HACE SOL Y ESTOY CONTENTA

first day of sun in granada....what can i say? except this:
Dale limosna, mujer, que no hay en la vida nada como la pena de ser ciego en Granada
(Give alms, my dear, for there is nothing worse in life than being blind in granada--plaque in the alhambra)
its true. sitting in the sunshine overlooking the albaicin and listening to a neighbor play flamenco guitar...yes, EVERYBODY comes out on the terazzas and practices their guitars (see my previous blog about the soundtrack to my new life). i couldnt begin to describe how amazing it is other than i havent felt this at peace with the world in a while. heading downtown later to be in the streets with the people, doing errands, eating tapas and generally enjoying the glorious weather. this is what granada is supposed to be in the winter, lets cross our fingers for more....

woohoo!

i found the antenna to my tv on the floor behind the tv. this may not mean much now, but i have been wondering why all the local channels come in like total crap (for two and a half weeks, mind you). not being handy with these sorts of things and fearing european electrocution, i attempted to reattatch said antenna. SUCCESS! am now able to receive with perfect clarity, canal sur 2 which plays a lot of the futbol (and buffy the vampire slayer reruns in spanish, obviously, which--sidenote--are suprisingly entertaining and educational in espanol, but which i have been watching through the fuzz and white noise of non-digital television...i digress) and is currently showing manchester united match. woohoo! i rule. if it wasnt a school night i'd consider heading down to the bar for some high def, vino tinto and conversation with the old sketchballs (naturally they get a big misogynistic kick out of girls watchin the futbol). for now i am content with the fact that i fixed something i previously had thought was broken, and, more importantly, i think i prefer to oogle my future husband in privacy tonight....a manana...

gol gool goool man u!!!

La semana de frustracion...

i think the first week living here everything was so new and exciting that i felt like i was on vacation. however, this last weekend the reality of living in a new city has finally started to sink in: not understanding the language (well trying, but constantly having to think things through about what you are saying and hearing), the semi-friendly but mostly unhelpful locals, the constant walking up and down mountains to do the smallest errrands (at least 30 minutes round trip if not longer), restaurants open til 5 but shops not until 5 and not after two, but bars only open at 10 and dinner at 9, weather that's more like san francisco in april or june (rain, fog, rain, fog) than spain...not that i am not having a blast, but last night the cumulative "frustration of the new" finally hit me full force. having spent the entire day yesterday on our feet and viewing a mediocre example of the local flamenco, jamie and i headed to our 'hood bar ( i use that term to mean specifically, the closest bar to my house where all the weird old dudes, the morrocan hash dealer, and other unsavory types tend to congregate, but where the owner is nice enough to remember jamie doesnt eat meat, serves us delicious tapas and otherwise leaves us to mind our own business) where we proceeded to let out our frustrations....lets call it a cathartic process.

after a solid night's rest, i decided to go about my domestic business, leaving the foreigness of spanish culture outside for a day...i should have known this was no easy task. once i finally figured out how to unfold my drying rack (on the front porch like all good spaniards without dryers) i set about to start a load of laundry....on the front porch...in the gathering storm. after jiggling with the nob and running back to my computer's online dictionary five or so times (wouldnt want to bleach or shrink all of my clothes on my first go), i finally got the damn thing started. only to find out that two hours later my clothes came out SOPPING wet. well, this didnt matter because it had seriously started to storm. so, i relocated the drying rack to the kitchen (this took some serious maguivering, believe you me) i began to wring out my clothes . (let it be noted that i started with a light load, mostly necessities, as a sort of trial run)... i stood out in the rain wringing out my drenched unmentionables for about an hour while jamie called spanish vocabulary at me from inside the warm house (high today was 7...that's about 40 but feels like a lot less when its hailing on your wet laundry). now, i've noticed that my neighbors have had the same laundry hanging in their backyard since last week (probably because it has rained everyday since then), so i thought i would be clever and set mine in the kitchen...and good thing i did, because about two hours later it started storming...torrential downpours of wintery mix complete with gusting winds (and i do not want my freshly laundered panties flying all around the albaicin). suffice it to say this experience did nothing to alleviate my frustration, especially when i have to duck under wet socks to access the fridge (see facebook for photo illustration).
i must say, however, that the enchilada project for today was an all day project resulting in a massive success (thankfully, otherwise i may have spun into a serious alien-culture depression without clean socks or mexican food). my refried beans are glorious and will last all week, the enchilada sauce was rich and savoury and will be perfect for a huevos rancheros brunch next weekend. though the comforts of home are few and far between, i find that a plate of homemade enchiladas (no matter where your kitchen is) can beat even the darkest homesick blues. my spirit renewed, i am dedicating my evening to studying all that i have learned in the last two weeks because tomorrow we begin level three and start to learn a whole new set of tenses and vocabulary. in the immortal words of scarlett o'hara, "tomorrow is another day."

