January 25 again

I went walking through the city with my señora tonight. We went to get churros and chocolate, which was good but the churros were huge and the chocolate was really rich. I was still full from lunch, but I felt bad not eating it since she treated, and the she guilted me into eating it all. Hrmm. Now it sounds like she’s cooking again. I feel like I haven’t done anything but eat since I got here!
We took the metro down to the Plaza del Sol (which is just called Sol) so that I would know how to get there on my own tomorrow. It’s really easy, as long as I go the right way! I know I’m gonna end up on the opposite side of town someday. AYA gave us week-long visitor passes for the Metro to use until we get more permanent ones. When we got off the Metro there was a mariachi band playing outside of the station! We didn’t stop and watch, which I kind of wish we had, but we had places to go. There were other people playing on the streets, too, like a string trio that played Pachelbel’s Canon at least twice (once when we were walking by each way) and another piece I know but can’t remember the name of. Yesterday, we heard people playing guitars and pan flutes, which was cool. There was one guy playing “If I Had a Hammer” on the pan flute while accompanying himself on the guitar. It was kinda weird.
My señora and I walked to the Teatro Real, which is a theatre, and the Palacio Real, which obviously is the palace. There were cool gardens in front that still had flowers! They were faded and wilted, but I was shocked to see neat little rows of pansies. There are also lots of cow statues in front painted in crazy designs. I think it’s one of those weird environmental art things. It kind of took away from the cool antique architecture to have them in front of the palace, but whatever. There were lots of people taking pictures of them. We also went into the cathedral of San Gines, which was my first European cathedral experience! It was beautiful! It was smaller than I expected, but with gorgeous statues and paintings and such. There was an organ concert going on when we got there, so there were lots of people and we got to hear a bit of music. I can’t deny I got a little choked up seeing it. It was very cool.
On the way home we stopped so she could buy carrots and meat, and we went into this department store called El Corte Inglés (The English Court) so she could look at sunglasses. I swear there are more Corte Ingléses in Madrid than there are Walgreens at home! There are two of them right across the street from each other! Actually, I’m not sure if they are separate or just one business spread into two buildings. But there are still a lot.
I really wish I had internet here. It feels pointless to write these blogs and not be able to share them. I feel so cut off from everyone. I wish there was a cheaper way to communicate than phone that didn’t require the internet. It’s so frustrating because the computer says there’s a free wifi access in range with good signal, but it won’t connect for some reason, I have no idea why. I’m angry. I feel bad leaving everyone without updates, and I haven’t talked to my friends since I got here! This is very frustrating. I feel like everything will be old news by the time I get it up, but I guess it won’t be for you. Then you’ll have a whole bunch to read!
Haha, someone’s playing the “Summer of ’69” next door (I don’t know if that’s the actual name of the song, but whatever). That makes me think of Dad. J One of the taperías we went to last night was playing the English version of 99 Red Balloons when we came in, and then played American music the rest of the time. It was weird to hear that in Spain. It almost felt like I wasn’t actually in Spain, but just on vacation somewhere in the US. It’s starting to feel more real now that I’ve been around the city and today was all in Spanish. I can’t believe I’m going to be here for a whole 4 months! It still doesn’t seem possible. I’m not getting homesick yet, I just wish I could communicate!
Tomorrow I’ll see the students from AYA again. It’ll be good to see some familiar faces, even if we’ll probably still speak in Spanish. Today has been kind of overwhelming. It didn’t seem so at the time, but it’s catching up to me a little now. I think I’ll go comfort myself with a little English reading. J
Bethany