MTV EMA’s @ Madrid’s Caja Magica

by Nada Eldib

Our beloved city of Madrid had the honor of hosting one of MTV’s wildest award shows this year on Sunday, November 7th. And no better place to do so than in the high-tech Caja Mágica. This event encompassed the entire city for weeks on end—we know this as many of our SLU colleagues were working day and night to make this happen. The EMAs was more than just that one night of filling up the square arena with celebrities and screaming fans. It was days of extravaganza, having concerts the day before at the historic Puerta de Alcalá, and more madness the day-of, with Katie Perry, 30 Seconds to Mars and a surprise appearance my non-other than Mr. Kanye West, all giving the heart of the city a beat to bounce to.

The arena was full of positive energy and excitement. People lined up outside for hours until they got their "golden ticket" into the bar-filled, snack-bar brimming lobby area to chow-down and buzz up before pumping their firsts with the likes of DJ Pauley D and Snookie from MTV’s hit show Jersey Shore. The opening performance of Shakira pumped up the whole crowd (you could even see men in suits and women in cocktail dresses jumping around the VIP area). "Wakka Wakka" not only got everyone dancing the little routine, but it also sparked up Spanish pride, as they are the reigning Football World Champions (VIVA LA ROJA). "Loca" featuring UK’s Dizzee Rascal followed to set the mood of a crazy night which included performances by Kings of Leon, Plan B, a seductive routine by Miley Cyrus, a fire filled piece by Kid Rock, a neon glow-in-the dark extravaganza by Ke$ha and not to forget a flower filled Rihanna act—which had a random, non-wanted guest pop on stage attempting to be part of the act bringing a bouquet of roses (sure security got the wrong end of the stick for that slip). And nothing better to top off the night than a legendary performance by Bon Jovi.

This was not possible without the impeccable presentation skills of Eva Longoria who looked stunning in all 10 outfits she flaunted—even the ham made the crowd WooH with excitement—you can never go wrong with Spaniards and jamón. That’s not all! Many more famous faces filled the crowed. From the crazy crew of Jackass, who flashed all of Europe when presenting an award, to Spain’s favorite curly haired singer, David Bisbal. All the flavors of Europe and the US came to collide on this "magical" night –kind of like an international paella with a side of ketchup (yellow and red, of course).

From the pre-parties at the posh bar Ramses, and after-parties at Madrid’s hotspots Pacha and Kudéta (which we all know as Buddha) kept the city on its feet for days—and props to the organizers who were competing with one of football’s greatest games, the Madrid derby of Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid which was on the same night at the same time! Once again our city of Madrid handled parties like a king, with class, character and MAD-ness.

Bravo Madrid, you are truly a great host to us all.

SLUpdates!!

　　

GARAGE SALE!!!!!!

You want to get rid of some stuff? This the perfect opportunity for you to sell anything you want!

Clothes, bags, small furniture, pillows---ANYTHING (well, preferably not your tooth brush..)

Come to the CAFETERIA (location has changed!!!) December 18th from 12pm until 7pm.

BUY AND SELL!!!

Vid Kuret and Basma Gaber will be there helping you!

The money and whatever does not get sold goes to

CHARITY

Plus free hot drinks and food from the American Baked Goods will be served!

SLU art department production

"Dancing to Romeo and Juliet -
(And Acting and Singing too)"

by Daphne Binioris



Rehearsals are underway to choreograph the story of Romeo & Juliet and to welcome all the campus arts departments on stage for this year´s SLU Madrid Dance Performance scheduled for Thursday, December 2nd at 7pm.

"This will be the first time that they are going to incorporate theater, music and choir, all into the performance. Every other year they were separate, but this year they are going to sing while students dance. They are going to raise dead Juliet while the choir sings," said Susi Peces-Barbara, the head of the dance department.

In addition to complimenting the story of Romeo & Juliet, mixing instrument, voice and theater into the dance performance promotes SLU Madrid´s range of arts programs.

"I like the idea of bringing together the different performing arts groups because I think there´s a general lack of awareness. It seems students are into what they are doing and they don´t seem to reach out to see the other opportunities," said Cathie Smith, a permanent student participating in the theater department.

Also, for those who are visiting the Madrid Campus, the collaboration between the arts departments helps to unify students.

