1:34 am

Even though neither of them read this blog, thanks to Alex and Stuart for ringing my doorbell 3 times at 1 am.

Though usually I wouldn't appreciate it, today it was perfect. I'd been in bed thinking about how tonight is my last night sleeping in my apartment here in Estepa for close to an hour trying to fall asleep. And after trying to ignore the bell the first two times, I'm glad I decided to answer. Just dropping by to say good bye. I'm leaving for Rome tomorrow, and they'll be gone by the time I come back, so today's the last day we'll see each other for quite a long time. Apparently if I hadn't answered, they were planning to show up at the bus station in the morning for good bye hugs.

Here's to good pals.

A day of gastronomy and spelling

Yesterday I made zucchini bread (as usual.) I'm a little bored with always making the same thing, but since the first time I made it, my roommates haven't stopped bringing it up. They like it so much that I know at this point that if I make any other thing to share with them, the response will almost definitely be "This is good. But the zucchini bread is better!"

So since today there was a Concurso de Gastronomia (Cooking Contest) up at the adult English school in town, I figured zucchini bread was both quite American and a safe choice to bring. It ended up getting 2nd place in the "English/American dish" category. (There was a different category for the best French dish) Not bad for my first try, I think. :-)

Here's a picture of a few of the dishes. The woman in the picture is my friend Angela. She comes to the English conversation table on Thursdays and works at a mantecado factory in Estepa. Her carrot cake won 1st place for the "English/American dish" and rightly so. Delicious.


I'm very full and happy.


Also today at school we had the semifinals for the first annual CEIP Lope de Vega (name of the elementary school where I'm teaching) English Spelling Bee. It's fun to see all of the students nervous and excited and running up and looking at the lists of who won the previous rounds for the 5th, 10th, or 50th time this week during recess. Since we started the contest, I've been thinking about spelling, phonetics in Spanish vs English, and pronunciation of words way too much. But I don't mind.


Now it's time for Sevillana* class, maybe a Cruzcampo afterward, and the beginning of a 4-day weekend. Que bonita es esta vida....**





*What is Sevillana? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sevillanas

**Reference to a song I just got stuck in my head: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azAjn8jHt5Y

Especially after this year (living in Spain with a French girl and a Belgian girl), I find relations/stereotypes among Europeans and European countries interesting. So I find this map blog-worthy. Enjoy.

Source: http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displayStory.cfm?story_id=16003661