Andalusian charm

If someone were to ask me for a recommendation for a great trip in Spain, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to them one of my favorite things: the white villages of Andalusia, or "Los Pueblos Blancos." Andalusia (specifically the provinces of Cadiz and Malaga) is known throughout the world for its aesthetically-pleasing whitewashed buildings that encase narrow streets and contain brightly colored plants in the windowsills. In addition, while Cordoba is the most famous for its open-air 'patios' covered in beautiful flowers, there are plenty of them to be found in many of the smaller Andalusian cities.

From the bigger, tourist-ridden, beachside Marbella in the province of Malaga to the mountainous, small, fairly unheard of Vejer de la Frontera in Cadiz, the beauty and charm of Andalucia never ceases to amaze me:

Andalusian plaza (Marbella)

Whitewashed street (Ronda)

Flowery windowsill (Arcos)

Andalusian Patio (Vejer de la Frontera)

I think that in some of these towns anyone can become a photographer. Well maybe not.. but on top of the great photo-ops provided by the city itself, many of these towns are in or surrounded by mountains and cliffs, which provides for some seriously amazing views. Surrounded by all the valleys and hills and beautiful landscape, its almost impossible to take a bad picture of the scenery. Here are a few of my favorites:

Arcos de la Frontera, a city on a mountain.

Ronda, surrounded by the greenest valleys.

You are on top of the world!! Living here, I don't think I would ever get tired of participating in one of Spain's simplest forms of entertainment: "dar un paseo" (take a walk). Despite the hills and frequent wind, walking around in these cities can take your breath away and allow you to have a 'mountain-top' experience.

Finally, of the main things that make the smaller Pueblos Blancos so appealing to me is that many of them are fairly untouched by tourists and still full of old unchanged Spanish charm. You get to see things the way they have been for years, instead of how they have been altered to cater to the needs of hordes of tourists. It sometimes feels like life has frozen in time, and you have stepped back with it.

If you want a beautiful, unique Andalusian adventure, as well as an opportunity to step away from the hustle and bustle of big city travel, I recommend that you take a weekend, pack your camera and your walking shoes, and head to one of Andalusia's White Villages.

In Arcos de la Frontera:
El guiri and la guiri. 

Soy guiri, no soy tonta

One thing that you become familiar with very quickly being a foreigner in any other country is the attitude of the people towards foreigners and in my case, Americans in general. I've had a wide range of reactions from people who realize I'm not a local, most of them being extremely positive. However, there is one reaction that always makes me want to shout to the nearest listener; "Soy guiri, no soy tonta!" ("I'm a foreigner, I'm not stupid!")

"What are you, not from here or something??"

The first type of person is the one who TRIES to make you feel like an absolute idiot. In my experience this person is almost always someone whose job is to perform a service for you (banks, supermarkets, bus drivers, post office workers, etc.) and they just simply hate being bothered by a guiri who will slow them down or throw off their groove. 

For example, that time when you forget to weigh your fruit at the supermarket before checking out... No words are necessary, the look says it all.             

I mean, I'm sure we've all been there: that moment when you witness an awkward situation with a foreigner and unconsciously associate their confusion with a below average intelligence level. I don't think it's purposeful, but I do think that it's at times a natural phenomenon to look down on or condescend to someone in your country who is having difficulty with either the language or a simple everyday task.

Fortunately, the learning curve is quick. Because this is my second year here I more or less have things figured out. I can get by in society without too many social blunders and I can usually not be noticed right away as a "guiri". That is, until I open my mouth and begin talking.

This leads to the second type of person I encounter: the one who condescends subtly and unintentionally. While they mean no harm, its safe to say that I don't like being treated like an idiot. When I am explaining something or asking a question in my accented Spanish and the person decides to attempt to respond in English I simply cannot stand it. While they might be trying to "help" by speaking to me in English, the reality is that my Spanish is always far, far better than their level of English.

The other day at a store I had to give my (American) zip code to complete a purchase. Because I haven't used it in months, it took me a minute to remember. I laughed and explained (in Spanish) to the girl that I was having trouble remembering, but she took it upon herself to attempt to explain further; "Post Code. Where you from." Did she think I didn't understand the question? What part of "I can't remember my post code" implies that I don't understand the question? 

   "I can't tell if you're stupid, or just a guiri."

Or when I buy a coffee, ask the price (in Spanish) and they respond with "Un euro. One," all the while holding up one finger. Yes, thank you for the hand motions, as if I speak neither English NOR Spanish...
Also, if I ask the price in Spanish, wouldn't the assumption be that I understand the answer in Spanish?

