martes, 21 de mayo

The 21st began with Jen y yo trying to fall asleep, but our lovely Spanish song "sin ti no soy nada" was stuck in our heads.  So of course I had to belt out my beautiful singing voice as we laughed ourselves to sleep.  Once we finally made it out of bed we dined on fine toast and peanut butter...again and then headed off to school.  We had a normal class schedule again that started with the entire group together for "Spanish" class which really only consists of us singing songs and discussing our "preguntas del dia."  We then broke up into our Spanish classes by levels and had class.  I was overjoyed when I got my first pregunta del dia and diario back with 100s on them! The native Spanish professor at the Institute was the one to grade them and she even wrote "buen espanol!"  I can't say enough how gratifying it feels to hear that from a native. 

When classes ended we returned home for lunch with Gemma, Jamel, y su amigo Micheal again.  Micheal is a really good chef but the food he had been making was a little outside our comfort zone the past couple times so we were nervous and scared to see what was going to be served this go round.  When we walked into the living room to eat I first saw a giant dish of paella...and feeling sick to my stomach quickly set in since paella usually consists of full bodied craw fish or even sometimes rabbit.  Thankfully as soon as we approached the table Jamel told us it was an all vegetable paella!  Gracias a dios! To my surprise and I'm sure everyone else, I actually liked it a lot and ate all the carrots, tomatoes, and artichokes that were on my plate.  For dessert Jamel cut up fresh strawberries and served them with creme and sugar.  Once again to everyone's surprise I finallyyyy tried strawberries...and yes I really liked them :)

Paella de verduras

Fresas!

After lunch Jen and I decided to work on some homework before resting and going back out to look around.  I still don't know why we always tell ourselves we want to get a lot of work done because we always end up procrastinating anyways.  We ended up catching up on some much needed sleep and when we woke up we decided to put off our work a little longer and go walk around.  We checked out a few of the cute shops below our apartment and I bought a nice dress and Jen got a very cute shirt.  After a few more stores we stopped for cafe con leche at the market across our house before heading back home.

After our long day we finally sat down to get some work done while we waited for dinner to be ready.  As we heard dinner being prepared we kept giggling to ourselves of what it was going to be.  Jen saw potatoes out earlier and I heard eggs being beaten so our minds were running a mile a minute thinking of the possibilities for dinner.  When we walked in the kitchen when it was all done neither of us have been more excited to see croquetas, mashed potatoes, bread, and peas on the table.  A croqueta is a little fried ball of usually chicken or ham.  Our mama made them homemade!  She cooked down a ton of vegis and chicken in water for 5-6 hours the day before and after it cooled she blended it all together, added a little flour, and breaded them as we would chicken cutlets.  You then place them in oil to fry and serve.  Jen and I grubbed on croquetas and they were easily the best I have ever had! And we finally learned what Jamel's job is.  He wasn't at dinner so we asked where he was and he is working with a company refurbishing a house in Peniscola.  Que guay!

When dinner was done we returned to finally finish our homework and try to get to bed at a decent hour.  We have an exciting day ahead of us tomorrow and can't wait to tell you all about it later! Adios!