December plans and travel hick-ups

I thought that it was time to show some more photos from our week in Spain in July… while I tell you about probably the most stupid thing I have ever done!!!

Last week we finally booked the tickets for:

1) our cruise in December! Yes, we are finally going to see some of the other islands in the Caribbean, before we move back to Europe (February??). Since we arrived to Puerto Rico two years ago, we have been contemplating how to see more of the region and everybody has told us – go on a cruise… I have always been very sceptical to the whole cruise-thing but it does seem to be the most practical way to island-hop!?

The cruise will take us to St Thomas, Dominica, Barbados, Antigua, St Kitts and St Maarten over 7 days leaving from San Juan (of course) the first weekend of December.

2) tickets to go to Spain for Christmas! Since O and I have already celebrated Christmas with my family (2007), in Puerto Rico though and not Sweden, it only seemed fair that our first European Christmas together would be spent in Spain with O’s family. We leave on the 23rd December, arriving on Christmas Eve’s morning to Madrid and hopefully somebody will be able to pick us up by car (otherwise it is two changes with the metro + train). The tickets to fly to Spain for Christmas were more expensive than our 7-day Caribbean cruise!

A typical sign in Spain – what we in Sweden call the Spanish turn (spanska svängen), a way to avoid dangerous left-hand turns on busy roads

3) However, not as expensive as our tickets from Madrid to Copenhagen in January could have been… After we had booked the above travels, we for some reason waited with buying our tickets to go to Sweden (via Copenhagen). Maybe we felt that we had to give the credit card a rest? I checked for tickets via different ticket search websites and yesterday I finally found the cheapest tickets – flying with Finnair via Helsinki! Ok, a bit of a detour but we are trying to save some money on travels…

The cheapest tickets I found were through a Swedish online travel agency and when I tried to pay with O’s credit card I encountered some problems. On most websites when you buy a plane ticket you first fill out the name(s) of the passengers and then you have to fill out the name of the credit card holder, credit card number etc. However, on this website there were no boxes for the name of the credit card holder as the name of the main passenger was automatically chosen. O has two surnames like all Spaniards, so on the passenger details I filled out his complete name, as you should but then I realised that his Belgian credit card only mentions one family name – in other words there was a discrepancy! The other problem was that yes, it is a Belgian card but O’s billing address is in Puerto Rico… Needless to say there was a problem with the payment.

The papal (!) castle seen from the village

I tried several times, changing the names – so I would be the main traveller and thus pay with my credit card – at least the names on my passport and card correspond, but no, I kept getting an error message (my billing address is my parents’ in Sweden). I then tried to book the same ticket through the Belgian website (same company) but it didn’t work either, probably due to the billing addresses not being in Belgium.

Then I had the brilliant idea to check if maybe the tickets were equally cheap on Finnair’s website – the difference was a few Euros, and voilà, it worked fine with O’s Belgian credit card and address in Puerto Rico. Happy that all the December-January travels were finally booked, I checked my emails for confirmations and what do I see: I have TWO bookings for the same tickets!! The reservation from the Belgian website had somehow gone through despite all the error messages!!! Arrrggggghhhhh!

O, who is always the one to keep his calm and not to panic like myself, asks me for the Finnair phone number and calls them to explain our problem – and is told that there are THREE reservations in our names for the same flight!

What to do, what to do? The Finnair lady tells O to contact the Swedish travel agency and explain to them the situation, but unfortunately their customer service opening hours are 13-17  (Swedish time) so we need to wait until the morning (Puerto Rican time). In the meanwhile I calculate that we have paid more than 1000 € for SIX tickets Madrid – Copenhagen (not refundable) and that I definitely shouldn’t get any Christmas presents this year (or next)…

The village seen from the palace

To make a long story short (??), this morning I checked our emails and both O and I had received notifications that the payment of our tickets through the travel agency had not gone through, I found a FAQ on the website saying that you can’t pay with a Belgian credit card on the Swedish site, and I call the customer service and the helpful agent cancels our reservations and tells me that they would have been cancelled anyway at the end of today since the payments had not gone through.

Fingers crossed that we haven’t been debited anything extra, we should have ONE reservation valid and payed for with Finnair and hopefully we will be going to Sweden on the 2nd January for 8 days, to celebrate my sister’s 27th birthday and my grandfather’s 90th!

Vikings in Spain? A medieval market in O’s village this summer – fortune tellers in Viking runes (alphabet)!?

Lesson learnt: PATIENCE! Make sure that your online reservation / payment has not gone through before trying another alternative. And book through the plane companies’ web-sites when possible (that’s what we ended up doing with our tickets to Spain from Puerto Rico as well - American Airlines had the cheapest tickets!).

And maybe we will all get Christmas presents this year…

Same plant, different places but what’s the name?

