Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Lost in Translation

I’d like to introduce another regular feature here on the old blog… This one’s called Lost in Translation. Basically every so often I’ll post about 3 or 4 pictures of some of the more hilarious or suggestive examples of really botched Spanglish or just some funny sights... I hope you enjoy this week’s selection.

Yep... I... Hmmm....

OMG! Laguna Beach!!! Oh... wait... maybe not...

Now I wonder what they do here...

Monday, September 24, 2007

Dateline Sunday: Dinner

Okay, this one’s a quicky but I thought worth telling… Last night Laura decides to make pasta for dinner. Okay. Good. Fine. Then as we sit down she tells me that she has invented a sauce but won’t tell me what’s in it (although she assures me that there is nothing of the meat variety that I don’t eat). Okay. Sure. Why not? When in Rome, right? So I try it… I can tell that its mostly a ricotta cheese base and I’m thinking that the other ingredient is either anchovies or capers (capers were eventually declared the winner) but Laura still wont tell me what the other ingredient is… Well it can’t be that bad… So after the pasta is finished and we’re moving on to the fruit Laura finally decides to divulge her secrets… Read for it? (In the style of Iron Chef) The secret ingredient is (lights flash as the metal cover zooms off the small ceramic bowl of pasta sauce):

COD LIVERS

Yeah, I know… But honestly it wasn’t bad and like I said… When in Rom-well better make that Madrid…

Things I miss…

So it’s Sunday again, time for a little reflection. Today I present you with a list of things (not people, solely things just so nobody gets offended) in America that they either don’t have or rarely use here in Spain. (In no particular order)

1. The FDA. I know it sounds silly but you don’t realize how nice it is to have nutrition facts on everything. Also, it’s great to have some sort o laws governing the quality of food… Just makes you feel a little more at ease is all I’m saying.

2. Clothes dryers and fabric softener. Yeah, another seemingly insignificant thing but I mean really, you tell me how you would feel about having your underwear hung out for the world to see and then when you do finally bring it in from the clothesline all your clothing feels like a cereal box…

3. Toilet paper that’s more than 1 ply and not made from bark. ‘Nuf said…

4. Regular flushing of toilets. Here in Spain, they are very environmentally conscious (yay! Good thing.) however due to this fact, toilets don’t exactly always get flushed (boo! Not a good thing.). I like a surprise as much as the next guy but not in the toilet.

5. Q-Tips. Holy hell. I have been looking for these things since I got here and until today was unable to find them… And even now the ones I have aren’t that great. Oh well… It just makes me wonder: What do the Spaniards do to clean out their ears.

6. Widespread use of wireless Internet. Here in Spain, or so I’m told, wi-fi has not made as big of a boom as it has in the States… I really only get internet on my computer when I’m at the Instituto and then other days at the Pepe Center (more on that one at a later date).

7. Walgreens. Here there isn’t really a pharmacy as we would think of it. The farmácias have pretty much everything (I think, I’m still a little scared to go into one) but you have to go and ask the pharmacist for what you need… There is no one stop shopping…

8. Dishwashers. In my home stay, all the dishes are “washed” by hand… Really what this means is that they come into contact with some dirty water and some watered down soap and then get rinsed and put into the drying cabinet. I often find chunks of food still on things… Yeah… Not so much…

9. TV News. I miss being informed but then again, I don’t. It’s relaxing in some respect to not hear about everything wrong with the world every day but at the same time, I miss knowing what’s going on… Also The Today Show… Miss that…

10. Marshal Field’s. Oh wait just kidding… Hah! (F-ing Macy’s…)

So there you have it… A top ten list of sorts… Oh by the way, I finished Harry Potter (overall very pleased with the ending) and I’m now on to Stephen King’s new one… Super exciting, I know…

Byeee

Noche en Blanco

So every year (starting last year…) Madrid has one night where virtually everything stays open. We’re talking museums (all free by the way), bars, cafes, restaurants, from 11:00pm (or 21:00 in local time) until 7:00am (still 7:00 here). Well needless to say, this was something to be taken advantage of.

