Saturday morning we flew very early from Gatwick to Madrid, arriving at our hostel around 12:30. I was disappointed to find at the airport that the airport express bus has gone up in price from 2 to 5 euros. I guess it couldn't stay an outrageously good deal forever. But it got us to Cibeles quickly and then we walked to our hostel, just a few blocks up the street from my apartment building on Huertas.
We couldn't check into our room for another hour, so we walked up and down the street in search of ice cream as it was very warm and we were a bit hungry. My favorite place had closed and the other one I knew of wasn't open at the time, so we walked down to the alimentación under my apartment. The man who runs the place was there and he recognized me, even with my short hair and was so happy to see me! It was a wonderful surprise and he asked about my roommate and if I was studying again or just on vacation. We got ice cream and sat on a bench out in the street to eat it in a shady breeze.
After we finished we walked back up to the hostel and checked in to our four bed room. We had two roommates, girls who spoke something that sounded similar to German but wasn't. It didn't sound aggressive enough and they didn't speak English, and I've never met a German who didn't speak English.
We took a nap while we had the room to ourselves and then walked back down the street to eat lunch (around 4:30, which is late even in Spain) at Los Rotos, the place Brian and I went to twice during his visit. The food was good as always (Mom got to try croquetas) and we had sangria.
Following lunch or whatever you call eating at that time, we dragged ourselves to the Reina Sofia, the contemporary art museum not too far from where we were staying and managed to look around for an hour before trudging back to the hostel and falling asleep. While there we saw some Dali and Miro and of course Picasso's Guernica, one of the most famous works of Spanish art.
The next morning our not-German roommates left. We had breakfast in the hostel, which was just coffee, juice, and toast or cornflakes, and then went to see Alice in Wonderland the Musical (in Spanish) at a theatre about a ten minute walk from Huertas. We picked that of course because then we knew at least my mom could follow the story even though she wouldn't understand all the words. I did my best to explain the songs to her and the plot points that were different. It also turned out to be specifically made for kids, so the acting was all very physical and pretty easy to understand. It turned out to be a good choice and a fun time for only 15 euros each.
After the show we got lunch at a Mexican restaurant I really like called la Mordida and shared nachos with fresh guacamole and some kind of meat and tortilla dish with a yummy sauce. Plenty of food for the two of us, with a very polite waitress who didn't mind my Spanish. It was nice to remember that in Madrid people are very willing to let you try. The girl at the front desk when we checked in talked to me in Spanish at first and then asked if English was better when she saw my US passport, but I told her I needed to practice and kept up with her Spanish explanation of all the hostel policies.
We walked from the restaurant to go see some of the sights in Madrid - Plaza Mayor, el Mercado de San Miguel where we got gelato, a brief tour of the cathedral, the palace (from the outside), Opera, and Sol all on our way back to the hostel. Then it was time for a rest for a while before joining a group of other hostel residents for a flamenco show.
This show turned out to be something created by some of the people who work with the hostels and was a very budget-beginners guide to flamenco. It was in a cave (a brick room under a building, in this case), and there was a singer, a dancer, and a guitarist. I want totally impressed having seen flamenco before, but it seemed enjoyable to those who didn't have any flamenco experience and we got a free (small) cup of sangria, so it was an interesting experience.
We waked partway back with the guy who had led us to the show from our hostel and hen when I found a familiar street we left the group and headed to San Gines, the most famous place for chocolate con churros in Spain. Good dinner, around 11, followed by bed.
Monday we took things slow, spending the morning repacking our suitcases as we were now halfway through our trip. Around 2 we met my friend Alejandro for lunch at a tapas place in plaza Santa Ana, near the hostel and next door to Cien Montaditos, the old favorite. Tapas were just alright but it was fun to try some new things and Alejandro got to practice his English. We got ice cream up the street from the hostel and enjoyed it in the street before saying goodbye and going to take a nap.
That evening we took advantage of the Prado being free at 6 and spent an hour or so seeing all the famous works I could remember anything about. I did my best to give my mom an informed tour of all the greatest hits including Goya, El Greco, Velazquez, and Rubens.
Then came my favorite part of our time in Madrid: dinner with my Spanish family! We met them outside Parque del Retiro and had cold drinks outside under the trees first (Nacho and Jaine mostly played futbol while the grown ups talked) and then we went to a seafood restaurant for dinner around 10. Since we drove in their car, mom got to see lots of different parts of the city. It was really great to see everyone again, we spoke in a mix of English and Spanish to try to accommodate everyone, and hopefully they'll all be coming to New York soon. I'm really glad my mom finally got to meet them, my favorite part of Spain. Perhaps the best part of the evening was when I got to give Jaime the double decker London bus full of chocolates I had brought as a gift for the family. I mentioned that I had a present at the beginning of dinner and Jaime didn't forget. He got so excited when I finally said it was time since he had started to think I didn't really have a present, and was very happy to find candy inside. I told him he had to share but who knows if he will.
When we finished dinner the family drove us back down to Huertas and we said our goodbyes. Even Jaime who was practically asleep in the backseat got out to give me a hug and kiss goodbye. It was such a joyous occasion, I'm incredibly grateful.
And so we headed to bed one last time in Madrid, off to Barcelona the next morning.
Showing posts with label Huertas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Huertas. Show all posts
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Friday, December 16, 2011
A Punto de Salir
So it's about 3 am, and my flight from Madrid leaves in about 5 hours. I'm leaving my apartment in a couple hours. It's that weird period of time where you sit in a place knowing you're about to leave it, trying to drink in everything with your senses to paint a full memory.
