Family Time

My family came to Madrid! Of course, I had to take them to get churros con chocolate! Here's a picture of Aunt Joan and I enjoying some of my favorite Spanish treats...


Here's Mom, Dad, and I at the Plaza de Espana.

So much has happened in the last couple of weeks... it's hard to know where to begin! Well... the second round of midterms is coming, which is hard to believe. Time is flying here! I'm realizing that I'll be coming home before I know it. For that reason, I'm trying to take advantage of the time I have left!

My parents were only able to stay for one day in Madrid, sadly, but it was good! They met Alicia, my host-mom, saw the school, met a few of my friends, and we all went out for a nice traditional Spanish meal - cocido (a Spanish stew with garbanzo beans, potatoes, pork, sausage, etc.)

Aunt Joan is able to stay for the week, so she's staying with Alicia and all of us and we're roomies! :-) Let the sleeping photo wars begin!

To give a brief history, on a family vacation in 7th grade, I took photos of the family members sleeping, and ever since, Aunt Joan has tried snapping random pictures of me sleeping. I woke up to her taking one of me today! :-) I'll get one of her before this trip is over...hehe.

Next week, I have more visitors! Two of my Milwaukee friends, Marisa and Jeannette, are coming, and I'm SUPER excited for that too. We might go to Granada for a couple days, and of course, we'll all do all the Madrid sights.

Anyhow, I'll write again soon... right now I'm getting over having a cold and the stomach flu... overlapping each other! Ug... the past few days have not been healthy ones. Hasta pronto!

Church in Madrid

Here is Catherine, another study abroad student from the U.S. in my ward here, and Robert, an LDS guy from Ecuador. At Institute, we have dance lessons on Friday nights... right now they're teaching salsa and cha-cha-cha, hehe. It was so much fun!


Here is the Madrid, Spain temple! It is gorgeous both lit up at night and during the day... there are fountains and flowers surrounding the temple. The temple is right across from the Stake Center and the other Church building, which contains the Missionary Training Center, a Distribution Center, Insitute, a Family History Center, and a place for people to stay who have travelled to come to the temple.

Here's a picture of two of my friends from Insitute... Luis (from Bolivia) and Jose (from Venezuela). They are two of the nicest guys I've met in Spain! I've met some great people here at Institute and at church... everyone has been so nice.

Here are Brother and Sister Eames... a senior missionary couple from Arizona who help in the Church Education... they teach Institute, run the office, and help with activities... they are so much fun! They're like my surrogate parents, hehe... and they taught us cha-cha-cha. They both speak Spanish very well too... all the kids in Institute love them!

Well, this gives you a taste of what it's like to go to the LDS church in Madrid. The LDS connection, world-wide, is alive and well. I've had a lot of fun going to church in Spanish, meeting people from South America, Spain, the U.S., and other European countries... watching General Conference at the Stake Center, going to Institute... etc.! There is a strong group of members here, and of course they quickly have made me feel welcome.

My ward, the Madrid 5th Ward, is about a 15 minute metro ride away... or a 45ish minute walk. My bishop is from California... and the dean of Saint Louis University-Madrid! I have a few other American students in my ward too, here through various programs. Last week, I went to the Madrid 7th Branch, which is an English speaking branch. It consists mostly of Nigerians, and the others are a mix of Americans and other non-native English speakers. I must say, I think between all of us, we had a hard time understanding each other's English, since Nigerian English has a strong accent and the others spoke English as a second language, but I LOVED listening to the accents! The branch was tiny... but it was a lot of fun!

Anyhow, just thought it'd be fun to share a little of this aspect of my experience here. Going to church in Madrid has been awesome, and one of the best ways to actually feel a part of the community here.

Fashion - Sometimes, You Just Have to Say No

So, living in a bustling, international metropolis, I see different fashion all the time. As a whole, Madrilenos seem to be a fairly trendy, fashionable, well-dressed bunch. I definitely feel like I sometimes stick out, walking around with my big backpack and my tennis shoes. Of course, I am trying to minimize this "Where is she from?" reaction by attempting to blend in. But... as I don't have endless funds, nor the energy, to always be trendy, I guess sometimes I just will have to stick out.

The 80s are a full swing here in Europe. I've noticed this return to the 80s for the last year or so in the U.S. too... and despite my initial protests, it's kind of fun being able to wear whatever weird, mismatched outfit I want and to perhaps justify it as fashionable. However, there is a definite limit to the fashion risks I'm willing to take. Spain seems to really enjoy this 80s throwback, and if you're familiar with the clothes at H&M, which I'd say, have a definite European and almost over-trendy feel... that's pretty much every store here! Big jewelry, oversized t-shirts, polka dots and stripes, leggings, jeans that are tighter at the ankle... and my personal favorite: mullets.

Yes, mullets are everywhere here, and not just in Madrid. Apparently, a friend who went to London said they all over the place there too. On TV, in the metro, men, women, they have mullets! I just don't think I can accept this one, folks. I'm sorry. I just think it's ugly.

I'll wear a striped shirt... maybe even a chunky necklace, but no, I will not get a mullet. Sometimes, you just have to say "No!" to fashion. :-)

Barcelona Fun

This weekend, since we had fall break at SLU, just about everyone went somewhere. I had friends who went to Dublin, Paris, Lisbon, etc. etc. Wow! It'll be fun to share stories this week. I went to Barcelona in my continuing efforts to see as much of Spain as possible - and also because I've heard it's awesome!! And, no surprises, it was! Here are a few highlights:

Here is a picture of Justin (one of my SLU buddies) and I behind a random window inside the Picasso Museum. The museum was very interesting, especially to see Picasso's early work before he got into cubism. He was very versatile... he did amazing portraits and impressionistic paintings early in his career. It was interesting to see his styles change over time. Ok, this picture has nothing to do with Picasso, but I thought it sort of looked like a jail, so I thought it'd make for a funny picture. Apparently, I'm excited to be in jail.



