Letter of the Day: P

First off, I would just like to announce that lately I’ve felt like an official adult. In the span of one week, I took my winter coat to the dry cleaners (who even uses dry cleaners? adults, that’s who!), dealt with credit card fraud from abroad (who even has a credit card to get fraud-ed? adults, that’s who!), and took care of myself while sick with an awful cold (who takes care of themselves? ADULTS, THAT’S WHO!).

Other than that, these past few weeks have been full of P-related activities:

1. I went to Pastrana, a little town east of Madrid, with a co-worker. And while the people in Pastrana will do their darndest to convince you otherwise, there is very little to see in Pastrana. Especially when it is raining. Which it was. The whole time.

2. I toured the Palacio Real. A group of Harvard alums got a guided tour of the sections of the palace open to the public, and then we got a sneak peek into the old kitchens downstairs, the private wing upstairs, and the carriage houses, home to the carriages, obvi, but also some super large horses. (Thanks for the in, Harvard Club of Spain!) The horses were Dutch and basically the size of giraffes, #sopretty #earlybdaypresentplz. I was the spring chicken of the tour group by at least 25 years but probs more like 40.

During one of the few non-rainy moments in Porto...

3. I went to Porto. (With Ryanair and made it there! Apparently that is some sort of miracle.) Porto is incredible, everyone should go. Most people we met were SO friendly, plus the Portuguese actually know how to make good desserts!! In fact, I basically ate only desserts (and seafood nom) the whole weekend. And here I was just starting to convince myself that Spanish desserts were okay and now I’ve gone and ruined myself… Anyway, we saw just about all there is to see in Porto when it is raining. Which it was. The whole time.

And finally, I will share with you my favorite moment of every week, which has nothing to do with the letter 'p':

On Thursday evenings, a.k.a. the first joyous hours of my weekend, I go to a Bible class that’s a bit of a walk from my apartment. To get there, I walk across this plaza between the Royal Palace and the Opera House. It’s always just gotten dark, the old-fashioned streetlamps have come on, people are walking out and about but it’s mostly pretty quiet, the Palace and Opera House are all lit up, and I can almost always hear the sound of a street musician’s accordion wafting on the breeze as he serenades passersby with a traditional favorite, usually “La Vie en Rose.”  And on this walk, it always hits me: I am in Europe. Life is beautiful. (And I need to remember to drop a coin in that busker’s hat.)

xx,

E.

ANNOUNCEMENT

So I've been keeping this to myself for a few years now, but it's gotten increasingly difficult to hold in (as is the case with most secrets). I was worried people wouldn't understand. But I'm sure it'll feel good to get off my chest, so here goes: I am in love.

… with the Spanish language.

(Did I scare you, Mom? Hehe)

I think I fully realized it when I was home for Christmas and missed Spanish like crazy. There were so many times when one of my siblings would say something, and I longed to respond with a (usually somewhat snarky) “ojalá.” I had to check the impulse, though, because it wouldn’t have been funny... Anyway, as they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder, so by the time my flight to Madrid rolled around, I was so excited to see (/hear, obvi) Spanish again!   

Since we first met, I’ve liked how polite Spanish can be. The fact that it has a separate verb tense for the formal "you" is largely responsible for that. Or, take its words for “excuse me.” If you want to squeeze past someone on a train or bus, you say “con permiso,” literally, “with your permission.” To get someone’s attention, it’s “perdona” or “disculpe,” both of which carry a formality that the English seems to have lost. On an equally gracious note: when you are introduced to someone for the first time, they’ll tell you that they are “encantado/a,” or “enchanted” to meet you! And then, when you leave, regardless of whether you will ever see them again, it's “we’ll see each other” yayy. If the Spanish language were a person, I am quite certain that it would also pull out my chair for me at a restaurant and carry my heavy suitcase up the stairs.

One hand is mine,
one hand is Spanish's.

Spanish is also very forgiving. Have you forgotten something, or lost something, or dropped something down the stairs? Nope, you haven’t! In all of those cases, the thing being forgotten or lost or dropped is the subject of the sentence and thus arguably shoulders the responsibility, while you (you poor thing!) are simply the person who happened to be on the receiving end of the misfortune.  

And finally (although this speaks to culture as well as to language), Spanish has a way with women. There are a million ways to say “pretty,” all of which are used without batting an eye. Women are greeted by friends, acquaintances, and even strangers with an “hola, linda” or “¿qué tal, guapa?” or “hola, bonita” to name just a few. I consider myself pretty immune to flattery, and even I fell hard haha.

