17 - Madrid, I miss you too.

A friend sent this to me when I was packing, ready to move far away from Madrid. Great idea if you want your friend to shed tears around the room. 

All capital cities put a spell on us, including Madrid. 

I have always loved to explore off-the-beaten-track areas. The dirty and tiny bars, the green spots to lay and get a sun tan, the narrow streets in the city centre, the parks, the viewpoints to admire the city skyline at dawn... How many times have I taken my “guiri” friends or strangers to all those hidden gems and shared with them my tips and secrets about this city that has adopted me for thirteen years? So many. And I will always be grateful to heart to Madrid and its dwellers (despite what is said about the Madrileños, that they often look down on people).

With this idea in mind, I started thinking about the perception that I keep of the city from my perspective as a Spanish person not born in the capital, and also about the impression that people from other nationalities who have lived here have.

It is very interesting to give voice to those who have no previous deep knowledge on a certain culture and local customs, and ask them to share their impressions after a few months.

Therefore, I chose a small group of young Americans I met in Madrid some years ago while they were doing an exchange program and coming to the city for their very first time. 

I asked them to share with me some negative and positive features that they would highlight about their experience in Madrid -first thing that would come to their minds withouth over thinking. 

Therefore, four American college students are given the opportunity to travel to Madrid during a semester to get to know the culture, the language, the people, etc. Nowadays, they are immersed in the American culture again.

The automatic thought that brough them back to their time in Madrid had the following results/reviews.

1) Positive- amazing city, friendly people, so much to explore/see/do. Awesome nightlife, great food, and fantastic public transportation both in the city and to outer areas.

Negative- Madrid is expensive! Also, based on my time there, there were a lot of demonstrations/strikes.

2) Positive- how clean and easy the metro was to use around the city.

Negative-  how difficult it was for me to find peanut butter.

3) Positive- I loved going to intercambios to practice my Spanish. This was one of my favorite experiences, and it helped me to meet many friends.

Negative- I’m not a party-scene person, so it was difficult adjusting to the late-night start of the bars/discos. I prefer going out for a drink and going home by 11 at night, which is when a lot of the parties begin.

4) Positive- I loved how easy it was to get around the city. Exploring every neighbourhood, getting lost on the way but discovering places, food, bars was the best part of my time in Madrid.

Negative- I had a hard time finding food I really loved. Mostly because I love spice and Spanish food is much more mild than what I'm used to.

16 - Hot topic: religion and culture.

Everyone knows how the railway system works in England; delays, works, cancellations...

Recently, I got a ticket from Paddington station to Canterbury and 'surprisingly' my train was delayed, and delayed... again and again for about an hour. Fortunately, those 3600 seconds allowed me to analyse the other commuters that were also expecting the right departure time to show up. All of a sudden I was surrounded by burqas, niqabs, hijabs, kippahs, tallits, saffron clothes, and probably many hidden crosses.

I am aware that nowadays religion is a hot topic like politics and age; avoided in general. However, I realized at that time how much it is closely related to the topic of culture, and how it actually helps to understand it deeper. Knowledge on religion is also important regardless of whether we personally think it has played a positive or negative role. Religion takes place in history, shapes minds and even has an effect on how people approach each other. Even though God´s effect on human´s lives and minds has been pushed aside when it comes to understanding countries and individuals, we indeed need to keep in mind the roots and religious beliefs. Whether you like it or not, it is necessary to measure and understand today's culture by doing research on the history and faith that certain groups have professed, and the impact that those values have on our daily lives. Morality, Ethics, Philosophy, Law, Religion, etc.

In such a diverse society and global world where one doesn´t have to travel to Rome to find a Catholic church or travel to Jerusalem to come across a synagogue, it is essential to understand and be informed about religion and its traditions.

By ignoring religious education, the new generations will be unable to understand the motives behind Gandhi´s actions, nor analyse in depth the “Pietá” of Michelangelo, appreciate the magnificence of Notre Dame in Paris neither understand the importance of the Parthenon for the Greeks and the spiritual impact of the Egyptian pyramids. Of course, they will not understand a thing about the “Divine comedy” of Dante, nor Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol”.

15 - Knowledge and experience.

Two images. Two meanings.
Two words working together or separately.

Pay attention and draw your own conclusions.

And then, maybe, take action.

14 - Me and the metro.

Soon I will be moving to a place with no underground system whatsoever. There will be many other differences I will notice there but, to be honest, I will profoundly miss the metro. I love this sticky, crowded, smelly, noisy means of transport. Are you looking for an adventure? Do you need a storyline to write about? Do you feel lonely? Do you want to laugh out loud? Are you a trend hunter? Travel by metro and the ride will cover all your needs.

