My lovely, new, sunny flat is not quite living up to its reputation! It's been raining pretty much ever since I arrived on Tuesday evening. Today it decided to dump a downpour on the washing that was valiantly trying to dry on the balcony.
Thanks to the lovely Nacho (Ignacio) and his Citroen C3, I didn't have to move house on the metro. That would have been interesting, with a huge suitcase, rucksack, laptop bag and 3 bags of food (and beer!) But not only did he help me move my stuff, he carried most of it up the 4 flights of stairs to the flat. Trust me to move to the 4th floor in a building with no lift. When I move out, I think I'll just throw everything off the balcony!
My new flatmate, at least for the next 6 weeks, is a lovely Dublin girl called Eve. She's a happy, bouncy, athletic thing who has a penchant for Spanish men!! ;-) I'll be disappointed when she moves out, her company has been a nice change from my little house on my own before. She's also letting me use her laptop while mine is being repaired/replaced - for this I will be eternally grateful!
Talking of the laptop, I deposited it at the Toshiba repair place near here on Thursday morning and IF I understood the lady correctly, they should call in 2 working days if it's repairable on-site, but if it has to go back to Toshiba then it'll be another 3-5 days on top of that. I'm not holding my breath but it still sounds theoretically quicker than the probably guaranteed minimum of 2-3 weeks it would have taken in the UK. Where I would also have had to post it, insure it etc etc instead of just dropping it off at an authorised repair centre.
The weather hasn't been conducive to doing much over the last couple of days so I've wandered around the new local area, stocked the fridge (though I appear to have run out of beer AGAIN!) and made inroads into getting some work. I emailed every Spaniard I ever met on a Vaughan Town to explain that I'm in Madrid and available to give English classes. Within 12 hours I had one definite request for lessons, plus a potential offer of teaching someone's 2 daughters (ages not yet known - could be interesting!) So things appear to be moving. My American, chirpy, eternally optimistic mate Julie also has a bit of a plan for when she returns in September which I'm hoping to be part of.
It's Friday so it's the English speaking meet-up at Brasserie Locandita tonight, after which I've been invited to a party. Hopefully I won't be paying the price tomorrow! ;-)
Friday, 17 April 2009
Monday, 13 April 2009
One of those days? I hope so!
Started the day with a very long walk to the main police station just to pick up an application form for an NIE (the foreign residents number thing!). Lots of people there, the guy on the door pointed me towards a queue so I joined it. There didn´t appear to be anywhere to pick up a form and take it away so in the queue I stayed for 40 minutes until I reached the front. There I was met by a very fierce looking woman who listened to my (admittedly probably not very good) Spanish request for a form, shouted loudly something about "Do you have a certificate?", thrust a small piece of paper with a phone number on at me, which when I tried to take, she took back and put it under her desk, shooed me away and took the next person in the queue. I wasn´t really in the mood to try again.
So I decided to download the form off the net and fill it in at my leisure. Great idea til I got to the net cafe, settled down with a drink and a cake, only to find that my laptop appears to have crashed. It won´t load XP at all, no matter what I do. Just goes through the motions then very apologetically tells me XP isn´t loading. I´ve tried Start Normally, Safe Mode, Back to Last Known Good Configuration.....nothing. Not playing. Unimpressed. Tomorrow I move to a flat with WiFi and was all excited about being on the net all the time, and now no bloody laptop! Grrrrrrrrrrrr.
However, the day wasn´t a complete disaster as I did have gorgeous veggie lunch at Yerba y Bueno, which Julie had picked up a leaflet for. Scrummy!
So if anyone has any suggestions for how to fix my laptop (and no, I don´t have the XP disk, it wasn´t provided with the machine), I´ll be very grateful!!!
So I decided to download the form off the net and fill it in at my leisure. Great idea til I got to the net cafe, settled down with a drink and a cake, only to find that my laptop appears to have crashed. It won´t load XP at all, no matter what I do. Just goes through the motions then very apologetically tells me XP isn´t loading. I´ve tried Start Normally, Safe Mode, Back to Last Known Good Configuration.....nothing. Not playing. Unimpressed. Tomorrow I move to a flat with WiFi and was all excited about being on the net all the time, and now no bloody laptop! Grrrrrrrrrrrr.
However, the day wasn´t a complete disaster as I did have gorgeous veggie lunch at Yerba y Bueno, which Julie had picked up a leaflet for. Scrummy!