Granted, despite these annoyances that I have, the overall attitude of the people is very welcoming towards foreigners, and for this I am thankful. Also, sometimes us guiris deserve the reputation we get. We often do stupid things, ask stupid questions, and generally makes fools of ourselves. Many times the silly things we do [see video below] cause people to stop and stare and ask "why?". There really is no good explanation except, "Soy Guiri, a veces soy tonta." 

Enjoy! 

Settling in.

I’ve been a bit out of touch with the world, so this post will serve as a general update of what I’ve been up to since arriving in Spain.

On September 18 I embarked on the long, tiring journey across the ocean and landed the next morning in Madrid where I had booked a hotel for a night so I could stay and do some sightseeing before heading down to Cadiz. I absolutely love the city, so despite battling jetlag and culture shock I made the most of the 2 days I had in the city before catching the night train to Cadiz:

La Puerta del Sol
Drinking coffee ::  Don Quixote

Once I made it back to Cadiz, I have to admit the first week was a bit rough. I think the shock of leaving friends/family/home combined with the sudden and complete independence that was thrust upon me is to blame for my overly stressed and emotional mental state the first week. However, life goes on and certain things had to be accomplished.

Task # 1: Find a place to live. The search for a "flat" took longer than it would have if I'd had any of the following: a phone, reliable internet, easy transportation, friends, an umbrella....(Fortunately in the end I was lent the umbrella!). However, after a long rainy tiring week of searching, a fellow Language Assistant and I stumbled upon the perfect place that we both were content with: It has a great view (her priority), and plenty of space (my priority) and is right on the beach:

Google maps street view of our place (top left corner)

 Bonus: The kitchen is superbly furnished (a step up from last years' accommodation)!

          Arguably the best feature is the patio and bedroom views.

Eating lunch on the patio

View from my BEDROOM window

"Task" # 2: Relaxation weekend  

After finding a place to live, I went on a small weekend vacation to Zahara de los Atunes, which is a small beautiful beachside village that is located on cliffs overlooking the ocean. The vacation was great timing, and I was able to rest a lot and try to mentally prepare to start work. 

On the balcony of the house I stayed at in Zahara

Task # 3: Start classes. Oh yeah, this is supposedly the whole reason I'm here... This year I teach in San Fernando, a small town that is a 20 minute bus ride from Cadiz. Thankfully I was able to arrange all my classes (including my private classes) to be Monday-Thursday so every week is a 3 day weekend! This year I teach a wide range, from 4-5 years old to 11-15 years. The classes can pretty much be summed up as so:

4-5 years: *Incessant adorable Spanish chattering* and multiple repeats of 'Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes' 

11-13 years: "Teacher, who is your favorite pop star? Teacher, do you have a boyfriend? Teacher, do you like Katy Perry?"

14-15 years: still awkward yet too-cool-for-school adolescent age...enough said.

These days my biggest annoyance is warding off the super pushy Spanish women who don't understand why I don't want to spend my every spare moment teaching English to the entire town. Everybody has a coworker who has a friend who has a sister who wants to learn English- all for a low price (it's for a FRIEND after all, and Spain is in a crisis). Its difficult to explain why I'm not currently looking for more work...

Sorry, I'm too busy taking long walks along the beach that is my front yard.

"The belly rules the mind" -Spanish Proverb

I've been promising my Mom all summer that I would make a "typical Spanish dinner" and last weekend I finally found time to make it happen. It was somewhat difficult to decide what to prepare, but in the end I went with foods that meant something to me based on my personal experiences and memories. I drove across town looking for the perfect kind of cheese, chorizo, and olives with varying degrees of success (was so excited to find manchego cheese), gathered all my supplies, recruited a loyal assistant, and set out to thoroughly dirty the kitchen and hope for the best. The results are as follows (recipes at the end of the post): 

Part 1: Oh, The tortilla Española! Much could be said about this quintessential delicacy of spanish cuisine that consists of egg, potato, and onion. I've had it at parties, in restaurants, as a meal, as a snack, as filling in a sandwich, and dolled up with meat and veggies. Although I've had the tortilla in many different situations and locations, the most delectable tortilla in my opinion is the homemade tortilla prepared by the Spanish woman (in my case, Danis mom). That's why, when I think of tortilla, I think of family: sitting down to a casual family dinner at the kitchen table [at 11pm, which I'm STILL not used to] and waiting for the homemade fresh omelette-like food to be served. As always, it's been cooked to perfection in taste and size. What strikes me the most is that while this might be considered a delicacy to me, to a Spaniard its just the opposite- a food to be enjoyed in the most everyday circumstances surrounded by casual talk of politics, work, and -if I'm around- the ever present inquires about American culture. 

