AIFS in Salamanca – Notes from Campus
Tapas
Salamanca in the News!
Intercambios!
Thanksgiving in Salamanca
AIFS Students in the News
Cultural Activities
Chocolate con Churros!
AIFS Fall 2009 Memory Book
Tapas
Tapas are essentially snacks. In many regions of Spain they are often included in the price of drinks (beer, wine, not soft drinks or spirits) served in bars. In this case, they can amount to as little as a few olives, a piece of cheese, or something more substantial like a pork stew. Bigger portions that are ordered to make up part of a meal are called raciones.
Tapa means "cover" in Spanish. While there exist various explanations for the etymology of tapa, a commonly cited explanation is that an item, be it bread or a flat card, etc., which would often be placed on top of a drink to protect it from fruit flies; at some point it became a habit to top this "cover" with a snack. Equally popular is the theory that it "covered" the appetite between finishing work and eating the evening meal, usually sometime after 10pm.
In the northern Spanish city of León, and in parts of southern Spain (Andalucía), when you go to a bar and order a drink, you get a tapa for free. This happens mostly in the province of Jaén, Granada and Córdoba, but it is not very common in the rest of Andalusia, where you have to pay for both the drink and the tapa. They are also called pinchos/pintxos, because many of them have a pincho, or toothpick through them. This is used to keep whatever the snack is made of from falling off the bread it has been attached to. Another name for them is banderillas (diminutive of bandera "flag"), in part because some of them resemble the colorful skewers used in bullfighting.
It is very common for a bar or a small local restaurant to have 6-8 different kinds of tapas in warming trays with glass partitions covering the food. They are often very strongly flavored with garlic, chillis or paprika, and sometimes swimming in olive oil. Often one or more of the choices is seafood or mariscos, often including anchovies, sardines or mackerel in olive oil or squid or others in a tomato based sauce, sometimes with the addition of red or green peppers or other seasoning. It is rare to see a tapas selection not include one or more types of olives, such as manzanilla or arbequina olives. One or more types of bread are usually available to eat with any of the sauce-based tapas.
Common tapas include:
- Chorizo al vino - Chorizo sausage slowly cooked in wine.
- Rajo - Pork meat seasoned with garlic and parsley.
- Zorza - Rajo with added paprika.
- Queso con anchoas - Castilla cured cheese with anchovies on top.
- Ensaladilla - Mixed boiled vegetables with tuna, olives and mayonnaise.
- Tortilla - De patata (potatoes) or paisana (mixed vegetables and chorizo).
- Allioli - Very strong garlic paste, sometimes simply garlic mayonnaise, served on bread.
Links with lots more info about Tapas: www.ricksteves.com/plan/destinations/spain/tapas.htm www.arrakis.es/~jols/tapas/index2.html
Salamanca in the News!
The Washington Post recently featured an article, titled "In lively Salamanca, Spain, even the architecture is animated," about the art and beauty of Salamanca. To read the article, visit www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/25/AR2010022505166.html.
Intercambios!
An intercambio is a language
exchange. A Spanish student trying to learn English gets together with
you and both of you take turns speaking in each other’s language to
practice and gain fluency! You can meet with an intercambio to go
tapa-hopping or to an exhibit or out for coffee. It’s fun to have more
than one, too! It’s that simple… and it's free!
Notes about the Intercambio information exchange:
- We will introduce you to Spanish students studying English (former students of Carlos Cabrera) and you will need to exchange phone numbers and/or emails with them to arrange to meet at another time... so know your cell phone number!
- You might want to write their phone numbers down the old fashioned way - with pen and paper - because we've had students lose their cell phones and their intercambio phone numbers with it!
- You should try to get a couple of different phone numbers at our meeting. Don't feel that an intercambio is "taken" because they already have another AIFS student's phone number... you can have several intercambios just like you have several friends!
- Don't come too late as this little get-together is only to exchange phone numbers and will not last that long!
Thanksgiving in Salamanca
On Thursday, November 26, AIFS held a Thanksgiving dinner for students in the restaurant of the Hotel Catalonia Salamanca Plazaa. A photo of the AIFS group at Thanksgiving dinner was published in the Salamanca newspaper La Gaceta!
AIFS Students in the News
After an excursion to a bull ring, some AIFS students were featured in the local newspaper with the following caption (translated):
Upon leaving the bull ring we were informed that four Gracigrande
bulls did not pass their inspection for lack of charm. Here is a
solution: pure charm!
Cultural Activities
Jeronimus Tower
AIFS would like to invite all of you to go up the Jeronimus tower of the New Cathedral – where the view is gorgeous! Remember that Salamanca has TWO cathedrals and that is very unique! Viewing it from above is a spectacle. (So bring your cameras!) We will meet at the base of the tower with the clock (the one you see when walking on the Calle Rua Mayor) of the New Cathedral.
Spanish Cooking Session
We will meet you at 8:05 pm under the clock in the Plaza Mayor. You will *watch* how to prepare the following things: Paella, Gazpacho, Tortilla Española y Sangría. After everything has been prepared, you get to eat it! Yum! (This activity is free.)
Chocolate con Churros!
The weather will MOST LIKELY turn chilly soon so AIFS would like to invite you to do something really Spanish: go out for chocolate con churros!!
Bring us the receipt (up to 6 euros per person) and we will reimburse you for it in the office!
Here are a few suggestions of where to go (though there are many others):
* VALOR - on Calle Libreros
* NOVELTY - in the Plaza Mayor
* LAS TORRES - in the Plaza Mayor
AIFS Fall 2009 Memory Book
Each semester AIFSers put together a type of “memory book” where everyone contributes a poem, a story, a drawing, or anything they’d like. We also include a list of everyone’s home/permanent address. We need contributions and the more, the better! Here is an example from a past AIFS student who wrote about her study abroad experience.
Amy D’Amore (Providence College)
I lived across the street from a church that was built in the 12th century. I took a class in the faculty of a convent where Christopher Columbus once lived and studied. I opened, with my own hands, a trunk that Queen Elizabeth used for traveling in 1477. I ate paella. I drank calimocho. I froze my toosh off at a Real Madrid game. I made myself a warm cup of Cola Cao. I watched a couple of flamenco performances. I saw RHCP in a bull ring. I bought beer from a vending machine. I met under the clock. I took a seista. I took some photos. I took another siesta. I bought an umbrella at the Rastro. I bargained for it. I went for tapas. I gave everyone I met dos besos. I swam in the Mediterranean. I played a lot of futbolín. I had tea in an Arabian tetería. I went down to Morocco for a day to buy some bongos. I wrote in my journal. I sent postcards home. I studied in a coffee shop. I stood six inches away from a Picasso (how many centimeters is that?) I saw a demonstration in honor of Francisco Franco. I held a book that was written over 500 years ago. I bought castañas. I converted dollars to pesetas and Fahrenheit to Celsius. I learned the theme song for Compañeros. I was upset when they changed it. I stayed in a hostel with no heat. I danced with a live salsa band. I visited palaces. I had a glass of wine in the Plaza Mayor. I had a bag lunch at the top of a castle. I felt at home in Salamanca. I experienced a sense of the past. I absorbed culture through every pore in my body. I will always love Spain.
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