La Culture Española

This is a song that I have ‘translated’ from Spanish to English. It is sung by a Spanish group called Jarabe de Palo and I love it. The song is called Bonito, Beautiful. The picture is from a billboard that I saw in Sevilla. “Enjoy the journey and don’t worry about the things that have solutions” Both of these things tell a lot about the Spanish and their culture. I have found that things here are more relaxed and less hurried than at home. This culture gives you time to enjoy what you are doing without worrying about the things that are coming next. That is why I love it here.

Beautiful, everything to me seems beautiful
Beautiful morning
Beautiful place
Beautiful bed
From which you can see the sea
Beautiful is the day
And it has just begun, beautiful this life
Breathe, breathe, breathe

The telephone rings, my corduroy complains
Things go bad, life is heavy
To live like this shouldn’t\ interest you
To continue like this isn’t worth it
Lost has been lost, the party has just ended
And the motor that pushes the earth has stopped
Life is a joke with a sad ending
The future doesn’t exist but I tell you…

Beautiful, everything to me seems beautiful

Beautiful peace, beautiful life
Beautiful to be born again each day
Beautiful truth that doesn’t sound like a lie
Beautiful friendship, beautiful laugh
Beautiful are the people
Beautiful are the people that don’t complain
Who win and who lose, that speak and don’t lie
Beautiful are the people, and for that I say…

Beautiful, everything to me seems beautiful

How beautiful is everything when everything is beautiful,
How beautiful everything is going for you

Beautiful, everything to me seems beautiful
The sea, the morning, the house, the shadow,
The earth, peace and life that passes.
Beautiful, everything to me seems beautiful.
Your calm, your salsa, the spot on your back,
Your face, your energy on the weekend

Beautiful are the people who come and who go
Beautiful are the people that don’t stop themselves
Beautiful are the people who don’t have an age
Who listen, who understand, who have and who give

Beautiful Portet, beautiful Peret
Beautiful la rumba, beautiful José
Beautiful the breeze that isn’t in a hurry
Beautiful this day, breathe, breathe
Beautiful are the people who are real
Beautiful are the people who are different
That tremble, that feel
That live in the present
Beautiful are the people who were here but no longer are

Beautiful, everything to me seems beautiful

Holiday in Spain

When we think of “The Holidays” we usually think of traditions, times spent with family and friends, snow and cold, shopping stress, and eating way too much for way too many days. But when you are somewhere where the traditions are different, where your friends and family are thousands of miles away, where there is no snow and little cold, you are forced to embrace the traditions that surround you and to start your own. You must find cheer and love in the ordinary, in the things that are new and different, and you must laugh

So here is a list of holiday goodies, memories, new traditions, laughs, uncomfortable situations, etc. that have kept me smiling even through times when I missed everything that usually makes the holidays “The Holidays”.

1. Watching the Spanish lottery on Christmas Day as children sing the numbers that are drawn and the whole spectacle is broadcast on all television channels for 5 hours. And wathing it again when it repeats for the second big lottery on the 6th of January, Reyes Magos.
2. Being invited to a Christmas Day family barbeque in the ‘country’, sitting outside the entire day in 60 degree weather while eating a variety of Spanish meats and cheeses, and drinking rioja.
3. Listening to people directly translate Spanish colloquial phrases into English, the result of which is phrases like these:
- I broke myself on the skin of the apple (meaning: I laughed so hard I cried)
- What such a bad boy! (yelled at the tv during a soccer game when a player missed a shot)
- Let’s go to the Tit-ery. (In Spanish, a tea house is called a tetería…)
4. Going to countless Zambombas (parties where you sing Christmas songs) and learning to play the pandareta (tambourine). The best was when one woman decided it would be even more effective to bang to pandaretas together, like clapping.
5. Receiving packages in the mail from loving friends and family…even if it was lost in Spanish Correos for over a month
6. Joining in the Spanish tradition of having a nativity scene (they are literally everywhere- public schools, banks, laundromats, cell phone stores, etc.) and making a it out of things we found around the house…The three kings are made of toilet paper rolls with Kleenex head dresses, Joseph is made of paper and looks like he has a broken neck, and Mary loses one of her cardboard legs if she is moved. The camel (a plastic dinosaur) is carrying a stick of incense and a gold chocolate coin. Also, to follow the Spanish tradition of having a ‘viejo cagon’ (the old shitter- represents the simplicity of daily life) we have added some brown chunks of paper and a piece of chocolate in a moon shape to the scene.
7. Leaving the house at 1am to go to a New Year’s party and getting home at 8am.

8. Sharing the New Year with Caitlyn and enjoying her friendship here for more than a week : )

9. Being on vacation from the 17th of December to the 7th of Janurary, then going back to work for one day which is then followed by a three day weekend
10. Getting my nose pierced : ) just in time for New Years. And this time it actually worked.