Sadly, my homemade tortilla wasn't nearly as delicious.

As you can see, it is frumpy, slightly burned and the inside wasn't moist like it should be (the key is in the frying temperature...?). But at least it too was enjoyed in the company of family- for the first time, my American family instead of my Spanish family.

Crowder family dinner, Spanish style

Part 2: Whether its snails, spicy potatoes, fried octopus, fish, cheese (manchego, brie, roquefort...) there are countless foods that I could discuss in relation to some of my favorite tapas bars. However, the food itself is not the only thing that is unique about the Spanish tapas bar- it's all about the atmosphere. It may seem weird to see dried pig legs hanging from the roof, some may be perturbed when there is no open seating and they are expected to eat standing up, and not everyone will like receiving such small portions...However, all of these characteristics help make the tapas bar and eating out experience what they are. 

At Las Cumbres, one of our favorite places in Cadiz (note the
ham hanging in the background)

Despite all the tasty food I mentioned, I have special memories of eating meatballs on the last night I went out in Cadiz, and they are one of the simplest favorites. When I found a good-looking recipe online, that sealed the deal: so I decided to prepare albondigas en salsa de almendra (meatballs in almond sauce). A meatball might not sound all that special, but it wasn't until i tried meatballs at a popular gaditano tapas bar did i truly appreciate their culinary possibilities. Luckily, I would say that the recipe I found did them justice. These were not your typical spaghetti-and-meatball type of meatballs:

They turned out delicious, with the almonds giving them a nutty sweet sauce and the white bread giving the meat a nice moist texture- I would even go as far to say that they were almost as good as their inspiration:

Eating at the bar, Las Cumbres

Overall, I would say that the dinner turned out pretty well! It was fun to share a bit of the Spanish culture with my family, and even more entertaining is the challenge of explaining what a "tapa" even is. "How does this tapa thing work.... ? ...Is it an appetizer...? ..Whats the difference between a tapa and an appetizer...?" ........ You get the picture.

 Here are more photos of my dinner:

Pimientos rellenos con arroz y salsa de tomate
(red peppers filled with rice and tomato sauce) 

Salchichon, queso manchego, aceitunas, "picos"

Of course, tinto de verano: red wine mixed with fanta. Yum!

I wish I could say that I used were secret recipes from an authentic Spanish restaurant but... the internet is a wonderful substitute sometimes. So here are the recipes that I used:


Spanish Tortilla

Meatballs in Almond Sauce

Stuffed Bell Peppers

International Love

Finally the answer to the big question that all my well-wishers want to know; "Did you meet anyone special while you were in Spain?"

Well, you are about to have the inside scoop. I had the privilege of being featured by another (more talented) blogger in her section called "So you're dating a Spaniard?" so I will refer you to her website.

You can click over there, in the blogs I follow ---------------------------------->  -------^

Or to make it easy on yourself, just follow this link!

http://ymuchomas.com/2012/08/07/so-youre-dating-a-spaniard-leah/

My favorite Spaniard and me! 

Summertime and thoughts on the language barrier

Summertime favorites: sangria, sun, and swimming

I'm in the midst of my summer vacation in Albuquerque, and I decided to write about something that has been on my mind quite a bit this summer: the language barrier. Probably the most common question I've been asked after coming back is, "So are you fluent in Spanish now?"  This is actually a very difficult question for me to answer. In my opinion, first you have to define what it means to be "fluent" in a language. To help me out, I looked it up in a very reliable source: wikipedia.

"Language fluency is used informally to denote broadly a high level of language proficiency, most typically foreign language or another learned language, and more narrowly to denote fluid language use, as opposed to slow, halting use. .... Native [or bilingual] language speakers are often incorrectly referred to as fluent."

Learn Spanish: check

By this definition, yes I would definitly say I am a fluent Spanish speaker: I can speak fluidly, I can converse natually with a friend, I can say basically anything I want (granted the wording might be awkward), and I have good comprehension. So, Yay! Check that one off the bucket list!  

 HOWEVER, before you get too excited, let's talk about what "fluency" means in day-to-day life:
Do I still feel a bit lost in group conversations? definitely
Am I always the last person to understand the joke? every time
Is it difficult to communicate on a deeper level? unfortunately sometimes yes
Do I get weird looks from the supermarket ladies when I ask where a product is? yep (haha)

How do you say, "Speak slower please!"