Tonight I just hung out with Isa and Yasmín, later also with Nidhi and Leigha, and briefly several other NYU-ers came over before they headed out to party up their last night in Madrid. I was happy to chill out here with my friends, watching youtube videos, reading stupid tweets, and just passing the time together, laughing, taking funny pictures, and so on. Madrid is a beautiful city and I will miss it, but more important to me than the place is the people I've gotten to know here. I can't think about it too much right now because every time I think about leaving my Spanish family indefinitely I want to cry. (I cried far more than I'd like to admit throughout Wednesday, both in anticipation of and after leaving their house.)
Most likely I will need a little time at home before I can fully appreciate all that I have learned here, putting it in perspective with my return to America. Still I am so grateful for every experience I have had here, good, bad, frustrating, painful, incredible... I think it still hasn't fully hit me that I just lived in Europe for almost four months and have started to create bonds around the world. I have seen ancient artifacts, not just behind glass but in the streets where they first existed. I have become nearly-fluent in a second language, an invaluable skill. I have made some incredible friends and together we have done some amazing things.
Yeah it's definitely too soon to try to analyze all this. I feel the experiences of the whole semester still simmering in my blood, just barely starting to settle. Really, school just ended yesterday. I had two exams and a final presentation just yesterday. The end of the semester here is so compressed because of the Spanish holiday schedule.
I am unspeakably thankful for so many things, experiences, people, perspective. The reminder that the whole world is a place in which to learn. Classrooms are so often confining, but the world has everything, in a much more hands-on manner. I have been so, so, so lucky. I can't wait to get home and see my family and my dog and sleep in my bed and speak English and use American money. At the same time particularly over the last few days the thought of leaving has gotten harder. I was way more ready to go home in October than I am now. I wish Chicago and New York and Europe were not so far apart. Seriously, who is getting started on making apparition happen? Because I know for sure now that if I could have one special superpower, that would be it - the ability to instantly transport myself between places, like my home that is New York (hogar), my home that is my family (tierra), and my new home in España (casa).
To those of you reading this that I have met on these travels, thank you so much for the fun times we have shared, whether at NYU, in Madrid, or elsewhere in Europe. I cannot yet know exactly all that I have learned from all these experiences, but I know that you were a part of it.
The world is a remarkable place if we open our eyes. I know this part, the leaving part, would be hard if I stayed a month or a year, and I know I'm ready to go home. And I know I will come back. There's not much else I can say right now, as I'm feeling pretty emotional and simultaneously exhausted but attempting to not fall asleep before going to the airport. This is not the end of this blog at all, but quite likely the last post from Spain. So I leave you with this:
Tonight I just hung out with Isa and Yasmín, later also with Nidhi and Leigha, and briefly several other NYU-ers came over before they headed out to party up their last night in Madrid. I was happy to chill out here with my friends, watching youtube videos, reading stupid tweets, and just passing the time together, laughing, taking funny pictures, and so on. Madrid is a beautiful city and I will miss it, but more important to me than the place is the people I've gotten to know here. I can't think about it too much right now because every time I think about leaving my Spanish family indefinitely I want to cry. (I cried far more than I'd like to admit throughout Wednesday, both in anticipation of and after leaving their house.)
Most likely I will need a little time at home before I can fully appreciate all that I have learned here, putting it in perspective with my return to America. Still I am so grateful for every experience I have had here, good, bad, frustrating, painful, incredible... I think it still hasn't fully hit me that I just lived in Europe for almost four months and have started to create bonds around the world. I have seen ancient artifacts, not just behind glass but in the streets where they first existed. I have become nearly-fluent in a second language, an invaluable skill. I have made some incredible friends and together we have done some amazing things.
Yeah it's definitely too soon to try to analyze all this. I feel the experiences of the whole semester still simmering in my blood, just barely starting to settle. Really, school just ended yesterday. I had two exams and a final presentation just yesterday. The end of the semester here is so compressed because of the Spanish holiday schedule.
I am unspeakably thankful for so many things, experiences, people, perspective. The reminder that the whole world is a place in which to learn. Classrooms are so often confining, but the world has everything, in a much more hands-on manner. I have been so, so, so lucky. I can't wait to get home and see my family and my dog and sleep in my bed and speak English and use American money. At the same time particularly over the last few days the thought of leaving has gotten harder. I was way more ready to go home in October than I am now. I wish Chicago and New York and Europe were not so far apart. Seriously, who is getting started on making apparition happen? Because I know for sure now that if I could have one special superpower, that would be it - the ability to instantly transport myself between places, like my home that is New York (hogar), my home that is my family (tierra), and my new home in España (casa).
To those of you reading this that I have met on these travels, thank you so much for the fun times we have shared, whether at NYU, in Madrid, or elsewhere in Europe. I cannot yet know exactly all that I have learned from all these experiences, but I know that you were a part of it.
The world is a remarkable place if we open our eyes. I know this part, the leaving part, would be hard if I stayed a month or a year, and I know I'm ready to go home. And I know I will come back. There's not much else I can say right now, as I'm feeling pretty emotional and simultaneously exhausted but attempting to not fall asleep before going to the airport. This is not the end of this blog at all, but quite likely the last post from Spain. So I leave you with this:
"Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes."
Henry David Thoreau
Madrid, te echaré de menos. Besos y abrazos.
Friday, November 4, 2011
We're Just Ordinary People
I forgot I took a few pictures while Brian was here that I can now happily share with y'all. Be prepared to laugh.
