Mercado Verde

I've had a strange two days. Fall has definitely arrived, and it's been in the 60's and rainy all week - this is fine, since I like this type of weather, and should probably move to England at some point in my life. Yesterday was very low-key, and I went out to the cinema with some friends to see a British movie (produced in cooperation with BBC) called "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas." It is a recently-released Holocaust film with a heart-wrenchingly simple and tragic plot (go see it!). The most interesting part of the evening, though, was that the movie theater was completely full! I have never in my life been in a full theater, unless it was for the premier of a Harry Potter or Star Wars movie, but there were so many people yesterday that we even needed to move to find our assigned seats (yes, assigned seats in a movie theater). I can't tell if it has to do with the fact that the Holocaust took place in Europe and therefore Europeans identify more with it, or that Europeans are more likely to want to see an intellectual, thought-provoking movie, or that the movie was recently released and has received quite a bit of press coverage (it's probably all three), but it seems to me that if the film doesn't have explosions and computer-generated graphics, many Americans just won't be interested. The biggest letdown of the evening was when we realized that the movie, whose opening credits were written in English, had been dubbed into Spanish. Dubbing has become one of my pet peeves, even in the US, where I would just rather watch something with subtitles. I can see it now: I'm not going to be able to see the new James Bond film when it comes out, because it will be in Spanish, and frankly, the British accents make it. Fortunately, "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" was easy to understand and powerful even with the dubbing.

After the movie and the entire carton of popcorn I ate, I went home, had dinner, left the house to meet some friends at our neighborhood's carnival, decided the carnival was awful, and went out for pizza at an Italian tapas place near us. The pizza was pretty good, and the mojito even better. I eat here every two hours!

Today was another festival of the Virgen, and all week the local pastelerías (bakeries) have been advertising their Virgin Cakes (probably better translated as Cakes of the Virgin, but it's funnier the other way). I was supposed to go to Seville today, but I instead decided to stay in Granada, go to a flea market this morning (which basically consisted of lots and lots of people screaming at me to buy shoes for 4 Euros and an unnecessary use of 2.10E on the busride), and go to Mass at the Basilica (where the virgin lives) to hear the church's choir. A friend's host mother said to get to the church very early, perhaps an hour ahead of time, for the one o'clock mass, so we got there around 12. I have never felt so violated in my life, and, ironically, it happened in a church. My friend's host mom had neglected to tell her that there are about eight masses every day, and we were trying to get into the church in the middle of the 12 o'clock mass on a festival day. This involved a line for 30 minutes, getting pushed and prodded into the church, standing about a mile away from the priest, and not knowing what to pretend to say during the mass. The worst moment was probably when my friend shrieked a little because a man was grabbing her back, when he moved, and proceeded to rest his chin on my shoulder. Unsurprisingly, at that point we left the mass, another half-hour process, and decided to get lunch, since we had both told our "mothers" that we wouldn't be home in time. It's a shame I couldn't take pictures inside the basilica - it is stunningly beautiful. Check this out instead.

They've set up a huge fruit/nut/candy market outside of the basilica for the festival, and I decided to get some dried apricots and some of a mix of dried bananas, coconut, and berries for the Special K (!!!!!) cereal that I found recently for breakfast (now I just need 1 percent milk!). I asked for a half-kilo of each, thinking that that's about the least of each they would happily give me, thinking it would come out to around 7 Euro. 16 Euro later, I had some good food and much less money, and it was time for lunch. A Scottish English professor from the University told me of a local restaurant run by an English woman, which makes wonderful salads and runs a full English brunch on Sundays (roast beef, puddings, etc.) We decided to check it out and, as it was closed for some reason, went to lunch in a plaza, where I managed to get a salad and some grilled chicken - the first meat that wasn't pork I've had in over a week! After lunch, we just so happened to be across from one of the shops of our favorite little helado (ice cream) company, and since we're taking advantage of the fact that these places will only be open through October and therefore are required to eat there every day, went over for a chocolate-covered cone. These cones, apparently, are of a larger size than I'm used to, which resulted in my eating about half a pint of ice cream, which is why I'm now off to take a nap. One of my biggest problems with this country is the lack of space to "chill;" we were specifically told that we weren't allowed to have guests in our host family's apartments, so if we ever see our friends, we're out spending money. This cheap little morning by itself cost me about 35 Euro, which is a pace I just can't keep up!