Donde estan los guapos...?

I dont mean to speak ill of the spanish (and john, dont take offense, this is for purely cultural purposes...besos) but everybody told me before i left that i would be meeting like a million gorgeous spaniards per day, all beautiful, tall dark and handsome (obviously just how i like them). I dont know if its me and the Spanish just aren't my type or what, but i have yet to see a man sufficiently more attractive than one in san francisco. oh ok, that's not true, my downstairs neighbor, Sharif, from Australia, has a GORGEOUS boyfriend visiting...tall (6'3"), beautiful...Sharif basically had to wipe the drool off of Jamie's and my faces, but he doesn't count because he's Italian and gay. Maybe it's the weather? All the hunky ones remain indoors to maintain their perfectly coiffed dark hair, lest the wintery mix dislodge even a single strand? (That sort of vanity sounds like more of an Italian fixation, but if not that then what?) It is also possible, given my Americanness, that i have just not been out late enough. Last call in bars at home is first call at bars in Granada, and as fond as i am of the pub goin culture i have yet to indulge myself in an all-nighter--it is possible that i have just not been out in the city at the appropriate hours (do all the handsomes come out at night?). Tonight we are going out with a local friend, and i am determined to investigate this situation. Perhaps once i expand my cultural learnings beyond our little cuidad of Granada and its daily going-ons (we have a lot of hippies and hash-smoking morrocans here) i will come to understand the infamous nature and appeal of the spanish man. as of yet, i am confounded....until i meet the likes of Javier Bardem, i remain unconvinced....

gracias corte ingles....

yesterday jamie and i hiked all around the city in search of one thing: mexican food. and we found it at the corte ingles (basically like a department store but with a grande supermercado with imported foods underneath) and low and behold they have a "tex mex" section! oh you cannot believe my ecstasy. apparently old el paso makes a "burrito kit" and a "fajita kit" complete with tortillas, appropriate spices, and salsa. also, in the produce section i found a guacamole kit: two avocados, a tomato, a lime, and onion all wrapped up and packaged together, funny. i bought corn tortillas and this weekend i am going to make my own refried beans and my own enchilada sauce and then create glorious spanmexican food. jamie bought a box of ready-to-serve mole (which isnt that bad, altho unfortunately she doesn't eat meat so uses the sauce for beans and stuff), we also got an interesting roasted salsa. obviously nothing uber-authentic, but can't criticize those glorious spaniards for trying-LOVE IT!
ironically i assumed that i would be doing fabulous spanish cooking and here i am and the things i really crave are: refried beans, jeanne's pesto, and popcorn. plus i get to eat glorious spanish food everyday when i go for tapas. plus i need spicy things in my life and spaniards cant hang with the super spicy cuisine. altho they sure do know how to fry up potatoes and delish veggies. perhaps this weekend or early next week i will try my hand at some pisto (tons of veggies sauteen in olive oil with garlic and onion) but for now i am focusing on my mexican projects. and yes, i have eaten quesadillas everyday for the past three days, but is in part due to jamie's influence (girl loves mexican food as much if not more than i do!). hopefully one of these days when the weather gets warmer i can test some gazpacho recipes and all those delicious garlic soups they have in their parts (of course they are for the warmer months, and nobody saw this horrible winter coming).
tomorrow i am hosting a mini cena (dinner) at my apartment, and will be busting out the aufmuth pesto (obviously) a la waverley (shallots and mushrooms sauteed with goat cheese, and fresh tomoatos all tossed into the pesto...my special twist on an old fav). my mouth is already watering. yum. now that my fridge is stocked with all my favorite snacks and my pantry with all the necessary spices i can cook away to my little heart's content.

