Notes from Spainland Part 1

Hey! I know it's been a while since my first update, but as I haven't linked anyone to this blog yet, I doubt the suspense has killed anyone. Anywho, I'm writing this from my bedroom in Hontanares de Eresma, a very small town about 15 minutes outside of Segovia. Rather than give a huge rundown of what life's been like recently (b/c it's like midnight here and I'm all sleepy), I'll copy a list of observations I sent to my home people. I wrote it almost a week ago, so it's not entirely up to date, but I'll do more later.

¡Hola a todos! ¡Saludos de España!

Today is my sixth day in Spain, but it feels like my six hundredth because of how exhausted the time difference has left me. It takes a while to get used to going to bed at what used to be dinner time and waking up at what my body thinks is 3 AM. I’m working on it, but for now I’m really tired and generally disoriented. It doesn’t help that tiny details are different here. Big differences are easy to deal with. It’s pretty cool to look at buildings built in styles I’ve never seen before and landscapes with different plants and animals, but getting pink and blue money out of an ATM is too weird. As a matter of interest, here are some of the small differences that I’ve noticed. Some of them are cool, and some are just bizarre.

1. Water: Water is in short supply here, so a lot of the differences have to do with conserving water.

a. Toilets here don’t have levers. You flush them by pressing a button or lifting a pump/rod-type thingy. You also control how long they flush. They don’t stop on their own. You have to push the button again or push down on the pump/rod thingy to make them stop. They also use a lot less water in toilets here.

b. Showers: Showers here have to be short to save water. They manage to sort of force you not to linger under the water by using only handheld shower heads. Here they don’t usually have a way for you to hang the showerhead up. You have to hold it, which makes it tough to lather your hair or wash yourself without turning the water off so you can use both hands.

2. Electricity: Electricity is also very expensive here, though there are a lot of windmill farms and solar panels being installed in rural areas, so it will eventually become cheaper. Nevertheless, there are some differences related to saving electricity.

a. Most obvious is the use of a different type of plug and a different current here. The plug difference is easily solved with an adapter that costs between €1,00 and €2,00. They cost a lot more in the US, so if you should ever come to Europe, remember to buy them here. As for the current difference, it mostly isn’t a problem except that sometimes something left plugged in too long will overheat.

b. Here no one even thinks of turning lights on before sunset unless it’s a dark and stormy day or you’re in a room with absolutely no windows. Also, people tend to be out at night or, if they’re staying in, to try to go to bed a bit early (around 23:00) to try to save electricity. It’s a matter of financial and environmental conscience.

3. Units of measurement: There are some obvious differences (and some that I didn’t expect) that make measuring stuff here very different from in the US.

a. The Metric System: Everyone knows that in Europe (and pretty much everywhere other than the US) they use the metric system. It’s fine with measurements of distance, size, or volume because the conversions are fairly simple. However, measuring in Celsius instead of Fahrenheit is a bit harder because the conversion is a lot more complicated and harder to do in my head. I don’t even bother. I’ve just been trying to learn relative hotness and coldness based on what I hear my host family and other Spaniards say. Apparently 40°C is really hot, and it’s unlikely to sink below 5°C even in December.

b. The Euro (€): I HATE the Euro. I hate it, hate it, hate it! It’s worth about $1.50 right now, which really sucks, but I’m going to have to get used to it because there’s nothing else I can do. In Spain the recession hit hard. The economy isn’t doing so hot, and there’s an 18% unemployment rate, which is double that of the US. However, elsewhere in Europe the economy is strong, so the Euro is strong as well. Stupid Euro. In addition to being strong, the Euro is colorful. The bills are pink, blue, orange, and other colors (I’ve only seen the €5, €10, €20, and €50 bills), and the coins are silver or silver and gold. Another interesting difference is that there’s no such thing as a €1 bill. Instead, there are €1 and €2 coins (along with 1 cent, 5 cent, 10 cent, 20 cent, and 50 cent coins). The 1 cent coin is very, very, very small. It’s perhaps the most adorable money ever.

c. Decimal points: Here in Europe, they don’t use periods to mark decimal places, and they don’t use commas to mark hundreds and thousands. They do the reverse. For instance, €1,50 is one euro and 50 eurocents. 1.000 is one thousand. €1.004,65 is one thousand and four euros and sixty-five eurocents. It’s not difficult to read, but it does look very strange at first.

