Holy Week / Semana Santa

Semana santa is "holy week" and its celebrations in Spain are renowned around the world. For some it's holy due to its religious significance. For others it means an escape to the beach.

I'll be in Madrid for Easter, and even though it's not Seville's celebration, it still has its processions that are noteworthy to check out. To give you an idea, it's not just on Easter day. Here is the program:

PROCESSIONS IN MADRID

DOMINGO DE RAMOS, 5 APRIL
Cristo de la Fe y el Perdón

MIÉRCOLES SANTO, 8 APRIL
Solemne Vía Crucis
Nuestro Padre Jesús de la Salud

JUEVES SANTO, 9 APRIL
Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno “El Pobre” y María Santísima del Dulce Nombre
El Divino Cautivo
Nuestro Padre Jesús del Gran Poder y María Santísima de la Esperanza
Jesús Nazareno y Virgen de la Soledad
Vía Crucis

VIERNES SANTO, 10 APRIL
Jesús Nazareno de Medinaceli
Santísimo Cristo de los Alabarderos
Procesión del silencio
El Divino Cautivo
María Santísima de los Siete Dolores
Santo Entierro
Parroquia de San Andrés
Procesión del Silencio

SÁBADO SANTO, 11 APRIL
Virgen Dolorosa
Procesión de la Soledad

Healthcare in Spain

Since I have been living here, I have had private healthcare. It's quite decent, and there are a few things that stand out to me:

1. I pay approximately 40 Euros per month for the plan itself. If I go to the doctor, the copayment is 1 Euro, unless it's urgent care (4 euros).
   
2. Medicine is not on a copayment system, you just pay for the price of the medicine. But it seems to me that most medicine is reasonably priced.
3. If I get any tests (blood analysis, x-rays, etc), the results are mine to take home. It's my responsibility as the patient to keep those documents and show them to the doctor. When I had pneumonia, I had 3 x-rays of my lungs over a period of 2 months, and I still have these at home. Patient accountability - what a concept!
4. Tests and analysis aren't very expensive. I think I pay an extra 2 euros or something. In any case, the doctors here are quite reluctant to prescribe medicine to their patients without all appropriate tests first. This is the complete opposite from the US, and I think it's because the tests tend to be quite expensive and not covered by our health insurance.

Today I signed up to the public healthcare that is covered by social security (since I'm working, I am eligible). It was relatively simple - I just had to prove my residency, social security and work status.

They gave me a temporary card that I can use for going to the public hospital, and if I need to go to urgent care and for whatever reason cannot go to my private hospital, I will be taken care of free of charge at the public hospital. Oh, and apparently when I purchase my medicine, it will be cheaper than if I were purchasing it with a prescription from my private healthcare doctor.

I asked for an appointment to meet my primary care physician, which will be this afternoon. I'm not sick or anything, but I am interested in learning about the system and will ask some very basic "I'm a stupid foreigner" questions.

Take a look at my appointment -- they print it out on a receipt!!!

Senior Love

One of the first things that I noticed when I first moved here to Madrid was how many elderly couples walk hand-in-hand in the streets.

You see old sweethearts, helping one another strut along, holding hands as if they were newlyweds.

Sure, sometimes you see them arguing in overly loud voices so the other can hear with his/her hearing aid, but more than often, you just see them walking silently and seemingly happy together.

It's very endearing...and even though I have been living here for more than a year, it still makes me smile.


For some reason, I don't have the same image in the U.S. Why is that?



Well for starters, there are a lot of elderly people here in Spain. I looked up the census data: 24% of Spain's population is 60 years and older, compared to the 14% of United States. Take a look at these population pyramids for both countries in 2009. Everything above the black line is the population of 60+ years of age. When you see this in more visual terms, you can tell that Spain's population is much more aged than the United States.


I definitely notice the aging population here, much more than I ever did in my own country.

But perhaps I notice more elderly people here for another reason. Perhaps it is because the Spanish culture is much more "street-based". What I mean by this is people go out, they are social, and they are used to walking around on the street to handle their normal errands. In the U.S. people tend to travel by a more private transportation mode - their own car. Whereas in the U.S. the elderly might be driven in a car by a family member (if they no longer drive themselves), here the elderly will take the bus and the metro, talk to their other elderly friends in the main plaza, and maybe go to a small bar for some tapas.

I'm not sure how much convalescent homes has to do with this visibility, either. The United States is known for utilizing convalescent homes more than what is considered acceptable in other cultures, but I have been told more than once that in Spain there are quite a few "elderly residences" and that it isn't uncommon here.

Vacas Gone Wild in Madrid

We went for a long walk downtown today, and to our pleasant surprise ran into the "Cow Parade in Madrid", which has hundreds of cow statues strategically placed across the city. Each has its own sponsor and artist, and they are being auctioned off to benefit specific NGO's.

I just HAD to get a picture with my flamenco-dressed señorita!

Metro Madrid Mocks Me?

I never leave home without one of these tickets. It's the Metro Bono ticket that can be used for 10 trips either on the metro or on the bus.

