The past week has been yet another reality check; it’s
bittersweet. Sometimes I miss my family & friends and it’s like “ummm…you’re
at the beginning…and there’s facebook & emails” and sometimes I just want
to live at the Mercado de Abastos (fresh fruit, fish, meat and spice market)
where y’all can just come to me! My classes are going well, and if I ever
considered teaching as a career well then I’m getting great exposure to all
grade levels because I was assigned to 1st-6th graders.
My tutoring gigs started up this week so we’ll see how THAT goes… This weekend
was my first weekend out of town and what better way to kick off the trips than
with Cadiz! We have some really great friends there already and the map wasn’t
too hard to figure out…the actual map, no GPS within reach. I’m cooking with an
oven (and mystery dials) every day, USING A MAP, walking everywhere (I miss
driving my car so much but I have no desire to drive here because pedestrians
are like Frogger), and researching more life directions. This weekend sparked
an interest in freelance translating so we’ll see where that leads…
On Saturday morning, Jaclyn and I took a 30 minute bus out
of Chiclana to visit our friends. The girls and I visited a tower with one of
eight obscure cameras in the entire world, so our view of Cadiz was magnified and
placed on a whole new level of understanding. We then had a beautiful
vegetarian lunch made at home and walked to have tinto de verano (red wine
mixed with a lemon-y drink) by the beach. As usual, there were a few
photographers and brides embracing the stunning views. We ended up back at the
girls’ piso that evening for another incredible dinner that I can’t even
describe (at a loss for word at how many fresh ingredients can go into any meal
and on that note, the variety of it! Sweet potato hash with assorted roasted
peppers: YES) and a night out on the town. A “botellon” is the word for
drinking out on the streets and that is everywhere you turn…and there is no set
curfew for it all. Some bars close at 3 am, other open at that hour and it’s
perfectly normal for someone to go home at 7 am from their night. Julia and I
made it to 5 am but the majority of that was spent walking the alleys and
talking to friends we ran into. It wasn’t a wild night and I certainly don’t
expect to have any of those here but it added to the experience and I felt
safe.
In the midst of it all, we booked a trip to Italy this past weekend!
We fly into Milan on October 29th and fly out of Rome on November 2nd,
so thanks to Spain’s holidays...no school…a dream is seriously being fulfilled
here!!! I just didn’t expect it to be the first thing off the list J!!!
We spent Sunday morning searching for “churros con chocolate”
which are essentially fried dough with thick chocolate sauce but to no avail so
we settled for a French bistro (breakfast is usually just toast with olive oil and
fresh tomato puree paired with a café con leche, alongside variations of adding
meat to your dish or zumo which is unbelievably fresh fruit juice) and let the
coma kick in for the rest of the day…and caught up on Glee episodes.
I’m currently enjoying my Monday, since school is
Tuesdays-Friday. This morning I picked up groceries in the Mercado with the
adorable strawberry bag Mandy got me, stocked up on Andalucia’s spices and a
steak to continue these culinary adventures, and am now starting to prepare for
my first tutoring lesson tomorrow at 4 pm.
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