Now we are talking!

The weather has turned!!

This weekend was sublime! For the first time I got some sunshine and we are talking real sunshine! Temperatures rose up to 30 degrees and it was just like summer. It is nearly November and I can only guess how this city will be in July!

We decided to do some sightseeing so we went to the Royal Palace, the Opera building, Plaza Mayor etc. All the regulars. The collection of photos were taken during these days. The palace is really something else. It is right up there with the great palaces of the world. We secretly (and illegally) joined a Spanish tour (with paying, listening Italians..the woman got rather frustrated with them and happily included Carmen and me in the tour)

On Sunday we went to the market and there were more people than in China, it was crazy. The Amsterdam Albert Cuyp looks like a joke compared to this gigantic market full of legal, illegal, cheap, fake, expensive stalls. It is typical to go shopping (Carmen bought shoes...of course!) and then go for tostas ( long to seriously consider ordering. toasted bread with topping, the best: gambas with ailoli). Unluckily the queue for the tostas was too long to even seriously consider placing an order.

The weekend also saw the arrival of our flatmate, Herman. Good man. We are having dinners together, watching movies etc. He works for MicroSoft and knows a loooot about computers, actually..I think he is one. It is good that we get along. Together with a Belgium friend of his we watched the Argentinean movie 'Nuevas Reinas'. Although totally in Spanish and no subtitles I enjoyed it a lot and you should all watch it..

Bullfighting is like...cricket

Last week Carmen and I had won tickets to the Bullfighting in the majestic Plaza del Toros de Ventas. It was going to be the last bullfight of the year. We were all ready, not knowing what to expect. There was a slight drizzle when we arrived at the very impressive bullfighting arena. It seemed a bit quiet as only two Chinese tourist were trying to enter. We decided to go to the information desk where they told us that the bullfight had been....rained off!! Yes, the macho torreros turned out to be too vain to get wet! The pitch would turn into mud and the consequences would just be too much. Therefore the Bullfighting umpires had called time on the days play rather like they would have done at a cricket match. Next chance to see a bullfight? In the spring, when the weather is safe again..

A Hard Days Work

It has been just over a week now in Spain and it seems like a month. My work at Just Landed started on Monday and my first day was a bit of a disaster. I discovered that I had lost practically all my Dutch writing skills as this last year I have been doing all my writing in English. The first assignment on the job was translating a section of the website from English to Dutch. This proved more difficult than initially thought. Because of my English Master my Dutch has ‘anglicized’ and this made my translation tasks quite difficult. However I mildly recovered over the next couple of days. I got some other tasks and I feel I am learning a lot working with computers.

Through my work my days all seem a bit of the same. I get up at about 9.00, stumble to the shower and leave the flat around 9.30 with some Magdalenas (Delicious Spanish cakes ideal for fast breakfast) in my right hand. I take the 9.35 metro (see photos) at Piramides which is very close to my house and arrive at Diego de Leon exactly 18 minutes. Luckily I don’t have to change from my Green line (number 5) all the more because the Madrid metro is rather similar to an oven at the moment (I can’t even comprehend how it will be when summer closes in!). From the other end of the tunnel its just a short walk to the office.

After muttering ‘Buenas Dias’ to the ever present doorman (portero) I arrive at my desk around 10.00. This is also the time that the others arrive. We are with about 7 people in the office. Work finishes at 19.30 for me and we have a generous break for lunch around 14.30. There are some nice bars down in the street where it seems to be common to drink coffee (often with something extra in it – though not for me!!) and have a small sandwich (bocadillo).

I arrive home at 20.15 and at this time Carmen hasn’t returned from her uni yet. This means that I often crash on the couch and open a Mahou beer (Heineken on special days!) only to watch Blossom reruns on television (oddly enough they show this 90s TV show on prime time hours) with Spanish subtitles. After Carmen arrives we have dinner and then again watch more quality Spanish television with great shows such as Supermodelo (Spanish version of America’s Next Supermodel) or the doctor’s soap Hospital Central. All very good for my Spanish!

And that’s about my day! It doesn’t get more exiting than that! No, to be honest…it does. Life in a new city makes even these repetitive days exiting. The walking through the streets, the Spanish language in the subway and not to forget the exotic soap operas!

