Voting in Spain

No, I can't vote in Spain but I sure as heck can stalk the voters here to find out what it's all about! I followed Manuel to the high school where he could vote. I'll do my best to explain how different it was.

First you have to figure out what room is designated to you (according to what zone you live in). Before coming to vote, you would have received some information that would help you know some of this. The first thing Manuel did was verify which room he was on a looooong list of names. There were different name lists hanging from the walls with a big number on it (I'm assuming the zone) and on the paper is everyone's name, DNI (national ID number), and birthdate. My first reaction was surprise that so much personal information could be read by others and copied for identity theft, but then again I am a pessimist.

Now you go into the room. One table is for Congress and the other one for Senate votes. You pick up the paper that corresponds to your vote and place it in the appropriate Congress or Senate envelope. There are many different papers on the table. Each pile of paper is specific to one political party. You choose the political party, not the person. Anyway, once you are done licking your envelope, you go to the box where you actually cast your vote and there is a person there who makes sure you are who you say you are, and they manage the security of the voting box.

VOILA - that is voting in Spain!

EL CHIKI CHIKI

This is so horrible that it merits some time to share with you. There's a Europe-wide music contest called "EuroVision." Apparently ABBA won it years ago. But don't let that fool you. That doesn't mean that this contest only has good, quality music. I myself have just discovered quite the contrary. From my understanding, each country has contests to elect one music representative (group/person) who will participate in the EuroVision contest.

Spain will be entering EuroVision with "El Chiki Chiki" song. Even if you don't speak Spanish, you can tell that this is the new Macarena. Electric Slide, MOVE OVER. Here's a part from the chorus that everyone loves:

1. El brikin dance
2. El cruzadito
3. El Maikel Yacson (Michael Jackson with a really bad Spanish accent)
4. El robocop

http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=8RviZkSdMes

FAMA

I love this reality show "Fama! A bailar!". It's basically "Fame" where contestants dance in partners and live in a dance school, learning different choreographies. I'm addicted and so is Manu. It's so popular that there is even a "Fama, 24 horas" so that anytime I want to see crap, I just turn on that show and it relaxes me. I know it's pathetic, but when you're doing homework nonstop, it is nie sometimes to just veg and not do any heavy thinking.
(photo courtesy of TV Channel "Cuatro")

Sick of Being Sick

So I know that I tend to get colds pretty easily, and being spoiled with California weather doesn't help, but this is out of hand.  I arrived in Spain October 4th, and since then, I think I've been healthy/feeling good probably for one month total.  Of course getting bronchitis/pneumonia in December and January pretty much meant well over a month of me under treatment. So I can understand that.  Now it's February and I keep getting allergic reactions to something and we have to start all of the typical tests to figure it out. In the meantime, I just want my lips back - normal size and without pain.  

So let's see - if I look at a calendar, I've been here 5 months and in those 5 months, I have seen 8 doctors in total, of which 3 were for urgent care. Most of the hospitals here tend to focus on specific areas or specialties, which means if you need something different, you might have to go to a different hospital. I have been to 4 hospitals here in Madrid.  Since I got sick in Granada, I had the lovely opportunity of going to urgent care in Granada.  Fun stuff.

So I'm thinking once I'm done with the MBA, I might be really knowledgeable about the health system and should look into if there are any business opportunities there that I should consider. Why not change it for the better? The health industry doesn't really excite me, but ya never know. 

Money, money, money, MONEY

I thought I hated financial accounting.

I was wrong; I didn't know a good thing when I had it.

I HATE cost accounting.

Finish First Term - CHECK!

My last day of the first term was last Thursday.  There are 5 terms in total for this program, which means I'm 20% finished with the MBA - woohoo!  In any case, we had one final exam per day and in Marketing we actually had a presentation and a final paper to turn in.  Needless to say, it was a stressful week with many hours spent working on all of the deliverables. All of last weekend I spent with my workgroup unless I went home to sleep or have lunch.  Many times we just decided to have lunch together so we could continue plugging away at our work.

In any case, right after our exam on Thursday, a couple of girls and I decided to go shopping.  Stress relief strategy!  In January there are post-holiday sales "re-bajas". For those of you who haven't been to Europe, it's a bit different. The sales season literally is once per year.  There are no other small sales during the year like there are in the U.S.  Throughout the year, everything sells for the originally set price (aka no clearance racks, no weekend sales).  So last week was definitely strategic. Go shopping while most Spaniards are working and find some good sales!

Later on Thursday night all of the students organized a night out at a bar with the professors.  It was great to party with them and just let loose.  We started at an Irish pub around midnight (normal time to start to go out in Spain) and then around 3pm we went to another club.  By 6am I went home in a cab.  Since it's not illegal to smoke in clubs and bars, anytime you go out here you basically need to detox your body with a good shower before going to bed, otherwise you smell like a cigarette.  Yuck.  In any case, we had a blast and now we're supposedly re-charged for our next term, which starts tomorrow morning. 