4. Popular culture: The popular culture of Spain is very interesting and very different from (but related to) American popular culture.

a. Television: There are two state-owned television channels in Spain, TVE1 and TVE2 (TVE stands for TeleVisión Española). They’re like the BBC in that they show comedies, dramas, news, and sports but are controlled by the state. They’re available everywhere. There are also other channels available via private cable services. For instance, in a bar in Salamanca I watched Ben10 on Cartoon Network. In fact, there are a surprisingly large number of foreign tv shows here, and, unlike in the US, they aren’t on special channels. Whereas we can only watch British or Latin American shows on British or Latin American channels, even the channels owned by the Spanish government show American programs. For instance, yesterday I watched the Spanish dub of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on TVE1 with my host sister. Because Hontanares de Eresma is a very small town, they only get the two government channels, so I’ll have to tell you more about what’s available on Spanish cable when I get to Madrid. Another interesting thing about Spanish TV is that the commercial breaks are much longer than in the US, but there are fewer of them.

b. Movies: Foreign movies are more readily available here than they are in the US. American movies as well as films from France, Germany, and all over are available dubbed in Spanish. It’s really weird listening to familiar characters speaking in unfamiliar voices, but it’s kind of cool to know that I won’t have to miss out on movies that come out in America because there’s not too much delay between the American and the Spanish premieres.

c. Radio: The radio also has a lot of foreign music. Although there are stations that specialize in Spanish pop and traditional music, there are many, many stations for foreign pop, rock, and classical. Yesterday in the course of an hour I listened to Coldplay, the Doors, a singer from Hong Kong, the Decemberists, and a 16th century English madrigal. They say America is a melting pot, and it definitely is one of the most diverse countries on the planet, but Spain, although it is more homogenious in terms of the race of its inhabitants, is ina way culturally diverse as well because it recieves popular culture from all over.

5. The Daily Routine: In Spain the schedule is built around meals, of which there are 3 everyday: desayuno, la comida, and la cena.

a. Desayuno: Desayuno is breakfast, and is served at typical breakfast time (between 7:00 and 10:00). It consists of tea/juice/coffee plus toast with butter, jam, cream cheese, or – if you want to be more traditional – with tomato, olive oil, and serrano ham. You can also have croissants covered in chocolate or cereal, but usually not eggs, which are for more substantial meals. I was talking with my host family, and they were unfamiliar with American-style pancakes and thought it was really weird to have eggs with breakfast. They also hadn’t really heard of waffles or maple syrup, which is to be expected as there are no maple trees in Spain. There are, as far as I know, also no hash browns in Spain outside of McDonalds, but they may not even have them there for all I know. I’ve been avoiding McDonalds.

b. La comida: La comida is often the biggest meal of the day. It’s served between 1:00 and 3:00 and is usually 2 or 3 courses. In a restaurant, for example, I had a comida that included a big plate of pasta salad followed by a plate of chicken with french fries (french fries are big here, but they’re almost always eaten plain – most places don’t even have ketchup), with a kiwi for dessert. Yesterday my host mother served a typical homemade comida: gazpacho, paella, and dessert. We had the candy I brought them. They apparently don’t have M&Ms, Mike and Ikes, Almond Joy, or very much milk chocolate here, but they do have like 5 different kinds of KitKat.

c. La siesta: After la comida comes la siesta. Pretty much all businesses close, and everyone sleeps or relaxes until 5:00 or 5:30, which is fine unless you’re an American who wants to buy something.

d. La cena: La cena can be either huge or tiny depending on who and where you are. It’s usually eaten between 8:00 and 11:00. Cenas I’ve had range from a 3 course meal at a restaurant featuring two kinds of appetizer, a big bowl of vegetable rissoto, and assorted desserts to a bowl of oatmeal with fruit. It depends on whether you’re hungry.

