I unfortunately start every post with a feeling of guilt for not having written in a long time. My last post was 3 weeks ago, which is the longest I've gone without posting, but instead of apologizing, I am simply going to redefine my expectations of how frequently I post, decide that once every couple of weeks is sufficient and go from there. :)

The last few weeks have been good. Fall is here. I love the cool weather, and seeing the changes in the leaves when I run through Retiro Park (my one contact with nature in the big city). I have gotten into a rhythm here in Spain with my classes, work and the like. I got Oct 11 and 12th off. The 12th was The Feast of Saint Pillar/Fiesta de la Hispanidad (Hispanicity?). It's a day of Hispanic heritage in Latin America and Spain. Monday was "puente" or a floating holiday, but also Columbus Day. It's funny for me that it exists here, too (obviously, but just to have the same holiday as in the US). Took the weekend to catch up on rest, go out with my friends, and take a day-trip to Toledo.

Toledo was really pretty. I went with my friend Edwin from Midd and a few Spanish friends of his. It's just a 45-minute or so bus ride from Madrid, so it was a perfect day trip. The center is an old, walled town on a hill. It was the capital from the time of the Visigoths in post-Roman Spain until the Moors invaded and then again with the Spanish until they moved the court to Valladolid in the 16th century for a bit before it moved to Madrid. It has a long history of coexistence between the Jews, Christians and Muslims, and then when the Spanish reconquered the city, instead of pillaging the Moors, they just kind of continued with the mix that they had. I guess in Toledo the coexistence allowed them to do a lot of translations from Arabic of the "lost knowledge" from the Greeks and Romans. Toledo, as a result of the mixed religions, has a big synagogue, a few churches including a ridiculously ornate and amazing cathedral, and a mosque. We entered in the synagogue which simple but pretty. They had a nice art exhibit of Christian and Jewish works. The mosque was partly under construction and not very large, so we decided to pass it up. And then cathedral is the big attraction. It's a mammoth, impressive display of the Church's wealth, or at least that's how I saw it. It's now part church and part museum because they've created displays of a ton of art, robes, jewels, artifacts from the 16th century and such. It was fun to see all of the pieces of its history reconstructed and preserved. But honestly, ever part of that cathedral is decorated. It's a bit ridiculous at points, but for the most part tasteful. The have a room with portraits of all of the archbishops of Toledo going back to the Middle Ages and before that I liked a lot. And then in the jewels, they have this gigantic, gold I-don't-know-what that is just gaudy, of course, but is distinct in that it was made from the first pieces of gold brought back from the New World. Overall, the cathedral shows off the grandeur of Spain in that age. The rest of the city is a bit touristy (they seriously have a knife shop every block, just in case you want to relive the era with actual weapons... or buy one of the random samurai swords that they also sell), but the narrow streets and the old architecture make it precious. Every once in a while you run into something, like the gate that I have a photo of, which is original and like 1500 years old. We climbed into the fortress to take some pictures from above, which I'll post on Facebook with the rest of the one's I took that day as well.

I think the only other big change is that I started taking some dance classes with my friend Darryl. We enrolled in a ballet one and a hip hop one, neither of which I have ever done before, but it's been a lot of fun so far. My ballet teacher is hard but honest. If we do something poorly, she won't hesitate in telling us so, but it's done in a supportive way. My hip hop teacher is young and his choreography is a lot of fun. It's fun to go between the two because in ballet it's so exact and then in hip hop, he'll tell us to stop looking like we can dance ballet and just do it relaxed. I think after watching the girls dance for so many years, I've wanted to try it myself, and so I'm finally doing that.

Other than that, I've been taking my classes. Just finished reading El Jugador (The Gambler) by Dostoievski (how we spell this name in Spanish) and the Coloquio de los perros by Cervantes for my lit class. They go surprisingly well. Cervantes is a bit more difficult because it's so old, but I can just sit down and read it, which is a cool feeling. My flatmate always comments on my books and tells me that most Spaniards have never read what I've been reading. It's such an ironic combination that I can read the great works of literature, but then sometimes I flounder in daily conversation. Econ is going well. Learning a lot about Spanish economic history (as one would expect from the course title) but also just about economic history in general and how it's studied. The professor is a strict, hard-line jerk to be honest (for example, last week, 5 weeks into the class, he said that some students write so poorly that they should just drop the course right then because there is no way that they'll pass. Although it may be true, he just goes about it in the wrong way). Nevertheless, he does know his stuff (nearly every week we have an article of his and then everyone else cites his work), so it works out. Lately he's been throwing jokes into his lectures, so maybe he'll turn out to be nicer than he seemed at the beginning, but we'll see. My grammar class is mostly boring. The professor is great and vibrant and fun, but the material is really basic for me since we have such varied levels. The directors of my program initially suggested that I not take the class and instead do one with the Spaniards in the university, but then they eventually decided that I might as well just take the one with my peers to be more included in the program. Not sure what would have been the better choice, but I guess I'll just take it as a reinforcing review.

