This past week has been full of activity, as I have been trying to take advantage of every opportunity to enjoy the city and my last few weeks here with my friends. Last Friday, Noel, Cassandra, and I went to Ávila for the day. Ávila is a city in Castilla y Leon, located about an hour and a half from Madrid, by train. Ávila is particularly famous for its Medieval wall, which surrounds the city. Apparently it is also one of the cities with the highest Gothic and Romanic churches- to- people ratios! (this doesn't suprise me...as it is not THAT big of a city, and it seemed that everywhere we turned there was a church, monastery, or convent!). Since we were only there for the afternoon, we spent most of the day just walking around, getting different views of the wall and of the city, having a relaxing lunch etc. We also went to a museum about Santa Teresa de Ávila, who was a controversial figure in the 16th century, involved in the Catholic counter-reformation.
That same night, I met up with some visitors back in Madrid. My sister's friend Jessica was here with her friend Jamie, travelling around Spain for two weeks. We had been in contact several weeks before their trip, as Jessica had asked me for suggestions and advice. We ended up meeting and going for dinner/drinks that night. We had a great time and it was fun to meet new people (I really didn't know either of them beforehand). I hope to see her again back in NY! I ended up spending Saturday with them too, doing some touristy stuff around Madrid. Then on Sunday, we had a suprise birthday party/picnic for my friend George, which was a really fun and relaxing way to spend a Sunday. We ended up spending all afternoon and evening in the park, just talking, eating, and enjoying the nice weather.
Then, this week, we had more visitors! Our friend Garazi, from Bilbao, was staying at our apartment for a few days. Also, my friend Christina had a friend visiting from the US. So, we had all sorts of group dinners and events. On Wednesday night, we went to a really great comedy show. It was hilarious and a nice change of pace...not our average form of entertainment. Plus, I feel I have truly reached Spanish fluency when I can understand everything in a fast-paced stand-up comedy show, full of jargon, colloquial language, cultural references etc (ok ok so ALMOST everything...Garazi helped me out once when the guy mentioned the name of the group of Spanish copyrighter/editor people...something i definitely didnt know!)
Also, on Tuesday night, I went to the US embassy for a reception celebrating the success of our students in the Global Classrooms conference. My student who went to the NY conference ended up winning the best position paper award in her committee in NY (which means she was the ONE winner out of about 200 kids..including lots of Americans, and people from all over the world). So, she gave a really great speech...I was really glad to be there to hear that. We also joked about how there was Diet Coke and Dr. Pepper at the US embassy...we found it funny that they must be importing their soda back from the states (you dont find those sodas here!!)
And..yet another thing I did this week (somehow had the time) was quite unique. Awhile back, an American man, who is a film producer/professor and former Fulbright scholar contacted Fulbrights all over Europe about a project he was putting together about Americans living abroad. Long story short, I got his email, and learned that he would be spending several days in Madrid and was interested in talking with/interviewing Americans living here. So, I volunteered, figuring that it sounded like an interesting project and that I would be happy to help and learn more about it. So, on Monday, two other American girls (one, another Fulbright, and the other, a private English teacher), and I, had a discussion with the producer/filmmaker about our experiences living here in Madrid. It really was quite interesting...I'm not exactly sure what's going to come of the project, but I think the idea of recording the experiences of Americans living in foreign countries is quite interesting. I think his goal is to show people that we are "normal" Americans (whatever that means) and that it really isn't that hard to live abroad and have a fulfilling, interesting expeirence, if that's what you want. So anyway, it was definitely interesting to be a part of the discussion, and we'll see what comes of it.
Well, just three days left of school...pretty hard to believe! Really getting down to the end now...at least i'm ending on a high note :) And..next week- on the LAST day of class, i'm giving an entire class in Spanish for one of the non-bilingual groups!! Soo, thats exciting!
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