Los Cenizas (The Ashes)

In Madrid I am living a life without cricket at the moment. Surprisingly enough 'Los Cenizas' (The Ashes) are very popular down here in Spain and going by the English achievements in Australia this is just as well!! I was desperately looking for a radio which receives Test Match Special but (luckily for Carmen as cricketmatches in Australia start at 01.00 in the morning European time!) none were to be found :-( Now watching highlights through the Internet is the only thing saving me from insanity...

Anyway, another week has past and fridays are always special days here at the office: its China day (el dia Chino). Every friday we make a small walk to the local Chinese restaurant and take the €5.85 menu (three dishes, a drink and a coffee!!). For starters I always go for the 'rollo primavera' (one of my favorite Spanish literal translations...closely followed by 'hora feliz'). The rest of the menu I leave open for change

I am now off to start my weekend, lets hope England improves down under! Hooray!!

Ire visit

This weekend we had an important visitor to The Pyramid: Irene, the sister of Carmen. She was in Madrid to do her opposition (exams in Spain to become a civil servant) exams. Up until now she has done better than expected and has reached level three. This is a serious achievement in your first year!

After her exams on friday and saterday morning it was holiday time for Irene and I benefitted with her. Visits mean city walks and other cool tourist stuff. During our walks through Madrid (which included: The Rastro market, Retiro Park and all the important 'barrio's' (neighborhoods)) I am proving to be quite the photographer of city life! Here are a couple of examples and I will be posting more! Keep your eyes open..

On Sunday evening we went to the very cool 'Viva Madrid' described by the Times as 'one of the best bars in the world'. This is certainly true as it is well decorated with ceramics. It is like having a drink in a museum. We recommend it highly!

Photos of Freds visit

This weekend us gatos (cats...Madrid slang for a real Madridlian) experienced the visit of Fred. The Erasmus crowd will recognize our French friend from the photos (below, girl on the far right!!). Normally Fred is doing an internship in Barcelona but after this weekend she discovered that Madrid is the real thing.




At the end of the night we witnessed something truely terrible. As 'Can I keep my hat on' screamed through the packed bar the locals started to take the lyrics literaly!! The man in the back (pun not intended!!) was outdone by his dancing partner, unseen on this picture. Even if she was visible she would not be published on this site. I do not have have a license for this.

Operation IKEA

There was a considerable amount of excitement in the office today. Not only was it Friday but the interns at Just Landed received a special task. We had to put together three IKEA desks in half an hour. The desks – by the way – were called ‘Jerker’ proving that the Swedes do not always get it right. I was made chief constructer of this operation on the basis that my father is an engineer and that I played with Lego up until the age of 13 years (that is 1 year more than advised by the Lego Company).

I used my newly obtained power to show Just Landed what I was capable of. Tammo, my German mate, was also relieved with this task. He remarked that it was the first time that he actually had to use his brain during his internship! All tongue in cheek of course although it was rather amusing seeing him sweat over a couple of screws!!

Mi hermano

My brother Pieter is a very funny man..he is a big clown!He writes: (Mi hermano Pedro es un hombre muy divertido...el es un payaso grande! El escribe:)

Hey Thoom, you know your writing style is like this: 'The small one likes me I think. Communications are slow, but after sharing coffee with my new Indian friends I feel increasingly like a native. Still no signs of reinforcements'

Of course my brother is referring to one of the great movies of all time 'Dances With Wolves' (Bailas con lobos) where Kevin Costner (Ltn. John Dunbar) often narrates sections from his diary describing his life on the prairie. During his lonely time at an outpost somewhere in the Wild West he slowly but surely integrates with the local Indian population. My brother – to my greatest of pleasure – often relives moments from this great movie by pretending he is Ltn. John Dunbar.

As a social scientist I love all social and cultural interactions. Here in Madrid I have noticed a few things. Chinese people try to sell everything to you especially at night. Anything from beers to umbrella’s to snacks to funny strange rocks that make noise when you through them up in the air. And the amazing thing: you end up buying them! Then there are the African immigrants who also want to sell everything in the street. This gang however concentrates on the selling of illegal DVD’s and CD’s. They have an inventive system. All the CD’s are laid out on a sheet. The sheet is connected to four ropes connected to each corner. When a policeman comes to close a process of communication starts which end with the seller pulling the ropes and running away. And the amazing thing: you end up buying the CD’s!

Various photos

Breakfast in Galicia
Sunset in Galicia Party in Galicia
Siesta in Madrid
Balconies in Madrid
Me with sun and tiles
Most important building in Madrid: Estadio Calderon de Atletico Madrid

Fin de Semana (Weekend)

This weekend was very nice. After finishing work on Friday (the boss had given us each a beer to enjoy the last hour of the week) I returned to the Pyramid (our house…named after our metro station) to find a happy Carmen. She had a nice day as she has started voluntary work at a NGO and this had gone well. The plan for the night was going out with Carmen’s Master classmates. We met in a nice neighborhood for going out ‘Malasaña’ (to be pronounced as ‘My Lasagna’). All communications were in Spanish. After staying at a rather cheap place we went to the rather cooler bar/club called Via Latica (Milky Way). It was totally packed and we enjoyed it there up to closing hours. After the Via we went to our last destination, some hard rock place close to the main street in Madrid. Not my cup of teas but I had a nice talk with the doorman who now knows my name.

