Back in Madrid, Part II

After arriving in Madrid at midnight-ish last Thursday (the plane left Frankfurt late), waiting for my luggage to appear on the belt of the baggage claim, a 45 minute-ish ride on the Metro, I got back to the apartment at 1:30-ish AM.  I immediately threw the windows open (no a/c), watered the plants, and checked my email.  I mean, what else would I be doing at 1:30, closer to 2:00, in the morning? :)

One of our neighbors had been taking care of the plants while we were gone, and I found an email from him in my inbox.  He was warning me about the "ola de calooooooor" (heat wave) coming last weekend (which we're still experiencing), and wondering when I would be back in town.  I told him that I was back and that I could take care of the plants again.

It's interesting to think that, around the world, one of the first conversation items you get is the weather. I follow a Spanish blog (caminandopormadrid.blogspot.com) occasionally and one of the entries from earlier in the summer mentioned that there's a saying about the weather in Madrid:  "Madrid, nueve meses de invierno y tres de infierno."  Nine months of winter and three of hell.  Hahaha!  It cracks me up - winter isn't that bad here - c'mon I'm from Nebraska!  But I'll agree that it's pretty warm in the summer :).

Anyways, back to discussions about the weather - with Europeans, temperature discussions are in degrees Celsius.  It's initially pretty funny to hear someone complaining about how hot it is at 40°.  I'm still trying to learn this, so here's a handy chart for all of us.

• 0° C     =   32° F (that one's pretty easy, right?  I think I learned it in kindergarten.)
• 10° C   =   50° F
• 20° C   =   68° F
• 30° C   =   86° F
• 40° C   =   104° F (May not need to go much higher...  Well, one more.)
• 176.666666666666667° C   =   350° F  (typical temperature to bake something, figured it would be interesting to share!)

Well, it's about dinner time, so I'll leave you with a few pictures from Germany.  Until later!