MadrileñYosts: April 2017

Week 39

By Aaron

Exploring the City: Regular readers may feel like Joni and I see some kind of blog-worthy sight every week. Indeed, there are many things that blend together for us and I can't always distinguish between our various adventures when looking back. This past weekend we took things to another level, managing to see the Eiffel Tower, the Trevi Fountain, the Brandenburg Gate, Tower Bridge, and several other well-known European landmarks in the course of a single afternoon. Have we shunned our language study in pursuit of mastering time travel? Did we finally lose it and hallucinate these things during a long-awaited mental collapse? Are those European trains really THAT fast? The truth may be even stranger - all of these enduring cultural testaments are actually located in a suburb of Madrid. That's right, a 40 minute train ride from the city will carry you to Torrejón de Ardoz and the quirky Parque de Europa.

Home to a cornucopia of (less-than-life-sized) statues, monuments and buildings that rose to prominence across other places and times, this park was the setting for a Saturday picnic with Ben, Cat and Violet. A handful of paid attractions like mini-golf, a ropes course, and a petting zoo seem to furnish free general admission to the grounds. It was all a bit odd but also impressive in a way - and we weren't even visiting during peak season when the place is purportedly filled with live music and fountain/light shows. Cat and Ben were particularly taken with the experience, as they anticipated the structures to be more in line with a play-house scale.

Memorable Meal: On Friday, Joni and I surprised two of Joni's students from her old job in DC teaching ESL. The Mendoza family was visiting Madrid on vacation, and Emely (the matriarch) wrote to Joni in hopes that we could meet up. The kids, Alejandra and Samuel, were equal parts shocked and sleep deprived when we spotted them at our agreed upon location in Retiro. We came to find that the family had arrived that morning, checked into their hotel, then toured Real Madrid's Bernabéu stadium before joining us for a late afternoon picnic lunch. All that considered, I was in awe of the whole group's ability to converse and even play some games whilst seemingly running on fumes.

Who’s Coming to Dinner: We were excited to welcome Teresa (Joni's former Spanish teacher and our current fellow choir member) back again for another lovely dinner at our place. I prepared a really easy but satisfying dish of baked chicken and veggies with a peanut sauce, served over lemon-chicken rice. Joni reprised the carrot cake cookies from our Easter meal, and after a long and painstaking process concocted a delicious frosting. Every chance we have to spend time with this Teresa is a joy, and this particular meeting we exchanged stories from our recent international trips (our jaunt to Italy and her much longer journey to Japan). She even brought us some intriguing transnational delicacies to sample - Kit Kat bars with flavors befitting the island nation (seriously: sake and green tea?!).

En la clase: It's been a rather slow month for classes. With Semana Santa knocking out a week of class and some of our classes that took an additional week off, it seems our teaching loads are growing ever lighter. I'll barely reach 20 hours by the time the month is over (I KNOW!), but Joni has sustained a much more robust schedule thanks to VIPKID. This hasn't stopped her from continuing to study Spanish, and after no small amount of lovingly applied pressure I have decided it is time for me to pursue a more structured learning environment as well. Self-study is helpful, though the expertise of a native speaker is priceless. I look forward to starting regular classes next week.

Final Notes: Despite the dearth of work, life continues to feel busy. This is partially due to travel plans, as our impending trip to the north of Spain this weekend has been fraught with over-booked Airbnb locales for a popular weekend. But over the course of four days, a television show made a rare appearance in the "things keeping us busy" category. Surely by now you've all heard of 13 Reasons Why, the Netflix adaptation of the young adult novel by Jay Asher. Nothing about it is specific to Spain, save for the fact that we watched it while living here, yet it had a pervasive effect on our thought processes as we traversed the city. There's a lot to say about the show, and at some point I'd like to write up all my thoughts. Suffice to say that it was compelling enough to drag us into a binge of all 13 episodes, it is both utterly tragic and seemingly realistic, and it touches on the effect that each interpersonal interaction can have on an individual.

Week 38

By Aaron

Lost in Translation: I officially paid the entry fee this Monday for a weekly pickup basketball game that one of my students invited me to join. This was my second week playing, and I realized that I have never learned any Spanish vocabulary related to playing basketball. ¿Como se dice 'three in the key,' 'stop ball,' and 'good take'? Thankfully I resisted the impulse of exclaiming "toca la pelota" when I believed the ball had crazed off the fingertips of a player on the other other team. If you pluralize "pelota" this becomes a common phrase literally about male anatomy used to describe an annoyance. I'm still new to the group, and don't feel comfortable with either calling out an errant play or expressing disdain for a fellow player. When addressed directly on the court, I can do little more than nod in agreement whenever a teammate counsels me with an impassioned plan of attack. Most things are universal, and I think that with a little practice I can integrate smoothly into the game. More material from this activity is almost certainly forthcoming.

