Jamón! Jamón! Everywhere!

February 27, 2011 1:01 PM local time

Yesterday, I went with other students from other language schools on an excursion to Las Alpujarras. These are small towns in the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Granada. Our guide spoke only in Spanish but I understood most of what he said. I believe he said that these towns were formed when the Muslims were pushed out of/fled Granada. That was the impression I got anyway.

We toured the towns, learned a little about their history and culture, and were able to sample some local fare. In one town, we tried the jamón (salt cured ham) and vino (wine). In another town, we had lunch. I knew my regular lunch would be waiting for me at the apartment when I got back so I went light on the lunch and had a salad. Plus, I was not feeling well from sitting in the back of the van driving on the curviest roads I’ve ever seen. After lunch, we were able to tour a jamóm making facility.

At this facility, there were three types jamóm processed. The Serrano type comes from the back legs of a cerdo blanco (white hog) that is from a large commercial hog feeding facility. It takes them about 8 months to fatten up to the right size. The jamóm of the front legs is referred to as patetillla. The third type is Ibérico, which comes from a cerdo negro (black hog) that is from a small farm and has eaten a steady diet of acorns. These hogs take about 2 years to fatten up and this jamóm is very expensive. The jamóm is cured at a rate of one day per pound in only salt. They are then maintained in facility at low temperatures for times of up to two years. Before being sold, each jamóm is marked with its type and how long it was in the facility. I should mention that this facility is in the highest town in the Sierra Nevada Mountains which helps to keep temperature cool in the building. The top peak of these mountains is at 11,411 feet. For reference, the highest peak in the Rockies is 14,440 feet and in the Smokies is 6643 feet. So, these are some pretty high mountains.

The facility was immaculately clean. You will notice in the pictures that the floors are white marble tile. I’ve noticed there is a lot of marble and other stone used throughout this area. Heck, even the Burger King had white marble columns.

There is also a picture of the ceiling from the restaurant which had about 8 billion jamómes hanging from it. Each had a little cup poked in the end. This is for in the summer months when the jamómes “sweat” grease.

The houses in the Las Alpujarras were old. Really old. Like made-of-stone old. Most were painted white and had roofs made of large stones. On top of these large stones was frequently a smaller gravel. The houses were really piled on top of each other and felt like they could fall off the mountain side at any moment. Most of the houses had a short first floor as this was where the animals were kept when the houses were first built. The people then lived on the second floor. Most streets in these towns were too narrow for cars and many had a mountain and rain water drainage system running down the middle. Many houses and businesses also had beaded curtains hanging in the doorway. This not only blocked the sun but mosquitoes will not pass through them. This is an alternative to a screen door.

The picture with the large stone basins is the old Laundromat. The water would run down from the mountains into the basins and the ladies would launder the clothes in there.

Today is Sunday and I’m planning to just relax and rest up. Tomorrow we do not have school as it is a holiday, the day that celebrates this region of the country. I’m hoping that in the next two days, I can do a little studying, some reading for pleasure, soak up a little sun, and maybe see a movie.

Tapas! Finalmente!

Today I finally tried tapas. Well one tapa to be exact.

Bomi, a girl from Korea who is studying Spanish at my school, asked me if I had gone for tapas yet. I told her I had not yet tried this famous aspect of Granada. She said we must go after class so I could try it. Well, I think that's what she said. My Spanish is not so great yet. (As a side note, Bomi studied English for 12 years in Korea but they only ever read and wrote, no speaking or listening. Thus, she is not able to communicate with me in English very well.) Anyway, after class, around 12:30, we went to a tapas place. I LOVED it. When you order a drink, you get a tapa for free. I ordered a Coke and Bomi had a wine without alcohol. Then, for the tapa, we received a serrano ham sandwich on a bagel with tomato and a side of fries. The cost? 2.20 Euros each or less than $3. Pretty good deal. The fries also had some kind of amazing tasting mayonaisse or aoli on the side. I would definitely like to do this again soon. You really can't beat the price.

Tomorrow, I am headed to Las Alpujarras, a series of small villages in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The trip is an excursion arranged for students of the various language schools in Granada. I'll have to leave to walk to the meeting point around 8 a.m. and I'll get back around 9 p.m.. It should be very interesting and it will be good for me to get out of the city for a while, get some fresh air, and see some other parts of Spain. I've had a few headaches, I think due to the amount of car exhaust. It will do me good to get out of town for a day.

