One Month Already??

I honestly cannot believe that I have already been in Spain for one whole month! It's so crazy how time can feel like an eternity and the blink of an eye at the same time. But July was absolutely incredible, and I know that August and September will only have more exciting things in store!

It's also really cool to start to see how I'm feeling more and more at home here, and to feel that I'm actually "living" in Madrid as opposed to just vacationing for an extended period of time. My room is much more home-y (thank you SO much to everyone who sent pictures - it has made an absolute world of difference!!) I've done normal chores like laundry several times (though never before have I had to hang up all my clothes on the balcony for the world to see) and I'm having so much fun even in the times just hanging out at the apartment with my roommates. In fact, we all went out together for the first time this past week and invited friends over to our apartment beforehand, and it was SO much fun! It was also time #1 of 2 in this weekend alone that I went to sleep with the sunrise :) You would be amazed the number of people - young, old, families, wedding parties - who get their churros con chocolate fix at 6 in the morning before taking the metro back home again! We tried out a different club, and also had a good-bye night out at our favorite bar to say goodbye to some of our closest friends here who were unfortunately only in Madrid for a month!

Also this week, we saw an authentic Madrid flamenco show! It was a ton of fun, the dancing was absolutely incredible and the show incorporated the storyline from the opera Carmen, which is actually based on a legend that was said to take place in Seville. Another authentic Spanish cultural attraction to check off of our list!

I have also decided that since Madrid and I celebrated our one-month-anniversary of our relationship, I am going to share a few things that I've learned so far since being here. Cultural nuances, mere observations, Spanish quirks...call them what you will, but here is what I have so far on my "When In Madrid..." list, and as I find myself discovering new things still every day, I'm sure this list will have to be constantly updated!

- It´s not extremely necessary to learn the phrase for ¨excuse me¨ in Spanish. they never use it, nudging is much more efficient

- On a similar token, lines don´t really mean that much to the madrileños. if you want your turn at anything, you have to be as assertive as they are, or it will l iterally take you 30 minutes to get an ice cream, even if you were originally the first and only one in the store. i´ve had adults, grandmas, teenagers, business professionals, small children cut me off. adopt the ¨move it or lose it ¨mantra

- The metro is actually a very peaceful place, generally speaking. It´s extremely clean, people don´t usually eat or drink or talk very loudly, and will usually either be listening to music or reading. however, if people start applauding once you exit the metro, you will know that you were the obnoxious one who was violating one of these rules

- There is no shame in running to catch the metro or the train

- It´s not necessary to surrender your seat to women on the metro, and men will almost just as quickly jump to claim a seat even if there are women vying for the same one. They do ask that you give up your seat to pregnant women, women with children, or handicapped people. but, be extremely cautious when you offer your seat to a woman, because you run a very high risk of severely offending her by calling her old

- At first it may seem really nice and pleasant when people with instruments come and serenade your metro car during your ride, however it becomes not so nice when they won´t exit until someone pays them for their unsolicited musical contribution

- All kinds and ages of people use the metro, young, old, families, to get wherever they need to go. many people in spain actually don´t even have their drivers licenses because they don´t need it, and also because driving in madrid is quite a frightening process. i don´t blame them. but most people who go for their licenses are usually in their late 20´s or early 30´s

- in conjunction with above, even though you may technically have the right of way, always yield to cars who may not really care. yes, technically you may have been right but that won´t matter much if you´re a pancake

- Most people in madrid don´t own nice cars. I think this is primarily because of their unusual parking methods. For example, when parallel parking, you know you´ve run out of room in the back when you hit the bumper of the car behind you. then you switch to drive, and pull up until you figure out you´ve run out of room in the front when you´ve hit the bumper of the car in front of you

- probably another reason for the affinity towards public transportation is the impossibility of navigation. the Spanish only label their streets when they feel like it, or maybe when they think it would be funny to add another little squiggly street with no name and not put it on a map. hilarious, right? and, the street signs are on the sides of buildings, not actually on the streets 

- The spanish food pyramid looks a little different than what we´re used to in the states. At the bottom would probably be carbs, anything fried, and meat. except for jamón (ham) because that gets its own category. Also as major food groups include cerveza and tinto de verano (we´re convinced it´s basically red wine and fanta), mayonnaise, and fanta. Oh and then at the top, add in your fruits and vegetables. Yeah yeah they´re really great and fresh and cheap here and you can get them at the fruterias, but forget ordering them at a restaurant. why settle for vegetables when you can have croquetas, calamari, tortilla, or jamón for god´s sake??

