This weekend was so fun! Finally, I was able to go out in Navalmoral and meet people and have fun. Friday night, Whitney, one of the auxiliares here last year and Mamen’s former roommate, came back into town for San Miguel (she’s in Valladolid this year). We had been talking on facebook for a while, so it was nice to finally meet her. Mamen and I went out for dinner at a cheap tapas/bar and Whitney eventually joined us. We hung out there for a while, then collected our stuff, and met a bunch of Mamen/Whitney’s friends for botellón. Oh man, I’ve missed botellón. The Spanish police actually make it legal to drink on the streets on holidays (which is like, every day in Spain). We went to the big botellón place, called Ibiza (appropriate, no?) and hung out for a long time. After a while, Whitney and I went to a bar/the closest thing to a disco here called Boulevard to meet up with a few of her friends. When we got there, I was introduced to black vodka. Thanks, Whitney, you’ve officially converted me to a vodka negro supporter. After dancing at Boulevard, it just got so crowded, so we tried another place, only to find they had a 5 Euro cover (Really? In Navalmoral?), so we went to a bar called Canterville. We half heartedly bought ourselves tinto de verano, but were just sort of over it and ended up abandoning the drinks and just chatting with more friends. Around 5.30am we headed home. After being in Cáceres, over the past 3 days I had not slept at all, and Friday night was no exception….I woke up around 10.00am to a ton of noise in the street.
The party began early on Saturday. The fair that was set up directly across the street from my piso was taking shape, and people flooded the main street. Waking up on Saturday, I got dressed and headed straight to Mercadona. Knowing Sunday it would be closed, I was desperate to buy some groceries (I was down to my last can of tuna). After a magical trip to Mercadona and a hike with 50 pounds of groceries back to the piso, I ate some lunch, got ready for the day, and met Mamen/Whitney/friends at one of the best bars with a patio here, Zaragata. The streets were seriously jammed with people. San Miguel is a big deal, Navalmoral is a small town, so it was definitely a bit crazy. After drinks at Zaragata, we went to a tapas place for drinks and a TON of food. I definitely regretted even eating a lunch before going out for the day, because we ate so much food at this bar. We started with typical potatoes with egg, sausages, a type of pork, and some other, definite Spanish, but normal foods. Then it came out…la oreja! Ah!! After so much talk about it since my first day in Navalmoral when I tried morros (pig snout/cheeks/mouth/still not sure what) and chicken stomach, I was still not convinced to try the pig ear dish. Knowing that in order to fully commit to my experience here, I had to go for it...and I did….
I don’t regret eating it, but never again. The texture was the worst part. Ew. I can’t even think about it without feeling a bit nauseous. So after the pig ear, I compensated by eating a ton of delicious calamari and other things. After some café there, Mamen and I went to yet another bar, Final (the only café I’ve successfully connected to wi-fi in) to meet her friend, Julio. We hung out there with Julio for a bit, then went back to Zaragata. Writing all of this down definitely makes me realize just how many bars we were at this weekend. After a bit more time at Zaragata, I was feeling a bit sick (too many different drinks, pig ear, little sleep), so I went home to siesta. After a 30 minute sleep, water, some fruit, and general “me” time in the piso, I was ready for round two (or three if you count Friday night…). I dressed and went back to Zaragata to meet Mamen and her quasi-boyfriend, Oscár. The three of us went to check out a concert that had, sadly, finished by time we got there. But nevermind that, we picked up our botellón stuff and met the gang to go back to Ibiza. Once there, it was a lot like the night before, but more fun since I had gotten to know the group a bit more. Around 3.00am some of us were going to go to Boulevard, but I was just too tired and opted to go to bed and get some sleep.
Sunday morning I woke up with a cough and sore throat….which didn’t surprise me after the week. I remember after Fallas in Valencia (which was a million times more exhausting than San Miguel), I had the worst sinus infection of my life and was sick for about a month. I spent the day recouping with tea until I went to give lessons to Minerva at 5.00pm. After the lesson, I sat around talking with Paquita and her husband for a long time, then went home to the piso to mentally prepare myself for my first day of work on Monday (today).
School was good this morning! I usually will have four classes to teach on Mondays, but the teachers aren’t all ready for me yet, so I just had one today. I helped teach math to 12-year-olds. They were learning how to read and write numbers, like 3,435,562. What I learned about myself is that I’m not that great at reading big numbers in English…looks like I’ll learn some things this year. Also, cutest thing is just about every single kid mixes up 14/40, 15/50, 16/60…Almost none of them can differentiate them. After class, I hung in the teachers’ lounge using the computer until Isabel was done with her classes and could go with me to the bank to help me open an account. I was indeed able to open it today, so that’s one step closer to internet! Then again, I hung out until private lessons, came home, read with the bestie (Kindle) and ate a delicious salad while watching “Pasapalabra.”
Tomorrow I don’t have any classes, so Mamen is going to help me with internet stuff in the afternoon before I have more private lessons. My schedule is slowly, but surely filling up with these “clases particulares.” So far I have about 11.5 hours of them in the week and I know I’ll probably get another 5 hours in before I stop agreeing to do them.
Also, exciting news…I’m going to start planning my return trip to Valencia for sometime in November! More news to come on that though.
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