¡Panas! ¿Comó están?
Some of you I haven't spoken to in a while, so I figured it was time to send out an update on la vida de ole Joaco Taco. Let's start with today. Awesome. Or as Santi commonly says on Twitter, Dulce. (Santi, I love that Twitter is our main form of communication). Anyway, I digress. Today I spent over two hours searching for Ecuadorian food and it ended successfully. Yessss!!!
So a guy I met a while back told me there was an Ecuadorian restaurant by the Roman walls downtown, but he couldn't remember the name, nor exactly where it was located. I haven't been in town on the weekends for a while, so I haven't really had the chance nor the desire to search for this mystical restaurant. But today I decided to give it a go. As I said, he couldn't remember the name nor exact location, only that it was by the Roman walls. This was a problem in that the neighborhood surrounding the walls are full of restaurants, bars, and little side streets. Meaning it could be anywhere. So I got up around noon today, hopped on a bus, and went down to the Roman walls neighborhood. Searched around for about an hour, but to no avail. So I decided to hop back on a bus, and come back up to my neighborhood. There's an Ecuadorian couple (from Quito) that run a cabinas/cyber (again, that's pronounced thee-burr) near my flat, so I decided maybe they knew of a restaurant where I could get some tasty Ecuadorian goodness. They told me that they didn't know of any restaurants, but there was an area down by la Plaza de Europa and the Rio Eubro where Ecuadorians gather to play volley and there are vendors who sell all kinds of Ecuadorian food. Jackpot. Ecua-volley and Ecua-food.
So I hop back on another bus, walk down towards the area they described and sure enough there was a parque full of Ecuas playing volley and sitting around. I saw an elderly woman who appeared Ecuadorian in appearance, so I asked her where I could find Ecuadorian food. "Adelante, joven." Gracias.
Walk a few more minutes, until I reach said park. Again I ask a woman standing by a van if she knows where I can find Ecuadorian food. "Que buscas," she asks. "Encebollado," I reply. "Cuanto quieres?" she retorts. Umm, "la sopa, no?" (Marie will remember that I once ordered encebollado at a high-end Ecuadorian restaurant in Los Angeles, only to get a place of diced onions. So I was not taking my chances again). "Si," she says with an Ecuadorian smile. "Vale," I say. "Uno, por favor."
So the woman, who I would later find out is named Monica, turns around, opens the van door and begins preparing a to-go bag for me complete with encebollado, pop-corn, and a lime. That's right, I bought encebollado out of a van. And damn proud of it. In fact, it was so delicious I may just go back to that park once a week and get me some more encebollado. Monica & her husband Bolivar told me they're on that block every day of the week selling food out of their van. (Chris bring back as much beecho meds as you can.) In all honestly if felt like I was buying drugs or something, but as I was walking away, I had the biggest smile on my face and couldn't wait to share the story with all of you. And it was really great talking with Ecuadorians. I sometimes forget how much joy I get from interactions with our "paisanos."
Other than today, life has been pretty good. I've spent two of the last three weekends in Barcelona, hanging out with friends from DePaul who live there. It's been such a blessing to have friends from the States in both Madrid and Barcelona as I begin this adventure. Last weekend, my friends and I took a day trip up the Costa Brava to a little town called Cadaqués, which was a town frequently visited by Salvador Dalí and Pablo Picasso. It was amazingly beautiful. Barcelona is also really cool as well. To be honest, I haven't done too many touristy things in the two weekends I've spent there (mostly gone to the beach), but I'll be going back next weekend to celebrate my birthday so hopefully I'll get a chance then.
Classes are going well, although as I've told a few of you, 14 year-olds, and 14 year-old girls in particular, are of the devil and should be kept separate from the rest of society until they are ready not to be punks. :) (If you can't tell, I'm loving my middle school classes right now). My classes at the bank continue to be great, and my students there are awesome at giving me tips on where I should travel, what I should do, eat, etc.
My roommates are doing well. It turns out Eva does not have cancer, although I believe she has HPV. The doctor read her test results incorrectly and she found out last week there is no cancer. So that's a huge blessing. Roberto may finally have a full time job starting this week (fingers crossed), but Eva is still in search of full-time employment. In case you didn't know, on Friday Spain announced that unemployment in the country had risen above 20%, so many, many people are without work right now.
Football has really been in full swing as of late, and because Real Zaragoza is so terrible I've become a Barcelona FC fan by default (much to the chagrin of many of my students, who are fans of Real Madrid and Cristian Ronaldo). Messi continues to play like a god among men and Barca has a real shot at taking home La Liga title this year. Although, they lost in the semis of the Champions League, which was complete BS because there was no handbal (no fue mano!! I screamed at the TV). Which leads me to my latest poll. I'm going to be here in Spain during the World Cup this June and am planning to buy a jersey. I'm stuck between striker Fernando Torres and midfielder Xavi Hernandez. Right now the tally is Xavi-4 (Santi voted twice), Torres-2, Casillas-1, and ¿Qué?- 1. So get those votes in! I'm going to buy the jersey in the next two weeks.
Anyway, I should go. I love you all very much and can't wait to see you in just a few short months!
Patacones y 220,
Joaquin
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