Just when I think nothing interesting is happening in Spain, the mierda hits the fan.

Peter and I went with our friends Julia and Gal to see a movie, but wound up getting lost and eating Chinese food instead. Then we bought Spanish candy. Candy here is amazing, they have all these types of gummies and licorice. But that's not the point. We went to get on the metro and... we were attacked by little girls. I cannot stress the absolute truth of this story enough. We were waiting for the train eating candy. This gang of little girls, like 10 years old, comes in and they're graffiti-ing the walls and punching each other. Then they see the candy and start shrieking "Porfa, dame un dulce!" and then they started lifting up my friends' dresses. So Julia gives then some gummies, and they don't quit. Finally the train gets there. The girls follow us and surround us, and they all start yelling and pulling on the candy bag and pushing us. The bag rips open and candy spills all over the floor. Then we all run to the other side of the metro car, and they stay and pick up the candy. It made me sad, because I was thinking, Oh, these little girls must not get candy very often. But when the train stopped, they ran to the door by us and pelted us with floor candy, screaming "Porfa, porfa" and laughing evilly. Then, right when the doors were closing one of them, the meanest littlest crosseyed one, spat right on Peter's face, and on like four other people in the way. THEN, as the train was pulling away they were banging on the side yelling, and when I turned around they flipped me off.

No one on the train with us even reacted. It was like they were in denial.

Regresar

It's a lot harder than I realized to keep up a blog when you don't have internet at home.

At the end of October, we went to Granada. It's a really beautiful city with a lot of history between Christians and Moors. I loved Andalucia.

Now that we've been here a while, I've noticed some more things about Spanish life and culture. I feel like Americans often confuse Spain with Mexico. They are very different. Firstly, it is almost impossible to find spicy Spanish food. They like their food bland and filled with pork.

In a week and a half, we are off to the south of Portugal for Christmas.

The Spanish National Lottery

Now that it's been a month and I've settled in, it's time for me to judge this country.

First and foremost, the TV here is pretty weird. A lot of American shows from the 90s are on, which is good because I love that Walker Texas Ranger-Marital Law crossover episode. Also, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is on every day which is great for learning words like tomb, crypt, slay, and stake.

Peanut butter is almost unknown here, which is terrifying.

Racism is prevalent as well, as I saw some pretty racist posters advertizing a bank. It won't do to merely describe it, but I'll just say it included Chinese, Arab, and Black characatures which in the US you would NEVER get away with. But this is good for about half the other student in my school program, who believe that african americans and native americans have a pretty fair deal. What can I say? This group is a pretty accurate cross section of our United States, and what I've learned from them makes me never want to leave california again.

Well, that's all for now. Stay tuned for my next entry regarding the prevalence of drug culture!

What is Spanish for stress?

The stress of my own inability to express myself is growing. Today I told some old lady I would "take her down" because she was eyeballing me. I didn't think she'd hear, but... well, the point is, I am not used to having to communicate through pointing, arm waving, and eyebrow waggling. Even when I know how to say what I want to say, most people here don't understand anyway because of my foreign accent, and as soon as I use a word wrong they shut down completely and treat me like I am drunk or stupid. Even when I am neither.

Anyway, as promised, I have the recipe for delicious Bleu Cheese lasagne. Since we don't have measuring cups, you will have to suffer with me and eyeball it.

You need:
Lasagne noodles, cooked until al dente (which means not very cooked)
Ricotta cheese
Bleu cheese
Marscapone cheese
Parmesean Cheese (all this cheese is totally worth it)
Garlic
Shallots
Milk
Pepper & Salt
Spinach (optional, you hippie)

First, make the sauce. Mince the garlic and chop the shallots. Fry them in a little olive oil, which you will also need, unil slightly blonde and slightly clear, repectively. Add some milk, not too much, and wait for it to warm. Then add the marscapone cheese. This is my own recipe, I don't know of any other sauce that uses marscapone cheese. Anyway, stir until it is sort of melted. If it is thick, just add a little more milk. Then add about a third of the bleu cheese.

For the filling, carefully melt most of the remaining bleu cheese with the ricotta. Don't burn them, or even get them very hot, just enough to combine them.

Now assemble the lasagne. Start with a layer of noodles, then the ricotta mix, then noodles, then spinach and more ricotta mix, and so on however you like. Season every layer with salt and pepper, or don't. Whatever. Top the last layer of noodles with the sauce, and grate parmesean cheese over it. Bake at 365º or, with my oven, the "on" setting until the cheese melts and bubbles. Eat it. Not too fast. Chew before you swallow.

That's what she said.

Ha llegamos!

We have arrived safely in Madrid. The flight we were on wound up being the group flight, which worked out because after 34 hours with less than 3 hours of sleep Peter and I were both dead to the world and could never have dealt with the reality of the public transit system. We have settled nicely into our apartment (piso), although the oddities of lighting the pilot for every shower and line drying clothes still take getting used to.

We´ve made a few friends, and have already predicted a few people we won´t like. You can´t always tell from the outside, though. I don´t mean that some people seem like total jerks/idiots and turn out to be nice or thoughtful, because so far that hasn´t been the case. I mean, sadly, that some people who look nice from far away can turn out to be a little dull and... greenhorned once you get to know them.

Maybe it´s just becuase before we left we were special for going to Spain, and once we began to mingle with a large group of people who all believe they are special for doing the same thing, I don´t know, it was annoying. I´m excited to be in Spain, no question, but when we were in the airport with these... kids... saying things like "I´m going to get sooooo drunk, tehehehe" it made me want to distance myself immediately.

Of couse, not all the people we´re with are like that. I´ve met some people who agree with me, they´re here to learn and enjoy Europe, not get wasted on their parent´s dime.

Anyway, I´ve been having fun cooking at home to save money for travel. The other night I made putanesca sauce, because there is only one kind of bottled pasta sauce here. I really love cooking, especially because it´s easy to find really good ingredients. After all, this is Europe. I don´t think chocolate and bread are significantly better here, but the person who often claimed this was German, so maybe I´m just in the wrong part of the continent.

Tonight I´m making a bleu cheese and walnut lasagne, the idea for which I got from a lasagnette recipe. Hopefully it will work out. If it is delicious I will post the recipe.

I keep having dreams where I´m in Spain and California at the same time, like going to Gottschalks and paying in Euros or going around the corner of Calle Sainz de Barainda and going to a party at Brittany´s. I combat homesickness by telling myself that I can be homesick once I get back, but it doesn´t make it any easier to stop myself ending phone conversations to home with "See you soon." And it doesn´t make it easier to hear about Jacob´s death.

It´s not that I´m surprised. The last time I really saw Jacob he was vomiting blood into the driveway at a party. And we weren´t close. But still, I´m so far away. And who knows what the next nine months will bring?

In the 1.5 weeks we´ve been here there has already been a major hailstorm and a fire-related power outage. The hailstorm came at about midnight on Tuesday. It woke me up and I thought the building was collapsing. The hail was the size of pingpong balls and made holes in awnings and dents in cars. Then on Thursday morning there was no power. I thought it was just out apartment, and we tried the fuses. Then when we went to the metro all the streetlights were off. It was quite a sight. The housing advisor pulled us out of Spanish to make sure we were ok and tell us about the fire a block or so away that caused the outage. We didn´t get power back until that night, and even now there is a huge generator truck powering our whole block parked down the street.

I want to send and post pictures, but we don´t have internet in the aparment and I can´t do that in a locutorio, or internet café.

I do have a key just for "ñ" though, it´s pretty sweet. Ñññññ.

Spain Related Videos

As part of our research, Peter and I found these videos highlighting the history of Spain. Enjoy!