Thanksgiving

Thursday

The English teachers I work within Badajoz invited me to celebrate Thanksgiving with them, but November 25 was Dia del Maestros for teachers at primary schools. I was in Valverde de Leganes this week and was invited to eat la comida (lunch) with them. I was told that many teachers dressed up for this day and that after the first break classes were done for the day and that the students would have a party and play games for the rest of the day. 

I spent the day with 6 A y B. They drank lots of caffeine free coke and fanta, ate lots of chips and sunflower seeds and were really joyous. It was interesting to see the differences in party foods between parties I went to as a child and the party here. The only sweets they got were some gummy candies passed out to them by the teachers. Each student got one of each type of gummy candy, a long sour gummy (like sour patch) and a gummy shaped like a bottle. After everyone was done eating, we cleaned up and played musical chairs where two people would be eliminated every so that the game would finish faster and all of the kids got a chance to play. After musical chairs the children started singing while clapping "Queremos que (insert name of teacher here) baile la pelusa. Pelusa por aquí, pelusa por allá, pelusa por delante, pelusa por detrás!" When they sang por aquí, you moved both your arms to the left in a wavy motion almost like you were trying to hula dance, then to the right (por allá), then in front of you (por delante), and then behind you (por detrás). After you did all the motions, they clapped and cheered and then began again. The teachers took a lot of pictures of the celebration and the children also received their class photos from the previous year on this day.

The lunch for the teachers did not begin until 3:30pm and school ends at 2:30pm, so we carpooled to the bar in town to have a drink. The majority of the teachers drank coca cola for the caffeine and sugar. While the rest drank canas (a small glass of beer). The hour passed by quickly and we returned to the school. The tables were set up with table cloths, small bottles of soda and beer, large bottles of water, and buckets filled with ice and four bottles of different types of wine. We ate bacalao dorado, fried shrimp and other fried seafood as appetizers. Then we got a plate with queso roquefort, jamon iberico, and peeled, cooked cherry tomatoes; it was so rich. After that dish, we got a choice of soup, either chicken broth or a creamy squash soup with seafood. I had the squash soup and loved it. They then brought out sorbet, a cold lemon-lime drink. They then brought out the main course, which was pork tenderloin with a gravy, cooked red peppers, and freshly fried potato chips. I could hardly eat any of it, I was already so full. Then we were served dessert. I didn't take any because I knew I wouldn't be able to eat any of it. We were at the school until 6pm.

Friday

We had so much food.

The other auxiliares and I celebrated Thanksgiving on Friday night at my piso. Simon and Catherine (neither of them are from the US) made the 7 kilo turkey and gravy. Morgan made an appetizer with brie, raspberry jelly and almonds, wisconsin potatoes, and a spicy apple blueberry crunch dessert. Stephanie made mac and cheese and the best chocolate and carmel brownies. Ariela made mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and brought cranberry sauce. Meredith made the most delicious sweet potato souffle as well as an appetizer that was pizza-like with asparagus. Marta brought a pasta salad, Attilio brought two fresh salads, one with tuna and the other with mozzarella. I made an apple pie and pumpkin pies. Some people invited their roommates and we had a total of 18 people celebrating. Almost every person brought a bottle of wine. Two of my roommates were in town and were going to make tortilla espanola, but when they saw how much food there was, they realized we didn't need the tortillas. We started eating at 9pm and left by midnight.

Roomies minus Barbara. Me, Monica and Maria. 

Sevilla

Sorry for the delay of posting this, it was written over a month ago. Yikes!

Ahh Sevilla, what a beautiful city! The bus ride to Sevilla was just under 3 hours, but just under I mean 2 hours 45 minutes. I fell asleep for part of the ride, but from what I saw, it was a very scenic ride with lots of mountains.  We arrived in Sevilla around 1pm and it was so warm that people were sunbathing near the river. There were also many people kayaking and biking. When we stepped outside of the bus station and were trying to figure out which street would take us to our hostel, there were at least 10 people on bikes that zoomed passed us in the bike lane. Okay, so 10 people riding bikes is not that many to see, but the few I've seen in Badajoz wear professional biking gear while biking on the highway.

