Language

In The Netherlands the official language is Dutch, although most people speak English as well. Dutch is a mix between German and English (I didn’t believe you Dad, but I do now). For example, “wat is dat?” I’m sure you can guess what it means. Dutch is very guttural and sounds like a throat disease…the tour guide said it herself!

In Belgium, there are three official languages – Flemish, French and German. Flemish is exactly the same language as Dutch without the guttural sounds. It is more soft and smooth; that is the only difference. Belgium is divided into 3 major regions. The North is Flanders where they speak Flemish. The South is Wallonia where they speak French. The last region is Brussels, which is bilingual – Flemish and French. All the signs have to be in both languages. German is spoken among 5% of the population in the eastern part of the country.

History & Politics

The Netherlands means “low lands” and the name of the country is officially Kingdom of The Netherlands, not Holland. Holland is only 1 of 12 provinces in the Netherlands. In the 17th century, the country was a Republic called Holland, which was also during the time of the Dutch East and West India Trading Companies. However, in 1813, the country became a constitutional monarchy with a parliament and the official name became The Netherlands. Although the capital of the country is Amsterdam, the government is in another city, Den Haag (The Hague). This is where most of the country’s history occurred, which is in Holland. So Holland is the more historic name and has stuck ever since.

Belgium became independent in 1830; it was part of The Netherlands before that. The current Queen’s husband who has since passed was from Germany and their son, the crowned prince, is married to a princess from Argentina. What an intermixed family! But I guess if you’re royal you have to marry someone from another country since your options are limited.

Currently, Belgium is in a political crisis. Flanders wants to separate itself from Wallonia, but Wallonia doesn’t want to separate itself from Flanders. The language barrier makes it hard, as well as economic differences. About 170 days ago, there were elections for the new parliament, but they haven’t been able to form that new parliament yet or reach accordance. That is where the King comes in, playing a key role in unifying the country.

Delectable Food

My sister says I talk about food too much on my blog, therefore I’ve grouped it all together so if you don’t want your mouth watering all over then I suggest you don’t read. Haha! (Sonya, that’d be you!).
First of all, I was super excited to find Portman kebabs (made with falafel), called such because Natalie Portman was behind some of us in line in Madrid 2 yrs. ago. There were 3 different ones in the city, but this was my favorite…a ghetto shack next to Centraal Station. That’s the great thing about Europe…you can eat in a place like this without thinking twice. In Mexico there’s no way cause you would get so sick. Trust me, I know…a chicken avocado torta…so worth it!!

Vlaamse Frites are Flemish frys, not French. The people of Flanders in Belgium are the inventors. Except they eat them covered in mayonnaise, but it’s a lot better than the US mayonnaise. I didn’t know if I could stomach it, but it turned out to be pretty good. And you don’t eat them with your fingers…there is a little stick you use. I also tried them with Curry sauce.

So check it out, there is this fast food place called FEBO. Instead of ordering at the counter, you just put your money in the slot and you get your fresh burger or fries without waiting.

Oliobollen are Dutch donuts and quite delicious. It’s just a big ball of fried dough covered in sugar, or you can get ones filled with custard, apples, bananas, chocolate, etc. This booth was set up just for Christmas in Amsterdam.

So I discovered these Stroopwaffels. It is two very thin circular waffles with a thin layer of caramel in between. Yummy!

And the last thing that I’m going to talk about is Belgian waffles!! The best for last! Look at all your options! I didn’t know what to get, but settled with…can anybody guess? Yes, the chocolate banana waffle. So these waffles are quite different than the ones in the US. They are much thicker and have lots more sugar. I was watching the girl putting them on the waffle iron and they are the consistency of a ball of bread dough – super thick. I LOVE THEM!!!! Ok, I’m done with food now. In fact, I’m finally done with my trip. I think I wrote a little too much, ok, a lot too much. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Well, minus the food of course! Sorry…

one moment, please.

