Primavera

Spring has sprung! 

The almond trees, los almendros, bloom early in the springtime and just burst with pink and white flowers before they shed their petals and grow bright green leaves. There is a park not too far from my barrio called Quinta de los Molinos filled with hundreds of almendros as well as the Spaniards and green parrots that enjoy the beautiful arboles. 

See the loros?

P.S. www.wordreference.com is a great Spanish-English dictionary website. Sorry for the inconvenience. You're welcome for the Spanish vocabulary lessons :)


Here are some fun stories from the Spring so far:

Sexy and we know it

Margaret and I spontaneously bought tickets to an LMFAO concert in Madrid. I think it's always great to have low expectations...because we had a BLAST. The music was fun and the energy level was through the roof of Palacio Vistalegre. And I know this because we were up so high in the nosebleeds we could almost touch the roof. You know it's a fun concert when you can hardly see the band and you're still having an amazing time.  

LMFAO is in there somewhere!! 

But just in case your imaginations can't supplement, here's a little visual aid:

After a night of party-rocking, we desperately needed some fresh air and sunshine. We finally made it to Parque Juan Carlos I; it's a pretty new park near my end of town where you can rent bikes for free- can't beat that! And in case you were wondering, yes- those bikes are good for some hardcore downhill off-roading.

Now, brace yourselves for the most epic adult-sized jungle gym in the world. 

This thing is massive- I want to say about 3 stories tall. And rainbow. Of course we climbed it twice. It was training for when we had to jump 3 fences to get out of the park at the end of the day at what was clearly not the correct exit. We laugh in the face of adversity.

For a little random Madrid fun, Andrea, Ester, and I went to the "attic" of Chamartin to an original crafts and jewelry fair called Nomada Market- right up our alley. We all came away with some new additions to our accessories collections, obviously.

The art teacher at my school, and my most dedicated English student/teacher, is actually an incredibly talented artist (what a concept!). A community center in Madrid was holding an exhibit of his work for a few weeks starting in April, so Amanda and I met up on opening night to show some support. These are two of our favorites! 

 
















<-- Just out for a normal croissant at The Bakery.

Grabbing a tinto with the girls in Malasaña, as usual -->

Madrid Premiere of The Hunger Games!

For the sake of spontaneous athleticism, Margaret and I signed up for a 10K (first-timer option) as part of the Madrid Rock and Roll Marathon 2012! It was so official since apparently it's the one big annual marathon held in Madrid. There were local bands playing at every other kilometer marker and it was so much fun to be a part of such a big sporting event! 
 There were thousands of people in both races and the energy level was super motivating. We were high on adrenaline and endorphines the rest of the day. Next time, it's the 42K!

We're champions. Try to act normal around us.

In school the next week, some of the music students were holding Aulas Culturales- a project put on by the music teacher as an opportunity for some extra cultural education. The older students dressed up and put on a little educational play for the younger kids at the school and afterward, there were special tables set up all around the room tended by students to present specific material and the kids had to go around filling in information in their booklets. At my table, another student and I spoke to the kids in English about Goya's musical paintings. It was a fun two days in the aulas culturales and a nice change from my usual routine. 

One day, I took a mini trip to Ester's campus at Universidad Madrid Complutense. As a recent graduate and soon-to-be-student again, I was interested in seeing a foreign college campus. 

It was definitely interesting! I can't really generalize on the whole University based on what I saw because I only went with Ester to the Political and Social Sciences building and this university is GIGANTIC. There are roughly 90,000 students enrolled and the campus itself is spread out over different towns.  

From what I saw, I can conclude that the students here are very active socially and politically- there are flyers for demonstrations and social/poli movements all over the place, including on the walls in the form of creative graffiti. The building itself was a bit old and not the most aesthetic, but that's part of it's charm. The most shocking difference I noticed were kids hanging out in the hallways smoking and drinking beer. 

Well, it's definitely a Spanish university! 

Later that day... I went out for a few drinks with our new friends we met in Porto [blog on Porto coming soon!]. We went to my favorite place, Mercado San Miguel, and then met up with the others at my least favorite place, Cien Montaditos. It's like Spanish fast food but hey, can't beat the price or the company!

The random girl on the metro said she would take this photo for us only if we hang like monkeys. Not a problem.