Aghhh…Mi Cabeza is Exploding!

7/29/18

(Warning: this entry is not PC.  It’s my personal observation)

Oh my God!  I think I’ve hit ‘giant size’ in this country.  All the men are smaller than me.  What the heck?  Do these people not eat or something??  Well, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit, but I think Spanish men are considerably shorter and skinnier than men in the U.S.   I have, more times than not, had a conversation at eye level with a guy and never had to look up.  To add to it, they are usually the size of a fourteen year old boy.

To all Spanish men:  please eat something!

The young college kids I attend Spanish language school with are all fairly normal.  Well, I guess ‘normal’ to me is not really normal to the world.  The majority of people (mostly men) I’m used to are at least an inch or two taller than I am.  I’m five foot, three inches and, therefore, not very tall to begin with (in my ‘normal’).  So when I see Scandinavians or Brits, I’m elated.  They make me feel short, pudgy and normal again; not so damn gigantic.

I was having drinks with some classmates a few days ago when a group of Scotts sat at the table next to us.  I was so happy I almost wanted to jump up and hug them. Don’t worry. I didn’t.  But they were taller than five feet!  Ok, ok, ok…I’m exaggerating.  The average Spanish man is NOT short.  He’s just shorter than MY normal, ok?!

This has been a very busy week for D and I.  As you know, we’re in a Spanish immersion program.  Classes are four hours a day and then we participate in an activity to practice the language.  One of the activities was learning how to flamenco and salsa.  During the dancing lesson, we got to talk to our partner for a minute before we had to move to the next partner.  It was great, but when you’re trying to count the steps in your head and translate them in Spanish while trying not to step on your partner’s foot, it’s ridiculously hard.  Suffice it to say, that activity most definitely ended up with an alcoholic reprieve at the end.

Most days, by the time we come home, our heads (cabezas) are exploding and our bodies are exhausted not just from the lessons and activities, but from the heat.  The temperatures these last few days have been in the high nineties (as I’ve heard, you have also experienced this week).  Not the kind of temperature our Seattle bodies are used to.

I wasn’t paying attention when I was watching the weather forecast on television last week when (in Spanish) they announced a warning for high temperatures this weekend.  So what do I do?  I book a day-long tour to walk around an historical city.  I really have to get my Spanish down quick or I’m going to get us in trouble.  It’s a good thing we didn’t die from heat exhaustion.  We spent the whole day walking in the sun.  As soon as we got home, we peeled off our clothes and sat under the air vent for almost an hour.  Yeah, I know, try not to imagine it.  It wasn’t a good sight.

The trip ended up to be a great experience.  We learned a great deal about Ronda, the city we visited.  I won’t go too much into detail, but Ronda is where the torero, or the bullfighter, originated.  It’s where some of the best bullfighters learned their skill, or art, as they prefer to call it here.  Ronda was also a refuge for all non-Christians, especially the Muslims who tried to flee persecution, after Isabel and Ferdinand conquered Spain. It was built by the Phoenicians and then the Romans before it fell to the Berbers, and finally, the Spaniards took it in 1485.

Another interesting thing about Ronda was that Ernest Hemingway and Orson Welles both had a heavy presence there.  Finding the people and the place inspiring to their writing, they lived briefly in Ronda and published stories about the art of bullfighting. Welles met his future wife there.  If you are an aficionado of classical American movies, you would know her.  Her name was Margarita Carmen Cansino, or better known as Rita Hayworth 🙂

Ok chicos…hasta luego!

It took three men to open the metal door where the bull is kept. The men would stand on the second level and pull the rope.

The bull path to the arena. It’s made out of wood so the bull doesn’t injure its horns.