While we were walking to our hostel, it was clear we were far from Badajoz and in a real city (Sevilla is the third largest city in Spain). The hostels we stayed at was a 15 minute walk from the bus station and our walk was filled with views of people shopping, hanging out in various parks and eating outside. There were multiple Burger Kings, McDonald's and Starbuck's. We ventured into the old part of town and walked through a maze of streets that were filled with clothing and shoe stores. There were so may great looking shoes, we all just wanted to shop,shop,shop! haha. But we didn't. Instead we walked around to see the Cathedral and Alcazar Real and the city during the afternoon and evening.

 After dark, we took a walk by the river and stopped at a small bar to have a beer. Some people tried something that said "vino de naranja" which turned out to be red wine with Triple Sec - not at all what they were expecting. haha.

We waited too long before deciding to eat dinner, so we were getting grumpy because all of the restaurants were full around 10:30pm. We saw a restaurant that wasn't too busy but looked a little pricey (we could tell it was a nice restaurant because the chairs that were outside had seat covers) and immediately sat down. We ordered 4 racionces, but quickly found out that was not enough food for 8 people. We must've looked crazy because we inhaled the food as soon as they brought it to the table. They also watched us and took the plates away shortly after we finished eating. The bill came to about 10€ per person, which is way more than we had wanted to pay for dinner, so we were unhappy and left quickly. Being so unsatisfied with our dinner, we stopped at a pizza place next to the hostel. They had a deal where you could get a giant slice of pizza, a soda, french fries and ice cream for something like 4.50€, so four of us got it. We ate on the roof of the hostel and met an Australian guy who has been traveling the world since January. We then had a few drinks and went to a giant discoteca where we danced until 4am.

Though we all stayed up late, we were ready to explore the city around 11am. We ate breakfast in the hostel and then went to see the cathedral. Colombus' grave was inside the cathedral. que guay! Also, there is a tower you can walk up and the view of Sevilla is fantastic from the top. The tower did not have stairs, but had a series of ramps so that soldiers could get up to the tower with their horses!

We went to a cute and busy restaurant for lunch. There were people waiting outside in the street for their names to be called. At this place, you give them your name and the size of your party and you wait. We enjoyed some wine while waiting and just before they called Simon's name (my party) I saw a friend from Beloit walking down the same street as the restaurant. Que casualidad! We had taken a Spanish class on 19th Century Spanish and Puerto Rican Literature. We exchanged numbers and Joanna told me that another Beloiter was in Sevilla for the weekend. She said they were going to meet up later for tapas and asked if I'd like to meet up with them. Of course I said yes. While I was talking with her Simon's name was called, so we said goodbye and entered the restaurant. The food there was so good!! I ordered a tapa of stuffed eggplant and solomillo cooked in whiskey sauce with garlic. There was so much garlic and the meat was the perfect size. With a bottle of wine, our meal came to about 5 € a person. We were much more satisfied with this meal than we were with our dinner from the night before.


After lunch, we went to Alcazar Real, but not everyone had their TIEs to show that we were students. It's free for students and costs 4€ otherwise. Catherine, Sally and Stephanie stayed to explore it, while the rest of us vowed to come back after we got our IDs. We went to H&M and then went back to the hostel for a siesta.

Me, Joanna, and Aaron.We just happened to be in height order. 

 I met up with Joanna around 6:15pm and then we went to Aaron's hotel. We walked for a good 20 minutes and ended up 5 minutes north of where I was staying. However, we took a different route to get there, which was filled with cute restaurants and shops. It was fun seeing Joanna and Aaron again. Joanna is also working as an English Language and Culture assistant like me, but she applied through CIEE, not the Spanish government. She's working in a small town an hour west of Sevilla. Aaron is studying abroad in Alicante and his group took a trip to Sevilla for the weekend. We walked around the city with some of Aaron's friends looking for a churreria.

By the time we found one it was close to 9pm and I had to go meet up with my friends at the hostel. I thought we were going to an Indian restaurant, but everyone decided to eat the Moroccan food they made at the hostel. I got there too late though, so there was not enough food for Catherine or me. We went to a restaurant down the street and ate some paella, bacalao dorado, and fried eggplant with honey. It was delcious!

I don't know when I'll go back to Sevilla, but I'm excited to return.