That's what Martin always says. I think it's the only thing he can say!! No, not really. Martin is a 10-year-old boy who I started teaching today. His grades in English aren't as good as his parents would like and that's where I come in. I'll be teaching him once a week. It's going to be kind of hard though...I can already tell. He's not very focused. He wants to say everything in Spanish and not take the time to learn how or understand in English. I've never taught someone so young so we'll see how it goes. The first thing he said when he saw me was, "es altisima!"


Today we played Monopoly for a whole hour. I can do that - getting paid to play games!! Haha! Since the game is in Spanish, I translated all the cards into English. Apparently it is his favorite game and he loves to play. I can see why too - the kid takes all the luck and money away from me! It was fun translating though. I always used to think that the translation had to be word for word the same, but if that were true, it wouldn't make sense. In Spanish, you are free to mix up the sentence any way you want, but not so in English. So in translating, it doesn't come out word for word at all, but you have to really think how the sentence would be said. I enjoyed it!

Merry Christmas from the Anderson girls!!

Click on the link below:

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1559718836

This is dedicated to our favorite Christmas movie....."It's just nice to meet another human who shares my affinity for elf culture."

Besos,
Elise, Sonya, Kristina, Maranda

Cena de Navidad

Oh my goodness!! I've never spent so much at a restaurant before. Que loco! So I had a Christmas dinner last night with all the teachers from my school. And I don't know, I guess I just assumed that the school would pay for it, since that's how it usually works in the U.S., at the school I taught at before anyway. Or at least, I thought we would have a menu to choose from and it wouldn't cost more than about 20 euros. Well, I thought wrong...

We ate at the Hotel Catedral, probably the most expensive and fancy restaurant in all of Almeria, and right next to the Cathedral of course. So we each had to pay for ourselves - 42 euros!! Yikes! That's like 60 dollars!! Well, you can imagine the quality of food for that price - delicious! Sorry, this is the last time that I'm going to talk about food...ok, until my trip to the Netherlands that is! Hehe! Here is the menu that we had, and I ate everything!! We started off with some tapas - sliced cured ham, duck with jam, octopus (suction cups!), mini chicken shish kebabs, fried zuccini, and gazpacho made from apples. Ok, so I hate gazpacho, but this was absolutely divine! They served it in little shot glasses so I had to make sure I knew what it was. Next, we had fish (sea bass) with shrimp and vegetables. By this time I was getting pretty full, but then we had the next round of food - beef with vegetables (artichokes, tomatoes, etc.). For dessert, a crepe cannalloni filled with creme and drizzled with chocolate. And to finish, an assortment of Christmas treats. Unfortunately, I didn't have any room at all to try them. I wanted to sneak them into my purse for later....bummer! It was by far the best food I have eaten yet. It better be for that price too!!

Dinner didn't start until 11pm and it was a 3 hour event. Everyone was so stuffed afterwards that there was no way anyone was going to be able to sleep so many of us stayed downtown for a couple more hours. Man, it amazes me...the Spanish like to stay up so late! Here there was this older lady who was 67 (former director of the school) out on the town until 4 am. Crazy!!

Peluqueria

So I was a little scared to get my hair cut since I always see so many mullets and super short bangs - I didn't want to end up with either! It turned out ok, though, thankgoodness, just a trim. Spending 3 and 1/2 hours to get your hair cut and colored isn't my idea of fun though. Pero bueno...
I did get to watch a girl brave enough to get her dredlocks cut off. She had a hard time at first watching them fall to the ground, but now she looks so much better!

Viva Argentina!!

Today I was invited over to the house of an Argentine family after church. They live in a small village up in the mountains about 30 minutes from Almeria called Alhama, a typical Spanish pueblo. Narrow one-way cobble-stone streets. I wish I had my camera to take pictures...it was beautiful up in the mountains, a lot colder as well!! So one thing that I really like about Spanish houses, flats, whatever they are...is that most of them have a roof terrace where you can go outside and there is an excellent view. I love that!! I realized one thing why all the houses are connected and so close to together - to keep in the heat!

