We've created a new game in honor of all the funny, crazy, ridiculous things our señora says to us. It's called Señora Says...and I just wanted to spread the laughter.
Señora says...
"You're getting fat because you eat bread with dinner."
(NOT because she gives us two slices of bread for breakfast along with four cookies and fruit, two sandwiches for lunch, and meals the size of Thanksgiving dinner).
(One day, we told her that we really like it when she makes a sandwich of just cheese for one of our two lunch sandies).
"Well I'm not going to give you a cheese sandwich every day because cheese makes you fat."
"You're sick because you leave the window open at night." But, Pepi, we haven't left the window open at night for more than a month. "Close the window at night and you won't get sick." Okay?
One day, we're sitting in our room studying and Pepi walks in.
"OPEN THE WINDOW! It smells like FEET in here!"
One night at dinner, she points to the wheat bread she buys for her and her daughter and tells us, "This bread has medicine in it. The doctor told me to eat it. It doesn't taste good, but I have to eat it for my health." Translation: I buy you girls the fugly, cheap white bread for a reason. Don't touch my more expensive wheat bread.
We have two French girls staying with us and they don't speak much Spanish. When I asked how long they had been studying for, they said three years. To this, Pepi responded, "Three years!?! I thought you hadn't studied Spanish at all!!"
My roommate told Pepi that her stomach hurt. "It's because you don't blow your nose. All the congestion drains back into your stomach, so it hurts. You need to stop sniffling and blow your nose."
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Sweet nothings of Spanish life
Elderly men always go out in the evening in business suits - that includes the slacks, the jacket, the button up shirt, belt, shoes, and tie. I love it.
Older women (ages 55+?) usually wear skirts when the leave the house. They get dressed up! Our señora has her jean skirt that she wears around the house, but if she goes out to grocery shop or anything, she changes into a loose, patterned skirt, combs her hair, and puts on some lipstick and perfume. No sweats, y'all.
Weddings. Every time there is a wedding, you know it. The women dress up in formal dresses of various, vibrant colors. It's like going to prom, except better. Oh, and they wear flowers in their hair.
Along a public walkway called Avenida Constitución, as the evening sets over the city, musicians of all types come out and play, setting their cases in front of them for donations. Saxophone, violin, accordion....
People of all ages run - sometimes spring - to the bus stop when they see it coming and they're not quite there.
Everyone carries around shopping bags. Not necessarily with new merchandise...there could be anything in it, but they choose to carry it in a fancy little bag from a stylish apparel store.
You know when a señora is on her way to the grocery store, because she pulls a tote on wheels for her groceries. It's almost like a carry-on bag, but the print is usually plaid.
Everyone gets two kisses when they meet - friends old and new.
PDA - Unhindered public displays of affection, primarily outside the universities and in the park.
Eating churros con chocolate at 6 am. Mmmm, breakfast.
Our señora's singing. She almost never stops...when she cooks, when she cleans...the only time she gives her voice a rest is when she sits down to read. Or when she listens to Elvis.
Walks. It's what the older Spanish community does for entertainment on the weekends. But you also see young couples...just walking.
Our señora's ridiculously loud snoring. It puts me right back at home with my dad. Snoring heard from down the hall. I can appreciate that =).
Fruterías - fruit stands filled with a wide array of delicious fruit of all shapes and sizes. Mmmm, getting hungry!
The stylish women. How to describe it...I think it's a mixture of the 70s, 80s, and modern-day styles with a bit of a punk twist. Try that on for size.
Trying not to sound too creepy, sometimes I just like to sit and watch them walk by...similar to Facebook stalking, no?
Older women (ages 55+?) usually wear skirts when the leave the house. They get dressed up! Our señora has her jean skirt that she wears around the house, but if she goes out to grocery shop or anything, she changes into a loose, patterned skirt, combs her hair, and puts on some lipstick and perfume. No sweats, y'all.
Weddings. Every time there is a wedding, you know it. The women dress up in formal dresses of various, vibrant colors. It's like going to prom, except better. Oh, and they wear flowers in their hair.
Along a public walkway called Avenida Constitución, as the evening sets over the city, musicians of all types come out and play, setting their cases in front of them for donations. Saxophone, violin, accordion....
