Madrid a Valencia

Two days in Madrid is not a sufficient amount of time to get to know the capital of Spain; but we made it to the Prado art musueam, the Reina Sofia contemporary art museum, and various plazas (where scary box men reside) as well.

There was a huge protest held by young-unemployed-Spaniards that we watched grow exponentially throughout our two days. The first day the main plaza Puerta Del Sol (sun-gate) was full of people with tables and tents and signs protesting, by the second day all the billboards and street lamps, essentially every surface from the ground to the sky had a message. Los rebeldes have named themselves ¨los idignados," the angry ones.

¨Madrid will not be the tomb of neoliberalism"

"There isn´t enough bread for all of the chorizo"

Chorizo is a colloquial term for theif.

The excursion was fun and exciting; getting to know the capital of Spain and meeting the (wonderful) group who I will be taking classes with (consisting of 30 girls and 7 boys, per usual). Although, I was so anxious to get to Valencia to meet my host mom and the city where I had chosen to study!

We arrived in Valencia on a gorgeous Sunday, there wasn´t a cloud in the sky. Everyone was dressed up and put together to meet all of the host families. My host mother, Susanna, is a retired woman who takes her dog, Ninnett, on 2 hour walks twice a day. Every surface of our home has a picture, or statue of a different animal. We have an entire cabinet full of, I would guess, 200 small owl statues. The fridge is also covered in different owl-magnets. Pictures to come, once she knows I´m not taking them to show the pawn shop what I can profit on. In all seriousness, I love her and I love all the animals.

I apologize for the delay, also causing a longer post (which I don´t plan on frecuenting). Stay tuned for lighter, dinner table banter.