Adventures in Spain…Otra Vez

So, my posts are going in a bit of a random order this week, due to the fact that a) I am lazy and it’s just taken me awhile to get up the ganas to write about Madrid and b) the snow and cold in Burgos was just so much more pressing to write about, but I am finally getting my act together! So here goes, the post about Madrid that should have happened last weekend when the trip itself actually happened!

I went to Madrid last weekend! This in and of itself is not particularly interesting, as I have been to Madrid many times over the past year and a half, both to visit friends and to catch airplanes, but this time had a purpose: we went to see Real Madrid play a soccer game (or football match, if you want anyone here to understand what you’re talking about). SO FUN. But I’ll get there.

I arrived on Friday afternoon, and met up with Abby and Marcos who had come from Logrono to spend the weekend and watch the game, as well. We found a yummy place for lunch and then spent the afternoon enjoying the sunny, relatively warm weather. We met up with my friend Chris, who lives in Madrid, for drinks on a patio on the top of a hotel on Gran Via, a main street in Madrid. Gorgeous, truly. We then ended up at TGIFriday’s for happy hour (we’re American, get over it) and some amazingly good and insanely cheap drinks. By that time, The Boy (who has now become The Boyfriend; but more on that later) called to say that he and his friends were in town, ready to pick me up and take me to where we were staying for the weekend. So I said goodbye to Abby and Marcos at the metro, grabbed my bag, and was off.

So, the other reason we had planned this Madrid trip was because The Boy had decided we should go see a Real Madrid soccer game, since he loves the team. I personally wanted to go because Iker Casillas, the team’s goalie, is my boyfriend.

Me and Casillas

(This photo was taken in a bar, with a poster on the wall, which makes me a huge nerd, I realize that, but it just shows you the depth of my devotion.)

Anyway, so The Boy’s friend lives just outside of Madrid with his wife, and we stayed with them for the weekend. So Friday night we went out to dinner in the suburb they live in and then spent the rest of the evening looking at photos from their honeymoon and other silliness that their friends get up to. They were so incredibly nice and friendly to me, and I felt really comfortable with them immediately. I love Spanish people.

Saturday, the day of the game, we went into Madrid around lunchtime and met up with Abby and Marcos again for lunch, and then again spent the afternoon wandering around Madrid in the sunshine (are you noticing a theme here? The Spanish loooove their paseo, or afternoon walk). The game didn’t start until 8pm, so we eventually bundled ourselves into a bar and had a drink while waiting for gametime. Once we actually arrived at the stadium, the three Americans were stunned: this stadium holds 80,000 people and is full on a regular basis. I know we have football stadiums in the States that are that big (I feel like if I didn’t mention that I knew this, my Wolverine brother would kill me), but this was just impressive. I don’t know that the following pictures do it justice, really.

Excited about the Game!

Estadio Santiago Bernabeu

Anyway, to sum up the game: it was kind of crappy, since Madrid has been sucking lately due to a lot of injuries to some of their best players, and they missed a lot of scoring opportunities, but we had a really great time just being part of the atmosphere. But Real Madrid ended up winning, which is always a good thing. Plus, I learned a lot of good swear words listening to all the disgruntled Madrid fans, haha.

After the game, we headed back to the center of Madrid and went out to a couple of bars for a little bit, and then everyone went off to their respective casas again. Sunday was pretty mellow, eating lunch at The Boy’s friends’ house and then heading back to Burgos for the night – lucky for me, he has a car AND Burgos was on his way home, so I didn’t have to take a bus back! Woohoo!

Now, to the promised “boyfriend” part of the post. I unfortunately do not have an interesting and cute story about how we became novios, but we kind of decided that that’s what we wanted to be, so I’ve spent the whole week trying to get used to the notion that I have a boyfriend. It’s still weird to say, and he pretty much is still “this guy that I met in Logrono and who I like” when I talk about him to people here, but I figure I’ll become more comfortable with it in time! I could honestly go on about how great he is, but I will spare everyone that ickiness – ask if you have questions, how about that?

So, as it turned out, the weekend was pretty great. AND it wasn’t snowing!!

