Cadiz oh Cadiz

Life has been extremely tough lately, and it just seems like the difficulties I´m experiencing will never be resolved.First, I´m stuck in Cadiz, Spain, a absolutely charming seaside city in Andalusia, Southern Spain. This city was originally started by the Phoenicians, conquered at some point by the Romans, then others, then Moors, then Christians....I´m sure that you can all imagine the opressively historical feel that pervades this place. I´m not sure how long I can last here.To make matters worse, I am employed by a company named Abbey Road, which organizes trips abroad for highschool students. They have contracted me as a Spanish professor (irony of ironies...white boy in spain teaching spanish), a position which involves an extremely tough schedule highlighted by the entire hour that I usually have to teach in the morning....The rest of my days are spent in a blurry haze constructed of trips to the beach, doing flips off of 20 foot high bridges into azure ocean waters, eating delicious food, and sipping adult beverages while being blinded by beach sunsets....All of this, and I haven´t even mentioned that I have to eat free food at the University residence where we´re staying, sleep in a free bed, and get paid.....I do say, things are going terribly and I feel cursed by fate herself....

Okay....even I´ve gotten sick of the above tone, so if it is all the same to the rest of you, I´ll drop it....Things are going quite well, and I´m happy here, so happy in fact that I surprise myself and can´t help but give in once again to the dream of moving here and living here for a long, long time, making little money but going to the beach every day and eating delicious food in packed outdoor cafes at midnight, with beautiful children running between the legs of old folk...There´s a lot of unemployment here (the beaches are packed at all times of the day), but people seem to get by, and everyone has enough money for a bit of cured ham and a cold, cold beer in the afternoon....And even those that work don´t seem to work, and people don´t seem to ever stop joking....You need to be on your feet at all times to get by here, with innuendos of all types flying by you with a constancy that is alarming....And the food (I´ve mentioned this, I believe) is so good--tapas--all the rage in cosmopolitan cities around the world, but nothing like the real deal....these delicious small bites are an old tradition here in Spain, and were ´invented´ in the 1800´s. Basically, barmen would put a small saucer on top of a glass of wine being served to a customer. They did this in order to keep the flies and mosquitos out of people´s drinks. Over time, the plate began to seem rather empty, and was filled with a small bite to eat--usually a piece of bread with an anchovy, or some meat, or something along those lines. Over time, this has developed into an entire way of eating, the portions have gotten bigger, the types of food have become more varied, and a verb has even been spawned -- ´tapear´ -- which basically means to go around eating tapas....beautiful....and so i´m enjoying....and the beauty of it all is that you can get a tapa and a glass of wine for around 2-3 euros....not bad....More interesting news (at least i think so)--The whole ¨Europeans are so skinny because of the Mediterranean diet¨ business seems to be sadly going the way of the dodo....This city, to speak rather frankly and with a bluntness I´m fond of, is really fat. Today, when a group of girls walked past us at a museum, one student commented to me, ¨There are more fat girls in that one group than in my entire school¨. I did not argue, because I think he was right...Oddly, all of the young guys are skinny....Frighteningly skinny....anorexic skinny....like when i became a vegeterian skinny.....very strange.....And so, not much else to share at the moment....For those unaware, I will be living at least one more year in Brooklyn...I´ve been offered a position (1 year to start) at Fordham University, which means that i´ll be a bit more of a straphanger this year than last, but that´s okay....They pay a whole lot better and it will be nice to hang out with the Jesuits...Maybe I´ll even start going back to church. Or maybe not. We´ll see.I hope that this finds you all well and safe and healthy and happy....Take a lesson from the Spaniards. Start eating out more. Eat outside more. Skip work more. Sick days are there for a reason--think of them as sickness prevention days....Love,Chris