Are we who we say we are? Are we a different person in a different language?

One of the fascinating things that I am discovering about Catalan, and I suppose that this is true of every langauge, is that it has different definitions of character.  I don't just mean the same words for certain people's character, but the language, and therefore the people (or vice versa, and interesting chicken and egg debate there) look at people's characters differently and haul different aspects of their personality out as important and worth naming.

There is no word for an intense person, nor carefree that I have found.  You can describe it, but you need  at least a full sentence with several adjectives.

They do have nervios(a), which denotes someone who is a combination of uptight and slightly hyper, but not necessarily nervous at all, which, by the way doesn't seem to exist as a temporary state like in English.  I am not sure how people feel before an exam in Catalan.  The translate it to sound like something that requires therapy at least, but that isn't what they mean.

Then there is 'cap quadrat' - which literally means 'square head' but it doesn't have the same meaning as in English at all, it is only somewhat insulting in Catalan.  For me anyway in English, a square head is someone who is always sucking up to the teacher.  Here it is someone who thinks in an extremely orderly way, possibly with some lack of imagination.  A more, ah, Germanic mindset and a less Mediterranean one.

We don't have ANY sort of word for this, nor for the more, ahhhhh, mañana mind set that pervades as one moves further south.

English has also gone through many changes, we rarely describe someone as choleric or bilious, though phlegmatic seems to have hung on longer.

Then there is 'hippy' and 'pijo/pija'.  Hippy obviously has common roots in both languages but the definition of who would be hippy is far wider here than in English, and pija/pijo is also used more broadly as well.  I would translate it roughly as rich, spoiled and self-centered.  It is an insult.  Hippy not so much.

Intense just isn't.  Though there are people here I would call intense, there is no single word for it.

It's not really surprising if you think about it, but nonetheless it is interesting to me that different cultural groups divy up the complex reality of character into culturally unique slots and categories.   The real interest lies, it seems to me, in why those categories and aspects of character were picked out as nameworthy.  Why those aspects were deemed to stand out enough to warrant naming.

Fascinating.

Bits and pieces....

I just want to say that

- I love the new Mac

- I love that my kids find spelling and verb conjugating fun.  We sit around sometimes with the Catalan conjugation book and the biggest fattest Webster's we have and spell and recite conjugations.  It is fun too!

I am aware that sounds terribly nerdy, but it is fun.

- I love that I can read with the new electric toothbrush!  Feels like the Jetsons, I just stand there and hold it in place with one hand and the book with the other.  Now if they could just figure out how we could read in the shower.

- I just discovered that the Kindle is available outside the US now.  Uh oh.  Maybe you still need a US bank account....here's hoping.

Watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the original '92 movie with Eldest.  First watched it with the man in a hotel in Grand Junction, Colorado. We'd spent the day driving through the surreal countryside there, played mini-putt, I think we ate a wicked steak for dinner, and then watched Buffy.  A memorable day.

Hi there!

New course that I designed starts tomorrow, it weirdly is going to include several of my colleagues...that will give it an odd atmosphere in a way, but it should be OK too....the introduction section will shorten right up...though I have a provisional plan if that happens.

Cross your fingers for me that we get a crowd!  I'd like to run it again, if not in a couple of sessions....wait and see.

Along with all the reading I've been doing I was watching a movie today.  A Perfect World with Kevin Costner and Clint Eastwood.  I didn't get to see the end of it, but it was good.  Not art great, but a good movie....fingers tapping as I wait.

I don't know if any of you noticed, but a(nother) real life genuine author commented!  Carolyn Jourdan of Heart in the Right Place stumbled upon my site (presumably after a google search) and left a message!

Well that was altogether rather thrilling!

I was reading through the lovely comments you have left and there was a new, and strangely familiar name!  WOW!

Carolyn, if your up in the Toronto area this summer, or you make it to Barcelona...let me know! Sadly the boat isn't in the Bahamas anymore...it is in Ontario though!

