My first Christmas

Palabra del día: délicieux

Translation: Delicious, but tricked you, it's in French! Ahh too many languages, it's so confusing!  But I've been pleasantly surprised that with my knowledge of Spanish and English I've been able to recognize a good number of French words, so occasionally I have a vague idea of what’s going on in a conversation here.

Comida del día: The past 36 hours have basically consisted of constant eating of the best foods I have ever tasted in my life, and it was all so good that it wouldn't be fair to choose just one.  Don't worry, I will soon proceed to describe all of the food in detail.

Foto del día: 

Escargot, AKA caracoles, AKA SNAILS.  Call them what you will, but they are delicious.  They smelled so good that I didn't even think twice about eating slimy bug-like animals and proceeded to eat five.  Then someone asked me if snails fit into my pescatarian diet and I decided that they do, only to learn a day later that the snails that I was eating aren't actually sea snails and could easily be found buried in mud in someone's backyard.  A gross thought, but they tasted so good that I have absolutely no regrets. 

This year was my first time ever celebrating Christmas, and it was the best Christmas I could have ever asked for.  Let me start by describing the meal I ate on Christmas Eve:

Course 1: Foia gras (didn’t actually eat it but it looked good)

Crouse 2: Raw oysters

Course 3: Fresh crabs and shrimp

Course 4: Palette cleanser of pear sorbet with pear liqueur 

Course 5: Turkey, pumpkin from the garden, and other vegetables

Course 6: Five different types of cheese with fresh french bread

Course 7: Two Christmas log cakes, one almond and one chestnut, topped with chocolate frosting and a custard sauce

Each course was served with a different type of French wine (the champagne with appetizers and dessert was my favorite).  

Five types of cheese

Christmas log cakes

Now to put all of this delicious food in context (and don’t worry, there is plenty more food for me to describe).  On Christmas Eve, I traveled from London to Boulogne, France with my cousin Jeff, his husband Marc, Marc’s colleague from Japan, and my friend Simone because Marc’s parents were kind enough to include all of us in their Christmas celebration at their 150 year-old house in the French countryside, about two hours from London and right on the coast.  To get there, we drove to the ocean and then took a CAR TRAIN under it (literally a train that you drive your car onto).  As soon as we arrived, we were served champagne and snacks and then whisked off to mass at the local church.  I had never been to Christmas mass before (although for one reason or another I’ve been to mass 4 times in the last six months) but I still recognized some of the hymns although the words were in French instead of English.  I thought that the service was beautiful and I enjoyed experiencing a different religion in a new language.  Afterwards we celebrated with all of the food I mentioned above, interspersed with gift giving (no one could wait until Christmas!) and spontaneous dancing, and we didn’t finish dinner until 2 am!

On Christmas day, I awoke to fresh croissants from a bakery down the street and a long walk through the sand dunes on the coast.  The croissants were definitely French and definitely delicious, and the walk on the beach was absolutely gorgeous (Not to mention necessary to walk off last night’s dinner and prepare for our next meal, which was equally large, long, and delicious).

View from our Christmas day walk

The menu for Christmas day lunch included the escargot I already mentioned, plus smoked salmon, another palette cleanser, wild pork from a neighbor who had killed it himself (I skipped this one), baked pears, homemade pasta, red cabbage, and more Christmas logs.  After this I felt like I wouldn’t be able to eat again for days, but Marc’s parents refused to let us skip dinner that night and served more delicious food, including a pumpkin soup with veggies from the garden. 

The food and the beautiful location were definitely highlights of my first Christmas celebration, but I also appreciated how welcoming Marc’s relatives were to us.  Despite language barriers, I really felt like part of the family: they included us in everything, made lots of jokes, and of course made sure we ate as much as possible.  It was nice be in this sort of family environment and share their traditions, especially after being away from home for so long, and I’ve decided that this beautiful house on the coast of France must be the best place to celebrate Christmas out of anywhere in the world.  

4 month anniversary

Palabra del día: Hasta luego

Translation: See you later

The other day, when I said goodbye to all of the amazing people I’ve met through IES this semester, we made sure to say “hasta luego” instead of “adios”,  because I know that we will see each other again. And also because I’m saying “hasta luego” to Granada for the next two weeks to have new adventures in London and Paris!

Comida del día: Mantecados

These are crumbly Spanish Christmas cookies usually flavored with almonds.  They are very different than my favorite homemade holiday cookie cutter cookies with every color of frosting, but quite delicious all the same!

Foto del día:

This is my friend Annie and my official engagement photo.  I will now explain this long-running inside joke. When I wrote my "6 week anniversary" post, the photo of the day was a photo of the two of us eating Los Italianos ice cream, and since then we've had a joke that we're engaged.  So at our end of the semester lunch party with IES, we did an official engagement photo shoot for our four month anniversary, and here is the result!

Yesterday I went to London.  People speak English here.  It's kind of strange... I feel like I can understand British English to about the same extent that I can understand Spanish in Granada: there's a weird accent and there's certain words and colloquial phrases that go right over my head.

