Birthday

In Spain, it's traditional to bring treats into the office around your birthday.  I like to bake; but I don't like getting fat...which means that I usually bake something, try a little, and then give the rest away.  In the US, people just took their treat and went on their merry way.  In Spain, however, bringing in treats means that I'm fielding questions about whether it's my birthday, why I decided to make something, etc. etc.  (You'd think that people wouldn't really care when random treats come along, geez.)

At last, my birthday has come around so I finally get to bring in treats without following it with a huge explanation...it even fell on a Sunday so I could bake ALL weekend!  I was super excited so I started looking at recipes about 3 weeks in advance.  I eventually landed on 4 things...

Gameplan:

Cookie Crusted Profiteroles w/ Vanilla Creme Filling: Saturday: make dough for profiteroles and cookies, form and freeze.  Sunday: make 1st stage of filling.  Monday morning before work: bake profiteroles.  Finish and bottle filling.  Fill pastries in office.
Croissants: Sunday: make dough and freeze.  Monday morning: final rise and bake
Chocolate Cookies w/ White Chocolate Chips: make and bake Saturday
Apple Walnut Mini-Muffins: make and bake on Sunday

I really wanted to make the profiteroles and croissants...but I had to have the cookies and muffins as a backup in case the first 2 didn't pan out.  There was a lot to do so took Friday off for grocery shopping. =)

As I began the prep work, I thought that perhaps I was a bit too ambitious...

 Too late now!  Full speed ahead!!!

Saturday went pretty much to plan.  Making and piping out the profiterole dough was something I had done before...just now I topped them with a cute little butter cookie hat!  (I'll have to think of something to do with the extra cookie dough seeing as how I had to make 4x the quantity required.)  Vanilla filling didn't get made...it was really hot so I lost motivation and put it off until Sunday.  Cookies came out pretty well though...one down, 3 to go!

Thankfully, Sunday was a bit cooler due to the overcast skies and rain.  Much better weather to stand near the oven and bake.  Making the croissant dough was really labor intensive (which was, of course, part of the appeal) but it was made more difficult by Barcelona's summer heat.  The butter got soft very quickly and I was making frequent trips to the freezer.  (In case you didn't know, croissant dough requires a significant amount of butter to be folded and layered into a base dough.  How else do you think you get the layers?)  But I eventually got it done and froze everything for Monday.  Made the vanilla filling and was pretty pleased with it.  Muffins came out fine.  2 down...2 to go!

Monday morning, I woke up at 5 to finish the profiteroles [bake] and croissants [final rise and bake].  Why couldn't I bake them a day or two beforehand?  Don't be naive...neither would have never withstood the humidity of Barcelona for that long!  Had to be done the day of.

Profiteroles baked up beautifully from frozen!  They were adorable with their little cookie covering! =)  Mini croissants turned out pretty well too.  As everything was cooling, I folded whipped cream (none of that canned stuff) into the filling from Sunday, bottled everything up, and packed up to go to work.

Clockwise from bottom: profiteroles, muffins, croissants, cookies.  Treats went over pretty well!  I had a 2 hour meeting before lunch so I filled the tray before I left...and it was empty when I got back! =)  The croissants were very popular.  People were hesitant to get a profiterole until I labeled them.  Overall, the profiteroles were my favorite and they were so easy to bake from frozen.  The cookie crust helped the top stay nice and crunchy and it contrasted really well with the creamy filling inside.  I'm temped to make some and keep them on hand...but then that would take another couple hours out of my day.

And here goes a special shout out to my mule!

Now, what am I going to bring in for American Thanksgiving?...

Costa Brava

I havent updated the blog in a while, mostly because I am lazy, but I suppose a little bit because J and I have been getting out a lot more.

For those unfamiliar with Spanish geography (I know, American geography classes are always top notch, and everyone knows all about Spain), Barcelon

a sits j

ust south of the Costa Brava region. Think winding, rocky coastlines, super blue water and plenty of sun. I´ve now taken 4 separate trips up there...

July 9th: Diving in Llafranc.

