Even washing your clothes becomes an adventure while traveling.

Kim and I needed a laundromat for a good, through machine-cleaning, so we Googled ¨lavandaria,¨ the Spanish word for laundromat, and copied down directions to the nearest one. It was five or six blocks away — quite a distance, we mused.

We stuffed our clothes in big black gallon trash bags, and hauled them to what we thought was a laundromat, evoking stares as we trudged through the streets with massive trash bags slung over our shoulders, Santa Claus-style.

We were in for a disappointment. Turns out, the Spanish word for “laundromat” and “car wash” is the same.

We imitated Santa Claus all the way back home, did another Google search, and then hauled our overstuffed trash bags to a ¨tintoreria,¨ which our English-Spanish dictionary said was another word for laundromat.

Turns out, it’s  actually a dry cleaner.

The third place where we carried our trash bags of laundry to said they charged the U.S. equivalent of $22 a load. No dice.

So now, our clothes are still living in gallon trash bags, while Kim wears our friend Matt´s clothes (he´s over 6 feet tall) and I wear my mom´s clothes (she´s less than 5 feet tall). We look ridiculous — and we’re still dragging hefty gallon trash bags all across town. No wonder the Spanish stare as we walk by. We’ve become a spectacle.

After spending 3 of the past 5 weeks in Madrid, I feel like we’ve crossed the threshold between visiting a place and actually living there.

Madrid is like Boulder, Colo., in the sense that its a wonderful place to visit, but an even nicer place to live. It’s sunny year-round, filled with large lush parks, great public transit, and an active and lively city life. In the winter, its 30 minutes from the nearest ski mountain. All its missing is a beach :-)

Here, we’ve transitioned from “vacationing” to “traveling.”

On a vacation, people take advantage of each day: you might plan to spend a morning on an architectural tour, the afternoon at an art museum, the evening at a restaurant or nightspot.

But when “traveling,” you re-create your daily life routine in a foreign setting, and the challenge is to navigate in a new setting and keep yourself entertained sans employment. You read books, watch movies, cook new experimental meals, and take long walks.

Thats our life here in Madrid: at home, we watch Wedding Crashers and Shrek 3, upload photos onto our MySpace pages and read business books. But each day takes on an international tinge, whether it be though asking the pharmacist in Spanish for contact lens solution, learning the Metro routes through greater Madrid, watching The Simpsons in Spanish, or seeing how the grocery stores shut down from noon to 4 p.m. each day for siesta.

But now its time for the next chapter in the journey: tomorrow I’m taking a bus to Lisbon, Portugal, while Kim travels to a farm in western Spain. (She really enjoys farm work; I want to explore a new country).

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