Madrid

I love Madrid. Pretty much everyone knows we lived there for a season. Pitufo was born there and is seriously, an immigrant to the US!! But let me just say, I love Madrid. Not like I love Colorado because it is amazing too but I love Madrid like I love people in my family. My heart is still there and I am passionate about it. And being here, as right and perfect as it is for this time in our lives (see above post about getting my masters), I grieve a city that I love and in some ways feel better in than I do in my own beloved Texas.
I guess this is what happens to your heart when you are called and chosen to leave your home and take up life in another country. Madrid is in every fiber of my being and honestly, I think about it every day. When I was there, I missed, oh how I painfully missed my family and friends. It was heartwrenching. I miss Madrid just as much living here. But don't get me wrong, I love so LOVE my family, and friends. And weight watchers. smile and sigh.
I just tried to watch PBS gwyneth paltrow series on Spain and cooking and they start off in Madrid and it was almost like trying to watch a video of my brother. You know that feeling when someone has died and you get a glimpse of their life and you either barf or cry hysterically? That is how I feel about Madrid. Only diffence being that it is still there and my brother, he's not.
People ask me how or why I speak Spanish to my children or where I learned it and I try to be as offhand as possible so as not to come across as desparate or weird but in my heart, it's like talking about my mom or my kids in a casual I could take it or leave it kind of way. Impossible practically.
I don't go on and on because I don't want to ever appear unthankful for my life and my friends but if I could have one foot in both worlds all the time I would. The people are so nice there. I have some dear dear friends who cared for me through a miscarriage, my parents divorce, a baby who was not the gender that we were told for 6 of the months that he would be, and just the reality of being alone much of the time while my husband did some hard core, dangerous yet fulfilling "work"in a drug infested, immigrant populated, not safe for blue eyed white chicks and their yellow haired son, part of town. We hung out every SINGLE day these girls and I. We are tight.
And Madrid is so safe. I could ride the subway and walk home after dark, pregnant with a two year old and never worry a sec about anything bad happening to me. People are just so nice and crime is unheard of save for a pickpocketer or two on the metro. I love feeling safe. I love not worrying about my kids and strangers 24/7. I love having a park at the base of my apartment building. I love wood floors and marble bathrooms and doormen who treated us like we were their children.
I love city life. It's faster and yet so much slower, convenient, exciting, love it. So love it.
Madrid is my other home. I know we will go back there to live someday. After my masters of course. Probably when we are much older. We have been back 2 times in the 3 years we have been home. It's not enough.
I want my kids to know it like we do. Notorious remembers it so well. And they all remember him.
Today I want to walk out my door, hop on the 148 down Gran Via to Plaza Callao. Get out and meander through the passageways of Puerta del Sol. Stop in at Linea Cero next to the cathedral. Walk to the bear and people watch. Get a gofre down in the metro. Then walk back to Callao, catch the 148 to the Palace. Get out and walk through the Sabatini gardens. Get a cafe cortadito at Cafe Oriente. Sit in La Almudena and pray. Maybe stay for Mass.
Catch the 148 home. Visit with Segundo and head to the park to hang out with Mariola, Paloma and Maria Luisa and all our little peques.
That is what I want to do today.
ahhhh madrid.