musings from spain

a brain dump from the last two weeks:

• the mandarinas are back!  a little sour because it´s still quite early in the season, but i expect i´ll be fully charged with vitamin C for the next months as i regress back to the habit of 6-8 of these babies (mandarin oranges) a day (side note: wow, i´ve been here long enough for something "to be back"?)
• amazingly poignant, detailed, and honest blog, mylifeinspain.blogspot.com, from an expat living in spain who was in pakistan when the earthquake hit.  the post entitled "the baggage", dated october 18, still makes my heart ache.  donate at the red cross.
• another milestone in the experience of living abroad reached - getting a haircut.  i admit i was tempted to wait until my next visit home in two months (yay), but i bit the bullet and went to one in the gothic neighborhood, recommended by a well-coiffed companion.  i´m satisfied with the results - yay.  (follow-up milestone: was able to find the place again on my own a couple days later, which isn´t easy where you´re talking about the gothic neighborhood.  this means i can repeat the experience in six months).
• confession: the stylist turned out to speak english very well, having just relocated to bcn after a year and a half in dublin.  but still...i think i deserve a cookie for taking the risk, don´t you?
• got my hands on some chinese onion, which isn´t offered at my local grocery store but finally appeared on the shelves of the chinese market a couple blocks away.  now i´m ready to start making some udon soup, sprinkling it on top of various tofu types, and sauteeing it with meat.  can´t wait!
• anyone else having problems with nytimes.com these days?  i keep hitting broken links when trying to reach an article.  and anyone subscribed to time select?  definitely annoyed that the best editorials now require a subscription...trying to decide if it´s worth $50 a year or now.

ok...all done...for now.