After having lived in the frigidness that is Burgos in the wintertime for one week – okay, five days – I feel like I can talk about some lessons I’ve learned from living with snow. All you people who have lived in the snow before or who are less weak than I am can feel free to laugh at me, as you’ve likely known these things from birth, but indulge me, okay?

1. It is colder when it doesn’t snow than when it does. Now, as a good Atmospheric Sciences tutor, theoretically I know this to be true: when the skies are clear, it’s colder than when the skies are covered and (possibly) precipitating snow. However, I have just truly learned that this is true this past week. Today was cold, with snow and the temperature hovering around 0 degrees Celsius all day, but for some reason it didn’t seem as cold as the past few, very clear and sunny, days have felt. So I guess I grudgingly owe snow that bit of gratitude.

2. Slush sucks. Whoever invented slush or thought it would be cool to have snow kinda-sorta stick on the ground was just a huge jerk. I left my house this afternoon to go meet some friends for coffee, and by the time I finished my 7 minute walk to the cafe, my feet were wet and frozen because of the slushy crap on the ground. I would rather it was raining – I get rain, it’s wet, I know how to avoid puddles in the rain – or with a decent ground cover of snow than slushy. It’s deceptively wet and icky. And kind of snow, but really just not.

3. Snow is pretty when it falls. I am hugely retarded for having just written that sentence, I know, but I was walking back from the gym today in the gently falling snow, and I thought, “I get why people like this so much!” It was a serious moment of revelation (unfortunately followed a few short hours later by my slush adventure, please re-read point #2), and while all my body parts weren’t freezing themselves off at that moment, I was pretty sure snow was okay.

4. Windchill also sucks. Again, everything that I said about the suckiness of slush holds true for wind, as well. Burgos is infamous (apparently) for its wind, and it’s true – there are certain corners that I walk around every day that I know to expect strong winds at. But this is especially sucky when I read the weather report in the morning and it says, “40 degrees (YES! It’s warm outside today!), feels like 30 (GAH!)”. Wind should be banned from existence. Or at least people should come put up some turbines in Burgos to make it useful and energy efficient.

Alrighty, I think that’s all I need to quejarme (=complain) about this evening. I am warm in casa, and I have recently learned how my heating works (not a moment too soon!), so really things could be worse. I will TRY to get my post up about last weekend in Madrid – very exciting!! – sometime this weekend for all three of you who read my blog.

ADDENDUM!

I have found one more thing that seems to come with the wintery weather, learned today while walking home in a true snow-flurry, without an umbrella and rather cold:

5. People walk slower/are more annoying when it’s snowing. I love Spain and Spanish people in general, but aware of other people’s physical space they are not. Add to that the fact that every single person has an umbrella glued to their head which impedes their vision even more, and you have a population of people who are paying ZERO attention to you and other people walking in their space. No, perhaps NEGATIVE attention. The number of times I have been nearly stabbed in the eye by someone’s umbrella spike is insane. Also, when you have an umbrella, that means that you have to walk near the street and you cannot stroll under the overhang, because that’s where people without umbrellas (and therefore by definition want to get someplace quickly) have priority to walk. But I promise you people seem to stroll more when it’s yucky weather. With their umbrella spikes protuding. Ahhh, the danger!

So, last night I feel marked the official beginning of what everyone calls “el tiempo fresco” in Burgos. El tiempo fresco can literally be translated to “cool weather” in English, and that is how burgaleses describe the weather here. In fact, I went to give a private class today around 7pm, after a day in which the temperature hovered around 32 degrees Fahrenheit ALL DAY, and the first thing the father said to me when he opened the door was, “Hace fresco, no?” (It’s cool outside, isn’t it?) This is just how these people think. It is not cold here, it is merely chilly. Oh okay, no worries.

For all of you people who like cold weather and are enamored by the snow, I’ll give you this: it’s pretty. I recognize that. And when my roommate ran into my room last night to tell me to look out the window and see how it was snowing, the gently falling snowflakes and the way it slowly covered the tops of the cars below was enchanting. However, this morning at 9am when I got to leave my house to walk to school made the whole thing seem just a bit less fairy tale-like. There’s nothing like a bit of sleet to wake you up in the morning, right?