You might remember this plant, that we saw in the dry forest, Guánica, a few months ago… It has tree-like flowers that sprout high up in the air and once they finish blooming, the whole plant dries up and dies.

Well, today I was looking through our photos from Spain this summer, and what do I see – the same plant in a photo from O’s village (bottom right-hand corner)! I showed it to O and asked if he hadn’t recognised it… Nope!

But the question is – what is the plant called? I never know how to search for plant and flower names on the internet – I have tried describing it in a google search but I never have any luck. Same goes for bird names…

What’s in a name (Part II)

Last week I read about Anne’s and her husband’s thoughts on names, and it reminded me of a short “essay” I wrote for my Spanish course a few months ago. I think that the subject of names is fascinating; the cultural and linguistic differences, as well as the historical background and meaning.

When it comes to royalty, I thought that it was fascinating for example to discover that in the Spanish gossip magazine, Hola, the British Queen Elizabeth II is referred to as Isabela Segunda, her son is called Carlos and her grandson Guillermo (William). One of my first memories of working in Brussels is of when I mixed up Charlemagne and Charleroi. For me, as a Swede, the two names sounded very alike – to the shock of my French colleague who told me that Charlemagne* was a very famous king (I had heard of him as Karl den Store in Swedish or Charles the Great) and Charleroi is a Belgian town! Why is it that names of Kings and Queens are translated?

King Oscar’s sardines – the sardines are Norwegian, and the king was Swedish. However, Oscar II also ruled over Norway since the two countries were in a union until 1905. Oscar is a Celtic name and was in fashion in Sweden around the turn of last century, as well as currently (since the new Millenium)

I have already written about names, in my blog post “What’s in a name – Spanish name mysteries“, which dealt with confusing Spanish surname (family name) traditions rather than first names. Surnames are definitely interesting, the respective family names of O and I could have had a -ez and -es at the end, but they do not… This causes a lot of confusion, especially here in Puerto Rico, even though the most famous Puerto Rican singer has the same surname as O, while I always try to explain that I am not a relative of Sherlock! O’s surname is a very common one in Spanish-, French & English-speaking countries, but of course pronunced differently.

Tombstone for one of my ancestors called Nils – a very common name in my family (and region). It was the 5th most common name in 1901 and is once again increasing in popularity

This is more or less what I wrote (in Spanish originally):

Names (without any scientific proof what so ever, this is my study of how names are chosen in different countries):

In Sweden it is common to choose names of past generations, generally the generation of the grandparents (or great grandparents) of the parents’ of the child. This means that names are “recycled” every 3-4 generations, but the children are not necessarily named after a certain relative (see below for the Spanish tradition).

The most popular names for Swedish children born in 2008 were:

1. Maja
2. Emma (second name of my father’s uncle’s wife – she’s Swiss though)
3. Julia
4. Ella (actually my great-grandmother’s name)

 

1. Lucas
2. Oscar
3. William
4. Elias

(source: www.svenskanamn.se)

Otto, a German name that used to be given to the 8th child in a family! Its popularity is increasing in Sweden, maybe because of the yummy ice cream sold under this name 

However, the most common names in Sweden (for children and adults) are Maria (and Anna), and Erik (and Lars). What is interesting is that most people with these names, Maria and Erik, have them as second names, i.e not used as their given names (tilltalsnamn). 

Spanish square with the same name as O’s grandfather and grandmother (ending with an -a of course). It is of German origin and means, just like it sounds, “the brown” or “the tanned”. Saint Bruno was born in Cologne and refused to become a bishop in Reims (from Wikipedia).

In Spain, my impression is that names don’t change as often as in Sweden. There are always children who are called Carlos, Diego and Manuel! And to prove this, I actually just took what I thought were common Spanish names, the above-mentioned ones, and confirmed their popularity (No 14, No 9 and No 15 for babies born in 2007). One reason might be that many Spanish families still keep the tradition of naming the first son after the father, who in his turn was named after the grandfather, named after the great-grandfather etc etc.

The great-grandmother Francisca (I noticed that I called her Joaquina in another post – I am actually not sure if she is Francisca or Joaquina, need to confirm her name with O’s father), whose name is not among the top 100 of the names given to babies in 2007

Since this tradition only seems to apply to boys, does it maybe mean that women’s names change more often in Spain? I am not so sure, but let’s try to do the same test as with male names. I would say that common Spanish female names are: Cristina, Mónica and Ana. Now, let me check their popularity among babies born in the 21st century: Cristina was No 26, Mónica No 88 and Ana No 13!

Aha, I have proved my point in a most un-scientific way: the names I chose were names of Spanish people I know (from my generation) and obviously their popularity have not been carried over to the present female generation to the extent of the male names, which are still common.

