La Noche en Blanco

Saturday was - in short - amazing! I enjoyed a fabulous Spanish White Night!! But let's start first with the day :) Today I slept in to arise fully rested for the Noche en Blanco. Elena and I went to her Tia's (Aunt's) for lunch which was really fun. I met her Tia my first day in Spain at Elena's house - she cooked my first Spanish meal for me. Elena says her Tia (her mom's older sister) has really been there for her like a grandmother. Her Tia now has two of her own host students (who are actually in my program at UC3M though they are from California) who ate lunch with us. At her Tia's house I got to see a picture of young Elena at age 18, which was cute. After lunch we watched the Julia Roberts' movie "Durmiendo con su enemigo" (Sleeping with the Enemy). It was very suspenseful and I am proud of that because it means that I understood it ... yay. On the walk to and from Elena's aunt's house I learned quite a bit about the area. Elena pointed out to me the window of the flat where she grew up - a corner window. Below the window on the ground floor is the bar that her parents used to own when she was a kid. I met one of her childhood friends when we ran a loaf of bread up to her flat (near Tia's) for lunch. Elena said "She doesn't know how to eat without bread" commenting on the traditional presence of bread at every meal here in Spain. We usually have toast (like Melba toast) but usually people have bread. Also, I learned more of the layout between my house and the rest of the city on the other side of the river (harder to do when on the metro all the time). All in all - a plesant afternoon/morning.

When we returned home I began researching exactly what Noche en Blanco was ... and was quickly overwhelmed. The white night tradition is held in cities all across Europe (supposedly beginning in Paris) and has been held in Madrid for the past 5 years or so. All I knew about it before looking it up was that the museums are open later. I learned that events include: visual and performance arts in nontraditional spaces, artistic and historic institutions extending their hours, many bars, businesses and restaurants opening later than usual and lights/police in all the streets making it safe to stay out all night. Upon researching I found that "La noche en blanco" is a citywide celebration which offers close to 190 free activities, includes more than 300 artists and is sponsored by almost 300 city institutions. It was at this point that I realized that the evening needed a little planning and gave Lindsay a call. We both looked at the list of activities and decided though we couldn't see everything - we both really want to see one event ... Jamlet (con Jota).

In Retiro park, in a makeshift outdoor theatre venue, a troupe of a actors was putting on a

parody of Hamlet! We met up and went to the park - arriving early but only just in time to get the LAST 2 TICKETS! I was on top of the world. We went into the courtyard ... a stage was lit up, the air was cool and I was so happy. We found seats ordered a couple of Spanish beers and waited for the show to begin. Shortly, the lights dimmed and a clown with pink hair and matching dress began wandering through the audience for a bit of pre-show conversation. She would go up to people and introduce them to the crowd as "Duke Soandso of Denmark" or "the boys from the stables." She turned out to be

Ophelia's mother - which we learned when Ophelia emerged handing out fool samples to the crowd. Then the actors ran backstage and the show began. It was a very well done parody. All the actors were dressed as clowns - including a very emo Hamlet which I LOVED. They sang, they danced. Hamlet even made a

little ditty of the the "Ser o no ser"

(To be or not to be) speech. Some of the comedy was fast-paced but I got most of it. Much of the funniness was based in physicality (I think it was in lines with the style of commedia del arte). Plus, every so often the actors would say a word or two in English :) The best moment of this was when Claudius concentrated and then in a thick accent said "Ooh mae gawd, ooh mae gawd!" Other funny moments included Hamlet's dead father's ghost calling him on his cell phone in a booming voice, a man dress as a giant chicken who would enter every time a rooster crows and the fact Yorick is also dressed up as a clown (oh the irony). Their portrayal of death was also really interesting. Ophelia's mother did a great bit with a red hanky that she pulled from a stab wound and then moved deftly around to represent bleeding, dramatically finishing by moving the hanky to her mouth and leaning face down over a chair. Ophelia's death to was really interestingly portrayed. In her final scene, crazy Ophelia enters with wild hair and dressed in an balloon-covered outfit (mostly white but one red). She sings a silly (crazy) song in which, after each chorus, *pop pop pop* she pops three balloons. After the final chorus she slowly pops the three balloons ending with the single red one and then collapses to the floor, blackout. Altogether, the cast was fantastic and the performances were strong. I feel so lucky that we got to experience the wonderful (free) cultural experience!