I just checked, and, according to my records, in the last 7 days I have walked for 18 hours and 20 minutes. Wow. I was down two notches on my belt a week ago but I've not gone down anymore since then. I have had a TON of vegetables and fruit which are good and the selection of chips and other junk food here is very weak (also a good thing).

Observations

February 23, 2011 3:43 PM/10:43 PM

Just a few observations I’ve made in the last week and a half:

• · I am of average height here. I am taller than many people. This is a new feeling.
• · Spaniards eat more fruit than Americans, in general.
• · Granada has a staggering number of clothing, shoe, grocery, paper, and book stores as well as cafes, bars, and restaurants which leads me to wonder how challenging it is for businesses to survive in such stiff competition.
• · Everyone I’ve bought something from has been very patient with my Spanish.
• · Wine is very cheap. My friends bought some (tasted good to me) for 1.3 € or $1.78.
• · My meal today was one I’d never had before: rice with tomato sauce spooned on top with a fried egg, a large hot dog looking piece of meat, and fried bananas. I couldn’t eat the bananas. I’ve been saying no to bananas since I was first allowed to, sometime in elementary school.
• · Even though it was 62 degrees here today, many of the locals stayed bundled up in wool coats and scarves (sometimes two scarves). If I’d been at home, I would have been in a swimsuit in the yard. This proves, once again, that temperature can be relative.
• · Junk food update – the Cheetos here don’t have much flavor. They taste like generic cheese puffs. They seem to only have puffy Cheetos and not crunchy Cheetos.
• · There are a plethora of benches but not much grass. I had to really search to find a patch of grass on which to sit, study, and soak up some sun.
• · The chip/snack aisle is only one half of one side of the aisle rather than all the way down both sides.
• · Thus far, in Granada, I’ve seen a Burger King, Dunkin Donuts, (called Dunkin Coffee) and a Domino’s Pizza.

A Little Sun & A Lot of Walking

February 22, 2011 8:53 a.m./3:53 a.m.

The last few days have been pretty busy. Saturday night, I attended the flamenco with some friends from school (they are from Holland, Denmark, and Spain). I liked the music of flamenco but the dancing lady was too over the top and reminded me of my sister’s interpretive dance with the “tree” and the “rock”. It was too dramatic and exaggerated.

I slept in until noon on Saturday and 12:30 on Sunday. I had not gone to bed that late but I guess I was exhausted from all the jet lag. I spent most of Sunday afternoon sitting in the grass in the park studying my Spanish. When the sun was out from behind the clouds, it was pretty warm. When it was behind the clouds, it felt fairly chilly. I found it interesting that it was difficult to locate a patch of grass on which to sit in Granada. There are a plethora of benches in many plazas but grass is hard to come by. Luckily I was able to find a small patch in an area that was not shaded by any buildings. I studied there for several hours and “drank the sun” as they say in Spanish.

Monday, class began at 9 a.m. and finished at 12:30 p.m.. The school had a walk scheduled through the center of the city at 3:00 p.m.. During the time between class and the walk, I had a snack and took a walk around the southern part of the city. I then attended the school’s walk/tour with mi amiga Ida who is from Sweden. After that walk finished, we sat in a large park and did more “drinking of the sun”. We then walked to Spanish Target to get a few things and I returned the apartment of my host family in early evening. All in all, I walked four hours on Monday and all of it in knee high boots with a heels. Ouch. I was so exhausted that, at 8:30 p.m., I was falling asleep while sitting and writing the answers to my homework. That was the first time I’d ever fallen asleep while writing before. I gave up on the homework for the night and just went to sleep.

Today, in addition to regular class, Ida and I also attended an extra lecture on grammar. It was great and cleared up quite a few things. Our teacher, however, distracted me. She was a new teacher and had to be close to 6 feet tall and was a little broad. This is extremely unusual for a Spaniard yet it is our understanding that all of our teachers are from Spain. Women in Spain are not tall like this and not broad. Thus, it was hard to focus on verb usage when I kept trying to figure out where she came from.

After class, Ida and I went to find a café that serves churros with chocolate (for dipping) that was recommended by my dad’s cousin. That was a great recommendation. The churros were very delicious. They tasted similar to elephant ears plus you could dip them in the chocolate. It was a tasty snack but one should not have them often. I think I will call that my supper for the night. All in all, I really didn’t have a long walking day with only 1 hour 45 minutes logged but all of it in comfortable shoes, thank goodness.

Burger King, or as They Say in Spanish, Burger King

February 19, 2011 11:40 a.m./6:40 p.m.

