A Madrid!

Hola a todos!

Ayer, fui a Madrid! Yesterday, I went to Madrid! The program took us on a cultural/educational day trip around the city and it was exactally what they said it was going to be: cultural and educational.

The Reina Sofia Museo de Arte Contemporaneo
Our first stop was the Reina Sofia, a world-renowned contemporary art museum. There, we saw the begininng of contemporary art (starting in 1881 with the birth of Picasso, as stated by the spaniards). We saw cubism, surrealism, and about 3 or 4 other -isms that I can't remeber the names of right now. The highlight of the trip was getting to see Picasso's Guernica...of which we couldn't take pictures, and it was HUGE, the size of a wall and all in black and white (because he was inspired by newspaper pictures). However, I will include a picture of the outside of the museum. Looking very modern-esque.



After the Reina Sofia we had a lunch break, where we grabbed some food and went to eat it in the Parque Retiro, a huge park (comparable to central park in NYC) complete with roller bladers, street venders, and a lake with row boats.





After some lunch, we hopped on our bus and went to the Palacio Royal, or the Palace of the Spanish government. The king does not actually live there, but still uses it for formal occasions such as weddings, meeting diplomats, apparently playing billard with the diplomats...and a variety of other activities. No pictures were allowed to be taken inside the palace, however, I snapped a few of the outside.





I know; it was bright. I should've brought my sunglasses, however when I returned to Salamanca it had started snowing and it rained and snowed all night. Well, that is a lovely resumen of my trip to Madrid. It is such a lovely city, I can't wait to go back again. As for school, I am actually doing well this semester. I got all A's (okay, one A-) on my midterms, and I have three papers and two books to read until SEMANA SANTA. So, I'm just going to keep trucking along. Needless to say I have fallen in love with Salamanca and Spain and I now consider myself a Salamantino.
Besitos y Abrazos,
Ashley