Catapaneando…una perspectiva guiri

Desde que llegué a Soria de Inglaterra hace seis meses, todo el mundo me había hablado de las fiestas de San Juan. “Te van a gustar seguro” dicen, “¡es una locura!”… Pero yo no estaba muy convencido hasta el inicio oficial de las fiestas el domingo pasado, día en el que se celebró el Catápan.

No podría creer que tantas personas saliesen tan pronto para beber y bailar por las calles, pero la verdad es que los sorianos estaban preparados para el comienzo de sus fiestas. A pesar del pesimismo que predomina en la sociedad actual por la crisis, la llegada de este día se unió a una comunidad de una manera que nunca antes había visto en mi vida.

Mis amigos siguen explicándome los orígenes de los pre-sanjuanes, pero no me convencen. A mi modo de ver, se trata de una excusa para celebrar más días de jolgorio. Pero, quizás algún día, llegue a comprender el sentido de estas costumbres y tradiciones.

En Gran Bretaña el botellón está asociado a la violencia y alteración del orden. De hecho, parece un poco agresivo ver un grupo de jóvenes bebiendo por la calle, pero aquí no sucede lo mismo, sino que percibe de distinta forma, como algo natural y cotidiano.

Fiestas así no existen en mi país. Lo de las cuadrillas, las botas y las verbenas son rasgos propios de la cultura que quería experimentar desde el principio de mi estancia. Antes de los  próximos “previos” tengo que practicar las técnicas para aprender a tragar y así beber el vino de la bota y unirme a los “trenecitos”.  Poco a poco, me acostumbraré a esta manera tan diferente de celebrar las fiestas como un soriano más.

No obstante, sí hubo algo que me desilusionó un poco: el ver una chica muy joven empapada en su propio vómito. Esta imagen no representa lo que yo asociaba con el espíritu de las fiestas españolas. Es una pena que los jóvenes no conozcan su límite y arruinen un día de fiesta, así como la diversión de otros.

A pesar de esta excepción, observé una conducta muy responsable y divertida. El ambiente acogedor junto con la música típica de las bandas, las bebidas que estaban circulando, la gente risueña y jovial conformaron una unidad insólita. A pesar del refrán “Hasta el cuarenta de mayo no te quites el sayo”,  el buen tiempo nos acompañó y permitió que disfrutáramos de una tarde-noche mágica, típicamente soriana.

¿El Catapán me estimuló el apetito para sanjuanear en junio? ¿Estoy preparado para una semana de “fiestón” como el del domingo pero multiplicado por diez? Este guiri cree que sí.

Una de las cuadrillas de Catápan, con la verbena y un montón de gente animada

Did you understand any of that? No? Okay, here’s a quick English summary:

So, a couple of Sundays ago, the official start of the local Sorian fiestas, Catápan, happened. Soria was split into 12 cuadrillas (or neighbourhoods) and each one had a mini-concert, a verbena, like the one in the picture above. It seemed like the entire Sorian population was out drinking free wine and eating salted cod and cheese: it was utter chaos, but the atmosphere was incredible. There were people of all ages drinking, dancing and just generally having a great time, casually getting day-drunk. It was a typical Spanish experience (that was happily witnessed by my visiting aunt and uncle) that would be unthinkable back home in the UK where young people don’t really know their limits and things can get aggressive under the influence of alcohol. Here in Spain, however, everything was wonderful, safe and responsible. It certainly whetted my appetite for the arrival of the main fiestas, SanJuanes, later in June, although I’m not sure how I’ll survive Catápan x10 everyday for 7 days…

March In Pictures

Time is MARCH-ing on! The delay in getting this blog-post up will all be explained in the next couple, but until then, here’s some visual delights:

**If you are squeamish, DO NOT scroll down to the fourth and final image – features picture of a lamb’s heart**

The Cathedral de Santa María La Real in Pamplona had these enormous, weird baby head statues outside: one sleeping baby facing one with its eyes open. Couldn’t really work out what it was supposed to represent and there was no literature to explain it. Ah well, it made the visit more memorable!

