Cars, Markets, and Solitaire

Monday, was a beautiful day in La Coruña - perfect for shopping. I walked around with Ana for much of the day. There are so many great stores here, it's a lot of fun to walk around and shop. The stores that are based in Spain (like Zara) have prices that are much more reasonable than the prices in the United States. I did, however, find out that my feet are freakishly huge for Spain… I don't know why, but a lot of the shoe stores don't carry anything over about a size 9.5. Too bad I'm a 10 in most shoes. I guess I have a good excuse to go look at more shoe stores ;)

We turned in our paperwork for our sports club membership yesterday. We can now use the pool and stuff whenever we want. They also offer all sorts of free classes. Mom, they have yoga classes! Maybe I'll learn how to do 'chataronga' in Spanish! I think I'm going to check out the pool on Wednesday - hopefully it'll be sunny outside!

Juan and I are now the proud renters of an Opel Corsa. It's a cute little, silver, 5-door, car. It will be very nice to have a car for weekend trips and picking up all of our visitors from the airport (hint hint). Juan is also very happy to not have to bum rides to work from co-workers who live nearby anymore. We have a spot in a very very small parking garage around the corner from our apartment. We share the garage with one other person who drives a Honda Accord - it made me feel a little closer to home seeing that little Accord parked in our garage. It's a very tight squeeze to get both cars in there side-by-side, but it's much better than trying to find a spot on the street.

The picture is obviously not me and Juan ;) I wanted to show you what the car looks like.

Today I went to the fish/meat/fruit market down the street from the apartment. Ana was an immense help! We went up to each of the little stands and she explained that I was American and was learning how to order from the market and asked what products were good. The shop owners were all so nice. They were very understanding and nice to talk to. I took a notebook and wrote down all sorts of good stuff that will help me on my future visits.

I learned how to ask for the fish cleaned (limpios), without skin (sin piel), and without bones (sin espinas). I still don't know what any of the fish are, but the shop owner just told me to ask "Que es?" and point to the fish. I learned that you could also ask for the fish chopped into round slices (with bones) by asking for "Rebanadas" or in filets by asking for "filetes".

I tried some great samples of 55€ / kilo jamón serrano (a type of cured ham). The woman at the stand even sold me some at a reduced price so Juan could try it. I've already told him that he's not allowed to get used to it - I'm going to be getting the regular stuff on my next visits. My notes are about 4 pages long - I'll spare you the rest of the details. If you ever plan on going to a Spanish market, give me a call and I'll share them with you.

I bought a fun little cookbook full of traditional Spanish recipes. The book is organized into menus. They have menus for parties, for friends, on a budget, and for quick meals. I'm going to sit down with my cookbook and my Spanish-English dictionary and try to put something together for later this week. It should be interesting - I'll let you know how it turns out. Maybe it will even be picture-worthy.

Tonight we had to say goodbye to Juan Sr., Ana, and Abuelo. They're heading back to Mexico City in the morning. It was great having them here for a few days. They are definitely exhausted from their long trip, but I think they had fun. Both Juan and I are also very happy that the Abuelo made the journey - it was great spending some time with him.

It is now 12:10 am on Wednesday. Juan and I are both addicted to Spider Solitaire on our computers. Since we don't have internet at the moment, we can't have our regular Sudoku races. I have told myself if I ever win two Spider Solitaire games in one day that I'll be finished - I'll never play again. I have only won twice in the last week…