The other night I listened to yelling and big "booms" in the street as the people partied and began the general strike that started at midnight. Thursday it continued all over Spain. Salamanca had a different feeling. There were stores closed with big stickers on their doors saying, "CERRADO POR HUELGA" (closed for strike). A lot of people didn't go to work and were gathering for demonstrations-this includes the sanitation workers-which left the streets the dirtiest I have ever seen them. Salamanca isn't hit by the movement as much as bigger cities like Madrid, Barcelona, or Seville, but still there are angry citizens that demand attention. The citizens are upset with a new law that the government has passed in regards to employees and workers. "Nueva reforma laboral" (a new labor reform). Spain, along with other countries in Europe, is going through an economic crisis, the government is trying to do things to get the country out of the recession, but as they do this they are leaving Spanish people unsatisfied. Its a cycle that I think every country goes through. I am just lucky enough to be in Spain during this period of struggle to see first hand what it is like. Thursday morning as I walked to school I noticed that throughout the night people had put stickers on a lot of store windows, without the stores wanting them of course, the people going on strike wanted to make sure everyone knew that there was a general strike.
the garbage...
The flyer the organizations were handing out. There's some Spanish current events -lol- But now..let's talk Madrid and Valencia! Two weekends ago now I went to Madrid to visit my friend Hanna, to see a LMFAO concert, tour the city, and also go to Valencia to participate in the spring festival "Las Fallas". The trip consisted of 5 days of walking a lot and losing even more sleep! I started the trip on the bus at 7:30am Friday morning. The bus had WIFI so I was content with my Droid functioning as my handheld computer to chat with my boyfriend before he went to sleep all the way over in Seattle :) Helped the time pass by and luckily I had taken anti-motion sickness medicine so I was feeling caffeinated and great! I arrived to Madrid at 9:30am and had to tackle the metro system to arrive at the stop nearest to Hanna's apartment building.
The Metro stop Antonio Machado! First goal accomplished! I arrived without problems :) We didn't waste anytime and headed out the door almost as soon as I entered it. First stop was La Puerta del Sol, like the commercial district more or less. I was mostly interested in seeing it because it is the place where all of the manifestations usually take place in Madrid, such things as the 15-M movement that happened last May, and like today with the general strike. It was interesting and I'm sure it would be great to work in a business near there, the buildings are elaborate and there are so many shops, such as clothing stores, souvenir shops, bakeries, and restaurants!
Puerta del Sol
Oso de Madrid (Madrid's Bear)
Cool buildings...to work in!?!
Tourists on Segway's!
Famous bakery! Conveniently the Plaza Mayor of Madrid was near the Puerta del Sol and we walked there. It is very pretty, but compared to Salamanca's beautiful Plaza Mayor, every other one just seems "eh" -lol- I am biased to Salamanca's now! We also had another goal in mind while walking through the Plaza, we were headed to eat bocadillos de calamaris! Calamari is famous in Madrid and Hanna had found a restaurant that had bocadillos (sandwiches) for only 2,50 euro! We shared one of those and a plate of morcilla! yum :) Haha the fact I love something made of animal blood kinda freaks me out...but it tastes so good...I'm more Spanish because of it right? haha The lunch was amazing! and great fuel for all the walking we did the rest of the day!
Plaza Mayor
Plaza MayorAfter getting food in our bellies, we headed to an area of Madrid that Hanna knew had a tea shop with Bubble Tea, which is tea with little pearls, or bubbles, of flavor. They have lots of flavors, but the one Hanna said was super good was black tea with milk and bubbles of tapioca, so we ordered those! It was good! Really fun to have a surprise in your straw in every drink and it was chewy like a gummy bear :) We walked around this part of town while we sipped our teas. It ended up being a great part of town! There was a whole street full of vintage shops! It was awesome...I wanted to buy so much stuff! But, I controlled my urge...I did buy an old-time baseball jersey that's pretty cool, though! We walked around in the vintage shops for a bit until our teas were empty and then hopped back on the metro to head towards a place I really wanted to see....
tea shop :)
Yummm
La Residencia de Estudiantes! (the place I really wanted to see) It is a campus type place that many famous Spanish intellectuals studied, lived, and all the fun things that college kids do! (and difficult to locate-even with the help of random people we had to ask on the street!) Federico Garcia Lorca, a famous Spanish poet and playwrite, with whom I am completely infatuated-his poems are completely inventive, original, full of metaphors and imagery that will blow your mind, studied there. Along with Lorca, Salvador Dali, famous Spanish Surrealist, and Luis Bunuel, famous film director and artist studied their also. These three guys were really close friends during their time in the residence! I have been learning so much about all of the Spanish authors and poets in my literature class with my amazing profesor, Javi, who has sparked so many fires in my brain that its impossible to keep them all straight, I have so many more interests and so many more topics I want to dive in. For this, I wanted to witness the place where some of the most imaginative people in Spanish history studied and lived! The campus part was beautiful with gardens and lots of places to walk. Then there was an exhibit of the history of the residence with pictures and videos, very very interesting! Then we got to see the bedroom of Garcia Lorca! Only from the outside, the window looking in, but it was still so cool to see where he once slept, studied, and had his daily tea gatherings with his friends. It is all completely authentic stuff! Such a great experience!
