vive la vida

Yesterday was a spectacle of Spanish life in many ways, shapes and forms.
It started out at el Palacio Real, the old royal palace in the southwestern part of the city. The royal family consists of Rey Juan Carlos I, Reina Sofia, and their 3 children Infanta Elena, Infanta Christina and Principe Felipe (the heir apparent) and their respective spouses and children. None of them live in el Palacio Real. Anyways, the best word for the Palacio was... ostentacious, as Lori repeated. Every wall in every room was elaborate: every ceiling had some sort of fresco, lots of gold embellishment, artwork of grand proportions, mythological retellings, silver tea sets of every model... etc. The definition of luxury. One of our faves was the King's Dressing room, which was regarded as one of the most important parts of the living area and where a king may have spent hours each day. Another room was full of mythological creatures like phoenixes as well as Asian portraits and landscapes, and Jordan dubbed this "the room of things the royals believe exist but have not seen." Each room seemed to have its own color as well.
And there were Stradivarius violas, violins and cellos. The armory was neat too, though all the armor was built for really small people!

Later on went to the Egyptian Temple of Debod, which is a pretty sweet Egyptian remnant that was removed from Egypt and saved like the one in the Met in NYC. There was also a lovely panorama of the city/afueras.
As we were walking back into the city through Plaza de Espana, we heard this massive drumline and saw a great crowd of people and police surrounding the area. It seemed like the gathering of every hipi in Madrid. Rastas (dreads), peruvian flaphats, those parachutey pants, porros (la marihuana, if you will) and a general feeling of alternativeness in the best sense had amassed on this one street. The drumming was contagious and danceable and oh so coordinated. There must have been hundreds of 20 - 30 somethings in the drumline, swaying in the same direction. We asked a friendly sign holder what was going on and he told us it was a manifestacion to protect El Patio Maravillas, a cultural house or "Espacio Polivalente Autogestionado" in Malasena for all sorts of community activity that the police had evicted days before. People did not seem grim but rather determined and proud of what they were doing. I was fascinated and definately am going to look into what they're doing more. Here's a link to the webpage: http://www.patiomaravillas.net/patiomaravillas/el-patio-no-se-cierra-con-madrid-no-se-especula

Later that night, after mountains of tapas for seven of us in Chueca and barhopping until 1, Lori, Meredith and Steph and I made our way to Calle Barcelona where transnochamos-- we stayed out until the metro starts running on its morning schedule. This is a common thing in Madrid, and something that takes getting used to. We ended up at this one place where we met many many people who were all very friendly and danced with us to a great 60s-70s playlist. A deluge of Spanish names: Nacho, Pepe, Diego, Miriam, Jesus etc. So Rachel is sometimes hard for people to get, unless they love Friends (which many do) so I am Raquel a good chunk of the time. Just like Garschina's class back in the day. But I do think I am improving mi espanol, which is good because the classes I've taken at BU have focused on literature rather than conversation. Bailamos y charlamos y amigamos and then it was 6:30 so back on the metro! People are insanely friendly here. Its quite refreshing from the New England mindset, I do believe.

Well, apparently its the Superbowl tonight. My only sports knowledge of late is that Rafa beat Federer. Hurrah, Espana!