José is only No 36 on the top list of names from 2007. According to Wikipedia José Palafox is a hardcore punk musician but I doubt that the street in Zaragoza was named after him…

These are the top names of Spanish babies born in 2007:

1. Lucía
2. María
3. Paula
4. Sara

1. Daniel
2. Alejandro
3. Pablo
4. David

(source: www.babycenter.es/pregnancy/nombres/top_names_2007 and interestingly enough the top 4 names haven’t changed at all between 2007 and 2008)

I have never met a Sebastián in Puerto Rico, but his street is one of the most beautiful in the Old San Juan

My third example is the Puerto Rican name tradition – which doesn’t seem to be cyclical like the Swedish one, nor repetitive like the Spanish one, but it is rather a more imaginative custom. It would appear that the Puerto Rican parents try to find the most original name possible, and one tradition is to combine the names of the two parents – for example Geomari (from George and María). I don’t know how popular it is nowadays to give taíno (indigenous indian tribe in Puerto Rico and other islands of the Caribbean) names to babies but the name Uroyoan for example is of taíno origin.

For a foreigner it is sometimes difficult to understand and remember people’s names, at least when they are called Jehyra, Katsí, Nerydette, Adalberto, Glendaliz, Ydalmi, Unexie, Eulalio etc. Don’t get me wrong, I love the originality**, but maybe they are not always very practical names? And it does seem that boys get the more traditional names while the more fanciful ones are reserved for girls.

Unfortunately I couldn’t find the top names of Puerto Rican babies, in the US the more plain (?) names Jacob and Emily were the most popular in 2007.

*) Charlemagne is also the name of one of the European Commission buildings in Brussels and the whole conversation was about me going for lunch there – but I said Charleroi, a town 6o km away…

**) A Puerto Rican novel that I would really like to read, but haven’t found yet, is Usmaíl by Pedro Juan Soto that tells the story of a boy named after a US Mail post box…

Wednesday recipe: Salmon & avocado salad + Etiquette poll on toilet lid manners

It is still Wednesday in my part of the world and here’s a recipe to prove it

Salmon & Avocado Salad
1 piece of salmon filet (~400 grams)
2 tablespoons French Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 tablespoons dill, parsley or tarragon
1 teaspoon coarse (Kosher) salt
freshly ground black pepper
crispy lettuce (such as Iceberg or romaine)
1 big avocado
1 onion – chopped
1 lemon – juice and peel
a handful of pickled gherkins – chopped

Heat the oven to 200 degrees C (400 degrees F). Mix the mustard, olive oil, black pepper, salt, chopped gherkins and onion, lemon peel and herbs in a small bowl. Spread the mixture evenly on the salmon and bake in the oven approximately 10-15 minutes.
Cut or tear the lettuce and put in a salad bowl. Cut the avocado in small cubes and add to the lettuce, sprinkle some lemon juice on top.
Serve the salad mixed with the oven-baked salmon and some bread.

(Recipe inspired by “Varm laxsallad med avokado” from the book Kärlek, Oliver och Timjan by Anna and Fanny Bergenström)
 

And now to the etiquette poll: Toilet lid manners!

As you know, we have had a lot of visitors to our home here in Puerto Rico, and when you spend time close to family and friends for a while, you notice certain habits… One of the things that has struck me the most is that very few, men and women, put down the lid after using the toilet! The lid, not the ring – which fortunately most men do lower after having done their business…

I have also noticed that in almost every home shown on my favourite tv channel, HGTV, the toilet lid is always up! This in homes that have been staged, styled and designed to be sold! Am I the only person who thinks that it looks nicer if the lid is closed?? Isn’t that the reason why there is one?

So, I am curious – let me know your thoughts on “toilet lid manners”…

Every time I walk past the guest bathroom and I can see that the lid is up, I have to enter and close it… I am sure a lot of people think it is silly and O is definitely one of them! We have been discussing the “raison d’être” of the toilet lid, and I always try to suggest that it might have been invented so to avoid that people accidentally drop something into the toilet, or so that you can use it as a seat but most of all – it is there to be closed!

“You haven’t forgotten anything? Did you lower the lid and flush?” (apparently the French speakers only need to be reminded to flush…)

However, it can’t just be me, because I found these signs (above and below) displayed in the toilets* in the Alliance Francaise!

Might seem superfluous to remind the “users” to flush – but after having worked in a hotel as a cleaning lady, I know that a lot of people seem to forget (??) to do this… In many places in Puerto Rico (and in Greece!) you are asked to throw the toilet paper in the trash can (zafacón is Puerto Rican Spanish) because the sewage system is so bad.

Speaking of toilets, I might have mentioned already that the exterior of our building is being renovated and painted – we have now, after ~3 months, reached the painting phase, which means that the construction workers are doing their second round of the four walls. This morning I heard that they were somewhere outside our master bedroom and decided to go to the loo in the guest bathroom instead. Just when I am sitting there, I can hear the “window-cleaner lift” approaching outside… and voilà, it stops right outside the bathroom window!! Fortunately I was behind a shower curtain, but still, needless to say I didn’t feel very relaxed about the situation!