They have beer at the Burger Kings in Spain.

I’m not making this up. Lunch at the apartment today was a little rough for me. I like fish but I think today’s lunch was salmon, which I do not like. The flavor was very strong and was persisting in my mouth after I finished my side of baked potato (with just salt and pepper) and mandarin orange (I’m starting to like oranges). I tried breath mints but still the salmon taste persisted and the salmon burping started. After nearly three hours of walking around the city, I decided that was it. I could not handle anymore salmon mouth. It was time to try the Burger King.

Aesthetically, it is unlike any Burger King I’ve ever been to. I’m not a big eater of fast food but every once in a while, probably every 6 months or so, I partake. This Burger King, however looks nothing like the Burger Kings I’ve been too. It has marble columns and elaborate crown molding. In terms of speed of service, it is also unlike any Burger King I’ve been to. I waited in line 20 minutes before ordering. As I’d been eating healthy all week, I decided to splurge this meal and ordered a chicken breast sandwich with a side of mozzarella sticks and a medium coke (I normally go for the small coke but I was super thirsty). The total cost was 8.44€ or about $12. Dang. Not good. As the employee got my beverage, ever so slowly, I noticed that in Spain, the medium Coke is the size of a child’s drink in America. Yikes. Oh well. The chicken sandwich was ok but definitely not good. The mozzarella sticks? Tasted just like home . . . mmmhhhnnn. Unfortunately, they came with no sauce and for $2, I got 3 sticks.

Oh well. Now I know what to expect at Spanish Burger King and probably won’t be back unless I’m desperate for fat and cholesterol. And the best part?

I’m still burping the salmon.

Dinero

February 18, 2011 1:06 p.m./8:06 p.m.

The past couple days have been a fight to get my hands on my money. I have money in several banks although one bank has more money. I attempted to withdraw money from this bank with my ATM card which, I was told by the bank, would work in Spain. Of course, it did not. I tried it at several ATMs. No luck. I tried a different bank card and it worked perfectly . . . except I don’t have much money in that account. “No problem!” I thought. I will just get online and transfer money to the working account from the account I can’t access. No. I can’t. I accessed my account online and it said I was in a new location (Yes, yes I am. Thanks for the update). Because I was in a new location, to protect the security of my account, they would send a special passcode to my cell phone. Oh my cell phone? No, it doesn’t work in Spain. The website said to call them in such a predicament. Luckily I had a number by which I could call them collect.

In Act II of this drama, I went to the pay phone and attempted to make a collect call. The first time, the call was disconnected after I asked to make a collect call. The second time, the automated operator dropped the call before I even had a chance to ask to make a collect call. The third time, I tried to call using my credit card. It was not accepted. The fourth time, I tried to use a different credit card. It was not accepted. I gave up for the day.

The next day, I called the AT&T International number and it played out much the same. I was unable to make the collect call to my bank. I then decided that I needed to buy an international calling card. Where does one buy one, though, and what the hell are they called in Spanish? Wait! Surely such a thing is sold online! And they are. Simply put in your credit card number and you will receive a PIN. Perfecto! This will allow me to call the bank so I can access my money. No. After you purchase the PIN number, you receive an email with the PIN and calling information. Of course, first, after you’ve already paid, they let you know that they will be calling your phone to verify that this is really you authorizing this charge and not a hoodlum who stole your card. And what phone are they calling me on? My cell phone, of course!

So, I immediately went to the calling card company’s customer service page and began instant messaging with a customer service representative. “Is there another way to verify this? I have no phone. Can we Skype?” “No, ma’am we only do telephone verification. I must call you.” Well for shit’s sake. Eventually I gave the lady the number for my school and what times I would be there. She must have decided it would be too difficult to call Spain and five minutes later, I had my PIN. Jackpot! I could almost feel the money in my hands.

This evening, I headed back to the pay phone. Surely I was just minutes away from financial stability (I’d wanted to do a 40€ excursion with my school this weekend to Costa Tropical but did not because I was unsure of when I would be able to get additional money). Amazingly, this phone had instructions for calling collect to the US. Jackpot! I won’t even have to use the calling card. The operator dialed the bank’s number for me. No, they do not accept collect calls. Bullshit! The back of the ATM card clearly says, “From International Locations, call collect at . . .”. It’s fine. I have a second number that I can call collect. Nope, that one won’t work either. Ok, it was time to call using the new international calling card number. First, I had to dial the access number. All circuits are busy. Again, I dialed. All circuits are busy. Five times, all circuits are busy. Ok, I thought, I’ll dial the more expensive access number (29 cents per minute versus the other number of 12 cents per minute). And it works. I have 52 minutes to be able to get my online bank account opened up and access to my ATM card restored.