In the evening, we stumbled across a marching drum band in the Plaza de Castillo. Like the intrigued, naive guiris that we were, we followed them to this narrow street, dance-walking all the way until we got to this building with giant sheets hanging from the balcony with something written in Basque on them. We still don’t really know what this was: maybe some neighbourhood street party or a publicity stunt for a bar opening, who knows, but it’s these spontaneous detours that make Year Abroad’s so exciting.

I find this so adorable: a castle and a lion, made of plasticine, arm-in-arm waving! If you don’t get it, this represents the region, Castilla y Leon (castle and lion), the region Soria is in! This aww-inducing delight greeted us as we entered the Plasticine Exhibition.

WE DID HEART DISSECTIONS IN MY SCIENCE CLASSES! I’d never done this ever before, not even in my GCSE Biology classes so it was quite an experience. We did it in 4 classes, 3 of which were on the same day so it’s safe to say I was feeling a bit woozy afterwards! I was debating whether or not to include a picture here but at the end of the day it’s all part of the cultural experience so I decided not to hold anything back. It was surprising that I was allowed to take pictures in the class anyway, even of the students posing with their animal organs, who then asked me to bluetooth the photos to them after class. Hmph.

Look out for the blog-posts about my Easter adventures very soon…!

February in Pictures

Bit overdue but here we go, photos for febrero:

It snowed in Soria again…multiple times! Living up to its reputation as being one of the coldest provinces in Spain. Here’s a picture of a snow-covered palm tree.

We decided to take a not-so terrifying cable car up to the not-so lost town of Montserrat when in Barcelona. Super duper experience with lots of pretty views.

Park Guell in Barcelona is probably one of my favourite places in the world to visit. Everybody loves a nice big park and coupled with beautiful Gaudi architecture, it’s hard to find another place so vibrant and representative of the wider city.

Celebrated International Margarita Day at my house with Blakely, Jillian, Lisa and Matt. A lot of tequila, Cointreau, limes and salt was consumed and… well, you know the rest.

Finally, just a bit of self-plugging: I wrote a little article for Third Year Abroad about the potential pit-falls of intense language immersion, check it out here.

Hasta whenever!

December in Pictures

For the last time this year, here’s a quick round-up of this month’s goings on:

Spontaneous trip to a little city called Tarazona one Saturday. Great way to spend a day crossing the border into Aragon and seeing all the sights, like the Cathedral and the Old Bull Ring as seen in this picture. Something to whet the appetite before the inevitable trip to Zaragoza!

Pretty exhausted after the trip to Tarazona, the next day I accepted the invitation to go on a walking excursion to Valonsadero, a nearby park (I say ‘nearby’ but it took almost 2 hours to walk there). After a much needed coffee break when we arrived, we set off to explore the cave paintings and admired the beautiful natural landscapes before the long trek back home. What a weekend!

So on my wanderings in Murcia, we came across this pretty Government building with an old sign saying ‘Agua Para Todos’ (Water for everyone). Outside the building are several needless, functioning water fountains. This amused me greatly.

Saw some sand by the sea in Alicante when we popped over for a visit. It was wonderful. Family members have since noticed a slightly darkened skin-tone i.e. a tan. YAAY!

Last blog-post of 2012 so to finish off, here’s an appropriate song for the festive season which accurately reflects the linguistic fusion that is my life at the moment.

Feliz Navidad, Próspero Año y Felicidad!

Hay Que Vivir La Vida

So we haven’t gone to another city for a weekend break but stuff has happened, so here’s a quick life update:

> Went to go and see Skyfall. I’m not the biggest James Bond fan in the world, but it was important to us to support the British film industry and see what all the fuss was about with 007’s latest, record-breaking outing. Dubbed in Spanish, of course, it was quite an experience to follow exactly what was going on…our discussions after made me realise how strong the plot really was! The acting was top-notch, the special effects were immense and the villain was even played by Spanish bad-boy Javier Bardem.  Not much to complain about really. Oh, and Adele sings the theme song which is incredible. Thankfully not dubbed.

