Berlin

miércoles el 8 de febrero

            After dinner today I had a yummy dessert called cuajadas. It tastes somewhere between yogurt and cream, and has a more firm, almost jello-like consistency. I ate it with honey and it was delicious.  We also had a Women in Art midterm today, which I figured I’d let you know about in case you forgot that I’m taking classes here, too J

jueves el 9 de febrero

            Tomorrow I’m going to Berlin! It’s going to be really cold there, so today I took advantage of the sales and my fantastic location in the middle of excellent shopping to find a warm, puffy jacket to wear beneath my bigger pea coat. I tracked one down that I love, and it will be perfect to wear by itself here in Madrid and on cold days (haha) back at Stanford.

viernes el 10 de febrero

            Berlin weekend! I began my day with yet another adventure in Madrid public transportation. At 4:10am I woke up, threw on my clothes and began walking down Gran Vía to Plaza de Cibeles, a major center of transportation in Madrid, and home to the city hall which is beautiful all lit up at night. A shuttle to the airport operates from here twenty-four hours a day, which was great because the metro (the other public transportation way to get to the airport) is closed 2am-6am. I arrived to the bus stop a few minutes late and missed my bus (c’mon Spanish culture of lateness…why are you failing me now? Side note: in my experience public transportation in Spain is quite timely…although buses going farther like the one to Salamanca leave ten minutes or so later than the listed departure time). So, I took a taxi instead.

I arrived at Madrid Barajas with time to spare, which was good because I went to the wrong terminal and had to take a bus to the correct one, but not good because my flight to Brussels was delayed. So delayed that I would miss my scheduled flight to Berlin. But, the attendant was very nice and helpful and put me on a flight from Brussels to Berlin a few hours later and upgraded me, so I got a free lunch on the flight (and they said it couldn’t be done). For some reason, but of these flights were only half-full, so on both flights I had my own row…which has not happened in a long time. I slept the whole two and a half hours from Madrid to Brussels!  

The Brussels airport was very cool and modern with lots of shopping and some restaurants/cafes in my terminal. Not surprisingly, there were also a bunch of chocolate shops full of Belgian chocolate. Also, Starbucks was crazy expensive there…5 euro for a small chai latte! Luckily Mercedes had packed me a bocadillo (they say bocadillo, but really it’s two bocadillos, a few pieces of fruit, a yogurt and a juice box). People in the airport were jealous.

             I arrived at Berlin Tegel at 1:30pm, a few hours later than I had planned, but rested and well-fed. Catching bus into the city was easy, although buying my bus ticket on the machine with my hands quickly freezing (touch screen so I couldn’t wear my gloves) added an extra challenge. I rode for about fifteen minutes to Stuttgarter Platz, where Hostel Berolina Charlottenburg aka Berolina Backpacker was conveniently located right next to Jasmine’s host family’s house. I had two roomies, one German woman who was pretty much living in the hostel while looking for work in Berlin and one Serbian who I did not see the entire time I was there because I think we had opposite schedules. It was quite bare but clean and heated, and after some fighting with the shower I eventually figured out how to have constant, hot water, which was clutch.

I met up with Jasmine after settling in, and we took the S-Bahn (the above ground metro, as opposed to the U-Bahn, the underground metro) to the modern center of Berlin: Potsdamer Platz. Before 1990, the wall ran right through the middle of the plaza, so they have several pieces of the wall left in commemoration, and a line in stone going through the plaza where the wall used to be (now I’m in the East…now I’m in the West!). This also meant that most of the construction in the plaza is very recent, and it is awesome and modern looking. Even the construction sites (bright pink tubes instead of unadorned scaffolding) looks like modern art. Jasmine is taking the film class in the Stanford in Berlin program, and this weekend was Berlinale (a huge film festival in Berlin somewhat like the Sundance Film Festival in the US), so she had several films to go see this weekend. The one this evening was fairly short, so she dropped me off at Balzac (tehe) Coffee right in Potsdamer Platz and near to her theater. I had a masala chai and schnecken (German cinnamon roll) and both were delicious. The coffee shop was a super interesting place to be, especially in the middle of Berlinale since the festival takes place in theaters throughout the city, but several of them are very close. I was eavesdropping on the people next to me, who were in the TV series production business in Sweden and Denmark and were discussing story ideas for a new show. The shop itself was like Starbucks (they had tall, grande and venti as sizes; which by the way is really confusing in Spain: do you mean grande or grande?) but infinitely more hipster. Berlin in general is pretty hipster—lots of cool underground places and the style was described as “hobo chic,” which was a bit of a shock for me coming from Madrid, where people give you dirty looks for wearing athletic clothes on the street. Berlin is also the most liberal city in Germany, and I definitely noted the energy and culture there that this would suggest. Most people in the shop were speaking in German or English (basically everyone in German speaks very good English), and people (this happened throughout the weekend) kept trying to talk to me in German, so I guess I was blending in! Now I just need to learn German and go back.

