Rambling: Settling in Madrid

Well, FINALLY I'm actually posting something.  Basically the past couple weeks have gone like this: something interesting/fun/insightful happens, I jot down a couple things in a draft post or notebook, I don't have time to finish it, something else interesting/fun/insightful happens, I jot down a couple things about that but don't finish it, repeat over and over, until finally I'm overwhelmed with how many things I want to capture but haven't finished.  I'll try to do a recap here without getting super long.

Where to begin!  My family here is great. I'm lucky that I really have no complaints.  I've gotten together with some of the other au pairs a couple of times and it seems that I'm the only one with nothing to vent about.  My main responsibility is to take care of the 7 year old, who I'll call Chiquita, and help out a little with the 13 year old, who I'll call Chica (but is obviously much more independent).  For a glimpse at Chiquita's personality, see this short post.  Here is where I live:

The suburb where I live - Villavisiosa de Odon.  It's like Forest Hills except a little bigger and its history dates back to the year 939.

Bread!  This bakery gave me a free cookie :)

The road leading from the town, Villavisiosa, to the neighborhood, El Bosque.

The view about 1 block from the house.  I just love the trees and mountains.

Here, the people that can afford it live in mega-neighborhoods called an Urbanizacion.  They're like gated communities except spread over more streets, with several entrances. Cars park outside of the entrances so there are only cute sidewalks on the inside, no streets.  The evenings are full of kids playing around the neighborhood with their friends and moms taking babies for walks.  Each section has it's own nice pool (but they're closed for the season).

Mi casita!

Almond tree in the backyard, fig tree in the front yard

Backyard - reminds me of Chile :)

My car for three month... I'm kind of obsessed 

Chiquita loves playing in the park with her friends, talking to the family dog in a baby voice, refusing to eat any fruits or vegetables, and Monster High dolls.  What are Monster High dolls you ask?  How have I been living without them? is really what you should be asking.  They are like Barbies, except sluttier (like Bratz), but monsters.  Like, there's the vampire one, the werewolf one, the ghost one, etc.  It's a TV show and doll extravaganza and soon to be a movie.  Chiquita has the matching backpack, tennis shoes, and a couple shirts.  The dolls are expensive (like 30 euros, she tells me) and girls here love to show off their newest treasures to their friends.  Some girls, I've seen, even make videos of themselves "reviewing" their Monster High collection (aka, bragging) to upload to Youtube (to earn the glorious views of 7 year olds all around the world).


At first I disliked them for their self-image-warping female looks, but I have to admit that now I'm secretly a fan.  The TV show actually had a good message - 'it's ok to be different from others' (like a monster).  Chiquita brought a new one home recently and I was actually excited to check out the arrow and heart-shaped details of Cupido's clothing.  Ay madre mia. 

Let's see, what else is there to share (obviously Monster High was a top priority).  Big topics would be what I do every day, what I've learned about Spanish politics and Europe in general, my weekend trip to Malaga, what I'm reading, and what I've observed about the education system here, so I'll leave those for posts on their own.  For now, here are some snapshots from my second weekend here (Oct 6 & 7).  It was my first time feeling more like someone who lives here rather than a tourist!  Reasons why:

• I didn't need to look at my metro map every other minute 
• I recognized some songs on the radio 
• I was finally handling the round-abouts while driving like a pro 
• I had people to meet up with! 

Saturday: group hike through Casa de Campo, a huge park on the edge of the city.  None of the photos do justice to the skyline or mountains, I think because the pollution makes them look hazy.

I met 3 girls studying here from California and they invited me to join them for Mexican food after the hike - yay, making friends!  (Weirdly like 3 of the 6 restaurants I've been in Madrid have been Mexican).

Sunday morning: El Rastro flea market, a super-duper-old tradition.

This sweet woman proudly told me that she's been selling her paintings here for 46 years.  We talked for a while, she asked to take this photo and signed the back of the paintings, and we parted with 4 cheek-kisses. I realized later that I could have found some cheaper elsewhere, but I'm happy with my choice :)

Sunday afternoon: Au pair picnic in Parque del Retiro! Chatting about cultures with girls from London & Germany. The other American and I thought it was so funny that the British girls complained that the Spaniards impede personal space and don't follow the rules to queue - so stereotypical.  (Also, I was glad to have another place to wear my 'picnic dress.')

Rowing boats in Parque del Retiro

Sunday evening: Conversation Exchange at a bar - basically anyone who wants to practice any language shows up and starts talking to each other!  I met an old woman trying to learn English because now that's she's retired she wants to travel, but doesn't want to go in a tour group.  She wants to learn English to read signs to navigate herself.  So cool.

Sunday night: Watching the Madrid vs Barcelona futbol game at a bar with the girls I met hiking yesterday.  I was told it's as important as America's superbowl (they tied).

Well, that's all for now.  I've been feeling a little under the weather lately, and I hear it's common around this time of year because the temperature changes so much in a 24-hour period, let alone week to week.  Last week it was in the 80s and this week 60s, but it's been in the 40s at night.  Time for tea - hasta luego!