family reunion

It feels great when someone travels halfway across the world with the (partial) purpose of coming to see you. This past weekend, my aunts, Tricia and Debbie, stopped in Madrid midway through their two-week Eurotrip. They've been looking forward to this for about as long as I have, seeing that they bought their plane tickets the same day I found out I was accepted into the program. 

I met them at the train station, and right away it was great to see part of my life back in America. It's not that I've felt homesick and wanted to return to previous comforts, but it was fantastic that I was able to enjoy pieces of my California life thousands of miles and an ocean away here in Spain. 

One of the best parts of having visitors is that it allows me to do all of the touristy Madrid banalities that I should see on my own anyway but probably never would if I didn't have a reason. For one, we went to the Museo Reina Sofia, the lesser-known of two main art museums in Madrid (the other being the Prado). I absolutely loved it, and was able to see Picasso's most macabre work, Guernica. It's a famous painting I've seen reproduced many times, but seeing the enormous, original version right there in front of me was chilling. There was also an exhibit of these enormous map tapestries made by women in Afghanistan and Pakistan that I loved (if you know me, you know I love geography). I ended up buying the poster. 

It was great just to be able to converse with my aunts, while being able to show them the sites in my stories or introduce them to the actual people I talk about. They unfortunately learned that Spanish food is not the most appetizing cuisine, but we did enjoy a meal riquísimo at a Cuban restaurant with some delicious mojitos. Also, my friends Amanda and Kimiko helped me to prepare a Spanish meal that the five of us all ate together. Afterwards, we tried to go get an Irish Coffee in honor of Tricia's mother, my grandma, but the Irish pub was out of coffee. 

A glass of Bailey's sufficed. 

Extremadura

Since I slept through the last excursion our program went on to Segovia, I was especially excited for this one. It was a group trip to the community of Extremadura (the easiest and oversimplified way to explain Spain's toponymy is like so: there are 17 autonomous communities, which are like states; divided into 50 provinces, which are like counties; which are further divided into 8,014 municipalities, or cities) in western Spain. It was an overnight trip as well, and we would be visiting three different locations: Mérida, Cáceres, and Trujillo.

Even though I was excited just to get away for a weekend, I honestly wasn't that thrilled about the destination before we left. Extremadura really isn't known for anything too special, and the lifeless landscape on the drive there--which felt like a four hour roadtrip through the midwest--only added to my apathy. Luckily, I got to ride in the DISCOBUS, our term of endearment for the short bus for the twelve of us who didn't fit in to the other coach with everyone else, and we partied the whole way there. I learned some great Spanish car songs that I'll definitely be bringing back home with me.

Painting from 2,000 years ago... Loco. 

The first city we arrived in was Mérida, which is the capital of Extremadura, though you would have no idea by looking at it. It's a small city, but it has ruins that are still relatively intact from the Roman Empire. In America, the oldest man-made buildings and objects are only a couple of centuries old. I could hardly fathom that I was walking on paths that were actually used by people 2,000 years ago, or sitting in the room where they kept the lions/tigers/bears/etc. that were used to fight for public entertainment. I saw murals from the sides of the buildings, and it was overwhelming to imagine someone painting these images during the same time that Jesus was alive. It's so much easier to appreciate history when it is tactile and you can actually experience it.

Cáceres was an okay town. It's the second biggest city in Extremadura with a big student population, so we all went out to check out the nightlife. I was honestly too tired to really enjoy it and ended up leaving early, but I definitely appreciated that drinks are much cheaper there than in Madrid. The next day was just more tours of the city until we finally left for Trujillo.

Sleepy little town of Trujillo

We spent that shortest amount of time in Trujillo--only four hours total--and it was by far my favorite city. The population was minute, especially compared to Madrid. There, I live right downtown in the center of the city, where there are always people to see and places to go. Trujillo is a pueblo, and it fulfilled all of my expectations of a tiny European town: thin streets, cobblestone roads, church bells every hour. It was quaint and peaceful. I love my life in Madrid and living in a metropolitan area, but I had forgotten how relaxing the quiet countryside can be, or how nice it is to just be outside without being bothered by the constant hustle of city life.


I don't know if I could ever live in a place like Trujillo, but I could never live without it either.

I feel like a transient

Once again, I am writing from a new bedroom in a new apartment.

My old piso just wasn't the right fit. It was far away from school and downtown Madrid, and my roommates were exactly the type of people I was trying to avoid in Spain. So, I started my search once again for a new home. I would have been sleeping on the streets for about a week had my friend Amanda and her roommates not allowed me to crash with them. After many discouraging phone calls and visits, I finally picked one.

A little messy, but I just moved in. 

I live right off of the main street in the city center. I'm within walking distance to all of my friends, and there are restaurants, bars, markets, and everything else I could possibly need right around the corner. I live with the owner of the apartment, a Spaniard who's an older man and a painter, so there are works of art all over the walls. I even have a mural painted onto my bedroom door.  There are two other girls also, students from northern Spain and Denmark. I really like them all so far, and I can already tell the environment is going to be ten times better than my previous arrangements.



And, best of all... THERE'S A DOG! Her name is Ñeca. I took her for a walk today, and it feels great to have a dog again. It's like I always have company, even when my roomies aren't home. Of course, she's only a substitute for my dog back in Fremont, and in my mind I'm always comparing her to Chloe whom I miss and think about every single day. But for this year, Ñeca will suffice until I get to see my beautiful little lab again.

My new address, and hopefully the last one I have until I leave Madrid:

Brian McMahon
c/ de la Reina, 37 - 1º D
28004 Madrid
España


You can even conveniently Google map it right under this post where it says location. 

IBIZA

This is one of the trips I was looking forward to before I even came to Spain. Ibiza is an island off the coast, nestled in the clear waters of the Mediterranean and famous for its discotecas. I was planning to meet some friends there after I had an advising meeting, so I would be there from Thursday until Saturday afternoon for two days of beach and two nights of partying.

Before even leaving, however, the trip seemed off to a bad start. You would think after over a month in Europe we would be used to military time by now, but nope. We all bought return tickets for Saturday at 1:20, thinking that it actually meant 13:20. My friends had already been there for a couple of days, but I hadn't. I would only get Thursday night to go out and have to spend Friday night in the airport.

I tried to stay positive and took the ridiculously short flight (quicker than SFO to LAX) to the island officially known as Eivissa is Catalán. This was my first time ever seeing the Mediterranean, and it is gorgeous--the Caribbean of the Eastern hemisphere without a doubt. My friends, who were already exhausted from the two previous nights, and I went to buy tickets for one of the closing shows of the season. We happened to be there on the last week of the clubs before the island virtually shuts down for the winter, and with our very overpriced tickets to the very famous club Pacha to see David Guetta and Afrojack. It was incredible up until the end, when I saw this group of kids pickpocketing other people and it drove me crazy. I spent the last hour chasing them around and yelling at them until I had to go to talk to security about it.

All in all it was definitely a good time and I'm really glad I went, but it was a one time trip that I probably won't make again. It's one of those vacations that I checked off my list of places to visit and I'm perfectly content with that. Ibiza left me with great memories, a full night of dancing, naps on the beach, and a sour disposition toward British people (they swarm the island over the summer and don't even try to learn a word of Spanish). I was so exhausted by the time we left, I was happy to be leaving twelve hours earlier than we had planned.