Life Lately in Madrid

After returning from our non-stop travels in August, we've finally had a pretty good period of time in Madrid and have started to settle in nicely. Luke is back at the daily grind, usually leaving the house around 8:30 and returning around the same time in the evening, sometimes earlier, sometimes later on both ends. I started Spanish classes at Escuela Oficial de Idiomas on October 8th and am just finishing up my 3rd week of classes. I go every day from 5-7. So far, I really like my teacher, Concha, and hope that I start seeing more and more improvement soon!  Between the gym or running, class and homework everyday, keeping the apartment clean, laundry and running errands, which takes much longer here given the lack of our car and the necessity to go multiple places in order to get each type of item (There is no Target or Wal-Mart in the city center!), my days go by pretty quickly.

Everyone continues to be so friendly and welcoming, and we have been lucky to find a couple of groups of friends to share some of our time with.  Several weeks ago, we had a group of people over to our house for tapas and wine. I met Colleen through the Americanas in Madrid Facebook group and then met Erin through Colleen. They both came with their significant others. Jose is Colleen's Spanish fiance, and Dani is Erin's Mexican boyfriend. We've also met up for drinks, a cheese festival and shopping (girls only!) with this group. 

Jose is a very talented guitarist and knows a plethora of songs, so when we get together, the night usually ends with a sing-a-long! (Me, Erin, Colleen, Jose, Luke, Dani.)

Mexican food in Madrid after the Cheese festival. (Erin, Dani, Jose & Colleen. You should know the front row!)

Luke's co-worker, Jose Carlos, has been beyond friendly since the week we arrived. He was the first person to invite us out for dinner when we were brand new to Madrid, and since then we have hung out with him and his best friend, Nico, several times.  They both speak pretty good English and love the opportunity to speak so that they can keep improving. They also encourage me to speak Spanish with them and are so nice and helpful to help me with new words or to provide constructive criticism. 

Luke, Jose Carlos, Nicolas, Me, Elena, Almu & Francisco

Luke and Jose Carlos

Luke has to work this weekend. Although the last two weekends that we thought he would have to work, it got called off at the last minute, so I'm still holding out hope for that to happen again. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll get lucky a third time. While Luke works on Sunday, I'm running in my first European 10-K. The weather looks like it will be a nice, cool Fall weekend with highs in the upper 50's and low 60's. So other than work and running, it looks like we'll have a pretty chill weekend in Madrid. 

We miss our families like crazy and can't wait for the next opportunity to see everybody or anybody! Have a good weekend in Texas, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Arkansas, Tennessee (wherever you are!) and know that you're always on our minds! 


 

En Casa con Luke y Millie (At Home with Luke and Millie)

Last week, my mom requested some photos of our apartment, and though I'd had this on my to do list for a while now, it took her request to make me take a few pictures. I thought I'd share them here with the rest of our family and friends so that you all can picture where we are (and where you will come visit! You better!) We still have a few things that we'd like to find, like a couple of pictures or mirrors for the bare walls in our living room and dining room, throw pillows for the couch and a dresser or some type of additional clothing storage for our bedroom.

All in all, though, we are starting to feel settled and comfortable. It really is such a blessing that EY shipped all of our things for us.  Most of the Americans that we have met here came only with what they could fit in the allowable luggage limit for their flight and are living in furnished apartments without any of their special things.  After experiencing a furnished apartment for 6 months in Dallas, we were so excited to get our personal items back, and it really has made us feel much more comfortable and at home, which makes this whole experience much easier. Here are a few pictures and descriptions of the rooms in our apartment starting with the living room and walking back to the master bedroom.

We purchased most of the big items for this room (El Salon) in Madrid: Couch, coffee tale, bench and rug. The bench was the perfect solution because we didn't have a great spot for a chair, and all the ones we liked were incredibly expensive. It offers more seating and is the perfect height with the coffee table. Plus, the stripes make me happy.

Here we have our "entertainment center." The small turquoise chest we shipped from home and ended up working fine as a TV stand since our TV here is much smaller than at home. We usually have my laptop set up and connected to the TV so that we can indulge in our new addiction to the Breaking Bad series, and I can keep up with Parenthood. We hung the picture from Luke's birthday that I bought at El Rastro above the TV, and the wooden piece to the left of the TV is an old French baguette cabinet that Luke got me for my birthday. Our glass bottles in the center of the coffee table are from our trip to Nashville, but we're on the lookout to add a few Spanish bottles to our collection!

