WEEKDAYS

• week was really slow due to my cold
• first exam (AI)
• it was tricky but I think I did okay

On classes in Spain

My mom complained that I didn’t mention this in the last post so here goes.

1. Classes are 2 hours long

   After half of this time my brain has checkout out

2. Grading schemas are messy but reasonable

   I came expecting most of the grade to be based on final exams. It seems Spain is changing their system to “continuous evaluation” which means they have projects and midterms that count toward your grade too, like in the US.

   

   example grading schema for logic class

3. You write exams in pen

   I’d invest in whiteout but there’s not much time to correct mistakes anyways

Here’s the project I just finished (one of the culprits for these late posts)

I had to make a rendering of the photo on the left with code

THURSDAY

I emerged from logic class to a distant drum beat. Soon the campus was swarmed with little niños putting on a Carnaval parade for us.

It looked like each grade level was assigned a different metro stop theme. The littlest kids were cute but the Bambú crew was clearly the most enthusiastic.

FRIDAY

Started with a visit to theDoger Café which I’ve been eyeing since arriving in Madrid. I had to make an appointment pretty far in advance. It’s a cafe where you can play with puppies. 😍

pooped pups

Walked around Retiro from there and got a nice burger before class.

Madrid Carnaval

With me being sick this week I didn’t have the energy to travel. Luckily, this is the week Madrid celebrates Carnaval. There were a few events going on this weekend to keep me occupied. The events are all stationed around a park pretty far from the center so it was a pain to get to.

• this evening there was some (packed) live music
• I arrived kind of late
• grabbed a loaded perrito from a foodstand and listened from outside

SATURDAY

This is the bigger celebration day since it holds the Carnaval parade.

A lot of interest costumes including Marge Simpson, Rosie the Riveter, the Hulk, etc.

The cherry blossoms have started blooming in Madrid making a beautiful backdrop for the festivities.

• afterwards there was a concert with “pop” music for families
• sounded like Kidz Bop interpretations of some really overdone hits
• I already heard We Will Rock You plenty of times at the airport

got outta there real quick

• rest of the day I walked around Madrid
• dying for some vegetables to help my immune system
• the Spanish bread and potato diet wasn’t cutting it
• got some well reviewed Chinese take out

whoa, green vegetables in Spain?

Grocery store crawl

One of my simple pleasures abroad has been picking up an assortment of interesting looking beers at the grocery store. This week I tried this good cherry beer, fitting for the cherry blossoms.

tasted like adult cherry soda

That’s all folks

Small post this week since I’ve been waking up feeling like death. The next couple of weekends I have some trips planned though…