The first guy tells me the problem with using my ATM card is that I didn’t specify what kind of account I wanted the money to be withdrawn from. The default is checking and I do not have a checking account with that bank. Next time, I need to find an ATM that allows me to use my savings account. Ok, no problem. I will find one. There are ATMS on every block. Problem 1 solved, or so I think. He then transfers me to the online banking division.

The lovely helpful lady in the online division proceeded to tell me that I needed to get the passcode to my account from my cell phone. If I did not have access to my cell phone service, I would not be able to access my account while I was out of the range of my service. I told her that I would not be able to access my cell phone service for four months. “Well then,” she told me, “you won’t be able to access your account for four months.” I asked her repeatedly, “Is there no other way to verify my account?” “No, there is not, she told me repeatedly.” Could she transfer the money for me over the phone? No. I was just getting ready to ask for her manager when I said, “What do you do for accounts of people who don’t have phones?” “Oh, we send it to their email.” You. Stupid. Broad. “May I get my passcode sent to my email?” “Oh sure.”

I hung up after nearly reaching my 52 minutes. Everything was now fixed. I could access my account via ATM as long as I chose savings account and I could transfer money once I entered the emailed password.

Feeling victorious, as I walked away, I spotted an ATM. Ah! Perfecto. I put my card in. I was able to choose savings. I chose 100€. And? “Your bank denied the request.”

Rainy Day con Kebab

February 15, 2011 12:46 p.m./7:46 p.m.

I have ventured out to a kebab place close to our apartment to pick up a small supper. There are lots of kebab places in this area as it was inhabited by Arabs over time and also is close to Northern Africa. It seems similar to the plethora of Mexican restaurants at home. They also have pizza and hamburgers at some of the places. Tonight I am trying the chicken kebab which is served with a lettuce and sauce in a pita. While on the subject of food, for lunch today, we had zucchini and cheese soup, bread, salad with avocados and maybe artichokes, and breaded & fried ham with cheese. Ham is big here and this ham was very good.

I had a hard time getting up for class today. The jet lag is killing me. Last night, I went to sleep around 10 p.m. and was wide awake at 2 a.m. I was supposed to get up at 8 but did not fall back asleep until 6 or 7, I think, and thus did not get up until 9. My class was at 11 so this worked out fine. Our first hour and a half class each day is grammar and the second is conversation. Today’s conversation was about food and menus. The grammar class was about pronouns (much less exciting) and discussing future plans. I learned a lot in each, however, and also got homework in each which I need to do now.

Oh my gosh, this kebab is REALLY good. The meat is cooked on a big spit rather than individual skewers. The dish has pieces of bread on the bottom (not in a pita), shaved chicken that was cooked on the spit (it’s thin and crispy like bacon), a tomato sauce on top of that, and yogurt on the side. It’s amazing. Really really good. I’m going to have to take most of it home as it’s huge. I hope Señora will allow me to put it in the fridge.

I didn’t do that much wandering today as it is raining and it is supposed to keep raining until Friday. Of course, rain makes for great naps and I was very tired after lunch, thus I had my first Spanish siesta. It lasted 3 hours! I must now figure out how to ask the kebab man for a box to take this amazing food home and then do my homework.

Spanish Junk Food

February 14, 2011 1:20 p.m./8:21 p.m.

Getting in contact via Skype is proving harder than expected. The time that I have internet access is when most people are sleeping or at work/school. I am hoping my class schedule works out more favorably next week. I have free wifi at school and can sometimes pirate someone’s wifi in la Plaza de Gran Capitan however, my school closes at 6 p.m. and I don’t want to sit in la plaza in the dark. Hopefully I can find una café con free wifi near home, where I feel comfortable being in the evenings. I am waaaay behind on the checking of email. I’m also writing the blog in Word and then just copying and pasting it into Blogspot. Here’s my internet schedule as of right now:

