Saturday, December 25, 2010

Six Wonders of a Christmas Holiday in Spain

1. I prepare myself for a cold blast of Alberta winter. I am surprised to feel the mild moist air of a lovely autumun night that hovers around 16 degrees celcius.  This happens to me every time I step outside.

2. Related, but different, is the fact that I look for snow tipped trees, or ice on the sidewalks and find none.

3. I am starting to really like pa amb tomaquet – a crusty bun, split, with the juice of a tomato rubbed straight from the cut tomato onto the bread, then drizzled with extra virgin olive oil with a sprinkle of salt on top of it.  I have seen Joaquim do this time after time at home, but never joined in the fun.  Now I see it done by everyone in the room ... often.

4. The Mediterranean is less than a five minute walk away – all of the steps are downhill.

5. If I look up the hill, I see those little white houses stacked on the hill, just as I used to see them in pictures about Spain.

6. Thinking I had already tried every kind of olive, tonight I tasted olives preserved in anchovy oil. Like every new taste, it gets some effort to get used to this new taste. So that is the idea I put into my mind. Think about this taste and I try a number of olives, seeing if I liked the next one any better than the one I had previously tasted. I am not through with that tasting party but am a willing student.

Arta

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