Madrid...Enough Said.

DAY 1: Friday, Oct. 19

I headed out of Sevilla on the 8 a.m. Socibus. The drive took six hours, so thank God I slept the first three hours. On a good note, I only paid $25 for the trip. When I arrived I took the metro to our hotel, Best Western Premier Hotel in Santo Domingo. When I walked through the doors, my Aunt Dee-Dee and her friend Liz where waiting in the lobby with open arms. (Sidebar: Aunt De- Dee, the senior editor for multimedia at The Charlotte Observer, will give a presentation to European journalists on how the news industry in the U.S. is trying to identify and best serve its online readers.) Given that it was 3 p.m., our first mission was to eat lunch. So we headed out into a busy Puerta del Sol, full of tourists, shoppers and diners. To see the diversity of people and hear the variety in language was amazing. I think it's much more prominent in Madrid then Sevilla.

At lunch, I officially became the translator for the weekend. Liz, whose parents are Ecuadorian, spoke a little Spanish, but gave the main Spanish-speaking to me. Aunt Dee-Dee and Liz enjoyed their first plate of paella (the rice, meat and seafood dish) and croquetas (small often rounded masses consisting usually of minced meat, fish, or vegetable coated with egg and bread crumbs and deep-fried, basically the Southerner's hush puppies). We also shared a pitcher of sangria (iced punch made of red wine, fruit juice, and soda water; named after blood o sangre for it's rich red color). For desert, we hit up Chocolatería San Gines for churros and warm chocolate sauce.

After gaining about five pounds from lunch, we walked through the various shops and passed the opera house, the Royal Theater (Teatro Real) to the Royal Palace (Palacio Real) and its statue-filled Plaza de Oriente. This area is obviously a tourist attraction, so we were among the many who took pictures in front of the statues of former royalty and government officials. It's simply grand, the palace. King Juan Carlos I and his wife, Queen Sofía, don't live in the palace, but they host formal gatherings there. We entered the court that connects the Palace and Cathedral of Almudena and peered through the gates, marking the schedule to memory so we could tour them on Saturday.

DAY 2: Saturday, Oct. 20

Our first stop: La Plaza Mayor, the central, grand square that currently houses popular restaurants and the tourist office, was once the stage of royal coronations, mass killings and bullfights. Over breakfast, we tried to figure out if the 39 €-Madrid Card was worth it. We figured it was. The card offers free access to almost 40 museums, short waits in lines, discounts, unlimited rides (for one day) on the Madrid Vision tour bus, etc. That tour bus was hot! It a double-decker that allowed you to give off and on wherever and whenever you wanted. We toured the the palace first. I wish I could show you pictures of the ornate grandeur of it all, but picture-taking wasn't allowed. It's beautiful, of course. Every room had it's own decor and own purpose, like King Carlos III smoked in here and wrote letters in there. That's the kind of extravagance I'm talking about! I've never seen such a great amount of gold in my life. The tour was long and tiring, so we ate afterwards at a place designated in our Madrid Card. We thought we would get a 15% discount, but no. It was alright, though. As we ate, we looked at the Shiatsu masseures and masseuses messaging the heck out of people's heads and feet. So we partook in the action too. The messages were great. Just what we needed to prepare us for more exploration.

We headed back on the tour bus and looked over so much - the Paseo del Prado (the stretch in which you'll find the most important art museums), the shops (Gucci!) in modern Spain, the skyscrapers, Plaza del Colón (dedicated to Christopher Colombus) and Santiago Bernabéu Stadium (the home of Real Madrid, the world-famous soccer club and David Beckham's former team). (Sidebar: I wish I had time to tour the stadium, but maybe another time.) That night we hit La Gran Vía, literally the "Great Way," to eat dinner. La Gran Vía is the Broadway of Spain. It houses many theatres, to which people were headed to see the Spanish versions of "Jesus Chirst Superstar and Beauty and the Beast. Aunt Dee-Dee didn't enjoy the hustle and bustle, but I found it all exciting. We ended the night eating burgers, drinking sangria and surfing the net at Zahara. Everyone in Spain nor every hotel in Spain has Internet access. Therefore, we had to access the Internet and long-distance calls at Internet cafes called Internetías. Zahara happened to have one below its dining area and bar. My friends - Dianna, Abby and Laura - sent me a video of them at the homecoming game at Kinston High School. (We lost, of course.) Anyhoo, they sent greetings from home and had me laughing in this public Internet cafe in Madrid. I love technology! (Sidebar: It was cold in Madrid. I'm definitely going to look up the weather before traveling again.)

DAY 3: Sunday, Oct. 21

We finally made it to the Reina Sofía National Museum and Art Center on Sunday morning. Wowza! ¡Qué guay! The museum housed more contemporary art of the 20th century and of today's artists. I was most excited about seeing the work of Salvador Dalí and Pablo Picasso, and I was not disappointed. And "Guernica" does exist! I've seen it! (Sidebar: I stole that tagline from a postcard.) You could easily spend more than four hours in the museum. We only could muster two.