remember the wintery mix?

well we had that yesterday, in BUCKETS! totally reminded me of the lou, had to explain to jamie what it is (not snow not hail not rain but a mix of all). we were soaked cuz we walked into town (like 20 mins) and it was coooold. today looks sunny though, a break in the storms (another one moving in tomorrow). just wanted to shout out to my lou homies, wintery mix yo! what was the name of the hot weather man? Gary something? Em, i'm sure you remember...

um, si claro estamos famosas....

well. long story short, we went to hannigan & sons to watch the inauguration and talk about your good 'ole fashion cluster fuck, i think every american student in granada was there....i was having serious claustrophobia issues and you couldnt move at all (or hear the tvs). luckly jamie and i are so good at granada that we knew about another hannigan & son (there are two here, one in el centro y uno en reallejo) so we went to the other--much less crowded so we were able to get a seat, have a drink, etc etc. well, the inaugural address was pretty inspirational ( i could listen to him talk for a long time, am jealous of his law students) and afterward we went to a bar where the camarero (Antonio) was muy sympatico y just fantastic. he loved to cook so shared all his favorites and special tapas with us--adorable. oh, at the bar (hannigan & sons) there were these dudes filming for canal sur 2 (local news station) and we kinda ignored them....BUT turns out me and jamie are on local NEWS. we had made a "obmanonos" shirt for her (claro i was wearing my obama rama t). so anyway at this other bar we were totally on the local news and everybody thought we were totally famous. am looking for it online, or on youtube because it is TOO funny. so now we are super famous in granada. time for bed but today was incredibly amusing. besos.

um...

walked out of class and was hailed upon...then it snowed. now its sunny and beautiful. wtf. happy obama day (i am going to a "fiesta obama" at an irish pub, will report back).

the rain in spain...

falls mainly on my head in granada. was speaking to one of my professors today who said hes lived here 9 years and never owned an umbrella. so, first week here, coldest week in 50 years, second week here and it has rained twice. talk about your global warming.
in other very exciting news, i am such a baller at spanish that i got moved up to the smart class, which means jamie and i will be in the same class and can do our deberes together but more importantly, i dont have to sit there and listen to the same words repeated over and over to the american dude that doesnt pay attention. i am over the moon, i will for sure be fluent in three months!

i know i'm a nerd but..

one of my favorite aficiones (hobbies) at mi apartmento is to watch tv with my computer in front of me (wordreference.com, my new best friend cuz its a dictionary and the smartest website ever--it conjugates verbs for me and tells me if my words are mexican or spanish, a big help so i dont sound like a central/south american all the time) and look up all the words i dont know. in my down time i watch disney channel shows like "wizards of waverley place" and that jamie lynn spears show...totally lame but it's so great for learning the espanol. and then there's the usual fare of really messed up and weird spanish movies (lots of death, adultery, whatnot) and my fav, the guinness book of world records show where they have people do stuff and then they get a medal if they break the record. ive also seen this show about these two girls who are twins but dont know each other (still trying to figure out how that works) and people get them confused all the time, its a spanish show and i'm loving it...kind of reminds me of veliebt in berlin (hilary, remember?). its hard for me to get used to watching the news at 9, probably cuz of 24 years of the news being on at 6 (but obviously here everybody gets home from work at 9 so that's when the dinner/news hour is). so i sit and drink my vino tinto, watch my shows and make flashcards for the words i dont understand....it's a fun game.

feelin kinda sunday...

sundays are definitely the greatest day of the week here. without a doubt. you get to sleep in (always a plus) and because a large majority of shops are closed (especially in our neighborhood) there's really nothing to do but go out for lunch. (todo la gente is out with their families and adorable babous, chillin out and eating). We sat in the Plaza de Ortegas for about four hours people watching and having beers and tapas. Of course the usual street folk were there, and a glorious sountrack of flamenco guitar served to highlight the total spanishness of the experience. it was so stereotypically what you think of spain, basking in the sun with your tapas while the little kids run around and women dance flamenco in the streets, it is unreal. theres no hurry nor rush and not a care in the world, all any of us have to do is just be, and if the camarero feels like passing our way, maybe we order una mas cana.
in other news, i found palomitas (popcorn) at the grocery store so have not only learned the word for popcorn but showed jamie my technique-shes only ever done the microwave version so i'd like to think i opened her up to a whole new world of popportunity (ha, like that?). suffice it to say she was impressed with my skills. i did it full on waverley style, complete with garlic salt and parsley. i may be able to give up burritos for three months (probably better for me anyway), but popcorn? you gotta be crazy.

