11 M - Never forget

Today is the eighth anniversary of Madrid's train bombings. On that day, 191 innocent commuters were killed and 1858 injured when 10 bombs were detonated on four trains at three train stations: Atocha, El Pozo and  Santa Eugenia during morning rush hour. Why? Nobody knows, another terrorist act of cowardice. Just the thought of it, still gives me the chills.

Atocha Station

Call it coincidence, but I have to travel to Madrid around this time of the year. I have to go through the three train stations that were bombed on my route. I happened to be in Madrid a couple of days before the attack in 2004 and on this date the "what if's" start running around my head. To this day, I haven't been able to visit or look at the permanent monuments to the victims. As I prepare to ride the train one more time, I can't help feel numb and wonder, "What if it happens again?"

Out with the old, in with the new?

Continuing with the subject of education, there is another thing that I don't understand about this country. Every time there is a change of government, the education system gets changed. How smart is that? Since I've been here, I think there have been 4 education policies: (LOE, LOCE, LOPEG, LOGSE) and there were a couple before that. The majority of parents don't have a clue what education system their child is studying under. And the teachers pretend they do, at least on paper, but then you go into their classrooms and the majority of them still teach like in the 1900s.

Do all these changes help improve students performance? Certainly not. Now that Rajoy's government is in power, the education system will once again be changed to a new one. Why? because that is Spain's philosophy: they don't like second-hand anything. (Remember that in one of my posts I said there were no second-hand shops, although now you can see that a few have sprung up due to the crisis.)

But is it so new? At the beginning of this month, future teachers complained that the topics for the test to get a position in the public education system had been changed last minute to topics from 1993. Why would the government change them at the last minute? It boils down to money. The less people know when they show up to the test, the few will pass the exams. Castilla la Mancha has already suspended their tests and next up in line will be Andalucia. Spain keeps thinking that cuts in education will make the system better and it's the opposite what needs to be done. They need to invest in the future generations. Is that too difficult to understand?

Carnaval, a bizarre Spanish festival

In all the years I've been living here, this is probably the festival I like the least. Carnaval is a difficult thing to describe. The best I can come up with is a mixture of a weird Halloween and a blah Mardi Gras. Why? because it usually takes place during the cold winter months. Watching people parade without the excitement of Brazilian Carnaval in the cold is not my idea of a good time.
To mark the end of Carnaval, on Ash Wednesday (today) there is a strange parade called Burial of the Sardine (Entierro de la Sardina). People dress in black as mourners and walk behind a huge paper mache fish wailing and crying. Then depending on the city, they throw it in the sea or burn it. There are several stories as to the origin of this parade, but in a nutshell it has to do with what goes on in Lent (fasting and abstinence) winning over the carnal desires.
What is hard to understand and Spaniards aren't able to justify is why schools are on vacation due to this festival, some up to a week. Things that make you go hmm...

Saint Valentine in Madrid?

St. Valentine’s is a very popular day for friends and lovers around the world. When I was a little girl, I remember writing Valentine cards for all my school mates, placing them in a brown bag and taking them to school to exchange on a day like today. However, this scenario doesn’t repeat itself here in Spain. St. Valentine's day is not a traditional Spanish celebration and most people don’t really celebrate it (there are no Hallmark card shops anywhere). It is noticed only by incurable romantics and superstores wanting to make a buck.

I’m sure you know the story of Saint Valentine (or should I say Valentines since there were several) and for those that don’t, a quick look on Internet will probably do the work. But what most people don’t know, including Spaniards and this is curious since Spain is a country that is renowned for its affection and devotion to saints, is that Saint Valentine’s last resting place is in Madrid. Of course there are other cities that claim St. Valentine's relics and it makes sense since there were so many of them. "The patron saint of lovers" is not found in any of the beautiful and romantic places around the city. On the contrary, his bones are on display in a small, hidden church in the Chueca neighborhood (Hortaleza Street 63) called "Royal Church and Pious School of San Anton" (Saint Anthony) in a small glass urn. Not very romantic, huh?