For all of these reasons and many more, I’m head over heels for Spanish (and happy to be safely back to Madrid!). I must say, though, that when I was (incorrectly) informed that Spanish didn’t have a verb that signified “to bake,” we almost broke up. But then I consulted with one of my best friends, wordreference.com. It kindly provided “hornear,” and I was officially over the moon once again. 

I'll be here in Madrid with Spanish until the end of June, so come visit us if you have a chance. (: Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas! 

Besos (y feliz año a todos),

E.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

It's officially the holiday season in Spain! I know this because:

On the train to El Escorial

- 1. It's cold! I mean, not actually cold, but colder than before. Whatever, I can safely say that at night and/or in the mountains, it's actually, officially, almost-Wisconsin cold. And speaking of mountains... on Saturday, two of my roommates and I went to El Escorial, a royal palace/museum/monastery/school (now there's a combo!) an hour from Madrid. It was fun to get out of the city and be a tourist for a few hours. 

Since we were already out that way, we visited el Valle de los Caídos, a giant basilica/monument built inside a mountain (we're talking on par with St. Peter's Basilica in Rome here). On top of the mountain is a GIGANTIC cross, I can't even explain (so see photo). The site honors the Spanish Civil War dead, which in theory sounds great. It's polemical, however, because the idea was dreamt up by Francisco Franco, who also happens to be buried in the sanctuary behind the main altar. And also because the complex was built in part by (often political) prisoners, some of whom died in the process of constructing it. Although impressive, we found the whole place incredibly unpleasant, not only because the interior designer/decorator, whoever s/he was, seems to have had a super sinister creative vision, but also because a dictator has been buried (and is, presumably still honored by some) in a functioning place of worship.

El Valle de los Caídos from behind (no I did not take
this impressive photo)

- 2. There are beautiful light displays up at Plaza Mayor and Sol and over Gran Via, etc. and stores everywhere are decked out in red, green, and gold. I say "everywhere" with authority because I have been inside of a lot of stores lately, oh man. Not because I've been blowing all of my grant money on Christmas presents (sorry, fam) but because I've been looking for ingredients to make all the Christmas cookie recipes my sister sent me from home. On the list: cocoa powder, powdered sugar, Crisco (don't be grossed out, it makes cookies delicious ok), check, check, check. The one ingredient nowhere to be found: cream of tartar dang it. I even asked this sweet lady who works at a bakery I (cough regularly cough) visit, and the store she suggested didn't have it either.* Grandma's chocolate yule log just won't be the same haha.

- 3. My students have gone crazy. They've been taking final exams all week because they're on a trimester system and the second trimester starts next week, i.e. two weeks before the Christmas holidays wat that doesn't make any sense. So by the time I get them, their brains are oatmeal. Either that, or they are so wound up that anything will get them riled up and nothing will get them calmed down. Which brings me to my first real "I've just made a fool of myself" teaching moment... 

I was talking about poetry analysis with my third-years, and one of the basic things to know is the difference between similes and metaphors. So I had some examples of both and they had to tell me which was which. As I was writing the presentation the night before, I thought, "Oh, this would be a good time to throw in a few well-known idioms! It'll tie in some new vocab, etc." 

So one of my similes was: "Melissa is as happy as a clam" (a phrase I use all the time, minus the Melissa part, anyway), and since I figured they might not know the word "clam," I had a photo of a clam zoom in next to the sentence. But in class, when we got to that slide, everyone burst out laughing and I couldn't get them back on track for like five minutes. Afterward, the teacher told me that in Spanish, the word for "clam" is used for something totally different... (cue facepalm).

- 4. I'm getting SUPER excited to be back in the U.S. of A. for Christmas! These are a few of the things I'm most excited for: packing snow, Packers games, TV in English, church services in English, my church in general, my home, my home's dryer, my hair dryer, my mom's cooking, anyone else's cooking, Christmas cookies, Christmas carols, seeing my Aunt Carol (and everyone else in my super cool family), etc. 18 more days, baby!

I probs won't post again til Jan., so wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas! 
(And a happy New Yearrrrrr.)

xoxo,
E.

*I still love her anyway, though, because not only is she patient and funny, but whenever I order a little pastry, she always gives me a second one for free! 

