culture shock ahead....

starting to get a little worried about the homecoming (obviously not about my living situation, the burritos, mis amigos, or seeing beautiful sf again, more like the change of pace). the arrival of jeanne and larry was stupendous. we experienced a rare night out in granada to one of the poshest restaurants in this little hippie hamlet, and what, you may ask, did we eat? well, fondue of course. because only the coolest of cool and the fanciest of fancy can afford to sit beneath the shadow of the alhambra munching on iberian ham (purebred and fed only chestnuts, of course), various pates, and champinone y trufa fondue. compared to sf standards, well it was laughable lets be honest, but for granada it was some good, down-to-earth-made-fancy food. this should've been my first hint that the transition back to the glorious west coast would not be as easy peasy as i would've hoped.
spent the last two days wowing the 'rents with my fabulous spanish (since they last saw me when all i could manage were a few useful, albeit grotesquely vulgar mexican spanish phrases, my newly learned grammar and vocabulary are quite impressive), touring around granada, and generally enjoying the (craptastic) weather. yes it is raining otra vez, cold and awful. apparently there is (yet another) freak stormfront moving over southern europe...lucky for the fam they get to experience granada as i first did: cold, dark and wet.
of course the family arrival also brought tidings from new york (and my new favorite nyu sweatshirt) and have sparked multiple discussions on what a change nyc will be from sf....let alone small town spain. so i have four months to unlearn all of my newfound spanish zen-ness and go-with-the-flow attitude (i think even j&l would prefer me to be a little more planned and productive here, but when in rome....cant say that enough). such a shame as i worked on that for weeks and weeks before i really got it right, and in such a short time i will likely become a pushy, rushy new yorker (eek) alas....
these next few days will be full of great granada fun: after school tapas and of course a mexican meal at my apartment (i mean if you truly want to experience my life here you have to eat some of my perfected recipes...i may be in spain but my mexican is "off the chain") tomorrow; visit to the alhambra (finally) and flamenco show tuesday; packing day wednesday and of course my final visit to shar (oh how i will miss him, am hoping he will endow me with his curry vinadloo recipe as a going away gift); thursday i plan to tapear and enjoy everything that granada has to offer (free food or otherwise) as friday after school we are out of here and off to sevilla.
i'm hoping that our gradual transition from small-town granada to hipster andalucian town sevilla to the happening-madrid will prepare me mentally for my return. of course we do have a layover in atlanta during which time i can soak up some good ole southerm culture (god grant me fried chicken...). although i doubt anything can undo three months of spain in such a short time.
what can i say? i'm stoked, i want sushi, i want thai food, i want the biggest mission burrito my money can buy...i want to use dollars and speak spanglish (cuz that's how we do it on the west side), and to be able to cook with fresh ginger. (good thing i'm planning a career in food culture as all my deepest wishes and desires revolve around satisfying my culinary needs). i want to see my friends, my family (although j&l being here is one of the best gifts ever, its so fun to show them what i have been donig on my own for three months), my pillows....the list goes on.
no doubt i will follow this up with many-a-blogpost from the hills of sf describing my longing for flamenco music, papas bravas, claras, and Spanish spanish (although i can never deny my love of mexico, mexicans, and anything generally related with our brothers to the south). for now i will content myself with enjoying my last four days of granada and worry about the rest as it comes (see, i am so spanish, three months ago this would've wigged me out....live and learn, my friends, live and learn...)

