J. R. R. Tolkien was here.

Brad again. Wait! Don’t go! I know I’m not as funny as Neely, but she keeps bugging me to write again. So here I am. I’ll understand if you feel the urge to nap while reading; happens to my students too.



I don’t know how many of you read/saw Lord of the Rings, but at one point, two of the little hobbits lament the fact that some of the others in their group haven’t heard of “second breakfast.” Well, the Spaniards certainly have. I have my “second breakfast” here everyday, and it is one of the great joys of living in Spain.

Now, let’s all be clear: I never skip first breakfast. But coffee and a few cookies at dawn doesn’t last long, and all that sixteenth-century handwriting really works up an appetite. And everyone knows that you can’t get lunch in Spain until 2:00 or 3:00 pm. So what do you do when you’re in the archive around 10:30 or 11:00 and you’re hungry? You go have breakfast (again).

And you’re not alone. No, no. Spain is a social place.

When I first got here, I only knew one person to go have second breakfast with: Rob (he also has a Fulbright and studies colonial Mexico). But then we met a professor from Virginia, and she started going with us. And then we had a breakthrough—we met a Spaniard. This Spaniard (Juan) is a grad student in the US but also a native of Sevilla. He’s very well connected. Through him, we’ve met almost everyone that’s been in the archive for any length of time at all. And we all go have second breakfast together nearly everyday.

We’re quite a diverse group. There are the three Americans that I’ve mentioned, plus two Frenchies, a Mexican or two, a Moroccan, two more Americans (Californians, if you can believe it), and a handful of Spaniards (Basques, Andaluces, Valencianos, etc.). We’re like the United Nations of the Archive. We conduct all of our official business in Castilian Spanish, but everyone reserves the right to the occasional outburst in his or her native tongue, be it French, English, Arabic, or heavily-accented Andalucian Spanish.



One of the first international disturbances in our miniature League of Nations was the choice of restaurant. It is widely known that there is a very good coffee shop around the corner, behind the archive, called La Rayuela. The toast and coffee is delicious and cheap, the service is friendly and efficient, and there are no tourists (even though, like in Lord of the Rings, most tourists have never heard of second breakfast). Why one would want to go anywhere else is beyond me. But some of the Spaniards thought that a little touristy cafe right next door to the archive would be better, even though the service is awful and they give you less food for higher prices! After a couple of days of this, the American delegation pushed (successfully) for a return to the Rayuela. Thank goodness.

The Rayuela is typical of many Spanish coffee shops. The toast that I’ve mentioned is almost the only thing that they serve. But oh, the stuff they put on top of it! You can get olive oil if you’re feeling healthy, and maybe crushed tomatoes. Or some butter and jelly. Or . . . and this is my favorite . . . HAM. Not any of that boiled stuff either (though it is available if you want it), but good ol’ cured SERRANO HAM. If you’re feeling really decadent, you can even get ham pâté. Spain is amazing.

Viva second breakfast.