The Stitch Up

Work hard play hard...or I guess just work hard

I am currently working some very crazy hours and though I love to keep busy, it is leaving precious little time to stitch in the evenings.  I am fitting in an hour or two of embroidery a night and hoping to present a finished Spanish quilt square soon and sketch up my next quilt square pattern.  I've also get a TON of other project going on but sadly as they are gifts - I can't share them until the recipients have seen them.  No peaking!

Even though the hours are crazy on this project, I'm working at a building that is beautiful and relaxing.  It's on a man made lake with a nice walking trail (prefect for grabbing some lunch time exercise) and has some pretty waterfalls and coy ponds that help me relax a bit when the hours start to add up.

 

 
 

But I think the best part of this building is that it houses the restaurant where the Hubby and I had our little wedding just four short years ago.  In fact, we have a couple of wedding photos posed right in front of the waterfall.  

So every day that I go to work I am surrounded by sweet memories of one of the happiest days of my life.  Not a bad way to spend the day actually.

 

Brrrrr! Baby It's Cold Outside!

It looks like I've already flaked a bit on my New Years resolution to blog more. I started on a new project about three weeks ago and it's been keeping me busy. On the plus side, it involves reviewing documents in Spanish and I'm enjoying the opportunity to use what I learned in Madrid back here in DC. On the down side it requires some long hours and working 6 days a week often (although the pace is quite a bit better than other projects I've been on). In any case I'm usually at the bus stop at 7 am to get across DC to Tenleytown by 8 and after leaving work at 7 pm, I usually don't hit the door to my place until about 8pm. It makes for a long day and since I'm usually inside staring at a computer the whole time, I haven't felt that I have a lot to blog about. But this week we had some snow and ice and it prettied up what is usually my somewhat dreary commute. 

First, before the sun was out I took a couple of shots of the snow falling at my bus stop: 

 

This is what things looked like about 20 minutes later at the metro:

 

And about 40 minutes later near the office where I'm working:

 

Starting to pile up nicely huh?  Sadly it did not last much longer than the next day when most of it melted.  I enjoyed the snow and the nice little blast of winter but the panic the weather induces in the local DC populace is always a little annoying.  In most cases all the federal agencies will close down if there is even a hint of snow so it can make the commute nice because there are about half the number of people who usually ride the train.  On those days (like this week) however, when the snow does not start early enough, the feds don't close and everyone crowds on the train as they are too freaked out to drive on the highways.  This is understandable as DC is full of people who come from states and countries that don't get snow and they have no idea how to drive in it.  This naturally causes the stupidest accidents that involve a crazy number of cars.  I think we all came through relatively unscathed and so far there are no more storms on the horizon.

I have Sunday off and I'm trying to finish a couple of embroidery projects.  Hopefully, I can get back into a somewhat regular schedule soon and blog about more than my commute!  Until then!

New Year, New Blog

My New Year's Resolution is to blog more.  A LOT more.  To encourage more blogging I spent a little time updating the old blog.  I have a new name:  The Stitch Up.  Since the blog is not primarily about Spain anymore I figured I'd change the name although the link with the old name, "stitching spain", will remain the same.  I've got a banner that's winter inspired - I took the pic last January on our trip to Berlin - and the plan is to change it up seasonally or as the mood hits me.  So much work right?  But my readers are worth it.  And by "my readers" I basically mean you, mom!  Holla!

December was hectic and a little nerve racking honestly.  All of our furniture, clothes, knick knacks and whatsits were delivered a couple of days before Christmas.  As the hubby is traveling I had to unpack alone - which wasn't terrible, just a little time consuming and tricky.  Tricky because our new place is a little small and finding the space to unpack required a certain amount of architectural genius (if I do say so myself) of stacking other boxes on top of each other until I could plow through to a closet and shove everything in there.  The place looks good now as long as you don't open any closets, drawers or cupboards.

The New Year was also a little crazy as kitty got sick a few days before January 1st and we had to make a few trips to the vet.  She's doing well now but has to take some medication for the next couple of weeks which we're struggling with - literally.  She was too weak to fight back the first day or two but as she's feeling better, shoving a pill down her throat gets tougher and tougher.

(This is kitty in healthier times).  She's getting better every day but she's lost quite a bit of weight so I'm trying to fatten her up.  Poor gato - I think she is looking forward to a new start in 2009 as well.

I start a new job this next week and I'm excited to be back home and getting in the swing of things.  2009 is off to a good start and I'm anxious to see what else is coming our way!

Oh yes it's Ladies Night and the Feelin's Right...

Last week I met up with some of the ladies I've met at the European Professional Womens Association. It was a nice chance to talk to a few of the women I've met before in a smaller group and to meet a few new people. We decided to do drinks and dinner (and then drinks again - this is Spain after all, you can't just go home after dinner!) at a couple of places that were new to me. So in addition to some great networking I also was able to try out some nice new places in Madrid.

