Welcome, friends, to my blog dedicated to my three and a half months in Madrid. I have just embarked upon a wild journey that is sure to take me to unforseen places and teach me unexpected things. Already I have been here two weeks and learned much, so let me bring you up to speed...
Chicago to Madrid...
I flew out of O'Hare on the evening of August 27th on a direct flight to Barcelona. The flight was about 8 hours, landing me in Spain around 10am local time (but 3 am in my brain). I then had a short layover followed by a short hour and twenty minute long flight to Madrid. No trouble with my bags, and once the shuttle finally arrived to take me to my apartment, I arrived at my new home around 4 in the afternoon, and my landlady, Ruth, promptly appeared out of nowhere to help me carry my suitcases up the five - count them five - flights of stairs to my beautiful new apartment.
The Apartment...
I share this apartment with one other girl who is also an NYU student. Nidhi is an anthropology pre-med major in her junior year and is from outside of Rochester, New York. So far we've gotten along fairly well, cooperatively cleaning our entire apartment last weekend after being thoroughly disgusted at hour dirty the floors seemed to be. Upon my arrival Ruth told me (through much perseverance, due to her non-existant English and my mediocre Spanish) that there was a problem with the tap in the kitchen, which had no hot water and she hoped to get it fixed the next day. It was, but then there was a leak, which we got fixed a few days later. NOW, everything is lovely. Nidhi and I each have our own bedrooms: mine is only slightly larger than my full-sized bed but has a large closet, a small window that gets lots of western sun, and a skylight (though it's frosted, so I can't actually see the sky); Nidhi's room is slightly smaller with a twin bed and an armoire, but several large windows. Our bedrooms are both painted yellow, as are two of the four walls in our humongous living room, which has tons of natural light due to a wall of windows, a five-piece sectional couch (three pieces are currently making the couch and two are separate as chairs) situated around a coffee table, a dining table with two chairs, a sideboard with cabinets, a TV, and several shelves (one of which includes a small library of books left by previous student renters). We also have a kitchen-dining room with a table and three chairs, a refrigerator-freezer, a microwave, an oven and stove, and a washing machine. Dryers are incredibly rare in Spain, and everyone hangs their clothes out to dry on lines or on racks.
Our place is really well located, in a barrio called Huertas, which is close to The Prado Museum (art up through the 19th century) and the Reina Sofia Museum (contemporary art), as well as Retiro Park just beyond (a 10-15 minute walk), and in the other direction is Puerta del Sol, pretty much the center of the center of the city, just ten minutes away. We're also only a 5-10 minute walk from two metro stops and a bus stop, so getting around is really simple. Huertas is full of bars, clubs, and restaurants, which makes it a little pricey buy very trendy. I can always hear music out my window at night, which is great.
Daily Life...
Breakfast happens mostly at home, cereal and milk or bread with butter and jelly, and I've even made eggs a few times. One thing I already miss about America - teflon. Our pans are not non-stick, and that makes washing them after eggs a huge pain. If I don't have time to eat before we leave, I grab a croissant from the pastelería across the street or from Café Segre just down the street from school. Pastries here are generally pretty cheap and really delicious.
I can take the metro but usually take the bus to and from school - Madrid's public transportation system is incredibly simple. It's pretty hard to get lost on the metro, and the busses are really quick and on time. I've been packing a lunch to bring to school each day, because most restaurants (at least in my neighborhood and around school) are pretty expensive. While the menu del día is a pretty good deal for the amount of food you get, I'm trying not to spend the equivalent of $11 on lunch every day. Instead I probably bought about $11 worth of groceries for lunch for the week. The tough part to get used to is that Spaniards don't eat lunch until 2 at the earliest. I have class every day until 2:30 (Monday and Wednesday start at 12:30, and Tuesday and Thursday start at 9:30) and by then I'm very ready for lunch.
Generally my roommate and I cook dinner at home - frequently some kind of pasta, though we plan about once a week to have burritos of beans cooked with onions and garlic and fresh guacamole with fresh lime juice. Once we figured out where to go grocery shopping, cooking got really easy. There's a cheap grocery store right by school and a chain called Dia everywhere that's great. Supermarkets here are much smaller than in America though. Then there's the alimentación right under our apartment - which is a food shop that has fruits/vegetables and dry goods. The guy who owns it just opened the place and knows we live just upstairs, as we're there almost every day to buy a tomato or paper towels or something. Dinner doesn't happen in Madrid until about 9 (when it starts getting dark), but since lunch is later, that's not so much trouble. There have been nights Nidhi and I have eaten at 10 or 11, but generally our cooking has been a success.
After dinner, if I don't have class at 9:30 the next morning (or, once in a while, even if I do) we'll often go out for a drink or to a place with music. Even on weeknights here places stay open until at least 1 or 2 in the morning, and my street doesn't really quiet down until around 4. Lots of cervecerias have pretty cheap beer - often beer and water cost about the same here, and soda is sometimes more expensive. I've become quite a fan of Sangria and also had a lot of wine - not too much beer yet, personally.
School?
So I have classes, sometimes. Currently I'm in an intensive Spanish class that meets four days a week, but I might be switching up a level because I was bored every day last week. On a better note, my class about Federico García Lorca's theatre and poetry is wonderful; my teacher is quite a firecracker, which is exactly what we need at 9:30 in the morning. I'm also taking a class in Spanish about contemporary Spanish culture which I hope will broaden my perspectives about the world and make me more aware of my life in Madrid, and I'm taking a class called Masterpieces of the Prado which is an art history course covering the 15th century to the 19th century and involves weekly visits to the Prado. I generally like my classes though having this much academic work and having to sit and listen to teachers talk so much during the day is a really strange experience compared to having studio three days a week and doing a lot of things that often involve making strange sounds or rolling around on the floor. Our school's campus is two townhouses that are back to back, connected by a lovely patio where students hang out and eat lunch or chat between classes. So far it's only sort of rained for part of one day in the two weeks I've been here, and the high has always been in the high 80s or low 90s, so it's hot - but not humid!
Nightlife!
Whatever New Yorkers say, Madrid is truly the city that never sleeps. It's incredibly common to stay out here until 4 in the morning or later - the subway closes sometime between 12:30 and 2:30 in the morning depending on the day of the week, so frequently if people are out until 4, they'll just stay out until the metro reopens at 6 am. This is why people take siestas in the middle of the day. I am a big fan of the siesta. Since I've been here I've got out to some random bars (mojitos are my favorite here), searched for both a jazz club and a flamenco club that turned out to be non-existent, and sat around in parks with friends sharing bottles of wine. It's very common here to spend hours sitting in a park with friends, and though I don't think it's technically legal, everyone drinks in the streets and parks at night. Last night we did manage to find a real jazz club which is actually just up the street from me. It's called Café Central and I went last night with a bunch of friends to hear a live jazz quartet. There was a fee to get in, but somehow we ended up with coupons for a free drink after the show, so it was actually a really good deal - for about $17 I got a live show and a mojito. Haha. Definitely want to go back there, as they have different acts every week or so, and the people who work there seem really nice. Actually Madrileños in general are really nice, helpful, chatty people, though they often speak little to no English.
I think that's about it for now. Soon to come: pictures of my apartment, sights in Madrid, and Segovia - as well as all about the day trip to Segovia which involved a cathedral and a castle!
¡Hasta luego!
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