Pizza!

This is what our pizza looks like. We each get a personal pie. As a long islander, I feel that I have a higher standard for pizza than most Americans. It still shocks me that some people willingly consume Dominoes “pizza”. Blasphemy. I also have a strong aversion to Hawaiian pizza. I do not find it an acceptable variation of pizza. I have standards.

So how is our Juyca pizza? ……….okay, I guess. I don’t have a strong opinion about it because I’m so hungry by the time it gets here that I don’t notice what it tastes like. I just need food. It’s better than some options but that doesn’t mean it’s particularly good. I mean, look at it. Funky, right?

"My water is orange and it's fine"

The water in Spain is great. Perfectly good to drink. Last semester when I first got here, I assumed that I just had to get used to the different taste and it would be fine. I drank tap water all last semester.

When I got back to our apartment at the beginning of this semester, Emmalie told me that the Spanish girls had started drinking bottled water instead of tap water. They had not explained why or said anything about the tap so we continued drinking it. Then after watching us continue to drink the tap water for TWO WEEKS, someone finally said something. Maria told us that the tap water was contaminated with copper because the pipes in this building were bad. The situation has definitely gotten worse in the last few weeks. The water has a harsh metallic taste and comes out brownish or yellowish. You have to let it run for a minute before it gets clear.

I told our housing coordinator about it. She wasn’t having any of it. She kept saying that the water in Cordoba was fine .I tried to explain that it was our building but she still wouldn’t hear it. Then Eva, a woman who works in the office, said that the water comes out orange (ORANGE!!!) in her house. She still drinks it. It’s fine. I had to hide my disgust.I Just don’t understand how you could look at orange water and think “That looks perfectly acceptable even though by definition water should be clear.”

After I found out about the water, I had a sneaking suspicion that it was the cause of some health issues I had experienced all last semester. I couldn’t figure out what was going on. I went to the doctor over break and explained my symptoms. She was baffled and basically said I would have to suck it up. Now that I have stopped drinking the water, all my symptoms are gone. This leads me to the conclusion that the water was responsible for my issues.
The Spanish girls asked Juani for a filter and she agreed to get us one. That did not materialize.

So I talked to Esteban. And he said he would get us a filter. It’s times like these when I feel really grateful to have an American director who understands why I would be freaked out by this situation.


So now we have one and it is lovely.

Strange Spanish Shopping Phenomenon

Recently, I’ve been on a shopping frenzy. I keep going to stores and trying on new stuff. The past few times, something strange has happened.

It goes like this: I see a cute skirt. I find it in my size. I bring it to the dressing room. I put it on only to realize that it is not, in fact, a skirt but shorts. Shorts. Not a skort. Shorts.

Every time it happens, I am not only disappointment but confused. Who is buying these shorts? They’re horribly unflattering and shorts made of flowy fabric are not really in style. Is someone trying to bring them back? And bring them back from when or what?

Clase de Cine (Film Class)

This semester I am taking a class called “ Gender and Sexuality in Spanish Cinema”. It’s awesome. Really fun and entertaining. We watch one movie per week. We have two class meetings: one in which the professor lectures about the movie and the second in which we have a class discussion. The class flies by.

Like all PRESCHO classes that include film watching in the syllabus, this class has DVDS stored in the office for us to watch. We simply have to ask Encarni if we can borrow it and she’ll give us a copy. This worked really well last semester for my grammar class. This semester not so much.

I watch the movies on my computer because we do not have a DVD player here in the dorms. U.S. DVDS are region 1 and Spanish DVDS are region 2. I can only watch region 1 DVDS on my computer. Last semester, there were copies of nearly every required movie in region 1 form. This semester it seems like every time I need a movie, there are only region 2s available. This means I have to go to the office at a specific time to watch the movie. This is annoying. It’s much more convenient to watch it at home on my own time.

Our latest film is “Hable con Ella” (Talk to her). I assumed there would be region 1 DVDS at the office because I know that this movie was released in the U.S. Therefore, region 1 DVDS exist. I have seen this movie on DVD at Smith. I ask Encarni for “Hable con ella” for my computer. Turns out there are 2 region 2 DVDS and about 6 region 4 DVDS. Region 4 is Mexico.

