I have to admit I missed Madrid for the holidays this year. Wigs and all.
Posts Tagged ‘guiri’
Noche Viejo en Madrid 2010. At the Puerto del Sol. Lots of grapes to eat
January 5th, 2010Paco, Paco, Paco Beyonce?
September 14th, 2009Let me start by saying that I think Beyonce was really classy last night in response to Kanye’s bizarre behavior. What was up with that?
So, I like Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) a lot. It was a very big hit in Spain too. But the joke is Spain is that perhaps it is not as original as you might think. A song from 1969 by Encarnita Polo called Paco, Paco, Paco has a frightfully similar sound. So all of a sudden that song became a huge hit last year in Spain. At the office where I worked, the staff kept singing Paco all the time!
A video wiz updated the Beyonce video with the song and the fit is amazing. No people are not really saying it is stolen, just that it works so well with the video. What do you think?
So even worse, it became a youtube sensation in Spain. Here, on a nightly talk show called Buenafuente is one of the stars of a version of the youtube video. The host is yelling out compliments to the dancer’s body in jest.
As they say in Spain, joder!
Why are you here?
September 11th, 2009
This is not meant existentially.
I loved my time in Madrid, and I would have loved to stay there a bit longer. But people ask me why I came back to the States, especially given how CRAZY the politics seems right now. Saw this and wanted to give you an idea of just how challenging living there is right now for even the Spaniards, let alone an immigrant without a job.
“We believe that Spain is a disaster waiting to happen [and] is set for a long, painful deflation that will manifest itself via a very high unemployment level for an industrialized economy, a real estate collapse and general banking insolvencies… Spain had the mother of all housing bubbles. To put things in perspective, Spain now has as many unsold homes as the US, even though the US is about six times bigger. Spain is roughly 10% of the EU GDP, yet it accounted for 30% of all new homes built since 2000 in the EU. Most of the new homes were financed with capital from abroad, so Spain’s housing crisis is closely tied in with a financing crisis… Spanish banks, in our view, are now facing a very bleak outlook. Spain’s unemployment rate reached over 17%; there are now four million unemployed Spaniards and over one million families with not a single person employed in the family. “
Read to whole thing if you have some time. It’s sort of sad to watch. The Spanish economy had been one of the strongest over the last 15 to 20 years, and now it looks like many of the decisions and foundations, just like here, were built on faulty credit and over consumption, especially in the housing markets. How bad is it? The article ask the question, does Spain = Japan 2.0.
Madrid de los Austrias
July 7th, 2009
I’ve been living the last seven or so months in the Center of the city, mere steps away from Gran Via between Plaza Calloa and Cibeles. It’s a great neighborhood being well-connected to all the mass transport and within walking distance to almost all of the better known tourist areas of Madrid. But it does have its downsides. It is very crowded and as the summer months have worn on, some of the sleazier streets near my home have become rich in the odor of urine and the number prostitutes have grown like wild flowers. It is also not the best neighborhood to have a dog. My globe trotting fellow has gotten into the terrible habit of spending most of his walk time searching for discarded food like some rat weaving back and forth eating anything in his past. It’s pretty disgusting.
So we are moving to a new neighborhood today. We have a larger apartment with a balcony and plenty of parks nearby. It is still in the Center of Madrid, but in a slightly quieter area. We will be within walking distance to the Latina neighborhood where Sundays are a blast. The streets are full of terrazas and everyone is out for tapas and beer.
The neighborhood is called Madrid de los Austrias (or the Madrid of the Habsburgs). This area is famous for its architecture and the growth of the Spanish Capital during its Golden Age. The most famous construct being the Plaza Mayor. The streets are narrow, the restaurants old, and the parks beautiful. We will be right on the outskirts of the area, near the Royal Palace. In fact, I’ll be able to see the Cathedral on the Royal Grounds from my balcony.
I’ll let you know how it goes, and what the neighborhood is like as time goes on.
Heat Wave Continues in Madrid
July 2nd, 2009
Always another option for cooling down
The weather in the Spanish capital continues to run hotter than usual. Normal temperatures at this time of year are in the low 80s. We have consistently been in the mid to upper 90s. The daily sunshine is bright and strong and their is little relief at night. There are times when one would kill for a bit of a breeze. So what to do in this kind of heat, especially during the parties and festivities of Madrid’s Orgullo Festival.