After looking at coffee tables that we loved but were far beyond our budget, I was so excited when we found this. It's not a true antique but looks old and rustic just like we like it. When we bought the table, it had 4 short legs on it that made it just a little too tall to be a coffee table, but we decided to buy it anyway with the hopes that we could take the legs off. Sure enough, as soon as it was delivered, I turned it on its side and went to work with a hammer. The legs popped right off and now it's the right height for our couch and bench. We bought the rug from a small shop run by an Afghanistani man and his Spanish wife. He is the nicest man and was so easy to work with. He let us take home two rugs since we couldn't make up our minds and gave us no hassle when I went to return the extra. In fact, he even made me a cup of green tea and talked to me for 30 minutes about his village in Afghanistan!

We brought our beloved trunk and Matthews frame from home. When we came across these American flag pillows in El Corte Ingles, you know we couldn't go home without them! God Bless America!

I think the kitchen (La Cocina) is my favorite room in our apartment. I love the tile, green wall and the fact that it is open to the living room and dining room, which is not common in Spain. In fact, they call this type of layout "Cocina Americana." They prefer to have a kitchen that completely closes off from the other rooms. My Spanish teacher, Jose, told me that it's because they like to keep the food smells in the kitchen. I guess American food smells better than Spanish food. :)

We have plenty of storage and modern appliances! However, the dishwasher is quite small and won't easily fit our dinner plates. I guess what they say about American plates (and portion sizes) significantly increasing in size over the past couple of decades is true!

The landlords left this little cart when they moved out. It's so simple, but I love it. I have all my spices and cutting board on the top shelf. Then I found these great glass containers that I bought to store flour, sugar, coffee, oats, brown rice, cous cous, lentils, etc. The bottom shelf is where we keep our stock of fruit and veggies.  The cart is situated right behind the cook-top, so it's really convenient to have all the spices within arm's reach.

We brought this green piece from home, and it was the perfect fit and match in our green kitchen.The additional storage is great, and it's nice to have some "junk" drawers where we can store mail, pens, pencils, etc. We bought the framed Parcheesi board in San Sebastian, Spain and found the old scale at El Rastro.

Here's our dining room (El Comedor), where we're still in need of some pictures to hang on the bare walls.  We brought everything in this room with us from Dallas.

We have a small bathroom (El Bano) right off of the living room and kitchen, which has been really nice for when we have guests over.  However, because of where the plumbing is in the building, the toilet has a motor to push the water in the direction that it needs to go. It makes some funny sounds to say the least. Don't be scared if it starts growling at you!

In our entry way (La Entrada), we found a nice spot for the long, yellow table that we brought from home. Then we found this shelf with hooks at an old antique shop near El Rastro for only about 30 euros (if I remember correctly), which is a good price considering how big it is. I always have a purse or bags with me when I come in the door, so I love having these hooks to hang them on instead of dropping them in the floor. We bought the yellow rug to go in front of the door, but we had to be creative with the positioning because the door won't open with it there. Notice all the locks on the door? We're definitely safe!

Here's the extra bedroom (El Dormitorio), which we currently use as a laundry room. The landlords also left this little table, which we put next to the laundry line so that I can use it as a folding table as soon as I take the clean clothing off the line. It also is a perfect match for the sweet canvas that Meg and Shelby made us.

Our three laundry lines hang between the window in our guestroom and the window in our bedroom. It's nice to have so much private space for drying, but don't drop anything! There's not an easy way to access the shaft so if something is dropped, it's most likely gone for good! I've already lost a hand towel that was wrapped up in a larger towel and fell out when I hung the towel on the line. That taught me the importance of giving everything a big shake before hanging it out the window!

Because we use the ironing board more than usual due to a lack of dryer, it's nice to have a spot where we can just keep it out all the time. I've also been working on a couple of crafty items so it's been nice to be able to spread those things out in this room.  With the cute green shutters in place of a normal door, we can just swing the doors shut and keep the clutter hidden.

This is our bedroom (El Dormitorio Principal) looking in from the master bath. We found two bedside tables at a tiny little shop right down the street from our house. After using boxes as side tables for a couple of months, I was super excited when we finally found these tables. We also bought the "headboard" at a spot near our apartment. Although it's not a true headboard, it's nice to have something on the wall over the bead. Here you can also see the window to the shaft. Our clothesline runs between here and the window in the guest room.

Our bedroom looking into the closet and hallway.  We still need to find a chest or dresser to provide some additional clothing storage, but we got lucky with a spacious closet and have been able to make do so far.

This is our master bathroom. We have a nice, big shower and of course, we love the tile here too! Like many of the Spanish apartments, there isn't much in the way of storage. I bought the three baskets under the sink to store our toiletries, and the basket to the left of the shower is where we store our clean towels. (Looks like I need to do laundry.)