My friends and I have been trying for about two weeks now to get reservations at this restaurant called Wagaboo (described by one guide book as an “exotic eatery serving global cuisine”) and keep failing to get a reservation. So, in our desperation of somewhere to go I turned to my handy dandy Señora. I asked Laura if she knew of any good (and not too expensive) restaurants that we would enjoy. She quickly informed me that, in fact, her cousin owns a restaurant called El Teletipo about 4 blocks from our school and that the food is fantastic (well that’s debatable but we’ll discuss that in a bit…) So Laura called and made the reservations and we were in for 9:30.

Jump to the next day: I’ve been fasting for a while (you know, that whole Judaism thing…) and haven’t really eaten so when we head off to dinner I’m pretty excited. Now, seeing as Laura told me that we’d need a reservation to get into this place, I figured it would be somewhat of a “spot”… Well, we walk in and it’s pretty much us (save Laura’s cousin, the wait staff and the private party in the back room). Okay, fine… So we sit down and get our menus. Good selection of things. I order the sole. Okay, so I have a thing with eating whole fish, I don’t know why but having it remain in the same shape that it used to swim in… Not so much my cup of tea… Anyway, the fish wasn’t bad and the wine wasn’t bad either (we got the house white, Laura’s suggestion) and to be honest this little Jew with his empty stomach started feeling it pretty quickly… Anyway dinner’s done (oh did I mention that my friend Mike ordered the deep fried brains, testicles, and sweet meats platter; also Laura’s suggestion… Yep…) and we order desert, some sort of chocolate pastry thing. WOW! Seriously, none of us could understand it but this slice o chocolate whatever-it-was, that didn’t look particularly intriguing was absolutely fantastic. Really, desert made the somewhat “meh” dinner worth having and made the restaurant worth going back to.

Anyway, we leave the restaurant and decide to go over to one of the museums (Why not right? It is free after all.) and settle on the Reina Sofia, Madrids more contemporary art museum and home to Pablo Picasso’s Guernica. Well needless to say, we made it to the museum with a minimal amount of lost-ness (and wow were the streets crowded, it seemed like every person of every age that lives in Madrid was out and about last night, or two nights ago by the time you read this…). Anyway, I have my heart set on seeing Guernica mainly because I’ve been studying the damn thing for, I don’t know, 10 years and have done maybe 6 reports on it, plus I like Picasso. So we make our way into this absolutely gorgeous art museum, (I mean really, the building itself is worth the trip) and up the elevator to the 2nd floor where Guernica is located. It is really breathtaking to see such a massive and important piece of artwork up close and personal. I know it’s an obvious statement, but there is just sooooooooo much more to appreciate and detail to notice when your not looking at something in the pages of an art history text book… So we stood for quite a while marveling at this painting and then decided it was time to head out and take advantage of this sure-to-be-an-absolute-shit-show night. So we headed off, stopping along the way to get some bottled water (hydration is good and for some reason I haven’t felt well hydrated since I’ve been here) and ended up at our first destination of the evening, the hip-ish, albeit a little gay, Chueca (Chicagoans: think of it as Lakeview but only in concept, the execution is really not so much). We sat for a while at an outdoor café and then made our way into one of the nearby clubs (it seemed that everywhere was charging a cover, probably because the could seeing as the entire city was awake and looking for places to go…)

[For those of you who care or my find it funny, a shirtless Edson just walked by my room and is now cooking tortilla, I believe] (UPDATE: I was wrong it was pista. Think of it as sautéed vegetables with French fries on top.)

