May 13

5-13
Hello everyone. This will probably be my last post in Spain. I know, sad, right. But the plus side is that I will be traveling all over Europe with one of my best friends and some loser who calls himself my brother. (Hehe…just kidding Brent. Don’t hurt me!) So I’ll just get caught up with what’s happened here in the last week and a half.
Last Friday (I think…the days get mixed up) I finally got to go to the Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales. This is a monastery founded by one of the sisters of one of the kings of Spain. Her name was Juana, but I don’t remember now what her historical context was. All the studying I’ve done this week has pushed any unnecessary information out of my brain. Anyway, I had tried to go 3 times before and once it was closed and the other two times all the tours were full. I hadn’t realized it was such a hotspot! So this time I went right when it opened after siesta. There was a long line already, and by the time I got to the counter they were already on the last tour of the day! But I did get in! Seven euros later… I think that’s the most expensive museum I’ve been in! Oh, except for Schloss Schoenbrunn in Vienna, but that was an entire palace and gardens, not just a little monastery. Oh well. It was beautiful. It was more like a museum than a church, with rooms filled with paintings and portraits, and little chapels along the walls of the hallways. There was even an entire room of tapestries! I’ve decided I want a tapestry in my house. The fact that it can take several months to make one square yard and therefore are exceedingly expensive doesn’t faze me. When I win the lottery I’ll have enough money to buy a huge one to cover the whole wall! Of course if I won the lottery most of that money would probably go to paying off this trip….
Next I went to the Archeological Museum, which was really awesome. The first exhibit was of ancient Greece, and they had some of those orange and black clay pots with the sweet drawings on the side of hydras and various cool things. They looked like they were in almost perfect condition and they were amazing! I immediately thought of Tiffany; you did a project on them for Greek and Roman, right? You would have loved it! I was fascinated, staring with my nose an inch from the glass. They also had some coins from 200 BC that looked almost new! Well maybe not new, but in very good shape. Hard to believe they were over 2000 years old! There was also an ancient Egypt exhibit, with some religious statues and two sarcophagi. (Wow, I actually spelled that right!) Then there were some Roman marble statues, and some more coins, and a couple of big stone burial box/tomb/things with carved sides from the Middle Ages. One of my favorite things was a sedan chair (those chairs that rich people sit in and four slaves carry them on their shoulders) from the 1700s. It was glassed in and was gilded on the roof with painted sides. It was really beautiful. I think it would be fun to ride in one, although I don’t know that I would feel safe being carried on people’s shoulders.
After that I went to the Anthropological Museum, which had exhibits from Asia and Africa. There was also an America floor, but it was closed off. There were lots of religious statues and icons, and clothes that workmen wore and tools used to farm and weave and cook and stuff like that. It was kind of interesting, but not great. There was one room with a skeleton of a giant. It said it was 2 meters and 34 (?) centimeters, and I’m not exactly sure how tall that is, but it looked well over 7 feet. 2 meters would be 6’6”, so I guess that’s about right. They also had a mummified person, which was fairly disgusting with its mouth hanging open and its brown, flaky emaciated body. There was a part where its leg had cracked a bit and it looked like wood. Very strange. There was a skeleton of a chimp next to one of an early human, and they looked almost the same. No wonder they say we’re descended. And what I hoped were sculptures of the heads of three people, although one of them looked like it might have been real and just well preserved. All of this in a badly lit room with no one around. It was just a little creepy.
Saturday Rosaura told me that the Royal Theatre was going to be doing an opera in the Plaza del Oriente, which is the big garden/plaza between the theatre and the royal palace. I thought it would be pretty sweet to see some opera in the great outdoors, so I went. There was a stage set up with a piano, and I nabbed a seat on one of the cement walls near the palace. There were 5 singers who did various areas and duets and such, all from Mozart operas. They were all dressed up in period costumes, too. It was fun. I felt so learned; there were only 2 or 3 songs that I didn’t know. They did several things from Don Giovanni and Magic Flute, which were all the ones I knew. I don’t remember what other operas were represented. It was outside and noisy and in Spanish, so I didn’t hear everything that was said in each introduction. I had fun, though. Even though it was hot and sunny and the back of my neck got burned. Hrmmm.
After that I tried to go to the Museo Cerralba, which is the home of some famous duke or other who was filthy rich and had a huge art collection, but it was closed for reparations. I swear there isn’t a single place in Madrid that isn’t under construction!
