A break

Two and a half weeks ago, I finished my final exam for Spanish class, packed my bags and headed to the US for a break. And it has been a glorious break. I would describe coming back to an English language environment as slipping into a warm bath. I continue to revel in how easy life is when you can communicate clearly. And I turned off all the Spanish, deleting podcasts I should be listening to and ignoring all my flashcard reminders. That will all be waiting for me when I return.

In addition to taking a break from learning, I immersed myself in my friends' lives. I know that I will eventually make deep friendships in Madrid, but it is truly delightful to just bask in time together with friends I've known for years. DC has a high concentration of such people, so I headed there first. (Sorry to any DC people I couldn't missed - my time was so short!)

My best friend M and I met in Philadelphia, halfway between our respective locations, for s day trip. I am maybe 2" taller than her, and minimal height distances make for excellent hugging opportunities. Our big adventure was hearing a free organ concert at a downtown department store. Apparently this was the thing shoppers enjoyed a century ago.

Culture shock hit in a few ways, although mostly good ones. With this photo I am marveling at the size and selection of the grocery stores. I also forgot how great it is that Americans talk to strangers. Less good is the way we try to eat our meals as fast as humanly possible.

My friends N and S were kind enough to store my bicycle in their basement, which let me get in lots of riding. It turns out I still love bicycle riding, and hopefully I can finally get a bike sorted in Spain next month.

And of course it's not quality time with friends if you don't do construction projects. 

My friend E made me a cheese souffle! There is no better demonstration of friendship, in my opinion.

My friendship cup runneth over. 

What I do when I´m not studying

Things are ticking along nicely here. I have found a good balance between study and social activities. It's probably not surprising that school is turning out to be useful for meeting friends.

Inviting friends to your home for meals is somewhat rare here - that is usually reserved for family. I suspect this is similar to the situation in NYC, when people tend to meet in bars or restaurants because no one has an apartment big enough to host people. However, I love cooking food for people so I've just decided to play the "This is something we do in the US" card and I've had two small dinner parties.

 
I've been busy studying for my final exam in Spanish, which is tomorrow. Actually, there are three exams: the final for the class, a makeup exam offered in January, and a certification exam. I am hoping to avoid needing the makeup exam, but I plan to take the certification exam because it's good practice. At this point, I am pretty confident that I can do will enough to be admitted to the next class, but we will see if the gods of the subjunctive case smile upon me. In any case, I will not have to think about Spanish for the next few weeks, because I'm going to visit friends and family in the US. It's going to be amazing to just walk around and understand everything that people say!

My new friends T and A at the house of the Joaquin Sorolla, a famous Spanish impressionist painter. T and A are fun and interesting people, and, on top of that, A is really good at remembering to take pictures for my blog, so I hope to hang out with them more.

I cooked to for two days to make this Indian feast: roti, raita, urad dal (lentils), malai kofta (a cheese and potato dumpling in tomato gravy), cabbage fritters, and lassi (a mango lassi drink). That meant a feast for three people, plus delicious leftovers for days. Totally worth it.

This is a tiny baroque church where I heard a concert of English choral music. The acoustics were amazing, and the crowd of senior citizens plus me loved every minute of it. I couldn´t decide whether to focus on the music or everything that was happening on the walls.

Madrid puts of LOTS of lights for Christmas. It´s beautiful, but apparently all six million Madrilenños were out looking at them on Saturday. Overfull buses passed the stop rather than picking people up, so getting there and home was a challenge. Next time I´ll go view them on a random Tuesday instead.