¡Huy!

I went to my first fútbol game yesterday! Granada played Sporting at Estadio Nuevo los Carmenes here in Granada and won 2-1. The environment was awesome and the game was super fun to watch, which surprised me a little because while I have a great appreciation for athletics, I know very little about soccer. Most Spaniards are diehard fans, even in Granada, where the team is not quite on the same level as the more popular teams like Real Madrid or Barcelona. During an especially exciting moment in the game when Granada would almost score or be on the verge of making a great play but not quite get there, the entire stadium would shout "¡Huy!" (pronounced something like uuuuooouuuuyyyyy; the official definition of this word is "to denote acute physical pain, prudery or astonishment"). This amused me to no end. I enjoy how three-letter words become three-syllable words in Spanish. For instance, they say "wow" here but it's pronounced more like "uuuooouuwww" - so much more fun and dramatic.

I realized how much Spanish people like soccer after I played an intramural basketball game the other day. It was so much fun to play, and a couple of my teammates were bummed after our team lost because it was a single-elimination tournament. Then someone said, "Just buy your own ball to bring to the courts - they're not expensive at all." What would have been at least a $25 ball in the states was 8€ here. When demand for the sport is as low as it is here, it's no wonder playing basketball is so cheap.

The unemployment rate in Spain is around 23% right now, with the youth unemployment rate at about 50%. Not surprisingly, there have been some "manifestaciones", or protests (don't worry, they're peaceful), of large groups of people.  Last weekend I ran into one - literally - and saw signs that said "el problema es el capitalismo." You don't have to speak Spanish to understand that. It's a vastly different political mindset here compared to the United States. Healthcare is free, education is free, but sadly, there are very few jobs to be had. There are several families that I know of who are hosting American students, relying on the host family stipend to support the family. There is also a movement currently in which grandparents are providing for the the families of their adult children because of the severe unemployment. The social security system is also as unsustainable here as it is in the states; people are living longer here and the elderly population is larger than the youth population, so people like my host dad are paying hefty amounts to social security with what seems like little hope of ever seeing that money again in their old age. Nevertheless, the toreros (bullfighters) continue fighting toros (bulls), fútbol fans yell "huy", and  "la marcha" nightlife rages until 7am. Spanish culture lives! 

Other things I find amusing:

• There is one store in the whole entire city that sometimes maybe has a slim chance of carrying shoes for those of us women who are podiatristically gifted (yes, I'm thankful for my big feet). In addition to being excessively expensive, they are all heels. Like I need height, especially in a country where the average woman is 5'5''. Oh, the irony.
• The peanut butter-chocolate combination, a staple for many American students, is a foreign concept here. Peanut butter in general is not popular; Europeans prefer the chocolate spread Nutella, or the Spanish version Nocilla. Reese's cups are nowhere to be found, and when the American girls at school discovered a store that sells Skippy peanut butter that's all I heard about in class for weeks.
• I was sitting in a plaza reading and was approached by two Spanish tourists who asked me where the Office of Tourism was. The only thing more surprising than the fact that I actually gave them directions (in Spanish) was that I must have looked like enough of a non-tourist myself for them to ask me in the first place.
• I'm writing this instead of studying for four exams and writing two essays for this week. (At least it's amusing to me now....)

 

This just in - I love hiking in the mountains in Spain! I went to Los Cahorros de Monachil last weekend, located in a small pueblo about twenty minutes outside of Granada. Here are a few pics!