Where in the World is Alisabroad?

I guess I've put this off long enough. I promised months and months ago that I'd announce where I'm going next year...and despite the fact that I'm leaving in 2 weeks, I haven't yet done it. I guess all the pressure came off when the news leaked out to everyone I know personally and so it just never happened.

So, without further ado....where in the world am I moving in 2 weeks?

La France! 

Paris, 2009

I'm sure you've heard of it...above Spain; they love cheese, wine and baguettes; they speak French there...

Ah, yes, that's the one!

Ever since I was 14 years old I've been obsessed with France and the French. I started learning French in high school and from that moment I was hooked on foreign languages. Haven't broken the habit yet. All throughout my high school and college years, I could be found having fondue parties, wearing berets and heading up the French club. It was my constant dream to study abroad in France, to finally really experience that culture firsthand.

Me at 18, showing off my French ceiling tile for the classroom in my high school

And then Spain happened. I got derailed. A glorious, life-changing derailment, to be sure, but nonetheless my original dream never got accomplished. 

Until now. 

In two weeks I'll be headed off to fulfill all my teenage Amélie/impressionist painter/turn-of-the-century writer/American expatriate in France dreams.

Except I won't be in Paris. And I'm totally fine with that, for reasons that I will explain someday in another post. 

Better yet, I will be teaching English in Brittany (Bretagne in French), the region of cider and Celts, where crêpes were invented by people who wore funny hats! And I won't have to feel homesick for Galicia, because it will still rain all. the. time. And I will still be on the ocean. And Celts are still Celts, be they in Spain, France, or the British Isles. 

A glimpse into my yummy, yummy future

So needless to say, I'm excited and a little nervous, and I hope my readers will be able to muster some excitement about my newest adventure too.

Now I have to say (instead of hasta luego), something different--à bientôt!

A Hallmark of an American Summer: The Fair

One of the things I miss most when I don't come home for the summer is the opportunity to go to the fair. Something about that combination of greasy food, free pens and stomach-upsetting rides just gets to me like nothing else can. It reminds me of my childhood, I suppose, and it's one of the most American of all summer activities. Luckily, this year I did come back to the old US of A, and I've spent my past few weekends going to not one, not two, but THREE fairs. The sugar hangover has been pretty brutal.

Watching this grandpa/grandson pair play skeeball to try to win a stuffed animal brought me back to my own childhood, when I'd beg my daddy to win me something, when I thought he was the strongest man in the whole world. Who can resist a blast from the past like that?

I suppose another reason I'm addicted to fairs is that something about the fair seems deliciously old-timey, making me think back to the days when many Americans farmed out on the frontier and the county fair was the only time in the year when they got a taste of the fantastical world outside their small community, when they could let down their hair a little bit and have some fun. 

For example, as sad as I was about these elephants having to spend their lives doing tricks for the masses, it made me think of people way back when who must have been amazed to see that such an animal even exists outside of books. It made me look around me at all the farmers who probably will never have the opportunity to go on an African safari and see a real elephant. Are they that different from the settlers of the frontier 200 years ago? I guess not. 

 And if I thought the county fair was fun, that was nothing compared to the Minnesota State Fair, which I went to over Labor Day weekend. A full day of doing nothing but eating things that were deep-fried (cheese curds, elephant ears, doughnuts, yum yum!), going on rides with my 9-year-old niece, and fighting crowds to see a laser show at night. What more could you ask for in a fair experience?

Check out the crowds!

Actually, one of my favorite parts of the day was going with my nephews to the Education building, where the littlest one proved that size matters not when he was able to show us all up on the trombone! 

Here's to the American fair, which nothing I've seen in Europe can come close to. I may be an expat, I may cringe at Lee Greenwood's "Proud to be an American" (long story), but I'm a yanqui at heart--at least in some ways. 

Europeans and fellow expats--is there anything to truly rival the American fair over there across the pond? Americans--anyone else hit up one (or several) fairs over the last few weeks? And is your stomach angry with you too?

Te Echo de Menos: Comida Española

This is pretty much a constant in my life right now, but at the moment I really miss Spain. Reverse culture shock is the worst, and it's been taking its toll on me for most of the summer. I can come up with a million things I miss, from the lifestyle to the language to my amazing Spanish friends...but right now my tummy is rumbling and I could REALLY go for some Spanish food.