"It´s such a small campus with a revolving door, people come in and out all the time. Bringing all the different departments together for one show helps us to see what´s going on, even for me who’s a part of that revolving door, it helps to feel a part of something that’s not just the dance class," said Mike Studer, a visiting student taking Beginners Latin Rhythms.

Currently the beginner dance classes are fuller than ever, getting ready to salsa on stage for all of SLU. Plus, the advanced dance classes are scheming to add an element of surprise to the event.

Although the dancers have yet to cross paths with the other departments, as rehearsals unfold, when the semester is over and students are ready to showcase their work, everyone comes to support their friends and see what SLU has to offer.

The end is near...

"Anxieties of a Senior"

By Pamela Gutierrez

He looked out, legs outstretched and deep in thought. My roommate, Ian, looked especially flustered after a game of his mother’s new favorite pastime—Let´s Guess Ian’s Future. She might be more fearful of playing if she could only see what Skype so conveniently hid. "This is disgusting," said Ian from his personal pool of candy wrappers. Moving his feet from their strategic place between the hamster cage and ashtray, he was careful not to push any of the six or so glasses, the sole survivors of our dwindling collection, off the battered coffee table.

Some things can be avoided. You learn to dodge the beer spills and avoid the broken end of the couch but the ash is inescapable and the mess is practically chronic.

“Our parents would kill us if they knew we lived this way.” A declaration my roommates and I frequently make when our living room is looking especially dismal. Even worse is, “We have to clean this up before my parents come visit.”

My life mapped out on Hello Kitty stationary, I was sure of everything. Step one: Go to College. This was easy enough, I had been prepped and primed for this my entire life, and it seemed only natural when the time came. Step 2: Graduate Top of My Class With a Bazillion Internships Under My Belt and My Dream Job Lined Up. This is still a work in progress but the forecast is less than sunny.

For us, and many new seniors, it’s all about maintaining the image. The fearless, all-knowing, all-accomplishing image we created for ourselves when we were too young to know better. The image parents, former teachers, and friends back home now come to expect every Christmas and summer vacation. The one that we can barely make out among the pessimism, bad news, and reality checks that gradually transform us from those naïve but hopeful little selves.

A parent visiting is always the trigger. We quickly snap back into the fairy tale we promised ourselves and them. On the dean’s list, president of the student body, and the only student ever allowed to teach astrophysics. Yes, we were supposed to be perfect little college students, hold the grime. For now, and for the next 200 or so days until we officially graduate from college, we can still snap back, feigning the confidence of our younger, pre-“enlightened” days.

But at the precipice of the real world, I feel as if I’ve been hit by a bus. My injuries include the sudden realization that, no, things won’t just figure themselves out. My time as a sheltered student where inaction means little more than a C average is quickly ending.

I’d always assumed the life I dreamed of would just happen, much like the need for a training bra or the weird “About Your Body” book by mother insisted I read.

I just knew my career as a famous and respected journalist would come. I would write out of my San Francisco Victorian home from ten to three, then have lunch with my equally fabulous friends. Later I would go home, write a bit more, and have dinner with my loving, brilliant, six-pack wielding husband. Wonderfully behaved children would follow and I would be sublimely and unconditionally happy and secure.

Of course I would have these things. If puberty came, why not success?

But then, just when things might actually start happening, nothing happens. I’d spent the last three years perfecting my FAFSA only to be told that real grown-ups worry about their 401K and that no one cares that I’m trained in iambic pentameter. If Matt Denson, graduating senior and bona fide sonnet connoisseur is having trouble finding a job, I can only imagine my own fate in a year’s time. Unlike failing to get the lead in the school play where my free time is more of a blessing than a curse, not finding a job means living with my parents—a true curse for anyone once having lived in Madrid. But how exactly does one find their dream career when their idea of job hunting is circling the mall?

My Victorian house has a two million dollar price tag and I can barely tear myself away from Facebook long enough to finish my homework, much less write my award-winning novel.

My days as a student are numbered. No more checking Facebook in class or idly practicing my name in cursive instead of paying attention. No more sliding by. If I’m mediocre now, people will start to notice.

So here I am. Twenty-one years old and suddenly having to walk the walk I’ve talked about for years. I live these final months in a mixture of anxious anticipation and nausea, a feeling I’ve grown to find strangely comforting. My apartment, which I stumble out of each day after sufficient snoozing and some degree of procrastination, is anything but what my parents envision from their California home across the world. Sure, my description of four rooms, two bathrooms, and a “nice” kitchen doesn’t quite capture the grunge of the situation but I’ve learned that assessing its condition as an absolute failure would be inaccurate also.

