I hope you all had a wonderful time celebrating with friends and family! My Thanksgiving was a little bit nontraditional, but it was an enjoyable evening nonetheless.
Explaining Thanksgiving to Spaniards was a little interesting. I could explain the historical origins just fine, but trying to explain what it means in general as a holiday was a bit harder, and I basically just summed it up as a day of gathering and giving thanks for the most important things in your life. Food was also REALLY hard to explain. I mean just think about stuffing. Also the word calabaza is used for any type of gourde, and I think some Spanish people thought that Americans make squash pie on Thanksgiving...
I still had class on Thanksgiving day, which felt a little strange, but mostly it just felt like any other week. It actually was weirder to see people's facebook statuses about Thanksgiving and going home and celebrating; I definitely felt very detached. Though not detached enough to not go out for dinner with my fellow Americans! My friends Rachel, Matt, Katie, Michele, Brett and I met up and went to the most American place we could find: TGI Fridays. Yup, they exist even here in Spain! The traditional Thanksgiving meal was a wee bit pricy so I got a good ol' bacon cheeseburger with a side of cheesy mashed potatoes. Quite classy.
'Murica on a Plate
I don't really like pumpkin pie much to begin with, so I split a chocolate brownie with Michele for dessert. Fantastic choice.
yummmm
Overall, I would have to say the food was a bit lacking (nothing can compare to home), but the company entirely made up for that. We had a grand old time, chatting, laughing, and living it up.
Study Abroad Family!
Since it is Thanksgiving, I figure it's the perfect time to blog about some of the food I've been eating here in Spain. My host mom, Macarena is an absolutely fabulous cook, and my goal is to learn some of her cooking secrets before I leave!
In Spain, the biggest meal of the day is not dinner, but lunch, which is usually served around 2 or 3 in the afternoon. Lunch at Macarena's house usually consists of salad, a HUGE plate of whatever the main course is, and a side of fruit or vegetables.
Here are some of my favorite dishes:
Lentejas (Lentils)
This might be my all time favorite dish that Macarena makes. It's a lentil soup with carrots, sausage, and sometimes eggplant. It's such a hearty meal, and I am always stuffed afterwards.
Pisto:
The best way I can describe pisto is like a Spanish version of ratatouille. It contains tomato, peppers, eggplant, zucchini. I usually end up taking second helpings of this dish.
Sopa Mexicana:
My host mother lived for 10 years in Mexico and learned a lot of fantastic recupes while she was there. She oftentimes just calls this blackbean soup Mexican Soup. It is AMAZING. It's served with a variety of toppings (onions, rice, parsley and meat)
Verduras con Aceite:
This is a side dish that is so simple but so delightful. All it is is tomatoes and cauliflower seasoned with olive oil and pepper.
Empanadas:
Macarena makes homemade empanadas, which is just a fancy name for stuffed bread. Some empanadas are made with tuna, some with chicken, some with cheese; it depends on the day. All are delicious.
Spanish dinner is usually served around 9 or 9:30 and is smaller than lunch. If there is dessert, it's usually fruit. I've grown fairly accustomed to having either orange or melon for dessert. And let me tell you, Spanish oranges put Florida oranges to shame.
Here is a typical Spanish dinner:
The omelette looking thing is called tortilla de patata, or tortilla española. It is kind of like a potato quiche. All it consists of is egg, milk and potato. Tortilla española fills you up really well and we have it a lot for dinner. The side dish is white beans with tomatoes and peppers all doused in olive oil (olive oil is used SO much here; it's great!) Also on the side is jamon serrano, or spanish ham. Spanish ham tastes strikingly different from deli ham in America and is much more salty.
And that's all I have about food today. Seeing as Christmas is coming up soon, and there are a bunch of traditional Christmas noms, I'm sure I'll be blogging about food again sometime soon!
So I'm trying really hard to not fall off the bandwagon with this blogging thing. The semester ends in about 3ish weeks though, so it's getting to be crunch time. Lots of things have been happening in Sevilla this past week, so let me give you the sitch!
