Finding Goya in Madrid

One of the true joys of living in Spain is the opportunity to see some of the world’s greatest works of art in their original settings. On a day like today, Francisco de Goya, one of Spain's greatest painters, was born. Most tourists who come to Spain, visit El Prado Museum where you can find a whole section dedicated to Goya, but few decide to trace his footsteps through Madrid.
Every time I go to Madrid, I try to find something I haven't visited before. So on this trip I decided to find Goya in other places besides El Prado.

I took a train to Principe Pio Station and walked down an avenue called Paseo de la Florida. There on the right were two identical chapels or hermitages called "Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida" (Royal Chapel of St. Anthony of la Florida). Goya's tomb is inside one of them, now a museum. This hermitage not only houses Goya's remains, but one of his least known masterpieces. The dome and ceiling are painted with his frescoes sometimes referred to as "Goya's Sistine Chapel".

I was surprised to see that there were very few tourists, eventhough the admission was free. They were probably all standing in line at El Prado.


Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida & Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen

Don’t Cast a Clout ‘till May is Out

The English saying: "Don't cast a clout till May is out" means do not take off your winter coat untill the May flowers are out. In the past people in autumn sewed themselves into their heavy winter underwear and wore it until the following spring when the flowers appeared on the May bushes (Yuck!)
Well, there is a similar Spanish proverb that says: "Hasta el cuarenta de mayo, no te quites el sayo", which means "Until the 40th of may, don't take your coat off". Last week we went straight from winter weather to summer weather, no spring weather in between. Yesterday was the beginning of spring, but it snowed, back to the winter weather, showing that the people who invented the proverb were right, you can’t bet on non-stop good weather in Spain until June.

The rain in Spain stays mainly NOT in the plain

I’m sure most of us remember Professor Higgins teaching Eliza Doolittle the lyrics: "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain". Of course it was a language exercise for Eliza to learn how to pronounce correctly, but do the lyrics hold true? Certainly not. I can assure you that the rain in Spain stays mainly NOT in the plain. I happen to live in the plain and it hardly rains here. As a matter of fact, Spain has faced its driest winter ever recorded. Is it because of climate change? Probably… As a result, Spain is in the grip of facing its worst drought this summer. As water reserves start to shrink, "Water Wars" (Cities or whole regions import water from other areas in Spain) from past years will soon unfold again. This week we have gone straight from winter to summer, no spring weather in between and it makes me wonder when will the water cuts begin?

11 M - Never forget

Today is the eighth anniversary of Madrid's train bombings. On that day, 191 innocent commuters were killed and 1858 injured when 10 bombs were detonated on four trains at three train stations: Atocha, El Pozo and  Santa Eugenia during morning rush hour. Why? Nobody knows, another terrorist act of cowardice. Just the thought of it, still gives me the chills.

Atocha Station

Call it coincidence, but I have to travel to Madrid around this time of the year. I have to go through the three train stations that were bombed on my route. I happened to be in Madrid a couple of days before the attack in 2004 and on this date the "what if's" start running around my head. To this day, I haven't been able to visit or look at the permanent monuments to the victims. As I prepare to ride the train one more time, I can't help feel numb and wonder, "What if it happens again?"

Out with the old, in with the new?

Continuing with the subject of education, there is another thing that I don't understand about this country. Every time there is a change of government, the education system gets changed. How smart is that? Since I've been here, I think there have been 4 education policies: (LOE, LOCE, LOPEG, LOGSE) and there were a couple before that. The majority of parents don't have a clue what education system their child is studying under. And the teachers pretend they do, at least on paper, but then you go into their classrooms and the majority of them still teach like in the 1900s.

Do all these changes help improve students performance? Certainly not. Now that Rajoy's government is in power, the education system will once again be changed to a new one. Why? because that is Spain's philosophy: they don't like second-hand anything. (Remember that in one of my posts I said there were no second-hand shops, although now you can see that a few have sprung up due to the crisis.)

But is it so new? At the beginning of this month, future teachers complained that the topics for the test to get a position in the public education system had been changed last minute to topics from 1993. Why would the government change them at the last minute? It boils down to money. The less people know when they show up to the test, the few will pass the exams. Castilla la Mancha has already suspended their tests and next up in line will be Andalucia. Spain keeps thinking that cuts in education will make the system better and it's the opposite what needs to be done. They need to invest in the future generations. Is that too difficult to understand?

Carnaval, a bizarre Spanish festival

In all the years I've been living here, this is probably the festival I like the least. Carnaval is a difficult thing to describe. The best I can come up with is a mixture of a weird Halloween and a blah Mardi Gras. Why? because it usually takes place during the cold winter months. Watching people parade without the excitement of Brazilian Carnaval in the cold is not my idea of a good time.
To mark the end of Carnaval, on Ash Wednesday (today) there is a strange parade called Burial of the Sardine (Entierro de la Sardina). People dress in black as mourners and walk behind a huge paper mache fish wailing and crying. Then depending on the city, they throw it in the sea or burn it. There are several stories as to the origin of this parade, but in a nutshell it has to do with what goes on in Lent (fasting and abstinence) winning over the carnal desires.
What is hard to understand and Spaniards aren't able to justify is why schools are on vacation due to this festival, some up to a week. Things that make you go hmm...

Saint Valentine in Madrid?

St. Valentine’s is a very popular day for friends and lovers around the world. When I was a little girl, I remember writing Valentine cards for all my school mates, placing them in a brown bag and taking them to school to exchange on a day like today. However, this scenario doesn’t repeat itself here in Spain. St. Valentine's day is not a traditional Spanish celebration and most people don’t really celebrate it (there are no Hallmark card shops anywhere). It is noticed only by incurable romantics and superstores wanting to make a buck.

I’m sure you know the story of Saint Valentine (or should I say Valentines since there were several) and for those that don’t, a quick look on Internet will probably do the work. But what most people don’t know, including Spaniards and this is curious since Spain is a country that is renowned for its affection and devotion to saints, is that Saint Valentine’s last resting place is in Madrid. Of course there are other cities that claim St. Valentine's relics and it makes sense since there were so many of them. "The patron saint of lovers" is not found in any of the beautiful and romantic places around the city. On the contrary, his bones are on display in a small, hidden church in the Chueca neighborhood (Hortaleza Street 63) called "Royal Church and Pious School of San Anton" (Saint Anthony) in a small glass urn. Not very romantic, huh?