Disorientation



La Plaza de Santa Ana

I’m now done with orientation / the first set of jornadas de formacion!!! Wednesday after las jornadas, I went to a restaurant with some chicas and ordered the ensaladilla rusa because it was the only thing vegetarian on the menú.  I asked the waiter if it contained meat, but I forgot to ask if it had seafood either...it had tuna...I ate 1/4 of it just so I wouldn’t seem wasteful or rude.  I´m sure it tasted good (to a normal person’s mouth) but since my mouth hasn’t tasted animal in so long it was giving me nausea.  Thursday after la jornada, I walked all the way to the downtown central area near Sol with some other friends.  We went to the 100 Montaditos they have on the terraza-plaza of Santa Anna and had an hour or two lunch and then walked all the way back to our Alonso Martinez area.  On the way back, we passed some prostitutes out on the main street in the middle of the afternoon…not in a creepy alleyway at midnight…the middle of the day in the touristy part of Madrid.  

Breakfast here has been so nice. The coffee is rich and thicker than normal liquids.  In the states, coffee is the same consistency as water before you add the cream and toppings.  You have to put 1/2 a cup of milk in Spanish coffee just to get it light brown...and its so good that I actually forget to put sugar in it sometimes.  Breakfast is usually just coffee and juice with some kind of muffin/pastry/pan tostada....anything that has carbs (but light and not uber-sweet like in the states.)

Another random thing I’ve noticed, the pillows here are all skinny and take up the width of the bed.

Yesterday was also my day to come to the piso I had lined up over the Internet before coming to Spain.  I got on the subway going OUT of the city with all the commuters at 7:30pm...not smart.  I decided to sit on a bench on the platform for 20 minutes thinking I could wait until it got less packed but that didn’t work, so I waited until a train came by and 3 or 4 people with suitcases got off, because then I could fit with my gigantic stuff. When I got to Principe Pio, there were ticket stands all over for all the cercanias and the Renfes and the two people pointed me outside to get a ticket for the interurbano bus. I was outside in this huge plaza disoriented for a while, and finally found a "you are here" map that said my bus was on level -1.  How do I get to level -1 since i just came up and down a million different stairs? I finally figured out that the odd little glass buildings all over the plaza are escalators to go under Principe Pio.

I found the 495 terminal easily and asked an old man in front of me if it was the right one. He was really nice and told me I spoke Spanish well.  When he found out that I couldn’t buy a ticket because I had a 20 (you can’t pay with anything bigger than a 5) he tried to give me change from his wallet. I went back inside, got change from a vendor and waited 40 min. for the next bus.
On the bus I recognized most of the stops, (besides the fact that the driver didn’t have the scrolling marquee thing on to tell us which stop we were at...) but when we got to Arroyomolinos I was really confused. I finally asked a guy if he knew where the San Fernando stop was. He didn’t know, so a mom-type lady interjected and helped me. I told her it was near a BANCO CAJA MADRID and she told me to get off at her stop. When we got off, there were two kids that ran up and gave huge hugs and kisses to their dad who was getting off the bus.  Aww, Hallmark moment…I, on the other hand, got on the street and took about 30 seconds to figure out which direction to start walking in.  I crossed the street and headed towards the apt. but on the way heard someone say "Niki?" It was Carlos and Vanesa. They were walking in the opposite direction to the bus stop because they were worried and it was starting to rain.



view of Arroyomolinos this morning from my bedroom



They are so nice.  The apartment is amazing,…and I’m happy to finally be settled in.