Navidad Lights & Roasted Chestnuts

I've received a few requests for pictures of the Christmas (Navidad) lights here in Madrid.  And I finally got an opportunity to take those yesterday when Erin and Nikki suggested going for a walk to see them.  We also figured we would try chestnuts roasted on an open fire since we've spent years singing about them and all :).

The lights in our neighborhood, Malasaña

In Plaza de Chueca

In Chueca

On Calle de Grand Via

The tree in Puerta del Sol

You can also walk inside the tree, neatly enough :).

There are lots of people in Madrid right now...

Chestnuts being roasted on an open fire!

Roasted chestnuts (castañas asadas)

Then you peel the shell of, which is real fun, and eat this part!
It has kind of a popcorn-ish flavor,
and this picture is kind of blurry, sorry about that :).

A real tree at Callao

We finished our light tour after this plaza, whose name I can't recall.

It was quite lovely to tromp around town with the gals and experience trying roasted chestnuts.  It's started to get colder in Madrid now, which is we realize is still nothing compared to the temperatures in Nebraska.  But, apparently our bodies have adjusted to the climate here, so I guess there's something to be said for that? :)

Wandering on a Saturday Afternoon

You may have noticed an extended absence from my blog recently.  That hasn't been intentional, but there's really only so many intriguing things you can say about studying Spanish :).  Which, by the way, if anyone has any fun or interesting methods for memorizing vocab, hook me up in the comments.  That's one of my most significantly lacking areas at this point.

Anyways, this morning after awakening and preparing for the day I realized that, aside from studying, I didn't really have anything pressing to take care of.  My language exchange folks are out of town this weekend and the weather looked lovely, so I figured I would wander about the city a bit since I haven't really had the opportunity to do so for a while.

I went to the Mercado de los Mostenses first, mostly just because I love walking around in there.  It is crowded, kind of gritty feeling, but the range of products they sell is incredible.  I usually see something new here, and I apologize but I kind of forgot to take any pictures because I was, with great fascination, watching the fishmongers at work.  I did find a video link for you though :).

And randomly, since I was talking about fish, here's a picture of some sardines that I enjoyed while Nikki and I were in Santander a couple months ago.

They look a little odd, but they were very tasty!

Then I headed down toward Plaza Mayor where an artist was busy working on a painting.

After watching this guy for a bit, I was making my way to Plaza de Tirso de Molina for some lunch at one of my favorite spots, when I ran into a protest about funding for public schools.  I have seen plenty of protests around here, but this was the first one with a brass band.  So, I made my way through the crowd to check it out.  This video is a little jumpy because I kept getting whacked on the head by people waving flags.  Don't worry, I'm fine - it was just distracting :).

Eventually I escaped the crowds and had some lunch.  Then I headed north again because I had heard that the 15-M protesters had taken over the abandoned Hotel Madrid near Puerta del Sol.  I can confirm that this is indeed true.

I'm breaking in some new shoes (we walk enough here that you go through them pretty fast - kind of like burning through a tank of fuel in the states), so at this point it became clear that heading for home would be a good idea.  But it was a nice little outing :).

Alpacas in Madrid

Monday evening one of my language exchange partners and I were discussing hay bales (translated to Spanish:  alpacas).  She grew up on a farm, so we can have conversations like this that would otherwise seem really random in our current context.  Actually, it still seems really random...

Anyways, yesterday she saw two hay bales here in Madrid!  So, she took this picture and emailed it to me!

How great is that?

Waking up

The weather is finally beginning to cool down, Spaniards are returning, and the 'Closed for Vacation' signs are disappearing.  It's so nice to see the city waking up again after what seemed like a really long and hot August.

I don't know, it feels a little bit like the first day of school used to - the anticipation and some nerves.  I'm excited for the opportunities the Lord has for us in the months ahead.  There seem to be quite a few neat possibilities, and I think we're all looking forward to seeing what God does with them.

I'm a little nervous also.  Probably that's just because I'm returning to Hapkido class tonight (the gym was closed during August) and I've rather enjoyed not having bruises and sore muscles.  But, that's what ice packs and Advil are for!  I am pretty excited to see everyone and hear about their vacations though, which is an encouraging place to be at :).

Sierra de Gredos

After six months of noise, crowds, and just the general intensity of the city this country girl had to escape for a little while.  So, I signed up for a couple of days on horseback in the mountains.