Sindicatos = Labor Unions
While classes went on as normal with my study abroad program, most Sevillano students at the University of Sevilla had the day off on Wednesday due to a general strike that was taking place across Spain, Portugal, and Greece. The entirety of Sevilla shut down for the day. Stores and businesses were closed, public transportation was down, classes were cancelled, and thousands upon thousands gathered in the center of Sevilla to protest against the government.
Why such protests? Spain is currently in the middle of a serious economic crisis.(Warning: I really am not that knowledgable when it comes to economics; these are just my understandings from having talked to people here and watching the news) Many people have blamed the crisis on the banks, which have been giving out loans to people who could in no way afford to pay them back (remind anyone of the US in 08?) When the banking system started to fail, everything went awry, and people have become upset for a number of reasons. Large spending cuts have been made in education, healthcare, and general welfare. When considering the fact that Spain's unemployment rate is at 25% right now, 50% of that being young people under age 35, it is understandable that people are upset with these programs being cut or taken away. People can't find work, and therefore refuse to spend, which is a terribly hard cycle to break out of. People have come to blame the capitalist system in general and are demanding the resignation of the government.
Here's a short video that explains the crisis much better than I can. This video is about a protest that occurred in Madrid in September, but it explains the economic crisis and people's concerns well:
On Wednesday people surrounded Sevilla's government offices, protesting against all the recent cuts that have been made. I didn't really get to see much because I had classes, but I could see the damage that had been done throughout the city. New graffiti was everywhere. Many banks are covered with "fuck capitalism" graffiti, and stores that decided to stay open were also heavily vandalized.
Here's another video of the streets of Sevilla during the day of the strike:
Apart from Wednesday, the rest of the week in Sevilla was calm and went on as normal. On Friday I woke up to go to Barcelona for the weekend with my interest group "Other Realities of Spain," the same group which took me to Gibraltar! Barcelona, which lies on the coast of northeast Spain, is the capital of the province of Catalonia. The language of Catalonia is not Spanish but Catalan, a Romance language that sounds like a bit of a mix between Spanish and French. While the majority of the population is bilingual with Spanish, currently many people in Barcelona are unwilling to speak it due to the Catalonian Independence Movement.
Another big story in the Spanish news is Catalonia's desire for independence from Spain. Catalonia has desired independence for a long time, but the sentiment grew much stronger after Franco's regime, which largely oppressed Catalan culture. Coupled with the economic crisis, the desire for Catalonian independence is at a significant high point. While Catalonia would be free from Spain's economic troubles, they would no longer be part of the European Union if they became independent, thus losing all of the benefits (the euro, free transfer of goods, etc). It is an interesting story, and all of Spain is anxious to see what will become of Catalonia.
CiU, a political party campaigning for independence As you can see from the graffiti, not all are in favor.
Friday en Barcelona:
We got to Barcelona around 10am and after grabbing some lunch and getting settled in at our hostel, we pretty much immediately started exploring the city. One of the first things we saw was the Olympic Stadium/Museum. Barcelona hosted the Olympics in 1992 It was hard to believe I was just a newborn when these Olympics took place!
1992 Olympic Stadium
Castillo Montjuic
After the Olympic Stadium we took the bus over to Castillo Montjuic, a fortress built in the 1600's that has been used throughout the centuries. The views of Barcelona were beautiful, even though it was a fairly blustery day.
After leaving Castillo Montjuic, we commenced on a walking tour of the city. Compared to Sevilla (population around 700,000), Barcelona (a little over 1.5 million) felt HUGE. We first walked around the modernized part of Barcelona, which started being built in the late 80's, early 90's, as Barcelona was getting ready to host the '92 Olympics. I kind of felt like I was back in Chicago when walking through this part. It felt very modern, and the street that our hostel on was essentially the Michigan Avenue of Barcelona, with all its fancy shops and restaurants.
We eventually made it into the old historical center of Barcelona, which was definitely my favorite part of the city. We toured the two old cathedrals in the center, The Cathedral of St. Eulalia, and the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Mar.
The Cathedral of Santa Eulalia always keeps 13 geese in their cloister because St. Eulalia was martyred at the age of 13.