I'm in London because my first semester in Granada is officially over and I'm now on winter break!  In the last week, I had five final exams, a 10 page paper, a band concert, packed, and said goodbye to friends, but I guess it's no more chaotic than a typical end to the semester at WashU. Throughout this busy time I didn't get to spend much quality time with the city of Granada, so the craziness of these last few weeks makes me feel good about my decision to stay: I definitely don't feel ready to say goodbye to Granada for good - I'm even a bit sad to leave to travel for six weeks!  On the other hand, I get to travel around Europe for six weeks - I can't even begin to believe how lucky I am.

Before it's time to write about all of my travel adventures, I want to wrap up my semester in Granada.  I realized that in my last few weeks even with all of the craziness, I managed to try a few things for the first time:

• One of these things was jamón.  Yes, I am a vegetarian, but everyone talks about how great the ham is in Spain that I decided that I should try it.  I wouldn't want to leave Spain having missed out on something great!  But as it turned out, it wasn't great at all.  I had mentioned to Sole at the beginning of the semester that I wanted to try ham before I left, and last week she pulled out some grade 9 ham (on a scale from 1-10) that she only buys for Christmas.   She put two pieces on my plate and they just stared back at me all red and fatty... but I convinced myself to take one tiny bite and it tasted like blood and metal and I hate to say it, but I don't like Spanish ham.  Maybe if I was used to eating meat I would have liked it, but even high quality ham just wasn't in the least bit appealing.  But at least now I don't have to leave Spain without trying its famous jamón.

• Last week I learned to make two new recipes from my host mom: tortilla Española (omelette with potatoes) and her version of paella, which has seafood and lots of veggies instead of any meat. I took detailed notes so that I can make them for myself next semester when she's not around to cook for me every day!

• This year I am also celebrating Christmas more than I ever have before.  Our apartment even had a Christmas tree! (a fake one, but close enough).  When I was younger I always wanted a Christmas tree, and now my wish finally came true: 

My band also celebrated Christmas with a concert in which we played some Christmas music and wore elf hats with flashing red light up stars (and threw them in the air during the photo shoot!):

And I get to continue my celebration of Christmas in the French countryside this week - I can't wait!

This is Plaza Bib-Rambla , one of the biggest plazas in Granada, with all of its beautiful Christmas lights.  I personally don't think that this fake tree lives up to Boston's beautiful  pine trees, but the lights are quite pretty.

Another interesting events of the past week my final flamenco performance.  I am now going to give up all self respect in order to give you what I know you have been dying to see this whole semester- a video of me dancing flamenco.  Please try not to laugh too hard, and try to believe me when I say that I improved a lot over the course of the semester (dancing is not something that comes easily to me).

Since this is my four month anniversary post, I want to take a minute to correct and add certain things I said in my 6 week anniversary post about cultural differences due to various conversations with Spanish friends and just having more experiences in general.

First of all, I mentioned in my other post that there aren't many options for music education.  As it turns out, there are opportunities for kids to take after-school classes at the conservatory starting from age 7-8 that prepares them, if they continue, to study music at the conservatory, with different levels in between.  A lot of people in my band study at the conservatory or have studied there, but aren't necessarily planning to be professional musicians.  The other thing I need to correct is the bit about army showers...some people take army showers and they are definitely more common than in the US, but not absolutely everyone does this.

Now to add a few more differences I've noticed in the past two months.  First of all, everyone my age in Spain uses whatsapp instead of just texting on their phones.  Most phone companies charge per text message or per minute of talking, so by using apps through the internet it's a way to avoid the cost.  This makes it a bit complicated for me because my Spanish phone doesn't have internet and my phone from home only works with wifi, so I never know which number to give people.

Here's another difference, which I haven't been able to think of a way to write about until last week when I experienced it personally.  I guess that you could say that while Americans often sugarcoat things, Spanish people tend to be more honest or more blunt.  For example, last week at lunch one day, my host mom asked me if I had gained weight because apparently my cheeks looked fuller.  In the US, this sort of comment would be considered extremely rude, but a lot of my friends from IES have had similar experiences.  But Sole wasn't trying to insult me. She was just making an honest observation, and possibly even an under-handed complement about her own cooking (of which she is, justifiably, very proud).

I've been thinking recently that instead of always focusing on differences and comparisons, there are a lot of things that are similar as well.  Especially after going to Morocco and seeing a place that is so different from anywhere else I've ever been, small differences like when people eat meals and who they live with during college are minor.  I've also changed my attitude about my own personal differences.  At the beginning of the semester I was always concerned that it was super-obvious that I was a foreigner, revealed by my blond hair, slightly different clothes, vegetarianism, and reusable water bottle that comes with me everywhere.  At some point, I decided to stop caring (I also went shopping - European clothes are great!)  But I no longer hide my water bottle under the table during my UGR class.  Reusable water bottles are a trend that really needs to happen in Spain.  But more seriously, I've decided that there's no need to try to fit in all the time - I'm not from Spain and I'm different from people in Spain, but I'm proud of my own culture and I'm happy to share it with people I meet, rather than trying to hide it.  I've mentioned this before, but I also think that being in new countries (and I will be in many new countries in the next month!) is an opportunity for me to learn about new cultures and a way to share parts of my own with all of the interesting people that I meet.

