Spaniards have a bad rap for being chauvinistic. While it may be true in some cases (just as some American men can be quite sexist), in most cases I find European men to be very open to equality. DH, for one, is not afraid of the kitchen. I made fast friends with the town butcher when I walked in asking about fresh turkeys (I had hoped to prepare a traditional Thanksgiving meal). He informed me that there would not be any turkeys until December for Christmas (I am certain that he found it curious that a woman would be asking for a turkey off season) and then would most likely have to go to one of the larger shopping centers about 7 miles away. Alas, my turkey hunt was unsuccessful. The largest turkey I found here weighed in at 12 lbs. Hmmm...just a shade smaller than the 24lb bird my mother served on the other side of the Atlantic this year and nowhere near enough to feed 10+ hungry mouths! DH and I decided to serve lamb instead...a luxury here in Spain. We got a great deal...990 pesetas per kilo, (roughly $2.36 per lb.) so we bought half a lamb. We have enough meat to see us through the rest of the winter! It was DH who wanted to roast the lamb although he had never done so in his life. He would lay up at night reading the only Spanish cookbook I own, learning the techniques of basting and browning. Needless to say the roasted lamb turned out phenomenal. So much so, that when his mother wanted to roast lamb chops the other day, she called us to ask DH for tips and for the recipe of the sauce that he used to baste the meat. I chuckled at the thought! Since then, we treated his family to a roast suckling pig for New Year´s Eve dinner...the roasting of course being handled by DH. Then again, my family in the States has already been exposed to his culinary tendencies. When we were in San Francisco, together we whipped up a couple of good meals and also helped my sis and her hubby pull off their post-wedding brunch. Hmmm...do I see a Tapas Bar in our future??
Driving Spanish Style
I have a car! It´s Eurochic and very very tiny...a Fiat Uno.
Third hand and just perfect for me to beat into the ground as I learn to drive stick shift!! It´s hard to erase 17 years of automatic driving and get used to a third pedal in order to increase speed and change gears. Some days are better than others. On one of my first forays out onto a back country road, I had a nice obstacle course of an errant cow (who decided the grass was greener on the other side of the pasture fence), a stray dog and a bunch of tired hikers. YIKES! I should note that cows do not hurry up to get out of the way, in fact, you don´t even exist. DH has been more than patient as the gears grind and the car bucks (when I am in too low of a gear). What fun. I have tested my skills in the snow and in the rain. I had a particularly frustrating day yesterday when I was incapable of driving 3 kilometers (1.86 miles) without the car stalling on me four times. I finally pulled over to let DH drive and a caravan of 25 cars roared past me. Oops! So much for one lane roads! I did, however, manage to drive the car by myself all the way to Madrid the other day (35 miles) following hubby. And the car only stalled out 3 times! I will eventually have to take my driving exam here in Spain after I get my residency card. The frustrating thing is that I will be considered a novice driver and will have special driving restrictions placed upon me for a period of 24 months... including much lower maximum speed limits. Harrumphhh!Euro Euro Euro
Happy New Euro to you too! The long awaited Euro is now here! Just when I thought my life in Spain was getting easier...they had to screw me up with one more calculation! Just when I figured out what a reasonable price was to pay for a KILO of beef in pesetas (without being ripped off), they had to go and change the currency on me. So, now I stand in line at the supermarket and mentally calculate that one kilo is 2.2 lbs (and is 2.2 lbs of meat too much for chili con carne for two people?? J ), and that 1 Euro is 166.386 pesetas. All while being pushed and shoved by the Spanish marujas with their shopping carts. This is getting a little complicated here! To make matters worse, both currencies will co-exist here in Spain until the end of Feburary at which time the Spanish peseta will be completely phased out and no longer a valid currency. Can it get any complicated? YEP. The businesses are required to always give change in Euros. So, even if you pay in pesetas, you will return your change in Euros. The real kicker is that many of the ATM machines have not yet been converted over and are still spewing out pesetas. I am getting a headache just thinking about it. It cracks me up to see all the people out shopping with their calculators in hand, but it´s a reality and something that we all have to deal with. The good thing is that the Euro is almost equal to the dollar, which conceivably should make my shopping easier, but as you surely noticed with the price of lamb, the cost of living here is different, so what may seem cheap to Americans in terms of dollars (or Euros), may actually be outrageous prices to pay in Spain. Of course, many many businesses here are taking advantage of the change to increase their revenues and charge more just to have a decent psychological price. For example, a dozen eggs costs on the average 169 pesetas…that converts to 1.01571 Euros. Following the mathematical rules of rounding, the price then should be 169 pesetas or 1.02 Euros. Because merchants see this as an “ugly” psychological price (not that 169 is any prettier), many have been rounding the price of eggs up to 1.10 Euros. What´s a few cents you say? A lot when this practice is being applied to everything from eggs to gasoline to clothing… and such a “rounding up” is not applied to the household income.
Miscellaneous
I have been invited to a pig slaughter. Apparently, something that Spaniards make a party of (what don´t they make a party of??). My father-in-law and his sister went halfsies on a pig and are going to have it slaughtered and have a little (big??) party. DH had told me about these public slaughters and told me that the tradition is that the new woman in town has to drink the pig´s blood. So, when my father-in-law invited me to attend withDH , I vehemently said NO! DH´s brother was surprised by my reaction figuring that I would like the adventure. When I told them that I had no intention of drinking the fresh blood, they all burst out laughing. Hmmm seems like SOMEONE told me a tall tale. I´ll get him good.
We went to Madrid on New Year´s day for a nice dinner and a movie. I highly recommend the movie, Khandahar. Sure was an eye-opener. Denmark has submitted it for an Oscar. You will most likely find it at any independent movie theater not at the AMC chains. Go see it, please. Although it is a fictional story line, it certainly gives us a greater understanding of Afghanistan´s plight.
Survey Question
With my Life in Spain stories this year, I am going to include a survey question and will include the answers in next issue. That way, you can all help to “write” them for me! So, here it goes…
Here in Spain the Spaniards, despite the hassle of conversions, have received the change of currency to the Euro with open arms and very positively. Do you think that if North America (Canada, USA, Mexico) were ever to form one common currency that the Americans would so happily give up the dollar for some new sort of currency? Why or why not?
P.S. This is an actual question that some Spaniards have asked me.
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