Capítulo Diez: We've Learned what Matters Most, so we Keep our Hearts Cold

"Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is alchemy's first law of Equivalent Exchange...But the world isn't perfect, and the law is incomplete. Equivalent Exchange doesn't encompass everything that goes on here, but I still choose to believe in its principle, that all things do come at a price, that there's an ebb and a flow, a cycle, that the pain we went through did have a reward, and that anyone who's determined and perseveres, will get something of value in return, even if it's not what they expected. I don't think of Equivalent Exchange as a law of the world anymore. Instead, I think of it as a promise, between my brother and me, a promise that someday, we'll see each other again."
- Alphonse Elric, Full Metal Alchemist

There's been a sudden change in the temperature. It suddenly feels like...fall here. It's significantly cooler, and there's a small gust of wind everyday. In some ways, it's nice, because now I don't constantly feel dehydrated or feel like I'm overheating; in other ways, it's kind of a pain, especially at night when you're walking around and it feels like it's freezing. In my room, I no longer don't sleep outside the covers and sweat myself to sleep; I now sleep with an extra blanket.

Talk about experiencing the two extremes.

I haven't updated lately mainly because I haven't had anything to update about. I've gone to classes the last couple days, and they've been going well, though I've undergone a few changes.

First of all, there used to be two history sections, but since both were small, they were combined. Thankfully, it's still at the same time, but now we have two professors who switch back and forth depending on the topic/time period. This week, we had the other section's professor, who seems like a nice guy, but he repeats himself a lot. I'm sitting there, trying to take notes, and then I'm realizing that he's saying a lot of the same things, over and over again. On top of that, he has horrendous breath, a common factor among the Spaniard, unfortunately. On Monday, a group of us were sitting in the second row, and he'd stand and lecture in front of us, and you could just smell the atrocity...I'm really not trying to be insulting, but the professor seriously needed a breath mint or something; it was hard to concentrate. We were sure to avoid the "line of fire" by sitting farther and away from where he usually likes to stand. On a brighter note, today we were going over the influence of the Roman Empire and government on Spain, which I thought was really interesting to listen to. In particular, it's neat to see how much of Spanish art is influenced by Greek and Roman art and religion, though it doesn't entirely surprise me if you look at it close enough.

While one of my courses combined sections, one of my other courses, Cuento, has divided into two sections, and it's been a little frustrating trying to figure out where I'm supposed to go. We were supposed to get an email from the professor telling us what we had to read next and what section we were in. Yeah, never got sent. Went to class yesterday, where he introduced the other professor that would be teaching the other Cuento section, then sent around an attendance sheet with which section/grupo we'd be in. Mine said I was in Grupo B. I check the board for Los Cursos De Hispanicos this morning, and now I'm in Grupo A. Now my schedule's been changed, which is kind of a pain since it was kind of a last minute notification as well as the fact that I have to change professors now (even though he didn't email us about the switch, I really do like him as a professor, as mentioned before), but the new schedule might work out to my advantage. I now have three classes on Lunes (Cuento at 10, Lengua at 2:30, and History at 6), but have absolutely NO classes on Tuesday! This schedule might change, though, because now I may switch my minicurso from taking a course on Mitos y Leyendos (myths and legends ) of early European villages to taking a minicurso on Don Quijote. As much as myths and legends interest me, Don Quijote is one of my favorite novels, and taking a whole course on it (meets every Tuesday for just an hour or so, and only for a month and a half) would be fantastic!

Actually, I think one of the professors in the Hispanic Studies department at Wesleyan, Profesora Nadeau, who is also my adviser and the department head, wrote quite a few essays, or even books about Don Quijote. I will have to read those once I get back!

Can you tell I love Don Quijote?! That's it. I'm totally taking that minicurso.

Other than that, I've had an unexciting last couple of days. In the last week, I've come across at least two guys taking a wiz in the street. In major big cities, that's probably not that uncommon, especially if he/she is homeless, but having never seen this done before, and seeing that one of the guys was clearly not a hobo since he had a cell phone in his hand, I naturally found this a little disgusting and weird.

Actually, while thinking about that, there are a handful of really strange people in this city, some to the obnoxious and creepy extent. I understand that men are much more foreward here, as it is part of the culture, but there's a difference between doing something as part of the culture, and doing something to be an asshole or an immature idiot. I am not going into specifics, but I've seen and experienced a little bit of oddness from a few of the people here, and it's discomforting at times, especially since I'm not entirely familiar with the way things work. Then again, those kinds of people are in every city, I know, so it's not as if Madrid is the only place. Still, it's kind of disturbing to think about the fact that there are some extremely shady people in this world, and sometimes that makes it dangerous.

But hey, most of the time, I try to think the best of people.

La Noche de Blanco is Saturday, and I'm excited for that. It's basically a festival on one night of the new moon in Madrid, and all the stores and sites are open, there are performers in the streets, and there are lots of different activities for people of different or all ages. It should be worth noting that it's an all-night thing, so I'll definitely be pulling an all nighter Saturday to Sunday. If we thought La Kapital messed up our sleeping schedule, I can only imagine how this is going to be...Red Bull, give me wings!

Also plan on doing a lot more exploring this weekend. Robby and Trinity were over here earlier, and we were marking places on the map that we wanted to see and visit. I won't say all the places we're going, but I will say that we plan on visiting one of the botanical gardens on La Noche de Blanco, where it will all be lit up and beautiful. And of course, there will be pictures. Ooh, we finally plan on getting chocolate y churros this weekend, too! We tried to find a place last night, but couldn't -- churros is generally a breakfast food (kind of like donuts in the US) so there was no place that was open that had them at the time.

Boring post = done.

Hasta Luego.

~ LSquared