Bruges

I returned home and plunged into the typical post-vacation frenzy: mow the embarrassingly tall lawn, do the laundry, buy some food, pick up the cat. But if I don't capture the final days of my trip, I'll forget too much.

This is the famous globe-trotting family I visited. My brother and his family decided to quit their jobs and travel for a year. They happened to be in Europe this fall, so we arranged to meet in Bruges, Belgium. You can read all about their adventures here.

I have never been to Belgium. I was delighted that they had chosen a city in the Flemish-speaking part of the country, because my knowledge of German at least helps me read a bit, whereas I am completely lost with French.

We only had two days together, so we focused on the essentials: fries, beer, chocolate, and waffles. No one was up for eating mussels. I made the mistake of calling them French fries at one point, but I was gently (yet firmly) corrected by the Belgians that the term was not appreciated. Simply "fries" was enough.

This picture captures the most peaceful half hour I had on my entire vacation. Bruges is a small, picturesque medieval town. It is extremely popular with the tourists, and we watched them stream out of the train station each day, traveling from the nearby Brussels. The streets were jam packed. On Sunday morning, before all the day trippers arrived, I wandered around looking for a bakery. The only people out were a few bicyclists and the Jehovah's witnesses. It was silent and beautiful and I could finally imagine what it might have been like to live there hundreds of years ago.

My sister-in-law is not a big drinker, but she was willing to help out with my beer tasting. I liked everything we had, while she stuck to the lambic fruit beers. She was pleased to learn that they are also available in the US, so I think it likely that we'll indulge again in the future.

Me, happy in a beer store, but sad to be leaving Europe and my family.

Philosophy

Uncle de-I sent me this article, which is worth a read if you like learning a bit about physics. (Don't worry, there's not a single equation.) I agree completely with the author. As a community, physicists have decided it is not part of the discipline to understand why quantum mechanics is the way it is. Instead, it is just our job to use the equations. In fact, this view is so pervasive that it wasn't until I took a philosophy of quantum mechanics course (in the philosophy department, not physics, of course) that I even became aware of the fact that we don't discuss the meaning of quantum mechanics. That is, it never even occurred to me until that moment that discussing what wave functions, observers, or reality are were questions that people could ask. I guess that's why we travel to other cultures, be those places China or the world of philosophy - we suddenly realize that things we accept as fundamentally and unequivocally true are actually just assumptions.

Perspectives

Since living in a country is different than visiting it, one of my research techniques to investigate the possibility of living in Spain was to ask everyone I met what they loved and hated about Madrid. I was particularly interested in the opinions of people from other places, whether inside or outside Spain. I don't agree with all the opinions below, but they are also super useful for considering the pros and cons of a city. It would be in interesting thought exercise to ask the same question about America, to know whether I would choose to live there if I had considered it dispassionately.

Negatives

• Less customer service/ more bureaucracy - People are polite in the shops, but I can agree that no one runs up to help you, and several people said that it is hard to get responses from the government, landlords, etc. I think I would need to take my experience of Miami's "island time" and multiply it by a hundred to be prepared for this.
• The weather - Actually, the person who made this complaint is from San Diego, where the climate is nearly perfect, and I suspect he has unreasonable expectations for the rest of the world. The temperatures closely match what I am used to in DC, but it is much, much drier.
• People are not very polite - It is true that no one apologizes when they run into you or step on your toes, and I have heard that the same extends to businesses when they make an error. Canadians have a reputation for excessively apologizing, but I'm realizing the stereotype probably applies to Americans too.
• Poor economy - The unemployment rate is quite high here - 15% compared to the U.S.'s 4%. This also results in lower prices, so it's a great place to spend money but not a great place to earn it.

Positives

• The nightlife is excellent - Nightlife isn't quite the right word for this. I'm sure the clubs and theaters are great, but what I mean is that people enjoy their time outside of work. Every evening the restaurants and bars are packed with people just spending time with their friends and family.
• Public transportation - It's outstanding. I almost never waited more than 5 minutes for a bus or train, although holidays and weekends take longer, and the prices are half that of DC. The trains are often packed, but I'd rather stand and get somewhere quickly.
• People are generally welcoming of outsiders. It's easy to make friends with expats, but it seems like you can also integrate into the Spanish society, as long as you can speak the language.
• People enjoy their food and drink. This is definitely a change from the US, where I often feel like we are eating as quickly as possible so we can get the next thing done. I am partially left out, though, since I won't eat the many ham or seafood dishes on offer.

