Noise & Rules

The construction continues at the building that's about 20 meters from my bedroom. Of course because of the heat I have to leave my tiny window open. So promptly at 9:00 AM they start what sounds like a game of pipe throwing. It sounded like they were throwing one huge metal pipe on top of a pile of metal pipes. After a few lovely minutes of that as my alarm clock, they start pounding metal with hammers. As I look out my window I see they are erecting a scaffolding. I took some pictures so you can appreciate how close this is. I'm sure most of you are thinking, 9:00 AM is late and you're probably at work by then so what am I bitching about. When I'm at home I wake up between 5:30-6:00 AM. But remember, in Spain they don't even eat dinner till after 8:00 PM. Its not uncommon to be out walking around the streets or having coffee or a beer until 1:00 AM. I don't have class until 4:00 PM and I'm only sleeping a few hours a night, so to hear this horrendous noise at 9:00 AM sucks Chef's salty chocolate balls (South Park reference).

So I come home Sunday afternoon and the Nazi superintendent has imposed a new doctrine. He posts a note on the bathroom door written in Spanish (he doesn't speak English) so I had to get my dictionary out. "Taking more than one bath a day is Prohibited". One more reason to find a new place to stay for a while.

I knew it would be a little tough not having the comforts of home but the noise, the heat, not being allowed on the trerrace after 10:00PM (not 11 which I thought) having the door to the Terrace chained and now being told I'm only allowed one shower a day, in this heat! Id rather spend a few hundred Euros more and have a little more comfort.

Get Some Air Conditioning!!

I stayed at Hotel Turia last night just for some nice cool AC and a TV to watch. The AC sucked and barely kept the room cool. No English stations which was fine since Im here to learn the language. And at least I had a shower hwre I didn't have to hold the sprayer while trying to shower. The hotel is only about a 15 min walk but next time, I'll pay a little more and get a room with COLD air.

Since the mall is next to the hotel I went there for dinner. I had a dish I saw on the Gordon Ramsey show called "The F Word" . The meal is a Donar Kebab. It's not exactly a kebab as we would think of it. The Donar Kebab meat is assembled like the meat used in a gyro if you have ever seen those large conical shaped meats on a verticle rottissorie (sp). These are very popular all over Europe, especially in the UK. In order to be called a Dnar Kebab as opposed to just a Kebab the meat must be prepared a certain way and must have a certain ratio of ingredients. There is a special inspection process used in England to ensure quality. According to the food critic on the Ramsey show, this is a late night drunk food in the UK. Similar to our Krystal Burgers.

So the meat is shaved off of the larger portion and placed in a large flour tortilla then they add lettuce, onion, tomato and a thin white sauce and optionally you can ask for a sauce picante which is a spicy thin red sauce. All in all it was OK. Id rather have a Gyro. Plus, Im not sure if it was the sandwich, but this morning I made about 5 trips to the reading room.

Horachata

Horchata (or-CHA-tah) is a cold drink that looks like watered down milk. It was originally made from tigernuts, water and sugar. Now people may use a variety of seeds or grains to make it, including almonds, sesame seeds, barley or rice. Chufa was the plant that was originally used and the root of the plant is like a tiney seed, like a nut. I believe this is what they call "tigernuts".

The name is said to come from King Jaume I, the first King of Spain (hundreds of years ago). It is said that when he was given the drink by a local in the town called Alboraya, he said "Aixo 'es or, xata" (That's Gold, Darling).

Arabs brough the chufa plant to Spain during the time of Moorish Kings (700 BC - 1,200 AD). The eastern Spanish province of Valencia was the best environment for growing the Chufa.

Stay off the patio!

I think I mentioned before that the superintendant removed all of the chairs and table from the patio area and said we are not allowed to be on the pation after 11:00 PM. I guess they have had a lot of complaints about noise when students are out on the patio talking late at night. In fact they say the police have been called in the past to investigate the noise complaints. So when I come home from classes last night around 9:00 PM I find the door to the patio chained and locked! I guess they're really serious about this shit. But I can understand it. I took some pictures of the buildings surrounding the patio which I hope will be posted. You can see how our patio is in the center of a bunch of apartments and the sound really does travel. So if 2-3 people are on the patio bullshitting at 3:00 AM I can nderstand how that might piss some people off that have to work in the morning.

I'm heading for a hotel nearby for a little comfort tonight. Thank God AC and a normal shower! The hotel (Hotel Turia) is right next to the mall and there are tons of restaurants all around. Its about a 15 min walk from my apartment.

Buen fin de semana!

The title means "have a good weekend" and an appropriate response is " igualmente" (same to you). I wanted to point something out about the language here. Not only are things pronounced a little differently such as ce and ci sounds like th and "v" sounds like b. So Valencia is pronounced "Ba len thia". Another difference is the use of the word Vosotros which means they/them is not used in Latin America. So Spanish speaking people from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Argentina etc.. will never use this word. When you say your age or someone elses age you dont say "Mike is 43" you say "Mike tiene cuarenta y thres anos" translated: Mike has 40 & 3 years.

