Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Midterms are over!

  Hello!  
              This weekend was full of studying, cramming, and stressing about midterms and deadlines, but luckily Friday I was able to escape, at least for an hour or two to see two short plays inspired by Anton Chekhov, The Yalta Game and Afterplay by Brian Friel. The play was by a group of actors called the Madrid Players, who perform in English. The school organized the trip to the theatre so I sat with friends from school. I really enjoyed the plays, but I wish I had read something of Chekhov´s before. As I understand it The Yalta Game was based on Lady with a Lapdog and After Play took characters from Three Sisters and Uncle Vanya and put them in a room together. I preferred the first play, The Yalta Game, but I think if I had read Three Sisters or Uncle Vanya, the second play would have been more amusing.
             After the plays a group of us went out and got Chinese food. It was hard to sit all seven of us together in the restaurant and it was even more difficult when we started to split the bill, but we all had great food and got huge portions for very little money. 
                My last midterm was yesterday (Cultural Diversity and Human Needs) so I am free! It seems fitting that this coming weekend I will embark on a class trip to Barcelona; a sort of celebration after all my hard studying.  I finally got my film developed from my Holga, so I will try and scan those and get them up for you all to see.  After I finish writing I will go and buy some more film from the Kodak store so I can take some interesting photos while in Barcelona! I am so excited, in just a few days I will be in the metropolitan city, Barcelona!
              Tonight at 8:00 I am going to see a Spanish film, Mientras Duermes (While You Sleep) with the film club. I hope I can keep up!
Hasta luego!
Sierra and Csaba enjoying their noodles
Sesame noodles with veggies!

Incredible!

My dinner on Saturday

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

First Mid-term!


Hola,
 ¿Qué tal? Today I had my first Mid-term! It was for Unfolding the European Union. I was very nervous for the exam, but when I sat down to take the test I felt a wave of reassurance. Thank goodness I studied! I have not done much exploring Madrid, due to mid-term cramming sessions, but I will resume the photo documenting and museum visits soon enough. Tomorrow I have another midterm for English 101, but luckily no mid-term for Spanish 101.
               I am amazed how quickly the semester is going by. When I walk into the front gate of school every morning, I am reminded of my first day at SUMC when I arrived. I was jet-lagged and grumpy, but immediately everyone was very friendly and curious about the new arrivals. I was with my Boston orientation friends, Csaba, Kiecha, and Chandler so I didn´t feel so alone. The student ambassadors were informative and helpful that first day at Suffolk and later on the excursion trips some of them have become my good friends.


          I have mostly spent the past week studying at my house, but I thought I´d take a picture of my dinner so you have something nice to look at while you read this post.  :)
      

Salad, cream of zucchini soup, and patatas (basically tater tots)! 

Have a great few days, I will write more Thursday!  


Hasta luego! Jenny

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Movie Club and Midterms Approaching



          Hola!
Since last I blogged, I have gone to two movie club movies. The first movie was “Midnight in Paris” a film by Woody Allen. “Midnight in Paris” was filmed in English but had Spanish subtitles. Most of the dialogue came before the subtitles, so I think if I was a native Spanish speaker I might have been discouraged. But it was a lovely movie that I think went deeper than most movies go and mocked the typical rich Americans who travel places and do not appreciate their surroundings or the things they have in their lives. The film featured lots of influential figures in literature, such as Ernest Hemmingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald (and Zelda Fitzgerald), and T. S. Elliot. The film also featured Salvador Dalí (played by Adrien Brody) and Pablo Picasso. It was interesting to see what people in the audience laughed at and what the Suffolk group laughed at. The entire audience was thrilled at Adrien Brody´s portrayal of Salvador Dalí 
          
         Last night the movie we saw was in Spanish. It was called, “No Habrá Paz para Los Malvados” translating roughly to “There will be no peace for the wicked/bad people”. The movie was a psychological thriller set in Madrid and featured restaurants and businesses here in Madrid, such as VIPS, a local restaurant. It was funny because after we saw the movie we all walked over to the VIPS next door to have coffee! I was surprised at how much of the plot I was able to understand, despite the fact that none of it was in English and there were no subtitles to follow. Next week I believe we are going to see the Tree of Life, starring Brad Pitt. I like that one week the movie is in Spanish and the week it is in English. I hope that by going to the movies every week will help me to improve my Spanish.

Adios amigos, hasta la vista!

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Churros, Smooy, and Santiago de Compostela

MY FIRST CHURROS!
Historic moment
Chocolateria San Gines



 Yes it is true, I tried churros for the first time last week. At the tapas night Silvia had pointed out to our group the chocolateria in Sol, so my friend Chi and I wisely made note of the spot and returned for churros. The hot chocolate is very thick chocolate and we were given 12 churros! We could not finish all the churros, but they were delicious.

 But, let´s not forget my trip to Santiago de Compostela! I did not realize until Thursday that I was signed up for the trip, so it was a bit of a scramble to get myself sorted for the excursion. The bus ride was incredibly long, but we all made friends which helped pass the time. While in Santiago we noticed a Medieval Market/Festival in the town (kind of hard to miss) so we walked around there a good portion of the first day. I fell asleep as soon as we got back to the hotel. In our free time, my friend Rachael and I found a frozen yogurt place called Smooy. I got a peanut butter flavored yogurt and Rachael had caramel.

Medieval Market!!
Santiago de Compostela
My new obsession

Preparing the delicious peanut butter yogurt
Bizarre topping

Various toppings

 One of the main attractions of Santiago de Compostela is the Cathedral. We were very lucky with the weather, because it did not rain, which is common in Santiago. There were lots of very old churches, but we all wanted to see the Cathedral. Santiago de Compostela is the endpoint of a pilgrimage for Christians who want to have their sins to be erased or forgiven. For hundreds of years people have made the pilgrimage and then burned their clothing to symbolize the end of their journey and a renewed commitment to God. The reason why people do the pilgrimage is because the remains of St. James or Santiago were sent from far away (around France) and carried to Santiago.
At the Cathedral
Purgatory, depicted on the front of a church
Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry

 These photos were taken on the first day, before my camera died, so I have no photos from the the roof top of the Cathedral, which we saw the second day :( The second day we went to a small beach in Cambados (a seaside town) and I swam on the other side of the Atlantic! If you look at a map you can see how far away it was from Madrid. Even thought the bus ride was long, I am still very glad I went on the trip. Santiago de Compostela is a place I would have never gone on my own, but I had a lovely time. I also made some great friends on the trip, my room mate Erika and Soraya (a fellow blogger) to name a few. I had such a great time and I strongly recommend the trip, especially if you are religious, it may convince you to make the pilgrimage yourself!

Hasta luego readers!