My Spanish Doppelganger

One of my best friends went to Europe after our high school graduation and saw this poster on the street in Barcelona: She (obviously) had to take a picture of it and send it to me because the name “Maria Figueroa” is really similar to my name, and, well, basically it’s funny to imagine that I had a secret career as a child belly dancer in Spain. Years later, we’ll still reference little Maria, when I jokingly bust a move, for instance. Finally, a few days ago, I had the brilliant idea to see what the deal is with this little Spanish diva. After a quick YouTube search and a lot of soul-searching, I’ve decided to post my findings:

I think this video is funny in its own right, all long-standing jokes aside. ¡Hostia! I can’t wait to watch more Spanish television programming when I get there…

Dear reader, if you are as astonished as I am by the musical talents displayed above, you should check out the truly chilling rendition Maria does of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” (in Spanish, “Voy a Vivir”) or my personal favorite, this heated collaboration.

La Furia Roja—Campeones del mundo

“…si vamos unidos no nos vencerán”

…united, they will not defeat us

The quote is from the song that was written for the Spanish National Team (NT) Selection for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.  It is particularly powerful because the World Cup win has bolstered some of the most ardent patriotism ever for Spain, a country perpetually divided by regional politics.  The picture was taken by one of my friends who lives in Madrid.  After they won, the NT rode on top of a van through the some of the major streets in Madrid.  You can see Fernando Torres hoisting up the cup, and Sergio Ramos rocking a Carmen San Diego-style hat.  They better still be celebrating when I get there in late September!!!!  

My future home away from home

Starting in October, I will be teaching grades 7-12 in Binissalem, a medieval village a hop, skip and a jump inland from where I’ll be living, Palma, Mallorca.  Mallorca (in Catalan and Castellano, proper English title is ‘Majorca’) is one of the Balearic Islands in the western Mediterranean (pictured above).  The smaller map shows a red circle, which represents Binissalem, and the yellow dot on the western coast of the island is where Palma is located.  Binissalem is the wine-producing capital of the region, or the bread basket, so to speak.  The famous Cathedral of Palma is pictured as well as one of the many coves Mallorca is famous for.  I will be teaching with a program through the Ministry of Education of Spain and assisting an English Language teacher in a bilingual public school.  They speak mainly mallorqui (a dialect of catalan) and castellano (or what we call Spanish), though it seems there are quite a few German and British expats on the island, from what research I’ve done.  However, I will be there during the off-season (October- May); so, I guess we shall see the logistics when I get there.  It should be an adventure to say the very least.

The Blog is Back in Town

So, after a brief hiatus (okay, a little over a year), I have decided to jump back on the blog-wagon.  I know many of you are dying to know if I ever left Malaga, and I can assure you… I did.  I just wanted to build suspense, you know, add a little drama and intrigue to the whole blogosphere… not to mention, I’m incredibly lazy (insert joke here about learning how to be lazy from the best, Spanish stereotype that it’s a lazy culture, blah blah blah hahaha hehehe blah blah blah).

Just to orient everyone, I had about a month left in Europe after that last post.  It was a truly remarkable month, that I apparently could not be bothered to remark upon (via blog, at least!).  That said, anyone who I have talked to since has heard about the trip to whimsical Granada with my sister and brother-in-law, the tapas fair in Madrid where we unknowingly ate a sandwich made entirely of pig ear cartilage, and, of course, the pièce de résistance of my nomadic Euro-life, a week spent gallivanting around Paris with the elite of haute society, namely my cousin and his wife, certain friends from my recent past and present, and of course, those notoriously charming natives.  Did I mention how amazing the flea markets are there?  J’adore parisian flea markets.  How pretentious do I sound?…  Don’t answer that.

Though I make no aim at retrospectively blogging the entire past year, a lot has happened in this time.  Not only has the Vulcan-style haircut that I got in Spain grown out, but I am now an aunt (times three), a university graduate (with distinction, damn it), potential law school applicant, and the recipient of a grant to teach in Spain in a couple of months.

Seeing as this is my come-back post, I just want to articulate a few goals for this blog, so I can take it in a little bit of a different direction.  This brief list of goals is more for me than you all, but, now that this info is out there, you guys can keep me accountable.  I hereby solemnly swear:

1 To write shorter, more frequent posts (EVEN though I struggle with the whole “it’s-good-that-I’m-not-blogging-because-I’m-enjoying-myself-too-much-to-make-time-to-blog” conundrum)

2 Not to write solely about my own travels, but rather to include some posts to profile current events, cultural dalliances, and linguistic tidbits that I deem interesting and somewhat relevant to my travels

3 Not to forget how to speak and/or write English just because I am trying to immerse myself in Spanish (namely, Castellano and/or Catalan).  I made some truly ATROCIOUS grammatical errors in previous posts.

Okay, so I hope you’ll allow me to be my best blogger and keep me honest, but not too honest, perhaps… these are ambitious goals after all!  And if I can change… and you can change… we can all change… maybe?  Rocky?  Anybody? Is this thing on?