Getting back to work...

 

Time is slipping away...

It's been a while since I've blogged, although I've been thinking about doing it a lot lately.  Some of that is down to having a series of house guests in fairly close succession, which means getting to be a tourist and going around with people and showing them fun stuff (and also four wonderful days in Alicante, which are probably worth several entries that they probably won't get).  Some of it is exhaustion after writing a lot quickly to try to finish a piece of fiction so I can get back to my thesis.  And some of it is (surprise!) actual thesis work -- which I've realized I can't put off any longer, since tomorrow marks the two month count-down to my return to New York (though I'll probably be back in Madrid over the summer, especially toward the end of July to finish up dealing with apartment stuff, as well as just enjoying being here without work, as always).  So this is a transitional entry, mentioning briefly a bunch of stuff that has happened, and acknowledging that I won't get all of it down, and hoping to do better going forward, in the very small amount of time that is left.

Introducing Thanksgiving (II)

A slightly delayed Thanksgiving dinner for friends has an unexpected complication...and an unexpectedly lovely gift.

As the "Semana de Black Friday" does not involve any actual non-work days, and as my (generally free) Friday was slightly occupied with the Colegio Estados Unidos de America this week, I invited my oldest Madrid friends (the grandparents of the second-grader I know at the Colegio EEUU) to come and have modified traditional Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday.  All in all, and in spite of one unexpected bump in the road (I think now smoothed out), it was a huge success, and a great joy.

Where to buy a menorah in Madrid (Part II)

Mission accomplished!  Menorah in situ and ready to go!

I realized I promised to let people know about my trip to Los Olivos Librería y Distribuidora Solidaria, so while this is a few days old, I should let people know that I have successfully purchased a (somewhat whimsical) menorah (see above) which I feel is a nice nod to the oil in the story without the full of dealing with oil and wicks and so on.  (It also believe it or not was one of the less expensive ones in the store.)  Here it is, with candles, all ready to go, except for the tiny problem (which occurred to me forcibly when doing yoga last week, probably because there are lit candles in the studio) that I don't have any matches.  At home I rely on the gas flame of my stove to light candles in an emergency, but as I have an electric stovetop here that's not an option.  So I have to remember to buy matches sometime over the next couple of weeks.  (I was thinking about this while doing yoga and was upside down in a shoulder stand thinking "tengo que comprar...mechas?  No, una mecha is a wick...cerillas!  Tengo que comprar cerillas."  It's amazing what comes up when your mind is relaxed at yoga.)

Where to buy a menorah in Madrid (Part I)

 

A tale of syncretism, cultural generosity, and general weirdness

As I may have mentioned, friends of mine here in Madrid have invited me for 24 December ("nochebuena" in local parlance) so that I'm not lonely over the holiday.  I said that of course I would be glad to come if I was around, and mentioned that I normally spend the Christmas break in Puerto Rico with my parents, and the tradition of the midnight swim on December 31.  (I don't know if now with no beach the midnight swim will happen again, but let's hope that it does soon, and that the water isn't too polluted for the "underwater fireworks" of phosphorescence.)  "So do you not celebrate Christmas because you're Jewish?" asked the kind friend who had just extended the invitation.  When I confirmed that this was the case she said, "Oh, that's why you talked about New Year's instead."

To be clear, my friend knows that I am Jewish, she just wasn't sure if that was why I didn't celebrate Christmas.  I didn't have the heart to tell her that if I was a practicing Jew the "New Year" would be in September.  Spaniards really mean it when they naively claim that lots of Christian celebrations are cultural and not religious, mostly because they can't quite imagine life without them.  (Nor did I explain that most Americans over the age of ten wouldn't be particularly bothered about Christmas Eve since the celebration even for American Christians is on Christmas Day.  No point in making things too complicated.)  Since I felt I ought to reciprocate for the kind Christmas invite, I said that my friends should come and bring their kids for one night of Hanukkah, which is a nice kid-friendly celebration, and which they would enjoy as exposure to a new culture.  They were quite pleased with the idea and agreed to come if possible ("porque las tradiciones así son bonitas" as my friend explained, when adding that although they were not religious they put a "Belén" or creche scene for their kids at Christmas).  I am most happy to invite them, and will even try for traditional food, although latkes without a food processor may be a challenge.  (Perhaps I can borrow a food processor from someone?  Or buy pre-shredded potatoes?)  I have also decided (in the interests of cultural ambassadorship, and being a good host to people who have been super-nice to me) that I will try to get ahold of a dreidel and look up the half-remembered rules to the game so they can enjoy playing it.  (Chocolate coins for gambling are at least no problem.  Along with its acres of Christmas turrones in all possible flavors and several that are probably impossible my local Mercadona has started selling little baggies of chocolate euros in appropriate gold and silver foil.  As with "El Halloween," candy makers don't miss a trick, or a holiday.)  But this leaves the important problem of buying a menorah.

Heat vs. Hot Water

Why you should turn (or leave) the thermostat down (or off) before taking a shower.

This is an entry for my house-owning and home-repair minded readers.

Madrid's temperature differentials continue to confuse me.  According to the internet, the lows in Madrid and New York are about the same this week (around 2-4 C, or mid-thirties F), but the highs are vastly different.  New York today has a low of 3 and a high of 9 (Celsius) and Madrid has a low of 4 and a high of 18.  (Or between about 37 F and about 48 F vs. between about 39 F and about 65 F.)  Aside from the fact that this makes it difficult to dress properly (except "like an onion" as one Spaniard picturesquely put it), it also makes turning on the heat an interesting conundrum.  At night, I'm snuggled under lots of quilts, and quite warm even with the thermostat turned down to about 10 C.  In the late afternoon, I hardly need the heat on at all.  Unfortunately, the coldest part of the day is the morning, generally between 7:00 and 10:00 AM which makes getting up at a reasonable hour even harder than normal for me.  I thought I had worked out a system, but in a new apartment with a new heating system you learn something new every day.