Region 4s do not work for region 1 players. I told Encarni this and she was surprised. Ummmm who’s idea was it to get about a trillion copies of Mexican dvds THAT DON’T WORK IN ANYTHING???????????????? No one here has a Mexican computer or dvd player, so these are USELESS.

Typical Spanish Day

Yesterday was a glorious sunny day. First really warm one in awhile. I decided to take advantage of the lovely weather and uh, go shopping.

My main goal was to start buying gifts for relatives and close personal friends. I had a specific plan to go to my favorite tourist shop. The thing is its kind magical. It’s much like the famed Room of Requirement at Hogwarts. Sometimes it’s there, sometimes it’s not. I once willed it to appear by walking very slowly arm-in-arm with a friend last semester. I’m not crazy. She can corroborate this story. Anyhoo, I went and it was closed.

So I decided to take a walk to the shopping center of town and check out some clothing stores. I browsed, bought two dresses. Had a realization while shopping: Spain is like Las Vegas. People get carried away and do crazy shit. This why I found myself drawn to ridiculous items of clothing that I would never even consider in the U.S. and seriously debate purchasing them.

I went home for lunch. Naturally we almost didn’t have lunch because the power went out. This is becoming a startlingly frequent occurrence. We were also served a plate of sardines that no one touched.

After my art class, my friend Kelly and I decided to go to a café we’ve wanted to try. They serve many different types of fruit juice. I got kiwi juice and she got fresh orange juice. The kiwi juice was delicious but the ground up seeds made it really grainy and thus sent me into a coughing fit. While leisurely drinking our juice, we saw a parade of bizarrely dressed French tourists. Not long after the French people passed us we were nearly hit by a car backing up into an impossibly narrow road. There was a sign next to the window of the café advertising their possession of magnum bars. We ask if they have them. The owner tells us no but insists on showing us all the other ice cream he has. We don’t want any other ice cream and refusing makes things awkward.

We head down towards the Mezquita to get ice cream elsewhere. All the popular flavors are all gone; possibly because it’s the first sunny warm day in awhile. So I decide to try a caramel milkshake. Once the woman hands me my milkshake, I ask for a straw. There are no straws and she looks at me like I’m an idiot for A) not knowing that there were no straws and B) wanting one in the first place. Clearly I am deranged.

While sitting near the Mezquita and enjoying our ice cream, we see an elderly woman in a wheel chair parked in the middle of the road. Why was she in the middle of the road? Because her family left her there. Why did they choose to put her there? I cannot fathom an answer to that question. She is almost hit by a taxi before her family finally comes to get her.

A woman runs by carrying a head of lettuce under her chin; literally holding it underneath her chin. She looks lost and confused. She runs down the street erratically. She does not look Spanish and we wonder if she speaks English and if she is lost. She disappears into the ether or a narrow side street.

Then at dinner we finally have vegetables!!!!!! Greens beans. Emmalie, Shannon, Alyssa, and I eat them with wild abandon. The Spanish girls make a show of how much it disgusts them. Repeatedly tell Maica that they are gross and that if she brings them for us, they need something to supplement their meal.

Unidentified meat specimen

Title says it all. I did not consume this. I’m sure it’s not a mystery as to why.

Oh, No. Really?

Over the past few months Maria, one of our Spanish housemates, has gained a little bit of weight. She’s still skinny but her waist line has expanded slightly. I’ve heard her complaining about the pooch on her belly several times.

Maria is the one who constantly repeats that she hates vegetables. She talks about how disgusting fruit and vegetables are and refuses to eat them. She spends at least five hours per day lounging on the couch watching television. She never exercises and is often critical of our fitness habits. She consumes a crazy amount of sugar and junk food. Whenever we eat something she doesn’t like, her favorite meal substitute is Special K cereal with chocolate chinks in chocolate milk with added sugar. She frequently snacks throughout the day and her current snack of choice is a vanilla ice cream on a cone with chocolate sauce.

Apparently despite this flawlessly healthy lifestyle, she is gaining weight. Oh, no! Really? You mean sitting around like a couch potato everyday all day doesn’t help you stay fit? Are you trying to tell me that a diet based around fried meat, bread, potatoes, and chocolate isn’t the recipe for a trim physique??! SHOCKING.

Is it wrong that I feel a little smug? That I want to say “look who’s not gaining weight: the people who eat vegetables and who exercise!!!!!!!!” That I want to throw her criticisms of us back in her face?