This is a place where I sometimes did homework when it was still warm and pretty outside. It's like five minutes from my apartment. That's the Church of San Jerónimo, I think.
View of the Prado Museum from my happy seat.
The view outside my bedroom window when I get up at 7:30 in the morning in October.
Brian likes food!
Muerte por chocolate. Mmm...
EL Cantante de Jazz de España
Cafe Central!
Brian with a Dalí churro mustache.
Brian with a churro... frown? Other mustache? Not sure.
View of the Cathedral past the palace from Parque del Oeste
Madrid afueras (suburbs)
Outside the Mexican place where we had dinner before the movie.
This one is better.
Teatro Español!
Favorite building in Madrid, in the same plaza as the theatre, which is so beautifully lit at night...
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Life Between the Weekends
Okay so I'll write probably three essays about Berlin soon, but in the meantime I thought I should catch up on oh, the last month of my life. When last I wrote of something that wasn't my travels, other than Fuerza Bruta, Brian was still here. And that was the first week of October. So let's see how fast I can tell you all about my life considering I'm obsessed with details.
Okay. Flashback to Wednesday, October 5th. I had class in the early afternoon, but I met up with Brian after for lunch again at Los Rotos. We tried a couple new dishes but of course ordered muerte por chocolate once again. Still perfectly delicious. Back to the apartment for a short nap/rest, then off to the theatre! We went to see a play called Venticinco Años Menos un Día, a play about an English play called The Tea is Ready. It was about the final performance of the play (one day before the 25th anniversary of its opening, hence the title). Because it was about an English play, a lot of it was actually in English, and there were some theatre jokes. I enjoyed it a lot. And we had great seats, for pretty cheap, in a beautiful theatre. And yet another theatre within ten minutes of my apartment! I had actually walked past it before and didn't even know...
After the show we stopped for drinks and snacks at 100 montaditos (the mini-sandwich place) for Wednesday's euromania - where everything on the menu is a euro. I had my usual tinto de verano, Brian had a classic Spanish beer (Mahou), and we both sampled various sandwiches before heading home. In general quite a successful day, I'd say.
Thursday, Brian's last day here. I had class all day so Brian did a bunch of sightseeing on his own and then met me at the Prado, where I have class every Thursday. My class gets over around 5:30 and the Prado is free beginning at 6, so we found each other and did some wandering through the galleries before heading to El Tigre for those famous giant mojitos and some true Spanish tapas, which Brian still hadn't gotten to try. We stopped for ice cream just up the street from me on the way and then headed home for the night a little early to sit around and chat before we both prepared for an early morning trip to the airport. Brian was flying back to China (via a night in Moscow?!) and I to Mallorca, having just booked my flight that morning and my hostel that night thanks to much toil on my mom's part to get my debit card unlocked. (They know I'm abroad, but apparently the card automatically locks if you try to use it for foreign airfare... Secure, but a pain in the ass.)
So up an at 'em, long before the sun, which rose while we were on the bus to the airport, and then you know the whole Mallorca story. :) It was such a bummer to say goodbye to Brian. I was really glad to have the weekend trip to distract me from being by myself once again.
So. Skip ahead to post-Mallorca... Just a typical week at school, I think, trying to get everything done and get some sleep and take in Madrid and whatnot. Hardly left the apartment over the weekend though, actually. Went grocery shopping, which is always an adventure - the closest chain supermarket (where prices are much cheaper) is a 15 minute walk away, so I can't go often. But that means carrying two weeks worth of groceries almost a mile home, which is a whole body workout, since I buy vegetables and that's where I get my less-than-a-euro-1.5-litres of tinto de verano. :) Also did laundry, lots of homework, yoga, cleaning. Productive weekend! AND I got to see Alejandro on Saturday, which was nice because it's hard to only talk via facebook - so much typing - or via skype, because I have a hard enough time understanding Spanish without internet connections causing more trouble.
The following week midterms began. I've never really had serious midterms like this before. I mean, I've had a few in some of my theatre studies classes, but we mostly just write essays about things we've read, maybe define a few theatre terms, no big deal. But I have four academic classes and four midterms this semester. Crazy. The first was my Lorca midterm, which was really easy, as all we had to do was write two essays about the two Lorca plays we'd read up to that point. And as we'd spent multiple weeks on each, there was plenty to write. (In my regular theatre classes, we usually read a couple plays a week and compare them in discussion and it feels like we never have enough time to talk about everything, but such is the pace of Tisch.) I got an A, but I think everyone did, because my teacher thinks grades are stupid.
My other midterms were all the following week, once one of them got moved, so I had three midterms to look forward to post-Paris. Remember in my Paris post how I talked about doing lots of studying for my midterms? Oh, no? Exactly. So Tuesday rolls around, and I have two midterms. For my Spain Today class I had to give an oral presentation of 15 minutes (in Spanish) with two other members of the class, again based on Spanish news articles. I haven't gotten the grade back yet for it, but I felt like it went pretty well. Then Tuesday afternoon I had the midterm for my art history class. This I did some cramming for both Monday night and Tuesday during the lunch break. Fortunately thanks to two years of art recognition tests in high school (hi, Rado), I have some practice studying for this kind of test. I felt like it went pretty well, though I wasn't totally sure... We got them back today though, and I am happy to report that I got an A-, which was a little better than I expected considering my last-minute studying. Though I guess PHTS has made me really good at doing things last minute. SECOND YEAR...
