Letter 9

Ambassador and Mrs. Solomont and two future Spanish leaders at the International Visitor Reception (photo: US Embassy)

Dear friends and family,

Until now, most of my letters have been assorted descriptions of our ambassadorial duties, places we’ve visited, and glimpses of Spanish society in 2010.  This letter is different.  It’s been on my mind to share with you what a typical day is like.  I will try to do that with the caveat that no day is typical.  Nonetheless, I’ll offer this basic outline.

I can’t describe the morning without referring to the night before because evenings don’t end until at least midnight.  And that doesn’t take into account the time it takes to wind down before actually falling asleep.

Therefore, waking up in Madrid is hard.  We’ve been out late the night before, and when we set the clock for 7 am, we wake up to a pitch-black morning.  It feels like the night hasn’t ended.  Nonetheless, when I look out the window, I see people scurrying around, on their way to work.

Stella loves our daily walks, but she waits in her “bed” until she sees me put my sneakers on.  She also enjoys late nights in Spain.  The architecture in Madrid is fabulous, and the morning light in Madrid is beautiful.  The streets are already busy with people going to work, and I like to study how people dress.  Madrid is very fashionable.  Men wear beautifully tailored suits with bold ties and great leather shoes. Women wear everything, and I don’t know how some walk in such high heels.  I’m one of the few wearing running shoes.  Because there is no Labor Day in Spain, white is worn year round.  Those of you who are not fashion aficionados may not realize that in the US white after Labor Day is not acceptable!  It’s great to see white pants, shoes, and purses even after summer’s warm and glorious days have faded.  The streets of Madrid are extremely clean.  There are always trucks with folks cleaning the streets, planting flowers, and installing outdoor art.  I’ve gotten to know the location of some wonderful street musicians, and I know where I can listen to “Lara’s Theme” from Dr. Zhivago on the accordion and “New York, New York” on the saxophone.  Stella and I do try to vary our path each morning so we can explore new neighborhoods.  There are many familiar faces along our routes, and we’ve gotten to know several other dogs and their walkers.  My biggest complaint about the streets of Madrid is that people smoke a lot in Spain.  I can’t get over how many people, young and old, are drawn to cigarettes.

After our morning walk, Stella and I return to the “residence.”  Our home is in the Salamanca area of Madrid.  It is a cross between Manhattan’s Upper East Side and Boston’s Back Bay, and like those neighborhoods, it is a mix of apartment buildings, office buildings, small palacios, art museums, parks, stores, and broad boulevards.  We live in the heart of the city, and our home, without being excessive, is rather grand.  We enjoy a large front yard, gardens with lots of flowers, and a swimming pool tucked behind high hedges.  You can’t see the house from the street because high walls surround it, and it is further protected by barriers, gates, and a guardhouse.  The residence was built in the 1950s.  It has been home to ambassadors and their families ever since.  It is very beautiful.  The rooms are beautifully furnished.  They are elegant in size and comfortable for our use.  

The residence staff is wonderful and works extremely hard to staff all events that we host at the residence.  We have been told that we have hosted 77 official events since we arrived and entertained close to 3,000 guests.  This doesn’t include friends who have visited or private dinners we have had.  Not bad for 9 months.

Alan and I take daily Spanish lessons with our wonderful “profesora,” Blanca.  Blanca has worked at the U.S. Embassy in Madrid for 28 years.  Alan starts each day with his Spanish lesson at 8:15 am.  Another example that he is nuts!  With such late nights in Madrid, my lesson begins at a more civilized hour, 11 am.  Blanca is very patient.  She converses with us in Spanish, helps us understand her when she speaks, and she teaches us grammar.  Blanca is smart and worldly.  She loves film, dance, reading, and traveling.  She is very interested in politics, and our conversations are interesting and diverse.  We learn as much about Spain from Blanca as we do about the language.  She has helped Alan and me overcome our fear that our conversations in Spanish would consist of : “Hello, my name is Susan, and I have one sister.  How many sisters do you have?  Where is the library?”  Remember the simple sentences we all had to learn when learning a new language?

After Spanish, Alan heads to his office.  Alan’s days are chocked full.  After his Spanish lesson, he typically has internal staff meetings (the Embassy has a workforce of approximately 350).  And later he hosts a vast array of external meetings with government, business, cultural, and other leaders.  He speaks often with journalists to discuss current foreign policy; he loves speaking to students and young people, both Spanish students and Americans who are studying in Spain. 

My days are just as varied and I’ve begun to get engaged in a variety of Embassy activities.  Here’s a sample of a week’s activity:

In the past two weeks, I hosted a round table discussion for businesswomen in Spain.  We hosted an opening for our Art in Embassies collection, a reception for the State Department’s International Visitor Program, a screening of the new Spanish version of the History Channel program on the history of the United States, a meeting of the Embassy book club (we are reading Three Cups of Tea, which I highly recommend), and I attended a lunch for diplomatic spouses at another Ambassador’s residence.  The following week, we hosted a celebration of an exchange agreement between the Meadow’s Museum in Dallas and the Prado, a study tour of Jewish leaders from the U.S., the University of California Davis during their visit to evaluate locations for a campus in Madrid, and coffee for spouses of newly-arrived Foreign Service officers.  And that was just on Monday and Tuesday.  On Wednesday, I hosted another group of businesswoman from the American Chamber of Commerce in Spain, and Thursday Alan and I went to Barcelona for a number of meetings and a Los Angeles Lakers exhibition basketball game.  Don’t worry, we are loyal to the Boston Celtics and rooted for Barcelona at this exhibition game.  Although not this week, we go to a fair number of dinner parties.  Sitting around a table with 10-12 people is an excellent way for us to develop relationships and really get to know Spain.

With most evening receptions ending around 9 pm, followed by a dinner, a typical day ends around midnight, if we are lucky!  I have an uncanny ability to fall asleep quickly, but I do miss falling asleep to the late night news.  We get morning shows at 11 pm, and when I can I like watching “Good Morning America” at that hour.

I hope this gives a sense of how we lead our lives here.  It’s very busy and full.  I didn’t mention that we also try to find some normalcy to life here.  We enjoy early evening strolls, a glass of wine at an outdoor café, and just sitting at home, although often staring at our computers, trying to catch up on things.  And since we returned from our August holiday, we feel like sophomores in college returning after freshman year.  Things feel a little more familiar; we know our way around, sort of -- it’s not all brand new.

All in all, life is good, and we are acutely aware what an amazing adventure we are living.  By the way, I get wonderful responses to my letters, and I really appreciate your encouragement.  Perhaps, as some have suggested, one day I’ll collect them for a book.  Who knows, maybe I’ll do that.  Many friends ask me if they can forward my letters to others.  The answer is yes.  These letters are like Grateful Dead concerts, and once they are out there, they are intended to be shared.  I don’t mean to be presumptuous, but I love writing these because they allow me to gather my thoughts and share them.  Even more than writing, I love hearing from you. So please feel free to share and to react or just read and enjoy.  

Susan