People of all ages run - sometimes spring - to the bus stop when they see it coming and they're not quite there.
Everyone carries around shopping bags. Not necessarily with new merchandise...there could be anything in it, but they choose to carry it in a fancy little bag from a stylish apparel store.
You know when a señora is on her way to the grocery store, because she pulls a tote on wheels for her groceries. It's almost like a carry-on bag, but the print is usually plaid.
Everyone gets two kisses when they meet - friends old and new.
PDA - Unhindered public displays of affection, primarily outside the universities and in the park.
Eating churros con chocolate at 6 am. Mmmm, breakfast.
Our señora's singing. She almost never stops...when she cooks, when she cleans...the only time she gives her voice a rest is when she sits down to read. Or when she listens to Elvis.
Walks. It's what the older Spanish community does for entertainment on the weekends. But you also see young couples...just walking.
Our señora's ridiculously loud snoring. It puts me right back at home with my dad. Snoring heard from down the hall. I can appreciate that =).
Fruterías - fruit stands filled with a wide array of delicious fruit of all shapes and sizes. Mmmm, getting hungry!
The stylish women. How to describe it...I think it's a mixture of the 70s, 80s, and modern-day styles with a bit of a punk twist. Try that on for size.
Trying not to sound too creepy, sometimes I just like to sit and watch them walk by...similar to Facebook stalking, no?
Weekend in Nerja
My roommate and I, along with two other girls from our study abroad group decided we wanted to go to Nerja.
Nerja is a beach town along the southern coast of Spain, and just outside the town are the Cuevas (or caves) de Nerja.
So, we woke up before the sun rose and went to the bus station where we met up with three of the guys from our group that were also making the trek to the coast.
And then we slept.
When we got into town, we found our hostel, and coincidentally we had booked the same hostel as the boys, so that was convenient. We changed into out suits and strolled along the streets toward the beach, stopping here and there to look in the shops along the way.
The beach was beautiful! Blue ocean, palm trees, tan bodies everywhere...some showing more body than we wanted to see.
We picked up some food, went down to the water and laid our towels in the sand. We went into the water, we napped, and I finished my fifth book since I arrived in Spain (can you say nerd?!).
After our tanning time on la playa, we went back to our quaint little hostel and got ready for dinner. The boys, just because they are so awesome, invited us onto the terrace at the top of the hostel to drink sangría that they had made themselves - consisting of brandy, fanta limón, and some kind of wine...
So we all sat up on the terrace and watched the sun set over the mountains. And we talked and LAUGHED! Laughed and laughed and laughed. And then it was dinner time!
We walked around to this restaurant we had seen, but decided it was too expensive. It was in the middle of this plaza overlooking the ocean, and some Spaniards were break-dancing to a boom box - so cool. So we watched for a bit, and then kept going because we were starving!
We ended up eating at this Italian restaurant called El Gato Negro (which means the Black cat) that had live flamenco out front. Unfortunately, we couldn't sit outside to see it because our group was too big. So we enjoyed the muffled music from the inside.
But the ambiance inside the restaurant was great, and we started with a bottle of wine, and then ordered pizzas and pastas with seafood. Delicious doesn't even begin to describe.
We bought gelato near the ocean, and the guys were still hungry so we continued on, wandering into a Mexican restaurant.
Some people go bar hopping. We go restaurant hopping.
Even though not everyone ate, we all got little Mexican hat pins with our bill - like the way you get fortune cookies at a Chinese restaurant.
And then, with full stomachs, we proceeded home.
The next morning, we got up early to catch the 8:30 bus to the caves. It took about 15 minutes to get there, the bus dropped us off, and then we read the sign posted on the door.
It didn't open until 10.
So we decide to explore...we find a playground and hang around like monkeys for awhile, and then we walk down towards the town nearby to see if there are any cafés open. Well, instead we found a buffet libre (all you can eat buffet) at a hotel just off the main road for less than 4 euros. Count us in!
By the time we got done eating, the caves were open, and we managed to just beat the crowds.
The cave we went into was so cool. The size of each chamber was just unbelievable! And we saw the biggest column of stalagmites/stalactites in the world. In this little beach town in southern Spain! It was great.
