My new apartment.

So I am all moved into my new apartment and I love it! My roommates are great. So far there are two Spanish girls, (one
who speaks English very well but doesn't with us unless we need to translate a specific word and another who doesn't speak
English very much at all) and an Italian girl. The Italian is hilarious and so full of live. She speaks Spanish pretty well but
always seems to add the Italian "tune" to it. We are still waiting on three other girls from somewhere in Europe. We had a
great time our first night hanging out together laughing, mixing up words and drinking wine.
The apartment is kind of old (especially thinking US standards) with tiled bathrooms and wooden floors. Our first couple days here the gas to heat the water wouldn't stay lit so we took several very cold showers/spongebaths. The increased body oder really made me feel one with the Spanish people. Now everything is working just like it should.
Friday night my American friends and I went out for tapas. For those who are unfamiliar with the tapas tradition it is when a
group of friends goes from bar to bar ordering a small appetizer or two and a round of drinks. Many places will just give you a free "tapa" with your drinks. supposedly this tradition began with Felipe VI because the flies were so bad he wanted a plate of something to put on top of his beer to keep the bugs out of it.
After the tapas my roommate and I ended up in a plaza where were saw a man doing a fire show and an all female brass band, I think they were French. There was also this crazy lady hang around the band playing her recorder. The strangest thing wasn't that he had a recorder it was that the instrument was attached to her 18 inch multicolored mullet dread lock. Mullets and dreads are so in right now in Madrid! Who knows maybe I will end up with one...

Today we went to el Rastro again. I bought two pairs of earrings for only 3 euro a piece and a huge patchwork bag for only 2
euro. After walking around those streets for a couple of hours we grabbed some quick bocadillos (sandwiches on baguettes). I got the calamari bocadillo which was a giant sandwich filled with lightly breaded and friend calamari- yum yum. A little
lettuce and tomato would have made it better but the Spanish aren't big on condiments. If you get a ham bocadillo than that
is what you get- ham and bread.

Segovia

Yesterday we went to Segovia. It was absolutly amazing. The city has so much history and so much character, not to mention great tapas and cheap souveniers.
The most impresive thing was the Roman aqueduct still standing after 2,000 years without mortar or quickcreat. I wish my brother Eric would have been able to see it and the tools they used to build it because i'm sure he would have been in awe. The aqueduct is massive and long. It was built to bring water up to Segovia which was built on a moutain surrounded by a river for protection. They captured the water coming off of an opposing mountain and lead it to the ancient city. They even had the water covered to protect it from impurities (bird poop). There is no water in it anymore. I guess a few years ago they experimented and tried getting it to work again but the water leaked and they were afraid of erosion so they stopped that.
There were also multiple churches, a giant cathedral, and a castle built for Fernando y Isabel de Castilla y Leon. "Tanto monta, monta tanto, Isabel como Fernando"- this was a statement of equal power between Fernando y Isabel, although Isabel had much more land and riches. The castle suffered a very damaging fire so most of the rooms had to be restored.

Look at the pictures and captions here, http://wisc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2281687&l=4f082&id=8628715. My operating system is too old for Picassa. I'm looking into updating. Mom make sure Eric sees them.

My first week

My first week in Madrid has been so busy. We started our 3-week intensive course on Tuesday. It is an hour of history and politics, an hour of art, and then two hours of grammar and composition. The three professors are wonderful and pretty easy to understand. The class is a lot of work though and on top of that we have been in charge of searching for a place to live in this giant city.
I lucked out with my apartment. I got a great price in an ideal location, and I found it only after 2 days of searching. Some people in my program are still dealing with rude landlords and hole-in-the-wall smelly apartments. My apartment in on the Plaza de San Bernardo, an area not only popular for students but also families. I live with 7 other girls, one American, 2 Spainards, anitalian and then other Europeans whom I haven´t met yet and our landlord wasn´t sure where they were from. I am actually sharing a room with the American, Tayrn, a girl from Madison. The best part about our room has to be the view. Two glass french doors open up to over look the plaza and it´s two huge fountains. It´s beautiful.
Other than class and apartment hunting I have been trying to get to some of the traditional tourist areas such as El Parque de Retiro, El Rastro (a massive flea market that streaches for miles), and the fresh food markets. The night life is amazing. Today I got home at 7:14 am from my night out on the town.
Well, I am off to run some erronds and go to a cafe with some friends. I will write more soon.