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This last week and the week to come are the most eventful I’ve had here in Spain. My friend Lyanne plays the cello, and she joined a community orchestra here. She had a concert on Friday so I went to hear her play with some others from the program. It reminded me a lot of solo and ensemble contest from high school because the first performers were all soloists, with a piano accompaniment. Most of them were under sixteen, but man, could they play! There was a boy and a girl who were like little professionals. After all the solos, the orchestra played, and that was really beautiful. A string ensemble has to be one of my favorite sounds.
After the concert me, Colin, and Megan went to a pizzeria for some dinner. I haven’t had real pizza this whole semester (just the frozen pizzas my señora warms up), and it was delicious! Definitely hitting up that place again. Afterwards, we met up with Lyanne and Genevieve to go to this Spanish bar she had heard of. Apparently it was a popular Spanish bar and tourists did not frequent it, so of course we wanted to go and be Spanish
with them. Gen used her phone for directions, but when we got to the place, the bar wasn’t there. And we had walked for about 30 minutes! We asked some guys that we passed if they knew where it was, and they said it was on the other side of town. I don’t know what kind of directions Gen was using. But we did learn that this really must be a popular bar because these random guys knew about it among the hundreds of bars in Granada despite being nowhere near it. We were all getting pretty tired so we decided to try the bar some other night and headed home. Not before stopping for ice cream at Café Futbol though.
The next morning we had to meet for our olive oil tasting. I was pretty excited about this because I love olive oil, and have grown to love it even more now that I’m in Spain where they use it for everything. The tasting was in this cute little shop in one of the many alley-like streets of the city. The man started explaining all about the history of olive oil and gave us three to sample. They
set out baskets of bread for us, and the best part was that they kept refilling the baskets. Unlimited bread and olive oil! What more could I ask for? Not only did we have bread, but he had us try the oil with green olives and pieces of potatoes. I’m not a fan of green olives, but the potatoes were tasty. Next we had to rub the juice of a cherry tomato on a piece of bread and sprinkle it with olive oil. Another tasty treat. He made gazpacho for all of us as an important part of Spanish gastronomy. I’m not a fan of tomatoes so I didn’t like it at all. But then we moved onto flavored olive oils. He set out a plate of avocados and drizzled them with olive oil flavored with pepper, and lettuce with oil flavored with toasted garlic. Next up, he explained that olive oil could be used as a preserver, preserving cheese and meats for months without needing to refrigerate it. We had some oil preserved pork and cheese which were wonderful. The cheese was amazingly soft (thanks to the olive oil). Then we got some desserts. One was a kind of
fried sweet bread with sugar and olive oil. It sort of reminded me of cold funnel cake. Also we had toasted bread with olive oil and some cocoa powder and chocolate orange ice cream with olive oil, both surprisingly good. Thankfully this concluded our olive oil tasting because I was getting very full from all the bread.
After this, I went home and took a nap. Next up was el senderismo (hiking) with my intercambio, and I needed to be ready for that. We met up with another group to go hiking up to the Sacromonte Abbey. Sacromonte is outside of Granada in the mountain so it was a good climb. We got to the abbey, but it was closed, so we hung out up there for awhile then headed back down. At least it was a nice day and the view was pretty or I would have been more disappointed. We got some ice cream afterwards, so in my book it was a great activity.
Since it was Saturday, I was going out with Amber and Irene to the botellón and to Mae West club for some dancing. We met some of Irene’s Spanish friends which made
the night much more interesting. One thing that is hard for me here is that the Spanish don’t really start their nights until midnight. They hang out at the botellón drinking and don’t head to the club until two at the earliest. Well, we didn’t get to Mae West until three. Also, they don’t stop partying until the morning. Amber and I were (obviously) getting tired so we made Irene let us leave, and I didn’t get home until 7:00. The sky was starting to lighten. I was literally out all night long. A random Spanish guy from the club starting walking with me and Amber, and asked me if I wanted to get breakfast. Of course, since this is a strange guy, I was not going to do that, and even if I knew him, I only wanted to go to sleep so I told him no. The other day, someone told me that when a guy asks you to have breakfast with him, it means he just wants to sleep with you. So it’s a good thing I didn’t feel like breakfast!
Sunday, I had planned on going to the cathedral to hear the organ play because
I like organs, and someone said they play it on Sundays. So I dragged myself out of bed at noon, made myself presentable for church and went to the service at one. To my great disappointment, there was no organ. Well, they played an organ with some of the songs, but it wasn’t the big, beautiful pipe organ I saw. I guess they only play that for special occasions. There was a choir that sang some of the liturgy which was nice. The cathedral is one of the most beautiful ones I’ve seen, and I’ve seen quite a few this semester. It’s so light inside, and the voices filled the whole space; it really sounded like angels singing. It was also my first ever Catholic service, and I must say, I wasn’t awake enough to enjoy standing and sitting through an hour and a half of all those rituals, so I left during the Communion (I wouldn’t have been able to partake since I’m not Catholic, so I figured it was fine). I came home to paella, one of my favorite Spanish dishes, and went right back to sleep. The rest of the day was just relaxing and watching movies.
Monday we went to a flamenco show. Unfortunately we couldn’t take pictures of the show, but it was pretty impressive. It consisted of two guitar players, one on a box drum, and three singers. There were also three bailaores (dancers) and one female dancer. Flamenco isn’t just dance, or just singing; it’s a combination of dance, music, and singing. I like flamenco, but I do get a little tired of the music after awhile. It gets pretty repetitive, but I can appreciate it for a bit, especially when they add dancing. Everything is better with dancing.
Tuesday we had our wine tasting. I was very excited about this because I work in a restaurant where I have to serve wine, and I’ve always wanted to know more about how to taste and describe wine. We went to an outdoor patio, and the host explained all about wine tasting. At real wine tastings, the tasters never swallow the wine. Obviously, if they did swallow everything, they would get drunk. The first step is to look at the wine in the glass, look at the color, clarity, and if there is any sediment in it. Next, before moving the wine,
you have to smell it. This looks pretty ridiculous because when the host demonstrated, he stuck his whole nose in the glass and alternated nostrils to get the whole smell. Then, you move the wine around and smell it again. The movement opens up different aromas in the wine. When I moved the wine, the aroma really did change, but I’m not skilled enough to actually distinguish the flavors. I just smelled wine, but the scent was stronger. I’ll have to keep practicing so I can actually know the flavors, but it will take awhile. Now it’s hard to believe a wine could have a taste of strawberries with a final note of oak or something, and maybe I still think it’s a bit snooty, but I’ll keep trying. We tried four different wines—a rose, a white, and two reds. I liked all but one of the reds, which tasted like burnt wood. Now, I didn’t finish all my wine, but it was still almost four whole glasses, so I was feeling pretty good by the end of the tasting. We also got a plate of tapas with each glass of wine, so it was a lovely evening.
To
finish off these busy two weeks, I’m heading to Barcelona this weekend, and when I get back, we’re going to a bull fight. Ole!
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