That afternoon I went to the Museo del Traje, which is the clothing museum! It was very exciting for me! They had clothes from medieval times and the Renaissance, though not very many because there are so few existing examples. (Just think of all the clothes you’ve thrown away in your life because they’ve worn out. Then imagine having your clothes last for over 500 years!) They are very careful with the care of the clothes. The lighting is dim, and the brochure said clothes can’t be displayed for long periods of time. I don’t know if that means a few weeks at a time or what. Each room had a brochure with little pictures of everything in that room, and they were all there, so they must rotate out entire displays at a time. There was a lot of clothing from the 1700s and 1800s, and I’ve decided (for about the 10th time) that my research and sewing ability needs to stretch in that direction a bit. I would just love one of those great dresses with the big bustle in the back. Or maybe one of those classic Dickens-esque caroler dresses with the cape and the muff. Yep, that’s definitely on my list! They had a display of women’s undergarments, with an animation of their evolution from the plain chemise in the middle ages, through all of the corset years, with all the different kinds and shapes of corsets, up to the modern bra and underwear. It was interesting to see how the silhouettes changed with the styles and fashions. Only a costumer would have any interest in that, I know, but I found it fascinating. The actual examples they had were mostly from the late 1800s and early 1900s. The clothes went all the way up through modern times. There was a display of Christian Dior and some other more recent Spanish designers who I had never heard of. It’s surprising how some of the things people think are new and trendy fashions are really just butt-ugly. To be fair, there were some nice things, too, but mostly a lot of very strange dresses. They didn’t allow pictures in the museum, but the papers they had for people to take had little pictures of each item, so at least I’ll be reminded of what they looked like.
Sunday I went with Patricia and Jeanette on the Tren de la Fresa (Strawberry Train). It’s an old fashioned train, with the wooden bench seats and the coal-powered engine, black smoke, and classic train whistle, that goes to Aranjuez, a city an hour away from Madrid. Strawberries are the traditional food of Aranjuez (that and asparagus. What a combination!!), so on the way there they give everyone a box of strawberries to eat. The workers on the train (there were actually just two girls) were dressed up in costumes, from the late 1800s or early 1900s, I think. I was excited when I heard that they were going to be dressed up, but I was a little disappointed. I’m just not sure a stretch velvet skirt and an elastic-cinched waist are period, even in the 1900s. But it looked cool from a distance, at least. They divided us into two groups to see the Royal Palace, and we were in the second group, which meant we had the whole afternoon free. We went to the Royal Barge museum, which is this tiny little museum in the middle of a park that has a bunch of boats used by the royal family through the centuries on the river that runs through the city. Some of them were very nice, but others were just down right ostentatious! One of them was so covered in gold I wouldn’t have expected it to be able to float! And of course all of them had a little covered pavilion where the royal family sat, with carpeting and cushioned benches. And then outside the pavilion were the plain wooden benches where the oarsmen would sit, in four or five rows, all out in the baking sun, sweating away while the king and queen sit back and relax. The life of the royal, eh? After that we walked around a few parks and gardens, just enjoying the nice weather. We ate lunch sitting outside, and I had gazpacho for the first time. It’s delicious! I think I’m going to have to find a recipe and make it at home. In the afternoon we went to the Royal Palace. This was where the Royal family went when they got bored of their palace in Madrid, their palace in El Escorial, their other palace in Madrid, their palace in El Pardo, or any of the other various palaces they own in the area. It was very similar to the other palaces I’ve seen, so I won’t spend a lot of time describing it. The most interesting thing was that there was a Museo de la Vida del Palacio (palace life). This had things like the toys and cribs of the princes and princesses, military uniforms, furnishings, royal clothing, horse-drawn carriages (without the horses), and the wedding dresses of the current queen, her two daughters in law and someone else, I think. They were some of the royal wedding dresses that Patricia had seen when the weddings were televised, and we got to see them up close. They all had a huge train, but as far as the body of the dress they were almost all very simple and elegant. Not what I would have expected, but I approved. One of them had a collar that reminded me of Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty, with the deep v-neck that comes up into a high standing collar. It was kind of bizarre. But the others were beautiful. The only problem with the day was that since we were the afternoon group there wasn’t enough time to go through the guided tour and then the museum before the busses left to take us back to the train station. We had to rush through the last few rooms without really getting a good look. But other than that it was fun.
