Advertisement
Published: March 7th 2006
So here I am, coming to you direct from lovely Madrid, Spain. After an excutiating 30+ hour trip Í arrived in Barajas airport. I´ve never had someone standing for me at the airport entrance with a sign before, but suffice to say it wasn´t as glamorous as I´d envisioned.
Its hot as hell here, which I confirmed immediatley upon stepping outside of the airport. Just the walk from the terminal to the car was enough to have me sweating like crazy. Either the natives don´t get hot or they enjoy torturing foreigners, because it seems they dont believe in AC here at all. You´d think everyone would smell more, but really its not so bad (except on the Metro which has a constant BO / Urinal smell.)
My homestay is nice, that is to say not unbearable. When I got there only my roomate was home. Armando, as most people call him, I´m assuming its his name, is from FAU as well and also happens to be Spanish. I´m not sure when he´s going to get sick of me asking him, ´Como se dice, gringo, en español´but he´s been good about it so far. He only arrived a little earlier in the day than I did, so he was pretty much wiped too. It turns out we have another roomate as well, Tom, whos from Chicago. Hes a very cool guy, very intelligent and has a good understanding of spanish. So basically I feel like el gringo primero around the house. We chatted for a bit and then Señora Aguado came home, which was a whole other adventure for me.
Señora Aguado is very nice, however she talks at a speed I didn´t think could be achieved by humans or hummingbirds alike. Honestly my head smokes when she starts asking me questions. She doesn´t go right to the simple stuff either, no Como se llama or Que Pasa or whatever.... no shes running verbal marathons through my head. The bad part is during dinner, which is around 9pm each night, she sits and talks to us, meaning I have to be on constant guard, waiting for the inevitable moment when the conversation comes back to me. Suffice to say I´m like a deer in headlights when that happens. But its getting better each day, so by the time I leave I should know how to communicate with small children and the mentally handicapped.
Dinner was really good the first night, but Tom assured us it was a front. He has been there for 2 weeks already, and so is the senior authority on matters of the Aguado homestay. Portions, he says, are fairly small and the food has a broad range in terms of quality. This was confirmed last night with the service of a small helping of chef-boyardiesque tortelini and ketchup topping. We do get an apple each night too, which is usually slightly past its prime, but tasty nonetheless.
But dinner is not the best part of the day, no, not by a longshot. Sleeping is something that humans need, correct? You wouldn´t find any scientific proof of that here. For one, my bed, which could only be called that by one with the type of sadistic humor they seem to cherish here, is slightly above an Iron Maiden in terms of comfort. The papery thin pillow is matched only by the human sized half-foot sag in the middle of the the mattress. Its not unlike what you would expect from a bunk in an army barrack, if that army was the Iraqi army present day. Sound of all manner emminate from the open window, which faces only an enclosed cyllender of other apartments. Its...intimate... to say the least. You can literally hear the mice fart in surrounding apartments. If you like telemundo though, you can hear free broadcasts late, late....late into the night. Oh, its also hot, did I mention that? Theres no AC and the room has all the breeze of a fat old man breathing on you. So theres that.
BUT... I don´t want to paint the wrong picture here. I´m having a great time so far, all the conditions of the house notwithstanding. In fact, many people have it much worse with there homestays, and ours is very central and close to the school, so theres certainly tradeoffs to be had. A couple of girls in the program like over an hour away and have to spend about 6 euros a day on travel, so I consider myself quite fortunate.
Yesterday I walked around a lot with 2 people I met at the school. We went to Retiro Park and La Puerta del Sol and saw a lot of very pretty stuff. Last night a bunch of us got together and searched for an open bar, which was harder than you´d think. We must´ve walked for miles, and stopped at countless places before we found one that would service our needs. Eventually we found a pool hall/bar that was really nice, and the guys there were very chill, to the point of giving us free shots and stuff. The long walk home was sobering and tiring, which was a real plus. Armando and I both actually slept last night, which was a first. I see now why drinking is so important to the culture. :-)
I think this weekend we are going to go to Pamplona to see the Running of the Bulls. I don´t think I´ll participate, as I tend not to like being gored. I´m told it takes a certain skill to avoid death by bovine, which seeing as I´m struggling to learn spanish, I don´t think I can learn also. Anyway its a cool city and drinking is involved so it should be tons of fun.
I´ll try to keep these shorter in the future, so kudos to you for reading all of this. Until then, hasta luego.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.158s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 9; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0943s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Gary
non-member comment
phew what a read!
just kidding by the way, that was fun to read because god only knows im never leaving the country unless i cross over the border of mexico by accident. it sounds exactly like i would have expected....uncomfortable, but exilerating to be somewhere new, not knowing whats going to come next. have you seen any huge spanish roaches yet? dontbring any back here, i want nothing to do with those bastards. anyway, take care of yourself, i look forward to the next one. gary