All of that activity took up the afternoon. The night is what were waiting for...the LMFAO concert! It started at 8:30 and to get to the venue before that we had to leave from Hanna's apartment about an hour before, to take the bus and the metro! Public transportation is convenient, but man o man big cities= spending a whole lot of time commuting!! We arrived and decided to grab some dinner at a bar right on the corner near the line that was wrapped around the back of the concert venue! We ordered "huevos rotos" without really knowing what it consisted of and out came a huge pan filled with potatoes, chorizo, and two over-easy eggs on top, plus some sauce. The waiter showed us how to arrive at the concept of "roto" by taking to knives and basically chopping it all up into one big mess -lol- It was really yummy. And on the side we had some peppers! We even got two drinks free and a free dessert shot :) I think the bartenders liked us!
and the food!After dinner...concert time! LMFAO was so amazing live! Not like I need a concert to make me dance and go crazy to their music...like in my car with my best friend Bree jamming out to your favorite song "All Night"...but seeing them live in Madrid was one of the best memories I will ever have! I think it is right up there with one of the most fun concerts! It was a little sad that both of the singers couldn't be there, Sky Blue had a back problem and had to rest! But Red Fool and the Party Rock crew put on an awesome show! The venue was packed! And the fans were even fun to watch because so many of them were dressed up like LMFAO, in the funky, almost 80's like style they have! I was with Hanna, Mari, Kim, and two of Mari's friends. We danced and screamed and jumped like savages haha It was so much fun! Afterwards I was extremely tired and we didn't get home until about 3am or so...the metro was jam-packed with people leaving the concert...oooo not good for a person with fear of small, crowded spaces...but I survived! haha
Hanna, Kim, and I
Hanna and I
Crazy Fans
Kim, Mari, and I
Crowd!
So many people!The rest of the weekend in Madrid consisted of eating at restaurants, going to museums, and other sight-seeing activities. Saturday we woke up late and headed to El Reina Sofia, a contemporary and modern art museum. It is huge and we spend about 3ish or more hours there! I had a great time losing myself in the paintings. The best part of all was their room of works by Pablo Picasso. I got to see "Guernica" his famous Cubist work inspired by a town in Pais Vasco called Guernica that was bombed by German airplanes during the Spanish Civil War. It is one of my favorites and to see it in person absolutely blew my mind. It covered a lot of space on the wall and was very impressive. I probably took a good 20 minutes of my time taking in all the details! I have a great interest in the Spanish Civil War, everything that went on to arrive in it, everything that happened during it, and everything that happened after. The work of art provokes many emotions in me like sadness not only for the many people that lost their lives in the town bombed unfairly, but also for all the people that lost their lives throughout the war. The enjoyed my afternoon leaving the real world for awhile and taking in all the art that I could!
(Some of the art I love)
The first photo is of a room that is part of an exhibition and it is supposed to be like a museum exhibition but all of the frames are empty. It was pretty entertaining, there was a projector projecting nothing and tv's with static. I liked it and the message is quite strong.Saturday ended with Hanna and I going to her local neighborhood bar to have some tapas and a drink. While there we got creeped on by some older Spanish dudes that thought they were pretty cool...they weren't and it ended being an hour of nonsense conversation that we didn't want haha...Happy St. Patrick's Day to us! One of the guys looked like a leprechaun, though, so I mean that might count for something? -lol- The bar was a cool sports bar and we were having fun listening to VH1 Classic Rock "Boogie Night" theme until we got interrupted -lol- It was the first bar I had seen in Spain that had a pool table, so that kinda made it feel a little more like I was in Montana!
Sunday was the trip to El Prado, the museum full of all of the most famous classic paintings. I have been there once before when I was in Spain the first time, but I didn't remember much, so I was really excited to go and see all the works of art that I now had so much knowledge about! I saw works by Diego Velazquez, Francisco de Goya, El Greco, Rubens, El Bosco, and so many more. "Las Meninas" by Velazquez was very impressionable. I also fell in love with the works of Goya, especially his ones from the phase called "Pintura Negra", in which he started to paint strange scenes instead of just portraits and historical scenes. "El dos y tres de mayo" are both amazing paintings and it was great to see them in person-they are scenes he painted after the war with France in 1808! El Prado is full of art by Goya! Which turned out to be great for me because this week in class we watched a movie "Goya en Burdeos" which is about not only the life of Goya, but how he struggled with mental problems that made him end up changing his style of painting. I absolutely was in love with the movie. The director, Carlos Saura, made the paintings come to life-literally-and used different ways to not only show us the life of Goya but make us feel how he felt. I could understand the movie a lot better after having seen all of the paintings in El Prado. To see a painting is one thing, but to actually understand it, and to know what was going on in the artist's mind while he was painting it, makes one appreciate it so much more! El Prado is a precious museum, so big, and so full of history...we had to map out what we wanted to see or else we could have been there all day!
