revision: dining and splitting tips

When I was in Spain I quickly learned something about the way in which Spaniards eat--it is never done alone. Meals, and particularly coffee breaks, are a time to enjoy the company of your friends. Because of this, it is very atypical to see people eating on the go, or in class. I rarely even saw an option at coffee shops for a "to go" cup. I think that this comes from their value of friendship and taking time in the day to enjoy the people around them. Another thing I noticed about the value of peoplea nd relationships through dining was how bills at restaurants are handled. Instead of receiving separate checks, like we do in the United States, large parties and even parties of two are split down the middle. Even fi one person technically "owes" twenty euro and another owes 10 euro, the bill is equally split. When i asked my Spanish friend about it, she said, "the few extra euros, what does it matter? it will all even out eventually, and i'm here to be with my friends. You can't put a price on that". I couldn't help but wonder why we don't do this in the United States. In my opinion, our values as Americans are different than those of Spaniards. In the US, we value work, independence and money. This is reflected in how we handle restaurant bills because of the idea, "what's mine is mine, what's yours is yours". We want to be responsible only for what is ours, not for our friends. This mindset in America is something that I have grown to resent since coming home. I wish that our culture was more collaborative so that our individual successes don't interfere with our relationships.

culture: (may 9) temple in Spain

ever since i decided to come to spain, i thought it would be interesting to go to a temple and sit through a service. a temple in spain, you ask? right. hard to come by. dont worry, i did my research.

my friend evan and i sent an email to the temple, saying we wanted to come. after giving them our passport numbers and other information, they gave us the address. turns out it was a street over from where i live. never have i ever seen a temple, in my whole time here.

so we went, dressed up, for friday night services. and there we were, 19 calle whatever. and it was an apartment building. no sign, no nothing. we buzzed ourselves in.

the “temple” was a floor of the apartment building, folding chairs and a torah and candles. the service went by super fast. we rushed through the blessings and prayers, mostly in tunes i wasn’t familiar with. but then, (dad you’ll love this), we did the vish sham roo one! and it was the same! i sang my heart out.

when the service ended, everyone wished each other a shabbat shalom. and i mean everyone. i double kissed everyone, from the rabbi to the 90 year old woman sitting behind me.

after services theres usually an oneg, a blessing over the bread and wine. at home, we break the bread, everyone takes a piece, chats for a few minutes and leaves. here, all 20 of us sat around a long table, broke the bread, poured wine, passed around little sandwiches, and sat and chatted for about 45 minutes. we made friends with an old couple from denmark, a spunky englishwoman on her way to israel next tuesday, and the spanish rabbi.

fantastic evening.

something else i discovered: playground near my house…drain in the ground, definitely not a drain. its a secret trampoline. and its awesome.

only one final left, and then my life will continue on the beach.

Culture: (Feb 17) How to survive in Spain, so far

it’s taken a month, but i think i’ve finally caught on to some of the most important aspects of spanish culture:

1. how to get on the bus when you’re out of money:

swipe, hear the 3 beeps, look at the bus driver and pretend you dont know spanish. continue walking. (make sure you’re in the middle of the line for this one, not at the end.)

2. how to get the check at a restaurant:

yell.

3. how to refuse food from a determined spanish mother:

tell her you have a stomach ache and if you eat one more bite you might explode, or worse, throw up on the table.

4. how to peel an orange:

must use a knife. make circular cuts around the top and bottom. remove, including soft core (successss). now you have a band of peel around the orange. make slits all the way around. pull them off with the knife. clean off all extra white parts. split open. enjoy. repeat.

5. how to answer a phone call:

DIGAME.

6. how to get alcohol after 1030 pm:

its behind the counter at the drug store. ask for it discreetly, hide the bag once your’e out of the store.

7. how to excuse yourself from class for a few minutes:

say you need a coffee.

