It’s another lazy Sunday here in small town Socu…I’m getting the feeling that all Sundays here follow this same lethargic pattern (not that I mind in the least, though; I have come to treasure these days [all two of them!] of waking up late, sipping my café ever so slowly, listening to Socus {the people of Socuéllamos, that is, I have no idea what they’re called, so I have deemed them as such} pass by on the street below and reading a book…some people would call me a nerd, I know!).

Last night was interesting. We (Gunita, Will and I, that is) started out the evening by going out for Chinese with Jesús. Gunita had told us of the plan earlier in the day, so I was sure not to completely spoil my appetite when I ate “pre dinner” (a hunk of bread and cheese, last night), if you will, at eight o’clock (not that I’m like a porker or anything, I’ve just never been able to completely adjust to the eating schedule here). We made our way out about 10:30 (in Jesús’ car; I don’t remember what kind it is, but it’s very shiny and pretty! I was all excited that he was driving; I love riding in cars here…for some reason it just seems so much cooler here than back home!), which proved to be quite a popular dinner hour because the first place we tried was totally packed! So, we settled for choice número dos: LA CASA DE LAM. They were very busy too, but one table was being cleared right as we walked in, so we got lucky.

I thought we would all order our own separate dishes and possibly share a few bites, but instead we ordered I think three dishes and collectively shared. Will and I really didn’t know what was good, so Gunita and Jesús took the reins on this one. They ordered a bottle of wine (and a pitcher of sangria after that!), what I thought was fried rice, but it turned out to be regular rice with ham and peas in it (it was alright, but not my fav, gotta tell ya), a shrimp dish and a chicken with mushrooms dish (which I ate, but didn’t think about!). The others ordered soup for an appetizer, but I didn’t want soup, so I decided to spring for a spring roll, haha! I thought that would be a nice, small amount for an appetizer because all the spring/egg rolls I’ve ever eaten are relatively tiny. Yeah, not this spring roll…holy paella, this thing was HUGE! I mean this was one mother of a spring roll; it was like five times the size of an average spring roll! That could have been my whole dinner right there! But no, more kept coming. I tried not to eat very much of anything else and Jesús was like “What’s wrong? Do you not like Chinese food? Why don’t you eat more?” And I was like “Dude! Did you not see the size of that spring roll I just demolished?” To end the meal the waitress poured us all a shot of this yummy sweet tasting alcohol (I guess it’s complimentary??)

We left the restaurant at midnight, and honestly, I could have gone home, went to bed and been happy (I’m just not really that much of a drinker/party animal) but, we went to the bars instead. It was kind of funny, actually, on our way to the first bar (either BIANCO or BLANCO, I’m not exactly sure…the way they write the I/L is a little bit of a mystery to me) Jesús goes “I smell like Chinese!” I don’t know if he didn’t like the lingering smell or what, but he kept saying it. I was like “First of all, is it really that different from smelling like smoke in those stuffy ol’ bars? Second of all, all it takes is 0.2 seconds in a bar and a new smell will engulf your clothes.” The constant smell of smoke is one thing I will never get used to here. There are very few things I don’t like about Spain and the smoke definitely tops the list.

At BI/LANCO, Jesús hooked me up with this “Señorita Card”, in which each visit you can present the card and get a free drink. It’s awesome considering I don’t drink that much and I’m usually set after a couple of drinks…I’ll never have to spend that much! It wasn’t too crowded here, so we were able to move around a bit and dance…it was fun. Usually we meet up with a bunch of people while we’re out; unfortunately, the only name I can recall right now is Teresa, she’s very nice, as all Gunita’s friends seem to be.

I could have sworn earlier at dinner that Jesús said Tomás was coming out, so I asked him where he was and he was like “You like Tomás?” (Only has a friend, by the way, he’s very nice, but he’s a bit of a unique fellow, that one). He asked me that like other times too and I really just wanted to say “Dude, lay off!” But I didn’t. He also told me last night that one of my eyebrows is higher than the other. I sort of looked at him and smiled, but again, I really wanted to be like “Wow, every girl wants to be told her imperfections. Sweet…Thank you!”

We went to one other bar, about five minutes away from our house, after that. This bar was extremely crowded and I was rather tired, so I didn’t stay long, I came back about three and promptly got into bed and fell fast asleep shortly thereafter.

I’m going to try to go to bed early tonight because we have regional orientation in Ciudad Real tomorrow. It starts at 10:00 and takes about an hour and a half to get there, so the directors of our programs are meeting Will and I here at the apartment at 8:00, which means I have to get up by about six-ish…boo. I’m really not too excited about the orientation. My school director, Rocío, said it’s quite boring, as they talk about the Spanish Educational System a lot. I thought it could a little interesting, but not if they talk about that for eight hours. Will and were talking and we’re a bit confused about what they’re going to actually tell us, because our schools have already told us all the really important things. I would think that many procedures would differ from school to school, so I don’t know, we’ll see…all I really know is that tomorrow is going to be a LONG day!

Xoxo,

Court