A valuable lesson learned about big cities: buy yourself a pair of cheap shoes.
I, being the incredible packing genius that I am, brought running shoes and some boots and sandals, all of which have gotten dusty, creased or worn looking within the last four weeks. So I ran out to get a pair of 30-euro sneakers that I could beat up while here and it has been the greatest decision I’ve made here so far.
Another valuable lesson I learned here: always say yes to something, barring going home with that weird guy, even if it seems like you won’t have time or it’s too strange.
This weekend we had the opportunity to take a Spanish cooking class. I thought it was too late to sign up for a ticket until a friend texted me saying she got too busy and I could take hers.
At the time I’d been lying in bed watching Netflix and had no intention of doing anything different. But I decided, why not? So off I went. The class was housed in a small cooking school called Appetit’Oh.
A group from my program was there as well, all looking a little lost and grossed out as they tried to rip the heads off of a bowl full of shrimp.
In Spain, if it doesn’t have a head, it’s not fresh.
We learned how to make a series of Spanish dishes, one of them of course being paella, Spain’s weird and delicious little brainchild of rice, seafood and vegetables.
It’s an old, old dish, dating back to Roman rule in the Iberian Peninsula, which made cooking it an intimidating experience. It’s a combination of European and Arabic cooking and the chef who taught us had cooked it so many times that she followed no recipe and set ?no timers.
I’ve never truly considered how much food influences culture until I arrived in Spain. In America there is no true “American” dish, except maybe the ?hamburger.
Everything we have arrives from somewhere else and we are all used to eating a wide variety of food, in every category of food — seafood, pastry, sandwich, soup, bread, etc. The list goes on and on. It’s the outcome of the cultural melting pot that we are.
In Spain, there are traditional dishes the people who make them hold near and dear. It was an eye-opening glimpse into real Spanish culture to have a real Spaniard teach us how to make a centuries-old Spanish dish, as well as a glimpse into how food connects the people that eat it.
So whenever you travel, always make sure to say “yes” to a new experience, or you will miss learning something amazing.
ewenning@indiana.edu
