The Miracle of Couchsurfing

Finally, a second, long overdue update... only 2 entries in and already in a state of neglect, joder! In my defense, I'm still without an internet connection in my apartment and it's been a hectic two weeks of travel and getting settled here. Yesterday alone I applied for a certificate of residency, foreigner's identification card, and city of Gijón resident's card, and opened a spanish bank account. Luckily my supervisor here, Jorge, seems to know everyone in Gijón and with his connections I was able to skip the queues for most things, albeit under the piercing stares of my fellow aliens in line.

Despite arriving in Spain three weeks ago, I've only spent one of them at my final destination, Gijón. The prior fortnight I spent making my way slowly from the airport in Málaga in the south of Spain to Madrid for the program orientation, then ultimately north to Asturias. With 8 months of luggage in tow and only a tenuous grasp of Andalucian Spanish, this could have been an extremely trying task were it not for the miracle of Couchsurfing. Through the Couchsurfing.com website, I got in touch with Sophie from Málaga and Ahmed from Granada, both of whom hosted me for 2 nights in their respective homes, free of charge. Sophie, a French expat now living and working in Málaga, despite having a busy schedule of her own showed me some of the sights in Málaga and took me out to some great places for eats and drinks. In Granada, Ahmed set the bar extremely high for my future couchsurfing experiences. In the space of 2 days, I had 3 meals cooked for me, received three novels from his own collection, and was shown all the sights of Granada. As an extremely well read and traveled fellow, he was also a fountain of interesting bits of trivia, two of which really stick out in my mind:
1. In my own experience, one of the most obvious cultural differences here was the prominence of pork products, particularly ham. Even hamburgers here are usually just that, a burger made from ham/pork. With thanks to Ahmed, I now know that the ubiquity of pork here is a strong statement that Spain and its people are not Muslim, pork of course being off limits for Muslims. Most of Spain was conquered by Moorish Muslims in the late 8th century and was only reconquered completely by the Christians in 1492. The current affinity for pork today is tied into this complex history.
2. Equally fascinating was the explanation of the origins of the "Big Apple" as a name for New York City. In parts of Spain, city blocks were, and still are if I'm not mistaken, referred to as 'manzanas' or apples. Spanish immigrants to NYC brought with them this term and yada yada yada, we get The Big Apple. There seems to be some controversy as to whether or not this is true, but an interesting theory nonetheless.