What is an experiment?

So I have survived another week in Madrid without theft or death. SUCCESS!

Okay well I keep getting asked about classes (aka parents). I used to have nothing to say about them other than the fact that I go. We really have zero homework and they are pretty boring actually. Well today, after my USP class, I have QUITE a few things to say....

1. They are classes designed for children, not university students. For example, to day we learned all about........the scientific method!!! Honestly. Really. Did I not learn about this in 5th grade? and again in 6th grade? and again every year so that it's now permanently imprinted in my brain? Yes. And did a Spanish student actually ask what a "blind experiment" is? Yes. Lovely. That was such a critical hour of my life...wasted.

2. We have to write a paper about a book that we are supposed to read. The paper is laid out as such:
1. Bibliography. Not only do we have to include the normal last name of the author, title, etc, we also must include THE SIZE OF THE BOOK (his example was 25cm X 10 cm) and THE PRIZE OF THE BOOK (his example was 27 Euro). REALLY? Does the size or cost of the book actually matter?? He said that this was not a joke, and was, indeed, normal for bibliographies. Okayyy.
2. Accomplishments of the author. Not just credentials. This also includes where, when and WHY the author wrote this book. Why? I don't know, maybe he just felt like it??
3. Summary of the book. I was slightly confused, but the gist of what I got was basically "find the main idea of each paragraph, cut out the extra words, and then smoosh all of the sentences together and attempt to make it coherent. If you can't reword the sentence, then just copy it directly. Max 10 pages." What ever happened to avoiding plagiarism? So basically he wants us to rewrite the book, just in a condensed form. Cool.

That's as far as we got. But he also did mention that we have to write a critique of the book. Yet at the same time, we have to make sure our opinions don't get in the way. ?? what?? He doesn't want our opinions to get in the way of our critique?? I am just very confused by this whole class and I don't feel like it was very necessary for me to be there today. I think I lost brain cells.

So that's a little sample of how class is going. If you were interested.

Other things...Well Friday morning I finally went to the Prado, Madrid's big art museum. It was really cool, it was a guided tour and I really liked our tour guide. It was kind of funny, she would get in trouble every once in a while for talking too loud, and she said that she gets so excited when talking about this art she completely loses sense of how loud she's speaking! She was pretty elderly, but still super enthusiastic about the paintings. Some of the famous things I saw include Las Meninas by Velasquez, the Black Paintings by Goya and a lot of paintings by Greco, including the royal family of Carlos IV (I forget its real title). I'm not an art person at any rate, but I feel like I learned a lot in those two hours and I can understand better why everyone loves these specific paintings, due to the "genius" of the artwork. I noticed details such as space, light, etc (thanks to the guide for pointing them out!) which makes me look at it differently.

Later some friends and I all hung out in the Retiro park and just chatted, which was a nice way to pass a beautiful day. Then I had 2 girls over at my house (Laura, my roommate, was away at Oktoberfest!!) and we drank wine and chatted with Sol, which was really fun! Then Sol told us that there was a discoteca really close to our house! So we went to check it out. It is called Tequila, and it's literally under a HUGE financial (I think?) building. So we went in, and it was ALL Spanish people! We were literally the only foreigners. Which was pretty cool, but I definitely could tell the difference...from how they dress to how they dance was different, but I still had a really fun time!

Sidenote: I had told Sol that I was having fun in Madrid, etc, but that I was kind of getting tired of doing the same thing at night, going to clubs that were pretty touristy and expensive, etc. Well, she said that she would ask her best friend's son, who's around 23/24, if he had any good ideas for us. Which turned into, "Jose will come by the house at 10 on Saturday night to take you out with his friends." Ahh! I was actually terrified, I'm not sure why, maybe just knowing I'd have to speak Spanish, etc, I don't know... anyways..

So Saturday rolls along and Jose comes and picks up my friend and I in his car, which was pretty cool because the only cares I'd been in so far here were taxis. We went to a bar and met up with some of his friends. They were all super nice and talkative so it wasn't weird. They were also all engineers haha, so they were all smart etc. We eventually met up with even more of their friends and then went to a place called Daily which played some merengue and salsa music, which was pretty cool, although I have to say that I prefer "normal" music haha.

Sunday there was a huge party on the streets supporting Madrid as a candidate for the 2016 Olympic games. We got there around 7 and it was RIDICULOUSLY crowded. Packed. People from every age were there. Then when we got off of the metro we were handed these big yellow papers and were told to hold them over our heads. It was basically a plaza completely shut off and on the four corners were tons of people, each side was holding a different color. Then there was a helicopter taking aerial pictures of us! Okay so I attempted to make that a link to a picture of the aerial view thing, if it didn't work, then this url should...
http://www.madrid2016.es/en/prensa/fotogallery/Paginas/ampliacionimagen.aspx?&ImageId=80&galeria=DiaCorazonada&pageNumber=9
anyway, it was pretty cool being part of that huge crowd! Everyone was really pumped. Then there was a concert by David Bisbal, a famous singer. I even know 1 of his songs! Look him up, he has super curly hair. But we didn't stay for the whole concert because it was late and I was starvinggggg.

So that was my week! Got through Monday! Just a few more days of class, then we're leaving for Barcelona for the weekend! I'm super excited!!

I love and miss you alllll!! xoxox