Farewell Madrid
Today was my last full day in Madrid. I will spend tomorrow in the nearby city of Toledo, then leave on Sunday for Sevilla. Although I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in Madrid, I'm ready to move on, ready to try out a new city.
I only wish I could take elemadrid, my Spanish school, with me. I cannot say enough good things about elemadrid. The teachers are exceptional, the atmosphere is professional but fun, and the other students (at least right now) are all very fascinating people with great careers and interesting lives. For example, today I went to lunch with one of my fellow students, Helena. What an amazing life she has led. For the last 25 years she has worked as an assistant producer/financial something (?) in the entertainment industry, and has lived all over the world while working on different films. Most recently, she worked on The Golden Compass in London, and all three Lord of the Rings films in New Zealand. She has had some fascinating experiences—so fun to listen to—and her down-to-earth outlook on life is refreshingly non-Hollywood. :)
I will definitely keep in touch with my new elemadrid friends, and who knows…maybe I will come back to Madrid again someday for another round at elemadrid.
MY LAST WEEK IN MADRID
I don’t have a great deal of ‘blog-worthy’ activity to report on this week. Instead of exploring the city in the afternoons, I decided to focus my free time on el espanol, particularly ‘controlling my verbs.’ I now possess the ability to formulate intelligible thoughts in a variety of past tenses. However, no mere mortal could possess the patience it would take to carry on a conversation with me when I am using these new tricks of mine. So I decided to spend the week exercising my brain in the hope that it will pick up the pace a bit.
I spent several nights this week writing my life story in Spanish. I decided that’d be a good project to work on while here. I completed nine pages, and just got the corrected version back from the teacher today. Not too bad, but lots of room for improvement.
I only wish I could take elemadrid, my Spanish school, with me. I cannot say enough good things about elemadrid. The teachers are exceptional, the atmosphere is professional but fun, and the other students (at least right now) are all very fascinating people with great careers and interesting lives. For example, today I went to lunch with one of my fellow students, Helena. What an amazing life she has led. For the last 25 years she has worked as an assistant producer/financial something (?) in the entertainment industry, and has lived all over the world while working on different films. Most recently, she worked on The Golden Compass in London, and all three Lord of the Rings films in New Zealand. She has had some fascinating experiences—so fun to listen to—and her down-to-earth outlook on life is refreshingly non-Hollywood. :)
I will definitely keep in touch with my new elemadrid friends, and who knows…maybe I will come back to Madrid again someday for another round at elemadrid.
MY LAST WEEK IN MADRID
I don’t have a great deal of ‘blog-worthy’ activity to report on this week. Instead of exploring the city in the afternoons, I decided to focus my free time on el espanol, particularly ‘controlling my verbs.’ I now possess the ability to formulate intelligible thoughts in a variety of past tenses. However, no mere mortal could possess the patience it would take to carry on a conversation with me when I am using these new tricks of mine. So I decided to spend the week exercising my brain in the hope that it will pick up the pace a bit.
I spent several nights this week writing my life story in Spanish. I decided that’d be a good project to work on while here. I completed nine pages, and just got the corrected version back from the teacher today. Not too bad, but lots of room for improvement.