ONO

ONO: Internet and Phone Company in Spain

By far, the worst company I have ever dealt with in my life. Our wifi never works, we spend various hours on the phone with their technicians, and I am sick of it.

So, I just called their customer service and basically told them how I felt, and we now have 50% off our next internet/phone bill.

I never thought I would miss U.S. companies...but sometimes you just want to receive a service you are paying for...as simple as that. I have even found myself advising my friend who works at a clothing/department store about how they can improve sales by working on their website. I am coaching businesses now? What? It is almost as though I feel pity for them, with Spain's economy going into the toilet...more on that later though. And no, I have not turned over to the dark side, I just understand the relationship between massive layoffs and poverty...and anti-immigration sentiment, which is about to hit Spain if things don't improve. And that will affect my friends and people who are here trying to make a better life for their families, and in turn helping the economy by working and spending money. But for some reason, not everyone understands this...

Me paso de hablar de esto...

Roscón y Nochevieja

Right: everything I had to carry with me (according to Venezuelan custom) in order to bring me luck in the new year

Below: roscón de reyes (see previous post)

Un día de nieve

I walked out the door this morning and almost said "no me jodas" (a slightly vulgar way of saying "you've got to be kidding me"). It was SNOWING. And it hasn't stopped. There is about a half a foot of snow so far, and everyone has told me that this is not normal at all (I am feeling deja vu from 2 weeks ago in Seattle).

A snow storm has taken over Spain and this time has hit the city of Madrid. All the major highways that run around the edge of the city are backed up with accidents and stalled cars, and at the moment the Barajas airport is closed and they don't know if they will reopen or not. My roommate, Mariana, and her family had plans to fly out to Rome today at 4pm and are going to head to the airport to wait and see what happens. Her parents (since they are from warm Venezuela) were freaking out about the cold yesterday...I think they are truly freaking out now because this is the first time in their lives that they have seen snow.

School has been pretty much crazy, since it is our week back after break, and a short week at that. Yesterday's talk was all about what presents the Three Wise Men brought them, and today is all about the snow. Consider it a lost week, learning-wise.

And yet again, why I love this city. The metro. Although it does have its issues, anything that happens above ground rarely affects it. You can still get to pretty much every part of the city with no problem...no scraping off car windows and no waiting in traffic.

A link to an article about the snow storm (it is in Spanish, but there is a video that shows the extent of the snow in Madrid): Snow

guita, chorros, pelotudos y quilombos

Every day I realize how much I don't know. I watched an Argentinian movie the other night with the Venezuelan fam (Mariana and her parents) and Mariana helped me with all the Argentinian slang. Which was a lot. But I started to use it in my vocabulary and have been realizing that I now have Mexican, Venezuelan, and Spain spanish all mixing around in my brain. I don't need to add Argentinian spanish as well, unless I go there...which who knows, I might. I highly recommend the movie we watched: Nueve Reinas (2000). It was remade into an American movie called Criminal (2004) with John C. Reilly, Diego Luna and Maggie Gyllenhaal but I liked the original much better, as is usually the case.

I was woken up this morning by a woman who works at Casa Árabe, where I am going to be taking arabic classes. I had signed up for beginning classes but I was told that since I already know the alphabet, I would be bored because that is what about half of Level 1 consists of. So she signed me up for Level 2, which means I need to study, and quickly. I learned the alphabet last summer, and have my arabic notebook with me, but it has been awhile and I am out of practice. Learning a 3rd language in my 2nd language might prove to be a challenge as well...

Mariana's parents sleep more than I have ever seen parents sleep. We went to bed around midnight and it is noon and they are still asleep. I bet you they won't wake up until around 1:30pm. It's crazy, how can anyone sleep that long on a consistent basis?

Feliz Año

This was definitely a New Year's to remember. We had some Venezuelan traditions mixed with Colombian food mixed with the Marcha Madrileña (meaning we got home at 9 in the morning).

I was asked by Mariana's parents about American traditions on Nochevieja (New Year's Eve) and I was at a loss for words. "Uhh we countdown at midnight?" For Venezuelan New Year we each had our 12 grapes (which they all started eating right before the countdown, and I had so much trouble because of course they have seeds in them and I am not used to that...) then we all had to put money in our pockets for good wealth and security in the new year, and then our passports and our suitcases so that we travel a lot in the new year...and then we each had our glass of champagne and Mariana's mom was running around with a bowl of cooked lentils, shoveling spoonfuls into our mouths. I didn't get the back story on the lentils, but I am assuming it is for luck. So about ten minutes after midnight I finished my grapes, all the while they are laughing at me because I am not accustomed to the process and therefore was running around crazy. It took everyone so much time to get ready that by the time we ate dinner it was after midnight. I was starving and on the verge of a migraine, but the food was so good. Victor's girlfriend laura from colombia made caramelized chicken, which was amazing. I watched every step and wrote down the recipe. We finally went out to celebrate in Malasaña (a neighborhood with a lot of cool stores and nightlife) around 2am and it was the busiest I have seen the streets of Madrid. We found a good bar that was playing good music (ie not all Spanish pop music) and stayed there for awhile before making our way to eat breakfast and then caught the metro home at 9am just in time to usher Seattle into the New Year (the guy sitting next to us didn't really seem to care).

