Arrival and Orientation

Before making my way across the Atlantic, I was fortunate enough to stop in Dallas to become a godfather to my cousin’s twins, Marissa and Nicolas. (I wish I could take credit for the name but we share a common namesake, my grandmother.) I share the distinction with my mother and sister. Two days later, my mother, sister, and her fiancé accompanied me to DFW International Airport for the long haul across the pond to Madrid’s technicolor Barajas International Airport.

My first few days in Madrid were a flurry of activity. The Fulbright Commission hosted the 2008-2009 grantees for several days of orientation activities at a university residence in the Gaztumbide neighborhood of the Chamberí district. In total, the number of grantees stands at 94 with roughly three quarters of that sum representing English teaching assistants based in Madrid, Cantabria and Valencia. Research grantees represented programs and disciplines as far afield as music performance, business, education, immigration, literature, and journalism. The cohort of historians, however, was by far the largest. In addition to the usual orientation sessions, the Commission organized a reception at the Instituto Internacional with members of the governing board and representatives from the U.S. Embassy, including Chargé d’Affaires Arnold Chacon. The opportunity to meet other grantees and exchange information regarding their projects and personal agendas for the coming year was perhaps the most rewarding aspect of the entire experience. As a whole, the group demonstrated a strong degree of camaraderie. Indeed, I have strong reason to believe that a couch surfing network will materialize thanks to the leadership of several fellow grantees.

During orientation, a group of us spent an afternoon in the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, named after the sitting queen consort, Sofía de Grecia. Home to a collection of works dating from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, by artists like Salvador Dalí and Joan Miro, the Reina Sofía is perhaps best known as the controversial repository of Pablo Picasso’s much promoted Guernica shown here. Painted to commemorate the bombing of small Basque town by the German Condor Legion at the start of the Spanish Civil War, repeated calls for the showing of the work in the Basque Country have been denied.

It had been more than five years since I was last in the Reina Sofía. A building expansion by French architect Jean Nouvel offered something completely new and also a source of consternation for anyone desiring that staircases lead towards logical destinations (you’ll just have to see for yourself). In the photo, pay special attention to the reflection of the street below on the roof awning overlooking the Atocha train station. It’s impossible to tell, but the awning is actually bright red. The facade of the former monastery which houses the museum's main collection is visible to the left.

Friday marked the end of orientation. I have since moved into a room managed by Mary Paz, the host mother in whose home I spent roughly four weeks last summer, in the eastern area of Chamberí. Between her two apartments in the same building there will be six students (including myself) beginning next Tuesday. The dinner table in the downstairs apartment is now full of people in addition to the usual spread of food that I remember from last year.