churros & chocolate

after all my complaints and questions (its been almost three months now) they finally decided that there was a need to fix the internet (that only worked intermittently to start off with). thus, in doing so, they turned it off for like a week. although now all is functioning as it should be, much better than before and just in time for my last week in granada. i can't believe i will be home so soon, with so much to do, planning for new york, picking classes, finding an apartment, it all makes my head hurt so i'm not going to think about it until i step foot on u.s. soil.
in other news, i find myself rushing around to do all the things i have yet to do in spain. the most important being churros and chocolate and the alhambra. jeanne and larry and i have tickets to visit the alhambra on tuesday afternoon, and luckily for me jesus planned a churro chocolate day for our class last week. there is a great churreria right next to the residences owned by the school so a couple of girls from our class picked up churros and jesus brought coffee and it was a great day. the experience was by no means life-altering however...perhaps it's because i lack an overly sweet tooth but they really didn't do that much for me....greasy, phallic shaped, and the chocolate was sweet but nothing to write home about. not sure what all the buzz is about, i much prefer my carnival churros (you know, caked in cinnamon sugar), but when in rome....
jeanne and larry arrive this afternoon so there will be much to do in the coming week: playing tour guide, eating tapas, shopping, seeing the sights, and (ugh) packing. luckily we will be in sevilla for palm sunday--not the biggest day of semana santa by any means but definitely the first day of a whole week of religious processions. then its off to madrid for a day and a half, then business class all the way home (thank you, N.M.L.C. policy). should be an interesting week followed by some serious culture shock, adjustment, real life dealings, and a bountiful array of mexican food (oh god mission burrito...i'm coming for you). so sad that spain is coming to an end, although it will be nice to feel like a productive, active person again....

las fallas y san jose...

we had father's day in spain. dia de padres, el 19 de marzo. porque, you may ask? after all, our american version is in june, and is a hallmark holiday, so you would think what with being an international corporation they would want some consistency. well, it turns out that the 19th of march is fathers day because it is the day of San Jose. i, in my american religious naivete, asked the (clearly stupid) question, "who is san jose? what did he do?" the response i was met with was a mixture of horror, condescension, and general "you know, maria, jose and baby jesus. he fathered jesus christ isn't that enough?"
well excuse me, how am i supposed to know that joseph and jose are one and the same, or that he gets his own holiday just for fathering jesus?
this day is especially cool, not at all because it's fathers day (a day that the corte ingles takes advantage of by requiring their consumers to buy ties for their fathers), but because it is Las Fallas de Valencia.

apparently, they spend the WHOLE year building floats and facades (like wash u's thurtene times 75). i mean, HUGE beautiful lifesize buildings, statues, all sorts of crazy stuff. there is a parade, a competition, all sorts of fabulous costumes, but the best part is when it turns into SPANISH BURNING MAN. there is a museum in valencia and the winning facade from each year is saved, whilst all the rest are burnt to the ground. starting at 1 in the morning, they literally light the world's largest bonfire. I happened to be coming home from celebrating jamie's 30th and arrived just as the clock struck 1. of course, this celebration is televised, and they literally showed the burning facades for an hour....this is on par with the burning of atlanta in "gone with the wind"...i mean, some serious fuego. the best part is they also set off fireworks and rockets so its NOISY and crazy and the tv keeps panning to these adorable spanish girls all decked out in gold costumes sobbing and crying while everything is burning. apparently this is supposed to be jesus' dad's day, but i'm pretty sure the catholic church just took a pagan spring festivus (burning of the old to ring in the new) and pretended it was a religious day.

actually, it turns out that some of the most celebrated festivals in spain were around long before isabella and frederico came and kicked out all the jews, muslims, minorities and forced their religion on those poor spaniards and gitanos. carnival, for example, definitely has bacchanalian roots (i mean, celebrating the pleasures of life is not really following in the catholic tradition). and the burning of an entire facade city seems much more fitting with the spring equinox than anything joseph did (i mean, it was a virgin birth, so what did he really contribute?). not to mention the running of the bulls and the plethora of animal festivals that generally take place in the north of spain during the winter months...all sorts of sacrificing and/or blessing of animals. although infused with religious symbolism the roots of such ceremonies seem to predate the arrival of the catholic kings.

which brings me to my favorite spanish paradox. in a country that is dominated by one religion--a religion that in general is pretty strict and regulated--there still exist a vast array of very old traditions and ceremonies that are more closely related to the celebrating of the seasons, harvest, sun, and general pleasures of life. it's quite a duality to live everyday, but it's a comfort to know that when catholicism arrived in spain it didn't completely take over the thousands of years of history predating it....oh spain, you are so simple and yet so deeply complex....i will miss you (only two more weeks, eek!)

