Senora Elisabeth finds her Inner Rachel Ray

So, I know I've talked to a lot of you about how awful my Senora's cooking was during the first few weeks, but I have decided it is safe now to announce apparently she CAN cook. The three of us have given her lists of foods and food preparation that we like and dislike. She had asked us the first week to write some things down and obviously we should have done it sooner because immediately after she had those lists the food improved. For the past week dinner has tasted great each night, she's made salmon, quiche, vegetable soup, grilled steak with garlic and olive oil, omelets, carrot soup, fried eggs, large salads with lots of vegetables, etc. No more of those nasty mashed potatoes with mystery chunks or those weird mushrooms typical in the Mixed Vegetable from Thai place (those creep me out).


We also told her that we are interested in trying foods typical to Catalonia. One night she made us Arroz con Verduras (Rice with Vegetables) and served it with tomatoes with basil and olive oil and a fried egg. It was rice mixed with sauteed onion, spinach, peas, raisins, pine nuts, bay leaf, and olive oil. It was so simple yet absolutely delicious. Senora told us it was a typical dish but didn't really explain, so I asked my Food and Culture teacher about it and she told me that anything labeled Catalan most of the time will include spinach, raisins, and pine nuts.


That explanation was quite helpful today when Jami and I were at lunch together in Born. Born is one of our favorite areas of the city, especially for eating. We picked a small restaurant near the Church de Santa Maria del Mar originally thinking we might go with the lunch special, which includes a first course, a main dish, bread, a drink and dessert. It's typical for restaurants to offer this sort of deal from about 1pm-3pm each day, most of the time it's a great deal (ranging from 7€ to 15€ and even more really nice places). But when we sat down my eye caught the plate the man across from us had in front of him. I asked him what he was eating, he said it was the spinach crepe and it had been recommended to him. It looked more like a burrito then a crepe, but it was stuffed with lots of spinach, pine nuts, raisins, and small diced vegetables like carrots and a bit of onion, mainly it was a lot of nicely seasoned spinach, all surrounded my a bright red colored paprika sauce. I loved it.

Day 1- Stupid! Should have worn a warmer coat!

Last weekend I did the Barcelona Bus Turistic with Devan, Emily and Denielle. We got two day passes at a reduced rate from IES so Saturday we did the red line and Sunday we did the blue line. Saturday we saw some of Gaudi's work, Le Pedrera, Mercat de Sarria, Port Veil, the Maritime Museum, Barri Gotic, Montjuic, etc. Sunday we saw more North Barcelona, including Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, Gracia, Sarria, etc. It was so cold we learned our lesson the first day when none of us were prepared, so Sunday we wore gloves, hats, and heavy coats so we could last the entire ride on the top, open section of the bus. Since it was so cold we didn't get off the bus much. Mainly we used it as a way to get to know the city streets and areas and which places we want to visit when A.) it is warmer out and B.) when we have full days to dedicate, for example Montjuic would be a great all day adventure and beautiful in the sun. The best part of the entire thing was the people watching, great views from so high up!

Really ornate, super cool lamp posts designed by Gaudi.

Tomorrow morning I have to be at Placa Catalunya at 7:45am to get on a bus to Tarragona, Spain. It is a Study Trip with IES. Everyone is going and we do all the activities with our Spanish class. Expect a post about what I see and do there this weekend.

Lastly, I had my first meeting about my trip to Morocco in March. There are 12 of us going and 3 IES staff and when we get there, former Peace Corp volunteers lead us around as well as local university students who are trying to work on their English. We spend two of our nights with a host family, the others in a hotel, there will be hiking, great food, beautiful landscapes, camel riding on the beach, possibly some swimming blah blah blah.  I am so freaking excited for it, I wish spring break were tomorrow!