Did any of you ever notice that blogging can be very very cool indeed?

Now I'm off to bed to read madly!  (At least three or four pages before I fall asleep!)

Shopping

I have been doing a certain amount of Amazon work of late.  I have a double excuse, Xmas is approaching and so purchases MUST be made, also I have this course I am working on and the students will have to be reading books, plus I am teaching some writing skills.  (EEEKKKK I am ENTIRELY unqualified!)  SO, some purchasing has happened.

I have also gotten tired of not having books around that I am dying to read.

Darling Books Beth kicked it all off with a fantastic gift of a BAG of books that I took without even reviewing them.  I SO needed to read!

Then I've been doing some shopping, in BCN I have found a couple of books, on the trip to Wales...I went back on the plane with books stuffed into my back pockets, down my sleeves, tucked into my belt and down my pant legs.  I kid you not.  They said we could only bring one bag on as carry on!  I had a knapsack with a meager change or two of clothing.  Even I cannot fit approximately 40 paperbacks into one knapsack with all that, but I'd be D*MNED if I left even one behind.  It was a relief to get past the luggage police and put some of it back into a plastic bag, let me tell you!

I am such a weirdo.

Anyway, I have been contentedly reading up a storm of late.  You see I am a fast and voracious reader, so if I only have a few books on hand I self-strangle on the reading, but now!!  The only good thing about sitting up all night was that I finished a novel each way.

Let me just tell you what I've been up to because I am SO excited!

I am currently reading:

Mort by Terry Pratchett, and to my fantastic fabulous and brilliant Aunt...thank you endlessly for introducing me to these!

Writing for Story by Jon Franklin, a good read, as it should be.  This one is for the course, but I am enjoying it whatever the reason.

Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye.  I have chosen this for the course and I am kind of fearful of reading it.  I know it's good, but I also know it's going to be hard.

Housekeeping by Marilyn Robinson, ditto for the course, I have to read it fast as it has gotten mixed reviews and if it is terrible I have to know soon so I can axe it from the course and substitute something else.  I have two contenders,

Black Boy by Richard Wright
and
The Warrior Woman by Maxine Hong Kingston

I am also looking forward to:
The Art of the Personal Essay: an anthology from the Classical Era to the Present
Roald Dahl, Tales of the Unexpected
Charlie Connely, Attention All Shipping:  A journey round the Shipping Forecast
Salman Rushdie: Midnght's Children and Enchantress Florence
Paul Thereaux, Dark Star Safari: overland from Cairo to Cape Town
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Purple Hibiscus
Olver Sacks, Musicophilia - I am seriously excited about this one.  One of those books you gasp when you see and snatch from the bookstore shelves in case someone else grabs it!
Anthony Woodward and Robert Penn, The Wrong Kind of Snow
Camilla Gibbs, The Petty Details of So and So's Life
Haley Shogren and White, Environmental Economics in Theory and Practice, as heavy and dull as it sounds, but I am fascinated.
Carolyn Jourdan, Heart in the Right Place
Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything. Seems like it would make a great audio book for my summer commutes.
Driving Sideways by Fess Riley
Running with Scissors, by Augusten Burroughs
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel, I did see the movie first, now I'd like to read the book
Red Plaid Shirt by Diane Schoemperlen
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
All that is Solid Melts into Air, but Marshall Berman
Haruki Murikami in Catalan
Kevin Crossley-Holland, Short!  A book of VERY short stories. (for teaching story writing to students)

that'll do for now.

There are a few more, but I am not quite as excited about them...and there are so many more!

Ooooohhh it is so nice to have good books, I even took one with me to walk the dog.....he led me today, that's for sure, till we got to the mountains and the views were their usual beautiful selves and a certain fuzzy someone needed to have pine cones pitched for him.

I am developing quite the arm I have to say, and I haven't murdered or fired the architect, yet, so all is well I suppose!  Could they move any slower?????

