My big toes will not tolerate anything but one pair of exclusive shoes, that give them total freedom to move around. I have not yet figured out why but I am more clear on what is happening. My big toes are going out of joint at the slightest provocation (with stiff toed shoes that touch the ends of my toes in any way) and dancing with them out of joint is not possible. Walking is intermittently painful.
So today I walked to the ... I don't know what to call it, "mercado de... basura (garbage)". "Mercado de abastos?" said Marta. "No, no, mercado de viejos, baratas cosas". I don't know how to say junk or flea market. It has everything under the sol. Here is a random sample of the cosas it had:
Books - "Por Quien Doblar el Campaña"; Ernest Hemingway. A book on Flamenco in German. "En Forma con Olivia Newton John", with obligatory pictures of her showing you how to stretch your piernas, and flex your cadera. "Enigmas de la Naturaleza", "Iron John - a book for men", Mao Zedong, una bibliografia, and movies like "Mi Nombre es Harvey Milk".
I was looking for a tray to put my teacups on and a mirror. I saw some options but in the end only bought two tiny paperback books with trashy wild west pictures of cowboys saving damsels in distress, and obviously translated from English, "Sam se llevaba Daisy de la plaza." "¡Vive tranquilo, Steve! - replicó Daisy." At the last minute I bought a movie from a girl who was a really good salesperson. Over-enthusiastic and a former speaker of English, I think she just wanted to talk, as much as try to hardsell me something. I was charmed by her and bought a copy of "Torrente", a Spanish made cops and bad guys kind of film, which she explained would help me understand lots of slang, however I should not think the way they act is normal for Spanish people. She ended our conversation by saying that if I get a boyfriend here I should be careful. "Deep sea" she repeated several times. The men from the north are okay but the ones from here think differently. Deep sea.
There are a significant number of shops dealing in religious figurines. "Reparamos Niños Jesus" says the sign in the window of one shop. We repair babies Jesus / baby Jesus's. After walking by some of these I encountered the Chinese grocery store and because I noticed a wok in the house the other day after letting Alicia try a piece of raw ginger (which was quite shocking to her), I thought about trying to cook some. "¿Hay Hua Jiao?" - "¿Sichuan pimiento? Si, normalmente hay hua jiao". There wasn't any today. I stopped for a second and considered getting a Diccionario Chino-Español, since I'd left mine behind at home, though I had considered bringing it. I could not help laughing when I looked at a textbook with Spanish translation under all the characters.
On a serious note, I read an incisive discussion in the paper on the influx of Chinese into Spain, and what is really going on. I judge that the writer was pretty much right on. It is a fact that China has a deal with Spain to let its citizens in and give them big breaks starting businesses and that there are many Chinese doing so, while the Spanish are struggling. His take was that China intends to do this so as to have an economic foothold here, and has somewhat sinister intentions - the government, not the poor average Chinese guy opening the corner "tian da" (Ha ha, inside joke, you have to understand both Spanish and Chinese) - especially considering the weakness of Spain at the moment. I was told that the once healthy local shoe industry has been completely drowned by large companies - I believe owned by Chinese - who now have big factories on the east coast here.
I am fine with understanding the accents we secretly liked to copy as kids. Most of them speak pretty well, actually, but just try understanding a guy speaking Spanish with a strong Chinese accent! ¡Hombre! No way. I am doing okay with Andaluz and Castellano but don't give me Chindaluz.
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