Once Jasmine came out of the film, we toured Potsdamer Platz a little more, taking pictures with the pieces of the wall and checking out the huge fancy stoplight commemorating the first stoplight in Europe (which was neither huge nor fancy) at that spot. I also saw the first example for a common theme in Berlin: the comination of new and old in architecture. There was an old Prussian palace on the border of the plaza, and they built a glass building around it, so now it looks almost like a Baroque house in a modern box with glass panels connected with stainless steel.

From Potsdamer Platz, we went to Brandenburger Tor, a former city gate in classical Greek style. It was beautiful all lit up at night! There is a famous statue on top that Napoleon had plans to steal and take back to France, but he didn’t manage it. It was surrounded by a big open plaza, which was quite nice, and I couldn’t help thinking how nice it would be in the summer when it wasn’t too cold to be outside for more than half an hour! There was snow on the ground the whole time we were there, and there was a low of 5°F and a high of 25°F. It snowed both nights I was there, not enough to be annoying, but definitely enough to make me very excited and make Berlin feel magical. The Holocaust Memorial is very close to the Tor, so we walked there. It is very simplistic and stark: large, rectangular grey concrete blocks of different heights are spaced in an even grid over 4.7 acres. They vary in height, but from the outside the lowest looks about ankle height and the tallest about mid-thigh. But once you enter and start walking through, the ground slopes down and up like hills, so at times the blocks tower feet above your head—all of the sudden you’re completely enveloped. It was impactful, and quite striking at night and dusted with snow.

For dinner, we met another friend from the Stanford in Berlin program at an Italian restaurant for dinner. Before I continue, I should share something very interesting and surprising (especially in comparison to Madrid) about Berlin. It is very difficult to find restaurants with traditional German food. Pastry stores and pretzels are easy to find, but when I told Jasmine I’d like to have traditional German food for one of the meals (since it was my first time visiting Germany) she had to ask several people and look online to find a spot. There were only about five, and when she asked her host mom for a recommendation, her host mom was very confused and said Berliners find it funny to eat traditional German food in Berlin. This is basically the opposite of Madrid, where every restaurant and café you pass has traditional Spanish food, and you need to put in an effort to find something else. That said, there are tons of immigrants in Berlin, especially from Turkey and Vietnam, but really from all over Europe and Asia. The Italian food was delicious (spices, yes!) and they had a Spanish wine on the menu, which made me 1-laugh and 2-feel very proud for recognizing it as a Spanish wine just from the name. Also we ate dinner around 8, which is the earliest I’ve had dinner in a month and a half.

After dinner, we went to Catherine’s place for some German beer (while traditional German food might be difficult to find in Berlin, German beer most definitely is not) and ice cream (of all foods). The Stanford in Berlin program is pretty different than the Stanford in Madrid program. In Madrid, the focus is the Spanish language (hence the Spanish-only pledge) and culture (hence living with a Spanish family, eating almost every meal with them and generally being integrated in your family’s life). In Berlin, there is no language requirement (I think about half of the people came with no German at all and are currently in an intensive German class) and the students live in home stays, but don’t eat with the family. Instead, they get a stipend from the program to buy food and cook on their own (they can use their family’s kitchen, and on the weekdays, the kitchen in their “institute”, which is a villa for just the Stanford program, is open for everyone in the program to use). One consequence of this set up was that the students in the Berlin program have bonded more than the Madrid program, but the home stays felt more like rooms rented in someone’s house than like you were actually living with the family.

Tonight, we went to a bar called Madame Claude. It was nicknamed “Upside down Bar” because there was s fully furnished living room attached to the ceiling. Also, behind the bar was an “upside-down” 50s looking kitchen, complete with upside down TV playing black and white TV shows. Berlin is full of quirky, underground places like this, and I think bars there are more spread out than in Madrid, so finding each one is like a quest instead of a stroll (although the cold definitely took away most of the romanticism of said quests). Also, to go out in Berlin (at least in the winter), you don’t dress up. I realized how much I dress up in Madrid compared to California, and Berlin is a step in the other direction. Sweaters, jeans, boots, and no makeup are all acceptable at bars and even clubs. There is still definitely style, it’s just very different than Madrid. In fact, the most Berlin-y and exclusive clubs definitely won’t let you in if you’re dressed like you would dress to go out in Madrid.

sábado el 11 de febrero

            For lunch we had a Berlin classic: currywurst. This is literally a cut up hot dog with topped with warm ketchup mixed with curry and a side of fries. It sounds crazy, I know. After my first bite, it honestly tasted exactly like what it is, but much better than you would expect. Again, if you’re in Berlin, eat it! We went to Curry 36, one of the most famous places to eat currywurst in Berlin. It is a street food (there is a huge street food culture in Berlin, which is great because there is almost no street food in Madrid except for people cooking chestnuts and grilling corn on grills on the sidewalk, but I’ve never seen people eating these while on the street, and people look at you funny even if you’re carrying around a to-go coffee cup), so we ordered at a window, got our food right away and ate standing at high tables under little heaters on the sidewalk. Much to my surprise, Berlin is one of the most affordable cities to live in, and food in Berlin was way cheaper than it is in Madrid—and not just because there aren’t street food places in Madrid, the restaurants were generally less expensive as well.

