El sombrero más guapo/A most handsome-looking hat

Since I returned from my hiatus in Africa I´ve taken to wearing a new hat I bought earlier this summer.  It´s origin is from Ecuador, where authentic versions are manufactured, though the style itself was made famous by Theodore Roosevelt when he wore one in a strategic photo op for the Panama Canal construction in the early 1900´s -- hence the name, Panama hat.  But what delights me most about my new favorite accessory is not the casual, breezy feeling I immediately assume whenever I don it, but rather the inevitable comments I receive from a very particular demographic of Andalusian men.

Allow me to be frank.  I do happen to find Spanish men to be attractive.  But what sets apart these men is that they are almost always of a certain age; I´m sure you know the type.  Slicked back salt-and-pepper hair or most likely balding, they are the kind who walk with a deliberate stride clasping their hands behind their backs.  They are almost always seen in groups of three or more -- never alone -- and are either hanging outside the local bar in the middle of the day (of which, Andalucia has many), cerveza and smoke in hand, or they are walking to the next local bar down the street. 

Ordinarily I most certainly would find their boisterous, overt comments rather forward and borderline offensive, but when I´m wearing my new Panama hat, the comments turn somehow endearing.  More about the hat as an object of admiration rather than the random cat-call from a complete stranger.  ¡Qué arte!, or ¨What style!¨ they say as I walk the narrow streets of Cádiz.  Yesterday one man caught me in mid-stride and bellowed, ¨El sombrero más guapo!¨  A most handsome-looking hat!  Even the man behind me in the supermarket line mumbled something to me as I was paying for my groceries.  In truth I have no idea what he said, but I distinctly heard the word sombrero, so I looked him in the eye, smiled and said, ¡Graciaaa! in my best Andaluz.

Yes, I realize these men are generous with the compliments because they either have the exact same hat hanging on their hat rack back at home or have misplaced theirs at the last feria or Carnaval.  More a nod to their own taste than an honest form of flattery.  But a little recognition, when given on the right occassion such as wearing a smart hat, even if it is only in the spirit of comradery, is welcome and most definitely appreciated.

Tinto de Verano/Red of Summer (a Spanish wine cocktail, much like sangria)

Where did the summer go?  Though the weather in Cádiz brims of comfortably warm days that melt into just a hint of evening cool where a jacket is optional, the summer appears to be slipping further and further away like the end-of-the-week glimpse of a favorite beach house rental as seen from the rearview mirror.  A sensation which, for the moment, causes me to pause and ponder the question:  What did you do over the summer?  Such a simple question, yet I find I want my responses to be more profound, more meaningful than they really are, like I actually DID something worthwhile to help change the world in a positive way somehow.  In the end, I really just had fun this summer, kind of like when that was all that was expected of me when I was a kid.  Really, I can think of worse predicaments to be in. 

And so here it is, my list of what I did this summer, by yours truly:

1. I fell in love.  Once or twice, at least.
2. I cut my hair.  A woman knows when it´s time.  It was.
3. I traveled to a part of the world I´d never dreamed I´d get to know.  Four countries in East Africa, each one teaching me something exciting, haunting and new about humanity and about myself.
4. I officially dropped out of my grad school program, though I absolutely accomplished the two main goals I had set for myself in coming here for an immersion experience:  to learn to speak Spanish and to experience the Spanish culture.
5. I discovered a renewed passion for my old day job, though I´m learning that perhaps part-time work is more suited to me.
6. I smoked a little, I drank a lot.  Always in good company, even if I just felt like enjoying a cold one on my own.
7. I did not finish reading any one book in particular.
8. I golfed for the first time in over three years.
9. I lost myself in Venice.
10. I had fun.