Outside the bathroom window this morning…

A few minutes later I was sitting in front of the computer in my pj’s when I heard voices behind me – arrggghh, they seemed to be everywhere today! I am starting to feel besieged, and quite frankly tired of having people outside the windows – on the 9th floor!

*) And yes, I am European and I am not afraid of calling a toilet a toilet (or even “loo”) - half-baths, powder rooms etc sound just silly in my ears!

“Beloved child has many names”: Día de la Hispanidad, del Pilar or de España?

The beginning of the title of today’s post doesn’t really make sense in English, but is a Swedish expression (“Kärt barn har många namn“), which I thought was suitable for today’s date, the 12th October. I was reminded when reading Annika’s Monday post that it is Columbus Day* in the US today, as well as the Spanish National Day (la Fiesta nacional de España), Día de la Hispanidad and Día del Pilar which is the regional day of Aragón… The Spaniards always find an excuse to have una fiesta, but three celebrations in one day??

Basilica Nuestra Señora del Pilar in Zaragoza to the left, and the Cathedral La Seo in the centre of the photo. 

So, why does the 12th October have three different names in Spain (not to forget the different names in other countries – click on the link on “Columbus Day” above to see them all)?

• Día de la Hispanidad: To celebrate the discovery of Columbus’ “discovery” of the Americas in 1492. However, it is only according to the Julian calendar that the 12th October is the correct date, in our modern (Gregorian) calendar it should be celebrated on the 21st! Between 1981 and 1987 this was the official name of the Spanish national holiday.
• Día del Pilar: In Aragón the patron saint Our lady of the Pillar is celebrated on the 12th October. According to the legend the Virgin appeared in front of the apostle James the Greater (Santiago) on top of a pillar, and the Basilica-Cathedral in Zaragoza was built in her honour.
• Fiesta nacional de España: Since 1987 the official name of the Spanish national holiday, while the 6th December is the day of the Constitution, also a national holiday in Spain. According to the Wikipedia link, the date was chosen as a compromise between the conservative politicians who wanted to emphasise the importance of the monarchy and Spanish history, and the republicans who wanted a national day that celebrated the new democratic Spain.

The beautiful roof of the Basilica Nuestra Señora del Pilar in Zaragoza

I have yet to experience the celebrations of la fiesta del Pilar in Zaragoza, but I am hoping that we will be able to attend next year. O spoke to his parents this weekend and the whole family, including the parents who live in a small village 45 minutes away, was in Zaragoza for the festivities that always start the weekend before the 12th October.

The celebrations include concerts, processions (as the Spanish LOVE processions) and offering of flowers to the Virgin of the Pillar. But I can also see from O’s friends’ recent photos on Facebook that it means reunions with old friends who have left Zaragoza (I know that O used to try to go every year when he lived in Europe) and a lot of partying 

*) Columbus Day is actually celebrated on the second Monday of October, so not the 12th October every year. The second Monday in October is also Canadian Thanksgiving.

Wednesday recipe: Ensalada rusa and how do you cut?

I am not sure yet of the significance, but I feel that I reached a new level of intimacy with my MIL this summer when she asked me to help her make dinner!! You see, Spanish (and Italian, and probably Greek as well) mothers don’t let just about anybody into their kitchens – it is their territory and they guard it fiercely! I had actually been allowed to cook once before, a Swedish smörgåstårta but that was O’s idea and this time it was on her initiative and we worked together.

An old Spanish kitchen – in the apartment where O’s parents first lived when they got married. One of our projects is to clean and renovate the whole apartment… eventually

The dish we made is called ensalada rusa (Russian salad) and is a classic in Spanish speaking countries. The base of the salad is potatoes and mayonnaise, and the other vegetables are optional and changeable. I love potatoes, and to a certain extent mayo but as I am trying to watch what I eat (sometimes at least, ha ha), I asked if we could go easy on the fattening stuff… My MIL was very kind and decided that we wouldn’t add any mayo and let everybody help themselves to it at the table. (My parents-in-law, O and his brother finished a whole jar of mayo that night, while I didn’t touch it!)

Ensalada rusa
2-3 boiled potatoes
1-2 boiled carrots
a handful of green peas (if fresh, boil them quickly, if frozen thaw them in room temperature) or another type of beans
2-3 hard-boiled eggs
optional: a can of tuna, white asparagus
olive oil
mayonnaise
salt & pepper

Cut the vegetables and eggs in small cubes and pour some olive oil on top. Add generous amounts of mayo if you want a “true” Russian salad.

