The *Real* Madrid (& Toledo)

Happy Memorial Day! Hope that everyone stateside is enjoying their day off...on the other side of the Prime Meridian, I coincidentally had my first day of school today, but more on that later.

When I last left you on Thursday, I was ready to drop from travel-based exhaustion. After some much-needed rest, we all hit the ground running on Friday morning. We had our program orientation at Universidad Nebrija, followed by a walking tour of Madrid de Los Austrias. Fun Fact: third-generation Madrid locals are nicknamed "gatos" and I simply love that.

To say it's hot here is to say Indiana dabbles in racing: a complete and utter understatement. Today is the first day it hasn't been over 90 and for someone "tan blanquecita" (gracias Host Mom Pilar), I've become extremely familiar with my Water Baby Sunscreen. (Laugh all you want, I remain unburned with extra-moisturized skin.) The thing about the heat here, is that there's no humidity in the air, which somehow makes it both better and worse. Better, because you can easily lower the temperature by 10-20 degrees by stepping in the shade; Worse, because you feel like Hansel & Gretel being baked alive in a giant oven. When it seems unbearable, I'm reminding myself of mid-January when I was sleeping on Liz's futon to escape the 34 degree Cold Air in the sorority house. Things could be worse, no?

Saturday was when the real fun began. Our first official excursion took us an hour or so outside Madrid to Toledo - pronounced Toe-LAY-Do, note Toe-LEE-Do - city of a hundred million incline hills. In all seriousness, Toledo is an incredible city. As a World Heritage Site, every building is dripping in subtle history, making for an extremely informative walking tour. Some of my favorite spots included the combination church-mosque, with a distinctive architecture shift marking the divide, and the overlooking vista, showing a stunning display of Spanish countryside.

As our MLSA Coordinator Celestino says, the best way to learn is to make mistakes; naturally, Liz and I made many, many mistakes in Toledo. In a stunning display of American optimism, we assumed that, yes, continuing to climb up this ridiculously steep street will somehow circle us back to the plaza we're meeting the group at. While it did not, in fact, lead back to the plaza, we did get a rather unique view of Toledo's river, complete with a highway-esque road.

Rather than learn from our mistakes, we did the same thing once we were turned loose for lunch. Even with the Apple Maps on Liz's phone, we succumbed to the labyrinth more than once before finding a falafel place. When in Toledo, eat Syrian falafel - no regrets.

We may have forsaken Toledo's Marzipan, but there was no way we were going to miss out on experiencing Spanish fútbol in it's prime.

Picture this: it's Saturday night (but the sun doesn't set so it feels like 6), Real Madrid is playing Liverpool in LaLiga's championship game. Half the city is in bars with white jerseys and four girls from Purdue are walking up and down the streets trying to find a place to watch the game. Enter: El Bombo.

This awesome little sidewalk bar gave us standing room only, and we were set. Against all odds and predictions from impartial non-Spaniards, Real Madrid pulled off the win, 1-0, and the place went wild. You couldn't help but become hopelessly addicted to the pure energy radiating from every person around you. What an incredible memory, which the video simply doesn't do justice.

Naturally, the celebrations didn't stop on Saturday night. The city organized a homecoming parade/party for the newly minted champions - I know the Indy500 parade is a big deal, but I seriously doubt it can top the love and adoration Madrileños have for their fútbol team. True to form, Liz and I accidentally found ourselves in the middle of the festivities while finding our way home from El Retiro. Apparently, no one clued Maps into the closure of the Sol Metro stop, so we arrived to a completely crowded Plaza del Sol, full of people standing on trash cans, lamp posts, and statues trying to catch a glimpse of the team entering a building. We heard their anthem about five times and saw maybe two players enter the building - they looked more like aliens from my distance - before squeezing our way through people soup in search of another Metro station. Just, the most fun.

As I mentioned, we entered the celebration after an afternoon at Parque al Retiro, the Madrid version of Central Park. We walked around there for a couple of hours with two other girls from the program and barely scratched the surface. Still, full of music, tourists, greenery - I wouldn't mind letting the hours slip away while I explored Retiro. Of the small sampling we had, I was particularly in love with the rose garden, an apt metaphor for a city in full bloom.

The fun had to momentarily pause this morning, as we started school again. For the next 5-ish weeks, I'll be taking two classes at Universidad Nebrija, Monday-Thursday from 8:30-1:05. Syllabus day can be deceptively easy, so I'll refrain from evaluating my classes yet, but it's definitely nice to have some rigid structure in my day, if only to compliment the complete lack thereof when the college kids hit the town. My mornings are full of Spanish Culture & Society while my afternoons center on The Art of the Prado Museum.

To finish our afternoon off, Liz and I hit the gym for an abridged Murph workout, in honor of Memorial Day. The other Spaniards at Anytime Fitness definitely thought we were a little crazy, but I guess we both thought that simply walking 8 miles a day was not sufficient.

I'm honestly surprised at how many activities we packed into a long weekend; if this pace continues, you very well may find me collapsing at the O'Hare airport, comatose from exhaustion and the end of the study abroad adrenaline. But until then, I'm having a blast! Like any great adventure, there are growing pains and discomfort, but it's in these challenges that I'm finding my moments of reflection and perspective.

There are no big excursions this week, but several small trips around Madrid that I'm looking forward to, so expect another update in a few days.

Hasta luego!