If you are interested, we did a similar program last summer in Peru.
http://peru2009-camille.blogspot.com/
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Hi, we're Camille and Libby. We went to Spain after we took 2 years of Spanish classes at Scottsdale Community College. This blog documents our trip so you can see what we experienced. Our first two weeks we stayed in Madrid. Then we stayed a week in Valencia, which is on the coast. The whole time in Madrid and Valencia we took Spanish classes for 5 hours each day. While taking classes we lived with a Spanish family and communicated with them in Spanish. Afterwards, we toured around Andalucia and Barcelona with our family. I hope you enjoy our blog!
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Saturday 5/15/2010 Madrid
Welcome to Spain
The bear statue, a symbol of Madrid, in Puerta del Sol
Lots of cafes
Libby's bedroom in Madrid
Typical close parking job, even with tiny smart cars
We arrived finally around 11:00am on Saturday, having left our house in Phoenix at 4:30am the day before, and nine time zones ago. Besides a three-hour delay on the runway in Philadelphia in the plane due to a thunderstorm, the rest of the trip was uneventful. We met our ride and went to our house. Our family is a single woman who is a middle school teacher. She lives on the fourth floor of a 9-story apartment complex on a tree-lined street close to the school. She gave us a few minutes to put our stuff away and then took us on a short walk to show us where the school is and then pointed us toward the center of town. Despite our exhaustion we decided it would be better to get out and wait to sleep until night to help us get on Madrid time faster. We walked to the city center, the Puerta del Sol, the Paseo del Prada, and just got the lay of the land. Our first impression was how amazingly relaxed everything is for such a big city. No one was in a rush; everyone strolls, talks, window-shops, or sits outdoors at a café and watches the world go by. The city is also very clean, orderly, and safe. They were having a huge street party for 100 years of the Gran Via (a main thoroughfare) so there were many interesting things to see along the way. When we arrived back home we were so tired we could barely stay awake. We had a quick snack, showered, and went to bed at 7pm!
Monday, July 5, 2010
Sunday 5/16/10 Madrid
Plaza de Colón
Puerta de Alcala
Today we went to five museums in Madrid. After breakfast we strolled over to the Plaza de Colón, which contains a monument to Christopher Columbus and a garden to commemorate his discovery. Then we visited the Museo de Arquelógico, which contained relics from the caveman days, ancient Rome and Egypt and Spain. As we were walking by the National Library (Biblioteca Nacional) we noticed they had a special exhibit of old papers. Although small, it was fascinating because they had original manuscripts by Dante, Herodotus, Darwin, Kant, and others, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man, musical scores by Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, and old maps.
Next we visited the Museo Naval de Madrid, which had models of old ships, and many of the original navigational equipment and maps used by the early sailors.
By this time we were starving and found a place to eat where we tried the tasting menu. Our lunch included calamari, prosciutto, olives, potatoes, crab cakes, good bread, and ham. It was seven dishes in all. Then we just had to get some gelato on our way back to the museums.
We sat and people-watched along the Paseo del Prado and then visited the CaixaForum. It was a neat modern museum rebuilt by architects in an old electric power plant that had a cool vertical wall of plants outside containing over 250 varieties of plants. The inside, which was elevated over the walkway, was stainless steel. On the second floor was exhibit of a modern Spanish artist and on the third floor was an exhibit of photography contest winners with various sequences of pictures. The most memorable was a sequence of Pakistani women grossly disfigured by having acid thrown on their faces by men they knew. Others were war in Lebanon and war in Kenya.
Finally, it was time to go to the Prado, one of the most well-know art museums in the world, since it is free after 5pm on Sundays. It was quite crowded as many people took advantage of the free admission. The majority of the art was religious, though some showed rulers or landscapes. We saw the highlights (mentioned in our guide book) and then walked back to the house. On the way we stopped and drank a hot chocolate, we hoped it would be the famous Spanish thick hot chocolate. It wasn’t but it was still good. Once home we had a dinner consisting of soup, a small salad, a piece of bread with sausage and cheese, and an ice cream sandwich.
The best part was that all five of these museums were free (due to Camille’s excellent planning)!
Monday 5/17/10 Madrid
Vibrant nightlife
Popular pastime of window shopping
Public art on the streets
View from the Plaza España
The iconic Tio Pepe sign in Puerta del Sol
Today we went to the school and took our placement tests. We were both scheduled for classes in the mornings. Camille’s class was too basic, and Libby’s was with much more advanced speakers, so we asked to switch and the only choice was an afternoon class. So, after grabbing a quick lunch, we went back for afternoon classes, which we both liked better. However, afternoon classes make it much harder to sightsee because we aren’t out of class until 6:30. We have a culture class from 1:30-2:30 and then regular class from 2:30-6:30. The culture class discussed Spanish geography, names, artists, authors, songs, magazines, and other topics of interest.
We did manage to go out after dinner and walk down to the Plaza España just to see the shops and nightlife. The daylight goes until 10pm or so and the number of people out and about late is amazing. Many of the little snack shops stay open until the wee hours of the morning to accommodate the late crowd.
Tuesday 5/18/10 Madrid
McDonald's with leather booths, IKEA decor, and kiosk ordering
The kitchen at our house
The dog park in front of our house
The street in front of our house, with trees and many play areas for kids
This morning the school offered an expedition to the museum housed in the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. There were only four of us with a guide. We took a bus to downtown to the rococo building that houses 1000 paintings and sculptures. The famous painter Goya painted in this building and it is full of his works. He was the court painter for the Spanish royals and for Napoleon. We learned a bit about the history of the royal families as we viewed all the portraits. Goya was known for his lack of diplomacy (i.e. realism) in his paintings of these people. We also got to see a special room with the plates carved by Goya for his “Disasters of War” series of lithographs. Then we were off to class.
After class and dinner, we strolled the Calle Fuencarral area. It is full of shops, restaurants with patios, movie theaters, and other people out enjoying themselves. Everyone seems to go out in the evenings to walk, talk, have a snack or a drink, and relax. We finally got to bed at 11:00.
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