So basically all of today was spent wandering around town in the SNOW, wishing that I was at home. For the record, I looked up the temperature in Palo Alto today – a full 30 degrees warmer (in Fahrenheit) and raining. Why do people live in places like Burgos? Why do they so willingly subject themselves to this cold?? Okay, so that’s a bit overdramatic and I know I’m a huge Californian pansy, but still. This is going to take some getting used to.

I learned a really great joke the other day about Burgos and how people view the cold here. Let’s see if it’s at all funny when I translate it all into English:

People from Burgos say: Hace fresco hoy. (=It’s cool today.)
People in Spain say: Hace un frio que te jodas. (=It’s f*ing cold.)
People say in English: It’s freezing.

People from Burgos say: Hoy hace menos frio que ayer. (=Today is not as cold as yesterday.)
People in Spain say: Hace un frio que te jodas.
People say in English: It’s freezing.

And so on. I think the nuances might be a bit lost in translation, but you get the idea. No one ever really admits to how cold it is here, while everyone else recognizes that people in Burgos are just fooling themselves. Perhaps to try to forget the fact that THEY’RE FREEZING. Just a thought.

Anyway. It’s been snowing all day today, and I can only imagine that it will continue. The weather forecast just shows more and more cold days ahead, so if I wasn’t counting down the days until I go home before, I certainly am now.

Keep warm.

Okay, so I guess if I get myself to post once a week, that’s fairly legitimate, no? This past weekend I took the 2 and 1/2 hour train adventure to Salamanca, I think one of the prettiest cities I’ve been to in Spain. Salamanca has the oldest university in Spain (I believe), which is also one of the oldest universities in all of Europe, but more than that, it’s well known for its loads of studying-abroad-foreigners and its university party atmosphere, so it’s always a good time.

I met Jennis and Lucy on the train on Thursday night. They had gotten on in Logrono, and the train coincidentally went through Burgos on its way to Salamanca. We arrived late on Thursday evening, getting to our hostel (which was incredible! If you need hostel recommendations in Salamanca EVER, let me know!) around midnight and then going out for a quick drink. Remember what I just said about Salamanca being a crazy university town? Yeah, well, we probably found THE oldest bar in the city. Let’s just say we brought down the average age considerably by being there. But it was cute, with Velasquez’s Las Meninas painted all over the wall and good music, so we were happy.

Friday we got up and played the tourist for most of the daytime hours. Some of Lucy’s friends living in Cadiz this year, as well as Chris, Annalise and the crew from Madrid, were all in Salamanca for the weekend, so we had a good group of people to go out with the whole weekend. We went shopping on Friday morning, and then found a really good menu del dia for lunch before wandering into the cathedral and through the university buildings in the afternoon. The cathedral is really pretty, fairly similar to cathedrals throughout Spain, but the university buildings are just gorgeous! They are made of this light sandstone-looking stone which just makes them glow in the afternoon sunlight. Which they did alllll weekend because it was just sunny and gorgeous (and not too cold!!) the entire time. We really lucked out on the weather, for sure!

Catedral de Salamanca

Plaza Mayor

Friday evening found us enjoying the nightlife that Salamanca had to offer, going from bar to bar and just generally soaking up the atmosphere. There really were a lot of people out, partially due I’m sure to the relative warm weather and also because university students are always up for a party, no matter what.

Saturday started our fairly foggy, but by mid-afternoon, the day was gorgeous and even quite warm in the sun. Lucy, her two friends from Cadiz and I went out to lunch together in an old convent/school/I’m not entirely sure what it was but it was pretty, and we had a great, and very typical, Spanish lunch. Not only was it a menu, which meant that it was a lot of food, but we lingered over lunch for a good couple of hours, enjoying our bottle of wine and chatting about everything that came to mind. Little side note: I love this so much about being here, that we’re constantly meeting new people and having fun experiences with them in a very random way. I feel like back at home I just don’t have the opportunity to meet so many new people, or perhaps I don’t make the effort to meet so many new people because I already have an established group of friends, but here, even the most random and convoluted connection between people makes them your new best friend to go travelling to visit. And that’s definitely how I felt about Jane and Rosie – super fun and easy to be with, which made for a great weekend, and an especially fun lunch.