One of the favorite sayings is vale (bah-lay) which means "ok". The first day the class the teacher (la profesora) kept saying this again and again I had no idea what she meant. Another saying is "que guay!" (how cool). Also in the street people might say "oye tio" or "oye tia" which means something like "whats up friend" There is a local dish here called Alli pebre they tell me its like their version of gumbo. I'm gonna look for it tomorrow. Sailing is postponed until next weekend so I may go to El Ciudad de arts y ciencia, The City of Arts and Science. Its not far from here but its a series of buildings with guess what? art & science stuff. There is also the oceanografic specifically dealing with the ocean like the place we have in Tampa

Week One

Today was a tough day at school. The first two hours was cake, just went over family names like Abuela, Abuelo, primo, cunado, Suegro, yerno, nuera, Bisabuelo etc.. But the next two hours we did Los Pronobres Posesivos. Singular/Plural + verb form + name; Verbo + posesivo + Nombre. I just had a tough time with this today. (nosotras)/ Amigos: Son nuestros amigos y los amigos son nuestros. Here is another example: (Vosotros)/ Hijos; son vuestros hijos y los hijos son vuestros.

I just has a time with it. This will take a while to catch on. I bought a John Grisham book in spanish called "La Tapadera"

Outside America

Our reputation (USA) to other countries isn't so good. I've spoken to people from Holland, London, Scotland, Germany, Australia and Argentina. Here's the basic idea others have about America. Most of you won't even be surprised, but what WAS surprising is how the attitude about the States is pretty much consistent across Europe. People outside the U.S. think we have an elitist (sp) attitutue, don't give a shit about the environment, consume, consume, consume. More is better, bigger is better, tell others how to run thier contries, police the world, impose our ideals on others. They also feel Americans have their heads in the sand because they don't travel outside the U.S. I tried to explain that lots of Americans don't travel to Europe because we have everything we need at home (AC & Comfortable cars) and most Americans haven't seen all of America. I know I can't change others attitudes. The funny thing is that most of these Euro's want to go to America. I LOVE THE USA!

Heat

Its hot this morning and I was awakened by pounding hammering at 9:00 AM!. I know that sounds late but we stay up till like 3-4 AM. So to hear pounding hammers at 9 is a little disconcerting. Its hot and moist this morning. I think I'm gettin a hotel room this weekened just for the AC and TV. I found one around the corner for only 50 ero/night. Saturday I'm going on a sailing excursion on the Meteteranian. There is somekind of Rigatta going on so we will watch that and they will cook Paella on the boat. I'm looking forward to that.

I learned something yesterday about ordering wine. I have been going to the bars and saying "un vino rojo" for one red wine. Someone corrected me and told me I should just say "Tinto". With this, the bartender will know what I want and give me the house wine. Interesting. I have also been told they have a local dish very similar to a gumbo called Allipebre. I haven't tried it and I haven't seen it on the menus but I'm going to look for it.

There are a tons of different kinds of Paella. They even make it with spaghetti. I'm not sure if it has a different name when they use noodles but I'll investigate.

Fellow Students

When I first got here I thought the other students were a bunch of rich kids using their parents wealth to travel. This is not the case. In fact it is far from the case. One guy is/was an Investment Banker in New Yory. He looked to be maybe 28 yrs old. He made a shit load of money now he decided to take 6 months off to travel and learn Spanish. After this he is attending the Kellogg Business College in Chicago for his masters degree which will take two yrs. Another guy from London is an Investment Fund Manager. A guy from Australia has a dad who is somekind of governmental diplomat in Tialand and he wanted to work for Greepeace but now he changed his mind and he wants to work for a government agency that promotes energy conservation. As part of what he wants to do he needs to speak Spanish. Another kid just 22 yrs old from Germany speaks some Spanish, Russian, German, and Italian. He is finishing his Masters thesis in Spain for six months. One girl is a teacher and since they have summer break she is here to learn Spanish which she wants to teach to her students in Holland when she returns. Nice folks, hard working, educated people.

Mercado Centro

I went through the Central Market this past Sunday and it was like a Twilight Zone episode. First I walk through a crowded market with literally thousands of people and probably more than 100 booths with people selling all kinds of things. So I pass through the market area and go off to the park that runs through the city. No less than 2 hrs later I head home and I pass through the market again. Only this time there is abosolutely nothing there! No people, no booths, no nothing! There were maybe three people sweeping-up. Even so, there wasn't much of anything to sweep-up. That was amazing. How can it go from 100 mph to 0 in a two hr period? Id like to go back and watch that occurr