> Went to go and see a enactment of ‘Experimento Marcos’ (Gospel of Mark). It was simple but effective, fairly easy-to-follow: a pretty cool way to spend a Monday night. Members of the audience decided to thank me on the way out: I’d like to think I had a small hand in the overall success of the production ;). Accepted (after much persuasion) an invite back to the Church for dinner  – a friendly bunch of people and met a whole new community of Spanish speakers. (Well, I say ‘Spanish speakers’ but they all had some knowledge of English. Boo!)

> Diwali came to Soria for probably the first time ever (this has actually been verified for me by a few resident Sorians!) I swear I get more cultural when I’m away from home, but everyone seemed keen to celebrate the Indian festival with me so (now armed with my drawer of spices courtesy of the padres) I did the seemingly impossible task of cooking an Indian meal for 10 people. We lit so many candles it was a potential fire hazard (and Spanish homes don’t have smoke alarms, you know) but we survived and had a great night.

> Had my first Thanksgiving too! It was like Christmas American-style! Us Brits had trouble writing what we were thankful for on the hand-turkeys – we never have to think about it so it was difficult! The food was mind-blowingly fantastic; eating as much as our puny stomachs could handle in the afternoon meant we didn’t have to eat for the rest of the day. We sat around drinking wine and playing board games, the rules of which had to be dictated to me several times… Quick (soppy) shout-out: I’m thankful for having Jillian, Blakely, Lisa and Harmony as friends here in Soria, thank y’all for Thanksgiving!

> Becoming immune to the ol’ ‘caña con limón’ (quarter pint of beer with lemonade). At first, I couldn’t understand how people could drink alcohol everyday for lunch/dinner  but after hearing the whole ‘Mediterranean diet’ argument and being invited out most nights to ‘tomar unas copas’, I now get why Spanish people are seen as the happiest and most relaxed people in the world. All I’m going to say is…yo no quiero agua, yo quiero bebida! To my family members that follow my blog, that means ‘I’m going on an alcohol detox indefinitely’.

> Recently got back in touch with my old secondary school to see if the Spanish department would be interested in setting up a penpal letter exchange thing with the students here. Gotta keep the art of hand/letter-writing alive somehow! (and yes, QM, you’ll never get rid of me). Through organising this, you really notice how overly-cautious British people are: where we don’t even need to tell the Head of English about the venture at my school in Spain, the teacher I’m in contact with back at my old school has to ask permission from the Head and get consent from parents…crazy! Here’s hoping it’ll be all systems go for the new year.

> The weather here in Soria has declined dramatically. It’s FREE-ZINGG (intentional typo, spelling freaks). The good thing is it’s hardly ever raining but I hear the UK is bearing the brunt of Europe’s weather system so sad times. The days are blue and sunny here but there’s a bitter cold in the air – teachers at school said days like that are typical of Soria: beautiful but ‘enganchados’ [deceptive]. (It’s pretty odd seeing the glamorous Spanish women walking along the High St with sunglasses and a scarf. Weird combo!) But considering Soria is quite small and the weather hasn’t been great for excursions, there always seems to be something going on where each week is dedicated to something cultural. Be it about Women’s Rights, Health or mushrooms, there are always new activities, exhibitions and conferences on to keep us entertained. Even if the subject matter doesn’t wholly interest me, an hour or so of intense Spanish being spoken at me is bound to be effectual somehow!

> Flirting with the Spanish teacher at the Language School has cranked up several carefully-placed notches and I don’t seem to be showing any signs of stopping! Growing confidence in Spanish is having it’s downsides though as sometimes I’m unwittingly saying bad things. Oops! To make up for things, I’ll soon be recording a reworked version of an LMFAO hit entitled ‘Foreign & I Know It’.

Probably my largest post yet so to finish off, here’s a heart-warming video I stumbled across about how, contrary to popular belief, things don’t suck in Spain…Enjoy!

