Preciosa

Highlight of the last few days: Parque Retiro! I finally went yesterday for the first time and it was such a gorgeous day- 60 and sunny! of course, the Spaniards were still pretty bundled up but my New England self was loving that i could just wear a t-shirt (also pants). I went with some friends and we wandered around for a few hours, just looking at all the fountains and people. we stumbled upon this palacio cristal that had a small exhibit from the Reina Sofia museum that was pretty cool. It is a lot different than Central Park in that it is not as green and there are no rocks, but perhaps that is because it is february and the possibility that things will get green is pretty likely. in the mean time, i am returning there today to have a picnic! hopefully it will be the site of many many picnics in the future as well.



after the park, we went to see a movie that we thought looked interesting based solely on the posters in the metro to cross another cultural activity off the list for the month. Turned out to be about this girl who gets kidnapped and raped and then tells her best friend who is a boy, and then they start dating and he rapes her and abuses her also. So far, out of two plays and two spanish movies i have seen, there has been at least one graphic (as in, more than would be shown in the usa but less than a porn obviously) sex scene, and two rape scenes. I don't know if it's just the ones we have been choosing, or if this is how spanish things work. My host mom was like "why do they make you see spanish movies? they're awful!" so far i agree...
we also had to go to this art fair exposition thing on friday. I had no clue what it was, but we got out of the metro and there was this huge building in front of us, which apparently is the potential spot for the olympics if madrid hosts them. so we bought our tickets (21 euros jeez!) and it turned out to be this huge huge art gallery show basically. it was in a bunch of super big rooms that were sectioned off into little areas for each gallery. it was really neat. this is a bus that looks like it is made out of bones.



then at night on friday, we went to the moncloa barrio and went to this bar that was decorated like a cave inside. when you order the drink of the house- "panther's milk" they take a big goblet the size of my head and milk starts coming out of the ceiling while the bartender pours a lot of various alcohol in there, and tops it with cinnamon. it was a strange drink. then we went to club scruffy, which was appropriately named. while waiting in line for the bathroom, my friend and i met this very intense drunk spanish girl who was SO EXCITED that we were american and invited us to dance with her and her friends. she was pretty hilarious. our blatant american accent gives us away, even when we are speaking in spanish they know we are not from around here. because i am blonde, i automatically get pegged for being from the united states. i myself am getting better at distinguishing americans in madrid. you can tell because of their footwear- flats without socks, flip flops, sandals, running sneakers.. or like yesterday if they were wearing a t-shirt without a jacket.. or simply because they look like a natural blonde. i like to play the game of guessing if someone is american on the metro and usually when they start talking i am right. you can tell if someone is actually spanish if they are wearing winter clothes, or if they are hardcore making out with someone. there is no concept of or word for p.d.a. here. i would say that because yesterday was valentines day, there were more couples making out everywhere, but that is not true. every day is like valentines day if you are spanish.