There is a Scuba group at HP that organizes a few dives (2 that I have seen this year). Many of the people on this dive had not been out since their open water certifications, but there were also a handful of people that were more experienced. Luckily, I was paired with them, and we got to drop in first. We attached to the mooring ball (a floating ball attached to the bottom, these are better than dropping an anchor that scrapes across the bottom of the sea floor), and after getting in I could see the bottom 50 feet down. Compared to the ~15 foot limit in San Diego, this was quite nice. I should also mention that the water is significantly

warmer, so there's a double bonus. The dive was around an underwater mountain, so we got to continuously spiral around the mountain from the bottom all the way up, seeing several types of fish (including a catfish looking thing), and even a few sea stars and coral. The culture shock of the day was first learning how much weight to carry, since I am new to the Meditteranean salt water. First comes translating my question into Spanish, followed by translating back into words I understand better, only, the answer is in kilograms, soooo translate kilograms to the pounds of weights that are part of my gear. Then I attach my tank, and they ask how much pressure I have. My computer reads in psi, they want the response in Bar (200 Bar = 3000 psi more or less). Ok, got it... except when underwater, they have different signals for things too, so first I have to do the underwater math to figure out how many Bar my gauge is reading, then remember how to tell my buddy that. It all worked out well, but i

t was definitely harder than I thought it would be. Very pretty dive though.

July 30th: Blanes

Deciding I liked the views in Costa Brava, and did not get to spend that much time just at the beach, I decided to hop a train up the coast. For a mere 5 euros each way, you can take the train 70 kms, and see the whole coastline there in 1.5 hrs. It doesnt go all the way up to the prettiest area, but it's cheap, easy, and there are still some nice beaches. I chose Blanes for a few reasons. There was a botanical gardens there (that, unfortunately, I wouldnt recommend unless you are a huge plant enthusiast, mostly mediterranean type low shrubs, or

generic looking plants, not much blooming colors), as well as it being the start of Cami del Ronda, which is a series of trails that fishermen and smugglers used in olden days. So after visiting the gardens and a castle, I set off on a hike. Trail markers in Spain are actually quite good, but you have to know what you are looking for. The symbols are painted on rocks, or lampposts or various things on the side, so you have to be vigilant to see the signs, but also to understand them. My trail was a red and white equal sign, not to be confused with a red and white X. At any rate, I wandered through streets, trails, and even some parking lots along this trail. I discovered many little hidden beaches, that, to my eyes, had no associated towns or commercial spaces.

This is a good time to mention that every beach in Spain appears to be topless optional, and fortunately for all the guys reading, there are quite a few attra

ctive Europeans that are not bashful. What I discovered on this journey however, was that the further up the coast I went, and into the smaller and more secluded beaches, the more people I saw completely nude. It seemed like a relative mix, with up to ~50% tanning au natural. I didnt think my excuse of taking pictures of the "coastline" would work, so no photos to attach, sorry. It was quite enjoyable having a mixture of hiking and beach-going, definitely something I think I want to try again.

August 5th-7th: Begur

August is apparently a month for vacation. Government shuts do

wn, and almost nobody is left in the office, except the few schmucks that stick around to keep things alive. That was J and me... we figure the whole country is on vacation, why would we want to do the same, and go to the same places to be in a packed area. We'll save it and go throughout the year. However, one colleague has a vacation home in Begur, and invited J and I up for the weekend. We caught a 2 hr bus up there, then they picked us up at the station. It is definitely apparent to me that the further north you go, there is more dramatic coastlines, everything just seems a little prettier and little cleaner. The vacation home they have is gorgeous, our room overlooked a small harbor, as well as following the coast all the way north past Islas Medes (where the best diving in Costa Brava is supposed to be) and all the way to the French border. We did the traditional Spanish vacation activities, go to the beach to relax and snorkel, and eat. I really enjoyed snorkeling here. The beaches are not the typical sand beac

hes, they drop off into small reefs and rocky bottoms after just 10-15 feet, full of fish, and coral, and aquatic plants, it is very cool.

We ate jamon and olives, and shrimp, we had a few rice dishes (variations of paella), salads with fresh figs and goat cheese and various grilled meats, to name a few. We also went to a "Medieval Restoration" city, basically, they recreated what the city would have looked like in 1400, and people live there, sometimes for just part of the year, sometimes year round. There are many restaurants and touristy places as well, but I am told that in the winter, all the streets are deserted, and it can be quite beautiful. This is the best, most mediavally picture I was able to get.