Anyway, we stay in this club for a little while (it’s not so much fun… It’s in the basement and there is really no space). So we decide to leave and see what else the area has to offer. We end up putzing around for a little while when we’re approached by one of the now infamous (to us, at least) people offering either chupitos gratis or entrance without cover. This one tells us we can get in for free, ahead of the line and the have “música Franz Ferdinand”. We gee golly, I’m sold (if you couldn’t tell I’m being sarcastic only because last time we’re in Chueca and somebody offered us free shots and no cover to a “great bar with a mixed crowd”, we ended up in some lesbian bar. I mean I guess the crowd was mixed if having lesbos with both long and short hair is your idea of a mixed crowd… Anyway, moving on…). So we get to this club and it’s not awful, not super though, and the drinks weren’t super expensive. And so we stayed there for a while, maybe half an hour, and decided to move on to Calle Fuencarral, and area that we seem to be frequenting a lot lately, and an area where there was supposed to be live entertainment (Daft Punk I think…). However, by the time we got there it looked like some post-apocalyptic vision with people moving down the street in large clumps and garbage piled to the high heavens (you’ll have to excuse me, I’ve been reading Stephen King lately). Anyway, before looking for another bar, the drunken munchies take all five of our bodies hostage and we go searching for this pizza place where apparently Mike had some really good pizza one night that he doesn’t so much remember… Well when we get there, now keep in mind this is Spain, they only have ham or pepperoni pizza… COME ON! I know slaughtering pigs is like a national past time here, but really… No cheese? It’s just fucking cheese pizza, it’s a staple… Anyway Sonja, Emily and myself (who don’t eat the pig) we’re pretty not happy… Mike and Merina we’re fine (they eat that). So after those two have their pizza, the other three of us set off on what seemed at the time like a life or death mission to find something to eat (and keep in mind its 3:45am and there are no good calories at this point.) So we walk around what seemed like half of the city searching for something, at the very least a Döner Kebap place where we can get some falafel or something…. But no… We just keep walking, and walking. Although in our mad hunt we did manage to find this bar that Emily had gone to when she studied here two summers ago where the serve drinks called minis which are anything but… These drinks are about the size of your head and according to Emily the ones at this bar can only be lifted with two hands. So in time, we ended up pretty much where we started and thankfully found a bar that served food. While the two carnivores went to get some more pizza, we ordered bocadillos of tortilla (think about an 8” long sandwich on French bread and tortilla, if I haven’t explained it, is basically an omelet like concoction with potato in it. Yeah, at 4:00 in the morning, that sandwich was like the second coming (or, I guess for me, the first coming, but that’s just a technicality and also a badly placed Jew-joke…) Anyway, after we finish our humongous bocadillos and the fries that came with them, we sat and digested for a while and then decided to head back to that bar with the minis… Well we got there and it was an America-themed bar (I’m talking American celebrities and sports posters all over everywhere)… I think it also doubles a s smoke house because I think I now have a black lung from just standing in the place for about 30 minutes… So, by the time 5:15 rolls around, we’re not feeling the bar so much anymore and decide to head out, find a bench and just wait until the metro reopens at 6:00… At this point, pretty much the entire city is still awake, still out, and some of them are even still drinking (don’t ask me how, I honestly enjoy sleeping a little to much…)

Well needless to say the Metro reopened at 6:00 and hordes of people piled down into stations and trains everywhere. Emily and I were fortunate enough to get on the train with a very hairy, very scary shirtless man who was rocking out a little too hard on a crowded train… By the time I got to my stop it was 6:45 and by the time I got to bed I think it was 7:15… It’s Sunday now so that means it’s gunna be a somewhat boring day. We’re all meeting up at this really interesting Spanish café to do our translation homework later though, it’s called Starbucks… I think they have a few in America, not really sure though.

At any point, I think the length of this post more than makes up for the lackluster description of Toledo, don’t you?

Hasta luego….

Un viaje a Toledo

Well I took my first venture outside the city limits of Madrid to the historical city of Toledo. It’s a very beautiful city especially when you approach it and once you get there, well, it’s also very beautiful.


The city itself is a shell of what it once was: the epicenter of Spain’s Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faiths, however many of the original buildings still stand (and then again, many do not).

Our trip consisted of visits to various churches-cum-museums and a generous amount of free time to explore this city in which there is really nothing much to explore.



Aside from the religious aspects, Toledo is known for its steel as well as its gold work. And besides churches, you pretty much only find souvenir shops selling swords and, you guessed it, things made of gold with lots of intricate patterns.