Spaniards loooove mayo as you can see on this photo with tapas

I was very happy that I finally got to help out at cooking dinner, even if it was just cutting veggies, but I felt so silly… Why? Well, I can’t cut “in the air” – I need a cutting-board!!! In O’s family everything is cut “in the air”; bread, vegetables, chorizo, fruit is peeled and cut without a cutting-board… Sometimes a simple piece of wood is used for cutting bread. I feel like such a child for not knowing how to cut without a board! O usually helps me by peeling the fruit or cutting the chorizo, but you can imagine how silly I feel…

Fortunately the boiled potatoes and eggs were quite soft and I managed to peel them and cut without a cutting board but I could feel how my MIL was watching my [lack of] technique. I would have been in trouble if the potaoes were not boiled and needed to be peeled without a peeler – don’t know how to do that either! And fruit – forget it, if it is too soft to peel with a peeler… but then again, I hardly ever peel fruit anyway.

When we were in Spain in February, we had an indoor BBQ / pic-nic with O’s friends in an old cottage – the Spanish girls quickly made a tuna salad… without a cutting-board!

Afterwards I said to O that we need to buy a cutting-board or two from Ikea to keep in his parents’ house – and he reminded me that we have actually already bought 2 cutting-boards, that are still wrapped in plastic and stored somewhere in his mother’s kitchen! I definitely need to find it for next time I am asked to assist at dinner-making (or maybe she will never ask me again after having seen how bad I am at cutting)

Can it be a cultural difference? Or a generational one? Or a combo? I asked my aunt when she was visiting us, and she said that she always uses cutting-board as well, and that both her mother (my grandmother) and grandmother would always use cutting-boards.

How do you cut? And do you need a proper peeler to peel vegetables?

To finish the post, a quote from my MIL:

My son C is no longer a Spaniard, he likes pepper on his food!

O’s mother never uses pepper in everyday cooking, only salt and sometimes oregano*. I have no idea if that is typically Spanish or maybe regional? C and his German girlfriend have bought a pepper grinder that I use all the time to my MIL’s amusement… Fortunately she doesn’t take it as criticism of her cooking, phew!

*) Everybody is very surprised when they hear that I use fresh or dry basil (albahaca) in cooking – in Aragón it is used to keep mosquitoes away (typically planted beneath the windows).

An indoor summer project

Not a summer without a project! Last year the decoration of the new summer house and fixing of the [old] shed were on the to-do list, and we did so well that a carpenter remarked to my father that he didn’t understand why we had put in old doors in a new shed! My father had to explain that the whole building is old and that we didn’t paint the doors as we might change them for new ones. This summer we decided to make the huge deck between the main house and guest house a little more cosy… I will show you photos from that project another day because I thought that it was time for a post about our hot but productive week in Spain in July.

My mother-in-law (MIL) put the thermometer outside the window during the hottest day and was very excited when it showed 49 degrees (only 45 on the photo though)! However, it was right smack in the sun and it only goes up to 50 C so I am sure that it was even hotter… And of course you measure temperatures in the shade…

The weather in Aragón is really extreme, it seems that I am either really cold or terribly hot when we visit O’s parents… Probably because we either come in winter or summer, instead of spring or autumn*. I don’t know if it is only due to the weather, but we always tend to be indoors - in the summer it is too hot, and in the winter too cold to go outside! This summer we had the hottest temperatures so far (35-45 degrees Celsius, that’s 95-113 Fahrenheit), and one day we were actually just a few kilometers away from the hottest place in Spain (I think it was 47 degrees!). The very uncomfortable thing about the weather was that the wind was hot as well, so the breeze made the temperatures raise, instead of being refreshing. Anyway, it was just as well that it was too hot to be outside, since we had an indoor project to tend to: 

Before emptying the “empty” room…

O’s mother and sister had had the brilliant idea that maybe O and I should get our own room in the house! So far we have been taking over the room that O and his younger brother JI used to share (two single beds), and since brother C has replaced the two single beds in the room he and brother MA used to share with a double bed, it means that poor JI doesn’t have anywhere to sleep when all of us are visiting (sister E has her own room)**. However, the grandparents’ old room had been “empty” (there is no such thing as an empty space in my parents-in-laws’ home) for the last 10 years or so, and even though it is a tiny room, it would be perfect for us. To have our own space, where we can unpack, close the door (the room we’ve been using so far has a balcony which my MIL uses for hanging laundry, which she does every 2 seconds…), sleep in the same bed (warmer in the winter, not so comfortable in the summer) and have some privacy sounded like heaven to me!

Belive it or not, but I had never been inside this room before. I think that O once opened the door to show it to me… We started by clearing out the furniture, old Ikea boxes (from C’s remake of his room), old suitcases etc. I liked some of the old pieces of furniture in the room, but unfortunately they were not very practical for the space.