August 14th: St Pol de Mar

This post would be much cooler if I had brought my underwater casings. This time we did not take the train as far north, stopping based on a recommendation from a colleague. The beaches further north were more impressive, but the highlight of this trip by far was seeing several barrel jellyfish at a cleaning station, with other little fishes eating the parasites off the bell and tentacles. Here is a stock photo I found that looks very similar to both jelly and environment. Jellyfish are some of my favorites to watch, and these ones slowly meandered away from me, rather than trying to attack of threaten, so I got to sit and watch them for a long time.

Costa Brava has a lot to offer inland as well, we have some trips planned for later this year, but for now, the beaches are not too shabby :D

-J

Greece

J and I were invited to Kira and Greg Jarmer's wedding in Santorini, Greece. This is one of my favorite parts of living abroad, that taking a week to go to Greece is not that big a deal. When we told people at work that we were going to Santorini, everyone gave the same response "ooohhhh, que bonito!".

The plan: Arrive in Athens, spend 1.5 days in Athens, then fly to Santorini. Spend ~4 days on Santorini, then go back to Athens for 3.5 more days.

The flight to Athens was a rather uneventful 2 hrs. There are 2 discount airlines here, RyanAir and Vueling. Think Southwest, but without the customer service or comfort. The seat did not have enough legroom, and if you want any drinks (including coke), you have to pay. However, if you know what you are getting into, it is a good deal. The

first thing we did after getting to our hotel was to look for food, we were starving! What better food to start with than gyros and french fries!!

One thing to note about Spain... The French fries in Barcelona are bad, I mean limp mush bad. Yet somehow people continue to tolerate it. So we were very excited to see that Greeks know how to do fries. They also know how to do gyros!

First impressions about Greece... it is very dirty. There is graffiti everywhere, often times the sidewalks are cracked and grungy. It is hard to explain completely, but both J and I agreed that it felt old and dirty.

The next day we went to the major attraction of Athens, the Acropolis and the Parthenon. It is a very very old set of structures. It is interesting to think about the fact that a few thousand years ago Socrates and Plato and Aristotle wandered some of these same roads and stood in the same spots. But then... you see that the Parthenon i sunder construction, and that the symbolic Caryatids (the first known time that artistic sculpture and support architecture were combined, which was very interesting) are replicas, with the real ones in the museum and under restoration. The beauty for me is in seeing these things and marveling at the fact that they lasted for 2000 years, not that there are fragments of them left, and a plaster replica sitting out there. Sidebar: There was a brit by the name Lord "sticky fingers" Elgin that apparently came in to Athens and stole tons and tons of marble sculptures. Many of these are on display today in London. The Greek government has asked for them back, but the response has always been "There is not an appropriate place to display them, so, for now, we'll just keep them here in London". Well, now the Acropolis museum has blank spaces with nametags ready for them , but I guess London still wont give them back.

Because I am a fool, and the price was better, we booked a 5:30 am flight from Athens. Off we went for the airport at 3 am. We were on the same flight as some of the other people from the wedding, including Sharmeen (or, as I like to call her, Sharmesean Cheese) and her boyfriend, Dan. There was no real plan for the day, until 5 pm, but we arrived on Santorini at 6:15 am... so you see the problem.

The hotel we booked was a little down the road from the main part of town, a little cottage with a nice view of the beach and neighboring island, and the hotel owner was very cool. A slow rhythmic voice matched his demeanor, everything about him screamed "you're in Greece... relax...". No sooner were we getting various recommendations when Dan and Sharmeen pull up on an ATV and convinced us to rent one for the day with them. "It will be 3 euros more than taking a bus to the planned activities" Sharmeen says, so... away we go. On the island of Santorini, it seemed like there were buses, motorcyles, ATVs and a few rental cars, and that's it. AWESOME! It was so much fun driving around the whole island. We went from the northern corner, all the way to the southern corner, seeing beautiful hillsides, the famous caldera, a white sand beach, a red sand beach, and a black sand beach. We drove up to Ancient Thira, and while it was closed, we did decide to do some random yoga poses.

We also went to see a beautiful sunset at a local winery.

The island and the views are very pretty. That is absolute fact. The thing that got to J and I was that there is about 10:1 tourist:locals population. So everything is manufactured for tourism. It feels a bit fake. Fun to do once, nice and relaxing mostly, but not our travel style.

