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.