Wow it has been one crazy week and that is why this is a day late. It was midterm week so it was pretty stressful. Wow I am half way through my program! It’s going by so quickly.
I had a midterm for my Art and Surrealism class on Tuesday so I spent all Monday studying for my test and the test was pretty hard. She asked a lot of small details and there was one question that me and other students in the class had no idea the answer to but hopefully I was able to bs may way on my 2 essay questions but we’ll see.
Wednesday I had my first clinical! I was super nervous and I got to the site an hour early so I had to walk around for a while to kill time. Then the lady to meet me was 10 minutes late. Then the people I was supposed to be working with were not going to get there for another hour. So I watched people get there blood drawn. Then they sent me to the cafeteria to get something to eat, to kill time, and when I finally got food they came to get me. Then I sat in the office for another 30 minutes until we did anything. Spanish people have no sense of time, which has been the trickiest thing to get used to. Then we finally did something. I partnered with a community nurse. We went apartment to apartment to see patients who could not get to the clinic. I thought I was not going to like it because I was invading their personal space but they kind of ignored me. I also liked the personalized care that the nurse was giving. It was a mix of professionalism but with a Spanish twist. She called her patients dears, queen, princess, which in my nursing classes we have been told not to do because it is degrades them. She also greeted most of them with kisses. I saw a bunch of pressure ulcers, which was not to exciting but I liked it. Then the nursing majors in Barcelona and I had to give a presentation in our Foundations class which was really interesting. It went pretty well, and our connection did not have a lag so they could understand us. Our project was smoking cessation in Barcelona, because smoking here is really prominent.
Thursday passed without much. On Friday we had an early flight to Madrid! I am still not used to flying; on take-off I stopped breathing for a minute. But once we were going straight I was fine. Landing was a little bumping. It was a 40 minute flight to Madrid and once we landed we got on a bus to Toledo. Toledo is a small but big town an hour out of Madrid. It is really medieval but a touristy spot know for being Spain’s old capital. I really liked Toledo, they had lots of Knight things, and it was cute. They are also known for their Marzipan. We spent all Friday afternoon in Toledo. We went to back to Madrid for free time. Me and my roommates in the hotel hung out in the room then we went and walked around Madrid’s nightlife.
Saturday morning I had eggs and bacon for breakfast in the hotel. It’s been 2 months since I have had eggs for breakfast. Then we had a tour of Madrid of the Cathedral, the Palace, Plaza Sol, and other parts. Then we had free time for lunch. Then we had a tour through the Palace and you weren’t allowed to take pictures. The palace has 2000 rooms and we got to see about 20 rooms from the whole palace. Then I saw the royal armory and the royal pharmacy. Tapas are really popular in Madrid and Spain and the group I was with had an optional Tapa tour of Barcelona. I was the only person who did not go. I am mentioned before that I am LDS and well there is a Temple in Madrid that I wanted to see. So I got help from one of the leaders in my group to figure out how to get to the temple. I got there and there was a wedding. Well there was a wedding party waiting for the couple to come out of the temple. I sat hidden in the gardens so that I could see them come out. They did and it was so cute and romantic! I walked around the outside of the temple to see it and when I came back to the front nobody was there and there was a fake white rose and I took it for memories. I got back to the metro and I took it to see the bullring. Bullfighting is still legal in Madrid unlike Barcelona but it is so expensive to go in and I went to late to see the inside. Then I went back to the hotel because it was getting dark and I did not want to get lost in Madrid all by myself. A couple of girls and I went to the bar to just hang out and it was super fun. The bartender was super cute so I was okay with the fact that he laughed at me for ordering water. We did not go to bed until 4 in the morning, the latest I have ever gone to bed in college.
Sunday I woke up 10 minutes before we had to be at breakfast at 9 am. I was ready in 7 minutes packed and everything! I was super fast. We went to the Sophia Reina Museum and it is super modern. I don’t understand how a rippling cloth is art but supposedly it is. We only had an hour scheduled for it. It is a 5 story museum! I was walking around like a chicken without its head trying to see everything in the museum! Then we went to the Prada museum and we had a guided tour for an hour. We only got to see a couple of works from Vasquez (las meninas) and Goya (his black period). It was nice but I felt like I had no time to see other things in the Museum. Then we had a tour through the Parque del Bien Retiro. It has constructions so it wasn’t really grassy, but there were a lot of people just walking and enjoying the Park. Then we had free time for lunch and after lunch we had an hour to kill so we just sat in the park soaking in the sun. The plane ride to Barcelona was better in the fact that I was breathing but during takeoff we kept going sideways! I hope I get used to flying.
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