musings from spain

hello, friends!  being on vacation has made me good and lazy...ahh.  my schedule these days have been spanish classes in the morning (i think i'm finally getting that darn subjuntivo down pat, even in imperfecto form), a relaxing lunch at home, a siesta on the couch with friends dubbed over in spanish on tv, and then up again for some reading at a cafe and a trip to the gym.  i should not work forever.  =)

that said,  i'm loving the books i've been reading lately.  it's so inspiring to read about these great innovative companies, both inside and out, who have really figured out how to both connect with their consumers on social and emotional levels, and foster creativity and inspiration from within.   although it's going to be terribly scary and stressful, i'm actually looking forward to starting the job search in a couple months.  let's hope that i find what i'm looking for!  my latest favorite book finds, the brand gap and zap by marty neumeier.  truly inspirational.

so i'm VERY far behind on my blog postings!  magaz and salamanca over the new year's and then the bay area in january all seem so long ago!  and i'm off again tomorrow for a road trip around france and hopefully belgium and switzerland.  so before the backlog gets too long, here goes a short recap on magaz and salamanca:

• little quaint, trapped-in-time magaz...what can i say?  imagine a little pueblo in the middle of northern spain, surrounded by hazy, rocky fields where potatoes grow and nothing much else, population 30, and a little house with its ancient kitchen tucked away in the corner where an 87, feisty woman continues to live with her 90-year-old husband.  in the garage are rickety old tractors that are still towed out to the fields in the spring, and in the old kitchen hang home-cured sausages and ham from the six pigs that the family has raised during the year and slaughtered themselves.  let me tell you, the authentic spanish experience doesn't get any more spanish than that!  a nice place to be for a couple days, but after a week, one does get quite restless.  so to combat the restlessness, off we went to salamanca for two days.
• salamanca - the city of fellow american expat in spain, the wandering woman (hi!!  finally i'm blogging about your wonderful town!  sorry for the delay), whom i must thank very much (again!) for all the recommendations on places to go.  we arrived on a day where a light fog was busy blanketing the city and casting a very romantic glow on all the amazingly beautiful buildings of the city, and left the next day with our stomaches full of many tasty and very well priced pinchos from the very authentic and quite delicious bambu bar, that we went to twice!  i did not find the astronaut or the ice cream cone, but yes the frog, albeit with quite a bit of help.  i blame my broken contacts and out-dated glasses.  =)  and i have to mention a very special moment during the trip, while we were taking a break from wandering the city at the lovely la regenta bar (recommendation of the wandering woman, of course), sipping on a warm tea and reading, when they started playing buika's latest.  yay!  man, i love that woman.
  

i've uploaded more pictures in snapshots...they've been there for the last month, albeit without a post.  enjoy!

now it's time for me to head out of my apartment and wander the city again, where barcelona's been extremely warm these days, which doesn't stop me from having a nice toasty coffee at a bar somewhere.   it's a nice time in my life now...a calm before the next big life adjustment begins, where it's back to the states  and real life, in a way.  two years away...i wonder how i'll handle being back?