Santa María protects all
seafarers.
After the walking tour, we had the rest of the day to tour at our leisure. My friends and I went to the Picasso Museum of Barcelona, which was absolutely fantastic. Picasso lived in Barcelona in his early teens, and it was here where he completed most of his early work under the training of his father, an art instructor at the fine arts school.
Alright, I'm about to go on a slight art tangent about my two favorite paintings in the musem:
Ciencia y Caridad (Science and Charity)
This was Picasso's first painting which was well received by the public, and he painted it with only 15 or 16 years of age! The scene is of a dying woman surrounded by a doctor (science) and a nun (charity). It is kind of a depressing scene, but it was interesting to see nonetheless. It was much bigger than I expected!
Las Meninas:
Las Meninas is actually a series of 58 paintings done by Picasso, who was inspired by Veláquez's world renowned painting, Las Meninas. Velazquez was a baroque painter who painted for King Philip IV. This is probably one of the most famous works in Western Art. (I need to get to Madrid to see it!) Picasso, influenced by Velazquez recreated and reinterpreted this scene, invoking his style of cubism.
Las Meninas de Velázquez
Another Las Meninas de Picasso
Saturday's Gaudí Tour:
We woke up fairly early on Saturday for a tour of Antoni Gaudí's Barcelona. Gaudí is a Catalan architect who is famous for developing the style of Catalan Modernism, which is marked by the use of iron, ceramics, and the mimicking of nature.
Not even a block away from our hotel was Casa Batlló, which was built in 1904. People often call it La Casa de los Huesos, or "the House of Bones" because a lot of the architecture looks skeleton like. To me the facade looked a lot like mushrooms, with a super awesome dragon roof on top.
We then visited Casa Milá (1905), also known as "La Pedrera" or "The Quarry." This one was a lot simpler than Casa Batlló, but very cool. In Gaudí's work, there is no such thing as straight lines; everything is curved.
We didn't go inside either of these houses because it's fairly expensive to get in, so after looking at the outsides we hopped on the bus over to Park Güell, Gaudí's famous park, which is free to everyone!
Park Güell, (built 1900-1914) was originally going to be the house of the Count Güell, but it failed as a housing site and was converted into a park, which is fantastic because everyone now can see it! Gaudí's use of mosaic and ceramics is very prevalent, and it feels kind of like you entered a gingerbread wonderland. It was a lot of fun to walk around, although I wish we had gone earlier in the day because it was getting dark and we didn't have a whole lot of time to explore. This park is definitely a must if you are in Barcelona!!
Sunday at La Sagrada Familia:
On Sunday we concluded our Gaudí tour by visiting La Sagrada Familia, Gaudí's magnum opus. Believe it or not, the construction of this church began in 1882, and guess what? It's STILL not finished! That's right, construction has been going on for over 130 years. A lot of things have delayed the construction of this church. Firstly, it has mostly relied on private donations. It has been delayed throughout the years by WWI and II, the Spanish Civil War, Franco's regime, and other economic crises. The goal end date is 2026, which would be the 100th anniversary of Gaudí's death.
drippy sandcastle outside
cool forest ceiling inside
La Sagrada familia is a radical reinterpretation of Gothic architecture. When you tour it, you can definitely see the inspiration of ancient Gothic cathedrals, but it is done in a way that looks entirely modern. You would never guess that this was a project that got underway in the 1800's! My favorite part was the stained glass. The colors refracted everywhere throughout the building, which made the whole building bright and colorful.
After La Sagrada Familia, we had a quick lunch, and then headed off to the airport to fly back home! Barcelona was definitely a cool city to visit, and I'm so glad I got to go there with my interest group!
Alright. I'm only a week behind real time now! The one upside to all this rainy weather (I don't remember the last time I saw the sun here) is that I can stay in and blog!
So continuing from where I stopped, I got back from Morocco in the wee hours of Monday morning, which made classes a bit rough that day, but it was definitely worth it. Tuesday and Wednesday were midterms (ok, how has the semester gone by so fast???) Overall exams went pretty well, although I forgot some vocabulary words for a few essays. I didn't dwell on my mistakes too long, though, because I was leaving Wednesday night for Belgium!