            Today Jasmine and I experienced a glimpse into heaven at the Ritter Sport chocolate store. You can make your own chocolate bar here, by choosing from dark or milk and then picking three ingredients from huge list of add-ins. I made a dark chocolate, chili, rice puff and hazlenut bar…and it was amazing. If you ever go to Berlin and you like chocolate (or have a soul…) this store is a must! Also, I have to give them kudos for a brilliant piece of marketing. You make the chocolate bar and then wait thirty minutes for the chocolate to harden. What do you do with the extra thirty minutes? Shop in the store, of course! There was also café and a cute little exhibit on the making of chocolate and basic Ritter history upstairs.

            After recovering from a slight chocolate coma in the warmth of the Ritter Sport store, we braved the cold (although it was clear any sunny, which was nice but deceptive because it was still very cold) to check out the East Side Gallery. A 1.3km-long section of the wall near the center of Berlin (and along the river) is covered in over 100 paintings by artists from all over the world. It is officially a memorial to freedom, and all the paintings have interesting political charge that extends beyond Cold War Berlin. We walked the whole thing, took lots of pictures and enjoyed ourselves quite a bit. However, by the end out feet were passing from stinging with cold at each step to becoming completely numb. So, we booked it (maybe not the reality considering our pediatric agility at the time, but in my head that’s how it went down) to the nearest café. Now, this is not Madrid so there are not cafes on every street corner, and this section of the wall is in a more industrial area of Berlin, so the first café we saw happened to be McCafe in the giant U/S-Bahn station. There is a McCafe right across the street from my house in Madrid, but I’ve never been there because it’s the center of Madrid and there are better places to go. So, this was my first experience in a McCafe and I have to say, I was impressed. Now, my expectations weren’t very high and the mere fact that they had great heating may have won half the battle. In fact, we had to hold hands for balance going up the stairs because our feet were so cold we couldn’t feel them. But I had a chai latte (which are difficult to find in Madrid except for at Starbucks, so its good to know another place that has them) and Jasmine had hot chocolate, and they were both really good.

            Having given up on the prospect of finding a traditional (or even nontraditional) German restaurant, I decided to go with Jasmine to a Vietnamese restaurant and had pho. I’m used to eating pho in 60-75F, and in the cold in Berlin it was so satisfying.

            Jasmine had another movie to see, so I met up with Annie in her house for a little bit, and met her host Mom who spoke perfect English and a little bit of Spanish! We met up with some other people from the program and went out for a second dinner (I would say drinks and tapas…but it was really more a second dinner) at a Greek restaurant. The food was delicious, and someone in our group spoke Greek, so they brought us a few rounds of ouzo. There are no open container laws in Berlin, and the public transportation stations are really nice and full of little stores, cafes and bakeries where you can buy drinks and snacks and then eat/drink in the U- or S- Bahn on your way to your destination. Berlin nightlife is more spread out than in Madrid, so getting places involves more time in transit...might as well make it worth while! We went to a soul club...yes, soul music in Berlin. It was an absolute blast and infinitely entertaining to see German people dancing to soul music in a club complete with disco ball and reruns of Soul Train projected on the entire front wall by the stage (which we dominated, of course).

            Also, Jasmine joined us after having seen her film, which happened to be In the Land of Blood and Honey, Angelina Jolie’s new documentary about the Bosnian War in the 1990s. It was a world premiere and there was a discussion with the director (yes, Angelina Jolie) after in the auditorium. She took a bunch of pictures of both her and Brad Pitt…and she is just as pretty in the pictures from a regular camera as in magazines.

domingo el 12 de febrero

            Today we ate Dönner for lunch, which is a kind of Turkish burrito and another one of the most popular street foods in Berlin. We went to one of the most famous places (which happens to be right next to Curry 36) and it was so delicious. It was the best I’d ever had…including the many I ate in Istanbul (although definitely not docking Istanbul…I probably just didn’t find the best place there).

We checked out Alexander Platz, which was the old center of East Belrin. It’s obviously not as modern or as busy as Potsdamer Platz, but there is a giant TV tower in the middle. It was a symbol of the Soviet Union’s power to be seen by the West, and Jasmine can see it from her window, and she lives on the way west of the city. It’s incredible to imagine that only twelve years ago looking out from her window and seeing the tower would have been a very different experience.

