Bullfights and Birthdays

(post written by Charlie)

Often times, when someone is fortunate enough to live, work, or serve in a beautiful and exciting part of the world, they are careful to word their experiences delicately so not to cause their friends, family, supporters, and in my case, co-onSiters, any jealously or malicious thoughts.  I have been called quite a few things throughout my 24 years, and delicate is certainly not one of them.  Becky and I are currently viewing the world through rose-coloured glasses which I'm sure will affect the way I portray what we have experienced in Spain so far.  Many of you know that the hobby that I am most passionate about is photography.  I have been so blown away by how spectacular Madrid is that I haven't wanted to capture it yet.  I feel as though I have to get to know her.  Learn how she inhales and exhales, how she wakes and how she sleeps—I'm still not even sure if she does sleeps.  If she does, it is certainly after Becky and I go to bed, which has been overwhelmingly late since arriving.  No doubt, I will get my camera out sooner of later, but until then, my budding shutterbug of a wife has taken some great shots which I get to share via our blog.

Arrival and Settling

We are certainly still in the "settling in" stage of our year-long journey, but we have experienced so much in just over a week that we feel as though we've been here too long to be settling in.  We arrived to find our mentor, Tim Wendel, a Chicagonian who has been in Spain for eight years, wearing a Hertz Car Rental jacket.  It took us a while to ask him if he was Tim (mainly because of the jacket) and I'm still convinced he was wearing it to throw us off, because we haven't seen him in it since.  We were lead on a whirl-wind tour of Tres Cantos, the suburb of Madrid which will be our home for the next 10 months, in which we met government workers and Jehovah Witnesses, bartenders and basketball players.  Tim may have been keeping us awake, or he may have really wanted us to meet these people, but one thing was very clear: our year in Madrid was going to be all about relationships.  We had lunch—the largest meal of the day—with the Wendel's and discovered that Tim's wife Melanie is an excellent cook and that their four kids had more spunk than should be legal in a one-floor 3 bedroom apartment.  We have felt unbelievably welcome in their home since then and have already grown to think of our mentors and their kids (Timothy, Nathaniel, Elijah, and Olivia) as friends.

In the past week, aside from learning about the work being done in Tres Cantos and being introduced to people, we have begun to learn how our oven works, how to turn on the washing machine, where to buy essentials and groceries, and how to get around on public transit.

Madrid

The beauty of public transit is two-fold: it's cheap, and it leads to Madrid.  For less than 1,00€, and in less than 30 minutes, Becky and I can arrive in the heart of one of the most exciting cities I've ever seen. We are fortunate to be arriving after tourist season and I feel as though the city is once again discovering its pulse at the same time that we are. It's electric.  There are hundreds, nay, thousands of people wandering shopping districts, eating on patios, and enjoying their beautiful city.  Men in the "third age", which refers fondly to our elders, sit in the most public plazas enjoying one another's company around a fountain or reminiscing over a glass of wine at a local café. People of all ages stand in line at a local convent to buy cookies from cloister nuns who cannot be seen by anyone (see video for how this works).  Locals stand around a local meat shop choosing what kind of cured pork to try (the price and the quality improves based on the amount of acorns in the pig's diet).

Perhaps my largest joy so far has been my birthday which was on Thursday of last week. Becky took me to a local Chocolateria half a block from our house which serves Churros (semi-sweet fried dough) which you dip in pudding like hot chocolate.  If this idea doesn't sound appealing to anyone who is reading this, I'm sorry.  I talk about churros now every day.  Despite the fact that we are walking between five and fifteen kilometres a day, I still may gain weight this year.  They haunt my dreams.  It is not a good scene.

After breakfast, we had a short meeting with some members of English camp team here in Tres Cantos (I will discuss this in further posts) and then Becky and I spent the evening wandering old Madrid's churches and palaces as the sun set.  After dark, we went to the Opera district to enjoy a Spanish pizza and assorted tapas, from shrimp and octopus salad to acorn fed "jamon serrano" on crusty Spanish bread.  We boarded the train back home around 10:30 and wandered back up our little Spanish street at about 11:05.