I’ve learned to dress much more appropriately for the heat. The typical American wardrobe of a pair of blue jeans and maybe a polo shirt or t-shirt just is too warm and uncomfortable. You really need to find very light and very breathable clothing. Light cotton, linen, and hats can be terrifically helpful. I have even gone full bore European and wear what some might call Capri pants (the 3/4 length pants that are seen all over the place). Why do you wear them, well, it’s cooler!
Heading to San Francisco for a Week
June 17th, 2009
The City by the Bay
I haven’t been in the US for about 7 months now, and I’m looking forward to seeing my friends and old haunting grounds. I have not really experienced the homesickness that a lot of expats talk about, but here are some things I am looking forward to:
- See the ocean and bay
- a good pizza
- cooler weather and avoiding the upcoming 100+ degree heat wave that is coming to Madrid
- watching a baseball game
- wind
Can you think of any more?
Apartment Hunting
June 4th, 2009I despise looking for a new apartment in any country. It’s not so bad here. There is a great site called www.idealista.com that has a wide selection of apartments and houses for sale, rent, or share. It’s a little like Craigslist without the erotic services.
It used to be, during the boom years in housing in Spain that you had to have a year’s worth of rent in your bank account to get a lease. Those days seem long gone. At the most now, someone might ask for 4 months. This is in addition to any deposit or finanza they might require. Fortunately now most only ask for one or two months of deposit and no bank account minimum.
You do need to learn the different words for the different types of places. I’ll try to help, though of course there are some crossover and people may use some of the words more loosely than others:
- piso = a flat, apartment, a place with a living room and bedroom(s)
- habitacion = room for rent, usually sharing and apartment
- apartamento = usually a studio with enough space to have a bed area separate from a living area, but probably one room
- duplex = a piso with more than one floor
- atico = the top floor apartment
- bajo = the bottom floor (or in the US, the first floor)
- estudio = a studio apartment, one room.
I looked at an atico piso today where the roof is angled and at the highest point in any room the ceiling was no higher than 6 feet high. Most of the space was as low as 3 feet high. Great location, but I hurt my head three times just looking at it.
A perfect day in Madrid…
June 3rd, 2009This is a wonderful neighborhood to explore. From this spot you can see the Royal Palace, the Opera House, the Gardens, and some beautiful statues of the Kings and Queens of Spain. It is a lively and crowded place most of the time. I think it is even more beautiful in the evening as the sun is going down.
The Eastern Plaza (Plaza Oriente) accross from the Royal Palace
Spanish as a Foreign Language
May 30th, 2009As a recent resident of Madrid (8 months!), I still struggle with my Spanish everyday. But it is improving in leaps and bounds. Spain is a wonderful place to learn the language. Here is a good summary from the city’s web site:
Madrid, a cosmopolitan city, a city with an open character and a meeting point of different nationalities and cultures. That’s Madrid, the world capital of the Spanish language, a language that is becoming more and more essential throughout all disciplines. Students from around the world find Madrid an exceptional place to learn a language that is already spoken by more than 400 million people worldwide.
Exhibitions, shows and an endless array of artistic initiatives and leisure activities (shopping, dining out,clubbing) help those who visit Madrid to improve their linguistic skills and increase their knowledge of the Spanish culture. Madrid is the financial capital of Spain, and as such, offers numerous professional training programmes in some of its leading companies. Furthermore, it is home to some of the most renowned institutions aimed at nurturing and promoting the Spanish language, such as the National Library or the Cervantes Institute. The latter bears the name of the author of Don Quixote, who lived in the very city and where he put the finishing touches to his great masterpiece. His birthplace, Alcalá de Henares, is just a few kilometres away, and is today a World Heritage Site. Just one of the many reasons to choose Madrid as your language learning destination.
Literary Madrid
A source of inspiration for many generations of writers, Madrid is not just reflected in it streets, but also in all those books which have made it the protagonist, described it and told its story, as though it were a tale, novel or drama. Spanish is the city’s most valuable heritage, yet it is also fair to say that Madrid is the heritage of its own language. This makes the capital the ideal place to learn Spanish. Below, we list a series of institutions which are an essential part of Spanish culture.