The big wardrobe had to go. I like old furniture but a dark, bulky wardrobe just didn’t fit in the small space. However, nothing is thrown away in this household, so we might be able to use it somewhere else…

The walls had to be painted, and despite my MIL’s suggestion of painting the ceiling “salmon” and FIL’s idea of light blue, we stuck to white for both the walls and ceiling. Painting was an interesting experience; the wardrobe was still in the small room, it was extremely hot, the flies were very annoying and my FIL didn’t believe that we needed to cover the floor “let’s just clean it afterwards”… I still tried to move the one newspaper that we had to wherever spot O and his father were painting for protection.  

The painting done! I wasn’t entirely convinced about the old chandelier in the ceiling, but it’s nice to have something that is not from Ikea and it kind of looks cool against all the white and clean, simple lines of the furniture

Once the painting was done, the room was measured and we drove to Zaragoza to buy furniture. The bed had already been purchased, and was actually the reason for the whole project. O’s father had bought the bed for the master bedroom but it was too long (despite being only 1.90 m instead of the [Swedish] standard of 2 m) and made the opening of the wardrobes impossible. That was when the women in the family had the idea of letting us have the bed in the ”empty” room! However, we would have the same issue with fitting a wardrobe, and sliding doors were not really an option (still taking up too much space). After 6 hours in Ikea and a meatball lunch, computer designing of the room with the help of an Ikea programme, checking out the bargains in O’s favourite Ikea spot - the “coin de bonnes affaires” (bargain corner, we still use the French expression from our Ikea sessions in Brussels), lots of wardrobe pieces and meeting up with the Swedish girl L who works in Ikea in Zaragoza, we headed back home with all our flat packages…

Assembling an Ikea wardrobe in small space is not the easiest

Even though I had told my MIL that I didn’t want to sleep under a “puente” (bridge) (as I have a reoccurring nightmare of the ceiling falling on top of me while sleeping), we did decide that hanging [kitchen] cabinets on the wall across the bed would be the best use of the space. O spent a full day securing the cabinets to the wall and the high wardrobes on either side of the bed, so hopefully we won’t get crushed in our sleep by falling furniture…

Handyman in action

Despite the Ikea Family offer of 20% off the Hemnes furniture in black, we decided to go for all white to make a lighter, less crowded impression. White Pax wardrobes with white doors, white Hemnes storage bench (but a black Hemnes mirror), and colourful striped Kajsa accessories fit the bill.

Almost done! We chose to have a low storage bench instead of a chest of drawers at the opposite wall to the bed since the room is so small and it is practical to have somewhere to put a suitcase

The assembling of of the wardrobes took longer than expected, and we needed to go back to Ikea for a second round of shopping, so in the end the room was not finished until the last evening. At least we got one night’s sleep in the new room, and it is waiting for us when we come for Christmas!

Done!

Of course we are not entirely done yet, a curtain decision needs to be taken (with or without curtains is the question!), a mosquitero (mosquito net) needs to be installed, bedside lamps to be installed and we are planning to enlarge and frame some photos to put on the walls. Maybe a narrow picture ledge under the so-called “bridge” for mobilephones, keys, alarm clock etc and the big mirror needs to be hung. It will be put next to the window as there’s a need for a full-length mirror in the house. I would have preferred the mirror opposite the window to make the room feel bigger…

Next year’s project – to clean the backyard and cut down the dead parts of the old apple (?) tree. I’m hoping that we can save the fig tree that is in there somewhere…

Our to-do list for this summer was too long, and we only managed to do our room but hopefully next year when we live in Brussels, we will have more opportunities to go to Spain. We are hoping to clean the backyard (photo above), the plan is to have an outdoor space with a table and some chairs, so that we could actually spend some time outside when it is not too hot! The apartment where O’s grandmother used to live a few blocks away from the parents’ house also needs a remake, as well her house in another village… Actually the list is neverending, but it is fun with projects!!

*) Which is actually not entirely true, I have been twice to Spain for Easter, i.e spring but it’s been cold and I only brought “spring clothes”. The short visit in October 2007 before our wedding was probably the most enjoyable, temperaturewise at least!

**) Did you follow that? O has 3 brothers and one sister; the brothers were sharing bedrooms two and two, and the sister had her own room. The oldest brother MA lives permanently in the village with his wife and son so he doesn’t need a place to sleep in the parents’ home, but the others still need a bed when visiting from Zaragoza or abroad.

Bilingual and bi-cultural, is that a problem? Part III

I am finally sitting down to write the third post about bilingual and bi-cultural relationships, the first and second parts touched upon the subject of bilingualism. Today’s topic is bi-culturalism:

Yesterday I thought about culture twice; first when O came home from a morning photography walk telling me that it was the San Juan Gay Parade and that we should go and have a look, and then a second time when I suggested that we have an early sushi dinner at 6 o’clock in the evening (afternoon for O)…

The San Juan Gay Parade

A new relationship is always exciting; getting to know each other and figuring out personalities, interests, opinions, and values. When the relationship is bi-cultural, the differences can seem much bigger and more surprising – or maybe not, it all depends on the attitude. If you start any relationship, but especially a bi-cultural relationship, focusing on differences, then you will of course find differences. However, if you choose to focus on common denominators instead, I believe that the differences will be seen as fewer and more positive.

