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Published: September 5th 2010
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We are finally in Madrid! After having traveled non-stop for two weeks, in and out of hotels, with long bus rides, and constant late nights followed by early mornings, it was really nice to be able to settle down and move into a more permanent place that we can call our home away from home for the next three months. As I write this, I have actually been here in Madrid for two weeks. But I will spend the next couple posts explaining to you where I live, the family, the school, and my day to day routine more or less because I know this is of interest to some (mostly that would be my mom who is a very visual person and likes to picture where I am and what I am doing... but in case anyone else is interested too, I guess I might as well share for all).
So, I suppose I will use this post to share my general first impressions of Madrid and the neighborhood where I live. Madrid is an incredibly modern city filled with people who simply love to live life. When we arrived, the city was very much empty as the entire country of Spain takes off August to travel and vacation. In Madrid, every other store, cafe, bar, and office building had a sign on it that said closed from August 1 to September 1. I was really amazing to me that an entire city can just kind of shut down, but the people here find it important to be able to have that time off (as does most of Europe). They definitely work to live rather than live to work. I can go on about that more maybe in another post. Anyways, once September 1 hit, it was back to work as usual and the city swelled with people compared to when we first arrived.
It is always sunny here. There has been only one day of clouds and it ended up raining a little bit, but other than that, everyday has been sun and in the 90's. Thankfully, it is a dry heat and the humidity is very low because I already am sweating enough as it is. Sleeping was rather hard the first few days as air conditioning in the home is something that most of Europe does not value like people in the states do (I say that even though my family does not have air conditioning...). But this is mostly because electricity is ridiculously expensive here and air conditioning is out of the question because it cost to much (therefore fans are also not used because of the constant electricity used). Luckily most stores, and some restaurants and also the metro have air conditioning or I don't know what I would do. The heat reminds me of Lancaster without the wind. But enough about the heat...
Another thing I noticed immediately, which is again representative of most of Europe, is how much everyone smokes. I feel like Madrid would give Russia, known for its chain smokers, a run for its money. Everyone and their mother has a cigarette in the mouth at all times and everywhere. Smoking is allowed in most buildings, bars, cafes, as well as the metro stations and you can get them anywhere out of vending machines. Smoking generally does not bother me, but we have had to leave a few bars because the smoke was unbearable and our eyes were burning. Supposedly there are laws up for vote that will limit the smoking indoors, but I see the chances of getting that passed like the chances of getting politicians to end pork spending in the U.S.
One thing I love about the city is how easy it is to get everywhere. I tend to walk most places, as do lots of Madrileños. But the metro will have you anywhere within 10 or 15 minutes as well. Nothing is that far to get to and everywhere you go offers something new. I am really building up the calf muscles walking around and exploring the city.
I live in Barrio de Salamanca. This is considered one of the nicest and most expensive neighborhoods in Madrid. I will share more about the apartment in another post, but we are in a great location! We are very close to the main metro line (green line number 5) which takes us to most all the main stops in the city and is only one stop from our school. The school is only a 15 minute walk away (maybe a mile) and are within a 10 minute walk to their version of central park: Parque Retiro. Just a couple streets away are two main streets that have lots of great restaurants, bars, and shops on them. The neighborhood is very safe (Madrid has very low violent crime, but very high petty crime i.e. pick pockets) and kind of feels like I am walking around a country club on the streets with very well dressed people always looking their best. I stick out like a sore thumb with my plain and non stylish wardrobe, but I try to pull it off with confidence.
I have been really bad about taking many pictures yet, so instead for this post, I have a link to a map of where I live with the walking directions to the building where my school is. At this link you can zoom into the street view to see my street, Nueñez de Balboa, (I live to the left of Simply City in building 61). You can follow the directions and see my metro stop, Nueñez de Balboa at the first left, and the metro stop I get off for school, Ruben Dario. My school is on Miguel Angel, and is the pinkish building right across from the police station. If you go back to my street and go directly south, you will also find the Retiro Park, where I like generally go running everyday. Anyways, this has been a long post, but look for some in the near future that describe my apartment, family and school with pictures!
Here's the link to the map:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Calle+de+N%C3%BA%C3%B1ez+de+Balboa,+61,+28001+Madrid,+Spain&daddr=Calle+de+Miguel+%C3%81ngel,+10,+28010+Madrid,+Spain&geocode=FdfjaAId187H_ylf10z_vShCDTGjP39dJ9o7Fg%3BFaj6aAId3azH_ylxRN8-7ShCDTFSFx3jqvZkEw&hl=en&mra=ltm&dirflg=w&sll=40.431008,-3.6869&sspn=0.007922,0.018625&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=40.432151,-3.685312&spn=0.007693,0.017788&z=16
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