Headed back to Athens:

Here's the part of the trip where I made a grave mistake planning the trip. I thought "Athens, one of the oldest cities in the world, there should be tons of things to see and do there, we'll definitely want more time". Turns out, Athens is good for ~2 days of exploration, then people go to the countryside or the islands. Well, we already had hotel booked, so we stayed in Athens. We still cant figure out why, but everything in Greece was DIFFICULT. We had a hard time with the trains, we had a hard time getting to our hotels, getting around, finding any information online, wireless internet in all 3 of our hotels was a pain, etc.

We mostly spent the time wandering through the city, going to cafes and reading, as well as enjoying a new favorite discovery, natural fruit juices, whole fruit blended with a bit of ice. Not a normal juice, not a smoothie. Quite delicious and refreshing, banana was my favorite, though peach and apple were pretty good too. We found some more good gyros and greek salads, and for the first time maybe ever, really enjoyed baclava, and it's improved counterpart, kataifi (rather than being sheets of phylo it is more like spaghetti sized strips that give it a nice texture).

I also managed to get a day of diving in, about 30 miles south of Athens. The water there is so much clearer than San Diego, and it had really nice underwater canyons and rock walls.

The attached pictures are of some silverfish and a star. The dives were very nice and pleasant, I definitely enjoy the med.

Many of you will notice that I did not mention the protests in Athens. There was violence the day before we left Barcelona, and violence the day after we returned, but everything seemed quite peaceful during the times we were there. Maybe my perspective is skewed from the "indignados" here in Spain, but it seemed very similar. I heard they ratified a new government, but they are still inching closer to default.

On the list of European countries to visit, I am glad we went, saw Athens, ate some gyros, went to the islands, but I dont have a huge desire to go back soon. There are so many other places to see and things to do, a place needs to be pretty spectacular to get me to go back.

Routines

A typical Saturday in Barcelona.  Language exchange, cleaning, grocery store to pick up a few things...

Taste test yogurts for another experiment (planned for July, stay tuned)

Pick out raisins and bananas from the granola we bought for all that yogurt.

And, of course, study spanish.

Down with the Man!

Why cant we all find jobs? -The Man!

Why is rent so high? -The Man!

Who's responsible for trash in the streets? -The Man!

Who's to blame for your unhappiness? -The Man!

Who needs to go down? -The Man!

Who needs to to take him down -We do!

How are we gonna do it? -Sit in! Umm... sit in?

In a scene that would have made my dad flashback to Boulder in the 60's, Plaza Cataluyna has become a shanty-town... I mean, center for out of work individuals and like minded civic activists like myself to gather to promote change.

We'll take the man down by having poetry readings, and making sure every voice is heard, but since snapping is too beatnik, it's better to do a mix of jazz hands and the miss america wave, seen by my friends here.

But you know, it's not easy fighting the man. Some people have to take their mind off the rigors of daily life by, what else... juggling. While others seem to be less mentally strong, and I think are contemplating giving it all up.

The Man needs to stop holding us down. It is time for the government to step in and help us, so get out and vote for a government that is looking out for you, and not for the man. One day, maybe things will change for the better. For those that say that this type of behavior can lead to no good, and that we are the problem, remember this (translated below):

-We are not anti-system, the system is anti-us

-This isnt a recession, it's fraud

-Passive resistance

-Unknown, misspelled sign about violence

Boulder or Barcelona? Only the language is different.

Barca Futbol

I read a good story recently about just how passionate people are in Tuscaloosa about the Alabama Crimson Tide. I suspect it has a lot to do with what you grew up watching, as well as what else there is to root for. In Alabama, there are no professional sports, so everyone ends up watching college football. Well, here in Barcelona, it is the same for FCB Barcelona. New Yorkers just cant match the rabidness, after the Yankees, they have the Giants, then the Knicks, and Rangers. Here, soccer is a year round sport, where people count down the days between the last game of one season and the first of the next. Matches against Real Madrid are Yankees-Red Sox x 10. And maybe most telling of all, the majority of women even follow the team. Before I get a bunch of sexist comments, I know there are many diehard women sports fans, but even they would admit that it is rare for a majority to follow the sport.

For those that dont follow soccer, Barca is generally considered the best team in the world right now, if not the best team ever. The best player in the world, Leo Messi is incredible, evident even to non-soccer fans. See this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vokEFFCtpBY&feature=related and see the 35 second mark of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noBIs80Ra-A.

