Gen has completed her finals! At last! After 10 months of struggle, blood, sweat, tears, frustration, perseverance, unusual english, and higher level math, it's over.
Congradulations to Genevieve and all the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics.
Next stop: Graduation on Thursday, June 27.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Unusual Sundry Items
An interesting name choice. In Argentina we came upon "Barfy" hamburger patties, but I think this is just as good.
Strange TV - vol. 2
This a photo of a commercial we saw here on TV. And yes, that's a giant chicken. I have no idea what it was advertising. Mostly we were just staring in awe.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Strange TV
Eurovision.
Most Americans would wrinkle their face and ask what that is. Well, I’ll tell you, it’s odd. Part talent contest, part geo-politics, part social satire. Ostensibly, it’s a talent competition, with each country in “Europe” sending one singing act to compete. The finals were on while we were up in the Pyrenees, and we watched (and howled) in our comfy bedroom snacking. We loved it. Now, I don’t watch American Idol, so I can’t compare, but if you can imagine the difference between an Greek wanna-be Britney, a Swedish drag queen, a Finnish heavy-metal band (of the medieval variety), and a Portuguese traditional folk song, you have some idea. The Spanish entry was mostly satire, because the Spanish know they never win (more later), and a function of the method of choosing their representative (via Myspace). The entry of Chikilicuatre, a parody-act that plays on the equivalent of the John Stewart show here. The winner is selected by public voting per country, not a total popular vote, so like the US presidential elections, skews the election by giving more power to smaller, less populated countries. Thus Serbia has the same number of votes as France, even though their populations differ by a factor of 10. Thus the acts from the big five countries (UK, Germany, Spain, France, and Italy) never win, but since they provide the vast majority of revenue, they are always in the finals. Since a country’s citizens can’t vote for themselves they typically vote for a neighbor or ally, thus the geopolitics.
We loved the Spanish announcer/commentator. The show was in English, but the Spanish channel had their own commentator. After the acts have performed the second part of the show is the voting. They take us to each country, all 43 (apparently to a marketing professional there are 43 countries in Europe), and a representative from that country tells us who their citizens have voted for. During this part the commentator was on a roll – guessing which countries would vote for whom or making wry comments. When one country, I think it was Sweden, was taking too long to tell us their votes (these are second or third tier entertainers who like to enjoy their 90 seconds on air), the commentator would say “Vamos, hombre, vamos….” [“Okay, let’s go, come one, out with it…”] We would also hear comments regarding the voting like “Ehhhhso es” [“Thaaaaat’s it”] meaning the country is voting exactly as predicted. For example: Serbia always votes for Russia, Andorra always votes for Spain, Norway typically votes for Sweden, etc.
Chikilicuatre
http://www.eurovision.tv/event/artistdetail?song=23994&event=1469
We loved the Spanish announcer/commentator. The show was in English, but the Spanish channel had their own commentator. After the acts have performed the second part of the show is the voting. They take us to each country, all 43 (apparently to a marketing professional there are 43 countries in Europe), and a representative from that country tells us who their citizens have voted for. During this part the commentator was on a roll – guessing which countries would vote for whom or making wry comments. When one country, I think it was Sweden, was taking too long to tell us their votes (these are second or third tier entertainers who like to enjoy their 90 seconds on air), the commentator would say “Vamos, hombre, vamos….” [“Okay, let’s go, come one, out with it…”] We would also hear comments regarding the voting like “Ehhhhso es” [“Thaaaaat’s it”] meaning the country is voting exactly as predicted. For example: Serbia always votes for Russia, Andorra always votes for Spain, Norway typically votes for Sweden, etc.
Chikilicuatre
http://www.eurovision.tv/event/artistdetail?song=23994&event=1469
Weekend Trip
For our Memorial Day holiday we rented a car and took a little weekend trip north to the Pyrenees. We drove through the countryside, trying to find unusually-named towns (see above) and talking to the animals mostly cows but a few horses, which either didn’t understand an American “mooo” or “whinnee” or, being French, simply refused to acknowledge tourists. Gen and I have very different methods for calling to the animals; I’d consider it different dialects (Ohio versus….Queens…okay not so many cows in Queens). Being in a car again was nice and the country was beautiful.
Along our way we saw people hunting through the grass fields. Regular people, not farmers or laborers. Turns out it’s mushroom season and they were picking mushrooms. We saw families, older people (one man was picking from a prone position, pipe in his mouth) – and it appeared they would just walk onto a property and start staring at the grass for the ‘shrooms.
We also found the most peaceful place on earth. Because I don’t want it spoiled I’m not going to give out written driving directions. Honestly Gen was directing so I probably couldn’t anyway. We just drove until we found the end of the road. It’s a little town in France called Valcebollere just down the hill from Spain. (If you look up the top of the mountain is the border.) Stone buildings, steep sloping hills, babbling creek, and we had tea in a quiet little place (appropriately enough part of the “Silence Hotel” chain). And actually it’s probably only 3 hours from Barcelona.
We drove by this interesting site. I didn’t know exactly what it was, only that it involved solar energy. Some quick research revealed to be a solar furnace – by reflecting the suns rays via panels on the hill to the building and then focusing them on a single point, this array can provide temperatures up to 2,000degrees. Without electricity or oil. Not too shabby.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_furnace
Along our way we saw people hunting through the grass fields. Regular people, not farmers or laborers. Turns out it’s mushroom season and they were picking mushrooms. We saw families, older people (one man was picking from a prone position, pipe in his mouth) – and it appeared they would just walk onto a property and start staring at the grass for the ‘shrooms.
We also found the most peaceful place on earth. Because I don’t want it spoiled I’m not going to give out written driving directions. Honestly Gen was directing so I probably couldn’t anyway. We just drove until we found the end of the road. It’s a little town in France called Valcebollere just down the hill from Spain. (If you look up the top of the mountain is the border.) Stone buildings, steep sloping hills, babbling creek, and we had tea in a quiet little place (appropriately enough part of the “Silence Hotel” chain). And actually it’s probably only 3 hours from Barcelona.
We drove by this interesting site. I didn’t know exactly what it was, only that it involved solar energy. Some quick research revealed to be a solar furnace – by reflecting the suns rays via panels on the hill to the building and then focusing them on a single point, this array can provide temperatures up to 2,000degrees. Without electricity or oil. Not too shabby.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_furnace
On our way back to Barcelona we stopped to see Montserrat, a monastery built up in the craggy mountains North of the city. Below are some photos. The mountains there are dotted with small churches and monasteries, with trails for hikers. We were just there for the day (or afternoon) so we didn't hike at all. Next life.
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