e. Tapas: Okay, when I said there are 3 meals, I kindasorta lied. There are four if you count tapas, which are snacks served with your drinks in Spanish bars. They’re usually small, cheap, and delicious, and they’re meant to make you drink more than you would if you weren’t also eating. Spaniards generally drink slowly and not to the point of being drunk, so going out for tapas is a good way to spend a whole night. It’s not something one usually does every day, but it does happen fairly often because young people aren’t usually allowed to have guests in their house, so they go out for tapas or la cena when they want to see their friends. Tapas could be anything from a tiny sandwich of French bread, cheese, and Serrano ham or the ubiquitous tortilla española to house specialties. The food is generally included in the price of a drink. Most often you can choose between wine, beer, and soda. Mixed drinks here are expensive and don’t often include food. My favorite bar in Salamanca is called Mater Asturias. There I could buy two drinks of sidra (hard apple cider diluted with white wine) and a serving of tapas (I usually chose the ham & cheese & rice croquettes or the empanadas filled with tuna) for less than €2. Thanks to tapas, you can have a really fun (and very safe) night out for less than €15. This is one Spanish custom I definitely think America needs.

6. Spanish food: There are a lot of typical Spanish dishes that many Americans have never tasted - most of which are really delicious and most of which are full of olive oil, salt, and garlic.

a. Gazpacho: This is one of Spain’s more famous dishes. It’s a cold soup made of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onions, spices, and bread. I like it, but I prefer it hot, which is fairly unusual though not entirely unheard of.

b. Chorizo: Chorizo is a bright red pork sausage that’s fairly spicy. It’s very common in Spain and can be eaten with eggs or pasta or in soup or in a million other ways. It’s delicious. Not so delicious is its distant cousin, the morcilla, which is a dark purple (almost black) sausage made of pig’s blood. I refuse to eat morcillas. They’re too jiggly and …well…bloody for my taste.

c. La sopa castellana: Castilian soup is made with ham, chorizo, olive oil, water, garlic, bread, and one egg. The bread is dissolved into the broth, and the egg is broken into the soup just before it’s served – like in egg drop soup. It’s served hot and is pretty good.

d. Paella: Another famous one. This is rice colored with saffron (or cheaper artificial coloring), seasoned with powdered sweet pepper, and cooked with onions and red peppers. It can include meat (chicken or pork), seafood (clams, shrimp, prawns, etc.) or both.

e. Tortilla española: Although many Americans think of tortillas as round, flat bread, in Spain they’re thick, fluffy omelets with potatoes, onions, and sometimes meat. They’re served at la comida or la cena and also as tapas, and they’re pretty much my favorite.

f. Jamón Serrano: Jamón Serrano is a cured ham that is served both raw and cooked. It’s tougher and saltier than American-style ham, which Spaniards call jamón York, but it’s very delicious. In fact it more closely resembles bacon than ham. It’s served as a sandwich or alone to be eaten with table bread.

g. Bread: There’s always fresh bread on the table at mealtime. Always. It is most often dipped in a mixture of olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper. There’s very rarely butter. Spain has a lot of bulls but not a lot of cows, so dairy products of all kinds are kinda scarce.

h. El menú del día: The menu of the day is a great way to eat out at pretty fancy restaurants for pretty cheap. For €9 (about $13), you get to choose a two-course meal from a list of options. There are usually 2 or 3 choices for each course. Included in the price are wine, water, bread, and dessert. It’s delicious and inexpensive to eat the menu, but if you get a menu every day, you fill up pretty quickly. The program paid for 2 menus a day (la comida and la cena), and after the third day I could eat only half of a given plate.

i. Beverages: Wine and water are served at every Spanish meal. Soda is uncommon and relatively expensive because it’s pretty much all imported. In fact, a beer here costs less than a Coke or a Pepsi. Spanish meals are usually accompanied by red wine because that’s the kind of wine they make in Spain. I hate it, so I drink a LOT of water and treat myself to a Coke from time to time. Here there is no diet coke. It’s called coke light, and it is sweeter than diet coke despite also having no sugar. I have no idea what’s in it to make it taste different.