Thursday brought the Spanish grammar midterm, which I kinda refused to study for, as I thought I would just get more confused trying to compare tenses and endings and prepositions and things. My friend Isabella (my closest friend here in Madrid for sure) came over to study though, and I studied a bit by trying to answer her questions. I got that test back yesterday (really not much longer than the quizzes we have every other week, anyway), and I got a happy 88.5, which I'm pretty proud of considering we're trying to learn grammar of a foreign language in that foreign language, which is ridiculously hard.
Thursday evening after Prado Isabella and I went to a cute little cafe around the corner from my house to do some of our homework before we both traveled for the weekend (she to Paris, I to Berlin), and successfully got all our homework done for one of our classes. We read an entire four-page interview in Spanish and only found 25 words we didn't understand, so really we could understand the whole article without using a dictionary. We were quite proud of ourselves.
Thursday night I finally got my abono, which is this card you need to apply for in order to get a monthly travel pass for the bus/metro. I submitted mine on September 21st, meaning it should have been ready while Brian was visiting, but it wasn't. And a week later it still wasn't. And a week later, it still wasn't. It took nearly five weeks, and now I'm only using it for November, but at least I have it for this month. It means I can travel as much as I want on the metro, which is already nice, in just the two days I've been using it. It also means I don't have to pay an extra fare to go to the airport on the bus or train, which is important for all the traveling I'm doing. Woo!
So. The final development of October is a wonderful one - halfway through the month, I got a job! I'm "teaching English" to a family of four kids. I put that in quotes because the oldest two, both girls, Marta, 16 and Iciar, 14, studied in London for a semester last fall, so their English is just fine. The ten-year-old, Nacho, has English in school and speaks quite well. Sometimes I have to repeat what I say, or he'll ask me how to say something in English (a constant test of my Spanish vocabulary, which is good for me), but he's great. He reminds me a lot of my cousin Josh who is the same age and looks quite like him, in addition to being similar in personality. The youngest, Jaime, is 5, and is hilarious. I mostly speak to him in Spanish, and it is certainly a test of my abilities to try to understand him, as he speaks very fast and like a five-year-old. Think about how little kids talk in English, and then try to understand that in a foreign language. Yeah. But he's a lot of fun, and his favorite phrase is "I'm fine thank you" which he says all as one word. He knows the English names of lots of animals and can count at least to 15. We played Simon says last week - his idea, not mine - and he seems to know body parts pretty well too. (Put your hands on your head, point to your nose, raise your right arm, etc.) The boys are both always fighting for my attention. I spend 15 minutes with Jaime, then 45 minutes with each Nacho, Iciar, and Marta. Jaime and I just play games, or I end up chasing him for some reason, Nacho always has something to show me that he made (he's really good at this lego engineering set he has), and I just chat about school and life and whatnot with Iciar and Marta. During which time Nacho always has to come by for some reason. And when I'm with Nacho, Jaime never wants to go away. That's always the time he must also be in the same room doing his homework (he's practicing writing letters of the alphabet).
They also have two dogs, Klaus and Lola. Lola is some kind of terrier, little enough to sit in my lap, which she does pretty constantly. It's quite a crazy house, but I love the family. And every time I come back from a trip, they ask me how it was, or tell me to have a good weekend before I go. Yesterday I mentioned that I ate lots of chocolate in Berlin, and I guess because now they know I like chocolate, my glass of water (because I'm always offered something to drink) was accompanied by three different pieces of chocolate. They spoil me, really. AND I'm getting paid to hang out with their kids and speak English. I'm so lucky. I can't believe it. The dad (also named Alejandro) does something with computers, and they're very well off - and four kids is a lot for a Spanish family - but I still feel a little guilty getting paid to basically just hang out. Not gonna complain though. :)
So. That's my life now! Berlin post soon to come, as well as Paris pictures, of course. The editing process has commenced. ¡Besos desde España!
Okay. Flashback to Wednesday, October 5th. I had class in the early afternoon, but I met up with Brian after for lunch again at Los Rotos. We tried a couple new dishes but of course ordered muerte por chocolate once again. Still perfectly delicious. Back to the apartment for a short nap/rest, then off to the theatre! We went to see a play called Venticinco Años Menos un Día, a play about an English play called The Tea is Ready. It was about the final performance of the play (one day before the 25th anniversary of its opening, hence the title). Because it was about an English play, a lot of it was actually in English, and there were some theatre jokes. I enjoyed it a lot. And we had great seats, for pretty cheap, in a beautiful theatre. And yet another theatre within ten minutes of my apartment! I had actually walked past it before and didn't even know...
After the show we stopped for drinks and snacks at 100 montaditos (the mini-sandwich place) for Wednesday's euromania - where everything on the menu is a euro. I had my usual tinto de verano, Brian had a classic Spanish beer (Mahou), and we both sampled various sandwiches before heading home. In general quite a successful day, I'd say.
Thursday, Brian's last day here. I had class all day so Brian did a bunch of sightseeing on his own and then met me at the Prado, where I have class every Thursday. My class gets over around 5:30 and the Prado is free beginning at 6, so we found each other and did some wandering through the galleries before heading to El Tigre for those famous giant mojitos and some true Spanish tapas, which Brian still hadn't gotten to try. We stopped for ice cream just up the street from me on the way and then headed home for the night a little early to sit around and chat before we both prepared for an early morning trip to the airport. Brian was flying back to China (via a night in Moscow?!) and I to Mallorca, having just booked my flight that morning and my hostel that night thanks to much toil on my mom's part to get my debit card unlocked. (They know I'm abroad, but apparently the card automatically locks if you try to use it for foreign airfare... Secure, but a pain in the ass.)
