ETA, Swedish Night, and the Bad Luck Girl

Hello again blog, and blog reading people. I have no internet at my apartment and haven´t for a little while now which has made blogging (something relatively low on my list of priorities) difficult to accomplish. I´m making the attempt today from an internet room near my house. It´s like a euro an hour to use this facility, but I´m here everyday now because I have to get online to remain in contact with certain job possibilities and to keep in touch with people. Also, I have to say that to the people who wished to see more pictures on this blog that that will most likely be an impossibility. First of all, I won´t be uploading pictures anywhere anytime soon from an internet room, and secondly my internet connection was so bad at the apartment that it took me hours just to write in the blog before. Plus, I uploaded my pictures to Facebook, which took me two days to accomplish, and the people who do read this also have access to my pictures on Facebook, so no one is missing anything by me not spending a lot of energy and frustration trying to upload pictures to the blog.

Phew, so plenty has been happening around here I just thought I would mention three things that have stood out over the past couple of weeks. First, ETA, our local terrorist organization. Maybe you´ve heard of ém. They come from the Basque region of Spain in the north and represent a small percentage of the people there that want independence from Spain. They´ve been attacking areas in the country for the past 20 years with the occasional car bomb, that sort of thing. A little over a week ago, my roommate Freddy awoke me, freaking out, and telling me that Madrid was under attack by Al Queda. I looked at him puzzled, still groggy, he then told me to call Mildred and make sure she was safe (because it was about the time in the morning that she would be on the train to work and I had no idea what was happening). I called her and there was no answer, Freddy looked at me like it was the end of the world. One thing about Freddy, he´s a very emotional guy, and quick to respond with his emotions. Me not so much, I went to the TV and watched a little Spanish CNN. It didn´t take me long to discover that the entire city was not under attack but that ETA had blown up a van in the northern part of the city, nowhere near Mildred. The television also alerted that someone had even called in the bomb an hour and a half before the explosion and everyone was evacuated, and no one was hurt. Only a few cars were destroyed and some windows in a nearby building. Thanks ETA. Mildred was fine.

Almost two weekends ago now Mildred and I attended ¨Swedish Night¨. Mildred´s friend Asa is from Sweden and she invited us to her place in northern Madrid, along with a few others, to experience a Swedish movie and some Swedish candies. I had been warned about the candies that I would not like them, but surprisingly I did not find them all that revolting. They were mostly a dark licorice, but covered in salt. The first chunk in my mouth was a bit strange, but as I kept cramming more in there I found the candies to be pretty nice. Still, give me chocolate any day of the week. We ended up watching a really good vampire movie that was unlike any other movie I can think of, it´s called ¨Let the right one in¨or Låt den rätte komma in¨ in Swedish. At Swedish night was one friend, her name is Melissa, and from talking with her a few times it would seem I have met the person who has the most bad luck of anyone.

I met Melissa first at Mildred´s birthday party, but we did not talk for long, I´m sure if I would have I´d have discovered something bad that had recently happened to her. Because it seriously seems to be a daily occurence with her. My second time meeting her she had just escaped mutilation by metro car. She was not looking and her leg slipped in the gap between the platform and the metro and she was stuck. The doors began to close on her and the Spanish people on board were watching what might happen with dulled interest. She managed to free herself before the metro left the station and avoided mutilation, but she had still bashed her knee pretty well. I´m reminding you that I´m just giving you a sampling of Melissa´s hardships and that I would be sitting here for hours if I were to give you a full report of this girl´s difficulties. I believe she has been robbed five times now. She recently found out that she has to have two teeth removed and that it would cost her over a thousand euros. Over the past week she´s had a root canal and multiple times where she´s gone in to get work done but the dentist´s office seems to have screwed up her appointments. Also she paid them the money, but then a few days later received complete dental coverage from her school. She´s told me a number of mind numbing tales about all the hoops the Spanish government has had her jump through (although that seems to be more of a Spanish government thing and not a Melissa thing). And just today I received a long email from her about a computer problem she is having. I´m leaving so much out...so much...but this is just a taste. I´m sure Mildred will have to add a few things about Melissa and her bad luck.

Other than this, the economic crisis is hitting Spain pretty hard and at the interviews I´ve been to that always seems to come up. I´m still teaching private lessons though, and earning something.

Cow Parade

Currently, the streets of Madrid are filled with colorful cows. The one I have pictured is the Olympic cow, Madrid is a candidate city for the Olympic games in 2016. There are already plenty of interesting sites in Madrid, but so far I've found myself stopping to take pictures of cows mostly. They are all throughout the city, and I'm sure I haven't seen all of them. I have been walking around a lot, getting a feel for the city, what major streets connect to where, that sort of thing. I'll probably walking a bit less in February though, now that I have my Abono. That is my monthly pass which allows me to take the subway, train, and buses all within zone A of Madrid. And zone A is usually where I go, all of my classes are located within this area.

Mildred's school is a bit south of this zone. And occasionally, since I have a lot of free time during the day (for the moment) I'll hop on a train and visit her when she's on break at her school. On Tuesdays through Thursdays she has a break from 12:30 to 3pm so we get a good chance to spend some time together. Yesterday we bought some food at a grocery store and sat down in a secluded area of the local mall to eat. But, a security guy kicked us out into the cold and we sat in a cold park and dined on our bread, cheese, and sausage. Which didn't help Mildred much since she's been sick for over a week. We both blame her snot nosed children (and by snot nosed I mean she's wiping noses ) and the fact that her school provides little heat.

One of my flatmates Freddy, (he's Argentinian, but his mom is British, so he speaks English well) and I have been working out twice a week at the building where Mildred lives. Freddy's ex-girlfriend also lives in the same building. We get to work out and it gives us an excuse to see the both of them. But, last night Freddy went to the hospital because he injured his knee. Possibly during one of our times working out, not sure exactly. Aparently he has a bone in his knee rubbing up against some tendons that's causing him a lot of pain. Last night he was telling me that he will likely have to have surgery. He still wants to go work out though! He just won't do any running, all upper body.

Let me explain briefly the people I'm teaching English to. There's Ana: Female, around 30, works at Camper (a fine shoe company) engaged, loves cats, and is still struggling with English even though she's been studying it a lot of her life. There have been large gaps of time though when she hasn't studied (like 6 year gaps).

Enrique: Male, around 30, works with the Spanish military mapping satellite imagery. We talk mostly, and he's highly proficient with English. He shows me a lot of his stuff from work and I realized quickly that I never want anything to do with satellite imagery.

Guillermo and Lucas: Boys, 12 and 10 roughly. They like Xmen, Harry Potter, Sports, normal boy stuff. Lucas is the elder and knows a lot more English than his brother. Our time together isn't very structured and we do activitites and go through some books.

Alex: Boy, early teen. A lot more grown up than his age. We go to his room and we chat about school, and the weather, he loves talking about the weather. He's also attached to his computer and the internet at all times. If I bring something up, he's all over the internet searching for it.

Juan Antonio and Fernando: Boys, 12 and 11 roughly. Typical boys who laugh and have a good time when we are together. Their English is pretty basic so we have a fun time trying to communicate.

That's it for now, just 7 and a half hours of work during my week. I've done a few interviews and I've sent out my resume to plenty of places. Still looking for a lot more work, if I can get up to 20 or more hours I'll be doing more than alright for myself. As of now, I have just enough to pay the bills...actually maybe just a little under. But that shouldn't last for long.