Shopping, Thanksgiving, and a Boat Ride

This weekend we went into town for some authentic American BBQ at Alfredo's. In the states Alfredo may specialize predominately in pasta and pizza, but in Madrid he does BBQ. It was a massive feast. We couldn't fit all of our plates on the table. People were starting to look and make comments. Amazingly, though, I managed to eat the whole thing.

Afterwards, we headed to Madrid's version of Central Park - El Retiro - where many Madrileños spend their sundays lounging around and drinking. It is not at all unusual, and certainly not morally questionable, to see groups of middle aged people standing around drinking out of 40s - ála snoop dogg. Just another sunday in the park.

It was surprisingly cheap to rent a rowboat to go out on the little lake in the middle of the park, so here I am, rowing away. Now I can cross that one off the list.

Happy belated Thanksgiving to all of you out there in cyberspace. I hope you had a lovely holiday. I did my best with what is available and ended up making a perfectly acceptable, though far from transcendent, meal for the roomies and myself.

The biggest problem is that Spanish grocery stores, though becoming more Americanized all the time, lack some items that most Americans would consider essentials. Although there is an entire aisle for both olive oil and canned fish products, sage is virtually impossible to come by. Anything vaguely "ethnic" or "spicy" you can forget about. Since Thanksgiving isn't a holiday here, obviously, there were no stacks of turkeys to choose from. Even if it had been a holiday here, Spaniards eat seafood for their major holiday feasts. Anyway, I don't think a whole turkey would have fit in my oven. Instead, I made turkey chops - which were actually very tasty and moist, since all I had to do was sear them in a frying pan for a few minutes. The most challenging dish to acquire, though, was the cranberry sauce. Because I needed it so much I spent a day walking 11 kilometers (round trip) to the American specialty market in the north of the city. It was quite a trek just for the most expensive can of jellied cranberries ever. But I needed it. And it was worth it.

El Rastro

It's getting to be more like winter here all the time. So far, I've spent the day wearing my thickest sweater and huddling under a blanket while gripping a mug of hot instant coffee (mmm...) or, as my digestive system can only take so much caffeine, hot water. There is a radiator of some sort in my room but, being from California, I have no idea how to work it and am afraid that I will melt my tiny plastic dresser (which is, due to space issues, pushed up against the heating device) if I do figure it out. It's also raining outside, for the first time since I arrived, which made it an excellent day to decide to do laundry. I am certain my jeans will take approximately a week and a half to dry hanging outside in the freezing cold rain. There is a dryer on the balcony, but it isn't plugged in and appears to be used for storage.

Aside from my winter woes, life in Spain is lovely as usual. Yesterday (Sunday) I took a ride on the Metro down to the center, where the weekly flea market is held. The market is known to Madrileños as el Rastro - which literally translates as both mark (or stain) and trail, a throwback to the days of yore when the area served as a meat market and the area was seemingly permanently marked by the blood of various animals. I didn't see any evidence of any blood, this is probably because today el Rastro's only victims these days are the tourists (and their unsecured valuables).

The place was crawling with tourists - English, American, German, French, you name it - some of them just begging to have their wallets stolen and then sold back to them. We had to come to the aid of one group of rather unfortunate American girls who couldn't figure out how to use the ATM (they were putting the card in upside down...). There were a good number of Spaniards, though, and the place was absolutely packed. Following the herd, slowly shuffling between the stalls, it was sometimes hard to see the quality wares displayed by each of the vendors - a selection of funny (and not-so-funny) t-shirts, leather jackets and bags, pashminas for 2 euros each, and a large selection of jewelry, among many other things. Apparently el Rastro is also the place to go for all of your electronics-that-fell-off-the-back-of-the-truck needs.

Street vendors aren't all the market has to offer, the streets coming off the central area are home to many interesting stores. Most interestingly, there are dozens of thriving antiques dealers. All the ones I visited yesterday were way out of my price range, obviously, but I did find a shop with a great salvaged ship's wheel and instrument panel (only 3000 euros or so), and some very nice, very expensive (as well as very dilapidated, very reasonably priced) furniture. In any case, I don't think there is much space in my shoebox for any antiques. Fun window shopping, though.