I know this post is kinda short, but there really isn’t much to say that you can’t see for yourself in the pictures. I mean, sure I could talk about El Greco and the church/museum that had a wall dedicated to the anti-abortion, pro life sentiment, but I’m really not in the mood… So please to be exploring the pictures on your own time... :)


Later…

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Let’s talk about class, baby…


(Front Door of the International Institute)

So, as some of you know this semester amongst other things was/is going to be my time to see what my life would be like as a “real college stu
dent”, you know, not the kind that spends more hours in class and rehearsal than he does out or in his apartment… Well so far so good... So as the title of this entry says, let’s talk about class baby!

While my schedule has changed a few times since I’ve been here, I’ve finally settled on a schedule that works for me. I’m in four 4 credit classes that all meet 2 a week. Somehow, Lord only knows, I’
ve managed to squeeze all these in and still managed to have Thursdays off (there generally is no class on Fridays for Spanish students…) So yep, Jason has himself some four day weekends… Every week… And oh yeah, he also happens to be in Europe… Anywho, classes…



The first class I have each week is my translation in theatre and film course. So far it’s an extremely entertaining class where we translate myriad different works. For example, right now we’re working on Antz, you know that animated movie about ants with Woody Allen? Yeah, thought so. But it’s been really great learning some more of the intricacies of the language as well as learning a lot of Spanish slang.

My next class is my phonetics class. Um super fun…. It’s kind of like being in a Spanish elementary school… On Monday of this week we were handed worksheets with the alphabet printed on them and were instructed to name the letters and then produce the sound that they make… I know, my life is really rough right now. Afterwards we had to take words who’s syllables had been messed up and reorder them. This prompted the teacher to ask us (in Spanish, of course) “Does everyone know what a syllable is?” We all nodded and added some vocal confirmation. She then proceeds to hit her fists on the desk while saying “Syll-a-ble” in order to drive the point home. Class that day ended with a rousing game of Spanish Scatergories…

Next we have my Art in Madrid class. This art history class is really nice solely because when we study something in class, we end up seeing it in one of the 3 major art museums here in Madrid. Each week one of our two 1:30 classes is spent at either the Thysian, Prado, or the Reina Sofia. Not a bad way to spend some time. Also, the professor is a very nice, intelligent guy.

And my last class. Spanish film. I’m not the biggest movie fan but I’m enjoying this class so far. It’s taught by the same professor as my art history class which is nice (he knows many things…) and we do get exposed to a lot of interesting cinema. So far we’ve been focusing on the Spanish director Luis Buñuel and some of his earlier works and we’ll be working our way up through time ending, I believe, on Almodovar…
So there you have it… A little more insight into my life as it stands right now… Oh yeah, I’m also considering getting certified for TOEFL (teaching of English as a second language) and working up to 11 hours a week… But we’ll see…

¡Adios!

Quote of the (Yester)Day...

So after an exciting morning outing to the Pepe Center for some internet action, I returned home to lunch with Edson. I walk in and something smells a little off... As we sit down to eat:

EDSON: He estado fumando Maria... Huele no?
I've been smoking Maria (pot)... Smells, no?

JASON: Si...
Yeah...

Then we ate our pasta. That is all...

Monday, September 17, 2007

Sunday: 1 Week Later

So after a week, I’m really starting to adjust… Maybe not so much to the cold shower hose contraption thingy, but to other things. Today was very nice… I woke up in the morning and took some time to relax and a little while after, Laura asked if I wanted to go grab a little appetizer and a drink at this little seafood restaurant/bar down the street. Of course I was game… Before we were able to leave however Edson returned home from the Rastro (think of it as a large open air flea market) where he was supposed to buy a part for a lamp… Well it turns out that Edson didn’t have enough money to buy the part that he eventually found because he spent some of it on food for himself while out… Needless to say, Laura got a little peeved and there I was standing in the living/dining room while mommy and daddy were fighting… Awkward flashbacks to childhood (just kidding mom & dad, you know I don’t mean it). So I retreated to my room a little for a while. After Laura was done reaming out Edson we headed out.