October In Pictures

Time for another monthly picture update! Here’s an assortment for October:

Machado and Leonor looking out onto Soria. This statue was erected on the Mirón in 2007 to mark the 100th anniversary of Machado arriving in Soria, so it’s relatively new. I think it enhances the landscape instead of ruining it; it gives people something to pose against in triumph once they’ve trekked the path leading up to the viewpoint. This is said to be Leonor’s Mirador (viewpoint), and if you look across you can see Machado’s by the Castle – so it looks like they’re forever gazing upon one another above the Soria in which they fell in love. How romantic…

During the Fiestas of San Saturio there were a lot of things going on. Walking past the bull ring we heard a lot of commotion and went inside to see what was happening. A corner was sectioned off and a little bull was made to run around and get angry – prompted by men in red dresses on a crane. Looked like some kind of competition. We stayed for 10 minutes.

We went to go and see a Volleyball game! This was the Final in the Supercopa between Numancia (the local Sorian team) and Teruel (a village near Zaragoza). We lost…but the atmosphere was incredible and the match was exciting, even for me.

Burgos from a distance with the magnificent cathedral at the heart. Photos never do these stunning landscapes justice…

The Camino de Santiago is a pilgrimage done to the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia. The popular walk passes through Burgos and so throughout the town, there were these shells on the pavement and the walls to let pilgrims know they were on the right track. I’d love to do at least a day of the Camino at some point next year before visiting Santiago again!

La Verdad Es Que…

The truth is that I’ve running behind on my blog for a while! Yesterday’s post about Burgos actually happened two weeks ago and since then we’ve had two pretty normal, uninterrupted weeks. Well, I say normal, but as normal as can be in our Spanish vidas locas. This time, a bullet-point breakdown of what’s been going on to get us back on track. Here goes…

> Assisting (or in some cases, actual teaching) has been going quite well at the school. I’ve been suggesting ways in which I can be more involved in the class instead of just a reader of paragraphs from the textbook. Some teachers have given me activities to prepare, in some classes I’m literally left to my own devices to entertain the class for the entire 50 minutes and in others I’m explaining scientific concepts that I studied over 5 years ago. So a bit of a mixed bag, but I’m enjoying it.

> We STILL haven’t been paid. So as you probably know from a previous blogpost, Castilla y Leon auxiliares started before most Spanish regions, so by now we’ve been working for a good month and a half. Rumours said we’d be paid half a month’s worth of pay in the middle of October. This never came and now, the new revised date in sometime early November, when we should be paid for a month and a half. Luckily, for us EU students, the Erasmus grant has been received on time and is enough to tide us over until pay-day. But for our non-European friends, times are becoming tough. Sort it out, Junta!

> I’ve enrolled on a ‘Spanish for foreigners’ course at the local language school; I’m in the ‘2nd Intermediate’ group along with most of our other English-speaking friends. Lessons are in full swing: an hour and a half twice a week with the most hilarious teacher you could ask for! She’s so funny, she makes grammar fun and I’ve already revised/learnt a ton. Turning up a few minutes late one day meant I had automatically volunteered to become the class delegate – essentially just attending a meeting twice a year giving feedback on how the classes are going. To be honest, I probably would’ve volunteered for the role anyway, so callad amigos!

> Into my second week in Soria, I was desperate to start private classes. After giving my number out to a few people to hand out, I now think I have too many! We were told before we came that they’d be a demand for classes with native speakers but I didn’t expect to be inundated with clients and having to turn away people! Most of our auxiliar friends have a good handful of classes running now to provide us with a good, steady cash-in-hand income. I love preparing for these classes because the age-range of the people I tutor is quite varied: students from 6 – 55 years old! In some classes, I’m playing games with the kids, in others I’m discussing the blood diamond industry with adults. It’s a challenge to stop myself collapsing from exhaustion but it’s worth it and I’m loving it.

> My family came to visit me! Mum, Dad, brother and grandparents all ventured on an epic journey to Soria to spend a few days here during half-term week back in England. Losing their luggage at the airport and missing their connecting coach to Soria was quite worrying for me: travelling around in a foreign country and not knowing the native language meant they were to-and-froing a lot in Madrid Barajas while I was panicking for them back here. They eventually made it here at 10pm and checked into the most amazing hotel ever. The luggage arrived 2 days into their stay and any distress I had at not being reunited with my clothes, Indian tea and food was only temporary! I think I must’ve taken them to everything worth seeing in Soria: the Río Duero, the Hermitage, the Castle (honestly had no idea this existed), the Mirón, the many Romanesque churches etc. There was a lot of walking involved but we were lucky that we had 2 days of beautiful sun before the rain came on their last day. It was obviously a big culture shock for them all I think: the lack of vegetarian/Indian food and general weird cuisine, the crazy shop opening hours, the language (the three-way translations at the dinner-table were always fun) and the apparent lack of ethnic diversity.