- do not take pictures of the statues placed sporadically around the streets. there is about a 95% chance that it´s not a statue but actually a street performer who makes their living by staying still for hours. if you dare to take a picture without dropping some coins, however, they will immediately abandon post and chase you down the street in costume

- I am convinced that the Spanish did something strange to the solar rotation or whatever it may be, just to fit the daylight hours better with their cultural concept of time. you´re crazy if you think the nightlife involves any ¨pm¨ hours, and it´s really not that weird to take your infant in a stroller on a walk at 3:30 am. dinnertime is at 10pm, lunch usually at 3, and of course a siesta at 4 or 5, and there are more people on the metro early in the morning coming back from a night out than going to work. the quietest i´ve ever seen our street is at 7 or 8 am

- ¨on time¨is about 10 minutes late, in every case except the oddly and extremely efficient public transportation system. Arrive late there and you´re out of luck

- The Spanish take their vacation time very seriously. If not enough holidays fall on weekdays that they can take off of work, they will celebrate lesser ones or (i´m convinced) make some up. It is required by law to have at least 10 national holidays off of work

- A day without sangria is a day wasted

- They are obsessed with celllulite and fat and spend a great deal of time and advertisements addressing the issue, but gyms really only exist for the American tourists. working out is a joke, and if you go on a jog down a populated street people will immediately become extremely confused as to why you´re wearing funny clothes and apparently in a hurry?

- Oddly enough considering the above, there are very very few obese people in Spain. i think it´s because of all the walking they do in city life, or the smaller portion sizes of their fried food, or something, but america let´s take some notes

- When you´re in a relationship, the whole world is your bedroom. i´m not quite sure what it is but for some reason, people seem to be extremely romantically moved by the metro, the grocery store, the coffee they happen to be drinking, the park they´re in, etc.

- Drinking in public is technically prohibited. unless you´re really enjoying it then who are we to stop you?? you know what, you look like you´re having a fabulous time we´ll even sell you cerveza in the streets for 1€

- There are no. public. bathrooms. ANYWHERE. 

- However, if by some stroke of miracle you happen to find yourself in an establishment with a restroom, chances are there will be no toilet paper. the spanish appear to not believe in TP, so again if you get lucky enough to find a bathroom with some, it´s never a bad idea to take a few squares for the road. not only may it save you some trouble in the future, but we´ve even made a few new friends this way

- The spanish people´s favorite word is ¨vale¨ meaning ¨ok ¨or great/cool/etc. in fact, it really can mean whatever you want it to. when in doubt, just say ¨vale.¨ or to be really authentic, say it a few times in a row. quite often, you´ll witness one end of a phone conversation that consists primarily of ¨si si ¨ ¨vale vale ¨(and the v is pronounced more like a b) or ¨no no no ¨ (for some reason, no gets 3 times)

- There are also no public drinking fountains, and water is not free at restaurants. in fact, sometimes it even costs more than beer or wine. spain = dehydration nation

- they claim to reject american influence. that´s funny, why is american music in every single store and restaurant, and why are spongebob, dora the explorer, elvis, and spiderman running around the city center on the daily?

- Mexico lied to us. baños don´t exist, instead they are called ¨servicios¨ or ¨aseos¨ and if you use the B word you´re a dead american give-away

- In madrid, don´t ever wait until you actually really need something before you go to try to buy it. chances are that the store you really need will be closed for one reason or another, the store owner is sleeping, the store owner wants to be sleeping, the store owner had something better to do, the store owner didn´t feel like it today, it´s too hot to be working, etc.

- in public pools, you may not consume the fruit you brought as a snack on the grass by the pool. you may, however, smoke, drink, canoodle, and sunbathe topless. but absolutely no fruit

- handshakes are weird and even sometimes considered rude or stand-off-ish. you kiss everyone on the cheek, one on each, even when you meet your boss for the first time, for example

- enormous animal parts hanging from the walls and ceilings are a common favored decor in bars and restaurants

- Spain, would it kill you to try to even our your sidewalks just a tiny bit? i mean yes, the cobblestones add a nice historic touch but i have never tripped so many times in my entire life

- they are really into these baggy gypsy pants things that look kindof like colorful parachutes. and long pants rompers

- there are more shoe stores than anything else, i swear at least 60% of their gross national GDP has to come from sandals

- The stores have very accurate descriptions, but i couldn´t tell you the actual name of most of the individual places. but there are cervezerias (selling cerveza - beer), fruterias (fruit),  jamonerias (ham), telefonerias (telephone stores) zapaterias (zapatoes - shoes), etc.

- there is no mexican food here, despite the misnomers you may encounter. for example, they call any kind of sauce ¨salsa ¨a tostada is not, in fact, a crunchy delicious bottom topped with lettuce and meat ad cheese and tomatoes, but actually toast, and a tortilla is probably the farthest from what you would expect, and instead is also known as the ¨spanish omlette ¨made with eggs and potatoes. all are still pretty tasty, but just don´t ever get your hopes up