Unreal

Spain has some funny quirks I thought you might find amusing.

1. Beer is cheaper than water. Paella is cheaper than toilet paper. Ham is cheaper than everything.

2. People do not put their dogs on leashes. They just let their dogs run around them. My dog could definitely use that kind of training but... If you tried to sell a dog leash in Spain, people would probably use it on their adorable children, who they frequently dress in absurd matching outfits in bright primary colors. Sometimes the parents match the kids. I recently saw a 2 year old wearing espadrille heels that matched her mother, who was carrying her.

3. Speaking of Spanish fashion, there's quite the range of options. But always stilettos. All day, everyday, everywhere... in the subway, on the concrete, driving vespas... Always in stilettos. Often paired with strange denim items. It's so hit or miss here with wardrobes. Either it's a shirt with a supernonsensical English saying (Today I saw "Freak ever evolves to more"on a shirt in a China Fashion shop) or they're totally ahead of global style. They were wearing camel colored harem pants for at least a month before that became hot at home.

4. Fried dough dipped in warm melted chocolate is a legitimate breakfast food. Meanwhile, the UN officially protected the Andalusian diet as something of global importance. I do agree that we should protect melted chocolate friend breakfast food. I have a feeling UNESCO was thinking of the fish and olives and quince jelly. And not the really great pasta/vinegar/pineapple salad we seem to be eating every Sunday.

5. So I thought of all of these things in the park today, where I took a stroll with interspersed jogging moments. I was SO excited to see a park near my house. Greenery, fountains with cute benches, maybe even a soccer field where I could scout out a novio? YeaNo. I got a dirt long rectangle with a fail of a basketball hoop, a drunk Asian guy singing, and a whole bunch of empty broken 40s all over the ground. There were more cigarette butts than pieces of grass. Waytogo, Spain. You have surprised me again. I was taken aback by the incredible graffiti, the most beautiful part of the park. I'll get you a picture if I ever go back.

Which may be tomorrow. I have a superlax schedule (Monday mornings, one hour Tuesday, all day Wednesday, and that's all, folks), so I have too much time to do whatever I want. That's probably how I, Stefanie Groner, Floja of the flojas, ended up in sneakers, at the park, thinking of these things to share with you.

I just spent a lovely few hours hanging with the Norwegian beauties living downstairs, letting them use my wifi, and speaking in English. They speak better English than we do. I'm inspired to learn Scandinavian tongues because according to our approximations, their currency is worth 4 times the dollar. Get me a job there!

Running in cigarette butt parks and learning all about Olympic skiers or how to say 'like' in Norwegian from my new sisters.

Just your average day in Spain. I used to be able to describe my life as kind of repetitive ho-hum "Everyday I'm shufflin'" - I was infected by the apathetic, washed out college disease, the sophomore slump.

And now, I'm apparently running.