Night out for David’s bday and Ana’s lunch

Saturday night we went out for David’s birthday, which had been Thursday. We met and went to two bars. We had a lot of fun. I went home at 2:15 because I was tired, but David, Ana, Cecilia and Erin stayed out until almost 5 because that's what you do in Spain.



Ana invited us to her apartment for lunch on Sunday. She put out a bunch of really good appetizers including caramelized onions (which she put around some goat cheese), sliced beets, smoked salmon, and a scramble of eggs and mushrooms. Everything was delicious, except the goat cheese which I really didn’t like. For the main course she made ink pasta (pasta prepared in squid ink before it’s purchased) with shrimp and these little eel-like fish called angula. The little fish don’t actually taste like anything (except rubber). I really liked the meal. For dessert, her mom had made rice pudding with lemon and orange rind, which was good, but I only had a little of it (because of the milk content).

After lunch, we played Scattagories in Spanish and English. Then we had tea and some pastries (which we had brought) while Ana showed us pictures of the other schools she has worked in. We had a really nice day, especially because Ana’s living room was really warm. Our apartment has been really cold lately; it’s 52 degrees in my room. I’m okay inside my sleeping bag, but my nose and head are freezing. We spend most of our time sitting around our table/heater. Almost all apartments in Priego have a round table in the living room which has a space heater built into it. Called a brasero, the table has a velvet tablecloth which goes all the way to the floor. You turn the heater on and put your legs underneath the table or put the tablecloth on your lap so the heat goes up to the rest of your body. The heater gets really really hot, and it’s a dry heat so my skin gets dried out and after a while it’s not even comfortable anymore. Our water heater isn’t working properly either. Yesterday, Cecilia tried to take a shower and it went out completely. The pilot light stayed lit all afternoon while we were gone (so we’re not out of oil), but the shower water won’t get warm. We thought the wind might have been blowing the thing out, but really we’re not sure what’s going on. The wind could enter through the exhaust pipe. Really, we’re not sure and I’ll just take a shower at the gym (which is what we’ve been doing).