We always pay the rent eventually and usually have electricity, but more importantly we’ve turned an empty apartment in a foreign city into an environment that feels more like home than my parent’s house ever really could. In trading in the safety and security of our childhood homes and lifestyles for an “interesting” flat in Madrid, we also gained the freedom to become something more than just residents of someone else’s home. If the plastic sword mounted in the hall is any indication, we’ve transitioned from simple sons and daughters to individuals with thinking and knowledge as diverse as our decorating senses. 

Graduating from college, much like leaving the nest, will doubtless be a little sticky and uncomfortable, but the exchange could bring possibilities far beyond the reach of even the most thrilling textbook. More than just the freedom to hang ridiculously tacky posters in the living room, this time we’re earning the right to break a lifelong routine and actually be the men and women that we’d always dreamed of becoming. So bring on the anxiety, bring on those 400-level classes, and bring on the future… Just don’t forget the barf bag.  

A Look Inside Real Madrid’s First Champions League Game: what it felt like to be inside

"Will Los Merengues Add Some UEFA Silver to Their Showcase?"

by Nada Eldib

As the Bernabeu floodlights slowly got brighter the enthusiasm heightened as the players walked out of the tunnel in their all-white uniforms to face their first challenge in the UEFA Champions League. Rafael Nadal is comfortably seated next to the Real Madrid Club President Florentino Perez after receiving an honorary award from the club for his career achievement of winning yet another Grand Slam title. The referee blows the whistle and its game time. New coach Jose Mourinho starts off his 11-man quad with 4 of his new signings—adding a little speed to the whites´ attack. As tension mounts in the stadium Gonzalo “Pippita” Higuain gets the fans on their feet as his shoot hits the crossbar to miss the target.

In his, possibly, Hugo Boss suit, Mou is pacing around in his outlined platform, not looking pleased at his teams´ performance 20 minutes into the first half.

Goalkeeper and Real Madrid and Spanish national team captain Iker Casillas does not see any action till the 25^th minute, a ball that he elegantly pushes away from goal. Ajax Amsterdam’s defense is holding in the whites yet the white’s attacking spirit does not falter. Cristiano Ronaldo’s shot goes inches wide of the goal causing a shudder in the blue and white stands. New signings Mesut Ozil and Di Maria show off their skills as they put together an artistic one-two pass with an ankle pass followed by a slightly wide shot on goal (as many critics say, the Real Madrid players see their target but lack that finishing touch).

The Xavi corner kick, which results in a deflected header from Higuain onto an Ajax player and into the goal in the 31^st minute, leaves the players walking calmly off the pitch at halftime. Yet surely it feels otherwise in the changing rooms for both sides, as they both come out stronger in the second half.

The Ultrasur crowd (those who are considered to be the Real Madrid hooligans) start to chant louder and louder to distract the Dutch team from gaining grounds and formation.

The chip from Di Maria, the attempted shot from Marcelo, which is blocked and later followed by Higuain, completes the goals for the night in the 73^rd minute of the game.

Two goals, not the best for such a team, earns the Madridistas the 3 points against the Dutch Ajax to keep them on the top of their Champions´ League group. Higuain almost walks out with his first hatrick (3 goals in one game) of the season missing on the final passes from Cristiano Ronaldo. Los Merengues (as they have come to be known for their all out white uniforms) have finally started to take form. The team is not completely cohesive, but that is due to the many changes that have happened over the summer and the final acquisitions as the transfer window has come to a close.

They have successfully completed their first round of games this season undefeated (suffering a few ties however), putting pressure on their La Liga rivals as well as European competitors. With the new coach on the bench and the old president in the “palco,” fans are hoping for the 10^th Champions League Cup to shine next to all the rest of the team’s remarkable silverware collection. Do you think that’s possible?

LOOK AROUND...

"The hunt is on! Get to know your visiting students."

by Victoria Perez de Agreda

People always seem to notice what diversity there is amongst the permanent students but not all the different backgrounds and schools that all our new and energized visiting students come from! Let´s make this a sport on campus: hunt down visiting students from as many different schools as possible!