Dalí - "El Gran Masturbador"


Picasso - "Guernica"

We were pooped after the Reina Sofía tour, so we ate the bomb ham and cheese sandwiches at El brillante. Spanish or Iberian ham is on another level of great taste. Anyhoo, we then headed to the Prado. There we saw a vast amount of paintings from several centuries. Some notable painters were "El Greco," Diego Velázquez, Francisco de Goya and Rembrandt. The paintings were usually of the same themes - royalty, Virgen Mary, the Cruxificion. I didn't like it as much as Reina Sofia, but I can now say that I've seen the famous Prado Musuem. The other visitors gave me something to look at too. We represented so many different countries and cultures, so I looked and listened to how people commented on the paintings in Dutch, Britiish English, Italian, etc. That was an experience within itself. After the two-hour tour, we had to go back to the hotel so I could retrieve my bags and head to Atocha to catch a train.

On the Metro from the Prado to the hotel to get my bags, Liz's wallet was stolen from her purse. Some gypsies pushed her into the car and got on either side of her. Liz said it was her fault because her purse was wide open. Hopefully, everything will turn out fine. But we all learned a good lesson: be careful and be aware of your belongings and who's watching them.

My first two days in Sevilla.

Hola a todos (Hello all),

I'm about to go to bed after spending a very busy second day in Sevilla. After spending 9 hours on two planes en route to Madrid and 2.5 hours on a train to Sevilla, I was exhausted when I finally arrived at the Hotel Alcazar (All of the 50-plus students stayed there Tuesday. We were scheduled to meet our host families Wednesday morning.) The AVE train ride was excellent, though. Let's say it's more punctual, modern and quiet than the Amtrak. But who's comparing? And the view of the vast fields, orchards and farmhouses was excellent. At Hotel Alcazar, the students met with the UNC in Sevilla program directors that are stationed in Sevilla. Then we took naps, traversed the city's cobblestone streets and park walkways and ate dinner at a Spanish restaurant, El Rey Moro. (Sidebar: Dinner in Spain takes place between 8 and 10 p.m. Breakfast is light and people eat it at no set time. Lunch is the heaviest meal of the day and usually is eaten at 2 or 3 p.m., before the 3-hour siesta, during which everything shuts down.) The other students and I, well maybe just me, expected a traditional Spanish meal with potato tortillas or paella or tres leches cake. We received a more American meal of grilled chicken, French fries and ice cream instead. It was tasty, nonetheless. I hit the hay after checking my e-mail and calling the bank in the U.S. to make sure its staff doesn't think a person stole my ATM card and used it in another country. (Sidebar: I recommend that people who plan to travel abroad do so before leaving the country.)

Today, I woke up sluggish because of the 6-hour time difference. If it's midnight in Spain, it's 6 p.m. in my hometown of Kinston, N.C. But my roommate, Kareemah, and I were excited to finally meet our senora or host mother. Her name is Ines and she has an 11-year-old daughter. As soon as we met Ines, she greeted us with a hug and a kiss on each cheek, which is a Spanish custom. She, like most senoras, talked to us about everything (in Spanish, of course) and offered more food than we could stand. For lunch or el almuerzo, she prepared salad, potato tortilla and gazpacho, which is a cold tomato soup. She offered fruit o fruta for desert. We ate salad and pizza for dinner or la cena, which was at 10 p.m. In between the tasty meals, Kareemah and I told Ines about our interests and showed her pictures of our families and friends and vice versa. Some things did get lost in translation, but I'm doing pretty well speaking el espanol.

After lunch, all the students had to go to EUSA (pronounced eh-oo-sah), the university that hosts the study abroad program. The directors gave us tips on everything from exchanging U.S. dollars for Euros to the hazards of walking alone at night to how to tell your senora that she's offering too much food. Some classmates and I took a 20-minute walk to Orange, a popular cellular phone store, after the two-hour meeting. We either needed to add minutes to the prepaid phones we were given from past students or to purchase new phones. The poor saleswoman at the store was bombarded by 12 students talking to her at once about rates and international calling cards, but we all left the store unscathed.

I had no idea what to expect when I landed in Spain (I read guidebooks and past students' comments, but that cannot prepare you fully for living in a foreign country). Most of the building are tall, as to maximize space by being constructed vertically. Most residences are apartments above stores or tiendas. I have to yet to see a house. The people are beautiful with olive-toned skin and piercing eyes of all colors. The woman are de moda or fashionable with their linen tops, skirts and heels or Greek goddess-inspired sandals. And pictures don't do the ancient Baroque and Moorish buildings justice. You can't help but notice the unique history that lies within each stone of the cathedral, the streets and the parks. Compared to Spain and other European nations, the U.S. is an infant country. And best of all, my Spanish-speaking skills have already improved. Words cannot describe how excited I am to discover more about Sevilla's people and culture.

Hasta luego (So long or until later),
Dioni