Wednesday was Halloween. Halloween isn't really celebrated that heavily in Europe. Some neighborhoods with young children have just recently started doing trick or treating, but it is definitely not that common. University students go out to the discotecas dressed up in costume, and that's about it. There are no decorations, or pumpkins, or haunted houses like back home. November 1st, (All Saints Day) however is a national holiday in most European countries, and everyone gets the day off. The 1st fell on a Thursday this year, so many people, european and american, took the long weekend (el puente) to travel.
I got to Belgium late on Wednesday night. What is in Belgium, you ask? My family! My aunt, uncle, and cousin all live right outside of Brussels. They were all in town for the long weekend, so it was a perfect time to go see them! A good high school friend of mine, Nina, also came up to Belgium from Padua, Italy where she is spending the semester. It was so great to be reunited with friends and family!
Nina and I went to bed around 1 on Wednesday night ready to have 4 days full of adventures:
Thursday:
The adventures got off to a pretty lethargic start. Nina and I wanted to sleep in a bit so we did not set an alarm. My aunts house is in the sleepy suburban area of Brussels, and it was wonderfully quiet and dark. Guess what time we ended up sleeping in til? ..... 1 freaking 30 in the afternoon! I slept 12.5 hours straight through.... Clearly Nina and I needed to catch up on sleep, so although we were a bit disappointed that we wasted half a day, we were glad to feel legitimately awake for the first time in a long time.
Thursday was All Saints Day, so many things were closed, which also made us feel a bit better about our lazy morning. We did get to do a few cool things though. In the afternoon, Nina, my Aunt and me went to the town of Waterloo. Yes, this is the Waterloo where Napoleon was finally defeated! We went to the Wellington Museum, a former 18th century inn which theDuke of Wellington, commander of the allied army fighting Napoleon'sFrench forces, made his headquarters in 1815. It was from here that he sent the British government news of their victory.
Wellington Museum
The museum was really interesting, especially if you enjoy military history. If you're ever in Brussels/Waterloo I recommend seeing it!
After the museum we drove out to the field where the battle of Waterloo actually took place. I'll be honest, it's a field. There isn't much there apart from the "Butte du Lion" or "Lion's Mound" a manmade hill with a statue of a Lion at the top, which was constructed to mark the spot where William of Orange of the Netherlands was knocked off his horse by a musket ball while fighting, and is a commemoration to all who died in the battle.
The hill was made from pieces of earth of other parts of the battle field and the Lion is supposedly made out of the canons the French left behind when in retreat. Unfortunately, we arrived just as "El Butte" was closing, so we didn't get to climb it, but it was still very impressive from ground level.
We headed back home in the evening for a wonderful Italian dinner cooked by my aunt. My cousin, his wife and his two adorable children ages 4 and 2 came over as well, so it was a full house!
Friday in Brussels:
Friday morning, Nina and I woke up at a reasonable hour to head into the heart of Brussels. We started off the day walking around Grand Place, or the central square of Brussels where the town hall is located. Most of the architecture is from the 17th century and was quite beautiful.
Town Hall
Shops of Grand Place
Nina and I went in to the City Museum of Brussels, which is located in Grand Place. In the museum are housed a wide variety of collections from statues to ceramics, to tapestries, all explaining the history of Belgium. Perhaps the most entertaining part of this museum was the collection of costumes from all over the world for Belgium's famous statue of "Le Mannequin Pis," roughly translatable as "the little pisser," in English. Yes, this statue is exactly what it sounds like, it's of a little boy peeing. The water of the fountain comes out exactly where you think it would. The statue is located not too far from Grand Place and is a major tourist attraction.
Nina and me with "Le Mannequin Pis"
The statue is dressed up in the costumes that are in the City Museum. There must have been over 50 costumes from countries around the globe.