Year upon year, I see this little, yet oh-so-necessary ticket get more and more expensive.

2007: € 6.70

2008: € 7.00 (+ 4.5%)

2009: € 7.40 (+ 5.7%)



The Metro/bus system must be investing in something important, because year over year they keep increasing the ticket price well above Spain's average inflation rate, which is 2.4% according to INE.

Sara's Top 5 for why the bono price keeps rising so aggressively....

1. Why not? People will still buy their basic need - public transportation
2. Madrid metro might be cheaper than other EU subways - let's even out the playing game
3. Madrid metro and downtown buses are planning on going "eco" all the way
4. Madrid metro has to replace all the vandalized tilework on the walls
5. It's as simple as sports - Madrid vs. Barcelona: which transport system can charge more?

FAMA - the best reality show in Spain

I am honored to present to you today my favorite reality show:

FAMA ¡a bailar!

It's a LIVE reality show where this dance school chooses its contestants by individual castings (very similar to American Idol) all over Spain. Then these final contestants are allowed into Fama dance school where they are given a dance partner for all performances and one by one they get eliminated. As the contestants get smaller and smaller, they compete for survival and for the best partner so that they can continue into the very final round.

What do I love? The dancing and the drama. Take a look:

Omar. Not the best dancer, but he definitely brings the drama: He has been hooking up with both Eva and Marisa at the same time.

Eva. AMAZING dancer + drama. She has (had?) a boyfriend who I'm sure watches this live show, yet she keeps going back and forth with Omar. Kissy kissy.

Marisa is also a phenomenal dancer and was first courted by Omar, then held off on the drama. Now I saw some kissy kissy.

Erik just entered as a new contestant. Apparently in the first castings, Marisa and him met and there was "feeling". And he is best friends with Omar....(see above)

Yure is like a truck driver. You should have seen her dancing to classical music style. Truly entertaining. Her partner Jonas is more feminine than she is!



I'm so addicted. Love this show.

Ok, now it really is SNOOOOOOWWWWW

Cibeles Statue in downtown:

I just went out of the house for literally less than 10 minutes, with extra layers of clothing, my fluffy down-like jacket with a hood, and determination. I'm now back at home and I realize that my feet are colder than the hardwood floors in the house. Odd as it may seem, I'm letting the floor warm up my feet.

Here's a picture of the plaza in our neighborhood:

SNOWWWWWW

Real snow!!!

And it snowed for longer than one lousy minute!

Tomorrow it's supposed to be even colder, so we'll see how that goes. I'm kinda scared to go outside. But then again, I'm a wuss.

First Timer's Luck...

My very first slice of roscón and I got the little hidden gift!!!!!!

WOOOHOOOOO!!!!

A little airplane that I have absolutely no use for! YAY!!

Bye Bye Roscones!

Holy Crap they go quick! These photos were taken at a couple of bakeries, within a 4 block radius, in our neighborhood -- around 11am. The bakeries are baking all night to open up on Reyes Magos day at 6am and people who want a recently baked roscón will get up early in the morning to stand in line. So people stand in line no matter when they go to buy the roscón -- the day before or the day of. But you can't have Reyes Magos day without a roscón. It's like Thanksgiving without the turkey.
People standing in line, in about 35 degrees Fahrenheit temperature. Locos.

Roscón de Reyes

Last night we went walking around our neighborhood and every bakery has on display hundreds of the same Christmas cake to celebrate Reyes Magos. You can't imagine the smell - mmmmmmmm!

The cake looks like an oversized donut with dried, sugared fruit. Sometimes they get fancy about it and fill the inside of the cake up with whipped cream or whipped chocolate. But the traditional cake is what you see in the picture, and always with little prizes inside. Manuel tells me that there usually is one "regalo de roscón" and whoever gets it is PENALIZED to have to pay for the damn roscón. That's not a very nice surprise, if you ask me!

Los Reyes Magos

It's almost "Reyes Magos" Day!!!
(Day of the Three Magi)

According to most forms of Christianity, the Magi were the first religious figures to worship Christ, and for this reason the story of the Magi is particularly respected and popular among many Christians. The visit of the Magi is commemorated by Catholics and other Christian churches on the observance of Epiphany, January 6.

If you remember the old testament, each magi came with a gift for the baby Jesus, as follows:

Baltazar: myrrh as a symbol of death (in the middle)
Melchor: frankincense, symbol of priestship (far left)
Gaspar: gold, symbol of kingship on earth (lower right)

Here in Spain, kids tend to receive gifts from the Reyes Magos (not from Santa Claus)!!! They write letters to the magi in hopes that they bring them gifts for having been good boys and girls. It's just like Christmas. January 6th is a national holiday and in the morning the kids open up their gifts that appear magically in the morning.

There is a large parade that is on the eve before, where the three wise men traverse the largest avenue of Madrid on their camels. The parade is just as large as our "Macy's Parade" or Thanksgiving parade. With true Spanish style, it all starts later than what an American would expect. The parade isn't at 12noon but rather at 6pm and these little kids are waiting out in the freezing cold until the Reyes Magos pass by to wave at them!

