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Thursday October 7

So at the end of our class in the Prado, our professor told us that in El Mercado de San Miguel they were having a special promotion today and had tapas with truffles for just 2 euros. I've never had truffles before (no incredibly expensive mushroom type not the chocolate type) so I headed over there with 3 friends to check it out. It is an old building with a fancy iron structure and the inside has lots of different vendors with different types of tapas where you can just buy one of each type and get to sample a lot of different kinds. I wasn't too impressed my my truffle concoction el chupito de otoño which was a mix of many different things. After that I tried 2 more tapas with delicious fish on top of a cracker for 1 euro each and they were absolutely delicious.

From our art class we had homework to visit another museum, but when I tried to find it this one was also closed and had been so for quite some time. So far 2 museum visits, and both have been closed for quite some time. The professora isn't going to be happy about this.

Friday October 8

We don't have classes on Fridays, but the center organized free trips or activities that we can do. Today it was a tour around the neighborhood Lavapies which is near my house. It used to be a quintessential traditional Spanish neighborhood, but there have been a lot of immigrants to the neighborhood and according to my anthropology teacher it has caused some conflicts.

As part of the tour we were paired off and each assigned a location. Our job was to find the location as we walked around and talk to people about it to find out what it was and then we had to explain it to a video camera. Kelley and I got the first one, Teatro Pavón which is a theatre that does traditional Spanish plays. We waited in line trying to ask the lady at the counter about it since no one else really knew much about it, but ended up just getting our information from the program.

Other locations were a church which I really liked, two other theatres, El Reina Sophia (museum I plan to go to at some point), a library, a social center with classes, and there was this old tobacco factory that had been converted into a social dance place where different ethnic groups would have dances or other activities. There was an African dance being led by someone when we got there and after a bit the majority of us joined in and it was a lot of fun.

Then later that night I went out to Mexican food with 5 friends from the program at a place recommended by our art history professor. It was a lot of fun to go out with them. The chips and guacamole were delicious, but my tacos definitely weren't that great. What we have all learned from experience and being told so by many different people, is that ethnic food just isn't good in Spain and we should wait until we go home or somewhere else. Nothing here is spicy- at all! My señora has warned me a couple times that the dish is a little bit spicy, but I've almost never been able to taste the spiciness at all.

Saturday and Sunday

Saturday I did a lot of homework in my room trying to read an article for my anthropology class. It just doesn't make sense to me that a 20 page article takes me 6 hours in order to figure out what it's saying and what it means.

Saturday night I went out with a bunch of people from school. We went to El Tigre a local bar that gives you free tapas with drinks and then headed to Kapital after which is a dance club with 7 different floors and each floor has a different theme with a different type of music and a different drink featured on that floor.

Sunday I slept in and enjoyed my lazy day while trying to do a lot of research for my anthropology project. It isn't due until November 25 but is 40% of our grade and I want to get started earlier rather than later. I'm working with Ebryonna and we are comparing the family and the issue of divorce in the time of Franco and now. I'm doing the now part and there just aren't that many scholarly paper or books talking about the current times (because they are current) but I'll keep looking and hopefully it will be okay to use more newspaper articles and interviews with people who live here.

Monday October 11

Today I went back to my volunteering job in the morning and then had flamenco class in the evening. We had a test where we each had to get up in front of the class and do one of the dances all by ourselves for a grade and only one girl out of the whole class didn't get told that her rhythm was off. This is a girl who also has done tap dance for many many years. That part wasn't as fun but the class overall is great!

Then since we don't have classes tomorrow because it is the Día de España and a holiday I went out to La Latina with some friends. It was very low key and just hanging out and having a few tapas. None of us had been to La Latina before but it is a neighborhood (a 15 minute walk from my house) that has a lot of little bars and tapas restaurants that are very alive in the evenings and early night. We were all pretty tired and headed home about 11:30 or 12. An early night.