The life and times of Oscar Marcos Perez-Cytron. Born Thanksgiving Day 11/22/01.
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If you want to add something to Oscar's baby-blog, send an email to megan@alpha60.com and we can set it up so you can post...
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Saturday, November 27, 2004
3:19 PM posted by Oscar
It's Saturday--the weekend--this has a new meaning for us these days. Back in DC, the work week went right into the weekend without much difference. We worked a bit every day and slacked a bit every day, too.
Every Saturday David, Christian's cousin, comes over in the morning and we do a little "intercambio" where he practices English and we get to ask him questions about Spanish. He knows so much about Spanish history and language--more than anyone else I've met here. Much more than I know about the US and English... But then again, I studied Europe more than the US.
He gave Oscar a little book with magnets (imanes in Spanish--such a strange word!). He's on the potty playing with it right now. He's got a cold again.
I ran into our landlord and neighbor and his dad in the hall this morning when I was coming back from the rope store (another story). Our neighbor's father is a doctor (as is our neighbor). He was the dean of the medical school in Havana for almost 40 years. He told me that he thinks Oscar has a problem with his adenoids and that's why he keeps getting sick. He recommended that we put saline drops in his nose several times a day and that we'll probably have to have his adenoids out when he gets older. It's amazing that he could tell so much just by seeing him a few times in passing. He strikes me as one of those really gifted old-school doctors who seems more like a psychic... just by paying attention to a few little details they can know exactly what is going on physically with a person. I guess when you've seen it all a hundred times, you can rely on your instincts.
The rope store... Our neighborhood has hundreds of little shops that have no equivalent in the US. Today I wanted to buy a cheap little rug/mat made out of banana leaves to put under our dining room table.
So I went to the alpargateria--which is really a store that makes alpargatas (espadrilles). They also sell every kind of rope and fiber and things made from rope and fiber (hence the banana mat). The place was packed with people. The first thing you do when you get in the door is ask "quien es el ultimo?" (Who is last?). Someone responds (or, if not, then you have to try to keep asking until you find the tourist who doesn't know what the question means). Then when the next person comes in, you are the "ultimo" and have to let them know. So while to the untrained eye (or American perspective), it looks like chaos, there is quite an orderly system of waiting your turn that does not require you to stay put in a line or in one spot. You can roam around and look at things and when you see the person ahead of you getting served, then you know you're next. Every little shop or market stall functions this way.
In any event, I waited and waited and waited... German women bought espadrilles. A Spanish couple bought a tremendous quanitity of raffia in 20+ colors. A guy ordered a custom rug made of sisal (picking up in a week). Two ladies from Andalucia bought a woven rug made of some type of fire-resistent fiber for in front of the hearth. And a whole bunch of Catalan people bought various lengths and colors of leather shoelaces for making necklaces. Another guy was buying a piece of cloth to cover his terrace, then saw the leather shoelaces and bought a couple of meters of that, too. I bought our little mat and carried it home and put it under the table. Why was I writing all this?
Thursday, November 25, 2004
6:05 PM posted by Oscar
Just to give a sense of how far away we are, I completely forgot that today was Thanksgiving. A Korean girl in my class asked me if we were going to celebrate our "fiesta nacional" and that's when I remembered.
Which is not to say that we haven't had a good day. I went to school in the morning, as did Oscar. Today was the "mercado de otoño" (fall market) and he came back with a bag full of nuts and fruit. According to Oscar, he ate figs (higos), bellotas (some kind of acorn), chestnuts (castañas), hazelnuts (avellanas) and mandarine oranges (mandarinas). For the first time, I took him back to school in the afternoon, so that he could go to the "castañeda"--some kind of chestnut related party. I'm not exactly sure what they did... but when I went to pick him up, he came out wearing a little crown with a chestnut drawing on it.
We went to celebrate whatever it was all about by going to Delic for juice and tea. The waitress gave Oscar some colored pencils and we hung out for a while drawing and listening to Cuban music and inhaling second hand smoke. Then we walked around Plaza de la Paja and the little enclosed garden next door, kicking piles of leaves. The leaves are just starting to fall here in Madrid. Out where my school is in Moncloa it's colder. They started a couple of weeks ago. Not as colorful as DC, just yellow and brown--but equally nostalgia inducing. In the garden there are little strawberry plants, a "madroño" (strawberry tree--a symbol of Madrid), a pomegranate tree, almond trees...
The fall weather here is really different. It gets almost down to freezing at night and then warm and sunny and up into the sixties during the day.