I arrived at 2 p.m. the day before we started riding, and it pretty much took me the whole day to relax.  I didn't realize how wound up I was.  The silence of the countryside was initially unnerving, the fresh air disconcerting, and I just kept pacing back and forth.  Finally, I had to put my foot down and tell myself to take a seat, read my book, and watch the tractors drive by :).  By the next morning, the city had been mostly detoxed from my system and I was ready to ride.  

I came back from the weekend sore, but ready to get back to language classes and with a significantly improved attitude.  So, the lesson I learned is that, for the sake of sanity, I need to make an effort to get out of the city more often than every six months.  

Hadn't seen a tractor in a while!

Day 1:  Sitting on my horse (Ur) and seeing no trace of civilization for the
first time in months! So great.

Day 2:  Cruising past cows with my buddy Cisco :).

Typicalness

Well, my last blog post had a lot of words in it, so I thought it might be nice to hook you all up with some pictures.  As you know, five days a week I go to language school.  It's not that far from where we live, so I usually walk.  This week I decided to take some pictures of what I typically see on my way.

Walking south on Calle de Fuencarral.  This is where it turns into a
pedestrian walkway.

The stores haven't opened for the day yet, but the
delivery trucks are busy dropping off boxes of product.

Other than the delivery trucks, the street is pretty clear.
Later in the day, Fuencarral will be packed with people.

Then I get to cross Calle de Grand Via.

Just waiting for the light, watching the cars go by.

Crossing Gran Via, enroute to class.

Fuencarral turns into Montera on the south side of Gran Via.

My school is on the first floor,
which would be known as the second floor in the U.S.
Here in Spain, the ground floor is floor zero, which I think is fun
because it reminds me of learning how to work with binary numbers.
Yes, I am a geek :).

This language school is really close to Puerta del Sol,
so I like to go for a little walk and get the blood recirculating at break.

Poco A Poco

This has been the theme for my life recently:  "poco a poco."  Which essentially means, "little by little."

It's my first week in the B1 level of Spanish class.  The levels start at A1 (beginner) and progress to C2 (expert):  A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2.  As you know from previous posts and newsletters, becoming proficient at a language is sometimes difficult and frustrating.  There are days where it seems as though you've forgotten everything you ever learned and it'll never happen (today), there are days where you look back in astonishment at how far you've come, but most days you just try to keep plodding forward "poco a poco".

I recently signed up to take Hapkido class twice a week.  Call me crazy (and I wouldn't disagree with you) but I did it to capitalize on a few opportunities:  structured exercise time, to practice Spanish, and to meet a few more Spaniards ("poco a poco").  Two and a half weeks in:  I'm bruised, my body is constantly sore, and I continue to be pretty slow and clumsy with the Hapkido moves I have managed to learn.  Not unexpected given that I've never done this before.  My instructor keeps telling me, "poco a poco."

Also, I'm currently reading a book that a neat friend recently sent me, "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" by Donald Miller.  I don't have the brain power to sum it up well for you today, but here's a snippet from the book cover:

Every life is a story.  Whether it is a story worth telling and talking about, though, is up to you.  People set out with grand dreams of changing the world, falling in love, doing something amazing.  But the drift toward the merely acceptable happens almost without notice.  That does not have to be your story."

This book is full of good stuff, so you probably should go buy it.  Or come visit and I'll let you borrow it :).  But, a pretty consistent theme throughout the book so far is that good great stories require lots of hard work that will probably usually be painful.  Maybe even excruciating.  But God has placed us in this epic tale and if we choose to trust Him and risk everything to be part of it ("poco a poco"), we'll get to see and experience some amazing stuff.

The day I remember most while crossing the country [the U.S.A, on a bicycle] was the day we rode through Joshua Tree.  I got away from the group by perhaps thirty miles, and as the temperature broke a hundred degrees, I was forced to look for shade...  I just needed a break from the sun.  I knew I had fifty more miles to go, and the miles would be, perhaps, the most miserable of my life.  But in that place, I remembered about story, about how every conflict, no matter how hard, comes back to bless the protagonist if he will face his fate with courage.  There is no conflict man can endure that will not produce a blessing.  And I smiled.  I'm not saying I was happy, but for some reason I smiled.  It hurts now, but I'll love this memory, I thought to myself.  And I do.

- Donald Miller, "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years"

Encouragement

I finished my fourth week of intensive language classes!  And to be honest, I just feel like I have tons of information floating around in my brain and little to no ability to use it accurately or effectively.

