They Always Come Back

My Anti-Christ text me a few minutes ago.
Said he was texting to hang out and had done so before to no response (must have been while i was in Spain), so he was now going to go get wasted instead.
um? WTF?
I text him back not to text me and that it was SUPER UNCOOL to text me he was going to get wasted.
Primarily, because he knows it make me angry/worried. I'm trying really hard now not to think about it, but worrying about him is something i do out of habit. I didn't even know he was drinking again. I thought he'd stopped because he got in trouble the last time. Why does this matter?
It doesn't.
I hate that he can still do this to me. It's not fair. It's NOT cool.
I need to go to bed.

brie en croute

my friends B & J were kind enough to invite me over this thanksgiving. never one to come to a home empty-handed, I've made brie en croute for the occassion. here are the ingredients and amounts. i had to be creative with the assembly, so i'm leaving you to your creativity as well.

brie en croute
1 8oz wheel of brie
4 or so tablespoons of apricot preserves (none of the sugar free stuff. full sugar. also i may have used more than 4 tablespoons. be liberal. it's preserves!)
1 package of pillsbury crescent rolls - the bigger kind.

you'll have enough dough to wrap the brie wheel twice and decorate the top. the brie should be cut horizontally so you can have layers. the apricot will go in the middle.
have fun. i did! :)

bake at 350 for 30 minutes. oh and if you have them and no one is allergic, throw in some toasted almonds.

Inactive

I am really stressed out at work and it doesn't help my stress levels when people ask me why my blog hasn't been updated. Unfortunately, I don't have time to update my blog. I wish I did. I find nothing more satisfying than writing down my thoughts, but for the time being, I can't. When I get home from work the last thing I want to do is get on a computer again. Sorry friends. I will see you again January 1, 2010. I might have some time here and there to do some blogging, but I won't make any promises I can't keep. Until 2010...

Happy Thanksgiving
Merry Christmas
Happy New Year

Lots of love,
Lola

man i'm tired.

since i have some free time, i will tell you a little more about my new spanish friends.

consuelo, or chelo, was born in La Alberca - the village we visited yesterday. in fact, we passed the house she was born in on our tour. chelo is very pretty. she is likely in her early 40s, though she and i look about the same age. she is a pharmacist with two girls. she hasn't really spoken much about her husband and i don't ask, so i don't know if their is a man in her life or what. regardless, she is super. she's also my roomate. of course she's super.

norma is also very beautiful. she works in an ad agency in madrid. yesterday she was saying she has a spanish guitar body like most women in space. i guess would be the equivalent of a pear shaped body. she was very critical of herself yesterday, but i think she's lovely. dark dark hair, blue eyes and a great smile. most people who are beautiful are real assholes, but norma is a doll.

eloisa is quiet and comes from the town of cadiz. apparently they dance the sevillanas there which is similar to flamenco. i think. i dunno. i have been asking the spaniards to show me sevillanas and no of them will. this leads me to believe it is very embarrassing.

jose maria is one of my favorites. he said his friends call him chema so i told him mine call me lola. we laughed at one another and now we call each other by nickname. chema plays soccer for a division 2 spanish league. this means he's pretty good. he's the goalkeeper. we were talking about how busy my day will be on saturday because i have only one full day to do all the things i really want to do. he said if he wasn't going on vacation early saturday morning (to london with his gf) he would have shown me around. this is why i love the spanish. they are so helpful and nice.

disease + dessert

we are dropping like flies here at pueblo ingles.
i forget who i heard coughing first. i think it may have been one of the english. from there 1, 2, 3, 4, FIVE! english speakers have had to stay in bed in their villas to avoid contaminating everyone else. i know of at least 3 spaniards who´ve had to do the same. they look pretty miserable.
thank you to my boss for convincing me to go to publix with him and get a flu shot!
i appreciate it more than you know. knock on wood - i feel fine.

i decided today not to take the third course, dessert, at lunch and dinner. i mean, i don´t normally have dessert. i shouldn´t be so indulgent. there are starving children in africa! watch the desserts today are the best of the week. JODER! (which roughly means fuck! i´m learning a lot as you can read)

pig milk

i will expand on these, but i need to jot these down while they are in my head.

