On Loving the Cosmos: Snippets

1. Yesterday I successfully offered to take a picture of a couple in front of the historic murallas. They were Spanish couple. The fact that I initiated a conversation (albeit a brief one) in Spanish makes me strangely proud. You'd think that I'd be less impressed with myself by now, I mean, I've been having superficial exchanges with Spanish people for the last month. Yet every time I order something at a cafe or restaurant, or succeed in clearing up confusion at the pool, I find myself fist pumping quietly as I walk away.

2. I've been drinking more coffee here than I would have if I was in the states. I have started stopping by this one cafe after the pool in the mornings for some coffee and toast to get me through my classes. Yet only once have I succeeded in spilling it all over myself. Good thing I was at home and in my pajamas, so, no pasa nada.

3. Not certain if I've told everyone this, but I'm tutoring three Spanish boys in English while I'm here. The other day, the ten year old asked me why there were so many languages in the world, and why didn't everyone speak the same language, and so make a world where he had to learn English. I wasn't certain if he was actually expecting a serious answer. So I said something about how groups of people and civilizations developed separately from each other. He countered by listing off the different languages in Europe, but then stopped at Italian, because, according to him, "Italian is just Spanish but like this" and waved his hands about in a stereotypically Italian manner. I laughed.

4. One of the other boys insisted in getting up in the middle of one of our classes and serving me ice cream. Not just any ice cream. His favorite flavor, which happens to be turrón, whose closest cousin I am familiar with is nougat. Turrón is a Christmas staple in these parts. Looking forward to the days when the stores have this in abundance because it sounds quite delicious.

5. A few weeks ago I heard an American at the Thursday Market exclaim, "There foreign sweets are so fun to look at!" I silently thanked her for saying that, because I often get so concerned with being not-a-tourist, that I forget that I can look at things with the wonder of someone who is unfamiliar with a place, or a thing, or a food.