I don’t care. I’m too busy enjoying my false sense of superiority.

Lasagna

This is Lasagna. It’s usually pretty good and it usually contains tuna. Yes, tuna.

Last semester we had a particularly awful serving of Tuna. It was crunchy and when I use that word I am not describing the noodles, I’m describing the tuna.

Ensalada

This is what our salad usually looks like: some lettuce and tomatoes. We use olive oil for dressing. Every time we have salad, I wish I had cucumbers or olives.

Sevilla, Otra Vez

Yesterday, we went on a group excursion to Sevilla. Those of us who went last semester did not have to go this semester. I decided to go again because I wanted to go back to the Alcazar and explore the gardens, which I did not really have time to see last time.

The program pays for our transportation and entrance to the cathedral and the alcazar. I really had no interest in returning to the cathedral because ……….it’s boring. And I’m really at that point where I feel that if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. The Alcazar is really interesting. It had gorgeous gardens and looks a little like the Alhambra in its architecture and ornamentation. There are large patios with colorful tiling and intricate Arabic carvings in the wall. I was really excited to see it again.

Once we got to Sevilla, we learned that it was closed. Why? Because Zapatero, the Spanish President, was there. What he was doing there I have no idea. There was intense public security. There were police everywhere around the alcazar in the center of the city. Police walking the streets, police in cars, stationed on corners, police on motorcycles. They were prepared. Zapatero’s adoring crowd was awaiting his exit outside the Alcazar and by this I mean a crowd of about 30 touristy looking people with cameras. We actually got to witness his motorcade rolling by. It was…..anticlimactic.

The highlight of the trip was being able to spend a beautiful day outdoors. It was hotter than it has been yet in Córdoba and it really sunny. Second highlight: Starbucks.

Laundry

One of the upsides to living in a dorm is being able to do your laundry whenever you want. People who live in houses have their laundry done for them by their host families. That’s cute and all but I like having control over when I do my wash.

There’s a big difference concerning laundry here and laundry in the U.S. No one uses dryers. No one owns a dryer. Everyone hangs their clothes out of lines. At first I thought that it was great. It’s environmentally responsible and green. That’s before I realized that without a dryer, all my clothes were stretching out and had become uncomfortably loose. I’m pretty sure some of clothes would now make for appropriate maternity wear.

To quote a friend: “Note self: add industrial dryer to packing list for Spain”


We have a clothing line but it is only enough space for one load. So we have drying racks. That’s convenient. Except that it always takes an inordinate amount of time for things to dry. It took four days for my jeans to dry. FOUR DAYS! I think this is a personal curse. Everyone else’s stuff dries quickly. Perhaps it’s retaliation for using budget detergent?

Laundry mystery: Last weekend I accidentally chose "especiales" for the setting when I did my wash. I don't really know what that means. Especially since my clothes were dry when the machine stopped. I know it ran because I heard the noise it makes (kind of like a space craft taking off. The detergent was gone so it was used. So how were my clothes dry? I have no idea.

Pollo (Chicken)

This is what chicken looks like when we have it. I don’t eat meat here often.

Berenjenas

This may look like a plate of French fries but appearances are deceiving. This is a plate of fried pieces of eggplant. In Spanish eggplant is berenjena.


Do I agree with the decision to fry our only vegetable of the week? No. But it was delicious. It’s even better when it’s covered in honey.

Australia

The other night while we were eating dinner, an item appeared on the news about violent attacks in Sydney, Australia. We listened and commented briefly. Then Tamara, our housemate from Sevilla, asked us “Where’s Sydney?”

Emmalie and I replied “Sydney is in Australia.”

We received a blank stare. It was almost like she expected us to provide a longer explanation. I am 95% sure that she does not know where or what Australia is.

Fideos!!!!!!!!!!

We have this a lot. It’s a broth with short spaghetti noodles. The Spanish girls complain about it and say that it tastes like water. It kind of does but whatever. One day my housemate, Alyssa, asked what we were having and I said “sopa con espegettis” meaning soup with spaghetti. Maria freaked out and was all “Those are not spaghettis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!They’re fideos!!!!” It’s apparently a very important distinction. After making sure we were aware of this vital information, Maria and Tamara laughed at us for being ignorant fools.