i'm losing my e's...

when i first got here, those ten long years of studying french came flying back to bite me in the ass...whenever a verb is the same in spanish and french (to have: tener, tenir) the french version generally ends with -ir and the spanish with -er. my most common homework errors are spelling everything the french way: augmentir, imaginir, perdir...at first it was funny but then it got to the point of ridiculousness so whenever i didn't know how to spell a verb i just threw in an e. same with pronunciation, my naturally tendency is to use the french pronunciation out of habit, so i have to think really hard to make the "e" sound come out instead. unfortunately this has had dire consequences for my english...i now find myself, amidst writing an email, reciting grammatical rules like "i before e except after c" before i commit to the spelling of a word (belIEve me, i've been catching myself doing this a lot)....or writing a word out three different ways before committing...and may i remind you i used to be a champion speller--i won second place in the fifth grade spelling bee (matt rubenstein beat me).

it seems that i have taken all the e's out of my written english and tossed them out into my spanish prose. just in time for grad school, as i received my acceptance letter from NYU (yay!) and will return to academic writing this fall. at least i have the summer to transition back to english....hopefully i can find my e's somewhere before i attempt the cross country move. although, this news has left me quite the smitten kitten so what am i complaining about? i may not be able to spell anymore, but i sure as heck am enjoying my last three weeks in GORGEOUS sunny granada. especially my patio, my newfound favorite drink, the clara, and the 4 euro deck of cards we bought in barcelona. i've got big plans to make, lots of changes coming up, but for now, i'm content to sit back, struggle along in spanish, and live it up the way the spaniards do (by taking advantage of the doing of nothing...it's really a complicated process you'd be surprised). happy weekend!

a little bit of follow up...

to follow up on my fascinating study of sexual attitudes i have an anecdote to demonstrate the openness of spanish men: today, whilst sitting in the plaza, soaking up the spanish sun and generally enjoying my afternoon, i saw a man waving for my attention from a table across the way. three men were seated, men who i actually "know" (recognize) from around the albaicin mainly because they are a trio of musicians who play everywhere, but more importantly because the singer looks like anthony kiedis and the guitarist closely resembles a combination of brian austin green and kevin federline. this is neither here nor there, and furthermore, the third is not at all attractive in any way and looks most like an ogre or a big buffoon with long curly hair. well, this fellow chose this moment to attract my attention by grabbing hold of one of his man boobs and jiggling it, then giving me the thumbs up sign--now this is something that i'm pretty sure is offensive in any culture...but what's worse, is that when i failed to react (i mean, it's not really appropriate to yell expletives across the plaza) is that he grabbed BOTH of his man boobs and repeated said cupping action with a double thumbs up sign....over and over and over again. finally, i nodded (as gracefully as possible) just so he would stop at which point he invited me to his table and to listen to him play flamenco. because they are a neighborhood group, i've heard them play, was not at all interested, and furthermore was grossly offended (although i will admit my chest does look rather nice in this wife-beater today). despite the fact that i'm pretty sure this is inappropriate here as well as at home (where somebody would likely get slapped--literaly and figuratively with a lawsuit for sexual harassment), none of the other fifteen or so groups of people in the plaza took notice or seemed remotely bothered by it. so, with my new spanish outlook on life--going with the flow, that is--i will take this in stride and accept the compliment (although please note that i did not follow him and his friends to the mirador to watch them play, what a creep!) i have to admit, there's nothing like people watching in my favorite albaicin plaza, where everyone from locals to tourists pops by for a drink, where the sun shines brilliantly and where the patatas bravas are excellently picante. when the weather is this beautiful there is nothing like passing an afternoon (or three in a row) people watching and drinking claras. jesus showed up and i seized the opportunity to yell "hola guapo" across the plaza, which for whatever reason has made me a peep...of the server (who sees me and jamie everyday), of jesus' friends (because he was forced to explain why a random lady is catcalling him) and the general plaza aliatar regulars--it was a very spanish thing to do. pretty funny, although i'm close to positive he spent the following 20 minutes explaining to his friends that those crazy white girls at that table over there are students of his, recounting our most infamous shenanigans etc. oh espana.....

microwaves & immersion blenders...

