Flamenco

As a group, we all went to a Flamenco show at a nice restaurant. It was incredible. I've never seen anything quite like it.

The dancers were fast, showy, and amazing. There was so much emotion in the dancing, and in the singing. The singing at times seemed like a shout of joy, at others a cry of anguish and at others a flash of anger. I've heard the some people say that Jazz is a truly American music for having so much individualistic expression, and coming together to create an ensemble. But I think Flamenco embodies that idea even more so. The two guitarists played in perfect unison at some points, and at others went off on seemingly unrelated riffs, though they still blended together beautifully. The singers poured so much emotion into the pieces, as did the dancers, and it was really amazing to see the blending of instrumental and vocal music with dancing to convey emotions.

As I watched the Dancing, I thought to myself about how much I've come to love this country. Spain is beautiful for its history, its culture, its people, and I have really fallen in love with Spain.

Atletico

Madrid is home to two major soccer teams- Real Madrid, and Madrid Atletico. Both are members of the prestigious Champions League. We got tickets to an Atletico game against FC Rostov (a Russian team). It was really fun! The two games had different atmospheres, and the stadiums are very different. My professor likened the relationship between Real Madrid and Madrid Atletico to the Yankees and the Mets (respectively), both baseball teams from New York. The Yankees in some ways represent the wealthier establishment, while the Mets have more of a working class feel to them.
The game was really exciting to watch, and Atletico was clearly the better team than Rostov. They maintained possession of the ball for probably about 80% of game time. However, Rostov did have a really good goalie and a good defense, so the score ended up at 2-1.

The best part was seeing how committed the Atletico players were. They were sliding and rushing and tumbling to ensure that they were in possession of the ball, even if that meant taking a hard fall or a huge grass stain.

National Geographic Personalized

On Snapchat, I am subscribed to National Geographic. Almost everybody I've ever talked about it with has said "You're subscribed to National Geographic?? On Snapchat?! I didn't think anybody followed that!" Well. I do. Everyday I get updates on animals, climate change, world cultural events, a photo of the day, that sort of thing. And I still haven't met anyone subscribed to National Geographic on Snapchat other than myself.
Well today I got on Snapchat to find a video about a hippo getting dental work! The dentist gave the hippo a filling, and didn't even have to sedate the animal. That's pretty much my dream-- doing dental work on animals, as I mentioned in a previous post.
There was also an article about England's relationship with the Arabic world-- in response to tension with Spain; the enemy of my enemy is my friend. It was interesting learning about how other European countries interacted with Arabic culture.
There were beautiful pictures of Cheetahs, an article about unusual animals, and even an article about greyhounds in Spain.
If I am the only subscriber to National Geographic on Snapchat, I think they've caught on. There may be some benefits to this!

Faunia

I went to this huge zoo here! It's so fun! I got to feed goats.

And see Manatees for the first time ever. They were way cooler than I expected.

See ocelots running around and get up close and personal with a ton of animals including monkeys, emus, kangaroos, and wallabies.

The Emu was just like a dinosaur! 

I even got to find a dinosaur! 

It was a really fun zoo, and the animals were a bit more out in the open. At first that kind of sketched me out, but overall it was really cool being closer to them.

Don Juan Tenorio

Every year there is a public performance of the classic play Don Juan Tenorio. The play is a comedy and follows Don Juan, who is a womanizing murderer. Throughout the play more and more of his friends and family warn him to change, but he refuses. Eventually, he is informed he will be cast down to hell, and finally repents, ascending to heaven with his true love.

There were probably several thousand people crowded around four massive outside stages. Each act took place on a different stage. The plot wasn't necessarily my favorite, but I did find myself laughing at several parts of the play. My theater geek left me analyzing the production itself. The blocking was incredible, and the director really did a fantastic job staging the entire performance so that it was easy to see and engaging throughout the three hour standing room only performance. The fight scenes were seamless, and the acting was superb. Don Juan did such a good job that the audience was able to hate him in all the right ways throughout the play, yet not feel too cheated with the twist ending.

Aranjuez

When we heard that on the day of time change church would be postponed from 10:30 to 4:30 because of a marathon passing on the street in front, we decided that the six hour change plus an hour later for time change was too much. A small group of us went to church down in Aranjuez.

The city is absolutely beautiful.

Aranjuez is where the summer palace is, and has the best gardens of the Spanish palaces. The palace was smaller than the ones in Madrid and Escorial, but still beautiful.