Statue of Goya
After El Prado we headed to eat some Thai food :) Yum Red Curry! Then we headed to explore by the Royal Palace! We didn't go inside, but from my first trip I do remember being inside of the Royal Palace because I loved it! So we just walked around for a while, took some pictures, and then headed back to Hanna's because we needed to rest a little and get ready for our bus that would be leaving at 1am on Monday morning to go to Valencia!
The adventure weekend in Madrid ended at 1am Monday morning when we hopped on a bus with two of Hanna's friends from Korea to head to Valencia for a festival called "Las Fallas". It is one of the biggest festivals celebrated in Spain and it goes all week long, we arrived for the last day! The festival is about celebrating spring and based on the Saint San Jose, the patron of carpenters. Monday also happened to be "Dia del Padre" -father's day. We went for the last day because it is the day that they burn all of the "Fallas" which are large structures made of wood, cardboard, and sometimes cork which humorously portray the most relevant current events and personalities. They are like social critiques. They burn them in the part of the festival called "La Crema". The burning marks the end because the "Falleros", carpenters that build the fallas, throw everything that isn't needed or seen as harmful into a bonfire, and by doing this aim to make a new start and regenerate the spirit. This is why it coincides with the beginning of springtime, a new season, starting new. We witnessed many beautiful, elaborate, detailed fallas, a parade called "La Cabalgata del Fuego" which was full of dancing, lots of fire-like huge sparklers that people dressed in costumes, such as devils, ran around and danced with, and the presentation of the "Falleras Mayores", who are the queens of the festival and voted on each year. After the Cabalgata we witnessed the "Fuegos Artificiales" -fireworks show-which was one of the best I have ever seen! It was just like a 4 or 5 minute constant, finale like display! Then after the display they burnt the biggest Falla to mark the end of the night. This happened at 1am on Tuesday, so 24 hours after we left from Madrid! Throughout the night the people were burning all of the Fallas, but the last one is the most important and burnt in the middle of the city. It was a great festival to be apart of!
Here are the "Fallas"
Very elaborate
Toro Arena
Paella being made in the street!
Valencia is famous for paella!
All of the festivities didn't begin until 7pm ... and we arrived to Valencia at 5:30am! We had a long day...but we kept busy! It was sunny, but not warm enough to be without a jacket and scarf. We got some breakfast, went to a starbucks to get some tea, and then headed to the metro to go to the beach! Valencia is on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and the beach was precious! It was windy and chilly, but I still took my shoes off to sink my feet into the soft sand and also tickle my toes with salt water from the sea! I love the beach...it is so peaceful and the sound of the waves is my second favorite sound after that of thunder (because waves crashing sound a little like thunder). We laid out our newspapers we had received in the metro and set in the sand taking in the tranquility and a little bit of the sun!
Welcome to the beach <3
This guy's crazy!
Sailboat! After our time relaxing in the sand and listening to the waves we head to get some Paella Valenciana at a restaurant on the seashore! I love paella, it the best Spanish dish, I mean I love rice, so that could play a part, but it is just so good! Valencia is know for its paella because it is close to the sea and most paella is made with seafood. We ordered a dish of it to share between all 4 of us and it was plenty!
Paella <3
Goal accomplished!
And now to share pictures of the parade and the burning of the "Falla" at night! We were in Valencia for 22 hours but traveled for more than 24 with commutes to and from Valencia of 4.5 hours-total of 9...our nights spent on the bus-our make shift bed for the night-which didn't work out too well for me..couldn't sleep very well...really cold! But that's okay! The trip was so much fun and the experience was so worth it-say "Las Fallas", ate Paella Valenciana, enjoyed Bunuelos-a typical dessert of the festival and drank horchata-a sweet drink typical of this beautiful city near the sea, and celebrated the ending of the old and start of a new season! We arrived back to Madrid on Tuesday morning at 7:30 and I got to sleep a little before grabbing the bus back to Salamanca...I was catching up on sleep for a week and a half after my trip!
