My madrileña...

is a true partner in crime
but lets me make my own mistakes
she explores this huge city with me
in a way that preserves my independence
she is excited when I'm depressed
comforting her disappointments keeps me from dwelling on my own
qué suerte that I have a friend here
who misses the same home I do

Cervantes

I'm about 3 weeks into the semester and I'm still hoping that one day I will walk into my Cervantes class and magically be able to understand my professor. It might be the 10AM class time (which means I have to get up at, gasp, 8:30AM), or his unreasonably fast speech. Either way, I'm taking comfort in the fact that my French friend's notes aren't too much better than mine.

Today I think I learned that Cervantes was captured by pirates and wrote them stories. And then he and Lope de Vega wrote some plays in Madrid. Right, it is time for an amazon.com trip. Need to hear all this en íngles.

A few more things

1. Euros are fun. I gave my wallet away, all I need is a coin purse. There are like 12 different kinds of coins and only a few bills.

2. Madrid is like LA in the sense that everyone has a dog, except Madrid dogs are the most well-trained animals I've ever seen.
They're allowed in every store because they don't go around sniffing everyone and barking. At first I thought my foreign stench was repulsing them, then I realized, they don't take interest in anyone. The down side is, Madrid has no dog parks, so there is crap all over the sidewalks.

3. Everything moves slowly...it's like hakuna matatta over here.

4. I think madrileños are more composed. Americans are always walking fast and talking to someone on the phone loudly, madrileños are always talking softly, or, more likely, not at all.

5. Beautiful men are everywhere, America is ruined for me.

Why life seems slow

An introduction: I am not as depressed as this blog makes me seem, forgive me for this has become my outlet for cultural frustrations.

I tend to be slightly pesimistic in Madrid, with the assumption that if I expect the worst, I'll usually be pleasantly surprised. So far, this attitude has helped me avoid all kinds of despair.
I'm sitting a library at my university, thankful for a silence I haven´t found anywhere else in the city. In front of me is a wonderfully old smelling book on Cervantes. It is one of the recommended books for my class on Cervantes-one of the few published in NYC.
In this library you have to request the book and the librarian hands your handwritten request to some mysterious man or woman in the back who retrieves the book for you. I requested this particular book because it is written in English and I was pretty sure I´d be able to take it home with me.
"Pretty sure" means "I hope" in Spain.
The librarian told me to wait for 15 minutes. I waited for 25, read a chapter of Harry Potter in Spanish and cried as Harry saw his parents for the first time in the mirror. Finally I realized I probably had to go up and ask about the book. The first librarian said something to me that I didn´t understand and moved on to the next patron. In this scenario, I assumed the best and threw a helpless glance to the second librarian.
She consulted the man in the back and brought me my book.
I stumbled in Spanish, asking if I could take the book home with me and then tried to use my public library card instead of my university library card, but eventually I found myself here, seated in a far corner with the book I chose to read on the life of Cervantes. It is a joy in any country to sit down quietly and open a book.
Unfortunately for me, no level of Spanish or English language proficiency will help me read a 183 page bibliography of the works of Cervantes.
God said something about finding joy in our suffering. Tomorrow I'm going to find joy in a biography on Cervantes, but for today I'm just going to read more Harry Potter.

How to freak out in a foreign country

1. Contemplate the long-lasting effects of your quick, uninformed decisions.
2. Drink lots of espresso.
3. Don't ask questions.

And always remember, you probably just screwed up.

I still say the deer plot was stupid. Oh Izzie.

Thanks to the fantastic website tvlinks, I have kept up with American TV. I have spent hours hiding from the big city in my living room watching Friends in a tiny box in the corner of my laptop. The picture is usually scrambled, and if I pause it at any point, the audio doesn't match the visual. I usually load it in segments, sometimes up to five. Tonight I watched the first two episodes of Private Practice. I have to say, I love the Santa Monica location, and I definitly was sniffling at one point, but I don't think it will last. Babies switched at birth? C'mon!
Tvlinks has movies too! I watched Superbad, which was cool except for the occasional bathroom break guy and the audience laughter. Yea for stolen cinema!
The coolest is when I watch Heroes-it usually takes a few hours to load and if I let my computer "sleep" for any portion of that loading, it stops and I have to start all over.

Fear not, tomorrow I'm going to make one of my roommates hide my computer from me and lock me out of the apartment. I'll discover Madrid yet.

First day of classes, kind of...

I am drinking the worst cup of coffee ever. I'm sitting in the basement of one of the Filología buildings on campus. I've gone to two classes and I have two hours to kill until the next one.
During the whole month of October I get to choose my classes. That's right, I have a whole month to choose. So obviously, today, all of my (potential) professors decided not to do anything except briefly summarize the syllabus.
Today has been a frustrating day. Every day in Madrid depends hugely on me-do I have the energy to explore? Do I want to speak the language? Can I get out of bed? It is so easy to hide in my comfortable apartment with my American roommates watching Friends on my laptop. The moment I do take a risk and talk to someone or even just leave my apartment, I have good experiences. Last night Anna and I found the "edge" of Madrid and a beautiful park where we sat in a slight drizzel writing letters to our best friends and loving the fact that we'd managed to stumble across something amazing (a view of the sky, a temple, a fountain) in the ever-claustrophobic & winding streets of Madrid. It's hard to convince myself to leave my apartment, because it is so hard to find places I feel comfortable in Madrid. I'm used to knowing Columbia like the back of my hand. It's like Cheers went off the air or something, I don't know anything or anyone!
Seriously! This espresso is so bitter! I'd kill for Kaldi's.
Anyway, I think I'm going to take Spanish Literature since 1975 instead of Medieval Spanish Lit. For one, the words "castellano antiguo" (old Spanish-think foreign Shakespeare) TERRIFY me. I have enough trouble with modern castellano! Reasons 2 & 3: The 1975 professor talks SO fast, but she smiles. Also, her class is in the afternoon, and we all know how I am with mornings. I couldn't even make it to my 11 o'clock class last semester.
I'm glad school is starting. I haven't had to think about anything but mochas, enchiladas and plane tickets since May. It will be nice to challenge my brain again!
At the same time, it is scary. I have a whole new set of confusing experiences coming my way. I wish someone would choose my classes for me! That said, I have been depending on my friends and roommates too much and I look forward to being more self-sufficient and curious. Current plan: Pick classes and establish schedule, get a job teaching English, spend money from job on travel.

Love, Cass
P.S. After I wrote this I met a guy from Sevilla! I love it when I get out of bed in the morning!