Within the last few days November settled in over this part of the world. Real November -- cold that begins to have some bite to it, a certain kind of gray sky producing a certain kind of late-autumn/early-winter day (something I associate with wide New England fields, empty of everything but corn stubble, with the cawing of crows drifting surprisingly long distances through clear, crisp air). Sunlight begins to take on a look I associate with the holiday season, growing thinner, its angle changing as the sun travels lower in the sky. Being out in it all makes my body feel alive. Heading inside afterward, stepping from cold into warmth, feels like being enveloped in something soft and luxurious.
I like it is what I'm getting at. It gets me outside more, gives me the urge to walk. Perfect, that, given where I am, how much I like roaming around the city center. Since getting back here five and a half weeks ago, I've mostly focused on writing and studying, a kind of turning in thats shown up in, er, the narrowing of my social life. Which is fine, I suppose, until I want to hang out and notice that people have stopped calling, that one or two folks have left the city for other points around the globe. So I head out on my own, sit in cafés, go to movies. Drag my camera out when something catches my eye, take some pix. And walk through this wonderful city. Watch Saturday morning streets come slowly to life, thread my way through late-afternoon shopping crowds, through seas of people eddying in and out of places to eat and drink as evening falls. Coming across the occasional deserted street, parked cars striking a discordant note with the place's clear sense of age, of centuries of life.
It's good, all of that. It'll do for now.
The local Christmas season continues coming slowly on, a shift I continue to find disconcerting. A shop up the street installed a beautiful, full-sized, lushly tinseled tree just inside its front window, its lights the first I've so far seen plugged in, shining softly out into the falling darkness. It occurred to me that I'll be arriving back in the states a few short days before the holiday itself. I expect the show of festive hooha here will pale in comparison. Though what do I know? I might be wrong. God knows, it's happened before.
But that's a line of blather for another entry. Right now, a soccer match is about to get underway on Channel 1 -- Spain versus Slovenia, the Spanish national team taking another step in what it hopes will be a trip to the next World Cup. Time to go be a fan.
Later.
Madrid, te quiero.
rws 4:02 PM [+]
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