October 18th Now we’re really moving in

Last night the father of our instructor was able to tell us the basic location of a public library close to where we’re staying.  We’ve been on the hunt since we found one that had wifi for public use.  It was clear across town, but we felt there must be one closer.  So today I got out earlier and walked over to where he said this one should be and darned if it wasn’t.  It’s about a 20 minute walk so not very far away.  On the way back I found a small shop that would provide us with passport type photos.  You may remember from an earlier post that we can’t get our museum passes without passport type photos and copies of our passports.   Anyway I went back to the apartment and got Deb to come with me for photos and to see the library.  We got photos for 4 euros each then went up to the library.  At the library they told us that we would need library cards in order to be able to use the wifi.  Then wonder of wonders they issued us library cards within about 5 minutes, for free.  Totally reinforces our contention that libraries are still the place where one can go almost anywhere in the world and be treated as a valued client regardless of where you come from.  A gentleman from the U.K who has been living here for the last 15 years was incredibly kind in helping us and explaining how the libraries work in Madrid, as Stella said in ‘A Streetcar named  Desire’, we depend upon the kindness of strangers.  So now we are enrolled in a class and we have public library cards, we’re practically embedded in the place.   A peaceful evening at home for us.  Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy and cold, we’ll see.