The Rain in Spain...

Umbrella parade!
Working with a normal camera, it's remarkably difficult to take photos of people passing by without seeming super sketchy! I need to start carrying around more gear to make me look more official.

If you finish the above title with an enthusiastic, "stays mainly in the plain!", then we can continue being friends. If you are not accordingly well-versed in the lyrics of My Fair Lady, then please, stop reading this blog immediately and go tend to the pressing matter of your cultural education!

Ok, for those of you who are totally lost, one of Audrey Hepburn's most glorious songs in the movie My Fair Lady begins with the phrase, "the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain." As it has been raining a lot recently, that song has been running through my head practically all the time! (Mom: best Christmas present ever! That umbrella is the best!!!!)

If you look closely, you will notice that this mother, like every other mother in Madrid, has a handy dandy plastic cover she puts over her baby's stroller from November to March. The American in me shudders just a bit... has anyone ever studied the airflow rate of such contraptions?

So, I am here to answer that eternal question: why does the rain in Spain stay mainly in the plain? Why doesn't it run off into the grass, or drain into some advanced sewage system?

Here it is, the answer to all the riddles: rain in Spain has nowhere to drain! Aka, there is precious little green space anywhere at all (and I mean precious little!), and the small patches of "soil" are really just patches of clay completely impermeable to water, so the whole city turns into one big mudslide!

Or, at least, it would, if it weren't already completely covered in cement. Rain gardens, anyone? Permeable concrete? Didn't anyone listen to our first semester rainwater runoff class projects?!?!?

On a rainy day, the bus is the public transit equivalent of a knight in shining armor!
Coming to save us from the terrors of the cold and the damp!

But at any rate, this is me, checking in from Rainy Spain. I envy you, USA, with your cozy snow and your cups of hot chocolate. However, I am willing to sacrifice now for a payoff in the end... Madrid in the full bloom of spring! Some day, this too will pass!