A Day In The Life

I had a relatively quiet weekend that included a failed trip to Alcazar de San Juan to see a friend of my girlfriend who turned out not to actually be there... I can tell you however, that they will exchange train tickets without charging you again, which would definately hit a wall of officiousness in the UK. Alcazar? I wouldn't bother.

I thought it might be useful, for anyone planning on moving to Spain to teach English, to hear what a typical weekday is like for me at the moment now that I've settled into some kind of routine. I suppose in some ways it hasn't lived up to the ideas I had and in other ways it's exceeded them.

Torre Picasso in the early morn

So, I usually wake up around 9am, apart from Tuesday when I have to be up at 6 to go teach at 8. This has been pretty horrible until recently as it's still been dark and freezing cold on leaving the house and I have to trek across town on the packed (and still starey) metro, to the heavily concreted area near the Bernabeu to teach for 2 hours in the imposing Torre Picasso. Most days though, I spend the morning messing around, catching up on emails, planning lessons or doing the various things that life demands and when it's warm enough, having breakfast on the roof. Then from Mon-Thu, at 11.30 I have to set off for Aravaca where I teach 4 hours of classes at a friendly little company in the 'suburbs' (theres a little stretch of countryside between them and the main city). I go via the underground Moncloa bus interchange with another massive city gate sitting on top of it, often stopping off to photocopy some pages at the shop there where the two women are perenially amused at my foreigness.

The gate at Moncloa

These are classes that I get through the 'agency' company I work for, for which I have to prepare a lesson plan and lead the class in quite an intense way. On the bus there and back there are snatched views of the Sierra and the 4 huge towers that I keep meaning to go have a look at in the north of the city. After I finish I have an hour and a half to get some food and get to my other job at a language school near Plaza de Espana. I don't have to prepare anything for this and its pretty much a case of sitting and chatting to people in English for half an hour at a time. It doesn't pay nearly as well though! (€7 an hour compared to €17 an hour!). Still, it's handy extra income and being an independent teacher can be a bit of a lonely experience sometimes, so working in a language school has a nice feeling of actually working with other people.

This finishes at 10pm so its usually home for dinner and to relax or out for a couple of drinks (or more on a Friday). I have to say, I don't like working evenings and I'm hoping I can cut back on that soon, but I don't fancy getting up at 6 every morning much either! I don't know why they all want to start at 8, but I've turned down several offers of classes up by the airport at 8 because I just didn't think it was worth my while (an hour there, 2 hour class, an hour back) and I thought I'd just tire myself out. Anyway, all this is earning me around €1800 a month (although I have to pay €178 social security p/m) for roughly 35 hours a week, which is more than I need but is paying off some debts slowly but surely.

In other news, I found an English speaking dentist in Prosperidad, who told me I need to have some dental surgery done. I won't go into the details but it's going to involve stitches in my mouth (shudder) which might make teaching quite interesting for a week or so. It's quite a complicated proceedure and its costing €400 (its not covered by social security). It feels kind of masochistic to be paying all this money for someone to do horrible things to my mouth but I suppose its necessary. That's happening a week on Friday anyway so we'll see how it goes.

A strange thing happened to me on Sunday, I was cooking a vegan paella at my girlfriend's new flat (which is incredible: opposite Principe Pio, newly decorated, with a view over the river and the forest and not too expensive), when I forgot the English word for something and could only remember the Spanish - "do you have any...er, cominos?" Cumin! I'm feeling a lot more confident with my basic Spanish now and will happily break it out in shops. I do wish I'd had this level when I'd arrived though. Still weighing up moving, I've got some numbers that I'm going to call tomorrow (in Spanish) but on the other hand it is very cheap here (€230 a month) and the terrace is looking like more of a reason to stay now it's getting warmer.

Bikes, Dentists and Immigration

Of course, after the post about the metro a couple of weeks ago, I have been, or very nearly been, late several times... although I am definately to blame and not the metro.

I've been looking for a second hand racing bike (bicicleta carretera), which you can easily pick up for £50-£60 in the UK on ebay. After searching ebay.es and various other sites and looking for second hand shops, things weren't looking so easy here. The few that there were were very expensive (or in Bilbao). I was beginning to think that I'd have to get a cheap one from Decathlon or something. Bikes are pretty expensive over here and in the shops I went to there was nothing for under €250 at the very lowest. A man in the shop also told me that it was very difficult to get second hand bikes in Madrid, let alone second hand racing bikes. I couldn't really believe this, as I've seen lots of people (although not nearly as many as in the UK) cycling around on knackered old bikes. They must be coming from somewhere! Finally though, someone pointed me in the direction of segundomano.es (secondhand.es) where there are absolutely loads, although still slightly pricier than expected. In the end I picked up a 90's Peugeot racer (without pedals) for €90.