On Paros & Pavos

For me, this week revolved around two major events.

DISCLAIMER: SOMEWHAT LONG, SOMEWHAT POLITICAL DISCUSSION TO FOLLOW. If you are not interested in the current state of economic affairs in Spain, skip to EVENT 2. That being said, if you read about Event 1, you might learn something new! :)

An aerial view of the 11/14 protest in Madrid

EVENT 1, 11/14: A “huelga general,” or general strike, was the talk of the town for days leading up to Wednesday and continued to be a major point of discussion in the media and daily conversation afterward. Unlike other strikes this fall, which were carried out by just one public sector at a time, this was a major strike on a national level (or actually on a continental level, as there were similar strikes in Italy, Portugal, and Greece, and demonstrations in other European nations like France and Germany). Students, teachers, sanitation, transportation, and construction workers—basically any unionized sector—went on strike for 24 hours, causing major cities like Madrid to grind to a halt. In Madrid, there were many incidents of vandalism and there were some outbreaks of violence, all of which the media jumped on. But there were also hundreds of thousands of peaceful protesters, for the non-media record.

I talked to a number of teachers about whether they were planning to go on strike and why/why not. The responses were fairly split. Apparently last year, when similar austerity measures were being passed into law, there were several strikes organized during the fall semester. Many teachers felt frustrated that those strikes had not succeeded in changing anything, and for that reason, they decided not to strike this time.

Two protesters: "Se vende sanidad pública" & 
"Se vende educación pública"

Many other teachers recognized that this strike probably would not succeed in impeding further cuts. But, at the same time, they felt almost morally obligated to show the government that they do not agree with the measures being taken to “solve” the crisis. They are upset that the first cuts always hit education, healthcare, transportation, etc. instead of government employees, for example. And one theme came up so much that it seems to be a generally held belief: corruption at all levels of government in Spain is pervasive and is holding back the country’s forward movement. One teacher told me that a strike may not make the government change its plan, but not striking would allow it to confidently declare to the rest of the world, “See! We are doing the right thing, and the Spanish people are behind our decision!” So, in order to prevent that possibility, many teachers swallowed the one-day pay cut and went on strike. 

I think that in America we tend to scoff at Europe, especially southern Europe, when major strikes like this occur. “Ohh Europeans, they’re always on strike about something or other. Har har.” But I was actually really impressed with how seriously all the teachers at my school thought about the issue before deciding whether or not to participate. And I’m sure workers in other sectors (with the exception of high school students, maybe...) thought about it equally hard—especially in a time of crisis, losing one day’s wages is not taken lightly. But when you think your government is inefficient, corrupt, and/or failing to represent you and your fellow citizens, it seems natural that you would look for an extra-governmental way to make your voice heard.

I, for one, did not go on strike. The terms of my grant stipulate “no strikes.” Which makes sense because I get paid by the month, not by the day, so there are def some ethical issues with staying home on a strike day while still getting paid for it…

_________________________________________________________________

EVENT 2, 11/16: CENA DE THANKSGIVING A LA EMBAJADA. Yep, that’s right, I just ate a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner at the residency of the U.S. Ambassador to Spain. I don't even know how many turkeys were responsible for the successful execution of the event...  Thanksgiving is my favorite day of the whole entire year (seriously, my birthday and the 4th of July combined don’t even come close), and this will be the first time in my life that I don’t get to go home for it. I thought about trying to recreate a typical Thanksgiving dinner for my roommates, but there were some roadblocks to that plan, such as 1.) all the ingredients needed are SUPER EXPENSIVE here because things like canned pumpkin or Stove Top Stuffing are only sold in import stores that cater to Americans, and 2.) my apartment has an oven the size of a toaster. Literally I think it is safe to place it in the category of toaster ovens. 

Luckily for me, a number of Fulbrighters were invited to the Ambassador’s for a Thanksgiving dinner, and we each got to invite a teacher from our school as well. So my school’s English coordinator and I went and had a lovely time. I’ve never been so happy to see stuffing in my life!! It didn’t come anywhere close to my grandma’s, obviously, but it beat HUDS’ by a mile, so I’d say it was a success. It was fun to share such a special tradition with other Americans (and with the teachers, many of whom had never experienced a Thanksgiving dinner). 

Fulbrighters with Mrs. Susan Solomont. It's sort of like
Where's Waldo?, 10 points if you can find me haha.

