At the end of the day I ran to the bank to get my check deposited, then stopped off at D’Canas for lunch. I try to be careful about spending money since we don’t get paid that much and I’d rather not have to give private lessons this year, but I like to eat out for lunch at least once I week. I’m not a good cook, so I always end up making the same things. Also, I don’t make Spanish food…so I like to think my lunches out give me better nutrition, more cultural exposure, better morale (being out in the world instead of cooped up in the house) and more people to talk to. The waiter at D’Canas is really nice. He asks me how to say things in English and I ask for food recommendations. It works out great.
Habas con Jamon (y normalmente huevo frito)
Solomillo de la casa
The rest of the afternoon was spent cleaning and trying to conquer some of my other to-dos. At 6 I headed off to a plaza with a long fountain, that I thought started with ‘A’ that is close to the Plaza de Toros. (Luckily, yes, I did find it based on that information…Almeda de Capuchinos ). At 6:45 I was supposed to meet 2 of my co-workers, Alfonso and Carmen, and they were going to take me to a lighting workshop with their photography association. I couldn’t resist. I ditched my Spanish class so I could go with them. they have their meetings at 7pm on Thursdays and my Spanish class is Thursdays from 7:30-9:30 so of course I can’t go every week…but hey, maybe it will be my reward once a month or so and maybe next semester I can pick a different time slot for my Spanish class and I can go more often. This photography organization has a printed newspaper, an online version, weekly meetings/workshops and excursions. There is also a restaurant that I go to called Azulejo and they put up new photo exhibits every couple weeks from this group. It’s mostly men. Us few women are greatly outnumbered (like 4 to 50). I’m of course the only foreigner. Carmen introduced me to the group and they greeted me with an applause. Haha. People kept asking if I was understanding, and thankfully I was. There was a lot of vocabulary that I wouldn’t have known enough to say or use but I knew what they were talking about. (Example: Aperature=Diafragma…which is a little awkward because it also means diaphragm outside of the photography world…yes I double checked to make sure I don’t make a fool of myself in front of this group of male photographers). I knew based on the context what they were talking about, but didn’t know the word going into the workshop. For this workshop they brought in 2 models and one of the photographers walked us through what a photo would look like -with the built-in flash -with an external flash -with a hard light (speedlite) on a tripod -with a hard light (speedlite) on a tripod and a reflector -with a softbox -with a softbox and a reflector -with a softbox and a secondary light with umbrella -with a softbox, secondary light with umbrella and hair light -and with a softbox, secondary light with umbrella, hair light and background light He also walked us through light metering. It was almost all stuff I had heard before, but it was nice to have a refresher course and be able to hear all the terminology in Spanish. For awhile now I’ve been embarrassed to ask guys like these for help with my flash. I’ve been having problems with my flash for a couple months (ever since I took it in to get “fixed” and get the bulb replaced). I wasn’t sure it it was a problem with my flash, a problem with my camera or something stupid that I didn’t know about my equipment/flash settings, etc. I wish I knew more about my actual equipment. Well, I finally asked the photographer next to me for help, and later 3 other photographers joined in to help. The good thing is that it’s not because I’m an idiot who doesn’t know anything about cameras. The bad news is that when I took my flash in to get fixed this summer they accidentally did something to prevent my flash from synchronizing with my camera (or anyone else’s camera for that matter). Sad day. I just hope that after paying $150 this summer that Camera Techs in Ballard will take another look at it. I’ve heard good things about them from other people, so I hope they’ll be understanding about the circumstances and why I couldn’t get it back to them for 3-4 months. I’d hate to have that much money go down the drain. So, meanwhile I’m without my flash, but I’m glad that it wasn’t something embarrassingly simple that I was/wasn’t doing.
When I got home Luisa was there with her two friends from Germany. They are studying in France but taking a trip through Barcelona, Madrid, Jaén, Cádiz and Lisbon. They invited me to go out with them. First we went to one of Luisa’s friends apartment to botellón. There were 3 Germans, 3 Dutch, 1 Spanish guy, 1 English guy and me. We stayed there for awhile, then headed off to a bar called Botellita. Much to my surprise I was greeted by 4 eager guys saying “Hey! You lived in SILES last year!” Yes, yes I did. One by one they showed me their national ID cards with their Siles addresses (well, 3 from Siles actually, and one from Puente Geneve)…as if I didn’t believe them. I surprisingly only recognized one of them. They were basically glued to our sides the entire night. One in particular kept trying to rub up against me and get me to dance with him, but I knew better. The cotilleo (gossip) in Siles and the surrounding small towns is insane, and if I danced with him everyone in the Sierras would probably know by Monday. I’d had enough when he told me that last year I was the one that who was desagradable (unpleasant, unkind) but this year I was cool. After never once talking to me last year, and thinking his drunk @$$ knew everything after being in the bar with me about an hour on this particular night) that was his conclusion. I yelled at him and he finally left me alone (although his friends followed us to our next stop). Luisa also "had her camera stolen," (we later realized she left it at home and it was never at the bar) so we headed out.
We meandered off to Kharma (dun dun dun), which I had mixed feelings about. My first two trips to Kharma didn’t turn out great, so I have my reservations about this place even though it’s extremely popular. It was actually a lot more fun this time. It was Thursday so there weren’t as many people as there are on Saturdays, and I was in a big group instead of with just one other person. We eventually grabbed a taxi and made it home about 6am. Luisa and I both knew we would hate ourselves in the morning because I had my appointment in the extranjería (foreigner’s office) at 9am and Luisa had to go to the Universidad to get a professor’s signature about the same time. Uffffff.
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