We last left Matt with a night (and early morning) of partying.

SUNDAY (Jan 27th)

• catchup day
• on tech support with Apple cause of a keyboard quirk
• kebab dinner
• brought home a cherimoya

Cherimoya

I’d been eying these weird fruits in the markets since getting here.

looks like a dragon egg

• it’s also called “custard apple”
• actually tastes a lot like the flan cups I got at the supermarket
• texture is a tad gritty like a pear
• ate it with a spoon

MONDAY - FRIDAY

the sun has just disappeared when I get out of class

Classes

This is my initial schedule

• Sistemas Operativos (Operating Systems)
• Criptografía y Seguridad (Cryptography and Security)
• Inteligencia Artificial (Artificial Intelligence)
• Informática Gráfica (Computer Graphics)

Thoughts so far

• they are each 2 hours long and it’s rough
• the cryptography class is really intense and is kind of a waste to take
• I like my AI professor a lot
• the graphics class was supposed to be my hardest, but it seems super easy

Don’t worry mom, I’ve since dropped the Cryptography class

Food

• made my favorite low effort 1-pot tomato basil pasta recipe
• had my first experience soaking and cooking dry beans
• on Friday I started the meal plan for my residencia (pictured)

french fries seem to be a Spanish staple

I opted for the lowest tier, one meal only on weekdays. That’s enough to take the bulk of the burden of cooking off.

Other Highlights

• making progress on summer research applications, letters of recommendation
• delicious Indian food on the way home from campus, impressing the guy working there with some Hindi

SATURDAY

El Escorial

• too busy and rushed to do an extensive trip this weekend
• opted to take a day trip to El Escorial
• it’s a town mostly known for its huge monastery/palace

My timing was really off in the morning, so I checked out Atocha’s tropical display while I waited for my train.

there used to be hundreds of turtles living in this train station oasis

Train ride

• about an hour
• beautiful views of rural Madrid

Arrival

This was kind of magical. The weather report told me it would be a clear day. I was not prepared for the torrents of graupel greeting me at the station.

GRAUPEL (noun)
granular snow pellets

It was actually nice though, it calmed down into intermittent graupel flurries.

had to poke my phone over a stone wall to get this view

I saw this little village set up while I desperately searched for a public bathroom. Maybe it was supposed to be nativity scene?

notice the wintry weather

I decided to just head for the palace since they probably would have bathrooms inside

check out the stray peacock chilling out in the last pic

Lunch

Made my way into a cafeteria and shook a load of graupel from my hair (I’m getting as much mileage from that word as I can).

Fish (hake), croquettes, salad, fries

note to self, water doesn’t come with a “combo” plate

Afternoon

I just wandered through town until the sun started to set. Almost everything was closed for siesta. Before leaving I made a stop at la churreria for chocolate con churros.

the wind here is even worse than the UMass library

The warmth of the churros was the only thing keeping my fingers from freezing solid. Tasted even better this time around.

SUNDAY

El Rastro

My Rossman grandparents will be proud… Sunday morning is a huge flea market in the Centro district. The Spaniards won’t be starting at 6am though. It runs from 9am-3pm.

There were a couple of things I was on the lookout for.

Scarves

A lot of the hip guys around here wear big poofy scarves; my scarf game is weak in comparison.

Manbags

• not as common as I expected
• I see approx. 15% of guys donning a man bag of sorts
• the functionality would be great for my daily excursions

I didn’t find any crazy deals on either of these items for now.

Lunch

Around 2pm everyone on the streets had a styrofoam container with a bocadillo. This was as good a time as ever to try one.

jambon, tomato, bread, and oil

Matt reviews bocadillos

• no surprises
• you can’t easily bite the jambon so you have to wrestle it with your fingers
• like when you eat pizza and all the cheese starts sliding off
• mostly just bread

Verdict: I am not a bocadillo believer.

Afternoon

A friend from Spain knows someone in Madrid, and they made me a huge list of recommended sights to see in the city. I loaded them into Google Maps so I can easily see what’s nearby. I started making my way through this list for the afternoon.

My visits included

• Puerta de Toledo
• Dalieda San Francisco
• Catedral de la Almudena
• Palacio Real de Madrid
• Rosaleda del Parque del Oeste
• Casa de Campo

Teleférico de Madrid

The end of that list was particularly spontaneous.

• spotted some distant cable cars as I walked along Rosaleda del Parque del Oeste
• surprisingly few people in line
• bought a one way (ida) ticket to wherever it would take me
• a pleasant, 10-minute ride across the sky
• dropped me in a sprawling mountainous park complex

Here there were some of the clearest views of the skyline I’ve seen yet. I made my way down the hills (not before stopping to swing in the playground) and soaked up the view along Lago Casa de Campo as the final few percent spilled from my phone battery.

I grabbed kebab para llevar on the way home to recharge. After 22,000 steps I deserved it.