A-Broad Adventure: Past Halfway

Monday in class I had a presentation to give with Katie, Christine and Briana. It was on 15-M (again, see a theme here?), but specifically on how social media played a huge role in spreading it. I got to lead a cool activity where everyone in the class had a partner and they had to come up with a creative tweet about the movement. It sounds kind of boring out of context, but I think the class had fun because their tweets were judged by our professors who had to decide whether or not they wanted to delete, favorite, or retweet whatever each pair had come up with. Anyway, after lunch Katie and I headed to the Retiro where we met up with Lauren and Nicolette to try to do some homework. Naturally none got done and we had to do it later that evening, but we did get to enjoy the nice weather in the park!
On Tuesday in class we watched a movie about saving a portrait of Francisco de Goya during the Spanish Civil War. It was really depressing, and my favorite character (a 6-year-old boy named Pepito) died, so that wasn't too fun. After lunch at home, Katie and I headed to McDonald's to meet some people from class to do some homework. Once we were all at least partly finished, a few of us headed to the 'usual' eggplant and sangria spot (me, Katie, Lauren, Nicolette, and Will). We had a great time, in fact such a great time that we didn't realize how much money we had spent until it was time for us to pay the check. I guess if we are only here once like this, then we might as well take advantage of it!
Wednesday's class went by pretty quickly and we discussed a book we had read called Democracia. After class, Katie, Nicolette and I all bought fanny packs at a stand just outside of our school building. Possibly five of the greatest Euros I will ever spend. After lunch I finished my homework quickly because some people from class had decided that we were going out. Luckily for Katie and myself, most of the places that people want to go out to are very close to where we live, which means everything is in walking distance. Most of the time that isn't a problem for other people in the class because there are always taxis, it just gets rather expensive. However, on Wednesday all of the taxi drivers were on strike against Uber, so that caused a few problems later on with some people trying to get home, but it all worked out in the end. We also met a bunch of guys from the University of Pennsylvania program that are studying here in Madrid, and it was hilarious because two of them are in Fiji at Penn (shoutout to your fraternity Matt) and one of those two guys is actually the 'little' of a guy I went to high school with AND he went to high school with my friend Safiya! Small world!
Thursday's class involved looking at lots of 'art'. I use that term loosely because a large portion of class was dedicated to learning about Tapies, who is famous for hanging clothes on a wall, tying a knot in each of the four corners, and then painting it all a solid color. How that is art, I will never understand. And it is times like these that make me happy that I am a computer science major and not an art history one. When we got home from class, Cristina's (my host mom) daughter was here! Her name is Carolina - what a great one. She was really really nice and wanted to know all about us and our classes. After lunch was over and Carolina had left, it was a very relaxed afternoon. I watched the movie 'That Awkward Moment' (very highly recommend it) and then went to meet Lauren, Marina, Megan, and Audra in Sol to go to La Mallorquina (I think that's what it's called) for some tasty treats. I got a Pepito de Crema and it was delicious. My evening ended with watching the first game of the World Cup - Brazil vs Croatia and then forcing Katie to watch 'That Awkward Moment.'
All in all, it was a pretty relaxed week! The weekend was slightly busier :)