More Madrid

Before I start writing about all of the other cities I've visited, I thought I should give you guys a little update about the city I'm living in. I haven't spent a ton of time in Madrid since I have been traveling so much, but most of my traveling is over with so I'm looking forward to exploring Madrid in the next month.

MUSEUMS
A few weeks ago, around June 15th, Preethi, Mary Ellen, Mary Ellen's friend Zoey, and I went to El Museo de Thyssen-Bornemisza and El Museo del Prado (Yelena joined us for this one). They are a couple of popular art museums in Madrid. Mary Ellen was taking an art history class at the time so she was like our teacher as we went through these museums. It was pretty funny--every time she started talking about a painting, we would all run over to hear what she had to say about it.

The Thyssen was really nice--we started off by looking at some abstract art and then worked our way back through the ages. It has artwork from the 13th-20th century so it was interesting to see the different styles of art over the years. I had a smile on my face throughout this entire museum. I really loved all of the nature paintings or paintings with boats in the sea, and I loved to look at all of the small details in each painting too. Some masterpieces that you can find here are Dali's Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranata a Second Before Waking Up, Cezanne's Portrait of a Peasant, van Gogh's "Les Vessenots" in Auvers, and Degas' Swaying Dancer. Even though this is one of the smaller museum's, we spent hours in here! We probably could have spent even more time in the Thyssen if we wouldn't have been on a tight schedule.

The Prado is super close to the Thyssen, so after a quick stop at Starbucks, we headed over there. The Prado is free for all visitors from 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. from Tuesday to Sunday and from 5 - 8 on Sundays, so we decided to go the Thyssen first to save some money. The Prado is huge though, so it is definitely going to take a few trips to see the majority of it. It has some really famous masterpieces too, like Velazquez's Las Meninas, Greco's The Trinity, Ribera's Jacob's Dream, Goya's The Nude Maja (& the clothed one--the nude one was painted first), and tonssss more! There was also a copy of Hermaphrodite at the Prado--we saw the original one at the Louvre. It was really cool to hear about & see The Black Paintings by Goya. Goya painted these 14 haunting works with dark themes in the later years of his life. After, the Napoleonic Wars, surviving two near-fatal illnesses, and going deaf, Goya began to express his anxiety in his Black Paintings. Right before his death, though, he painted a couple brighter, more pleasant paintings that brings a sense of peace. We didn't get to see nearly as much as we wanted in the Prado, so I will probably go back this weekend.

FUTBOL
On Wednesday, the 16th, Sarah, Yelena, Dan, and I went to watch the Spain vs. Switzerland game at the Hyundai Fan Park outside of Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. The game was at 4 p.m. Madrid time, so Yelena and I left right after class to get to the stadium early enough. It was two days before my Ethics Final, and we just got our study guide for it about ten minutes before the end of class, but we went anyway :) It was absolutely insane there!! They had a huge screen set up for the hundreds and hundreds of crazy Spanish fans. Most of the people there were drinking sangria out of a box or drinking mixed drinks out of water bottle. Hyundai was handing out free Hyundai hats and Spanish flags. They were painting faces for free too--mostly Spanish flags. They had a GIGANTIC blow up FIFA soccer ball that everyone had signed and tons of vuvuzelas and other noise makers. Everyone was chanting, cheering, waving their flags, & jumping up and down. Some of the cheers were "Yo soy espanol, espanol, espanol!" (which means I am Spanish), and "Villa Villa Maravilla!" (Villa is the name of one of the players--love him :)-- and maravilla means marvelous). Spain ended up losing to Switzerland 0-1, but it was still soo much fun!

