Rome and Madrid Sporting Events

Here I go again, procrastinating on updates! But once again, what an amazing few weeks it has been.

The week after Ireland I was so lucky to have Chris come a visit me here in Madrid (my boyfriend, for those of you who haven't met him). He's been working very hard in Charlottesville, so I was extremely excited to be able to get to spend some time with him. During the week in Madrid we spent some time visiting some of the need-to-see Madrid sights such as Plaza del Sol, the Basilica, Royal Palace and Cathedral, rowboats en el parque Retiro and visited some great restaurants where we enjoyed local tapas. We also took a cheesy bus tour called MadridVision, which I needed to take for a class, and ended up being quite fun and informative!

Roma-The weekend Chris was here we traveled to Rome together. What an amazing city.

Friday we spent touring the Vatican including Saint Peter's Cathedral, the Sistine Chapel, and basically the entire small country of the Vatican (yes, it is it's own country, passports and all!). That evening, as with the rest, we spent exploring the beautiful streets of Rome and visiting some of the tourist spots in their full glory at night. I especially enjoyed the Trevi fountain. And not to worry, every meal included either pasta, pizza, or gelato...sometimes all three! God bless Italian food.

Saturday we spent exploring the older sections of Rome including ruins, the Colosseum, and the Pantheon. While wandering, we enjoyed watching three separate wedding couples (complete in tux and dress) compete for the best background for their wedding pictures in front of the Colosseum (which turns out not to be difficult, since it's huge!). While exploring, we came upon a Picasso exhibit in a museum which we decided to check out. I was amazed at the diversity in Picasso's work, having only previously seen some of his staple pieces.

Sunday morning was spent at mass....with the pope! In the plaza along with what had to be over 35,000 people we were fortunate enough to possess free tickets to mass (we got them two days before from the Swiss guards in the funniest outfits I've seen in a long time). We were very lucky that this weekend at mass not only was Pope Benedict saying mass, but was canonizing 4 saints! I'm not sure exactly how often this happens, but apparently it was the only time during 2008. There were pilgrimages from the countries of each new saint, including India whose saint was the first canonized for their country! It was quite a remarkable experience and I was especially impressed and thankful for the diversity of languages during the Sign of Peace and in el Papa's (spanish for pope) homily-we counted that he spoke at least 5 languages throughout the mass.

The last day that Chris was in Madrid flew by, but we did get a chance to go out to eat once again and a cute restaurant in the Chueca neighborhood named Bazaar and to the world-renowned modern art museum-El Museo Reina Sofia.

Since then, life slowed down a bit in terms of trips out of the country, but my Spanish Culture and Civilization class did visit Toledo, the precious first capital of Spain. It's known for it's abundance of christian, arabic, and jewish architecture and culture. All three religions were at one point in power in the city.

Somehow the past two weeks ended up being quite a series of Spanish sporting events, which is great because I have been a bit homesick for BC, UVa and Redskins football this time of year.
On Friday the 17th, Meghan, Andrew, and I went to the Madrid Masters Tennis Tournament. Some of the amazing athletes we saw included Federer, the Bryan brothers (US doubles), and Murray. We just missed Nadal's match, much to the disapointment of his future wife, Meghan Gavin.
That Sunday, anyone from the BC program that was interested in going had tickets to a Madrid Bullfight, considered a huge part of the culture of the city and country. I was glad I went to witness the tradition, but it was definitely more gruesome than for what I was prepared. More details about that can be given outside of cyberspace.
This past weekend Meghan and I joined some of our new friends from a bunch of California universities also here in Madrid at a Real Madrid fútbol game. What an experience! The staduim holds a capacity of 78,000 and as far as I could tell, it was full to the brim. To give a comparison, the Redskins stadium that is the biggest in the NFL holds about 92,000 people. The pictures at the top of this entry are from the game.

Well I miss you all! I counted today and there are only 7 weeks left until I'm back in the US, unbelievable.

Love,
Clare

Barcelona, Ireland and more Madrid

To start out, apparently living in Madrid can be as crazy as some of the silly soap operas we watch midday!