This week is exam week. I had one on Monday and Tuesday, and two on Wednesday. Monday was lit, which I wasn’t really worried about. We only had two texts to worry about, and she told us the question ahead of time. The only problem was that we had only talked one day about each play, so we didn’t have time to ask questions or clarify any questions. She spent so much time on stupid poetry that we weren’t going to be tested on anyway that the actual test material was crammed into the last two days. It was badly organized. But the test itself was fairly easy. Tuesday I had lengua, which was a composite exam of everything we’ve learned this semester. It was a lot of reviewing, but I had learned almost everything before, so I wasn’t worried. I think I did well. Today (Wednesday) I had two. Estudios Culturales was this morning, and that’s the one I was most worried about. She said we were going to have 6 questions, and we needed to study everything. Everyone was really worried cuz we’ve learned a ton of stuff, but I don’t feel like we’ve really learned it very well. And she was going on about the artwork that we saw on our two field trips to the Reina Sofia museum, where she blabbered on about some things for 10 minutes, and others she just briefly mentioned, and we looked at like 15 paintings on each of our 2 trips. She gave us a list of things to mention if we were to analyze a painting, and there were like 8 or 9 different things she wanted. So everyone was freaking out. But it turned out to be fairly easy. With the paintings, she chose two of the easy ones and just said to do a comparison. She gave us 6 questions, and we only had to answer 5. I feel like I could have answered all 5 well, so I just picked one to eliminate. So that exam was a relief. My second exam today was history. It was a similar sort of thing, where the professor said study everything and we were going to get two general questions and we had to pick one. But one of the topics to describe was Francoism, and we’ve talked about that in nearly every one of my classes, so it wasn’t hard to write a summary. Now I’ve only got my cine final left, and she said it’s going to be a personal reflection on one of the eras of Spanish film (hehe I just wrote Spanich, like spinach lol), so I think that’ll be a piece of cake. I can’t believe that at this time tomorrow I’ll be done with school!!!
This afternoon I had a very frustrating escapade. Is that the right word? Whatever, I’m using it anyway. It’s a good word. So I’ve had some trouble ordering my plane ticket from Rome to Athens. First I ordered it through edreams, which is a website that searches all the airlines and finds the cheapest flights. Great, except they need me to fax or email a scan of my passport and credit card. I don’t have a fax machine or a scanner. So I scrapped that and went directly to the Olympic Airlines website. I waited a few days to make sure that edreams didn’t charge my credit card (I still haven’t heard back from them, but there’s no reservation under my account and nothing’s showed up on my card statement), so Monday I tried to buy my ticket again. Of course the cheapest tickets are all sold out and the next cheapest ones are 160 euros instead of 90. And that’s before tax. Total it’s over 200. But Brent and Danny have already bought their tickets for this flight, so I have to get this one. I enter my credit card info and it loads for a while, and then says there was a problem with your payment info. I check the numbers and try again. Same thing. Slightly freaking out, I email my parents to tell them it’s not working and to ask if they can buy it for me (I didn’t want to wait until the price went up even more!) and the credit card company to make sure there’s not a freeze on my card. That happened last week when I was buying tickets online, but fortunately I was skyping mom at the time and the bank called just after I told her my card wasn’t working so we were able to get it fixed right away. The bank emailed me back the next day saying there was no record of a freeze, so it should be working fine. Mom was at Mayo clinic with my aunt and didn’t have a secure site to order from, and Dad was at work all day but told me his card info. So today I tried my card again just in case a miracle happened, and then tried Dad’s card. Same thing. Frustrated, I called the airline, spent 20 minutes and $20 on hold, only to be told that I can make a reservation over the phone, but in order to purchase the tickets they need a copy of my credit card. Ahh!!!! This is the reason I didn’t do the other ticket! Plus, by this time I don’t have time to mail them a copy of my credit card and get a response back by the time I leave the country, even if I did feel safe mailing that info all the way to Greece. So, almost in tears because I have no idea how I’m going to get this ticket, I go back to the computer to try again, not really expecting it to work, but hoping nonetheless. Of course it doesn’t. Brent and Danny both said they didn’t have any problems when they ordered theirs, so I asked Brent to buy mine. Hopefully it’s all resolved now, but I haven’t heard if he’s done it yet or not. I’ve got my fingers crossed!
