Monday:
I've never been so grateful that I was able to get all of my essays done last weekend than upon seeing the exhausted faces of other students who had clearly not slept last night. Luckily, I was able to get some sleep with enough time for some last minute editing and tidying up my room this morning. Today we had two debates in my film and literature classes and our film class went and got snacks before our movie, which was a fun idea!
Unfortunately we had yet another after-lunch meeting today. Apparently professors were visiting from Puerto Rico and came to talk to us so I sat through a presentation on the benefits of franchises? It was a tad strange, but yay for more meetings! Dinner was pisto and chicken, after which I started finalizing my plan for fall break, which is coming up here in a few weeks!
Tuesday:
I forgot to mention that Marivi and Ricardo are both on vacation for the next two weeks (Spaniards get so many vacation days) so it's been nice to have them around the house all day! Classes were enjoyable today with the added bonus of getting 100% on my economics essay!
After classes, my mom and I spent half an hour on the phone with Verizon and figured out how to convert my SIM card into an eSIM, which apparently means I no longer have to change my number—yay!! It was then time for dinner, which was shrimp cocktail with the heads still on (I just cut them off and it was fine haha, although it did take me a minute to realize that I also needed to remove the shells, so I'm glad the phone call meant that I was eating a little later than my host parents.)
I usually like to have a piece of fruit after dinner as a dessert, although Marivi recently bought some dessert pastries and has now been giving me them as a reward for eating the fruit? So that's now the post-dinner routine haha! I put together a presentation for class tomorrow and quickly fell asleep.
Wednesday:
Almost missed my bus, but caught it at the last minute before it left! I was excited to give my presentation in my Latin American politics class (a presentation I am pretty sure is required by the syllabus, but I don't like this professor likes being "bound by his own syllabus") and I was ultimately cut off halfway through the presentation and we never returned to letting me finish.
Unfortunately, there has been four Covid cases this week in La Fund, so praying everyone else is alright—I feel completely normal and haven't been around those who tested positive. We still got gelato after lunch, which always hits the spot!
For our conversation class, we were supposed to interview our host families about their travel habits in order to get a glimpse at the travel habits of Spanish people in general. Ricardo told me it's "impossible to fully know Spain" which does not bode well for for me to fully know the US, considering Spain could fit inside the state of Texas! Our conversation class also involved giving recommendations to the rest of the students on what to do if they ever visited our hometown. In a room mostly full of Midwesterners, the only possible suggestion for Phoenix is experiencing what real Mexican food is supposed to taste like! Dinner was a chicken dish of which I've forgotten the name and pan candeal (my favorite type of bread here) and then off to bed.
Thursday:
Ricardo cut me a piece of poundcake this morning instead of the usual snack cakes I usually have for breakfast, which made for a nice change. I started reading ahead for literature class and just relaxed for a little while. Lunch was some sort of stew with meat and legumes, which was not bad and dinner was leftovers of the shrimp and chicken from the other day. Was very glad to have a day of relaxation and some productivity!
Friday:
Today we had another free day trip! This time we were headed to a little town nearby Madrid, called Alcalá de Henares. The bus left at 8:30 which meant attempting to get a little extra sleep on the way (which was fairly successful!)
A tour guide showed us around the town, including the University de Alcalá (a very pretty college founded in 1293—not a typo!), the childhood home and baptismal church of Miguel de Cervantes (both had been rebuilt, clearly the town takes great pride in being the birthplace of one of the most renowned Spanish writers,) and an old style theatre!
There also happened to be some sort of festival going on so we were given free time to walk around through the markets before lunch. Good thing I didn't grab anything to snack on, because lunch was three courses (the first two of which were somehow both entrées??) We were served spaghetti as the first course, followed by a steak, and then a brownie for dessert; needless to say, most people did not clear their plates and everyone got back on the bus very full!
I was glad that Marivi and Ricardo were out when I got back so dinner was a little bit later! Luckily we were having sandwiches for dinner (ham, cheese, and egg) so I didn't have to eat too much after a ridiculously large lunch! We watched some reality tv for a while afterwards (which somehow had hilariously replaced the news as the dinner tv show during Marivi's absence) and I headed off to bed!
Saturday:
The day was mostly spent getting ahead on work, continuing my attempts to finalize all of my fall break plans, and relaxing a little! Lunch was some sort of stew, but I'm not too sure what exactly it was haha!
Marivi and Ricardo had plans to go out that night so they told me about a big artisan market/festival that happens every year and suggested I see if anyone else had any interest in going. Nobody ended up buying anything, but it made for a fun opportunity to walk around the city more and get some good views of the sunset! Dinner was at a nearby pizza restaurant and we all headed back home.
Sunday:
The morning began with a bus ride over to the train station (I was leaving late enough for once that the buses were actually operating!) where I met some friends for our day trip to Madrid! Nobody was planning on doing the same thing, but we figured that we could at least travel together and meet for lunch!
My day was comprised of finally checking out some of Madrid's Broadway shows! There weren't many matinee performances, but I was determined to see two shows while I was there and ultimately discovered that Charlie y la Fábrica de Chocolate (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) had a noon show!
We all met up for lunch and walked around for a while (stopping for gelato, of course, because when do we not?) and it was soon time for me to head on over to show number two: Cantando Bajo La Lluvia! (Singing In The Rain)
Both of the plays were incredible and made it very clear why Madrid is the second best place in Europe to see a show (right after London, but you'll have to tune in next week for that!) They were both in Spanish (strangely except for a few songs in Singing in the Rain?) so it was definitely helpful to already know both of the stories to fill in any gaps I might have missed.
The show was set to end at 8:30 and yet a very long curtain call meant I wasn't able to make it out until 8:35, losing a precious five minutes in my attempt to catch the 8:50 train back to Toledo. I managed to run an 8 minute mile (which I think is pretty decent for dress shoes and crowded streets) and should have had plenty of time to make it onto the train, but alas "should have" doesn't always work out. The website was no longer working to allow me to buy tickets as I was attempting to go through security. The guard stopped me (as I did not have a ticket) and instead of just pointing me towards the nearest ticket office where I could quickly figure this out as I urgently requested several times, he took my phone and attempted to refresh the site a few times before telling me that it would now be too late to make the train. He then provided multiple incorrect directions on how to get to the bus station I would now have to go to in order to get back. I ultimately gave up and called an Uber to get there and was able to board the 10:00 bus.
Luckily, the bus ride passed without incident and I was able to make it home safely. Definitely a bump in the road, but certainly worth the pain for an otherwise amazing day!! That was compounded with the good news that I had finally secured my last Airbnb for fall break! I did have to undergo an interrogation by the host who is apparently renting from his uncle who is a priest, but he ultimately declared "If you're a killer, then I'm an elephant!" so I suppose I've got that going for me?
So grateful for all your love and support! Hope it's been a great Sunday and y'all have a good week!
Los amo y los extraño a todos,
Bryce