The toilet nook complete with window to keep you entertained while taking care of business. :) We bought the wire basket to the left of the toilet at El Rastro. I believe they said it was an old milk jar basket, but it also works great as toilet paper storage. The large window opens all the way, but it will also vent open just at the top, which helps keep the bathroom from steaming up when the shower is in use. 

There you have it...a little glimpse into our piso nuevo.  We can't wait to share our home and this great new city with all of our loved ones!

Baking in My Spanish Kitchen

With more time on my hands, I've found myself baking quite a bit, and though I haven't yet tried my hand at any traditional Spanish treats, American cookies, cupcakes and baked goods are quite the delicacy in Spain.  This works out well for me because I can bake them and fill our apartment with the enticing smells, and then send them off with Luke to work or share them with guests so that we don't have trays of cookies filling our kitchen.

There's a large department type store here in Madrid called El Corte Ingles.  They have everything from furniture to electronics to groceries.  They're huge and all over the city. A couple of weeks ago, Luke and I were walking through a section of one of the stores called "The Gourmet Experience," which also happens to have a small section of American items. When I saw Libby's canned pumpkin gleaming brightly on the shelf, I knew I had to have some for the upcoming Fall season. Nothing makes you want to bake more than cooler temperatures, changing leaves and the promise of spicy sweetness lofting from the oven. 

However, I didn't even make it until October before breaking into one of my cans of pumpkin.  This morning I got the urge to bake pumpkin bread, and I pretty quickly gave into it. I started with this recipe but adapted it along the way to work with what I had in the kitchen.

As baking around here always begins, I first Googled "350 Fahrenheit to Celsius" so that I would know where to set my Celsius speaking oven. (For future reference: The answer is 176.667 degrees. One of these days I will memorize that.) Then I gathered my ingredients:

Flour, Sunflower Oil (in place of veg. oil), Pepitas, Baking soda, Sugar, Pumpkin, 2 egg whites, Salt, Vanilla extract, Cinnamon, Pumpkin pie spice, Ground cloves (substituted for nutmeg.)

Upon gathering everything that I would need, I realized that, dang-it, my pumpkin seeds were still in the shell.  Now if I'm being honest, I realized they didn't look like I had expected when I grabbed them at the store earlier this morning, but also if I'm being honest, it didn't dawn on me until I was ready to start baking why they looked different. Ummm, duh.  Instead of heading out on a search for shelled pumpkin seeds, I decided to try and de-shell them myself. 

That didn't work. I couldn't properly crack the shell without also cracking the seed, and I wanted full pretty seeds, not slivers. I'd already mixed the batter together, so I couldn't just save it for another day, and I really didn't want to leave the batter on the counter while I ran around in search of the perfect pumpkin seeds.  (Literally, I would have had to run around. We don't have a car.) I opted for the alternative, said, "oh well", and figured the bread would still be good without the pepitas.

However, as I was mixing together my wet ingredients, I decided why not make a few other adjustments since I already had to forgo the seeds. So into my mixture of wet ingredients, I added 2 tablespoons of Chia seeds. My mom makes banana bread with Chia seeds, and I always love that little addition. I threw them into the mix hoping that they'd help keep the bread from being too dry since there isn't much oil in the recipe. 

With my mind now on banana nut bread, I remembered the walnuts and hazelnuts left over from a recipe I made last week. I chopped them up and added a 1/2 cup of nuts to the mix as well, about 1/4 cup of each. I folded the dry ingredients into the rest, and then poured into my greased loaf pan. Unfortunately, I haven't seen, though I haven't really looked, cooking spray here yet, so my pan was greased with good ole butter.

With my pan all ready to pop into my oven heated exactly to 176.667 Celsius, I made the impulse decision to top my bread with old-fashioned oats. I used a little less than 1/4 cup (approximately 3 Tablespoons) and pushed them into the batter just a bit. 

After the addition of the oats, I set the timer for 50 minutes and started cleaning up the kitchen while enjoying the amazing smells of cinnamon and pumpkin seeping from the oven. Of course, your finger is always the best way to really get those bowls clean.

I just pulled the hot pan from the oven, and while I can tell you with certainty that it smells delicious, I'll have to update you later on the taste.  I figure it will be the perfect finish to dinner tonight because along with pumpkin season comes the season of soup, and I'm making this.

Now I'm off to relish the nice cool weather as I walk to the gym for Body Pump. Gotta work off that tasty finger lickin'!

Reunited and It Feels So Good!