1. pig milk

2. beverly hills ninety two hundred ten

3. paquito el chocolatero

4. follow the leader leader leader, follow the leader!

about those testicles

oops. forgot to tell you about the pig testicles.

like i said, pigs are everyone's BFF. pigs everywhere!

there is a stone pig a little ways from the main square. it is said that if you touch the testicles of the stone pig (you can't miss them), you will have a baby in 9 months.

you can imagine i stayed far, far, far away from that pig.

pig testicles

we kinda sorta had a day off today from one-on-ones, two-to-twos, group activities, conference calls and phone sessions. after breakfast this morning we went into the small village of la alberca. i should note that a lot of us were tired and hungover this morning because of last night's party. i had 3 rum and lemonades (new favorite drink). the hike from the hotel to la alberca is about 25 minutes long. we walked around the village some, but it's not very different from what you'd expect. cobblestone streets, old buildings and churches, a small square and a wandering pig. you have those in your village too right?

they love their pigs here. when we were talking in the square earlier today, a bigass black pig happened upon us. i mean we are talking big. and ugly. the wandering pig comes from back when the jews and moors inhabited the village. the jews would offer the pig to the poor of the village. nowadays, the pig roams the village for one year. after the year is over a raffle is held and the winner gets the pig and does what they want with it. since ham is so big here, i assume the pig becomes dinner. i almost thought about entering the raffle and setting the pig free if i won.

you know i don't mind pork, but seeing that ugly ass pig, i am not so hungry for pork anymore.

3 police walk into a bar

i'm being serious. i'm sitting here poking around on facebook, writing on my blog, and checking my email in the hotel lobby (the only area i get wifi) when three spanish police officers in full uniform walk in. there are several other english speakers here with me in the lobby, mostly females, and these policemen happen to be very hot.

we are having a "party" after dinner - not sure how that's different from doing the usual late night in the lobby, but whatever. the ladies are trying to get the policemen to stay for our party. i've refused to speak spanish and ask them to stay, so they are asking every spaniard on our program that walks into the lobby to ask the police to stay.

these girls are clearly more hard up than i am.

john

my new friend john, one of the other english-speakers, is 73 years old.

on the way to the meeting point in madrid on thursday morning, john was hit by a car. he rolled forward and hit his head on the pavement and now has a large scar on his forehead. he managed to get to the meeting point in spite of this. when he arrived, he sat next to me on a bench i was on and proceeded to tell me how much fun i was about to have. we also sat together on the bus ride to la alberca (even though you were supposed to sit with a spaniard).

john is the sweetest old man. honestly, i want to adopt him as my grand dad. all the spaniards love him because he is so calm and patient and he speaks very clearly. all the english speakers love him because...well...he is so damned cute. he is english, tall(ish), bald, has a dimple in each cheek, and is missing one of his front teeth.

i will be very sad to leave my friend john on friday :(

jose antonio

i have a new friend named jose antonio.
he is about 40, lives in madrid, works as an industrial engineer in a factory, has a wife and one 4-year old girl.
jose antonio cracks my shit up.
you must know someone who´s laugh is so infectious, it makes you laugh too. jose antonio is that person for me.
here at pueblo ingles we have at least 4 one-on-one sessions with a spaniard in one day. they are each 50 minutes in length. yesterday, i had a one-on-one with jose antonio. by the end of our one-on-one, jose antonio and i were playing pictionary. poor spaniards. it´s constant english for them. your brain turns into mush, you want to speak english, but only pictures come out. anyway, my journal is full of little pictures jose antonio has drawn.
i will probably keep these forever as a reminder of how funny jose antonio is.

cola cao

i was told i must have churros and hot chocolate before i leave spain. i haven´t had a good version yet, but i did just have cola cao powdered hot chocolate and i must say, it´s a hell of a lot better than swiss miss.

even though i´ve subbed water and red wine for soda, losing weight or even not putting on weight is going to be a challenge here.

every morning at 9am (3am Atlanta time) we all meet in a dining hall and help ourselves to the breakfast buffet. every morning i approach the breakfast buffet thinking i am only going to have cafe con leche which is coffee with milk, but i can never escape that damned breakfast buffet. i always leave with a small(ish) pastry, some tortilla española (something similar to a quiche or an omelette - egg and potato), some ham...basically i have breakfast.

