[continued from previous entry]
When I fled in early October, I wasn't sure where I'd end up or how long I'd be gone, so hadn't taken precautions like removing battery from car to store indoors. Which turned matters like the question of whether the car would start after sitting out in subzero temperatures for weeks ‘n' weeks into just one more adventure. (It started -- yee-ha!)
Showered, shaved, toasted a bagel that didn't fare well after three months in the freezer (mmm, warm, buttered cardboard....). Cranked out espresso decent enough to jump-start my system. Started in on stuff needing to be done as other people in the building left for work, the school across the street came to life. Appreciated things like working heat, working phone and internet, working radio, warm liquids. Did a fair imitation of a productive, high-functioning human.
Errands took me out into the cold, down along Main Street into Montpelier's small downtown. Christmas lights shone, stores and cafés did good business. Booted feet walked along shoveled sidewalks, bodies covered in all kinds of winter wear moved along sidewalks, vapor coming out mouths.
Noted a big difference in holiday atmosphere between the Spanish capital and Vermont. Madrid: the city hangs big bunches of lights -- in plazas, along main avenues, down pedestrian ways. Montpelier: municipal lights and decorations were minimal (though nice) -- the bulk of the displays get mounted by businesses and homeowners, a side of holiday hooha not seen much here. Apartment buildings in my current barrio will have a small artificial tree in the lobby, with lights, maybe garlands, maybe a few gift-wrapped boxes around it on the floor. That's about it - - nothing around entryways, nothing in windows. Apart from city street lights, displays are minimal, understated. Most of the energy goes into the gatherings that occupy a huge part of holiday life. And yes, gatherings play a big role in holiday life stateside, but the number and intensity of family-gatherings here remains impressive to me -- Christmas Eve, Christmas day, New Year's, little Christmas (January 5 and 6, the arrival of three kings). In this building during the last two weeks, the aroma of massive meals being prepared, the sound of gathered people in flats all around mine was frequent, extending through evenings, throughout days, feeling near-constant. Yesterday was the season's wrap-up, local streets remained quiet, most business closed -- life happened indoors, in homes filled with families and children, preparing meals, hanging about into the evening.
Er, where was I? Oh, right -- Vermont. Being busy, productive, blahblahblah.
Contacted a friend who's been taking care of my mail, met to buy him dinner that night. He arrived hauling a grocery bag packed with nine weeks of mail -- 95% of it unwanted, destined for the recycle bin. Most of it from nonprofits (and a few catalog-spewing businesses) who have ignored requests to stop sending stuff, ignored further requests to stop selling/sharing my address with other groups.
Talked. Ate. Slowly defrosted. (Temperature outside: around 0°F/17°C. Chilly.) Returned to my teeny squat at around 3:30 a.m. (Madrid time), marveling at just how teeny it actually is. Very, very compact. And laid out around a corner of the building -- what used to be a big Victorian home -- so that the space is narrow and sound does not pass easily from one room to another. The stereo in the living room has to be seriously cranked to be able to hear it in the kitchen, and since the lease specifically forbids noise loud enough to bother other tenants, each room in the flat requires its own source of radio/tunes. (I pause here to remind myself that I picked this place specifically so that I would not be able to settle comfortably into it, would feel motivated to get out into the big world outside. That was my intent. And it worked. 'Cause spending too much time there gets a teensy bit claustrophobic, and it surely gets me wanting a change of scenery.)
One good thing about being back in that teeny space: a closet full of winter gear, something that did not get packed nine weeks earlier (again, me not knowing how long I'd be gone, where I'd end up, wanting to travel light, etc.).
A second good thing: genuinely kickass high-speed wifi internet, as compared with the moody, grumpy high-speed connection Telefónica has given me in my current Madrid squat. (Though I will say one thing for Telefónica: their concept of what service means has drastically evolved, from something not far removed from audible snickering -- if not outright yawning -- to requests for aid, to something way more reliable and trust-inspiring.) Uploads/downloads on my Vermont connection happen bizarrely, almost surreally quickly. Not that I'm complaining.
Went to sleep real damn late, a habit deeply ingrained from life in Madrid. Which would be fine if my bod weren't still coming to on Madrid time, meaning ungodly early in Vermont time. Had me up and out to the gym, then out taking care of more errands, the hours skidding past at disorientingly high velocidad.
[this entry in progress]
España, te amo.
rws 6:59 AM [+]
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