So I ate the best meal, as always, especially the best tortilla ever (Spanish tortilla that is, not Mexican) with green beans and spinach. I also drank Mate, which is a typical drink from Argentina...not too bad! So my sister says that I talk about food too much on my blog. Well, for those of you who know me well know how much I LOVE food! My first favorite thing is traveling, then eating delicious food, then talking about delicious food, en serio!! Haha! Anyway, so sorry for talking about food so much....just one of my many delights here in Spain.

This family was very fun and out of all the people I have eaten with so far, I think I like this family the best...because....they are the most parecido (similar) to my own family. The daughter who is 12, talks like nonstop so I got plenty of practice with my Spanish!! Her father always teases her about it, kind of funny.

Además de practicar mi español, I also learned lots of good stuff about Spaniards. For example, the Spanish are very proud of their bananas. Spanish bananas are grown in the Canary Islands and are called plátanos, while the other, lesser, and not as good bananas from Ecuador are just called bananas. So they are both pretty much the same, except the bananas from the Canary Islands are bigger. I prefer the ones from Ecuador myslef.

Tapas & Bullfights

Jamón serrano, pan tomaca, lomo al pimiento...these are typical tapas, small portions of food. Last night I went out with one of my students to taste some delicious tapas and those are some of the ones I ate. We then ran into some other teachers and students from my school so we hung out with them for a while. So they were talking with me about the cities I have been to in Spain (42 and counting to be exact). They kept saying cities to see if I had been there and it lasted a while as you can imagine. Finally, they said one I hadn't been to!! They said I know Spain better than they do themselves!!

So the student that I had tapas with explained to me a little more about bullfights in Spain. Tonka, you can tell me if this is accurate or not. The Spanish love the toros (bulls). Over the years, they have perfected the raza (breed) for the fiercest (toros bravos). English bulls, for example, are more calm and have longer hair. The fiercest bull of 1 bull is bred with the fiercest bull of another bull, and so on. The same is true for Latin America and southern France. So why do they kill the bull? That was my question. It is a glorious death and an honor for the bull to be killed at its prime instead of when it is old. A rare few bulls are pardoned from death in a corrida (bullfight) by the voice of the people for being so valiant and fierce, but it's not very common. Bullfights have turned into a business to make money nowadays. Many of the bulls are injected with drugs and therefore is easier to kill it and less dangerous for the matador. The more corridas a matador is in, the more famous and the more money he makes. The people even know about the injection of drugs as well. When the bull falls down, it is evidence of drugs because it wouldn't happen otherwise. These are the strongest and best bred toros bravos! so because of this, even though the Spanish love bulls, many of them don't like to watch bullfights. Interesting...

Anatomy & Physiology II

Wow, what a class to take online! Well, I successfully completed my Anatomy class! Man, am I glad to be done with it too. It was kind of nice to have though, because it took up a lot of my free time. But now that I am done, I am free as a bird (that one goes out to you Allison! Thought you´d like that...hehe)! Anatomy was my last class to take for Physician Assistant school and I already applied and had my interview...way back in September!! Aaaah! I´m still waiting to hear and it´s aggravating. Pero bueno, I don´t have very high hopes. In fact hardly any hope at all. Pero no pasa nada because I don´t even know if that´s what I want to do anyway. I´d rather go to Greece!! (If I get accepted, I start the first part of June and that means no travel time).

MY SISTER IS COMING TO SPAIN!!!!

Aaaaaaaah!! That´s what I wanted to do (shout for joy) when I read the email from my sister, Sonya, saying that she had been accepted to the BYU Spain Study Abroad. But seeing as I was in the locutorio and probably would have been ushered from the building, I refrained myself. Then I called her after I left and wanted to scream again, but was surrounded by too many Spaniards. It was hard to contain, let me tell you!

