Starting from where I left off last time:

Tuesday I had my great day of classes. Got up early, made my way over to Getafe in time. Checked my piece of paper that reminded me to go to 6.1.05 (6th building, 1st floor, room 5). Found the room easily, sat down and waited. There were other kids there but the professor hadn't come. Eventually it got a bit past the start time of the class. I started a conversation with the kid next to me, who was very nice, and subsequently found out that I was in the wrong place. Ran over to the library to check it out and found out that I was supposed to be in 6.1.05B (the room next door) but by the time I made it back there, it was 20 minutes into class, and already being a foreigner, I didn't want to just drop in while the professor was talking. It makes me think of Mean Girls... I'll never know what I missed on that first day of Game Theory.

I successfully made it to my next 3 classes, plus an additional one that I attended with some friends. I went to Literary Movements, Modern History of Spain, Regional and Urban Economics and Economic Progress of Spain. I really liked the professor for my literature class (and continue to like her as I stayed in that one and Economic Progress of Spain). It totally reminds me of an AP English class, just in Spanish. Right now we're reading a book of Golden Age poetry (16th century), and goodness, it has obscure words and grammar. I'm slowing figuring it out, but there are a lot of differences. I feel consoled when I look up a word and it's not even in my favorite online English-Spanish dictionary because then I don't feel like I should have known it. Turns out "modern" history of Spain means 16-19th centuries. What we would call modern history is "contemporary" here. So that was a bummer. In the first minutes, the professor acknowledged that in English we use modern for contemporary and that it might have been confusing to us. At that point, I asked myself if I could leave right then and there, but feeling that that would be inappropriate, I stuck around for what was then a 90 minute lecture on Spanish archives. He spent the whole time telling us where they were, what was in them, and the like, which would have been interesting in an abbreviated version, but wow. Urban and Regional Economics was interesting. It's all about land use and pricing and how to make the best use of everything while keeping green space and local laws and everything in mind, but since I'm here in Spain I figured it would be best to take something I can't take at home and save Urban Economics for Midd. Still don't know exactly what Economic Progress of Spain will be like because we haven't had our first official lecture. So far we've just talked about the class itself, but it should be good. I have that with two good friends of mine here, so that was good.

The first day of classes, I didn't really meet any Spaniards but now I am starting to get to know the kids in my classes so that makes it a lot more interesting. I think once we get into the swing of things, it's going to be a really great experience.

Wednesday last week I had my oral proficiency exam. I think it overall went really well (I just got an e-mail from my school saying they want me to take the Spanish Language class at Getafe instead of theirs. It's a class in the first year of the Humanities major so it'd be super legit... the only problem is that Midd waited so long to tell me so I've now missed two weeks of that class.) Anyways, it was fun. It was just like a 30 minute conversation with a professor, but sometimes my difficulty answering a question was in no way linguistic. The last question she asked me was "In a democratic society, if no one voted, what would happen?" Think about it.

Thursday we had to do this obligatory tour. Middlebury, for whatever reason, makes the cultural events obligatory. (For example, I'm missing the group trip to Segovia this weekend, and they told me that I have to go back, alone, and do all the same activities they do.) The tour was horrible. She took us to some really beautiful sights, but she had this weird mix between dumbing it down and having huge expectations. She talked really slowly and constantly made sure we understood, but then would ask us about specific events in Spanish history that clearly we don't know. The descriptions were just too general to be interesting. In terms of her mini-quizzes, at one point she asked us for writers from the Golden Age (Siglo de Oro). I said Gracilaso de la Vega and someone else piped in with Miguel de Cervantes, who are two major Spanish writers. She then goes, "No, come on, some really famous ones." I added Boscán, and she told me it was a work of literature, not a writer (He's a writer, I've been reading his poetry). It was uncomfortable.

Bri came back to Madrid Friday. We got dinner and then went over to my friend's birthday party for a bit. Eventually called it an early night to save up for Saturday... Saturday was crazy. It was the Night in White (la noche en blanco). It's this night where Madrid turns into a big city-wide fair. Grand Vía, which is usually filled with traffic, is filled with people. There are slides in the middle of the street, kids doing skateboard races. We saw a woman dancing hanging from the side of a building in this acrobatic rope thing. That was pretty cool. There's just stuff everywhere... and all this is happening at 2 am. We started off with a dinner party at my roommates' friend's apartment. It was really fun. Everyone brought a little something to share. The group was exceptional: 2 Spaniards (one of which was Basque), a German, a Brazilian, an Englishman, a Dutchwoman, an American, and Bri and I. The German and the Brazilian speak Portuguese at home (we were at their apartment), as do the Dutchwoman and the American, who met in Brazil. It was so amazingly international. Very good company. We left for the club just before 2 and then stayed there until 6. My 35-40 year old roommates had just gotten home a bit before Bri and I when we walked in at 6/630 am, and on the way home the streets were still busy. About the amount of people you'd see at 10 at home in Minneapolis.

Obviously, the party scene here is quite different than home, and I think it's going to be really weird to come back to the US, be 21 and go to the bars for the first time, and then have everything close at 2 since I'm only used to going out here and things start then. On Friday, for example, I was walking to the train station at 830 and the bar on the corner near my place was full of people, drinking beer, who hadn't yet gone home. Javi, my roommate, told me that things have quieted down a lot, and that it used to be normal for someone to leave their house of Thursday and not come home until Monday afternoon, going out every night. (Those guys, though, he added, use a fair amount of cocaine). Don't worry. I certainly don't take it there, but it's an interesting perspective.

Sunday we slept in and then went to Rock the Ballet starring the Bad Boys of Dance. Bri and I had seen this advertisements all around Berlin with these amazing dancers but upon approaching the pictures, we very disappointedly found out that they had left Berlin a day or two before we arrived. But they just moved into Madrid, so it all came full circle and we were able to go. It was a lot of fun, lots of Michael Jackson, Queen, U2 mixed in with classically trained dancers. The styles were at times a little conflicting, but overall it was very well done. They were super talented with some very impressive moves. The main dancer is 29, choreographed the show, and apparently has taken the dance world by storm.

Then my MOM came Monday. Quite the influx of Mooty's here in Madrid. She was obviously exhausted from the traveling, but we made it over to San Miguel Market, which is this old iron-roofed building (built at the time of the Eiffel Tower when iron was so in) that has been renovated into an upscale wine/cheese/appetizer place. Had a nice dinner. Bri, feeling adventurous, blindly ordered some fish that we didn't know. Turned out to be these aquatic worms, so you all know how she received that. They were interesting. If you closed your eyes, they tasted all right, but looking at the bowl, I more than half expected them to start squirming around.

Bri and mom went off to Barcelona yesterday. I'm here in Madrid taking my classes and hanging out. Off to Amsterdam to see them Friday and spend the weekend there.

Much love from Spain.

Besotes.