Madrid and the MA, tercer paso
Trip Start
Jun 23, 2006
1
5
9
Trip End
Aug 21, 2006
Madrid,
Spain
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Last Friday (14 July) I had a wonderful day not thinking about classes or exams. In the morning I did laundry. Then I walked from Puerta del Sol to Embajadores to meet my friends. Larry and Vicki had suggested we eat at the restaurant across the street from their apartment. They go there regularly, and we got the special treatment that "regulars" get: extra appetizers, free extra drink, great service and warm welcome. We had a great time visiting - a little over 2 hours, and no one in the restaurant cared how much time we took. (This is one of the differences between Europe and the U.S.) The timing for getting together worked out great. I had just finished finals, and Larry and Vicki were leaving the next week to visit friends and attend a couple of weddings in France. By the time they get back, I'll be gone
01 Celebrating at Botin
. The Lord definitely worked out the details on this one, since Friday was a perfect day for all of us to get together. When Larry and Vicki get back from France, they're heading up to the Camino de Santiago to work in a pilgrims' inn that's sponsored by Campus Crusade for Christ. They want to put together a team from the U.S. to walk a week and then work a week at the "albergue," or work a week and then walk a week.Next door to the restaurant was a "peluquería," or barber shop, and since I needed a haircut that was my next stop. (Let's just say that I won't have to get another haircut until after I get home in late August.) Then I strolled to the Plaza del Emperador Carlos V and spent some time watching the "Agentes de Movilidad" direct traffic. It amazes me that they are able to deal with the amount of traffic in Madrid and keep it moving as well as they do. From there I took a leisurely walk up the Paseo del Prado, stopping in to check the schedule for the museum, and up the Paseo de los Recoletos, stopping along the way just to sit and watch the passing parade, to Plaza Colón, where I met some other students for a celebration dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. At least it was a celebration for me. Julie, one of the other students, didn't have her orals until Monday, and she was panicking. But we all assured her she didn't have anything to worry about. She definitely knows enough to pass
02 Churros y Chocolate
. Kathy, a former graduate who flew in just to encourage Julie, looked at me and said, "You are so done!" She was right. After dinner we walked back to Plaza del Sol, completing my circuit for the day. Needless to say, I slept well that night!On Saturday Julie was busy studying, so Kathy and I met Linc (a current student planning to graduate in December) at the Hermitage of San Antonio de Florida. It's "claim to fame" is a ceiling painted by Goya. Originally the monastery commissioned the painting for its chapel, but it soon became popular just for the artwork, and after Goya's death he was buried in the chapel. The hermitage built a second chapel for services and turned the original chapel into a museum. The artwork is amazing. After viewing the chapel, we went across the street to Linc's favorite restaurant in Madrid: Casa Mingo. I understand why it's his favorite place; the rotisserie chicken is scrumptious. Then we walked to the gardens below the Royal Palace to enjoy the view. In the garden a wedding party was taking pictures. Linc had to get back to the university, so Kathy and I walked back to Puerta del Sol. She went to check on Julie, and I spent the rest of the day reading and relaxing.
On Sunday I met Kathy at the Prado just before it opened
03 Garden of Earthly Delights
. We wanted to get a picture of Velazquez "Las Meninas" before the crowds developed. Since the Prado is free on Sundays, it gets very crowded. They are also doing a special exhibit on Picasso in conjunction with the Reina Sofía museum, and I decided to come back to see that later, since it is a separate entry. The Prado also has several paintings by Hieronymus Bosch ("El Bosco" in Spanish), and I spent time getting shots of those paintings. One of the nice things about many museums in Europe (especially Spain) is that they let you take pictures of the collection as long as you don't use a flash, which ages the artwork. Since Bosch is a German painter, I can use his artwork in German class. Perhaps his most famous painting is "Garden of Earthly Delights," a triptych showing Paradise, Earth, and Hell in the various panels. If you didn't know that Bosch was a medieval painter, you might think he was very modern; some of his images are very surrealistic. (I'll work on getting some pictures up before I leave Madrid.) At 11:00 I headed off to St. George's Anglican Church for service, and Kathy went to check on Julie. In the afternoon I finished my reading for the week. That night Kathy and I met at Las Ventas, the bullring in Madrid. They were having a "novillada," a bullfight for beginning matadors or "novilleros." These are not amateurs, but they aren't the stars either, and the bulls are younger and smaller. The bull still dies. As we were leaving, we exited through a different gate and saw where they were butchering the bulls
04 Garden of Earthly Delights
. The refrigerated truck was waiting to whisk the meat off to a local market or restaurant.On Monday I stopped by to encourage Julie before her oral exam. She did fine and passed with no problems. In fact, all of the graduates who passed the written exams also passed the orals. I also started selling my books and giving my notes to upcoming students. KC got a thick packet of notes. He's the next student working on Poetry, so I handed on the notes I had gotten a couple of years ago from Jason along with additions of my own. (Each student has to take comprehensive written exams based on a General List and a Specialty List. The choices are Novels, Poetry, Short Stories and Essays, and Theater. Right now Theater seems to be the most popular because it's the shortest list.) KC seemed pretty happy to get the notes and also bought some of my books. The rest of the week was pretty much just going to class and relaxing in the evening.