Houston, tenemos muebles! Our second shipment from the US finally arrived yesterday, and we have been reunited with all of our favorite furniture, decor and kitchen items! Can I get a Hallelujah, amen please!?!?! I still have a lot to do, but the piso already feels so much cozier now that it is filled with our things.

Unpacking the boxes and sorting through all of our things was pretty exciting and surprising. You have to remember that we packed everything up the first week of September 2011, so it's been in storage for nearly a whole year! By this point, we really couldn't remember what all we decided to bring with us and what we left at home in storage.  I had a few good laughs, a few "What were we thinking moments?" and lots of giddiness over things I was really glad that we packed! 

First, I packed at least three varieties of measuring cups. (I found even more after taking this picture!) Before we left, I did hear that it would be difficult to find measuring cups since Europe uses the metric system (everything is in grams, liters, etc!) as opposed to the cups and tablespoons that we're used to in the USA. However, I might have gone a little overboard.  I'm also planning on buying a food scale in the very near future so that I can figure out what 100 grams looks like! When you buy cereal or something in the grocery store, all the nutrition facts are listed per 100 grams although 100 grams isn't necessarily the serving size. It's taking some getting used to and a food scale will certainly help. It goes without saying that we will have no excuse for not knowing our portion sizes for the next 18 months!

Not one, not two, but three frisbees! Because, well, I just don't know why one or two wouldn't have been sufficient!

Two large containers full of pens, pencils, highlighters and at least two calculators. Unless you're a student in 8th grade algebra or senior calculus, who even uses a calculator anymore? Everything we'd ever need to calculate can be done right from our phones or laptops! And I'd be willing to bet that half the pens and markers stored in those containers don't even work!

One pull-up bar, two sets of 5 lb hand weights, one set of 8 lb hand weights, a set of interchangeable weights including four 7.5 lb weights and four 2.5 lb weights. Also, unpictured are tennis balls, a jump rope, two tennis rackets and two sets of golf clubs. Even on cold or rainy days when I don't want to walk to the gym, there will be no excuse for inactivity during the next 18 months!

We came to Spain where there is an abundance of fine, affordable wine and tasty sangria; yet, we brought only four wine glasses.  All stemless! I'll have to buy more before we can even have guests. (Oh, what a shame! I hate when I have a good excuse to buy something.)  It should be noted, however, that these Nantucket wine glasses that we bought on our honeymoon are above and beyond my favorite, so I was really glad to see them!

Although we didn't bring many wine glasses, we were sure to include our collection of corks that I'm sure we'll add to over the next 18 months. For some reason, these bring me great happiness (even after the wine is long gone!)

In addition to the things above that I thought were kind of funny and/or random, I unpacked a lot that I was so happy to see again. For example...

Our spools and brown glass bottles. I have a little bit of an obsession with these things and can't wait to find the perfect spot in our apartment for them (and also to add a few Spanish spools and bottles to our collection!)

Our trunk! So happy to see this beauty again, and it is currently serving double duty as a coffee table since we didn't pack ours and storage for the weights, tennis rackets, board games, etc mentioned above. 

Our beautiful stained glass from Nana and Garland! I can't wait to figure out a way to hang it.  We get such great sunlight through those windows all afternoon, so I know it will be so pretty hanging there!

Our wedding album and pictures including this one, which is one of my very favorites from the whole wedding! Love seeing these sweet, happy babies every time I'm in the living room!

I couldn't remember packing anything to hang on our walls, so I was pumped to see this drawing along with a couple of other things to hang. We won't have empty, white walls after all!

When we came to look at this apartment, the girl living here had two lanterns hanging from each of the balconies, and I thought it looked really cool but was sad because I was just certain that we didn't pack any of our lanterns. Well, guess what!?!?! Along with the one pictured, we also brought two additional ones that I am going to figure out how to hang from our balconies and hopefully put a plant or candle or something in them!

 And finally, our bed! Over the last 11 months, we've moved from our house to my parent's house, to an apartment in Dallas, back to my parent's, to a hotel in Spain and then for the last 2 weeks, we've been in this piso but on an air mattress.  While the air mattress far exceeded our comfort expectations, it was really nice to be in a big, fluffy bed again complete with the pretty feather blanket that we received as a going away gift from my family! (I've still got lots of work to do in our bedroom so please ignore the growing pile of give away items in the corner, and yes, that is a cardboard box covered by a sheet that is currently serving as my bedside table.)