So if anyone has any suggestions for how to fix my laptop (and no, I don´t have the XP disk, it wasn´t provided with the machine), I´ll be very grateful!!!
Thursday, 9 April 2009
Dangerous word confusion
Went to the massive intercambio last night, determined to speak some Spanish. Found myself the source of some amusement to the assembled group of Spaniards around me when, while trying to explain what I do at the airport, I managed to confuse the word pasajeros (passengers) with pajeros (wankers)!
Though come to think of it, I think my version was far more appropriate!
Though come to think of it, I think my version was far more appropriate!
Wednesday, 8 April 2009
Language brain meltdown
My 3 days of Spanish classes are over. What did I learn? I learnt that it´s a long while since I tried to learn something!
Ana, the teacher, was great, very sweet, patient and extremely clear. There were only 2 of us in the class which meant it was very intensive (and intense!)
A lot of what we covered I kind of already knew, but only in a theoretical way that meant I could recognise it if I saw it written down, but wasn´t able to construct it from scratch.
Now I need to practice, practice, practice! I´ve been picking up every free Spanish paper I can find, and yesterday I bought El Pais. It took me a good couple of hours to read, and I was looking a lot of stuff up in the dictionary. But slowly, slowly it´s sinking in. I´m off to an intercambio tonight - same one I went to last Wednesday, but this week I´m determined to speak at least some Spanish!
I did manage to speak a little bit on Monday evening. I met up with Behram, another Vaughan dropout (!), in a great little bar near Sol. Within 10 minutes, a fellow student from his Spanish school had arrived, along with his mother. They were German so we spoke a mishmash of English, Spanish and German for a bit. Then Behram decided to talk to (I should really say chat up) the 2 girls sitting by us who were speaking Spanish but clearly weren´t natives. They turned out to be a German and a Polish girl, both somewhat the worse for several sangrias! Very friendly though, and for a couple of hours the 6 of us chatted in a bizarre combination of Spanish, English, German, Italian (the German guy´s mum spoke Italian, as does Behram) and some French! I think by the end of it we´d created a whole new language.
At midnight, Behram and I decided we needed pizza - obviously! Off we went to a tiny sidestreet with a little bar that did pizzas to share. Very tasty it was too. However, the evening - or should I say the morning - went a little downhill. First of all, an Indian guy had a pop at Behram basically for "not being Indian enough" or words to that effect. It clearly really got to him and as we were about to leave, he spotted a tiny mouse under the next table. Being the soppy, animal-friendly thing I am, and after a few too many beers, I went to pick it up. Far too easy. It was way too docile and I soon discovered that was because it had clearly been bitten just above one of its back legs. It was very weak and simply sat in my hand. I probably should have done the decent thing and put it out of its misery, but I simply couldn´t do it. I kept it with me, tucked it in my fleece pocket and got a cab home (at 4am after Behram and I had rather loudly sung a duet in the street!). Once in the house, I made it a little nest from a tupperware box, some kitchen roll and cotton wool. I put a tiny bottletop of water in the box, along with some bits of bread. I have to say that by this time it had rallied a little, was moving around and briefly looked interested in the food. Feeling quite optimistic, I went to brush my teeth, then went to check on it. Unfortunately, it was now an ex-mouse. Deceased. Ceased to be. Still, I like to think that I made its last few hours a little more bearable! I am such a sucker for anything small and furry (stop making up your own jokes).
Anyway, Easter weekend is nearly upon us. I have no plans! I move to my new place next Tuesday so I need to start sorting stuff out. But for now, I am free of any obligations and responsibilities. Better get on with practicing Spanish and STILL looking for a job!
Ana, the teacher, was great, very sweet, patient and extremely clear. There were only 2 of us in the class which meant it was very intensive (and intense!)
A lot of what we covered I kind of already knew, but only in a theoretical way that meant I could recognise it if I saw it written down, but wasn´t able to construct it from scratch.
Now I need to practice, practice, practice! I´ve been picking up every free Spanish paper I can find, and yesterday I bought El Pais. It took me a good couple of hours to read, and I was looking a lot of stuff up in the dictionary. But slowly, slowly it´s sinking in. I´m off to an intercambio tonight - same one I went to last Wednesday, but this week I´m determined to speak at least some Spanish!
