All Eyes on You America

It never quite hit me until recently that the US is really a superpower of the world. Brits, Aussies, Spaniards, Frenchies, etc all expressed deep concern over the fate of America during the course of the U.S. presidential elections. Like people who had a direct, invested lot in this affair, they'd ask me if I had voted, in more a tone that said, "You better have voted as the world's affairs lay in the count of your ballot". These foreigners would ask where they could watch the presidential debates and were updated on Romney and Obama's stances. Conversely, if you were to ask me about Spanish politics or any other countries government, I could vaguely tell you if they were a Communist country or not. Very sadly, I would obviously be no smarter than a third grader on these matters.

Naturally, Romney, for Europeans, is not even a competition to the beloved Obama. It's hard for them, (err, us) to even recognize Mitt Romney as a worthy opponent when he has little foreign policy knowledge (one of my teachers remarking that he probably doesn't even know where Spain is) let alone the finesse to manage delicate relations with other national leaders, favors capitalistic mollycoddling of the rich at the expense of social service programs for the middle and poor class, regressive commitment to negating the Affordable Health Care Act which we finallllllyyyy achieved, antiquated ideas that do not recognize human rights in the sphere of women, immigrants, and homosexuals, topped with a despicable smear campaign rested on falsities. So you can imagine all the "Congratulations, your country just barely missed running off a cliff and into the craphole of a mess." when we found out that Pres. Obama will take his rightful seat at the White House again for another 4 years. In one class, I had a teacher that joyously referred to the victory again and again throughout my lesson plan. As I taught the word "powerful" to my 11 year old students, she would add "like Obama!", at which the whole classroom would start to applause. And even if I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea of being a walking liberal propaganda tool for such malleable, young minds, I have to say, I was very proud  we did not disappoint all of the world! Yay America!!

 A chart from the perspective of a global participation in American elections. 
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/10/23/163473712/if-the-world-picked-u-s-president-obama-would-win-by-a-landslide

The best laid schemes of mice and men

My aunt from NY is visiting me which means I get to use this as my excuse to do all the touristy things. We went to the Prado Museum, the Sofia Reina Museum, Retiro Park, Plaza Mayor, and we had planned on going to Granada exceeepppptt.....after MY WALLET WAS STOLEN on my way home after having been paid in cash for my academy work teaching English (almost 200 Euros), it was a little difficult to book/reserve anything online.Naturally I cried and hated Spain for the next week. The offense feels so personal, thinking about how a month's worth of work (although not much) was taken from me in a chance moment. My mood wasn't bettered when the next day I accidentally locked myself out of the house and then after a party, lost my public transportation card. Awesome. But I can't complain. Because who cares about a card and some cash when my woes are drowned out by the distress of the whole NYC that's been flooded out.

So instead of Granada and taking full advantage of this 4 day weekend, my aunt and I just took some day trips to Toledo and Segovia. Toledo used to be the capital of Spain and is famous for their multifaith culture where Islam, Christianity and Judaism all used to peacefully coexist. It has a whole bunch of medieval architecture.

All you need to know about Segovia is suckling pig. Delicious. Well aside from watching little oven-baked Babe being chopped into dinner parts, you should also know that Segovia is home to the Alcazar, rumored to be the inspiration for the Walt Disney's Cinderalla Castle, and a Roman aqueduct that welcomes you into the town center. Also, I felt like freaking Sherlock Holmes when I realized that the word "Alcazar" comes from the Arabic word "Al quasr" and that they both sound a lot like the English word "castle". This fascinated me for the entire day.