Weekend

Friday night I was finally feeling like a real human again, and was excited to leave the house for a little bit. We all went to a grocery store for some batteries for the wii controllers. When we got back we played a dance game on the wii. I had never done it before, but did quite well on the first song. Then I picked a reggaeton song and got a super high score. They said it looked like I had done it a loads of times before. Apparently that's my dance style ;) While we danced, the chocolate bread we made earlier was baking. Avril loves my measuring cups, and was excited to use them. The bread turned out yummy, but didn't seem to have enough sugar, so Avril and I made a sugar glaze to put on it. Then I spooned it on and she spread it out with a brush and the bread absorbed most of it, making it just sweet enough. The recipe didn't call for any salt, though, and I like a smidge with my baked goods. So whenever I had a piece I'd sprinkle on a little salt. I seemed to be the only one who liked this though.

 

 

Saturday I went with Noelia to bring the kids to their weekly activities: Alex takes swimming classes and Avril takes piano lessons. The locations of the two are near each other, so we brought Alex to swimming first, then walked to Avrils piano teacher's apartment. Then, while we waited for the activities to finish, we walked over to a market that is open Saturdays. Half of it was all booths with cloths, which were priced very cheap. The other half had fruits and veggies, so we bought some melon, clementines, mushrooms, chestnuts, cilantro, and a cherimoya. Noelia said she has never had cilantro, so I'm going to make something or other with it this week for her to try. Neither of us has ever had a cherimoya, so we will share it once it is ripe (the vender said in two or three days).

In the evening we all went to Calle Mayor, the oldest street in Lleida, which is full of shops. A few brands I recognized, but most were unfamiliar to me. On the way we walked around a park near the river and saw ducks and minnows, as well as stations for runners to stop and do strength exercises like at Curves. There was one every 100 yards or so. We crossed a bridge over the river and made our way to the shops. We stopped in a shop of ham Iberico, which is a special type of cured ham made from pigs that are fed just acorns. From everyone I've spoken to, it's amazing. I don't really have any interest in trying it, but may get some to bring back to my family at some point. It's very expensive though, so I definitely couldn't get the best of the best. One of the ones in the shop was around $100 per pound. Ridiculous. There was one that was cheaper, around $25 a pound which I could buy half a pound of and bring back with me though.

We also stopped in a museum under the town hall, briefly. It reminded me of MC Escher's "Stairs." It also had a creepy little door in the corner that reminded me of the canning room in my sister's basement. It used to be used as a prison.

Sunday we went to mass at the church in Noelia's hometown again, for a feast day of the Virgen del Pilar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_the_Pillar). All of the kids who are getting First Communion next summer had to dress up for the mass, and this included Alex. He really wasn't fond of his outfit, but I thought it looked nice. Each of the kids had to go up and say a verse about the Virgen del Pilar and put flowers on a shrine for her. Avril and another boy went up as well, even though they already had their First Communion and weren't dressed up. (That's Alex's friend Carla with him in the pic).

After church we went to a place to get drinks (non-alcoholic) with other parishioners and chat for awhile. Once we were done there we went out for lunch at a place called Portal del Pirineo. Vegetarian foods were slim pickings, but I was able to get some roasted asparagus and escalivada (toast with eggplant and red peppers, with olive oil and salt), and a banana for dessert.

Once we were done with dinner we went back to Noelia's parents' house and hung out for awhile. I mostly spent this time knitting and watching Black Knight in Spanish. During this time, there was a downpour of rain, which ended with a beautiful rainbow.
Also, here is a pic of all the tomatoes that Laura has hanging from the ceiling of their garage to eat during the winter.

Then it was time to go home. We came back and had dinner and chatted for awhile. Now I'm blogging, and will be heading to bed soon. I need to get up early for school tomorrow! Yay, I can actually go to school again! (I don't think I've said that since high school, and I was sick and falling behind in calculus.)