I did manage to speak a little bit on Monday evening. I met up with Behram, another Vaughan dropout (!), in a great little bar near Sol. Within 10 minutes, a fellow student from his Spanish school had arrived, along with his mother. They were German so we spoke a mishmash of English, Spanish and German for a bit. Then Behram decided to talk to (I should really say chat up) the 2 girls sitting by us who were speaking Spanish but clearly weren´t natives. They turned out to be a German and a Polish girl, both somewhat the worse for several sangrias! Very friendly though, and for a couple of hours the 6 of us chatted in a bizarre combination of Spanish, English, German, Italian (the German guy´s mum spoke Italian, as does Behram) and some French! I think by the end of it we´d created a whole new language.
At midnight, Behram and I decided we needed pizza - obviously! Off we went to a tiny sidestreet with a little bar that did pizzas to share. Very tasty it was too. However, the evening - or should I say the morning - went a little downhill. First of all, an Indian guy had a pop at Behram basically for "not being Indian enough" or words to that effect. It clearly really got to him and as we were about to leave, he spotted a tiny mouse under the next table. Being the soppy, animal-friendly thing I am, and after a few too many beers, I went to pick it up. Far too easy. It was way too docile and I soon discovered that was because it had clearly been bitten just above one of its back legs. It was very weak and simply sat in my hand. I probably should have done the decent thing and put it out of its misery, but I simply couldn´t do it. I kept it with me, tucked it in my fleece pocket and got a cab home (at 4am after Behram and I had rather loudly sung a duet in the street!). Once in the house, I made it a little nest from a tupperware box, some kitchen roll and cotton wool. I put a tiny bottletop of water in the box, along with some bits of bread. I have to say that by this time it had rallied a little, was moving around and briefly looked interested in the food. Feeling quite optimistic, I went to brush my teeth, then went to check on it. Unfortunately, it was now an ex-mouse. Deceased. Ceased to be. Still, I like to think that I made its last few hours a little more bearable! I am such a sucker for anything small and furry (stop making up your own jokes).
Anyway, Easter weekend is nearly upon us. I have no plans! I move to my new place next Tuesday so I need to start sorting stuff out. But for now, I am free of any obligations and responsibilities. Better get on with practicing Spanish and STILL looking for a job!
Monday, 6 April 2009
Lions Club - hah! This is what I call a procession!
When Julie rang on Sunday lunchtime to say there was some kind of religious procession (Palm Sunday?) happening near her place, I initially wondered if I was all that interested. Then I thought – I’m in Spain, this is clearly something traditionally Spanish and it’s not like I’m doing anything else!
So in another attempt to get some exercise and save money on the Metro, I walked the hour to Plaza Mayor. At least it was via a mostly new route, as I’m starting to think I could do the whole Bravo Murillo / Fuencarral route in my sleep! I met Julie and we headed off to find the right church for later.
Duly sorted, we decided it was time for that other Sunday necessity – beer. A great little dark and stone bar round the corner served us exactly what we wanted – una cana (a small or medium beer depending on where you are) for 1 Euro, with a free plate of deep fried crisps and egg. It never fails to surprise me that free food still comes with your beer, economic crisis or not. It’s not like it was a 3 course meal, but it was the kind of helping that you can imagine some British café trying to charge you a couple of quid for. And of course you would have had to order it!
It was soon time to go and find ourselves a place on the barrier-lined route of the procession. Easier said than done – initially it was no problem, but then we decided we were way too early and went off to find another drink (see a pattern emerging here?). By the time we got back it was a different story. The crowds had multiplied probably five-fold and we had to cross the narrow street and slot ourselves into a small space.
There was still about 45 minutes until it was due to start but we had come this far and were going to wait it out no matter what. Almost all the rest of the crowd were Spanish and I admit I did start to feel a bit conspicuous. They were all there for clearly genuine religious reasons, and there was I, lifelong atheist, camera in hand, there for the spectacle. I felt a little better when, as it became clear that something was happening at the unseen front of the church, other cameras came out.
And so it began, extremely slowly! First of all came what I can only describe as an ebony version of the Ku Klux Klan. Men in long black robes, with woven mat thick cummerbunds, topped off with immense black pointy hoods, with tiny eye holes cut in them. Most carried tall candles, some religious artefacts. They processed slowly and as it started, a complete hush descended over the crowd. Frankly, it was quite spooky.
