As of today, I've been in Madrid, Spain for a week, and am only just now getting around to starting a blog. This may not bode well for the rest of the blog, but we'll see.
I guess my being too busy to start my intended blog is a testament to the fact that I've already had plenty to do. Of course, the first few days involved a lot of tedious things that needed to get taken care of, like buying a cell phone (and learning to save up on minutes efficiently, when paying 12 cents for every minute of conversation). Theoretically, I was going to have no access to the internet in the apartment where I'm staying--which I didn't think I would mind, until it turned out that everyone else had internet access. But by Wednesday, my señora had figured out how to give me the password, and here I am, online. I hate being so attached to the internet, but I really don't know how I would be planning my trips for the next five weeks otherwise.
My homestay situation is working out very well. I have no roommate, which is strange, because I'm used to sharing a room with Andy or with someone at school. So I'm not used to having my own room, but it's certainly nice. My señora lives alone, so it's just the two of us; but she seems to like me, and is certainly very happy that I speak Spanish fluently, because it means we can converse with almost no issues (although my Colombian accent sometimes makes it trickier for her to understand me). She's already gathered that I don't really love vegetables, and that I really like bread, so food-wise, I think I'm all set.
I've done so much in the past week that it would be a bit silly to try to detail it all in a single blog entry. As far as classes are concerned, suffice it to say that I will have minimal amounts of work (especially compared to being totally swamped at Yale!) and that classes may be a bit boring, if only because they're so long. But nevertheless, I get to spend two days a week (4 hrs total) in the Prado looking at paintings without really having to take notes for my Prado class, so I'm happy. Aside from classes, I've spent time walking around, navigating the Metro (which is by far the best subway system I've ever seen. No contest), eating, and trying to get over how funny the "vosotros" form of address sounds to me. The food is DELICIOUS here, because Spaniards, like me, have a serious appreciation for meat. And bread. And wine. And I can't remember the last time that I had a vegetable.
Wandering around, there are so many places that look like I ought to try. There's certainly WAY too many panaderias calling out to me with their scent of fresh, hot bread right out of the oven. There's one right around the corner from my apartment, and it has not disappointed thus far. In fact, I might pack it up and take it with me.
We went on an excursion to Segovia on Friday, and it was so gorgeous there! Totally different from Madrid, beautiful in an entirely rural way. The Alcázar, the castle, was amazing! Some beautiful views from its terraces, unbelievably small suits of armor, and traces of moorish art/architecture. We wandered through the whole palace, and there was much to look at in every room.
Yesterday I went to the Prado for the first time. I only had about an hour to be in there before closing time, so I went straight for Las Meninas (1656) by Diego Velazquez, since that painting in and of itself was one of the incentives of coming to Spain. I was so excited and overwhelmed by how happy I was to be there, in front of this giant painting that I've spent so much time looking at in books and on computer screens. It's so much more beautiful in person, so I think I'm entirely justified in my freaking out. I admittedly got a little weepy, but it was a really cool moment, to see it and realize that it's like 100 times better than I already thought it was. I noticed things I hadn't seen before, I kept thinking about how it started so many new things in the history of art, and I had the indelible urge to pull Velazquez out of the 17th century to thank him for giving this painting to the world. Maybe I will ask the Prado if I can take that home, too.
And just now, I've come back from the Reina Sofia, which is a contemporary art museum. We saw some paintings by Dali and Juan Gris, but of course the main event is Picasso's Guernica. It is ridiculously large, in its own room with two guards at either side. Talk about an incredible painting. I can't imagine what the process of painting it, emotionally, must have been like. I feel like after seeing it in person, I understand it so much more. Again, every time I'm in front of a painting, I realize that there is nothing like seeing a work of art in person. Art historians, I maintain, spend too much time in libraries and classrooms. I saw Ghirlandaio's Giovanna Tournaboni at the Museo Thyssen and got SO excited--it's beautiful, and I've seen it so many times in books that the comparison was intense. And I ran into a Jan van Eyck that I really like at the Thyssen and also had a mild aneurysm.
Anyway, I've been amused by things other than museums, of course. Like the fact that, while looking for a club that didn't charge a cover on Saturday night (nonexistent), it became clear to a group of us that Madrid is a city that actually never sleeps. People start their night at like 1 a.m. on the weekends, and they tend to stay out until the Metro reopens at 6 a.m. I haven't made it past 3:30 a.m. yet; but friends who were with me and ended up at a club on Saturday night told me they left at 6 a.m. and the party was still going. It was bizarre to see people--crowds of people--walking around at 3 in the morning. There was traffic in the streets when I caught a cab back to my place. My señora says that Spaniards are not rich, but that they know how to live well.
In keeping with that, I'm heading off to have churros con chocolate tonight. And chocolate, which never fails me, combined with Madrid seems like a good pairing to me.
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