Madrid Moment

PREVIOUSLY seen on BABY'S FIRST EUROPEAN ADVENTURE: I went to Madrid!!

I wish I had a better opening picture for you, but this one pretty much sums up my experience--profoundly historical (I think), beautiful, blurry, and taken on my way to find food after dark. 

I arrived at my AirBnB in Madrid's center (after a flawless Metro commute 💅🏼) just in time to see the sun setting between buildings. I was sharing a room in an apartment with two other Fulbrighters--Fayeza and Sara--that I'd met waaaaaaay back in ~December in the infamous Slack chat I mentioned in my first post. After about a week of speaking to almost no one but myself, and just saying "perdón" to strangers a lot, I was so excited to see them. I rolled my SUPER LIGHTWEIGHT CARRYON-SIZE suitcase into the room and we talked nonstop for over an hour about our application experience, traveling, and placements. Eventually, the intrepid Sara (who had flown into Madrid from POLAND where she had been teaching!!) offered to lead me to one of her favorite places to eat, and I followed her like a lost puppy. At that point, I was way past hungry and running on fumes, and also lacking the patience for a sit-down meal, so her suggestion of Walk To Wok was absolutely perfect. I stood glassy-eyed watching two incredibly talented guys make noodle stir fries over roaring flames, and before I knew it I was vacuuming up my very own takeout box. At that point, my last 3 brain cells were begging me for anything but sodium, but I hushed them and happily carried on. 

The next morning, we got up and made our way out to Alcalá de Henares, the birthplace of Miguel Cervantes and home of 2018 Fulbright Spain Orientation. Though we had a good time hauling Fayeza's suitcases through the Metro stations, I was so thankful that burdened travel was firmly in my past. As we boarded the bus that would take us ~40 minutes east, we ran into a bunch of other Fulbrighters and jumpstarted the conversations that dominated Orientation: "Where are you from?!" "Where are you placed?!?!?" "Have you been there yet???" It was so great to finally put faces to names and so wild to think that all of us were on the same sort of precipice. Finally, my post grad plans of moving to a tiny island to work in a school weren't so crazy! 

After checking in with the Commission staff (who had apparently been studying our photos so they could greet us by name), we were treated to a fancy lunch at our hotel complete with ¡¡Spanish Wine!! I decided it was finally time for my immature taste in alcohol to put up or shut up, and thoroughly enjoyed a couple of glasses. Even at my most hydrated, well-fed, and well-rested I still have the tolerance of a flea, so the results weren't very pretty, but A Great Time Was Had By All. 

That evening, we were all scheduled to attend inauguration and other celebratory events on the campus of la Universidad de Alcalá, which was founded in 1499 and declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998. We knew we'd be hearing from the US ambassador and program heads on a beautiful campus. What we didn't really know was that the campus was roughly a ~20 minute walk away from our hotel! I was ashamed of being repeatedly schooled in airport fashion by Europeans (why is American culture the only one that encourages looking like a slob while traveling??) and eager to try out a new dress, so I threw on some heels and a brave face, even when we were warned about the walk right before departing. Whatever! I could handle it. 

As a self-described "huge fan of ceilings", this ceiling really did it for me 

Spoiler alert: I could not handle it. After a long walk there feat. cobblestones and multiple hours of standing/mingling/ice-breaking, I was ready to tap out. When our Canarias group mentor apologetically told us that the restaurant was another 25 minute walk away, I cursed my poor decision-making and looked around for another person in my situation. There was no way in hell I could make it through that walk AND the walk back to the hotel in these shoes. However, I was also really upset that I was making myself look like Someone Who Hates Walking. I love walking!!! Please believe me!! I'm simply incapable!!! 

After a few minutes, I teamed up with two other girls in the group who were also in desperate need of a shoe change. We decided that we would walk the 20 minutes back to the hotel, change our shoes, take a taxi to the restaurant, and then walk home with the group. Looking back, it's evident that the Universe had a plan, because it was during this walk that I met my new great friend Sarah!!!! We talked a mile a minute the whole night and then stuck together for the rest of orientation. She's placed on the big island next door to mine, and has been warned that I will descend upon her as soon as I have my residency/ferry discounts. 

Once we had switched into our vastly more comfortable white sneaks (pictured), we were ready for a wild 10 pm dinner at Restaurante Rus. The English-translation menu they gave us speaks for itself: 

The rest of Orientation was a blur of Not Wearing Heels, panels, new friends, and important information. Also walking a lot. I call this the Fulbright Effect: 

When we had free meals, all ~165 of us spread throughout Alcalá and ate incredible amounts of bread and ham. In fact, the water making up ~50% of my body was almost completely replaced by bread and ham after just 4 days in Madrid. Though I was born and raised dangerously close to America's breadbasket, I am poorly conditioned for mass bread intake thanks to the loosely Atkins Diet lifestyle of my household. But when starving and in Spain.......

if you're ham museum and you know it clap your hands

The last night of Orientation closed with a formal cocktail where we all dressed up again but few wore heels. I had eaten a big lunch with some great program friends, so I wasn't all that hungry for dinner and decided to make a meal out of the hors d'oeuvres being served. Every time a waiter walked by with a new offering, I was on it like a cartoon character putting on disguises to get more free samples. The wine was once again flowing, and I think we were all feeling grateful to be together. 

Fellow Canarias TA Claire is placed as far away from
me as she could possibly be without leaving the
province but... distance means so little when someone
means so much < 33

Lillian and I thoroughly enjoyed heckling each other all week

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

When all was said and done, I headed back to Canarias feeling ready to engage. Though I'm the only Fulbrighter on my island, it's so exciting to think that I know people living on the six other islands, AND in basically every part of Spain. I mean, look at this network!

I'll let these two pointy trees close the show, because they earned it.