Bellydance Superstars!

A few years ago in Paris, I heard this amazing voice coming out of a Middle Eastern shop, so I went in and asked who the singer was. The guy showed me a CD named Bellydance Superstars, and he told me the particular singer was Warda, a French-Algerian & Lebanese (?) singer whose songs are often used in traditional bellydance music. So I was psyched to see that BellyDance Superstars was coming to Madrid. On Monday, we went to the show at Teatro Gran Via, a small, old theatre not far from our home. The show is in the States now, so if you like this kind of music, we highly recommend going. Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCVNp1uEeLQ!

Some photos from Chincon and Segovia

Just Follow the Green Line!

On November 17, we are going to a Middle Eastern show called Bellydance Superstars. I actually have one of their audio cd´s, so I was psyched to have the opportunity to see them in person. Anyway, because the bank denied our credit card application (that´s another story), we cannot buy anything on line. This meant I had to go to El Corte Ingles, Spain´s largest dept store chain, in person to buy the tickets. If you have never been to Spain, imagine a large store like Macy´s in NYC or SFO, and then spread it out over a few city blocks, add a huge supermarket, bookstore, travel agency and hair salon, and you get ECI. All I knew was that I had to go to customer service first. I was 5th in line, except the line went horizontally across the front of the counter. In other words, there weer 4 people ahead of me, but I was the only one in a line. Does that make any sense? So another lady arrived and asked if I was waiting. I said yes, but I jst need to know where to go buy tickets for a show. She told me not here. So I asked out loud to no one in particular where do I go? They all replied in stereo piso bajo (1 floor down). So I walked my way to the nearest stairs and went down. I may have been on the correct floor, but I still didn´t have a clue. So I stopped and asked another employee. No matter how clearly you speak Spanish, the people here always reply with a loud EH? as if you are stupid & incomprehensible. Then you explain the situation in exactly the same words, and they say Vale, Vale (OK,OK) as if your Spanish improved dramatically in the 10 seconds it took to repeat yourself. So the woman tells me to go left and right and left and right again when I see the discos dept (not as in disco dancing, but as in cd's & dvd's), just follow the green line. Well, the only green line I know is the metro line 5 which runs no where near this store. But I had to ask, "Linea verde del metro?" You can imagine how loud the EH? was that time. "No señor, el linea verde en el piso!" (No sir, the green line on the floor!" Oh, ok like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. I said that to myself but she still said EH? Anyway, I made the left, right & left, but couldn´t find the discos dept, so I had to stop AGAIN & ask. I got to the discos section and voila, there was the green tape on the floor! So I started to follow it. Unfortunately, after about 3 minutes, the tape split (a fork in the tape?!), and there wasn´t a scarecrow to help me out. So I turned left (it just felt right). Then the tape split again, but this time, there were words in a green box telling you which way to turn. How cool is that? I kept walking along the green tape til I came to another box with words, except there was a group of people standing on it discussing who-knows-what. I had to wait til they moved to read the floor. They did, and on I went. After another 5 minutes, I came to the final split, took a left, and ended up at the janitor´s closet! Man, was I pissed! So then I had to back track til I found the correct green line. I had taken the wrong turn at the last split, so it only took a minute. Needless to say, I found the ticket booth, and we will be sitting center stage for the show!

Taking a Bite Out of Crime

On Friday, Oct 31, the Chinchon duo (Anna & Donna) invited my parents and us to join them for some Halloween tapas & dinner at the Galician restuarant (anyone who visits will be taken there). Going from the tapas place to the restuarant, the group of 8 somehow got spread out walking down the narrow streets south of Plaza del Sol. I stepped aside to let a woman flanked by 2 men pass me and watched (not surprisingly) as the trio approached my parents from behind in an attempt to pickpocket/purse snatch 1 or both of them. Unfortunately for them, my years of walking alone through the far more dangerous streets of St. Louis & Miami at night, not to mention 9 years teaching in ghetto high schools, suddenly turned the perpetrators into victims themselves...Was the chick ever surprised (along with my parents, Ingrid and the rest of the group) when I ran up to the woman (who had already unzipped my mother´s purse that she was holding between her and my dad), grabbed her by the arm, swung her around (total deer-n-the headlights expression) and starting screaming profanities at her in English, Spanish, & Italian (too bad she spoke a Slavic language!) and threatened to hurt her and her 2 boyfriends, one of whom started yelling "Crazy, you Crazy!" and starting running away. I said, "I´ll show you crazy when I catch you" followed by more expletives. By this point, I was running after them, also looking for a cop, and the other 7 realized that my parents had been very close to being robbed. Fortunately, the woman had only opened the purse, and nothing was missing. They trio took off down an alley, and since nothing had been taken, I quit chasing them. Lesson learned - don´t let people get too close behind you!