This was definitely the most beautiful costume yesterday – I was a little jealous!

For me the key is common values! O and I haven’t really had any major cultural misunderstandings or clashes, maybe because we met in a third country; Belgium where we were both foreigners. When we met, we had lived 5 (O) respectively 3 (me) years in Brussels so I guess we were already used to compromising when it came to culture. Our strongest national traits might have already been sandpapered down a little, adjusted to living, dating and working in a multicultural environment and therefore less obvious…

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” on the Amnesty International banner. Unfortunately there was also a banner (at the side of the street) protesting against “the sin of homosexuality” but I don’t want to publish that one…

However, living abroad is no guarantee that you will be open to new cultures and traditions – I have seen many Swedes, Spaniards and French who, despite living abroad, have not been the least interested in compromising language, culture or plans for the future with a foreign partner. Many times the defining factor is why you moved abroad – was it an active choice or by necessity (not finding a job in your own country, being sent abroad by a company, trailing spouse…)? People who choose voluntarily to move abroad are usually more interested in getting to know other cultures while the “forced” expats focus on finding friends, partners and activites among their own. If they then happen to meet a foreigner and fall in love, they show less curiosity for the other person’s culture and rather an inclination to try to convert their new partner to become more Swedish, Spanish or French. Needless to say, these relationships will be prone to culture clashes, misunderstandings and one-sided compromises. In the long run they don’t usually last…

For me it is difficult to understand how a person, who claims to be in love with somebody, can show a complete disinterest in getting to know that someone’s cultural background! It is the same as saying that you are really not that interested in getting to know that person. Culture is such a big part of our personalities – whether we like it or not! I wouldn’t say that O is a typical Spaniard, and I would probably not be described as a typical Swede but we are still influenced by our nationalities and cultural backgrounds.

So getting back to why I thought of culture yesterday:

Despite that O grew up in a big catholic family in a small town in the middle of the Spanish countryside with little exposure to travelling, different cultures and languages, he is one of the open persons I know. And even though we come from two very different European countries, it has turned out that our core values are the same. I thought that enjoying the pride and excitement of a gay parade together with O was quite illustrative of our common values! We believe in everybody’s equal rights and opportunities, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, cultural background… Nothing revolutionary really, but unfortunately still not something that you can take for granted, not everybody agrees with the universalism of the human rights.

The second time I thought of culture yesterday was when we went out for an early dinner – extremely early for a Spaniard who would typically never eat before 9 o’clock in the evening when at home in Spain… Regarding dinner times, we have actually had a few disagreements – I believe that it is ok to have an early dinner, especially on the weekends – sometimes even merging lunch and dinner (if breakfast & lunch is brunch, is lunch & dinner “lundi” or maybe “lunchdi”?)! I asked O yesterday if it felt weird to have had both dinner and drinks and to be heading home at 20.15 – he said yes, but added that it was quite practical as he needed to pack for his early business trip departure this morning.

Pretty in pink – and thirsty!

I think the secret to a happy bi-cultural relationship, just like bilingualism, is to show interest - you don’t have to embrace all the cultural traditions of your partner’s country, just like you don’t have to learn to speak his / her language perfectly -but learn at least the most basic words and expressions! A little cultural compromise goes a long way! In the future we will probably take turns in celebrating la fiesta de San Juan in O’s hometown* in Spain, and Midsummer’s Eve in Sweden, participate in Spanish Easter processions but have Swedish Easter eggs, and of course Christmas will be spent alternating between Spain and Sweden**!

Spanish Easter Procession. NB The blood stains on the drum – the drummer shows his devotion by beating the drum until he bleeds…

Swedish Easter Egg filled with sweets – a more relaxed way of celebrating Easter

I think that there will be yet another post on bi-culturalism as I still have lots to say – hope you are still interested in reading my thoughts on the matter… And let me know what you think!