11. Going to the Reyes Magos parade, being in the front row, and ordering Emily to get down on her hands and knees to collect candy off the street while I held up our bag to catch the ones being chucked through the air.
12. Receiving a pair of Turkish Eye earrings (for good luck) and purchasing a pair of Hand of Fatima earrings (to repel the evil eye)
13. Using Spanish grammar/sentence structure to describe things in English, and thinking it sounds right. For example: I will go put myself in line (Voy a ponerme en la fila). Have you put together your suitcase? (Has hecho la maleta?). That would be a casuality ( Sería una casualidad…meaning a coincidence.) I have accostumated…(from the verb acostumbrar…and this while I was writing one of my grad school application essays).
14. Keeping as pets two little caracoles, snails, in a nutella jar in the window.
15. Having friends, with all the kindness in their hearts, make hamburgers with cheddar cheese for dinner because they think we eat one everyday at home.
16. Saying hello and goodbye with besos, one on each cheek
17. Seeing the Christmas light in Madrid! (Puerta del Sol)

18. Being able to reminisce with new friends after only three months of experiences together (remember when…the four of us went out for tapas and ended up with an 83 euro bill which we now call ‘ la gran follada’ …when I asked for a medio kilo (over 1 pound) of churros…when the goat climbed the ladder and pranced around in the street on Christmas Eve and Emily though they were going to kill it…when we had a kitty and the kitty had bugs…when everyone ate a wonderful Thanksgiving meal together for the first time…)

So although it was different, although it lacked most of the things I associate with the holidays, it was a wonderful experience to spend this season in another country. Even though it was at times uncomfortable and with many language and cultural barriers, Emily and I (and Caitlyn while she was here) had an incredible vacation that had nothing to do with presents or commercialism. It was all about experiencing new things, finding joy where some would find sadness, and laughing laughing laughing with thankfulness in our hearts at everything that Spain gave us the opportunity to experience.

But with that said, I really did miss you all. It wasn’t the same without you.

snowboarding in sierra nevada

Fernandito, Mario, Carlos, Me


Here are some pictures from my snowboarding adventure in the Sierra Nevada in Granada. As you can see, it was incredibly gorgeous! The drive from the city of Granada, which sits in a valley surrounded by the mountains, up to the little mountain village is about 50km of windy mountain road. From there we rented equipment and took a telecabina, 15 person tram, to the ski lodge. The trip up took about 15 minutes, and from there we took the chair lift to the top of the hills. this was the first time I have ever been skiing/snowboarding in the mountains and it was completely different from the experience you get in flat Wisconsin. There was one run, El Rio (the river) that went from the top of the ski hill all the way down to the village. It took about 20 minutes to descend...a good way to work up an appetite before eating lunch.

Thanksgiving!

For me, this year Thanksgiving started on Monday…when I had to go to the carnicería (butcher’s shop) to ask if they had any turkeys. The man sent me to his friend who told me the smallest turkey he could get us would be 5kg (12lbs I think). He said he would go to his friend’s farm on Thursday, look for the smallest turkey, and kill it for us. I left worried not sure if he understood that I would need the turkey ready to be cooked…not a freshly killed turkey, feathers, innards and all.

On Thursday when I went to pick it up thankfully all the feathers were off, the innards were nicely contained in a plastic bag, and when I asked him to cut off the head for me (Emily and I didn’t think we would need the turkey head) he gladly did it. Also on Thursday at the market I searched the booths for pumpkin, found some sort of squash/pumpkin thing, and brought it home for Super Pumpkin Bars and Pumpkin Pie.


Friday Emily and I got picked up at 2:00pm and were taken to our friend’s house to cook the desserts. I am not sure if I have ever included that our kitchen does not have an oven, so all baking must be done somewhere else. Unfortunately, the 15 minute drive from our house to the oven resulted in a 15 minute drive back because we forgot the pumpkin. Friday was also when we prepped the turkey- plucked the remaining feathers and put garlic cloves and butter and rosemary under its skin. We also slathered it in olive oil.

Saturday we had to get up early to start cooking the turkey for our 3pm meal. We made the stuffing and popped it in the oven. In the end it was about 5.4kg, so it literally took up the entire oven (Spanish ovens are smaller than ones in the US). We also made mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and jello shots with mandarin oranges. The best part was relaxing in between the cooking, watching the movie Love Actually, and drinking good Rioja wine.

Right at 3:00pm, okay, maybe it was more like 3:30, we finished everything up, put the turkey on the table, and made our friends all say something they were thankful for. Haha, it was great. We told them they couldn’t eat until they each said something sincere; they were so embarrassed. I had the honor of cutting the turkey, for the first time, and although I may not have cut perfect breast slices I got the turkey on the plates and that is all that mattered.

