Foreigner in Home City

Three days ago, I moved to Madrid after six years in Dublin. As I navigate through this confusing roller coaster of feeling a foreigner in my home city, I come shockingly aware of what I love from both cities.

What I knew I'd miss

Madrid  

• family (duh!)
• weather (double duh! - I'm writing this from a terrace and it's 28ºC)
• the taste (and size) of tomatoes

Dublin

• friends (you know who you are)
• everything being walking distance from everything else
• Irish politeness
• Irish accent

What I wouldn't have thought I'd miss

Madrid

• visible signs with street names (I know which street I am in!)
• pedestrians walking with bread on one hand and  the newspaper on the other
• the smell of coffee and toast every morning on the streets

Dublin

• looking right when crossing a street (it's a matter of life or death that I adapt!)
• Penney's (where will I buy cheap tights?)
• not getting weird looks when you pay €3 by card

I'll have more to add to the list as I learn to live in this new place which is now my home.

Horizontal Rain

I'm yet to find a question more difficult to answer than "what's the weather like in Dublin?"

Have no fear, this post is not about the weather - phew! - it is, rather, about the effects of the ever-changing weather of this, my adopted city. And it's a true story. Happened to me only yesterday, as a matter of fact. Shamefully (for reasons you'll soon discover) I have witnesses who can back my story.

It was Friday night and I was getting ready to make the best first impression. (You know what they say "you only have one opportunity to make a first impression".) I did invest some time and effort in applying my makeup. In fact, I did put a lot of it (time and effort, not make up) spending more than 35 minutes on extending the base throughout my face, skillfully drawing an immaculate line on each of my eyes, layering mascara on my eyelashes, turning my lips bright red... Long story short, by the end of it, I was both exhausted and - I'll say it myself, cause no one else will - gorgeous :)

So what happened? Dublin weather happened: horizontal rain, umbrella-destroying winds...

Fortunately enough, I got to the place before who I was meeting and ran straight to the toilets to assess the damages. Needless to say that the reflection that greeted me in the mirror had little to do with the one I had happily said goodbye to at home. And it wasn't a pretty one. No. It was more like a "wet-dog-meets-panda" kind of look. With all that soaking hair over my face and smeared eyeshadow all around my eyes...

I guess (and totally understand) that the first impression I caused was that of pity rather than anything else, because we may all love dogs and adore pandas, but the cute irresistible ones in YouTube.