Advertisement
Published: December 7th 2008
Spanish History Through Chess
A Christians vs. Moors chess set... oh, Spain.Happy St. Nicholas Day (yesterday)! Happy December! Happy Christmas-Is-Almost-Here! Happy I have 11 Days!!!
So it’s been a few weeks since I last updated. Sorry about the delay, I just haven’t done anything all that exciting and I haven’t really had the motivation to do anything but listen to Christmas music 😊 But you deserve an update all the same!
Without further ado…
The weekend after Madrid a group of us went to Jijona, a tiny little town about 30 minutes from here. We had heard there wasn’t much to do there, and indeed, the town was rather ugly, but we had our eyes set on one particular place… the turrón factory! Turrón is a really famous Christmas dessert in Spain (it comes in many varieties, some tasting like fudge and others like peanut brittle), and this factory is makes one of the most popular brands, so we just had to visit and take a tour.
We took the bus there, and it dropped us off basically in the middle of the street in this town. The bus stop was literally a sign on the side of the road. So we went into a little shop near
Yay for Turron!
In the turron factory! the stop, and asked the woman working how to get to the factory. She offered to call a cab (not really a good sign) and when we said we could just walk, she pretty much laughed in our faces and told us it was about 4 km outside the city, and if we wanted to get there in time for the last tour, we would have to drive. She called the two taxi drivers in the city (not taxi companies, taxi drivers) and both were currently back in Alicante. As we pondered what to do, her elderly father came out from the back room and offered to drive us. He was so sweet! We took him up on the offer, something we probably never would have done in the U.S. Seriously, I feel like that’s such a European thing… “Need a ride? I’ve got time, let me take you!” He was so nice too, and talked the whole way there. It was kind of an awesome little experience 😊
So we went and toured the factory and bought some turrón and other chocolates (of course) and then were stuck trying to decide how to get back into town. Not
The Bus Stop
This was literally the bus station in town. wanting to pay for a cab, we decided to make the hike. We didn’t really take into account that the factory was downhill from the town, so it was quite a trip back. Fun fun. Actually, it was a really pretty walk, and aside from there being almost no shoulder to walk on, it wasn’t all that bad.
Let’s see (I’m trying to remember that far back)… that week Adam and I held a funeral for Pushing Daisies, which has been cancelled, so that was kind of awesome. Seriously, we buried pieces of paper on the beach that said “the future of creative television” and “Pushing Daisies”… I’m such a dork, I know 😊
The following week was, of course, Thanksgiving! Our group decided to celebrate, and Armando (our director) was gracious enough to host it at his house. A few of us went over a few days in advance to check stuff out and start preparing food… he only has 1 tiny oven, and we were cooking for 20 people, so a lot had to be done beforehand and then reheated. I was put in charge of the turkey, so Thanksgiving morning I had to be at
RIP Pushing Daisies
Pushing Daisies, I'll miss you!!! Armando’s at 9 to start cooking (we weren’t eating until 6). Turkey isn’t all that common in Spain, and they’re not quite as nice about cleaning them as we are, so to put it nicely, the turkeys were a little primitive… it was literally dirty work. That’s all you really need to know, I think 😊 As the day went on more and more people arrived to cook, so by the afternoon the kitchen was packed. It was so much fun just hanging out and cooking and listening to Christmas music… all things I’ve missed. Dinner was an overall success (the turkeys were awesome and I didn’t get anyone sick!), and it was just so nice to be able to celebrate at all, even if I couldn’t be with family. I’m rather thankful for that! It was also cool that everyone brought a little bit of their own traditions with them… we had a Puerto Rican version of stuffing, southern mac and cheese, and all of the other basics that were each made from each person’s family recipe. A really good day overall 😊
Last weekend was a pretty boring one, and this last week has pretty much been
The Sites
Our graves for the future of creative television and Pushing Daisies. the same. I’m now getting ready for the end of the semester, finalizing trip plans, and I have to start on my final papers, so boring is a good thing right now. I’ll take that any day 😊
This weekend, again, boring (well, at least nothing all that interesting to you), but Saturday and Monday are holidays (for what, I don’t know… even Ana’s not really sure), but basically the country has had three days off, so they’re happy! Plus, I went to a parade on Saturday which lasted over two hours, so that was fun… haha, actually, the costumes were great, but Spain basically sucks at spacing and definitely takes their time, so yeah, there’s the two hours for you.
So you really don’t need to hear me stress over papers and reading books in Spanish, so I’ll spare you and stick to the far more interesting stories.
As I mentioned briefly in the last post, we have two girls, Farah and Karima, living with us from Tunisia. They’re both extremely nice, but Karima doesn’t speak English or Spanish, so our communication is basically pointing and smiling. Farah’s Spanish isn’t that great either, but she does
Yum!
