Welcome to Madrid

We got to Madrid on a Saturday evening. Stephen and Claudia's brother, Tony, met us at the airport and helped us navigate the public transit system to the apartment where Tony and Zonia (Claudia's mom) live. I was glad to have them as escorts. The metro system was fairly straight forward, but there are an overwhelming amount of different bus routes. Zonia and Tony, like most people in their area, don't have cars and are pros at navigating the wide range of public transit options available. It is like they have some sort of 6th sense that allows them to know how many minutes before the next bus arrives at any given stop. 

We happened to arrive on the night that Real Madrid was playing in a championship game. Don't ask me what championship- I know next to nothing about soccer. Anyways, there were groups of people all wearing jerseys supporting their local teams all over the subway. Whenever they encountered another group of people wearing jerseys, they would break out in what I assume was the Real Madrid fight song accompanied by general hoots and hollers. The game was starting as we transferred to the bus and walked to Zonia's house. We heard a few big outbursts, but we couldn't tell if they were happy or disappointed. It turns out that they were goals, and the cheering after they won the game went on for a long time! It was a fun thing to witness.

Zonia was very gracious in hosting us. She has a 3 bedroom apartment. Stephen, Claudia, and their 3 girls took one room, Aaron and I took another, Tony took the third, and Zonia slept on the couch. Zonia had the magic ability to somehow have these huge meals on the table 15 minutes after we got home from our various trips. I really liked all the Peruvian food she cooked for us. 

We went to church. Zonia's building is only a 5 minute walk away, but Claudia wanted to visit friends in her old ward, so we took a couple buses to that building instead. The majority of the ward was comprised of South Americans who immigrated to Spain. Claudia's family falls in this category- they are Peruvian. There were a fair amount of Spaniards, and a few American families. The ward was very welcoming. I got used to doing the cheek kissing thing. My Spanish was tested as I tried to figure out the best way to explain that I was there because my sister-in-law lived there 7 years ago. People were patient with me, and I understood a lot more than I expected to. One humorous difference between this ward and all the wards I have been to before is that these people were terrible at singing! It was like everyone picked a random starting note, then loosely followed the rhythm of the piano. 

Walking to church. IN MADRID!

After church, Stephen went on a walk around Alcorcón (Zonia's neighborhood) with Aaron and me. This was definitely the middle of a city. There were no houses, only big apartment complexes with small stores, banks, offices, etc on the main floor. There were very few stand-alone stores. There were lots of public spaces and playgrounds for kids. It was completely empty because we were walking around while everyone else was taking a siesta. The weather was really nice that day, but later in the week it jumped to over 100 degrees and I was definitely ready to get on board with the mid-day hide-in-your-apartment-and-nap routine. 

The only big city I have been to before is New York City. Madrid and NYC are similar in a lot of ways. Madrid seemed cleaner. Maybe it is the arid climate. NYC always seemed to be damp and smellier. Maybe it is because I couldn't translate most of the Spanish graffiti. Madrid also had small green parrots flying around.