Music is the spice of life, and so are spices

I took a new bus into the downtown tonight which is always a thrill. OK, so it isn’t a thrill for normal people, but for me it’s a new learning experience. This one, the #4, goes to the Plaza Ayuntamiento like the other one I have been taking but the stop for it is only a block from where I live. Not to digress here but the other thrill in my life is watching the weather reported in Catalán while I type this. I guess you can say that I’m easily thrilled.

I want to share an apartment with a Spanish person for the first few months I’m here to force me to speak Spanish around the clock. This morning I sent out some emails to people looking for roommates and I was going downtown to check on my replies. I got to the square at around 7 o’clock so I decided I’d get a beer somewhere to give people more time to respond to my morning inquiries. I walked a few blocks north of the Square and turned down a side street. I walked into the first place that looked decent and sat down at the bar. I ordered a caña (a small draft beer) and started to read the newspaper on the bar.

I told the bartender that I should catch up on the news but the only thing that interests me right now is football. The main Valencia team, Valencia CF, is doing rather poorly but Barcelona is playing magnificently. They trounced Majorca the night before and everyone was talking about the game. The Brazilian superstar Ronaldhino is like a god over here and I was reading about his brilliant assist in that game when I noticed the music playing in the bar.

It was Seal’s greatest hits, an album and an artist I haven’t listened to in ages. He was enormously popular at one time and then went out of vogue because he was so popular. I remember one Seattle hipster dude say that his Seal CD was the worst one in his collection. What a stupid twit. I probably play this game myself but I hate it when music has to pass some sort of coolness test, as if it can’t be judged simply on its merit. Seal’s music has tons of merit, especially if you haven’t heard it in forever and you are sitting in a really amazing café.

Right about when I noticed the music, I looked out the window and noticed where I was. I had passed by this corner two days previous when my brother and I were out walking around on Saturday afternoon. I took a bunch of pictures of this very spot because I thought that it was just impossibly charming and quaint and beautiful. It’s like Paris with palm trees. The bar is called Marrasquino and is across the street from Sant Jaume, another picture-perfect café.

I talked with the bartender about the music and he told me that he always plays this CD when he opens. He says it gets him in the working mood and the customers always love it. When I left I thanked him for the beer and the great music. I always love it when the music in a bar or café is a direct reflection of the people working there. Besides what I write, listening to this CD was my only contact with English all day.

A big part of acquiring a cultural literacy is learning about food, at least that’s the way I see it. There is a television program in the morning called La Cocina de Localia on the Localia network that features the different cuisines of Spain. The recipes today were pretty basic but I learned quite a bit of food vocabulary watching it. I plan on being very fluent in food soon. When I get settled in my new apartment I’ll start doing a lot more cooking.

I have noticed that spices are extremely cheap. The small bottles in the supermarket all cost less than 1E. These same spices in the States are $3-4. Spices can also be bought in bulk at the central market. The spice stalls are an olfactory overdose. I am going to make a vocabulary sheet for cooking that I’ll share.

Las Especias - Spices

Ajo – garlic
Azafrán - zaffron
Canela – cinnamon
Comino – cumin
Sal y pimienta – salt and pepper
Jengibre – ginger
Perejil – parsley
Pimentón – red pepper, cayenne
Albahaca – basil
Hierbabuena, Menta – mint
Laurel – bay
Romero – rosemary (The garden of the music conservatory near where I live has rosemary bushes. I can reach through the fence and harvest all I need.)

That’s all I can think of for now. I took a picture of a spice stall in the market to familiarize myself with the different things here in Spain but most of them are new to me—in any language.