A friend asked a Sorian whether the region was multicultural, to which the Sorian replied, ‘Yes, of course! We’ve had black people here for more than 5 years now…’ Room for improvement, I think.

All-in-all, I hope they had a nice experience visiting a part of Spain they probably wouldn’t even have thought about coming to and hopefully they can come again next year, but next time stay in the more touristy Madrid, I can meet them there and we can do more exciting things!

> I worked my first FRIDAY! What with all these fiestas and puentes (bridged bank holidays) it felt really weird going into school on a Friday…next week it’s Todos Los Santos (All Saints) so we have Thursday and Friday off…BOOM! Bring on the 2-day week!

> Went to watch ‘Lo Imposible’ a film that Spanish broadcasters love showing trailers for every 5 seconds. To be fair though, it was directed by Spanish director, JA Bayona, who did a cracking job with a story that was always going to be difficult to tell. It was about the Tsunami that struck on Boxing Day in Thailand in 2004. It was quite hard-hitting stuff. Being an emotional wreck, I was on the brink of tears throughout. People have said they’d been in screenings where people have passed out, the film had to be stopped and the ambulance called. Luckily, the drama during our showing stayed on screen. It was also interesting because it was the first time I’d gone to the cinema to watch a film in Spanish! Okay, so it was dubbed over and the dialogue was pretty minimal and easy to understand but I’m still proud of me. In summary, the film was quite an experience – might review it for the University paper if they’ll let me. For my UK fans, ‘The Impossible’ is released in January 2013.

La verdad es que…I’m now back on track! #HAPPYDAYS

Brides in Burgos

Taking advantage of the National Fiesta the last Friday (yes, another one) we thought we might do a bit more travelling. As the holiday was because of the patron saint of Zaragoza, we thought we might head across there to enjoy the festivities, but being typically Spanish and laid-back, we didn’t plan in advance so couldn’t find anywhere cheap enough to stay for the weekend.

So then we were left with Plan B for Burgos – a city we were told was really beautiful with lots of free things to do. Perfect.

After stopping at what seemed like 89 small villages on the way there, we finally arrived at the not-too-shabby bus station in Burgos and was faced with the task of finding our hotel. Unlike Madrid, where some of our friends had had some experience of commuting around the city previously, Burgos was new for all of us. By pure coincidence, we walked past one of the Burgos auxilares that we had met at the Orientation day in Madrid. After a few desperate shrieks of her name to get her attention, we were given some advice on what to see and roughly where our hotel might be.

It turns out the hotel was miles away, but for the price we were paying, it was actually amazing. Individual rooms, en-suite, café next door with free wee-fee. That’ll do nicely. We arrived too late to really do much on the Friday night, so we had some tapas in town (standard) and went to bed.

The next day we saw un montón de things. Anything that looked like it might be vaguely interesting/historical/important on the tourist map we went to see. Luckily the weather was beautiful for some nice uphill walks and outer-city treks. The cathedral is the focal point of the city and rightfully so. Stunning inside and out. Here’s a snazzy picture of the exterior:

Burgos Cathedral at an angle

…and a upsettingly blurry picture of the main hall inside:

The grand interior of the Cathedral – spent almost three hours wandering around the chapels and the accompanying museums trying to soak it all in…

Spent most of the day wandering about the town, visiting tourist attractions, drinking coffee and chatting up the locals. As our hotel was a half an hour walk from the city centre, we stayed out for most of the day before returning back to the hotel to relax for a bit. Then we all had a quiet drink in my room and headed into town. I’ll say no more about that.

