Introducing a new Guiri: Shana Solarte


In 2009, the summer before my last year of university, I went abroad for the first time and came to Madrid on a study trip through my school’s foreign language department. We discussed colloquialisms, studied art in museums and streets, and learned a whole lot about what the inside of Spanish bars looked like. Somewhere between my first incredible glimpse of Guernica and my last caña before heading back to the States in July, I realized that I was hooked. I couldn’t get enough of this city.

That summer was spent attempting to cover as much ground as possible. We took day trips to nearby towns and weekend trips to not-so-nearby towns. I ate a lot of jamón and learned that I really love salmorejo and huevos rotos. At the end of the program, I had a few days between the end of classes and my return flight to the States, so I found a cheap flight to Rome. When I came back to Madrid to spend one last day in town and catch my plane, I felt so at home that I cried from my window seat as we circled over the city.

Fast-forward about four months. A high school friend of mine living in Murcia sent me some information about her English teaching program and I immediately knew what my post-grad plans would be. In September 2010, after a long summer of work and anticipation, I once again set foot on Spanish soil and felt as if I’d never left.

Since returning, I’ve been working in a bilingual primary school outside the city with the sweetest students and coworkers I’ve ever encountered. I am certainly still as crazy about this place as I was just a few years ago–a sunset over Gran Vía still takes my breath away. I recently discovered this quote about Madrid in a Lonely Planet book, written by LP author Anthony Ham:

There will come a moment while you’re in Madrid when you will fall irreversibly in love with this beguiling city and wonder how you can bear to live elsewhere. It might strike you at 3am when you spill onto impossibly crowded streets from a bar in Chueca. Or it could happen as you wander amid the masterpieces of the Museo del Prado. But it will happen because this is a city that creeps up on you, weaves its way into your soul and then sings happily into your ear.

I couldn’t agree more.