Next, we went to Museum Island! It actually is an island: the Spree river wraps around it and you cross a cute bridge to get there. There are five internationally significant museums all grouped conveniently together on the island: The Altes, the Neues, Alte Nationalgalerie, the Bode Museum and the Pergamon. We didn’t have time to do them all since my flight left at six, so we decided to go to the Pergamon Museum. It is an archaeological museum built in 1930, and is one of the few archaeological museums to do complete reconstructions of buildings with the artifacts they have. It was smallish, but that made it great for the time we had. We saw the classical Greek section, most notably the reconstruction of the Pergamon Altar from which the museum takes its name, a great collection of ancient Middle Eastern (Mesopotamian) art and artifacts, and a beautiful collection of Islamic art with fantastic examples of Arabic calligraphy.

It should not come as a shock, given the contents of this blog so far, that on my way back to the airport, I stopped by for a German pretzel with baked cheese. Super yummy. Finally, traditional German food! Well, sort of. I guess it just means I have to come back to Germany again! I really enjoyed Berlin, and even though there were many times I thought how wonderful activity X would be in the spring when it was warmer, there really was something magical about seeing it all covered in snow and walking around at night with light snowflakes falling around us.

lunes el 13 de febrero

            I had a chocolate con churros snack today at Valor, the amazing chocolatería about a five minute walk from my house. During this walk, I discovered something very rewarding: I know my neighborhood pretty well! I was able to tell my friend where to go to get different things in the area (she lives in a different part of the city) and could navigate successfully around the whole neighborhood. I know this doesn’t sound like it should be a big deal…but if you know my sense of direction, you definitely know that this is a victory.

martes el 14 de febrero

            Happy Valentine’s Day! After class today I came back to my room to find a vase with a dozen giant beautiful roses sitting on my desk! Lucky Dustin speaks Spanish because he coordinated everything with my host family!

            Tonight I ate at La Mordida de Belén, one of the few Mexican restaurants in Madrid. I had scoped out their website and heard from someone from California that it was pretty authentic (not like most Mexican food here…which is not spicy at all and has a lot of jamón). It was in Chueca, which is my neighborhood and which is full of great restaurants, cafes, bars, and stores.  

Reina Sofia, la idoma española, Spaniards vs. Americans

viernes el 3 de febrero

            Tons of people in the program are traveling this weekend: my roommate and a group to Bilbao and San Sebastián (glad I’m going there in March when it won’t be snowing!), a group to Berlin (I’ll be going there next weekend and it will still be snowing…), a group to Rome, and a group to Paris (going in late March, so it should be decent weather). I’m a giant baby about the cold here, but in my defense Mercedes did tell me she doesn’t remember it being so cold ever in Madrid, and she’s been living here over 15 years. I can hear the wind howling outside and slamming unsuspecting doors or shutters, and the building (which is on the older side) was voicing its own protests about the weather…which were very creepy in the middle of the night.

Today I went to the Reina Sofia. I went pretty much to see Picasso’s Guernica, and once I found it (which took awhile) I spent a solid half an hour just standing staring at it. Pictures really don’t come close…if you go to Madrid, make sure you go to the Reina Sofia and see it (second floor, sala 206, just to save you some time if you’re in a rush J). I toured the whole second floor, which had more Picasso, some great Dali (which I normally don’t like but had to eat my words for some of these…they just grab you), Miro, and many other modern artists/cubists/surrealists/a lot of other “ists” I have yet to understand. Luckily, I’ll be going back!

sábado el 4 de febrero

         Today I had a very comically Spanish experience. First, I wanted to go to the Museo Taurino since there are no bullfights in the winter but I still want to see something to do with it and visit the Plaza de los Toros. But, it is closed on weekends. Then, I decided I’d go to the National Archeological Museum in Madrid because it was open and free on weekends according to the website. It also houses replicas of some of the oldest cave paintings found in the world (as Spain was one of the first settling places of early man when he left Africa around 50,000 years ago), and I was excited to see them (and I’m not going to make the hike out to Altamire to see the real things this trip). When I got there, the whole museum was closed for an indefinite amount of time for construction. Why didn’t it say this loud and clear on the website? I’m not sure, but after a short frustration standing at the closed gates of the museum, just had to shrug my shoulders and say “it’s Spain.” Luckily, the Archaeological Museum is on Calle Serrano, which is where all the very high-end stores of Madrid are located. It wasn’t too cold and I was well-bundled (really getting the hang of the whole layering thing now, and I never leave the house without a scarf, hat/ear-warmers, and gloves) so I window shopped for a little. Also, Calle Serrano leads right into Parque del Retiro, so I headed in that direction. When I got there, it was early enough for me to check out one of the free satellite exhibits of the Reina Sofia. It was a René Daniëls exhibit, and while I’m picky about modern art I really enjoyed it.

