Spain, Day Four

Today was officially my first normal day in Spain. I woke up at 8:30, showered, had a small breakfast that consisted of toast with nutella and a clementine, and went to left for class at 9:30. Our class met from 10-11:30 (which is much shorter than it will be for the rest of the program) and she gave us a rundown of how our class is going to work and what our assignments are going to consist of. Overall, this really seems like I'm getting three-credit hours for being a tourist rather than actually doing a bunch of school work, which is so fine by me.

After our brief class, we took a short walk from el Puerto del Sol, which is a large plaza area that is in the center of Madrid (as well as the center of Spain as a whole), to a building called "Centro Centro." On our walk, we saw many iconic landmarks, including this statue that is located in el Puerto del Sol.
Many people use this statue as a meeting point, but it is definitely more than just art. It represents the agreement between the church and government of Spain. Back when Madrid was just getting started as a city, the church had control of the hunting grounds (which is represented by the bear) and the government had control of the industry (which is represented by the tree). Since the two are touching, it shows that the church and state were united and can depend on each other for a greater living experience.

After about a ten minute walk, we came to Centro Centro which has a museum inside it that is filled with the rich history of Spain, as well as a lookout tower at the top that my professor refers to as the best view in Madrid.

This view shows a fountain located just outside of Centro Centro called el Palacio de Cibeles, which is the second most iconic symbol of Spain after the bear statue according to my professor. This fountain is very helpful for if you get lost too. If you can make it to this fountain, all of the four roads that intersect here can probably lead you to where you want to go. One will take you to the major shopping street, another to the museums, another to la Plaza Mayor, and the last one to el Retiro which is a huge park (kind of similar to New York's Central Park).

After our lookout over the city, we went back to our flat where our host mom had cooked a big meal of veal with carrots and peas, fries, and fried eggs. Seems like a weird combination but it was delicious. Everything has been delicious so far.

Once lunch was over, we took our "siesta" for the day, which for me was a two hour nap. I awoke refreshed and ready to explore, so my roommate and I headed back to Puerta del Sol to mosey around the city and see where we ended up.

Our first stop was at a bakery where they were selling little pastries called "rosquillas." These pastries are only in Madrid for this week because of the festival of San Isidras, which is an annual celebration of a Catholic saint. I hope to learn about this saint during the other festivities later this week, but for now I just decided to enjoy the annual delicacy. They have many types of rosquillas so my roommate and I each bought one for one euro and split them and shared. The one I bought was a rosquilla de Madrid, which consisted of an extra coating of sugar. My roommate bought a rosquilla tonta (which translates to "stupid rosquilla"), which was just a plain rosquilla. The basis of this pastry was very similar to a donut but it was drier and crumblier. I enjoyed the rosquilla with extra sugar on it the most, naturally.

The rosquillas are on the second shelf from the top. The rosquillas de Madrid are the second from the right and the rosquillas tontas are all the way to the left.

After our snack, we started wondering aimlessly where we ended up in a few cute boutique shops and also grabbed a mid-afternoon cocktail from a so-called "coffee shop" which turned out to be a hookah bar instead. This adventure lasted about three hours so by the time we made it back to the flat, we were exhausted. Luckily, our host mom had dinner already prepared by the time we got back, which consisted of these weird but tasty fish cakes (think of a crab cake and then instead of crab, make it with white fish), pasta salad, and a personal sized ham pizza. Everything was very good but it was way too much food, unfortunately. I am still stuffed and this meal was over two and a half hours ago! It's good to know that I am never going to go hungry here though.

Now it is time for bed, which brings me to my palabra del dia. Today's palabra is a phrase that you would use when you are saying goodnight to someone: buenos noches. So, buenos noches everybody!