House cats! (devil cat on top and angel cat Ramses on bottom), and my lovely host mom cooking something delicious! She was tearing up pieces of mushrooms that are only found in the late fall and only grown in the wild and must be cut with fingers instead of knives to preserve their flavor. The flavor was preserved, let me tell you. Yum yum. Reminded me of Grandma and Mom's chicken caccetore, but Maria claimed French origin (ratatouille).
My friends Alice and Meg chose to venture to Copenhagen, Denmark over our long weekend, but I've been hanging around Madrid and trying to make the most of my restful, SIX DAYS OFF! Friday through Wednesday- it's pretty unbelievable. Mostly I've been going out with my friend Rachel and some Spanish friends of ours, we've been out the last three nights in a row so I'm taking Sunday off. I also had dinner with my friends from choir over at their apartment which was really sweet. We watched "Friends" dubbed in Spanish- it was very odd but I could understand most of it! Dinner involved a lot of delicious ham and cheeze. I also FINALLY got together and had lots of fun with my friend Allison (who I worked with at LearningWorks and three months ago this week we were coincidentally on the same flight to Madrid!) And last night when I returned from some bar-hopping with friends (and eating of the most delicious tapas- mini chorizos wrapped in potato chips and topped with mini fried eggs YUM) at 2am, multiple people were out walking their dogs and my host mom was still awake- watching TV and knitting. Such is the vida Madrileña and I'm going to miss it. Echaré de menos España.
Esto es mi barrio!/My neighborhood! Day and night versions of my view from my window. By the way, yes those are blooming flowers you see in the street's median in a photo I took in December. Be jealous. Tomorrow's high is 60 degrees.
Sorry I've been slacking on posts lately. Homework has picked up as the semester draws to a close, a reminder that the vacation will soon end and I will return to the frozen tundra homeland where my heart resides where I will trek through snow to and fro the Macalester book store, laden with paperback purchases to happily arrange on my new dorm room shelves... oh, snow and shelves full of books in English, how I miss you. Some of my good friends at Macalester and I are collaborating on a huge, shared Google doc/list of books to read. It began as one of my many and overly-ambitious "to-do over winter break" lists, but it is morphing into a wonderful sort of lifespan to-do list.
I'm also enjoying the BEAUTIFUL and extensive Christmas displays around the city. The perks of an 80% Catholic country- tons and tons of amazing lights, Christmas music playing everywhere, Santa and elf and christmas villages popping up outside of the big Corte Íngles (think Macy's), roasting chestnuts over open fires on every street corner, Christmas-themed windows in shops, and at least ten or fifteen different designs (abstract or minimalist or traditional or big or small) of huge, lit-up Christmas trees. I do miss the real version, all sap and pine scent and needles littering our rug back home. But next year I bet I'll be missing these mechanical approximations, so I'm enjoying them while I can. The lights are kind of funny, they all shut off at like 930 or 10 to save energy so when I go out they're usually off already...Today is my host mom's día de santo, meaning today is the holiday of the Saint that is her confirmation name or her patron saint or something like that, and it's about as big of a deal as birthdays around here. Entonces, 14 people were here for the noon-time meal! I wasn't involved much in the cooking process (which started yesterday). The highlight of the meal was an AMAZING soup that was from the secret recipe of my host mom's abuela; a gazpacho with hard boiled eggs, baby shrimps, white asparagus, home-made mayo and other incredibly delicious things. The abuelas were here! (Even though that means grandmothers, that's what my host mom calls the tías/aunts too). Tía Carmen y Tía Mercedes and the actual grandmother too. They are so elegant and funny too, they told me all about how you should never leave the house without earrings. But first they made sure I was wearing earrings. Here's a photo we took after lunch!
Please note the scale model of a Spanish Armada ship in the background (I will be trying to fit it into my suitcase when I leave as a Christmas gift for one Ann Raiho, lover of all things ships). By the way, I'd love suggestions for additions to my book list! Leave a comment or shoot me an email. I'd love to hear from you guys!
Love, Nat
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