Country Love

El Templo de Debod at sunset

I have met people that came to Madrid, and loved it so much they never left. They say that Madrid has that effect. You fall in love with the city and never go home. Well, I loved Madrid. I certainly intend to visit again. But I could never stay here forever. I love where I come from too too much. I have had such a wonderful experience, I have learned so much and met amazing people. There are two things in particular that I see have changed in me since I arrived. The first is that I now know wheresoever in the world I go, I will always be able to find wonderful friends and have plenty of adventures. The other is a new feeling of pride in where I come from. I don't know that before I came being American really meant that much to me. If everyone around is American you forget what it means and why it is so special. I love telling people in Spain that "Soy Americana". I live in the best country on earth and I am so excited to come home!

Hacer la Maleta

I am packing. It is not going well. I did not leave myself enough room. Also, there is so much I did not use. In all fairness how was I to know running shoes only have utility in scorching Madrid if you wake up before 6am? I used them one time, needless to say I only made the mistake of waking up that early once. And then there is the hair dryer, what was I thinking?! I have curly hair that I let air dry 6 out of 7 days in Seattle and it is 30 degrees hotter here; I never used it. But then there were other things I almost did not pack and used almost everyday. Like my Rainbow flip flops, best travel shoe ever. Alex was a sweetheart and offered to help me pack. Which I guess means play dress up. Here he is in my sun hat with my handbag and passport.

"A traveller has a right to relate and embellish his adventures as he pleases, and it is very impolite to refuse that deference and applause they deserve."

-Rudolph Erich Raspe

I wish I had known this before I started writing my blog, it would have been a lot more interesting.

Sangria

 

Ingredients:

2 oranges; one sliced; one juiced
2 lemons; one sliced; one juiced
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup Triple Sec
1 bottle of wine
Ice

Directions:

Combine ingredients, mash with wooden spoon, chill and add ice.

 

El Papa

 Friday night in front of the Town Council building

The Pope came to Madrid last week for World Youth Day (JMJ). The word in Spanish for "Pope" is "Papa", which I still do not understand because it means "potato". About 1 million extra people have been flooding the streets. They are from all over the world and they parade around with giant country flags, matching backpacks and neon explorer hats. The metro has been unbearably crowded, stinky and sweaty all week. They had to organize with the city to sleep in parks and school playgrounds because there are simply not enough accommodations for all of them within the city. I liked them and thought they were all very nice until they started chanting and having spirit wars in the metro. Some of them tried to stop me and ask for directions in Spanish because the impatience on my face indicated I was local. Despite the inconvenience of crowds, the one thing I did love about the coming of the Pope was that there were nuns all over the city, and there is nothing in the world sweeter than a nun.

What I am excited for

I am leaving Spain soon and here is what I am excited for at home:


-Rubber Spatulas. They have not really hit it big here yet. I typically flip my eggs with a knife and a spoon and enjoy my breakfast peppered with flakes of Teflon.

-Shaking hands. The first person I am introduced to in the United States is going to get the best hand shake of their life. Double kissing cheeks with strangers is cute the first couple times, but do you really know where their cheeks have been?

-Sitting in a restaurant and automatically being brought a giant glass of ice water. Because no one ever orders it otherwise, I mean honestly, it is 97 degrees, does nobody else need water right now?

-American outlets. Really I have no problem with the European outlets themselves, I personally find them very aesthetically pleasing, however the adapters I have to use are evil. I am always getting shocked by them. And once I was fully electrocuted. I could have sworn I was knocked clear across the room. The benefit of that was that the headache I had at the time was mysteriously cured.

-Hamburgers, steak, and anything else that requires a grill

-My Sonicare toothbrush. Why I decided not to bring it is beyond me.


...and things I will miss:

-The beautiful streets and buildings

-The Madrid metro

-Immaculately dressed Spanish children wearing toddler sized tasseled loafers out to dinner

-The snowflake setting on my aire acondicionado

-Tinto de verano, the most delicious drink in the world

-The calamari

-European escalator efficiency

Espuma

In Mortil as part of a yearly festival there was a kiddy foam party in a central plaza at 11am. This is just the aftermath when they were hosing everything down. All of the kids I saw leaving with their parents were soaking wet and crying. This is because most of them had lost their parents and their chanclas (flip-flops) in the 4+ foot foam at one point or another. I guess they start them early in Spain.