Mystery Meat

A few days ago during lunch, Maica, the woman who cooks and cleans for us, came into the eating area with a bag full of red meat. She proceeded to ask us who put the meat in the refrigerator. Naturally, no one had any idea. Maica claimed ignorance as to the origins of the mystery meat.

Since Alyssa was the only person not present at the time (she was still in class), Maica told us it was probably hers. Let’s think about this. Alyssa, Like Emmalie, Shannon, and I, is a college student who is part of the PRESHCO program. She lives in our apartment where we are provided with lunch and dinner every day. We also have juice, milk, bread, and jam available to us. The program pays for our living arrangements. Alyssa does not have dietary issues which force her to provide her own meals. Nor has she expressed an intense desire for red meat. The mystery meat was in a bag that was clearly not the original packaging. We do not have plastic bags lying around for common use. Therefore, it had to come from somewhere else. Perhaps a kitchen in a larger residence hall that may or may not provide us with all of our meals? Maybe? So, how could someone think a random, unmarked bag of meat belonged to Alyssa? I cannot follow this logic but Maica was convinced.

Then Maria suggested that Juani, our landlord brought it. This makes sense. Juani tends to randomly stop by and she sometimes brings food or other necessary household items with her. Maica vehemently denied this.

Now let’s turn this around on the interrogator. Maica is a very forgetful person. If we notice that we need something we can’t just ask her to bring more, she will forget. We need to write her notes. I have written her notes before. Sometimes even when we have a note for her, she forgets. This is why we have no toilet paper right now. Here’s a perfect example: Before classes start, we have a shopping period. The program picks out directly matriculated classes for us to test out. This means we go to a classroom and a series of professors come to tell us about their class. We only go to the ones we are interested in. One day, all the Preshco girls in our house were going to a preview at 1:00. We usually eat at 2:30ish. So Emmalie directly told Maica what we were doing: that we were going to class but would be back to eat lunch a little later than usual. She mentioned it again later. As we were walking out the door, Maica says “So you all aren’t eating here today?” This kind of thing happens a lot.


So could it be that the absent-minded person who brings our food every day brought some meat and forgot to use it? In fact, this scenario solves explains mysteriously lacking lunch we had last weekend. We were given soup that tasted like water and fired eggplant that tasted like nothing. I ate a massive amount of bread out of desperation. We were probably supposed to have some sort of meat dish with it but Maica forgot about it.

To be this all makes sense but in Maica’s mind, the mystery remains unsolved.

More Food

I know this looks gross but it’s actually good. It’s a stew of some kind of bean (the name is escaping me), carrots, and potatoes. It’s one of my favorite meals. It tastes good and is pretty filling.

College in Spain

One thing that surprised me when I came here was how attitudes about school are different. The whole university system is different. People generally go to the local university and live at home. If you already live in a city, this is easy. If you live in a suburb, then you commute or live in a residence hall. Residence halls are not owned and maintained by universities. They are owned privately. This is the situation I am in. The residence I am a part of is owned by a woman named Juani. She maintains a large residence hall and several small student apartments. I am living in one of the apartments. She hires other people who cook and clean the residencias. Students who stay in them pay her directly (except for PRESHCO people like me. Our program has a contract with her and pays her).

The Spanish girls that I live with do not live in Cordoba. My roommate is from Madrid. One girl is from Sevilla. And the other is from a town outside Cordoba. They do not attend the university. Two of them attend a music conservatory and one attends a dance conservatory. I get the impression that it is very rare for students to go somewhere far away for university unless they are going to a conservatory. These students generally enjoy a privileged socioeconomic status. The girls I live with also go home every weekend. I get the impression that this is common for university students as well. When I told Irene, my roommate, that it’s common for Americans to attend universities that are far away from home, she was shocked. She said “but they go home a lot, right?” and I explained that usually, students only go home for vacations. This was surprised her a lot.

My views of college are obviously completely shaped by my experience at Smith. Smithies like to work hard. They like to challenge themselves. Our number one priority is school: going to class, being prepared, doing our reading, studying for tests, preparing presentations, writing papers. We want to do our best and push ourselves to be the best we can be. Our lives revolve around that. I know that there are many other students like that in the U.S. who attend different schools. The general attitude in the U.S. is that the purpose of college is to get a good education that will prepare you for a career. You try to figure out what you want your future career path to be. College is also fun, yes but that is not why your parents pay for it.

