Anna In Spain

Dejame mucho!

Nico and Alex singing their version of "Besame mucho." "Dejame!" is one of Nico´s favorite expressions in Spanish. It basically means "bug off!"

Two Very White People

Gazpacho

We just got back from a wonderful to trip to Bali!  In the meantime, to celebrate our return to Spain, I decided to cook up some gazpacho. Here is my recipe-

Gazpacho Invented by A Person From Utah
-4 lbs ripe tomatoes (peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped).
-1/2 onion
-1 green pepper

Put the above items in a blender and puree. (BTW, you can easily peel tomatoes by submerging them in boiling water for a minute or two after which the skins should come off easily.)

Add the following ingredients to the tomato puree-
-3/4 cup diced cucumber
-3/4 cup diced celery
-1/4 cup red wine vinegar
-1 cup bread crumbs
-1 cup tomato sauce
-2 cloves minced garlic
-1/4 cup olive oil
-1/2 cup chopped black olives

Garnish with basil leaves and crumbled goat cheese.

East and West

I'm reading a book now called "Confucius Lives Next Door." It's by T.R. Reid and about his experiences living in Japan (he was the Tokyo bureau chief for The Washington Post for several years back in the nineties). The book has some really interesting insights about Asian cultural dynamics and it's making me miss Japan enormously. In one chapter he talks about the importance of polite discourse in Japanese and he asks a bunch of Japanese men what exactly they would say to someone they had to fire (an extremely rare occurrence in Japan).

Here is what they came up with-
"Tanaka-san, I hope your trip to work was pleasant this morning, and I hope you didn't have the inconvenience of a long walk into the office from our humble company's totally inadequate parking lot. Now, to get to the matter at hand: It has became a matter of somebody here being fired, Tanaka-san, and this relates to you."

I couldn't stop laughing when I read this- it's so right on!

At the same time, it got me thinking about circumstances in which the idea that the Japanese are unfailingly polite is somewhat of a paradox. For example, it's totally acceptable while dining in a restaurant to loudly  bark out "Sumimasen!" (excuse me!) at the nearest waiter when you need something. It doesn't matter if the waiter is clearly in the middle of doing something else or standing on the other side of a crowded room. It's still perfectly fine. I also remember it being very odd that one wasn't expected to greet or say thank you to shopkeepers and other service professionals. When a supermarket cashier gives you your change for example, you just accept it and leave without saying a word. You also probably wouldn't say anything when entering the store.

This is in stark contrast to Switzerland where if you don't say "Bonjour," it's considered to be a major faux pas. Even if you are just going up to the dairy stocker to ask where they keep the sour cream, you've got to say it. You tap him on the shoulder, say bonjour and then ask your question. If you forget the bonjour part, there's a good chance that he/she will say it pointedly to you before addressing your question.

I haven't quite figured out the etiquette in Spain yet but it seems like they're fairly keen on the whole greeting/giving thanks thing. I have noticed however, that it's okay to get a bartender's attention by yelling out "Listen!" which seems a bit brash to me. Culture and language are funny things. 

Media Vaca/Kalandraka

Whenever I travel to a new country, I always check out the kid's sections in the local bookshops and try to find a nice picture book to bring back as a souvenir. It's not always easy since many countries don't have very large children's book publishing industries. Luckily in Spain there are a few excellent publishers that specialize in picture books. One of my favorites is Kalandraka. The illustrations and stories are marvelous and since I believe that most of the authors and illustrators are Spanish themselves, it really does represent the culture.

Another Spanish book publisher that I really love is Media Vaca, a company that publishes books for both children and adults. The illustrations are stupendous- here are a few examples. One from an alphabet book for kids and another from a book about Tokyo.

