Ok, I have this started up and now have a few minutes to write some thoughts.

I'll start off with my first impressions of Spain as a whole.  I am still in the awestruck stage where everything still feels like I'm watching a movie.  Truthfully, the entire package of this culture combined with the people who create the culture really fascinates me.  The cities are old and filled with hundreds of years of incredible history.  Buildings are made out of brick and stone, never glass.  Every street corner you can find a statue immortalizing a king, queen, artist, or warrior.  The people are generally friendly to me and the other students but I can tell that they do get frustrated at times with our broken Spanish.  This is totally fair for them to feel this way about us because after all we are in their country so shouldn't we know how to speaktheir language.  I hope they understand that this is the reason why the majority of us are here, to learn their language and experience their culture.  One thing that I  have not adjusted to is the restaurant and bar service.  In restaurants, there really is not much service at all.  The servers take your drink order, bring your drinks out and at the same time order your meals.  After they bring out your food, there is no more interaction between server and guest.  From the first few meals here I have only been served one round of drinks and one round of drinks only before we have to request the check (because they don't just bring it out to you).  In my opinion, this is the result of two things: 1) they take much more time for meals, Spaniards view meal time as a time to socialize and not just eat and 2) they don't expect to be tipped.  If a meal is 9.80 Euros, you leave 10.  From what I have been told to do, you just round off to the nearest dollar.  This explains why they don't "serve" you during your meal.  Ill talk more about all the fascinating things about the everyday life in later blogs but I will only focus on one or two each time.

On Thursday 60 students and myself began a "Madrid Tour" where we are taken by guides to museums, buildings, and neighboring cities.  Our first two places that we visited on Thursday were Palacio Real de Madrid (Royal Palace) and the Prado Museum of Art.  

The Palacio Real, a video is posted above, has been one of the most amazing things I have ever been able to witness.  This breath taking palace has more than 2,800 rooms that were used for the King and Queen, guests, soldiers, and servants.  I was able to see the thrown for the king and queen.  They do not live here on a daily basis but everytime they are in Madrid they stay here.  The rooms they we were able to go through were filled with gold, beautiful paintings and marvelous clocks.  Every thing inside the palace was so fascinating.

The Prado Museum of Art was also beautiful.  I usually do not get too excited about art work and art museums but this one is difficult not to appreciate.  Hundreds of pieces of art from Spanish artists filled the walls.  Many paintings depicted the Christian religion.  The pride and joy of the Prado Museum was a painting by a Spanish painter, Diego Velazquez.  Velazaquez was the personal painter for the King and Queen of Spain around the 17th century. This is the painting "Menina":

It is a picture of the royal family with Velazquez in the image painting.  It was interesting to learn about all of the deep meaning behind this art but I will not bore you, or myself with this.  

I am heading out with a few friends to a "Tapas" restaurant where we will begin our night.  Ill try to get some Spanish speaking in, while having some wine and tapas.  Tapas are a huge meal in all of Spain.  It is kind of like a cracker or piece of bread with different meat and vegetable toppings. Who knows if I will like it but I promised myself I will do the best I can with trying native foods.

Hasta luego amigos!