Winner of the Photo Contest and a Beautiful Gift From a Student

 The course is about to end... It is hard to believe! Memories begin to pile up and we try to fulfill our last plans before returning home... Our student Fiona Goe has given us a precious gift: one of her final class projects, where she and some of her classmates show us their vision of their experience during these months:

Vídeo de Fiona sobre AU

And now, what you've all been waiting for... Here it is! The winner of the Photo Contest 2 is... Alma Beckwith, with the following picture:

You can see the other pictures (they were all very good!) and the votes they got in the padlet below.  I will be travelling next Monday with the Iberian group and I will not be able to write, but I will post the last entry when we come back. Good luck with your exams, guys!

International Book Day, The Night of Books... and Alternative Places to Study for Your Exams

International Book Day is a commemoration celebrated every April 23 worldwide. Since 1988, it is an international celebration promoted by UNESCO. It is a symbolic day for world literature, since that day, in 1616, Cervantes, Inca Garcilaso de la Vega and Shakespeare died (Cervantes actually died on the 22nd, but was buried on the 23rd, and as for Shakespeare, that April 23 corresponds to the Julian calendar, still in force in Elizabethan England). The date also coincides with the birth or death of other prominent authors. Libraries, museums, and other cultural institutions usually organize special activities on the occasion of the date (round tables, book signings, conferences, guided tours, children's workshops, storytelling, concerts, public readings, and much more...).

On the other hand, inspired by that day, and I quote, "The Community of Madrid celebrates, annually, The Night of Books with the participation of bookstores, libraries and cultural institutions. The event has numerous free activities around books and reading in Madrid and in municipalities in the region. It has been presenting, since 2020, a hybrid format: face-to-face and virtual. There are debates, conversations, conferences, round tables, children's activities, contests, literary tours, music or theater workshops" (http://www.madrid.org/lanochedeloslibros/2023/index.html). This year it will be on Friday April 21st. 

However, it is also possible that you feel a bit overwhelmed with exams and prefer to go to "cafeterías- workplace" this weekend, where they will let you study for exams (which is not always the case in Madrid). In order to find those spaces,  you can visit the following site: https://unbuendiaenmadrid.com/10-cafeterias-workplace-con-encanto/ Although the texts are in Spanish and maybe they are too difficult for some of you, under each description you will find the corresponding address. The best known cafeteria and the one that has been running the longest is "La bicicleta", in the Malasaña area... Take a look at the pic below!

(Picture from https://www.salir.com/la-bicicleta-cafe-madrid-neg-125575.html)

In the next post I will let you know who won the second photo contest 😊

The Rose Gardens in Madrid

Welcome to the final stretch of the course! We hope you had a happy holiday. Madrid welcomes you with a beautiful spring (which is usually short and gives way to summer very quickly, so enjoy it). In May and June the rose gardens bloom throughout the city, but you could see the beggining of that in no time.

Surely you have been to the Retiro Park a thousand times, but you have not gone to its rose garden. We recommend that you go for a walk one of these afternoons!

Other precious rose gardens, and somewhat less known, are in the Parque del Oeste (near the Argüelles metro, line 3 and 6) and in the Campo del Moro (near the Royal Palace). Finally, don't miss the Botanical Garden, next to the Prado Museum, because right now it is like an explosion of life (not just because of the roses).

Study for the exams, but don't stop enjoying Madrid, your friends, and your experience with American University abroad!!!

Happy Break and a Plan for Today April 1st

 

First of all, the AU Madrid team wishes you happy holidays! 

Just in case someone thinks this is a joke for April Fools' Day, I should tell you that it does not exist in Spain in the same date, although we have something similar in December 28th (but that is another story I can tell you some day 😊)

As we know that some of you do not travel until Monday, we remind you that today, being the first day of the month, the Prado Museum is open from 8:30 pm to 11:30 pm (entrance free and until full capacity), as we announced a few posts ago in this blog. Here you can watch an interesting video where the Head of Institutional Relations of the Prado Museum, Celia Guilarte, explains some fun facts:

https://www.facebook.com/museonacionaldelprado/videos/el-prado-de-noche/1241503736790914/?locale=es_LA

And for those who love to read, I recommend you this book: Un novelista en el Museo del Prado, de Mujica Lainez, where the characters that appear in the paintings come to life!

The blog posts will come back after the holidays! Have fun, take care, and don’t forget the photo contest!

For Students With a Sweet Tooth

Surely, those of you with a sweet tooth have noticed the chocolate eggs that fill the windows of pastry shops and you have remembered the Easter Bunny (although this little animal does not come to Spain 😉 ) and your home. There are many theories about the origin of Easter eggs. One has to do with the Ice Age, when humans ate the eggs of birds that came from the south, while waiting for other animals to hunt them. In the Middle Ages, the prohibition for Catholics to eat meat and eggs during Lent was broken at Easter, when eggs that had been preserved by coating them in wax and marked for as long as they were inedible were eaten before the new ones. It was also a symbol of life after the cold of winter. These traditions later went to America. In the 19th century, in some European countries they began to decorate the eggs with more sophistication, using chocolate and sugar flowers.

In Spain, there is a sweet that we recognize more as our own, related to eggs and Easter: La Mona de Pascua (with some variations in its name depending on the area: for example, in Asturias it is called "la bolla", in the Basque Country "opilla", and there are more names). It is a kind of cake with a boiled egg or several as decoration. The name comes from the munna or mouna, an Arabic term that means "provision of the mouth", a gift that the Moors made to their lords. Traditionally, catholic godparents gave the mona to their godchildren on Easter Sunday, after mass. In some parts of Spain, it is still customary for families to gather on Easter Monday to eat mona in the open air.

Taste it!!!!

https://recetasdecocina.elmundo.es/2020/03/mona-pascua-receta-tradicional-semana-santa.html

News about our Beloved Sorolla

 

Do you remember that at American University Madrid we are great admirers of Sorolla, the painter? As we already told you in the first post about him, this year is the centenary of his death and, therefore, there is a temporary exhibition on the last year of his life in his wonderful museum ("Sorolla is dead! Long live Sorolla! ").

But you already knew this, the news is that the Royal Palace of Madrid is joining the Sorolla Year events with 'Sorolla through light' until June 30th. His original work dialogues with digital recreations, such as a sensory room and a virtual reality room. There are many cities around Spain and around the world (his works will reach Cuba or New York in 2024) that are joining the commemorative celebrations by hosting exhibitions (some permanent, others itinerant). This is a video about the exhibition offered by Time Out: https://www.instagram.com/p/Co9XtZpI5M0/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=embed_video_watch_again

Get your tickets for the Royal Palace exhibition here: https://www.entradas.com/en/artist/sorolla-exposicion/

Spring brings not only flowers and warmth!

It finally seems that spring is peeking out the window! Daylight will last longer and you will surely want to walk at night and enjoy the terraces.

That is certainly great, but there are more things that spring is going to bring: Thanks to the new project 'El Prado at night', you can visit the Prado Museum from 8:30 pm to 11:30 pm for free, on the first Saturday of each month. March has been the month chosen to start with this initiative.

The fact that some people end their Saturdays as in this painting by Titian in the Prado Museum ("La Bacchanal"), does not mean that you cannot spend a quieter Saturday night 😋