Paella

At first I was unimpressed by Spanish paella. It seemed like an aquarium dumped into orange rice. But I have become rather fond of it over the past months. In Madrid you can even order it to-go. For lunch one day there was a pizza box on the counter, I opened it to find a metal pan filled with rice and tentacles. They let you keep the pan and everything! Sadly I never learned to make it, I could always look for a restaurant that served it in the US but I doubt it would compare to Abuela Carmen's recipe.

Musica

Alex loves music. His parents make him mix CDs for the car. He sits in his car seat and snaps his fingers as he attempt to sing along. His favorite artists include Shakira, Beyoncé, and Katy Perry. Sasha's Spanish kids also loved to sing along but struggled to understand English lyrics. They simply did their best to fill in the gaps. For example, in Kesha's Tick Tock the line really says "I'm talking pedicure on our toes, toes" but the little girl would sing "lettuce in my toes toes". And for Michael Jackson's Thriller, the little boy would replace one of the lines after "Thriller night.." with "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas"

Alejandro's favorite playlist:

Waka Waka --Shakira 
Meet Me Halfway-- Black Eyed Peas
Viva La Vida-- Coldplay
Unidentifiable Spanish Song No. 1
When Love Takes Over-- Kelly Rowland
Eres Tú --Mocedades
Broken Strings--James Morrison
Hot N Cold-- Katy Perry
Higher--Taio Cruz
Happy--Leona Lewis
Russian Roulette -Rihanna 
Rain--Mika 
Unidentifiable Spanish Song No. 2 
Human--Killers
Halo--Beyoncé
The Man Who Can't Be Moved--The Script  
Desde Cuando [Letra] -- Alejandro Sanz
Alejandro-- Lady Gaga

Survivor

One evening in Motril the wind was so strong on the beach we had to put the sun umbrellas sideways as shelter and use the towels for warmth. Sometimes I watch reruns of Spanish Survivor or the reunion special (spoiler: Rosa wins) but I never thought I would really get to live it, how exciting! Before we went home at 11pm we swam in the sea. (side note: this is not a common Spanish thing, staying late into the night on the beach. We were the only ones for miles, or kilometers I guess.) Swimming at night is magical, I have not done it since I was little. It was definitely a favorite experience in Spain.

Taste of America

There is an American store in Madrid that sells primarily Duncan Hines and Betty Crocker products. They also sell muffin tins, measuring cups and cereal. That sounds silly, but America really is far superior in baking delicious treats.

I bought marshmallows and pumpkin pie filling. Both are virtually impossible to find elsewhere. And Sasha bought marshmallow fluff and Skippy peanut butter. She was devastated to find that the Fluffernutter recipe was no longer on the back of the jar. She has a great memory, so she has nothing to worry about:

1.) Take one slice of bread, spread with marshmallow fluff

2.) Take another slice of bread, spread with peanut butter (smooth or chunky)

3.) Put slices together, and enjoy your Fluffernutter!!!!

I stumble through life

I just recently learned that blogspot has a statistics feature that shows how many page views your blog has and from what countries. I got one page view from South Korea. Now I am very motivated to see how many countries I can get on my map in the next three weeks. If you click the "stumble-it" at the right of the page hopefully it will show up on StumbleUpon.

I first heard about StumbleUpon when a guy asked me if I stumbled, and said "sure, all the time, sometimes I feel like I just stumble through life.." I went on like this until the confused look on his face indicated that we may not be talking about the same thing. Not my proudest moment.

"Vegetables are interesting but lack a sense of purpose when unaccompanied by a good cut of meat."

-Fran Lebowitz

It's a tent OKAY!

Beth and I went to Toledo last week. We were convinced it would be a lot of fun to camp. We did very minimal research and found a camp site with electricity, showers and a swimming pool. Once we arrived at the train station in Toledo we realized just how far away the campsite was. We adjusted our plan and hiked with our bags and tent up to the town center and found a hostel. It was lucky there was no wind that day or the tent would have caught some air and blown us away. It looked like part if a turtle costume and drew a lot of attention. The hostel was great, the staff was amazingly nice and it was very comfortable aside from the 100% acrylic sheets that I worried may melt to my skin during the hot night. I also received a mosquito bite on my forearm that later swelled to the size of a silver dollar pancake. Toledo was very charming and we got a great panoramic view from the top of the library. We returned to Madrid the next day. At the train station we gave directions to two guys from New York, after a five minute conversation one asked me if we were from England. Well, Beth is Scottish, so maybe that just threw them off. I still don't see how my accent could really be mistaken for English. I need to come home, I am losing my roots.