Shortly after the black-clad guys, were more in white and green, then purple. Then a murmur came through the crowd and the first ripples of applause. It soon became clear that it was for the emergence through the church doors of what I can only describe as a truly immense wooden dresser topped off with a giant crucifix. We could see it descending the ramp that covered the church steps – it must have been 15 or 20 feet high. There was more applause as it reached the bottom of the ramp and turned to follow the procession of candle-bearing men towards us. To begin with, we couldn’t work out how it was moving but as it came closer and past us, the sight of about 10 pairs of shuffling feet poking out from underneath it, gave the game away. As it passed, I could see through the carvings that there were maybe 30 guys inside it, all shuffling along and occasionally chanting. It was pretty amazing. On the way past, most of the Spaniards near me crossed themselves and reached out to touch it. I still felt a little bad about taking photos but I can’t pretend it was anything but an intriguing spectacle to me, which I needed to record.
Behind this, came a group of people in very simple clothes, headscarves and with their arms folded. As far as I could tell from their little badges, they were the “penitents”. Shortly they were followed by more of the pointy-hatted people along with some very small children in some kind of traditional garb, who also handed out sweets to people along the way. They were followed by splendid black-clad women, all with the hair comb and lace headdress combination, seen on so many Spanish souvenir dolls, in my childhood at least.
The smell of incense was all-pervading, and was very heady!
A helpful guy in the crowd was explaining to Julie that the procession would take at least a couple of hours to complete its circuit but that there was more to come. True enough, we heard more applause and all attention fell on the church doors again. This time, an enormous kind of four-poster bed affair was descending the ramp. It was all white and gold, with about 50 lit candles at the front, silver lanterns hanging from the canopy and it contained a huge Virgin Mary. The silence, in between the applause each time it negotiated a ramp or a corner, was quite something. This was clearly the highlight of the procession and several of the Spaniards around were clearly having a profound religious experience as it passed – crying, genuflecting and praying. Initially, it felt a little uncomfortable and again I wondered if we were seen as unwelcome outsiders as again we were simply watching and photographing events. But as I understand it, most religious experiences are a very personal thing, so I doubt anyone even noticed us.
Once that had gone past, we were only left with the marching band in uniform (not sure which uniform), who were very good, though the fact that they stopped just as the trombonists were right in front of me, did little for my eardrums!
And then they were gone. The 2 gigantic carried items had successfully turned the corner into the next street on their journey and people began to wander away. It would have been good to find out a little more about what it was all about, the history of it etc, but the spectacle would have to do. Can’t get the link to the photos to work at the moment, but I will!
So in another attempt to get some exercise and save money on the Metro, I walked the hour to Plaza Mayor. At least it was via a mostly new route, as I’m starting to think I could do the whole Bravo Murillo / Fuencarral route in my sleep! I met Julie and we headed off to find the right church for later.
Duly sorted, we decided it was time for that other Sunday necessity – beer. A great little dark and stone bar round the corner served us exactly what we wanted – una cana (a small or medium beer depending on where you are) for 1 Euro, with a free plate of deep fried crisps and egg. It never fails to surprise me that free food still comes with your beer, economic crisis or not. It’s not like it was a 3 course meal, but it was the kind of helping that you can imagine some British café trying to charge you a couple of quid for. And of course you would have had to order it!
It was soon time to go and find ourselves a place on the barrier-lined route of the procession. Easier said than done – initially it was no problem, but then we decided we were way too early and went off to find another drink (see a pattern emerging here?). By the time we got back it was a different story. The crowds had multiplied probably five-fold and we had to cross the narrow street and slot ourselves into a small space.
There was still about 45 minutes until it was due to start but we had come this far and were going to wait it out no matter what. Almost all the rest of the crowd were Spanish and I admit I did start to feel a bit conspicuous. They were all there for clearly genuine religious reasons, and there was I, lifelong atheist, camera in hand, there for the spectacle. I felt a little better when, as it became clear that something was happening at the unseen front of the church, other cameras came out.
And so it began, extremely slowly! First of all came what I can only describe as an ebony version of the Ku Klux Klan. Men in long black robes, with woven mat thick cummerbunds, topped off with immense black pointy hoods, with tiny eye holes cut in them. Most carried tall candles, some religious artefacts. They processed slowly and as it started, a complete hush descended over the crowd. Frankly, it was quite spooky.