So up an at 'em, long before the sun, which rose while we were on the bus to the airport, and then you know the whole Mallorca story. :) It was such a bummer to say goodbye to Brian. I was really glad to have the weekend trip to distract me from being by myself once again.
So. Skip ahead to post-Mallorca... Just a typical week at school, I think, trying to get everything done and get some sleep and take in Madrid and whatnot. Hardly left the apartment over the weekend though, actually. Went grocery shopping, which is always an adventure - the closest chain supermarket (where prices are much cheaper) is a 15 minute walk away, so I can't go often. But that means carrying two weeks worth of groceries almost a mile home, which is a whole body workout, since I buy vegetables and that's where I get my less-than-a-euro-1.5-litres of tinto de verano. :) Also did laundry, lots of homework, yoga, cleaning. Productive weekend! AND I got to see Alejandro on Saturday, which was nice because it's hard to only talk via facebook - so much typing - or via skype, because I have a hard enough time understanding Spanish without internet connections causing more trouble.
The following week midterms began. I've never really had serious midterms like this before. I mean, I've had a few in some of my theatre studies classes, but we mostly just write essays about things we've read, maybe define a few theatre terms, no big deal. But I have four academic classes and four midterms this semester. Crazy. The first was my Lorca midterm, which was really easy, as all we had to do was write two essays about the two Lorca plays we'd read up to that point. And as we'd spent multiple weeks on each, there was plenty to write. (In my regular theatre classes, we usually read a couple plays a week and compare them in discussion and it feels like we never have enough time to talk about everything, but such is the pace of Tisch.) I got an A, but I think everyone did, because my teacher thinks grades are stupid.
My other midterms were all the following week, once one of them got moved, so I had three midterms to look forward to post-Paris. Remember in my Paris post how I talked about doing lots of studying for my midterms? Oh, no? Exactly. So Tuesday rolls around, and I have two midterms. For my Spain Today class I had to give an oral presentation of 15 minutes (in Spanish) with two other members of the class, again based on Spanish news articles. I haven't gotten the grade back yet for it, but I felt like it went pretty well. Then Tuesday afternoon I had the midterm for my art history class. This I did some cramming for both Monday night and Tuesday during the lunch break. Fortunately thanks to two years of art recognition tests in high school (hi, Rado), I have some practice studying for this kind of test. I felt like it went pretty well, though I wasn't totally sure... We got them back today though, and I am happy to report that I got an A-, which was a little better than I expected considering my last-minute studying. Though I guess PHTS has made me really good at doing things last minute. SECOND YEAR...
Thursday brought the Spanish grammar midterm, which I kinda refused to study for, as I thought I would just get more confused trying to compare tenses and endings and prepositions and things. My friend Isabella (my closest friend here in Madrid for sure) came over to study though, and I studied a bit by trying to answer her questions. I got that test back yesterday (really not much longer than the quizzes we have every other week, anyway), and I got a happy 88.5, which I'm pretty proud of considering we're trying to learn grammar of a foreign language in that foreign language, which is ridiculously hard.
Thursday evening after Prado Isabella and I went to a cute little cafe around the corner from my house to do some of our homework before we both traveled for the weekend (she to Paris, I to Berlin), and successfully got all our homework done for one of our classes. We read an entire four-page interview in Spanish and only found 25 words we didn't understand, so really we could understand the whole article without using a dictionary. We were quite proud of ourselves.
Thursday night I finally got my abono, which is this card you need to apply for in order to get a monthly travel pass for the bus/metro. I submitted mine on September 21st, meaning it should have been ready while Brian was visiting, but it wasn't. And a week later it still wasn't. And a week later, it still wasn't. It took nearly five weeks, and now I'm only using it for November, but at least I have it for this month. It means I can travel as much as I want on the metro, which is already nice, in just the two days I've been using it. It also means I don't have to pay an extra fare to go to the airport on the bus or train, which is important for all the traveling I'm doing. Woo!
So. The final development of October is a wonderful one - halfway through the month, I got a job! I'm "teaching English" to a family of four kids. I put that in quotes because the oldest two, both girls, Marta, 16 and Iciar, 14, studied in London for a semester last fall, so their English is just fine. The ten-year-old, Nacho, has English in school and speaks quite well. Sometimes I have to repeat what I say, or he'll ask me how to say something in English (a constant test of my Spanish vocabulary, which is good for me), but he's great. He reminds me a lot of my cousin Josh who is the same age and looks quite like him, in addition to being similar in personality. The youngest, Jaime, is 5, and is hilarious. I mostly speak to him in Spanish, and it is certainly a test of my abilities to try to understand him, as he speaks very fast and like a five-year-old. Think about how little kids talk in English, and then try to understand that in a foreign language. Yeah. But he's a lot of fun, and his favorite phrase is "I'm fine thank you" which he says all as one word. He knows the English names of lots of animals and can count at least to 15. We played Simon says last week - his idea, not mine - and he seems to know body parts pretty well too. (Put your hands on your head, point to your nose, raise your right arm, etc.) The boys are both always fighting for my attention. I spend 15 minutes with Jaime, then 45 minutes with each Nacho, Iciar, and Marta. Jaime and I just play games, or I end up chasing him for some reason, Nacho always has something to show me that he made (he's really good at this lego engineering set he has), and I just chat about school and life and whatnot with Iciar and Marta. During which time Nacho always has to come by for some reason. And when I'm with Nacho, Jaime never wants to go away. That's always the time he must also be in the same room doing his homework (he's practicing writing letters of the alphabet).
