Weekend Jumble

I have a list (actually its a little more sophisticated... its a detailed excel spreadsheet) of things I want to do while I'm here. The longest section is cafes to try. Saturday I crossed another off of the list- it's called Fuentetaja, and it used to be a bookstore during Franco's regime that sold prohibited books. Today it is still a bookstore with an upscale cafe. Cool right? When I got there, I found out that the cafe is across the street from the old famous building, so Fuentetaja, the cafe, is nothing special- they sell books and share its name with a cool bookstore. lame.

Saturday was my first car ride in over a month. I went with my Spanish friend, Esmeralda, and a group of her friends outside of Madrid for dinner because I really wanted sushi and she had never tried it. (Once again, this whole thing is sounding a lot cooler in theory). The place we went to was not a cute little Japanese palce, but rather an overpriced and verging terrible asian buffet. But we did steal 75 napkin-bundles of gummies.

Friday's cooking class took a year and a half to find since it was not in a studio or restaurant, like I expected. Then we realized it was an apartment building, and literally its a woman's apartment with some folding chairs hovering around the kitchen counter. We watched while she made the food, except I did mash and flip my own tortilla espanola. The paella was delicious- just as I imagined it would be. Apparently, Elvira hasn't forgotten that she said she would make it for me. She said today she's just waiting for the "right night". Whatever. I have a recipe now, I don't need her.

Today was the first day that smelled like Spring! It was 60F and sunny and made for the most excellent run-- on which I had 2 mini-epiphanies. 1. I am going to sign up for the Madrid half marathon in April- includes a t-shirt, already checked. 2. I am going to work on convincing myself to try the famous jamon serrano. The idea of it is currently making me puke, but Im taking baby steps. Once I stop gagging, ill be that much closer to really experiencing Spain.