Bob Loblaw Law Blog

1/17/09

Chessie and I got up at like 1:00 today, but I justify it by how tiring our week was. (Thea had gotten up early to walk around Barcelona with Miquel, her Spanish chico). We had planned to meet for lunch at 2:30 so we just got ready and left. We met up with Thea, Kelly and Meg at ‘La Rosa Negra,’ a Mexican place we had heard about. We had some good burritos and a leisurely Spanish lunch. Everything is much slower here. When you go out to eat, most people stay for a long time just sitting at the table. And also you always have to ask for the check to be brought to you, it’s not put down right at the end of the meal. Everything just seems a lot more calm, as opposed to the rush you usually see in Chicago, or any other big city in the U.S. Something else that is weird is that juice, pop and water are all the same price, and a beer is only like 10 cents more. Which is also bad news because how am I ‘sposed to drink water when I can get some nice jugo for the same price?! They don’t give you a glass of water, only bottles. There was a drought here a while back and they had restrictions on how much water they could use… but they DO hose down all the sidewalks downtown at night. Personally I’d rather walk on a little grime and be able to get a glass o’ water or take a leisurely shower, but that’s just me.  Also the tap water doesn’t taste very good in most parts. In our house it’s ok, but we still use a Brita pitcher.

After lunch the girls wanted to go to the chocolate museum, but I came home so that I could try to Skype with my family… which only half worked because they could see and hear me but I couldn’t see or hear them. Technical difficulties, they will be worked out.

We have discovered that Antonia’s cooking, while good, has two main ingredients that are: salt and oil. Tonight we had salty chicken and oily French fries. However, she DOES understand that Chessie is a vegetarian so Chessie had an omelet that I wished was mine.

 After dinner Antonia wanted to see pictures of our families and cities, so one by one we sat and talked with her. I went last and ended up talking to her, and her son who had stopped by, for quite a long time. I told them about my weaknesses in Spanish but Antonia told me she thinks that I am better than I think I am at the language. She said that I understand a lot more than her other students. I told her I could understand very well, but I can’t speak very well. Her son reassured me that little by little, being here would help me improve a lot. We talked about the importance of experiencing new places and cultures, about cities and countries I want to see, about the students she has had in the past; overall it was really nice being able to get to know her a little better. Oh, and I also showed her a picture of Andre because he looks SO MUCH like her son. They both agreed, and her son now calls Andre his Brazilian brother. Har har, I now have an inside joke with the Garcias.
It was Matt’s birthday so we decided to go out and celebrate with him, Shane, Brett, Meg, Kelly and 2 of Chessie’s college friend’s Chris and Justin. We tried going a couple different places we had heard about, but they were all crowded with Americans. Finally we ended up going to this little place we found that was mostly Spaniards, and we got a table for all of us and shared some Sangria. Justin and Chris were hilarious telling us about they’re living situation. Their senora is not the best, she cooks herself a nice dinner and feeds them boxed meals. I think we’re pretty lucky with our homestay sitch