Land of the Dolls

Kate and I meet Mercedes (pronounced Merthedes in the accent de España), a very nice lady who starts speaking to us immediately en español. For some reason, I had assumed I would know an acceptable amount of Spanish by the time I got to Spain. I don't know why I thought this, seeing as I had not practiced (Spanish life lesson 2: at least attempt to learn a language before you live in that country). Communication looks grim. We introduce ourselves and Kate becomes Katarina. We walk a short distance from the beautiful Plaza de San Pablo to Merthedes' apartment on the fifth floor and walk into a room rife with trinkets. 

Trinks on trinks

The apartment is very compact but comfortable. I take the room that's primarily blue (my hue of choice) and Kate takes the pink one. However, as we step into Katarina's room, we see that it is full of dolls. Dolls on the floor, dolls on the shelves, dolls on the walls.

A small sampling of the room

Merthedes gives us a meal at 4 which I think is an early dinner but is actually only lunch. It is a mix of good and weird foods (more on the meats to come) and I have a newfound appreciation for watermelon (Spanish life lesson 3: better to be queasy than rude). Katarina dumps her salad on my plate when Merthedes is out of the room. We meet her daughter, Reyes, another very nice lady about 35 who is married and does not live with Merthedes. A tv is always on with a mix of news and celebrity gossip, heavy on the latter. We make limited conversation about Enrique Iglesias ("Muy guapo," Reyes speculates). Katarina and I go to sleep for three hours, and awaken to explore the city. First, Merthedes takes us to our school, which is only about a block and a half away. Next, Kate and I go on our own to the beach on the river. We discover how to deal with the typical zippy traffic (Spanish life lesson 4: get out of the way unless you want to die because drivers will not wait for you). We explore a bit more and Katarina brings us safely home. We eat dinner with delicious papas fritas and an odd pink--I don't understand how it was so pink but still clearly cooked--mystery meat patty, and then we sleep.