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.

I voted!

Making a difference from afar!
One vote at a time...

Today I went into the embassy with my other West Coast American compadre (Melissa from Seattle) to cast my absentee vote. Once we handed in our envelopes, we asked the lady at the counter if we could have an "I voted today" sticker.


C'mon - the experience just isn't complete without it! So the lady found us some "register for absentee voting" stickers, which were good enough for us!

We were so excited about our stickers that we had to take a picture outside of the embassy to commemorate the moment!!! Happy voting everyone!

Madrid Metro

Madrid's metro system is one of the largest metros in the world, and it is my best friend for traveling all over the city. In fact, most of the time I have lived in Madrid, I have learned the city by way of popping my head out of a metro station and getting to know all of the establishments in a very close radius. Kind of like a gopher!

I took this picture with my mobile phone (sorry for the bad quality). It's one of the new billboards that promotes Madrid's metro. The slogan is something like "The world wishes it could have a metro like Madrid's metro". Take a better look at the picture. Did ya notice that Miss Liberty is bowing down to Madrid's metro entrance? Well apparently the sphinx does too. If you want proof, I can take a picture of that one too!

Feet in two worlds

I love this picture. It is a good representation of what it can feel like sometimes living abroad. Sometimes it can be confusing but no matter what, you have two lives always present in your heart.
:-)

Finally moved in!

Just wanted you to know that we moved in on October 17th. If you check out my post that explained the exhausting process of renting this flat, you will notice that we first saw it on July 13th!!! Insane.

Altea

Sigh. Isn't it gorgeous? I had to share a picture just to make you envious.

This little town in Alicante is just absolutely breathtaking. I almost feel like I went to Greece --- little white houses all along the beautiful Mediterranean coast!

Apartment Hunting

In general, looking for an apartment is quite challenging in Madrid. Why?
- The price is great but the quality and location sucks.
- The price and quality is great, but the location is horrible
- The price is as expected per the quality and location but the landlords are odd.

Depending on the landlord, the negotiation process can be quite extensive as well. Here is an example from our most recent search:

We found an apartment that is about 40 years old, on the 6th floor (more natural sunlight and less neighbors in front of you), has a terrace, is about 1000 sq ft. The price is extremely good, as long as there are some upgrades in the kitchen. The landlords are the owners and used to live in the house for 20+ years. Most of the rental market in Madrid includes furnished apartments, and these landlords had every intention of completely furnishing the house. We already have our own furniture, so we had to negotiate this with them. Here are the discussions we have had with regards to renting the apartment, in chronological order:

July 13: First time seeing the flat (doorman lets us in).

July 18: Meet the landlords at the house for the 1st time. (2 HRS)
1. Explain that we would be interested if they at least got a new stove. Kitchen was a bit scary.
2. Lots of chit chat so that they feel comfortable with us as potential tenants.

July 22: Filed paperwork with the prop management agency - We're approved!

July 24: 2nd meeting at the apartment with the landlords at the flat. (1HR) Agreed that:
1. they would work on the kitchen (which they decided to remodel!!!!)
2. they would only purchase 2 armoires, 1 twin size bed (they wanted to buy more)
3. we would call them on Aug 16th to see the progress. Target move-in date = Oct 1st.

Aug 17: We call them and they are still on vacation outside of Madrid. The furniture is in the apartment, but the kitchen floor was just finished and the rest of it is still in progress. We agree:
1. we will call them on Sept 1st when they are back in Madrid.
2. we each gave our word to the October 1st date.

Sep 1: We call them, no answer. 3 days of back and forth.
Sep 3: Their "For Rent" signs are taken down. Thank God!

Sep 9: 3rd meeting at the apartment. (1.5 HRS)
1. Kitchen - only the floors are finished. Design plan looks good.
2. Furniture is in place and looks good. They even got a diningroom table w/chairs
3. There was water damage in the main bedroom. They claim there was some work being done on the roof and that it was going to be taken care of. We hope so.

Sep 15: Time to call the landlords to find out if the kitchen has been remodeled so we can sign the contract. They do not want to sign until the kitchen has been finished, because otherwise they have not fulfilled on their side.

And we are 2 weeks away from October 1st...the original target!

El Rastro

I finally went to "El Rastro" today, which is a big outdoor fleamarket every Sunday in Madrid. There are thousands of booths with people selling hippie-like or Moroccan clothing, jewelry, lampshades, etc. Of course you can find a bunch of touristic items too, and in general much of the items there are of lower quality but you can get some good deals on pashmina scarfs and purses. You have to be very careful in this area as you are squished among the crowd to look at the different sales booths -- professional thiefs are looking for the right opportunity. Since I don't have any money, I'm pretty safe!

"Sara Bush"

I'm convinced that one of the best ways to get to know a city and its people is by checking out the hospitals. Unfortunately I've been to quite a few here in Madrid. I think my body is confused as to why I'm in a big city with real weather (4 seasons!). In any case, there is a bright side of these visits. I get to know different neighborhoods of Madrid as I walk all over the place to find these clinics and I now understand the private healthcare system in Spain.

But the best thing is you get insight into the culture as well. I notice that couples are together, young and old, supporting one another for doctors appointments. I have seen entire families waiting with their grandmother/mother/sister in urgent care, knowing that they could be there for hours. I'm sure many of them took the day off work to be there with their loved ones. And I noticed this for patients who didn't necessarily seem to have a life-threatening issue when they were in urgent care - they probably were in pain enough to not wait for an appointment a week later. In any case, the sense of "family" is strong and endearing.

Now that I have you in tears, let me share with you a completely surreal experience I had today. I went to urgent care today (because there aren't openings for an appointment for another week) because my wrist has been bothering me. Anyway, here is what happened:

1. They call me via intercom: "sara yunay ledifora to room 4, sara june ledenega to room 4"
2. I enter the room and see 2 doctors eagerly awaiting me to find out where I'm from (due to the weird name)
3. I explain that I'm American. More smiles and the other doctor now leaves, so it's just me and "my" doctor.
4. "Sara Bush!" he says with a stupid smile like he just made the most brilliant joke in the whole world.
5. I give him my xrays of the wrist and explain everything and he just wants to talk about Bush and anything American. He tells me he spoke rather good English at some time, which I totally believe considering how much he BUTCHERED my name.

Sara Bush. If I only could use my left hand/wrist, I would have put it to good use.

QUE VIVAN los RAIDERS

One of the games that Manuel bought (for his nephew - ahem) while in California was the "Mighty Helmet Racers". We figured we should break it open and "test" it to make sure it works before gifting it to his nephew. Manuel was the Eagles and I represented the Raiders. I guess I got a little into it, but it paid off! The Raiders KICKED the Eagles' tails...

Madrid Sunset

Isn't Madrid beautiful?

This photo was taking at the top of Hotel Oscar. It has a beautiful rooftop terrace with a pool, bar, tables, and lounge areas - all in a very modern design. This particular picture is looking down at the plaza in front of the hotel, in the "Chueca" district...which would be similar to our Castro district.

Back in Madrid

First night back in Madrid! I arrived at 8:30 this morning and slept through the entire day. I thought I was going to sleep for just 20 minutes, but jetlag tricked me! Anyway, we decided to go to "La Latina" neighborhood to check out the "Verbena de la Paloma", which is a street festival that celebrates the patron saint of Madrid, Saint Paloma. Apparently this festival is rather similar to all of the little town festivals. People get dressed up in traditional Spanish dress from the specific area that they live (Madrid, Valencia, etc) and parade in the streets. The streets are blocked off for the festival, and are decorated with lights and paper runners. Booths with food and games are placed on each side of the street.