Being in Spain and celebrating Thanksgiving was really interesting. It didn’t feel real, especially because it wasn’t cold, there was no snow, I had to work on Thanksgiving Day, and I wasn’t with my family. It was fun and enjoyable and a great experience, but I missed home and friends and family.


The Crisis

If you come to Spain, even for a day, there is no doubt you will hear about what they call the ‘crisis’. Everyday on the news and in the newspaper there is information about the failing economy, the staggering numbers of jobs being lost, and the number of people turning to the government for help. The situation is incredibly sad, getting worse everyday, and does not have an easy solution. It is very sobering and eye-opening.

An aside: One of my friends is a civil engineer and has never had trouble finding work (one of the reasons he graduated in this field was because it had always had job security, even during economic downturns). Their system is a little different than ours in that people get contracted for a certain period of time and when the job/project is completed they look for another person with whom to contract. In one week, he will finish his current job but has nothing to replace it. He has been looking for work and submitting resumes for 4 months, but there are literally no jobs available.

I cannot imagine having an education, wanting to work, actively looking for work, but in the end not being able to. This has shown me, more than I realized before, that people who are unemployed are not lazy, unwilling to work, hoping to live off of government aid. Most people in this situation want to work. They actively look for work. But there is just nothing available.

Is it this bad at home? People ask me what the crisis is like in the US, but I came here at the end of September, before things started to get really really bad.

Vacation

On a happier note, I have less than 1 week left until vacation starts. Next Tuesday I leave for Granada to go skiing/snowboarding in the Sierra Nevada. I get to miss a few days of school, and hopefully the crowds at the ski hill, and extend my vacation from the 18th to the 8th of January. : ) This weekend I will also be going to some zambombas. These holiday parties are unique to Jerez and consist of singing, dancing, playing instruments, flamenco, drinking, and eating.

I hope you all at home are enjoying the holidays! Sending everybody love and besos!!!!

Friends and motorcycles

Last weekend I went, by motorcycle, to some of the pueblos blancos along the Atlantic coast. This picture of the sunset is from one of these pueblos, Puerto Sherry, outside of a crepería (where I enjoyed a crepe filled with nutella, banana, kiwi, walnut, and whipped cream) about 20 minutes from Jerez. We also went to the Spanish National Championship Moto Race on moto to see the action, which was pretty interesting and entertaining for a few hours.



In addition to horses, flamenco, and sherry wine, Jerez is known for motorcycles and their circuíto where very important races are held. All of our friends have motorcycles, crotch rockets, and like to take them out at least once a weekend for a ride either to the beach or the mountains. Emily and I have been fortunate enough to be invited to these excursions a few times, and seeing the coast of southern Spain by motorcycle is incredible. They are all very good ‘pilots’, and they provide us will all the moto gear…which includes helmets, gloves, and motorcycle jackets. When we go next time I will try to get a photo.

Yesterday we again enjoyed the sunset and wonderful weather at a little beach town after eating lunch at the restaurant of our friends’ Italian friend. Spending time with Spanish people and observing how they interact with their friends says a lot about their culture and makes obvious the differences between Spanish and US cultures. On Saturday, we enjoyed lunch with friends from 1-4pm, which was then followed by 4 hours at another bar where we drank coffee and relaxed until the sun went down. It seems like every moment is enjoyed, rather than hurried, and life isn’t about doing or getting more, but about loving and taking pleasure in the current moment.
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This week I was also invited by my school’s biology teachers to Parque Nacional de Doñana. To get to Doñana you must cross the Guadalquivir river by boat right where it meets the Atlantic ocean. Doñana is interesting because it is a main stopping point for migratory birds moving between Africa and Europe. It also has 3 different ecosystems due to the salt water/fresh water meeting point and the sand dunes that are found in the interior of the park. The trip was super fun because we toured the park in bus/trucks through the sandy ground, holding onto our seats the whole time. This picture is of one of my students and me in a well at on of the old homesteads in the park.



In other news, the week that brother was here we had a cat. To make a long story short, we cared for the cat for a week and then found it a new home after discovering it had bugs (we are pretty sure they were not fleas…in any case, our home was/is not infested). The kitty was so adorable and looked like a little bat, so we named her Murciélago. She how lives on a farm in the country and we miss her lots, but we are happy to no longer be cleaning up kitty poop from the shower.



I miss you all! Especially now that I am thinking about Thanksgiving and the upcoming holidays, it makes me think of home and friends and family. I hope that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend and please eat an extra plate for me! Emily and I have plans for cooking a Thanksgiving dinner which will include turkey, stuffing, sweet and mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, and super pumpkin bars, so that our friends can experience it. We are even going to go around the table and make them say something they are thankful for. Haha, I can’t wait. Wish us luck, neither of us have done this before!