Christmas!!!

I S.W.O.R.E. I was going to go to bed early tonight because despite 12 hours sleep last night and a two hour nap this morning, I am still tired.

Still.

Then the architect sent his latest feeble effort.

*sigh*

I was also going to post a photo of the tree we've managed to decorate...but I am not sure I can get that together at this moment.

Aw,  what the heck....

The lights have stopped flashing, for which I am grateful....and the kid's pesebre (?) nativity scene, a tradition we have picked-up here is now complete.  Made with polly pockets and stuff we had on hand...

Photos later.

Cheers, and sleep well,

O

MADRID!!!!

We went off to Madrid for the long weekend...this has been a four day weekend here....YippEEeeee!!!!

The only glitch was that the overnight sleeper train tickets, which we were all looking forward to, turned out to be seats, not beds.  Both ways.

OMG.

Sitting up all night in a train is not rated very high in anyone's books, but let me tell you, it is still wildly overrated.  UGH.

Still, all else was fabulous....and I have tons to say and tons of pics.

We ate some fabulous meals, I bought myself a lovely necklace, we saw a LOT of people...can I just say that Madrillaños LOVE a crowd.  They eat breakfast, lunch, dinner and tapas in an enormous press of people, all standing up, and stagger from event to event in a huge pack.  Even the restaurants have twice as many tables in them as I would put....

We were so amazed we even asked if it is normal or if this was a particularly festive time.  Nope.  Normal.

OMG.

Now these were totally weird:

These, as you may have noticed, are bulls.  A symbol of Spain.  The broken tile work is from Gaudi.  A rigid Catalan nationalist who was arrested for refusing to speak Spanish upon occasion.  We found these kind of weird....though the pierced one was particularly charming.  Anything for a tourist.

I took this photo of a lovely door in Madrid after our recovery nap on the first day, and after we had eaten a truly amazing lunch.  The place was a small restaurant, filled with bull fighting memorabilia, and the food was out of this world.  Eggs scrambled with potatoes and topped with iberic ham...oh so good, plus croquettes, I can't quite get my head around these yet, and then a stunning steak!!!! I didn't think it was possible in Spain, but it is!  Then a flan that was the creamiest yummiest version of flan I have ever eaten, think of Cornish clotted cream mixed with flan.  OMG

Then I bought myself a beautiful necklace, and all was good with the world...and I was ready to notice this beautiful door.

What do you think, should we get one for the new house?  It may just be taller than the entire house though, which could prove difficult to manage.

A little drafty too when someone went out.

Barcelona is filled with lights too, but I haven't had a chance to take photos....

The center of Madrid was filled with these stalls, some selling jewelry and such, but most selling wigs and silly hats.  I am not the least bit sure what this has to do with Christmas, but it was pretty festive.  I have to say that the folks from Madrid are certainly willing to be kind of goofy and play it up!

These ladies were easily in their 60s and quite conservative looking, aside from the wigs.

To give you an idea of the crowd....this was a sea of people all going into and out of this plaça...I am not sure why.  Maybe just cause you're supposed to go out before dinner...

I kid you not, look. at. the. crowds!

Everywhere was like this!  Where did they all come from?????  There were no stores open....

This was cool, the Xmas tree you see two photos up?!?  This is from the center of it, you can walk through.  Very cool.

The Reina Sofia Museum allows photos.  I figured this was a good painting for us, I like blue, and the man likes beer!

OK, blogger is going all freaky on me and putting photos in weird places and I am way way way too sleep deprived to do anything about it....

That photo that looks like a cloud?

WAY cool installation piece.  It's made of thousand and thousands of strands of monofilament fishing line.  Anyone who has ever dealt with that stuff can join me in wondering how in the name of little green bullfrogs they ever move this piece without spending the next year untangling it.

It was quite magical I have to say.

One final public Xmas tree from Madrid...quite liked this one too.

More later.....