Actually, OMG, the initial idea of the blog came to me and has been written during my daily metro trips to and from work, which means that I will need to find new ways of inspiration in the new city...

When I turned 18 I moved to the big city: Madrid. After unpacking all my stuff during a terribly hot day in July I decided to spend my first day following a self tailor- made route as if I were on a hop-on, hop-off tour of the city. I was excited to use such an accessible transport and be able to discover so many diverse parts of the capital of Spain. I had an incredible day exploring on my own every corner from the eyes of a local and a 'foreigner’ at the same time – until I got a fine because I had purchased the wrong ticket…
Since then, during my rides I have watched improv shows, concerts of all genres and make up live sessions. I have witnessed love-hate dramas, booze episodes, thefts, family rows, compliments, jokes, embarrassment. I think all of us could write a whole book with what our eyes of commuters have seen and our ears have heard.

The metro in Madrid has witnessed my graduation at university, my becoming a woman, my first steps of my career. My fears, my loves and my tears. Thirteen years full of adventure. I will miss you, my travel buddy.

Since my very first contact with the metro in Madrid, I have got to know many cities and its people by its means of transportation.
I was told that Budapest has the first electric underground line in Europe, and I indeed suffered from this old system when my foot was caught by the automatic doors.
Vienna has a clean and sophisticated underground, a reflection of the valuable architecture that this city has to offer to the traveler.
Being such a crowded and extensive city, Paris has a tangled mess system of lines where no printed metro maps are provided for free, despite the high rate for a single ride.
My expectations on the subway in New York were high, being so present in the movies and being such an important part of the American pop culture! I felt happy inside the yellow wagons as if I were J. Lo from the Bronx. Old but authentic as it is. I was disappointed not to find a vending machine outside every station. How am I supposed to legally enter the station if the machine is located inside the barrier? I also noticed that if you take the subway towards the wrong direction, it is impossible in some stations to cross to the other side without going out and paying again. Besides that, I love to have that experience on me.

Considering how small the city of Lisbon is, I was quite happy with the wide platforms. Very neat, cheap and easy to find your way around even if you don´t speak the language.
I don´t remember using the underground in Amsterdam where cycling seems to be the fastest and most eco-friendly means of transport, but I do have the Berlin metro sound stuck in my mind. The same sound effect that the techno music producer Paul Kalkbrenner used in one of his well known albums.
Regardless how many times I have been in different parts of Italy, I must admit that I lack the knowledge of its underground culture. I guess I always went for the tram, so I could admire the beautiful architecture of this country.

However, there is one and only underground in the world with a proper name: the London Tube, partially closed down during weekends and terribly crowded at rush hours. An insane maze of lines that can coincide within the same platform. My advice: mind the gap and watch the screens carefully. Drastically small, annoyingly touristy but full of history and stories. It should be the eighth wonder of the World.

Last but not least, I invite you to watch one of my fav videos from Sesame Street to finish this short story about my perception on the metro system.

I hope you enjoy it!

13 - Esta es la vida del sueño errante: living in a foreign land

A perspective on cross cultural relationships.

 It is a complex situation that, unlike our parents and grandparents, we have to face. Living in a globalised world where travelling is accessible to anyone, affordable to virtually any pocket and study abroad programs are so popular, people are more and more used to have cross cultural relationships of any type.
I guess, dear reader, that you have also attended one of those language courses in another country (let's say England, for instance) where people from all over the world gather together to improve their English skills. It can be indeed the most enriching and the funniest experience of your entire life. It is like personalizing one of those jokes: 'A Spanish, a French and an Italian enter a British pub... ' and you can easily guess that one of those cultural misundarstandings will happen next.

Among international groups slip-ups are expected on a regular basis, but cultural differences must be accepted. Nobody gets hurt or rather everyone becomes more understanding when in an strange land for everyone (let's say London, for instance) Americans use their hands to eat chicken, the Spanish speak loud on the bus, the Indians cook funny scented meals, the Japanese sniffle in public instead of blowing their noses… In such a melting pot where international people live together facing the same cultural shock but from their own perspective, cross cultural differences are better understood as a matter of social justice.

 The major problem arises as soon as a narrow- minded native joins the international- cultural exchange, unaware and even intolerant towards everything differing from his own language and beliefs. Needless to say, I have many native American and British good friends. We only communicate in English and they are understanding if I make a cultural or grammar mistake, since it's me making a big effort for the sake of our friendship. But this has not always been the case for everyone.

