short-less

Today happens to be a very special day in my new gaditana life. It marks the first day that I have regretted not bringing any shorts with me here. Shorts, you ask? Why would you need shorts in southern Spain? An excellent question. In fact, I asked myself that for the first 3 1/2 months... Well, turns out Spain (particularly the south of Spain) can actually get rather hot. Currently, I am sitting in the shade, and am (believe it or not) HOT. Almost uncomfortably so. Of course, it doesn't really help that I am drinknig a steaming café solo largo, but what can I say... I need my coffee, and they just don't do it iced here.

Which actually reminds me... My latest hobby is searching for (now that my iPod is broken, not so much new music as...) new things to cook! Which, I can't! But let me assure you that when I return to the US where there are measuring cups a-plenty, I plan to cook like there's no tomorrow (Mom, Dad, Hans...others...brace yourselves! and plan on lots of eating.) One of the things I am especially excited for is making my own cold-brewed iced coffee, which I discovered thanks to my increased time spent with the New York Times food section (online, of course). And I must say, I don't know how it never occured to me before, considering I must have picked hundreds of mint stalks (I reeked of spearmint, peppermint, and chocolate mint for WEEKS - I guess it could be worse...) last summer with Raphaela so that Bridget could prove to all of us non-believers that cold-brewed iced tea is infinitely better than regular-brewed iced tea. Truth is, I'm still somewhat unconviced, but it was good and quite refreshing on those 100+ degree days). BUT, I am determined to try again with coffee. Apparently, it makes for sweeter coffee. Of course, after living in Spain for a semester, where they insist on adding sugar to their strawberry Dannon yogurt (and are convinced that bananas make you fat - yes, my madre alerted me to this "fact" yesterday), I'm not sure that I will ever be able to consume anything at all without at least 3 (enormous) packets of sugar.

On a side note, I have never seen so many olives go by me as just now: 4 one or two gallon buckets of green olives being carted through the plaza on a hand-truck. Ohh, Spain...