Public Health in Córdoba

You always hear about the obesity endemic in the States. But you don't really appreciate how serious the problem is until you step outside the country and see the stark contrast between us and our European counter parts.

What's interesting to me, is there isn't a market of dieting here. You don't see the "gluten free" labels, or  like, Long Beach Magic Purple Juice With Fat Free Air! advertisements on the television. Yet, obesity is a rare sight. And, on the flip side, so is anorexia. I've come to the conclusion that the States has a problem with both extremes. We have too many people who are extremely over weight, as well as the people who are so underweight that their body doesn't scream Health, it screams I Try Too Hard. It's two kinds of unhealthy, the kind where your body suffers from obesity and the kind where your mind suffers from our unobtainable standard of beauty. 

Here, people aren't just thinner, they're healthier. People are all-around at their right weight relative to their heights. And there isn't an obsession with size. No one cares what size pants they wear, or how many calories are in that 1/4 piece of bread they ate for breakfast. It's a mentality and lifestyle I particularly appreciate. Just another thing the States can learn from Europe.

From my time specifically in Spain, here are some public health-esque observations I've made so far: 

1. Walking. Sort of like Berkeley, Córdoba is a city for walking. Everything is close enough to each other that you wouldn't need any other type of transportation. And the weather is perfect for it. 
2. I noticed my family takes off all the skin of the chicken and only eats the white meat. Interesting. (I was taught that the skin is the best part!??! MY LIFE IS FULL OF FATTY LIES).
3. Dessert here is always fruit or yogurt. Interesting fact: Spain is a huge exporter of fruit. Which means that all the fruit here is local by standard, not as some pretentious, hippie-local-farmers-market fad. And they're all super tasty. 
4. Eating isn't family style. The meals are perfectly portioned, but they come on their separate plates. Unlike the big, family style method I am so used to that results in me eating probably 4x as much as I needed to just to be full. I do not miss feeling like a poor stuffed fat turkey after every meal. 
5. Breakfasts are small. No disgusting, mountain piles of Pancakes/Syrup/Waffles. I dig it. 
6. The public parks have those kind of tacky looking exercise machines for people to use.
7. Lunches are "big" (again, not as big as Chinese meals can be) and have a good amount of carbs (Think: bread, pastas, potatos). But dinner is smaller and always involves a nice big salad. Not a OhEmGee Diet Time Wooo!!!!! kind of salad, but just a nice, healthy serving of fresh vegetables as a final meal. Everything is well-balanced. Not too heavy or too close to starvation. 

And now, let me end this super nerdy public health post with pictures of food. Because I am Asian. 

Sweet Moments

Today, I came home for almuerzo and found a pile of chocolate eggs on my bed! At first I thought it was Curro, who has already proved how sweet he is to me by always sharing his crackers and toys with me. Turns out, today it was my older brother Danny who brought them from work for me.

This is clearly, one of the sweetest things to happen to me. And on my second day here. But picture in your head, if you will, a 6"7 Spaniard who is in his 30s, laying down a pile of chocolate eggs on your bed.

Doesn't that just melt your heart?
<3

Macaroon Crawl

Being a foody is one of my top priorities in life. So it comes as no surprise that the single most important thing I wanted to do in Paris is eat macaroons. Macaroons on macaroons on macaroons.
Despite being a pricey venture, I have no regrets. Here are the results of my mini-macaroon crawl:

Stop 1: Random Cafe With Name I Forgot

Flavors: Chocolate Passionfruit, Strawberry, Coffee

Over-all: 4th place 

 

Stop 2: Pierre-Hermes

Flavors: Mandarine Orange-Olive Oil, Rose, Creme Bulle (BEST)

Over-all: 1st place!!!!

                   

Stop 3: Ladauree 

Flavors: Raspberry, Green Apple (2nd best), Chocolate

Over-all: 3rd place

Stop 4: Christophe-Roussel

Flavors: Pistachio Cherry, Lavender Apricot, Banana Chocolate

Over-all: 2nd place 

As of now, macaroons are definitely my favorite dessert of all time. Too bad I got so spoiled with it in Paris. None of the macaroons I tasted were bad, but Pierre-Hermes is definitely the best over-all quality. Ladauree is famous in name, but the macaroons weren't as good as I expected them to be. Their other pastries are more impressive, in my opinion. The rose-raspberry tart that Julie got was soooo gooood. Still, I definitely had to try it while I was here, just so I could say that I tried Ladauree. Now I know though that next time all my macaroons will come from Pierre-Hermes. 