*) Isn’t it typical that of all the saints, Saint John has to be one of the patron saints of O’s village, whose celebration just happens to be coincide with the biggest cultural tradition in Sweden - Midsummer’s Eve!
**) I just hope that we can try to time the Swedish Christmas with my other friends who live abroad (Norway, Denmark and France) with foreign partners…

A Tuesday mix

I don’t know what happened last week but I completely forgot to write any posts after Monday!? So I will try to catch up this week:

I didn’t participate in last Friday’s Theme / Show & tell since I felt that I had already said all I had to say about Walpurgis Night / 30th April / 1st May last year. However, this weekend I was working on a photobook (MyPublisher, just like Annika in Virginia) for my grandmother and I found a really cool photo of her, my father and a bonfire on the beach… (for you non-Swedes: Walpurgis Night on the 30th April we lit bonfires in Sweden, I think that it is an old pagan tradition but it is also officially the last day before summer that you can make a fire to burn garden waste etc without a permit) 

A bonfire on the beach, spring 2003

Some of you might remember my blog posts from last year about the housing boom in Spain (Overpriced and over-developed: the Spanish housing market). Well, I read a very sad article today (in Swedish, sorry but here’s another one in English) about the Spanish building crisis – or rather economic disaster in general – there are 3.5 million empty homes in Spain and 17% of the population is unemployed!! No wonder when the building industry consistuted 11% of the economy! The article tells the story of the village called Espera* where 80% is unemployed and 35 out of 40 construction companies have gone bankrupt. However, consider this – the village has 4000 inhabitants and there were 40 – (FORTY!!) companies devoted to construction! Something was definitely wrong from the beginning, but the situation was similar all over the country…

Apartments and offices for sale / rent in Zaragoza 

O is definitely right when he says that now is not the time to move to Spain – so just like I wrote yesterday, Brussels it probably is – post-Puerto Rico!

*) One of the Spanish families interviewed has a puppy called Obama – that’s what I call globalisation

A Spanish treasure hunt

After the internet problems on Thursday and a busy day yesterday, I decided to skip the Friday theme – especially as it wasn’t a very easy theme for me to illustrate… Spring signs! We do have spring in Puerto Rico; it is for example getting [even]warmer after winter and the sun doesn’t set as early as before but really, I couldn’t tell what the real Puerto Rican spring signs are.

For me spring should be more obvious – like new leaves on the trees after a cold and dark winter, when nature becomes colourful again after the greys and browns of the colder season and when people start dressing accordingly in lighter and brighter clothes and sit on terraces and park benches sipping coffee and eating ice cream… Nope, those kind of spring signs we don’t get in the Caribbean! I wrote a spring flower post last year and here is another one with lots and lots of spring flowers from the Dutch Keukenhof flower exhibit!

Instead, I would like to share some more photos from our stay in Spain in March. O’s parents are true collectors and they keep everything – fortunately they have a lot of space to store all these things… For me, as a person who loves old objects with a history, it was a true treasure hunt to discover what is kept in the various storage locations.

Here are a few of the treasures we found – hopefully we will be able to salvage them to be used again once we move back to Europe!

An old tobacco box – I love these old tin boxes

My grandfather [and now father] used to keep nails and screws in such boxes. I think it is a pity to keep them in the garage, and I would like to have them on display instead – but my father was wondering where he should put the nails then…

Supplies for the medicine cabinet!

Old cutlery

This cutlery reminds me of the [nysilver] cutlery I have lost (!?) from my great-grandmother – it had a P inscribed for Persson but fitted perfectly with my name! And my brother’s name D corresponds with my mother’s maiden family name – quite clever actually! Unfortunately there is no family silver ware with J for my sister’s name…

O’s father’s grandmother – I think it is Joaquina, the paternal grandmother!

I “interviewed” O’s parents to find out what the names of their grandparents and what they did as a profession as I am very interested in genealogy (släktforskning). It was very fascinating, and they were both very pleased that I asked those questions since I guess their children don’t really care. O’s father has promised to show me more photos next time I visit!

On both my parents’ sides we have records of our ancestors hundreds of years back, while no ancestral research has been done yet for O’s family. I think it is a cultural difference – in Spain people have been busy working and surviving also in recent years and there hasn’t been time left over for hobbies… While in Sweden already my grandparents’ generation had the opportunity to retire fairly early and discover hobbies such as studying family history.

Isn’t this garden chair so much more charming than those plastic white chairs that you can buy by the dozen…

Old chairs that I really hope we can save – I love the old-style with a wicker seat

O’s father is a tailor by profession – this table was part of the tailor workshop

Whenever O’s father has some time off, he sits in the office chair and crack some almonds… He also makes his own almond paste – delicious! The almonds are of course from the family almond grove

I wonder how the sea shells ended up in the box with knick-knacks

A wine press, one of two Singer sewing machines and una tinaja (a storage container for oil, water or wine) – the clay pot in the background

A funky lamp – I love it!

Seeing all these things just left to dust in storage makes my heart break – I could furnish and decorate an entire house with it! And of course hang Joaquina’s portrait on the wall! Fortunately O loves old stuff just like me, and O’s siblings don’t seem the least interested…

Once again I think it is a cultural difference – Spain was poor and “under-developed” (sounds so conceited but I can’t find a more diplomatic way to express it) for a longer time and people have just started appreciating old things. Just like my grandmother can’t understand why I love keeping her grandmother’s hand-made rug in the kitchen!