Buenas

Okay so it’s been a while, but if I gathered correctly from the wedding no one (except Grandpa) is keeping up very well with this blog. I’m sorry to anyone who is and had to wait two weeks for another insightful post.

I’m in Madrid for the next two weekends and was this weekend likewise, so there probably

We watch the news everyday at lunch on Antena 3 which I think is on channel 6 (not sure why), but here are a couple of news stories I thought were interesting::

· To stop the bolletón-s (groups of teenagers drinking in parks and other public place) from occurring, the government is placing noise making devices around the city that emit a sound that only people younger than 24 can hear. In other word Spanish police have no control. My host mom said that the kids “tirar su pelo” which means “mess with” (literally pull their hair, think pull their leg).

· SSietes, Austurias: Microsoft is coming here to release windows 7, the new operating system for windows. Austurias is in the north, and apparently Sietes (Seven-s) (from the news story) the town is quite rural and has very little computers.

Next week is midterm week for Duke in Madrid (our only real time to study this semester before finals), so I ventured to the public library to write my paper for Arte. If anyone has ever sat in a college library and watched the international students, it’s basically the same thing, except everyone is an international student. So if you haven’t been in this situation let me explain. An American college student usually brings their computer to the library more to be able to take a break then to study. Facebook, Gmail, and Sporcle, take up probably about as much time as text book reading or paper writing. In Spain very few people have laptops, or at least none bring them to the library. Instead they bring packs of cigarettes. I think the breaks are definitely more frequent, but they could just appear that way because there is always a parade of people going in out and out of the study area to and from cigarette breaks. So not only is this habit more expensive and less healthy than Facebook, but you can’t even do it while you’re pretending to study. So I think the Americans win the contest in terms of best use of procrastinating time. Oh and by the way, the public library closes here at nine, so I’m not exactly sure when any work gets done if all the time there is spent smoking.

Switching gears: Madrid is beautiful right now. I sadly don’t have any pictures for you, but the weather feels like late fall in the shade and early summer in the sun. It’s also great living right next to Retiro in this weather. The park has fountains and statues all over the place. There’s a glass palace next to a small lake where black swans live, and when I was running the other day I went past a group of peacocks, underneath ivy-covered columns. (Picture 1, I stole this from the internet)

The night life here is entirely too expensive. It costs between 10 and 20 euros to get into clubs. After you get over the fact that you spent $30 to get into a discotec they’re definitely worth it. A lot have acrobats (Picture 2) or other people of that sort that perform at random intervals throughout the night. Some of my friends have also become club promoters, so we know which clubs will let you in for free usually.

In other news, On Saturday I stumbled out of my house in the late afternoon after finishing my paper which I had worked on for the past three mornings, and started walking over towards Atocha. Masses of people were walking past me, but in my daze I didn’t notice until one of them bumped in to me. Turns out I had just missed and Anti – Abortion Rally. At the moment in Spain abortion is legal, but there is a bill that would put more restrictions on it, and possibly illegalize it. This is not your typical anti abortion rally. People had bused in from all over Spain to show their support for this law. I told my host madre I had seen it and she said Miriam (my host sister) and her friend had gone. Now I don’t know about you, but I know no-one who has ever been to an abortion rally of any kind. Only political extremists and radical churches go to abortion rallies in the United States. My conclusion is that either Spain is more politically active, or an abortion rally in Spain is much closer to a middle school dance than a protest. I’ll never know though because everyone was leaving as I arrived. Picture 3 is a collection of souvenirs (read: trash) I collected from this event. So after this the bike race and the día de la corzonada, I’ve made it a rule to go to Paseo del Prado on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

Finally I went to a bullfight today. I thought it was thought it was very interesting and entertaining and here are some pictures from it. It was not the highest quality bullfight according to Borja, but everyone thought the matador in picture 7 did a good job, so they all got up and waved their handkerchiefs. I’m not sure if he did a good job or was just a crowd pleaser. Lay down in front of the bull when it stopped charging and would pose for the crowd when he had done something well. I tried to capture these moments on camera, but I was too slow.

Hasta luego

Brent

Spanish Lesson:

Two general things about the Spanish is Spain:

· VVery formal: Some of the words that they use sound very formal, just because they come from Latin, but other expressions are just more formal than they need to be. So if you were ever sitting in Spanish class thinking, “This is ridiculous, no one actually speaks like this” you were probably wrong. Examples:

o “El tren va a efectuar su parada en la estación”: This means “the train is about to arrive” on the signs in the metro. They could easily say “Va a llegar” = “Will arrive”, but instead they say “Will effect it’s entry.”

o An essay on a test is called a redacción (like redact) not an ensayo (essay) which is also a word.

· PPronunciation: Words taken from other languages (with a few exceptions) are pronounced as if they were Spanish words. I first noticed this with gourmet, with the t pronounced on the end. I wasn’t sure if that was just my host family pronouncing it wrong. Then my Arte teacher said Manet and Monet with the T’s on the end, so I’m assuming she’s got some knowledge of how to pronounced in Spanish. Moral of the story is if you go into McDonald’s say you want a “Mcfloory” not a “Mcflurry”