This bar was wonderful… The seafood was some of the freshest and most flavorful that I have ever eaten. We started with some fried calamari, toasted bread with anchovies and tomatoes then moved on to the little baby clams covered with olive oil, garlic, and lemon (yum!) Then the owner treated us to some salt cured tuna (a very expensive delicacy) which was also extremely delicious. We each had 2 beers and discussed many a topic (the conversation did get a little awkward when I asked if she had kids… A sore subject? Maybe. Why? I don’t know, but I don’t intend to investigate it any further…) Afterwards we went back to the apartment and had lunch (THEY EAT SO MUCH HERE). Post lunch I headed to what has in a short time become my favorite place in Madrid, Retiro Park.

Not only had I spent about 7 hours on Saturday sitting by a magical little fountain reading, but I went back today. This time however, my friends and I met up for a little “Homework on the Green” if you will… It was a very nice afternoon. I had enough time to finish my homework and finish my book (Cell by Stephen King… Good post-apocalyptic quick read… Now I’m finally gunna finish Harry Potter) Dinner (at 9:30) was couscous and then I read until bed… Not a bad day if I do say so myself…

So Sundays can work, if and only if you know how to use them….

L’Shana Tova

First and foremost, may it be good new year. Now… Let’s discuss my Rosh Hashanah. You all know me by now… Sometimes I get myself into awkward situations unintentionally… Well this was certainly one of those times…. Friday afternoon I had called around attempting to find somewhere to spend the holidays (I’m not one to miss them and especially this year) so I found the Jewish Center in Madrid. They said I was welcome to come as long as I brought my passport. Fine. So I went.

Allowing myself the “Jason gets lost for at least 30 minutes whenever he goes somewhere” grace period, I headed out pretty early to get to services. When I arrived at the street, there was a large building with no address on it but a man standing in front of it. Oh! Did I mention that the entire street was barricaded by police, yeah, that too… So I walk up to this man and asked “Is this number 3?” He said, “Why do you want to know? What are you here for?” I sheepishly reply “Rosh Hashanah services…” He said “One moment” and proceeded to open the door and take me inside.

Once inside I was asked to hand over my passport answer a large round of questions, empty my pockets and get patted down before being allowed to enter the synagogue… After I was inside I got lost… SURPRISE! Even in a building, I can still get lost… While I was finally walking up the correct set of stairs I heard a voice from behind me in Spanish ask, “Hello. What’s your name?” Long story short I answer and find out the this young man is also an American who happens to be from Chicago and is here on a Fulbright scholarship translating Hebrew texts into Spanish… Yep… Oh, and he’s also a librarian (somebody’s racking up the cool points) Anywho, as he’s the only other American in the place, I stick with him. While waiting for services he asks, “So do you normally go to orthodox?” and I replied with , “I knew it… I knew this was going to be orthodox… Actually no, I’m pretty much reform…” Also I’m an Ashkenazi and these were (of course) Sephardic services. I decided then that it would be interesting to observe a completely different tradition. And it certainly was: The chants are all different, different prayers are recited, there was not English let alone Spanish in sight for the entire time- just Hebrew. Most interesting moment of the service: Madrid is in the center of Spain so there’s no body of water nearby. Therefore we went and did Taslich (sp?) in front of a running faucet… Yep… Look at us Jews being so crafty J. Anyway, after the service (which was not nearly as long as I expected it to be) I headed out to start of the new year right…

Close Up: Breakfast

I wanted to take a moment to address an issue that I seem to be having. Breakfast, why you gotta be so big? Seriously though… When I’m home breakfast might be some cereal, maybe a granola bar, once in a while a sandwich, and super rarely some sort of waffle or pancake… But here, well let’s just say things are a little different…

