Pastries and Sea Urchins

This weekend, the people of Cádiz and I celebrated pastries and sea urchins. As near as I can gather. If it seems like a bizarre combination, that's because it is, but don't worry, each thing got its own, separate day of celebration.

Saturday was Pestiñada and at around ten in La Plaza de San Francisco, they started giving out free pestiños, tasty pastries that are made with honey and are popular in Andalucia, especially around Christmas and Easter. I got three, because I'm all about free pastries.

un pestiño, courtesy Google image search

They were also giving out free shots of anís, a liqueur that's made through the distillation of anise seeds. It burns a little going down but it's also very sweet and tastes a bit like licorice. All in all, it's pretty pleasant.

Meanwhile, people gathered in the plaza to hear the chorus sing. A lot of people. You may not be able to hear the music very well over the crowd, but anyway, here's my amateurish attempt at multimedia blogging (ignore the less-than-inspirational camerawork):

On Sunday, Erizada, the festivities began at around noon. Erizos are sea urchins and apparently people in Cádiz eat them. At least during Erizada. I myself was not brave enough to try one, but I am told that they are fishy and salty.

¡Qué asco! (Photo credit Megan Paolone)

I actually spent most of the morning getting lost in the city, so I missed out on all of the free beer being served in La Plaza de San Antonio. By the time my friends and I showed up after lunch, la cerveza gratis was all gone. This irked my friends and I, because we wanted to join the natives in taking advantage of the nonexistent open container laws, so we found a nearby store and bought, for 2 euros each, liter bottles of Cruzcampo.

Mmmm, I can taste the cheap. (Photo credit Megan Paolone)

After this eminently sensible purchase, we spent the afternoon wandering the city, people watching and taking photos. We also ran into a cool drum performance and I managed to capture some of it on camera:

The weather here in Cádiz has been inconsistent since I arrived, but we really lucked out this weekend and enjoyed a dry Pestiñada and a sunny Erizada. Speaking of weather, it's a beautiful day and I don't want to spend all of it inside, blogging.

But before I go: I've been thinking about maybe ending some of these longer posts with mini Spanish lessons or something. It'll be like a prize at the bottom of the cereal box, except less exciting. I probably won't do this all the time, just when I learn something interesting or useful. So without further ado, I present to you the first (and possibly last) installment of...

SPANISH FOR VIDLINGS:

• guay: cool, sweet (¡Tu cámara nueva es tan guay!)
• friki (also friqui): geeky, dorky (¿Vid mantiene un blog? ¡Qué friki!)

AWESOME

Cell Phones and Bieber Fever

If the story of my travels thus far were to have some sort of moral, some sort of simple, meaningful message that could benefit all mankind, I think it would be this:

If you're traveling to Spain for the first time and you're still relatively unfamiliar with the exchange rate and therefore unable to judge the appropriateness of prices, don't buy a cell phone from the first person who offers to sell you a cell phone; shop around a bit.

I know that's sort of specific and you may have some trouble applying it to your daily life, but I still think it's a pretty good moral. I would add that this advice should not be disregarded even if your mother tells you to "buy a cell phone as soon as you get over there!" (Hi Mom!)

No sooner had I gotten through customs in Madrid than I encountered this lady yelling about a "teléfono cellular." And I just shelled out some cash without asking any questions. I figured if she was allowed in the airport, she must be legit. And it sounded like a good deal. It just... wasn't... is all.

The phone itself was 50 euros, which is more than anyone ought to pay for a cell phone that they'll only be using for five months. Then I paid to put 50 more euros on the SIM card. That's right, my vidlings, I parted ways with 100 euros within my first twenty minutes in Spain.

The lady told me I'd be able to call anyone anywhere in the world using the money I put on my SIM card. Questions I should have asked at the time include:

1. Can anyone anywhere in the world also call me?
2. How much money will I be charged per minute?
3. Is 100 euros a lot of money to spend on a temporary cell phone? Because it kind of feels like a lot of money to spend on a temporary cell phone.

The answer to question one, I soon learned, is "no." Apparently, people in Spain cannot call the number I was given. Which, you know, is a bit of a problem if you're living in Spain for five months.

I still don't know the answer to question two. It's probably something like "too much."

As for question three, the answer seems to be "yes." One of my friends here bought her phone for 19 euros. I think maybe the SIM card was an additional 20, but that still only brings her to 39 euros as compared to my 100.

If you need to buy a phone in Cádiz, the consensus seems to be that Yoigo is the way to go. They sell cheap cell phones and cheap plans. I bought a new SIM card there today for 20 euros. I'm on a plan which charges me 8 cents a minute and 8 cents per text message. Not only that, I start with 20 free text messages. But most importantly, I now have a new phone number and people can actually contact me, so I got that going for me. Which is nice.

On an unrelated note, a car passed me today blaring Justin Bieber. I wasn't totally surprised; American music seems to be more common in Spain than Spanish music. But I was amused to see that it was not, say, a mother carting her tweenage daughter around Cádiz, but an older gentleman, alone in his car, simply rockin' out to the Canadian teen idol's hit "Baby." Not that it matters, but it occurs to me as I write this that a casual overseas consumer of American music might easily mistake Bieber for a female. I can't decide how this changes my perception of the event, if at all.

My Digs

 

While I'm here, I have a section of the house all to myself. This is my computer room. I am sitting in it now.