Work is going well. I'm currently writing this blog entry at work, which goes to show that I don't always have things to do, but for the most part, I've been doing much more interesting and productive things recently. I'm doing a lot of accounting and the like for the various projects that Fundeso has abroad, so it's a lot of excel spreadsheets and accounting programs, entering numbers and moving money through the banks. Lots of patterns and making things balance, both of which my analytic mind enjoys. The main advantage of the job is that I work with great people. Last week I saw co-worker play in his band. They call themselves Billy Bob Dillon and pride themselves on being the most bearded group in Spain (he's Basque, which with common stereotypes here in Spain, perfectly explains the beard.) Last Thursday we had our first "English day" in the finance department, where we attempted to speak in English as a group, but they usually would say a phrase and then talk about what they just said in Spanish. They're all in English classes, but as for all language students, there's some hesitancy to put it into practice, especially when you're with someone who speaks your language better than you speak his or hers. It was fun though.

I've been feeling more homesick lately, a little bored with the routine here in Madrid, and fed up with some drama that is going around my friends, so I've decided that I need to travel somewhere and get my mind off of things. Planning on heading up to San Sebastian in the Basque country next weekend to visit a friend and am excited about that. This weekend is obviously Halloween back home, which isn't much of a holiday here, but a few of the clubs are throwing costume parties, so I think we'll be celebrating that. Then Monday is a national holiday for All Saints Day. Looking forward to another long weekend.

Hope all is well with you guys back home or in whatever country you find yourself. Big hugs.

Chugging along

Realizing that I never fulfilled the promise to post pictures. In the process right now of uploading everything I have to Facebook, but to really show you guys parts of my life here in Spain, I'm going to have to take the pictures, so I'll get on that as well. For those of you who are so inclined, a glance at recent photos with me tagged should give the run-down on what's been happening.

Life here in Spain is continuing well. My weeks are becoming variations on the same theme, but it's still very enjoyable. Last week was my first at my internship. The people there are awesome, even if the work side of it is starting slow. They haven't really gotten used to giving me work (or had the opportunity to plan for it) so a lot of my time there in the first few days was completely unproductive. They're going through some changes in personnel and what not and had a big deadline Wednesday when I was there so I think that things should start to improve. I do the typical intern things: enter data, archive, make sure that long excel spreadsheets are correct. Look forward to the day that I have a job that actually requires an education. But complain as I might, I really enjoy the conversations I have with my co-workers and the environment there, so it's all good.

My weeks are usually a big push to make it through Tuesday. I have a paper due every Tuesday for Economic Progress of Spain, and it always ends up that I'm doing it in the middle of the night Monday/Tuesday morning and then trying to finish it between classes. What a mess. This week, I at least had started the articles prior, but still haven't learned. On top of it all, our professor tells us weekly that our papers (everyone's in the class) are horrible and it pains him to read them. He, however, has never given us more constructive feedback than that nor has he returned our papers with comments. One of my American friends in the class was worried about the situation (the professor is unnecessarily rough sometimes, he told us that there are 3 kids in the class that he needs to talk with Thursday because they absolutely cannot write and should immediately drop the class... in week 5), so she decided to ask him about it, and for what he could remember, our papers were well done. Apparently in Spain, they never really teach students to write an essay. (Period). I still can't really fathom this fact, but they stress the importance of writing, and while Spanish students will out perform Americans in math/science in high school, they just really don't write. My professor was saying after class how thank god he sends his kids to British/American schools abroad so that they learn it well. It's interesting.

Last weekend was perhaps enjoyed a little too much (I ended up with a cold, which was only exasperated by getting 4:30 hours of sleep last night). We went out Thursday-Sunday, with Sunday being a special exception. Gran Vía, one of the main, central Madrid streets turns 100 this year, and they have therefore, in good Spanish fashion, decided to celebrate all year. They closed the street between two big plazas and had a stage with live music in both. We heard a bunch of local Madrid groups and then as it was sponsored by the top 40 radio station here, had a gigantic outdoor, under the rain dance-party. There were thousands of people and it was a lot of fun. Along with the White Party, it makes the 2nd street party that I've been to so far here in Madrid, and they've both been memorable.

Next Tuesday is a holiday. The Feast of Patron Saint Pillar. And since it falls on Tuesday, I get Monday off as well. Couldn't be more excited. Primarily because that means no econ paper and therefore the complete lack of hump day. I've been debating running off to see some Spanish city (Sevilla?), but am thinking that I might just hang around here. Perhaps a bit of hiking outside the city with a friend, a day exploring the Prado or La Reina Sofia (two big art museums), getting ahead on my reading for my literature class, and enjoying the weekend in Madrid like we always do.

Fall is starting to come to Madrid and I am just constantly thinking of Minnesota and Middlebury. Something about fall triggers a ton of memories for me. Suffice it to say that I miss you all lots, and while I'm doing my best to keep my mind centered here in Spain, a big part of my heart is back in the US of A.

I'm off to upload the pictures. I have virtually none of Madrid I'm just realizing, but my friends have done a good job of taking and posting them. Never put up Berlin or Amsterdam photos, so that'll happen now.

Besos.