Today was a pretty relaxed day. I slept in, then went to Ceres for a snack and some tea. I went for a walk, went into a few shops (some of the shops are opening on Sundays in December for the Christmas season) and then came home to get some work done. I also attempted a new recipe. Sweet and sour shrimp. Mmmmm. The shrimp turned out great. The veggies of course turned out great (that part is easy). The rice, well...that's the hardest part. It seems like it shouldn't be so hard. Even the instructions on the back say add rice, add water, add salt, boil and drain. Easy right? I dont' know...the texture just seems a little weird. It was fine though once it was all together. Tasty! This is the recipe that inspired me, although I didn't really end up following it. I also wanted to add pineapple, but forgot to buy some. Next time...
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/sweet-and-sour-shrimp/4a12bec0-6bf2-4dcb-93be-df24897526db
Other highlights of the week include:
-going out for chinese food for lunch with Kristin and Jessica
-my trips to the gym...Friday's workout was great. In addition to all my normal stuff I spent an hour on the treadmill. When I was almost an old guy that typical works out at the same time as me came over and either said "You're going to have a heart attack" or "You're going to give ME a heart attack." (I couldn't take out my headphones fast enough to catch the beginning of his phrase).
-confirming my plans for this coming weekend...On Thursday I'm going to Siles for a visit. I'll stay there one night and then meet Ben in La Puerta on Friday. Some of our friends from Madrid are also going to be there as well as Matt, the new auxiliar in La Puerta. There still isn't an auxiliar in Siles, so I won't get to meet him. Apparently someone was assigned to Siles and then he broke his leg. It will take less time for his leg to heal than for them to assign the placement to a new person who has to start the visa process from the beginning. Another auxiliar is also coming to La Puerta after Christmas. Maybe another visit will be in order so we can all meet each other after Christmas. Ben and I will be there until Sunday. Ben may come to Jaen before or after that trip. I was going to stay with Cristina on Thursday but now she has other plans. She said she could loan me the key to her apartment, or I could stay with another friend.
-the infamous chatting of my name again...I have a video from last year of the kids in Siles spontaneously starting to chant my name. It was contagious and soon all the kids in the hallway were doing in. This week when I went to the 2nd grade class the kids bust out chanting my name. I think my name must have a good rhythm to it. Sadly I couldn't get to my camera in time to video it again.
-long weekend! This coming week I only have to work on Wednesday. I hoping to get caught up on some projects that I'm ridiculously far behind on before I head off to Siles.
-International dinner at Sabine's house on Thursday. Sabine is from France. She lives with 4 other international students (well, minus one who's actually Spanish). She invited all the C1 Spanish people and all the people in her Business Spanish class to come and have dinner at her apartment. It was great. I loved doing stuff like that in Murcia, and of course last year didn't have the opportunity. This year we've surprisingly not done it very much either, even though there are lots of international students here in Jaen. We were all supposed to bring something to eat or drink, so there was lots of different food to try. I made muddy buddies...well...at close as I could get to muddy buddies. I found all the ingredients except for Chex cereal, so I tried to use Corn Flakes. There aren't chocolate chips so I just broke up a chocolate bar. I ended up using too much chocolate because I was guestimating the quantities, and the texture was different since Corn Flakes are thinner than Chex. It was a hit anyways. I think it's because it has peanut butter...people here would like peanut butter if it wasn't so expensive. I was actually talking with one of the German girls about Reeses. She had them on one occasion and now loves them as much as me. I'll have to bring some back after Christmas. I probably won't be making them again because they are so expensive. All the ingredients I tend to use in my desserts are a lot more expensive here. Powered sugar is 4 euro for a small bottle and peanut butter is 4 euro for a small jar. It was a lot of fun though. Most of us didn't end up going out after dinner, but I was ok with that. A lot of the German girls were there. Earlier this week I had been thinking to myself "All the German girls have such cool coats." During the party Luisa informed me that they all purchased their coats here in Spain (from Zara). Ahhh, if only Zara had my size (although it's probably better that they don't...I'd spend too much money). Some of my favorite random parts of the party were the international flags up, the sign post that pointed to the directions were each of the roommates were from and how far away their towns were and the paper birthday cake complete with candles that they used for Julie's birthday (even though she didn't want to celebrate).
-Starting Christmas lessons! Yes, tis the season. So far we've done a Christmas word search and Christmas carols. I've haven't gotten a chance to start doing the carols with them, but I went through my collection, selected the songs we're going to use and then printed out the lyrics. The kids at both schools are putting on Christmas presentations. Unfortunately I believe both presentations are happening after I head to the US. I'm so excited to go home, but kind of sad I can't see their performances. This week and next week we are going to continue with the Christmas carols and do Christmas cards. I don't have nearly enough time to do all my Christmas lessons since we have so many days off this week.
Well I think that about covers it. I should probably head off to bed so I can be productive tomorrow. Night all!