8. how to avoid being trampled on the bus:

stand against the wall opposite of the exit door. unless by an odd chance of luck there is an empty seat, then by all means sit down. but be respectful of the elderly and let them sit first. obviously.

9. how to get exercise:

walk home from school. with a backpack full of books.

10. too much olive oil in your dish?

wipe it up with your bread. enjoy.

11. how to navigate alicante:

downhill always takes you to the beach. coming home, the castle should always be on your right. if its on your left, you’re on the wrong side of town. if you’re suddenly going up a steep hill, you’re probably on the castle.

12. how to successfully book a ticket on ryanair:

still unknown.

more to come. besos, todos.

culture: (march 7) "bar scene" in alicante

last night was just a mogellón de fun. kendra and i decided to avoid the usual scene and bar-hop around the barrio.

to quickly fill you in, the barrio is a little neighborhood of TONS of bars, little alleyways etc just filled with bars and people going from place to place. we decided we’d try to just explore and find new places to spend our weekdayend nights.

first stop, a bar with neon lights on the outside. i was skeptical going in, because it was very obvious that there were no americans there, but hey, thats the point, right? so we ordered two cañas (cups of their “house” beer) for a euro each and situated ourselves upstairs looking over the bar. there was a bachelor party going on. in spain, they take their bachelor parties seriously. the lucky guy was wearing a chicken suit, and when we saw one in granada, the guy was riding a donkey through the narrow streets. they know how to do it here.

next bar. i dont even know the name of it but it was a great time. the futbol game was on, madrid vs. sevilla. alicantians love madrid. good thing they won or else i would have been a little worried for my life. so we sat ourselves down, got another caña, and also ordered some food. patatas con 4 sabores is now my new favorite dish. its just potato wedges, and they had 4 sauces to dip them in. a bleu cheese, (gross) a sour cream and onion (yesss) some other white cream and a sweet and sour type of sauce. it was fantastic, and quite the hit becuase pretty much every table in the bar had one.

we returned to the barrio barrio after that and were beckoned by bar tenders to try out their establishment. thats the other thing. there are young people who work at bars standing outside in the little tiny streets where everyone walks saying “where are you guys going?” and they have little coupons for their bars. now, i have a feeling that if i was a spaniard, these would be the people i would avoid. like in the mall when those people try to get you to try their hand lotion. (no, you cannot ask me a question, my hands are just fine, thank you). but since i am american, and i do not know where i’m going, i let them lead me anywhere. in the safest way possible, of course. one led us to an empty bar where we got a deal for shots and a drink. another led us to a bar, also empty, where we got mojitos.

by then it was late and we decided to call it a night. and now its sunday and just like any other sunday, in spain or the united states, i dont want to do anything. siesta anyone? i think so.

hasta luego, everyone, and have a happy start to your week.

culture (march 20): shorts, scenery and castles

something i’ve learned since being abroad:

lots of olive oil, fried food, churros, principe cookies, and chocolate filled croissants + no real exercise besides walking = inflamation.

so today i dragged myself out of bed early, put on my exercise attire (my poor tennis shoes have not been touched in months) and headed to the puerta. time to run.

i dont know if i’ve ever mentioned it, but in spain, they dont wear shorts. even if they are exercising, they wear pants. i mean, there is the acception for the very intense men who wear biker shorts and sweat bands, but i dont think i’m at their level yet. anyways, it is extremely rare to see bare legs. well today the pedestrians of alicante got an eyefull, because i sported my nike shorts and a tshirt. i dont know if it was my imagination or if it was real, but i think i got some stares and definitely a few smirks. (they just wish they were as dedicated to exercise as me, right? yeah).

it was the perfect day to run. it wasn’t hot, but it was comfortable to be out in the clothes i was wearing. it was overcast, so the sun wasnt beating down on me. i ran along the boardwalk that is right by the beach, so i had great scenery the whole time. when i got to the end, i sat by the shore and stretched. ran back, repeat. repeat. repeat. i hurt. so. much.