Shortly after the black-clad guys, were more in white and green, then purple. Then a murmur came through the crowd and the first ripples of applause. It soon became clear that it was for the emergence through the church doors of what I can only describe as a truly immense wooden dresser topped off with a giant crucifix. We could see it descending the ramp that covered the church steps – it must have been 15 or 20 feet high. There was more applause as it reached the bottom of the ramp and turned to follow the procession of candle-bearing men towards us. To begin with, we couldn’t work out how it was moving but as it came closer and past us, the sight of about 10 pairs of shuffling feet poking out from underneath it, gave the game away. As it passed, I could see through the carvings that there were maybe 30 guys inside it, all shuffling along and occasionally chanting. It was pretty amazing. On the way past, most of the Spaniards near me crossed themselves and reached out to touch it. I still felt a little bad about taking photos but I can’t pretend it was anything but an intriguing spectacle to me, which I needed to record.
Behind this, came a group of people in very simple clothes, headscarves and with their arms folded. As far as I could tell from their little badges, they were the “penitents”. Shortly they were followed by more of the pointy-hatted people along with some very small children in some kind of traditional garb, who also handed out sweets to people along the way. They were followed by splendid black-clad women, all with the hair comb and lace headdress combination, seen on so many Spanish souvenir dolls, in my childhood at least.
The smell of incense was all-pervading, and was very heady!
A helpful guy in the crowd was explaining to Julie that the procession would take at least a couple of hours to complete its circuit but that there was more to come. True enough, we heard more applause and all attention fell on the church doors again. This time, an enormous kind of four-poster bed affair was descending the ramp. It was all white and gold, with about 50 lit candles at the front, silver lanterns hanging from the canopy and it contained a huge Virgin Mary. The silence, in between the applause each time it negotiated a ramp or a corner, was quite something. This was clearly the highlight of the procession and several of the Spaniards around were clearly having a profound religious experience as it passed – crying, genuflecting and praying. Initially, it felt a little uncomfortable and again I wondered if we were seen as unwelcome outsiders as again we were simply watching and photographing events. But as I understand it, most religious experiences are a very personal thing, so I doubt anyone even noticed us.
Once that had gone past, we were only left with the marching band in uniform (not sure which uniform), who were very good, though the fact that they stopped just as the trombonists were right in front of me, did little for my eardrums!
And then they were gone. The 2 gigantic carried items had successfully turned the corner into the next street on their journey and people began to wander away. It would have been good to find out a little more about what it was all about, the history of it etc, but the spectacle would have to do. Can’t get the link to the photos to work at the moment, but I will!
Saturday, 4 April 2009
The Retiro tried to kill me!
You´ll be pleased to know I don´t have gory photos to prove it, but yesterday I managed to leave about half a pint of blood in the Retiro!
Off I went for a nice, casual walk in the park with Julie. No sooner had we got into one of the shady avenues, than my left foot disappeared down one of the gulleys that the rainwater drains into and I crashed unceremoniously to the floor.
Slightly embarrassed, I dusted myself off, put some weight on my left foot to see just how badly I´d knackered my ankle and was delighted to find it was OK.
BUT - as I walked away I realised that inexplicably my right foot felt really wet. I looked down and was somewhat surprised to see a pool of blood collecting all over my shoe and on the ground! Somehow in the process I´d taken a massive chunk out of the bottom of my big toe and it was practically spraying blood everywhere.
I made it to a bench and hurled my blood-soaked shoe to the ground, poured most of my bottle of water over it and watched the pink liquid soak into the dust.
The ever-practical Julie headed back to the Info booth and got plasters, scissors, gauze and......alcohol. No, not to drink, but that lovely stuff that it´s such a good idea to pour on open wounds until you remember how much it f**king hurts!! OUCH. And I´ve got a damn high pain threshold.
So for the last 2 days I´ve been wandering about with a toe covered in plasters, limping, trying not to put any weight on that side of my foot.
I´m sure I´ll forgive the Retiro in the end, but for now, I´m a bit miffed!
Off I went for a nice, casual walk in the park with Julie. No sooner had we got into one of the shady avenues, than my left foot disappeared down one of the gulleys that the rainwater drains into and I crashed unceremoniously to the floor.
Slightly embarrassed, I dusted myself off, put some weight on my left foot to see just how badly I´d knackered my ankle and was delighted to find it was OK.
BUT - as I walked away I realised that inexplicably my right foot felt really wet. I looked down and was somewhat surprised to see a pool of blood collecting all over my shoe and on the ground! Somehow in the process I´d taken a massive chunk out of the bottom of my big toe and it was practically spraying blood everywhere.
I made it to a bench and hurled my blood-soaked shoe to the ground, poured most of my bottle of water over it and watched the pink liquid soak into the dust.