"But what Spanish food?" you may ask. Where I'm from in the US, people generally don't know that Spain isn't just the same as Mexico, let alone know what they eat there. So when I talk about my dreams of the following items, I usually get blank stares in return. I miss pretty much ALL Spanish food, but here are some pictures of some favorite items. Drool with me, please.

Jamón, croquetas, queso y pan...four huge staples in Spanish cuisine! Every one of them delicious and easily available...in Iberia.

That "typical" Spanish dish that I love but almost never ate there: paella.

There's something special about this pop, and I don't know what it is. But I love it.

The seafood, ahhhh the seafood in Galicia. There's nothing like it. And washed down with a cold glass of albariño...perfection!

Another Galician favorite--pulpo! Some people find this squicky to eat, but I found that it grows on you. And you really should learn to like it, because it's a staple at every Galician festival.

More typical Galician favorites (can you see the bias yet?). More wine, of course, and caldo gallego, a wonderful hearty cabbage-and-bean stew for a cold rainy winter's eve. 

I'm pretty sure these aren't even Spanish, since Kinder is German...but the name is Spanish and I discovered them in Spain so I'll go with it. These are best candy bars in the world, bar none.

Oh god, churros con chocolate, the breakfast of champions. Or the late-afternoon snack of champions. There's nothing like a melted pot of pure chocolate to dip your deep-fried dough in.

Castañas asadas, or roasted chestnuts, are such a popular fall/early winter treat that in Galicia they have an entire festival just for them--magosto! I don't know why we don't really eat these in the States, but we should, because they've got a hearty meaty nutty flavor that is really wonderful.

Queimada, or homemade alcohol with fruit and spices burned right in front of your eyes, is a typical Galician treat. It's pretty strong, but if the right person makes it, and if they remember to say a chant to ward off the meigas (Galician witches), then it's pretty good.

These are some Galician empanadas. They're not what we think of in America as empanadas...not at all. They're kind of like a salty pie filled with vegetables and meat, and they're delicious.

Arguably the most "typical Espanish" dish, the perfect tortilla española has been eluding guiris for generations. My "potato omelet" (as we'd say in the States) here looks pretty good, but I'm sure a real Spaniard would be able to quickly tell me what's wrong with it. I think they start teaching them how to make it while they're still in their cradles!

Mmm delicious churrasco. Those Spanish, they sure know how to roast a chorizo to perfection. Not to mention ribs!

Gratuitous extra pulpo (octopus) picture. Can you smell the deliciousness coming out of that vat? I can.

Quite possibly one of the best cheeses ever, just for its name. This is typical Galician tetilla (tit) cheese. Because...well...it looks like a....yeah.

Here we have tarta de Santiago, an almond cake that bears the cross of St. James. It tastes so good and it looks so holy. How can you go wrong?

More Galician seafood...and wine. And pimientos de Padrón. Some of my favorite things in the world, those little sometimes-spicy peppers. And chipirones! Another thing with tentacles that tastes even better than octopus (in my humble opinion).

And finally, we come to the best Spanish food ever created...a cake baked by one of my sexto de primaria (6th grade) students for a surprise party during our last class. He even wrote my name on it! The sweetest thing in the whole world. I miss those kids....almost as much as I miss Spanish food. 

(Or maybe more, but don't tell that to the jamón. It gets grumpy.)

Anyone else out there having hunger pangs that only Spanish food can take care of? Anyone else know what it's like to have such visceral reminders of how much you miss a place? 

Nothing to Say But Adiós

My absolute favorite view of the city of Vigo

...the mingling smells of cigarette smoke and coffee that tickle my nose as I sit at an outdoor caftetería...

...the feel of the sun warming me during a winter paseo along the beach...

...the confusion of listening to a tableful of Spaniards all talking at the same time...

...the tangy taste of an olive, washed down by a cold caña...

...the sight of children out with their parents, enjoying the last bit of sunshine at 10:30pm....

There are certain things that will always remind me of my time in Spain, and I hope that when I look back on these days in years to come, I'm able to remember the above sensations...how Spain made me FEEL. 