We decided to leave the Museum of Human Evolution for our final day. It seemed a bit random for a place like Burgos to have such a modern, specialist museum but apparently there was a discovery of human remains in a town not far away…or maybe the reason is because Burgos is attempting to become the European Capital of Culture in 2016. Who knows.

Anyway, the museum was fascinating and gave us an extensive insight into the theory of evolution and the human anatomy through models, exhibitions and interactive activities. An afternoon well spent.

Exhibitions in these giant white boxes with trees on top as well as three massive floors of educational goodness behind where this photo was taken!

After the Museum closed, we wandered around Burgos as we still had a few hours left until our coach was due to leave. We went to a cafetería (I ordered a Chai Latte thinking I might be able to experience Indian tea for the first time in Spain…instead I got this weird iced tea in a long glass which mildly resembled the tea I know and love), did a bit of the Camino de Santiago and spent some quality time together listening to Shania Twain in the hotel room. The coach thankfully didn’t stop anywhere on the way back to Soria, by which point we were all positively knackered and looking forward to the warmth and comfort of our own homes.

It just occurred to me that I haven’t mentioned anything about the title or how it’s relevant to our Burgos excursion. We gatecrashed a couple of weddings while we were wandering around basically. That’s all.

The Story of Almazán

The word ‘fiesta’ is often thrown about in the English language but it does not have the same meaning as it does in Spain, of course! It doesn’t simply mean ‘party’ but that is a big part of what the word actually means in it’s mother language.

Last week was the Fiestas de San Saturio, the local patron saint of Soria and because of that we had the whole week off school! I feel like such a part-timer but this is just how they do it in Spain! I had thought it might’ve been a good opportunity to travel around Spain a bit more, but after just coming back from Madrid, my bank balance was suffering a bit and we figured it would be nice to see a bit of Soria during the week of festivities.

There were concerts in the evening (seemingly attended by the entire population of the capital), parades with giant statues, music and dance performances, firework displays and a general feel-good ambience spreading through the city.

The Cabezitos Gigantes that paraded through the main street on several occasions during the week’s festivities. Men with bags filled with sweets would follow scattering sugary goodness behind them for children to fight over.

The real drama last week, however, came when we decided we may as well take a trip to the second biggest city in the Soria province, Almazán. We had heard so many amazing things about the area since one of our American auxiliar friends works there so were looking forward to seeing what it had to offer.

Being smaller than Soria, there wasn’t a hell of a lot, but what there was to see, we saw! (I do hope that last sentence makes sense…) That is, we saw everything there was to see in Almazán and more: the highest point in the town, the statues at the Miradores (high viewpoints), the Muralla (wall), the various Arcos (arches), the beautiful Plaza Mayor with the Ayuntamiento and Iglesia San Miguel, the main park and Plaza de Toros (bull ring).

Someone had told us prior to the trip that there is a ‘moving Jesus’ – the only one (in the world?) that can be moved. I had no idea what that meant but on asking our amazing tour guides, they looked quite puzzled but on arriving to the statue (below) one of them said, ‘well maybe it moves when you’re drunk!’

The (very stationary) Jesus statue near the highest point in Almazán

#TEAMSORIA loving life in Almazán

After we had genuinely seen all we had to see in Almazán (even our guides were running out of ideas), it was almost time to catch our bus back. 5 hours in Almazán had been sufficient and were excited to get back into Soria.

There are no spaces on the bus back to Soria at this time. The next one is in 4 hours…

WHAT?! You can imagine our collective annoyance on hearing that we had to wait until 9pm for the bus back to Soria. What were we going to do? We’d seen EVERYTHING.

Luckily, however, the time passed quite quickly. I’d invested in another scarf for the winter, chatted with the lovely lady long enough for it to be acceptable to ask for a discount and we all went for a coffee in the Plaza Mayor before sitting on a mound of earth close to the bus station watching some kids playing in the sunset.

All-in-all, it was a nice day trip out of Soria despite the initial worry that we may have to sleep in the park. Would I go back? Probably not (unless there are local fiestas); it had some nice parts, but the actual ‘city’ was quite derelict and made me extremely grateful to be in a place like Soria, which is feeling more and more like home. And on that soppy note, peace out!