First up was the bar in the Hotel de Las Letras. This is a very cool and hip boutique hotel and it's bar was also stylish. Here are a couple pics from their web site of the hotel and the bar:

We all enjoyed it.

I think the hotel is pretty popular with tourists. There were a couple of girls who were meeting up with this group for the first time and had asked over email how they would know us. We said "Oh, don't worry, we'll be the group over in the corner speaking English!" Turns out pretty much everyone in the hotel bar that night was speaking English, but she spotted us anyhow!

After drinks it was off to La Finca de Susana - a restaurant not far off of Gran Via.

One of the girls told me that this restaurant is part of a chain of 4 or 5 around Madrid that are staffed by cooking school students. I'm not sure whether that's accurate, BUT the prices at La Finca de Susana are really low. Generally when the Hubby and I go out to eat here in Madrid we pay around 40 euro each for dinner. (don't even convert it into dollars - it's too painful). And that 40 euros may or may not include appetizers, dessert or a bottle of wine. At La Finca we all had appetizers, a main course, dessert and a bottle of wine and each paid a little under 15 euros. Remarkable in this town! The food is good, but I think hit and miss. Some dishes were fantastic (the tempura vegetables for instance), some were not much better than what you could get at the local cervezaria (shrimp in garlic sauce), and some were just "fine" (my chicken in roquefurt sauce). We had a great time and I think I might drag hubby to try out some of the other restaurants in this chain. (Actually another friend and I HAVE tried another of the restaurants in this chain - Bazaar. It's in the Chueca district and I actually thought the food was better - a little more interesting and consistent. But the prices were equally reasonable.) Here are a couple shots of us enjoying the cheap food:

After dinner we walked around a little looking for a place to relax, talk and have some cava (Spanish sparkling wine). We stopped into a bar that looked very mod but I can not for the life of me remember it's name. I was feeling pretty wild being out at 11:30 at night on a Thursday and even wilder as we sat, sipped cava and chatted about everything from work to travel until 1 am. But this being Spain, that bar was basically empty until about 1 am. As we left, the party crowd in Spain began to arrive and I'm sure they did not wind up until 5 am. While I enjoy getting into the food, culture and general spirit of Spain - those kind of late nights are something I'm pretty sure I'll never get used to. But - that means I don't have to fight for space at the bar at midnight! Cheers!

School Daze

It's been awhile since I taught a class full time. I've presented seminars for professionals, I did updates on 4th amendment law for police officers often while I was doing public entity law, but generally those seminars were an hour or two, I gave them only once in a while and I was speaking to motivated, focused professionals. Several years, and a move to Spain later, and I'm teaching two regular college courses on International Business Law. One a Masters class, the other an undergraduate course.

Now, I don't want to sound ungrateful. I needed a paying job and preferably one with some ties to my profession. Although I'm also working in a law firm here in Madrid it's only part time and I needed some additional work to keep me going. So teaching about law when I'm not in the law office seems like a pretty good gig. But it's proving to be a challenge on a couple of levels: 1) trying to make the material interesting and accessible to the students and 2) trying not to throw books at the occasional undergrad who thinks the classroom is his chance to try out for "Last Comic Standing".

My Masters class is pretty cool. It's small, only 8 students and half of those students are professional adults, so the vibe is very different. Plus I think only two of my students are from the US. The others are from Spain, Bosnia and Nigeria. So you can imagine how interesting it is to discuss International Law with people who are living a lot of these issues on a daily basis. I'm learning a lot in that class and it gives me a glimpse into why people choose academia as a profession.

My undergrad class on the otherhand, well....most of the kids are VERY prepared and great students. Despite the fact that sometimes the material is a bit dry (and the fact that I'm new at the whole professor gig) they participate in classroom discussions and seem to understand more than just the facts, but how these legal principles impact their current lives and their future lives as businessmen and women. Its the one or two kids in the class however that still think they're in High School and desperately in need of attention that are slowly killing me. Yesterday I asked a student to brief a Products Liability case which involved the company Johnson & Johnson as a defendant. After this girl briefed the case very well one of the "attention seekers" exclaimed, "did she just say Johnson & Johnson", "like, is the defendant's name Johnson"??? I stared at him for a moment while I contemplated the fact that my life really had come to this, I was actually getting paid to sit in a room with an 18 year old who still got the giggles from hearing the word Johnson because, Johnson = penis. I explained to the kid that he wouldn't have to know how to spell Johnson & Johnson on the exam and moved on, but seriously? Penis jokes? So while I'm happy to be employed, and finding some enjoyment out of teaching, some of the day to day of it is wearing me out. On the bright side, it has motivated me to send out another round of resumes. We'll see how this semester plays out and I'll decide in December whether to take another crack at the whippersnappers for the Spring semester.

On the bright side, it's fall t.v. time. When I'm not preparing the next lesson plan I've managed to catch the first episode of America's Next Top Model - which was AWESOME!! Only on ANTM will an autistic girl with a hunch back believe she can actually appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Go Tyra!

