I forgot yesterday to mention the food run I made after I finished unpacking. Most Sundays, everything is closed. The exception to that is apparently the first Sunday of every month - and yesterday, the first Sunday after the Christmas holiday (which is longer here, apparently?). That’s what they told us anyway, on the bus ride from the airport. But when I did venture out to find something to eat, everything nearby was closed – except for one little lone fruit stand. Not a stand exactly; it’s not that small, but you get the idea. Mandarin oranges were the cheapest thing there because most of them looked pretty beaten up and awful, but I picked through and found almost a full kilo of perfectly good ones. Can’t beat that at €1.20 (or €1,20 as it is written here) - $1.60.
I was a bit overtired and out of it and jumbled up my Spanish when the man at the register asked me where I was from and how I was liking Madrid. I realized he really meant, “You don’t really like Madrid?” since I seemed so worn out and down and, rushing to correct him, I said, “¡No! Me encanta Madrid.” It was obvious he didn’t believe me, so I added, “Es mi primero hoy acá,” which made no sense: “It’s my first today here.” And that doesn’t even include the fact that I should have said “primer” instead of “primero,” and I used “acá,” a very Latin American way to say “here” instead of the more common, Spanish way: “aquí.”
On the way back I was thinking of how I could have tried to explain the error to him. (“En inglés, las palabras para ‘hoy’ y ‘día’ son muy similar – ‘today’ y ‘day’ – y… estoy muy cansada. Y no he hablado español por semanas…”) I was so distracted that I missed my turn, was momentarily lost, and found the only other place open – a grungy little kiosko-type convenience store. I chose the healthiest of the three types of cereal they offered and grabbed a liter of soy milk, which as I later discovered while reading the label, should be entirely consumed within three days of its opening because it has literally no preservatives whatsoever. I had a bowl this morning and another for dinner tonight, and if I keep using it at this rate, I will probably finish it only a little after its expiration date.
Señora Alvarez arrived home from Mass shortly after I got back from my only somewhat successful shopping excursion. I told her about the oranges, and she guessed exactly which fruit stand I was talking about. She says it’s the cheapest place for fruit and vegetables (although the selection of veggies is pretty small) and explained that the man who runs it, probably the one who got to see me make such a fool out of myself, is Pakistani and has told her he’s always open because he always needs the money.
I also learned then that Señora Alvarez doesn’t eat meat – or chocolate or any of another list of things all because of some illness or stomach problem or something. She does eat fish, and she lives mostly on that and veggies.
So now you’re up to speed on yesterday.
Today I woke up around 2 am, got up, drank a glass of water, read from my Kindle, and made myself go back to sleep before even a half hour or so had passed. I woke up several more times until my alarm rang at 6 am and I suddenly decided I did feel sleepy – so I hit snooze until 6:30. Took a shower and sorely missed shampoo and conditioner; I hadn’t been able to find any at the kiosko last night, and my hair quite resented being scrubbed with body wash. (I hadn’t been able to leave it behind in the states because it smelled nice and was totally organic with all these natural, herbal moisturizers in it – a Christmas present from Jeff. Good thing, too, or I wouldn’t have had much of a shower at all.) Had a bunch of Mandarin oranges for breakfast, followed by the cereal, and even though I was moving really slowly, was still completely ready to go catch the metro at 8:30 am.
The 6 line (or grey line) makes a complete circle and therefore has no direction defined by “uptown” or “downtown” or “to such and such a stop.” I guessed, saw as soon as we reached the next stop that I had chosen incorrectly, and got off. I really, really thought that I had found my way through the underground maze to the opposite side of the tracks – but apparently I was still on the same one, because the first stop on the next train I boarded was still farther from the stop closest to NYU Madrid’s campus. I got off again and wandered around in search of a map or a sign that might actually define which direction would take me to my destination. I did finally find a single sign that listed the next stops for the 6 line, direction 1, and because it showed the last two stations I had already visited that morning, I bet it was the right one. When it came (after just a minute because Madrid’s metro station is quite amazing except for its direction labeling problems), I climbed onto the most packed subway car I have ever been on in my life – which is saying something because the subway cars in Madrid are significantly wider and can hold a whole lot more standing people than those in NYC.
When I finally reached my stop and began to walk towards “campus” (which is just a townhome attached to another townhome behind it via a patio/courtyard area in between), I passed a clock that said it was just past 9 am. All of those missed stops and wrong directions and really long wait times at each station on the really packed train because of the people who kept getting in the way of the doors closing – and it had taken me less than 30 minutes, closer to 25 if you exclude walking time to the metro from my house. Yet another testament to how great the subway system here is.
Anyway, I didn’t have to be at the NYU building until 9:30 and it was a walk of only ten minutes or fewer from the station to Segre 8, its address (and my mailing address, shown complete below).
Abigail Murray
Calle de Segre 8
28002 Madrid, Spain
New laws have just been passed in Spain that hold up any incoming packages from the U.S. if they’re declared (or assumed or suspected) to be more valuable than €30. A taxi has to be taken to airport to fetch it, back taxes must be paid, and several other fees apply, including payment for the customs broker that you have allow to help you fill out your forms, whether or not you want or need his assistance. So… just in case the idea crossed anyone’s mind: DO NOT EVER SEND ME PACKAGES HERE IN SPAIN. Letters are perfectly fine though. ^.^
But anyway, arrived early, stood in the cold, waited for everyone else to arrive, struggled to stay awake during the orientation, went on a short walking tour led by NYU Madrid graduate students (ours was definitely the best – she pointed out a place we could a sandwich or a salad for just €3 – which is $4, much better than all the €10 and €15 options NYU was giving us).