I’m not sure how much access I’ll have to the internet over the next month, but I’m not expecting it to be much if at all. So I’ll give a quick rundown of our plans now. We’re starting in Ireland with two days in Dublin, and then we’re going to spend a day each in Galway, Doolin, Killarney, Cork, and Kilkenny. Then we’re flying into Scotland; spending two days in Edinburgh, and then going north to the Isle of Skye, Cawdor, and Loch Ness. We have an overnight bus to London, and from there we’re going to straight to Glastonbury, Cornwall, and Stonehenge. Then we’re spending two days in London. We’ve got tickets to two musicals; we’re seeing Blood Brothers and we were going to see Spring Awakening, but I just got an email today that the show is going to close early, 3 days before we get to London, so we’re probably going to see Les Miserables instead. Another great play. Next we’re off to Paris for a couple days, then a day in Berlin, and down to Munich to see the Neuschwanstein castle! After that, Venice, two or three days in Florence, two or three days in Rome, and then (hopefully, depending on these stupid tickets!) flying to Greece for a couple days in Athens. Then, on June 17th we’re taking our respective flights out of Greece, the boys to London and then on to Dublin and Chicago, and me back to Madrid to pick up my maletas, I mean suitcases (that Spanish keeps rearing its head!) and the I’ll fly back on the 18th. I’ll arrive at 10 pm, which will actually be 5 am my time. That will be fun. Then a two hour drive home and I’ll be able to sleep in my own bed, with my fluffy, not-cardboard pillow! I’m so looking forward to that. And seeing my friends and family, of course! :)
I can’t believe this semester has gone so fast. But I’m glad. I’m sort of feeling like I’ve done everything there is to do in Madrid, and I want to go see new and exciting places. Only 5 more days!! And of course I’m looking forward to coming home, but as I’m getting more excited for traveling in Europe, my homesickness is taking a backseat. Plus, I’ll be with Danny and Brent, so it’ll almost be like I’m home. At least, with people I know. Traveling alone is nice, but I’ve often wished I could be with family and friends. Yay for everything! When dad first proposed the idea of staying on for a month to travel I didn’t really take him seriously, and I never thought it would work. But I’m so glad it’s happening. I don’t expect to ever have an opportunity like this again, and if I ever do get to go back to Europe it won’t be for this long, and I won’t be able to see as much. I feel so lucky that I have this opportunity! Another thing checked off of my list of lifelong dreams! There have been so many of those in the last 4 months!
So that’s my life for the next month. I’m sure I’ll have tons of stories when I get back. I’ll try not to forget them all before I can write my next blog. Maybe I should take notes in my notebook. That’s a good idea. Oh, and I’m finally caught up with my pictures on Facebook, so if you haven’t seen them yet you can check that out. Other than that, I think I’m about done. It’s almost dinner time, so I should wrap up. I love and miss you all! I look forward to seeing you when I get back in June!
Love, Bethany

May 4

Hello again
This weekend was a rather eventful one, so I’ll briefly summarize the high points. Friday was a fiesta, el Día del Trabajo. I think it’s the equivalent of Labor Day. So most of the museums and places I wanted to go to were closed. Hrmm. I went to the Iglesia de San Francisco el Grande, which was a gorgeous church covered with frescoes on the inside. There was actually a wedding going on when I was there, which was interesting. I don’t think I would have liked if people were coming and going from the church during my wedding, but there were a lot of visitors, so I didn’t feel too awkward. After that I went to the Plaza Mayor to do some touristy shopping and buy some gifts. I didn’t have anything to do that night, so I watched Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in Spanish. J It was my first Friday without choir, but I didn’t even think of it that night. I guess I’m not missing it too badly.
Saturday was another fiesta, 2 de mayo. It’s the day when some of the people of Madrid stood up to Napoleon’s army and were killed, or something like that. I went to Sol and ran into a parade. I saw the procession of a few different military-looking groups, and a bunch of police officers. Then there were some guys on horses that started processing down another street. I don’t know if the parade changed route in the middle of it or what, but suddenly everyone started walking over to another place. It was strange. I waited a little longer at another place where there were a bunch of people, but I got impatient and left. I wanted to get to the museum before it closed. I went to the Academia de las Bellas Artes, which is a small art museum. It was nice, and it was free, which is always a plus!
Sunday I went with Katie to the Rastro, which is that huge flea market type thing that takes up an entire neighborhood. I got a pair of purple Converse shoes for 10 euros which I’m rather excited about! While we were there we saw a bunch of the other girls from AYA. With all the hundreds of people there, it was kinda funny that we ran into each other.
Sunday night I went to a bullfight! Jen and I were the only ones who hadn’t been, since everyone else went that day I had my choir concert and Jen came to see it. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but I think it was better than I thought. Yes, there was blood, but it wasn’t all over the place, and yes they killed 6 bulls, but after the first one you got kind of desensitized. There were three matadors who got 2 bulls each. The saddest thing is how much the bulls are tortured before they’re killed. First they’re stabbed by a spear in the back, then 6 little mini spears are stabbed into their backs and left there, then a sword which stays in for a while before being pulled out right before it’s killed. Once it’s actually time for the killing the matador stabs it in the neck. Once it took only one stab before it died, but one bull lived through 4 stabs before it died. There are so many rules and so much ceremony and pomp and circumstance involved. I didn’t understand a lot of it. Manuel says there’s a reason for each of the things they do to the bull, but to the uneducated eye it looks like blatant torture. Sometimes the crowd started clapping for no apparent reason. The bullfighter did something good, but it looked just like everything else to me. I think Jen hated it, but I thought it was interesting from a detached, cultural perspective. I didn’t get all freaked out about it. I videotaped a couple of the bulls, if anyone’s interested in seeing it when I get back.
Today was the beginning of the last week of school! I can hardly believe it! Today it’s exactly two weeks until I go to Dublin to meet the boys! Ahh!!
I’ll write again soon!
Bethany