What's in a Name and a Tricky Situation

What's in a name? Well here, in Spain, it's your grandfathers but never your husband.

Here's how it works. Everyone has two last names. When they are born, children get the first last name from each parent. So if Jose Martinez Garcia and Maria Lorca Jiminez had a child named Ana, her full name would be Ana Martinez Lorca. Martinez and Lorca are the last names of her two grandfathers while the last names of her two grandmothers do not get passed down.

Also interesting to me is that the women do not change their names when they get married. I prefer this. It's always been weird to me that women change their name when they get married. It was once a source of an argument I had. The opposing party said, "Well if she loved him, she would take his last name." To this, I logically responded, "If he loved her, he would take her last name. What kind of logic is that? Now they've both switched last names!" Of course, I think women should have a choice but I personally prefer the keeping of the original last name as that is who the woman is.

Interestingly, according to some of our teachers, in many Central and South American countries, women don't change their names but do add the names of their husband at the end proceeded by "de". For example, if Ana Martinez Lorca married Pablo Ruiz Picasso, she could choose to have the name Ana Martinez Lorca de Ruiz. I don't really care for this either as the word "de" implies possession or ownership. The coche de Ruiz is the car belonging to Ruiz and I don't like the idea of Ana belonging to Ruiz. But again, to each his own.

I'm having one of these moments right now:



I did something pretty bad today, just like Chunk in the clip. As many know, eating in Spain has been extremely difficult for me. There are many foods that I REALLY don't like and I have had to eat most of them here. As I live with a family, I don't get to choose my meals, they simply show up on a plate in front of me. So, today I snapped a little. Mostly this was a portion issue and not the actual food itself. I had a huge bowl of zucchini soup and this was followed by a ginormous salad. I just couldn't eat anymore of the salad. When I eat salads, it's not that I get full, I just get tired of chewing. And I just couldn't do it anymore. Then, when the phone rang and when Abuela went to answer it, I seized my opportunity and dumped the remainder of my salad on her plate.

Wow. That was pretty terrible. In my defense, however, Abuela is always talking about how she LOVES verduras (vegetables) and she is like maybe 100 pounds so an extra portion would do her some good. I, on the other hand, now feel awful. Oh well.