Segovia

Just to prove that I haven't been spending ALL my time conjugating verbs or drinking beer with other students (although, admittedly, that has been a lot of my time), here are some tourist-type things I saw.

 I went to Segovia on the weekend, which is a short train/bus trip from Madrid. It's most famous for it's well-preserved Roman aqueduct. This brought water from the nearby mountains. Now that I have installed plumbing and understand that the pipes can be neither to steep nor too shallow, I am doubly-impressed that they could maintain a one-degree angle for so many kilometers.

I climbed a tower to take a great picture. There were lots of tourists, but it wasn't outrageous. Coming in September has been a nice compromise to avoid most of the heat and tourists of summer.

According to the brochure, this is the last Gothic cathedral that was built in Spain. Gothic certainly looks more cheerful when it's yellow stone and not gray.

Vacation reflections

When I spend a lot of time speaking a language other than English, I swing between feeling proud of my progress and horrified at how poorly I'm doing. On the first day I had to introduce myself and I did just find until I had to explain what level Spanish I speak, and then I slipped into a bit of German without realizing it. And today we reviewed verb tenses, where I counted that I know about six verb tenses, and that means I only have about 11 more to go. There's lots to keep me humble here.

On the other hand, it has been much easier to slip back into the routine since this is my second time in Madrid. I already had my favorite grocery store bookmarked on Google maps, and I already know that I want to spend lots of time at my favorite park but can skip much of the other tourist stuff this time around.

Along with enjoying myself, I'm also trying to start evaluating what I'd like to do when I'm done working. Would I like to live in Spain? Is that even possible, visa-wise?  I've been spending more time talking to locals and other travelers, quizzing them on their experiences in this city. One longer-term resident said he hates the weather, but my Internet research says that the average monthly temperatures are almost exactly the same in Madrid and DC, and it's less humid here. I have disliked the lack of A/C in my rental apartment, but I have been assured that its not hard to find a longer-term rental with A/C, so that doesn't seem like a deal-breaker for me. I do find it hard to adapt to the Spanish schedule of very late nights, but if I didn't have to wake up early for morning classes, I think I could adapt.

Wherever I end up, I apparently need to prioritize natural light. I expect that at some point I will sell my house and move into a small apartment, whether it is in downtown DC or in Madrid. The apartment I rented here is clean and in a walkable area, but because the only windows look onto a narrow courtyard with walls reaching four stories high, I can't tell whether it is day or night in the apartment and I dread spending time there. It's good to learn about this personal requirement now, when I have a two-week lease rather than a two-year lease. Also, 170 square feet (19 square meters) is a really tiny space, but I think I could manage this if I could choose appropriately sized furniture. (Pro tip: don't put in so much furniture that you can't close the bedroom or bathroom doors.) 

Breakfast in Frankfurt

Frankfurt doesn't have a great reputation in Germany - it's seen as very modern and boring, as if you had plucked Wall Street out of New York but didn't take any of the interesting art, fashion, or immigrant culture with it. As a result, I have never bothered to visit. But my flight to Europe was a direct hop from DC to Frankfurt, so I decided to stay a day before heading to Madrid.

I can see how the city gets this reputation. There are lots of skyscrapers, which are unusual in Germany but common here because most of the old city was destroyed during WW II. I did a walking tour and saw the outside of the stock market and Goethe's birthplace, a treat for someone with a German Literature BA, but there wasn't a lot else that grabbed my attention. My hotel was near the train station, which is a neighborhood filled with trash and graffiti. But it's also quite international - there were loads of different ethnic foods and immigrants, and I saw no less than four festivals yesterday, featuring the Indian community, wine, China, and basketball. If you know me, you can guess that I sped through Basketball Fest but tarried at Indien Fest.

In any case, it's been great to be in Germany again. It's a reminder how easy things are when you know the language and culture - which should encourage me to keep practicing Spanish. And I got to eat a German breakfast, which was 50% of why I visited and was 100% worthwhile. I pretty much chose my hotel based on the reviews of its breakfast.The big spread of cheese, breads, boiled eggs, and yogurt is not easy to replicate in the US, but this morning's repast will inspire me to keep trying.