Last night Christian and I went to see Lost in La Mancha, a documentary about the making of a Terry Gilliam film based on Don Quixote. The film was beset by one problem after another and never ended up getting made. The same happened to Orson Welles when he tried to make Don Quixote, so they say there is a curse. There's an incredible scene where a storm comes and there is a flash flood that carries all of the film equipment away. And then the star of the film, who has to sit on a horse all day, comes down with a sudden prostate infection when he is getting on the plane to come to Spain to film the movie...
Monday, November 22, 2004
11:49 PM posted by Oscar
Oscar's Third Birthday
A happy, happy day. Christian and Oscar both wore themselves out and are in bed. Today we gave Oscar the rest of his presents: an easel with one side for paper and a chalk board on the other. He loved it and said "It is my favorite present--I'm an artist now, like Joan Miro." He drew and drew for hours. Spirals and lines and snakes and rain and feet.
He really does have a special knack for recognizing art. I think he has the Cytron photographic memory gene. He already knows the difference between Goya (La Maja), Velasquez (Las Meninas), Miro, Picasso, Calder, Lichtenstein, Warhol, and Frida Kahlo. I bought him a book on Picasso and a general art book a while back and he studies it while doing his business...
Other presents: more legos, a little horse on a stick (to go with his cowboy music that mom sent). We had so much fun playing with the lego house--lego toilet, lego shower, lego sink, lego flowers, lego stove, lego pot, lego beds, lego cat, lego table, lego chairs, lego drawers, lego wheelbarrow...
He went to school and collected leaves on the "patio" (the outdoor area where the kids play) for the "Mercado de Otoño" (the fall market). Christian spent a few hours at school making baskets with the other moms and gossiping. This Friday the 3 and 4 year olds are going to stage a market where the older kids have stands that "sell" nuts and fruits and the little kids go around with their little baskets "buying" what they need. Just like what the adults do next door at Mercado de la Cebada, except the vendors will be wearing chestnut and berry costumes.
Next week, they'll have a birthday party at school for Oscar. He'll get to wear a crown and be king for the day.
Sunday, November 21, 2004
11:27 PM posted by Oscar
Oscar on the eve of his third birthday:
"I'm a happy boy, 'cause I'm a big boy. I'm not a baby anymore."
We started the celebration today, since we'll all be in school most of the day tomorrow. Oscar woke up early and opened half of his presents: a Lego set with two trucks and two small tubes of legos for making animals. He loves his legos and has been going crazy making all sorts of animals, monsters and constructions. Tomorrow he's going to get another Lego set for making houses (I'm particularly excited about this one--it even has a lego toilet!). He also got a few more bits of track for his train and some "Spiderman big boy pants underwear." And Polar Express from Mom. And a poem written by Lala that he already knows by heart (I'll have to post it here tomorrow).
He played with his new toys all morning and ate grits for breakfast (or the closest thing to them in Madrid). Then we went to Principe Pio (a train station with a big, new, American-style mall and stadium seating movie theater). Very much reminds me of Union Station in DC.
We went to see a movie, Los Increibles (The Incredibles), another Pixar movie. It was WAY too violent, in my opinion. And Oscar agreed. He told me afterwards that it wasn't as good as Finding Nemo. I think it's sad that they market a movie like that to small kids, but make it as violent and light on plot as any regular Hollywood smash-em-up movie, so that it will appeal to adults. Beautiful, but trashy.
We came home and went to Plaza de la Paja to pick up Oscar's birthday "cake" at Delic. Oscar asked to go to the "jardin"--a tiny little walled in garden at the bottom of the plaza. He loves to run around it and dance under the gazebo. We ran into our (unbelievably nice) landlords who live next door, Alex and Esther. She is almost four months pregnant. They are so sweet with Oscar. They invited us for "huevos rotos" at Taberna de Almendro, but we had to turn them down. Oscar was ready for his siesta.
He woke up and we got his "birthday cake" ready--really three little tarts: wild berry, pistachio, and apple raisin. We sang Happy Birthday, wore homemade hats and he blew out his three little candles. A happy, happy day.
Tomorrow: more presents, more fun...
Sunday, November 07, 2004
2:24 AM posted by Oscar
  
Some photos of Oscar in a toga. He loves playing dress up these days. It's a nice laid back sunny Sunday. There's a funky marching band playing outside outside our window. The Rastro (big flea market every Sunday) is going on down the street. Christian is out practicing with a piano player. He has a gig later this week. He'll be home soon and we'll go out to lunch. This morning we had churros y chocolate at the cafe downstairs. A old Spanish guy talked to Oscar and gave him a little flashlight for his upcoming birthday. The man spoke French perfectly. He lived in France for forty years. It's funny, because I can still understand French really well, but when I try to speak it, all that comes out is Spanish. The man lived in Tours. The same town where I studied. I'm sure we'll see him around--maybe I'll practice with him.