€90 - pedals not included

I also had a friend over from England last weekend which was a lot of fun, one night going out to Pacha in Tribunal (fun, young crowd, but very expensive drinks) and playing a 'what's behind this door?' kind of game round bars in Malasana the next, during which we found a great little 70s funk/blaxploitation themed bar tucked away on Calle Vincente San Ferrer (I think). My friend is of Chinese ethnicity and he was quite shocked at the difference in social background of the immigrant population here. I say immigrant, because that is one big difference, most people of other ethnic backgrounds in Spain are first generation immigrants (Spain's immigrant population went from 2.28% in 2000 to 12.2% in 2009), and unlike Britain and other countries, most didn't come for, or haven't found, training or job opportunities. They make up a large part of the 20% unemployment rate at the moment, with 67%) unemployed. As my friend noted he was the only Chinese person on the street not trying to (illegally) sell us cans of beer. Similarly, I think I'm yet to see a non-white person in a suit in Madrid. This is quite shocking, but you've got to remember that Spain's modern history is quite different from the rest of western Europe, and that it only came out of a facist dictatorship in 1976, a fact that leaves a major underlying cultural mark on the country today, in many different ways. If Angela Merkel and David Cameron think that multiculturalism has failed in Germany and the UK, it doesn't even feel like it's arrived as a concept yet in Spain.

Annoyingly, I've developed a problem with a tooth and am currently looking for an English speaking dentist (I've had to go to a French dentist before and it is not a nice feeling when you can't understand what's going on/what they're about to do to your mouth). There are some about but I think they may be pricier (you pay for the full cost of dental care here, social security or no) than non-anglophone ones. I've found this website quite handy for finding them though. This problem actually stems from a bike accident when I was 17. Let's hope cycling on the right hand side isn't too hard to get used to...

Things I (Dis)like about Madrid 3

High time for another moan.

Likes:
- Clear skies/sunshine in winter - cold but good.
- Lack of overflying planes - Madrid, Europes 3rd largest capital, unlike London or Manchester, manages to keep at least it's central parts free of noisy air traffic
- Honey Rum - goes down real smooth. See also Tinto Verrano - fizzy wine, like cider but more Spanish.
- Eavesdropping English conversations - people tend let their guard down in public places when they think no-one's listening.
- Metro musicians - god bless 'em
- Rodilla - it's a pretty sterile chain of cafes serving very average sandwiches (see below) but whoever had the oddball gumption to call a string of eateries 'Knee' gets a thumbs up from me.

Dislikes:
- Mahou - I'm so fucking sick of Mahou, Madrid's local beer and the only one available in most bars/offys. 'A flavour of 5 stars' it may be but I've had a-bloody-nuff of it! Occasionally you'll get Cruzcampo or San Miguel but they'll be pricier.
- Winter temperatures - I'm understanding the 'bitterly cold' comments now. Although it reaches the mid-teens in the afternoons, it's regularly minus a couple of degrees in the morning.
- Sandwiches - don't bother with what passes for a sandwich, you're better off with an empañada.
- Bureaucracy and the unhelpful bureaucrats that 'enforce' it - having to convince the woman in the social security office that yes, I did need to pay it, or yes, they were going to fine me, was pretty annoying.
- Broken escalators - I'm not sure if this should go in the 'dislike' bunch because of the dizzying feeling you get when stepping onto a broken escalator (of which there are many) and the exhilerating effect it has.
- Lack of squash - are dilutable concentrated juice drinks a purely English phenomenon or has Spain just not caught on? Not found a drop of it.

Plaza de España

I have about an hour to kill between my two jobs, one of which is near Plaza de España at the western end of Gran Via (when they give me hours: more on this soon), so I've been hanging around there on a couple of sunny early-evenings recently. There's a great statue of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza on horse and donkey being looked over by Cervantes, almost a bit hidden on the Southern side of the Plaza amongst some olive trees. Quixote's horse is one of the most miserable looking representations of an animal I've ever seen. It's not often you get statues of fictional characters either (although hats off to the people of Dundee for this cracker), and especially not so prominently placed, but it's great, you'd think it was some great Spanish warrior.

