I thought I should shed a little bit of light on the contrasts between California life and Spanish life.
When you eat at a restaurant, or sit in a cafe for a coffee or beer, you have to ask for the check. You sit as long as you'd like and then you grab the attention of the server and ask for the bill. You pay, and if it's a full fledged meal, you leave a tip.
Lunch begins at no earlier than 1pm. The Spanish can barely fathom the fact that I would want to eat lunch at noon. If I ate breakfast at 10:30am everyday I would be a bit perplexed too.
Butter, oh butter. It's hardly used. You don't get butter with bread at restaurants, and even most of the croissants are made without butter. Once again this is only in Spain, when we were in the Netherlands this last summer, it seemed they put butter on everything.
Also free water is not offered at restaurants and in fact most "don't have" tap-water. It's a luxury that most of us take for granted back home.
The trash is collected at 3am in the morning. When you live on the corner of two busy streets with bins nearby expect to hear the hydraulics a few nights a week. I understand that they don't want the trucks to block traffic but 3am?
When sharing an elevator with someone they may or may not say hello but they always say good-bye.
That's it for now...it's 12:10pm I think I'm going to eat a butter-free croissant.
Talk about kharma. Well I'm not keeping tabs but to pull this off I must have done something right. Last night, Jessica and I attended the Spanish premier of Batman: El Cabellero Oscuro. How do you ask? Jessica had connections. Now mind you this wasn't just the first showing in Spain. It was red-carpet, papparazzi, polemic Christian Bale with an overtly happy wife by his side. We arrived at 9 thinking the show would start at 10. Wrong! The big shots: Chris Nolen, Maggie Gylanhall, Aaron Eckhart all arrived at 11ish. Add 30 minutes outside signing 'graphs and looking angelic for the razzis. Finally the big shots made it in for a round of applause. It was a special treat to be there, but I was losing patience. It's not like Morgan Freeman and Michael Cain were in attendence. For them it'd have waiting happily for at least another 30 minutes.
I thought the movie was good. I'm loath to judge a movie by the first look. Yeah I know if I have to watch every movie at least twice to see if I like it I won't have time for much else. But I feel I can't fully understand the message, or some of the humor, or the little details directors of Christoper Nolan's caliber through in. I feel the same way about music. I have to listen to a CD at least three time to make an informed judgement. (Just so you know the new Coldplay is weak.)
Heath Ledger was amazing. He stole the screen everytime his scared face graced it. That says a lot when you've got the freakin bat bike screaming 150 MPH down Main Street gunning for the Joker. Oscar? I have no clue. I don't wanna act like an LA snob creating Ledger Oscar buzz when I've seen maybe 6 new movies this year. My brother helped me learn that.
There are so many things to say that I don't even know where to start...cliche or what? Spain. Occupying the vast majority of the Iberian Peninsula. For you Geo buffs can you name the other two countries. Well I guess that you could say that there are actually four other independent nations. But that would be bending some international norms and rules. You'd have to include Pais Vasco (Basque Country) and Catalunya, the nation/provence where I currently reside. Occupying the northeastern most stretch of Spanish Mediterranean coast, Catalunya feels more than hundreds of miles from the matadors of Madrid. The native language, Catalan, is spoken by nearly all as is Spanish. Children from their wee ages are bilingual. They speak one sentence in Spanish and another in Catalan. It's amazing but headache inducing when trying to grasp the bare essential of what the hell is going on. The staple foods, which I'm growing to love, are toast (baguette toasted) with tomato rubbed on in a manner that basically grates it, then drizzled with olive oil and salt. Sound strange? Try it and you'll dig it. They (including my fantastic Catalan girlfriend) have a relationship with All I Oli that borders on an addiction. I would describe All I Oli (translates to garlic and oil) as close first cousins with mayonnaise. One of those cousins that you'd go fishing with at the summer cabin, really bond, pick up on each others nuances, and then say adios until Christmas. Basically, Mayo and All i oli look similar in color and texture but their tastes, uses and components are slightly different.
So how do I spend my days you ask? I'm making a living teaching English. I work at a school where I'm professing the nuances of my native language to a variety of levels and ages(certainly not synonymous). Usually I quite enjoy the work and am thankful that I have found a steady income. I also teach a private class and some classes at Accenture, a consulting firm. Accenture was formally Arthur Anderson, accounting firm for Enron. Hmmmm... Outside of work, I seek kicks, eating, drinking, attempting to speak Spanish, listening to music, watching football (shit I mean Soccer) hanging out with my girlfriend, Jessica, going to the beach and staying up on current affairs. (Obama's blatant move to the center through his recent positions on FISA, the death penalty and gun restrictions have me threatening him via brainwaves that he's not gonna get my vote if he keeps this up. Also the continually heated rhetoric splashed across front pages between the USA and it's spoiled adopted son Israel and Iran. Hopefully Obama, when president and once again level headed, will cool things down.)
There are so many things to say that I don't even know where to finish. How about this: To my friends and family, I miss and love you all very much. Check in again soon and vote in my little survey at the bottom of the page.
Ps. To Tim Russert: You were great. I can't comprehensively compare you to other legendary newsmen and moderators from yesteryear but you were amazing, more than a class act or "hard-hitting" journalist. To me you were a role model, a man that had it all but never lost track of who he was. I'll miss you.
Pps. George Carlin: Courageous, intelligent, and ridiculously funny. He lived a full life and went out swinging. Heed his words and you'll learn a lot.
Ppps. Mrs McCurdy: Even though we weren't your grandchildren you always treated us a such. Gingersnaps poolside being inhaled by Co and I is a memory that will never fade. I told myself I ate them fast so they wouldn't become soggy from my wet, pruny hands, but I really just loved them that much. Thanks for all the Thanksgivings.
Obama takes Iowa: The Big Cat whooped up Hilary and Johnny "J. Fox" Edwards. Although Iowa doesn't necessarily crown you champion, Obama's showing was something special. He got independent votes, college students to actually vote and first-timers out. Democratic Baby-booms tended to vote for Hilary but their votes were off set and one-uped by the groups I just mentioned.
My Boy Ron Paul: I'm not sure if folks are familiar with Ron Paul. He's a libertarian Republican presidential candidate coming from the glorious state of Texas. He's against the war, against the war on drugs, for political term limits and for personal liberty. Considered a long shot by most he's crushed one-day fundraising numbers. He set a single day record with $4.5 million on the anniversary of Guy Fawkes' famed 5th of November Gunpowder plot. Then on the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, Ron Paul threw his previous record into the bay by raising $6 million more. So far his war-chest hasn't translated into big poll numbers. There is some talk of an independent campaign is he fails to secure the Republican nomination.
Pakistan: Scary, scary, scary. A country with raising militant Islam. Martial law,supreme court suspensions, political assassinations. At Musharraf's fingertips are red buttons readied for nuclear strikes, within fortified caves in Pakistans tribal regions Bin Laden Plots. What approach should America take with our "war on terror ally"?
Pistacio: Not only is it green, ice creamable and delicious but popping shells is a wonderful pastime.
Almonds: Roasted specifically. I love biting them in half at the natural middle. Great tasting and healthy.
Peanut: Technically not a nut but well deserving to be on the list. As butter (enough said) with honey and bananas on fresh wheat bread, or surrounded by milk chocolate in a thin candy shell, or cracking 'em at a ball game and throwing the shattered shells down without looking where they're falling.
