Clocks run on 24 hour time here, so when I just happened to look at my new digital clock radio at exactly midnight that’s what it said.

I’ve been much better since our class ended on Thursday. It’s been really nice to have some time to enjoy being here and to relax and to do some fun things outside of the official group trips. Thursday afternoon was spent trying to frantically trying to plan for a trip to Italy this weekend after our original plan to travel around the south of Spain was spoiled by reports of terrible weather. “Our” refers to a small group of 5-6 Marquette students. After visiting an unhelpful travel agency, we had to decide who was out and who was in. One was definitely out and two definitely in, with Katie, Lauren and I in the middle. We decided to go out to lunch and talk it over. We had some very tasty food from this place called Wok and ended up deciding that we’d rather see Italy at another time when we can plan it better. That took a lot of the stress off of my shoulders about this break, as we could plan a smaller trip in a more laid back way in the next day or so.

Thanks to an awesome theater professor who gave us a “class” on how to find cultural happening in Madrid, I have the invaluable “Guia de Ocio” that has every thinkable restaurant/museum/event/concert/play/dance/show/lecture that is happening in Madrid along with reviews and addresses and prices. It comes out every Friday and it’s only 1€.

After picking an interesting looking play called “La Revelación” with the tagline “Vuelve la Cruzada Laica” (”The Lay Crusade is Coming”), Katie and I set off to find the theater. The play was a humorous critique of monotheism by a 50 year old man named Leo Bassi. The show has been quite controversial and has received a whole lot of negative backlash from the religious right, which culminated in a bomb being planted before one of the shows (it was discovered before it could go off). Katie and I were both surprised at our ability to comprehend the vast majority of the show, I’d guess I was understanding around 85% of it, which was really great. I found the show to be really interesting and most definitely controversial (it begins with a greeting from Pope Benedict, who ends up break-dancing). Bassi spent a lot of the time going through the first books of the Bible and pointing out the problems he sees at the heart of all three monotheistic religions, especially with regards to a disregard for nature, a view of women as secondary, and an unhealthy association of sex with evil. For the most part it was well done, funny, and thought-provoking… the man was just a little crazy, and that’s what made it work.

So seeing a play was a big success and I hope to do that quite a bit more. There are about 4 or 5 plays here now that look like they’re worth seeing and I’m interested in going to some dance shows once Jenny gets here. The prices generally hover at or below 20€, with some days cheaper, which isn’t all that bad. There’s also a lot of alternative art for even less. The fact that there’s all this interesting stuff to do (and a magical book that tells me how to do it) makes Madrid seem like a lot more fun. I bet I could find similar information in NYC and go to some pretty cool shows.

Anyways, after my first day sleeping in yesterday (it was wonderful), Katie, Lauren and I spent the early afternoon trying to plan a short trip to Sevilla. We spent a lot of energy deciding on bus times and picking a hotel that was withing walking distance of the good sites and everything… and then we decided to check the weather. It was going to be raining the whole time. Deal-breaker. We made some vain attempts at a backup plan, but ultimately there was bad weather all over Spain, which didn’t make anywhere sound all that exciting. We hung our heads and decided to split up grab dinner and then go to a movie later. I got to bring Katie over to my (Gloria’s) house and show her, which was nice, and then we went to the movie, Babel.

It was intense, the kind of movie that has you grinding your teeth and rubbing your hands together for every second, the kind of movie you have to recover from. After doing so, I can say that I think it was great. To me, it seemed to accomplish what I thought “Crash” did not: an interweaving storyline that doesn’t fit together like a foam puzzle. Anyways, I’d recommend it highly if you are prepared for a stressful but rewarding experience. Sadly, the length of the movie caused me to miss what was to be my first phone call with Pat since I’ve been here. Hopefully that can be remedied soon.

Today (after sleeping in late again, oh sweet sleep) the trio of us Madrid-kids hit up the Reina Sofia museum, which was free admission today, and took in all of that modern art. We just wandered around and looked at stuff this time around… no lecture, nothing to remember, no audio tour. It was nice. Maybe next time I go I can get more back story on some of the stuff I liked. We then went out for Thai, which was good but of course not E.E. Sane (nothing is). Came home and here I sit.

So that brings me from the end of orientation up to now. There are still some gaps in the Toledo trip and such, but I will try and fill them in later (hopefully with photos to go with). Now I’m going to try and call someone at home.