It's amazing just how warm and sweet people can be with kids here...
Yesterday I was frankly a bit hung over from a little get-together that was meant to be a "Kerry Celebration" but, as we now know, was something else entirely. After an unbelievably long and recuperative nap, we went for a very nice walk. We walked over to Las Vistillas to watch the sun set and look for the snow on the mountains (Sierra Guadarrama), which are visible from Madrid. We walked across the viaduct to the Palacio and Almudena cathedral. The church was open, so we went inside. It's huge, but very ordinary on the outside. The inside is another story. There are beautiful and colorful decorative paintings on the ceiling and an unbelievably quantity of carvings, sculptures, castings, and other decorations. Almudena is one of (the many) patron saints of Madrid and her day is this Tuesday, so we all have school off. We watched an amazing couple dance tango in front of the palace. While we were watching, the man standing next to me told me that Oscar was so beautiful and that he has a good heart, just like Saint Frances (igual que San Francisco) and that if he complained or cried that it was for physical reasons, not because he had any badness inside of him. Very odd--and strangely relevant--given our recent trials and travails with crankiness and illness.
Then we stopped for tea at Plaza del Oriente--it was warm enough to sit outside--and had a tartaleta con revuelto de setas (wild mushrooom and scrambled eggs tart). Then we walked over to get a DVD at the Devedeteca and kept walking over to Preciados to window-shop. Again stopping for snacks at Tia Cebollita--they have the best croquetas with jamon... This is what we consider a good day.
Last week we had school off for All Souls Day. We ate huesos de santo, bunuelos--the typical pastries here for this day--and Oscar and I went out for ice cream in honor of Lolo and had grits in honor of Uncle Cooper.
So that's a little update. Oscar is getting stir crazy. He's jealous of my laptop...
Friday, November 05, 2004
10:52 PM posted by Oscar
This has been a good week. Oscar is finally well--two weeks ago he had a terrible fever and we had to call our health plan at 2:00am. They sent a doctor out to do a house call at 3:00am (!) and it turned out that Oscar had a really bad throat infection. She prescribed an antibiotic, which Oscar refused to take. We had to hide it in the little bit of food and drink that he was taking in and make threats if he didn't take it. The antibiotic gave him a horrible stomach problem. Finally after a week of vomiting like crazy and hardly eating anything he got better.
For the first time in almost three months, he doesn't have a bad cough--the antibiotics seem to knock all of that stuff out.
 
So he's been happy and eating like a pig. Today he said that he wanted to marry a "napoletana de chocolate" (a chocolate croissant). He's talking like crazy and back to his happier, less whiny self. It's strange, while he wasn't feeling well, he really regressed a lot in his language and behavior. It was like he was 1 1/2 again, but with the will of a three-year-old. Now he's pretty happy-go-lucky again. Mom made him a cowboy suit for Halloween, which he loved. We carved a little pumpkin with a cat face and put it in his window along with his cactus collection. He's drawing a lot and reading and telling stories.
His school is great. His teacher-Señora Rosa--is so patient and sweet with him. He's made some friends. Today a boy in his class gave him a big hug when he got to school. We run into other kids that he goes to class with around the neighborhood. Now that he's feeling better, I think he can finally really appreciate it.
He's speaking Spanish really well--though not with us. We speak English at home and Spanish when we are out and about. Oscar now realizes that he speaks and understands it better than we do and corrects our pronunciation.
Now Christian is the one who is sick. He's got a really bad case of food poisoning or something. Tonight we went out to eat at a chinese noodle house that is underground in a parking garage under Plaza de España. Afterwards, we came up and the wind was gusting. We got roasted chestnuts (castañas). They sell them on the street here in winter, along with roasted sweet potatoes.
We're devastated by the results of the US election. It's just so sad to see our country taken over by religious fanatics who want to fight and kill other religious fanatics. I see dark days ahead for the US...
Things are headed in a completely different direction here in Spain. People just seem more in touch with their humanity here. No one is willing to sacrifice democratic institutions for the illusion of safety, because they know what it is really like to live in a totalitarian regime. Life is so much more humane in almost every way, the culture is very forward-thinking. If it weren't for friends and family, I don't think I'd want to go back. As it is, we'd like to find a way to stay longer. Making money without a work permit is the tricky part...
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