March 8

3-8
Today we went to Patricia’s house to cook Spanish dishes. We made tortilla de patata (Spanish tortilla, which is a kind of potato omelet), espinacas (spinach with onions, green pepper, raisins, and tomato), arroz con leche (rice with condensed milk, lemon, and sugar for dessert) and, of course, sangria. It was a lot of fun. We mostly chopped vegetables and stirred things, and Patricia’s neighbor did most of the “real” cooking, but we did get to help. There were 16 of us total, including Patricia’s husband and two sons, so everything was in mass quantities. We made three tortillas, I think; all bigger than a dinner plate. Probably about the size of a frozen pizza. You cook them like omelets in a fry pan and then when the time comes to flip it you put a flat lid on the pan, flip it upside down and then quick slide it back into the pan. It was rather impressive when Patricia’s husband did it; we gave him a round of applause. One of the ones we made was over an inch thick, but the others were probably only about a half inch. Everything was delicious. Well, the spinach was not so good. It was alright for a one time thing, but I don’t know if I would make it again. Maybe without the raisins. They gave it a weird sweet taste. Patricia is going to send us the recipes for everything we made (in quantities for 4 instead of 16, and with American measurements!) so I can make it for people in the States! We also had cheese slices and three kinds of sausage, including blood sausage which was actually quite good, and sliced ham. Delicious! We ate an entire platter of meat and cheese before lunch because we were all hungry, and then there was another platter during the meal. We ate for probably 3 hours between the pre-meal snacking and the very long, multi-course meal. Which, of course, is very Spanish. Their meals tend to be very long, social occasions. It was fun to get together with the AYA group again. We actually talked in Spanish most of the time this time because the neighbor and her husband and kids were there. The kids speak English, and I think the other two know some, but mostly it was Spanish. We sat and talked for a long time after we finished eating, too. We got there a little after noon and didn’t leave until 6!
When I got home I talked to my parents for about an hour and a half. It was a different time of day than normal, and a little longer than usual because I hadn’t talked to them for two weeks. When I was done and I brought the phone back, Rosaura told me that I can’t talk that long because she was waiting for a call from her daughter who usually called then because that was when her baby went to bed and she could only call on Saturdays and Sundays because she had work and yadda yadda yadda (as if I could talk to my parents who are 7 hours away at any time I please). First of all, I understand that she wanted to talk to her daughter. But I felt like she was giving me one of those classic Rosaura scoldings where I should feel terrible and never do it again type thing. I don’t know if that was her intention, but it felt like it. I was upset at her for tarnishing my good mood, but I tried to just let it roll off. I wasn’t going to let her make me feel bad! But I think in the future we’d better keep to our normal time frame on Sunday nights.
Well, that’s all folks!
Bethany