Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Hola :)

I am sorry - I suck at keeping up this whole blogging thing. I just get so preoccupied, that I forget. Good thing my Dad is here to send me constant messages about how much my blog is failing - thanks Dad.

So I have been having a bit of a hard time here lately, mainly because I don’t really know anyone in the city. Its hard, because making friends when you are in school is easy - but I have never lived alone in a city and not had classes to meet people in. I have always treasured my alone time, but alone time all the time...not so much. But I am making it work, and enjoying exploring parts of the city I have never been to and taking the time to do all the things in the city that I have wanted to do, but just never got around to.

So, the fun stuff I have been up to lately....

First it was Gay Pride in Madrid a couple of weeks ago. I didn’t get to go to any of the activities during the week, but I decided to go to the parade on the weekend. I didn’t have anyone to go with, so I went alone. I have never been to a Gay Pride celebration before, and I certainly did not know what I was getting myself into. It was a BLAST! The atmosphere was great, everyone was really friendly, mostly drunk, and the parade floats were definitely interesting. Here are some photos of what the night was like.

there was a lot of that goin on.




hellooo ;)

oh no.



After living in Spain since September, I FINALLY got to see a flamenco show. My program director, Sooyoung and I went, with a visiting professor from the states. We had drinks and tapas first, and then watched the show. It was a really interesting performance, because it was a mix between jazz and flamenco music. It was AMAZING!! Their feet move soooooo fast. This picture doesn't even do it justice, so you should do some youtubeing (after you finish reading this) and enjoy! 



It’s really HOT in Spain. I don’t know if anyone realizes this...but it’s hot. It hasn’t rained, or even been a little cloudy in like 1 month...that is a lot of sun. The sun is great...and coming from a place where we have about 5 months of winter, I love the sun. But it gets so hot that I can’t even be outside. And of course Madrid is in the exact center of the Iberian Peninsula...so there is no beach, or any form of natural water around. Therefore I have been on the hunt for a pool. Luckily one of my coworkers invited me over to her house to spend the weekend at her pool. We had a great day swimming and "taking sun" as they say here. That night we went out in Madrid with some of her friends, and another coworker. We had a great night out, and it was great to have people to go out with!

This past weekend Sooyoung and I decided that we wanted to go to the beach. Of course we didn’t actually start thinking about this until Thursday, and through a series of unfortunate events, we were unable to make it work. So I was pretty bummed about having to stay in Madrid - because my heart was set on the beach. With that said, we ended up having a blast here in Madrid. We went to see Harry Potter, in English of course, because Harry Potter does not speak Spanish. Harry Potter has been THE book/movie series of my life. The first book came out when I was 8 years old, and I have read all the books twice, and seen all the movies at least once. This was the last movie, and it was great, although a little bittersweet knowing its over. But I will always remember seeing both parts of the last movie while I was living in Spain. On Sunday we went to the Rastro street market, and had great success. Normally at the street market, I find lots of cool stuff, but never buy any of it. After the market we went down to the river that runs through Madrid (yes I know, I said there is no water in Madrid...but I meant water to swim in) and rented bikes. Both of us love riding bikes, and since we have been living abroad for the year, we have not had bikes to ride. We had the best time riding around the river, where the city has just finished a new park that has loads of bike paths along the rivers edge. There are playgrounds for children (no age limit - so we had a good time too!), and even water features for kids to play in. It turned out to be the best Sunday in Madrid ever, so in the end, I am glad we stayed here.

BIKE

BICYCLE! BICYCLE! I want to ride my bicycle!!

Well there you have it - my life update. Next on the agenda: Paris to visit the rents, Barcelona bike show, and Madrid bike show...last weeks are coming up fast! YIKES!