Various happenings

Palabra del día: Agobiado
Translation: Stressed out, overwhelmed
Frase: Me sentí agobiada esta semana porque tuve que escribir un ensayo de 10 páginas, preparar para exámenes y encontrar un piso para la próxima semestre.
Translation: I felt stressed out this week because I had to write a 10 page essay, prepare for exams and find an apartment for next semester.

Comida del día: Migas
This is a very traditional Spanish food that I ate for the first time half an hour ago. "Migas" literally means "crumbs," which is actually a very accurate description.  They sort of resemble cous cous and are basically little balls of flour mixed with garlic and usually some sort of sausage, though the vegetarian version I ate had green peppers.  They are commonly eaten with melon because the migas are dry so, according to my host mom, the melon prevents them from sticking to your mouth.

Foto del día: actually a video today! Two weeks ago, the band I've been playing with had a concert, so here's our version of "Persis."  It has some great horn parts - let me know what you think! This band wins the prize for being the loudest band I've ever played with, but it's always tons of fun, and despite some tuning issues I think the concert was a success.  And we already have another one coming up next weekend!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuYU6aDtz54#t=36

The best part of the concert was that afterwards we all went out to eat, which of course lasted for 4-5 hours (typical for Spain), and after that some of us went to a bar that had salsa dancing.  This band really knows how to celebrate!

It's been a while since I've written - the end of the semester is a crazy time of year. The first half of the semester I couldn't believe how little work I had, but as it turns out, all of the work for my classes is actually due at the end of the semester - it probably would have been a good idea to start earlier!  I guess that's what next semester is for...

I've also had to spend a lot of time planning for next semester, including extending my visa, finding a place to live, and planning three weeks of travel in January.  For my visa extension, I had to travel an hour and a half to Málaga to get a form so that I can go to the police station next week to have fingerprints taken so that I can get my criminal record form from the US... you would think there would be a more efficient way to do this!  For apartment hunting, I spent two days last week going to look at three apartments, all of which seemed quite pleasant on the internet but were quite horrible in real life (choose between dark, cold and lonely and empty beer bottles everywhere). After these two frustrating days, though, my friend from band informed me that his roommate is leaving next semester, so it's very likely that I can live with them, which will be lots of fun.  For traveling in January, I have two weeks planned to go to London and Paris over Christmas and New Years, and then three more weeks that are completely open.  My friend Annie and I are tentatively thinking of going to Rome, Venice and Florence and then Prague, Budapest, Vienna and maybe Berlin.  So many exciting options!

Other various happenings:

Thanksgiving is not quite thanksgiving in Spain, but IES organized a fancy dinner in this awesome restaurant that rotates so that you can see the view from all angles.  The view wasn't that great because it was dark outside and there was no pumpkin pie in sight, but the food was still good and it was fun to be around friends on a holiday when I couldn't help but miss my family.

Hanukah was also last week, and although there were no latkes to be found I did find choco-euro Hanukah gelt in the grocery store!  I celebrated the first night of Hanukah by going to this tiny Sephardic Jewish museum where an IES professor gave a talk about what Hanukah is and various Hanukah traditions to a group of her IES students and some people who take a Hebrew class there.  Spain has so much Jewish history but hardly any Jewish culture - most people at this event had never heard of Hanukah, seen a menorah, or spun a dreidel.  I've been so focused on learning about the culture of Spain and Granada while I'm here, but I'm realizing that being in another country also gives me a chance to teach people a little bit about my own unique culture and background without them having to even leave home.

Speaking of holidays, the Spanish word for holiday is the same as the Spanish word for party (fiesta).  There are only two weekends left in my first semester in Granada, and since next weekend we will be knee-deep in exams my friends who are leaving decided that this was the weekend that we needed to do some serious Spanish-style partying.  We started last night with tapas, of course, and then went to a cowboy themed bar. At the cowboy bar we ran into an IES orientation leader who is a student at the university, and he was nice enough to show us  a fun discoteca that was playing 60s music and had far fewer tourists than some of the ones I've been to.  We landed at the discoteca at 3:45 to find it completely empty - the Spanish people showed up 15 minutes later after the bars had bars closed.  We finished out the night with churros and chocolate with three new friends we found at the discoteca from France and Germany (some of us had met one of them before, don't worry, we weren't hanging out with strangers).

I was worried about staying out all night because I'm someone who values my eight hours of sleep every night, but it was definitely worth it  - I had so much fun that I completely forgot about being tired until I finally went to sleep at 8:30 am (if you find any typos in this blog post, now you know why!)