I also get my own bathroom, which is pretty sweet.

 

This is my bedroom. It's got two beds, which will be nice if I decide to clone myself while I'm here.

Yesterday (and two bonus movie reviews!)

So my first transatlantic flight was a success. Despite flying's obvious drawbacks (i.e. the terrible airline food, the unfortunate proximity to gassy and/or loud strangers, and the near impossibility of sleep), the whole thing is still novel enough that I don't mind it. I even kind of enjoyed my six hour flight, especially takeoff and landing. Oh, and turbulence. Turbulence is fun; for me, it reinforces the idea that I'm moving at high speeds way up in the sky, and not just sitting still in a cramped room full of people I don't know.

On the plane, I watched Easy A, because it came recommended to me by a couple friends. I was kind of hoping for another Mean Girls, but Mean Girls it is not. The movie goes on and on, forever and ever, and characters appear and disappear like crazy. Seriously, there are like a billion characters you're supposed to keep track of and, presumably, care about. Also approximately 90% of the movie is "witty" banter that doesn't further the plot, so you'll have to be able to stomach that. And I think there was supposed to be some sort of social commentary about religion and sex, but it got buried under heaps and heaps of inane dialogue and I really couldn't be bothered to dig it up.

Anyway, I arrived in Madrid at around seven in the morning (that would be about one in the morning for you New Yorkers). From there, I took a bus (only 2 euros!) to the train station, where I had to sit and wait for my 12:30 train to Cádiz. I was what my dad refers to as "overtired" and I couldn't stop laughing/crying; I think the nun sitting next to me thought I was nuts.

I allowed myself to sleep on the four hour train ride to Cádiz, but I awoke every now and then to catch glimpses of some Twilight movie that was playing in Spanish with Spanish subtitles. I'm not sure which one it was; maybe if I describe it, those who've seen it can tell me. From what I could gather, the writers decided to forgo plot in favor of characters (someone should have told them that these two things are not mutually exclusive!) who basically just stood around in the snow, talking to each other and occasionally making out. There was a scene that tentatively approached being almost exciting, in which a guy named Jake (who was incredibly anti-shirt for some reason) turned into a poorly animated wolf and bit off some vampire dude's hand. In order keep awesomeness to a minimum, the writers made the executive decision that vampires don't bleed. 

Once in Cádiz, I met my host mother, Carmen, and her 19-year-old son, Isidro. We took a cab from the train station to their home, which is on the fourth floor of a building near the sea (most buildings are near the sea in Cádiz). Carmen warned me that her husband, Rafa, had been in a car accident and had needed a tracheotomy, but she reassured me that he was "perfecto" now. Isidro helped me lug my suitcase up the many stairs leading to their abode and introduced me to Rafa, who immediately took me on a tour of the house, including the electric water heater in the kitchen and the internet cable that he had installed along the base of the walls. I had a hard time understanding him, but more due to my rusty Spanish, I think, than the tracheotomy. He is a stupendously friendly man with a passion for Audrey Hepburn--his room, which was also included in the tour, is adorned with Audrey posters and pillows.

After dinner at around ten (which I'm told is the normal time for dinner in Spain), I hit the hay because I was still exhausted. I thanked my host family for everything and in what must have been the first English I had heard all day, Rafa wished me "happy dreams."

UPDATE: Here's a good example of what I mean by "rusty Spanish." Carmen is the one who likes Audrey Hepburn. But Rafa is still stupendously friendly... man, did I really use the word "stupendously"?

¡Estoy en Cádiz!

Well, my vidlings, I made it (see what I did there? I didn't think calling you "vidlings" was creepy enough, so now you're MY vidlings). I'm pretty tired, so you'll have to excuse the short post. Figured I'd let everyone know I got here okay. More on Spain and Cádiz later.

Layover Fun

Eventually, the novelty of having a blog will wear off, and I'll only write a post when I have something worth reporting (hopefully I'll have something worth reporting once a week, because that's part of the assignment). Until then, you'll be treated to my aimless ramblings whenever I get a free second!

It must be obvious to the people around me that I don't travel very often. I almost laughed when the security guy in Albany told me he needed my shoes; I thought maybe it was security guy humor. Then I saw everyone else dutifully removing their footwear without being asked and I felt sort of sheepish.

So anyway I'm in Philadelphia Airport right now, waiting until my flight to Madrid starts boarding. I hope this plane is more comfortable than the plane I just came in on. Otherwise it's going to be a LONG flight.

Welcome, Vidlings!

So true to form, I've left nearly everything to the last minute, including the creation of this blog, which I sort of threw together just now. I think it looks pretty cool, though. Like the banner at the top? Yeah, I made that. No big deal or anything.

First things first. It's called La Vida Vid (which I think is pretty clever) but no one following this blog is obligated to call me Vid. You can if you want, but most people call me David or Dave and those both work just fine.

I am, however, actually going to call you guys Vidlings. Maybe. We'll see. But that's the risk you're taking in following this blog.

Even though a large portion of the people following this blog will probably just be family and friends, this is also for school, so as I continue blogging I'm going to try to find the appropriate balance of informality and... (hopefully?) good writing. This post is nonsense and you're free to stop reading it now. In fact, I might stop writing it now. Just wanted to post something before I leave for Albany Airport and, ultimately, freakin' SPAIN.