November sun

November in Villanueva means:

- understanding more and more Spanish. However, the extremeño accent is still a challenge for me. Mental note: drop the  "s" every time you want to pronounce it.

Done.

- enjoying the sun. We still (sometimes) get warm mornings, as well as long, lazy sjestas, that feel like summer and redish sunsets (with an autumn chill). November in Spain is not a "I-hate-getting-out-of-bed" month. Or a "It-smells-like-a-wet-dog" month. It is a totally enjoyable period of the year, with golden leaves and churros and chocolate caliente in a package. It couldn´t be better.

- learning economical/political/sociological terms (recortes, sindicalista, deuda), watching the publicist struggling in TV news and going on a strike on the 14th of November. You can not really live in Spain now without being politically aware about the importance of elecions in Catalunia or without hearing about the public affair including a porn star, Chinese mafia and diamonds (that´s a hell of a title for a criminal novel!). "May you live in interesting times".

- doing some serious research for my future "How to travel/sleep/eat cheaply around Europe" guide. Serious research included: eating an inappropriate amount of pastry, one milion orders of cafe solo, and going to Merida, in order to explore Roman ruins. And calmares ala romano.

- listening to "Buenas noches, Oscar Martinez" - did I ever mentioned my weakness for a low-quality music hits? Well, this radio show on Cadena 100 provides me an unstopping flow of them, including my brand new obsession:

Hopefully, when my level of Spanish improves, I´ll be listening to something more ambicious.


(No, I won´t.)