On Tuesday evening several of us went to the "Restaurante del Sobrino de Botín." It claims to be the oldest continuously open restaurant in the world - though there are a couple of other restaurants elsewhere in the world that contest the claim. It is probably Madrid's most famous restaurant, having been frequented by many literary figures throughout Madrid's history - including Americans like Hemingway
05 Garden of Earthly Delights
. I suppose the other famous restaurant is the Torre de Oro, which is known for its bullfighting connections. And if you're walking along the Paseo de los Recoletos, the Gijón is the place to sit outside and enjoy life. After dinner we went to the Chocolatería de San Ginés for the annual serving of "churros y chocolate." When we first arrived it was very crowded, which surprised us. Madrileños usually don't start the evening until 11:00 or later and wouldn't end up at San Ginés until around 5:00 or 6:00 a.m. Then we figured out that it was a large tour group; they left about 11:00. I'm sure the chaperones wanted to get their kids back to the hotel. When we were finished, everyone else went "home" (hotel, university), but I decided to walk around a bit. One of the books we read this summer was "Luces de Bohemia," and the main character did a night-time walk through Madrid. One of the places he went was the Chocolatería de San Ginés, so I sort of followed his route (though I didn't go all the way out to the viaduct). In 2002 the city of Madrid was honoring the author Ramón del Valle-Inclán, and put up a number of plaques to celebrate the "Night of Max Estrella," so I knew I was in the right places. I even found the Calle de Alejandro Gato. It's just an alley, but along one side are mirrors, both concave and convex, and Max and Don Latino talk about the mirrors and the way they distort reality, comparing the reflections to Spain as a distortion of Europe.Wednesday was the graduation ceremony and barbecue. When I first came in 2001 (Has it been that long?), it was very casual. Everyone stood around, then they got everyone's attention and handed out a name plate for the desk to each of the graduates. This year they put up a rostrum, had us put on caps and gowns, had a procession that didn't go quite as planned, and had a speech by the vice-dean.
06 Garden of Earthly Delights
We each still got a name plate. Debbie Tuck, one of the graduates, is putting together a collection of all the pictures she can get and will burn a CD for each of the graduates. I let her download the pictures I had just before I came to the computer lab to write my travel blog.Friday morning I went back to the Prado to see the Picasso exhibit, since there are no classes on Fridays. The exhibit was good. One thing I thought particularly ingenious was how they set up Picasso's paintings of "Las Meninas." Picasso did a series of paintings based on Velazquez' work; they weren't attempts simply to copy the work but homages to the older work in Picasso's own style. The Prado placed the exhibit so that Velazquez' "Las Meninas" was visible from where they had hung some of Picasso's versions. It meant that Velazquez' painting was part of the exhibit even though it wasn't in that section but remained in its normal place. I also went back to the Bosch section to get a couple of pictures I had missed before. When I had had my class on Contemporary Spanish Art, we talked about Goya as the precursor to much of modern Spanish art. One of the things we had looked at were his "cartoons" for the Royal Tapestry Factory. Since I had time, I decided to go there. The Real Fábrica de Tápices has as part of its mission the conservation of traditional methods of construction. The factory includes a school where they train new generations of carpet and tapestry makers
07 Seven Deadly Sins
. A carpet costs just under €1,000 per square meter; it takes a worker about a month to produce that amount. A tapestry costs about €2,000 per square meter, which takes about 3-4 months to produce. They still use Goya's designs but also others, including very modern ones. When I first arrived, they told me they were getting ready to close for lunch (at 1:45), and I should come back at 4:00. So, I walked to the Parque del Buen Retiro and read the book I had bought on Bosch. I also got a "limón granizado" (sort of a frozen lemonade and very refreshing on a hot day in Madrid). When I got back just after 4:00 they told me I would have to wait until 5:00 for the next tour. That was the first I had heard that the visit was by tour only. The attendant suggested I go next door and look at the photo exhibit while I waited, so I did. Finally at 5:00 I got a guided tour. Since I was the only one there, it was very personalized, and it was interesting to see the work in progress; I also got to talk to some of the workers, one of which was a recent graduate of the school. He was hoping to finish a tapestry before leaving on vacation in August.Since I haven't had a lot of time constraints, I've been walking to a lot of places. The location of my apartment is great for that - about 75 yards off Puerta del Sol and near most of the tourist places. Saturday, though, I stayed home and read
08 Corrida de Toros
. In the evening I went to get a jug of water. Even though the water in Madrid is potable, most people still use bottled water. On my way back I saw a bunch of guys sitting around at an intersection. They had guitars, a bass, a drum, a lute and were dressed in suits. I recognized them as "tunos." A "tuno" is a member of a student singing group called a "tuna." (Really - I'm not making this up.) Since they were eating, I figured I had some time, so I went to the apartment, had a quick bite to eat, grabbed my camera and went back to Calle del Carmen. They were still there. I figured out that they were waiting for a group of South Americans to get finished, and then they were going to sing. However, the South Americans weren't cooperating. They would perform, then stand around and talk and "tootle" on their pipes and recorders. Finally the students realized the others weren't going to leave, so they went up the street and stopped in front of the church of "Nuestra Señora del Carmen" and performed there. I filmed a couple of their songs and also took some pictures. The group were all students in the School of Economics at the University of Porto in Portugal. Most universities in Spain and Portugal have similar groups, most of the time with the students all coming from a particular school within so that there are several "tunas" at each university. During the summer they travel and perform, either individually or in groups. This group was also selling CDs. There are also festivals where they compete.
09 Corrida de Toros
Today I finished my reading for the week. This time the book is "El árbol de la ciencia" by Pío Baroja. It's a long novel but fairly easy reading. I'm glad, though, that I'm auditing the class; I don't want to have to keep all 100+ characters straight! It's a pessimistic book (like its author), and at the end the protagonist commits suicide (unlike its author who lived to a ripe old age).
That gets me caught up on my reportage. I hope my writing didn't take on the characteristics of Barojas like an earlier posting was reminiscent of Borges and Marquez. This coming week is my last week in Spain, and I'm thinking of going to Santiago de Compostela on the last weekend, returning to Madrid in time to catch my flight to Berlin. I'll let you know what happens next time.
Until then, ¡Que Dios os bendiga!