Nothing says America like apple pie on Thanksgiving! speak English, so I’ve become her translator with Ana. Basically, we have a little line of communication—Ana speaks in Spanish, I translate into English, and Farah translates into either French or Arabic for Karima. It’s quite funny actually, and it’s improving my Spanish a TON. I’m learning a lot of new vocab, and I’m forced to think of a new way to phrase something when I can’t think of how to word it. Occasionally it gets a bit tiring, as they’re always calling me in to translate when I’m working on something else, but since it’s helping so much, I really can’t complain. Sometimes I’ll get confused though, and on more than one occasion I’ve spoken to Ana in English… she always gets a kick out of that!
The girls are also excellent cooks, and they’ve pretty much taken over the kitchen. Ana doesn’t mind, as she’s told me before she really doesn’t like cooking (that explains some of the meals, I guess), so it’s awesome, because their food is some of the best I’ve had since I’ve been here. Most of the reason for that, I think, is because it’s loaded with flavor. Spanish food is rather bland
Gobble!
Me and my turkeys :) overall, and most of the Tunisian food that they cook is really spicy. I’m getting some recipes from Karima, so hopefully I can cook a bit of it when I get home!
One quick story regarding their cooking… so their first weekend here they made these homemade tortillas that we stuffed with eggs, potatoes, and some spicy sauce of theirs. Anyway, they were absolutely awesome, and I had two for dinner. Ana noticed my increased appetite and kept teasing me about it all night, how suddenly I was so hungry. I didn’t have the heart to tell here that it was the best dinner I had had to date, and I was stocking up in case the good food didn’t last!
Another thing regarding food… so since Spanish food doesn’t have a lot of outside flavor (they rely on the natural flavors of what they’re cooking), Spaniards aren’t used to anything with a strong flavor. Well Ana always puts a plate of cheese out at dinner, and the other day she bought a new kind, warning us that it was very “fuerte,” or strong. To give you a reference point on how fuerte this cheese was, it was
not much stronger than your basic mild cheddar. Yup, strong. :-p
Ummm, other stories. So Ana’s 5-year-old granddaughter was blasting “Sexyback” throughout the house last weekend, singing the words (or as close as she got) at the top of her lungs. Since nobody but me in the house understood the lyrics, nobody but me was laughing hysterically. It was awesome.
Oh, so most Spaniards, to save on energy costs, only use space heaters in the houses, and most only have one or two to heat the entire house. Needless to say, it’s rather chilly. Well, Ana hates the cold, so she has about four space heaters running at once, and about twice a day the power goes out due to the obscene amount of electricity running. It makes me laugh every time, when all of a sudden we’re engulfed in darkness and Ana starts yelling and running around… always with the theatrics. Good times.
Last week Ana so lovingly hinted that I need a haircut… we were sitting at dinner and she looks at me and says, “If you can’t find a good salon, I can give you the address of the one I go to. It’s great!” Please note that I never once mentioned my hair, let alone its need of a trim. *sigh* Oh, Ana…
So even though I’ve noticed that my Spanish has improved a lot, there are still things that don’t quite translate and make me realize how much further I have to go before fluency. One of those things is sarcasm. About once a day a sarcastic comment slips out, and Ana never catches it… she usually stares at me for a second, thinking I’m serious, and then argues with what I just said. Then again, it could just be her. I’ll have to try it out a bit more 😊
Another tiny frustration with the language… one of the differences between Spanish and English that I’ve noticed is that while we seem to use one word to describe many different things, Spanish has many words for one thing. For example, “try”… Spanish has “probar,” “tratar,” “intentar,” “tentar,” “procesar.” There are countless examples like that, and they always trip me up as I’m speaking and use the wrong one. I’ll confuse Ana quite a bit, because to her, probar and tratar are absolutely nothing alike, so if I use one in place of the other, she has no idea what I’m talking about. Frustrating indeed.
Oh! Speaking of language, the girls are teaching me some French! It’s not a lot, but I’m picking up a few words and phrases here and there… I’m rather excited. I mean, I know "cheese," "ice cream," and "chocolate," so what more do I need?! Haha. Also, they taught me how to say “good” in Arabic, so that’s cool too! I’ll dazzle you with my awesome skills when I get home in exactly one month!
Wow, well, I think that’s about all I have for now! Wow, only a third the length of the last one! Time to celebrate!
Off to do more trip planning… we have tickets to see the statue of David and the Last Supper… EXCITING!!!!!!!
Talueo (that’s hasta luego in Spain talk)!
Laura
Advertisement
Tot: 0.051s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0303s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Freya
non-member comment
Really Laura, chocolate???? All you do is drop the e! Haha, miss you!