Hot Dog Lolly Pop

Why do kids get so annoyed when you ask them about school? I remember my parents giving me a hard time about this when I was young. Everyday they'd ask me how school was and every day I would roll my eyes and answer "fine." Whenever I ask Nico what he does at nursery school, he answers "I don't know." If I ask him again he tells me to stop "bugging" him. Occasionally if I really press him, he might tell me that they ate lunch and try as I might, that's the only information he will divulge. I'll say "Did you play with the trains today at school?" and he'll say "No mommy, we ate." I'll say "Do you sing songs at school?" and he'll say "In the school in "New Tah" (Utah*) we sang songs. In Spain school we eat." If I say "Do they have story books at your school?", he'll say "Mommy, they have spoons and they have tables. We eat." Granted I know that lunch plays an important role in Spanish life but I highly doubt that it lasts for the entire 4.5 hours that Nico is at school each day (although who knows?).

Mentioning his school in "New Tah" made Nico start reminiscing about other aspects of the 4 weeks we spent there before coming to Spain. "Member when I ate so much spaghetti with Raga (grandma) and my tummy was so full?" he asked fondly. And then, "Member when we took Annie's car to have a shower (carwash) and it told us we had to wait five more minutes?" Then lastly, "Member when we went to see Raga's paintings and I ate a hotdog lollypop?" This last statement confused me. I remembered the occasion he was talking about- my mother is a painter and at one point while we were home, we attended an open studio night where she and several other artists showed their work to the public. But a hotdog lollypop? All of a sudden, I remembered that the woman in the studio next door to my mom's had made corndogs for everyone. It made perfect sense!

This reminded me of a time a few months earlier when we were in Rochester, NY with my dad. Nico saw a yellow school bus for the first time (they don't have them in Europe) and exclaimed "Look! A taxi bus!" Again, a perfectly sensible conclusion.

*Nico refers to the state of Utah as "New Tah". Since the only two places we go in the US are New York and Utah, I can see why. New Tah and New York. The minds of kids...

Accordian

Many people find accordion music to be charming and romantic. I would venture to guess however, that those people do not have accordion players permanently stationed in front of their houses as we do.

Cherry

As I write this, Alex is attempting to remove several matchbox cars from our stereo speakers with a set of fondue skewers. Naturally I was the one who put them in there cause I like to do stuff like that.

This weekend we were supposed to have our first couchsurfer guests. We were expecting a couple from France who were traveling with their three year old daughter. Unfortunately they couldn't make and had to cancel their trip at the last minute. Too bad because we had also received (and turned down) couchsurfing requests for the same nights from several others including a Dutch clown who specializes in juggling fire.

I was also disappointed because I had cooked a huge meal in preparation for our stranger guests. Since cherries are in season I decided to make pork tenderloin stuffed with goat cheese and topped with a cherry balsamic sauce. And for dessert, homemade cherry ice-cream in my Rocket Chef ice cream maker!

I found the Rocket Chef in a thrift store in Lausanne. It had never been used and only cost about $2. Best of all, if James Bond had ever made ice-cream, this is definitely the machine he would have used- how could I resist?

The entire meal was delicious and luckily our friends Virginia and Steve came over at the last minute to help us devour it!

Drops Baby Dress

Another cute baby dress. This pattern is from Drops Design

One bite of Wonder Woman

Nico's really into reading lately and spends hours every day sitting on the couch looking at his books. I'm  amazed at how much of the stories he manages to remember word for word. He always adds a few unique touches however.

For example, in The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, there is one part where the caterpillar eats through one slice of chocolate cake, one ice-cream cone, one pickle...... one sausage, one cupcake, and one slice of watermelon. In the version I heard Nico reading yesterday however, the caterpillar ate through one slice of chocolate cake.... one sausage, one cupcake, and one bite of Wonder Woman. Yummy!

His very favorite book these days is Snow White which my mom says was my favorite book as well when I was little. He has the whole story memorized but for some reason he's got it in his head that between bringing Snow White a poisoned comb and bringing her a poisoned apple, the evil queen goes back to the castle to make beans.