last night my friend jamie and i decided to do some grocery shopping and have a little cena at mi apartmento. coincidentally (or not really, as it turns out) as she was leaving her house she ran into a boy that she met on the bus into town, Daniel, a very nice spanish fellow who's parents are hippie brit expats living in Ibiza. With a beautiful command of english and spanish, Daniel was the perfect companion for our first real city exploration--we embarked to the city center to find the cheaper mercadora (supermercado con todo). thankfully he was our guide because i'm sure between the two of us we would have been hopelessly lost--Granada, although small, is difficult to navigate a) because the map we have totally sucks and none of the streets look like they go in the same direction on the map and b) because this is an ancient moorish then christian city with all sorts of crazy twisty turny streets that take you nowhere, or somewhere depending on what you're trying to accomplish. after completing our grocery run, daniel assured us a "10-12 minute walk" back to my apartment....actually it took us 35-40 minutes and was mainly uphill...like mountainous uphill on cobblestone streets. suffice it to say if i get worried about working out i can just go down to the city center and come back up and i'll be fine.
Given that Jamie (being from texas) is a lover of all things mexican like myself, we decided to make guacamole (which Daniel insisted would be better if we just bought, a suggestion we shot down emphatically). Back at mi apartmento we drank wine, ate the guac, and compared our knowledge of spanish slang (because that's what you have to do with your first spanish friend, especially one that speaks fluent english). of course we thought we were pretty badass, which apparently we are not. every phrase out of our mouths (even our MOST offensive--the kind that would have mexican men blushing and mexican women tryin to fight us) was greeted with a full-belly laugh and "you can say that, but then everyone will laugh and think you are mexican". luckly daniel filled us in on the big four swear words so now, are we ever in need, we can bust it out. we also learned how to say "spittin game" which i think will come in handy sometime in the future.
At the supermercado we found flour tortillas, so our next cooking project is to make quesadillas or burritos. i'm thinking of going really oldschool and making my own frijoles refritas (another very mexican thing to say, here beans are judias not frijoles), salsa, aguacate, etc. etc. I am also looking forward to my culture class tomorrow for i intend to ask mi professor, Jesus, to bring some Spanish recipes that i can try out this weekend in my kitchen (Cuando esta in Espana, cocina la comida espanol, y por que no?) There is a daily television show on at about 2 in the afternoon featuring a very flamboyant singing chef who cooks all sorts of delicous looking things. i also intend to choose his most interesting recipe and attempt it. today was stuffed calamaris with a tomato sauce on top, looked delicious but i'm thinking a little more simplistically for my first go. Everyday i am more and more happy i chose to have my own apartment--my own space, and (as i get more comfortable with my spanish vocabulary) my own kitchen for cooking whatever my little heart desires. ah, la dolce vita.....
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