In my mind, I’m goin’ to… España

Can’t you see the sunshine/ Can’t you just feel the moonshine

About a month ago, I was stuck in a spider-web of red tape otherwise known as the visa application process.  How I love such dalliances with my fickle mister, the bureaucratic process… oh the memories: taking off work to get documents from an office that is only open on Thursdays, road-tripping to another country (in my case) to hand in my application only to get it denied rudely and arbitrarily…  Honestly, who are these people at the consulate… and how can I get a job there?  Their hours are 10AM-2:30PM (four and a half hour days, whaat?)… and the power-trip seems potentially invigorating.  That said, I found out last week that my application went through successfully and my visa is ready to be picked up… so, finally I know I will actually be going to Spain (and not just in my mind).   

I am seriously excited to get to Palma.  I’m going to cause the biggest stir since Michelle Obama's trip there earlier this summer.  Okay, well, maybe not, but I am rearing and ready!  Still though, this transitional period before going abroad is such a jumbled mess of a time.  Here are a couple of songs that sort of indicate the mixture of excitement and anxiety I’m feeling knowing I’ll be leaving home for a while:

"Don Quixote/Spanish Rain"- Coldplay  New Coldplay song dedicated to their 2010 Latin American Tour… “Spanish Rain”… perfect material for The Rain in Spain

"Boots of Spanish Leather" - Bob Dylan 

"Carolina in My Mind" - James Taylor  As Taylor says in the video, this song was actually written when he was in Spain and homesick

Culture Club

How cute is this (Tim Burton-inspired?) poster art? I love it... the champagne-wielding skeleton's wee paunch... the kissing couple... so precious! The event being promoted here is at "Cultura Club," a club in Palma I've actually heard of. The girl who was in my position last year in Binissalem recommended it to me as a fun place that plays indie music. In the same e-mail, she recommended I check out Youthing magazine... Youthing is basically the Freetime magazine of Mallorca. Madrid had the Guia del ocio, which was really helpful in getting the word out on upcoming cultural events (like art exhibits, concerts, film screenings, etc.), and it had a really great web version of the publication. So, about a month ago, I was pretty bummed when I googled "Youthing" and found their official website to be, well, without. The website was just a yellow pages-style listing of the publication's office address and a picture of a past cover, no links, no 'under construction' signs, just a whole lotta nothing... Until today! I searched again and found out they've updated the website (http://www.youthing.es/) so I can access the most recent issue. Needless to say, score! That's where this depiction of the skeletal soiree caught my eye, as well as announcements for some pretty cool-looking events, like some free music shows and lectures. Here are some local happenings I thought looked interesting, to say the least!:

• an open-mic Poetry slam (in spanish...I think that would actually be pretty entertaining... to watch!)
• a "Youth Group" for 14-30 year-olds offering free massages on Thursday nights in September (I may steer clear of that one!)
• a concert with Elton John performing with Andrea Boccelli (definitely cool, albeit, before I get there and out of my price range)
• a free screening of Shutter Island (LOVE IT) at the local Parc de la Mar

With less than one month left 'til my departure, I'd do well to keep my ear to the streets for chances to get amongst it!!

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?

Malaga in Brief

About a week and a half after Mom and Dad left, my friends and I found out that we were getting a long weekend (every weekend is seriously a long weekend in May in Madrid, to the point where they use the word “puente” or ‘bridge’ to jokingly refer to the tendency of madrileños to stretch the weekend out). So, on Wednesday 3 friends and I decided to go to the Costa del Sol on Friday. It ended up being a great decision. We took the bus, which is pretty cheap (35euro roundtrip from Madrid). Malaga is the birthplace of Picasso and Antonio Banderas. It’s really pretty much a beach town. The water was freezing and the sea floor was so course that the soles of my feet were red and raw, but the sun was out and the clouds were nonexistent. The ambience was fantastic, between the andalusian sun, the ancient bullring in the middle of town, the ancient walls leading to an old fortress (alcazaba), green plazas, fountains and flowers. Also, it turns out that people are generally pretty friendly to a group of four foreign girls. We got to hike up the alcazaba and had a gorgeous view of the city there, and we saw a Picasso exhibit. I also turned African on that trip, or one might say pulled a “reverse Michael Jackson.” It was a great vacation, which I obviously needed to get away from the grind (note sarcasm: this trip was less than 2 weeks after mom and dad left).