whats that soundtrack...

theres something to be said for the morrocan music that pervades everywhere and i finally figured out why...you know its the street hippies who sit on the corner and play their flutes or their flamenco guitars...but its like everywhere you go there is this totally chill beat in the background, very mellow soundtrack to my new life. obviously that gets broken up with really great american pop in the bars (and of course kate perry...but hey, i'm down with the kissed a girl song so why not) then back on the streets for some mellow opium den tunes. the morrocan/muslim influence here is really interesting like that, its everywhere but you dont necessarily notice it at first. for example, when the catholics took over spain they built their churches on top of all of the mosques, so the outside facades are all beautiful gothic or baroque buildings but a lot of times inside there will be remants of morrocan terraces, lots of beautiful tile work, etc. so what you see is very classic european but underneath are the heavy north african influences. our cultural program leader monica says this is because when the catholics took over they literally implanted their culture on top of muslim culture (instead of attempting to erradicate it completely) so that the influences still remain underneath, like the skin of an onion or some equally cheesy analogy. it's surreal, last night we stood and looked at the beautiful cathedral in the center of the city while two little hippie kids were playing morrocan flutes and dancing. such a great cultural blend. same can be said in the food...lots of times we will get a tapas where the sauce will have slight curry undertones...not a strong flavor just the slight undercurrent of curry. Still waters run deep as they say...

Holy tapas batman!

Patatas sofritos con cebollas, pimienton, y ajo.
Aceitunas (-olives, which i'm eating every day so i will teach myself to like them...actually they are tasting more and more like a martini which i have a deep-seated love for so hey, i'm down).
Papas fritas (total mexican way to say french fries but whatev) con un salsa that can only be described as gloriously garlicky delicious...sort of like romesco but with a buttload of garlic and salt, sooooo good.
Salchichon in olive oil con ajo and i dont even know what other delicious things.
Boquerones fritas con ajo y limon.
Suffice it to say that the most fun drinking game in spain is playing the tapas....the more you drink the more you get to eat, so why not eh? SO delish....jeanne, you would've flipped your lid over these fried anchovies and both Gerald (my new german friend in Jamie's class) and Jamie thought they were too fishy so i had the whole plate to myself, oh yeah.
In other news, Gerald is german so i get to speak the german with him and when we dont understand each other in english or german we use spanish or french. the other german dude, Felix, told Gerald i had great german and so now all my peeps think i am fabulously multi culti and quadrilingual....you know, cuz that's how i roll (apparently my languages get better when i drink and eat the tapas).

Eat your heart out, NYU...