 I wish, dear dominant native figure laying on your comfortable sofa at home, that you would experience how it feels to live in a foreign country, how it sounds to have feelings but never be able to find the right words to express them, how it feels to wake up every morning looking at an unfamiliar sky, how it sounds to be asked for legal identification wherever you go, how it feels to be in real need of friends because many people speak but not so many are eager to listen, how it sounds to notice you cannot follow the jokes and people have no time to explain them to you so there is no laughter in your life anymore…

I wish you put on the shoes of the immigrant in your country, walk a mile, or a thousand, and then, kindly, open your door widely.

12 - Happy Fourth of July!

I wish I were in New York City right now… or in Boston, like my sister.

Globalization grants us permission to celebrate this big day in any country outside the United States of America. Even though the differences are remarkable, indeed, many will head to the store Taste of America to purchase the ingredients to prepare an “Independence Day recipe”, to inspire the patriotic spirit. Others, myself included, will participate in one of those events in which the red, blue and white will mark the appearance of the participants. The biggest event on the American calendar cannot be forgotten by the lovely Spaniards, who give shelter to hundreds of Yankees (colloquial term used in Spain to define someone from the Northern part of the US) every year.

Who wouldn’t resist living the American dream for one day with a Spanish twist?

Having praised the American super big holiday I must add that Spaniards have fourteen days off per year, in addition to the government-stipulated holiday period of twenty-two days. Nobody knows how to celebrate our traditions like we do. One will definitely find less flags, very few red and yellow t-shirts and no Spanish National anthem in the streets. However, the visitor won´t be disappointed by our folk music, sangria and tapas, beautiful traditional costumes, popular games, delicious pastry, etc...

I would like to mention the event held on my birthday, 24th June, at midnight: the bonfires of Saint John (Hogueras de San Juan). It is a popular festival that takes place during the shortest night (23rd) and continues during the longest day of the year (24th) to welcome the Summer´s solstice. During St John´s eve fireworks illuminate the sky and bonfires the earth. The experience gets even more intense when the clock strikes twelve, just before the music resonates in our ears, the brave young people gather together to jump over the bonfires. Such an heroic deed has a purifying symbolism, burning the problems away, although I have always done it for the thrill of my birthday party. 

We Spaniards make a big deal of all our celebrations, being a core element of our culture. Make sure, then, not to miss them if you come along to my country! At any time of the year there will always be something going on!

11 - Ode to America

America, I love and hate you. What are you really like? Certain loves are
poisonous, yet one cannot or is not able to give them up. I can't make up my
mind about you as I have fallen for you.

My youth was spent learning about your not very long historical past and
present, your motivations, your geographical lines, your heroes, your humour, your body language. I dedicated you my career by sending you the greatest treasure of my homeland, our children, so that you might fill any gaps in their make up by encouraging and fostering
enthusiasm in their upbringing. Like a protective mother I hid your flaws
whenever foreign lands attacked you. I cried myriads of tears over your
honour, showered you with kisses like a lover, and put all my trust in this
long distance friendship.

I am aware of your jealousy due to the fact that I paid too much attention
to my neighbour Britain. Yes, that constant big whinger. I cannot
deny that it really captured my heart with those grey skies, brick
buildings, inspirational stories, acres and acres of green land, polite
manners and precise, clear accents. Being close by, London was always there
when I needed it. After all I could only contact you on my sleepless nights
since the moon closed your eyes when I mostly needed to talk to you. Does
distance make the heart grow fonder? None of us can say for certain that to
be true but you cannot hold a grudge against me since my love for you was
always real and ever present in my mind although at times I couldn't find
the appropriate words to express it. How have you repaid me for those years
of unselfish fidelity and support? I wonder... I know I have found in your
people the respect, love, support, encouragement and honesty, possibly
rooted in your own diversity, that I might never have found in my country,
and I shall always be profoundly grateful for that. Yet you were mean to me!
You never told me that there existed extreme people running for the thrill,
walking in a dream, one day the sun is shining, next day it thunders. You
have most certainly given shelter to a bunch of paranoids hiding under a
mask of sanity. Had I known that all those years ago...