Spain sent a matador outfit
USA, represent
Spain also sent this....ok
Needless to say, we had a jolly good time oogling at these costumes and at the statue. While near the the touristy area we took a food break and got good old fashioned Belgian waffles. These waffles are 12 bajillion times better than the bisquick waffles I make at home. They come piping hot and sprinkled with powdered sugar, or you can get a variety of toppings if you want to go all out.
WAFFLES
I love me some waffles
After waffles, we continued on our food tour and went to grab some legitimate lunch at a restaurant Nina's friend recommended called A La Mort Subite. Let me tell you, it was a FANTASTIC recommendation, and you should definitely try it out if you go to Brussels. One of the reasons Nina and I were excited to come to Belgium was for the good beer (sorry Spain/Italy; when it comes to beer, you just don't cut it) and A La Mort Subite had a fantastic variety. We split a delicious herb omelet and enjoyed some dark beer.
After a delicious lunch we went headed over to the Royal Museum of Fine Arts. The museum has a very big collection of Flemish art work, and also a nice collection of work by Peter Paul Rubens, which were simply stunning.
My favorite painting of the day was Marat Assassiné, or The Death of Marat, by Jacques Louis David. You have probably seen this painting in history books; it is one of the signature images of the French Revolution. Marat was a radical journalist during the revolution, whose paper was called "L'ami du peuple" or "Friend of the People." He used his paper to call out the wrongdoings of powerful members of French society, especially members of the Girondins' one of the many factions that were fighting for power during the Revolution. Marat was murdered by a Girondist sympathizer while writing a piece for his paper in the bath. Marat has been immortalized in this painting as a kind of political martyr, and it is now one of the most well known images of the French Revolution.
We headed back to my aunts after the art museum for another wonderful homemade meal with family and for a night of much needed rest before our daytrip to Brugge!
Saturday in Brugge:
Brugges is a Flemish city in the north of Belgium, about an hour and a half away from Brussels. It is one of the best preserved medieval cities in Europe, and with it's distinct architecture and beautiful canals, some consider it to be the "Venice of the North."
Nina and I did the church tour in Brugges, visiting 3 different churches.
1) Saint Salvator's Cathedral
2) Church of Our Lady
3) Basilica of the Holy Blood
The Holy Blood, you ask? This Basilica is home to the Relic of the Holy Blood (yup, Jesus' legit blood), which, according to legend, was brought back to Brugge from Jerusalem during the 2nd Crusade in the 12th century. Nina and I waited in line to go "touch" the blood (really just the glass case that contains the vial that contains the blood). It was an interesting experience. Many people are very devout when it comes to this relic, and people travel from far in wide to see it.
waiting in line to touch the blood
While in Bruges, we continued to enjoy the fantastic cuisine in Belgium. Did you know french fries are not originally from France, but rather from Belgium? Well, at least that's what the Belgians say. Nina and I had some fantastic frites with the classic condiment of not ketchup, but mayonnaise. You may think that this combo is disgusting, but I promise it's not!
Frites and Mayo
Nina and frites with a spicy ketchup
We spent a lot of the day just walking around, and soaking in the magic that is Brugge, enjoying the sights and the crisp fall weather. Being in Brugge is like being in a time warp. You feel like you could be in the medieval ages. It is absolutely magical. If you ever are in Belgium, Brugge is a must.
At the very least, you should see the movie In Bruges because it is hilarious.
Sunday:
Sunday morning came way too fast, and before I knew it I was dropping Nina off at the airport with my uncle. I'm so glad we were able to meet up while abroad! Since my flight wasn't until the evening, I spent the morning and early afternoon with my cousin, his wife, and their adorable 4 year old son and 2 year old daughter. These kids are growing up trilingual, learning English, Swedish, and French! From a linguistic standpoint, it was really interesting to listen to their speech, especially of the 4 year old's. He would start out his sentence in English, veer off into Swedish, and then finish in French! He was very confused when I couldn't understand him, because Mom & Dad are able to!
We had a lovely afternoon, playing with legos, being silly, eating lunch and going shopping. The day went by all too quick and before I knew it I was on the plane back to Sevilla. It was a truly fantastic weekend, and I hope to get back to Belgium to spend some more time with the European branch of my family while I can!!