Picture contest

Those of you who visited Carmen and me in Amsterdam will remember our collection of especially handy crafted pictures. You will recall the beauty of simplicity that was portrayed. We had drawn (with typex on blue paper): a house, a boat, a pig, the sun, a fish, a tulip, a leaf and three snowy mountains.

For our new room in Madrid 8 more masterpieces were commissioned and it is now up to you to decide which one is the winner. Both of us made four so the contest is as follows:

Please vote for your favorite picture and also mention who you think made the winning picture. If you are really inspired you may try to guess all 8 pictures.

The closing date for entries will be the 15th of November 2006 at 00.00. The picture that receives the most votes will be the winner and there will be a lottery amongst those entries who voted for the winning picture. He or she will receive a souvenir from Madrid. Entries can be sent to me by email or posted on this site.

Good luck

Trip to the tropics

When you are in a foreign country even the boring daily stuff seem exiting. A trip to the supermarket becomes a trip to the tropics. He we see Carmen sporting our travel bag at the supermarket. It seems our neighbours plan their trip to the local super like they plan their holidays! Very much like waiting at the luggage reclaim if you ask me!

Mas Hechos Menos Palabras

Saturday was a day of firsts for me. Not only did I have my first (small) hangover it was also my first participation in a manifestation, or demonstration in my life. I know that this is a disappointing fact as a student of social science but I guess I never came round to it. The demonstration had been organized to raise awareness for poverty (in Spain and throughout the world). I felt rather uncomfortable taking pictures of this show of solidarity towards the poor with my new Canon Ixus 65 camera but I guess by publishing them on this website I am also contributing. Because it is a very important cause!! Did you know that of the 13 million Ecuadorians in the world 2 million have had to emigrate because of poverty? That the Nigerian government has stolen 624 Bln Euros during the last 20 years? That 80% of the people own 13% of the capital? Thats a tad unfair I say! So join the bandwagon and do something about it!

My personal bandwagon ended in the pub I´m afraid as our group decided that wine and beer would help our new cause, although I am not sure about the logic. It must be my juvenile comprehension of the Spanish language.

Night out

Thursday was mostly spent observing the rain and friday I went to Getafe, a suburb in Madrid where Carmens uni is located. She had class and I used the time to do important internet stuff. After class I met Carmens classmates (of Political Science) and it took some time before the subject became something non-political. However, things became more interesting in the bar close to the uni. Many of Carmens classmates came to have a drink and it was nice meeting them and very good for my Spanish. I even managed to work on my Galician as one of Carmens classmates is from Galicia. After the bar we went back home to drop some stuff and then proceeded to town. First a very nice bar (called Economico) where again many of Carmens classmates managed to be present. New to me is that with every drink you get a small tapas, often some obscure sausage or cheese, but nonetheless, very nice. The photo is of Carmens classmates in front of Economico.

After Economico we went to another place which was also nice, but crowded. I noticed that my spanish was improving by the hour. Or was it maybe the cerveza (local brew: Mahao) speaking? Either way Carmen and I decided to head home at about 3.30 as the group was entering yet another place. 3.30 is early in Spanish terms and when we met up the next day most of them had their final churros with chocolate (Spanish tradition after going out as Pieter my brother can confirm - its some sort of waffle with chocolate sauce and basically works as concrete in the stomach) at around 7.00.

That Sweet Erasmus Feeling

Barely a day in Madrid and we have already had a small Erasmus reunion with our Spanish Madridilians, Eduardo and Carlos. It was very nice to see them again. I met Edu on the day I arrived in the local pub and Carlos joined Edu and us for an Erasmus dinner on wednesday. Edu is in charge of all the international students and he had organized an Asturias (region in the north of Spain) dinner for Spanish and international students. As I am not the latter I fitted myself in the first group..the Spanish. The dinner reminded me, Carmen and Carlos very much of our dinners in Stockholm (for those of you who remember it was similar to the crayfish party except no hej lang gooooooaaarrr). Below you see Edu poring a drink Asturias style and me trying to imitate..spot the difference!

