Noche en Blanco

Hello everyone,

So this week was my first real week in class. All or the "programmas" (syllabi) were handed out and we got into an actual schedule, which differs completely from our previous two weeks of travel. This week was a great week to be in Madrid. Nonetheless, many of the Spainards decided otherwise. Borja left for Austurias on Monday and Juan went to Cadiz on Tuesday. And on the first day of class with actual Spanish students (which wasn't until Thursday, because Monday was a celebration of the first day of classes and thus no class was held), no one showed up. There was one other "Erasmus" (international) student from Panama, but other than that it was six Americans. I guess all these of the Spainairds had better things to do then receive a syllabus.

As the weekend approached things turned around. Seeing as no one has classes on Friday, we decided to stay out all night on Thursday in order to catch the Metro. (It is closed from 1:30 AM to 6:00 AM). After this long night, and getting being taunted by an empty Metro that wouldn't pick us up, we decided this was a poor idea and in the future will look into other forms of transportation

Saturday was far more successful due to the Noche en Blanco. Once a year cities all over the European union (Madrid, Paris, Brussels, Riga, etc.) put on one night of city wide celebration where is open until the wee hours of the night. The official schedule in for this night has events starting no earlier then 9:00 pm and all ending any time between 2:00 am and 6:00 am. You can get into the museums for free to see the permanent collections and also special exhibits only shown for this one night. All of the restaurants (from McDonalds to the famous Café that sells churros) are open all night, so an energy crash is not a problem. The entire city was decorated: there was a giant donkey looming over the plaza by Atocha, and all of the lamps on Paseo del Prado had green lap shades covering them. (picture 5) The major roads (Paseo del prado, Gran Via, etc.) were closed to car traffic so that mob of people out in Madrid could get around easier, and everywhere you walked there was some sort of dance workshop/lesson ("taller" in spanish) taking place on the big screen, along with light decorations all over the streets (see pictures 3 and 4). There were bands on every street corner playing. I saw everything from a hip hop battle (called The Red Bull Batalla de los gallos - which translates to "Battle of the Roosters"– the National hip hop championship) in Plaza de Espana to an exclusively Brass Jazz band next to Caixaforum, to an electronic-type band with accordions that played on top of a double decker bus in Puerta del Sol, to an Saharaui African band next to Templo del Debod. I forgot to bring my camera, but I stole the pictures above from my friend Kim. I did take two of these pictures the next day to show the aftermath of the night. One of the lampshades at day time (picture 5), the other of a public works employee who was walking down Paseo del Prado picking up every single cigarrette but left there the night before. (picture 2) I did not envy his job.

Sunday also proved a to be a good day to be in Madrid. While waiting to get into the Prado (open free to the public at 5:00 on Sunday), I just happened to catch the Vuelta a Espana (an international bike race), as they went around the Paseo twice. (Picture 9) To top off the weekend, that night Spain beat Serbia in the European championship.

Spanish Lesson:

No real relation to what I've been talking, just what my host family says to me before I leave the house or go to bed.

"Que los pases bien" or "que duermas" = Have fun / sleep well

I like this expression because it uses subjunctive, so basically instead of commanding you to sleep well, they are expressing hope that you will sleep well, without saying the who long phrase. I guess Spanish is a more polite language then English.

I'm heading to Lisbon this weekend so I'll make sure to bring my camera.