Back to Madrid

I realize that most the my posts portray me as an Asian tourist who is extremely sensitive to the cold. Well, in order to spice up the blog, I´ll write a little about how I live in Madrid (rather than how I tour Spain).

I attend a program through Syracuse University. This means that most of the people that I go to class with go to Syracuse. The school is located by many embassies, making the area expensive (we´re surrounded by 5 star hotels and restaurants) and full of security, though they tend to stay within the embassies. The school is a 25 minute walk, or a 10 minute metro ride.

My roommate is Evita, a fellow Eph. We share a room and live with our señora, Bea, a sixty-year-old grandmother who has a more active social life than the two of ours combined. Every night, while she is dressed in fancy clothes, she asks us if we´re going out that night. And every night (unless it´s that one night of the week when we do choose to go out), we say no. Then Bea will reply with "Oh my God!" and leaves the apartment wearing her fancy mink coat. Bea cracks me up, with her husky voice and random English phrases ("Oh my God!" is the most popular one) and her big fur coats and heels. Her entire family visits once every two weeks, and her grandchildren (3 boys, 1 girl) are gorgeous blondes and speak adorable Spanglish. I just know they´re going to be heartbreakers one day. We live right next to Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, where Real Madrid plays. The gate of our apartment builidng is located 174 "Susan-sized steps" away from the parking lot of the stadium. And every Saturday, after a game, there´s always some kind of commotion going on in the streets, while we watch from the seventh floor.

Evita and I attend the Community Church of Madrid. The sermons are in English and are led by Pastor Cathy Bingman, who is American and the warmest person I´ve met in Madrid. The way we found it was a bit strange: Evita and I left one Sunday morning to attend a church that we thought was at a certain address. When we arrived, it turned out to be an abandoned building. Our moods quickly dipped, since we were hoping to find a church in the rain, so we went to Sol, the center of Madrid, to do some shopping (I know - shopping to lift up your moods?). In Sol, we were about to cross the street when we heard some people speaking English behind us. When we turned around, the lady that was speaking was holding a Bible. Both of us were stunned and wanted to follow her, except she had already crossed the street by the time we decided to ask her if she attend an English-speaking church. After waiting until it was safe to cross the street, we followed her into a bakery (I know, stalker-ish, right?) While she was in line, we rushed up to ask her if 1) she went to church in Madrid and 2) if her church had English sermons. Thankfully, she wasn´t freaked out by these two weird Americans, and happily gave us the directions to the church, which also had some young people. Since then, we´ve attended the Community Church, which I like a lot. So, our day started with trying to find a church, followed by being disappointed and wet, then after an attempt to go an a mini-shopping trip, it ended with our meeting with Heather! Hooray for Heather and her visible Bible! And hooray for God who enabled us to see and hear her!

Well, I think that´s enough for one post (I don´t like to read too much myself). These past 2.5 weeks in Madrid has gone by too fast, and I can´t wait for what the next 4 months will bring!

Susan

PS 174 steps away from Real Madrid!
PPS Never doubt the power of shopping trips :)