Here is a picture of Justin, Allyson, Christine, and Crista in front of the Christopher Columbus statue by the harbour of Barcelona. It was raining all that night! We were all soaked by the end.
My laminated Barcelona map that Dad bought me before I came to Spain ended up being a great rain helmet. Way to think ahead Dad!

This below is a picture of my room in my hostel. There were 6 girls total in my room (I didn't know anyone from before)... and it was not very spacious, to say the least! It didn't help either that one of the girls had strewn her stuff all over the room... clothes, bottles... I had read pretty un-impressive reviews of this place, called Rambla & Catalunya Hostel, so I knew it wouldn't be all that great, but since I booked so last minute, I didn't really have many options. And honestly, I didn't care much, I mean it was cheap and I was only there to sleep. The shower didn't drain, it was loud, and the staff seemed a little apathetic, haha, but hey, it was a place to sleep! Luckily, the hostel my other friends were in was nice. I learned its definitely good to book in advance and find a hostel with a good review!

We saw lots of modernista (Catalunyan Modernist Period) architecture, like this apartment building designed by Gaudi, the most famous of them all! The architecture in this city was amazing - an incredible mix of Gothic, Modernista, Barroque, and recent. I really like it...

The Gothic cathedral of Barcelona is also very pretty. Sadly, a lot of it was covered up, since they are restoring it, but the inside was beautiful! It was sort of dark inside, since it was raining hard outside, but it had a very soft ambience, with the lit candles, the high ceilings, and the stained-glass windows.

Well, that's a taste of the trip! We took the overnight bus both to and from Barcelona... which overall worked really well. Sleeping on a bus is not easy, but it did make the ride go faster and saved us a lot of money on sleeping arrangements! I definitely needed a couple intense naps after the busses though! Overall, this trip was great... I hung out with a lot of different people and got to know them better, had my first European hostel experience, saw the sites of Barcelona, had awesome seafood paella (the Spanish national dish), and ate my first "Mexican" meal since coming to Spain! I had nachos at the Hard Rock Cafe, and even though they weren't really all that amazing or authentic, they were great because I had been craving Mexican for a long time!

I hope I make it back to Barcelona someday... I would really love to see the Dali museum, more Gaudi architecture, and to see a concert inside the world-famous Catalunyan Music Palace,which is naturally lit by this amazing mosaic stained-glass dome. There is so much to do in this city!

Maybe it IS sinking in!

So, apparently all this Spanish is sinking in somewhere in my brain. Well, at least that's the hope I felt today after my roommate Sara told me the following story:

Last night... as Sara and I were peacefully dreaming, apparently I suddenly started mumbling in my sleep, which woke Sara up a little. Then, I said really loudly (she actually used the term "yelled") in my sleep, "Pequeno!" Then, I guess I was translating in the dream, cause I then said, "Very small." Um, I have no recollection of what that possibly could have been about, haha, but the fact that I was dreaming in quasi-Spanish was an exciting discovery!

Don Quixote and I are friends now...

This is Dulcinea, Don Quixote's love interest. Um, she doesn't seem too interested!

Here I am, pretending to be deep in my reading of DQ. The professor read us the chapter about Don Quixote fighting the windmills... which was quite funny. I was glad to finally understand why these windmills are so famous!

And here is one of many DQ statues all over this area of Spain... needless to say, he's a popular guy around here!

Well, yesterday I ventured out with a group from SLU on a tour of places related to either "Don Quixote" or Cervantes (the author). It was really cool and somewhat surreal to actually see the famous windmills associated with Don Quixote. To be honest, I've never read the story, but I hoped that I could soak in enough cultural references so that someday when I hopefully do, I'll hopefully remember some of it.

We stopped at a house where Cervantes lived, which was pretty cool... although he had the biggest wine storage I had EVER seen.... well I haven't seen that many wine storage areas, so maybe that's not helpful, but it was huge!

We also went to Consuegra, which is this town about 1.5 hours outside of Madrid. It had a row of the famous windmills near a castle. So beautiful! The view, on top of the ridge, where the castle and windmills were, was amazing.

Then, we went to a town where the woman who inspired the character "Dulcinea" lived. In the story, Don Quixote falls in love with Dulcinea, a woman who he builds up to be a princess... when in reality, she's not so amazing, and she's not a princess either. That's of course, part of the fun of the story. Anyhow, that's why I included the picture of Dulcinea's statue.

Now, I need to read the book. Given that it's 1100 pages long, I don't know if that'll happen in the near future, but I do feel this trip was helpful in understanding the most famous work of Spanish literature. I hope I am a little closer to "getting" it.

Don't Run Down the Stairs of the Metro...

Madrid Lesson #84: Embarrassing Moments Know No Cultural or Language Barriers.

Today, I was on my way to visit Claudine, my French friend who lives in a nursing home (I'll tell you more about her sometime soon...) when I had my first significant clumsy in Spain moment. Now, I've fallen on stairs before... like on the steps at the Tanner building at BYU, where the echo of a pin dropping magnifies to the sound of a drum (which means my fall on the stairs sounding something like a roll of thunder)... but I've managed to avoid tripping/falling/etc. for a long time...

As I trotted down the stairs, confidently moving to the Circle Line in the Metro, my shoes slipped on the stairs and all of a sudden it was.... thud thud thud thud... and I was lying on the stairs... hehe. A nice lady exclaimed "Oh, Nina!" I tried to assure her I was fine (and I was) "Estoy bien." But she nicely doubled checked and gave me and arm to get up. Luckily, not many others witnessed the sight... but needless to say, I think I'll be taking those stairs with a little more care in the future.