Food, Wine, and Laughter: Looby Takes On Spain: Small Trip, Big Post

First off, let me begin by saying that I wish I a backup stomach so I could eat everything this country offers me. Thank God Rollins pays for a gym membership, because I'd come home in December and the Discovery Health channel would be knocking on my door for an episode of The World's Largest (insert noun here). The gym here is really great. On a side note, I found that the Red Cross is right across from the gym. On Tuesday, I'm going to go in there and see if I can volunteer there while I'm here! Fingers crossed! Anyways, at the gym they play only American music, think 97 ZOK type stuff. My usual work out is about an hour and a half here. I start off with cardio on the elliptical and do a high-altitude, high-pace for 17 minutes (because the machine will only let me do 20 minutes and I can't read the directions to make it go longer...), then I go to the rowing machine and do that for another 10-15 minutes at a high efficiency. Despues (After that), I do some weight machines (usually 3 reps of 10 or 12). The gym has this awesome circuit lined up that includes lights that tell you when to switch. After the weight machines, I usually do the circuit three times. A little ab work and streching to cool down usually gets me about an hour and 15 or an hour and a half. So, thank the Lord that Rollins pays for that...That's all I could think about yesterday, when I was eating lunch in the mountains. So, here's the scoop about yesterday:

I slept in until noon -- a solid night's sleep that was well-needed. It was the first night that I had dreamed in Spanish. I don't remember exactly what I was dreaming about, but I think it's so cool that, even when you're sleeping, your brain is processing the language. When I woke up, Nieves was already at work. I decided that, since it's been raining here the past couple day, I would go to buy a pair of rainboots that Nick and I found. They were €60.00. They are sage green, mid-calf height, and came with a pair of matching leg warmers that poke out at the top. The boots are fabric boots with a plastic covering that make them really easy to clean. They'll be perfect for Florida, too. I bought another pair of little boots that are warm for the coming winter. It's already pretty much 65 degrees here every day. I love it -- fall weather and fall fashion. There's a picture of the boots at the bottom of this post. I instagrammed it because it was my first European purchase other than booze. My dad and cousin Ashley would be so proud...

The night before yesterday, Nieves told me to be outside the café Titanic (the café al lado de mi casa [next to my house]) at 2:00 with my guitar. We were going to meet her friend Pepita for lunch; an American student who had studied and lived with Pepita three years ago was back for a visit with her boyfriend. When I got downstairs, no one was there. I figured: this is the first misunderstanding of many to come and I'm standing here for no reason looking like the lost American. I texted Nieves to make sure I was right. She assured me that Pepita would be there soon para me recoge (Grammer lesson: para - in order to. recogerse - to pick up. Looks like: 'me she picks up' Literal translation: 'she picks me up') Eventually, I was collected and we drove 15 minutes to the country surrounding Oviedo. We arrived at Soley's house, another friend of Nieves'. Here, we met Isabel (the woman who walked the mountain with Nieves on I the first day -- remember the 'tapas' story...?) and Chispa, Soley's dog. When we arrived, we went straight into the bar and ate lunch. As I have said before, lunch here is huge and today was no exception. s Soley was saying how everything we will be eating tonight came from her land -- including the Sidra (Cider. Here in Oviedo, there is a culture of drinking cider. The camarero [waiter] holds the bottle over his head and your glass below his waist. Professionals don't have to look when they're pouring it. That's how they decanter and oxygenate the cider. The waiter fills your glass and it is customary to drink it in large gulps. When the waiter comes around again to refill your glass, he throws whatever liquid is left into the street because it looses its freshness after sitting in your glass for too long). Soley's family owns a local sidra factory (sidraría).

The first course was some type of meat and little potatoes. The meat had little bones in it that I had to pick out -- that was a surprise. Even more surprising? Someone had asked what it was and Soley replied "conejo". That word sounded familiar until suddenly it hit me: I learned that word when studying pets, not food. Conejo is bunny. I just ate a rabbit. All I could think about was Easter...and Peter Rabbit. Although, I'm sure if I asked Soley what the rabbit's name was, she'd say "cena" (dinner), not Peter. Still, I felt a bit malicious after that. Although, it was delicious. Maliciously delicious. Second course was chicken (from her yard, which I don't feel bad eating because I despise birds...) in a tomato sauce and there was a plate of fresh tomatoes and a hunk of cheese. I don't like tomatoes, but I tried the cheese on a piece of bread and the closest thing I could describe it as is cream cheese. I'm a cheese lover, so it was delicious. After this course, Soley brought out a large amount of bread (a typical Asturian artisan bread) and a giant hunk of blue cheese (queso azul). At this point, I'm in heaven. I adore blue cheese. So, of course, my full stomach felt empty and I ate that too. After THAT, they brought out dessert: ice cream and a raspberry tart. Yeah, no. I took the tiniest piece of the raspberry tart to be polite but I thought I was going to explode. This is when I thought about multiple personality disorder. If I had multiple personalities, the previous personality would be full and the new one wouldn't know I had eaten so much so I could continue to eat....I don't know if that makes any sense to anyone but me, but that's what I thought about.

After this monster of a meal, we took a tour of Soley's land. I've attached some pictures at the bottom for y'all to see. We began by seeing the animals. First stop: chicken coop. This was my nightmare. Thirty (30!!!!) chickens were kept in this coop. Most of them were walking around freely in the large pasture, leaving only 2 or 3 around me in the coop. I literally screamed anytime one flapped it's wings and I refused to follow Soley into the large pasture where most of the chickens roamed. If you know me, you know this is literally my nightmare. So, after what seemed like eternity, we left that hell-hole. Next stop: conejos (bunnies). There were about 6 bunnies in there and I couldn't help but feel guilty for their friend Peter who had disappeared a mere 8 hours ago...There were baby bunnies in there and their cuteness took my mind off Peter. They were smaller than my hand! So cute. After the bunnies, we toured the fruit trees in the back of her house. There are eating apples, sidra apples, lemons, cherries, grapes, figs, and hazelnuts.

Soley told us about the house: her misabuelo (great-grandfather) built it and it is over 120 years old. He planted the customary tree (Tissua tree) next to the house. It is said that the tree is supposed to protect the house. It was really incredible to know that this house has seen so many generations pass through it. We sat and talked outside for nearly 3 hours after that. I can understand big chunks of conversation, but the details are what throw me. We watched Soley make Chispa do tricks! He's been in dog school for 2 and a half years, but he still doesn't listen. However, he can do this super awesome trick where Soley bends over and Chispa will vault over her. It was pretty impressive...They made me try this liquor -- the only way to describe it would be to call it a sweet (like REALLY sweet) whiskey. I could feel in burning a hole in my esophagus on it's way down...After this three hour rest (from eating), we ate some more!! Just a pincho (small snack) of bread and tortilla de patata (it's pretty literally an omelette with potatoes and onions. It's probably my favorite thing to eat, ever). By the time we finished this, it was time for all of us to return to the city to meet Nieves (the woman I live with) for coffee. It was about 9:30 when we got to the café. We talked, drank coffee, had churros with the coffee (literally all people do here is eat. I can't do it. My host mom thinks I don't eat anything and she's not shy about telling me either...)

After about an hour in the café, I met up with Nick and his new English friend Simon. We had a drink at a bar and just talked. Those are my favorite types of evenings. It was pretty cold out and neither of the guys brought a jacket, so we called it a night and went our separate ways. That's quite a day and I apologize for such a long post! If you made it to the end of this, I'm metaphorically giving you a medal of friendship right now...