After out theatrical venture in the park, Lindsay and I headed toward the center of town in search of more white night fun. We saw the Opera house and the Palace ablaze with lights and a really long line of people waiting to tour the palace (open late). There was music in the plaza and there was even a line of bushels of recyclable materials that were actually one of the artistic pieces on display. This particular piece (I think) had something to do with "man and his relationship with conservation" ... but it was a little smelly so we didn't linger much longer than it took to take a photo. We continued on to Plaza de Espana to check out the goings on there. There wasn't much in the way of organized activities but there were so many groups of young people sitting in circles in the park having a little"Botellón." I have learned that Botellón is when a group of friends gather in a public place to share a bottle and a good time. Miruxy told us that usually the police will ignore the rules about open containers if the friends are behaving themselves and are just having a good time in a park ... and I got the impression that these open container rules are completely thrown out on Noche en Blanco ... but surprisingly, I didn't have any encounters with people who were sloppily drunk. It seemed to be a night of controlled consumption where everyone was having a good time and very few people were overdoing it - which surprised me a little. But I talked to Isabel and she said that it is this way because everyone is out all night - the very young, the very old - people who aren't normally out at night hitting the clubs. It is a celebration when anyone and everyone can stay out and enjoy the night :)

After our walk through the plaza, we decided to take a stroll down Gran Via - the big "Broadway like" street in Madrid that was closed off and completely pedestrian for the night.

Our walk took us down this main road and several side streets past the sounds of live music from almost every open venue. About this time we were ready for a midnight snack so we navigated to the Chocolateria san gines - Madrid's most famous place to enjoy churros con chocolate. We split a plate of the fried dough but each relished in our own mug of hot, melted chocolate. It was so rich it was difficult to finish, but so good it was difficult to stop.

By this time, despite the rejuvenating effects of the chocolate, we were both beginning to feel the time. The play had finished around midnight - and that put us at about 2:30 after churros. Still, we pressed on down several more streets - discovered neat places to which we wanted to return, including a sweet jazz bar - and ended up in La Plaza de Independencia. Here there were light up boards and speakers in a circle around a fountain. The buildings all around the plaza were ablaze with lights. Giant projector screens made up the perimeter of the plaza and projected the image of a camera that was going through the crowd. Oh the crowd! A mass of people surrounded the fountain between screens and speakers. The music pulsed through the dancing crowd and filled me with the life of renewed energy better than ever the chocolate could have. Lindsay and I began dancing as well (like we had any other choice) and it was awesome. The music choice which ranged from an unfamiliar upbeat Spanish song to a cover of "I Wanna Hold You Hand" by the Beatles was delightful! The plethora of light and sound stimulation would have been able to put anyone in a dance party mood. The crowd was also so fun to

watch. I saw a crowd of people playing popcorn with a random free beach ball (they must have given them away somewhere because we saw them everywhere that night). Another group burst through the crowd in a spontaneous congo line. Plus, everyone in the crowd had these absurd masks (I found one) of a random guy. The back of the mask said "the Madrid citizen of the year" and then listed facts about this random guy. I might be easily amused ... but the fact that almost everyone was holding or wearing this random guy's face was so funny to me ... It was priceless! Finally, Lindsay and I called it a night at about 4:30 in the morning ... we had been trying to make it to the 6:00 breakfast (the night's final event) but needed sleep. As out cab pulled away, I looked out at the still crowded streets and thought about how much we had been able to do in one night ... I love Madrid!

Finally, I have finally uploaded some videos. I hace two videos of the dance - flamenco dance and flamenco dance 2 - from opening weekend. Third video is part of Hamlet's "Ser o no ser" song from Jamlet