I'm a bit in awe of the Edifico España, the colossal monolith of a building on the north side of the square. I've never thought the word 'edifice' suited a building better. It looks like it might have just landed from space or thrust up from the earth, blazing yellow and red in the evening sun after the rest of the square is in shadow, contrasting sharply with the brilliant blue sky. I was so busy staring at the thing the first time I was there that I didn't notice that the whole front is actually boarded up. It used to be offices and a hotel but after being bought in 2005 is now being completely refurbished, according to Wikipedia, but who knows where the project now stands with Spain's bubble-burst construction sector. By the way, if the pictures below give you the impression that its warm over here, forget it - it's bloody freezing! Not been above 10 for over a week and regularly plus or minus a couple of degrees in the morning.

I finally got myself an Abono Metro today, a monthly pass for the metro that is very good value for money at €40 a month. Oddly, the only places you can get the card you need to buy the monthly ticket (never simple in Spain is it?) are tobacconists. I have no idea why. Speaking of the metro, which I have to catch up to five times a day for my job(s) teaching English around the city, along with a couple of buses, it really is very good. A student was telling me he thought it was the best in Europe today, and he might just be right. It's very regular and you can pretty much rely on it to get you where you want to go on time. Teaching around town gives you the opportunity to be late several times a day and I only have been once in three and half months, which anyone who knows me will confirm is a bloody miracle! They're often quite fun too, with musicians of wildly varying quality hopping on for a quick performance (I saw a 6 piece jazz band today), and only occasionally being kicked off by the security with a polite tap on the shoulder. Don't be freaked by the staring either, people love to stare on the metro, and won't break off when you stare back either, which can be a bit unnerving at first but I had to stop myself doing it by the time I got back to the UK over Christmas. I'm told it gets lethally hot down there come springtime though, which might reduce its charm a little...

Tortilla and Grafitti

So far so...

I made my second attempt at cooking tortilla, or Spanish omlete, this week after a bit of a disaster last time. I decided to loosely follow 2 recipes off the internet (the top two when you search 'tortilla recipe') which are slightly different but I opted to put a bit of chopped red pepper in with my potatoes and onion. You always seem to need less potato than you think, which was my main downfall last time (result: potato and scrambled egg). Without going into too much detail, you fry the onions and taters, whisk some eggs, add them together and then pour the mixture into a frying pan, and let it cook before flipping it over, which is where things get interesting. I find it inconceivable that this dish was invented before the advent of non-stick pans. I was doing fairly well with our battered old definately non non-stick pan, shaking it as the mixture solidifies so it didn't stick (good tip), when the handle promptly came off.

...oh.

The instructions on the recipes are invariably a bit vague on the flipping bit, but your supposed to do it by putting a plate on the pan and quickly turning it over. This is no simple feat when your pan doesn't have a handle but I just about managed it using a tea towel only to find the bloody thing stuck to the bottom in the middle. Luckily, it was still unset enough to sort of mould together in the end to make something resembling the traditional cake-like shape, and after a couple more flips I was getting the hang of it. Everything fell apart a bit upon serving but by that point I was just glad to get it on the plate! Everyone agreed it tasted great though, especially with a bit of chili sauce.

Win!

What does it mean?

Also this week, we went to do another challenge: one close to my heart - find the most 'ducks and ghosts' (around Plaza de España). I've been wanting to know what these are all about since I first spotted them when I got here. All over Madrid, you'll spot these big stickers of a duck with a big bill and a ghost shaped like a 't'. I still don't know what its about (neither the internet nor Spanish friends have been any use) but between the two teams we managed to find at least 15 in an hour, including two massive ones right on the front of the Edifico de España.

I also took the opportunity to take some pics of some other street art in and around Malasaña. Street art and grafitti is a big deal in Madrid, and you'll see it everywhere you go, from quickly sprayed tags to huge detailed pieces (see right). You can find some of the best pieces on shop shutters because apparently shutters used to get covered in tags until at some point shops started paying the best grafitti artists to take time doing proper work on them, instead of a quick tag and run, which no-one else sprays over. It's become very mainstream and you'll see them on everything from off-licenses (bottles) to dentists (workmen removing teeth), often with the artists name and number at the bottom. I read recently that they're cracking down on this in Barcelona and fining the shop keepers, which is a shame because they aren't just crap tags, a lot of them are really good pieces of art and brighten up the streets enormously.

I also managed to get a picture of a typical Madrid dog this week as well, I spotted this guy tied up in the entrance to a supermarket and he's a classic: small, well dressed and probably about to shit everywhere. Some of the dog-fashion on display on the street is really quite hilarious, everything from coats, to sweaters, anoraks and neckercheifs, all on tiny little dogs being walked by otherwise normal-looking people. Very strange.

