Sunday trip to the Rastro and much caffeinated academic chatter

Yesterday was a great day actually. I got to skype with Casey in the morning over breakfast, since he was up late to talk to me, and then I got out the door early to meet Alyssa for our trip to the Rastro! Well, actually I was a bit late, which was kind of stressful, because I didn't want to miss meeting her. I got out at the Anton Martin station, and she'd given me good directions on where to meet her. I was late, but so was she, so it worked out that we found each other just fine! But she'd stayed up really late the last night putting together teaching so we decided to get breakfast first. She took me to a little restaurant where we got tortillas (the best tortilla I've had so far here - can't go wrong with potatoes and eggs!) We also got coffee. It felt great to have a hearty breakfast in my system - most days I've been having just a huge Spanish orange and a blueberry breakfast bar. Couldn't believe how cheap our tortillas, bread with tomato, and coffees were.

She took me over to the Rastro, where she's been collecting interviews for an article she's working on. I didn't really know what to expect of the place, other than it was a market of sorts, but it was pretty cool! At parts it was VERY crowded, but it was neat to see all the stuff for sale. She cautioned me to hang onto my bag and belongings - it seems like a good place to be pickpocketed. Lots of crowded movement, lots of tourists, etc. There were so many stalls of knick-knacks, purses, clothing, souvenirs, etc. Lots to take in!

We shopped around a little bit, but were mostly talking, talking, talking and exploring. I saw a cool purse I that I inquired about, but it was kind of expensive - there are so many beautiful leather goods in Spain though! I'm hoping to find a cool pair of boots while I'm here but didn't see anything like that today. Alyssa thought about getting this pretty lace top we saw at a lace clothing stall, but after we saw the same one at a few more shops it seemed a little less uniquely beautiful. It was fun to explore the different shops.

I also helped her out by taking a few surreptitious candid shots of people she'd interviewed for her paper. I had forgotten my camera but I'm glad I had my iphone for the day at the market! There were a lot of street performers and they were super entertaining.

After the Rastro Alyssa took me just ALL over Madrid! We passed monuments, parks, some of her favorite restaurants and movie theatres, colorful streets, churches, etc. It was kind of a walking introduction to Madrid. I'm certain I won't remember where anything was, but it was certainly a fun walk.

 It was chilly so we stopped for hot beverages, and it was nice to sit and talk face to face. We got lunch later too at an American Brunch place she'd been hearing about and finally wanted to try, where we got one euro mimosas and lots of food. I feel like we talked just at top speeds ALL DAY - about our research topics and interests, our families, academic life at our respective SLU campuses, PhD programs, teaching, the challenges of working with international students, history, literature, life, living and conducting research abroad, cities, Spanish culture... it was a very informative day and I loved every minute of high-speed American chatter with a fellow graduate student. I do hope we'll hang out again. At the end of the afternoon she invited me up to her place for a cup of tea. I knew there was still a lot of work I wanted to get done in the evening, but the day had been so interesting and enjoyable I wasn't going to turn down such an invitation. She got out a notebook and asked to pick my brain. She wanted to know the order and nature of each of the periods of European history, so I started with the end of the Roman empire, described the barbarian settlement in Europe, the development of kingdoms, the Carolingian Empire and its breakup, the nature of the 'dark ages,' the medieval warm period, high medieval culture, the calamitous 14th century, and the Renaissance. I was trying to make it as succinct but informative as possible, which was a fun challenge for a 45 minute conversation over a cup of loose leaf jasmine tea! Delightful though - so fun to talk about history. She also found it appalling that I never get a chance to read fiction, and lent me Slaughterhouse 5, which I've never read - so I'm looking forward to having something to read over lunches alone.

I was exhausted when I got home around 4:45 though! Omg! We had pretty much just been talking constantly for like 6 hours! But what a stimulating afternoon.

The evening was more chill. I talked with Casey on skype for a long time, and it was so good to hear about how his film shoot was going. Then the family came home from their weekend in Andalusia, and we chatted awhile. I actually did end up making a lot of progress on Marti research online in the evening, and that was encouraging, but wiped me out. Dinner was delicious meatballs and was eaten in front of the TV, where we watched a special about Gypsy weddings in Spain. My host mom told me that gypsies are dangerous people, but then did admit that they were good dancers. They did not seem to care for the gypsy wedding traditions or clothing displayed in the documentary, but did find a few nice things to say here and there. I mostly sat back and watched, curious to get a sense of their impressions of this subculture in Spain.

After they'd gone to bed I laid on the couch and watched New Girl with headphones on - Yesterday Hulu was working, so yay! SO FUNNY and such a nice way to wind down after learning so much all day.