Daily Archives: February 7, 2013

La Comida!

Come on, guys.  You know you’ve just been waiting for this one.  Tacos, enchiladas, nachos, GALORE. Sike.

Y’all are loco.  This is NOT Mexico.

One of the (sadly) most common misconceptions about Spanish food is that it is Mexican food.  But don’t you worry – Spanish food is still scrumptious, and you know what – it’s actually not usually as fatty in the process.  Sure, there’s your chorizo sausage and obsession with ham, but that’s as bad as it gets.  Although, this is real evidence of what a good Spanish meal can do to you

Just couldn't get enough of that dessert there.

Just couldn’t get enough of that dessert there.

Not only is the type of food different in Spain, but the manner in which people eat is different as well.  Spanish tapas are common, and they are small plates of food (kind of like appetizers) that people generally eat with a nice beverage. The design of eating tapas actually echoes Spanish sentiment regarding food, friends, and conversation; much like other parts of Europe, the small bite-sized, sharable portions of tapas are, in theory, supposed to encourage conversation and good company, as diners are not as preoccupied by a full plate of food to finish in front of them.  The origin of tapas may be a bit gross however; tapar literally means “to cover” in Spanish, and traditional tapas of simple bread and meat were used to “cover” eaters’ accompanying glass of sherry.  Cover the glass, why, you ask?  Oh, just from fruit flies.  Don’t you just hate it when those little buggers get in your drink?!

While I’m probably going to break the Spanish Food Extravaganza post into two (stay tuned for next week), I feel I should also take the moment to introduce another Spanish staple: sangria! For you folks out there totally unfamiliar with this delicious fruity, legal delight (thank you, European alcohol laws), sangria is, simply enough, chilled red wine jazzed and razzletazzed with fruit – usually orange, lime, apple, and berries.  Oh, and a dash of brandy.  Or maybe, Sprite/7Up instead if you don’t want to go too crazy.

Sweltering Madrid afternoon? Yes, please.

Sweltering Madrid afternoon? Yes, please.

 

Civil Issues Reflections

While I cannot admit I personally admit looking forward to my week creating a well-informed post, I do truly admit that I enjoy discovering just how informed my fellow classmates are becoming on their respective issues – and also how interesting they make it to share their new-found knowledge! They do require more preparation and research seeing as the best CI posts include different forms of media as well as links to different sources, but this extra work makes for a more engaging blog-reading experience.  Additionally, these Civic Issues posts and subsequent comments feel more like a conversation than any other sub-blog we’ve had, and that is definitely the most interesting part.  I actually look forward to being informed. And not just on some fun Passion topic.  These are real issues, and not only should we be informed, but we should have a medium to create conversation – deliberation is already happening!

What I particularly enjoyed about others’ blog posts that I hope to include more in my future ones is a specific tie-in from our lives (the lives of Freshman Penn State students) to the issue at hand.  Sometimes you read blogs that are informative, but that you ultimately leave thinking – Well, so what? This noted connection and relativity to students’ lives is essential, and the less-expected the connection is, the better.  Finally, in terms of what I plan my next CI posts to look like – an interesting thing happened with my first one.  While my CI blog post is about education, my first blog post addressed gender issues in education.  This, funnily enough, seemed to have confused people into thinking that my CI blog is on gender issues! But it did spark an idea – an idea I’m planning on playing around with.  What if I connect Education to any of the other Civic Issue topics, addressing a different one each time? Like I said, I’d have to play around with this, but I’d be interested to see how many more people I could confuse.