La Tierra De La Manana

Culture Shock: Hits you like a bus in slow motion, you can see it coming--but you are frozen, perhaps with fascination...stupefaction..curiosity. There is a reason curiosity killed the cat. Maybe sometimes it’s better to remain curious--because sometimes dreams are better than reality. At this point, I can’t inveigle ( word of the day: to acquire by ingenuity or flattery) my way out of the “land of manana” lifestyle.

My brother said he can envision me one day, fed up with the lazy/laid-back clerks, the unreliable hours of siesta, the ghost-town feel of Posadas during the weekend, missing the boundaries of personal space--having a stage 5 freak-out in the middle of the street. I guess I should back up, explain how I got to this odd state of frustration, completely humored--smug with the knowledge I’m experiencing the twilight zone effect of full blown culture shock.

This morning, waking up to the gray sky and rain, with congestion and a swollen throat, I thought maybe instead of taking the 10 AM train to Cordoba we should sleep in and take the 2 PM train to Malaga. Sometimes, when sick, a warm bed is more appealing than a long day of traveling and sight seeing. Instead, I crawled out of my warm haven, put on coffee, and started heating up strawberry oatmeal. We walked quickly through the rain to the train station, paid 4.40 euros for a roundtrip ticket from Posadas to Cordoba--relying on a little bit of faith to allow the train/bus times to Malaga to coincide with the last train back to Posadas from Cordoba at 8 PM. Upon arrival to the station in Cordoba (15 minutes later) we discovered that the train prices to Malaga were ridiculous, (45 euros for the Ave which is the high speed train, 20 for the regular trains that were already all gone) the bus, which is much cheaper, would take about 4 hours so wouldn’t really be worth the trip--and the price of the Ave was a little disconcerting because it was raining cats and dogs all over Andalucia. I looked over the timetable and saw my vision of Picasso’s house, The Picasso Museum, and 8th century Roman fortress (complete with an amphitheater) slipping away.

We ended up spending the rainy day walking around Cordoba and going to the street with all the flowered balcony’s, then we stopped by the Corte de Ingles to purchase some groceries which included some spicy tortilla chips, avocados, fajita seasoning, and guacamole seasoning. I was only disappointed I couldn’t fit more in my bag. Someday I will eat again. We then went to a really great tapas bar (which Troy treated..in Spain they say “invited” to imply paying for someone..just for a random fact) Afterwards we took the 2pm train back to Posadas and waited for Siesta to end. Around 5:30, after completing my first attempt at guacamole (which tasted amazing..great success) we decided to try going to Dia again, the supermercado, which was closed last night. As I walked the main street of Posadas..the town resembled an abandoned Ghost Town..I clung to the hope that it would be open since it was almost 6..and after all it was a grocery store. The boarded up door, with no hours of course, was an unwelcome slap in the face--the world stops moving after 2 PM on Saturdays...and goes on pause until Monday morning. The banks, restaurants, internet store, clothing stores, grocery stores, everything. What do people do all day? I’m at a loss. I’m an open 24-hours American trapped in the land of be back when I feel like it.

“Enthusiasm is the best protection in any situation. Wholeheartedness is contagious. Give yourself, if you wish to get others.”