            Tonight I went out on Calle Huertas (a really fun street lined with cool bars and jazz clubs) and then to Madrid’s largest and most well-known discoteca, Kapital. It’s expensive (although less so if you go before 1:30) and full of foreigners, but it’s really fun and definitely something you have to do while in Madrid.

domingo el 5 de febrero

            As I’m sure you all know, Spanish in Spain is different than Spanish in countries in the Americas (which are also different from each other), most notably the “lisp” which isn’t actually a lisp because the regular “sss” sound also exists in Spain. When I first arrived it was very apparent, but now I don’t even hear it. Also, sometimes if you say a word that should have the “lisp”, sometimes you have to repeat it a few times to be understood in Spain. Also, “j” is pronounced much more in the throat than in Latin America, almost a little Arabic sounding. How did this difference come about? It wasn’t because a king of Spain had a lisp and everyone imitated him so he would feel better. Here’s the version I’ve been told a few times in Spain so far: in Andalusia in the south of Spain, they speak a Spanish more similar to that of Latin America, and most of the people who left Spain to live in Latin America were from the south. Of course from there the language evolved significantly in different directions, but I find this much more plausible (although less entertaining) than the king story.

Also, there is a whole series of conjugations with “vosotros” (you plural informal) which is not only not used in Latin America, but isn’t taught in Spanish in most US schools. This causes a little confusion, but for the most part it was easy to adjust to, just harder to pick up myself. If I were to address a group of people, it would be easiest for me to use “ustedes”, but in Spain this is a formal address and can come across as rude, like you are purposefully putting distance between yourself and the people you’re talking to.

             There are also many differences in vocabulary and uses of vocabulary between Spain and Latin America. Many of these are more a matter of preference, for example here “to drive” is conducir and in Latin America it is “manejar”, but if I accidentally say manejar here (or in the future say conducir in Latin America) I am still understood. Some can be slightly the wrong word, but similar, for example “tipo” which can be just “type” in Latin America is “stereotype” in Spain. But some things that are not ok to say in polite company in one are completely ok in the other. “Coger” in Spain is a very commonly used word for “to take”, but you would definitely not say this in Latin America unless you meant something a lot stronger. These haven’t exactly gotten me in trouble, but it is very entertaining to talk to Spaniards in bars and find out what words we’ve been using wrong.

            There are some phrases I’ve picked up in Spain that I really like. “Tranquilo/a” as an adjective technically means calm, but when you tell someone “tranquilo/a” (which is a common thing to do) it doesn’t mean calm down (which in the US suggests that someone is freaking out). Instead, it kind of means “take it easy” or “there’s no need to hurry” in a friendly way. For example, tonight at dinner I had the awkward and much-feared experience when you’ve just taken a bite of food someone asks you a question. As usual, laughed a little with my mouth tightly closed and packed with food, and then sped up chewing so I could answer, and she said “Tranquila”. I also like the phrase “no pasa nada,” which is kind of a response to “lo siento” but more a response to a slightly unfortunate but not bad circumstance. For example, when you get to the metro just in time to see the doors close and train pull away, you could say “no pasa nada, viene otro en 5 minutos” because in Spain being 5 minutes late to anywhere is close to being 5 minutes early. “Hombre” and “vamos” are two other words that kind of translate to “dude/man” and “c’mon” in English, but they express a sentiment, not an actual definition. For example, you could say “Technically Coke and Pepsi have different ingredients, but, vamos/c’mon, they’re basically the same thing. “Venga, hombre” is pretty comparable to “c’mon man” in English, and can be used to express disbelief/incredulity or the belief that whatever someone just said is really obvious (or that they haven’t said it enough, such as “Messi’s a good soccer player, right?” “Hombre, he’s one of the best in the world!”

lunes el 6 de febrero

            Today in Bioethics, our discussion at the end of class turned off the topic of the ethics of distributing medical resources based on behaviors and toward differences in health care structures in the US and Spain. It was really interesting to see our professor’s reactions to our explanations of why “Obamacare” requiring everyone to have healthcare insurance (individual mandate) has been so poorly received. She found it hard to believe that the US has such a comprehensive national education system and no national health system. She asked us why, if US citizens are happy to pay for education for all and therefore believe in a right to education, we are so resistant to a single-payer (government run) healthcare system—is health not considered a fundamental right in the US? We talked about this for a good 15 minutes, each of us (it’s a class of 7 people, so it’s easy to have a lot of discussion) trying to explain in little bits and pieces the reasons so many in the US are ardently opposed to national healthcare, and why—even if they think this system would be the best for the US—so many people in the US are convinced that a change to a government-run healthcare/insurance system just has too many obstacles (both ideological, economic, and logistical) would never happen in the US.

            It’s easy to read about generalizations in different countries about the general beliefs and culture of the people. It’s easy to look at a system of government different than ours in the US and say, “Oh, well the type of people must be different to do it that way; they must have different values.” But this is definitely one of the most vivid times I saw a difference of values between people in the US and Spaniards expressed in a concrete example—and an example that came about completely organically; we weren’t aiming to discover a difference in social/cultural values between Americans and Spaniards.

