2/13/10

First Carnaval celebration tonight!

First costume: Rainbow.

Town: Aviles, which is about a half hour away by bus.

Abigail, Joelle, and I are going to leave Oviedo by bus around 4 PM, and then hopefully leave on one of the last buses tonight.  If we miss that bus, then we will have to wait until 6 or 7 AM tomorrow to get back, and that doesn't sound like much fun.

Everyone loved our Mac N Cheese and banana/peach/ 7 UP punch last night at the international buffet.  There was just enough of each at the end of the dinner for my padres to have some if they wanted to try.  My padre can't have too much because of his diabetes.

There were foods from the Dominican Republic, Central America, and from all over Spain.  Someone even brought sidra, but I just stayed away from that.  I'm pretty sure no one drank it.  The foods varied from snacks to tapas (like hors d'oeuvres) to main dishes to desserts.  There was the famous tortilla española, our Mac N Cheese, pizza, a kind of fruit salad, pasta salad, a cross between a pancake and lefse, cookie-esque things with cocunut on the edges, a bowl of olives, and lots of other things.  I love the tortilla española, because it's fairly easy to make, I think, and the ingredients consist of potatoes, onions, potatoes, eggs, and more potatoes.  Did I mention it's made with potatoes?  :-)

I kinda wanted to bring the remainders of my bag of pretzels Mom sent (thanks so much!) but Abigail and Joelle shot down that idea pretty quick.

Speaking of Abigail, her mom is coming in next weekend, I think, and she has offered to bring some things back to the U.S. for me.  Since the sidra is a no-no on an airplane, I'm still going to send it by mail, and if it's possible, will send back my ceramics and box I got from Málaga.

Last weekend at the market I got both volumes of Don Quijote, unabridged, for a euro apiece.  They are even kinda fancy books, and not in too bad a shape for being bought at the market.  The only issue is that they are in Spanish, but it doesn't matter, because I'm going to be a Spanish teacher.  I'm thinking I'll pull excerpts for my future students to practice reading/translating/speaking.

I think I've been lying down on the job when it comes to photo taking.  Joelle was talking with a former Spanish teacher, who suggested to her to take photos of EVERYTHING, from food, to street signs, to people and buildings.  If I did that, I'd already have over a thousand pictures, and if a picture's worth a thousand words...

Well, it's time for lunch!  Hasta la vista!