what to do with a dead fish

photo link: http://picasaweb.google.com/mary.dellenbach
(Still have a bit more updating to do, with Segovia from December and Córdoba/Granada from last weekend, but carnavales are up!)


16 February 2008

A belated Happy Valentine’s Day to you! (Unless you’re one of those people who’s not a big fan, in which case: Happy Random Gifts of Chocolate Day!)

I’m told it’s -40 with windchill in Minnesota right now, and I’m dreadfully sorry for all of you who are busy freezing in the depths of winter. I’m reminded of a postcard I once saw of a group of people in parkas and up to their waists in snow (in MT, but I’ll use a little poetic license and change the state): “Minnesotans for Global Warming.” And that joke is as close as I’ll come to touching politics without a ten-foot pole during this electoral season, except to say how incredibly glad I am to be missing the primary circus!

I wrote the first half of this email sitting in the sun on a bench at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM). People were sprawled all over the lawns (actual expanses of grass! amazing!) with their lunches and probably a few drinks (only in Spain moment: you go to the on-campus bar to get a cup of tea), and it was just so wonderful to be back in a university atmosphere. I heard French, English, Italian, and German, saw signs advertising Arabic classes, but it’s really just great being on a Spanish campus. The campus itself, actually, reminds me just enough of CSB/SJU to make me feel at home: grass, trees, brick sidewalks, concrete and brick buildings…. The random old train engine sitting in the middle of the lawn undermines the impression a little bit, and no one seems to know why it’s there. So, naturally, one day I’ll bring my camera and do a little photographic study when the light’s good. I wish I’d had it with me the other day; someone was trying to teach her friend to ride a unicycle. It wasn’t working very well, but they kept at it—with hilarious results.

I checked out three classes at the UAM: Teaching Spanish as a Second Language, Translation from Spanish to English, and Translation from English to Spanish. I had originally signed up for the teaching course, but ended up deciding on the Translation to Spanish (the other translation course is taught entirely in English, and I really don’t see much point in taking it). While I’m really enjoying my tiny tutoring job, I really don’t know if I ever want to teach, and I do know I love translating—so it makes more sense to learn as much about it as I can. Speaking of translation, classes and the thesis are so far going well: the story’s finished, and corrected, and Step Next is to simultaneously keep researching the phenomenon of self-translation and to start translating the thing into English. My friend Mia joked that our theses are our boyfriends for the semester. She’s with Don Quixote, another friend of ours is dating Harry Potter in Spanish, and I’m dating… Loneliness? (Story title: “Me llamo Soledad / My Name Means ‘Loneliness’”)

Right. Moving on. Carnavales! Carnival isn’t nearly so crazy in Madrid as in other parts of Spain, but it managed to pull together a respectable parade and a couple other events that will require a bit more explanation. I’ve got pictures up now, which explain the parade far better than I could in words. The giant bee at the end was a bit odd, though. On the other hand, rollerskating bugs are always good for a laugh. The second high point on my carnival agenda was the battle between Don Carnal (Lord Lust) and Doña Cuaresma (Lady Lent) in the Plaza Mayor. Basically Carnal and his cronies were out carousing, and she arrives in all her righteous fury, complete with sword and lobster-headed followers, to put an end to it in a giant flurry of feathers and fish bones. In the last procession, though, Lent’s victory is turned a bit on its head in el Entierro de la Sardina (the Burial of the Sardine). Yes, you read it right. A little smelly dead fish. Apparently the Alegre Cofradía del Santo Entierro de la Sardina (the Happy Brotherhood of the Holy Burial of the Sardine) was formed back in the 19th century to hold this mock funeral mourning the passing of a sardine, which symbolized the fasting and abstinence which comes with Lent. Instead of burying fat, they bury a fish. (They basically wanted carnival to continue on Ash Wednesday.) People showed up in their most maudlin finery—black veils, sardine-tin-hats, little fish pins—crying and singing the whole way. Some threw candy into the crowd, some dumped confetti onto every passing pretty girl, some women wailed over the fish’s body, some little old men danced and capered—you know, your average night in Madrid. Actually, according to some tiny old woman I ran into just as I was leaving, this was “la Madrid de verdad.” The real Madrid (not to be confused with Real Madrid, the soccer team). Take that however you will.

Once carnavales ended, I had the happy job of going along as chaperone on an undergraduate trip to Córdoba and Granada. It was a busy weekend, and I spent most of the time making sure we had everybody, but I did get to take some pictures of my own, and I got a lot of really good food for free. In Córdoba we did the usual: Mezquita, old Jewish neighborhood and synagogue, and Calle de las Flores, that amazing flower-filled street. Just a few hours and we were off to Granada, where I got to see the cathedral for the first time, the Alhambra for the second (though there wasn’t enough time for the Generalife gardens, but I have the luxury of returning in just over a month!), and the old summer house of García Lorca and his family. I led a small group of students there while the rest went on a tour of the Albaicín barrio, and I didn’t even get us lost, which I felt was quite the accomplishment. It was mainly run-run-run the whole weekend, but during the down times I went with the profs to a café someplace and we just sat and talked for a little bit. The highlight was probably a little tea shop cave where I discovered a tea called “Dreams of the Alhambra” which tasted absolutely divine, and I’ll have to find someplace I can buy the mix when I go back after Easter.

And now I’m sick but recovering, and therefore pretty much out of news. Stay warm over there!

Hugs,Mary