            This is a little out of place, but while I’m talking about differences between Spaniards and Americans, I have to mention the floor of El Tigre. If I have not yet mentioned El Tigre, it is a serious omission. El Tigre is a bar in Chueca which happens to be less than a five minute walk from my house and which serves big delicious drinks with plates piles high with delicious free tapas: croquetas, patatas fritas, pan con chorizo, pan con bacon… Anyway, the floor of El Tigre, if you come around midnight or one, is covered in crumpled up napkins. This is kind of the Spain version of a place where you can throw all the peanut shells on the floor, but it reflects a habit/the idea in Spain that trash (like candy wrappers) belongs on the floor, and if you can’t find a trashcan soon, it’s better to throw it on the ground than carry it around in a pocket or set it on a table. Considering this, Madrid (both streets and metro) are amazingly clean, which makes sense because I see people employed by the city out sweeping streets/metro/driving around giant street cleaners every day. But the takeaway from this paragraph should still be…if you go to Madrid, get drinks and tapas at El Tigre.

martes el 7 de febrero

            Turns out that  the names for the letters “v” and “w” are different in Spain and Latin America. In Latin America (the way I learned it) you say “beh” and “doble-beh” while in Spain you say “oo-beh” and “oo-beh doble.” I learned this officially in my Spanish class today, and I was very thankful because I’d heard it a few times before and been very confusing (“have I just been saying it wrong all there years?”).

            Addresses in Madrid are very interesting. The street numbers rarely go above 30, so far I haven’t seen one above 50, and street names are written with the abbreviation for calle: “C/”. Then it gives a floor (1^o, 2^o, etc.) and an abbreviation for a direction: izda (izquierda), cto (centro) or dcha (derecha). Sometimes there is also a number of the apartment, but frequently the actual apartment doesn’t have a number, just a floor and a direction. Mine is 3^o dcha, and it took me at least a week and a half to realize what “dcha” stood for.

            I went to the Prado again during free hours tonight to study for my women in art midterm tomorrow. I never thought I’d get to say a sentence like that! Poor Lindsay came with me, and I subjected her to all my knowledge of the paintings we’ve studied so far (which is A LOT). She said she thought it was interesting, which is good because it was a super helpful way for me to study.

            Fun fact I learned at dinner tonight: flamenco singers are called cantaores, not cantantes like other singers.

Palacio Real, Parque del Retiro, Lavapiés, "enchufada", Calle Huertas

viernes el 27 de enero

            This morning (not early or anything, just before lunchtime) Mercedes walked Rachel and I over to the Palacio Real. It’s a lovely walk, but it was chilly (it’s been in the thirties (Ferenheit) in Madrid, although it doesn’t rain often, so we frequently has sun with the cold, so I don’t mind, but sometimes it can be pretty windy and that makes it feel much colder).  The city of Madrid is actually not that old. It didn’t become the capital until 1561, and even then it looked nothing like the city does today. In the ninth century, the site of the Palacio Real was occupied by a Ottoman fortress, as Madrid was then part of their territory. In 1035 Madrid became part of Castile (but not the capital), and the fortress was occasionally occupied by Castilian royalty. In the 1500s, a new castle (in the Ottoman style, called an alcázar instead of a castillo) was built on the same site and was in use until Philip V, the first Burbon king of Spain, came into power. The story goes that he showed up in Madrid and refused to live in the alcázar because it was too ugly. Then on December 24, 1734, the old castle mysteriously burned to the ground with all the people and valuables (including paintings that were on the walls) removed beforehand, and Philip V ordered construction for the current Palacio Real (finished construction in 1755).

            The modern Palacio Real is the official residence of King Juan Carlos, but he doesn’t live there. Much of the palace is open to the public for touring (for 10 euro, 5 for students): the main rooms preserved in the fantastic ornate baroque style and with paintings by arists like Velázquez, Goya, and Caravaggio; the armory full of armor, swords, maces, guns, horse armor (almost all of which are extremely ornate because they were used for show, some of my favorite were the jousting armor); and the royal pharmacy (thousands of porcelain jars and glass vials full of dried ingredients and carefully labeled and organized on shelves in several rooms, and the old pharmaceutical lab, which looks like a cross between a chemistry lab and a blacksmith’s workshop). The rest is used for ceremonies. It’s technically the largest palace in Europe by floor area, but I’m not sure if that includes the massive central plaza or not.