This afternoon I was wandering aimlessly around the house trying to decide what to do with the couple of hours I had before meeting with my language exchange partner.  My brain was/is fried enough that it needed a break from studying - so that was out. Fortunately, a neat friend had sent this book with some neat visitors that came to Madrid this week!  Also fortunately, Nikki was there to suggest that I go read it for a while.

My Life in France by Julia Child
with Alex Prud'homme

Briefly, one thing that's important to know is that Julia Child is one of my absolute culinary heroes.  When I end up involved in a game of "If you could talk to any famous person, living or dead, who would you choose?"  My answer: Julia Child.

Anyways, I was reading and trying to banish frustrations with language study when I came across this.

"The longer I was in Paris, the worse my French seemed to get.  I had gotten over my initial astonishment that anyone could understand what I said at all.  But I loathed my gauche accent, my impoverished phraseology, my inability to communicate in any but the most rudimentary way."

Yay!!  Exactly!!  Why is that encouraging, you may be asking yourself?  Because eventually, Julia did learn to speak French fluently and then she ended up changing the culinary world.  So, maybe I can eventually learn Spanish :).

Then I went to meet my language exchange partner, whom I haven't seen in about six weeks.  We started chatting, and she was pretty shocked.  Her words "Stacy, your Spanish speaking has improved so much!"

So, you know, apparently things are going better than I thought they were!  And that's a nice way to begin the weekend, wouldn't you say? :)

Random Experiences

Since I've mostly been in class or studying somewhere the last couple of weeks, I haven't really thought of much to blog about.  That is, unless you're interested in Spanish grammar, vocab, and verb tenses.  Anyone??  No?  Hmm...  :)

And to be completely honest with you, I'm blogging right now because I seem to have developed an aversion to studying irregular verbs.  And that's kind of what I need to be studying right now.  Ok, one blog post - then I'll focus on irregular verbs - I promise!

Anyways, after intentionally deciding that I had zero desire to carry my umbrella around this afternoon, I found myself taking shelter from a  massive downpour.

When trapped by a downpour, the recommended course of action is
to take a picture.

As I cuddled next to the building and waited for the rain to lay off, I realized that I probably had enough randomly interesting experiences for a blog post.  Neat eh?
-
So on Saturday, Nikki was able to convince me to join her in walking down to the La Latina and Lavapiés neighborhoods.  After buying tortillas in Lavapiés for taco night, we discovered where all of the Indian food stands were set up for the Bollywood festival.  This resulted in a great deal of excitement, as you might imagine :).

A plaza full of Indian food stands.

Too bad I had already eaten lunch...

But, I had room for a couple snacks and some dessert :).

On Sunday, I was finishing some cleaning when Nikki came in and said that our plaza was full of motorcycles!  I found this to be quite exciting news, because I sometimes miss having a bike.

My former bike...

So Erin and I headed out to admire the bikes in the plaza.  Then I studied a bit before heading to tutoring.

Harleys parked in the plaza.

How great is this one with a horse and a buffalo painted on it?

There you go :).  And now I think I'll take on some of those irregular verbs, because I'm probably going to need them.  Later!

Signs of the Protest

Camp Sol Manifesto

"The sleeping voice of the people has awoken"
or something like that...

"In Sol we trust"

"We have the right to dream and make it a reality"

"We are more"

Protesters in Sol

It is interesting how things change sometimes isn't it?  The last post I put on this blog was about a kind of fun little parade in Puerta del Sol.  Now, it looks like Spain is all over the international news because of a protest that started in Sol, spread through the country, and continues right now.

I don't think I'll go into depth here on what this is about, the history behind it, or my personal opinion.  But, the basic premise is grounded in the fact that there are a lot of frustrated, unemployed people (especially youth) in Spain and they are extremely concerned about the future.

I'm sure you can find news on this all over but here's a BBC article and one with a video by the protesters. This protest has been declared illegal, but the police are currently not planning to break it up unless it gets unruly.

Anyways, it's obviously impossible for me to avoid going and checking this kind of stuff out :).  So, I went down there this afternoon.  Puerta del Sol definitely looks different today than it did the last time I blogged.

Part of the camp in Sol

One of the Metro entrances

The bear and tree statue, symbol of Madrid

Protestors and tourists

When you're busy protesting,
the best place to wash your feet is in the fountain

Police riot vans lined up

The foodie in me loves that they're
making paella while protesting :)

There were also quite a few signs up around Sol.  Maybe I'll put some of those in a different blog post so this one doesn't get any longer.

I think it will be interesting to see what comes of this.  The elections are tomorrow (Sunday), but the protesters are planning to stay for as long as it takes.