Tomorrow, I say a final goodbye to the country that captured my unwilling heart, where I've spent 3/6 years of my adult life. I'll bid farewell to the only city I've lived in so far that I could see myself being in long-term, to friends who are more like family, to a life that has made me happier and more relaxed than I even knew was possible before I first came here. Spain has changed me, it has shaped who I am today enormously, and I'm honestly in disbelief that I'm not going to be living here anymore in the fall, that my students are no longer "my" students, that soon all the work I've put in learning Spanish will mean nothing as I struggle my way through a different language barrier. 

I suppose I should have more feelings about what feels like a breakup with my true love, but at the moment I'm in denial. I probably will be even after the plane leaves Galicia and I'm thrust into a world where English is spoken and tortilla is only for tacos. I have no words, really, to describe how I feel right now. Betrayed? Hopeful? Grateful? Sad. I don't know, they're all in the mix there somewhere. But goodbye has to be said. So it goes.

I don't know what more to say than gracias, mi querida España, y nos vemos prontito. Hasta luegiño.

To My Colleagues

Aos meus compañeiros de traballo que descubriron o meu blog--quero dicirvos moitas grazas por todo o que fixestes para min nestes dous anos. Dende o principio, déstesme a benvida como unha compañeira, non só "a estranxeira," e sempre estivestes interesados no meu país, na miña cultura, na miña lengua, e o que é máis, en min como persoa.

Non é fácil desprazarse dun país a outro, onde non tes ningún coñecido, onde non entendes os costumes, e onde non falas perfectamente o idioma. Pero facilitástesmo, aceptástesme, e agradezo iso moito. Quero pedir perdón por todas as veces que non vos entendín, ou o idioma ou os vosos costumes, e quero dicirvos grazas por ser pacientes comigo mentres aprendía da cultura e das linguas aquí. Como espero que se pode ver neste texto pequeno, aprendín un mogollón, e quero dicirvos grazas pola axuda.

CPI da Cañiza é un pequeno colexio marabilloso, e as memorias que teño diso sempre serán de xente cariñosa e alumnos moi monos. Paseimo moi ben traballando convosco, e vou botar de menos o colexio e a xente moito.

Moitas grazas por axudar a contribuír a 2 anos moi felices nun lugar excelente.

Con cariño,
Alisa

Multilingual Puns

¿Qué hace un pez? Nada.

Something the world needs to know about me: I'm a sucker for puns. I'm punny. Words with any sort of double meaning are fascinating to me, as a linguaphile. And if I can take that double meaning and make it funny? Sold.

Even when puns are "stupid" or "tired" I admire them for having that slight extra edge to them. Like the one above...it's one of the oldest, most-used puns in Spanish, and I love it anyway. What does a fish do? Nothing/He swims.

A second thing you all need to know is that I love my students. There's no denying it. And I love them even more when they make multilingual puns, quite possibly one of my favorite things in the universe.

I bet every ESL teacher in Spain has heard this one: How do you say nariz in English? No sé. Hahahaha. Nosé...nose. (No sé means I don't know...but it looks like the word nose!)

The other day we were doing a unit on the US states, and one of the kids went "Buff, te cansas de Kansas!" (You get tired of Kansas...but "cansas" and "Kansas" sound exactly the same in a Spanish accent) This one is extra funny because it's true. Poor Kansas. (Sorry Kansatians... Kansanians... Kansasers...oh lord. People from Kansas. According to Google the proper term is Kansans, but that sounds every bit as silly to me as my options, so I'm leaving them here.)

And finally, because my Spanish roommate was complaining that I've never talked about him on this blog, here is a pun he told me the other day. Not multilingual, but you can't always have everything.

Dijeron los piratas, "¡Abordamos el barco!" Y el barco les quedó muy mono.

(Translation: The pirates said "Board/decorate the ship! And the ship ended up looking really beautiful.)

Oh Spain

I have so much fondness for this country, where things like the above happen on a daily basis. Park wherever you want, no big deal! No pasa nada!

...which is why I'm filled with sadness to announce that it is probable that I won't be living in Spain anymore next year. I'd love to stay in Vigo forever, since I now have a life here that I absolutely adore, with great friends, delicious food to eat, and a beautiful city in which to live. But one must go where there is work. I'm not quite ready to say exactly where I'll probably be next year yet, as it's not 100% certainly decided, BUT here's a big hint to where it's likely to be for those that know me personally--my inner sixteen-year-old self is squeeing with delight.

Leaving you to think that over for now and feeling evilly secretive...ciao ciao!