Day 26: Getting the Hang of Things

Hey everyone!

School has been going well. I just finished midterms for my Spanish intensive month. I just picked classes for October-December and I'll have no Friday classes and I start on Mondays at 11:40am :) So I'm so excited about that. I'll be taking a Spanish cinema class, art and civilization, contemporary Spanish society, modern Spain and a grammar class (not as fun) lol.
I've met so many awesome people so far...I can start listing off names: Judy, Jordan, Matt, Daisy, Lucia, Margarita, Charlie, Cynthia, Michelle, Margarite, Brittany, Heather, Blake, Alston, Philip, and more. Everyone is very chill and this will be a great semester.

I'm thinking about going to Zaragoza (north of Madrid) tomorrow and maybe Cordoba (South) next weekend, so we'll see how that plays out.
The weather is starting to cool down a bit but it is still pleasantly warm. I hope the humidity has calmed down a bit in Houston. Oh! Btw, I met a girl last night named Julia, who goes to A&M College Station, lives in the Woodlands and apparently like 5 mins from my house! She'll be here for a year but maybe next summer we can meet up again. Such a small world!

Some cultural things that happened recently were La Noche en Blanco and visits to the Prado museum. La Noche en Blanco was basically a night on the town for the whole city, with shops staying open later and huge art installations, shows and movies. On Gran Via (Broadway/Times Square of Madrid) which is right where I live, there was a huge slide that was built with 4 chutes, in the middle of the street, along with seesaws and swings. Unfortunately the lines were way to long, so we just met up with friends and stayed out kinda late lol.

Visiting the Prado is one of my favorite things to do here. I went one Friday with my school and then again the following Tuesday with my friend Jordan. I saw Las Meninas by Velasquez, Goya's Black Paintings (including Saturn devouring one of his children...disturbing), some artwork by Dutch artists (my fave) including one Rembrandt. I saw some other pieces from Goya (El dos y tres de Mayo) and just a lot of really beautiful artwork. I've only seen a portion of the museum so that will be my goal to see all of it by the time I leave.
I'm going to the Reina Sofia Museum on Wednesday and it's more modern art (not really my style but I hope to at least appreciate it lol). I will finally get to see Picasso's Guernica, so I'm looking forward to that.

Well I'll talk to you all later! Keep reading....there will be more adventures to come!