Fall

That's not Spain I'm afraid. It's Virginia in the good ol' US of A. It's a shot of the Belle Haven Marina near Alexandria. I took sailing lessons there two summers ago and thought this was a nice photo to say goodbye to summer with.

I started my jobs this week. I'm teaching International Business Law at two American universities here in Madrid. It seemed like a total boondoggle to me at first - get paid to work 5 hours a week? Yes, please! Of course, between preparing lesson plans, setting up the class web page and the countless administrative tasks you have to do in the first weeks of school - I'm working significantly more than 5 hours a week. Add that on to the hours I'm working at the law firm - and my weeks are pretty freaking busy now. But - it's good. The kids in my classes are a lot more focused than I expected from a bunch of american kids on vacation in Madrid. But truthfully, many of the students are Spanish or from other countries and the American kids who are planning careers in international business are viewing this experience as a stepping stone to their future rather than a chance to chug Sangria non-stop for a year. Although I think a fair amount of that goes on as well.

Surprisingly there's a little bit of a chill in the air in the mornings in Madrid right now. I had to wake up bright and early to get down to the Social Security office (the paperwork that goes along with working in a foreign country is NOT fun) and I almost needed a sweater. Give it an hour or two of course and it'll be plenty warm, but it's a nice indication that fall is on the way - even in a sunny country like Spain. I will miss Virginia at this time of year. The Hubby and I really enjoyed ourselves during Fall in Virginia. There are so many great National parks to hike and with all the trees turning colors - it's fantastic. It was great to feel the seasons really change and break out your sweaters in September and drink hot cider without sweating. Sadly - here in Madrid, we're going to have to drink chilled cider I think. But of course - how can we complain? We can definitely get a decent apple tart here and can travel up north if we can't make it through fall without seeing some leaves change color. All in all I think it will be a good fall and a nice end to our first year in Madrid. With so many changes and new opportunities this first year - I'm anxious to see what year two will bring!

Networking - Book Club Style

I had my monthly (actually we haven't been quite a monthly book club, but we're trying) book club meeting yesterday. With the summer months and vacations starting there were only a few of us that made it to the meeting. Which meant that we were able to quickly discuss the book and then get down to a good old fashioned jaw session. A couple of us had been struggling to find meaningful work while here in Spain. It can be difficult. The majority of Spanish companies need you to speak Spanish fluently (of course) and are also just a bit reluctant to hire a foreigner, who may only be around for a few years, for a position they can give to a local. (again - of course). There is also a pretty decent unemployment rate in Spain which makes the whole job search issue even more difficult and in MY case, add in the need to obtain a license to practice law in Spain - which is virtually impossible to get within the amount of time that I'll be in Madrid.

Enter D - a great girl, mother of four and fellow book club member. We were discussing the problems with finding a job in Spain at a book club meeting 4 or 5 months ago (it's a popular subject) when she casually mentioned that she's teaching at the Madrid campus of an American university and would be happy to pass our resumes on to her department head and find out if they have any positions open that might work for us. Several months later, two of our book club group (myself included) have been hired on by the university for positions that are interesting, fulfilling and look great on a resume. More than I could have hoped for! (Shortly after this, I was talking to another book club member about looking for a volunteer opportunity in a local Spanish law firm to help me learn Spanish legal terminology and the Spanish legal system. This member introduced me to the partner of the firm where I'm volunteering now. So I guess book club actually got me 2 jobs!)

So yesterday at book club we were discussing how surprising it was to be "networking" in a fun environment. When I moved to DC from California I did a lot of the awkward, cold-calling type of networking and while it was helpful for my job search, and I managed to meet some great people, it was always uncomfortable. Hanging out with a group of women that I like and having fun hardly seemed like a way to find a job - but it turns out that it works amazingly well. My lifestyle really changed my first 6 months in Madrid. I was no longer working crazy hours at a law firm and had time to do things like join a book club, go to cooking class and join a group of fellow crafters. In DC I thought that not only did I not have TIME for these hobbies, but because I should be focused on my career I should be using my free time to attend DC bar meetings, alumni mixers, or any type of function that might help me in my career. It's been eye opening to realize that sometimes your work life and social life can actually be compatible and networking doesn't have to be a painful, awkward experience - sometimes it can be fun.

Some of the ladies and I still go to traditional networking functions here in Madrid - such as mixers with professional women's groups. But I'm finding that I get a lot more enjoyment from these outings and, instead of thinking of networking as a necessary evil, I take the opportunity to get to know great women with similar interests who are all just trying to figure out the work life/social life balance as well. I think I owe my new perspective all to book club.

By the way, our book club choice for this next month is "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris. We wanted a fun, light read for the summer, plus he has some essays in the book about trying to learn French and live and communicate in France that we thought we might all relate to. It's a very funny book - I recommend it.