What a busy month! After attending the mid-year conference, reconnecting with other grantees, and several weeks of really unproductive research mixed in with disdain for the newest addition to my apartment (I'll call him "Hector"), I decided to take the plunge and move to Madrid. Although I've only been here since Tuesday, I am already so glad that I made this change as it has made me much happier both personally and professionally. It was a little sad and overwhelming to leave Santiago and move once again for the uncertain--though, to be sure, moving to Madrid was much more certain than moving to Santiago because I already know a lot of people. I've been staying with my friend Mary, another researcher, who showed me around the area, took me to the library where we both have to do research, and even accompanied me to Ikea to buy some things for my new room (and then helped me move all of my junk). At least twice a day, I found myself saying, "Really, you don't have to do this for me/with me! Well, okay..." I ended up moving in to a room only a few blocks away from her apartment--it was the first place I saw, which I know that you usually aren't supposed to take, but I really like the area, the rent was just right (of course, it is at least 200 euros more expensive than Santiago), I didn't have to buy any kitchen items, and, best of all, there's a maid who cleans the bathrooms, hallway, and kitchen once a week. I also have my own little balcony and a street view, which makes me pretty happy. I'm not quite sure who else lives here--they're all young women, a mix of students and professionals, mostly international--but I have met a nice Canadian college student who lives in the room next to me and assured me that it's a pretty quiet place to live. For my last two-and-a-half months (I can't believe that I only have two-and-a-half months left in Spain!), I wanted a congenial living environment but not one where I'd feel like I have to make friends with the people I live with if I don't want to--i.e. my own space, and I think/hope I have that in this apartment. Gosh, re-reading that last sentence I really sound like I've been scarred by my previous Spanish living arrangements.
On to Hector...so, from my last entry, you may have been able to gauge that the latest addition to the apartment back in Santiago was pretty much a dimwit. Or he had a very spoiled upbringing. Mind you, I'm no Julia Child or Heloise, but before I left home for the first time someone in my family made sure that I knew how to take care of myself. I didn't know how to cook, but I had the incentive to pour myself a bowl of Cap'n Crunch if I didn't feel like walking all of the way to D-Hall (or, in the more likely scenario, to drive to Chipotle). When Hector first arrived in the apartment in late February, Ana and I shared our meals with him because we often cooked together on weekends. I had generally managed to avoid contact with Hector due to my insane travel schedule, but the night before I left for the US for grad school visits, he approached me in the living room, where I was dutifully wasting time on Facebook, and asked if I was planning on cooking anything for dinner. I didn't have any plans to make a "real dinner," as I was leaving for the US early the next morning, so I told him that, no, I was just going to eat some cereal. He mumbled, "Oh, ok," then went back to his room. He emerged a few minutes later with a look of desperation on his face and protested, "I will go to the store if you cook for me!!!"
"No, Hector, I won't cook for you. I'm going to eat some cereal."
"Please!!!"
"I won't make dinner for you, but if you go to the store and buy the things I tell you to buy, I will teach you how to make stir fry. This means that you have to help me cook and watch every step." I felt kind of condescending, but, really, Hector is a toolbag.
He agreed rather enthusiastically and went back to his room. As I expected he would, he came back a few minutes later and made up an excuse about how he had class in just an hour and didn't have time to go to the store, after all. I sat back with a smirk on my face and ate my cereal as Hector watched movies in his room, skipping class as he so often does.
Last Sunday, I realized that I didn't have anything to eat and made the trek across town to the overpriced convenience store. As I put my groceries away and started reading, Hector came into the living room and asked me where the Open Cor was. I gave him directions and continued reading and watching TV for a few hours. After some time had passed, I began to make my dinner. About halfway through the meal preparations, Hector came in to the kitchen, clearly begging for food, and started what became a very awkward conversation with me (because we both knew that the conversation was just a pretense to a request for food). About a minute into our conversation, he asked me how much the food cost and offered to pay me half if I would share. I refused, much to his consternation, so he started begging more intently, offering to cook for me tomorrow in addition to paying me--he insisted that he would have gone to the store but it was Sunday and everything was closed (FYI, Open Cor doesn't close anytime before midnight, plus I had given him directions). Eggs with hot dog slices aren't really my style, so I refused his offer and then launched into an explanation of how I thought it was pretty pathetic that he chose to sit inside all day watching movies instead of going out to eat or buying groceries for himself; furthermore, I thought it pathetic and sexist that he relies on women to do everything for him and find it astonishing that he would rather starve than do something for himself. He went back to his room to sulk as I contentedly ate my chicken.
Hector really wasn't a pitiable character. Ana also thought that he was pretty lame, but she more often than not fed him in exchange for the opportunity to boss him around, which was probably similar to the maternal relationship he was used to having with women. So, in sum, Hector was a "push" factor; things were pretty uncomfortable both after the food incident and after I heard him having rather loud phone sex with his girlfriend (she doesn't speak any Spanish, so the conversation was in English) AND after seeing him scam on anything of the female sex in clubs despite his clearly close relationship with his phone sex partner/girlfriend.
That's all for now...all of this food talk has inspired me to go to the supermarket (all by myself).