Merry Navidad!

I have had a really nice Christmas here in Madrid with Manuel and his family. It is fun to see small differences in how the same holiday is celebrated and at the same time it is really nice to be so welcomed into someone's family when you are far away from your own.  

About a week ago, Manuel bought some little red and blue ornaments for us to hang around the house. Since we don't have enough room for a Christmas tree, we decorated the hanging house plant instead.  I wanted to put out the presents below our innovative tree, but Manuel thought I was nuts. Apparently here in Spain you never should see your presents until you are about to open them, because that's when Santa has brought them.  I'm used to having presents under the tree a few weeks before Xmas and half of the fun is wrapping them so that the person who will receive the gift has no idea what they have gotten.  Christmas cultural lesson #1 for Sara.

On Christmas Eve ("noche buena"), we were invited for dinner at Manuel's brother's house.  He lives outside of Madrid in a beautiful house that is very modern in its architecture and decor. Among the guests, there was Manuel's brother and his family, his wife's 2 brothers and their significant others, his wife's parents, and of course Manuel and me.  Dinner started around 10pm with appetizers first:  prawns, king prawns, some really small shrimp that I don't know how to say in English nor have I ever seen before, Spanish ham (jamon serrano y lomo), cheese, white asparagus, bread, and red wine to accompany it.  Then they brought out a big lobster to be shared among everyone.  By the time the lobster came around, I thought we had already finished dinner because it was that much food!  But oohhh no, out comes the lobster and a potato salad (ensaladilla rusa).  After they finished the lobster a few people were mentioning that they were going to serve beef for the men - whaaat!!! More food? 

In any case, the beef never arrived and the focus of the night was changed to Santa Claus and the kids.  One of the girls got dressed up as Santa Claus and everyone took out their presents for the kids from the car to give it to Santa.  This is the first time anyone had seen any presents (see, I learned from my cultural lesson #1).   The kids went nuts.  They were so wide-eyed at seeing Santa Claus and more excited about the presents.  For the next half an hour, all you could hear were the kids ripping open their presents, opening them up to play with them and to make a mess on the floor, and the adults playing with the kids.  In the meantime, miraculously little pastries and champagne was on the table and of course, I had to have some. As the night wound down, we exchanged the adult gifts and then it was time to go home...I think it was 1.30am.  Merry Christmas Eve!

The next day we had two celebrations for Christmas:  with Manuel's parents and a nice Skype invitation with my mom.  We went over to Manuel's parents' house at about 2.30pm for Christmas dinner (realmente es la comida - no la cena - pero ya me pueden entender).  Manuel's mom always cooks for an army.  I would estimate that she served almost the same quantity of food that we had on Xmas Eve but we were only four at the table!  So what was on the table?  Well, this will seem somewhat similar to the Xmas Eve dinner:   Spanish ham and cheese, white asparagus, smoked salmon, smoked sardines, bread, wine, prawns, and a big stuffed chicken (stuffed with dried fruits and more meat).  I could barely get past the appetizers I was so full.  Manuel and I couldn't even touch the dessert that she served, and when we went home we slept for a couple of hours.  Our bodies were too focused on our digestion for us to do anything else. 

Of course, while we were sleeping is when mom and I were supposed to talk on webcam --great invention by the way.  I asked her to let me sleep another hour and become a live human being again.  We got on Skype later on and we each opened up our presents in front of one another. It was nice to see her and Lance preparing the house for their guests, since it was noon in California.  Almost made me feel like I was at home!

I got mail, I got mail!

My presents from mom came - WOOOHOOO! It was the best experience I have ever had at a post office.  I went in with the delivery notes, was the first in line, they came right out with my packages and even gave me nice, strong bags to carry them home!

Financial accounting

SUCKS!!!

And that's all I have to say about that.

GOLLLLLL!!!!!!

That's right. I went to a soccer game! Manuel surprised me with tickets to the Spain v. Sweden game at Bernabeu stadium in Madrid. SOOO COOOL! We went to the game with double socks on, beanies and scarves, all ready for the freezing cold stadium. To our surprise there were a few heat lamps in the rafters, which just helped enough so you can still feel your toes.

Spain 3
Sweden 0

It was so cool to be at the game and see what the Spanish crowd is like. They did the wave about 5 times around the entire stadium - pretty impressive although a bit tiring after the 4th time! And the coolest thing to hear was that at every break they put traditional Spanish songs "Que viiiiiva Espana". Oh man, it almost brought tears to my eyes. It reminded me of all my Spanish classes in high school! I didn't even think I could remember that far back! Really funny, but it makes sense since it is the national selection.

If you want to see a really awesome sports page where you can keep up to date on statistics of pretty much any sport (ALL IN SPANISH THOUGH), you can check out 20minuto's multimarcador.

