Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
This journal entry is about absolutely nothing.? If you read this whole thing then you have way too much time on your hands!
Being the?old fart, creature of habit that I am.? I pretty well have had the same morning routine for the entire time that I have been in Alicante.? Each morning before school?I walk to the El Mercado Central to buy food for the day.(http://www.math.wright.edu/People/manley.perkel/Spain/Alicante/MercadoCentral/index.html) I go to the same fruit stand, the same bakery, and the same deli.? It?s good stuff in that I have developed a relationship (I get to be a smart ass) with the ladies who run the shops.
In Spain everyone sells very specific items.? For example, there are four or five different names for what we would call a meat market or deli.? Anyway buying the fruit is obvious, but you have to go buy the bread from one person and then take the bread to the deli where they will make you a bocadillo (sandwich).? Like almost every food in Spain, a bocadillo always starts with lots of olive oil and ends with some type of pork product in between.? I?have definitely become a big fan.
Well before I go through my morning?routine of shopping for snacks and lunch for?the day, I first go to the Plaza de Mercardo?to study?for a couple of hours and?have my morning coffee and lately morning wine.? Every town in Spain has plazas.? As the song goes... "they are?all the same... only the names change".??Take the words "Plaza de" and then insert whatever name you like after that (toros, Jesus, iglesia, etc.).? Add a?cafe or two, a statue, a fountain, and an open area in the middle?and you have a plaza.
Yes, you did read correctly.??Wine is officially a part of my?BREAKFAST routine now.? While others around me are having beer, brandy,?and whisky; I stick with wine?as my drink of choice at 8:30 in the morning?on a week day.? There are usually only?10-12 people in the area, but at least 3-4 are having some type of drink with their breakfast.??Yet another reason why I am still here in Spain.
In case you have forgotten. The Spaniards, especially those in Alicante,?LOVE their nightlife. You either go out to dinner with your friends (which is a whole another process too long to describe) or if you are short on cash you go buy bottles of cheap liquir and drink in the streets (people live with their parents here until there 30?s).? Either way, this starts?between 9:00 or 10:00 at night.? After that you head to the bars around 12:00 or so.? The bars shut down at 4:00 and then you head over to the discos until about 7:00.? You then have breakfast either at home or at a cafe.? You?sleep all day and repeat.
Now have done this a few times, but those who know me, know that I am a daytime drinker?and I hate discos so this?routine is not for me.? I described their nightlife?because this past Saturday morning I went to?have my morning coffee at the Plaza de Mercardo.??The sleepy place?where I study during the week was packed?with people about half of whom were still out on the town from the night before.? Better still, they,?along with other random respectable Spanish couples, were?having beers and wine at 8:00 in the morning.
The pace of the drinking?was not just one or two beers over the course of a couple of hours, but instead it was like happy hour back in the States.? My favorite characters were "flower girl" and "orujo guy".? Flower girl kept on reappearing with new flowers?in her?hair or in her hands.? She would then go from table to table to chat with darn near everyone (me?included).? Orujo guy was just another loud, drunk?Spaniard?sitting at a table with other loud Spaniards before he earned my undying admiration.? To explain....
I am sitting?at my table studying (at?this point I had already ordered a beer of my own) when I hear a guy fall out of his chair.? The guy is not too worried about?it.? He proceeds to lay there for a while and twitch and kick as if he were having a seizure.? He gets a few laughs from his buddies, and I stop?paying attention to him and turn around to study more.? A few minutes later, I hear someone yell out to the waiter (you have to yell here) "dos orujo chipitos por favor" (two shots of a strong Spanish liquir please).? I smile and?turn to see who my new hero was and?what?do you know but?it was the same guy who had fallen out of his chair 5-10 minutes before.? My kind of a guy!
All of this is going on while you have a guy playing the ukulele in the background and you have the random lottery ticket salespeople walking through the tables trying to get you to buy lottery tickets.? I mention the lottery tickets because the next time I feel like writing a long ass journal entry about nothing it will be about the way?lottery ticket are sold all around the world.? I have seen some funny stuff in this department.
Have a good one folks and enjoy work today,
Jason
- comments