Spaniards are not about hard work. They really don’t like it. The Spaniards in my classes freak out about having tests or homework. Classes here generally include some reading that is not strictly required and a final. It’s rare to have any other test or assignment. Maybe two or three homeworks. There is barely any reading assigned. Spaniards tend to have a cavalier attitude toward school. It’s perfectly acceptable to miss a class because you don’t feel like going or you have a slight headache. The Spanish girls I live with who attend the music conservatory hardly ever practice. My roommate plays her piano 2 hours a week max.

This kind of attitude is also reflected in what professors expect of their students. Papers are generally really short. Spanish students never cite or include reference sheets. They frequently plagiarize; copying and pasting whole paragraphs with no repercussions. They sometimes insert pictures into their paper to make it longer so that they meet the page requirement. This is considered acceptable. Students hardly ever include their own ideas in their work and are rarely asked to think critically. It’s really all about memorization and regurgitation here.

Yesterday Emmalie (one of my Smithie housemates) and I explained the Smith workload to Irene. We told her that it’s common to have 100 pages of reading a week per class and we have four classes. We told her that we have multiple tests, papers and presentations a semester. They pretty much only have assignments during finals time. Irene was confused as to why I am currently taking an art history class if my concentration is psychology. Once you have a concentration here, you pretty much stick to it and take nothing else. We also explained that students who take science class have more hours of class because they have lab sessions. And that it’s common for American students to have jobs while they attend college. It was mind-blowing for Irene.

Mas Comida

Spanish people love fired food. Love it. We eat something fried almost every day. What kind of meat is that fried patty made up of? Usually I have no clue because when it’s fried, it all tastes the same. Might be fish, might be chicken. It was the same consistency and pretty much the same flavor so it doesn’t matter.

Oh, Jefe

So for my class about Gender and Sexuality in Spanish Cinema we had to watch a movie. Our program office has DVDs of all the movies we need to watch for classes. If the movie was released in the U.S. they conveniently have U.S. DVD versions so we can play them on our computers. These DVDS also conveniently have English subtitles.

For my class, we watched La Ley del Deseo (The Law Of Desire). It's kind of old so it only had a Latin American release. This meant no English subtitles. That is a problem. While I can get the plot fully there are times when the dialogue isn't clear.

I had to talk to Esteban, our director, and I decided to mention the subtitle issue. My main question for him was if Amazon would ship a region 1 DVD to a region two area. Esteban totally understood and said that even he has trouble understanding Spanish movies sometimes. Then he said if I told him the titles of the movies without subtitles, he would make sure to get them with subtitles for future Preshco students.

So I told him the title: La Ley del Deseo. His response: "That sounds like Porn."

He's not so far off. It is an Almodovar production.

Food

I’m going to start writing about my food because people ask me about it a lot. So we will start off with something good: Paella. For those of you would don’t know what Paella is, it is rice with spices and vegetables. Like every Spanish food, it includes olive oil and salt. Spices that are often used are rosemary, paprika, saffron, and garlic. Tomatoes and peppers are often used. There is usually some sort of protein source included which could either be chicken, rabbit, duck, or sausage. Seafood paella is popular and includes crustaceans in their original shells who appear to be staring at you.

Paella is delicious! We only have it on weekends.

It’s Spring!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The current weather in Cordoba is what I consider to be spring weather. Mild to warm temperatures (high 50s to low 60s). There is really no need for anything heavier than a hoodie but Spaniards are still bundling up.

Nothing is blooming yet but what makes me really feel like its spring is the air.
It’s light and crisp in a way it never is in winter. The birds help too. I constantly hear birds chirping away.

The downside: Rain. It is on and off all day almost every day. It’s been a very rainy year for southern Spain. The cities are not coping well. There has been serious flooding in several places; most notably in Cadiz. Luckily, flooding here has been minimal. The river is a disaster but it has yet to affect the city.
The picture above is what the trees look like now. When the leaves start falling in the fall, the public maintenance people cut all the branches off. I assume that the purpose of this is to prevent the mess that fallen leaves would create. It seems unnecessary as fallen leaves aren’t a big deal. The trees look kind of creepy now; like gnarled, deformed, open hands.