After the meal, the ambassador’s wife, Mrs. Solomont, showed us around the main floor of the Residence. The U.S. Embassy in Spain takes part in the ART in Embassies Program, which reminded me a little bit of the rotating art in Harvard housemasters’ residences, but on a much larger scale. For example, the original of this photo is currently chilling there, along with this painting and this and tons of others. #CasualAndyWarhol #IwaslikeWAT.

I’m ashamed of myself, though, because as a self-proclaimed Thanksgiving worshipper/pro, I should NEVER have made the classic mistake of a Thanksgiving newb: my dinner party outfit included a belt. 

Love to all! /GO HARVARD, BEAT YALE!!!

E.

Life's getting real

In college, November was always when the rubber hit the road. In November, the weather would start to get cold and gray, schoolwork would start piling up, HUDS would run out of new meal ideas and start serving strikingly similar pasta and sausage entrees, etc. Luckily, Harvard-Yale & Thanksgiving were always two bright blips of fun on an otherwise black radar screen destined to durar hasta Christmastime.

I saw Bon Iver live in concert last weekend.
And that show would've shaken off even the
worst case of November blues. SO great. 

Now that I’ve painted such a bleak picture of November, I will confusingly say that it has always been one of my fave months, and this year is no different. Sure the weather here is cold and gray, but that gives me an excuse to wear mittens and scarves and feel very warm and European. (Anyone who thinks Spain is always warm and sunny is right, but only if they’re accidentally thinking of Tucson.) Lesson planning only becomes monotonous if you let it, or at least that’s what I tell myself. And the actual up-in-front-of-the-class teaching part is actually something I always look forward to.*

As for HUDS, well, this year I am my own HUDS, so if I’m bored with my options, it’s my own fault. I’ve been experimenting with different recipes lately (“recipes” is a loose term heh heh). For example, this past weekend, my friend Rachel and I made coconut curry with veggies and chicken for my sister and her friend who were visiting me yayyy, and it was flippin’ delicious. (Thanks for the recipe, Liz!) Fruits and veggies are super cheap here if you buy them at your local mercado (my local mercado paid me to say that), so I don’t even have to break the bank to eat healthily. But I am trying to avoid getting tooo attached to nutella, mangos, and avocados because those will be expensive addictions when I return to the States…

The roomies + our homemade Mexican meal,
which you can't really see, sorry about that.

Eating out is also relatively cheap, but my one complaint for a while was “where’s all the good Mexican food?” I went to one place that was delish but charged like 4€/tiny taco and I was like whaaat that is ABSURD, I went to another place that should not have even been labeled Mexican, and one night, my roommates and I even cooked a Mexican dinner from scratch out of desperation (including the corn tortillas, which were remarkably successful but also remarkably time-consuming to make for our inexperienced selves). Finally, my friend Pamina came to town/the rescue. She knew of this little place called Taquería Mi Ciudad, which serves cheap, tasty chips & guac, tacos, margaritas, and it is the BEST, and I plan to return every weekend. (But actually. I’m going again tomorrow with two of my fave Fulbrighters/mexicanas, both of whom could probs use a michelada fix haha…)

The only things I’m really missing right now (besides my friends and family obvi) are: the beautiful fall foliage in Cambridge and American football. So I will close with a very loud GO PACK, GO! :)

xoxo,

E. 

*In college, if a TF didn’t know his or her students’ names by the end of the semester, it bugged me. I now have more sympathy... I teach a total of 300 students. And there are a LOT of names that repeat. If I manage to learn them all by June, I will be proud of myself haha.

Día de la Hispanidad

Heh heh

October 12 is a national holiday in Spain, known officially as “Fiesta nacional de España” but often called “Día de la Hispanidad.” It celebrates Columbus (October 12 was the day the famous explorer first laid eyes on America) and Spain’s contributions to the world, etc. Yes, I realize this holiday was now two weeks ago. Blogging without a computer is hard, ok.

In light of this holiday, I used my various English classes last week to talk about Hispanic identity (i.e., is there such a thing/how would one go about defining it/etc.) and Día de la Hispanidad’s sister holiday in the U.S., a.k.a. Columbus Day (in the greater context of Hispanic National Heritage Month in the U.S.). 

