Cuchillo de Mantequilla

I opened the nytimes.com today and saw an op-ed piece about Russia and nuclear policy. “Oh,” I thought “Whoever wrote this had better quote Senator Lugar, because he pretty much is THE authority on that issue.” Then I opened the article and saw the byline “Richard Lugar and Sam Nunn”, and I smiled because everything was right with the world.

We had another review session of school today. I enjoyed it – our professor Antxon is all kinds of fun. The best moment came, though, when he was listing off alternate words to describe your girlfriend/boyfriend, and explained Cariño -- “my beloved”-- noting it’s really rather sappy. One girl asked if it was like “baby” – and he said yes (he was surprised to know that we use that appellation in English, too – Antxon doesn’t speak any English.) Then we went on to explain that basically every word for something sweet was commonly used in English as a nickname. Like “Honey” and “Sugar”. Antxon thought this was absolutely hysterical, and started making fun of us. he completely lost it though when we said “Cupcake.” "Aw, Miel." He mocked. "Azucar" ... "Pastellito!" I have to admit, in context, it really is rather funny. Transfer all of those names to a different language and suddenly they’re absurd -- like the title of this post. (Readers who catch that reference get bonus points!)

This afternoon, Alana (my roommate) and I walked home, taking random turns that that seemed to be in the right direction. I thought we were taking something close to the same path I had invented yesterday – but no. We ended up in the middle of a BEAUTIFUL park that runs along their “river”. Their “river”, by the way, is about a 50-foot wide concrete-paved hole in the ground, with multiple dams in it. The dams open when there is more precipitation. So, the top of the river in the city it filled the entire width, though probably only a foot or two deep. But you move down a couple “locks” (which are only 100 yards or so apart), and it’s completely dry. There’s a little stagnant puddle, maybe 6 feet thick, in the center of the section of the river by our house. Anyway, we found the path and transverse it’s fountains all the way home. Random thought: I wonder if there’s an emergency ordinance somewhere in Spanish law that says, in the case of a certain level of severe drought, all scenic fountains in all cities must be turned off.

Later, we met up with our group to take a walking tour of the city. It threatened rain, but mostly held off while we were wandering. I discovered the best shopping district (even though I don’t have any money to buy all the cute dresses I keep drooling over in the windows). Then we got to wander through the entire Muslim sector of town, which was amazing. I need to go back there to buy souvenirs (yes mother, with my friends.) We climbed another mountain, one opposite the Alhambra, and looked at it, while surrounded by a Muslim community and mosque. It was quite the adventure! I loved hearing Arabic all around me, even if I understood exactly 0% of it.

Then, we went to a Muslim-owned large tourist café, where our program directors had snagged a bunch of Spanish students from the University of Granada (and graduates, now working in the town) to come meet with us. These students want to learn English, and we want to learn Spanish, and so the goal is to have us become friends with each other, then meet up once every week or two to prattle in Spanish for a while, and then in English for a while, happily correcting each other’s mistakes. I met a couple, and exchanged information with one fun and interesting Law/MBA student. I feel, though, that the goal of this event, I’ll achieve more naturally on Sunday. The point of it is to have frequent associations with friendly people in Spanish. I think church is going to accomplish that quite successfully!