Glass of Sangria Half Full

And here we are, already 6 weeks have flown by and only 6 more left! Time is seriously going by so quickly, I really cannot wrap my brain around the fact that I´m basically halfway through my program! I guess it really is true (and incredibly cliché, sorry about it) when they say "time flies when you´re having fun," and here is this past week and (yet another!) jam-packed 4 day weekend as a perfect example of that! 

- I didn´t really expect to be able to notice it, but so far it is true that August is a much quieter month than July - all of the tourists come in June and July, and even the native Madrileños all leave for vacation during this month, sometimes for weeks at a time, probably mostly to escape the heat! At internship, more often than not there are only about 4 or 5 of us in the whole office, and there are a ridiculous amount of businesses around the city that take a hiatus for the entire month! (Including, very sadly, our favorite bar! (Good thing I´m staying through September) Adelante, the internship program that I´m with, warned me about this, but it´s very interesting to actually be able to witness this cultural element come into play!

- Twice this week I met up with a woman from work who emailed me asking if I could help her practice her English - she is absolutely fantastic and it´s been so much fun! She is attending a wedding in the States in the middle of September and was really worried about not having spoken English for so long, so of course I promised to help her if she wouldn´t mind helping me with my Spanish in exchange! So about half of the time we speak in Spanish, and then switch over to English. It definitely makes all the difference in the world to be practicing a language in a real-life setting, having real conversations with real people. She has lived in Madrid for years and has enlightened me to some incredible places for delicious food and drinks, from hidden rooftop terraces to (thankfully!!) fantastic mexican food, as well as fun stuff to do around the city! She also brought to work one day a little gift for me, a Madrid tour guide book in Spanish and what is now my first attempt at reading a Spanish novel, "El Niño con el Pijama de Rayas" ("The Boy in the Striped Pajamas"). Muchísimas gracias Bárbara!!

- Thursdays are quickly becoming one of my favorite days of the week, primarily due to the fact that it´s the day our apartment has dubbed "Totally Tetuán Thursdays." (Tetuán being the name of the neighborhood, or "barrio" in which we live) Thursday afternoon, a few of the roommates, Ian, Jaime, Beth and I, (here you go Ian!) ventured to a mercado in an area called Chueca that we had heard about, and it was so much fun! Most of the different barrios or areas in Madrid will have their own mercado, which usually consist of several floors of stands and vendors selling fresh meat, fish, fruits, vegetables, and baked goods. Real live, up-close-and-personal butchers has been quite a new, and slightly disturbing, experience for me in particular! This one that we went to also had many gourmet and custom exciting little dishes and things to try, as well as a beautiful rooftop terrace restaurant and bar! It was definitely worth it to brave the scorching heat to enjoy a few drinks up there in the afternoon. Because none of us have work on Fridays either, we all can go out on Thursday nights too! Last week, we met up with a few other friends and started the night out at an underground Sangria bar recommended by a friend, which was really cool! Very authentic, traditional, and had a lot of character - tons of cool Spanish quotes on the wall and definitely the best Sangria I´ve had (thus far) in Madrid! 

Rooftop Terrace

A few of the fruit stands in Mercado de Chueca

Some of our group at the underground Sangria Bar

- Friday the weather was a bit gloomy and humid during the day, and actually culminated in an enormous and very exciting thunder and lightning storm that night! It was so fun to sit out on the balcony and have a panoramic view of the lightning, and it was also nice to enjoy it with some new friends from Canada who were backpacking through and one of my roommates had met in a hostel the weekend before. That´s probably one of the things I´m appreciating most about being here, just how easy it is to meet people from all over, each with their own story. I´ve loved seeing how people help each other out and how anyone you meet is a potential contact in a different place, it´s so great feeling more connected to the rest of the world with each new person that you befriend. We also went to the movies during the day to see "Midnight in Paris," if anything just to escape from the heat to an air conditioned place for a few hours! 

- On Saturday, my roommates and I were clearly feeling particularly artsy and expressive, and also decided that our apartment was in dire need of some form of a decorative, personal touch, so we went to the art store down the street and bought some canvas and paint supplies, as well as some essentials for a wine and cheese afternoon, and spent several hours out on the balcony painting together! It was so nice to just sit out there and listen to music, and of course get in touch with our creative side, and do something a little different. And the best part are the new masterpiece additions to our living room that definitely give a little bit of life to the place! After that, we decided to explore one of the suggestions that Bárbara had given me, and went to a really beautiful area of Madrid to take a Sky Tram/Gondola that goes over "Casa del Campo," a natural park reserve, and gives an incredible view of the city, with everything from the Palacio Real to the (4) downtown "skyscrapers." We got lucky and boarded just as the sun was setting, it was absolutely breathtaking and such a cool, unique way to see the city! After that, we followed another of Bárbara-the-local´s suggestions and found a Chinese restaurant that literally is hidden in the underground parking lot under Plaza de España! 

The masterpiece outcomes of our painting day!

Incredible sunset from the sky tram

The moon over Palacio Real from the Sky Tram

Jaime, Beth, Ian and I outside of Templo de Debod after the Tram Ride

- Sunday´s highlights consisted of discovering a mexican restaurant really close to our apartment - always a treasured find for us americans who almost constantly crave it! It´s very rare to find some good guac here, or mexican food that even slightly resembles what you´re used to when you think "taco," "burrito," or "fajita." We´ve found some pretty good contenders but will, of course, continue the quest for the most authentic. Also, Sunday night was the first home football game at the Santiago Bernabau stadium!! It wasn´t a league game, but the "Copa de España" against their biggest rivals, F.C. Barcelona. Tickets were not only impossible but cost more than I will make at work these whole 3 months! (haha...I´m unpaid) But really they were incredibly expensive, so we settled for walking the streets around the stadium and taking in all of the masses of people and paraphenelia stands and the incredibly exciting atmosphere, and then found a bar to watch the game on a big screen. It was my first European football experience and an extremely fun one! I´m still definitely planning on actually making it to a game in the stadium while I´m here though. 

Jaime, Beth and I in front of the Santiago Bernabau Stadium

- Monday was a holiday, so another 4 day weekend! It was the Festival de la Virgen de la Paloma, celebrating the patron saint of Paloma, a barrio in Madrid. There have been festivities and parties and all kinds of things going on all week and weekend, but Monday was the culminating day. We went in the afternoon to the Iglesia de Nuestra Virgen de la Paloma to hear the mass that they broadcasted into the plaza, watch all the people dressed in traditional costumes and sample some of the (always delicious and) traditional foods they had, including empanadas, tortillas, churros con chocolate, and much more. Then we met up with some other friends and did a little bar-hopping for drinks and tapas (a common and wonderful afternoon activity for the Spaniards!) and went back to the Festival in the evening to watch the Procesión, where a ton of people all in traditional costume, paraded down the street, and the City of Madrid bomberos (firefighters) put on a little performance! They were repelling down their ropes from the tops of the fire truck ladders, and spraying the crowd with water and foam and rose petals.The firefighters actually play a pretty integral part in the festival, mostly in the traditional practice of carrying the statue or picture of the Virgen out of the church and down the streets at the end of the festival. It was a ton of fun and really cool to be able to participate in something so cultural. It really makes you appreciate the traditions here, and especially appreciate Madrid as a true Spanish cultural center, although festivals like these occur all over the country! 

All of the balconies lining the streets were decorated for the festivall!

That just about sums it up, I´m really looking forward to the upcoming weeks and definitely planning to continue to make the most of the time that I have left! But, as always I´m missing you all tons!  

Un gran beso y abrazo!