Madrid: Yes, I Love Thee

Struggling to think of blog post titles, obviously.

I have figured out a route -- a nice, well-populated, spacious, sunny route, for walking and bouncing. Shown above. It is about 5 miles (4.9-5, depending on detours), and I walked it three times this weekend.

nuns

One important question I have been asking myself:

Are there more nuns per capita in Madrid, or have I just been noticing more because I expect there to be more nuns? (Or sisters, or whichever is the correct term for generally small elderly ladies who wander around in gray, white, brown, or black habits and wimple-y things and Sensible Shoes.) I see 8-10 a week, I think.

Or maybe I just walk a nun-heavy route?

the weekend: the worst and then the best

Okay, so this weekend was an experience.

I am going to write about it in reverse, because that way it ends on the really good note instead of just the okay good note.

So first: Sunday.

I hung out in my room for a while. I was kind of tired from the day before, so I made a big bowl of mashed potatoes and ate them. At about 3:00, I decided I needed some exercise and went out for a walk with my bag. I thought I might do some sketching. I went toward Plaza Mayor again; it's very pretty and the walk there is nice. I stopped in an H&M (thinking to myself: you know, sometimes globalization is not all bad) and bought a striped shirt and new pair of shorts (one pair of mine is getting some holes.) (Side note: Am now a size smaller in some H&M clothes than I was in May. Yay! Unfortunately, the sizes aren't real consistent in that store -- the same size is 34 on the first floor and a 40 on the basement floor.)

lessons of the last two days

1. Older is not (always) better.

The 1954 version of Sabrina with Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart is charming, but the 1995 version (with Harrison Ford) is overall funnier, more touching, and has more sympathetic characters, in my humble opinion. Everyone is less disagreeable overall, there is stuff shot on-site in Paris, etc. (Watched this last night.)


2. It pays to keep wandering in slightly different directions.

During lunch today I stumbled upon the Temple de Debod, a portion of an Egyptian temple that was donated to Spain in the 60s after they helped (provided monetary support?) save some temples from the Aswan dam project. Tomorrow maybe I shall have time to actually go in the little museum, and take pictures. It's very pretty how they have it set up on the edge of the park.


3. Things that are familiar with a slight twist can make you laugh.

Today while standing in line in the grocery store I happened to note some little Disney board books in the display next to the checkout, La Dama y el Vagabundo and La Sirenita among them. Both of those made me chuckle; my mind shortcuts to "the Dame and the Vagabond" even though I know they mean "the Lady and the Tramp."


4. Don't make your (my) list too long, or you (I) will just ignore most of it and fall asleep.

I accomplished #2 on my list: Buy toilet paper.


5. Caramel flavor is not always good.

I bought some pudding cups labeled "flan," which is vanilla pudding with caramel sauce in the bottom. I took one to lunch today. It was gross, for reasons I can't fully articulate. Perhaps the flavoring was fake? Perhaps the lukewarm-ness turned me off? I don't know. Luckily I spent less than a euro on the pudding cups.


6. Corn flakes are always good.


7. People are not necessarily waiting to test you on your language skills.

We had a 20 minute coffee break at the end of work today. I actually held on to the conversation for 10 minutes or so before it got too fast and I got too lost. No one seemed to object. I also said a few simple things in Spanish, which is a start at the very least.

Well it is late and I must be up early. Good night.

now that my supply of underwear has been secured

i.e. I did laundry (successfully!) for the first time in the tiny washing machine in the kitchen. After examining the settings, I used "cashmere," because it had the lowest temperature and lowest spin rate. I need to buy some clothespins, though. . . I have the drying rack in my room, but I suspect them would dry more quickly on the line outside my window. (This actually happened last Thursday, but whatever.)

Last night I went on a small adventure to. . . ahem. . . McDonald's. I rationalized it to myself by saying that I was celebrating July 4 a few days late. I was distracted by a large grocery store next door to the golden arches -- Carrefour's. I think I am starting to map my neighborhood in supermarkets. This one had chicken (yay!) and tuna canned in water (yay!) but still no vanilla yogurt (boo!). (Caprabo's, the small grocery store closest to me, basically just stocks ten different kinds of ham and tuna canned in three kinds of oil -- olivia (olive), girasol (sunflower), and unspecified.) (Nowhere yet have I found vanilla yogurt. A multitude of fruit flavors, yes. Plantain flavor, yes. Coconut flavor, yes. Vanilla? No. I bought plain yogurt "con azucar" (with sugar). It is mediocre but filling.)

