spanish flakes...

our friend chandra that lives in the cave was supposed to meet us on saturday for our mexican valentines day dinner (which, by the way, was disappointing, but what did we really expect being from texas and california and eating mexican food in spain?...the margheritas, however, were glorious). we waited for her in plaza nueva for 20 minutes before deciding that we were freezing our bums off and to just go ahead with our evening. well, jamie texted her and an hour later she wrote back, "i'm not coming," which lead to the great debate of how to say flaky in spanish. jamie's italian roommate who has lived in spain for ten years said the word doesnt exist. so did our teacher jesus. and why does said word not exist?, you might ask...because that's the spanish way. actually it reminds me a lot of south africa, when they say they're gonna do something in a minute and it could be like five hours. those crazy spaniards say they are going to do stuff all the time and don't do it. they have a word, "informal" which means informal (obviously) and also unreliable, but not specifically flaky. literally, the word does not exist in this language because it's how the people are. i know it sounds kind of stupid, but i cant get over it. if someone made me wait 20 minutes in union square and didn't show i'd be pissed. but here it's just how they do...