Christmas is coming! One of the most wonderful times of the year. This of course all includes the normal reasons but with the added bonus of exams, I have my book at the ready, and printing ready made Christmas activities off the computer for the kids. Hours of planning reduced to printing off Christmas crosswords. The most wonderful time of year. The Christmas decorations are now out in full, the shops are rammed and it's freezing. Everything feels so festive.
My thoughts have finally turned to buying some Christmas presents. I used it as an excuse to go the El Rastro market. El Rastro is a huge market that happens every Sunday and is attended by thouands of people. It is a mainstay of Madrid life and I hadn't been. I felt a bit bad so I was excited to finally get down there. They weren't lying about the size, it was enormous. There are people every where that you have to battle through. There were so many stalls, some of them good, some of them, well, not so good. There were crafts, antiques and jewellery stalls on the good side. The bad side was people who literally were selling stuff I can only assume was taken out of bins, a stall selling a whole array of knives and loads selling novelty t-shirts. The worst one being one that read 'The Madrid Triathalon: Eating, Drinking, Fucking'. If that wasn't enough there were stick men to illustrate each. I find it depressing to think there are people out there who might wear that. With so much to see I didn't actually get any presents. God bless you Amazon.
The other big event in Madrid was Saturday's El Classico. I don't know where to stand anymore. I'm lost and confused. As a teenager I was a big Barca fan. I wore a shirt, read books about them and urged them to win every game, especially the classico. I didn't like Real Madrid. The fascist involvement, the supreme arrogance, the epic sense of entitlement. Those things are still true and I still dislike Real Madrid, though I have softened. However despite Barca being the best football team of my lifetime, my opinion has sunk. Being here I now realise they are half the problem. Real and Barca dominate everything and are strangling the rest of the league. Barca are just as self entitled. For example when they wanted to sign Fabergas and said Arsenal were holding him hostage. No, he is under contract, if you want him you have to pay Arsenal's asking price. That's how it works, for everyone. When the Barca team includes moaners, whingers and cheats players Mascherano, Dani Alves, Pedro and Busquets, it's hard for them to claim any moral superioty. Though they do spend most of their time looking down from their high horse on everyone. Alexis seems to be the next one. Spent a lot of the game waving an imaginary yellow card. Anyone who does that should be sent off without delay. Add to this the fact I love Madrid as a city. People speak so much rubbish about Madrid. I may want Real to lose but I want the city of Madrid to win. It is a conundrum. I had no clue who I wanted to win. Barca drew the first blood, scoring after twenty seconds but it wasn't to be. Barca won 3-1. It must be frustrating for the Madrid players. Real are a brilliant team, I think they would win the Premier League but for them there just happens to be one better team. There is no shame being worse than this Barca team, but I manage that is little consolation. Everyone here has been very philosophical. There was a lot more annoyance last year, this year people seem to have taken it in their stride.
There were two bank holidays last week. One of those days was used to visit a small town called Aranjuez. It's a pretty little town but unfortunately we couldn't see much of it. On the train down, out of nowhere, we hit a wall of fog and couldn't see anything. There is a beautiful palace in Aranjuez and the gardens are beautiful. We spent the day wandering around and enjoyed a long lunch. The fog was so bad we didn't realise until leaving that the whole town is surronded by mountains, big ones. There was one downside. I'm not exaggerating this at all. There were some buskers, one with a sax and one with a bongo. They played the same tune, solid, without break for the whole time we were, about six and a half hours. The same tune, without variation or break, over and over again. I wanted to stick the sax down his throat by the end. Though I suppose you have to admire their perseverance.
Other than that I signed up to be a guinea pig for trainee Spanish teachers. I have two hours of class every morning, plus my normal three, that puts me up to thirteen hours a week. If I don't learn a little damn Spanish this week I might just give up! I got in trouble today though I don't know why. I was working on the ghost story as I was asked. The teacher came over and asked why I wasn't enjoying it. I didn't realise I was giving off those vibes. He gave me a lecture about how we are only doing this to learn. Don't tell me mate, I have qualified. I know the drill. We might have beef. The other news is somehow I managed to get reversed heckled from an Elvis impersonator. I hadn't done anything! Must just be my appearance, I can't help looking like this.
Back on Christmas Eve, let's catch up.
love love love x
