Midyear Madness

22 February 2012

This morning, my fellow Fulbrighters and I woke up at a very early hour in order to make our way to Valladolid for the Fulbright Midyear Meeting. I should really amend my previous statement and say that only the Fulbrighters living outside of Madrid really had to wake up early.

Unfortunately, there isn't a direct flight or train from Alicante to Valladolid. So I--along with two other Fulbrighters in the Alicante area--got up at 4 AM in order to catch a 6:30 flight to Madrid with Ryanair.

If you've never flown Ryanair, let me tell you that it is an experience in itself. The flights are some of the cheapest in Europe. In fact, we were able to fly from Alicante to Madrid for 9.99 euros (add in the fees and it was actually around 35 euro).

However, they definitely cut some corners and charge you extra for it. Instead of having seating arrangements (you have to pay extra to get an assigned seat), people will line up for a ridiculous amount of time so that they can be some of the first people on the plane--which you board from the ground. Also, you are only allowed one bag--about the size of a normal backpack--and your purse or man bag has to fit in your one bag, OR you have to pay extra to check it.

Don't get me wrong! Ryanair has enabled me to visit some amazing places--so I can't really complain too much!

We arrived in Madrid around 8 AM and hit morning rush hour in the metro! We actually got separated in the metro because two of us couldn't fit in the metro train with our backpacks.

Eventually, we made it to the train station at Chamartin--where we had breakfast and waited for several hours before our train left for Valladolid--located in Castilla-Leon.  

Once in Valladolid--the heart of castellano (Spanish)--I felt like I'd been run over with a truck. I was so exhausted from walking up so early I thought that I would fall asleep sitting up.

Thankfully, the first day of Midyear Meeting was really relaxed. It began with the opening ceremony held at the University of Valladolid--which was attended by the acalde (mayor) of Valladolid, a representative from the University of Valladolid, the new director of the Spanish Fulbright Commission, and others.

Next, the Senior Researchers each gave a brief presentation about what they are investigating here in Spain. We had a lawyer studying environmental law, a teacher researching bilingual education, a fire engineer looking at fire safety, a writer working with Latino literature, and a scientist doing something with silica (?) and cancer research.

Later, we returned to the hotel (a 4-star hotel, by the way!) for Fulbright talent performances and dinner.

I know that a talent show sounds a little cheesy, but had some truly talented people give amazing performances.

A graduate researcher working with voice performance sang several songs for us. She had a really beautiful voice and was really expressive in the way that she sang the songs.

Then, a graduate researcher who is looking at the role of gender roles in Flamenco showed us a little bit of what he's learned. He's currently taking lessons in two different forms--the masculine and feminine--of Flamenco. It was really incredible how his performance changed as he moved from the feminine to the masculine.

One Fulbrighter shared a poem and another played his guitar and sang.

All in all, it was an inspiring night, and I was glad to see the people that I met in September and catch up with them!