Going out with Carmen's classmates

On Saturday we met up with Edu, Carlos and Lourdes (and her boyfriend Fernando). They came to the Pyramid and Herman was also present with his girlfriend (May..she was visiting from Malaga) so in the end we were with 8. It was very nice to see Lourdes again. We hadn’t seen her for two years or so and really fantastic to meet up. We promised to get together more often. At 01.00 we left for a club close by. The Vendetta was also packed to the bone but enjoyed anyway. Edu and I spent most of the night pretending to be English exchange students (with a heavy David Beckham accent) with some success. Fernando, Carmen, Me, Edu, Carlos and Lourdes

The Pharon de Pyramides, El Presidente de Erasmus, El Rey Carlos Trecero

My new daily rhythm

My starting point 'Piramides'

My Spanish classes have started in earnest now. Every morning between 10.30-12.30 I have two hours of intensive classes. The classes are OK although we are with a lot of students which means we don’t have a lot of actual speaking time. I have the feeling that I am a bit the granddad (abuelo) of the class. My classmates are (bar a few) all aupairs working in Madrid for posh Spanish family. Although their stories of these problem children are amusing I am already a bit bored of the exchanging of cooking tips and various techniques to lock a child in the kitchen cupboard. This Friday (the 10th) I had an exam and the teacher complimented me on my use of vocabulary!! How great, this week we move up a level.

After my classes I go to work at 13.00 until about 19.30. My work still consists of translating, writing and updating a Wiki database on embassies and consulates. This week I finished Canada and I will now translate Belgium. I think I will soon get some new projects and work to do. My workmates are nice and I mainly enjoy my lunches with a German (Tammo) and a Ecuadorian (Sebastian). They are also interns and on Wednesday we went to Tammo’s place for some drinks. Our Dutch boss also joined us and we stayed until 06.00. I was broken, took the first metro home and fell asleep in the metro. When I woke up I noticed that I had taken the wrong direction and was about 16 stops away from home! Mierda. Luckily I didn’t have to work the next day as we had a free day in Madrid (we have already had three in as much weeks!!) for no apparent reason.

My finish 'Diego de Leon'

Trip to Galicia - Cantas Vacas Tes

After scanning the Internet over and over again we found flights to Carmen’s native Galicia for only Eur.20! We booked them and a week later we were on the plane northbound. The flight was in the early morning and when we left home we were only one missed bus away from missing our plane! Luckily all our connections fitted and we made it just on time. The flight itself was only about 50 minutes and we touched down in Santiago de Compestella on Friday morning (the 3rd). It was freezing and coming from sunny and warm Madrid this was rather a shock. When leaving Madrid it had been raining again and the forecasts were not good for the weekend. Galicia can be cold and wet but at least there were no clouds.

On arriving in Santiago we took the bus south to Pontevedra. Although I was fighting with my sleepy eyes we could see all the damage that has been done to Galicia by a combination of pyromaniacs and heavy rain. Black trees washed away from the mountain lining the streets. It is sad to see such a beautiful area affected by the stupidity of man. Pontevedra looked more or less the same as my previous visits. Pontevedra is a nice medium sized town and is the home town of Carmen’s family. We met with Carmen’s dad (Manuel) on the central square, close to where he works and later with Carmen’s mum (Obdulia) who was having coffee with her workmates (she is a high school teacher of natural science and physics). There was a an ‘end of the week’ feeling for everybody. When the parents finished their works we had lunch and prepared for ‘the big move’.

Carmen’s family has a great beach house which is used nearly every weekend in the summer and increasingly in the winter. Luckily the weather had turned and we had great sunshine. On the way to La Lanzada we stopped in the village (a pueblo) of Meis. This is where Manuel’s family originates from. It is a typical village and gives you a good idea of how life would have been in Galicia a century ago. We dropped in for tea and had nice (Spanish) talks with Carmen’s grandmother (Carmen) and her aunt (Carmen…the female line of Carmen’s family at least doesn’t spring any surprises!!) I had brought some Dutch cookies as present and they were well received. After leaving Meis we arrived in the beach house were we relaxed for the evening.

On Saturday we woke up, had a nice breakfast on the terrace overlooking the beach, see and sunshine. We went to the port village of Sanxenxo and when we returned Alberto, the boyfriend of Irene (Carmen’s sister) had arrived for lunch and we had some delicious fish (to be followed by meat, potatoes and lentils…we were well taken care of, as always). Saturday night was the big night. There was a birthday party of two of Carmen’s friends in a penthouse flat on the centre square of Pontevedra, it was simply amazing. The party was going well with nice music, nice people (I knew quite a lot of them as I had met the friends on my previous vistis..the nice thing was that I could now really communicate and get to know them) and great food/drinks. Then, all of a sudden, someone decided to show their wedding video on a big screen and sadly the party tied the knot just like the couple on the TV screen. But we had a great time anyway. I impressed with my knowledge of the Galician language. I can now ask the question ‘Cantas vaca tes?’ which means as much as ‘How many cows do you have?’.

The following day we had some more relaxing to do, we went to the beach, had some drinks watching Celta de Vigo play Real Madrid (Celta won 2-1!!) in a trendy bar. After the match we sadly had to say goodbye to the family and head home to Madrid by bus. It was a night bus and took about 7 hours. On our return I had to go straight to Spanish class and work. But it was all worth it..what a great trip!