I have finally arrived home after having one of the best times to date in Spain.
Sometimes I feel like the life I am living is unreal. Some of the events that have occurred in my travels throughout Europe have felt like they were out of a movie. Today/tonight has been one of them.
Let me take a moment to reiterate again... I have been out and about for the last 7 hours. A lot of wine has been consumed. A lot of karaoke has been sung. And I body is still in a food coma. I apologize in advance for any and all grammar mistakes (MOTHER).
Back to today...
Today started out as any normal day. It was the last "real" day of school before break. Tomorrow is the Christmas fiesta in the school where the students sing and the parents come watch etc. I finally finished all of the door decorations and projects for Christmas with my students. I watched Frosty the Snowman four different times. And to add some spice to the day, the teachers and I drank shots of "Rosolli" during the break. Nope, I'm not lying when I say all of the teachers drank alcohol at the school. To be fair, it was homemade so I had to try it. And you can only find it in Priego. And it's a liquor with coffee in it, and being that I love coffee, I really needed to try it. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Spain.
I'm sure some of my readers are still gasping at the fact that I drank while I was working. To Spain, this is normal. It is about as normal as drinking a cup of coffee while you are instructing your students. To the Spanish, this is absurd since coffee to go in unheard of. Each country has its differences when it comes to certain matters.
Today was also the day of our School Christmas lunch. We were to meet at 3:00 pm at a very well known restaurant in Priego. A lot of people have told me that I needed to eat at this place because the food (and the view) are to die for. However, being that the restaurant is kind of expensive, and it's not a place where eating alone is typical, I held off. When I was informed that our lunch would take place here, I was ecstatic.
Anyway, I arrived at 3:00 pm along with the 1st grade teacher. We headed inside together and downstairs to our table where we kicked off the lunch with a wine glass full of beer. (Classy, I know). The rest of the teachers soon followed and joined us. As always, I will give you a run down of the food we ate because I want your mind to be blown just like mine is every single time when I eat a Spanish lunch:
STARTER: Beer, cheese, meat assortment, olives, potato chips, and bread
1st PLATE: Shrimp wrapped in eggplant drizzled in balsalmic with crumbled walnuts on top. (SO GOOD!) And of course more beer.
2nd PLATE: No idea. But it was delicious. The dish consisted of I think scrambled eggs, chopped vegetables, and stringy things that looked like gray spaghetti but were only an inch long. I'm pretty sure it was some sort of seafood, but I have no idea what. Beer and white wine to drink.
3rd PLATE: Fried eggplant (maybe??) with honey and balsamic drizzled all over. (Another typical dish of Spain that I thoroughly enjoy.) More white wine
MAIN DISH: Baclaou (no idea how to spell it but it's some sort of fish with a tomato like sauce drizzled all over), with potatoes, and a nice double fisting of white and red wine to drink.
DESSERT: Ice cream with some sort of cinnamon tart and more red wine.
LASTLY: The night wouldn't be complete without a shot of some sort of caramel liquor. I was also asked to give a toast.
Anyway, throughout the meal, I held my own speaking Spanish. (Another great triumph) The conversation was consistently full of laughs. There were other schools eating at this restaurant as well, so I socialized with them too. One lady ended up being my friend Sara's Aunt.
After eating our main dish, one school broke out a guitar and started playing it in the middle of the restaurant. Keep in mind, this is a pretty nice restaurant. If this had happened any where else, that person would have been kicked out of the place. But instead everyone joined in and sang Spanish Christmas carols. And before I knew it, a clarinet also appeared and joined the guitar. Soon, I was invited to that School's table to sing songs in English with them. (As always, I truly stand out as an American because of my looks here.)
As fun as it was standing in the middle of the restaurant singing British Christmas carols I didn't know, I couldn't avoid the fact that everyone was looking at me. And I really wished I had showered today. Along with wearing a different outfit.... But oh well.
Spain loves to cheer to things. So throughout the night several cheers were made including one to the state of New Jersey. Woooo.
We also did a gift exchange. I was told in advance to buy a present for three euros (about $5.00). After much debate, I decided to go the creative route and hoped that the Spanish would appreciate it. I settled on a roll of toilet paper which I decorated with two googly eyes, an orange triangle, and five black dots to make him look like Frosty the Snowman. I also added a water bottle in which I had changed the label to say "Melted Snowman." And because getting a roll of toilet paper and a bottle of water sucks for a gift, I threw in two chocolate bars so the person could somewhat enjoy the gift. I was the first to pick a present out of the bag. I ended up picking a very nice carved, wooden, jewelry box. However, my favorite gift of the night was a bag of about 15 garlic's that someone ended up picking. Just imagine getting a present of just garlic. It was totally random and also extremely funny.
After eating, we headed further down into the restaurant to the basement where there was a karaoke bar. Tonight I realized how much karaoke sucks when you don't know any of the songs. But it was still fun. The highlight of the kareoke was when a "Grease" remix came on. Singing along with the Spanish to "Summer Lovin" was hilarious. Mostly because it was so incredibly random. I also noticed that everyone, no matter what they're age, was acting as if they were in their 20's having the time of their life. The Spanish truly know how to have fun. Lastly, before calling it quits for the night, the song "Macarena" came on. We are all familiar with this famous 90's song. Maybe it is because it came out when I was in 2nd grade or maybe I'm just really naive, but I had no idea the song was Spanish. And boy have I been singing it wrong!
Lunch started at 3:00. I finally arrived home around 10:00. Talk about a typical Spanish lunch. And I loved every single second of it.
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