            But on the way from our house to the Palacio Real, we walked down an awesome pedestrian street (which leads to Sol) full of great shopping and cafes, and one of the best places in Madrid to get chocolate con churros called Valor. Rachel and I went back here in the evening to warm up after going store to store looking for cute shoes (we both found a pair, and they were both made in Spain so we joked that this should count as a cultural activity that Stanford would subsidize). It is definitely the best chocolate con churros I have had in all of Madrid. If you ever go to Madrid, you must go here (they have a website so you can find the location, but it’s close to the Callao metro stop).  

sábado el 28 de enero

This afternoon I went to the Parque del Retiro, kind of like the “Central Park” of Madrid. It’s huge! It was chilly when I was there, so it should be really nice in March when it starts getting a little warmer, but it was still beautiful and packed with people. There are many fountains and statures throughout the park, and a lake where you can rent boats to paddle around. A very regal serried of columns and statues sits at the edge of the lake, and a whole bunch of stray cats live in the nooks in this structure. I tried to get one to let me pet it, but it realized I didn’t have any food and was not having it. Cafes sit at regular intervals throughout the park with plenty of chairs and tables outside to grab a coffee and sit and chat and enjoy the park. There are also a few buildings in the park, some quite beautiful. Some of these are home to special exhibitions of the Reina Sofia Museum, and el Casón del Buen Retiro has a collection of Sorolla paintings. One of my favorite places is the Palacio de Cristal, modeled after the Crystal Palace in London. It is a glass pavilion with its own artificial pond, which is full of ducks and geese. We were there around sunset, and when the orange-pink light illuminates the glass roof, it’s striking. I tried to take a picture, but it didn’t even come close.

domingo el 29 de enero

            Today we went back to El Rastro, the flea market that takes over several streets in el barrio de Embajadores every Sunday from 9am-3pm. Last time I was here, I found a pair of earrings that were really pretty and unusual, but I wasn’t sure about it so I didn’t get them. Today, the particular jewelry stall was still there, as were the earrings, and I still liked them so they came home with me.

            After roaming El Rastro, we walked into the nearby barrio Lavapiés, which is the immigrants (mainly Chinese, Arabic and Indian) district.  We walked around for a while looking for non-Spanish restaurants that smelled good and noting places that looked like they would be fun to come back another time. We ended up eating in an Indian restaurant, and it was very satisfying to have food flavored with so many spices. In Spain, spicy food doesn’t really exist (the spiciest Spanish food is probably chorizo). Also, most Spanish food relies much more on the flavor and quality of the individual ingredients than added flavor from spices, so my roommate and I (both from California and accustomed to eating all different kinds of food all the time) were craving something with a little more kick. The Indian restaurant was good, and while nothing was actually spicy, all the dished had lots of spices and very not-Spanish flavor. I also found a place that serves kind-of Mexican food, including quesadillas de jamón, which cracks me up because it’s so Spanish to put jamón in everything, and you would never find a ham quesadilla (carnitas yes, but that’s very different than jamón) in California or Mexico.

lunes el 30 de enero

            We’re learning a new dance in flamenco called the Sevillanas (because the dance comes from Sevilla). It’s fun to do, but the rhythm of the music that goes with the Servillanas is very different than my classmates and I are used to, so it’s taking a lot of “palmas” (clapping) on the part of our teacher to keep us on beat.

            I had a snack with Lindsay after flamenco at a Spanish chain called Vips. They have a random selection of dishes, and one of them was Mexican chilaquiles. It had three “spicy” icons next to the name, so we ordered one to share. It was actually spicy! In the US there would probably have been about half a “spicy” icon next to the name, but since I don’t need really spicy stuff, I was very happy.

martes el 31 de enero

            Today I had a hands-on lesson on the benefits of being “enchufado” (well-connected) in Spain. First of all, this is generally true: in Spain getting jobs, getting into places, getting deals, or generally getting what you want has a lot to do with who you know and who you are. Not saying you can’t do any of those things if you don’t know someone, but it’s a lot easier if you do. Also, they don’t really tip in Spain, so there’s not much of an incentive for good service, so the way you get better service is by getting to know someone (like a bartender at a favorite bar, or the pharmacist at the local pharmacy). But back to the story. Mariu, my host mom’s niece who lives with us, is finishing her training to be a doctor (not sure if it’s more like the last year of medical school or an intern year or a residency in the US…but she works in the hospital every day). I’ve had a nagging cough for a long time, and I tried going to the pharmacy here and getting over the counter things, but Mariu said I should let her check me out to be sure it wasn’t something that needed more serious medication. Today, I went to the hospital where she works, called her and she came and picked me up, and then walked me to the reception desk from the “behind the scenes” way, where the receptionist entered all my information and printed out my forms to be treated in the hospital right then even though she had a line of people waiting. We went to a few other places in the hospital, I had my check-up and she concluded nothing was out of the ordinary and no tests were necessary, but gave me some antibiotics in case they would help me get better faster since what I had been doing for the last three weeks hadn’t done the trick (although admittedly I haven’t been “taking it easy”…but how can I? I’m living in Madrid for three months!).

miércoles el 1 de febrero

The weather is pretty crazy in Europe right now. The beach in Barcelona is covered in snow. It’s snowing in Rome and San Sebastián, two places friends are going this weekend. My roommate is taking a bus to San Sebastián (8 or 5 hours depending if you take the express or not), and I’m a little worried they’ll get stuck in the snow since Spain isn’t as used to plowing the roads. Luckily, it rarely snows in Madrid (or rains for that matter, although tonight it did) and it’s not quite cold enough for it to snow.