Julia Roberts Problems

If you saw the movie Eat Pray Love, then hopefully you empathize with this post. For those who don't know, it stars Julia Roberts as this average, middle aged woman who goes through this mid-life crises and decides to travel the world to find herself. Julia Roberts, with her stunning smile and perfect wavy hair and beautiful boyfriends (uhhhh, James Franco?!) that aren't "good enough" for her -soooo relatable.
There is this particular scene where Julia Roberts is complaining about the food in Italy. The amazing-mouth-watering food she gets to eat everyday, because they are making her pants stretch out. What. There is an entire scene devoted to poor Julia Roberts not being able to fit into her tiny size 2 pants and having to buy new jeans. Boo, freaking hoo.

I am 99% sure that I am ballooning into the size of a killer whale with every hour I spend here (because they're all spent eating...), but I can honestly say I am enjoying every minute of it. You would think you'd get tired of pizza, pasta and gelato every day but honestly, you really don't. It's that good. Theme of Rome is officially "TREAT YO SELF."

Greek Life

Super delicious Greek dessert!!!

Picnic by the sea~

Too. much. yum. 

Orange cake from our favorite cafe!

General life in Athens takes its own slow tempo. Eleni told us how “Greeks enjoy their free time,” and at the end of our trip I can definitely say that Julie and I get it. Meals, for instance, easily last 2-3 hours. It isn’t about being slow eaters, but about taking the time to enjoy the meal and more importantly, the company. As a terrifyingly fast eater (imagine a raptor preying on baby dinosaurs and you pretty much have me at the dinner table) coming from a family of fast eaters, I’ve come to appreciate my meals in Athens. No one is rushing to get from point A to point B, rather everyone is enjoying the block of time that they have in between, when they aren’t working two jobs to make ends meet. I love it. I love that waiters do not rush you or passive aggressively clear your table to get you to leave. I love how dessert is offered for free. I love how kind owners will give you free desserts or free shots just because they are friendly (and during such an economically hard time). Oh, and on a side note, being vegetarian in Greece has been the best.

The same principles apply to café shops. After a few hours of walking around, Julie and I will pop into the nearest and cutest looking café to rest our legs and enjoy some tea. We’ll end up spending a couple hours in the same spot. Logistically, this life style may be more expensive if you add up how many cups of drinks you buy. And maybe on paper, it sounds like a humdrum way to live. But Julie and I both agreed that our time spent in Athens has been, albeit slower than Istanbul, pleasant in its own Athens-esque way. We made friends with the café workers at a place called Kimolia (chalk) Art Café (perhaps we are touristic “regulars”), ate traditional foods, met so many new friends by being super extroverted and friendly, and got to really learn how to enjoy our free time. It will be weird adjusting when we return to Berkeley, the land of Rush To the Library and Waste None Of The Time. I definitely do not miss that culture, where I feel like minutes of time spent with people are measured by how much time that could be spent “being productive.” I wish we had a culture that put more value in interactions, in setting side the time to thoroughly enjoy people’s presence and making simple gatherings very personal. But we will cross that bridge when we fly back to the States. 

Breakfast in Istanbul

I think breakfast is my favorite meal in Istanbul. Check out what a typical morning meal looks like, it is so delicious! You have strawberry and fig jam to put on your bread (it looks like the loafs you see Aladdin stealing in the Disney movie! I hope that isn’t racist…) Sun-dried olives, *eggs (scrambled with cheese or sunny side up with basil), three different types of cheese that you can put on your bread or eat whole (they all taste great with the olives in my opinion), peanut butter, nutella, this AMAZING hazelnut spread that is crunchy and so delicious, and a milky cream cheese butter spread (so good with the jam!). I may have survived the freshman 15 but the European 30 is coming on strong and fast. Can’t say I mind too much though…yum yum yum.