I purchased a hamburger Happy Meal with fries and a minisundae (? that's a new one. I don't think they include dessert in the U.S.) It came with two toys (intentional? maybe not.) The minisundae was okay, except for the MASHED BANANAS at the bottom. FOUL. I think the full-on joy of McDonald's I experienced last summer was seriously mitigated by the fact that I have been cooking food very similar to what I would eat in the U.S. for the last week. The main difference is a ready supply of mini-croissants at the grocery store. . . and the ham problem.

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Two things I have not really addressed yet in my blog are a) work and b) language issues.

when there are so many things

that I could do, many of which would even be useful or pleasant -- such as a reading a book, studying Spanish, writing a real blog entry, working on a submission for Threadless, writing, researching various things, writing emails to various people -- all I ever end up doing is sitting on my bed. Or sleeping.

In other news, I visited the Prado today (after getting pretty lost and walking through a park* of 17th and 18th century portraits (except for the amusing one of two toddlers in tiny white wigs), but I did enjoy the dramatic 19th century "history" paintings. Also went through several galleries of Velazquez's work. I've obviously never visited another gallery in the home country of a famous European painter, so I don't know if it's normal for one museum to contain what surely must be the majority of a painter's works, or if that is unique to Spain/Madrid. I mean, I'm not sure any other painters are as closely identified with the national identities of any other countries as Velazquez (and Goya, and El Greco) is with Spain.

Also, something excellent about the Prado: It's open until 8 every day, and free from 6-8 every day. Yeah! 8 euros isn't a huge amount, but still.

Off to be a bum now.

* So whenever I say I walked through a park, my parents are generally convinced that I am nine-tenths of the way down the road to being murdered and dismembered, possibly for my Birkenstocks. I actually did have one (but ONLY ONE) creepy guy approach and speak to me in English (?!!), then when I pretended he wasn't there and kept walking, accused me of not speaking to black people (I think, I couldn't really understand his accent.) I kept ignoring him and walking so I could enjoy my park-ly experience (the rest of the park was lovely, thanks), but I was really pissed for at least ten minutes. I think you have to be a complete moron (or a crook) if you approach a woman you don't know who is walking by herself in a big city and then are surprised when she refuses to talk to you. Ugh.

cooking

Just cooked my first meal in Spain (up until now, I was surviving primarily on corn flakes). . .carrots, onions, and chicken, all liberally sprinkled with thyme and rosemary, with a side of buttered pasta. Nom.

Things I learned in the process of cooking:

In order to use the gas stove, I had to turn on the valve for the gas, then turn on the burner, then light the burner myself (no little convenient clicky thing is included in the burner). While there are several lighters in the kitchen, none of them seem to work, so I use a long rolled-up piece of paper instead. (There is a box on one side of the kitchen with a little opening through which you can see a little gas flame. . . I think it might be the water heater. . .)

Rosemary = Romero. Thyme = Tomillo.

Olive oil is (surprise!) cheaper in Spain (About $3 for a liter.) Veggies are normal-ish prices; meat is somewhat more expensive.

There doesn't seem to be a fire alarm in the kitchen, and I haven't found the switch for turning on the exhaust fan over the stove. I am mainly happy about this, as I had developed quite a grudge against the psycho alarm at Fenway.

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I have quite a bit I'd like to talk about later. So far, my main observation about Madrid is that compared to Tokyo, everything seems. . . a little looser, a little less . . . tense? (I can't really compare it to home. That comparison just doesn't go when I try to run it through my head.) My room is a little bigger, with higher ceilings and a very small balcony. The washer is free; there are clotheslines installed either outside the windows or on the balcony, in my case. The bathroom is bigger; there is a tub with a shower instead of a rectangular box. There are trees growing in more places. My office is a little bigger, with a few less people working in it (five total, including me, instead of ten total, including me). People seem to work normal-ish hours -- 9 to 6 with an hour for lunch (although the 30-minute smoke breaks don't seem to be such a big thing here.) My two Italian coworkers worked nine hours a day this week, but they didn't come in on Friday because they were going home to Sardinia for the weekend.

I don't know if these little things are actually indicative of a more relaxed attitude toward life, or if they are just indicators of Western culture that I missed while in Japan, and so I feel more relaxed when they are present.