KFC Spanish style

The Rey de las Tortillas is a place where you can eat well and cheaply. Of course, that's what their signs say all over the place. It's basically fast food in Spanish cuisine. You can order tortillas, chorizo, morcilla de Burgos (blood sausage mixed with rice), french fries, etc. I can see how this place can be popular, given that you can get a lot of food for a cheap price. But in my case it didn't come at a cheap price. My body gave me some nice hints that I should never go back again. DOH!

Cookin Spanish food

I forgot to mention that a few weeks ago I made my first tortilla (de patatas y cebolla) and paella! I was told by the most important food critic in all of Madrid that they both came out really well! WOOHOO! Of course, this means I have to keep making them more often. I'm excited to learn how to cook more Spanish and Celiac-friendly food while I'm here! Pictures soon to be posted.

Tortilla
This is usually translated as a Spanish Omelette and usually is a tortilla made of thinly sliced potatoes (and egg of course). I made mine with potatoes and a little bit of onion.

Paella
Basically a huge rice dish that is very typical in Spain and each area has a different way of making it. Apparently in Valencia they tend to have rabbit meat and chicken in it, others tend to have a lot of seafood, etc. We like veggies so we focus on more veggies and for meat it's chicken and tuna.

:-)

It´s cold.

It´s cold and this isn´t even the beginning of Madrid´s winter. There have only been a few days where I couldn´t feel my toes, so I´m guessing that is what I should expect in Dec, Jan, and Feb. Let me give you an idea...

I go walking to school about 20 minutes. In the morning it is really cold (dry air). I leave the house wearing:

Bottom: Jeans, long knee high socks or double up on the socks, and shoes
Top: tanktop, sweater --or--- tanktop, short sleeved shirt, blazer of some sort
Outerwear: Jacket, gloves, and if I´m really cold, i put on my beanie and scarf
Underwear: not for you to know.

I usually time my walk so that I will get to school 5 minutes before class starts. Sometimes my timing is off and I really have to walk fast. Either way, I get to school sweating but with a freezing cold face. Once you get into the classroom, you are reminded that central heating exists and you take off all outerwear. Then 5 mins later you realize you are cold. Then after 30 minutes, the simple fact that we are 54 people in one classroom = heat!!! So it´s a constant battle. But no matter what, you know that your walk home will be nice and chilly.

EEK HOMEWORK

School has officially started. Here's a synopsis of my week:

Monday
Opening Ceremony in Segovia, Spain. We were bussed out to Segovia to a university that IE just bought (that is in a 15th century monastery). We did a quick walking tour of Segovia that wasn't nearly enough to see all of Segovia. We return back to Madrid by 9pm and some of us already have homework.

Tuesday - Friday schedule
9am - 2pm: 3 sessions of classes (depends on the day- Strategic Communication, Organizational Behaviors, Quantitative Analysis, Financial Accounting, Entrepeneurship, Marketing)
2pm - 3pm: Workgroup session
After 3pm -- study on my own

Now that it's Friday, I am realizing that I better study a good 8 hours this weekend. I already studied about 4 hours today and tomorrow will be another 4 hours, and then Sunday I will cram whatever else I need to prepare for Monday. Next week will be a "real" week in the sense that all 5 days will be devoted to class and I will have homework for every day. I won't have the luxury of a Segovia tour on a Monday so I'm preparing myself mentally for less sleep. OLE.

MotoGP

I went to my first MotoGP event ever, and the best part of all of it was we got to go with Media access. VIP treatment the whole way. We were in the "paddock section", which is the area for media and there are hospitality tents from each MotoGP driver where you can get free food and drinks. I couldn't believe it. At first I thought they were just for the pit crew but most of them were open for anyone (in the paddock section that is).

In my mind, this event was representative of Spain vs. Italy. The top two contenders were Dani Pedrosa from Spain and Valentino Rossi from Italy. Everywhere you see people with clothing with the colors of their favorite racer or with the Spanish or Italian flag colors. I saw this one group of guys who all were wearing wigs that were spray painted red/white/green for the Italian flag, which should be the pic above. Some guys even had their flags hanging from their shoulders like a cape. Reminds me of Tyler on St. Patty's Day.

Valentino Rossi has been the champion for many years now and unfortunately in the practice run, he fell down and fractured his hand in 3 places. He still raced the next day, trying to stay in the championship because he is so good that all he needed to do was just finish with minimum points on that race and he would still be 2nd place world championship. Well, once I knew the poor little guy was hurt, I wanted him to win. And he really is little - all of these guys are like half of my size, literally.

During the race Dani Pedrosa was pretty much always in first place (booooring) but the interesting part was that Rossi was holding his own and still not the last person in the race. How embarassing is that? A guy with a broken hand is still beating someone? In the last few laps of the race Rossi finally couldn't deal with the pain anymore and had to leave the race, putting him automatically in 3rd place of the world championship.