During the dinner - where I did my best to disguise my foreignness (I think I fooled a Polish student who thought I was a painter from Toledo) - Carmen and I won tickets to the bullfighting on Sunday. Now this is against my principles but I have decided to go anyway (this is what 80% of the Spanish say also, so I follow) so Sunday promises to be special although more rain has been forecast. I have been assured by the locals that it has never rained like this before..but then again, this comes from the same people who eat pigs ears as delicacy!

The photos below are of Carmen and me with firstly Carlos (still single girls..write me an email for his details!) and Eduardo ¨El Jefe¨.

Hola Madrid!

At 12.25 I made a firm touch down at Barajas Airport in Madrid. My dear Princess Carmen was waiting for me at the gate which gave the whole experience a Royal feeling. After telling everybody in Holland that I was going to tropical Madrid with its 26 degree sunshine it was no suprise that calls of ´booooooohh´rang through my TransAvia flight (HV5201) when our captain (De Vries) announced rather apologetically that it was raining in Madrid with a paltry temperature of 13 degrees!!! It hasnt stopped raining since my arrival three days ago. The photo below depicts me with Madrid´s city symbol (strangely a bear and a tree, neither of which are prominent in the city´s streets) and something which has been more familiar to me: wind and rain!


But you won´t hear me complaining! I have already had two full spanish conversations (admittedly one was just two sentences buying bread...the other ended in chaos) and have made some city walks discovering my new territory. These first days I have had appointments with my internship (JustLanded, I will start on monday, I had a good feeling about the company and the people after our first chat), the bank (I have returned three times now to the Banco Gallego and still they are sorting things out..biggest problem? my country of birth South Korea was no option in the bank´s computer as most of the people who enter the Bank of Galicia are Galician natives!! In the end we found two options: the democratic republic of Korea or just the republic of Korea...neither of us - or the rapidly growing crowd around our desk - knew which one to choose so we voted and went for the republic of South Korea which in the end turned out to be the right choice!), the keymaker (angry shouting man who doesnt perform his job very well) and my spanish classes.

My spanish classes start the second of November and I have done a test to see what my level was. I can proudly say that I have ´level 2´ which means I can start one level higher than I would have done without classes and Carmen! I will keep you all up to date on my progress!

Last days in the Netherlands

My last days in the Netherlands were mostly spent with my dear mother..we visited museums (on M.C.Escher and the ´Amsterdam School´ of design), went to the theatre (Alexander the Great), the cinema (Zwartboek) and ended with a bang in the posh restaurant Seinpost where we wined and dined with at least two cabinet ministers (Dekker and Zalm), and not to forget dad! On the picture below you can see me, mum, minister Dekker and the back of the head of minister Zalm. I say a very cultural week! But I suspect that I will find some culture in Madrid!

Positive energy

Thats it! I am no longer a student!

Last week I handed in my final thesis to complete my Masters degree of Social Policy and Social Work in Urban Areas. I had written my final thesis about the migrant policy of Amsterdam Oost-Watergraafsmeer (a city district of our capital). I conducted an evaluation and came up with several recommendations for the city district. For those of you that are interested you can read my thesis (titled positive energy) following the following link.

To the end of the world

This last week before moving I have been tying up loose ends and have started an activity that I haven't completed for over two years: reading and actually finishing a book. To the end of the world describes the amazing journey of Fernão Magelhães whose expedition became the first to circumnavigated the globe. The Portuguese captain-general sailing for his adopted king Carlos (later to become Carlos V) unfortunately didn't make it to the end. When our hero became involved in a Micronesian Island dispute he got injured and consequently cut to pieces by savage Islanders - led by their king Lapu Lapu. The rest of his fleet proceeded and only one boat - the Victoriá - made it back to Sevilla with 18 survivors (out of the 250 that sailed out three years before). Along the way these 18 men encountered new riches, mutiny, great storms, scheurby, giants, pigmees, angry Portuguese, new lands, kings and most important of all they had discovered a way around South America - later to become known as the Street of Magellan.

Whilst running through these last pages it dawned on me. Without comparing myself too much with my new hero I too am embarking on a new adventure. I too will be sailing for my new adopted King (Juan) Carlos which will take me to new unexplored places. This all of course without accusing my future countrymen of being savage man eating islanders. This web log will serve as a log of my adventures just as Pigafetta - Magelhães' trusty chroniceur - held his during his voyage to the end of the world.
Fernao Magelaes