Every morning I wake up to an absolutely ginormous morning meal that, although it might not sound that filling it most definitely is (especially when you’re avoiding using the toilet at home for certain things… But I digest. I mean digress) Waiting on my Coca-Cola® Christmas elf tray in the kitchen is a large bowl of muesli with Laura’s homemade (I think) yogurt on top (there was something about a jar of cultures in the cabinet that she puts milk in every week, I dunno…) Now we’re not talking your sissy-ass American granola here. This stuff is filled with whole nuts and dried fruit as well as grains and comes in a bowl (I kid you not) the size of my head. Next to the muesli, we have a mug of tea usually accompanied by a whole pot of tea which I still haven’t figured out if I’m supposed to finish or not… Okay, fine. But next we have the killer: the orange juice (if you can call it that). Laura, bless her heart, every morning squeezes two oranges for me and makes juice. However after the juice has been extracted from the oranges, the pulp goes right back into the glass… Imagine, if you will, trying to drink a lowball full of pulp. Seriously this is no different than just eating two oranges except the happen to be all mushed up and in a glass… By the time I’m done eating as much as I can (because I’m still not so sure if I’ll offend anyone by throwing something out) I’m full and almost ready to burst (remember I’m not really using the bathroom at the apartment… You saw the pictures… And plus the walls are paper thin). So yep… There you have it. A close up on my typical Spanish breakfast. Thanks for listening to me rant a bit…

Until next time.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

My Dinner with Edson OR “¡Hey novio! Pass the Garbanzos…”

So Monday night I had the pleasure of dining with the character formerly known as novio (his name is Edson…. I finally remembered, but only after making it into a song: “Meet George Edson… Yeah, I know…) Anyway, it was really nice to get to know him a little better and hear about his experiences in life. By the way, we had a garbanzo bean salad if you’re at all interested… You shouldn’t be, but someone might really want to know. Now anyway, Edson is originally from Brazil (a small farming town where they could really only afford to eat any sort of meat or fish at the most once a month and at the least once a year) but has been in Spain, Madrid specifically, for 16 years. Prior to living here he’s lived in Milan and Paris (although he speaks neither Italian or French).

We began to talk about the subject of family and I give him a bare bones summary of my family situation and he then proceeded to fill me in on his. He hasn’t spoken to his family now in over 12 years, although he didn’t say why. I also found out that both his parents have passed. He seemed a little reluctant to talk about it so I quickly changed subjects to food and cooking and that’s what we chatted about for the rest of the meal.

After dinner I went for a little walk to try to find a bookstore that was still open so that I could buy some dictionaries for my translation class (nothing was open). When I returned to 91 Calle Don Ramon de la Cruz, Laura had just gotten home from yoga and was eating dinner while she and Edson watched a documentary on 9/11. I sat down with them and we watch the film for the duration of the evening. Every so often Edson would chime in with a question to which Laura had an immediate and somewhat snappy answer. Example:

Edson: What happened when the buildings fell?

Laura: They died of course!

The next morning (September 11th) I woke up and joined Edson for breakfast where he was watching the news which happened to be covering the memorials occurring in the states and Edson procedes to tell me “Your flag is pretty ugly. I mean, I think the Spanish flag is ugly too.” And I responded with some sort of quip about how I think American currency isn’t exactly the nicest looking thing either and we went on watching TV.

So there you have it… A small taste of the large enigma that is Edson.

Okay, so maybe he’s not that much of an enigma, but you get what I’m going for… Hasta luego…

Monday, September 10, 2007

Sundays... Part 2

So I was feeling a little down earlier… It’s still weird being in someone else’s house trying to speak a language that I’m not as comfortable with and adjust to customs and a lifestyle that (for lack of a better word) I’m not accustomed to. But the evening got much better. Laura and I ended up having a very nice dinner together of tortilla, salad, and a dessert of cheese and fruit (a dish here called beso) We talked a lot about Spanish history, and how Madrid itself is changing as well as food and we also talked about the language barrier. I expressed how I was feeling regarding my relatively limited vocabulary and the trouble that I was having at times understanding certain aspects of the local dialect and she countered with stories of when she first began to learn English and traveled to London (Jim and tonic anyone?) So all in all the evening turned out to be a lot better than I thought, I finished my Katie Couric book, took a nice siesta and had a nice, reassuring dinner… Anywho, I’m off to bed… Gotta be fresh for class tomorrow (I’m still a student? Oh yeah, I forgoted…)

Byeee

Sundays...

Well it’s my first Sunday here in Madrid and to be honest it’s pretty darn boring… I get the whole “day of rest” thing, but really? Everything’s closed? What are you supposed to do if worshiping Jesus isn’t your cup of tea?
















