"All's well that ends better"

"All's well that ends better."

I know these are becoming too frequent for some of you to keep up with, but so many exciting things have been happening and, in all honesty, these are as much for you as they are for me.  When I have a revelation, I like to write it all down so I won't forget it. (This rapid writing to get all my thoughts out and make sure I don't miss anything is also the cause of many spelling errors so if you could just ignore those that would be great and to all of you who were wondering since my last post: I eat frozen PIZZA for dinner often, not frozen people)

Returning from an amazing weekend in Madrid, I realize my view of Spain has evolved into something far more extensive then what is was on Thursday. Which started with me going to school like always. Not quite a monotonous task quite yet, but it' getting repetitive as expected. I knew we were going to a dance performance in Murcia that night with all 6 exchange students in my province so that helped.  When I came home from school my host dad told me I would be going to Madrid this weekend with Kalob (pasty white North Carolinaian who lives in Murcia), Curtis (tall skinny Canadian who lives in San Javier) and Charo (Curtis's amazing host mom). I was instantly giddy which was only increased with him telling me we would be leaving from the dance to spend the night at Curtis' then leave super early in the morning for Madrid.  That meant no school on Friday. Good news coming one after another. So I ran upstairs and packed for the weekend then headed out to the dance thing in Murcia.  It was very cool and a mixture of contemporary dance with dances from all over the world.

Us after the performance with a man named Antonio who arranged for us to go there.

 

Cool story: the girl in the black dress, Madeline, is not an exchange student. She is 20 something and is from Massachusetts. She spent the last 3 years in Texas teaching for Teach for America and saving up to travel. She spent a month and a half this summer road tripping across the U.S. and now she is making her way around Europe.  She started in Norway then Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, France and now a month in Cartagena. She hopes to make her way to Italy and she'll be in New Zealand by December.  She's staying at friends houses and using couch surfing (a website where people make a profile and offer up room in their homes for travelers like Madeline).  Anyway she was awesome to talk to. Her plans seemed a little more trustworthy than backpacking, but she was still just exploring which is awesome. Mom and Dad, you'll be happy to hear I've decided I'm not up for anything of that caliber just yet, but it seems like an awesome way to explore our great big world.

 

 

After the dance performance, Kalob, Curtis, Charo and I went to Curtis' house ate, got 2 hours of sleep then woke up at 7 the next day to go to Madrid.  A little background: Charo works in advertising and travels to Madrid about once a month, but also goes to Granada, Valencia, Seville, etc. for her work and has offered to bring Curtis with her so he can see Spain. This time around he invited Kalob and I to go too which I am so grateful for. Charo used to live in Madrid before she decided she'd rather see the sea everyday so she moved to San Javier. She also worked for National Geographic for 2 years and traveled all around the world.  Needless to say, she has ton of friends and tons of stories.  She's just awesome.

 

Anyway, once we got to Madrid, Charo dropped us off outside of el Museo de Prada which is crazy famous and has work from Goya and Velasquez and is supposed to be amazing. However, we didn't actually go in the Museum.  Miscommunication and something lost in translation led us to believe we were waiting for Charo to visit the museum so we were going to wait for her to be finish her meeting then go.  Yeah... not the case, but instead we spent 4 hours roaming around an awesome neighborhood in Madrid, which none of us minded. I took a gazillion pictures because this was the first time I encountered streets and buildings that looked like my preconceived idea of Europe. Here are some:

 

 

 After roaming around just the 3 of us for 4 hours, Charo and her brother who lives in Madrid and is a World renowned movie director showed us around another cool neighborhood. In Madrid they have Plazas everywhere which are kind of like little town squares lined with shops and just for foot traffic. They are always packed with people starting at 8 a.m. and then late into the night like 6 a.m. I love this system because everyone is there, out and about. One thing I had noticed about Spain that became even more evident this weekend was the sense of community and overall friendliness.  Everyone is so family oriented and always eager to meet new people. People are literally always in the streets and out of their houses to do so. You'll see families with their new born baby or 2 year old sitting at a café at 12:30 at night. It's awesome. Everyone is very eager to meet new people and form long lasting relationships. And cities like Madrid were even built for this type of interaction. They have Plazas! they're built for exactly that.  Anyway I just think it's very cool and I'm a bit jealous. Anytime you don't have someone to hang out with you could just go to the Plaza and likely find someone you knew, if not someone new to talk to.

Sidewalk lined with shops that encircles the plaza



After having coffee in the plaza (an afternoon custom I could totally get used to) we went and saw the Royal Palace and Cathedral. Some of the coolest buildings I've ever seen. My pictures likely don't do them justice.

Cathedral from across the street

Royal Palace

not where the royals actually live anymore but where Obama and his sort stay when they visit

Cathedral up close and literally across the pavement from the palace so when royals get married, they just lay down a red carpet from the door of the cathedral to the royal palace so they walk home

 

After walking around, Charo took the 3 of us to the house of a friend of hers for dinner.  Ana, her friend, lives with her husband and 2 boys in the middle of Madrid and has been best friends with Charo since they were little. They were super nice and dinner was great. I can now participate in conversations fairly regularly and I always love surprising people by laughing at their jokes or adding something in.   After dinner we went to Maria's (another friend of Charo's) house to spend the night.  She lives in the center of Madrid in a penthouse perfect for one person.  She is an opera singer and loves cats.  She is quite the lady and an all around awesome person. This is her apartment:

(if you've every talked to me extensively about houses, I've likely mentioned my love of massive windows and floor to ceiling bookshelves...just saying)

