It’s been a long time since I’ve shared any properly journal-type stuff with you guys. A month? I think so... At any rate, owing to the volume of material to cover, we’ll be making use of bullet points today. These are the highlights of the last month.
-The four-day “Puente” weekend, which was just 100% fun. It began with a “Pinchistes” party at Rodrigo’s (another teacher’s) apartment: combining “pinchos” (snacks) and “chistes” (jokes) in one event, it was awesome. Fascinating people there, including a professional magician and a film critic for “El Mundo.” Get-togethers like that are by far the best way to practice Spanish, because you are immersed in it completely and you are finally comfortable and relaxed enough to speak without embarrassment. After “Pinchistes” Friday night, I headed up to the coast town of San Sebastian with partners in crime Eric, Sydney and Kelly for an unforgettable weekend. Our hostel – the “Ocean View;” highly recommended – was filled with all the best people in the world, including a rude surf crew of Aussies and a lot of other internationals. We stayed there only three nights, but we left with a brand new family. Impact. San Sebastian is really beautiful, by the way: after months (OK, weeks) in land-locked Madrid, it was an incredible relief to breath ocean air again. I hadn’t realized how much I missed it. We also spent a day in Bilbao, but aside from the (very impressive) Guggenheim, Bilbao lacks S. Sebastian’s charm – but what it lacks in charm, it makes up for in dark-grey industrial-type buildings.
-Teaching Onion articles in class. I only tried this with a few classes (of 1° Bachillerato, aka 17 yr olds), but it ended up pretty much working. We talked about Obama’s Hillbilly Half-Brother Threatening To Derail Campaign and Republicans, Leukemia Team Up To Repeal Health Care Law, both of which texts are rich in “teachable” elements: regional stereotypes, dominant US political parties, the self-aggrandizing rhetoric of politics, etc. I don’t think the kids enjoyed the articles as much as I did, but it’s a start.
-A calligraphy exhibition/lecture at the European Institute of Design, with Rodrigo and Jose María (another teacher at SAFA). It turned out to be really interesting: although the speaker made a quip about “calligraphy and vanguardism having nothing in common,” a lot of the ideas she brought up sounded genuinely vanguard-ish (or, mejor dicho, so old-fashioned that they’re new again): e.g. ideograms pointing straight to concepts & and the way that they’re painted always informing their meaning, so that “Father” or “Love” – universal concepts – are never alike in any two paintings (maybe texts is a better word here.) It was fascinating to learn more about a linguistic tradition that was getting along just fine without Saussure, Derrida et al. From there we headed to a few bars in the Salamanca neighborhood: there was a tapas (small-plates) competition going on between bars in the area and Rodrigo knew the bar owner’s daughter, so we took advantage of tapas both abundant and delicious. Also learned that Jose María had played futbol against one Javier Bardem for years when they were younger, pre-fame.
-The next weekend after that – Laura and Kristin took me and Neal to a fantastic hole-in-the-wall place where an enormous beer and as much castellaño food as one can eat end up costing only 4euros. Incredible! This also marked a milestone: the first time a native madrileño asked me (w/o discernible irony) if I was Spanish. Admittedly, I had spoken only a few sentences up until this point, but it felt awesome to not stand out for once.
- A big art history test and an important presentation in “Techniques of Writing,” both of which went well. Although I used to resent the art history class for the sheer volume of material covered, I’ve since changed my mind: with the first big test out of the way and its content memorized, it turns out to be a lot of fun to be able to walk around Madrid and identify architectural elements, their styles, centuries, etc. Good stuff. “Well I’ll be damned, would you look at that! ... Even more arcos apuntados!”
- Also good stuff: the discovery of “La Casa Encendida,” Caja Madrid’s (a bank’s) social project. It’s a combination library/art gallery/movie theatre/rooftop garden, all with free wifi! They really try hard to project a vanguard-ish vibe there, so it tends to draw a hip young crowd… which is fine by me. New favorite place to study for sure.
- The additional discovery of Bus #32, which goes straight from the Atocha train station to SAFA in only half an hour. I can’t tell you how much nicer the bus is than the metro: instead of making two transfers every commute, suffering the constant invasion of your personal space by strangers and feeling in a huge hurry the entire time, we now get on the bus, sit down (there’s room to sit down!!), and relax all the way to work. It feels so decadent.
- The beginning of “private lessons” with Jose Luís and Antonio, more fellow teachers at SAFA – “lessons” which will consist of getting coffee Friday mornings and chatting. (The first “lesson” reinforced my growing suspicion that I may be happier teaching students older than 18… but don’t tell anyone.)
- A glorious visit from Daniel “Keo” Keough, part of that rowdy crew of Australians from S. Sebastian. Keo’s been here all weekend long, which is a huge treat. Also glorious was the Halloween party that Kristin and Laura threw Sat. night: need I even say that, once again, I went dressed as a pumpkin? It’s refreshing to learn that - with minimal gumshoe work - one can find a flattering, masculine & altogether dapper pumpkin suit in Madrid.
- A visit to the “Rastro” public market yesterday, which was just incredibly huge and overwhelming. This market stretches as far as the eye can see in several directions, with vendors aggressively “repping” their wares as you walk by. The major downside was the (presumed) theft of Kelly’s wallet at some point during the visit, the resulting stress of which theft I can only imagine. Fingers crossed for it to turn up at the police station or something.
- Final highlight – an exploration of several neighborhoods last night with Rodrigo, which included: “txocolina” wine at a Northern-style café; drinks at a cueva or “cave” bar in La Latina (so named - cueva, I mean - for its low ceilings, intimate mood and meandering floorplan); an ad hoc architectural-highlights tour of the surrounding neighborhoods; tapas and drinks near the Plaza Mayor; oysters from the historic market (delicious); an untrustworthy dish purchased near Sol that Rodrigo later revealed to be pan-fried lamb intestines; and finally a local dessert wine “on the house” from our stern-faced (yet big-hearted) bartender. An outstanding evening: every quintessentially Spanish meal I eat takes me one step closer to the personal goal of “Bajo, Moreno y Gordo” (“Short, Dark-Haired & Plump”) that I have set for myself for this year.
And Finally, A Postscript That Journalistic Integrity Demands That I Add
I have earned (the hard way) a lesson all too obvious in retrospect: that eating a plate of pan-fried lamb intestines will - as if acting out the lamb’s posthumous revenge on the equivalent human anatomy - savage your GI tract within one day. That is, the price of pan-friend lamb intestines is measured not only in euros* but in the shame/discomfort of digesting them. And the subsequent shame associated with blogging about it.**
* (3 euros)
** (if any)
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