Student Council, Cooking, and Warning

So, a couple of things to share that I'll try to make interesting.

The first thing to share is after class yesterday, there was a student council meeting. Each Spanish class "elects" a representative to bring up different issues their classmates may have. In my class, I was the only one who know about this, and because I heard there would be free food, I volunteered and got it by default.

I arrived and noticed the food wasn't out yet. Sad times. We put a bunch of desks in a large circle and then started talking. I have to admit, IES organized it well. The discussion went topic by topic. Arrival, orientation, orientation class, IES trip, rooms, safety, Spanish classes, etc. As the students raised their hands, the IES people basically took notes. I took notes as well.

Let's see, there was the giant tool who, for his first question, talked only in Spanish. Then apologized and spoke in English. This is also the same guy who complained that at his apartment, if only he could gain access to the router so he and his buddies could open up the ports to increase the upload/download capacity of the Internet. Yeah, to have a LAN party with his nerd friends and link up with his friends in the U.S.

Then there were the girls who complained about everything. My goodness. And it wasn't just one topic. It was ALL of them. Sheesh. Didn't know things were so bad here. I bet if all the students chipped in a buck or two, we could happily buy your complainin' booty a ticket home. This one girl was the worst. The funny thing is, when I was talking to other people about it, everyone, even those not at the meeting, knew who I was talking about. Haha, goodness.

I had to leave early (although I was there for over an hour. And not all the students were negative. Some said positive things and constructive criticism) to head out for my cooking class! I missed out on the free food :(

The cooking class was a lot of fun. It was mostly in Spanish, but very informative and cool. We got a recipe handout, too. It's in Spanish as well, so while I took some notes, Carrie, you'll have to translate for me. We made chupito de sopa (a cold tomato soup), tortilla de patatas (a Spanish omellete. Made with potatoes, eggs, and onions. Very good), pan con tomate (basically slices of bread with tomato and other things rubbed on. They love it and are very proud of this basic dish), paella de marisco (a popular dish that I'll talk about more below), and crema catalana. You'd love that last one, Dad. Basically crème brûlée (copy and pasted that from the Internet to look cool). I got to burn some of the sugar. Oh yeah!

And as for Paella (Pie-eh-ya is how it sounds, at least to me), it is a famous, popular dish of Spain. It actually gets its name from the paella pan, a special cooking pan that has small holes in it. I didn't take a camera, so here's a photo I jacked from the Internet. It has rice, seafood, tomatoes, meat, whatever really, in it. Very tasty.

I had my first Spanish test today. Not as easy as I'd like, but I think I did all right. Worth noting, at least I like pointing it out, but some people in my class, Spanish 102, have taken the language all four years of high school and at least a semester or two in college. Sheesh! I've only had 2 terrible years my freshman and sophomore years of high school. I'm happy with how I'm doing though.

And finally, tomorrow I'm walking around with my camera. October 12th commemorates Hispanity Day (Dia de la Hispanidad): the day that Columbus discovered America in 1492. It's a bank holiday, so all the stores will be closed. However, because I'm in Catalonia, everything's controversial. Here's a copy of what the dean of IES sent to us.

This celebration is very controversial here in Spain and there will be
patriotic displays in many cities. There could also be some demonstrations
in Barcelona and other cities in Spain with all kind of political
connotations such as independence groups or left and right radical political
parties.

We urge you to be careful with these kinds of celebrations and
demonstrations in the streets and try to avoid them as there could also be
disturbances.

Apparently there's been some trouble up in the Basque area lately, too. I'll have more information on that when I get back from my trip to there (in November), but basically, that's an area of Spain similar to Catalonia. They have their own language and culture and some wish to be their own country. There's even a terrorist group up there called ETA that set off a bomb the other day. Apparently Spain arrested some party leaders or something. Angered the extremists.

Anyway, so that should be interesting. Have a great day!