Anyway today we went on a walking tour of the Parque Retiro. This large public garden used to belong to the aristocracy and some years ago was gifted to the state and opened to the public. Due to the increase in population however, the park is now somewhat smaller than it’s original incarnation but still extremely gorgeous. While lost this morning (I seem to be doing that a lot lately…) I stumbled across an outdoor concert where of all songs “The Sun’ll Come Out” from Annie was playing (I want to understand the choices of music around here, I really do… But so far I can’t…) It was absolutely wonderful; so much so, in fact, that I almost considered ditching out on
the group to sit with the locals and watch. But instead I trekked on to meet up with the rest of the group. After walking through the park for some time we came to the Museo del Prado, the Spanish art museum containing works from before the 19th century (those and all contemporary works are housed in another museum, the Reina Sofia). The museum, which has a new annex opening in October, will be one of the primary destinations of one of my classes: Arte en los museos de Madrid. On that more classes start tomorrow so I just went to the Corte Ingles (think Dominick’s meets Marshall Field’s meets Best Buy meets Barnes and Noble meets Blick Art Materials meets Office Max meets Toys “R” Us) and bought myself a notebook and some writing instruments and then ended up back at my home stay for lack of anything else to do at all… So it’s probably time for siesta….

















Oh… PS. I went to this restaurant last night (recommended by Lisa, I think) that sells little mini sandwich
es for around €1,20-€1,50. Very good… The name, however, escapes me at the moment. Hasta luego…

Drink of the Week


So, this marks the beginning of my _____ of the Week column. The ______ will vary every week so keep tuning in to find out what I’ve got in store for you. This week we’ll be discussing the drink of the week which just happens to be the Shandy Cruzcampo. Now before I go into detail about the contents of this drink lets discuss two important facts, shall we? 1: I’m not a beer drinker… Really, I rarely like the stuff but hey, when in Rome (or Madrid), right? And 2: these Spaniards really enjoy putting Fanta in everything. So back to the Shandy Cruzcampo. It’s actually a rather simple drink… All it consists of equal parts lemon Fanta to Cruzcampo (one of the Spanish beers). I don’t really fancy carbonation but in actuality, this drink was rather smooth. So there you have it. The Shandy Cruzcampo… Try one you might just like it.

Home Stay...



So remember about a few lines ago when I said I wasn’t sure what my Señora would be like? Well it turns out I made some pretty good guess… She’s a very young 60 and it turns out that it’s not just me an her in the house. There’s another man living here, a Brazilian man, who may or may not be her boyfriend… I haven’t been able to decipher the exact workings of their relationship quite yet… Anyway we live in a neighborhood that is becoming more and more pija (think posh and expensive with a little bit of snooty-ness, you know…) There are unnecessarily fancy children’s clothing stores every few blocks and local merchants have had to give up their businesses to make way for more high-end chains and boutiques. While this tends to be the trend, there are still some local staples that have been and will continue to be here forever. There’s the local lecheria (dairy store) where the storeowner, an older woman, was described to me as the local therapist/gossip. In other words, if you need to talk or want to know something, she’s the one to talk to. Other persons of interest include the two men who work at the olive stand next to what used to be an open-air market that has now been closed to make way for a larger building. These two men have been working together since the dawn of time and apparently have been fighting with one another ever since then as well… Anyway, after I arrived here by cab, I made my way up to the 5th floor apartment and settled in. My Señora took me on a small walking tour and to run a few errands. We then returned and the man living here with us (his name escapes me at the moment…) had made paella with mussels and shrimp for lunch. We had picked up some different varieties of olives and a few bottles of beer along the way and sat down to eat. Everything was very delicious and it’s still kinda really exciting to think that I’m in Spain eating Spanish food with Spanish people… Laura, my Señora, is a very interesting woman who’s extremely interested in art, architecture, theatre, film, and television (not at bad match if I do say so myself…) Apparently she used to be a producer on a television show some years ago but now she works at a tennis club. Anyway, she seems to know everyone and is friends with a very prominent director in the Madrid-ian theatre scene whom we will be having dinner with tomorrow (Sunday) so that should be very interesting. The apartment itself is very cute and the building, which apparently hasn’t been renovated since it opened in the 30’s, is also very charming. The apartment has 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, a small kitchen, a study, and a multi-purpose room (think dining room and den combined) my room is quite large and has its own balcony which is blocked by some old Spanish style shades that I can’t seem to operate at the moment, but I’m hoping to learn… Well I’m guessing I should go as my Señora just walked by in a t-shirt, headband, and her underwear and I think she wanted to take me somewhere. But just one more thing: as nice as these living arrangements are it is still somewhat awkward living in someone else’s home especially with the language and culture barriers in place. I’m sure it will get a better and easier as time goes on but for now, I’m just a tad bit uncomfortable… Oh well, que será, sera… Catch you later ☺