i am such a food culture nerd and i'm so fine with that. i think i learned more in my culture class today than i have all week in spanish. so many verbs (to whisk, to mix, to add, to bake) it just makes me tingly all over! not only that, but the history of food culture in spain and how the four main historical periods (visigoths, romans, moors, and the age of discovery i.e. columbus) influenced the food they eat here, not to mention regional influences as well. so fascinating! it's too much to take in at once and now that i'm home for siesta i need to do some serious rereading with wordreference.com in front of me but i'm just so geeked out about all the glorious cultural learnings.
Unfortunately next week there will be another student with me in culture class...i say unfortunately because that means the class cannot be focused solely on my interests (mainly food and history), however it is advantageous because i will have culture class for an hour each day instead of an hour and a half twice a week. i very much enjoy my one on one time with Jesus, as he is also a total foodie so its exciting to be able to share that with someone.
Today Jesus brought me a selection of his own personal cookbooks: one specific to andalucia, one that focuses on primero platos but has both old and "new" cuisine (more on that in a second..), and the third was his father's cookbook from his grandmother, something along the lines of my osterizer cookbook, from 1967. he said i could keep them as long as i needed them and if he needed somethign from them he would ask me to bring them to him, also he said he would photocopy any recipes and explain anything i wanted. i am in spanish foodie heaven. he is an incredibly enthusiastic teacher, and we went through the books looking at our local regional cuisine, his favorite recipes, and of course he busted out the postres for me--Spanish desserts are nowhere near on par in terms of creativity or history as the rest of western europe and the US, but i believe there is much to be said for making doughs with flour, sugar, olive oil and lemon zest then frying the sh*t out of them and soaking them in honey. Specifically here in andalucia there is a very heavy north african influence so you use a lot of almendras y miel. Also they seem to really be into meringues and light fluffy things of that nature (think baked meringues, crunchy and airy, lots of lemons and almonds).
As far as "new cuisine" goes, according to Jesus all of the big chefs and creative, modern food comes from a territory in the north, Pais-Vasco , where the fish is the freshest in the world and the produce is unbelievable (so i hear). It is the foodie capital of Spain but as far as i can tell it doesnt really seem to influence the rest of the country. Personally i dont really care one way or the other about innovation in Spanish cuisine because right now i am so enchanted by the history and the romance of it all. Particularly in Andalucia where there is a such an influx of foreign products (Sevilla had the monopoly on imported goods from the Americas, and this region also benefited greatly during its moorish years as the new spice route for those trying to avoid the crusaders).
...Suffice it to say, I'm loving it, solo quiero ir de tapear y comer todo!

me gusta mucho mis siestas

although all the young folk seem to think the infamous siesta is antiquated, i am not gonna lie, i am loving my midday nap. my understanding is that siesta is more widely accepted and participated in by the younger generation during the summer when it is unbearably hot in the middle of the day and not so much in the winter when the weather at high noon is much milder...yesterday daniel was laughing at jamie's and my fondness of the noonday snooze, but hey when in rome right? especially if you're not gonna be eating dinner until late, i see no reason not to indulge oneself in a lazy lunch followed by a few zzzs. in fact, i find no better way to spend the afternoon hours, when all shops are closed anyway....i'm bringing the siesta home with me, one way or another...

Apparently i am really mexican...

last night my friend jamie and i decided to do some grocery shopping and have a little cena at mi apartmento. coincidentally (or not really, as it turns out) as she was leaving her house she ran into a boy that she met on the bus into town, Daniel, a very nice spanish fellow who's parents are hippie brit expats living in Ibiza. With a beautiful command of english and spanish, Daniel was the perfect companion for our first real city exploration--we embarked to the city center to find the cheaper mercadora (supermercado con todo). thankfully he was our guide because i'm sure between the two of us we would have been hopelessly lost--Granada, although small, is difficult to navigate a) because the map we have totally sucks and none of the streets look like they go in the same direction on the map and b) because this is an ancient moorish then christian city with all sorts of crazy twisty turny streets that take you nowhere, or somewhere depending on what you're trying to accomplish. after completing our grocery run, daniel assured us a "10-12 minute walk" back to my apartment....actually it took us 35-40 minutes and was mainly uphill...like mountainous uphill on cobblestone streets. suffice it to say if i get worried about working out i can just go down to the city center and come back up and i'll be fine.
Given that Jamie (being from texas) is a lover of all things mexican like myself, we decided to make guacamole (which Daniel insisted would be better if we just bought, a suggestion we shot down emphatically). Back at mi apartmento we drank wine, ate the guac, and compared our knowledge of spanish slang (because that's what you have to do with your first spanish friend, especially one that speaks fluent english). of course we thought we were pretty badass, which apparently we are not. every phrase out of our mouths (even our MOST offensive--the kind that would have mexican men blushing and mexican women tryin to fight us) was greeted with a full-belly laugh and "you can say that, but then everyone will laugh and think you are mexican". luckly daniel filled us in on the big four swear words so now, are we ever in need, we can bust it out. we also learned how to say "spittin game" which i think will come in handy sometime in the future.
At the supermercado we found flour tortillas, so our next cooking project is to make quesadillas or burritos. i'm thinking of going really oldschool and making my own frijoles refritas (another very mexican thing to say, here beans are judias not frijoles), salsa, aguacate, etc. etc. I am also looking forward to my culture class tomorrow for i intend to ask mi professor, Jesus, to bring some Spanish recipes that i can try out this weekend in my kitchen (Cuando esta in Espana, cocina la comida espanol, y por que no?) There is a daily television show on at about 2 in the afternoon featuring a very flamboyant singing chef who cooks all sorts of delicous looking things. i also intend to choose his most interesting recipe and attempt it. today was stuffed calamaris with a tomato sauce on top, looked delicious but i'm thinking a little more simplistically for my first go. Everyday i am more and more happy i chose to have my own apartment--my own space, and (as i get more comfortable with my spanish vocabulary) my own kitchen for cooking whatever my little heart desires. ah, la dolce vita.....