7. Customs, etc.: There are some very interesting differences in manners and customs between Spain and the US. For example:

a. “Por favor” and “gracias”: People in Spain don’t say please and thank you as often as Americans do. It’s not that they’re rude. It just isn’t considered good manners to say them too often. In fact, people think Americans and other people who were brought up always to say please and thank you are very strange for doing it and might even ask them not to say it so often because it weirds them out.

b. Shoes: It’s good manners in Spain to always, always wear shoes in the house. I guess they don’t want other people’s dirty feet on their floors. In America we often do the opposite and insist other people take their shoes off before coming in. I guess it’s a question of whether the feet or the shoes are more likely to be dirty.

c. Personal Space: Here it doesn’t exist. People get very close to you to talk, and you say hello, goodbye, and goodnight by giving two kisses – one on each cheek. If you don’t like to be touched, it’s probably best to just stay out of Spain.

d. Tipping: In Spain, waiters/waitresses, taxi drivers, bar tenders, and pretty much everyone else make a lot more than what they do in America. They have government health care and pension funds and are generally all adults rather than students. A service profession in Spain is, unlike in the US, actually a profession. Because of that, tipping isn’t mandatory. You can if you were really happy with the service leave a tip (normally of 5-10%), but they don’t expect it – especially of students.

e. Staying up: Because dinner doesn’t end until 10:00 or after, it’s usual that even small children stay up until 11:00 or so. In Salamanca, there were small children hanging out with their parents in the plaza at midnight and after. None of us could figure out how they manage to get up in the morning. Then again, they’re not jetlagged like we are.

f. Living at home: Most people here live with their parents until they get married – regardless of how old they are. You could be in your thirties and still with your parents if you’re a single woman. That’s because housing is expensive. There are relatively few dorms, so college students either share apartments or go to college in the city where they live.

g. Sunday: On Sunday, everything but restaurants is closed all day. It’s inconvenient for tourists who arrive on Sunday and need to buy something, but is otherwise ok as it makes the usually loud, chaotic cities quiet. Well, except for the church bells, which ring at the start and end of mass.

8. Similarities: There are a million similarities between Spain and the US. I’ll list a few of the more interesting ones.

a. Video Games: There are lots of video games here. My host sister has a DS and loves to play Animal Crossing and Mario. Unfortunately, only a small percentage of games get translated into Spanish, so there are a lot fewer to choose from. Also, consoles are more expensive. A DSLite costs around €175-€200, which is a lot more than the $129 I paid for mine.

b. Anime: Anime is also popular here, though the series that most people watch are different. My host sister is ten and loves Doraemon, which is a show about a cat with magic pockets that contain anything he wants or needs. They show it on cable TV in Grenada, where she goes to school. Hello Kitty and other Japanese icons are popular here too. Unfortunately I haven’t seen Domo-kun yet. I’m sure he’s here, though.

c. Chain stores: Although there are many more small, mom & pop operations in Spain than in the US, chain stores are beginning to take hold. El Corte Inglés is the major department store. In terms of prices, it’s like Boscov’s. There are also equivalents to the Home Depot as well as supermarkets, fast food restaurants, and strip malls in the newer sections of large cities. There are McDonalds everywhere – including one about 100 feet from the Plaza Mayor in Salamanca. It’s weird to see a McDonalds inside an ancient, beautiful building.

Now for a short summary of interesting stuff that has happened to me:

Salamanca is a beautiful city and a great way to start any trip to Spain. We explored its historic districts and nearby interesting stuff during a four day death-march of tourism and overeating. It was a bit rough because we woke up very early and went to bed very late despite being jetlagged, but I had a lot of fun. I also met some cool people from St .Lawrence, particularly Mio, who’s from the Dominican Republic and Karen, who’s from Chicago. We went out for tapas a few times during the five days we were there. We also spent a lot of time haunting the Plaza Mayor because a band called La Tuna, made up almost entirely of cute Spanish college students, plays there every night. They do a Spanish-language version of “My Way” that’s something you have to hear to believe.

