Catherine Denton: Week 7, Madrid

Rutina: Costumbre o hábito adquirido de hacer las cosas de forma mecánica y sin razonar.

One of the leading Spanish dictionaries describes a routine as a mechanical habit that often lacks reason. And that’s precisely why I avoid routine—with 3 months in a city as diverse as Madrid, settling into a “routine” is dangerous and waste of an incredible opportunity.

I try to make sure no two days look the same, but I can give you an idea of what I’m doing this week. It should give a comprehensive perspective of my life here.

7:45 AM, Calle del Arenal 100 meters away from the Operá Metro stop:

The only thing that’s superior to a Calle del Arenal morning is a Calle de Arenal evening. Although the morning lacks the street music and the sound of “la gente,” in the morning the sun peeks through the curtains of my giant walkout window, making visible the tropical Spanish travel posters I have pinned to my sunset yellow walls. Welcome to my room. I live on one of the liveliest streets in Madrid, Calle del Arenal meters from the el Teatro Real, one of Europe’s most famous Opera houses. My first month I lived in another apartment that was in a nice area near Salamanca, but it was far too quiet. The apartment on Calle del Arenal provided the perfect remedy—every time I opened my window, it was a sensory experience with the sounds of the street, the view of the stunning Spanish architecture, and the feel of the “aire libre.” I quickly get ready and head to the Metro.

A view in the morning from my window

9:30 AM, Av. Llano Castellano, Grupo Cortefiel

I would say one of my most “routine” like practices at work is my relationship with our inexpensive espresso machines. When I arrive, I usually head straight to the machine and about 15 minutes later, I return for a second cup. My desk is part of a cluster of four. Our cluster, and the cluster adjacent to us, makes up the heart of international “franquicias.” Each of my coworkers is assigned a region—MENA (Middle East, North Africa), Asia, South America, etc.—and is responsible for coordinating logistics with the franchisees there and analyzing sales by season and year. It’s always interesting to listen to my coworkers on the phone with the franchisees. Alberto quickly switches to speaking near-perfect English when he hears another non-English speaker on the line, and Oaxanna often speaks in Russian.  I’ve been doing a lot of work for Naomi (Asia and some of Eastern Europe). Dozens of pivot tables and spreadsheets later, I have almost finished my report analyzing the Spring Summer 2014 sales and the 2013 v 2014 sales evolution in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. This project has taken almost a week, and it’s gratifying to hear “muy bien” once I finally finish it. She promises to give me an even more complicated report the next day.

franquicias internacionales (aka my cluster!)

1:10 PM, el comedor de Grupo Cortefiel

Right around 1 PM, most of my office heads down to the cafeteria for lunch. I try to sit with a different group of coworkers every couple of days in an effort to get to know more of my office of 60 in a building of almost 1000 . Today I’m sitting with another girl from franquicias and a guy from visual merchandising. One is from San Sebastian and the other Barcelona. We chat about my past weekend in Barcelona, including Gaudi’s architecture and the beach nightlife. After about 45 minutes of lunch, I usually say “hasta luego” to most of my coworkers as they go to smoke.

5 PM, Calle de Límon

After work, I head to the apartment of friend and classmate, Elias. Elias is a 26-year-old renewable energies engineer from Lebanon. Fluent in Arabic, English, and French, Elias is eager to better his español. Elias and I met in a class I took my first month here. It was a Spanish class 3 hours a week at an academy in the area. The class had recently ended, and we both realized that a more intensive class would be more beneficial. Our solution came in the form of Javier, a teacher at one of the academies in the area. Javier was the brother of one of my friends/conversation partners. When I was talking with his brother Miguel about my class situation, he immediately recommended Javier as a potential solution. Since we were taking private lesson outside of the academy and I was a friend of his brother’s, the price per hour was much lower than such lessons inside the academy—it actually was cheaper than a 5-8 person group class for the same duration. We started class, and I knew immediately I liked his style as he engaged us with dialogue and challenged us with new vocabulary. 2 hours later, the class concluded. We all said “hasta mañana,” considering we would be seeing each other the following day—class was 2 hours a day, Monday-Thursday.

10:10 PM, some sports bar near Puerta del Sol

I meet up with one of my conversation partners, Jhonny, to watch the US Belgium game. I never thought I’d be rooting for my home country in 2^nd rounds rather than my current country of residence. But that’s a great example of what I’ve learned about being here—have very few expectations. Mostly because 9 times out of 10, you’re wrong. Reality is far better than those initial expectations.

Playing with my conversation partner's hedgehog!

Just another gorgeous night in Madrid