We had a fabulous time in barcelona. i had a great time being out of small town granada and out in a metropolitan city (but i'm not gonna lie, i did miss the simplicty of granadinian life). When not traipsing all over the city, i spent my time observing those crazy catalunians (only moderately closely related to there andalucian counterparts)
i'd like to start with the fact the spanish cannot get enough of the immersion blender--so much so that it is found in every kitchen (i mean EVERY kitchen...even my littler apartmento for foreing students has one). at home i have only seen the industrial kind, the kind we use to puree gallons of soup or pasta sauce. i admit that i have been leaning towards purchasing one for my personal kitchen (always handy to blend without having to dirty the cuisinart) but have yet to justify such a superfluous appliance. but here in spain, well, they use the damn thing for any kitchen function which might require any sort of find dice or puree--soup, salsas, beans or lentils, any sauce imaginable, vegetables, meats, fruit smoothies etc etc. and not only do they puree said culinary delicacies, they PUREE them to a fine cream...they let that baby whiz away until there are no chunks or textures left. personally i prefer a lesser degree of smoothness in these sorts of dishes but, like i've said before, they do things differently here.

speaking of which, what's even stranger is there unecessary and excessive use of the microwave (something which my apartment lacks, thank god). in barcelona, the majority of small restaurants or cafes had some sort of microwave set-up for reheating the food that had already been prepared that morning, something which i believe is tied to the incredible cunundrum that is spanish employment...

let me digress for a moment. apparently the unemployment rate in spain is up around 21%, which is pretty high (but they say it always is high in spain). thus the government creates meaningless jobs where you get paid for doing virtually nothing--they are a lot of people paid to sweep...anything you can sweep they have made a job for someone. in my tiny "street" (which is more closely related to a village alley without pavement and some scattered rocks) there is a fellow who comes around every morning to pick up odd ends of trash and to sweep. i cannot tell what he sweeps because as is it a street there is the usual natural debris (leaves, petals fallen from the almond tree, grass etc) but nothing that necessarily needs removing....and yet, every restaurant i have seen has been understaffed. I mean, a singular server fulfills the role of waiter, busser, and sometimes even dishwasher. thus the lack of service and the loong waiting periods. but wouldn't you think, that with all this unemployment they could create jobs (requiring minimum education or technical skills) as bussers and dishwashers to help out? theoretically the business would run more smoothly, the service would be faster thus making more money for the owners. when presented with this question, both my professors (jesus and rosa) could not come up with an answer. yet another mystery in the spanish way of life...

which leads me back to the microwave situation. perhaps it is out of necessity that the restaurant staff often-times uses a microwave to quickly heat a customer's meal in order to expedite service. this is something which i believe, in San Francisco, would be met with horror and defiance, yet the Spanish do not take notice. Furthermore, it doesnt seem to depend on the quality of food as i have even seen a 12-15 euro plate be microwaved (Jamie and i have started poking our heads into bars and restaurants listening for the tell tale "ding" before committing). Clearly we have different cultural beliefs about the value of food (or lack thereof) in relation to the microwave. This is most brilliantly exemplified by Jamie's roommate, Maurizio and italian ex-pat living in granada for the last ten years. This man microwaves EVERYTHING you could posssibly put in there without causing an explosion. Finally, when curiosity got the better of us, Jamie pointed out that the radiation in microwaves is harmful to the body and probably not helping the quality of the food either. We attempted to explain that eating every meal from the microwave probably sapped your plates of any sort of nutritional value and were met with the classic "Oh-you-americans-and-your-crazy-ideas" face plus being told that we were completely wrong. I mean, i'm all for the quick reheat when it's needed, but i refuse to believe that microwaving ALL of your food is not damaging to your health in some way (if not only because it alters the composition of the food itself). Perhaps this is why spanish people do not mind paying 12 euro for a microwaved plate of albondigas, but I on the other hand, prefer my food cooked to order. Call me persnickety if you want, but i will take my meals without gamma rays thank you very much...

i know you were dying to find out...

