Monday, September 22, 2014

Madrileño otra vez*

Well I´m sad to say that this week is also a wee bit rushed. No photos today. :( I really am hoping for a chill p-day sometime soon because I need a break!

Speaking of chill, the weather has been very nice around here. It´s usually cloudy and breezy. It rained a bit and the temperature is lowering. I also remembered that I was entering the field in this time, although back then I was much more confused and gringo. It´s weird repeating dates that happened last year.

Ya, I have Plaza del Sol in my area. The boundary on the west is Casa del Campo, this big field, forest. The north boundary should be a street called Reina Cristina. Also it is the intersection/metro stop called Cuatro Caminos. The eastern boundary is Paseo de la Castellana. And the southern boundary is Plaza de Legazpi and west and east of that. That´s more or less our area.

I bought two things from the transport system machines with bills and they only return money in change so I´ve been paying for things for the past week in all coins which has been literally very fun. Very medieval. ´Specially since I also use the coin pouch from Wesley´s Renaissance fair a while back.

We had a big activity in the church called "El Dia de Naciones" or "The Day of Nations" and we basically had a cultural potluck. We have quite a diverse ward from Phillippinos to Argentinians to Americans to Fins (My companion.) There are three young families from America who are all really nice. Being around them made me weirdly nostalgic. The kids were screaming and running around like mad while the moms set up a cute little table of tons of food (chili and Fritos--haven´t had those in over a year--cornbread and other stuff.)

We also have quite a few Paraguayans (of course I meet them all after Wesley leaves. By the way, What were all his areas? I can only ever remember Asunción and Ca´acupé. And other Guaraní phrases? All I can say is mbaeshapa and they respond with something like "Por alla"). Our one Cuban member brought nothing and just said "All that we have in Cuba is hunger so that´s what I brought," which is a pretty dark joke but he´s a nice man. The chapel is pretty big even though it´s the first floor of a big building. It´s kind of also the second floor since it´s big. The ward is nice and I´m excited to meet people. I met a few on pass-bys and eating appointments. And the girlfriend of my ward mission leader in Torrejón is in this ward and I see my ward mission leader quite a bit too. Now I know where he was when we couldn´t find him. And our church meetings are in the opposite order as normal for the first time I can remember.
So as a part of being back in Madrid is having the evil temptation of posters of movies I want to see. Currently all around the city there are posters for "El Corredor del Laberinto" or, much shorter in English, "Maze Runner." Curse you Madrid advertising. Also being in Madrid again I did some research about the weird bear eating off of a tree. It´s translated as "strawberry tree" but I found the Spanish word which is "Madroño." You can look it up if you want. 

So as I was walking through the African, Indian, Arab, (Everything?), ghetto on my way home last night we passed by a large 20´s dance happening in a random plaza with very jazzy music and dancing from the style of those days. It was very odd but it also made me very happy. Random note.

I felt like a quite nerdy person before this area. Now I don´t. First off, we, the Elders in this building, are all white, blonde, nerds with black glasses. But I am very normal now. I´ll explain later.

OH! I saw ads for a TEDx conference (It´s a series of talks on science and design and architecture and music and just everything. I love them.) going on here in Madrid and I was excited to go. But then we saw the price and it was 54€ so we didn´t go. But I can watch it at home online.

I hope that this is sufficiently long. I don´t have much time but it´s been a while since a long email. Hopefully my wish of a chill p-day will be granted. I love you all!

Os quiero,
Elder Morgan the Younger

*Resident of Madrid once again

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