They also have two dogs, Klaus and Lola. Lola is some kind of terrier, little enough to sit in my lap, which she does pretty constantly. It's quite a crazy house, but I love the family. And every time I come back from a trip, they ask me how it was, or tell me to have a good weekend before I go. Yesterday I mentioned that I ate lots of chocolate in Berlin, and I guess because now they know I like chocolate, my glass of water (because I'm always offered something to drink) was accompanied by three different pieces of chocolate. They spoil me, really. AND I'm getting paid to hang out with their kids and speak English. I'm so lucky. I can't believe it. The dad (also named Alejandro) does something with computers, and they're very well off - and four kids is a lot for a Spanish family - but I still feel a little guilty getting paid to basically just hang out. Not gonna complain though. :)
So. That's my life now! Berlin post soon to come, as well as Paris pictures, of course. The editing process has commenced. ¡Besos desde España!
Monday, October 3, 2011
UU Rave!
Guys guys guys, Brian's here! After crazy travel delays and nearly 48 hours that sound like an episode or two of the Amazing Race, he has arrived, in the flesh. I picked him up last night from the airport after a little adventure of my own...
So before the program started, NYU sent us numerous packets of information including which airlines fly into which terminals at Madrid-Barajas airport. Brian's flight confirmation that he sent me didn't list a terminal, so I looked it up on my info from August, because I'm OCD and keep that stuff, even though I'm here now and don't need to be told how to arrive. It said that Aeroflot (which I can't say without giggling a little) flew into terminal 4. So, off I go on my merry way of three metro trains, including riding the 8 from one end to the other, to terminal 4 of the airport (which is two metro stops past T1-T2-T3).
At this point it is 10:30 and Brian's plane should have landed 5 minutes ago. However. I consult the arrivals boards and see no Aeroflot (giggle) flights listed anywhere. After 20 minutes of searching, I find an information desk upstairs at departures and ask (in horrific Spanish, as it's now almost 11pm and I'm really confused) where Aeroflot is. Terminal 1! Wooo!
So I get on a free shuttle bus and one almost-15-minute bus ride later arrive somewhere in departures of terminal 1. 5 minutes later I figure out how to get down to arrivals to see that Brian's flight is arriving at 11:30, an hour later than scheduled, but now all of 15 minutes away.
Of course by the time Brian and I actually reunite (after he calls me via the Spanish cell phone of someone he met on the plane), it is 11:51, and the 11:50 airport express bus has just left, and the next one doesn't leave until something like 3 am. So we walk through half the airport back to the metro and take our three trains home. We had a nice time catching up though and actually ended up talking for another couple hours until past 3 am at home.
Today we had quite the Spanish day - I had class in the afternoon (Brian got up a little after 11, just before I left), during which time Brian explored Retiro park. Upon my return we went to lunch just down the street at a great place called Los Rotos where we tried two different dishes and then had muerte por chocolate - death by chocolate - cake for dessert. So delicious.
We then hauled ourselves back up my stairs and spent the afternoon planning the rest of our week and watching a ridiculous show on telemundo called Aurora. From what I gathered everyone was related and also in love with someone who loved someone else.
Tonight we went to live jazz at Cafe Central just up the street, where I had been once before. We heard "el cantante de jazz de España," the jazz singer of Spain, but he sang 95% of his songs in English and I deduced by about halfway through the night that they all spoke perfect English and sounded American. All their songs also started with 1,2,3,4 not uno, dos, tres, cuatro. He was really charismatic and a great showman though, and Brian and I both thoroughly enjoyed the evening. My favorite part was when he for some reason sang "I Am What I Am," which, as far as I know, is only a song from La Cage Aux Folles, which, for those of you who don't know, is based on the same play as the movie The Birdcage (starring Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, and Hank Azaria). So here I am sitting in a cafe in Madrid and a pseudo-Spaniard is singing a Broadway song normally sung by a man in drag about being okay with being a drag queen and everyone else should be okay with it too. I had a great time.
After the jazz show we went to San Gines for the most famous chocolate con churros in Madrid and happened to meet two people from... Chicago. Seriously. Park Ridge and Forest Park. (Between Brian being from Oak Park/River Forest and me being from Park Forest... I think we got all the major words of Chicago suburb names covered.) We had a nice chat with them, found out about a great place to get mojitos (which happens to be... under my building), and recommended a few places to them for the rest of their visit, which is through Thursday. What a crazy coincidence. TINY world. Travel safe, Augie and Diane!
So, it's now almost 1:30 and I have to leave for class in about 7 hours so I should sleep. Updates on the rest of this week (and my enjoyable weekend) soon, but we have some packed days coming up! ¡Arrrrrriba! (That's really just an irrelevant Spanish exclamation.)
So before the program started, NYU sent us numerous packets of information including which airlines fly into which terminals at Madrid-Barajas airport. Brian's flight confirmation that he sent me didn't list a terminal, so I looked it up on my info from August, because I'm OCD and keep that stuff, even though I'm here now and don't need to be told how to arrive. It said that Aeroflot (which I can't say without giggling a little) flew into terminal 4. So, off I go on my merry way of three metro trains, including riding the 8 from one end to the other, to terminal 4 of the airport (which is two metro stops past T1-T2-T3).
At this point it is 10:30 and Brian's plane should have landed 5 minutes ago. However. I consult the arrivals boards and see no Aeroflot (giggle) flights listed anywhere. After 20 minutes of searching, I find an information desk upstairs at departures and ask (in horrific Spanish, as it's now almost 11pm and I'm really confused) where Aeroflot is. Terminal 1! Wooo!
