la vida magenta: May 2007

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

This is Your Art History Lesson for the Day

Hello, I´m an art teacher! Just because I´m on vacation doesn´t mean I can´t teach art!

This is a painting I saw today in the museum. It´s called Guernica by Pablo Picasso.
This painting depicts a time in Spain´s history during its Civil War when the Germans (who were allies with the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco) bombed the city of Guernica to show how horrible the war´s atrocities were.

The power of the raw emotions in this painting just blows you away! And the dimensions: the painting was huge, taking up most of the height of the wall, you couldn´t avoid staring at it. Draws you in. And the way he used the black and white was a powerful effect too.

Amazing. If you get a chance to come here ever, you must see this painting.

Aye que Madrid!

So I had a crap night sleeping at that beautiful hostel, mainly due to drunk 18 yr-old Americans at the place. Oh goodness. But I did manage to meet 2 quality guys, one from N Carolina and the other from Cordoba, Argentina (where I studied once for a summer) and we went out for the classic Spanish experiencia of drinks and tapas (like sliced meat and cheese and olives and bread) late night, complete with sweet old lady dancing Spanish style. Fun!

So we switched to a hostel that is 100x better with quality people (full of Argentines. What´s up with that?) It´s great here. Yesterday involved touring the city (so beautiful!) and using the wonderous Metro subway system here and even rowing in a little boat in the middle of a lake like they did back in the old days with ladies in parasols! It´s crazy how deep the culture is here and how art is everywhere, just a normal part of life. You know I love this!

We´re at a hostel with a kitchen which always means it has a great social life (food+people= instant friends) and there are always super interesting people to meet traveling!

Today we went to the Reina Sofia Museum and saw some amazing art!
Tomorrow we go to Granada which is where I´ll be studying for a few weeks. And as nice as Madrid is, it´ll be nice to get out of the gigantic city...

I´m having fun and hope that you are too!

Monday, May 28, 2007

The Hostel

hostel, originally uploaded by La_vida_magenta.

I guess it was some sort of Moorish palace? Nowadays it´s full of dirty backpackers. Love it!

Hostel walls

hostel walls, originally uploaded by La_vida_magenta.

This place is amazing! And from the 18th century!

las calles de madrid

las calles de madrid, originally uploaded by La_vida_magenta.

These are the streets I wander and get lost for fun.

mullet mania

mullet mania, originally uploaded by La_vida_magenta.

The presence of mullets here is staggering. Even for me, who can appreciate them done with the right style. We´re talking man mullets, woman mullets, even baby mullets. Should I get one as a souvenir?

Walkabouts

is what I´ve been doing with my time.

Here are some photos of some of my first Madrid impressions.

I haven´t figured out some computer photo-upload trickery, so this is as good as it gets, folks!

Once I make some friends, maybe I´ll be in some of the photos! ;)

Hasta luego!

Sunday, May 27, 2007

I´m here!

Hey guys!
Success! I made it to Madrid after a crap travel day spending 10 hours in-flight in addition to countless hours in airports with long layovers- blech!

I want to thank the following sponsors for making that travel day possible:
i-pod- Oh so many songs, so many hours to listen!
Bridgette Jones´s Diary- smutty novel so good for endless waiting!
Dramamine- the only way I actually got some real sleep on the plane
I promise- I would probably not have made it without these wonderful things! I love them.

So yeah, international travel is not for the weak! And trying to figure out a way to sleep in a slightly reclined seat is near impossible (without drugs!) Especially when you travel alone and a nice older gentleman is next to you. I woke up with my knee touching his leg (huge no-no for seatmates we all know!) and my feet stretched diagonally across, into his feet space. Oops!

So I´m in Madrid, I feel awesome even with little sleep and I do have to brag and say that I made it all the way from the airport by subway with half a dozen train changes and then walked around and actually found my hotel! High 5 to me!

I´m locked outta my room right now, but they told me it´ll be ready soon. I can´t waaaaaaaaaait to take a shower!

So I left the hotel for a little walk around (I´m downtown) and let me tell you what I saw in my first 10 minutes in Madrid:
-2 men about to rumble (Don´t be scared, Ma, I´m in a good part of town!) Anyways, the one guy was yelling and holding out his mace to spray the other dude and they were both yelling and then the other one grabbed a bungee cord from car and was threatening to hit him with it and they were yelling "tu madre" back and forth. I hurried past them so I wouldn´t get maced. But I don´t think anything happened after that. Weird!
-Right after above incident, an old guy looked at me and muttered "Bien, bien, bien." Ewww.
-And then I went to the park and saw a group of teens sharing sips from a 40 oz beer at 11:00 on a Sunday morning.
Bienvenida a Espana!
It´s going to be an interesting trip I think!

Please know that I´m safe and sound and as always, God´s got my back!
Until next time!