Exploring the City: After a whirlwind week in Italy, we were exhausted. Our flight landed in Madrid last Friday, and by the time we arrived back home it was a little after 6 PM. By 6:30 we ~~had grown restless~~ were caught up in the festive air of Good Friday and left home in search of some Easter processionals near the city center. Madrid isn't the epicenter of such celebrations and apparently the city doesn't attract a lot of tourists from other places in the country. This makes sense, since the population hails from all over, but I was still impressed by the fanfare surrounding the holiday. We came across three different processionals (out of a total of seven that purportedly walked the streets on Friday), and they all consisted of some variation of community members donning traditional garb carrying religious ephemera while stepping in time with music. Each group started at a church and covered routes of 5-7 blocks before eventually ending up at the origin. To our knowledge, no homage was paid to the Easter Bunny in any of these somber parades.

Memorable Meal: After singing with our Sometimes Choir at church on Easter Sunday, we joined Ben, Cat and Violet at their apartment for an Easter Dinner. The food was pretty traditional American fare; deviled eggs, scalloped potatoes, green beans, pulled pork, and carrot cake cookies. After lunch, Cat, Joni and Violet were politely expelled from the house while Ben and I hid Easter eggs inside the apartment. I'm happy to report that it took two adult women almost as long to find the eggs as it took two adult men to hide them. Some particularly impressive locations: inside a jar of sugar, wrapped inside a ball of yarn, inside the large container of dog food, and taped underneath a chair.

Later in the day after the hunt and a few rounds of games, we also sampled a seasonal Spanish treat, torrijas. This is essentially a kind of French toast soaked in milk and then doused in a more fluid version of syrup. It was delicious, but perhaps a bit much after an afternoon of snacking on candy and cookies.

En la clase: For the second time in a month, Joni had a student via VIPKID whose given age did not appear to match the physical aspect of the person who attended a class. This time the student was just a few years past the age bracket, perhaps 14 instead of the maximum age 12, so Joni had a little less apprehension than she would teaching an adult in his 30s clearly trying to pass for a (surly) 11. This was a trial class, meaning the student had not committed to a regular slate of classes on the platform. The student was incredibly engaged with the class and sprinkled in an anecdote of singing "For the First Time in Forever" (from Frozen) at a school talent show. Almost immediately (and then several times throughout the lesson) he announced "I like you a lot!" Then at the end of the lesson, he asked Joni if she had WeChat (a Chinese version of Whatsapp). It sounded a little creepy at first, but as Joni described the interactions it sounded more like a lonely kid glad to have some attention from a novel source. Today Joni was notified that she received a small bonus for a new student signing up for a "full course" and we think it was the same child. There may be more to follow from this eager pupil.

Final Notes: We watched our first soccer match (on TV) since arriving in Spain, and frankly it's remarkable it has taken this long. There always seems to be some match on, with the various permutations of league play that seem to carry on for much of the calendar year. Our friends Alex and María invited us over to watch the final game in the semifinal round of the UEFA Champions League, with Real Madrid facing elimination against Bayern Munich. It turned out to be a really compelling game, with extra time and some controversial offside no-calls, and at night's end both Real Madrid and Atlético had triumphed. I liken these teams to the Yankees and Mets - with Real having a much more storied history while Atlético has found success in the past few years. Today UEFA announced that the two teams were assigned to play in the semifinals at the beginning of May. This ensures that one team from our city will be playing in the final come June, and that tensions may likely be elevated as all across the metropolis brothers and sisters and colleagues are pitted against each other in a fight to the death. Or at least I'm hoping the competitive air will be that palpable.

Week 37

By Aaron

Lost in translation
This week we were cavorting all over Italy, a country with an official language we definitely don't even pretend to speak. Fortunately, as seems to be the case in any and all countries where we've traveled, many people spoke English wherever we went. With that stipulation, we had several bouts of miscommunication upon which we can now look back fondly. The biggest blunder came in Milan, in an effort to see the storied duomo in the city center. In the course of about an hour, the following questions surfaced:

- When does the cathedral open?
- Why is that man yelling at those tourists?
- Why is everyone else wearing black shirts with white collars?
- Are we waiting in the line for visiting clergy?

