¿La queréis frita o a la plancha? (Do y’all want that fried or grilled?)

I leave for Portugal tonight at midnight (taking the overnight bus, I am oh. so. excited.), but before I leave, here are updates from this week!

1) I tried snail. Yep. Mayte and Fernando brought home an enormous bowl of live caracoles (snails) on Tuesday and cooked those suckers up on Wednesday. I assume that a snail is indeed not part of the ocean, and I therefore went against my vegetarianism. But I don’t know; I was curious. They were so little and slimey, slugging around in the big bowl. Then, after properly prepared, they looked exactly the same but a little brownish and immobile. Still, before I ate each one I could see its little face and antennas sticking up. To eat them, you grab the head between your teeth and suck on it until the whole thing slides out of its shell. So you slurp them, basically. Mayte gave me maybe 8 or so in a little cup, along with another cup of just the broth that they cooked in. Apparently in bars that’s how they are served (note: every day it seems like there are more and more signs saying “hay caracoles” (“we have snails”) outside of the bars here. So yes, I have tried snail. It wasn’t half bad, surprisingly. And no, just because I ate the snails does not mean I have any desire whatsoever to cut off a piece of meat from the entire leg (hoof included) of pig that Mayte and Fernando have in the kitchen.

Me playing with the little snail head before I ate it with Mayte's hand scolding me.

2) On Wednesday at 3:37pm when I went to teach English for the last time, one of the digital boards around the city said it was 38 degrees outside. In Fahrenheit, that’s 100.4 degrees. I, like a typical sevillana, was wearing jeans.

3) Yeah, I went and taught English for the last time. It was sad. When I left, Javi (7) gave me a big, slobbery kiss and Nacho (4) told me not to worry, he’d invite me to his birthday party, which is at some unknown date in the future. I only taught that family English this semester, but I will miss them.

This photo has nothing to do with the above text. With Liz and Austin in boiling hot weather, um, working on my thesis. Right. And what hard work it is...

4) Barcelona vs. Manchester. Try studying for a final—in your own room, no less, not even in a public space—in Spain when that game is going on. Impossible. Mayte and Fernando had a lot of the family over and there was lots of sudden screaming and yelping going on from the next room. I could hear the cheering and chaos from the two bars outside on the other side of the street. And, of course, that doesn’t even begin to describe the constant honking coming from the heavy traffic passing by. ‘Twas an authentic European experience, even though I did nothing to instigate said experience.

Studying for my exam and a look of doom.

5) On Wednesday night, the same night that I was studying for my final and the Barcelona/Manchester game was going on, an ENORMOUS cockroach scurried up the wall in our room, near Austin’s desk. It must have been at least 4 inches long and 1.5 inches wide. The thing was huge. I saw it on the wall, then I looked to Austin’s face, and it was frozen in complete shock and surprise. There was a pause for a few seconds, asked if she should get Mayte, I said yes, then she jumped up, screamed, and ran out of the room. I moved over closer to the cockroach to keep an eye on where it went until Mayte came. Instead of Mayte, Jave came in (Jave is Mayte’s daughter’s husband and was there to watch the game), laughing and asking where the “little bug” was. So I showed him, he moved forward to step on it, and Austin screamed again. Jave missed the bug and jumped because he was so surprised at Austin. It was hilarious—everyone was laughing. So then the cockroach went under the bed right next to where I was standing. Austin ran away into the living room and I, logically, jumped onto the bed. Jave started rummaging around looking for the cockroach, and once I saw it climb up the wall behind me I was done. I told Jave adios and good luck, and I bolted out of that room. We heard lots of stuff moving around and Mayte eventually came in with the spray, spraying the crap out of everything under our beds. It was kind of funny (like the cockroach incident from last semester that involved Fernando thinking he could get it with a broom on the ceiling). Austin and I were standing and waiting in the living room, and of course Fernando took this upset as a perfect opportunity to play jokes on us. He lightly brushed our legs with a feather or something and we both jumped about 2 feet. I’m pretty sure I threatened to kill him, at which point he was completely doubled over with laughter, giggling uncontrollably at his well-timed joke. A few minutes later, Jave brought in the dead cockroach and was dangling it in front of people’s faces. And that was the moment when Mayte asked us “¿La queréis frita o a la plancha?” (“Do y’all want that fried or grilled?”). And so ends the cockroach story.

6) This should really be 5a, as it still has to do with the general cockroach situation, but that paragraph was getting too long. Anyway, I’m glad there was a cockroach in our room, because it led to major bonding. I haven’t ever spent much time with Jave or Susana (Mayte’s daughter), because normally they come over when I’m not there or I’m studying. They are great people—really nice and always up for a laugh. While we were waiting for Jave the man (that was my joke, I kept telling him what a man he was for killing the bug in our room), Susana showed Austin and me pictures of her new dogs, then Mayte had Nando take a picture of the three of us “mis tres hijas” (“my three daughters”). It was not awkward and the dynamic was very comfortable. I felt like I knew them well, even though I don’t. It was nice.

Right now I am in the general library in the rectorado, the building that houses my departments and where I have all my classes. Cristina and I agreed to meet this morning at 9am to study for awhile together, and I think later we are going to go to my favorite juice place and get a smoothie or something. I’m glad we met up because it got me out of bed and finishing stuff that needs to get done much earlier than I would have been capable of doing myself on a Friday morning. Also, this way we spend more time together—it’s scary how little time I have left to spend with her.

This should have gone in the last entry, but I didn't upload the pictures in time. This is me and Luisa, a woman who works in the center who I have gotten pretty close to, at the goodbye dinner last Friday.

Tonight, like I said, I leave for Portugal. I’ll be back in Sevilla on Wednesday at 5am-ish, I do believe! Hopefully it will be a cockroach-free long weekend.