Spain Part 13 – Usando del Skype

 

Thanks to Trestin, my mom and I talked on skype on Thursday morning. My webcam was working, but the one that Mom bought needed to be rebooted. We still got to chat for a bit though, which was refreshing for me. I miss everyone at home. After I left the internet café I headed toward the jardines to find someplace to eat lunch. The jardín botánico was open so I walked around there for a bit before sitting down to eat my turkey and chorizo sandwich for almuerzo. The jardín is basically for orange trees, and it was really cool to see the baby orange trees that produce fruit, even though it’s too small to eat and would be extremely acidic. Plenty of pigeons hang around eating the oranges that have fallen off the trees. After almuerzo I walked around the town some more, enjoying the sunshine even though it was cooler outside than it has been in about the high 40s. I went to one of the local public libraries to get some tarea finished, and left there when it closed at 14,30 to go home. I kept plugging away at my tarea (I had 4 papers!) until pasapalabra, which Gloria won, again. She’s been on the show for about a week and a half now. We had ensalada and paella for la cena, which was really good. It was made with arroz al horno, which is yellow rice that you cook in the oven, and a lot of different vegetables, some like tomatoes and leeks that I recognized, and some, a black bean-tasting sort of vegetable, that I did not recognize. Alicia made our turkey and chorizo bocadillas for the next day while I finished my homework, and we went to bed after that.

On Friday I had classes again, which isn’t typical, but they have classes on Fridays when we miss a Monday or Tuesday for a holiday to catch up. Profesor Valle taught my economics class instead of Profesor Barranco because he and his wife just had a baby. Profesor Jesús is also about to have a baby, so he will be out for a while as well, though I have no idea who will teach our classes (I have two with him, a lit class and mass media) while he’s away. I got home just in time to watch pasapalabra after school, and then we had Grandpa soup (which is just chicken broth and noodles for those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about) and chicken and papas fritas. I really wanted some ketchup to go with my cena, but I didn’t know the word for ketchup. Alicia and I looked it up after la cena and apparently it’s just ketchup. We told Lucia that we would like it if she makes that dinner again so she went out and bought some for us on Saturday! She’s such a sweet lady.

On Saturday morning Alicia and I did tarea for a while before almuerzo, bocadillas again. We were planning on making it to the Plaza Ayuntamiento by 14,00 so that we could see the mascletá, which is basically a band playing and shooting off fireworks, but we got there a little late, so we fought the swarms of people, including the band members, heading away from the plaza. We met Amanda and Heather near the fountain, and then headed to la Plaza de la Reina to find a place where we could have chocolate caliente (not like our hot chocolate, it’s thicker, almost like fondue) and churros. The chocolotería did not make churros until after 16,00 so we ordered buñadas instead, which is like a big cinnamon roll bun thing (not really like a cinnamon roll, just the same shape) with powdered sugar on top and ate that with our chocolate instead. It was absolutely divine. I left the group for a bit and headed to the internet café to chat with Mom, and to my surprise G&G West were on the webcam too! It was really great to talk to all of them, and tell them firsthand about my time in Valencia. Mom said she’ll bring over different people from time to time to talk to me, which will be really great and definitely help to keep me from missing everyone so much.

I met up with the group again after that, and we headed over to the bus station to buy billetes (tickets) to Madrid for the next weekend. Yes friends, I will be spending the next weekend in Madrid, I cannot tell you how excited I am. Apparently Madrid is famous for their churros, but in other areas of Spain they don’t serve them as much, Alicia and I learned from our madre, which explained why we were unable to buy them in the Valor chocolatería. After comprando (buying) our billetes we headed to the Torres de Serrano to see a desfile (parade). The parade was in honor of the conquest of Valencia by San Jaime, so there were a lot of marching bands playing traditional Spanish war songs with drums and bugles. The people in the bands were of all ages, from niños barely old enough to play instruments all the way up to ancianos. After the marching bands came the chicas and chicos in traditional Spanish clothing, playing castenetas and dancing, then the men and women of the court (just dressed up people in royal clothing) and then the ganadora (winner) of their pageant. The last to come through was a young man playing San Jaime riding a horse. When the desfile was over Alicia and I headed home for pasapalabra and la cena. Gloria finally lost at pasapalabra, so we’ll get to see someone new playing for a change. We had leftover paella and ensalada for la cena, and Alicia and I went to bed muy temprano (very early) because we’d had a long day and our sickness was starting to kick back in.