Rain in Spain

The cold weather has finally arrived in Spain. It has actually been cold and rainy the whole week and reminding me of home, which makes the weather kind of nice in some ways. The other day, Renee and I went to a cafe to get on the internet for a bit (the weather caused a line to fall or something so our house didn’t have phone or internet service) and walking down the street in my fleece and raincoat with my laptop bag made me feel like I was walking to the SUB or library at school. But the cold and wet definitely has its downfalls. For example, all clothes here are line dried so when the weather gets cold and rainy, you don't get your clothes back for awhile. Our group is in Madrid for the next few days and I was hoping to be able to wash a pair of jeans before I left, but I asked my host mom two nights ago if I could and she said it was impossible. I feel like if I had washed them and hung them up to dry inside they would have been fine, but I didn't want to argue. So I'm hoping one pair of jeans, another pair of pants, and tights are enough for 5 days of traveling.

Speaking of arguing with my host mom, I love her dearly, but lately Renee and I have been finding it difficult to deal with some of the cultural differences, especially Renee. My poor roomie has been sick with strep throat or something (I'm keeping my fingers crossed I don't get it but it seems to be going around the group) and has been lectured various times about not eating enough (our mom didn’t seem to understand that not only did Renee not have a big appetite because she was sick but it also was very painful), not wearing shoes while walking around the house, and not wearing a scarf at all times. I got in trouble the other day because I went on an hour long run (first time I had ever consciously ran that long so I was feeling pretty good about myself) and my mom thought I was out too late by myself. I can maybe respect that one a little, but I got home before 10, and I only ran on lit streets with other people, in areas I have ran before so I am familiar with them, so the lecture kind of annoyed me. Another thing related to my run is afterwards, I realized once I got back to my room that they were dirty, so, not wanting to leave them on them on the floor to get the floor dirty, I put them in the shower. Apparently that is unsanitary, although I didn’t get the lecture, Renee did. Next time I’ll be sure to leave them on the floor to get dirt all over our room, which will then get tracked into my bed when it get stuck to my feet, because that is definitely more sanitary. I also got told I needed to eat an apple the other day for dessert, as well as the yogurt I had eaten, because it is healthy and has vitamins. I can’t argue that apples are not healthy, but being told I have to eat an apple when I am very uncomfortably full, I ate a big salad with dinner and I ate an apple earlier in the day, and the person who’s telling me I need to be healthy is struggling with weight problems, is supposed to be sticking to a diet that her doctor gave her, and she’s not doing a very good job at it because the day before I watched her eat about half a loaf of bread with dinner and I watch her eat other things she isn’t supposed to all the time, kind of annoyed me. I know she’s just trying to take care of us, but her caring is a little too overbearing for me at times and I just want to be like “I am almost 21 years old, I have kind of lived on my own for the majority of the last two years, and I have been in this city for two months now; I can handle myself.”

Moving on from that rant, everything else is going really well. I’m really enjoying my classes and my professors, and love the fact that we do not have a lot of homework to take up our free time. The most homework I have is for the culture class we have to take with our program, and as much as I dislike it sometimes, this trip to Madrid is further proving the utility and interestingness of the class as I am able to relate what we’ve learned in class to what we are seeing. Yesterday we went to the Prado Museum, and we were able to see the paintings we’ve talked about in class, name the artists and titles without having to look at the signs, and talk about their significance. Today we went to the Escorial and got to see where all the Carlos’s, Filipe’s, and Alfonso’s we’ve learned about lived and are entombed, and reiterate and expand on the history we’ve learned about in class. It was pretty cool to be able to really understand what the guide was talking about since we already had a lot of background knowledge.

To wrap things up, I can’t believe that my time here is more than half way over. I feel like I still have so many things I want to do and see, although unfortunately my bank account wouldn’t permit that, so it’s probably an ok thing that I am coming home in December. I’m hoping to be able to figure out one more trip to do before my time here is up, but we’ll see. If not, I’m going to Barcelona at the beginning of December which will be exciting for many reasons. One of those reasons is that we may be seeing one of the biggest games of the season for FC Barcelona since the team they are playing, Levante, is apparently currently first in the league. Another reason is that my mommy will be meeting me there when she comes to visit me!

I’ll try to write another post when we get back to Granada about what we did in Madrid. I can say we are going to Segovia tomorrow, exploring Madrid more on Monday I think, and then going to Toledo on Tuesday. Not really sure what people will be up to when we aren’t doing something with the group, but I know we are at least looking to celebrate Halloween one of these days. Hope you all eat lots of Halloween candy for me, but don’t tell me about it because it will just make me jealous. I’m going to search for a Starbucks and get a pumpkin spice latte to celebrate the season and then wander the streets of Madrid to see what I can see.