The National Library
Centre in charge of identifying, preserving, conserving and disseminating Spain’s literary heritage.
Café Gijón
Olde worlde café that first opened its doors in 1888 and is the last great literary café, par excellence, in Madrid and a local haunt for celebrities from the worlds of art and literature.
The Cervantes Institute
State-funded Institution, created in 1991 to promote and disseminate the culture of Spain and the teaching of Spanish.
Círculo de Bellas Artes (Circle of Fine Arts)
Founded in 1880, it is a private cultural entity with a non-profit status and ‘Centre and Public Utility for the Protection of Fine Arts’. It is a multidisciplinary centre that promotes activities that embrace everything from the fine arts to literature including science, philosophy, cinema and the scenic arts.
El Ateneo
A private cultural institution founded in 1835 as a scientific-literary cultural association.
Lope de Vega House and Museum
17th Century dwelling purchased by Lope de Vega in 1610 where he lived his latter years.
Sociedad Cervantina
Society devoted to the study of the work of the author of Don Quixote. In fact, it is headquartered on the same lot where Juan de Cuesta had his printing press and where the first part of the novel was published in 1604.
Real Academia Española (Royal Spanish Academy)
“Limpia, fija y da esplendor” (Cleans, fixes and gives splendour). This is the motto of the RAE, whose main task, since 1713, has been to ensure and watch over the evolution and correction of the Castilian language.
The Madrid Tourism Board programme, Discover Madrid, includes an interesting stroll through the Literary Quarter, home to Literati, Muses and Parnassus, where internationally acclaimed writers such as Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Quevedo or Góngora, as well as thespians and other peoples from the world of strolling players, blended together to create a singular atmosphere during the Spanish Golden Age.
The Cervantes Institute
The Cariátides Building (Alcalá, 49) is home to the central offices of the Cervantes Institute. With more than 60 centres located worldwide, it is the public institution that deals with the promotion and teaching of the Spanish language as well as the promotion of the culture of both Spain and other Spanish speaking countries. An aim it has in common with the Professional Association of Spanish Schools of Madrid (AEEEM), and the Spanish Federation of Associations of Spanish Schools for Foreigners (FEDELE) that together guarantee the prestige and integrity of the sector.
If you wish to learn Spanish in Madrid, here is a list of organizations that may be helpful.
68th Annual Open Air Madrid Book Fair
May 18th, 2009This is one of my favorite events every year in the city of Madrid. If you love books and reading and exploring through hundreds of stalls and booths for books of every type, this is a blast. And the fact that it is outside during the most beautiful time of the year and located in the fabulous Parque del Buen Retiro makes it even better. After digging through the stacks of books you can sit down in an outdoor cafe and watch the boat paddlers, dogs, and joggers in one of the world´s greatest parks.
This year´s event will be focusing on French literature and celebrating the birthdays of two world greats, Charles Darwin and the Madrid-born writer and journalist Mariano José de Larra.
Here is some information in English about the event at the always handy EsMadrid.es:
El Retiro Park will be hosting the 68th edition of this open air fair in which over three hundred stalls lay out practically all the books available in the country. This year, the fair will also be organizing various parallel activities, the majority devoted to French literature.
Just like in previous year, for over two weeks the Book Fair becomes the place to find everything from the latest award-winning novels to specialized manuals. One of the most important cultural events in the city, every year it welcomes millions of visitors and offers an array of activities including direct selling, book signing with leading authors, talks and discussions.
Organised by the Madrid Association of Book Sellers, the Madrid Publishers Association and the Association of Book Distributors of Madrid, this fair joins other commemorations celebrated this year including the International Year of Astronomy, the bicentenary of the birth of Darwin, 150 years since the naturalist’s Origin of Species was first published and the bicentenary of the birth of Spanish writer Mariano José de Larra.
Many of the events are aimed at secondary school students, who together with the other atendees will have the chance to meet Álvaro Giménez, director of the Astrobiology Institute of Madrid, as well as Francisco Sánchez, Rafael Rebolo and Antonio Mampaso Recio, members of the Astrophysics Institute of the Canary Islands. They will also be invited to talk to Spanish scientist Juan Pérez Mercader, an expert on astrophysics and cosmology.
