Fresh Air

Today (Sunday) we finally saw a full day of sunshine here in Madrid and it was beautiful and much needed for both our spirits and our sanity. We decided to take advantage of the nice weather and get outdoors to combine some exercise with some sightseeing. A future classmate that we met on Saturday night suggested that we check out Parque del Oeste on the western edge of the city. The other major park in the city is Parque del Retiro, but apparently that is not as friendly for running.

We ventured out around 13:00 (side note: it’s been very difficult for us to get up and out early in the mornings. Still adjusting to jet lag I suppose). We decided to walk to the park. It also seemed more appropriate on the sleepy streets of our neighborhood. Sundays are very quiet in Malasaña. Most stores are not open on Sundays. Restaurants and cafes tend to be a toss-up. Some open in the afternoons when locals gather for a drink and snack, but often close again on Sunday nights, and don’t reopen until Monday, or sometimes Tuesday.

It took us less than twenty minutes to walk to the park and it was really great to see some greenery after a week spent within the maze of Madrid streets. The park was full of people strolling along, many walking dogs. We spotted a few other people exercising (most likely expats), but most people seemed to be enjoying the gorgeous day with family and friends. Our run was interesting as the eastern edge of the park (where we entered) is at the high end of a steep slope, which made the first half of the run easy, but coming back uphill was nearly impossible. I should also note that the combination of smoke inhalation, adjustment of sleep schedules and carb and fat-heavy meals did not exactly help matters. Nonetheless, it was a great way to spend the afternoon and to explore a new part of the city. According to my map, we actually crossed into several other parks along the way- Parque de la Bombilla and an area known as San Antonio de la Florida.

We finished Sunday with a great meal at Aljayma La Cocina Del Desierto, a middle-eastern restaurant in Chueca. It was a great recommendation by our landlord. We started with hummous and then shared something called “sabila” which was grilled meat with some roasted pumpkin, onions and tomatoes. We also ordered one of the cuscus (cous cous) with chicken and vegetables. Everything tasted really good, and the best part was how reasonably priced it was- our bottle of wine was €9.50!

You Have to Begin at the Beginning

Well, after many threats and promises, I am officially starting my blog to document my time here in Spain. While I will try to keep it interesting for everyone, I know that you can’t please everyone all the time, so bear with me, and hopefully there will be a little bit of something for everyone.

So, where to begin? We arrived in Madrid a little over a week ago. Hard to believe that so much time has passed. I guess the travel gods were looking out for us because we flew Lufthansa here two days before the Lufthansa pilots went on strike. If caught up in that, we may still be sitting in a very snowy New York. After a very uneventful and seamless trip via Frankfurt, we made our way to the apartment we are renting on Calle de San Vicente Ferrer. We found this place through a Spanish classified website, similar to Craigslist, called loquo.es. We lucked out because not only does an American woman own this apartment, but she is a chef! That means, for the time that we are staying here (one month) I get full access to her amazing cookbook collection! She has also been a great source for tips on where to eat, shop, etc.

Much of the last week has been dedicated to acclimating to life in a foreign city. While in some ways I think we are at an advantage because we are used to living in a major metropolis and dealing with things such as deciphering a Metro map, carrying groceries home and living in small spaces, we have found the language barrier to be extremely challenging. Of course I am kicking myself for not spending more time over the last six months learning Spanish, but I suppose that agonizing over the past is probably only a waste of time at this point.

Another one of our greatest challenges here has been trying to understand the Madrid dining scene. It really is one of the more fascinating and complex cultural systems that I have ever encountered. I am sure that I will revisit this in subsequent posts, but for now, I will provide a link to a blog post that “the fiancé” (as he will be known on this blog) came across that describes our feelings better than I probably could myself. As Carl suggests, we have been practicing our “calm, assertive energy” and have met with better results. While we are on a strict student budget, we have managed to have several delicious meals in restaurants. One in particular that stands out was last Monday night at Fraqua (recommended by our landlord). This restaurant located in Malasana (same neighborhood that we live in now) is not far from the Plaza de Dos de Mayos. We ate the most amazing sirloin steak served on a sizzling hot platter on which the meat continued to cook (thankfully, because it came out of the kitchen rather bloody). I think we’ll both remember this meal fondly, as it was our first proper meal that we were able to experience here in Madrid.

Other highlights of the week are as follows:

· Spent most of Thursday afternoon at the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum, which I remembered from my trip to Madrid in 2000 as my favorite museum. The collection is comprised of paintings spanning the last 500+ years arranged in a chronological order. On a very cool note, when we got to the last room of the museum (modern art), “the fiancé” was shocked to see three paintings by Richard Estes, an artist that he knew personally from spending his childhood summers on Mount Desert Island in Maine, where Mr. Estes has a home.

· Met several classmates last evening for cocktails at a local café here on Calle de San Vicente Ferrer. It was amazing to be sitting at the table with one student from Australia (born in India, raised in Singapore) and another from South Africa (born in Taiwan). I can only imagine the diversity we will experience once we meet everyone in our class!

· In an attempt to practice his Spanish and partake in one of Spain’s great passions, (jamon), “the fiancé” mistakenly tried to order 1,500 grams of jamon iberico. Luckily the butcher hesitated and tried to clarify what he wanted. After several awkward moments of gesturing and elementary Spanish, a kind woman took pity on him and explained to the butcher that he only wanted 50 grams. That would have been one costly mistake!

There are many other highlights, but I will be getting to those in later blog posts hopefully. I’m also hoping to include several photos in each post, if our spotty internet connection allows. Part of my hesitation in creating this blog was that I did not know exactly what direction I hoped for it to follow. I suppose I’ve decided to just give it a whirl and see where the wind takes us. I imagine it’ll be a hodge podge of everyday experiences while living abroad, culinary tidbits and obsessions, musings of an Instituto de Empresa MBA student and many other random topics that seem appropriate at the time. Thanks for reading, and I hope I can keep you coming back! Adios for now and don't forget to leave a comment!