Another one!

This post should catch me up on my weekends. Sorry these are so long! I wanted to get them up before I am swept up with my family.

This past weekend was very chill. Friday, I cooked lunch for my family!! I have been wanting to do this for a very long time. In Spain, people see food as a sign of affection. They like to cook for other people, and when they insist on giving others food, it means they like them. Pilar always says she cooks with love. I wanted to give them a gift of comida to show them how much I appreciate them. Coming up with a recipe proved very difficult, considering I am better at baking than cooking, at my house we use the oven a lot, and in my Spanish apartment the dishwasher, oven, and two burners are broken. I made a tried and true recipe of my grandfather, chicken and rice. I went to the office to ask Miguel where I should buy chicken, knowing that he is very fond of cooking. He would know. Why, a pollería, of course! Literally meaning chicken store. More like a butcher who exlusively sells chicken products. It’s a little butcher within a mercado. I squeeze into the shop, full of elderly people. I stand and wait while the butcher works his magic behind the counter. The people seemed to have enormous orders, like they were buying their chicken for the month. I realized after about 15 minutes that it was a ticket number system when he switched the counter to the next number. I grabbed my number. 14. He was on seven. I went and bought bread, a tomato and red pepper for the salad. Pilar knows that I like red peppers, so I got one special for the salad. I came back, only on 9. I ended up waiting to get my four chicken breasts for an hour. I sprinted back home, knowing Pilar gets home a little after two. I wanted to have the dishes washed and started the meal when she got there. Success. Both Tania and Pilar ended up liking the dish, which was such a relief because Tania is an extremely picky eater. Definitely ended up making waaay to much chicken and graxy and not enough rice. That’s what ya get when you are used to cooking for an army of Svens!

With the prospect of my family coming, I tried to work ahead on my hw as much as possible. I stayed in and worked every night of the weekend, prompting my host mom and sister to comment that I don’t like going out that much and work really hard. Have they not seen me the rest of the semester? Not that I have been a crazy American girl let loose in Spain, but because I haven’t had as much work until this point I have been able to relax. For once! I guess my hardworking self came through this weekend. I did take a nice break with Bridget on Saturday to go to the Sorolla museum in Madrid. It is his former home, now preserved and decorated with his work. A definite must see and laid back morning activity. There’s a special exhibit of his work from Granada, so we were able to buy postcards from Granada FINALLY. A relaxed morning before a long afternoon of work. It’s nice spending time one on one with Bridget because we can talk about stuff back home. A good touchbase with reality.

Sunday was quite exciting! Election Day! In the morning, Pilar finally invited me to go “hacer deporte” with her! She took me through her Sunday walk. Although it was a little rainy, the day was beautiful. She took me past la Casa de la Juventud to the river, passing by la huelta!! She found out that in fact, la huelta is still open. I finally realized it literally is a farm with a man standing and selling in his fields of veggies. I saw the biggest cabbage I have ever seen! I liked seeing her interact with the farmer, seeing that she really is a conocido there. Later she explained to me once again the story of when he asked her if she was single, and then asked if her friend from Madrid is single. The guy knows her so well that, although she didn’t think to bring money, he trusts she will be back to pay for her parsley. The walk was really sweet. I felt like she took me into her safe place. She love going on the walk down by the river to escape the world, so I felt very loved being taken there. I’m sure she might have wanted that time for herself to think, but she asked me to come. She took me through a bunch of parks and told me stories about them from their history and her own personal history. In one of the parks, her granddaughters learned how to rollerblade and like playing on this crazy zipline swing. In another, there are exercise machines that she uses when she excercises during the week. The park is literally called insemination park because it used to be the place where horses would make babies. Hmmmmm… It’s hard to explain the morning completely and how much I appreciated it, but I really enjoyed sharing it with her.

She also took me with her to vote! Even on the way down the elevator of the apartment building, I asked her who she was going to vote for, and she still hadn’t decided. She’s usually in th middle, a little to the right, but she didn’t want to vote for either major party, so she voted for the second runner up. She told me her whole family is faithful to the right side. Voting is extremely casual. It seemed organized and official at first, but really, there are stacks of paper and envelopes on a table. You fill out two different forms with literally one check each, stick them into their envelopes, flash your driver’s license, and they stick them into a clear plastic box. That’s that. The predicted winner, PP, won. It’s the opposite party that had been in power, and basically everyone just wants a change because enothing was happening with Zapatero. The next day, one would think that there would be some talk going around… Nothing. It was the least exciting day after an election you could imagine.

The lead up to see my family has been quite a roller coaster. As their arrival drew nearer, I, along with Pilar, realized how little time left I have here. Yes, I have a month before I return to the states, but I won’t be in Alcala this weekend, and next weekend, for about 10 days, I will be up in the northland visiting family. Pilar came to this realization Monday night and I think was close to tears. She had no idea I was going to be gone for that long. She got so upset and her way of expressing it was pointing out that I haven’t made paella or cocido yet and must make them before I leave so she knows I know how to make them. I only have one weekend after my vacation. Of course, these days, I am close to tears at any moment. I worry for the relationship I will have with this place after I’m gone. Even through all my struggles, I have really grown to love it here. I finally feel settled in and I’m going to have to leave again. Spain has taught me so much, especially about enjoying life. I can’t let stress or time lead my life. Even today, having trouble getting in touch with my fam and then worrying about getting to my class, I feel I reverted back to my anal self about having enough time to do things. I let it go finally during lunch and decided to skip class. I put what is obviously more important to me first and enjoyed my afternoon, although short and a little lost, with my family.

BUT MY FAMILY IS HERE!!!!!! THIS IS REAL!!!! Seriously, sometimes life here feels like a dream. Seeing my family in Madrid solidified that this is for real. I do speak Spanish. I am living in Spain. This is real. More to come later on their visit!

I can’t believe it’s Thanksgiving! Where did the time go? Normally during school, by this point I am dragging myself to the finish line to make it home. I still feel totally charged here to keep going. Maybe not in relation to my studies, but at least to take advantage of what this experience has to offer. Too bad chatting with Pilar isn’t considered grammar homework.