Sol y vino, two of Spain's greatest aspects

---

Last week was mostly spent being sick. I got sick on Wednesday after we got back from Paris and couldn’t go to class. It’s the first day I’ve missed classes here, and I was a little nervous about missing the lectures. Thursday I felt better, but Friday and Saturday I was sick again. Courtney got sick too, so we literally spent the whole weekend in our room. We watched seven hours straight of Grey’s Anatomy. What’s really a bummer is that I was sick for our trip to the Alhambra. My group went on Saturday afternoon, but I couldn’t go. I can still go see it sometime, but I won’t get as much out of it without Aurelio explaining the history and the rooms. Maybe I can get someone to go again and tell me all about it.

This week was more normal. Classes go on as usual, I have homework every night, and I try to speak Spanish as much as possible. Tuesday we had another seminar, this time on wine. Just like olive oil, wine is huge part of Spanish culture. And when it’s made, it is not touched by human hands, again like olive oil. Jose told us about some different types of Spanish wine, what the labels on wine bottles mean, and the tools used to open and serve wine. This was very interesting for me because I serve a lot of wine at the restaurant I work at. We’re having a wine tasting soon to supplement this lesson, and I’m looking forward to having some firsthand knowledge about wine. It was hard before this to understand the wines people asked for, but now I think I’ll be able to add my own opinion, especially of Spanish wines.

Our intercambio Fatima, set up a time to meet with us so she could practice her English, so we met at the bar La Bella y La Bestia for some tapas and conversation. The tapas here are delicious! I really need to start exploring the different tapas bars around here because there are so many, and that’s an important part of Spanish life. Now that I know about wine, I’ll be able to fully participate in the tapas experience.

Friday after lunch, Courtney and I went to the park for a couple hours. It was such a gorgeous day, we had to be outside. We found a grassy spot and laid there for two hours. There was not a cloud in the sky and the temperature was perfect. I’m going to start doing this every afternoon that I don’t have something going on. It’s much better than being in our room (which is still freezing) and it’s an excellent place to do homework or get some reading done.

(Sorry for the lack of pictures, I’m still waiting on my camera to be sent from home, then I’ll have more interesting things to show you!)

---

Comments

[Jas]

Montage
Their going to have to give you a major raise when you get back! You are going to come back as Senior Bartender/Wine Connoisseur :)