On Aranjuez & Ballet

Sup friends n’ fam! Les quiero!

So this past week we had a “free” weekend, which means a full week of school and we make our own weekend plans. I think I’ve already said a few times what an average school day looks like, so I won’t keep circling over that. Let me think on what we did… shoot.  We do various things through the week. Like on Mondays we have our religion class (Los Mormones en España/History of the Church in Spain) and FHE afterwards. Which can be hit or miss, and is effectively group bonding time after class. You know, incase seeing each other every day is not enough haha.

Oh yeah! We started this… intercambio of sorts. On Tuesday nights we, the Americans, in pairs are given one Spaniard who is learning English. And we just give them an hour to interact with us. I would have done this anyway for fun but it was so funny because our director explains it to us and of course has to call it not “volunteer work” but “service”. And he’s right, it is service, but that is such a BYU way to sell volunteer work haha. Our Spaniard Javier was really sweet. Really nervous, too. He doesn’t have a lot of opportunies to speak English (or obviously, to hear English) so he is most comfortable reading and writing. Which made for an interesting hour haha. It also gave me a bit of perspective on where I’m at language-wise. I’m doing just fine. Also so is Javi haha, it just was weird being the fluent one trying to find simpler ways to explain myself! My life thus far has been on the recieivng end of that.

On Thursday, we all went to the Prado museum, which was incredible. I’m not an art snob, but the light of understanding now hath dawned upon mine eyes and I understand why you would want to pay money to go see the real deal over google. Except we didn’t pay money because we’re students and life is better when you get the poor discount- what am I going to do with my life after I graduate until I get the raisin/senior citizen discount?? We’re going to return with our group and one of our professors later, so I saw a few paintings I wanted to see and used the time to draw a statue that caught my eye.

On Fridays we don’t have class. Which I think is normal for some people back at BYU but I’ve always had Spanish and a lab (or something like that) on Fridays, so it’s really weird to me. But we decided as a group to take the train to the neighboring town Aranjuez. And you know what?? We did not even go to a cathedral. HOW CAN THAT BE??

Aranjuez was a funny little town, the little we saw of it. We had a bit of a mix-up with buses and missed trains getting there, but it was really beautiful once we arrived! Had kind of an east-coast charm, a lot of big green trees and leaves on the ground everywhere… “my home town doesn’t look anything like this nor have I been to a place like this before, but… this makes me miss my parents. Is that weird? Like I feel like we should be walking together talking about Halloween plans and my new classes for the school year and stuff.” –Me

We went to the palacio in Aranjuez. We weren’t allowed to take pictures, but that’s alright. I got this sweet picture of a bust, but it wasn’t labeled so it’s literally just a bust that I thought was cool.  If nothing more, going to cathedrals and palaces really helps me get an idea of what it means to have money and want to spend money. Haha. It’s just an interesting part of culture everywhere. I would actually really love to go see the White House or some modern buildings in the US to see what we have that is considered luxurious. Not one corner of these places goes unnoticed. It’s all decorated. Also I think carpet on the walls is a terrible idea haha. Which is different from a tapestry, don’t misunderstand me. (I still don’t really think a tapestry on the wall is really a functioning necessity in a home)

Just a ways a way from the palace we visited a garden- I think it was the palace gardens, but I’m not 100% on it. The larger part was closed off for maintenance because they had a big storm they were cleaning up after. But it was quaint! Also I’m not going to say Alyssa and Megan blatantly ignored the sign (that was in both Spanish and English) to go see the garden anyways, but I definitely was left to hold things outside the fence  as they may or may not have snuck past. Very opportune moment to take pictures of flowers for 20 minutes.

So highlight of my week (beyond conference: but conference gets a separate post) was THE BALLET. We went to a ballet!!! And I can safely say with 100% confidance that I have no flexibility at all.

We went to see Don Quijote in Madrid later that night. Also couldn't take pictures here during the show. It was interesting since I’m not really familiar with Don Quijote as much as I should be, but also because there obviously isn’t any dialogue in a ballet. Not that dialogue would have necessarily helped my understanding haha, you should Wikipedia Don Quijote, it’s one of the most famous works both of Spain and in the world. It was definitely worth it, and reminded me of a group date I was on to see Living Legends at BYU last semester. Preforming Arts are definitely worth your time! Plus I had a fun little conversation with Paula, the woman I was sitting next to.

Also I’m glad our plans to go to an opera fell through and we chose the ballet instead.

Like…

Really really glad.

Can you imagine going to an opera?? Okay… now imagine it in spanish…

Another random bit: there is this insane store in Madrid that we went to, called El Corte Ingles. It has literally everything. EVERYTHING. It’s 9 floors high!! If you can imagine Ikea, Best Buy, Michaels, A Massage Place, Sephora, and Trader Joe’s all in one place… pretty much what it felt like. God bless escalators.

So yeah, pretty chill week! AND IT’S GENERAL CONFERENCE WEEKEND!! YAY.

That’s it, nothing crazy. We went running yesterday and it was so fun, except afterwards we played soccer with some people from the ward and now my roommate in a bit injured and I’m really worried about her. So if you need something to add to your prayers, Kat has a rodilla lesionada, which is the worst news. But my knees are still functioning despite their glowstick nature, so count your blessings!

With love como siempre,

Jessie