So I get on a free shuttle bus and one almost-15-minute bus ride later arrive somewhere in departures of terminal 1. 5 minutes later I figure out how to get down to arrivals to see that Brian's flight is arriving at 11:30, an hour later than scheduled, but now all of 15 minutes away.
Of course by the time Brian and I actually reunite (after he calls me via the Spanish cell phone of someone he met on the plane), it is 11:51, and the 11:50 airport express bus has just left, and the next one doesn't leave until something like 3 am. So we walk through half the airport back to the metro and take our three trains home. We had a nice time catching up though and actually ended up talking for another couple hours until past 3 am at home.
Today we had quite the Spanish day - I had class in the afternoon (Brian got up a little after 11, just before I left), during which time Brian explored Retiro park. Upon my return we went to lunch just down the street at a great place called Los Rotos where we tried two different dishes and then had muerte por chocolate - death by chocolate - cake for dessert. So delicious.
We then hauled ourselves back up my stairs and spent the afternoon planning the rest of our week and watching a ridiculous show on telemundo called Aurora. From what I gathered everyone was related and also in love with someone who loved someone else.
Tonight we went to live jazz at Cafe Central just up the street, where I had been once before. We heard "el cantante de jazz de España," the jazz singer of Spain, but he sang 95% of his songs in English and I deduced by about halfway through the night that they all spoke perfect English and sounded American. All their songs also started with 1,2,3,4 not uno, dos, tres, cuatro. He was really charismatic and a great showman though, and Brian and I both thoroughly enjoyed the evening. My favorite part was when he for some reason sang "I Am What I Am," which, as far as I know, is only a song from La Cage Aux Folles, which, for those of you who don't know, is based on the same play as the movie The Birdcage (starring Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, and Hank Azaria). So here I am sitting in a cafe in Madrid and a pseudo-Spaniard is singing a Broadway song normally sung by a man in drag about being okay with being a drag queen and everyone else should be okay with it too. I had a great time.
After the jazz show we went to San Gines for the most famous chocolate con churros in Madrid and happened to meet two people from... Chicago. Seriously. Park Ridge and Forest Park. (Between Brian being from Oak Park/River Forest and me being from Park Forest... I think we got all the major words of Chicago suburb names covered.) We had a nice chat with them, found out about a great place to get mojitos (which happens to be... under my building), and recommended a few places to them for the rest of their visit, which is through Thursday. What a crazy coincidence. TINY world. Travel safe, Augie and Diane!
So, it's now almost 1:30 and I have to leave for class in about 7 hours so I should sleep. Updates on the rest of this week (and my enjoyable weekend) soon, but we have some packed days coming up! ¡Arrrrrriba! (That's really just an irrelevant Spanish exclamation.)
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Viva La Vida Nocturna
I WENT TO THE THEATRE! Last night I saw a play called Pacto de Estado - "State Pact." This was at the little theatre close to my house - less than ten minutes away, really, and there were probably about 50 people there. It's definitely a place I'll be visiting a lot; they have some other stuff playing now that I'd like to see as well.
I read the play synopsis before I went, which I mostly but not-entirely understood, and was still lost for a lot of the show. I know it had something to do with two candidates I think running against each other for president and also secretly in love with each other, though that part of the story line disappeared halfway through. Then for some reason there was a Monsignor (I think) or some kind of clerical character who seemed to be serving as their psychiatrist. They kept flipping into moments of absurdism, which I only knew were happening because of lighting shifts and sound cues, but I didn't understand why a single one of them happened. And then in the middle there was a puppet show for ten minutes that I think was a talk show involving French terrorists. I've got nothing on that part. Then there was a part where the audience got to ask questions - I had nothing to say because I know nothing about even fake Spanish politics - and then we voted. That didn't matter though because the voting got rigged so that the socialist candidate would win. (The other party is the popular party - that's true in modern Spain. But I don't know anything about what either party stands for.) So then the play was basically over, the three actors came out and bowed like five times (don't ask me why), and I went home.
Mostly I can appreciate that it would have been really funny if I truly understood what was going on. It was an interesting style of acting, almost caricatures or cartoon-like acting. I can't comment much on the directing, because mostly I got combinations of vocal tone with lighting or sound shifts, but I was never bored. So that's good. I think in the near future I'd like to see a Spanish adaptation of a play I know, so I can follow the story line and see differences in interpretation. OH! But I did find out after the show that this play was a "liberal translation" of a Checkhov play. Which helps explain a little bit why it was confusing - Checkhov plays are dense, and it's about politics, but then they changed the country, which changes a lot.
So anyway, after the play I came home to find my roommate with a friend of ours - I hadn't seen them all day because they went on a hike. Like on a mountain. (I might have gone but it required two hours of trains each way and they left at like 6:30 am. I am definitely not that dedicated to hiking.) So we decided to go out for the night to a place called El Tigre, which is a bar that gives you plates of free tapas when you order a drink (and therefore is always EXTREMELY crowded). And the drinks are huge, so it's a good thing there's food to go with them:
While at the bar (which is full of college students studying abroad and other foreigners, in addition to a few locals), we met some guys (one of whom took that last picture for us) and spent most of the night chatting with them, trying to improve our Spanish and help them with their English. They all had great Spanish names like Juan Antonio, and Miguel, and we all introduced ourselves with the European kiss on each cheek, which everyone does here but which takes some getting used to. I spent most of my time talking to a guy named Alejandro (seriously), who is an engineer though I never figured out exactly what he does. We actually spent a fair amount of time talking about American sports, once I figured out he was asking me if I was a Yankees fan. (It sounded more like he was saying Yonkers.) He likes American basketball and can probably name more teams than I can. He and his friends are all from I think essentially the suburbs of Madrid, so it was really a fluke that we met.
