Oh, Spain.

Dear Spain, I have been super naive coming here without a real plan. It seemed like work would be, if not plentiful, then at least forthcoming. I thought that I spoke enough Spanish. I thought I’d be able to do this bilingual, bicountry thing. But I can’t. So while I wait to find out whether [...]

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Lots and Lots of Change

London was better than I expected this time around. Last time I was there I had such hassles at immigration and getting into the city and paying for travel when I was there that I was pretty much turned off by the whole idea of London. Now having been there twice and thus it all [...]

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Out On the Town

Last Friday I had my first proper outing, Spanish style. My roommate invited me out to meet a few of her friends at a bar near Puerta del Sol, a cute little joint whose bar was positively lined with jarras of sangria ready to be slurped down by those brave enough to venture out in [...]

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Museums Are My Bread and Butter or, Going Forward to Go Backward and then Forth Again

On Saturday I visited the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, a private museum in Madrid that displays the holdings principally of Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, at the neoclassical Palacio Villahermosa across the street from the Prado. Recently the acquisitions of his Spanish wife, Carmen, have also been added to the collection, resulting in several new wings being built. [...]

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La Vida Verdad Debe Empezar Otra Vez

Well, having your loved one with you in another country is a sure-fire way to ignore everything you don’t want to think about and to spend all your time looking at neat stuff you’ve never seen before. Two and a half weeks flew by and the boyfriend went back to England last night. What do [...]

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Glory Be to God in the Highest

There has been a lot of stop-and-start in my time here in Madrid. I move forward a step with finding things but two steps back when I get there because Madrileños speak so quickly, even when it’s apparent that I’m not fluent, that I’m having a hard time understand anything people say. Last week I [...]

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We have water!

I took a shower! But it turns out that I did somehow break the hair dryer and I need to go buy another one. Except that my hair is wet. Still, I have a free Spanish class to be at in less than two hours. Grar. I was thinking about trying to find the owner [...]

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I can’t stop loving this!

La Prohibida – Flash It’s taken me ages listening to this but I’m using it to figure out el acento Castellano.  Pfft, who knows when I’m getting this stuff right or not.  At present I have a possibly horrifying mish mash of accents, from Catalan to Mexican, Cuban and Dominican.

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Caminando

I don’t think I’ve seen so much fog in quite a long time. My arrivals in both England and Spain have been rainy, foggy affairs. It kind of amused me to find “traditional” London fog on my entry there but I’m tired of rain and fog! My first trip out on the bike with the [...]

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Un libro en la mañana

How shall I start this book? While stuck in the apartment, my day delayed by the wizened old Spanish plumber and his Polish assistants who speak more Spanish than I, or should I wait and read it in the sunshine of Madrid?

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