9-10:59 a.m. - My school is open and I can use the free wifi. At home, this is 2-3:59 a.m. and everyone is sleeping.
11-2:15 – I have class and cannot get on the wifi. It’s a class of 4 people. I think they’ll notice.
2:15-3:45 – I have to walk back from class and each lunch with my host familia. They eat between 2:30 and 3:00 and this is the one meal per day they all eat together. I am also paying to eat this meal and am planning on it being my one large meal per day.
After 3:45 -6:00 p.m. - I will either attend the extra activity offered at school (3:45 or 4:00) or am free to use the internet. I can use it at a nearby plaza if it is warm and the pirating is favorable or I can walk back to school and use it. I really need to find a café con wifi gratis in the several block area. Walking back to school takes 20 minutes at a brisk pace. I’m not averse to walking all that way but the school closes at 6:00 p.m.. This time frame consists of 8:45 -11:00 a.m. at home, a time when most people are working or at school. The nephews, however, are not at school during this time on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
After 6:00 p.m. – I need to find a nice cozy place close by that has free wifi. Most people start getting home around 3:30 p.m. which is 10:30 p.m. my time. This would be a lot easier if I had wifi a mi casa so I could just Skype while lying in my bed or could leave the computer logged on to ring if anyone called while I was just sitting here.

Oh well; beggars can’t be choosers. My class schedule will change each week so we’ll see what next week brings and, at lunch tomorrow, I’ll ask the daughter of Señora if she knows of a good place to access wifi close by. This daughter, the older of the two, speaks English very well (thank goodness!) and came to lunch here today. She lives with her boyfriend elsewhere in Granada but I got the feeling that she eats lunch here each week day and every other Sunday. She, ironically, studied English in Chicago at the University of Illinois. She said she was there during summer time and gained 40 pounds. Ah, that nutritious American food!

Speaking of food, many people have asked me about the food in Spain. I’ll try to keep you up to date on what I’m eating. For breakfast, Señora asked me if I wanted tostados or something I couldn’t understand, for breakfast. I said tostadas. As I have had tostadas many times, I thought this was a smart choice. Ah but tostadas mexicanas are not tostadas españas. Tostados here are toast. It wasn’t bad though because it was what I was expecting. Everything I’d read said they have toast for breakfast. So, for desayuno, I had two slices of toast with orange marmalade, a glass of pineapple juice, and my yerba mate tea from home. Well actually my yerba mate tea is from Argentina and Paraguay but I buy it in Valpo.

As breakfast was at 8:00 a.m., I was STARVING by lunch at 2:45 p.m.. I woofed down today’s almuerzo, which was tortellini with chicken in a cheese sauce. It was amazing. I’m not even sure I chewed I was so hungry. As always with lunch, we had bread (whole loaf bought at bakery, tons of bakeries everywhere) and fruit for dessert. They also had some steamed mussels but I said “No, gracias.” Although I’d never had them before, I’ve also had two mandarins in the last two days. Spaniards are big on the fruit and this will be good for me.

After lunch, I headed back to school (muy rapido) to attend a walk by one of my teachers to Sacromente. Sacromente is the site of some seriously ancient catacombs. Also at Sacromente, the gypsies perform flamenco, although not on Monday afternoons. Also on the walk, besides my teacher, were Sophie (I’m guessing in her 50’s, not sure where she’s from) and Stefan (college age from Holland; not to worry Kev, I’m not replacing you as my Dutch friend) who invited me to go with them and some other students to see the gypsies perform Saturday at 3:00 p.m.. Thus, I’m going to watch the gypsies on Saturday. I’m also considering doing my school’s excursion to la Costa Tropical on Sunday. I’m not sure what all is there but can one really go wrong with a place called Tropical Coast? It’s 40€ but it includes transportation and is from 9:00-10:30 p.m.

I also went to Hipercor today. I had previously referred to it as Spanish Target. It’s more like Spanish Target butted up against J.C. Penny’s with no wall separating them. It also had multiple floors. It was crazy. All I wanted was an umbrella, clothes hangers, and some sort of protein heavy snack. I found those things but also found a pleasant surprise. New flavors of junk food. I love to try new flavors of junk food. I’m always checking for new flavors when I go through the chip aisle at home. I won’t normally buy chips but if there’s a new kind out, I will definitely try it. Then, normally, I take it to school and give it to my students so I don’t eat a whole bag of say, hamburger flavored Doritos (excellent, by the way). I could not believe my eyes when I saw the chip aisle at Hipercor. Lots of new flavors including ham flavored chips. Yes, ham. I LOVE ham! So, my first new chip was Jamón Pringles. Seriously, ham flavored Pringles. The verdict? Excellent! Unfortunately, they are laden with calories, which is terrible. I’ll have to take several days to eat them. Then, back to the Hipercor to try another! I’ll keep you posted!