The reason I think about this topic so often is because being back in the states I am constantly struck by all of a sudden HOW EASY it is to be social when there is no language barrier! I never truely appreciated the simplicity of communication until I jumped into a world where communication for me typically involved a high level of concentration and occasional what I like to call "sentence pre-planning". Its also strange because I feel less like the social butterfly that I am at big gatherings, and I see myself becoming more of the wallflower- a change I don't like. I have to make an intentional effort to show my true personality as I become more experienced, comfortable, and confident speaking the language. (Meanwhile explaining to people that I am just sitting around and smiling like a weirdo because my brain is too tired for conversation) I think what people fail to realize is that the gap between "fluency" and "bilingual" is a very fluid gap (pardon the pun...). For example, one moment you might feel great about your ability, the next day your confidence will be shattered by a confusing conversation. (These moments are always followed by self questioning, "Will I EVER sound smarter than a Spanish 5th grader?")

So, I guess the long answer to the question, "Are you fluent?"  would be, "Yes- but I still have a very long road ahead of me."

Weekend trip to Ronda

I few weeks ago we had a 4 day weekend due to a national holiday in Spain, so I decided to take advantage of my time off and see something new. I didn’t want to do anything big and complicated, so I decided to go to a little Spanish pueblo that I had heard so much about from friends: Ronda. Literally the only things I knew about the town was that it is part of Andalucia’s ‘Pueblos Blancos’, and that it has a famous bridge…and that I found a cheap hotel (breakfast included!) online, so I was Ronda-bound! I arrived on a Sunday afternoon –in the rain-, found my hotel as quickly as possible, warmed up, and did some sightseeing. That night I ate a cheap dinner, then spent the whole next day seeing as much as possible before heading back on the last bus of the day.

...wow...

That is the basic outline of the trip, but how do I describe the actual experience? Ronda was breathtaking, absolutely gorgeous, full of history and culture, and despite the rain and being alone I would say its been one of my favorite little trips in Spain. First of all, the famous bridge that I had heard so much about. What I didn’t expect was to round a corner and have my jaw drop to the ground and find myself speechless for about 5 minutes. I couldn’t do anything besides stare and admire. Finally I did manage to take some pictures- about a million or so. Not only is this bridge beautiful –it is made of stone and has nice artistic ridges- but the sheer size of it is breathtaking. It literally connects a city that is divided in two by a gigantic river gorge. Imagine a bridge over a theoretical very narrow part of the Grand Canyon, and that’s a little bit how I felt this was.

Arab baths

The little town itself is full of things to see- everywhere you look in the old center of town you can see remnants of the old Muslim culture, which was replaced but not completely destroyed by the Christians takeover during the Spanish Inquisition. I was able to see the old Arabic Baths that used to be at the old town entrance, where people could cleanse themselves before entering the city. Of course I saw the old Mosque, which was converted into a Christian School but still has some of the Arab looking architecture. I wandered through the Anadulcian style ‘pueblo blanco’ which consists of narrow streets with white buildings on either side that have balconies full of typical red or other brightly colored flowers, and I visited the Plaza de España which Ernest Hemingway writes about in his book ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’. (If you’ve read the book, yes it is the part where people are forced to walk off the cliff- the cliff being where the bridge now is).

Typical Andalusian street

I enjoyed the trip immensely, because the town itself was so enjoyable. However, I came up with a list of the pros and cons of travelling alone, from my point of view.

Pros: you have independence to make your own decisions, go where you want to go when you want to go there, eat where you want, basically plan the entire trip without having to take into account the needs of others. Sometimes even more important; you can give in to any annoying or selfish habits you might have that must be restrained in the prescence of others- in my case, taking a 40 minute shower and using up the hot water supply for the room. Oops. But, nobody was there waiting for the bathroom or complaining about hot water!

Cons: In the end, I decided that the cons of travelling alone outweigh the pros. Having company and sharing the experience with somebody you like makes the experience of seeing new things so much richer and more enjoyable. Whether it is seeing things from another person’s point of view, sharing your point of view with them, or simply discussing the experience, I believe that its better in company. The entire trip I had thoughts along the lines of, “Oh! That is so cool, my mom would really love to be here too!” or “I wish my roommates could see this!” or “I just want to discuss with somebody how beautiful this view is.”

However, I felt proud of myself for stepping out of my comfort zone and arranging, planning, and executing a trip alone. It can be an intimidating thing, especially in a foreign country (anybody seen the movie Hostel?), and to a new place. Overall, while I realized that travelling alone is not my particular style, I confirmed with myself that I am capable to do it and enjoy it- and for that I am glad that I went alone.