It was really fun to unpack all of our things, and overall, I think we did a really good job.  Right now, I can't think of anything that I wish we'd really brought along, and though some of the things aren't really necessities, they may come in handy.  My theory for packing has always been to pack as much as you possibly can. Whether you're going for 18 hours, days or months, if you've got the space you should use it!  And we're really lucky in that we seem to have large closets and an abundance of storage space, which isn't always typical in a Spanish apartment. 

As I get rooms all organized, I plan to do little tours of them so our friends and family can picture where we are and get excited for their visits! Now I just need someone to start actually planning a trip so that I have motivation to clean up the guest room. It's currently serving as a catch-all for extra furniture, empty boxes, golf clubs, etc. Get on it, people!

Our First Weekend in the New Piso

Luke had to work both Saturday and Sunday (boo!) last weekend, but with the late nights that are typical of the Spanish lifestyle, we were still able to enjoy some time together.  Thursday night, we signed the contract for our new piso and the landlords showed us around our new neighborhood, pointing out some of their favorite spots, grocery store, etc.  It was so extremely nice and friendly! We are very lucky to have found this awesome place! After that, Luke and I celebrated with dinner at Boga Bar and an after dinner gin and tonic at a nearby piano bar. 

The remains of our arroz con bogavante, which is a rice and lobster dish. Messy but yummy!

Gin and tonic and live piano was a great night cap.

Spanish singer who dedicated a song to us. :)

On Friday, we finally started to move into our new piso! I brought a couple of bags over early on Friday and then hung around while the new couch and our first of two shipments from home were delivered.  When Luke got off on Friday evening, we met back at the hotel to grab the rest of our bags and head over to the new place together.  Although my sister, Meg, thinks I've had ample time :), our place is still a mess.  All of our furniture (except the couch that we bought over here) is coming in the second shipment sometime next week, and we have boxes and boxes of mostly clothes all over the place.

What were we thinking and where are we going to put all of this?!?!?

Looking out our balcony at Calle de Piamonte. 

Saturday morning, Luke headed to work, and I went to my new gym for the first time and ran a few errands.  For no particular reason, I had a kind of hard day on Saturday and was a little bit emotional, down in the dumps and frustrated by a few things. It's hard being in a new city that speaks a different language and does everything differently than you're used to! Anyway, we decided that what I needed was a laid back night at home.  So we made pizza and enjoyed it on the floor of our new dining room, started some laundry since we haven't done any since arriving nearly a month ago and made our first Spanish tortilla. It was just what the doctor ordered.

My new gym. Women only and extremely nice, including multiple hot tubs and sauna.

Pizza, olives and wine followed by dark chocolate. Perfection.

Our clothes line. So far so good. The worst part is going to be all the necessary ironing. :(

The amount of olive oil used in this was ridiculous. Luckily, it's super cheap over here.

On Sunday, we had breakfast together at a place called Mama Framboise before Luke headed to work, and I headed to El Rastro, which is a huge outdoor flea market that takes place every Sunday in Madrid.  There's a ton of junk and cheap clothing, and you have to be careful because it's known as a place for pick-pocketers to thrive.  But if you brave the crowds, hold tightly to your bag in front of your body and get past all the junky clothing and souvenirs, there are tons of antique shops and cool finds.  On Sunday, I found this awesome box, and I was quite proud of myself for negotiating the price in Spanish. Right now, I'm using it to store a few towels in the guest bathroom.

Love at first sight.

It doesn't hold all that many towels, but sometimes functionality has to be sacrificed.

I also had one more awesome find, but it's a surprise for Luke's birthday tonight so that will have to wait.  However, as I was carrying it around, several people tried to talk to me about it.  Although I couldn't understand half of what they said, I was able to try a little bit, and I had a really good experience.  One old lady nearly talked my ear off and was so friendly and endearing to me! It was exactly what I needed after a rough day on Saturday. When  Luke finished working on Sunday, we met at a nearby place for a drink before starting the week over again.  This floor of this bar was completely covered in sand!

Please ignore the crack in the upper right corner.

Once we get all settled in our new spot and everything, I hope to get on a regular blogging schedule.  There's so much that I want to share, and even though I'm not working, I'm running around like a crazy person all day trying to gather things for our new place, prepare for Luke's birthday, etc.  Everything takes so much longer over here. You can't just run to Wal-Mart, fill your cart and be done, and  I don't have a car so I can't buy too much at one time.  I'm trying to remind myself that it will take a little bit of time, but eventually, this place will feel like our home (at least if I have anything to do with it. :))

Now that I've gotten myself fully caffeinated, I'm off to finish a few more errands for Luke's birthday. Happy 28th to the sweetest husband, bestest friend, and forever my King of Spain. 

So handsome in his new suits, and I'm so proud of what a good, hard worker he is!