Monday, November 26, 2007

Que No Te Enteras, Que La Vida No Es Una Carrera

Ok so Friday. I had called Carmina earlier to see if she was really coming or not. She was, but since she had been gone for about 2.5 weeks thought it would be better to just catch up and teach the class all by herlself. I agreed wholeheartedly. I slept in a little, woke up, read and prepared the lesson I had that day and went for a run. Then I went and shopped around for some ingredients I needed to make my Wild Mushroom Fajita Gravy. I ate breakfast, then I showered and got ready and did my hair and left. I walked to the store where I have been trying to buy those CDs for the past couple of weeks and finially did. Then I took the bus to work, checked my email and was ready to go by 1:30. The teacher wanted me to talk about Thanksgiving, and I once again winged a wonderful lesson about Thanksgiving, including the history, a detailed description of the parade, football, eating, and how the most important part is to be thankful for your family, friends, and all the blessings in your life. We didn´t have much time for the other lesson I had prepared after that but it was ok. I love sharing my culture, and this is the best group of students that I have. So hours of work for the day, 1, Weekly total 3.25/12. I can´t complain but sometimes I still do.

I decided to walk home, and ran a few errands on the way. Then I made another turkey sandwich and ate it with some potatoes that Rosa had left for me. Then I washed the dished and started making the sauce. It was an excellent wild mushroom sauce, not really like gravy, and I decided that mixing the chicked fajita sauce with it would ruin Thanksgiving for everyone so I didn´t. Then I borrowed some jars from victor´s mom and put it in there, washed the dishes and rushed to a new English class. This was with Alfonso´s kid, another student of my guitar teacher. It went ok, it was a little awkward because we hadnt decided on a price yet, I had just said 12-15€ for an in house lesson, depending on what type of a class it would be and his son´s level. So he asked me what I was charging before the class and before I had even met his son and I said 15€. He then asked why, 15 instead of 12? and I said, because that is what my time is worth and that´s how much I charge. Oh yeah, go Rachel! haha, hopefully they decide to continue to have me as their teacher. The kid, I think his name is Alfonso too, is also 14, but was a little wierd and I think he didn not look at my face most of the time we were talking.... So after that I walked home, bought some crayons, grabbed the gravy, looked at our new dryer that had arrived while I was gone and went to the dinner.

At the dinner I helped Michelle finish setting up, and started coloring the decorations we never got to color at school. Then people started arriving. It was pretty nice, we all had a lot in common, bad kids at school, frustrations, etc. I also ended up talking with the only Spanish person there, who asked where in Andalucia I was from, apparently my accent is that good! Yesss!!!! So I made some new friends, talked with people I already new and Victor came when he got there from Malaga. The food was also pretty good. Someone who knew someone had a connection in a bakery, so we had 2 delicious turkeys. They also mixed some of the turkey juice with the gravy and eveyone said they loved it!! and wanted to know how i made it.!!! So that was exciting! We had Arabic chicken things, corn, green beans, stuffing, turkey with lots of skin, my favorite, fruit salad, mashed potatoes (not that amazing), red currant sauce and cherry sauce, both surpisingly good, bread, chips, olives, pickles, sweet potato casserole with skull marshmellows, pumkpin pie, apple pie and some spice cake breads and ice cream. We all ate a ton, and it was all pretty good. We all had fun and talked and I got to explain the meaning of Thanksgiving to another Spanish guy, a Belgium and a Dutch girl. Victor and I went home earlier than most and went to bed. After a long week and a long day, the tryptophan had a strong effect on us.

Saturday morning I woke up and went for a run. It just so happens that from Victor´s kitchen window, you can see the main walkway to the house so on the way back, his mom waved to me from the 7th floor. I stopped by to see what was up, and Victor called to tell me that we were going to eat lunch with Nacho and Alicia. His mom was a little upset as she had prepared a ton of stuff for us to eat, but thankfully she wasnt mad at me. I went upstairs, cleaned up my room and showerd and got ready. Then Victor and I went with Nacho, Alicia and the kids to a fancy, famous resturant called Sevilla, where Federico Garcia Lorca used to eat. We had morcilla and black rice. It was good, but I usually don´t like morcilla and after that, the black rice wasn´t amazing for me either. We had a good time and out of no where Nacho started planning a family vacation to Newcastle in the month of July! I started getting really excited for the oppourtunity to be Californian tour guide and return all the favors they have done for me over the years, but we´ll see what happens. Then we walked around, came home and took a serious nap. Well Victor did, his mom and I watched a movie over his snores. Then we went over to Nacho and Alicia´s house, and watched a movie and chilled. Then we came home, ate some of the leftovers from the lunch Pepa had made, and went to bed. It was extremly windy in Granada all afternoon, and night.

Sunday, I got up and got ready and Victor and I went to church. We made it in time to get some good seats and it was pretty good. They sang an amazing old song I knew from last year, ¨La Victoria Está en Jesús¨and a different precher preached. But they didnt songs an announcents for an hour and then 30 minutes of preaching, which was more like talking and seemed to be getting to the good stuff right when he stopped. Everyweek is different at that church. Then we came home and had yellow rice with rabbit and i got the kidney. It was gross, just the kidney, the rest was delicious as always. Then we watched some tv, and then had serious nap time. I fell asleep for 1.5 hrs, slouched over in my chair. That usually doesnt happen for me, but we were all tired. Apparently paella has tryptophan in it as well. Then we went with Victor´s mom to their house in Los Ojigares to run some errands, and pulled a potted cactus out of the pool. We also visited Conchi and Valentina and a lot of other family members next door for a bit and then came back home. Then Victor and I went out in the gusty winds with Jose, and met up with Santi and Pepe in La Liberia, the bar/café. We stayed for a bit but it was getting late and Victor had to go. So we walked back and he packed up, we ate dinner and then he left. I went home and to my suprise, Zore was there, as she had gotten a ride with a friend, so she came back early. We watched Camera Café and then Love Actually on tv and then went to bed. It was a really good weekend.

Today I slept in, woke up and felt too lazy to go running, so I watched tv and ate breakfast. Then zore woke up and we watched more tv. Then I showered, got ready and made and early lunch and watched tv. Then I talked with Adri, who had been dancing at a special salsa convention this weekend and I hadn´t seen him yet to ask how it went. Rosa came home too and then I left to use the internet and blog away which I have been doing for the past, 3.5 hours. I know I´m a nerd but I hope you all enjoy reading as much as I enjoy writing. As the title of this blog says, a line from a Los Delinquentes song, ¨You don´t understand, life is not a race.´

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