The NYU in Madrid complex! Not very attractive-looking, especially after the NYU center in Buenos Aires, but bigger than it looks. The patio is kind of nice, but not sure when it will really be warm enough to be sitting out there studying. In the photo of the patio above, you can see the entrance to the second part of "campus," through the French doors down a short set of stairs. I think that building is roughly the same size as the one in front. Almost all our classrooms (for something between 100 and 120 of us) are in the building across the patio. Something like 75% of us are female, and yet they still managed to put the girl's bathrooms in the worst locations. Every time you need the restroom, the men's room is right there in front of you and you have to walk up two flights or down to the basement of the other building to find a ladies' room.
This is the random, ultra-modern, super-whitewashed building to the left of the NYU building. Spent a lot of time staring at it while waiting for someone to come let us in out of the cold.
At some point either yesterday or today someone mentioned that Madrileños put olive oil on everything and that anyone who didn’t like olive oil was probably a bit out of luck. I can’t even imagine anyone disliking olive oil, at least not extra virgin which is so light in taste. NYU treated us to lunch at a very nice restaurant, and sure enough, they brought out a bunch of salads and no dressing options save balsamic vinegar and olive oil. I must have had five small helpings of the salad with olive oil and a bit of salt sprinkled on top. Sooooo yummy! It was lucky, too, because the main course, a paella (one vegetarian and one meat), was kind of disappointing, at least for me. It had been described to me as a rice dish browned on the stove with vegetables (and meat if you want meat). That is right up my alley. But it didn’t have a ton of flavor and the rice was so heavy, especially after I had just so enjoyed something as light and flavorful as the salad. I will try paellas again at other places to see if this was a typical experience or just a particularly bad one, but I know I will definitely be able to get used to el aceite oliva y verduras frescas.
After lunch I wandered into a phone store and asked if they have SIM cards compatible with my BlackBerry. They said sure, as long as I unlock it. So that’s the next task. Really hoping I can Skype Verizon tomorrow and if I ask really, really nicely they will give me the unlock code. Maybe. A girl can dream, you know.
I still haven’t paid my homestay mother this month’s rent because there is a daily withdrawal limit of €300. Someone from NYU led me to believe I needed to call Citadel to get it sorted out, and I used up most of my remaining Skype credit only to learn that that limit is set by the ATMs here and not my bank. I am less than pleased. I have been assured, both by Señora Alvarez and NYU that the first payment deadline is a bit flexible for exactly this sort of reason, so as long as I get to her by the end of the week I am fine.
In order to have this whole conversation, though, I needed to buy a power adaptor so I could charge my laptop. THAT was an adventure. The big, giant everything stores of Madrid are los Cortes Inglés. Picture the King of Prussia mall but jammed into a single department store. It’s a very large department store, and I’m sure it actually holds three or four or even five times as many items as the King of Prussia mall, but it all blends together, and there are no aisles between departments – just twisting paths a foot or so wide that wind past the Sony area and through the perfumes and up to the supermarket – possibly the one entity in the place that does have four walls around it. And the supermarket itself is as big as most Wal-Marts, so imagine the size of the rest of just one Corte Inglés. I finally found my adaptor after discovering the secret hallway that leads to the book area, beyond which is the iPod section and videogames. A man in charge of the iPods directed me out of the building and told me how I would have to re-enter it by another door to reach a more general electronics area. When I finally got there, I explained, “Tengo una computadora de los Estados Unidos y necesito un adaptador para enchufarla acá - er, aquí” and a salesman found it immediately for me, after finishing a conversation with his co-worker of course. That’s something Buenos Aires and Madrid have in common: everyone is pretty laid back about their jobs. They’re very helpful but only because they want to be – not because they think their job is to actually help you find things. It sounds like it would be an annoying system, but it actually works quite well and only bothers you if you are in a hurry.
Power adaptor in hand, I went grocery shopping. It took me over two hours to locate a bag of fresh garlic, salt, pepper, some frozen veggies, olive oil, shampoo, and conditioner. (You would think conditioner would be easy once you found the shampoo. You would be wrong.) Honestly, I have no idea how it took me so long to find the oil either, because olive oil has its own entire aisle here! While trying to find those items, I ran across a rice cakes section (from which I grabbed a bag of soy-rice cakes rich in omega-3 and one of rice cakes made entirely of spelt – so I guess spelt cakes?), a sprouts section (so I HAD to get alfalfa sprouts), and an aisle of balsamic vinegar - and lemon juice (so I added some lemon juice to my cart too).
The olive oil aisle! It extends all the way past those boxes near the square column. When I say "entire aisle," I do not exaggerate.
Other side of the olive oil aisle. ^.^
Garlic olive oil and hot chili olive oil.
This is the cutest/coolest/most amazing thing! It's also a little bit scary. "Your first olive oil" - think "Baby's first olive oil." It's infused with all these extra vitamins and things and comes in this colorful can and it's so awesome!!! And just for babies!
And of course, I came home and ate none of this delicious food because I have to keep eating cereal until I use up the soon-to-expire soymilk.
BUT the good news is that writing this all out (and watching an episode or two of Merlin) has kept me awake until now – past 1 am! Maybe I will actually sleep through the night tonight and feel totally jet lag free tomorrow. :)
Oh, also, thought I would share this with you. Took me more than five minutes of playing with the adapter - that smaller rectangular prism in the picture above - and the cord for the laptop to get it to hold in place and keep the the red light on. The prongs on the adaptor are too long to go all the way into the surge protector (which I have to use because the wall socket is stuck behind my armoire), and the springs in the surge protector complicate the matter all the more. It's not enough to rest or balance the adapter on the surge protector, because its weight isn't enough to prevent it being pushed out of the socket by the springs. And so I create the lovely mess above. :)
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