For the next week, there is a wonderful event happening in Madrid called the Gastrofestival. This involves conferences on food and cooking, well-known chefs coming to Madrid, and most importantly for me, very good (and pricey) restaurants all over the city are offering special menus at prices much lower than usual. So, tonight Lindsay and I went out to dinner at Casa Patas. They serve traditional Spanish food and are well-known for their flamenco shows. Unfortunately we didn’t see a flamenco show tonight, but I definitely will go to one while in Madrid. For our first course, I had a raw salmon salad with capers and Lindsay had ratatouille (both of which were delicious) and for second course I had cod in a yummy sauce and Lindsay had oxtail, which was fall-off-the-bone tender, and for dessert I had rice pudding and Lindsay had a special type of ice cream that looked kind of like crème brule because it was topped with a thin layer of toasted caramel. Casa Patas is pretty close to Kapital, the seven-floor and most well-known discoteca in Madrid, which is close to Calle Huertas, which is a street full of fun bars, so after dinner we met up with some friends and went bar hopping.

jueves el 2 de febrero

I’m feeling much healthier…I think I’m finally kicking this sickness for real, which is great because on Thursdays there is no cover charge for Kapital, and I haven’t been yet (which is close to unacceptable since I’ve been here for four weeks). I’m headed to the Reina Sofia Museum right after I post this (also close to unacceptable that I haven’t been yet), and I’m really excited to see Picasso’s Guernica.

            A few things about living in a Spanish house:

1.     You never are barefoot. Or in just socks. Good thing I remembered to bring my slippers! But slippers are sold for pretty cheap in stores all over Madrid (especially tienda de chinos, that’s not a racist thing to say in Spain, and it is what everyone calls the stores that have everything for cheap that are run by Chinese immigrants), so it wasn’t a big deal for the people who didn’t bring them.

2.     Voz alta. Sometimes it seems like your host mom is yelling at you. She’s not, that’s just what Spanish people do when they want to get a point across (much more than in the US). Also, conversation in general in Spain is not as polite in the US. I don’t mean content-wise, I mean that in Spain turn-taking in conversation isn’t as big of a thing, so when you want to talk you sometimes have to interrupt. There is a nighttime talk show on the radio called “Hablar por hablar” that is very Spanish in this sense. There are also things called tertulias (a social gathering, in person or on the radio where the purpose is to talk about a certain topic, like literature or politics) which have been around for a long time in Spain and still happen on the radio today, but listening to them is a little crazy because it seems quite hectic compared to talk shows in the US—lots of people speaking in voz alta, interrupting, and following the flow of conversation without much organization.

3.     You always greet people when you come in and leave. This is also good manners in the US, but I think it’s more important to do in Spain, and not just in houses. Whenever you enter a room (store, classroom, etc.) you should say some kind of greeting (buenas, short for buenos días, is common, as is “hola, buenos días” even though that seems a little repetitive), and when you leave “adios” or “chao”. Also, when you pass by someone you know on the street and just want to say hello but not stop to talk to them, you say “adios” instead of a greeting.

4.     Only turn on lights if you need them. Like, actually need them. The light of day is usually sufficient for most activities, and you would never leave a light on when you leave a room. Electricity is quite expensive in Spain. So is calling on the cell phone, which is why the smartphone app “WhatsApp” is extremely popular. So much so that if I meet a Spanish person my age, they’re equally likely to ask if I have WhatsApp as for my phone number. Merche, my hermana española, even uses the “verb” (not an actual verb) “whatsappear” when talking with her friends, as in “¿luego quieres whatsappear?”

5.     Water and heating are also expensive, so I turn off the shower when I wash my body and then turn it back on to rinse. However, during the time I turn off the shower, the new water stops being heated, so I have about 30 seconds to rinse off in still hot water unless I want to wait for it to heat up again, which defeats the purpose of turning the water off in the first place.

6.     You use little toilet paper. You don’t use it to blow your nose, fix your makeup, wrap yourself like a mummy, etc.

7.     Not sure if I’ve made this clear or not, but you eat a small breakfast (coffee/tea and a piece of toast with nutella/a few small, thin lightly cinnamon flavored cookies which I love/a small sweetbread called a magdelena (like a Spanish Madeline cookie?) whenever you get up, which for me Monday-Thursday is around 8:15 since I leave for class a little before 8:45 and Friday-Sunday sometime after that. Lunch (almuerzo or comida, the biggest meal of the day) is around 2:30 or 3, and dinner (cena, lighter than la comida) around 9:30-10 (in the winter, in the summer when it’s warm it could be later).

8.     Every time you leave the house, your mamá española insists that you wear a scarf (and sometimes a hat and gloves) to keep you from catching cold.

9.     Your mamá española will try to feed you until you explode, and you have to be insistent if you don’t want anything else. “No, gracias” usually will be more likely to cause more offering of food, but a firm “¡Todo fue buenísima pero estoy muy llena!” is good.