I hate football

I don’t know a lot about football or soccer, how we call it where I come from. There are four things I remember about soccer before I moved to Spain. First, I remember playing soccer in elementary school and the game consisted of kicking boys in the shins so the girls could get the ball and score. Second, I don’t remember going to a soccer game until I was in college. My roommate’s boyfriend played and we went to watch him or actually watch cute guys in shorts. Third, I remember soccer was a girl’s sport at the high school I taught. There were no boy teams. And fourth, I remember one of my students telling me I was moving to the country that had the best soccer player in the world. I asked who that was and he said, Zidine Zidane. Huh? Who? I had no idea who he was, the team he played for or anything related to the subject. Big mistake!

If you don’t know, Spanish people LOVE soccer. They live, eat, and breathe it. Every school year my Spanish students ask me: "Which is your favorite soccer team?" My answer is: "None, I hate football." Their faces look in shock. Of course most of them do not believe me. They think I am just being politically correct to not subscribe to one team. In Spain, you have to belong to a team or people look at you weird. So a sport I initially didn't care for, started becoming a hated subject.

It’s now been two days since the aftermath of "el clasico" (Barcelona vs. Real Madrid) and everywhere you look, people, TV, press are talking about it. I can’t for the life of me understand why this is an important issue when the whole country is going to the gutter due to the crisis. (El Pais newspaper published today that there are 5.3 million people unemployed.) And I’m not even going to acknowledge the fact that these "clasicos" bring out the worst in team members and set bad examples for kids.

Did I mention I hate football?


Unemployment hits record high of over 5 million at end of 2011

Pan Tumaca, a meal to die for

I remember my first trip to Spain. My boyfriend, now hubby, took me on a romantic trip to the south, which I’ll never forget. I remember wandering through the streets of Sevilla at nine o’ clock in the morning starving! No restaurants or cafeterias or bars were open. Question: Why o why is nothing open if breakfast is the most important meal of the day? Answer: The Spanish are not the earliest risers in the world. They like to eat late and they like to keep their first meal small since pre-lunch tapas are around the corner and pretty soon two o’ clock will creep up on you, time for lunch.

We finally discovered a small bar on a narrow street going up to the Cathedral that was open for breakfast and their menu was orange juice or coffee with pan tumaca. Huh? Come again…

Well it turns out that pan tumaca or "tostada con tomate" is an all natural and classic Spanish breakfast. It consists of ripe, red tomatoes picked fresh. They are blended with olive oil, fresh garlic, a touch of salt, and nothing else. You spread this mixture on a toast or toasted baguette and that’s it. Fresh, zesty and healthy!

Now, don’t get me wrong. This dish is not found throughout Spain. As a matter of fact, I went to Burgos this summer and when I asked for pan tumaca, they frowned and said all they had was a "tostada con aceite", a toast with olive oil, not the same. It was blah, no taste whatsoever.

I remember reading a news article about a year ago of a top Spanish chef dying while showing his new restaurant to food critics. He had shared with them a dish of pan tumaca as an appetizer. Wouldn’t mind having this as my last supper.

Santi Santamaria's last supper: pan tumaca

Enchufados, the saga begins…

A Spanish concept that really boggles my mind is the "enchufe". You see, "enchufe" literally refers to an electrical plug or socket. However, in Spain it is also used to refer to someone "on the inside" who pulls a few strings for you to get whatever you want: a job, a bank loan, a deal on a car, you name it. This concept of having friends in the right places seems to be the norm here and I truly believe this country is a mess because of "enchufes" among other things which I will leave for another post.

I haven't looked for a job in twenty years. My only job in this country seemed to creep up on me before I even started looking for one. Looking for a job in Spain with no "enchufe" is trying to plug in a lamp directly into the wall with no outlet, and we all know the results of that. No outlet, no light. No "enchufe", no job. And although I disagree with it on every ethical level, I can’t help but wonder if I will become like the locals and end up being an "enchufado". Only time will tell…