Missing abuelo: Our family is very close with a woman named Mamen, and her father (who is 103 years old!) down the street. Mamen also hosts two BC students and we enjoy getting together as families every once in a while. Unfortunately let's see...two weeks ago, we received a phone call at the house from one of students at Mamen's house, Amy, saying that her spanish grandfather was missing! Now, considering his age, he never leaves the house, except to go to church on sundays with his daughter, get a cerveza (beer) on the way back and go straight home. Everyone was worried sick and we literally formed a search party looking for him around the neighborhood and in every restaurant and bar we could find in a mile radius. After calling the police and the only other relative in town, the grandfather came walking back into house, complete with sweater and cane as if nothing had happened. Apparently there had been some dispute earlier in the day, and he refused to tell anyone where he had been.

El Diario: The day before, my spanish sisters were both involved in the equivalent of a less trashy Jerry Springer. They told Meghan and I that they would be on a talk-show and we were already shocked. Elvira and Belen had no idea why they were going on the show but knew that they were going to be used to interview. Apparently, we find as we're watching Elvira live on TV from Mamen's living room, Elvira has a friend whom she grew up with that is living with her boyfriend who has two children by another woman, one of them very sick with leukemia, and refuses to pay any bills. The goal of the host was to have her friend's mom and Elvira (best friend) confront this girl and tell her to leave her boyfriend. Get that? I sure didn't at first! Especially when it was explained in Spanish.

After these two days, Meghan and I pondered whether or not we were actually on some kind of reality show ourselves.

Barcelona=absolutely gorgeous! Friends from BC, Matt, Mike, Sam, Jenny, Caroline, and I explored one of the other biggest --*cities in Spain two weekends ago from now. Highlights included visiting:
*the architecture of Gaudí
*a huge market with fresh seafood, fruit, candy, and everything else one could think of
*attending mass in the Cathedral of Barcelona with at least 10 priests, incense, altar boys, all in the language of Barcelona, Catalán
*two amazing mornings relaxing on the beach, complete with much more nudity than on your average US coast and some amazing, clear, blue ocean
*watching beach volleyball in the Olympic village with helado (ice cream) as the sun went down
*trying to sleep on an overnight train twice, and getting to know each other better in the process
*sampling local tapas with two locals that we met


Ireland:
Probably the most pleasant and effortless trip I will go on while here. Being raised a Sweeney (and Caffery) I felt a bit as though I was going home when arriving in Ireland. I stayed with a wonderful friend from home, Rosemary, to whom I will forevermore be indebted. Her host family let us stay in their beautiful house in the small, charming town of Enniskerry, right outside of Dublin. Again, there's so much to tell later in pictures and stories, but here are a few highlights:

*the first morning we were there, we had some coffree and hot chocolate in a place named Poppies café in downtown Enniskerry (about the size of a very small neighborhood) where Rosemary had been able to get to know the owner, Peter.
*finding an adorable restuarant named Quay's in the Templebar area of Dublin for a filling meal and some Irish music-"Galway Girl" was what was playing as we walked up the stairs to our seats
*going to get my "first proper pint" in a dublin bar called The Celt Pub with Rosemary, and meeting some of her lovely friends.
*visiting an amazing property of gardens and a cute giftshop called Powerscourt where we witnessed one of the most beautiful views of Enniskerry seen thus far and once again sipping some coffee and eating a glazed chocolate croissant...gosh, life is hard
*Saturday we took on the task of driving from coast to coast, which our host family thought was ridiculous, in order to go from Dublin Sea to Galway Bay and see County Clare (for which I was named), the town of Quin, and the adorable streets of Galway. The drive did not dissapoint either as we saw beautiful countryside, cows, and some castle ruins.
*The last morning, Rosemary's host mom, Maeve, made us some fresh Irish Soda Bread before our trip home. We enjoyed it with some jam sitting in the kitchen complete with beautiful hardwood floors and a big green warm stove heating the room.

Well, I hope to update more frequently from now on, so as not to let entries pile up like this. I do apologize for I'm sure the many spelling and grammar mistakes, but I have so much to say and not enough time or patience to make it perfect. I hope everyone is doing well in the States. I've been enjoying keeping in touch a bit by watching the SNL clips on-line and the new episodes of the Office when possible.

Love,
Clare