Lessons on how to make a decision. Or maybe a self-help book: Decisions for Dummies.
Bovill Opera House; Art in Historic Graffiti
10 years ago
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Luna Nueva (de la saga “Crepusculo”)
In English, Luna Nueva translates to “New Moon” (aka the second film in the Twilight series). The strange thing is that, even though it’s an American movie, it came out here two days earlier. Last week, the actors were in Madrid to promote it. And last night, I went with Bea (the girl from Cordoba who’s also living in the house), a few of her friends from class and a few of my friends from class. I’m not even a “twi-freak”, but it was good and I was secretly excited to be seeing it earlier than possible in the states. The dubbing was actually decent and there was actually a plot. Another thing: I’ve realized that ridiculously cheesy and romantic things sound much, much better when said in Spanish. I’ll probably cringe when I watch the movie in English and Bella says to Edward over and over again “You are my world.”
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
One Weekend: Tangier, Morocco; Gibraltar, UK; Tarifa, Spain
Tangier, Morocco:
I decided that I would be severely disappointed with myself if I left Spain without taking a trip to Morocco. It is basically the easiest country to access from Cadiz, even though it’s on an entirely different continent. So we took a 1.5-hour bus ride to the port, boarded the ferry, and showed our passports; 35 minutes later (and feeling slightly seasick), I arrived in Tangier! As a group of three American girls, we had gone the safe route and gotten a tour guide to show us around the city. Soon we were off (in a random bus) to the old part of town.
Tangier was truly great and I was really impressed by the city. On the walk through the impossibly narrow streets, I saw homes with amazingly intricate rugs draped out the windows. I saw some gorgeous architecture, adorable kids playing and riding bikes, women in traditional garb selling food, and some seriously persistent vendors waiting for me to give in. I learned a lot from the tour guide, too. There are public “baths” where people can go to get water on a daily basis. There are also communal ovens; if you bring dough for bread, you can get some freshly baked bread in return. Also, education there is free from kindergarten all the way through college (hmm…wouldn’t that be nice?). Apparently Tangier had been disregarded as an uninteresting border city for years until its current prime minister decided to do something to improve it. Seems to me like it’s been working.
Three of my favorite stops on the tour were:
Tarifa, Spain:
Randomly, in our hostel on Saturday night, the Pacific Northwest was overwhelmingly represented: Seattle, Bellingham, Anacortes, Vancouver BC, Victoria BC, Olympia, etc. It was great.
Tarifa is a cute little town in southern Spain on the Mediterranean Sea and holds the wind-surfing world championships every year. And that’s about it.
Gibraltar, UK:
What a random, bizarre place this is. Honestly. It’s a territory of the United Kingdom and it is tiny. The border crossing is a complete joke. They speak English with a British accent but also speak Spanish (with a British accent as well). John Lennon got married there. You can eat “traditional British fish and chips” everywhere. And you can climb the rock of Gibraltar and see monkeys. Yes, monkeys.
I got robbed by a monkey, in fact.
We were taking photos of a large monkey who was just sitting on a railing overlooking the strait. I started to take off my backpack in order to get a good photo, when the monkey suddenly started walking quickly towards me determinedly. It grabbed at my backpack until I had it all the way off, then opened it, found my lunch, and ran off with it. It was amazing. And a little bit scary.
All in all, it was a successful, exhausting weekend.
I decided that I would be severely disappointed with myself if I left Spain without taking a trip to Morocco. It is basically the easiest country to access from Cadiz, even though it’s on an entirely different continent. So we took a 1.5-hour bus ride to the port, boarded the ferry, and showed our passports; 35 minutes later (and feeling slightly seasick), I arrived in Tangier! As a group of three American girls, we had gone the safe route and gotten a tour guide to show us around the city. Soon we were off (in a random bus) to the old part of town.
Tangier was truly great and I was really impressed by the city. On the walk through the impossibly narrow streets, I saw homes with amazingly intricate rugs draped out the windows. I saw some gorgeous architecture, adorable kids playing and riding bikes, women in traditional garb selling food, and some seriously persistent vendors waiting for me to give in. I learned a lot from the tour guide, too. There are public “baths” where people can go to get water on a daily basis. There are also communal ovens; if you bring dough for bread, you can get some freshly baked bread in return. Also, education there is free from kindergarten all the way through college (hmm…wouldn’t that be nice?). Apparently Tangier had been disregarded as an uninteresting border city for years until its current prime minister decided to do something to improve it. Seems to me like it’s been working.
Three of my favorite stops on the tour were:
- A rug and tapestry shop: after listening to the owners talk about how everything was traditionally made and designed, I decided to buy one. The guy who was trying desperately to sell me a tapestry (make that several tapestries) had also decided to invite me to marry his son. He said, after obviously checking to make sure I had no wedding band, that I needed a strong man in my life. I burst out laughing. I finally bought a wall-hanging and walked away. Then I heard “Hey! Woman! I give you my business card and the email of my son!” It was a memorable experience, to say the least.
- A medicinal plant shop: a man was selling us all sorts of herbs to prevent against stress, insomnia, constipation, dry skin, etc. The best part was that he was very likely the most distressed and intense individual I’ve ever seen in my life.
- An adorable little Moroccan restaurant: we ate couscous and drank mint tea and Coca-Cola (in bottles with Arabic characters!) while listening to a lively Moroccan band.
- Oh, I forgot the camels!
Tarifa, Spain:
Randomly, in our hostel on Saturday night, the Pacific Northwest was overwhelmingly represented: Seattle, Bellingham, Anacortes, Vancouver BC, Victoria BC, Olympia, etc. It was great.
Tarifa is a cute little town in southern Spain on the Mediterranean Sea and holds the wind-surfing world championships every year. And that’s about it.
Gibraltar, UK:
What a random, bizarre place this is. Honestly. It’s a territory of the United Kingdom and it is tiny. The border crossing is a complete joke. They speak English with a British accent but also speak Spanish (with a British accent as well). John Lennon got married there. You can eat “traditional British fish and chips” everywhere. And you can climb the rock of Gibraltar and see monkeys. Yes, monkeys.
I got robbed by a monkey, in fact.
We were taking photos of a large monkey who was just sitting on a railing overlooking the strait. I started to take off my backpack in order to get a good photo, when the monkey suddenly started walking quickly towards me determinedly. It grabbed at my backpack until I had it all the way off, then opened it, found my lunch, and ran off with it. It was amazing. And a little bit scary.
All in all, it was a successful, exhausting weekend.
Vino: Se ve, se huele y se bebe
Types: Manzanilla, Fino, Amontillado, Oloroso, Pedro Ximenez, Cream
We went wine-tasting today for my Spanish Civilization class. Enough said.
Really, though. This area has some great wines. Someday I’m going to learn a lot more about wines and how you make them.
We went wine-tasting today for my Spanish Civilization class. Enough said.
Really, though. This area has some great wines. Someday I’m going to learn a lot more about wines and how you make them.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Briefly Back Home
Being back in the states, although with unfortunate reasoning, was great. I loved spending time in the Bay Area for a few days, seeing family, and then returning back to Seattle for a few more days. The 28-hour trip home and the 25-hour trip back were nearly unbearable, but still completely and totally worth it.
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