Day off

I never really made it to bed after the previous night of clubbing. I arrived back, chatted on Skype, and slept for about 30 minutes before waking up to see off the remaining students who were quarantined. That is when my day began.

Quote of the day from yesterday: ''Diogo, that´s because you were to busy sticking your thermometer in people´s mouths.''

We took two cabs to Toledo. The first one, Jenn, Sean, Kevin and Myself arrived without problems. We did get lost, but made it in one piece. The second cab showed up with a grand entrance just as the bus was leaving. All on, I sat next to some random guy, and probably fell asleep on his shoulder. I apparently suddenly was out cold on the way back and spent most of it on Sean´s shoulder.

Toledo was beautiful and Sean brought it alive with his knowledge for us. It´s apparently also a Brooks Brothers subsidiary. Who knew, but that golden fleece is everywhere!

Started at the Mosque. It was small, and I decided to pass and headed instead for some breakfast and coffee. It was under renovations, which was how it was last time our guide, Sean, was there back in the nineties. Only then, it wasn´t even open to explore the semi-construction site that it is.

To the Cathedral. By the time we left I was done with gold and shiny things. Especially gold and shiny religious things. The place was beyond massive and was filled with artwork. It was actually quite amazing that so much wealth had been accumulated in terms of art and relics and what not in a single place.

Lunch at Sean´s old watering hole, and the group moved on. Alex and Kevin were providing architectural insight, Joel historical significance. It was an excellent group to travel with. We did the El Greco painting after, the Burial of Orgaz. That was really cool. I think the drinking started around then. While we were at the Cathedral, Joel had done a small pub crawl in the surrounding places.

The Jewish Museum was pretty cool, though I was hoping to find a living congregation of sephardic jews, and try to arrange a shabbat dinner. Apparently, most of the spanish jews are long gone, or no longer jews.

Saw some more sites, took a cascading set of escalators, saw the chains of prisoners and hopped back on the bus.

We arrived in Madrid, and met with Maureen, Emily, and Shiva at Puerta del Sol. That in itself is a miracle, considering all the construction - although I suppose it limits movement to two many paths.

The bebida consumption began immediately back in what we had previously nicknamed Plaza de Pantalones Cortes. You can find it on a map titled Plaza de Sta. Ana, or by searching the Hotel ME by Melia.

But the food was apparently expensive, so we set off for a tapas place. It was excellent. Let me repeat that. It was excellent. Sangria in abundance, and more. Then there were the tapas. We had a thing with goat cheese. It was awesome. We had another thing with smoked salmon. It was awesome! In fact the concept of a meal without ham was pretty much awesome enough unto itself.

I shared a well prepared steak for 2 with Diogo, and ended our visit to that establishment with a shot of something apple-y. And it was after dinner that we hit the higlight of the evening, the only cultural establishment for us in Madrid, El Museo de Jamon! It was Joel´s favorite place. I have to admit, drinking euro beers in the butcher shop is an entirely new experience. As is watching Shiva try to pick up girls by telling them that he has Gripe-A!

There may have been more, but it's all a little fuzzy at the moment. I know we went somewhere close to Hotel ME after being denied access to the roof, and from there Shiva disappeared and Diogo as well. Then it was Chocolate and Churros to end the night, a cab back, and early sleep (it was only two by the time we arrived. The Vigilante was out cold, and we had to wake him up. He apparently was not pleased at all.

I woke up with a bladder so full, I was afraid to remove myself from bed. By 9AM I was downstairs at breakfast, and ready to end my time here at Universidad Francisco de Vitoria.

To end it all, we woke up and there was a wet parking lot, and apparently a rainbow early this morning, which I missed. The rain in spain really does fall on the plain, after all. ç

Quote of the morning: Jenn talking about her cereal which can only be described as chocolate balls, ''I overmilked my cereal.''

What Country are we in?

Spain

Ole!

A day in Madrid, a last party, and some good conversation

It was cold this morning. After a late start, and one of the better breakfasts (chocolate croissant), I headed into Madrid along with the students. Our first stop was the Palace, where I became the personal banker for CTY. They weren´t equipped with currency, and so I lent them the necessary funds to cover the entry for most of the students - thus leaving me broke.

I already had seen the Palace last week with Ryan, and so I meandered through not paying as close attention, instead focusing more on not losing anyone. Success on that front, and we moved on to the park where the kids had lunch.

I feel like I learned such good manners in Morocco. When I sat on the bench, there was already someone there. I offered him the bag of chips that came in the lunch, similar to how you always shared food on the train in Morocco. It creates a nice community atmosphere. He declined, and I ate my sandwich.

I then asked Jenn if we could do the churros, and she seemed fine with it, but wanted to know if we could be accomodated. I grabbed Ryan, and we quickly walked to the place we had been last week, and set it up with them.

Classic CTY, no previous planning.

We brought the kids in, and frankly, the churros were not their best. Not quite hot enough, but still tasty. When the bill came I reasoned with him in my broken spanish, and he picked up the bill for two of us since we just brought them a bunch of business. I attempted to get them to cover the whole staff, but as I was covered (good since I had no money after lending it all to CTY), I wasn´t going to keep attempting since the others aren´t as confrontational or as willing to ask for things as I am.

Then it was some shopping in the Plaza Mayor. One of our students almost had her stuff broken into, apparently the other students grabbed the woman´s arm - but the two women working the scam made off down a street. We ''shopped'' there, not much as it is a tourist trap for about 20 minutes, and then headed to La Reina Sophia. On the way, we stopped in Plaza Del Sol, and the kids were able to shop a bit more. It was a waste of time, to much time to just hang out, to little to actually look at more than a single store.

Moving on we went in a very circular route to La Reina Sophia. The temporary exhibition was not thrilling at all. Guernica was pretty huge, and pretty cool, and the dali collection wasn´t to shabby, but also not particularly thrilling. I finished what I wanted to see, found three students down in the courtyard who were thirsty, and agreed to take them to Starbucks. I thought it was by the book. They were accompanied, we were back in time, I made the executive decision that we could make this small move without casuing harm, putting anyone in danger, and make it a better experience for a few students. I thought it was all about the students...

I took the students across the plaza (we didn´t even cross any streets) and returned before the meeting time. I was told much later when we returned to campus that it was not ok. Apparently there were students roaming the plaza in front of La Reina Sophia. I am not sure how those roaming students were my responsibility, as I was only required to be at the meeting place not guarding the doors. It was a very stressful day for some of the staff, but I found that if I just rolled with things, it was fine.

Got back, and met the Nick replacement.

I was missing a student at dinner, and on the way got sidetracked for about ten minutes with origami. I made a quick crane, and saw a really cool ball that I want to learn how to do.

Dinner was undescribable. I really have no idea what I ate. I sat with Alexandra, and another CTY Espana student who was from the states. Alexandra I found out is Swedish and Peruvian and heading to Oxford. The conversation was really nice. One mentioned wanting to be a banker, and so I told them both about Mergers and Inquisitions and later showed her the Damn it Feels Good to be a Banker video on youtube. She seemed to enjoy them both, hopefully they are helpful. If I remember, I will have to recommend the book as well.

Afterwards we had a party, inviting the kids to donate their food they had purchased in anticipation of the coming week. Music was not great, mostly because of a poor quality sound system set up. Kristin, another RA, explained some of the traditions of CTY with regard to the final song, American Pie. It´s apparently an integral part of every CTY dance, and epitomizes the whole experience.

For a camp being shut down because of an H1N1 epidemic, things are reasonably calm here and the students are in surprisingly good spirits.