There are many leagues here in Spain, the Copa Del Rey, La Liga, and Champions League. The first 2 are Spanish only leagues, while Champions includes all of Europe. Recently, Barca clinched the La Liga title. Unlike US leagues, there is no playoff, if you finish the season with the most points, you win. Even though this is the third year in a row that they won, and even though the final of the Champions League is not until the end of May, it is a big enough deal that they held a huge parade and event at the stadium.

After work on the day of the fiesta, I headed down to the stadium. Even though the parade had not started, the streets were packed with people. And fortunately, they have come up with new instruments that make the same sound as the ever-prevalent vuvuzuelas of the World Cup, but even easier to play! I stopped at a small bodega to grab a beer to take in, because they do not sell alcohol inside the stadium (I have a theory that there is enough rioting without throwing drunk idiots into the mix, probably a good idea). Making my way up towards the top of the stadium, I realize that it is still an hour before the players will end up here, but Camp Nou is packed. It is an amazing thing to sit in the stadium and listen to almost 100,000 people cheer and chant and sing for an hour, before anyone even showed up! I have no idea what they were singing, it was all in Catalan, but I did learn a bit of the Barca themesong.

For hours we chanted, and sang and cheered, and did the wave. Then, the players showed up, and the cheering really began. They came up 1 by 1, and even I can tell athlete fluff in different languages. "We're not a team, we are a family" "Thank you to all of you fans, you are amazing", and the ever popular "Visca Barca, Visca Catalunya" or "Long Live Barca, Long Live Catalunya".

Overall, it was quite a spectacle, and a lot of fun to go see. Everyone should root for Barca to beat Manchester United on Saturday, May 28th. I have heard that the celebration will be monumental if Barca wins that title too. I am excited to find out!

Peanut Butter

In case you hadn't heard, peanut butter is very American and is very hard to come by in Barcelona.  I considered this issue heavily when debating the move to Barcelona.  Life without peanut butter...is it even worth living?  How was I going to survive? 

Eventually, I decided that Barcelona was a good move...with or without peanut butter.  A suitcase full of peanut butter isn't that heavy...right?

We brought enough peanut butter to tide us over for a while but I still hoped to find some here.  The search went on for quite a while, but we eventually found several brands at an asian grocery store!  You can always count on the Chinese to capitalize on gaps in the market.  The next logical step...peanut butter taste test of course!!

And the competitors are!!!....

• SunPat Crunchy - "Think peanut butter, and the chances are you'll think Sun-Pat. It's the UK's favourite brand - the filling or topping of choice for 300 million sandwiches and rounds of toast every year." - SunPat Website
• Calvé Crunchy - "Eerst een potje bouwstoffen..een pot Calvé Pindakaas zit vol onmisbare voedingsstoffen. Eiwitten, onverzadigde vetten, voedingsvezels, vitaminen: als je groeit, heb je ze nodig. Iedere dag." - Calvé website (anyone know dutch?)
• Pate d'Arachide Creamy (Brown Lid) - Product of Holland.  Note: pate d'arachide translates to paste of peanut...but I just can't help but think of spiders.
• Pate d'Arachide Creamy (Yellow Lid) - Imported through France, product of Malaysia.

Objective: Mimic Trader Joe's Valencia Peanut Butter with Roasted Flaxseeds

Method: Add peanuts + flax seeds to creamy brands and flax seeds to the crunchy brands.  2 rounds of single blind taste tests: PB alone, PB&J sandwich.

Metric: Subjective judgement and preferences

Observations: During sample preparation, I noted a surprising amount of variation in color, texture, and smell amongst the brands.  SunPat seemed unnaturally consistent and JIF-like.  I wasn't liking the looks or smell of Pate D'Arachide (brown lid).  But on to the taste testing...

First round tasting.  A couple had a really off/stale flavor that tasted somewhat artificial.  But surprisingly, my guinea pig didn't seem to mind it.  (Note to self, consider new guinea pig.)  The Sun-Pat was horrible...just goes to show that no good food comes from the UK.  We individually ranked them from best to worst.  We had some differences but the first round went to Pate d'arachide (yellow lid) for the both of us.

Phase II, bread + jelly.  My rankings were pretty consistent with the first round.  Jeff made a couple changes but we eventually came to a decision...

::DRUMROLL::  AND THE WINNER IS.......  ::DRUMROLL::

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PATE D'ARACHIDE - YELLOW LID!!!

And the sun beamed brightly and life in Barcelona seemed worth living again.

Now what were we going to do with all the other competitors?

This may take a while.