at 2pm (8am Atlanta time) we all meet in the dining hall for a 3 course lunch. of course you don´t have to eat all three courses, but i usually do. yesterday´s first course was a salad, the second course was potatoes and roast chicken and the third was cheescake. of course i ate all of it.

at 9pm (3pm Atlanta time) we meet in the dining hall for the third time to have a 3 course dinner. last night it was a salad again, then roast pork and green beans and squash and natilla for dessert. natilla is like a custard. its divine. when i went to bed last night i was full and feeling somewhat guilty for indulging so much and it´s only the first day! GAH! i hope today i can exercise more self control. there is no snacking here - which is perfect.

i´ve been noticing the way i speak english has changed. i feel like it comes out slower and more carefully. as if everyone i speak to in english doesn´t understand. i actually don´t mind it as so many people have told me i speak to fast.
lola. over and out.

okay here you are!

today is saturday in spain. saturday 11:21 and i am wide awake. i have a feeling it will be this way for quite some time. in fact i think it will be this way until sunday and then i'll have to come back. isn't that always the way?

i'm sitting in the lounge/lobby of the resort we are all at.

in front of me is paul. he just revealed he works in insurance but he isn't disclosing which firm he works for. oooh por que so secretive paul? to my left is daniel, or dani. he likes to be called dani because only his coworkers call him daniel. and that is more serious. to my left and further up the row is Jose. Jose is in the masters program of Pueblo Ingles. He's caught on that I am hispanic. Surprisingly, not many people have.

Before I left for Spain I told Cray-Z and Sasha I was giving up soda, Coke specifically, until next year. I drink too much soda. As it happens, water and wine is free here. All the water and red wine you can drink. But not soda. So not only is Pueblo Ingles exposing me to new people and their stories, but it's helping me lose weight. BONUS!

Lola out. For now...

Besos!

happy belated birthday!

my sisters' birthday was November 6 and I neglected to do a birthday shout-out. meh. they don't read this blog anyway.

H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y, PEPE & V!

they turned 25. the day after, my sister, Pepe, posted pictures of her night out on the town. i can't tell you how truly strange it is to see my sister out and enjoying herself in a bar. looking drunk. so strange. i still think of them as my "little" sisters. no older than high school age. they don't drink. they don't have sex. they don't have fun. i barely can come to terms with the fact that they have jobs. so. bizarre. but i mean... pepe gave birth to my love, skinnie minnie, 4 years ago and V gave birth to my chunky monkey a year ago... so they must have gotten to here from there somehow. must have been overnight.

i'm sure they think i'm ancient.

garlic

jesus. has it really been since october 28 that i blogged? fuck.

sorry dudes. for the profanity and for the lack of blog. i know you missed it. i'm sure at this point i've probably lost of all three of you, but for you that stayed...

you'll like this! i am leaving for madrid on wednesday. i plan to blog every day and even in the event i can't get online, i will write a post everyday and post them when i am able to get online. that's at least 11 posts of goodness. you love it. you know you do!

my vacation in madrid is the reason i've been away. i've been totally slammed at work. i know i've probably said that before, but in this case its true. i really have been and i'm surprised i even got online to tell my garlic story, but i had to. i couldn't lose you. you! the one person that keeps checking in on me to see if i've written.

so garlic.

on sunday i got it into my head that i wanted bolognese sauce. you know, my beef and tomato sauce comfort food. well, i went to publix to pick up the meat (I already had the tomato sauce, i.e. spaghetti sauce), but i passed the canned goods aisle and decided it was time to make chili.

i've made pretty decent chili in the past, so i figured - no sweat. and it really wasn't, but by the time it was done, i was exhausted and not really hungry. i used red beans and black beans, cumin, onion, tomatoes from Mama C and Cray-Zs garden (the ones they left last month during taco tuesday), fresh garlic from a random bulb i found in my fridge, corn, chili powder, Lea + Perrins, jalapenos, I mean... I pretty much used everything that seemed chilish to me.

I used maybe a quarter of a clove of garlic. I need to take out the trash, because when I open the lid I want to pass out and die. It STINKS. SMELL BAAAAAAAD. so a little tip from me to you: don't go crazy on the garlic.