Caracoles

After siesta yesterday I met up with a girl to go get our phones. I'm not really sure if mine works or not. Then we met our class at the plaza for a little history tour (en espanol, claro) from Isabel, who is our "local teacher", around the more historical part of Ubeda. It was beautiful. All of the sudden we reached the part of town that overlooks the olive groves with the mountains in the background and the whole group just stopped and stared in awe. On our way back into the main plaza (kind of like a downtown) we stopped and had tapas at a little tapas bar. Isabel ordered us all cerveza y caracoles. Yeahhhhh. They don't taste half bad, but the fact that I'm eating something's face kind of creeped me out, along with the fact that they're pretty much the chewiest meat you'll ever eat and you have to swallow it whole. The guy at the tapas bar kept telling us to just "suck it down". Uh, no thanks dude. So they serve it to you in like this little shot glass looking thing and you're supposed to drink the broth halfway then pour it out into the plate that the give you and eat them from there. You literally suck the snail out of the shell and then toss the shell back into the shot glass thing. Not my favorite tapa.

Juliet, Kenzie, Me and Amanda

How caracoles are served

And then they just stare at you...

After the plaza we went our different ways and I came home. Luckily, Amanda lives right up the street from me so we walk everywhere together. My madre made me a pizza for dinner. The pizza is on like a thick tortilla like bread and the tomato sauce tastes different. Almost sweeter, without any spices. The cheese here is better, too. (When madre is making lunch, she gives Danny and I cheese as a treat while we wait.) Then she put ham on it. The ham is SO good, but SO salty. After dinner, I sat and talked with Danny, mi hermano, for awhile, making good use of Google Translate and Spanglish. Then I took a shower, skyped with a friend, kind of did my homework and then passed out!

Today I woke up at 8 and then got ready and went to school. Amanda and her madre waited outside for me and we all walked to school (her madre's work is on the way). Her madre invited me to lunch tomorrow, which is kind of a big deal since lunch is their biggest meal here. Kind of like getting invited to a family dinner. We had class from 9 until 1:30 but the school has un receso a las 11. So basically we get a little "recess" at 11 for 30 minutes. It's basically a snacktime. These people eat SO much and they're all still so skinny! I don't get it!! In the second part of class we met our "companeros" that we'll be helping teach English while they help us with Spanish. I hope we get to keep our partners because I worked with two really nice girls that I actually had a good amount in common with. After school, Amanda and I walked home and stopped and played on the swings on the park we walk past. Then I got home just in time for almuerzo and today it was some delicious pasta with some kind of sausage and cheese in it. It was awesome. Now it's siesta and I was going to try and catch up on some homework since we have a lot for the weekend and it's all in another language. One of my classes is literally an "English class" but in Spanish. You know, grammar, phonetics, that kind of stuff. We don't have anything else to do today but Amanda and I may go walk around the market or the plaza for awhile after siesta. Adios!