La Almudena

My ability to speak Spanish hasn’t really improved that much without anyone to consistently converse with, but I’m able to understand others more and more each day. For the most part, Spaniards speak too fast for me. I can’t translate a phrase in my head fast enough to hear the next sentence. I find that I still have to just nod and say “Si,” or hope to pick out a word I know.

But I found a nerdy way to improve my Spanish. I went into El Corte Ingles (equivalent to Macy’s, but larger) and picked up a copy of Harry Potter and Sorcerer’s Stone in Spanish. I’ve been reading about a chapter each day, and it has really improved my vocabulary. Me encanta Harry Potter.

I still haven’t really made friends yet (besides Harry, Ron, and Hermione…), so Ultimate Frisbee seemed like the natural choice to connect with people.

I heard about an open practice for the Ultimate team here in Madrid, Los Quixotes. Finally, a way to connect to some Spaniards that I can excel at. The practice field, La Almudena, was quite far from my hostel, about 5 km away, but with nothing else to do but explore, I decided to hoof it. I left about 4 hours before the practice was supposed to start, expecting that I would want to stop for lunch, or that I would get lost. And boy, was I right. Wandering around northwest Madrid, I discovered many beautiful parks, statues, and buildings. Good thing I brought my camera!

At one point, I walked over a mile the wrong direction, and had to turn around and find my way back to a familiar metro stop.

Already exhausted from my trek to La Almudena (a beautiful name for a field, in my opinion), I arrived at the site 15 minutes before the practice was scheduled to start. La Almudena is anything but beautiful. There is no entrance, only a section of fence that was pulled back by the youthful scoundrels that littered the area with shattered booze bottles, cigarette cartons, and empty spray-paint canisters. The walls surrounding the field were covered in colorful graffiti.

I was alone. Perhaps everyone would arrive late, like any Frisbee player would in the U.S. Without anyone to throw with, I did what any ultimate player would do; practice my pulls.

Nope. 30 minutes after the scheduled time and still no one showed up. I was kind of relieved, to be honest, because the field itself was in awful condition. Shattered glass shards were scattered across the field, which consisted of dirt and the occasional weed. No grass anywhere. I quickly realized that it wasn’t a field at all, but a flat ANT HILL! Black and red ants were everywhere, crawling out of large sinkholes that covered the field like pores on some infected creature.

Even though I didn’t get to play Ultimate, I was still exhausted by the time I got back to my hostel. After napping for a few hours, I was ready for La Noche en Blanco.