Exploring the City: I enjoy running, but on an infrequent basis. Being in Madrid (and generally not having to wake up until 9 AM) has inspired me to venture out a little more often, and I've found that within a short distance of our apartment I can get to several places worth exploring. The wonders of Retiro are still revealing themselves to me, and this week I discovered "Bosque del Recuerdo" - the forest of memory. It culminates in a small spiral hill park that provides a bit of a view. My favorite place to run to/around is an amphitheater overlooking a river. The amphitheater looks derelict, but that kind of adds to the appeal. This week Joni came along, and I think we both appreciated the healthy population of dog owners choosing the surrounding park area for their morning jaunt.
This week marked the first performance in English we've seen since arriving in Spain, as we went to see a concert from the Harlem Gospel Choir. It was strange to be sitting in a room of what I assume were mostly Spaniards being addressed by the choir speaking almost exclusively in English. Of course, music is pretty universal, and it's not a surprise that there was a big turnout for the show. We bought tickets on the promise that this was to be a tribute to Adele, and while there were four covers of that artist I was a bit let down. At any rate, it got us inside the Teatro Nuevo Apolo, which was both decadent and decrepit at the same time. It just seemed like there was an obvious effort to restore only a portion of the space which, at 80 years old, looked a little worse for wear.
Finally, this week brought us out into the streets to discover all the holiday decorations and lights adorning various buildings and businesses. We intended to ride the Navibus, a city-run tour on an open-air bus, but arrived to find that tickets were sold out until January. Disappointed but not defeated, we set out on foot and managed to see some pretty alluring displays of holiday cheer...albeit from a slightly lower vantage point. After walking around for a bit, we hit up the fancy McDonalds on Gran Vía to try the seasonal turrón McFlurry. Turrón is a Christmas sweet that is usually some kind of chocolate or fudge or peanut brittle, and I think every variety is delicious...especially when mixed with ice cream!
Memorable Meal: On Monday night, Joni met up with our friend, Caitlin, at Goiko Grill for dinner. It's a restaurant known for its delicious hamburgers. They arrived at 8 pm to a completely empty restaurant. Despite this, the manager made them wait to sit until he showed them a table. For some reason, he led them down a hallway to a back room that was also completely empty, and had them sit at a table that was marked "reserved." It seemed very strange. Within the hour, however, the restaurant quickly filled up and it was clear that the staff at Goiko Grill has a very strategic way of sitting people at the back as they arrive so that newcomers can enter more easily. Joni and Caitlin were just before the more typical 9 pm dinner rush because Spain has a much later dinner time than the U.S. I was able to meet up with them for the tail end of the meal, and the food was amazing, as well as the company. We enjoyed a Chipotle burger with delicious fried potatoes as a side. Even though Spain doesn't exactly know how to cook a burger "well done" and our burger still looked rather pink, it tasted quite good.
Who’s Coming to Dinner: This past Sunday, we hosted Marli, our host-mom from August, in our apartment for dinner. It was really nice to be able to cook for her after she had been so accommodating during our time with her when we first landed in Spain. It was a wonderful opportunity to practice our Spanish, and it gave us flashbacks to those August evenings sitting around the table with mouths agape. We both noticed significant improvement, though there is still a long way to go. Marli said that one of her goals for next year is to work on her English, and so perhaps we will be making these dinners more of a regular occurrence.
Lost in Translation: I may have accidentally taken the credit for cooking the meal we served to Marli, the woman with whom we stayed upon arriving in July. Typically I do most of the cooking, but Joni ended up making nearly all of the meal and the dessert we made on Sunday. It just so happened that I was helping finish up while Joni welcomed Marli in and showed her around, and Marli made several comments thanking me for the meal. Initially I was confused about what exactly was said, and also lack the proper awareness of Spanish tenses to redress the error, but the blame lays squarely on me. The translation was lost, but I did nothing to correct it. Joni makes a mean apple crisp and a delicious chicken and rice dish!
En la clase: Even though la festividad de los Reyes Magos on January 6th is the more dominant holiday in Spain, Christmas is widely celebrated. Despite this fact, both Joni and I discovered that the larger Christmas cultural machine has largely sidestepped the country. While the occasional student had an affinity for a few movies, most struggled to name a holiday-themed movie. The consensus seemed to be that Home Alone (often cited as Alone at Home by the students translating from the Spanish translation of the title) is the most popular in the genre. Almost no one had even heard about Joni's favorite Christmas movie, and possibly favorite movie of all time, Elf. A few of my students said yes, they knew Elf, with the strange face. After some follow up questions, I determined that they were instead acquainted with Alf, the 1980s sitcom character - this happened in three different classes! We each taught a lesson utilizing Elf to teach the past perfect tense, and the students generally seemed to enjoy it. My favorite part of these classes was having the students pronounce "cotton headed ninny muggins."
In the higher level classes, we also made use of a Balderdash-like game in which students were tasked with coming up with a plot for a Hallmark movie, given the title. Most people were shocked to discover that a single television channel was responsible for producing 10 to 15 new Christmas movies every year.
Final Notes:
This past Sunday we made our debut with the "Sometimes Choir," singing as a part of the service at Community Church of Madrid. We've missed singing as a part of an organized group, and it's been fun to get to know some of our fellow choir members a bit better.
This Sunday will mark the first Christmas Joni and I will not be in the company of one of our families. Thankfully we have the opportunity to travel the following day, and will be back in the US to see both of our families from the 26th to the 6th. Until then, we've got plans to attend church on Christmas Eve at a bilingual service where we'll sing with the choir. On Christmas morning we'll be a part of what I imagine to be a small gathering at CCM, and we're looking forward to spending the afternoon with Ben and Cat preparing an American Christmas feast. I have no idea what that means, other than that there will be apple crisp...so regardless it will be a great day.
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