Happy Pavo Day

I just realized it might be interesting for you to understand how much work goes into preparing Thanksgiving here in Spain....

Context that is necessary for you to know:
1. I don´t have a car
2. I tend to celebrate on Saturdays (tomorrow) because nobody has Thursday off
3. Tomorrow we will celebrate at my friend´s house because he has more chairs / space.  So i need to cook the damn turkey there...

The story begins about 2 weeks ago, when I had to start investigating where I could purchase all the ingredients that tend to be more difficult to get a hold of...turkey, yams, french green beans, fried onions (for the green bean casserole), etc.

A week ago, I talked to the butcher down the street and ordered a 5 kilo (11 lb. turkey) that he specially ordered for me....of course, this implied quite a bit of chit chat, platonic yet necessary flirting, etc.

Today I called him up and he did in fact have the turkey, so I went to go pick it up.  He got me a 6 kilo turkey (13 lbs instead of the 11 lbs I asked).  Bastard.  That´s like an hour extra of cooking!!!  Now I will need to get up really early in the morning!!!

I went home right away, lugging my 13 lb turkey in a plastic bag up to my home, a half a block away.  Go up the stairs, wait for the elevator, open the door, leave the turkey in the kitchen.  Leave home again and off to the market to buy all the veggies.  I go to a nice market with a whole bunch of grocers inside it, where I´m sure I´ll have luck.

Hi, do you have yams? No? 
Ok what about sweet potatoes?  Ahhh yes? Oh noooo those are too small.
Next.
Hi, do you have yams? No? What about big sweet potatoes? No? Ok thanks
Next, etc.

I get all my veggies and now I´m off to find brandy because I want to inject my turkey with brandy, and the stuffing inside with plums . But somehow I have to inject the brandy.

I go to a hardware store.

Uhhh. Hi...do you have a really big needle for injecting a turkey?
Yeah, a turkey.  No? Yeah, seriously. A turkey.
OK do you know where?..
Next hardware store, no luck.

I go to a pharmacy and finally buy a normal human being needle after the pharmacist gives me a few ideas of how to make sure it´ll work (keep the turkey at room temperature and warm up the brandy before filling up the needle).  It´s gonna take me a while to inject this sucker.

Now the brandy.  I go to a nearby bar where they also sell liquor.  Of course, all the locals are there getting drunk at 8pm.  Soon I´m friends with all the old men who are all recommending which brandy to buy and start arguing about the difference between cognac and brandy.

After purchasing in all these different places, I pretty much have all the ingredients, and I´m walking with about 5 plastic grocery bags back home.

So yeah, I´d say the work going into preparing thanksgiving is a BIT more involved than in the US.  It´s not like just going to Safeway and it´s all taken care of.  And for sure tomorrow I´ll find out I don´t have all the ingredients and I´ll make up something last minute. But that´s ok.  I´ll be drinking wine so whatever idea I have will be EXCELLENT.

Crisis drives the monarchy away?

I love this photo that someone sent to me in an email saying "has it really come down to this?!?!". 

The king, queen, and prince´s faces are photoshopped onto the photo -  them fleeing the country...

Today, Spain´s presidential elections have finalized with PP (Partido Popular) winning the rat race and also gaining majority in the congress, which is a huge change since the past few years have been principally ruled by the opposing party.

Given that the country has 21% unemployment and doesn´t see the "crisis" getting much better in the near term, the public is obviously quite upset with the recent political party (please allow me this generalization) and many people don´t feel they can trust the system --- whether that be the political candidates, the bankers, etc.

Here´s a great picture that someone sent on to me that seems to sum it all up in one.

For those of you who don´t ready Spanish.  This is a photo of a street garbage bin.  The title of the poster (just like the sarcastic motivational posters we have) says "Electoral urinals" and the vandalism on the bin says

"vote here, it´s all the same / it doesn´t matter"

Real Madrid v Lyon in the Champions League

Seeing sports events in box seats is truly a priceless experience.  I was so lucky to be invited to our box seats at the Bernabeu stadium with my colleagues and I practically cried once I saw the box seat and the huge stadium right in front of our eyes.  Thank god the waitress came and asked me what to drink because I was falling in love...

The best part of the game --- when Sergio Ramos completed the goal (last score of the game) from a Kaká corner....right in front of us!!!

Monday again

Time to go to work

Vermouth bar ceiling

Just priceless

Vermouth in Madrid

This post is dedicated to my cousin Tom, who has reminded me that sharing love and fun from afar is always important...

My fave vermouth bar in madrid, in chueca district

Back in "Espain"

Aaaah you have to love the Southern European culture. Loud conversations so that everyone else can hear one another and compete for the loudest voice, a disorganization that somehow flows and works because everyone expects it, coffees are recognized as higher priority than anything else (thank god for that)...

Being in London was fun, although I felt reminiscent of my own culture and yet somehow felt as though I am half Spanish now...somehow I am in both cultures and I'm not sure how to rectify that. Or if it should be rectified. In any case, I'm now home in Madrid and the sun is out / it almost seems as though spring is here! I'm happy to be back home where beer and food isn't expensive, where the weather is pleasant, and the people are curious about your wellbeing!

UK train v Spain train experience

My first few minutes at Heathrow airport and I'm already in culture shock...

1. Silence in a full room! Odd!
Nobody yelling? In fact the Spaniards and Italians stick out like a sore thumb due to their bountiful voices

2. The guy on the intercom was so nice as to announce someone lost their ticket

3. Sitting down on the train, everyone sits by the window so as to allow others to sit by them

(In Spain since everyone prefers the aisle, they always sit down at the aisle and make everyone else jimmy into a window seat. I've even noticed this at the movie theaters)

--- Sara June

Smoker's section

Nice adhoc way of putting together a "legal" smoking section right outside the restaurant.

A sign that Spain is dealing with the new law, slowly but surely!

Middle Names

So my work email address automatically included my middle name, since legally that is my name. No choice there.

Fortunately all of the Spaniards find it "cute" and now I have quite a few people calling me "Sara Chuun". My boss in particular tells all of our partners that I'm so advanced I'm "Sara July". I'm now calling him "agosto". He is more advanced than me, after all...

Resisting "the man"

Nobody likes working "for the man" - its a universal theme.

The artwork says "Tomorrow I won't work... And what then?"

Art with an attitude.
Sara Lindgren
Social Products Marketing
Vodafone Spain S.A.U.
+34 610510993

Hasta Luego!

Hasta luego, hasta luogo, hasta logo (sometimes the pronunciation sounds like that)...you hear it allll the time here.

Getting off an elevator - hasta logo
Leaving a waiting room - hasta logo
Leaving the bathroom!!!

And when you get off the bus, you don't say "gracias" to him...noooo! You say....HASTA LOGO!!!!
Sara Lindgren
Social Products Marketing
Vodafone Spain S.A.U.
+34 610510993

Summers and Siestas

I now understand why siestas exist. It´s because Summer is so damn hot that your body literally needs to recharge. The heat in Madrid is insane. I leave my house around 7.45am and while waiting for the train, I realize I´m already sweating!

Fortunately we have a reduced work schedule during the summer months whereby we leave work by 3:30pm to go home and have lunch.

UNfortunately, I have no air conditioning at home! It would be better to eat lunch at work with air conditioning than to be in my hellish hot oven of a house! But you eat a bit of food and lay down on the sofa and VOILA! Siesta! OLÉ!!!

You know you've lived in Europe too long...

When you order a donut and eat it with a fork and knife. Sigh. Guilty!
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