24/09 or: it's been 4 weeks already?

Ladies, Gentlemen,

first of all I have to apologize to all of you who have been checking this blog every single day, just to find out that nothing happened. It sounds like a joke, but I have been very busy the past couple weeks. Nevertheless, I'll try to give you a short roundup. 

Week 1: You know everything about that already. If not, check out my previous posts.

Week 2 (my weeks range from Wednesday to Wednesday now): 
Attended first lacrosse practice with Montes on Thursday, and I was baffled. No turf, just a dirt pitch with about 6 players participating. Not quite what I had expected. However, that was just the first practice -- afterwards, it got a lot better, and the turf is actually really nice. Turns out I'm not the only international player on the team, we also have support in form of Chris from New Jersey. Afterwards Welcome Party of my university, but this is just everyday business from now on. 

Sunday we traveled to Toledo. Toledo is a very small town with only 11,000 people living in the city center, but it is absolutely beautiful. We did a city tour there, followed by a couple hours of moving freely. See for yourself: 

Don Quijote, one of the most famous characters in the spanish literature

panoramic view

Afterwards, we went to a bar with a 2 for 1 special. Needless to say, that didn't end well. 

Then on Tuesday, classes actually started. As of right now, I only have Marketing and Human Resource Management. Now, classes here aren't quite like classes in Germany -- I feel like I'm back in high school. Mandatory attendance, weekly homework assignments and participation grades (!!) are something that I haven't seen in a while. It will take me some time to get used to that, but at least my teachers seem to be pretty good.
At night, we celebrated Jesse's birthday (friend of mine from Finland) by doing some sports in the form of beer pong. 

Week 3: 
Thursday was lacrosse practice again, with Karaoke following up on that. Nothing too special happened here. 

Saturday we were invited to a birthday party, followed by yet another welcome party. Yes, I go out a lot here. Yes, I also do other stuff, but the parties help me keep track of what happened on which day. Other stuff includes going to the gym, eating (mostly boiled eggs and chicken or turkey), university and meeting new people. 

Sunday I checked out the other lacrosse team of Madrid, Madrid Lacrosse. The practice there seems way more professional, and the players are more experienced. It was fun, but I will play for Montes in the future, because I feel they can use me better. Also, it's not as fun to just join the best team in the country. However, I will practice with both teams -- twice a week just doesn't cut it. 

Monday Roman and I figured we should do something other than partying, so we checked out the Museo Reina Sofia. While I'm not into art galleries at all, it was quite cool to actually see original paintings of Picasso, Dalí and Goya. However, most art just doesn't make sense to me, like this jewel: 

yeah .. wtf?

On Tuesday night we did something everybody has to do once when in Madrid: go to Santiago Bernabeu (for the illiterate among you, that's the stadium of Real Madrid). Real Madrid vs FC Basel, a historical match. Well okay, not quite. Madrid blew Basel away with 5-1, even though Basel had a couple reasonable shots at scoring more goals. Seeing the players in action live, you can tell even more how amazing their technique is. 

Santiago Bernabeu (it got fuller later, no worries)

Week 4:

Wednesday we set out to go to Salamanca, a town about 200km away from Madrid. Luckily I have a friend, Flo, who has a car, so we did an amazing road trip there. Salamanca is a student town with two cathedrals, one historical and beautiful old university and lots of clubs that are free to enter. At night we checked out the latter, also trying a local special drink: Agua de Valencia. No, it is not water. No, it is not good for you either. Yes, it is a crime. Basically, you get a 1 liter plastic (!!) cup, filled with ice cubes. Then lots of low quality vodka and prosecco are added, and it all is topped off with a splash of Fanta. I'm not going to comment any further on that one. Also, 8 Tequila shots for 4€ is probably a bad idea. 

Thursday we checked out the city. There are a couple things that one has to have seen (big thanks at this point to Leo, who guided us around the city). The two cathedrals of course are mandatory. Well, basically they are one, because they are connected with each other. On one of them you can find an astronaut among all the other decorations, because the artist felt like he had to add something "modern". Don't believe it? Please, go ahead: 

look closely, you'll find him

Also, there is the "casa de las conchas", a house with lots of (artificial) mussels on its wall. And there is the old university, decorated with lots of things as well -- among them one tiny frog, which is basically impossible to find. If you manage to spot it, it is said that you will have great academic success in the future, but to be honest -- I wouldn't make my academic success dependent on that. Studying will get you further than trying to find a tiny frog. For the record: we found it, but with lots of help. 

Casa de las Conchas 

Try finding a frog on there.. oh, hi Roman

Of course, Salamanca has more to offer than just that. A couple more impressions: 

"Silencio".. the name says it all

The drive back was just like the drive there very interesting. Basically, between Madrid and Salamanca, there is nothing. And by nothing, I mean absolutely nothing. At times, there are black bulls of steel (no pun intended) at the side of the road, but that's pretty much it. Oh, and we found a gas station in the middle of nowhere. Could also have been in the states. 

.. and yes, there was also tumbleweed.

Thursday night we went to Kapital again, but not for a long time, because the next trip was imminent: Valencia. We rented a car and set out on Friday to go there. There was also a big group trip of our university in town, but we decided to go on our own. We managed to get there just in time for an open air party with predrinks at the beach, which was pretty damn good. 

The next day, Alexa and I set out to explore the city a little ourselves. We climbed the tower of the cathedral (507 steps, no big deal) to take a look around the city. 

We also hit up the market, where we tried "chufas" (I have no clue what it is until this day, but they are pretty good .. some form of nuts or dried fruit. In German it's called "Erdmandel") and I also found this gem: 

those who have been to Brazil know it and love it

Afterwards, we went to the beach, something I haven't done since I've been in Rio de Janeiro. At night, there was yet another party, in one of the fanciest locations in Valencia, the "ciudad de artes y sciencias". Let me fast forward to the next day real quick, because that's when I realized how awesome the location actually was. The ciudad is a project finished in 2009 with lots of mind-blowing architecture. I don't even wanna talk about it too much, just look: 

the entrance of the club by daylight ..  l'umbracle if you wanna look it up

They also have this kid's park, where you can climb on top of a giant person. It took me a while that this person was actually Gulliver (a kid's story, written by Jonathan Swift -- not sure what he was doing in Valencia). I read that when I was a kid. Anyway, we had Tapas later before heading back to Madrid, dropping off the car at the airport and finally getting some well-deserved sleep (especially considering that throughout the weekend, I had slept 4 hours total). 

And on Monday, the everyday reality began again. Recover, party, class, practice, party, sleep, blog. That's what I'm doing now. And hopefully will be doing again in the future. 

Before I leave, a couple random facts.
#1: It is almost impossible to get shampoo bottles here that contain less than one liter. I have no idea why.
#2: You can get cones of ham to go here. Pretty amazing actually. 
#3: There is a striking difference between "año" and "ano". Watch out for that when texting. 
#4: The metro comes from the wrong direction. If standing at the platform facing the rails, you would expect it to come from your right side, but here it comes from the left side. This has been pissing me off a bit. 

That'll be it for today. Enjoy!

Hasta pronto
Dominik