Each local neighborhood also has a parade, usually a few days before, where the 3 Magi arrive on a float and parade down the streets, throwing candies to the crowds. Here's a picture of our neighborhood's parade. Not nearly as exciting, but it's right in front of our house and we don't have to freeze our butts off to catch a few caramelitos...Yes...We were competing with the five year olds for candy...So what??!!

Christmas Lights in the City

Xmas lights above Calle Alcalá, heading towards Puerta Alcala

Happy Constitution Day

You can't please everyone. Here's a picture of an organized and peaceful protest in Puerta del Sol. The signs are anti-Franco and anti-Constitution - I still don't get it all. Basically it's people who are not in favor of Spain being one Spain, if I'm even right about that. It's too confusing and too sensitive of a topic to ask Spaniards because their civil war was in the 1930's.

Look at the sign; it says "you won't shut us up, neither fascists nor the king!" And inside the "NO" you can see the king's crown. The best part was the political hip hop on the stage with the big Republican flag (before the civil war, that is)

Long Weekend

This is a 3-day weekend, thanks to the Spanish Constitution. Even this clinic is on vacation!!!! The sign says to call the main hospital in case of emergency over the weekend. Gotta love Spain's respect for relaxing on your day off!

By the way, all the updates or changes on this sign are made with gauze strips!

Telefónica HQ

I had the pleasure to go to Telefónica's headquarters here in Madrid. I knew the offices were big, but WOW. I am so amazed!!!

The entire campus (at least 6 buildings) is about 3.5 years old, with modern architecture. It's practically a city in itself and has very similar social benefits like you can find in Silicon Valley corporations - on campus dry cleaning, pharmacy, doctors, etc. The campus is in the outskirts of Madrid, so they want to create aconvenient atmosphere for the employees.

Anyway, I am so amazed, not only about the buildings but also the people that I met. Incredible!

Thanksgiving in Madrid - Gobble Gobble!

This was our first Thanksgiving dinner in Madrid. We invited about 20 people to our house, all from different walks of life. Good thing we have a bigger flat!

We got a 6.5 kilo turkey (a little over 14 lbs) that took a little over 4 hours to cook. I started cooking everything around 2pm:
- candied yams
- stuffing
- turkey with cranberry glaze
- veggies
- pumpkin corn bread muffins

Plus, I made everything from scratch and gluten-free so Manuel could eat it all. Nothing like challenging yourself. My first turkey, my first time doing every single damn Thanksgiving recipe (and in Celsius, not Fahrenheit), and 20 people waiting to find out about my culture's tradition. No sweat...

Fortunately the turkey turned out tender and juicy, all the other dishes were yummy, and everyone seemed to have a really good time. There was one point in the night that our electricity went out on us...I guess I can't use the oven, the stove, and the microwave all at the same time. Oops!

Overall, Thanksgiving was a success and I'm excited to keep on with the tradition the next years to come!

Thanksgiving in Madrid - Pick up the Turkey!!

I finally found a "muy guapo"turkey at the market down the street!! I thought it would be much more difficult than it actually ended up being, but thankfully there are enough Americans here in Madrid for me to find a nice turkey. The only difficulty I had was finding one that was a reasonable cost (6.5 kilos and it cost almost 30 euros), and at any market you have to request the turkey one day in advance.

Since I don't have a car and it would be a bit difficult to carry this heavy turkey home in a plastic bac, my friend offered to help me pick it up with his motorcycle.

This is the first time I've ever taken a bird home on a bike, with no helmet (the bird, not me)!

El autobús

I love this sticker that is on the bus. It has taken me almost a year to realize that this sticker is on every bus, and it's absolutely the best. A great visual of "Beware of pickpockets!"

The other day I saw on the news a piece about pickpockets in Spain and it was amazing to see normal looking people sifting through others' purses (on the bus or in the metro) without that person having even a clue. When you come to Madrid, watch your stuff!

Election Day

Yesterday I was so excited about the elections and how it would turn out. I went out with friends to Hard Rock Cafe for some American BBQ ribs and then went to a "Democrats Abroad" Party that was at the Círculo de Bellas Artes. What a perfect night - hang out with a bunch of other Americans and watch the elections from 1am to dawn. Interestingly enough, I would estimate that about 40% of the people at the party were not American. We crammed into the entrance until the bodyguards would let us into the venue, where the press was already inside to get the right snapshots and videos. Big, flat TV screens were on each floor and on the main floor there was also a live band. By about 3am, I decided to go home and sleep and wake myself up in a few hours to check out the progress. At 3am here, still less than 1% of the votes had been in. So at 7am I woke up, crawled to my laptop and found out that Obama had already given his acceptance speech. Amazing!!! I spent the next 15 minutes looking at statistics and videos on CNN.com and then went back to bed.

It's a little bit odd to be outside of my country for such a historic event. I am not sure it has even completely "hit me" that we now have, for the first time, a black president and what that means for American culture. It's just incredible and, well, about time. I am excited to see what new changes will be in store for U.S.of A.