Marcha a Madrid

Lessons continued this week. I’m slowly starting to get into the whole Science thing and bits and pieces from my studies at GCSE are coming back to me! I can tell the teachers are desperate for me to do something other than just read passages from the textbook; one has even asked me to prepare an activity on eclipses for next week. A step that I hope the other teachers will take too!

Other than that the only other thing of note that happened in the classroom this week was when a pupil stayed behind after class to explain to me why the Welsh dragon isn’t included in the Union Jack (as I couldn’t explain why during my introductory presentation the week before). He even brought in a book in English and pointed to a passage as he tried to explain. These are the reasons people teach: to stimulate and inspire thought and knowledge. Hopefully there will be more moments like this throughout the year. (For those, like me, that don’t know: Wales is a principality, not a kingdom so they are excluded from the UK flag)

The main source of excitement this week, however, came from our trip to Madrid, mainly in aid of the British Council Orientation that had been arranged for us on the Friday morning but we decided to make a weekend of it. We set off on Thursday afternoon; we were quite tolerant of the 3 hour bus ride thanks to our tiredness and a rather provocative George Clooney film.

I genuinely love underground Metro systems. Having visited Barcelona last Christmas and experienced London’s Tube for the first time over the summer, I really can appreciate the engineering of such networks.  Madrid’s underground system is, according to my well-travelled friends, one of the best in the world and it’s easy to see why. Spacious platforms, beautifully air-conditioned carriages…I do crave a busier, more stressful lifestyle so I can use them on a daily basis!

We arrived at our shockingly-good-value-for-money hostel after some shoddy direction and quickly became acquainted with the local bars and cuisine.

The next day was the day of the conference which was useful…in places. The thing is, being in Castilla y Leon meant we had started ‘teaching’ a lot earlier than everyone else. So we already had obtained our NIE’s, opened our bank accounts and settled into Spanish life. Hearing people worry and ask about every single detail was a bit frustrating but all in all, the day was a good opportunity to meet other assistants and find out more about our role.

…and then it was sightseeing time! Unfortunately the weather was typically British for our arrival and I was not prepared for the rain and cold that accompanied our excursions to tourist attractions. The architecture in Madrid is truly beautiful; from the compulsory Plaza Mayor to the exquisite surrounding Palacios, it definitely has something for everyone.

Plaza Mayor, quite grand and special

The Reina Sofía Art Gallery was also a stand-out moment from the weekend. Seeing Picasso’s ‘Guernica’ was definitely an experience. Having heard so much about the history of the painting and the symbolism, to see it in its enormity (11ft by 26ft) was quite breath-taking. I always feel like I want to learn more about art and artists after visiting art galleries and it was definitely the case after this visit. Now seems as good a time as any to pursue my interest in Spanish art; Picasso, Goya and Velazquez are just some artists that I would love to find out more about.

Reina Sofía from afar, home to Picasso’s ‘Guernica’

We decided the Retiro park was a good thing to do on the last day to nurse our hangovers and it turned out it was the best day to do so. The sun was shining on our pale faces as we wandered through the beautiful park, 50 million times bigger than Soria’s equivalent, La Dehesa. There was a nice pillar feature near the lagoon which was an ideal spot for group photos and to sit, chill and chat. I don’t think we got to see the whole park as our trip was slightly rushed towards the end; it being the last day we had to make sure we caught our coach back to Soria in time, but still it was a short but sweet encounter with the famous landscapes.

Well-pruned trees in the Retiro

Alas, I can finally say I’ve visited the capital of Spain. The constant hustle and bustle, abundance of English speakers and high cost of living does make me partially glad to be in a much, smaller city like Soria but I can’t help wonder what my life could’ve been like if I had been placed there. In a short space of time, we joined a random street party (literally on the street!), helped an American with her bags across the city, came up with an exciting, plausible business concept, bought (and lost) some fake Ray-Bans and found ourselves in the middle of the riots! 29-S, we were there! I definitely intend on visiting Madrid again multiple times; I think the next visit will be in Winter when Spain’s preparations for Christmas begin! Hasta Diciembre!