a day trip to Toledo, a small town nearby. We took the superfast train (25 minutes) which was, not gonna lie, one of my favorite parts. So smoooth and fast. Haha. Anyway, the pueblo itself was really great. Lots of old buildings, cobblestone streets, stores and cafés, etc. I have no pictures though (see above). We got to see three museums for free: the Museums of Santa Cruz, of Visigoth Culture and the Synagogue El Tránsito. Definitely worth the 15€ round-trip train fare.

Hokay that's it. Classes NEXT time.