Update 2: Family in Logrono for Christmas!

On December 23rd, the seven of us made it to Logrono in the afternoon to all go to the grocery store together to buy what we would need for the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day meals in Spain. My family thought it was crazy how the the people pulled around little mini carts in the grocery store. Ben and I have become accustomed to them so it was funny to see how new people laughed as we had done right away. The mini grocery carts remind me of a wash bucket that you use to clean your floors but on wheels and having holes in them. They are very small so you always have to pull a couple around in order to fit all your groceries.

For Christmas Eve, Ben and I decided to venture once again in making the turkey, mashed potatoes, sauteed mushrooms, green peppers, a fabulous salad and vegetables meal like we had once before for Thanksgiving Day here in Spain and sort of failed at it then. This time though, the meal was a success! Like on Thanksgiving Day our power went out again but this time we were prepared and everything was finished all together. Ben and I treated my family to traditional Christmas treats. In Spain they have many different Christmas goodies that are excellent at Christmas time. My family liked them so much that they all packed a few away to bring back to share with people in the US. I also was able to show my family the greatest candy that I have ever had and they all fell in love with it too. I have never liked candy so much as I do here in Spain. There are candy stores everywhere in my city and they seem to always be busy all of the time with children and even adults. We took my family out for the traditional churros and chocolate for breakfast on Christmas Eve morning. They were great!

My mom, dad and I went to midnight mass on Christmas Eve at the beautiful cathedral near our apartment and we also went again on Christmas Day with everybody. It was interesting both times because it was all in Spanish! Everybody could kind of understand at least the traditional Christmas tunes they played during the masses.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were spent relaxing with the family catching up in our apartment. It was a great time being able to have all 7 people together staying in our apartment. It was a tight squeeze but we all managed great and it was really nice to be able to spend all the time together. We also spent the days here wandering and exploring the city.

Here are some photos of the places in Logrono we visited.

Here is "a" for Abby!

Here is my mom, Rob and I at the RiojaForum. The RiojaForum is a concert hall and also used as a building for where the Congress of La Rioja meets.

Cities in Spain are known for the traditional 'tapas' or appetizers. It was exciting going out for tapas with my family during the Christmas time. Most Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights families in Spain go out to many different bars and eat small appetizer foods together with a glass of wine or beer. It is a fun time to wander the streets and visit with people. Here we are above in one of Ben and my favorite bars in Logrono to visit for tapas. It was especially exciting during the Christmas time since there were many small local bands playing Christmas tunes marching through the streets and stopping to play outside for the crowd. It really made it feel like Christmas even though there wasn't any snow or cold weather! During Christmas they also had two different little outside markets to buy handmade goods from people that came here from all over the world. We all bought a few gifts from there to remember the markets.

After Christmas Day my family took two more day trips to the cities of Bilbao and Zaragoza. They are both cities within 2 hours away from Logrono by bus. I will update you later on the excursions of both those cities. Goodbye for now!

Supper with the Primary School

This past Friday night Ben and I went out for supper with my teachers from the Primary School where I teach at in Logrono. It was a great night! We started out by meeting everybody at 9:30 at a local bar for a drink before we went to our restaurant to eat. There was a total of 22 of us that got together. I didn't have a clue that it was going to be the biggest meal I had eaten so far since being in Logrono.

We sat down and they started bringing around many bottles of water and wine to everybody. After the wine, they brought out baskets and baskets of fresh bread. The appetizers we had were amazing. There was a total of 5 different kinds of appetizers! I couldn't believe it every time a new one came out of the kitchen. The first appetizer we had was 'croquetas' which are ham and cheese snacks in a breaded shell. They remind me of mozzarella sticks. The next appetizer we had were very large mushrooms with a garlic taste. Then we had typical Rioja ham and slices of cheese. After the ham and cheese we had cut up octopus pieces that we on top of sliced potatoes. Finally we had salad that had fried red pepper, sardines and tuna with it. I tried all 5 of the different appetizers.

While we were eating the different appetizers a waiter came out and read off a huge list of foods that we could choose from for our main meal. Ben and I had no clue what to choose. I had no clue even what was a meat or a fish from the list. It was hard to understand the man. He talked very fast. Finally all of the teachers started trying to tell us what we should choose to eat. The two ladies across from me helped me choose my meal and Ben's. When my meal came out it ended up being a huge steak fillet with potatoes, kind of like french fries. It was really really good! I ate the whole thing even though I was already stuffed from all of the appetizers I had eaten. I completely forgot about dessert! I am not used to eating dessert after every meal. Here in Spain it is always served with each meal. We all laughed when we saw our dessert come out. It ended up being 7 pieces of different kinds of desserts for each one of us! It was unbelievable. I was so full but I had to eat (because I really wanted to and love dessert) all of the different types of desserts. I was really full. After dessert they brought all of us either a cup of coffee or tea. I chose to drink a tea. After the tea and coffee they asked everybody want kind of shot of alcohol they wanted. That is very typical for people to do after a meal here. I declined the offer due to how full I was by that time. I couldn't possibly add anything else in me. Finally the bill was about to be given to us. I was scared! I couldn't imagine how much we would pay for this incredibly excellent meal. It ended up only being 24 euros per person. That is about $35.60. I have never paid that much for a meal before but I swear it was the most food I have ever eaten before at a restaurant. We were also at the restaurant from 10:00 until 1:30 AM!!! They eat supper very late here.

We all decided to go out to the local bars next to the cathedral to go dancing for the rest of the night. We went to two different bars and stayed out with all of my teachers until 4:00 AM! It was so much fun. We danced and danced and danced! I hope that we will be able to go out dancing with my professors again. We were able to talk Spanish all night and learn a lot more about the Spanish culture from them. The meal on Friday night was like having another Thanksgiving Day dinner. It was great!!