Last Spring 2010 semester there were over 14 different US universities from across the country that had at least 3 students studying abroad here. These are perhaps the schools we hear of most often such as Baylor University (10), Boston College (13), Butler (5), Lafayette (26), Loyola (12), Saint Joseph's (10), University of Maryland (9), Temple (7), Seattle University (4), Wake Forest (4) and St. Thomas (4), not to mention our most numerous visitors/friends, the 120 students from the SLU home campus back in St. Louis, Missouri.

These schools vary not only in size and location, but also in the majors they offer, so it is pretty safe to say that on the Madrid Campus we are all specializing in a wide array of different subjects, most of which are not offered at the Madrid Campus. I don’t know about you, but I always get excited when someone tells me in class that they are a Physical Therapy or Education major!

To not forget the rest of the visiting students who perhaps go by less noticed, you would be surprised to know that students come to our university not only from all possible schools in the USA, but also from Europe, Africa and Asia! You get a double prize for finding and meeting one of those ;)

To all you who are visiting our university just for the semester- try and find and befriend a permanent student! They will definitely make discovering Madrid a whole new experience.

And to all of you new or old permanent students – MAKE SURE that you meet and embrace the great diversity of visiting students at our campus this Fall 2010!

Happy hunting!

Halloween

"Les origines de HALLOWEEN"
by Aida Bennoun

Quelques semaines après le 31 octobre, la question de comment se déguiser cette année nous ayant déjà hantée et étant solutionnée par nos esprits, nous avons maintenant le temps de nous projeter dans le passé et nous questionner sur les origines de cette fête célébrée par tant de personnes de différents cultures et âges. L’évolution de cette fête païenne, folklorique et traditionnelle, suite à l'arrivée du christianisme en Irlande au 5^ème siècle, est on ne peut plus surprenante.

Pendant l’âge de bronze et plus précisément à la période de la protohistoire celtique, Halloween  portait le nom de «Samain». Cette célébration religieuse durait 7 jours (le jour de Samain, 3 jours avant et 3 jours après), se déroulait sous l’autorité des druides et marquait la fin de l’année écoulée. Les celtes croyaient en une possible rencontre mythique entre les dieux et les hommes lors de la transition entre l’année passée et la nouvelle année. Halloween (Samain d’autrefois), qui correspond à « All Hallows Eve», a une étymologie strictement anglophone, sans aucun rapport avec le gaélique ou toute autre langue celtique.

A l’origine, le symbole utilisé pour cette célébration était un navet contenant une bougie. L’objet était de commémorer la légende de «Jack o’ lantern», condamné à errer éternellement entre l’enfer et le paradis muni d’un tison posé dans un navet.

La citrouille fut progressivement introduite, remplacée parfois par un potiron ou d’autres légumes que l’on découpe pour y dessiner un visage grimaçant et y mettre une bougie au centre.

De nos jours, la célébration d’Halloween a pris une toute autre ampleur. Les pays les plus concernés par cette fête sont principalement l’Angleterre, l’Australie, le Canada, l’Irlande et les USA.

La tradition la plus connue est celle des enfants se déguisant en costumes, qui font peur ou qui font rire, et allant sonner aux portes, demandant aux adultes (souvent eux-mêmes déguisés) des bonbons, ou de l’argent avec la formule «Trick or Treat!». Néanmoins, d’autres activités telles que visionner des films d’horreur, assister à des bals masqués ou visiter des maisons hantées se font de plus en plus communes.

Il est très intéressant de noter qu’Halloween n’a réellement été une tradition célébrée dans le reste des pays européens tels que la Belgique, la France ou l’Espagne (…) qu’à partir de la fin des années 90.

Cependant, l’événement gagne d’année en année en popularité. De nos jours, la plupart des pays européens tendent à célébrer Halloween « à l’américaine ».

Halloween est devenu l’un des événements de l’année les plus prisés. En effet, la nuit du 31 octobre est la seule nuit de l’année où l’on peut voir défiler des filles déguisées en lapines ou en police girls coquines sans que cela ne choque ou n’attire (trop) l’attention. Cela représente une occasion rêvée pour les jeunes filles de sortir leurs plus hauts talons aiguilles et leur déguisements les plus osés laissant aux jeunes hommes le privilège de les observer sans pour autant les juger le temps d’une nuit.  A bon entendeur, Salut !