The Parrot Invasion and Other Bird Mysteries

After breakfast on the roof terrace under more perfect blue skies, we took a trip out to Casa de Campo yesterday, in what Madrileños seem to refer to as 'the forest' to the west of the city. It's one of Madrid's many strange features that make it different to other European capitals (can you imagine the entire of west London being given over to a massive forest? Didn't think so). The metro goes out to the southern edge of it so you emerge with it stretching out in front of you with the Sierra in the background. It's a very Spanish looking landscape, quite dry and sparse with relatively small trees. We set off for a walk through said trees in the bitter cold and in under a minute had spotted some little green parrots. I'd glimpsed some before in amongst some pigeons but thought they might be quite rare, but not here! After walking a little further we came across literally hundreds of them squawking noisily from the trees, ground and air. They're a brilliant green in the sunshine, with blue/grey wings that flash when they fly. My picture doesn't do them, or the number of them, justice unfortunately as they're very hard to photograph and fly off easily. I thought they might be native, but I've just looked it up on the internet and found this article from 2002 that says that they're Argentinian and people bought them as pets, set them free because they were too noisy and now they're flourishing. From what we saw in the small section of the forest we explored they certainly look like they have been dramatically increasing in numbers, but you still rarely see them in the city centre.

This isn't the only bird mystery I've been wondering about. What are the huge flocks of birds that fly in formation over west Madrid towards the Sierra every evening and where are they going? Why do wood pigeons skim the trees at dusk, gathering at the Palacio Real in a massive flock? If anyone can tell me I'd greatly appreciate it! Anyway, Casa de Campo's nice for an escape from the bustling city, and I'm sure will be great for a day out picnicking when its a bit warmer.

After a sucessful wander last Saturday, this week we decided to do it again but to make it more interesting by picking a random metro stop out of a hat along with a 'mission' to complete and splitting into competing teams. We met in Sol and Chueca was picked out with the task of getting a photo with the strangest looking person so off we went. I must admit, my team got a bit sidetracked by coffee and sheltering from the cold, but we did explore a new bit of town between Chueca and Alonso Martinez. My flatmates, however, excelled themselves with a series of photo's including one with the pointy-bearded barman in El Tigre to claim victory (drinks were on me), despite Luke being on crutches due to a knee operation. (Sidenote, many Metro stops have lifts, but those that don't aren't easy to negotiate on crutches with small flights of stairs all over the shop). Unfortunately we decided it was too cold and late to do the next mission (find the best thing for free around Gregorio Marañon) but are going to have round 2 next week.

Lastly, I'm on the job hunt again as my language school job isn't giving me any hours due to lack of students, so more info on that coming soon...

A Boring Tax Bit and an International Spy Denial

I managed to get into a spot of bother over my social security last week. Having been told that the job I have on contract was paying it, I'd assumed that this meant that I didn't have to pay it my self as an autonomo, but apparently it doesn't really work like that so I wound up with a €80 fine. I'm still not sure quite how it works to be honest, despite getting on better at the social security office this time armed with a bit more Spanish. My only guide is my friendly English speaking bank 'cashier' (for want of a better word) at La Caixa (which isn't even really a bank... it's complicated). Now I've got to worry about my British tax return which I've got to file online by 31st Jan, because I was self-employed in England. My tax return for this year will be a nightmare: having been both employed and self-employed in both the UK and Spain this year!

Anyway, so far, so dull, I've also been following with complete fascination and amazement the story of the undercover police that have been living in the environmental movement in the UK for years (you can read a bit about it here if you've missed out). It's of course utterly bizarre that they'd waste that amount of time and effort on interfering with a peaceful protest movement, especially as it seems as if this guy has actually helped facilitate several actions, acting as a driver, as well as being an informant, as well as providing funding. Having just been through the court process for this kind of thing, I find it particularly wierd that he used police money to pay court fines for activists! What a huge waste of time! It occured to me, however, that I'm someone who, having been (very sporadically) involved in the environmental movement, has just suddenly upped sticks and left the country... I'm hoping that friends in Manchester aren't now suspecting me! I'd like to reassure them that I'm just a whimsical individual with an inclination to move around rather than being a police spy on the run!

A techy side note, I've put a thing on the side with all the tags from posts, so that you should be able to click on 'jobs' for example and get all my posts that say something about getting a job etc. I thought it'd be useful seeing as people keep asking me about various aspects of moving to Spain, but please still send me a message if you do want to know anything else and I'll be happy to tell you all I know!