I Love the 80s

Ok so you know I love 80s music. As in I'm pretty sure I didn't listen to anything other than Mötley Crüe all summer. (Yeah, I can do umlauts now too. Keyboard exploring!) Aaanyway, my first day here, I found this:

It's TWO BLOCKS from my apartment. TWO. It probably takes me more time to get downstairs from my apartment than it takes to walk from my front door to this place. But I haven't been yet. Hopefully Nidhi (my roommate) and I are going on Tuesday night, when we're hosting two couch surfers from Salt Lake City for the night. They said in their profile that they like 80s music, so hopefully we'll have a good time.

There actually seems to be an obsession here (I'm not sure if here means Madrid, Spain, or Europe) with American music, particularly 80s rock/classic rock in general/punk. Today at El Rastro I saw several booths selling nothing but band t-shirts, most of which sported logos of groups like AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Green Day, Iron Maiden, etc. I find it really weird, kind of funny, and extremely comforting. It's nice to have something familiar around in all the Spanish. There's a "rock club" just a block from this 80s bar, and in another neighborhood I found a classic rock bar. So I'll have to check out those places as well. But first, Héroe and then flamenco! My friends and I attempted to go to a flamenco place on Thursday night (because we don't have class on Fridays, what I don't have class on Fridays?) but it didn't exist. So instead we did a lot of wandering around a barrio called La Latina which was pretty cool. BUT. We need to find flamenco.

I love the 80s. El fin.

Mi Casa Es Su Casa

Here's where I'm living, and you're welcome to come visit!

I'm incredibly lucky to be living in a barrio called Huertas, which is located about ten minutes (walking distance) from Puerta del Sol, which is the center of the city. I'm also only about ten minutes away from the Museo del Prado, the major art museum of Madrid, and fifteen minutes from both Parque del Retiro (Madrid's Central Park) and the Reina Sofia, the museum of contemporary art which I visited in my first week here.

My street is full of little bars, restaurants, clubs, and a few stores. There's the pastelería I mentioned across the street, and an ice cream place I really like just up a few blocks. Since Spaniards stay out so late, my street is alive far into the night and the early hours of the morning. There's always music playing outside my window in the evening, which I love.

So. Now for the tour!

Aquí está my bedroom. The walls are really yellow. The bed's actually pretty comfortable and takes up most of the room. Just to the left of this picture is my closet, which has almost nothing in it because I brought very little with me. I literally have six things on hangars. Haha.

This is el baño. We have a little window! Not much else to say.

This is the view of the kitchen from the front door. On the left is the table and three chairs, behind it is where we keep our dry goods (mostly pasta and a big jar of peanut butter that my roommate brought from America). The door next to it leads to our living room. To the right is the poster of NYC we found in the apartment, and then the microwave, oven/stove, cabinets, etc.

The rest of the kitchen. Sink, big window (where we can sometimes see our neighbor across the air shaft who is a middle-aged fat man who often doesn't wear a shirt), washing machine, and refrigerator/freezer. The open door is my roommate's room, the closed one is our front door. Many locks.

View of the living room from the door - a table with two chairs, a wall of windows, stylish lamps, a three-piece sectional sofa with two more pieces as individual chairs, and a square coffee table.

The living room from the other end - more yellow walls, a mirror, a sideboard on which we put candles, a wall with several shelves including some books former tenants have left here.

So that's about it for now. I'm currently in my comfy bed in my yellow room, and I think I'm going to take a nap before going out for sangria later and doing some homework. Tired due to a trip to El Rastro today, which is the big flea market they have every Sunday in La Latina. I got a new purse and a cute dress, all for a total of 20 euros! (See Mom, I spent some money.) Before I leave Spain I will definitely have bought a leather jacket. Saw one today for 30 euros, but I'm going to wait for now since our weather has been in the 90s every day and shows no signs of cooling off any time soon. ¡Hasta luego! 

(I've also gotten really good at typing in Spanish - note my inverted exclamation point. I can do inverted question marks, accents, and tildes too!)