Living!
It's so good to be back in Spain. For some reason, to be pondered more thoroughly, it seems that people live their lives more fully here. Que disfrustan mucho. I'm going to take note and see if we can't import some of the lessons learned back to the U.S.
Monday night, Suffolk University had a welcome dinner for us at Casa Mingo, 34 Paseo de La Florida, and we ate and drank and ate and drank until we nearly burst. First, the wait staff, all men, brought out plates of ham and bottles of cold sidra, cider, which Bruno nicknamed apple juice. Then they brought out plates of jamon serrano, followed by plates of torilla espanola and plates of chorizo. Meanwhile, the sidra kept flowing. Then black olives, two types of cheese, bread, and finally the roasted chicken the restaurant is famous for cooking. We ate outside on the veranda upstairs. There was no way we were going to be able to eat everything they put before us, although we tried valiantly, so I asked the waiter what they were going to do with the leftovers. He said they were going to throw them out, and I said, "Please don't do that. I have lots of hungry students. May we have doggy bags?" The waiter said that in Spain, there's a dicho that says los ninos y los borrachos, children and drunks, tell the truth. One day a father had taken his family to the restaurant. There was lots of leftover food, and the father asked to have it wrapped up to bring home to their dog. The man's child said, "Anda Papi! Nos va a comprar un perro?" Translation> All right, Papi! You're going to buy us a dog? After all that food, they brough out dessert, una tarta. It looked like cheescake, but it was more like a cream pie flavored with apple. It was delicious. At the table, we spoke about our favorite things so far. Comments ranged from the way the Spaniards converse with one another in a very animated way, to "El Rastro," the fleamarket, to Chueca, a neighborhood in Spain. The bottom line is that everyone seems to be having a great time. I don't think a month is going to be long enough!
We didn't leave until close to midnight, which means we didn't get home until late, and we (me, Blair and Aedan) had made plans to meet with my Spanish "sister" Silvia to attend the elementary school where she teaches. We left our apartment at 7.30 a.m. and rode the Metro to El Duque Pastrano stop. We loaded into Silvia's car, and she took us to her school, which isn't far from Madrid's Barajas Airport. The school is only two years old, and the "theme" for the year is "The Middle Ages," so the whole school was decorated with castles, knights, and princesses. Silvia teaches English as a "special" class, like art, music or PE. Aedan attended class with the seven year olds, and they seemed to be fascinated by "La Americana de Texas". Aedan seemed to be able to hold her own in Spanish, even with the new Castillian accent. It was a great experience. Blair and I walked to the downtown park to hang out and write postcards. There were some cool birds in the park we'd never seen before. One looked almost like a goldfinch, but it was the size of a sparrow. We left the school at 1 p.m. with Silvia, and she took us to her home, a very nice apartment, which they recently rennovated. We had lunch (cerdo/pork) there, and enjoyed an extended visit. Silvia dropped us back off at the Metro after taking her children, Andres y Carmen, to English classes. When we got back to our place, Aedan and I went for a walk around our neighborhood. We stopped into a libreria (bookstore) and bought a book in Spanish for Aedan called "Drama Queen: Yo quiero un perro!" A very appropriate title for Aedan! She's reading it to me at night before I read book four in the "Borrower's" series to her.
Got to run! We promised Aedan she could do what she wanted today after going to school yesterday!
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