We intended to arrive at the cathedral at 8 AM to buy tickets and enter the church shortly thereafter. A band of like-minded travelers clustered slowly around the doors to what we thought was the proper place for tickets to be bought, and the realization slowly dawned that while the church is open at 8 AM the ticket office wasn't open until 8:30. This gave way to a whole new set of ponderous reflections:

- When is the cathedral ticket office opening?
- Is this the cathedral ticket office?
- Is there an automated ticket machine?
- Is that really a Samsung billboard on the side of the church scaffolding?
- Wait, now the church is open at noon?
- Are we really allowed on the roof?
- Oh, ok, not THAT part of the roof?

Despite our best efforts to plan ahead and wake up early, we were thwarted by the combination of construction, lack of adequate signage and mixed messages from cathedral personnel. We never did make it into the building, but we were able to eventually climb a few steps to reach a strange rooftop walk with a semi-obstructed-but-still-cool view of the city. Confusion needn't be cloaked in the handy excuse of a non-native tongue - we are completely capable of getting turned around in our first language!

Exploring the city
Our trip to Italy routed us through Zurich, Switzerland where we basked in the sultry whisper of the overhead announcer (I wish we'd taken a video - every last call and gate change made us feel like we were being beckoned by a gentle lover.). Despite exorbitant prices of the generally quite classy airport food options, we shared a delicious plate piled high with potatoes and pasta and salad that passed for our experience of Swiss cuisine.

The first night in Italy brought us to Milan where, after a kind stranger called our host to confirm the apartment number, we shared a brief and lovely night at an Airbnb with two cats. My shoes were absolutely filled with hair in the morning, as one of the cats seemed determined to nest inside the pungent cloth confines, but otherwise we were no worse for the wear.

The next day, a cozy two hour train ride carried us to Venice. I thought maybe we would have to disembark and then take a ferry to get across the lagoon to the island, but there is a bridge that supports trains and a select amount of car and bus traffic. This means that within a couple hundred feet of the platform upon arrival, we were greeted with a breathtaking view of the main canal that winds its way through the city. Despite another hunch of mine, that there are not ANY roads in Venice, the island is quite walkable and there are only a few places that could not be traversed on foot. My favorite part of the city was the simple act of passing through narrow streets in a place with so much rich history (I would later go on to read the entire Wikipedia entry on Venice during a train delay - it's pretty fascinating stuff!).

We did not take a gondola ($112/hour seems like a little much) but did get a taste for the city's main source of public transport - the water bus! These vessels, ranging in size from dingy to multi-level car transportation aids, ferry people within the principle island along outposts lining the main canal. They also serve as arteries to connect the series of other islands, and we took a journey to the island of Burano. Joni had seen an image of colorful houses in Venice on her computer's startup screen (that randomly generates images every time you log in to the device) and we discovered that Burano decided to collectively paint all their houses different shades of bright colors. Our voyage unintentionally took us to the small island just as the sun was setting and a majority of tourists had left for the day.

The rest of our time in Venice was spent window shopping for beautiful glass (much of which is crafted on the nearby Murano island) and decorative masks, eating gelato, visiting St. Mark's Cathedral, ascending a bell tower, eating dinner by the water, crossing canals, visiting the Rialto bridge, stopping by a store that sells clothing made my female inmates at a nearby prison, contributing a drawing to an art installation inside a former monastery, eating our fill of pasta and pizza, and shopping for socks.

Yes, due to an as-yet-unresolved tiff, only two pairs of my socks made it into our luggage. It turned out to be a fun game that kept us walking with a purpose whilst exploring the city. Here are the spoils:

Venice is one of the most unique places I've ever visited, and I would recommend it to any fan of history, churches, music, art, kitsch, water, and wonder.

Next stop: Florence. This destination needs to be digested in the framework of our Airbnb experience. Unlike the other destinations, we opted for lodging far removed from the city center in Florence - partially because of price ($25/night!) but also because the listing we found promised that guests could use bikes during their stay. We found that in addition to free transport, the space itself was very unique. A rather large room encompassed the kitchen, living room and bike garage while the rooms were accessible via small stairs which became a sort of ladder between the 2nd and 3rd floor. Our room was basically an attic, complete with a far-too-short slanted ceiling that sloped down over the bed. Thankfully I didn't ever wake up suddenly, thus sparing my head from crashing into a beam, and the whole experience made me consider adding a "Tall Man In Small Europe" segment to our blog.

Once we'd settled in, it was time to try out the bikes. While the constant squeaking and rather unresponsive brakes were hardly inspiring, we safely navigated our way to and from the city center two days in a row without issue. One of the best parts of the ride was the stretch that took us through a peaceful park overlooking the river. Joni got daring and, despite my cautious protestations, captured a selfie mid-ride.