But seriously, people – I do work here! It’s just not interesting enough to write a blog about, though I am a nerd and my favourite classes here are Morfología and the History of the Spanish language from the 15th Century to modern times… Do you REALLY want a blog on that?? No.

I’m sorry these blogs are so delayed. I’ve been in the library! Last week was our last week of classes, and I had an exam and presentation yesterday in Morf. I think they went really well and I had a good chat with my teacher after the presentation. She told me I have a really good accent, but I mumble. My response: my mom tells me I mumble all the time in English. So, I’m working on that whole enunciation thing! In other news, my laptop is STILL in the shop – they are taking their SWEET time figuring out what’s wrong with it, and EMILY AND PHIL are coming tomorrow!

Also, for those of you who haven’t heard the mugging saga:

my cell along with my purse (wallet, lipstick, comb) were robbed from me when my friend julia and i were walking to catch the train at atocha at 5:30am. i was being verbally harassed around the sol area by an African man when we proceeded to walk to our train station. 15 minutes or so after the said harassment the SAME guy ran out of nowhere and was leaning against a stop sign in front of us, catapulted himself onto me (julia tried to intersect him, kick him with her boots, hit him with her ring and i tried to hit him off) but he ripped my purse off its strap and threw me to the ground. i had body scratches and a sore shoulder for about a week. julia called the police 5 times and they weren't answering then just told us to go to the police station and hung up. I was definitely a bit rattled, but have gotten everything cancelled and replaced, and fortunately no one got too badly hurt. Also, I only had enough cash to get home with; so, he didn’t get anything too valuable. It was, of course a shame, and we had been coming back from this fantastic party that Julia and I got invited to buy these two guys who own this awesome clothes store in Malasaña; so, it kind of put a damper on the evening…

Other than that, I have been loving this city. I have a terrace I sit on near the Royal Palace that is the perfect mix of sun, people-watching and quiet bustle. It is the perfect place to study! Also, I have been to some free art exhibits, including a photo exhibit from the MoMA, and an exhibit called “Sleeping Beauty” at the Prado. I also saw this movie called Sin Límites (in English, I think they’re calling it Little Ashes), anyways it’s about Dalí and my favourite Spanish poet, Federico García Lorca and how they allegedly had an affair. It was interesting, but nothing to write home about, although it starred Robert Pattinson (Edward from TWILIGHT) as Dalí. I am really looking forward to the end of exams (the 19^th) because I’ll have a week in Madrid to do my favourite things: lounge in sunny Retiro park, loiter around the Royal Palace, go to La Latina/El Rastro, rummage through old bookstores in Malasaña, catch some art exhibits and walk through the rich streets near Metro Salamanca. I went to a great Great Lake Swimmers Show the other weekend. Also, booked a trip to Paris FOR 6 DAYS (June 27^th to July 2^nd). I’m meeting up with 3 friends there, who actually are going to be there with a couple of friends from home. It will be grand! Anyways, so I guess this wasn’t so brief. Okay, I gotta go log in those library hours before the MURPHS come. I have an exam tomorrow and then two more on the 18^th and 19^th.

Some quick shout outs to:

MAURA for helping me get money while the rents were in India

Joe, J’lyn and Steve for sending me a sweet care package with zesty orange flavoured swine flu meds in it

And Sara, for finding THIS http://www.amazon.com/Oodles-Lindoodla-Coochy-Coodles/dp/B000ERAOJG for those of you who remember my beloved longlost childhood figurine that went by the name of “Lil’ Whistler” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUDaQbRKCTM

Okay, keep it real peeps, and I’ll be seeing you soon!