Promise me something though.  Please never ever ever sit up in a train all night if you don't have to, and NEVER buy tickets from renfe (the Spanish National Rail Service (???)) if you can help it, and then only in person.  The website S.U.C.K.S.

Cool stuff!

This is the coolest thing I've seen in a while...and this is wicked too...weird watching Chuck's ears while I plugged mine.

Neat neat neat.

Sweet mother...professional h*ll

This evening after work I designed a line-up fit to destroy anyone.

We visited:

1. The dentist.  Eldest has braces in her (near) future.
2. The lawyer.  A new Spanish will, and more paperwork for the kids citizenship. (fun wow!)
3. a brief stop - 15 min - at the local bar to eat anything for supper
4. A long meeting with the architectural assistant. I was not very nice.  Indeed I was kind of unpleasant in a nice kind of way. Aside from obliquely accusing them of asking for kick-backs and stating that we wanted to send out the requests for prices ourselves....ho hum.  I was also pretty clear that I am really pretty frustrated with the pace of the project....ho hum
5. Got home at 10:30 pm.
6. Bagged.

Now the dog is barking at me, and I don't know why.

Good lord, bring on the weekend.

On that note, we are going away for the weekend - thank god.

More anon.

You know your life is REALLY exciting when....

You get an electric toothbrush for the first time, and it is TOTALLY cool!

Sad but true.

It's a braun...I got the toothbrush head with the little yellow ring!  *joy*

I wonder if it has a fitting so we can purée the soup too?

Anger vs. music

I was talking to my Mom last night, which was lovely and useful and helpful on all sorts of levels, but one thing she said to me is that I seem angry lately on the blog. 

I have to agree.  I have been angry lately in real life too.

Combo of things I think, though the architect is the chief focus of my...ahhh....ire.

She did have a solid point though that one of the realities of living expat is a certain level of frustration and anger.

The same could be said of people embarking on a home renovation.

Despondency is guaranteed.

SO today after a, shall we say, grim beginning...imagine me weeping gently in the kitchen as I am making my tea and the man looking at me somewhat confused and miserable as he is just trying to go off in the morning....assuring me that this is all doable and I have not engaged us all in the worst mistake of our lives and to stop apologizing.  

Got the picture?

Well, first I found this video which was cool, and also had pretty cheery music, and some fun dancing....and that got me going on music.  

It is absolutely magically how it can completely alter your mood, and thank all the good little fairies in the forest for that, no?  So we had a bit of a youtube morning, finding anything that was upbeat.

I continued working on this theme....sugar at snack...yes, I went out and bought candy...I needed all the sweetening I could get.....

Went and bought some Xmas decorations before lunch.  Gotta get me excited about that...doable, manageable and cheery...clear goals are good in life....had a micro-nap.  I kid you not, the sucker was utterly pathetic....between youngest tossing advent calendars on my head, and card games and playing the harmonica in my ear, the dog managed to lick my eye as well; maybe it smelled of chocolate.

Helped though.  Played cards with youngest, freaked out trying to figure out her homework about the human excretory systems...utterly INCOMPREHENSIBLE question...holy mother of small toadstools (I'm having fun making these suckers up).

Made a conscious effort to laugh, to notice the sunshine, to see what I love about being here....heck I was even glad to go to the dentist!  Truly...three of us through, and the man got his teeth cleaned...no wait, delightful lady) who weirdly saw me last year in LONDON at the Tate Modern.  Life is very strange.  ANYWHOOO, it all cost, get this.....45 Euros!!!

What's not to love.

Off to Amazon to do some Xmas shopping, and you tube to listen to some music.

Think I'm gonna be getting myself an iPod...music is a miracle.  Too bad the man likes stuff like John Pryne so much.  My favourite *snort*  song by him is the one that sings about the hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes.  Just stick your head in the oven now!

Nope...loading the sucker up with some HAPPY music.

Suggestions anyone?