I went back to the stadium for the Spain vs. Portugal game with Preethi, and it was even crazier! Spanish people hate Cristiano Ronaldo from Portugal's team. Every time he came up on the screen, they would all flip him off. They always have a contest for the Fan of the Match, and for this game it was the Goblins from El Rastro! Soooo funny! I tried to get a picture of them dancing on stage, but it was too hard to. Spain beat Portugal 1-0, and when Villa scored the goal toward the end of the game, everyone went NUTS!! Screaming, vuvuzelas, hugging, jumping, waving flags--it was complete chaos and I absolutely loved it! There wasn't much time left, and Portugal got close to scoring once, but when the game was over, everyone went just as nuts as when Villa scored. I watched Spain beat Paraguay in the quarterfinals with my family in Lisbon, so now Spain is in the semifinals with the Netherlands, Uruguay, and Germany!! I'M SOOO EXCITED/NERVOUS FOR THE GAME ON WEDNESDAY! I'm trying not to get my hopes up for them winning the cup, but I can't help it :)

PAINTING CLASS
It has been about 2 weeks since I started my painting class. There are only 6 people total in my class--2 guys and 4 girls. Class is in a little painting salon near Manresa Hall--one of the 4 buildings on campus. There isn't any air conditioning in the building and with temperatures in the high 90's, it gets a little unbearable. Plus we have to wear painting shirts over our clothes so that we don't get paint everywhere (well, so that everyone else doesn't get paint everywhere--I still manage to cover myself in paint and turpentine.

I love the professor (Juan Massana) and the class though! All we do is paint for three hours a day Monday through Thursday. We take a five minute break after every hour, and every now and then we break for Juan to teach us something about painting theory (like the chromatic circle). We always listen to music, and Juan said that we get a better grade if we sing or do something that shows that we are expressing our emotions. Our first painting was of a sculpture--it was a woman's body from her neck to her thighs and her body is twisted and contorted. We used two colors--white and a dark color (I used cobalt blue). It was pretty hard to draw and paint, and I want to go back and fix a few things after I leave it alone for awhile. Now we are starting our second paintings--two vases on a tablecloth. I drew the vases a little too big for the size of the canvas we have, but I'm hoping it still turns out okay. We are starting to use more colors with this painting--like 5-7 different colors. I think the subject is a lot easier though. I would put up pictures, but this site won't let me. I'll have to show everyone my thousands of pictures when I get back!

RANDOM
A few random things...
July is the time for rebajas in Europe--rebajas=sales! Most stores have 50% discounts on the majority of their items--some have even higher discounts! I don't have room in my suitcase for anything else so I'm trying to limit myself, but it is hard to pass up good deals.

Dona Estrella is one of Encarnita's friends that I met. She is one of the sweetest ladies in the world! Encarnita said that Dona Estrella is like a mother to her--she is always checking in on her and is bringing her gifts. Her husband is a doctor--he specializes in pulmonary/heart and digestion--who is just as caring as she is. She always tells me that I have the most beautiful eyes and calls Encarnita to ask her how I am doing. She thinks I speak less Spanish than I actually do so she always talks really slowly to me--it's pretty funny :) She said I should come over sometime to talk to her granddaughter who is 13 years old. I can practice my Spanish, and she can practice her English. I'm looking forward to spending more time with her and Encarnita this month.

My mom brought Encarnita a couple gifts to Lisbon, and I brought them back with me to give to her. Before I gave her them, I told her I had a couple things for her, and she told me the same thing that she told Preethi and me when we bought her a gift from Segovia. She said that the only thing that she wants is something they don't sell in stores--all she wants is for people to love her. I told her she already has that, so we had to get her something else. My mom got her an angel statue and a picture frame with a cross and religious words in the background. My mom wrote her a note that said (in Spanish) "Thank you for being such a good mom to Dana. She tells me that you are a great cook. I am very grateful for you helping her follow her gluten free diet. She adores you teaching her how to cook different foods, for you teaching her about gardening and about the simple things in life. Enjoy this angel and this picture. God bless you." From what I can remember, it was something along those lines. Encarnita started crying when she read it. She said thats exactly what she was talking about--you can't buy that in stores. I told her that my mom got her an angel because I told her about how she always tells us to sleep and dream with angels, and that she knows more English than she admits so she shouldn't have a problem with the picture. She just smiled with tears in her eyes.