The view from the balcony of the street below

Rooftops of Madrid from her balcony

Her adorable balcony. Just an amazing spot.  I probably would've slept out there if it weren't so cold

 

 

The next morning me, Kalob, Curtis, Charo, Maria and Ana piled in Ana's car and traveled an hour to Segovia. I can't even begin to describe Segovia. Exactly what I picture when I think of small old streets and towns in Europe is Segovia.  I almost wanted to cry when I saw it. I definitely had a preconceived idea of what Spain would look like before I came and Cartagena definitely did not fit that picture. Segovia definitely did. It is a very old city with cobblestone streets, a castle, a cathedral and aqueducts! We had coffee sitting beneath the aqueducts and talked about Rotary and exchange. I loved being able to talk to Charo and her friends with no problem. We were also in fall clothing sipping coffee and sitting in the sun. I could've stay there all day, but instead we walked around the city which was a better choice because it was beautiful. I took a million pictures and the guys kept getting mad at me for taking a picture of every alley way. But honestly, the city looked like a fairytale. We toured the castle which was amazing, had a huge lunch (like always) and then toured the cathedral.  Here are some pictures:

The city of Segovia

 Cathedral
sadly you can't see the detail on the turrets but if you could you'd be amazeS

 

 

Aqueducts

Constructed with no cement, just rocks

Castle (supposedly Walt Disney's inspiration for the Disney Castle...I don't really see the resemblance) But it had a moat, tower, throne room, courtyard and everything 

 

Charo left, Maria right

Maria on the left, Charo on the right

 

 From on top of the Castle. 120 some steps which the 3 of us climbed, but Charo, Maria and Ana opted out of. They missed out, the view was amazing. You could see all of Segovia.

 

After Segovia we went to this adorable medieval town called Pedraza. It was also picturesque "medieval" as in exactly what comes to mind when you think adorable, old, Spanish village.  I tired to take as many pictures as I could, but the sun was going down so it was hard.  We just roamed the streets for an hour or so as Maria belted out some Opera.  It was hilarious and the town was gorgeous.

 

We then drove back to Madrid and to Maria's house where we made dinner. I had salad for the first time in Spain for dinner. It tasted so good I had forgotten how much I missed it. Curtis and Kalob said they have salad at every lunch which is definitely different from my house. We also made brownies from a box that Kalob was sent for his birthday. They didn't turn out like normal brownies because we completely messed up the measurements trying to convert them to grams. They still tasted really good though. 

 

The next morning we got up and had breakfast then Charo sat me down and showed me the route we should take to do some more touristy things. Because I actually understand Spanish, I was in charge. So after we had a route, a map and, for me a borrowed jacket from Maria, we left.  (we had planned for a cold weekend in Madrid, but not that cold. The weather changes so much during the day it's hard, but when we left Maria's in the morning it was 50 degrees so a borrowed jacket was fine with me)  The three of us took the Metro to el Parque de el Retiro. It's a huge park in the middle of Madrid very much like Central Park in New York. There were street performers, artists and lots of different booths throughout the park. There is also a lake in the middle where they have row boats which you can rent to go around in. We of course did that and thank goodness I had two very cocky teenage boys with me who were overly eager to row the thing, so I never did. We also found el Palacio de Cristal which is a huge conservatory also in this park.

 

We then left the park and strolled past some other monuments in Madrid and walked down Calle Gran Via which is really famous and has lots of shops.  We ate lunch then made our way back to Maria's where we hung around on her balcony for awhile.  It was finally warm enough to be out there in the afternoon sun and it felt amazing just so sit and look out over Madrid.  It's moments like that where I realize how lucky I am.  I was looking out over the capital of a Spanish speaking country in Europe as I talk to people I know I'm going to have a lifelong friendship with even though I've barely known them a month. Exchange takes you crazy places and I couldn't be happier just to sit back and enjoy them. 

 

 

Not that I had any doubts about this weekend excursion, but "all's well that ends better" and I'd say I ended better than I started and only after 3 days. Before this weekend I feel like my view of Spain just consisted of Cartagena, Murcia and San Javier. And to be completely honest, I was a little disappointed. I hate to admit it, but I love the history, old buildings, small town with cobble stone streets of Europe and when I arrived here and that's not what greeted me, I was sad. But this weekend I realized that those places do exist like I imagined. It's crazy to think a country the size of Texas could be as diverse in climate and terrain as the U.S., but it's true. My view of Spain has already broadened so much just by visiting 3 extra cities. Now I can't wait to see the rest of Spain just to see what else there is. 

 

It was so awesome to be exposed to other ways of living too. I experienced life from the perspective of 3 different families this weekend and it was phenomenal. I love knowing that the life I'm living right now may be "typical" of Spain, but then there are a hundred different "typical"s.  It does make it hard knowing there are people living what I think to be a more appealing lifestyle than the one I am right now, but I remind myself there is adjustment to be done everywhere. I'm sure if I were living with Maria, Charo or Ana there would still be many times that I'm uncomfortable and do things wrong within their home.

 

The point now is that I can walk away and say that in just 3 days I broadened my view of the world and gained an immense appreciation for the country I'm living in and the opportunity I have to be living here. One month here as of Saturday and I've come to this conclusion: Stop worrying and get out there and live. There is so much to be seen and heard that you won't help yourself by being hesitant. Sure you'll have ups and downs and no, you won't have an "experience of  lifetime" everyday. But it's the fact that just by getting up in the morning and living everyday, you're trying something new which will always make you a wiser person than you were the day before.