I AM SO EXCITED!!!!! She will be coming the end of April and stay til the middle of June. Sweet! Back to Alcala de Henares...the good ´ol days!! We will have to visit each other for sure. She is going to have a blast! So here is a picture of me and my sis before I took off to Spain...and yes, we ARE sisters....haha!!

Bones Festes!!

Ok, so that’s Italian, but I like saying Happy Holidays in Italian the best, plus it’s a tribute for spending Christmas in Italy 2 years ago. In Spanish it’s Felices Fiestas! So Christmas decorations were up about the time of Thanksgiving, but they didn’t turn on the lights until this past weekend for the two holidays (see below). It’s about time! I was so excited to see so many Christmas lights all around the city. There is a huge Christmas tree downtown and little Santa Clauses hanging from apartment windows.

There is also a Christmas market downtown that sells almost anything you want, including gofres (super thick waffles drizzled with hot melted European chocolate…can I say delicious?)…sound familiar Sonya? I think I might eat one a day!

Belén

That’s Spanish for “Nativity.“ There is a huge Nativity scene that you can walk around with lights and music, but they got it all backwards…the actual scene with baby Jesus is at the very beginning instead of the end. Hmmm… So that´s how you are getting to get it here...

So I just found another Nativity. I like this one better because it is of the actual ciudad vieja (old city) of Almería with the Cathedral, Plaza, Cathedral, etc. in miniature.

Carmen, the lady I give private lessons to told me about it. It’s great cause she tells me about all these little cultural things that I wouldn’t know about otherwise. She told me a lot about how the Spanish celebrate the holidays and what they do. So here’s a funny story that Carmen told me…
Her daughter, Eva, who is only about 6, had a family tree she was doing for homework. Well, she was asking her Mom how to say grandparents and great-grandparents and who came next after that. Then she asked, “Who was the first person?” She doesn’t have religious education in school so she doesn’t know much about that. She asked, “God or Zapatero?” So I guess it’s not as funny if you don’t know who Zapatero is…he’s the current President of Spain. Isn’t that so funny?! Little kids say the darnest things!

Speaking of Zapatero and politics, did you hear about the King of Spain, Juan Carlos, telling Hugo Chávez of Venezuela to shut up? Sweet! Now Chávez is asking for an apology and until (or if) the King decides to, there is a “freeze” on relations with Spain. No one knows exactly what that means…

Turrones

This time of year you can pick among 50 (at least! haha!) different kinds of delectable chocolate bars…pure goodness in a wrapper! So I found my new favorite…an arroz con leche chocolate bar. It is absolutely divine! Who would have thought cinnamon and chocolate went together so well?

Christmas in the Netherlands

So I found out that I actually have 1 whole week extra of my Christmas break than I thought because of exams- 3 ½ whole weeks! Today was my last day of work! This Christmas is going to be a little different this year for obvious reasons. The last time I was in Europe for Christmas most of my family was with me, but not this year. So I am going to celebrate by going to Holland and Belgium! I leave Christmas day to Amsterdam and will be there until the 30th. I will spend a couple of days there in Amsterdam; a day taking a tour to see the windmills, cheese factory, wooden shoe shop, a couple fishing villages; and a day to see both Antwerp and Brussels in Belgium. I can’t wait! It’s going to be so much colder though!

Right now here in Spain the weather is seriously paradise. This whole last week was warm enough during the day to wear just a t-shirt, even shorts…low 70s I‘d say. Lots of sun. Guess that’s what life is like on the Mediterranean! When I first got here back in October it rained off and on so I bought myself an umbrella, and it hasn’t rained since! I lived through UT for 2 ½ years where is snows and rains lots and I never owned an umbrella. Now when I finally get one I don’t even get to use it!

Well, I hope you all have a great Christmas!! I’ll still be in Spain to see what Christmas, New Year’s, and Reyes Magos (Jan. 6) is like so it’s all good. Reyes Magos (the 3 Wise Men) is like the Spanish Christmas. That’s why they weren’t so concerned about getting Christmas decorations up since their Christmas season is almost 2 whole weeks longer.