Excuses

This weekend was ridiculously cold and rainy in Málaga. (Well, when I say ridiculous, I mean ridiculous for Southern Spain.)

The sun came out for a minute for this picture. This is a reduced form of
puddle of death that forms outside my door, aka Lake Teatinos.

It's not usually cold and rainy here, so people don't really do much when it is. It is an awesome understanding that the whole city is in on: I don't go out, you don't go out, we don't go out, nobody gives anybody shit for it.

I had a weekend plan of going to the Oktoberfest downtown, drinking beer out of a huge jar, and hopefully adding to my drunken hat collection, now 3 hats strong! But, it rained. So I stayed in at José's house and we watched soccer.

Do I feel bad for not going out?

Nope. Because I'm pretty sure nobody else was there either.

So you're apartment hunting in Malaga...

Mazel Tov. You are one of the lucky people who will be auxiliaring in Malaga this year.

Out of a pure desire for blog traffic to help others I made a map of the neighborhoods of Malaga where auxiliares might want to apartment hunt. I hope this map increases the number of people who follow my blog helps future auxiliars in their search for a place to stay. You're welcome from the bottom of my cold, black heart.

Malaga Map

Note: I am not an expert at Malaga. This map is based on my own brilliant humble take on where are some good places to live. I welcome any suggestions in the comment section and will gladly call you an idiot who doesn't know anything take them into account.

Biznaga

A tribute to a symbol of Málaga: the biznaga.

This is much better than a single rose, or a cluster of baby's breath or a pair of blinking LED sunglasses; it's a biznaga.

Biznaga malagueña

A biznaga is a dried stalk of a plant that in the afternoon they put buds of jasmine flowers. Jasmine blooms at night, so in a few hours you have a stalk of beautiful white flowers that perfume the air wherever you go. They are sold by biznagueros in the city during the summer months and the flowers leave trails of scent down the alleys and streets like snails.

Biznaga malagueña

In addition to keeping mosquitos away and serving as a symbol of culture for the city, these flowers serve to remind you that there are malagueños who love you and will jump up during dinner and run to buy you flowers.