In the end, I was too overwhelmed to actually purchase anything except for a delicious snack - a chocolate-dipped waffle (as in waffle cone). The man selling them promised me I would go crazy over it as I deliberated over which tasty chocolate-dipped delicacy to indulge in and although I am still of sane mind (I think), it was quite tasty. I plan to return next Sunday (provided it doesn't rain), when I've had more time to think about what junk I absolutely cannot live without. I am also hoping to find a less touristy market, and I have heard of a smaller one - el rastrillo - in the north of the city, in case the thick crowds become prohibitive.

The market ends around 2 or 3 p.m., Spanish lunch and siesta time, when the vendors break down their stalls. That doesn't mean the day is over though! In the Spanish tradition, it only means it is time to retire to one of the many bars and cafes in the area for a beer and a snack. Craving something with a little flavor, we made our way to a hole-in-the-wall Cuban place with excellent ropa vieja.

Before heading home we made the short walk up to Plaza Mayor, the historic central plaza in Madrid. Most days, but particularly on Sundays, artists of varying talent display their paintings, drawings, and lithographs, while caricature artists make themselves available to tourists who couldn't find a better way to spend 20 euros. There is also a very specialized market featuring old and collectible stamps and coins - perhaps this is the hobby I've been looking for? Probably not, but it's fun browsing anyway.

I hope everyone is doing well (or as well as can be expected) and is gearing up for the Thanksgiving holiday. I'll update you on my Thanksgiving plans (or lack thereof) in a few days. I can only imagine all of the Christmas decorations, gift offers, music (aka "spirit") that must be bombarding everyone in the states already - can't say I feel like I'm missing much. I'll be back to it soon enough.

Thoughts and Prayers

Hello all - Everything is going well here, but it turns out that everyone isn't as lucky. Apparently (or I suppose half my readership already knows this... haha - I need to work on expanding my readership so these actually have a point) my grandfather was involved in an accident as he walked across the Wendy's parking lot a few days ago - he was ran over and then backed back over. For those of you who don't know, the best course of action when running over an old man in a parking lot is to throw the car into reverse and run over him again, just to make sure. In any case, mission accomplished - he has two broken legs one of which may require potentially risky surgery, not to mention other injuries. Although he is no stranger to being hit by automobiles, this incident sounds like the worst by far. And as he lays in an ICU in Miami, I hope that he knows that I'm thinking of, and praying for, him (as well as the rest of the family, of course).

Hope all is well with the rest of you - I am thinking of and missing you, too. Which reminds me - the holiday season is upon us and I plan to head out to El Rastro (the flea market) in search of gifts, so if you have any requests let me know. For those of you who are too good for flea markets, Spain also has excellent (and cheap!) wine, olives, olive oils... and probably also excellent items not intended for human comsumption, but I wouldn't know about those. I can try to find out.

Still Alive

Calm your fears! Just a little post to let y'all know I'm still alive over here. Things have been going well... We've had two Spanish national holidays in the past two weeks - these people sure do love their holidays. And no, Halloween was not one of them.

In the spirit of spreading American culture, I did purchase and carve one of the pumpkins they had on display in the grocery store. It was actually really funny - when I went to buy it no one could figure out how much it was supposed to cost. I guess people don't actually buy the pumpkins very often. 

I did see a few kids dressed up, but Halloween is definitely not really a real holiday over here. The only effects you really see are those that bleed over from American pop culture. So, in order to truly capture the spirit, we headed out to an authentic "american" restaurant - TGI Fridays - to try to soak up some of that rich culture. It turns out that Fridays in Spain is quite the Halloween headquarters - the restaurant was completely decorated, all of the staff was dressed up, they had special menus printed up, and, if you can believe it, they gave away free Halloween 2007 at Fridays t-shirts. I will treasure it forever.