The search goes on…and on…and on…

It’s not that I don’t have a house.  The issue is that the room that I have currently is very small, which would be workable, but it doesn’t have a WINDOW.  You may think, as I did, that one can adjust to things, that as long as it’s temporary it doesn’t really matter, that maybe this is part of why we have electricity or even that

Entrance, Calle del Olivar, 8

that which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.  If you were me and you though those things about living in a windowless room, you would be wrong.  It is far more disorienting than you may think.  Call me a weenie, I’m ready to move out.  I’ve been in there for almost 2 weeks now and even though there is a light switch right directly over the bed I still have this brief moment of frantic waving and groping trying to find it.  The bed doesn’t move, but sill I have to think about how I’m laying in order to find the wall.

 

But enough about that.  I am still looking for a house.  I go and see houses almost everyday, or at least every other day…and there is frequently something strange.  There are many places that have been ill-advisedly divided and subdivided to create more rooms, places where there are no windows, places where they don’t want me for being a student, places where there are unspecified numbers of others living in

Hall, Calle del Olivar, 8

 rooms whose doors don’t open, children who tell me not to open the fridge, people who ask absolutely no questions about me at all…there’s a little of everything.  This is just some venting, but after three-plus weeks I’m tired!

Really, I would like to stay where I am, the guys that live here, Chema and Alvaro are super great and the location is pretty unbeatable.  The neighborhood is Lavapies/Tirso de Molina and it’s very diverse.  There are people from all different parts of the world doing all manner of things.  There are a lot of artsy things, divey bars, radical bookstore, etc.  Also we are really close to the center of the city and only about 15 minutes from the Retiro.  In other words, its a winner, other than the fact that it’s a cave.

But, no worries, it’ll happen given enough time…

El Retiro

On Friday night I went to a birthday party in this occupied lot a few blocks down from my house.  I am still no sure whose birthday it was, but it was nice.  The space is really pleasant – it’s behind this wall with sheets of metal on top to make it taller, but then you get inside and there are trees and it’s quieter and it almost works like a portal.  Anyhow, from there we rode bikes to Vallecas.  This is about a 40-minute ride and we didn’t even leave the party until about midnight.  Then, of course, we got lost.  But in the end it was fun – big outdoor stage and 2 bands.  The first we saw was a ska group from Argentina.  Just to vacillate a little more on the saxophone topic, it didn’t mind it in this case.  They were fun, and then a group played from here.  Names you ask? I have no idea.  In the fashion of the Madrileno, I didn’t make it to bed until at least 5:30.

So.  Needless to say, I wasn’t in shape to do very much on Saturday.  I decided that going to the park sounded nice and set off towards Madrid’s famous Parque El Buen Retiro.  As someone in class said, it’s kind of like the Central Park of Madrid.  Very nice and tidy.  There is also a botanical gardens there that is supposed to be super great, but I haven’t made it yet.  So I went and sat around and read and drew and watched 

people and without really choosing to I listened to this guy next to me huff and whoosh his way through a calisthenics routine.  There were a lot of people playing with their poi (I just want to add that while I was looking for a photo of this I came across a website called “feraltech”. for serious.) And, they were taking it really seriously – it was as though I was in the ‘private poi lessons’ sections of the park.

Then I left.

Then I accidentally walked past this nice used book market.  While there were only a few stalls open on Saturday, there are a lot and the variety and quality of the books seemed pretty good.  

But most exciting was this:Which, I guess, is so that when your 5 year old gets to work and there’s no where to put their bike they can fold it and put it under their desk. Right?