Every Sunday morning/early afternoon, a huge outdoor flea market called "El Rastro" is held. According to my señora, Marisa, it used to be more of a traditional flea market, where you could find interesting and sometimes antique items. Now it is much more of a tourist trap - but it's still worth going to, and you can find some interesting things. A few weekends ago I went and it was nuts.
There are so many people there, and the booths just keep going and going. El Rastro actually reminded me a bit of the weekend street fairs that you can find in Manhattan (I particularly remember them around the Washington Square area when I was living there as a freshman). And I'm sure you've stumbled across similar ones elsewhere, so aside from historical value, there isn't a whole lot of uniqueness to el Rastro. Regardless, it was still interesting and worth going to. I got a bag and also a cheap little sugar bowl that says "azúcar" ("sugar" in Spanish).
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Last Saturday was the "Noche en blanco" here in Madrid. The "white night" takes place in several European cities every September during the full moon. From sunset to sunrise, essentially, there are events everywhere, and many people stay out the entire night (although that's not something madrileños are unaccustomed to; they thrive on nightlife here). The events include live music, performances, museums that stay open until midnight or 1 am, and various other activities. Each year has a theme, and this year was "¡Hagan juego!" or "Game On!" We came across huge swing sets and seesaws, and apparently there were also huge game boards, like Scrabble (which I missed sadly - I LOVE Scrabble).
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| Life-size Scrabble board |
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| One of the huge swing sets |
We met in Sol, the center of downtown Madrid. Most of the 165 activities were taking place in that area. First we tried to go to the Palacio Real (the royal palace where the Spanish royal families used to live but don't anymore), but when we got there the line literally kept going and did not end ever. So we decided against that, and went to a few different places that were hosting live jazz bands. It was fun, but it felt like literally all of Madrid was jammed into a two to three mile radius of the center of town, and the huge crowds of people were a little overwhelming. After scarfing down some croquetas (basically fried balls of dough stuffed with ham and cheese) at a restaurant, we ventured off to find the metro...which, despite what we were told, was not open all night long, but instead closed at 1:30 as it does every night. Good planning, Madrid. You couldn't even take a taxi because every street in the center of the city was blocked off. After walking for a good hour or so, we did manage to get home, but my feet felt like they were going to fall off. Overall experience = good time.
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| All of us during the Noche en Blanco |
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Aside from these events, my life has been a little bit boring - you know, that whole going-to-class thing. The classes I'm taking include two required classes for the students in the language and translation track, History of the Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Theory and Practice of Translation, and two electives that I chose, Spanish Lexicon and Teaching Spanish as a Second Language. For the most part classes are going well, but I'm not super excited about any one in particular yet, but it's only been two weeks of classes so hopefully they'll get more interesting when we get a little more in-depth. Additionally, we are all required to take a 2-credit Research Skills workshop class that meets every other week and is supposed to help get us prepared for researching our theses (which will begin next semester). Our first activity for this research skills class was to go to the national library, the Biblioteca Nacional de España. I can't remember having been in the Library of Congress in D.C., but if you want to imagine the BNE, picture yourself going to a high-security federal library rather than, say, a branch of the Boston Public Library or the NY Public Library. We had to apply for a research card just to be able to enter and use the library. The majority of the books in the library aren't shelved in open stacks - instead you have to write down all of the information on the particular text that you want to use, and turn it in to a librarian, who will make you wait 20 to 30 minutes before they retrieve it and hand it over to you. Not a particularly efficient use of time, but if I have to go back there in the future, you can request texts ahead of time so that they're ready when you get there. Anyway, we were in that damn library for a good 3-4 hours and weren't in the best of moods after leaving. On the bright side, it's a very pretty building!
