"I do not know your name my friend, but I've seen that face before..."

Madrileños remember their past...and try to pay it forward.

One of the famous stories of the Spanish Civil War is how the famous fountain of the goddess Cibeles, on the Paseo del Prado in front of what was then the main post office was covered with sandbags to protect her from bombings.  The people of the city called her "la linda tapada," which means something like "the veiled beauty."  Here's a picture of Cibeles during the Spanish Civil War, covered in sandbags, with a corner of the post office in the background, courtesy of the blog El rincón de Mayrit.

Fuente de Cibeles, 1936-1939, "La linda tapada"

And here's a picture of the Fuente de Cibeles taken this afternoon, with the same post office in the background.

Of pescaderías and parrots in the park

There are parrots in the Parque San Isidro

This is not an important fact, but it's good to know in case you worry that some kind of massive radiation leak has created a flock of electric green pigeons.

The parrots are unfortunately in shadow here.  But I had to take the picture against the path, because they're perfectly camouflaged against the grass.

The parrots were in fact a fairly small part of my day today, but it amused me to stand still and take pictures of them (that's a real pigeon in the background, looking forlorn and left out because he doesn't speak parrot), the way Europeans take pictures of squirrels in Central Park.  I have no idea how the parrots got there (I presume they've bred from escaped pets), or how long they've lived in the Parque San Isidro, but there are many of them and they are loud.

A walk through San Isidro's "pueblo"

The San Isidro district of Carabanchel is a mixture of old and new -- with a surprisingly small-town feel

Today was a chance for me to play photographer, and take lots of pictures of the neighborhood.  Be warned.  Many of them appear in this entry.

The panoramic view looking north across the valley of the Manzanares, from the Calle Zaida.  In the distance you can see the "leaning towers" of the Plaza de Castilla, and the "Four Towers" above Chamartín, at the other end of the city.  In the foreground are the more modest homes of Carabanchel.

Since today was Sunday, I took the opportunity to sleep late, do laundry, catch up on emails (some work related) and to explore the website of the Biblioteca Nacional Española, prepatory to going there.

Then I decided to go for a walk with my real camera, not just my phone.  These streets are worth proper pictures.

Serious Partying

 

A walk through Madrid Río and the Festival con B de Bici

This is a post about how "the greens of summer...make you think all the world's a sunny day," so there are lots of photos and videos.

Selfie on a sunny Saturday afternoon, on the Arganzuela Footbridge(aka the "swirly bridge" or "unfinished bridge") in Madrid Río

What a lovely day.  I don't normally like selfies (so this blog will not feature many), but I think that in the picture above all of what is now the official "Saturday Hang Out Group" look as happy as we felt.  And the kind of happiness that comes from sharing a meal and a walk on a beautiful Saturday afternoon with friends is something that should be shared.

Heavenly Madrid - When a City Commits to Alternative Transportation

(De) Madrid por el cielo

You can tell a lot about a city from its public announcement campaigns

I've seen the following photo on a number of bus shelters and advertising spaces in Madrid over the last few days, from my home immigrant barrio of Carabanchel to the super-pijo Calle Serrano.  I think it gives a nice sense of what I like about this city and its ayuntamiento.

Madrid's ayuntamiento is promoting bicycle travel

Take my money! (Please!)

 My woeful tale of trying to open a bank account in Spain (so far, unsuccessfully)

 

I have been trying to open a bank account in Spain, so that Fulbright can pay me my stipend, and I can in turn pay my landlord here (who has very kindly told me not to worry about the fees for international transfers, and that he can wait a few days for the rent).

I was never one of the absurd number of undergrads at Columbia who wanted to work in finance, and I've always found money too boring to study banking and finance closely, but my naive grade-school understanding of how modern consumer banks work is that they make money from having people open accounts, because they then invest their clients' deposits, as well as any commissions or maintenance costs they may charge.  I have lots of friends (particularly here in Spain) who would add a lot more expletives about exactly how much money they make and the ethically dubious methods they use, but leaving aside these opinions (whether reasoned or otherwise), my nutshell understanding of what is euphemistically called the "financial services industry" is that it is a SERVICE industry.  Everyone in Spain has seen the dramatic ways banks can go under, but they also fail if they have no clients.  So you'd think that banks would be very glad to have a new person walk in and say "I want to open an account."  After all, new clients are - if you'll forgive the phrase - money in the bank for them.  My limited experience in the US has certainly been that banks are happy for new customers.  So you would think it would be easy to open an account.

You would be wrong.

Welcome to "Las aventuras de una gringa andante"

¡Bienvenidos!

"Hay muchos los gringos que erran, pero pocos los que llegan a ser errantes."

A bit about the who, why, and what of this blog

I'm a former high school teacher, a current PhD candidate in English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, and a novelist who has written quite a bit about Spain. I'm a lifelong New Yorker, but now I've come to Spain for a year to do archival research about African American writers who have spent time here.

I've promised letters about my adventures in Spain to various friends at home and abroad. But I've also promised dissertation chapters to my thesis committee, and if I can squeeze time in I'd love to work on some fiction a little. So this blog is intended as a sort of group letter to all the people to whom I promised to write. Sorry guys, I love all of you, but telling the same anecdote once is easier than writing it multiple times, and this way you get pictures (and maybe even a few videos) as well.

I can't make promises about the content, except that I'll try to make it amusing. This is NOT going to be a guide to living in Madrid (which would be pretty arrogant of me) or even to being a tourist here (though I know more about that). Nor can I promise daily diary-type entries. (I do have those thesis chapters to write, plus the research I'm doing.) If I can make the detective work of hunting in archives interesting to anyone besides myself, I'll do that with pleasure. Otherwise, this is just a record of the amusing, beautiful, moving, or curious things I find on my travels. Please do read, comment, and share. And enjoy one of my favorite cities with me!