Cats y Catholics

Interesting fact i learned today: in 1492 when the Spanish kicked out all of the jews and muslims from spain, an important part of proving your christianity was eating pork...which is why eating pork (chorizo, salchichon, etc) is so important today in spanish society, something about that fear of being called out as different and complying with the rule stuck and now the spanish love their cerdo. go figure. also, apparently the reason their arent any philosophers in spain is because the spanish language is simplistic--one word having so many meanings--great for spanish poetry, not so great for contemplating the metaphysics and meaning of life in any specific manner. thus the reason german is a great language for philosophizing--one meaning, one word, lots of words to choose from to mean exactly what you are trying to say.
and i'm not clear on the policy on feeding the cats. they seem to belong to everyone and one can leave kitty litter outside ones front door as one sees fit. not being a cat person myself, i find this sort of behavior hard to adopt or understand.
just a few thoughts from my day today...learn something nuevo todo las dias...

some observations....

Started school today, great fun. beginning language classes are always a blast for me, especially when its immersion style. an observation though-perhaps its because i'm american but i cant get over the Spanish lisp thing (th) as opposed to the American Spanish s sound. it drives me crazy. i cant get myself to say it, i feel like i'm talking with a speech impediment. my teachers keep correcting me and laughing at my mexican spanish. ah well, i do have a love for all things mexican so lets just chalk it up to that. another thing, why do they use the 24 hour clock if they are going to refer to the time in manana and tarde? it's just confusing. if you say 2 oclock then the clock should say 2 not 14. petty, i know, but those are the things i have noticed today that keep tripping me up. am having difficulty posting pictures onto my blog so my beautiful prose will have to suffice. it a great day in granada, sunny, altho the mornings and evenings are very frio. jesus, one of my professors, says this is one of the coldest weeks in granada in 50 years (that could also explain the crazy madrid snow). hopefully the days will continue to grow warmer, although my radiators and wool blankets do a great job at night, i definitely did not pack my most moutainous warm clothes. in hindsight i wouldve packed more fleece and less fashion, alas, what can you do.

sick in Granada

sooo...not how i imagined starting off my fabulous adventures in granada. after arriving in madrid to blizzards and sitting in a metal bench in estacion sur de madrid for four hours freezing my buns off, then a five and a half hour bus ride to granada, i finally arrive at my apartment. which is beautiful, but dark and freezing. all i was given was a key and told how to work the radiators (which take like 7 hours to kick in). so i spent my first night and day here in bed bundled under five wool blankets hacking up a lung and sleeping. by the time i ventured out into the world it was near 5 oclock and it being saturday, all shops were closed. not having the appetite for a restaurant meal i proceeded to hibernate once more in my warm bed. i also have a gas heater thinger that's supposed to be warmer but i was told not to leave it on for fear of asphyxiation. great. i'm playing with it now, but i've got to keep an eye on it, lest i blow myself up my second day abroad. today i woke up early, went to my local cafeteria for some zumo de naranja and croissane de mantequilla. found my local grocer open (thanks gods) and was able to purchase some chicken soup, yogurt and fruits. also, a can of beans and chorizo if i'm feeling adventurous. unfortunately upon arriving home was sick to my stomach and have spent the rest of the morning early afternoon in bed. not sure if it's the flu i had last week, the nerves of starting fresh in an alien country, or some sort of combo of both. all i know is i have no appetite and the only thing that makes me feel ok is my bundly warm bed. have the internet up and running so that is always a plus to be connected to the outside world. start school tomorrow, will report with more exciting info.