I hope you had a good end of the year and that 2006 has new plans for you, that is, only if you want them.Mariama and I have been learning to live with each other, which sometimes is funny and other times a total nerve breaking. Since I always tell you how much we love each other, I also want to tell you how hard can also be, because as some of our friends would say, that is the real shit! (Isn’t farzin)?
La Buhardilla
We are living in what is called a Buhardilla, in English an Attic. A 30 sq m space, that has only enough space for a small bedroom, one living/eating area, a tiny toilet and even tinyer kitchen. The roof is perpendicular, so in one side of the Buhardilla you can stand and the other you can ONLY be horizontal, if you know what I mean? Only three small windonws, the one in this photo is from the kitchen where you can see the roof of our neighbours, and from where we spy on them!.
Living in a small place is not easy, you are always bumping into your doors, your walls, the papers, or the glasses, and so we have broken some precious things around the house. I guess this helps us to learn to let go precious things, but most important, it also helps us to learn to love new coming things. Life in Spain has been nothing but that, learning to love the new coming things, even when they are little. Life is loud here! Very loud, we lived in the middle of the gay town where there are plenty bars for gay and heterosexual people. Sometime that is fun, others is a pain in the neck, because you get all the curious man wanted to see the “lesbians” on the street. But doesn't matter what time it is, there is always something open for a "copa" or for a dance, and that is very helpfull for new arrivals!
Gay and lesbian Scene
Although Spain has gain gay marriage, and by law we cannot be discriminated,
the education part of it, is coming much slowly as it happens everywhere. In the city is relative safe to be gay, although you have to live constantly through the curious eyes of people, who probably still wondered how “we do it”. Outside of Madrid is another story and is the same as being in a suburb outside of Newtown or Erskinville, where you are looked at as if they want to kill you or at least hit you. But I guess this is no news for all of you, so I won’t bore you with more details in this matter.
People in general are friendly here, and we are slowly encountering interesting people, mostly through out the courses and seminars we are constanstly doing. We are also meeting these old type of lesbians, who have the real history of the place and the gay movement, and that it is very interesting for us. They are, in a way, our “godmothers” in Madrid and little by little we are getting to be know in the scene.
Cosmopolitan Madrid
Like in Australia, Madrid is a very cosmopolitan city, but migrants or "extranjeros" as they call us here, are invisible in almost all main aspects of Spanish culture, the way of living, work environments, television and public events. People of colours do most of the cleaning jobs, and in the radio you can hardly listen to another accent, except than Spanish. They conceive the participation of migrants as one of assimilation, written and supported even in the most progressive organization. They speak about interculturalism, because they could not even considerer multiculturalism as a reality. The main objectives of projects with the community is to help “extranjeros” to assimilate to Spanish rules, culture and laws, because “they are now in a new country and they must assimilate to this rules, which have been constructed for many years in the history of Spain”.
In the mean time, we are looking for the migrants, and we discovered two towns call Lavapies and Latina, which have a lot of similarities with Liverpool, and Marrickville including the stigma of their residents who live there, and where there are “social problems” according to the government and others. The same shit as in Australia, racism against Marroquis and Africans, to name a few. There is an organization in this area call OJO COJO, and they do similar work as in Liverpool Migrant Resource Center, I have already contacted them and we'll see if we can do something with them. We may move to these areas in the future.
Working in Madrid
Working here is another interesting thing; to start with, the wages are miserable. Even more ridiculous when they require from you to speak more than three languages, and at least to have a masters if you don't have a PhD. Even to work as a volunteer is a big deal here, since you have to compete with the many unemployed people in Spain who want to do volunteer work, you must go through a special selection process and they take their time to respond to you. We are lucky to speak English and other toungs. For Christmas we were looking for some casual work and UNICEF was looking for people to stuck Christmas cards in an envelope, for which they were asking the candidates to have experience in the UN!!! Can you believe it? The sad part of it is that if you tell a Spaniard how ridicules this it is, they have a justification for it, so their self-esteem is on the ground when it comes to jobs. However, we still looking for the right place to work, and of course everyone think that we are crazy. I think this is just like any part of the world, where there is no good jobs for migrants, so you have to ignore that and even be a bit arrogant till you find what you want. However, I would not mind sticking Christmas cards in an envelope, but I have not reach jet the level of the UN. What a pitty!
