Otro finde loco

Another weekend chock full of cultural pursuits!

Thursday, I sucked up my fear of going to a salon and coming out with a bright blue mullet, and went and got a trim.  The whole excursion was pretty unremarkable, except that I am proud of myself that I finally just went and did it.  It is when I run banal errands such as these (bank, post office, haircut, etc) that I feel the most like a true Madrileña, not just some tourist who museums by day and bars by night.

That night I took myself to go see a play, one of the offerings of the Festival de Otoño de Madrid.  Tercer cuerpo is the story of five people who long to be loved, and yet are unable to step out of what they know to find love.  There were a few times that the whole theatre burst into laughter, and I would look around confusedly, but for the most part I understood the jokes, and the general plot.  I actually found this play easier to understand than most of the films I've seen in Spanish, most likely because stage actors are trained to enunciate and leave more space between their words for dramatic effect.

Friday, a friend and I visited the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales to see its temporary exhibit on Darwin.  It was a fun change of pace to break away from the art museums to stretch a different side of my brain.

That night I had made plans to attend an Erasmus botellón with a German friend from my dance classes, but unfortunately I ended up not being able to go, due in part to my foresight that my plans for the following night would keep me up late.

Saturday, I went looking for an apartment for next semester.  I had two appointments, one in Sol and the other in Lavapies, and enough time between the two to visit the Thyssen's temporary exhibit on Henri Fantin-Latour, and have a leisurely lunch with my book in the café.

The first apartment was spacious, and wonderfully located (a four minute walk from the Puerta del Sol).  The scaffolding outside the building, and the stairs that looked as if they were about to fall off the wall, however, did not bode well for my visit.  María José, my future would-be roommate, greeted me warmly at the door and showed me what truly was a lovely apartment, but as we began talking, what was advertised as a 450€ / month apartment quickly became 550€ / month after expenses and I knew I would rather spend that money on being out and about than on an apartment with a guest room and high ceilings.

I bade her farewell, and promised to keep in touch, and after visiting the Thyssen, I made my way to the next apartment.  This one is in Lavapies, which is certainly a very different neighborhood than the one in which I live now.  In contrast to the predominantly white, upper-middle class Chamberí, Lavapies has just recently pulled itself back together from the disrepair into which it fell in the 80s and 90s with the help of new immigrants, and an influx of bohemians and intellectuals.  The neighborhood is certainly not as aesthetically pleasing as Chamberí, yet what it lacks in aesthetics, it makes up for in character and energy. (sorry the links are to Spanish webistes, English wikipedia has nothing on Chamberí, and what it has on Lavapies is unflattering, and seems to me to have racist undertones)

My next hostess, Noe, lead me into the tiny apartment and immediately began to apologize for how small it is.  Fortunatley for her, however, I had just been turned off by the idea of paying for space that I would not use and smallness was exactly what I had been hoping for.  The front door leads into what Noe refers to as the mini-salón, and off of this room is her bedroom and the mini-cocina.  The other room is off of the kitchen, as is the mini-baño, and the whole set-up looks ideal for midnight snacks and quick runs to the bathroom.

The room that would be mine consists of a bunked queen-size bed, with a desk and hanging shelves underneath.  I must admit, the idea of having a queen-size bed for the first time in my life was especially apealling to me, as was the idea of sleeping high above the ground.  Noe explained that the girl who lives in the room now is an artist who likes to live in her "cave" under the bed, and that I could un-bunk the bed if I liked, but little did she know that my friends here, and my host mom, have taken to referring to me as a vampire due to nesting ways, and my avoidance of daylight unless necessary.

After my tour, Noe and I returned to the mini-salón, where I asked her if there were many other people who were considering the room.  She, in probably one of the best compliments I've ever received, told me she hadn't responded to most of the emails because the people just seemed so immature, and that even those that had visited were..."well, you know how 20 year olds are...I've been holding out on finding someone who's older and more mature.  I can't imagine living with some 20 year old who just wants to have a good time."  To this, beaming, I responded, "right, there are places for fun, and then there's the home," though meanwhile I was jumping around inside my head, exclaiming, "For the first time in my life, someone thinks I look my age or older!  AND she thinks I'm mature!"

After this I let her know that I wouldn't be able to move in until December 31st, which turned out to possibly be a problem, but when I got a text message from her later telling me that she enjoyed meeting me and that the room was mine if I wanted it, I knew I'd found the place for me.

That night, high off of the idea of finally having my own place, I headed out to El Guijo (where I lived four years ago) with two friends from my program.  There we had a wonderful time watching Spain beat Argentina in fútbol, and hanging out with friends.  It was such a nice change of pace to leave the city and get to spend time with people I actually know and like, instead of going to a bar or a club and having to put up with loud, drunk girls, or overly persistent guys.

Sunday was for the most part uneventful.  I had a little too much fun the night before, so I spent the day lounging around and catching up on homework.  That night was a friend from the program's birthday, so he invited a few of us over for a delicious dinner, wine, and conversation.  The evening was lovely, but I was the first to leave as I still had work to do before I could crash into bed.

We getting to the time where we need to buckle down for exams, so who knows how exciting the upcoming weekends will be, but knowing my friends here, we'll find a way to have some fun between our studying!

Un beso.