Calçotada part II and Tarragona part...? :-)

Calçotada with Laura: Exactly one month after the calçotada with Javi and family (note: if you forget what that is, it’s where friends gather in a rural area and grill calçots, which are types of onions, meat, etc.), I went with Laura and Jordi to another calçotada near Valls (where calçots are said to have come from). It was a pleasant, albeit not especially exciting time (several young children were there, so everyone just kind of sat around eating and talking...and watching kids). The best parts of that time were simply being with Laura, trying more calçots, and playing with a cute little girl. She was pretty bored, so we started jumping and balancing on a large floor puzzle she brought. Haha...in other words, I tend to be with children even during my off-days. :-) Laura noted how kids just seem to gravitate toward me. As long as they don’t leak disgusting things on me, I’m cool with it!

Really, there’s not a whole lot to tell about the calçotada, but I will say that we went to pick up Quim later on and decided to walk around Tarragona’s beach together and eat out afterwards. It was such a great time! It was the first time I was able to actually touch the Mediterranian Sea, and hanging out with Laura and family is always fun.  

Tarragona with Stephanie: after discussing Tarragona with Stephanie from the Barcelona church, we decided to meet up together on a Friday afternoon. I had to go there anyway to sign up for the DELE (Spanish) exam, and we met in the train station after that. It’s always fun to hang out with Stephanie, and I especially love connecting with a fellow believer. The only thing about showing her Tarragona is that...well, to me, Tarragona is epic, not-stressful, and fascinating. I love the Roman history, and just standing in the middle of Roman ruins is like...HOW CAN PEOPLE NOT FREAK OUT ABOUT THE EPICNESS OF IT ALL? :-) But for Stepanie, a world-traveler, it was a little bit like...um...yeaaaah, if you’ve seen Rome, etc...it’s not much to brag about. :-) So I suspect Stephanie enjoyed spending the day with me more so than the actual tourist sites, but on the bright side, we can use our teacher’s cards to get into pretty much everything free! She did thing that the amphitheater was exceptionally well-preserved and loved the view of the beach. We saw the amphitheater, the Roman Circus, the Roman Museum, and a new place for me: the Roman Forum. The most unpleasant part of the day for me was that I bumped my head on a stone door/entrance to a small area in the circus. It was quite ironic, because when I first saw it on my own, I was SUPER careful not to hit my head on the low entrance. With Amanda, I was SUPER paranoid that she would trip or fall or bump her head or do something that would make her either die or go to the hospital, so I was very careful by that area as well. But after my THIRD time of being in that little spot (and there really isn’t anything especially interesting in there either!), I whacked my head on the hard stone. Ouch. Being the non-vocal person I am, I didn’t say anything to Stephanie and just prayed that it wouldn’t bleed or that I’d get a concussion. It didn’t and I didn’t. :-) But there was a painful bruise on my head for a few days (not visible, but I definitely felt it!). But I digress...:-)

We spent several hours talking during lunch, and we just “click”. I found out that her Master’s Degree was in 18^th-century Women’s Literature, and her favorite movie ever is the 1995 BBC Version of Pride and Prejudice. Ah, this explains why we get along so well! :-) It was a good time talking about church, beliefs, the Bible, literature, books, bashing the new Pride and Prejudice movie, discussing travels (she’s been pretty much everywhere, and her dad is a professor of Hebrew and Old Testament studies), discussing teaching and future plans, discussing our lives in general...and it was just a good time of a heart-to-heart conversation.

The Roman Forum was cool to me but a little lame to her (hee hee), and it’s basically where an old Roman market was.

We also saw the current market in Tarragona, and it reminded me so much of a market we had to visit in Morelia, Mexico!

It was a good day together, and I was reminded yet again of how blessed I am to be with such nice, friendly, and helpful teachers. Seriously, I might be the only auxiliar who “hangs out” with the teachers like I do...especially knowing pretty much everyone’s parents and in-laws! :-) I also realized that I’ve been able to experience a LOT of Catalan traditions that very few in my “line of work” have been able to. It was a neat and humbling feeling.

And that’s all for this post! Short, huh? :-) I’m slowly catching up on life, folks! Hee hee.

Thanks for reading, and see most of you in a few weeks!

Sarah