blog time, time for blog.

Hola!

So I've been in Madrid for almost three weeks now and I am finally surrendering to the "blog while I'm abroad" craze. I was riding home on the Metro tonight (my favorite thing to do and probably the place I spend the most of my time, always listening to my iPod shuffle which is full of Shakira and rap and upbeat music to walk around to) and I was thinking about all the stories I wanted to share with all of you, and this seemed like a cost and time efficient way to do so. I named this blog Natalia Pescada Grande because it was my mote (nickname) in Señor's spanish class at Blake. (Pescada Grande = big fish, after my last name Pike). Also I often introduce myself as Natalia here because it's much easier to pronounce than Natalie which is french. I'll try and get the basics out now and bring in the details later.

I love this country, for many reasons, but two of them are the metro and the meat. It is pretty near impossible to be vegetarian here. Meat and seafood are in everything, and the Spanish idea of vegetarian is tuna on top of salad. Naturally, I am as happy as can be. There are like twenty different kinds of ham here. On the topic of food and meat, I'm really becoming used to the food schedule here and I loveeee my host mom's cooking. She is amazing. She speaks French and Latin, knows everything about art and learned to cook at Le Cordon Bleu, plus she has a cat named Ramses and she buys me gluten free bread. Normally the midday meal is at 2:30pm with as many of her grown children as can make it that day (she has 4 that live in Spain and all live very close, 1 lives in France). We eat three courses at this "comida" and usually eat a little snack around 7 and then a small dinner of leftovers around 9 or 10. I love the midday meal because I get to talk to all of the family members and the food is SO GOOD. I'm so lucky that I have time between my classes to come home and eat. The house is usually just me, Maria (my host mom) and Pilar (her youngest daughter who just turned 30 who lives with us). Also, Maria's youngest son Luis is super nice and his wife is pregnant with a little girl they are going to name Natalia! Maria just finished knitting the other Natalia an adorable yellow baby sweater. Now she's working on the booties, which she knits while watching crime shows like CSI and Bones. Dubbed in Spanish, of course, so I understand about 2/3rds. I usually understand enough on TV to get intrigued and then miss enough to be frustrated when the plot resolution is lost on me. It's tiring, but good for me to listen to tons of Castellano.

On the topic of the metro- it's cheap (if the euro is your currency), clean, fast, safe and most of all EASY. I live in southern Madrid which means I have a long (45 min) ride to the campus of my school, and I'm not very close to my friends either but I am really close to the places we go out to on the weekends and the city center. The only bummer is that it closes at 1:30 in the morning, which is very early on the weekends. Most weekend nights I come home around 4. I only have classes on Tuesdays and Thursday, so this is frequent.

On the topic of Madrid- I love this city, I've only been here for two weeks since I spent a week in Northern Spain for orientation, but I can't wait to explore it more. I've been really fortunate with my program- they are so invested in us getting out in the city and really speaking the language. We get reimbursed 50% of any cultural event- theatre, fútbol games, bull fights, museums, movies, etc. They've also hooked us up this weekend with students from the Spanish University. In small groups we walked around the city and went to the Rastro sunday open air market to get an insider's scoop on the city. I had two of the nicest women, Claudia y Daniela, to lead me around all of their favorite places and neighborhoods. Claudia brought us to the most beautiful libraries to study in that used to be palaces and churches. She also showed us a Centro Cultural that is covered in graffiti, has a rooftop terrace and 2 bars in it that hosts free classes for immigrants to learn Castellano Spanish and other classes for community learning. It looked like an awesome speakeasy, populated by lots of students, families, tattoos and dreadlocks and bikes out front. Daniela told us about a small café where you can see flamenco singers and dancers and guitarists perform and I'm really excited to check that out.

Please excuse the run-on sentences! I've forgotten how to write in this language while absorbing myself in another. Plus I have a lot to say.

Leave comments and come back soon, I'm planning on posting more soon!

Love from across the atlantic,
Natalia Pescada Grande