Only in Spain

So there are these things called finals and papers and projects and such coming up in the next two weeks...time to do lots and lots of work in a short amount of time...how very unspanish of me. To make it a little better though I just spent the past hour and a half sitting in a cafe, sipping a tinto de verano, while reading the first half of the Spanish Constitution to prep for a final presentation on the Spanish Transition and Constitution of 1978. Only in Spain...

Maybe one of these days I'll get around to talking about San Isidro and Granada and other such happenings. For now though I'll have to settle for Spanish cafes and tinto de verano.

So that's where plaza del neptuno is...

--THE BEST THINGS I'VE DONE SO FAR HAVE BEEN WHAT I'VE STUMBLED ACROSS BY ACCIDENT--
And what a great accident last night and tonight were:
I think everyone has the common stereotype of associating futbol with Spain, but up until last night I had not watched a single game.
Normally my host Mom complains about how my host Dad is watching yet another soccer game, but last night while I was eating she went in the other room and checked the score and I heard her ask if we had scored. She was excited when she found out we scored which I've never seen happen before. So I decided to go see who was playing and sat down to watch for a bit.
When I asked my host Dad who the other team was (FUL) he also told me it was the European League Championship. Go figure that the first game I decide to watch in my life is really important and I don't even know it.
Then FUL scores and it's tied. And it stays that way through the end of the second half and goes into overtime.
Twenty-Six minutes into overtime Atletico Madrid scores!!! And they win for the first time in 48 years!!
My first soccer game and it's a championship winning game. Wow!

So Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid each have respective plazas that the fans gather in when the team wins. (This will be relevant later)

I also learned yesterday on a completely different note that el Museo del Prado (ie the art institute equivalent of Madrid) is free every day from 6-8pm so I decided to go tonight and see some of the paintings I've been learning about in class. It was really cool because I actually knew the history and stories behind these famous paintings and could recognize them on sight.

The interesting thing in all this though is there happens to be this plaza outside the museum and there were a lot of people gathering there before i went into the Prado. But when I came out that's when I knew...this must be plaza del neptuno and that it was! with tens of thousands of people yelling, singing, and cheering in the streets while wearing atleti jerseys, scarves, and other apparel.

So what do I do? Go check it out of course! I decided to stay on thee outskirts of the crowd and watch them sing, dance, and cheer for awhile and see if I could figure out what everyone was waiting for. Only thing is when I turned around a few mintues later several hundred more people had come and I was trapped in the crowd! So I decided I'd just stay a while longer. The crowd was multiplying rapidly and it was almost 8 so I figured hey maybe something will happen at 8...only it didn't.

After awhile I figured out a bus was going to come (with the team I assumed) but I couldn't see anything because I was stuck behind tall people...being short and in a crowd doesn't work so well. But there was this nice guy in his fifties or sixties next to me who said something, i forget what and then we started chatting. I told him I wasn't from Madrid and didn't know what to make of it all. We chatted for awhile and when people started chanting he would say the words normal for me so I could understand. Eventually he decided to go though and then I was on my own with no idea what I was waiting for. He said he thought they were supposed to come at 8:30 but they didn't so around 8:40 I decided I had seen enough and was going to try to push my way to the back of the crowd and leave.

Only when you are in a crowd of Spaniards they don't even say no when you try to pass they just give you a various serious look and shake their heads (not the first crowd I've been in where this has happened..3rd or 4th actually and it's always the same). Eventually I made it to the back though and saw to my relief and empty blocked off paseo del prado. Except when I looked up the road 500m or so I saw something a little out of the ordinary. And then people started to run and cheer. The bus with the team was coming! So what do I do? Follow of course. And I ended up at the road on the other side of the park at the curb with no one in front of me just as the bus was getting there. I got to see the double decker with the team on top carrying the cup and all because I stumbled across the situation at the right time.

The random experiences we stumble across are far more memorable than the planned ones. A little spontaneity goes a long way.

Now if atleti can win for the first time in 48 years maybe there is hope for the Cubs yet...

Rosquillas y Atleti

Las Ferias de Madrid son el 12 de mayo hasta el 16 de mayo y coinciden con el día de San Isidro, el santo de Madrid, y el aniversario centenal del Gran Vía también.

So starting last night through Sunday are the ferias of Madrid in celebration of their patron saint San Isidro. I went to the opening parade last night and it was really interesting. [If I figure out how to add a video to this post I will.] I almost didn't go on account of lousy weather and going alone but I'm glad I did in the end. There was a procession of 14 giants that danced in the street to music played by people walking in the parade. They were really bizarre because people went inside them and carried them on their heads essentially. It's really hard to explain. All weekend though there will be lots of special events because of the holiday and they are also celebrating the 100 year anniversary of Gran Via, the Michigan avenue or fifth avenue of Madrid this Saturday. Another tidbit, they have traditional pastries called rosquillas just for the occasion and they are delicious!

On a different note I watched the majority of the final match for the European League Cup with my host dad last night. I hadn't watched any futbol since getting here and then ended up watching a championship game with atletico Madrid against FUL (London?). The game was tied until 26 minutes into overtime when atleti scored! That was the game winning goal which meant Madrid won the Euro League Cup for the first time in 48 years! I told my host dad it reminded me of how the cubs have their loyal, die-heart fans, but haven't won the world series in over 100 years. He said that explained atleti fans exactly. It was interesting to find the common ground too...who knows maybe this year will be the year for the cubs too.

