Intercambios

This weekend I had my first real intercambios.
I think I mentioned what an intercambios is in a previous blog. Its when two people trying to learn languages meet up and practice talking. Its a good way to practice converstaion and make friends in a new place.
Well, one of the administators from school gave me the email address of a college student, Marta, who is learning English and I met with her and one of her friends for coffee on Friday. We spoke in Spanish for two whole hours! Except for when I didn't understand what they were saying and Marta would tell me in English. That happened a lot.
Also, this weekend I visited the Palacio Real or Royal Palace here in Madrid. It was HUGH. The royal family doesn't really live there anymore. We viewed all the rooms and walked around the giant courtyard. It was so beautiful. The rooms were decorated to extravagantly! I loved it! You couldn't take pictures inside though. But here is one from outside.

 

Also here is a picture of Michelle, Dasha, Ebony and me in front of a nautical themed rock club called The Moby Dick Club! 

Well, I have three midterms this week, so I am going to return to studying now.
Adios!

Weekend Trip

This weekend, we went on a trip with the school to Córdoba and Granada. They are both in the south, in Andulucia. Here is a map.






Well, we were only in Córdoba for a day. We saw a really great Mosque though. There are a lot of mosques because there was a Muslim invasion because Spain is super close to Africa.

These are the awesome arches in the mosque in Córdoba. The place was huge! It also had a catholic cathedral (or something) inside of it because the Catholics took over later on. The mosque part was cooler (sorry Catholics). Heres more pics.

 

After Córdoba we went to Granada and stayed there for 2 nights in a pretty nice hotel. The most important thing we saw there was La Alhambra. It was a palace fortress castle for Muslin rulers and it was also beautiful
If walls look like this it means they are really old.
 

And then my camera died. But really that was all the exciting stuff that I would have taken a picture of.  Some of my friends and I saw a flamenco show, which inspired me to buy this apron

 

We also saw lot of gypsies, but don't worry, I didn't get any gypsy curses! 

Carnaval

Yesterday was the Carnaval Parade in Madrid.
Carnaval is like Mardi Gras, a celebration before lent begins.
I went to watch the parade with some friends. It was really cold. There were lots of people in costumes everywhere, it reminded us of the Halloween parade in the Village. We also realized that the parade has a theme and this year it was movies... we think.

 The lion from Wizard of Oz singing next to models of buildings from the street that the parade is on.
 

Dancers on giant stilts.

 

Ants? 

 The final float, a floating pirate ship, was supposed to the be from Pirates of the Carribean. This picture is great because I didn't even notice that that kid dressed up as a pirate was in the shot!

Juego de mesa

Hi everyone,
A few exciting things.
Earlier this week I decided to go on a run because I've been eating way to many churros con chocolate and there is no free gym here.
I ran to this park that my housemother told me about. Its called Parque de Berlin and there are real peices of the Berlin Wall there!

On Friday, some friends and I went to a cafe where they have board games you can play." Juegos de mesa" means board games. The games are all in Spanish of course. We played Pictonary and my favoite game of all time- Cluedo! (Clue)
I was Señorita Amapola (Miss Scarlet) and I learned how to say
"Deduzco que el crimen se comitió por.... en.... con...."
(I deduce that the crime was commited by... in... with)
Thats what you say when you make a guess.



Today, Dasha, Michelle and I went to El Museo de Joaquín Sollora. Its a small museum in Sollora's old house in Madrid. Its very beautiful, and free on Sundays! I really like his work. It's very beautiful and very Spanish. And a lot of his paintings are at the beach!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joaquín_Sorolla