I always admired how you feed your crew with a large dose of optimism,
friendliness, high self-esteem, hunger for adventure, target driven,
acceptance of other people, ability to start all over again after a failure,
etc. The land where there is space for anyone and everyone, the obese, the
obsessed, the paranoid, the alcoholic, the immoral, the suicidal, the
wanderer, the broken family. The non expected child and the single mother.
The brainwashed and the scholar, the blind believer and the nihilist. The
black and the white. The suits and the tank tops. All are welcome and
equally accepted in the gang. Your life is your own business, you have the
freedom to walk on the wrong path, to be the architect of your own life, you
overuse 'I' and 'me'.
You are granted an enormous freedom, a strong sense of individualism, a
bunch of emotional and mental issues, a free license to carry guns. There
you go. You have created individuals who live a life like parallel lines.
As for Europe, my sweetheart, the picture is different. Spain is different,
I am different. Therefore do not try to judge me in the same way you judge
your compatriots.

I know we always walked on an unequal path since it was me who adapted to
your language, tamed your tantrums, put up with your materialistic nature...
and still sent you my love. Yet you are too far away. It has been two years
since I last looked at your deep brown eyes. And I'm just tired out when I
have the evidence these days that you cannot even get over yourself!

Christian Bale portrayed your attitude perfectly in ' America Psycho', ' I
know my behaviour can be ... erratic sometimes...

PS. (I beg your pardon, dear Americans, but do not feel offended by my words that have a meaning that I am only able to understand)

10 - Is English language changing?

An image is worth a thousand words

9 - La defensa de mi madre por la lengua castellana o - how you should meet my mother -

Mi querida madre, española de pura cepa y con estudios superiores, pero a punto de cumplir 70 años, mira con actitud de indiferencia este comic y añade: ¡pero si no se entiende nada, hija!.

Esta viñeta debería provocar especialmente una cierta sonrisa a las nuevas generaciones, puesto que intenta resaltar hasta qué punto en estos últimos años hemos incluido con la mayor normalidad cientos de palabras inglesas en nuestros vocablo español, hasta tal punto que las metemos con calzador en nuestra conversación. Quizá para aparentar que nos hemos subido al tren de la globalización o simplemente porque es lo que se estila en este siglo XXI.

Mi madre, que ha sido en su vida ejemplo a seguir en muchas cosas, ya sea por desconocimiento de la lengua inglesa o porque es una mujer que se aferra a las tradiciones de su propio país, no ha dudado en elegir siempre la versión española, poniendo ese sello castellano tan propio que ha marcado mi tierna infancia y juventud.

De este modo, en mi casa, se sirve un buen bocata de jamón pero no un sandwich de jamón y queso. Mi hermano siempre ha traído a casa algún que otro amigo un poco estrafalario, pero ¿qué es eso de que son unos frikis? Mi padre siempre ha sido puntual a las reuniones de trabajo, pero nunca ha mencionado haber asistido a ningún meeting. Todavía recuerdo la cara de mi madre cuando descubrió mi piercing, puesto que para ella más de dos pendientes en el cuerpo es multitud. Aquel grandioso día en el que le quitaron los brackets a mi hermana, después de cinco años compartiendo piso con tan odioso aparato dental. La primera vez que mi abuela acertó a escribir su primer SMS, aunque acabara enviando el mensaje a la persona equivocada. Esas celebraciones familiares de verano que terminaban con un fresquito smoothie, porque los batidos siempre fueron tradición en casa Merino.

Y ya en la adolescencia esa larga espera de quien sería mi primer noviete en el hall de mi casa a la expectativa de que yo apareciera con mi nuevo look de pelo liso, que acompañado de un blazer y los jeans de moda, realmente consiguieron ese efecto cool tan esperado de top-model.

¡Tantos y tantos buenos momentos de mi vida enmarcados por esas castizas palabras!

Realmente, ¡bravo por mi madre!, puesto que se ha ganado un puesto entre los más venerables miembros de la Real Academia de la Lengua Española, haciendo que ese proceso de “anglo-invasión” no perjudicara nuestra paz ni comunicación familiar. 

Aunque desafortunadamente, mi madre ni siquiera recibirá un whatsapp de una amiga que le diga que tiene una hija tan fashion que se dedica a escribir frikadas sobre ella, ni nunca llegará a saber que fue mencionada en un post de este blog…

8 - Part two. This word called love

Dutch
Gezelligheid The warmth of being with loved ones.
Geborgenheid The feeling of safety that comes from being with loved ones.

Greek
Erwtas To fall in love with someone. It is the first very strong feeling you have for someone.
Agape It is a feeling of love that comes after experience with your beloved person.

Hungarian
Szeretet It means love but I with a much more deeper and wider meaning than in English

Urdu
Ishq It roughly approximates to love, but actually is a feeling that transcends love. More spiritual.

And last but not least, a funny one:

Japanese
Bakku-shan A beautiful woman looked from behind, not from the front.