Metro

Madrid’s metro is really exceptional. The routes are extensive, the trains are new and clean, the stations are clean, and there is ZERO graffiti anywhere. They have accordion hinges where the trains’ cars adjoin, so each interior has one long open space. And the third rail is overhead, so nobody dies! How simple was that? I’ve never seen a nicer subway system anywhere.

The people who use this subterranean system don’t look like they are extras from a zombie flick either. They look like, nice, normal people commuting around town. On the way home from school today one whole section of the train was in a jovial conversation, telling jokes and enjoying each other’s company. Strangers. When have you ever seen that in New York?

In the metro station at the Puerta del Sol, I pass the same performer who is there every day. She is a frumpy little middle-aged woman who sings along to a little karaoke machine on wheels. She always plays the same song, the song is mostly instrumental, and the part that she sings, she always sings off-key. But every day she’s there, bundled up for the cold, smiles and waves to the passersby, and I keep wondering to myself: Is she as crazy as she seems or is this just a really good schtick? Is she the lady who’ll be on the evening news for having 47 cats in her one bedroom apartment, or the one who’ll die with 2.3 million euros stuffed in her mattress? I guess I’ll never know. But I do know that the world would be a lot less interesting place without people like her. I think that she and Sponge Bob, Captain Hook, Mickey and Minnie, spray-painted Jesus, and the mariachis need to get together and have a tea party. Will you have one lump of acid or two, Mr. Carroll? I gave her a euro and snapped the picture.

Last week, my new school placed me in the last week of a seven week program. On Friday I was tested on the preceding seven weeks, but didn’t realize it until I sat down for the exam! Ouch. This section was all about grammar and that’s my weakest area. Yesterday morning I found out that I barely passed the exam, so I asked to be put back a half-level. Once in class, I realized that I made the right move. We’re going over verb conjugations that I have formally studied in years, and I know that I can read behind and catch up on the things from the first half of the course. And as Chris pointed out, this should be fun, not stressful! I’m not sure I know how to do fun …