We headed back to Nerja, and back to our hostel, where we packed up and checked out. On to Málaga.
We were only in Málaga for a couple of hours, and had planned to see the Picasso museum, but when we saw that it was too far away to make it back in time for our bus, we sat down in some grass and just hung for a bit. And then we went for tapas.
Tapas. Tapas are amazing. They are almost like appetizers in the US. I think the tradition started as a way to prevent people from just getting drinks and feeling tipsy afterwards because they didn't eat beforehand. So when Spaniards go out in the evening, they get drinks and tapas...sometimes. And sometimes they just have a cerveza.
But we shared a bunch of tapas, and then passed out on the bus ride home.
It was a great weekend.
Nerja is a beach town along the southern coast of Spain, and just outside the town are the Cuevas (or caves) de Nerja.
So, we woke up before the sun rose and went to the bus station where we met up with three of the guys from our group that were also making the trek to the coast.
And then we slept.
When we got into town, we found our hostel, and coincidentally we had booked the same hostel as the boys, so that was convenient. We changed into out suits and strolled along the streets toward the beach, stopping here and there to look in the shops along the way.
The beach was beautiful! Blue ocean, palm trees, tan bodies everywhere...some showing more body than we wanted to see.
We picked up some food, went down to the water and laid our towels in the sand. We went into the water, we napped, and I finished my fifth book since I arrived in Spain (can you say nerd?!).
After our tanning time on la playa, we went back to our quaint little hostel and got ready for dinner. The boys, just because they are so awesome, invited us onto the terrace at the top of the hostel to drink sangría that they had made themselves - consisting of brandy, fanta limón, and some kind of wine...
So we all sat up on the terrace and watched the sun set over the mountains. And we talked and LAUGHED! Laughed and laughed and laughed. And then it was dinner time!
We walked around to this restaurant we had seen, but decided it was too expensive. It was in the middle of this plaza overlooking the ocean, and some Spaniards were break-dancing to a boom box - so cool. So we watched for a bit, and then kept going because we were starving!
We ended up eating at this Italian restaurant called El Gato Negro (which means the Black cat) that had live flamenco out front. Unfortunately, we couldn't sit outside to see it because our group was too big. So we enjoyed the muffled music from the inside.
But the ambiance inside the restaurant was great, and we started with a bottle of wine, and then ordered pizzas and pastas with seafood. Delicious doesn't even begin to describe.
We bought gelato near the ocean, and the guys were still hungry so we continued on, wandering into a Mexican restaurant.
Some people go bar hopping. We go restaurant hopping.
Even though not everyone ate, we all got little Mexican hat pins with our bill - like the way you get fortune cookies at a Chinese restaurant.
And then, with full stomachs, we proceeded home.
The next morning, we got up early to catch the 8:30 bus to the caves. It took about 15 minutes to get there, the bus dropped us off, and then we read the sign posted on the door.
It didn't open until 10.
So we decide to explore...we find a playground and hang around like monkeys for awhile, and then we walk down towards the town nearby to see if there are any cafés open. Well, instead we found a buffet libre (all you can eat buffet) at a hotel just off the main road for less than 4 euros. Count us in!
By the time we got done eating, the caves were open, and we managed to just beat the crowds.
The cave we went into was so cool. The size of each chamber was just unbelievable! And we saw the biggest column of stalagmites/stalactites in the world. In this little beach town in southern Spain! It was great.
We headed back to Nerja, and back to our hostel, where we packed up and checked out. On to Málaga.
We were only in Málaga for a couple of hours, and had planned to see the Picasso museum, but when we saw that it was too far away to make it back in time for our bus, we sat down in some grass and just hung for a bit. And then we went for tapas.
Tapas. Tapas are amazing. They are almost like appetizers in the US. I think the tradition started as a way to prevent people from just getting drinks and feeling tipsy afterwards because they didn't eat beforehand. So when Spaniards go out in the evening, they get drinks and tapas...sometimes. And sometimes they just have a cerveza.
But we shared a bunch of tapas, and then passed out on the bus ride home.
It was a great weekend.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)