We left Salamanca on Monday for our three-week stay in Segovia. My host family here is very interesting and very nice. There are 4 (or 5 or 6) of them. Javier, the father, is a novelist, journalist, and tutor. His wife Tanya, who was born in England, raised in Spain, trained as a Montessori teacher but because of the recession now works at a luxury hotel. Javier’s daughter, Alba, is 10. She likes video games (the girly ones), anime, sports, and television. She’s pretty typical even by American standards. Tanya’s daughter Elisa is the same age as me and is finishing a degree in fine arts. Actually, she’s exactly one day older than I am, but as far as I’m concerned one day doesn’t count. She came yesterday afternoon and brought with her her cousin Alex, who’s in high school. He speaks a little English too, but since no one other than Alex, Tanya, and I can understand it, none of us use it. Well, except for the one time Tanya told the funny story about how her American stepfather used to laugh at how Tanya, who has a British accent when she speaks English, and her British mother used to pronounce “Rootin’-Tootin’ Cowboy.” Why they were even saying “Rootin’- Tootin’ Cowboy” is anyone’s guess. It is funny, though. During my visit I’ll also have a chance to meet Javier’s mother, a typical Spanish abuela, which is apparently Spain’s answer to the Jewish grandmother. Should be interesting.

Hontanares de Eresma, the town I’m staying in now, isn’t very interesting. It’s on e of the closest towns to Segovia, which makes it kind of weird. At the center of Hontanares it the old pueblo, population about 150 in 2001. Since then, more than 1,000 people have moved into town houses built around the town. I talked to the deputy mayor here yesterday as part of an assignment, and he told me they’re actually making Hontanares a bedroom community on purpose, which is something weird to admit. It turns out there really was never that much culture in Hontanares, so while they try to preserve the 2 town festivals and ensure that the neighbors all know each other, they aren’t really worried about other traditions. They’re more worried about capitalizing on the abundance of water here (water’s a valuable resource in Castilla-Léon) to make an attractive, green, comfortable suburb where people who work in the city of Segovia will want to live.

Since there’s not much else to do, Alex, Elisa, and I have been hanging out and playing card games. There’s one called “Familias” that’s more or less exactly like Go Fish except that you can only ask the person on your right for cards. The playing cards here are completely different. They only have 48 in a deck: the numbers 1 to 9, a 10 which is called a “sota” and has a picture of a woman holding the symbol of the suit, an 11 which is called a “caballo” (horse) and has a knight with a horse on it, and a 12, which is the “rey” (king). They also have a game which is exactly like Bullshit, only they call it “Mentiroso” (Liar). I taught them Spit, which they seemed to like, but they thought it was kinda violent. Apparently everything here is slow, slow, slow. In fact, I’m pretty much bored out of my mind most of the time in Hontanares. There’s exactly 1 bar, an empty swimming pool, and a community center that’s closed most of the time. Other than that, you have to take the bus to the city to do so much as buy a candy bar. So. Boring. And because most of the buildings are new, Hontanares is UGLY. There’s no grass at all, and next to nothing green except a few vegetable gardens (Tanya grows her own tomatoes, which we have in our gazpacho…Delicious!).

Tanya and Javier have been taking us around to see various tourist sites. Yesterday we went into Segovia, where there’s a Roman aquaduct that’s 2,000 years old. It’s more than 2 stories tall, and it’s held together with nothing at all – no cement, no plaster…nothing. It’s breathtaking! There are also more gothic and romanesque churches and castles than you can shake a stick at. One, the Alcázar, looks like it came from a storybook and is where Queen Isabella of Castile, perhaps the most important queen in Spanish history, was crowned. It’s a cool place. There’s also a mountain range that looks like the outline of a dead woman. They say that she and her two sons ruled all of the land around here but that her two sons were always fighting each other over who would inherit what. So as not to have to see them fight anymore, she killed herself and became part of the mountains. Locals believe that every year 2 men, reincarnations of the sons, come to visit their mother. It’s a neat story and a good example of how there’s a tradition or a superstition about everything here – except, apparently, in the cultural vacuum that is Hontanares de Eresma.

Today we went to Pedraza, a medieval city that sits on top of a hill. It’s made entirely of stone. They had wooden barricades up in the town square because their town festival, which includes a running of the bulls, starts soon. It was neat, though I can’t believe how often there are bull runs and how few injuries you hear about on tv. The special dishes of Pedraza are baby lamb and suckling pig – both oven roasted just weeks after birth. We wanted to try some, but as you can imagine they’re very, very, very expensive. People drive 2 hours from Madrid just to eat dinner in Pedraza. There was also a castle and a church, but I was already pretty well fed-up with medieval churches and castles at that point. I know it’s beautiful, but I’ve had it with 12th century architecture. There’s just too much of it here.