Consumerism in Madrid
The level of consumerism is as high as in all the countries we have live in: Australia, Chile, Holland, and Frances. This is a global problem and does not change at all here. I remembered when I was in Australia and I used to miss on things from Chile, like the lollies, a particular tea, and type of cloth or furniture. Well, I have to say that we don’t miss anything from Australia, except for the beaches. Even IKEA is here, and the day I went I though for the two hours I was there, that I was in Moore Park. The same candle lights, the same spoons, the same furniture, even the same set up of the shop. And the list continuous, big stores like El Corte Ingles, which could be David Jones, or the same Burger King, MacDonald’s, Starbork, and even the same big shopping centres like Westfield. Thanks goddesses for the small business, which we have in our little suburb, and the local shoemakers, and bread shops! But in general it is very difficult to escape to the noise of the consumerism that exist in Australia, or elsewhere.
Education in Madrid
Education is a bit different here; the universities are poorer, less resources, lots of bricks, little grass, and a lot of political activities. The teachers are excellent, you get to see and have real people, who have been in the field and that have been writing for long time before they come to the lecturer room. When I compared this with my Latina American class mates, they reckon that they could be better, so you can see that my point of reference in Australia is not the best, because for me these lecturers are the best I have ever had in my 10 years of University.
The Night Life in Madrid!
One of the best things in Madrid, is the nightlife, and in general, life!!! There are many seminars on anything, you name it! Courses for 30 or 60 euros, and many for free. You can read El País, and read an article from Mario Vargas Llosa, or Galeano, it is not surprise. The other day I bought two books of GG Marquez for 3 euros. And they also have books in English, or the translation of English writers into Spanish.
Well, but I think I have deviated from the intention from this message, which was to tell you how hard could be to live in a relationship. However, with all this in our plate we don’t have much time to argue, and what gets most in the way are our own insecurities.
The good thing about it is that when you declare your insecurities, than we can work with it, and try to do our best. We know that only time will tell, whether this decision was wrong or not, for now, we still very strong and contain about being here. Australia was a good training ground before coming here, and in a way we feel we know what is coming next! Is a estrange feeling, but racism has the same face everywhere and after Australia all we can think, is that in a way being here is like starting again to give our thoughts some clarity and see if this time we can do something better than what we done in oz.
Happy 2006! La Menche-
La Buhardilla
We are living in what is called a Buhardilla, in English an Attic. A 30 sq m space, that has only enough space for a small bedroom, one living/eating area, a tiny toilet and even tinyer kitchen. The roof is perpendicular, so in one side of the Buhardilla you can stand and the other you can ONLY be horizontal, if you know what I mean? Only three small windonws, the one in this photo is from the kitchen where you can see the roof of our neighbours, and from where we spy on them!.
Living in a small place is not easy, you are always bumping into your doors, your walls, the papers, or the glasses, and so we have broken some precious things around the house. I guess this helps us to learn to let go precious things, but most important, it also helps us to learn to love new coming things. Life in Spain has been nothing but that, learning to love the new coming things, even when they are little. Life is loud here! Very loud, we lived in the middle of the gay town where there are plenty bars for gay and heterosexual people. Sometime that is fun, others is a pain in the neck, because you get all the curious man wanted to see the “lesbians” on the street. But doesn't matter what time it is, there is always something open for a "copa" or for a dance, and that is very helpfull for new arrivals! Gay and lesbian Scene
Although Spain has gain gay marriage, and by law we cannot be discriminated,
the education part of it, is coming much slowly as it happens everywhere. In the city is relative safe to be gay, although you have to live constantly through the curious eyes of people, who probably still wondered how “we do it”. Outside of Madrid is another story and is the same as being in a suburb outside of Newtown or Erskinville, where you are looked at as if they want to kill you or at least hit you. But I guess this is no news for all of you, so I won’t bore you with more details in this matter.People in general are friendly here, and we are slowly encountering interesting people, mostly through out the courses and seminars we are constanstly doing. We are also meeting these old type of lesbians, who have the real history of the place and the gay movement, and that it is very interesting for us. They are, in a way, our “godmothers” in Madrid and little by little we are getting to be know in the scene.
