Anglit Bevakasha!

A brief walk through the streets of Jerusalem reveals how "in" it is for places to have English names. All the trendy restaurants, bars, and cafes have either both an English and Hebrew name, or just an English name. But it is not so simple to open an establishment with an English name in a country where many people don't speak great English -- one always runs the risk of losing clientele who don't understand the relation between an establishment 's name and its product. Hence, Israelis often choose to do away with all efforts to be playful and ironic, opting instead for clarity and directness (not so out of line with general Israeli character). This explains the presence of popular chains like "Coffee Shop" and "Meat Burger."

I can picture the boardroom conversation:

Well Dudu, I don't know, don't you think we're being a little redundant with "Meat Burger."

Not at all, Yossi, you know very well how many places have gone 'green.' You order a burger these days, and you don't know what you're gonna get -- real meat or that fake tofu crap! This is a meat establishment and I'm damn well proud! Are you not proud of our establishment?

I didn't say I wasn't proud, Dudu. I just...

Are you going 'green,' Yossi?

Fine, fine, "Meat Burger" it is!

Olé!!!

Spaniards are generally quite apathetic when it comes to nationalism -- ask most people what they think of "Spanishness," and they'll likely point to colonialism, the inquisition, fascism, maybe bullfighting... but when Spain's national selection plays an important game, the flags, jerseys, and capes come out in full form. It is hard not to get wrapped up in all the fervor here!

Adversity, hah!

The other evening, my housemate, Gemma, returned home at 2:15am frantically trying to wake me up to let her into the building after having been robbed while listening to music in Barceloneta. Someone had snatched her purse, which contained a hefty sum of money, her credit cards, keys, cell phone, passport, national ID, and other important things. To my surprise, rather than pout about the annoyances and difficulties of recuperating all she had lost, Gemma soon returned to her usual smiley and happy self. Last night on the way to a party I had to ask her how she managed to stay in such good spirits despite what had taken place.

She remarked, "Look, I can either be depressed and without my purse, or I can be happy and without my purse -- either way, I won't have the purse."

"But still, Gemma, it's such a pain -- I'd have a tough time returning to my normal self."

"I believe that we can find some good in everything. I mean, I've already begun to find some good in what's happened. For instance, I lost my only pictures of my X-boyfriend, and this has helped to liberate me from the relationship. To give another example, I lost all my phone numbers, including those of people who treat me poorly. So now they can't contact me, since I won't have another phone for fifteen more days, and I can't contact them. So, you see, some good things have come from this."

If only I had such an ability to stare adversity in the eye and say, "Fuck you," like she seemingly does.

Felisha's Birthday!!!

Today is Felisha's 1st birthday, a momentous occasion that she'll definitely forget, but that is nonetheless momentous. I talked to her over skype a little, but she seemed more interested in eating the camera than having a conversation with me. She did, however, give me one of those smiles that lights up the room before understandably demanding her birthday dinner:-)

Caspian Le Pew

After tirelessly pursuing his "petite femme," Dodi, Caspian "Le Pew" has become slightly dejected from her continual rejections. Even on the rare occasions when he's managed to find his way into her bed, she's made it abundantly clear that she thinks him a bore. He seems to be oblivious to the fact that attempting to pounce on the object of his desire is not always the best strategy for winning her affection, but then again, he never has been a quick learner. Well, who am I to judge courting rituals?

At any rate, with a battered self-image and the need for a distraction from his burning desire for the orange fluff ball, Caspian has reverted back to his relationship with the one entity he has managed to coax into behaving as he pleases, his ambiguously-specied stuffed cub/puppy/kitten. Not only does he hump this sorry excuse for a lover, but he feels the need to feed it on a daily basis!

It's not the worst thing in the world to be conducting research in such cities...

Vista desde el Castillo de Gibralfaro en Málaga

The "Annual Reject"

The other day, I had a new experience that while odd, seemed to make some sense within the general purview of graduate school.  I received a letter from Columbia's Council for European Studies rejecting a grant application that I never submitted in the first place.   I was wondering what might have prompted this seemingly odd rejection, and I came up with a few possible explanations:

1) The CES targets people randomly for rejection to boost the prestige of the fellowship (the more rejections, the more competitive and hence prestigious the fellowship appears).

2) The CES mixed up last year's and this year's applications, in which case I deeply pity the poor reviewers who most certainly lost a good deal of z's having to review double the amount of applications.

3) Or most likely, the CES is mean-spirited and takes pleasure in repeatedly rejecting people.  I imagine the subtext of the letter reading something like this: "In case you were beginning to forget that we rejected yo' ass last year, we gonna reject yo' ass again this year.  And you better watch out 'cause we just might reject yo' ass again next year, and there ain't nothin' yo' ass (nor any other part of your body for that matter) can do about it!!" 

So if you ever have in mind to apply for a CES fellowship, just beware of the possibility that you may become, like me, one of their "annual rejects."