goodbye Isabel

Friday night I went out on the town with Isabel and Felipe, we just had some drinks and ate tapas, and met up with a couple of Isabel´s friends. Isabel told me that Saturday night she was having more friends over for dinner and then to go out dancing, since she is leaving for Ireland today. Isabel and her younger sister Lucia, who is 22 also, picked me up at 9 last night. We went to her house and had a very Spanish dinner. There were about 15 plates full of different types of food all over the table, but none of us had our own plate (there were like 13 of us in all). Everyone just ate off all the different plates.

I´ve been eating a lot of meat lately, because they eat a lot of meat in Spain apparently. Felipe and Isabel wanted me to try this certain type of meat dish, some type of pork mixed with eggs. So I did. I ate about 4 small chunks of it. They asked if I liked it, I said yes. Then the told me what it was -- ´´sangre´´. Blood! Specifically, pig blood with rice and a little big of onions. I didn´t eat any more after that.

After dinner we ate some cake, had a couple more drinks and talked (they talked, I mostly listened and tried to understand). It got to be like 1:30 am and we were still at Isabel´s house. Since it was so late, I thought I must have been mistaken when I thought she said we were going out dancing afterwards. But I wasn´t. At about 2am we went to El Casco to a club that was inside an old church. We danced till almost 5am, by then I was exhausted and my eyes hurt from all the smoke. It was fun, but I felt pretty lame for being so tired because as we left the club there was a line of at least 30 or 40 people waiting to get in (at 5 am!) and many of them were much older than I was...in their 30´s and 40´s. Isabel told me that a few years ago Spain had one of the lowest birth rates of any country. She said it´s because people here like to go out at night too much to have kids.

Tomorrow is my first day of school. I have to take a bus to another part of town and meet a teacher named Nuria. The only buses to Yunclillos are 7am, noon and 7pm. So all the teachers carpool. There is a teacher named Inmaculada who lives pretty close to me, I could´ve walked to meet her, but when Isabel asked her if she could pick me up she said no. Isabel said she is really weird and gossipy, that she´s nice to your face but will stab you in the back. I´m kind of scared of Inmaculada.

Yesterday I ate lunch with Isabel and her grandparents. They are awesome. Her grandma kept talking to me really loudly, as if that would help me understand. She made some fish with pumpkin and as I left told me I could call her or stop by if I ever needed anything, and Isabel gave her my address so she could come take care of me if I was ever sick.

Today I ate lunch with Isabel and the rest of her family. I met her 8 year old sister Lidia. Lidia has Down syndrome also. With her lime green outfit, purple glasses and a plastic recorder she was about the cutest kid I´ve seen in Spain so far.