Cosmopolitan Madrid
Like in Australia, Madrid is a very cosmopolitan city, but migrants or "extranjeros" as they call us here, are invisible in almost all main aspects of Spanish culture, the way of living, work environments, television and public events. People of colours do most of the cleaning jobs, and in the radio you can hardly listen to another accent, except than Spanish. They conceive the participation of migrants as one of assimilation, written and supported even in the most progressive organization. They speak about interculturalism, because they could not even considerer multiculturalism as a reality. The main objectives of projects with the community is to help “extranjeros” to assimilate to Spanish rules, culture and laws, because “they are now in a new country and they must assimilate to this rules, which have been constructed for many years in the history of Spain”.
In the mean time, we are looking for the migrants, and we discovered two towns call Lavapies and Latina, which have a lot of similarities with Liverpool, and Marrickville including the stigma of their residents who live there, and where there are “social problems” according to the government and others. The same shit as in Australia, racism against Marroquis and Africans, to name a few. There is an organization in this area call OJO COJO, and they do similar work as in Liverpool Migrant Resource Center, I have already contacted them and we'll see if we can do something with them. We may move to these areas in the future.
Working in Madrid
Working here is another interesting thing; to start with, the wages are miserable. Even more ridiculous when they require from you to speak more than three languages, and at least to have a masters if you don't have a PhD. Even to work as a volunteer is a big deal here, since you have to compete with the many unemployed people in Spain who want to do volunteer work, you must go through a special selection process and they take their time to respond to you. We are lucky to speak English and other toungs. For Christmas we were looking for some casual work and UNICEF was looking for people to stuck Christmas cards in an envelope, for which they were asking the candidates to have experience in the UN!!! Can you believe it? The sad part of it is that if you tell a Spaniard how ridicules this it is, they have a justification for it, so their self-esteem is on the ground when it comes to jobs. However, we still looking for the right place to work, and of course everyone think that we are crazy. I think this is just like any part of the world, where there is no good jobs for migrants, so you have to ignore that and even be a bit arrogant till you find what you want. However, I would not mind sticking Christmas cards in an envelope, but I have not reach jet the level of the UN. What a pitty!
Consumerism in Madrid
The level of consumerism is as high as in all the countries we have live in: Australia, Chile, Holland, and Frances. This is a global problem and does not change at all here. I remembered when I was in Australia and I used to miss on things from Chile, like the lollies, a particular tea, and type of cloth or furniture. Well, I have to say that we don’t miss anything from Australia, except for the beaches. Even IKEA is here, and the day I went I though for the two hours I was there, that I was in Moore Park. The same candle lights, the same spoons, the same furniture, even the same set up of the shop. And the list continuous, big stores like El Corte Ingles, which could be David Jones, or the same Burger King, MacDonald’s, Starbork, and even the same big shopping centres like Westfield. Thanks goddesses for the small business, which we have in our little suburb, and the local shoemakers, and bread shops! But in general it is very difficult to escape to the noise of the consumerism that exist in Australia, or elsewhere.
Education in Madrid
Education is a bit different here; the universities are poorer, less resources, lots of bricks, little grass, and a lot of political activities. The teachers are excellent, you get to see and have real people, who have been in the field and that have been writing for long time before they come to the lecturer room. When I compared this with my Latina American class mates, they reckon that they could be better, so you can see that my point of reference in Australia is not the best, because for me these lecturers are the best I have ever had in my 10 years of University.
The Night Life in Madrid!
One of the best things in Madrid, is the nightlife, and in general, life!!! There are many seminars on anything, you name it! Courses for 30 or 60 euros, and many for free. You can read El País, and read an article from Mario Vargas Llosa, or Galeano, it is not surprise. The other day I bought two books of GG Marquez for 3 euros. And they also have books in English, or the translation of English writers into Spanish.
Well, but I think I have deviated from the intention from this message, which was to tell you how hard could be to live in a relationship. However, with all this in our plate we don’t have much time to argue, and what gets most in the way are our own insecurities.
The good thing about it is that when you declare your insecurities, than we can work with it, and try to do our best. We know that only time will tell, whether this decision was wrong or not, for now, we still very strong and contain about being here. Australia was a good training ground before coming here, and in a way we feel we know what is coming next! Is a estrange feeling, but racism has the same face everywhere and after Australia all we can think, is that in a way being here is like starting again to give our thoughts some clarity and see if this time we can do something better than what we done in oz.
Happy 2006! La Menche-
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