A most excellent weekend

Relevant facts about our weekend

1) It was 70 degrees and sunny here in Madrid (sorry, East Coast followers).

2) My parents are w/o phone or power on said East Coast. Anyone in Glastonbury who wants to stop in to check up on them would be much appreciated.

3) Our weekend was highlighted by a visit to our friends in Aranjuez. Like us, they are mathematics educators of the common-sense variety. They are also excellent cooks and have endeavored to teach us about Spanish cuisine. Here's lunch:

- Sharp Manchego cheese

- Even sharper Manchego cheese soaked (somehow) in olive oil and rosemary. Yum.

- Good ham.

- Even better ham.

- A chicken-and-rice dish that seemed to be the cousin of Paella. Yum.

- For the kids, pasta spiked with chorizo. Because everything is better with Chorizo. Everything. (Even chick peas, which was on the menu last night in the Starhill household and which, remarkably, our kids ate).

During lunch, Miguel and Nuria also apprised us of the nuances of Spanish life: why the Estados Unidos is E.E. U.U. when abbreviated (plurals are indicated in abbreviations by doubling the letter); the Spanish environmental movement (short answer: not really a big movement here, the Spanish tend not to worry too much about such things); the use of the reflexive form of the past tense of various verbs (for Jon; Heather is just happy to conjugate correctly in the present tense). Nuria also corrected Jon’s upcoming talk (in Spanish) to the faculty of the Complutense.

Another pleasure of the visit was that the day was conducted completely in Spanish. Fabulous for our vocabulary and self-confidence. Pictures to follow.

4) On Sunday morning, we went to the Rastro market. Apparently, the Rastro is the largest open-air market in Europe, taking up at least 16 square city blocks. Yesterday, owing to nice weather and the time change in Europe, it was packed to the gills. We successfully got a hat for Heather and light gloves for the kids, then fled.

But meanwhile, guess who we randomly ran into while in a small Chino (convenience store) in the Rastro? Let’s recall that we really only know three families in Madrid: Miguel and Nuria, my cousin Mary and her husband Manolo (who probably wouldn’t chance the Rastro with two 3-year-olds), and the British family downstairs. Who are out of town. If you guessed Miguel and Nuria, you guessed correctly. Our next JRME paper will be titled “The probability of running into practically the only family we know in a city of 6 million while at a market packed to the gills with thousands of Madrileños.”

5) Other bits from our weekend:

Math wars, home edition: Got in a screaming argument with Nora Saturday AM to the tune of:

Mommie: “Nora, memorize your multiplication facts. You’re doing division this week in school, and you need to know your facts.”

Nora: “No way. I can figure any multiplication fact out if I need to. Like 7 x 8 is like 14 x 4 which is like 28 x 2. Which is like (counting on fingers) 56.”

Mommie: “There’s no counting fingers in this family. Go to your room and memorize your 7’s table.”

Nora: (Sulking). “OK. But I don’t need to. I can always figure it out.“

The irony of this situation would be lost on my 31-year-old, reform-math-loving self.

Pokemon: Our children traveled all the way to Madrid to become addicted to Pokemon. Go figure. Although it does appear to be a good cold-weather activity for the older ones.

Nathan’s nose: Yes, it is broken. However, it has shrunk to its normal, adorable size, and the doctor thinks it’s on track to heal within a month.

Seth & bunnies: So Seth and I like to go running while Jon and the big kids are out at swim lessons (the kids, not Jon—he’s doing laps). One night we rounded the corner and came upon two rabbits peacefully eating grass in a park. The rabbits in parks here look suspiciously like they were once household pets – rather than gray, they come in white, black, spotted and so on. Seth’s comment, after adorably holding up two fingers to indicate that there were two creatures: “We buy those rabbits.”