In spite of my essays, frivolous map assignments, and other ´schoolwork,´this week was quite culturally and gastronomically productive. Seeing as we had yet to see flamenco since the beginning of the semester, Melanie and I decided to take a night on the town (GASP I know, right?). Jokes aside, on Wednesday night we went to Triana, the adorable neighborhood next door -it´s very oldsey-Spanish, with ceramic stores, bars, white houses, and flowerpots EVERYWHERE. Also, the principal population happens to be 65-plus, so it´s very safe at night and the atmosphere is very relaxed. We got to the flamenco bar, where we looked around for a while trying to figure out if they had sangria or not, and then took our place in the circle of chairs. It wasn´t terribly crowded, and we chatted until the band started to prepare, when all of a sudden, half the population of Sevilla started filing inthe door. Apparently we picked quite the hoppin joint, as far as neighborhood flamenco bars go! It was soooo much fun - at first the band just played by itself, adding a soundtrack to the chirping bar owner with far too much eyeliner, but after a while the people in the crowd started to dance. The brave ones took their place in the middle of the circle and performed for the entire room! Everyone was super involved, especially the man in front of us who would jump out of his seat at the end of each paso and yell, ´BIEN! BIEN!´ We stayed out until 2 - good thing class isn´t until 11 on Thursdays!
Thursday was, of course, Thanksgiving - I never realized how illegitimate it is, as far as holidays go. It´s an excuse for Americans to pretend like we have culture and tradicion, because in essence, it celebrates nothing. Yes, it celebrates the generosity of the indigenous Americans, but this has very little pertinence in regards to our society today (especially because we killed them all afterwards. It´s like a viking holiday or something - people share their food and land and then you slaughter them and have a party). Anyways, the only ´custom´that´s related to Thanksgiving is eating - and after being in Spain and experiencing their veritable cornucopia of culture (no pun intended), it´s frankly really lame. Don´t get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE Thanksgiving - I love coming home for break, getting together with neighbors and family, and especially eating copious amounts of cranberry and pie. However, celebrating this über-American tradition in Spain is not on the top of my radar, which made me quite the exception and not the rule here at the JYS office. I swear, all my compadres could talk about was how much they were missing Thanksgiving - personally, I would say that dryers and Japanese food rank higher on my list. Anyways, the point of this rant is that we did have a semi-Thanksgiving-esque luncheon at home - Rocío made us pumpkin soup, chicken with mushrooms, potatoes, and cinammon pudding. And it was delicious. And I gave my thanks for being in Spain.
Friday I had the ENTIRE day to myself; as such, I decided to go shopping around the centro, which I literally have yet to do. I´ve been quite frugal in my time here, as hard as it may be to believe! So I had an amazing morning - I walked around by myself, walked back through Triana, and then came back for lunch at home. It was quite productive, though I can´t say what I bought! You´ll just have to wait and see. That evening, Yue and Colleen and I hit up a cafe in Triana for some ice cream and chocolate. Quite lovely.
Saturday marked the day that I had been waiting for - PAELLA with Mireia and Belén! However,that morning I also made an unexpected trip to my hermanito´s middle school to watch his soccer game with Rocío, which was hilarious. Soccer moms will always be soccer moms - when Alfonsito got substituted into the game, she yelled, ´Mi niño! Mi niño! Anima Alfonso, anda!!!´ And the whole way back, although Alfonso isn´t really the next Kaká or Renaldo, she sang his praises and said that they WOULD have lost by more if it weren´t for his decisive playing (4-8 final score).
Anyways, we went over to Mireia´s house at 2 for the paella lunch, and ate migas, which is basically Spanish stuffing with garlic and sausage, and her delicious shrimp paella, of course. The only difficulty about shrimp here is that they ususally don´t come peeled, so you have to break off the head, pick off the legs, peel it yourself, and usually dig the feelers out of the rice. Needless to say, this cannot be done without hands. However, I didn´t want to be rude, so I was still fruitlessly trying to use a fork - Mireia said, ´while i appreciate your attempt to be civilized, here in Spain we are descended from the Moors and don´t care about manners!´ It is pertinent to add, however, that I did finally manage to peel a shrimp using JUST a fork. Afterwards we played Sporcle, thanks to my suggestion. It was rawther a hit with the Spaniards. If you don´t know what sporcle is, go to sporcle.com and prepare to get addicted.
The lunch turned into coffee hour, which then turned into a crepe run with José and Belén - I didn´t get back from my lunch until 10 at night! It was so much fun though - we got to meet their Argentine friends, discussed Obama and international relations, and shared stories about life in Spain. I seriously love meeting new people here - everyone´s so interesting, and you learn so much. I liked their accent, too. That night we watched the Sevilla game at home, and I SLEPT.
The next morning we got ready to go to the art market in Triana - however, it had been raining, so it turns out that it wasn´t happening this week. Instead, we just went to a bar. Never forget that it´s totally acceptable to have drinks at 12 in the afternoon in Europe - while I politely refused, because I knew that I had to do homework later, I was brought a wine anyways. The entire family met us at the bar, and we had shrimp and olives and picos, which are like tiny breadstick crackers. We then bar-hopped to a family favorite, a little old Triana tavern located off the beaten path where we ate solomillo and radishes (and more beer for the rest of the fam). Once again, the entire population of Triana was out doing the same thing - in a town of over a million people, it´s amazing how many friends of the family you can run into. It´s such a culture of schmoozing and nibbling and laughing and drinking, and THIS is what makes tapas great.
To conclude, this week has been amazing - last night Rocío taught me how to make a Spanish tortilla, which proved to be quite informative. She put me to beating the eggs, which was quite difficult when the only tools you have are a very shallow bowl and a fork, but in the end I managed to mix them well. When I presented my handiwork, she said, ´this may be acceptable in the United States, but here in Spain, we beat eggs like THIS!´ and proceeded to beat those eggs so violently with her fork that I swore that they were going to fly all over the kitchen!
Well, that´s it for now - I´m about 15 minutes away from leaving for the bus station, which will take me to the airport where I fly into LONDON! Stay tuned for the adventures of my last trip, and much love from the EU to the EEUU!