In other news...

yesterday on our day off Emily and I went to the tattoo/piercing parlor that we walk by everyday on our way to school. I decided that it was time for me to stop talking about getting my nose pierced and actually do it. We asked the piercing man how it works, if it would hurt, how it is cleaned, and made him go through the whole process with us before I decided for sure to go through with it. Everything went well up until the time when he had to push the stud through the plastic tube that was in the piercing hole. Something happened to the plastic tube and it slipped through so that he could not get the piercing into the hole (although he tried very hard and it was very painful). I left the place with a teeny tiny hole in my nose and a few tears, but no piercing (to the relief of my dad, I'm sure) to my dismay. Perhaps in a few weeks when this hole heals I will try again : )

Un invitado

This past week my brother came to visit…and with him came bad weather. I had so many plans for us, but most of them were foiled by the rain, rain, rain that would not stop falling. So, instead of leaving the house and exploring we stayed in and explored the wonderful world of Spanish cooking. The first thing we made were Spanish meatballs, similar to meatballs I have had at home, but fried in olive oil. Next, being adventurous, we opted for Rabo/Cola de Toro, Bull Tail. However, instead of making the recipe with the tail we went to the meat market in the center of town and asked for a different kind of meat to make in the same recipe. Unfortunately, when adding a pinch of salt for the finishing touch the cover came off the salt shaker and we added about ¾ cup of salt. Even after our best effort to get out as much salt as we could, the dish was pretty much ruined and burned my mouth when I tried it. So what we did was add a ton of water, made it into a soup (more or less) then actually ended up eating only the veggies and meat that we drained.

Over the weekend we were invited by my friends, on Saturday, and my teachers, on Sunday, to eat at a venta, an old house in the country that has been converted into a restaurant that serves traditional country food. The first day we tried many different things, most interesting of which was called ajo de la vina. It is a mushy poridgy mix of garlic, tomato, bread, onion, water, salt, and olive oil that tastes like pure garlic. The second day we actually went back to the same exact place so Ar and I knew what to get- I got carrilladas (pig cheeks) and he got a bloody piece of veal. Yum. We also ate the garlic mush again.

On Monday the rain finally stopped so we ventured out to the alcazar, the fortress that was built at the highest point of the city. In the highest point of the alcazar there is a cámera oscura, a dark camera, which uses a mirror to project a live image of the city through a lens onto a white screen below in a darkened room. The screen is in the shape of a circle, slightly concave, parallel to the horizon, and set at about waist level. The woman working the mechanism could focus the image of the city on the screen and then point out all the monuments in Jerez. We went around 360 degrees and saw the whole city, it was very incredible and I can’t wait for more visitors so that I can go back.

Tuesday, brother’s last day in Jerez, we went to a sherry bodega for a tour. It was very interesting learning how the sherry wine is made and seeing the mini-world that makes up the bodega. After the tour I asked our guide if she knew anything about them wanting to hire a native English speaking tour guide. She directed me to the ticket office and the woman there told me to drop off a resume, in Spanish, and that she thought they were looking for an English speaking tour guide. I was very excited to hear this (as most of you know, when I first looked at Jerez in my Spain guidebook I saw that bodegas sometimes hire English speaking tourguides, and it has been my dream ever since to work in one) so this weekend I will work on translating my resume to turn in on Monday.

Also new and exciting is that (1) I joined a gym, (2) I had my first private tutoring lesson with two girls from my class, and I will continue to meet with both of them twice a week, and (3) I volunteered for the first time at an Oxfam store. I am finding myself increasingly busy, yet still able to fit in a siesta everyday.

Elections
The experience of witnessing the presidential election abroad has been very interesting, to say the least. You would be amazed how much news was and is dedicated to our presidential election process, our candidates, and the nominee. Every newspaper, every TV station, and every radio station had/has news about what is going on. Today I bought a national newspaper which has a whole section dedicated to the history of the civil rights movement in the US from the times of slavery. It is amazing how much interest there is in our politics.

On Tuesday I wore my Barack Obama shirt to school, and even my 12 year old students knew who he is. I can’t even count how many times people asked me who I though would win and how many people told me they were hoping for Obama. Also, on Wednesday I got a congratulations from every teacher, it felt like I had been elected president, in celebration of Obama’s nomination. It was strange being away from home and friends during this time, but I am grateful to have had this experience as it has again shown me just how much of an impact the US has on other countries and their citizens.

I also got a hair cut about a week and a half ago, and it only served to reinforce what I already thought, that you need to get a haircut to truly experience another culture. However, you should not do this if you feel very attached to your hair as you will most likely end up sorely disappointed. Everything was going fine with my cut, I told her exactly what I wanted, which was a trim, and I thought we were on the same page. Well, turns out that she thought a trim meant she should cut some side bangs that are about half the length of my other hair. So yes, just like the last time I got my hair cut in Spain, I have what could loosely be categorized as a mullet. Needless to say I am hoping that it grows out quickly.