The ever-practical Julie headed back to the Info booth and got plasters, scissors, gauze and......alcohol. No, not to drink, but that lovely stuff that it´s such a good idea to pour on open wounds until you remember how much it f**king hurts!! OUCH. And I´ve got a damn high pain threshold.
So for the last 2 days I´ve been wandering about with a toe covered in plasters, limping, trying not to put any weight on that side of my foot.
I´m sure I´ll forgive the Retiro in the end, but for now, I´m a bit miffed!
Thursday, 2 April 2009
Batteries, beer, bare chests and breakfasts
OK, I admit, I may have been a little over-excited to finally get online on my laptop the other day. Not that I´ve managed to get a dongle or anything else but I did at least find a cafe within walking distance (10 blocks, but it´s exercise!) of the house, where I could use their free WiFi. Well, I say free - I spent over 5 Euros on breakfast in order to sit in there for an hour and a half. But it was good to be on my own computer at last, instead of the public ones I´ve been using. At least it meant I could email my CV (such as it is) to a few places.
I´m shocked at how short a time my laptop battery lasts though. I´ve played about with the power settings til I´m blue in the face and I´m pretty sure it understands that when it´s on battery power it´s meant to use the lowest amount of power possible. I don´t have any peripherals plugged in, I´m even trying to only have a couple of websites open at one time and yet, when I switch on it tells me I have something like 2hrs 45mins. Within 20 mins, it´s telling me I have an hour left, and then that hour runs out in about 40 minutes. It´s infuriating!
I realised last night, as I swigged my first beer of the day while I still had the hangover from the night before, that I haven´t actually had a day with no beer since I arrived! Oops. I´ve been pretty good food-wise - plenty of fresh veg in my fridge and I haven´t totally lived on patatas bravas and tortillas, but I have so got to stop drinking every single day. I sound like a complete alcy (is that actually a word?) now!! So for a couple of days those nice people at San Miguel / Cruzcampo / Mahou will have to live without my custom.
So yesterday I went to look at a room in a shared flat. A completely new experience as I´ve never shared before (well, yes, I shared with Sid but I already knew her!). I was a bit pessimistic as the only other place I´d looked at was dreadful - a poky little room with almost no light, in a dilapidated old building, no outside area and no internet access. This place was a revelation! A big, 3-bedroomed place, newly refurbished, beautifully decorated, comfortable room with loads of storage and huge windows, etc etc! At the moment there´s just one Irish girl living there, but there is also a double room still advertised to rent so it´s possible that at some point there may be 4 people living there. Still fine though the queue for the bathroom will be interesting! It also had a huge sunny balcony with a view of the mountains. But the piece de resistance was the fact that the fire brigade has a training school just round the corner and apparently, the firemen periodically run past the flat, bare-chested, on their way to the park for a training session. How could I possibly say no?! So I took it. I move there on April 14th for at least 2 months. If nothing else, the fact that I have rent and bills to pay should incite me to try harder for a job.
Last night, I went with Julie and Behram to a new bar in town which was meant to be having "international evening" and turned out to have a pair of hiphop freestyle guys testing out the PA in readiness for a gig next week. My idea of hell quite honestly, so after a couple of drinks we bailed and hit Cafe Madrid which has a huge intercambio every Wednesday evening. Really busy but good fun. Met some great people, chatted lots, got some good hints of places to go and convinced half the Spaniards that they´d missed a treat if they´d been to the UK and not gone to Brighton! I guess from my side of things it wasn´t exactly intercambio as I spoke almost only English all evening but I´m determined that once my 3 days of Spanish lessons are over next week, I´m going to start practicing. Having said that, I did spend 15 minutes speaking French!
Talking of practicing Spanish, this morning my 2 next door neighbours (2 very sweet guys) trapped me outside bringing my washing in and insisted on showing me round their respective houses. Not quite sure why though it was interesting to see just how small a space one person can live in. The house right next door to me is miniature! Like a little doll´s house! But then for the next 20 minutes they bombarded me with Spanish about anything and everything. House prices, South American Indian souvenirs hanging from the ceilings, the fact that I only need to knock if I need anything (would you believe, one of them actually said "...like a cup of sugar...." - I always thought that was a terribly English thing!) - for the most part I got the gist of what they were saying but not the nuances, and I pretty much said nothing back! Bless them, they tried to slow down but without the vocab, I didn´t really stand much hope. I think I´m wrong but at one point I´m sure one of them told me that the necklace he was wearing was not made from beads as it appeared, but from the dried dung of a very small South American animal that jumps really high! I smiled and nodded as much as possible but it must have been pretty clear I was lost!
