I arrived in Spain a little over two months ago, and it already feels like an eternity. I got back from Puerto Rico a week ago today (right about this time, actually, my flight was landing in Bilbao). It feels like I've been back forever. That's good because things went back to my new "normal," but it's bad because I feel like I need a break and need to see Pete again now. Fortunately, it's only 27 days from now 'til I get back to Chicago, so I don't have long to wait, but as we all know patience is not my strong suit.
Speaking of patience, I was getting pretty frustrated at work yesterday by how slowly a particular project is going. I knew I was not going to have the patience to sit through Spanish (about half of the class was gone Monday and Tuesday, so it was going to be a re-hash of those two days). So, I decided to leave work a little early and head out to run some errands and give myself a Spanish lesson. I decided I was going to talk to someone at the grocery store. The original plan was to finally brave the meat or fish counters, but they were doing their afternoon cleanup so weren't being very helpful. I took a leisurely stroll through the market and found some things I hadn't seen before when I'd been rushed through. Fresh asparagus - which was not with most of the fruits and veggies, but in a sort of different area with a few other things I hadn't been able to find (e.g., carrots). I still have yet to find shallots, which is sad, and they didn't have broccoli yesterday, either. I did manage to find limes (inexplicably near the fresh nut section, which includes some very tempting chestnuts). I also found canned artichokes (jammed between a gigantic section of canned white asparagus). I'm not sure if I've discussed the Spaniards love of canned/jarred white asparagus ... but they love it. It comes in these tins and is huge ... and tastes nothing like asparagus. So weird. But so are a lot of the other food obsessions here. There is a whole aisle devoted to tinned fish. It's not just sardines and anchovies (which are fine with me), but there are various tinned small fishes in a wide variety of sauces. Apparently, one needs enough varieties of tinned fish to warrant an entire aisle at the grocery store ...
Anyhow, I took my finds up to the counter and had a real conversation with the cashier. I also had a nice conversation Tuesday night with a friend of a friend who complimented my Spanish. I am still unendingly frustrated with this process of learning Spanish, but I have to remind myself how much easier it is. Conversations in big groups flow between Spanish and English, and I survive. Overall, I think my impromptu Spanish practice was more useful than Spanish class yesterday.
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Totally forgot to post this today! Oops! I'm having a low-key evening here, going out for a walk now that the rain has stopped and the sun is out again. Tomorrow my friend's boyfriend (who is also my friend I suppose) is playing a concert in Irun (about 25 minutes away near the French border), so we're all going. It will be quite late, but should be fun!
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