One Sunday afternoon in an effort to escape a boring engagement (no names to protect the innocent J), I excused myself and said I had to go to Madrid Babel. I explained it was work related ... market research stuff !!!
I really had been meaning to go but it never really fit into my social agenda until that point. I had stumbled across it in the city events section of ASW (“ASMALLWORLD a private international community of culturally influential people who are connected by 3 degrees” … slightly pompous …I know!). Fortunately, Madrid Babel is completely down to earth. It’s an ongoing gathering of people from all over the world for language and cultural exchange. The creator, Fran Rodriguez Veiga started Madrid Babel over 10 years ago and has managed to keep it going this entire time. Madrid Babel was even recently awarded “Best Exchange of the Year” by Vibe Magazine.
I arrived at The Quiet Man, the pub tucked away in Chueca was loud and overflowing with people. I walked in confused and disoriented and made my way to the check-in counter where I met Fran. He had a big smile and gave me the basic intro “There’s the bar and just talk to people, there are different groups, French, Spanish, English etc”. Uh huh, I was beginning to think my initial engagement had way more potential when a confident 21 year old said “Are you here to practice your Spanish or English?” I wasn’t interested in either ( I consider them both my native tongues) but decided I would sacrifice my time for the greater good and practice English with the university boys J
EVERY WEDNESDAY 21:30 at Café Madrid (c/ Escalinata s/n - metro Opera)
EVERY SUNDAY 19:00 at The Quiet Man (c/ Valverde, 44 - metro Tribunal)
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