...what this weeks mcdonald hamburguesa de semana is: australian bacon.
apparently through these internationally themed burgers the marketing directors of mcdonald's are hoping to take their customers on a world tour....i know for me, nothing says australia like bacon on my hamburger

sex in spain...

had a great culture class yesterday, the other girl was sick and i chose this as my opportunity to ask jesus questions of serious import...like, do you think spanish women are more promiscuous than american women? and are spaniards more likely to cheat on their significant others than americans? sounds silly now, but these questions have a wide variety of answers and i think speak to deep seated cultural truths.

for example, when the whole monica lewinsky scandal came out, nobody in spain understood why we cared. as jesus says, "every politico has his amante, and his vida privada is hi vida privada, why do i care if there was semen or no?" it's not so much that one is able to make generalizations about spanish women or men,n because every person has his/her standards, it's more that the cultural attitude towards sexual relations is more open and relaxed, and thus the need for games and manipulation is much less.

this lead into a very interesting comparative discussions of our respective close personal friends and their relationships and how these things work differently here and there. for example, it is strange for a spanish man/woman to try to set his/her friend up with someone. The thought of bringing my friend on a date to meet my boyfriend's friend is so ludicrous to them that they actually find it laugh-out-loud funny. Spanish people would never put that sort of effort into organizing a situation, they are so relaxed (as previously evidenced by their utter lack of productivity, which, having embraced, i am enjoying immensely)that it would never occur to them to do anything more than let the chips fall where they may.

oh, and it's totally ok to sleep with people the first night you know them. in fact, un rollo por una noche is quite common. To explain this, jesus recounted me the story of his first date with an american girl. They went to a movie (to him they just went to see a film but for her they "went out to the movies," something which he emphasized was very different) during which she reached for his hand, there was some footsie. long story short, at the end of the night when she leaned in for her first-date kiss, he straight up asked her if she was going to sleep with him or not. (i'm assuming at this point this very polite american girl was grossly offended). to him this is normal, there are no formalities, no games, no need to dance around the subject, let's do it or let's not. if not i wont waste my time.
Ah, if only we could all be so liberated with our sexuality...

Today, as shira was still sick, we had the opportunity to continue our private discussion, although this time we stuck mainly to school-related topics. (as much as i love our moderately inappropriate cultural discussions, i can only talk about sexuality so much with attractive spanish men before i need to change the subject...quickly). although we did get into a great discussion about everyone in my class and how we feel about them. at the end i thanked him for our chats because i enjoy them so much, and he said yes well he doesnt really talk like this with his students and i probably shouldnt tell everybody else we were gossiping about them.

To put the cherry on top, he spoke english to jamie and i (briefly, but the most english we've heard him speak since we've been here) and it was adorable. Me being jeanne's daughter, i felt the need to tell him how great his english is (that and since he told me yesterday i was one of the most gifted students he'd had in 12 years, i felt it apropos to repay the compliment). typical spanish, he denied denied denied--if you accept a compliment in spain everybody thinks you're being snotty...you're supposed to say, no no no really no...and then say thank you. during which time the other person must insist on the compliment (i forget about this ALL the time and find myself saying, politely, thank you, which to them is horribly rude...ah, one can only do so much). anyway after 4 or 5 "no my english sucks" i told him that jamie and i thought it was foreign and hot and he should use it more often...that was my american way of convincing him of the compliment when in reality is should've just said the same thing over and over. he turned bright red, said thank you in english and ran away. TOO funny but a great end to a series of discussions of cultural differences. you can take the girl out of california, but you cant take the california out of the girl, no matter where she goes...alas...

oh, going to barcelona tomorrow for the fin de semana...woohoo, will report back.