On the way back from Pedraza, Alex, Elisa, and I talked about the different kinds of music we like. Alex and Elisa both like American pop music as well as some surprising things. For instance, Alex likes ABBA and the Police as well as AC/DC and Bob Dylan. Elisa likes Bob Marley, Metallica, and Nirvana. Tanya apparently loves Fleetwood Mac. I asked Elisa if it bothers her that she doesn’t understand the lyrics. It doesn’t. And with stuff like heavy metal, it doesn’t really matter if you can understand the words. It’s not like you can hear them anyway.

Speaking of cultural exchanges, Alex, Elisa, and Alba have asked me about a gazillion questions. When I told her they’re about the same age, Alba told me she wants to know from Sam what kind of tv channels there are, what kind of shows he likes to watch and what sort of stuff he likes to do. She also wants me to tell him that she likes to play New SuperMario Brothers and just today unlocked both hidden worlds. She also plays Animal Crossing. The questions the others ask range from whether you need a license to drive in the US to whether I think Obama will manage to pass the health care bill. (Did he? How’s that going?). They also sometimes ask weird things like whether we have castles and have very, very strange ideas about what America is like. All they know about it is that it’s very, very big and that Seattle, where Alex went once on vacation, is wet. They were surprised when I told them about the bear that went near mom’s house. Apparently they think we have no nature at all and everything’s like NYC or LA. Anyway, I told them that as they think of questions I’ll send them along to you all if I can’t answer them. If you can think of a good way to explain football in broken Spanish, I’ll be fairly grateful. Alba still doesn’t quite grasp that it’s “like rugby, but with more padding and more beer,” which is what her dad told her when I couldn’t come up with anything better than “it’s when two lines of huge guys beat each other up for a few seconds at a time.”

If anyone has any questions they'd like a real-live Spaniard to answer, stick it in a comment, and I'll get the answer for next time. Until then, ¡Viva España!

<3land

Hello all! This is my brand-new travel blog/letter home/diary/etc. In it, I'll be giving you all the fascinating details of my mis/non-adventures in and around Madrid. I'll post pics and stories and whatever else I feel like posting during my four months in Paella-land.

I've named my blog "Land's Movida Madrileña." For you English speakers in the blogosphere, movida means a number of things. Generally, it's either a move (like in a board game). It can also be used to talk about what you dig, i.e. "I'm into ecological stuff" (Me interesa la movida ecológica). Another way it can be used is to refer to shady activities or mishaps. In Spain, however, movida often refers to a scene, a center of cultural activity. La movida madrileña is the Madrid scene, a vibrant mix of subcultures and countercultures which exploded after the fall of the fascists and shows no sign of slowing. Hopefully I'll get to experience all possible senses of the word during my time abroad - and you'll get to experience them along with me!

I don't leave for Spain until the 26th, but I figured I'd post a bit about what I know so far. I'll be living for 3 weeks in beautiful Segovia - specifically in the village of Hontanares de Eresma (population 249). As the village's 250th resident (and only American as far as I know), I'll be staying with a novelist, his English wife, and their two daughters (ages 21 and 10). No word yet on what I'll be doing there, but it'll almost definitely be interesting.

After 3 weeks in Hontanares de Eresma, I'll go to Madrid to start school. In Madrid I'll be living down the street from Santiago Bernabéu, home of Real Madrid. I've decided to follow them this season. I think it's the neighborly thing to do. I'll probably buy the scarf, learn the song, and everything. It'll be fun! My familia madrileña will consist of the director of security for a huge chunk of the Madrid subway, his archaeologist/teacher wife, their three sons (20, 14, 9), and one of his co-workers. Their apartment is in a nice building in a very, very nice neighborhood (Paseo de la Castellana 131). Here's hoping it's massive!

Between now and when I leave, there's a TON to take care of (taking the GRE, getting my thesis work in order, cleaning, shopping, packing, and of course spending time with the friends and boyfriend). Other than that, there's not much to report as of now, but I'll have more for you later!

¡Hasta pronto!