Buenos días!
This weekend I visited the Sierra de Guadarrama which is a mountain range about an hour away from my beloved Madrid. Spring has arrived here in Madrid and the Sierra was perfect with its crystal clear blue skies, and pure white snow.
As if the natural beauty weren’t enough, the friends with whom I went on the trip were wonderful! I went with a group of Spanish university students, an IES friend (Gaby), and my best friend who is studying abroad in Granada who was in Madrid to watch the Real Madrid game. The new Spanish friends I have made are some of the most incredible people I have ever met: they live life so intensely and welcomed me as one of their own from the very first day I met them.
When we reached the top of the mountain, we had lunch. My American friends and I found it hilarious that the Spaniards had brought carrots that needed to be peeled with a potato peeler, canned olives, and gourmet Jamón Ibérico for the hike. In America, we get PB&J’s for our packed lunch.
We spent the next hour and a half singing together with a view that was nothing short of divine. They started singing Spanish songs with four part harmonies! My favorite was a Galician love song called Lela (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiz7-MkQpO8). Then we sang some American songs (as well as some Irish songs) which my Spanish friends ironically sang better than us Americans.
This paseo in Guadarrama was one of the best experiences I have had since I arrived here in Spain. The nature and the friendships that keep growing always leave me wanting more beauty and more happiness. Hopefully my photographs capture some of what I saw.
Enjoy it, y’all!
Sofía
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Sofia Wiener
<p><span style="color: rgb(29, 29, 29); font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; background-color: rgb(237, 237, 237);">Sofia--perhaps Sofía is more fitting in this case--is a third year Philosophy and Spanish Literature student at Fordham University. Some of her interests include photography, translating, singing, learning foreign languages, and cats--specifically red chubby ones. As the daughter of a Milanese mother, and New Yorker father, with a passion for Latin America, Sofia often finds herself lost in translation sipping on her favorite drink--yerba mate. She wants to spend her semester abroad in Madrid, Spain with her eyes wide open to live the experience to the full allowing you to take a step into her life. ¡Ven a ver!</span></p>