then i decided i was going to subir the castle (climb up). its so big, and on top of a giant cliff, that i honestly had no idea where to go to start the journey. someone had told me to go up this white ramp, and through a neighborhood. so i began my adventure by climbing that ramp that is over the highway, and then i was in a neighborhood. they were just a bunch of apartments, dull colors, gates, like the rest of alicante. but then i turned the corner… and it was like a whole different world.

a wall covered in the most colorful, beautiful graffiti artwork i’ve seen. little houses and apartments were on top of a huge hill, right under part of the cliff to the castle. i figured this was probably some back way to get up, so i started climbing. these houses were amazing, brightly colored, windows open, balconies with flowers. i was so distracted by them that i didnt realize until i had reached a dead end that i was definitely in someones private property, not on my way up the castle. so i quickly scampered down and went on my way.

i tried three different routes to get up to the castle. fail. fail. fail. i don’t know why its so hard. but i got frustrated, and decided to come back a different day when someone could show me the way. it was a good effort, at least.

this is the view i had the whole time trying to subir:

once i make it to the top, i’ll show what the view looks like. apparently its incredible.

happy saturday everyone. almost spring break time

Culture: las fallas

something great about spain is that they have endless crazy holidays. yesterday, our group went to valencia, to see las fallas.

what are las fallas, you ask? well, i learned from madre that its a much much MUCH bigger version of las fogueres, what paco’s the president of. there are huge floats, flowers, a virgin statue and churros EVERYWHERE. but the details?

its a four day festival, from the 15th-19th of march. apparently, during this whole time its an ongoing party in the streets. valencia is absolutely packed with people (really, you cant move). churros are the food of choice sold on the streets. each community creates a float, and the people of valencia vote on which one is the best. the rest are burned on the last night.

and let me just say, that if you are a jumpy person (like myself), brace yourself for las fallas. at any given moment in the street there will be a loud explosion and your heart will skip about 3.56 beats before you realize its just a firecracker.

yesterday we got to see the masceltá. during the week, they make mascletas, or little dolls. and yesterday, at exactly 2 pm, they set them all off via fireworks. people are literally packed in the streets, and it is the loudest sound ever created. it was so loud that we were advised not to plug our ears, but keep our mouths open to help the pressure. it was INCREDIBLE. i felt the vibrations of the sound in my legs, the ground was shaking, we couldnt hear each other talk. my chest felt like there was a drum inside of it and all anyone could do was grin because it was just the most ridiculous and crazy experience. take a look:

i think this is from the opposite side that i was on, and you cant see much, but its still really cool. people were standing out of their balconies to watch, some of the fireworks landed on us, and i have never seen so much smoke collected in one area in my life.

culture: "guapa"

I noticed right away when coming to Spain, that people greet women as "guapa" which means beautiful. When the girls in my group and I were meeting our families for the first time, they all approached us with an "hola, guapa!" Throughout my time here I have heard it more and more. Young and old women say it to their friends and family members on a regular basis. I thought this was interesting because, in English, we don't necessarily say hi to our friends by calling them beautiful, pretty, or even cute. In fact, as a culture we almost seem modest about looks, or at least talking about them.

But not only do friends say it to each other, men shout it on the streets. If a woman passes by a group of young men, it is not out of the ordinary for them to just say "guapa", or "hola, guapa". I have also heard this a lot from homeless beggers, and street vendors trying to get my attention.

I was talking to some of my friends about this today and one brought up an interesting point. She said she learned that it is actually a historic cultural aspect, dating back to Franco. She said that when he was in power, men and women were not allowed to interact on the streets. I too, have learned this in my pop culture class. But what she learned was that people would learn to sneak around Franco's rules. Instead of interacting with women on the street, men would just shout out the word "guapa" if a pretty woman walked by.

I think that it is so interesting that something like phrases people use here were developed from Franco. It is amazing how much impact he had on this country, and how even years later, his laws still affect the people of Spain and the way they think and act.