Madrid: Week 1

Well what a week it’s been….Let’s start from the beginning. My education began very early this week. I learned that business class might in fact be worth the price when flying over 5 hours. I also learned that you should probably bring your own food on board or else be prepared to face some sort of beef and dried pasta that the airline thinks is edible (I didn’t eat it, but it certainly didn’t look so fresh…) I learned that Oceans 13 is not such a bad movie and that watching a small cartoon of your plain flying across the globe can actually be quite amusing. I’ve also learned all sorts of interesting things about Katie Couric but that’s probably for another time... Moving on….


After landing and deplaning, we entered what I can only describe as the most beautiful airport I have ever seen and made a small hike through customs, to the baggage claims via one of those airport monorails that don’t really need to exist but do because monorails were (or maybe still are) cool for some reason. My baggage cane right off the belt and get this: the luggage carts that we have to pay for in America are free here. Yeah, I know. After getting our luggage we met up with the larger group and boarded some lovely green tour buses that were much more comfortable than “Tourist Class” on Iberia is and headed to the Hotel Regina right in the Plaza del Sol in downtown Madrid. The hotel is decent, though they don’t seem to like us too much (we get the stale bread at meals and the rooms with 3 twin beds squished together).














Madrid is absolutely gorgeous in every way. Not only have I have not seen a single cloud since I stepped off the airplane, but they really try to keep every inch of the city clean (okay maybe not the prostitutes, but nobody’s perfect, right?). The streets and si
dewalks are spray washed every night and I have never seen such a clean and organized subway system as the Metro. The temperature here has remained around 80° +/- a few degrees depending on the time of day. Aside from the weather and urban hygiene habits, the architecture here is truly breathtaking. While standing in one plaza you can see buildings from the 15th, 16th, and 17th, century with Roman, Arabic, and French influences all within a few feet from one another. And hey, I kinda have a soft spot in my heart for cobblestone streets…




















So let’s talk about the locals, shall we? Maybe I’m just ignorant, but having 15 facial piercings doesn’t do it for me (but who am I to judge, right?) Anyway, as you may or may night know, people’s schedules here are quite different dinner happens anywhere between 8:00 and 11:00 and then you go out. And you stay out. For a while. Like until 4:00, 5:00, 6:00 in the morning. And all that while you’re probably drinking… As I’ve been saying, this is my semester to see what it would have been like to be a real college student, you know, the kind that doesn’t sit in rehearsals all night only to go home do some paperwork and collapse… In the past however many days it’s been since I’ve been here (2, 3, 4??? I have really lost any concept of time especially since I’ve never lived anywhere where it can be 21:48 before) I’ve been to outdoor cafes, small cervecerias stylishly-trashy bars for some chupitos libres (free shots, if you can even call them that… tasted more like Kool-Aid to me…) a rather cramped disco, and an Irish pub where the music really reflects both the Irish and Spanish cultures. Examples No Scrubs by TLC and your favorite and mine J.Lo’s Jenny From the Block (well at least she speaks Spanish sometimes, right?) and let’s not forget Coolio’s Gangsta’s Paradise…


Anywho, it’s Friday night and I’m feeling a bit drained so I’m gunna take it easy tonight. Tomorrow I move in with my 60 year old Señora Laura Rodriguez. I’ve got this image in my head of either a very traditional Spanish woman (short, a little heavy, always fanning herself with her abanico) or a very thin and lanky woman with a lot of sass… Either way we’ll see.

Until next time…