The other night we had an Arepas & Apple Pie party. Mariana's friend Jose liked my apple pies at Thanksgiving so much that he begged me to make more. I told him I would but he had to make something Venezuelan. Which ended up meaning that his wife Melisa made a whole bunch of arepas for everyone (thick tortilla like things stuffed with ham and cheese). But, Jose pointed out, he bought the cheese at El Corte Ingles (the mega huge department store/supermarket/everything store) and therefore contributed to the cooking. Mariana's dad took out his "cuatro" (Venezuelan guitar with 4 strings) and we all sang Venezuelan folk songs and flamenco songs until the grouchy neighbor lady came over and started yelling at us. It was only 8:30pm, not even dinner time in Spain, and she was yelling at us to shut up. Mariana says that our building is full of immigrants and that it really bothers "la vieja" so she gets really annoyed and takes to yelling at people from her window. We suspect it was her who threw our broom off the balcony a few months ago.

Today is Día de Los Reyes (or Three Wise Men Day) where all the polite, well-behaved Spanish children (all 5 of them--just kidding) receive their presents. So yet again everything is closed down and the only stores open are "Los Chinos" or the convenience stores that are mainly run by Chinese people (or anyone who is Asian, but of course they are referred to as Chinese). Last night I headed to the Cabalgata de los Reyes Magos, or the annual Three Wise Men/Epiphany Parade. I couldn't really see much, and spent most of the time dodging the candy being thrown our way, but I was able to see the three wise man who rode by to close out the parade. The first wise man rode by with a wife, the second one the same, and the third one rode by with another guy and both of them were wearing black face. So according to madrileños, the third wise man was gay? And they couldn't have just asked a guy from the crowd, or the numerous people who live in Madrid of African or Arab descent? It had to be a Spanish guy painted black? 

Another tradition of Día de los Reyes is roscón. I am not too much a fan of the pastries I have encountered so far in Madrid, and the roscones that I saw just looked plain gross. It looks like a round piece of bread with some fake cherries and fruit and sugar on top. They are cut in half and then stuffed with cream. I walked by a bakery the other day with a line out the door and down the block--these things are super popular. I thought they had ham in the middle and I kept thinking, "man this bread thing looks gross". Marcy, Erin and I bought one last night to try. We took it to a restaurant and carried it to the back so we wouldn't stick out (I am guessing that eating the roscón on the night before the Reyes is sacrilege). After all the fuss of the roscón, it really is just bread with some sugar on top...and dry bread at that. But anyway, there is generally something put in the roscón and whoever gets it (like a small plastic baby) will have luck for the rest of the year...kind of like our wishbone on Thanksgiving.

This vacation thing needs to stop or I will permanently be in my pjs. It is 8pm I am still in pajamas and I haven't brushed my teeth yet today. Feel free to be grossed out.

Picture side note: That is Víctor, Yandira, Mariana, me, Reynaldo, and Laura (Víctor's Colombian/French girlfriend)

Why immigration is a putada...

Upon re-entering Spain a few days ago, I was worried that there would be a problem with immigration. Since I had left suddenly on the 8th of December, and I had an appointment to receive my NIE (residency card) on the 19th (which I had to skip), I thought they wouldn't let me back in with a visa that had expired on December 1st. So I made all kinds of preparations, I brought a copy of the letter from the Comunidad de Madrid, explaining why I was in Madrid and how long my program was, etc. I had worked out the explanation in Spanish in my head so it would come out in a coherent way (authorities make me nervous, even if I have nothing to hide). I arrive at customs and present my passport. The official looks at my passport, stamps it, and says "Welcome to Madrid". What?!? That's it? I went to all that trouble and they don't even ask me a single question, they just look at my U.S. passport and assume I would never be there illegally. 

The next day I am sitting with Mariana and her family, and she says to me, "remember I told you that my friend from Caracas was going to come and stay with us?" I respond yes, and she launches into a story about how her friend got to the Madrid airport, Venezuelan passport in hand, and they wouldn't let her into the country. They took her into a room and she had to stay there, sitting in a chair for over 12 hours explaining what she was doing in Spain. They wouldn't let her call Mariana, and they ended up sending her back to Caracas, because even though she had a hotel reservation in Madrid, she hadn't paid for it. All because of her South American passport...

Que putada tía, que putada.

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.