Biggest black cloud of smoke I've ever seen. The fire was huge and warm :)
brrr....That was the weekend of March 16-20. The week right after that I was catching up on sleep, doing homework, and resting. I did go meet with my Profesora Carola and her husband Antonio to have some drinks and help them practice their English and them help me with my Spanish. They are moving to Ohio to teach Spanish at Ohio University, so they love practicing English and I try to help them as much as I can! Sometimes its hard to explain why we say things the way we do or what something actual means...because when we talk we don't really thing about it...I was getting asked about prepositions and why "at" or "in" or "on" goes with certain words...I had to think! Haha Spanish I know these answers...English...not so much! But it was fun! I have met with them twice and they are so nice and fun! Carola is an amazing profesora, she is my conversation profesora and also for my class on Latin American Literature!
Along with meeting with them I have met up with Silvia and Miriam! Last week we went to a bar where you pay four euro for all you can eat jamon (ham)...that was fun! Haha dinner of jamon! Then we went to a bar called Cafe Caminito where Silvia's friend, who is the owner of the bar, put on a magic show that was mixed with comedy-at least for me-because the guy cracked some pretty great jokes! The bar was really cool decorated in vibrant colors and named Camionito after a street in Argentina (where the owners are from) that has houses of the same colors, an old street in Buenos Aires I believe. The tables were really original also, they had glass on top and inside of them there were different, random decorations of personal items from the owners. I didn't have my camera so I couldn't take pictures! But we are going to return! Then this weekend, on Friday, we went to a venue that was having Tango classes and also some mini-theater acts. We learned the basics of Tango, which was super fun! I danced with Miriam and we were a little lost for part of the time, but I blame it part way on the fact that the dance area was small and we couldn't move without bumping into other people! Silvia had to dance with some dude that she didn't know...I felt bad for her...I was afraid of having to dance with some strange guy...After the tango and watching some theater we headed to a bar near bar called "El Submarino" -the submarine, which inside looks like the inside of a submarine! It was super cool, I liked it a lot! We went there to dance a little bit and Silvia told us that back when it first opened it was one of the first gay bars in Salamanca, but now its not its just a bar that everyone goes to. However...ironically... we were approached by a girl and she asked us if she could dance with us and we were like yeah sure, whatever, ya know? Ha and I was thinking like this is weird but okay. She was asking us where we were all from and she was from Italy. I told her I was from the United States and from Montana and she was like "OOhh Que Guau!" (how cool, wow) haha and we continued just dancing to the techno beat the DJ was mixing...and she was like "So why did you girls come here" and I didn't really hear her, or decided I didn't really know what I wanted to say, so Silvia said, "Oh, Tana wanted to see the inside of the bar because she heard it was really cool and she wanted to take some pictures" (which is true) and after this the girl stayed for about 20 seconds and was like ok well see ya later hahaha...After we realized...connection with the fact that it was known as a gay bar...this girl had approached us ... to see if we were looking for some chicks! Then Silvia continues to say that she was pretty sure this girl liked me the most...hahahaha...I had been thinking the whole time she was there like "Ok, this is strange, her friends are over there, but she wanted to come dance with us, and now she keeps asking questions, this isn't normal, girls don't do this" then after...it all made sense! So we laughed for a long time after that...I got hit on by a chick hahaha OOOO MAN -lol- really really funny. Whenever I go out with Silvia and Miriam it is such a great time and something funny always happens! It was a fun night!
My Saturday existed of some shopping and some homework and going to a music show by a band called Zafra Folk who makes songs out of poems by famous Spanish authors. This show was dedicated to Miguel de Unamuno who is very well known in Salamanca, as well all throughout Spain for his books, philosophies, poems, and for being the Chancellor and a professor of the University of Salamanca. It was a great show! They played great music, the beats were fun and original, and the singers had beautiful voices! I went with the people in my class: Lei, Fabio, and Chris, because we got free tickets to go from the school! It was a great way to spend my Saturday night. After I was super sleepy and walked like a Zombie back to my apartment to get ready for bed...
I have four weeks left of school...my classes have continued to be great. I told Maria that I think we have the best school, best professors, and so much luck because we get to go do activities around Salamanca during school and also every week, our professors and everyone at the school cares so much and does everything they can to help us with our interests, problems, and whatever else just to make sure we are happy and to make sure we don't go without knowing as much as we can! Our classes are so much fun, this Friday Chris did a presentation on Hawaii because that is where he is from, and also a little on the Philippines because that is his ethnicity and it was super interesting! He sang the Hawaiian national song while Carola's husband Antonio played the Ukulele! And then afterwards we got to eat a traditional dessert Chris had made! It was so much fun! I love Letra! And all that I am learning :)
Chris and Antonio planning out the notes
Carola and Antonio singing "La Bamba" (Lei and Javi-profesor watching)
Chris's homemade dessert! Four weeks left of learning, experiencing, and practicing my Spanish. Also preparing for my finals, writing some papers, and traveling! Today marks the beginning of Semana Santa, a week of processions and everything to do with the church and Easter and I am going to see and learn a lot about that also! Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday all the stores will be closed...it will be interesting! I'm ready to take it all in!
Still missing everyone! Until next time :)
