Last week in Madrid

My last week in Madrid was possibly one of the best weeks of my life. I got to experience everything Spain had to offer, that I hadn't experienced yet in the semester, yet was only a week away from seeing my family, friends and my home I had been away from for four months. Although my last week was filled with the pain of finals (that only us Wofford people had to worry about since we were not blessed with the pass/fail grading scale) I managed to fit in more of the richest experiences Madrid had to offer than I had the entire rest of the semester.

Friday night, a week before I left, it was my good friend Berkeley's 21st birthday so we went to Mexican and then met up with some other people from the program. We then took part in the very Spanish "botelloning" with a lot of our other friends we had met up with. It was my first time "botelloning" the whole semester and I felt pretty Spanish. Botelloning is the Spanish way of meeting for drinks the cheap way, drinking in the streets. It was fun to sit in a plaza with all of the Madrilenos and socialize and hang out until we were ready for the bars and craziness Madrid night- life has to offer.



The next morning Jenn and I woke up and decided to go shopping around Sol. Sol is the center "Times Square" of Madrid and has all of the big Spanish stores like H&M, Zara, Mango, and TopShop. Jenn decided to be daring and get her ear pierced in one of the tatoo parlors on one of the main streets because we both agreed it would be a great story. We shopped around and got bocadillos (a sandwich made of a baguette with anything from ham to calamari on it) until it was time for me to leave for the soccer game. I met 3 of my good friends from the program outside of Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, one of the coolest places I have ever been as a sports fan.



But what we found inside was much cooler! The soccer field was gigantic and because it was a night game (9:00) the field was under the lights! The culture of a European soccer game is something everyone should experience once. A sea of jerseys, scarves, and horns were jumping up and down, chanting, and dancing. Luckily, we chose a game where Real Madrid scored 5 times and had 2 penalty kicks inside the box. I remember when the first goal was scored, the feeling I had was indescribable. I was connected to a bunch of rowdy Spaniards by our united feeling of pure and crazed happiness. I can without a doubt say the soccer game was one of my favorite things I had ever done, let alone in Europe.






The next morning two of my roommates and I woke up early to go to the Rastro. The Rastro is a street market that opens in Madrid on every Sunday morning. Vendors sell items from scarves to prints to jewelry and everything in between. After experiencing the leather markets in Florence it was hard to compare but it was still a Madrileno experience I was happy to get under my belt. After spending the morning walking around the market I met a friend at Starbucks to begin the painful experience of studying for finals.

Finals took up the majority of Monday and Tuesday since I had my History of Spanish Painting, Management of Cultural Heritage, and History of Madrid exams right in a row. Wednesday morning I finished my last exam, Spanish Language for Business, and then my roommate and I got on the metro en route to the Madrid Open. The Madrid Open is a qualifying event featuring names like Andy Roddick, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, the Williams Sisters and many more. Jenn and I got to not only show a little USA pride by supporting our American players but also got to sit center court and watch Rafael Nadal play on the red Spanish clay court. That day we watched Megan Shaughnessy, John Isner, Rafael Nadal, and the Williams sisters. We had a great time and we were so lucky to get the opportunity to do such a thing in our Madrid.








I also made an effort to go visit the beautiful royal botanical gardens, a pretty plot of land along the beautiful Paseo del Prado and near the museum. The only way to express the tranquility and beauty of the gardens is through pictures so enjoy:

























The day had finally arrived, my last day in Madrid and my roommate and I ended it with a bang with the most Spanish thing we could imagine. Jenn's parents flew in Thursday morning for the beginning of their week through Europe with Jenn. After resting off the jet-lag they took us to a bullfight. The magnificent bullfighting ring is one metro stop away at Las Ventas and is the only building with the old Spanish look among the modern city buildings. Upon entering the rink the Spaniards were all sitting on concrete stands eating sunflower seeds and drinking beer like any other American sporting event. What we weren't expecting was the sporting event we were about witness. It was violent, bloody, and almost hard to watch as the matadors took about 20 minutes to entirely kill the bull. Nevertheless we had a great time and it was a perfect way to end the semester...like true Madrilenos!