Recently there was an ordering mistake at the bakery and they ended up with about fifty pounds of extra bread. The pantries that we called just couldn’t handle any more bread donations. But there was a man on the train last night asking me for food. And there’s the Salvation Army a few blocks from […]
Category: Culture
Money part 1
I was on my way into a Rite Aid when I saw the woman begging on the sidewalk near the door. Honestly I wouldn’t have stopped except there was a backlog to get into the Rite Aid and while I waited the begging woman started talking to me. Could I get her something to eat? […]
We are going to travel in our minds
To Chile Where we will see Ana Tijoux And Alex Anwandter play and sing in dim bars. If their music so inclines you, look up their stories. They are unique and fascinating.
The Great Missouri River
Every great city has it’s water source: L.A. has the Pacific, Miami has the Atlantic, Chicago has Lake Michigan, St. Petersburg has the Baltic Sea, Paris has the Seine, Cairo has the Nile, Shanghai has the East China Sea, Buenos Aires has the Atlantic. These cities are built around their ports. If you are […]
Buen provecho, gente
Bueno provecho means bon appetit. (Funny how I translate something to English and it ends up in French.) But the phrase buen provecho cannot be explained so easily. But it’s much more than a phrase. It’s a cultural mindset. Saying buen provecho to someone when they are eating is the equivalent of saying bless you […]
Spanish culture: it all makes sense to me now
I had a bit of trouble adjusting to the Spanish schedule when I got here. Here theday starts around 9 or 10AM. Then people work until 2PM or so, when they take a break for lunch, which is the biggest meal of the day. After lunch people take a nap, the ever-popular siesta. Then around […]
Coffee and free wifi: La Fugitiva
In the heart of every liberal arts student is born a love for coffee shops. You can settle yourself in a comfy armchair and grab a cup of coffee big enough to last all afternoon. The sounds of coffee brewing, indiscernible conversations, and maybe some chill music are enough to keep you awake, but not […]
San Isidro: Madrid. The night. The party.
On Saturday morning the party began before I even got out of bed. I heard it in the street. The heat and the voices floated in through the balcony doors and made it all the way to my windowless cave of a room. As tired as I was the sounds from the street me habían […]
Spanish pop music: come on, I know you’re dying to listen…
My students have kindly introduced me to the very best of Spanish pop music. I’ve sifted through about fifty or so of their recommendations and here are a few of my favs. (All are strictly from Spain.) Amaral One of the best-selling pop rock Spanish groups. In “Son Mis Amigos” (These are My Friends) she […]
The very Spanish experience of getting hit on
Typical Thursday: I wake up at 8am, commute one hour to work, teach four hours of class, which includes telling the students to stop prying the letters off of the keyboards, spend two hours lesson planning, give a private class, commute one hour home and from the metro stop I walk uphill to my apartment […]
Anne Foster 