I always started the class by asking what the students already knew about Columbus. The first answer was usually the classic: “He discovered America!” which served as a great launching pad to talk about how Columbus didn’t really discover America—he only ever landed in the Bahamas and those islands were def already inhabited—and how maybe, just maybe, he wasn’t such a cool guy to celebrate... By the end, when I asked students if they thought the U.S. should still celebrate Columbus Day, most of them said “no.” (Well, many of them still said “yes," initially. But then I told them that they had to pretend that the holiday no longer included a vacation day from school or work. How about then? And only then was the answer “well, no.” Ohhhh, kids haha.)

Anyway, October 12 here in Spain does mean no school or work, yippy skippy hip hip hooray. My roommate was going to Sevilla and Córdoba for the long weekend with a big group of people, and they had one seat left in one of the rental cars. So she invited me to go along WOOT, road trips are my fave. There were nine of us total: 3 Italians, 2 Swedes, 1 Belgian, 2 Frenchwomen, and 1 American (me). It was basically the United Nations haha. And with the exception of one poor Swede, our common language was Spanish, but we all spoke it to varying degrees of intelligibility, making communicating hilarious. Now that two weeks have past, I'm having a hard time remembering specific instances, but I do remember that there were a lot of facial expressions, gesturing, and sometimes quality charades needed to get any given point across…

The whole crazy gang

Sevilla was amazing! So much history, holy cats. I think that’s what impresses me most about everywhere I visit in Spain: the buildings and the streets, etc. are just so. dang. old. And for that same reason, Córdoba was probably my favorite part of the trip. We were only there for an afternoon, but we got to visit this giant, 1200ish-year-old mosque. The architecture was absolutely incredible.

La Mezquita de Córdoba

It's technically not a mosque anymore, however, because during the Reconquista, the central part of the building was converted into a Catholic place of worship, and the building was renamed "La Catedral de la Asunción de Nuestra Señora." But the original mosque remains intact around the little central cathedral part. Now there are discussions about it reverting back into a mosque, which it is clearly more suited for, but only time and many more roundtable discussions will tell about that.

My sister arrives in a week yayyy! And she'll bring me all the American goodies I've requested, plus my NEW COMPUTER, DOUBLE YAYY!!! And then I'll blog once/week, dedos cruzados. :)

Love,
E.

Weekends FTW.

It's Wednesday, which means I'm more than half done with my work week (!!), classes are going well, the weather is beautiful, I'm loving life, etc. Nothing too interesting there haha. My weekend, however, proved to be very interesting, so if it's alright with you, I'd rather talk about that instead.

View of Toledo from the top
of la Iglesia de San Ildefonso

On Friday, I wanted to go to Toledo, which is just a short bus ride away from Madrid (50 minutes-ish, if you succeed in getting a direct bus, which I did). I was going to go with a friend and then she couldn't go, but I decided to go anyway. The man at the bus ticket window gave me a hard time about that. “One ticket? Are you going alone? No one should go to Toledo alone! Look, here is a nice gentleman; you should go with him!” etc. (at which point his co-worker, a.k.a. the “nice gentleman” in question, looked over with “WAT” written all over his face). And I was like mira, no pasa nada, en serio, could I just have my ticket now, pretty please?

Toledo is beautiful. It is jam-packed with history and a crazy mix of art and architectural styles that stem from said history. Not going to lie, I ate so much marzipan that I felt a little ill, but other than that, it was a stellar day. For more information about Toledo, see the picture on the left or go visit for yourself.

Saturday, my laptop (who, as many of you know, was brought through a grave illness this May thanks to a super tech-savvy co-worker of mine) finally and forever died, may he rest in peace. I will never forget how the lil' guy froze every single day at 4:48PM on the dot, without fail, or how he stuck it out with me through the entirety of an exhausting college career, including through weeks of non-stop use leading up to my senior thesis deadline. What a trooper! He will be missed. I thought about writing him an ode, but I don't really know how to write odes.

I now know that this place is within walking
distance of my house. Oh no., please help.

Saturday night, I took part in the time-honored Spanish tradition of staying out with friends until the wee hours of the morning and then stopping at Chocolatería San Ginés for some dangerously delicious hot chocolate (literally just melted chocolate—think Burdick's) and churros before heading home to bed. According to my Spanish roommate, however, a true madrileño/a would have stayed out til the sun rose (which takes place around 8:00AM here), stopped by a café for breakfast (and/or chocolate con churros), and only then gone home to bed. So I guess I´m not a true madrileña yet. But it´s good to have something to aspire to haha. ;) 

Much love,

E.