finally found the place live

After asking many people at several bars near the station Avda de la Paz....someone with a GPS on his cell phone finally directed me to the street santolinos....sigh...it is not on google map because it is a really really small streets with only four houses...but at least I found it. Given the complexity of the metro system....I think I will probably call a cab tomorrow for moving my luggages there....

This morning, an agent from the U.S. embassy briefed us on the safety issues in Spain. I wonder when Spaniards go to U.S., whether or not they would receive a similar safety briefing....... Anyway....under his encouragement, I registered myself with the U.S. state department and will try my hardest not to lose my passport. Sigh...even though I think Madrid is probably equally safe or even safer than Wuhan, when I was on the metro, I noticed that being Asian definitely attracts attention! Ah.....now I know how foreigners feel when they go to China. But probably after a few days, I will get use to the stares and looks...but sigh...I don't think I can ever really blend in...unless maybe I dye my hair and wear giant sun glasses...which I will probably never do....faint...........

I was planning on opening a bank account, but then the bank actually closes at 2:30PM....so I think I will open one tomorrow then. I also bought a copy of El Pais on my way back, it costs 1:10 euros=$1.60 cents, hmm...kind of like th NY Times...though NY Times used to be $1.00, but then it increased the price to $1.25...faint..........

I also found a supermarket around the place where I will be living, and after looking around in it, I came to sad realization that it maybe a long long long time before I can ever have any Chinese food...or the kind of U.S. food I like....faint...............

Ah...I just realized I wrote a blog full of complaints...but there were definitely good things that happened today, like the person who was willing to go the extra mile of looking up the street for me, the house I saw was beautiful, it is a small two-story house full of plants and flowers around it, the neighborhood there seemed nice...there seemed to be a lot of people in the science field walking around this neighborhood...I dunno, it just many people there were carrying bags that could contain laptops in them...kind of remind me of people walking around MIT. Right next to the neighborhood is a big Krafts company...no wonder I can see cereals around here.

Right now, I just woke up from a nap..the dinner is in an hour...I just had another cafe con leche and a pastry that has cheese and ham in the inside....when I asked them about the pastry..she only mentioned queso but not jamon....but it's okay, I still liked it :) Another thing I found unusual is that we actually leave our plates on the table as oppose to bring them to the counter..and we can pay for them whenver....

I am excited about finally meeting my landlords tomorrow...hopefully they will like the mooncakes.