As you may know Florence is well regarded for its exhaustive supply of important art and churches. As you may not know, Joni and I aren't always all about appreciating the finer things in the eyes of the community of scholars and art historians. Even with this natural disinclination in mind, we had heard that Saint Mary's Cathedral was one of the most important things to see - specifically the dome of the church which is said to be the largest brick-made dome in the world. The church itself is incredibly large to behold from the outside, complete with intricate etchings of patterns that drove home the vastness of the building. Once inside, we learned that while the nave and bell tower were open the tickets to the dome were sold out for the next two days. The bell tower (or campanile) provided a good view of both the city and the dome from the exterior, but we still regretted not looking into advance tickets for the dome before arriving.

St. Mary's is definitely the center of the town, but it is by no means the only church in the city. We didn't end up going into that many other churches, though it was always neat to round a corner and see yet another astonishing edifice. Our feet touched the pavement of the Ponte Vecchio, a bridge famed for its collection of high-end jewelry vendors, and our posteriors graced the nearby walls as we took in the sun setting over the river.

After hitting the hard cobblestone roadways near the cathedral, we decided it was time to seek out a different area of the city. A quick stop at a grocery store furnished us with a picnic lunch that served as a reward for the climb to Piazzale Michelangelo. The views were excellent, and the quiet corner of a small park gave us the requisite privacy in which we could practice our choir music in advance of the upcoming concert.

We didn't get to see Michaelangelo's David, but we did find perhaps the best gelato on the whole trip. I read somewhere that Florence was the birthplace of gelato, and Vivoli lived up to the hype. Macadamia nut gelato doesn't sound like it would be anything special, but some combination of drawing out the flavor of an otherwise unremarkable ingredient cemented this as my favorite flavor sampled in Italy.

The final leg of our journey brought us full circle - back to Milan for a proper viewing of the northern Italian city. Or at least it was supposed to. I noticed the night before our trip that the train tickets we had booked a month or so prior were for April 5th, a week earlier than our intended travel date of the 12th. It was hard to swallow purchasing another set of tickets, but eventually it blew over and I found myself lingering more on some randomly overpriced gelato we had devoured the day before. Once in Milan, a mere two hours late, we walked by a series of bead stores. Joni was in heaven, remarking that she had never seen so many beads in the same place. Then she realized that there were three such stores right in a row - reminiscent of the prolific amount of fabric stores in Manhattan's Garment District.

Prior to our trip we had several students comment that Milan was generally sort of boring and not really worth visiting. I think in the context of other Italian cities, like Venice and Florence, there is not as much of a renaissance charm to Milan. It almost feels more like an American city, save for the massive cathedral and castle that occupy the main squares of the town. That said, I found it to be a good mix of history and modern urban life. If you've made it this far, you've already read about our somewhat anticlimactic experience with the cathedral. Despite the confusion it is a beautiful building and I'm guessing that in the absence of construction it would be a great place to visit.

The castle was pretty cool, but also slightly baffling in that the building contains a series of museums not directly related to the history of the structure.

We were excited at the prospect of a day trip to some rural Italian enclave, and realized that the city of Como was a mere hour train ride to the north of Milan. Famous for being the location of George Clooney's summer home, this lakeside town was a little more touristy than we had hoped. Fortunately, not very many folks rode the funicular up the mountainside that accompanied the lake and even fewer were intrepid enough to complete the hike to a (likely decorative) lighthouse atop the mountain. This was a fairly challenging jaunt, but we were rewarded with breathtaking views around every corner. A small park leads up to the lighthouse, and we took a brief nap after taking in the views. Park naps were a regular feature of our journey, allowing us to recharge before walking to the next destination.

Memorable Meal
In a week where the main cuisine was pizza and pasta, I was expecting to be overwhelmed with choices for this segment of the blog. And the food was good, but generally not mind blowingly so. Joni's favorite meal was at Dante's Pizza in Florence, where she defied the title and ordered fettucine alfredo with a side of grilled vegetables. I had the bacon cheddar gnocchi which was also pretty tasty. But my winner for best meal is the pizza we had in Milan at Timeout 5. We got it to go, and sat in our Airbnb (which, by the way, may be the nicest place we've stayed throughout our various travels) enjoying the cheese, peppers, eggplant, and zucchini that topped the pie.

Final note
To round out this quite lengthy recounting of our travels, here are some relevant stats.

Gelato flavors tried (28):

Biscotto

Carmel

Caramelized pear

Cherry

Cinnamon

Coffee

Cubaita (honey, pistachio....?)

Ginger

Grapefruit

Kiwi

Lemon

Lime