So today is "doing stuff" day - nothing too exciting mind you. Recycling, clearing up (as my landlady is coming to stay at her own house tomorrow night!), writing out some ads to post for English teaching/conversation, and some relaxing in the sun which has thoughtfully come back.
AND NO BEER!
Hasta luego, everyone!
I´m shocked at how short a time my laptop battery lasts though. I´ve played about with the power settings til I´m blue in the face and I´m pretty sure it understands that when it´s on battery power it´s meant to use the lowest amount of power possible. I don´t have any peripherals plugged in, I´m even trying to only have a couple of websites open at one time and yet, when I switch on it tells me I have something like 2hrs 45mins. Within 20 mins, it´s telling me I have an hour left, and then that hour runs out in about 40 minutes. It´s infuriating!
I realised last night, as I swigged my first beer of the day while I still had the hangover from the night before, that I haven´t actually had a day with no beer since I arrived! Oops. I´ve been pretty good food-wise - plenty of fresh veg in my fridge and I haven´t totally lived on patatas bravas and tortillas, but I have so got to stop drinking every single day. I sound like a complete alcy (is that actually a word?) now!! So for a couple of days those nice people at San Miguel / Cruzcampo / Mahou will have to live without my custom.
So yesterday I went to look at a room in a shared flat. A completely new experience as I´ve never shared before (well, yes, I shared with Sid but I already knew her!). I was a bit pessimistic as the only other place I´d looked at was dreadful - a poky little room with almost no light, in a dilapidated old building, no outside area and no internet access. This place was a revelation! A big, 3-bedroomed place, newly refurbished, beautifully decorated, comfortable room with loads of storage and huge windows, etc etc! At the moment there´s just one Irish girl living there, but there is also a double room still advertised to rent so it´s possible that at some point there may be 4 people living there. Still fine though the queue for the bathroom will be interesting! It also had a huge sunny balcony with a view of the mountains. But the piece de resistance was the fact that the fire brigade has a training school just round the corner and apparently, the firemen periodically run past the flat, bare-chested, on their way to the park for a training session. How could I possibly say no?! So I took it. I move there on April 14th for at least 2 months. If nothing else, the fact that I have rent and bills to pay should incite me to try harder for a job.
Last night, I went with Julie and Behram to a new bar in town which was meant to be having "international evening" and turned out to have a pair of hiphop freestyle guys testing out the PA in readiness for a gig next week. My idea of hell quite honestly, so after a couple of drinks we bailed and hit Cafe Madrid which has a huge intercambio every Wednesday evening. Really busy but good fun. Met some great people, chatted lots, got some good hints of places to go and convinced half the Spaniards that they´d missed a treat if they´d been to the UK and not gone to Brighton! I guess from my side of things it wasn´t exactly intercambio as I spoke almost only English all evening but I´m determined that once my 3 days of Spanish lessons are over next week, I´m going to start practicing. Having said that, I did spend 15 minutes speaking French!
Talking of practicing Spanish, this morning my 2 next door neighbours (2 very sweet guys) trapped me outside bringing my washing in and insisted on showing me round their respective houses. Not quite sure why though it was interesting to see just how small a space one person can live in. The house right next door to me is miniature! Like a little doll´s house! But then for the next 20 minutes they bombarded me with Spanish about anything and everything. House prices, South American Indian souvenirs hanging from the ceilings, the fact that I only need to knock if I need anything (would you believe, one of them actually said "...like a cup of sugar...." - I always thought that was a terribly English thing!) - for the most part I got the gist of what they were saying but not the nuances, and I pretty much said nothing back! Bless them, they tried to slow down but without the vocab, I didn´t really stand much hope. I think I´m wrong but at one point I´m sure one of them told me that the necklace he was wearing was not made from beads as it appeared, but from the dried dung of a very small South American animal that jumps really high! I smiled and nodded as much as possible but it must have been pretty clear I was lost!
So today is "doing stuff" day - nothing too exciting mind you. Recycling, clearing up (as my landlady is coming to stay at her own house tomorrow night!), writing out some ads to post for English teaching/conversation, and some relaxing in the sun which has thoughtfully come back.
AND NO BEER!
Hasta luego, everyone!
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