Since we were spending time with true Spaniards, we ended up staying out really late, and went to another bar, but that meant we didn't get really drunk (because it was so spread out - I promise!) and we got to practice our Spanish a lot. Particularly I think our pronunciation got better, even if our grammar is still pretty bad. It's also a little hard to learn Spanish while drinking a mojito as big as your head. (At this time, I would just like to take a moment to remind everyone that I am 21. Also the drinking age in Spain is 18. So. PERFECTLY LEGAL. SO LEGAL.)
Eventually we said goodnight and took a cab home. I am definitely a fan of El Tigre - the drinks and the food are delicious, and it's probably the best deal in Madrid, or in a close second to Cien Montaditos. Today is a lazy Sunday in which I plan not to leave the house but instead enjoy our big beautiful living room and get my art history reading done. (Guys, my homework is not due until Tuesday. I dunno what to do.)
If I'm good and get my reading done, maybe I can finally write that Segovia post. I still have to edit the photos, but at least they're already on my computer. I hear it's practically winter in the states - stay warm! (It's still in the 80s and low 90s here. It's a little ridiculous.)
¡Hasta luego!
I read the play synopsis before I went, which I mostly but not-entirely understood, and was still lost for a lot of the show. I know it had something to do with two candidates I think running against each other for president and also secretly in love with each other, though that part of the story line disappeared halfway through. Then for some reason there was a Monsignor (I think) or some kind of clerical character who seemed to be serving as their psychiatrist. They kept flipping into moments of absurdism, which I only knew were happening because of lighting shifts and sound cues, but I didn't understand why a single one of them happened. And then in the middle there was a puppet show for ten minutes that I think was a talk show involving French terrorists. I've got nothing on that part. Then there was a part where the audience got to ask questions - I had nothing to say because I know nothing about even fake Spanish politics - and then we voted. That didn't matter though because the voting got rigged so that the socialist candidate would win. (The other party is the popular party - that's true in modern Spain. But I don't know anything about what either party stands for.) So then the play was basically over, the three actors came out and bowed like five times (don't ask me why), and I went home.
Mostly I can appreciate that it would have been really funny if I truly understood what was going on. It was an interesting style of acting, almost caricatures or cartoon-like acting. I can't comment much on the directing, because mostly I got combinations of vocal tone with lighting or sound shifts, but I was never bored. So that's good. I think in the near future I'd like to see a Spanish adaptation of a play I know, so I can follow the story line and see differences in interpretation. OH! But I did find out after the show that this play was a "liberal translation" of a Checkhov play. Which helps explain a little bit why it was confusing - Checkhov plays are dense, and it's about politics, but then they changed the country, which changes a lot.
So anyway, after the play I came home to find my roommate with a friend of ours - I hadn't seen them all day because they went on a hike. Like on a mountain. (I might have gone but it required two hours of trains each way and they left at like 6:30 am. I am definitely not that dedicated to hiking.) So we decided to go out for the night to a place called El Tigre, which is a bar that gives you plates of free tapas when you order a drink (and therefore is always EXTREMELY crowded). And the drinks are huge, so it's a good thing there's food to go with them:
That's what size the mojitos are.
Tapas! Croquetas, patatas con salsa brava, and chicken and ham-stuffed-mushrooms on bread.
Me with my friends Emily, Nidhi, and Mojito.
While at the bar (which is full of college students studying abroad and other foreigners, in addition to a few locals), we met some guys (one of whom took that last picture for us) and spent most of the night chatting with them, trying to improve our Spanish and help them with their English. They all had great Spanish names like Juan Antonio, and Miguel, and we all introduced ourselves with the European kiss on each cheek, which everyone does here but which takes some getting used to. I spent most of my time talking to a guy named Alejandro (seriously), who is an engineer though I never figured out exactly what he does. We actually spent a fair amount of time talking about American sports, once I figured out he was asking me if I was a Yankees fan. (It sounded more like he was saying Yonkers.) He likes American basketball and can probably name more teams than I can. He and his friends are all from I think essentially the suburbs of Madrid, so it was really a fluke that we met.
Since we were spending time with true Spaniards, we ended up staying out really late, and went to another bar, but that meant we didn't get really drunk (because it was so spread out - I promise!) and we got to practice our Spanish a lot. Particularly I think our pronunciation got better, even if our grammar is still pretty bad. It's also a little hard to learn Spanish while drinking a mojito as big as your head. (At this time, I would just like to take a moment to remind everyone that I am 21. Also the drinking age in Spain is 18. So. PERFECTLY LEGAL. SO LEGAL.)
Eventually we said goodnight and took a cab home. I am definitely a fan of El Tigre - the drinks and the food are delicious, and it's probably the best deal in Madrid, or in a close second to Cien Montaditos. Today is a lazy Sunday in which I plan not to leave the house but instead enjoy our big beautiful living room and get my art history reading done. (Guys, my homework is not due until Tuesday. I dunno what to do.)
If I'm good and get my reading done, maybe I can finally write that Segovia post. I still have to edit the photos, but at least they're already on my computer. I hear it's practically winter in the states - stay warm! (It's still in the 80s and low 90s here. It's a little ridiculous.)
¡Hasta luego!
Sunday, September 11, 2011
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.
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!
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!)
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Stepping Out into the Night
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!
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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