de vuelta por Madriz

3 week hiatus is over and I am back in Madrid. First weekend of December I was in a swimsuit in Las Palmas on the island of Gran Canaria. One week later I was shoveling snow in Seattle in below-freezing temperature. Now I am in Madrid sharing my apartment with my roommate's entire Venezuelan family whose Caribbean/Equator blood can't take the cold here so our apartment is an oven. I am back in shorts and a tank top.

Although my trip was sudden and under some sad circumstances, it was still really nice to spend time with my family. Lots of crying, lots of laughter, lots of Asian food, lots of games, and lots of snow. That is how I will remember Christmas of 2008.

I do a lot of complaining about Madrid (especially the rude people I encounter) but I remembered today why I love this city. Yesterday I walked roughly 6 miles, wandering from my house, through the park, and over to the center of the city to check out some stores (everything is "de rebajas" or on clearance). No matter what time of the day or night, there is always something going on in this city. Since I make hardly any money, this helps me out a bit, since all I have to do to amuse myself is walk around for a bit and I will happen upon something. A free opera in open-air Plaza Mayor, a Mexican mariachi band in Sol, people running around in masks (don't really know why), a protest march through Calle Alcalá, and there are always free museums to see on the weekend or the drum circles in Parque Retiro. This city is full of life. 

And it doesn't take a car or good weather or a lot of money to be able to get around and see it. 

Within the last month I have seen three separate times different women holding their young daughters in their arms over the sidewalk so said daughter can pee on the street without wetting herself. 

After 2 solid months of arguing with Ono, our internet/phone provider, we finally have Wifi. Ono is the worst company I have ever dealt with, and I don't really understand how they can still be in business with such horrible customer service. Two separate times I waited 3 hours for them to bring us a Wifi router, and they never showed up. When we called them to find out why, they said the order was messed up, or the order wasn't right. After Mariana called them and yelled at them for a straight 15 minutes, they finally got it together to send us a router and give us a few months of internet free due to the inconvenience.

Happy New Year's Eve to everyone, I will be eating a traditional Venezuelan/Colombian dinner with Mariana's family (plus her brother's Colombian girlfriend) and then probably going to Sol to welcome the New Year by eating 12 grapes (to signify each month of the year). Mariana's mom ran down this morning to buy grapes so the stores didn't run out. 

I had a good discussion with Mariana's dad about politics. He hates Chávez and thinks he is crazy and told us a few Chávez jokes. We all stayed up talking until about 1 am and then I finally woke up the next morning around 11:30 am to find that no one was awake yet. I was surprised that I woke up before the parents...that usually doesn't happen at home. 

Qué descanses en paz, mi querida nana, siempre recordaré tu sonrisa, tu ánimo, siempre estarás conmigo, querida bendita nana. Besos, te quiero.