Keep Street Theater Alive

So I've never been one to stop and watch street performers much in the States and never in my life have I given one money, until today that is. There is something different, entertaining about street theater in Europe. I'm not talking about people playing instruments and I'm not talking about mimes with face paint. No I'm talking about people that have a skit or act and they perform it in plazas on the street. I saw lots in Paris and a few in Madrid, but today I saw the first one that I ever gave money to.
I was walking back from an adventure across the city. I could have taken the metro, it was probably about an hour long walk but I decided I wanted to explore and see what I could find on my way home. I was in the home stretch, last fifteen or twenty minutes and walking past the Palacio Real when I saw a large crowd of people and heard a man yelling in English. So what do I do? Stop and go take a peak of course! I managed to stumble across an Australian guy who spoke essentially no Spanish doing an act in the street and when I walked up he was partially wrapped in Saranwrap and was spinning furiously as a girl held the roll for him. He went on and on until the roll was empty. Then he pulled another man from the audience and had the two of them tie him up in a chain and eventually after many antics managed to escape from them. It wasn't his act so much as everything he did in between that was hilarious and only if you'd been there could you truly appreciate it.

In the end though he said he was traveling around the world and this was what he was doing to pay his way and yelled help keep street theater alive and somehow after watching this guy for half an hour and being thoroughly entertained I felt he was the first street performer worthy of some spare change. :)

Francosim: Quite possibly the most interesting lecture/discussion I've had here so far

So I'm taking this course called Spanish History and Culture through cinema and other visual arts. We started out the semester discussing Isabel, Fernando, how Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue, nothing too exciting or foreign to me in other words. This week however we started talking about the twentieth century, the Spanish Civil War, and Franco and I don't have words for how fascinated and awestruck I am by all of this. We talked about censorship and education during Franco's dictatorship today and it just amazes me the things that were put in textbooks and all the subliminal messages. For example, in the history section of a primary school textbook it stated something to the effect of: Franco was appointed leader after the country rose up in arms to fight for their beliefs. No mention of two parties in conflict, ie the civil war, just a national uprising which implies they were all on the same side. No mention of a golpe del estado tampoco (coup d'etat either. Rather the textbook said that Franco was appointed. I can't imagine. After class I asked my teacher if I could borrow the books she brought in as examples because I wanted to look at them more and some of the things I found in them I just can't imagine. In the one there is a section on habits and hygiene where it says it is bad to eat too much (the people were going hungry at the time mind you) or drink too much water.
Then there is the reader from the republica...
This thing was used to teach young children how to read and was published by the republican government. It is structured with words on the left page and a phrase and picture on the facing page. Nothing too extraordinary there...except consider some of the phrases used: Lenin our great teacher; the soviet union helps us; we work for the war; we fight for our culture. Something about all of this just struck me and you add in the images and well needless to say I find this all fascinating.
I cannot explain the feeling I had walking through the halls of the school with these books in my arms though. I felt like I was doing something very wrong and quickly put the books in my bag. I'm also rather nervous for what my host mom will do if she happens to see these books in my room seeing as how she grew up with all of this. I had a sincere interest and so I borrowed them but I can't help but have this nagging feeling that there is something wrong with having them.

Obama Bueno: There is just no escaping American culture

So I was walking to class today when I got stuck behind this man wearing a sports coat and smoking a cigarette. I'm in Spain...there is nothing particularly interesting about this story. Except of course for what was embroidered onto the back of his suit jacket in multicolored thread: OBAMA BUENO. Yet another reminder that there is no escaping American culture. I had this idea before I left that I would be completely immersed into the Spanish culture by living in Madrid for five months. I thought I would only speak Spanish, I would get to know Spanish music, Spanish tv, Spanish movies, etc. Little did I know that I would speak English just as often as Spanish because practically everyone in my age bracket knows at least some English and is eager to practice it with you or that Spanish pop culture is dominated by American pop culture. When I hear music in a store, bar, disco, etc it is almost always American. The movies in the theaters: American. Spanish tv? Well I don't watch tv here but from talking to Spaniards they all know the shows I watch back home and many of them better than I do. I am definitely immersed in another culture, and am certainly not in the U.S. right now but it never ceases to amaze me each day all the influences of the United States I see. So for now OBAMA BUENO I guess.

Al son del Jazz...my adventure to the spanish theater to see CHICAGO

How ironic...I go to the theater in Madrid and decide to see Chicago! It only seemed fitting though. This is one of my favorite musicals and seeing it in another language was hysterical. It was also very interesting to see the differences in the theater. For example, everything was very understated (unlike everything American) so for example the actors wore the same outfit throughout the entire show and the two leads added a jacket here (but only one). Also, there was no set really. The band was on stage upstage and that acted as the set with a few props here and there. Also, they did not have a lightboard in use for most of the show but rather used manual spots. There is nothing wrong with any of this and it is almost better. In the U.S. the set, costumes, lighting, etc is often my favorite part but it is highly distracting.
The show itself was pretty good. It was really entertaining to hear the songs translated and also see a different cultures interpretation of the musical. For example, the choreography had definite spanish influences in certain parts as did the wardrobe. The men were dressed very latin in tight pants and open shirts but did not reflect my perception of the twenties in America. The same went for the women. The wore long blazers and not flapper dresses through most of the show.
The funniest part was probably at the end though after both Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart had been acquitted and in the English version they make a statement that Chicago and America is not as bad as it seems afterall. Only here it was extremely sarcastic almost as a mockery of the line. I found this hilarious but none of the Spaniards around me understood why I was laughing I'm quite sure.
All in all it was a great night at the theater. Now lets see what's in store for this weekend in Lagos and Portugal...