It turns out that you can climb to the roof of the cathedral, something that really got Lucy excited, so we all climbed up to the roof. What a gorgeous idea! Not only was the light perfect, being late afternoon with long shadows being cast everywhere, but it was sunny and gave some spectacular views of the city. We were able to walk along the edge of the roof as well as along a balcony inside the cathedral with great views of the entire inner cathedral.

Gorgeous Light on the Cathedral Roof

Me and Jennis on the Roof

Saturday night, Jennis, Lucy and I went out to Calle Van Dyck, recommended to me by one of my teachers in Burgos for its great tapas. We had some really juicy pinchos morunos, a kebab of pork with yummy seasoning, and other various pork and potato products as we went tapeando. Then it was back to the center to the Plaza Mayor to meet up with our friends for another night of dancing and exploring Salamanca. We got back fairly late, and I was up early to catch a 10:30am train back to Burgos to end the weekend. It’s lovely in Burgos today, though, sunny and windy but not cold, something I am coming to increasingly appreciate these days! So, a lovely weekend all around, and now I have Madrid and a Real Madrid soccer game to look forward this coming weekend with friends from Logrono and The Boy!

Woohoo! Life is pretty good.

Basically I am posting this evening just to post, because I feel like I have been totally incommunicado for two whole weeks. And either my life is more boring this year than last year and I no longer have interesting stories to tell, or I feel like I’m doing many things all over again so that I don’t have to tell you about them as frequently. I’m not sure which one it is, but either way it makes me feel like a slacker blogger. I clearly need to learn how to make the more-frequent-less-wordy posts a reality. Therefore, what you guys get is just my general thoughts on life at the moment. Ready?

Let’s talk about work. I love it. It’s a totally different experience from last year, because whereas last year I was working in English classrooms (teaching the actual English language to students), this year I’m teaching other subjects just IN English in the bilingual program at my instituto. As one of the bilingual teachers pointed out last week, “It must be boring and hard to work in English classrooms, because you have nothing to talk about in English!” I hadn’t thought about that before, but it’s a good point. Sometimes I struggled last year (and continue to struggle in my private classes) because I couldn’t come up with an activity that would really energize the students to talk. I’m sure this partially due to the fact that they’re teenagers and have their own agendas, but it’s also because of what this teacher told me, that there are just so many fun ways to use the present continuous tense. So while I sometimes feel less used in the classrooms this year and am there largely to read, correct pronunciation and answer vocabulary questions, the students mostly seem much more motivated and talk more. That could just be these kids, too. Who knows?

The students themselves are largely encantadores (charming), and they continue to say hilarious things and drive us all slightly crazy. We were in a class of primeros last week (they’re roughly 7th graders), and they were just all over the place, talking and asking the most ridiculous questions, until finally the teacher turned to me half laughing, half desperate, and said, “Yo me quiero morir!” (“I want to die”). I enjoyed that very much, and it’s pretty much how things go sometimes. There are the good days and then the crazy ones.

Life in Burgos is pretty sweet, as well, aside from the increasingly cold weather. Today, for example, we had the most gorgeous fall day: mid-50s, overcast with threatening rain clouds (but no rain), and beautiful fall colors on all the trees. It was the perfect day for a walk along the river, enjoying the fact that we could be outside without getting frostbite. I have made it a goal of mine to go out and walk more, since there are beautiful neighborhoods right near me and it’s a good way to pass a lazy weekend afternoon, but we’ll see how that holds up as the weather really DOES get colder.

I had a friend, Abby, visiting from Logrono this weekend, and as we strolled along the river and chatted, we came to the realization that despite the fact that we’re living in a foreign country, both of us feel completely at home here. Sure, the customs are a bit different, speaking in Spanish sometimes feels a bit like “lost in translation,” and we’re thousands of miles away from family and friends, but we get it here. The afternoon coffee date with a friend has become habitual, and despite my inability to walk slowly, I’ve even been persuaded to pasear in the afternoons with the rest of the city on occasion. I love that many people want to have conversations with me about America just because they notice that my accent is different and that I have friends from all over the place. There’s so much I’m experiencing here that I couldn’t experience at home, and that makes this all so cool.

Those are my thoughts from the past week. Have a great week.