Who knew these people were so funny? :-)
Trip Start
Mar 23, 2007
1
5
9
Trip End
Apr 07, 2007
Madrid,
Spain
Friday, March 30, 2007
You'll have figured out by now that we are Radha, Julia, Steve and Helen. Four people often communicating like two old married couples. Which usually makes one of us start laughing, which is enough for the rest of us to join in. I'll let you figure out who the two old married couples are -- and, to be clear, I only mean it in the "oh my god, the way you talk to each other, you're like an old married couple!" way...
Of the four of us, I'm the only one with some Spanish - enough to get by, get directions, read a few critical things, order in restaurants, and other somewhat useful things. Steve is picking up quite a few words, and Radha's got the greetings down pat. Julia surprised herself yesterday when she said "Buenos Dias" so well that people actually replied in kind.
But all three of them have me when it comes to speaking "actuarese" -- so we're even. If they didn't speak that language, there would be no need for us to be here at all.
The four of us make up an interesting group of geeks from different backgrounds. We call ourselves a "little microcosm of Toronto". We come from three different countries, speak a total of 10 languages between us (not counting actuarese), and have a wicked "group sense of humour". It is getting us through long hours, stressful situations, bad food (more on that below), and thick smoke (again, see below) very well.
Some facts about Madrid (perhaps Spain in general, but we have not proven that yet):
1) Many, many, many people smoke. In restaurants, in hotels, outside at work, inside the cafeteria at work, in bars, on the street... My otherwise-clean clothes smell of smoke :-(
2) Vegetarians have a very hard time finding decent fare in most restaurants. I figure that by the end of the trip, Radha will have a lost at least 20 pounds.
3) The subway is very clean, very efficient, and goes pretty much everywhere in the city. At 10 rides for 6.50 Euros (about $10), it's pretty cheap.
4) Internet access from hotels is not very efficient, and far from cheap, at 12 Euros (about $18) for 24 hours. Aye, aye, aye!
5) Making international calls is not that easy - at least from our hotel, and from work. That leaves phone booths, which we haven't tried.
6) Most Spaniards do not speak much English. I'm not holding it against them, just observing. I quite enjoy practicing my Spanish.
7) Not surprisingly, elevators are smaller than in North America (more on that below).
8) Surprisingly, food portions are about as big as in North America (more on food below).
9) The air in Madrid feels very dry -- not surprising, consider how far inland it is. That makes for very thirsty Canadians, especially the ones who talk a lot all day training. It also makes for dry skin.
10) Madrilenos use up every inch of possible parking space -- parking right around the corner. Literally.
11) The airport - Terminal 1 - is chaotic, old and not particularly friendly.
12) Madrilenos eat late. Lunch at 2pm, dinner at 10pm. I'm impressed with the fact they can be at work at 9am and fully functional.
On the more anecdotal side...
Our hotel hasn't flipped its HVAC system from "heat" to "cool" yet. So the room window has to stay wide open all night. My "view" is that of the "inner courtyard". Let me explain: the building itself is in the shape of a square donut, or if you prefer, a square with a square hole in the middle. The hole in the middle is approximately 20 ft by 20 ft. That means that when I look out the window, I see another window about 8 feet away on my right, on the other wall, and twowindows straight across from me - about 20 feet away, and more on my left. I'm on the fourth floor, so - more windows across from me on the 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th floors.
All these people are also hot and therefore also keep their windows open at night. I can hear some of them snoring. I can hear their TV alarm clocks go off in the morning. And I definitely heard the couple the other night.
I mentioned elevators being small. They have sparked a couple of conversations. I quote...
At work:
Steve: "The capacity of this elevator is 13 people?! C'mon...!"
Helen: "Sure, 13 Julia's"
Julia: "Yes, but 14 Radha's".
(Ok, so you had to be there to find this funny, but trust me, we had a laugh"
At the hotel:
Steve: "The capacity of this elevator is 6 people. Hum... I don't think we could fit more than one Graeme in here."
Yeah - Steve is pretty observant guy. And he has a thing for elevator capacity too.
Favourite quote, heard this morning on the subway:
Radha: "Julia, let me show you how to drink without sucking." (I'd give you more context but the story is too long. Besides, the quote can live on its own.)
Steve: "Julia, you expect too much out of life."
Radha: "...." (mouth full of food, couldn't speak), while pumping his fist in the air, nodding widely, and with a big smile on his face.
Notice there are as of yet no "Helen quotes" (by, or about). That's because *I'm* writing this blog.
Food-wise, we haven't yet had a great dinner. Food we have had has included: not-very-good almost-Mexican food (Julia wasn't feeling great after that), regular cafeteria food at work (like all cafeteria food, it is not anything to write home about -- though one could argue that I'm doing that right now...), non-descript meat with fried eggs and fries, and other such disappointing meals.
I'm sure Madrid has much more to offer the hungry palate, but between the need to find vegeterian meals and the fatigue that leads us to stay around our hotel at night, we haven't yet come across a great meal. Not even tapas, not even paella...
I'm sure there will be more quotes and anecdotes to come over the next few days. I'm telling you, I'm with very funny people... Aren't I lucky!
