Year two

Well, here I am once again! I've been back in Madrid for nearly two weeks and have done nothing but look for a place to live and rediscover all of the things that I love about this place. After about a week of searching, I found a new piso near my bus station, cutting about twenty minutes out of my previously hour-long commute. Toma! Here's what my room looks like. It's pretty small, but I have a big comfy bed and an actual closet with a door with a bit of storage space above it, and it doesn't really feel that small until I lie down and look at how small the ceiling actually is. The rest of the apartment is very cozy, and I don't mean cozy in real estate agent terms, but rather that I find it very comfortable. The living room has a giant window across the entire exterior wall, so the afternoons are very warm and sunny. The couches are soft and comfy, and the TV has more than five watchable channels. I've been able to watch Will & Grace a few times so far. No complaints from me. I have an oven this year, too! I haven't yet attempted using it, mostly because I am generally afraid of ovens and this one uses gas so I have to light it by hand which scares me even more. But anyway, my roommates are really nice, too. I'm living with a Spanish girl and a Colombian girl who have both mentioned they'd like to aprovechar living with an American and practice a bit of English. I know that my Spanish suffered by not using it all summer, so hopefully these two will get me back to, if not better than where I was in June.

My favorite roommate, however, is only two years old:

My roommate adopted this cat, seen above napping in my lap, two years ago when she was just a baby. She'd been injured in some way that caused damage to one of her eyes, so a veterinarian had to remove the eye to prevent further injury or infection. Now she is just like any other cat I've seen, and very playful! Plus, her name is Mira... Spanish for "look." How's that for a sense of humor? It's been very comforting having a pet in the house. She's really friendly and likes to follow everybody around. Today she jumped on my bed and snoozed while I read through some papers I received at school today.

Speaking of school... today was my first day back on the job. My schedule was among all of said papers, and it turns out I will have Mondays off this year. I'll also be working exclusively with second grade, therefore I'll be working with the same students and teachers as last year! It seems a bit strange that they won't have Jennifer and me changing each month like before, but I suppose I can't complain. I really enjoy working with these kids and I'll be spending a lot less time trying to figure out which students need that extra push to understand English, which I think will help me in the end. Even though I've only spent one day back, I'm already kind of sad to think that this is the last year!

While it was nice to see my students again, it was especially nice to see the other teachers. I got to be pretty good friends with a few of them so it was exciting to catch up and hear about everybody's holidays. If first days are any sign of things to come, this should be a fun year.

Getting set up

We have internet! Woooooooo! The entire process was pretty painless, aside from a 20-minute wait at Telefónica yesterday and our technician having the thickest Madrileño accent ever--very difficult to understand on the phone.  Speaking of which, I have a cell phone now... not that it is very useful to those of you reading from the States, but if you happen to be a Madrileño (honorary or otherwise) let me know and we can get in touch! So, here I am, day 4 in Madrid. So far I've gotten some things set up, all that's left is to set up my bank account and get started on my National ID/residence card etc etc. We are supposed to hear a bit about that at orientation this week, but Erica, the girl who lived in this piso last year and helped me get set up here has been telling me a lot of useful information to keep in mind.

I've mostly been showing Tasha around Madrid since she's never been here before, and it's strange to think that I actually know this city better than someone after spending only a month here a year ago. We've been to the "must-sees" of Madrid already--Puerta del Sol, Plaza Mayor, shops on Gran Vía, etc--but we haven't yet hit Retiro or anything North of Sol, really. She said she's been giving an entire day for every task that she'd normally take an hour to do in England, and that isn't such a bad idea.

Last night, we watched the movie (500) Days of Summer to swoon over Joseph Gordon-Levitt rather than fight the throngs of people in Sol that we saw there all day yesterday. Near the end of the movie, around midnight, fireworks started going off very nearby. It sounded like they were going off inside our apartment and the ashes were falling on the roof! We couldn't figure out why fireworks would be going off aside from maybe the end of the Real Madrid game, but their stadium (Santiago Bernabéu) is nowhere close to where we live! Very strange.

This morning we woke up early and got out to the Rastro to see what goodies were being offered. Nothing special for me, unfortunately, but Tasha bought a few Spanish books to get back in practice. After that, a quick snack at 100 Montaditos before coming back here to deal with the internet (an obvious success) and watch Fear Factor in Spanish. Very strange.

Finally, Sonal has asked me to continue the Tour de Sangria, and so here are my first contributions!

Sangria 1: from La Soberbia, near Tio Pepe in Sol This sangria was absolutely perfect!

Sangria 2: from Cañas y Tapas near Sol This was on-demand sangria--wine, lemon Kas, and a few pieces of fruit.

de Madrid al cielo

I´m here!! We don´t have internet in our piso yet, so I am writing this from a locutorio around the block. The apartment is great--very well-connected via metro to the rest of the city, fully-furnished, and the "random" roommate is really nice and we seem to have a lot in common so far. I don´t have a lot to add right now as all I´ve done today is sleep and unpack, but here is a picture of the first bottle of wine purchased at my local mercado: