1st cooking class

Yesterday was my first cooking class at CitiCan with Kim. Well, it was not what I was expecting. My ideal was I´d walk in to a bunch of squaty, loud, busty older Spanish mamas and a ton of cooking stations with food for us to work with and long chats to (attempt) have. Wrong, oh, wrong.

We´re in a basement kitchen, all white tiles and a large stainless steel cooking station in front of a few rows of desks... yes, desks. Our fancy, but sweet, chef Antonio, stands in front with a tall chef hat on and tells us about what he´s cooking, how to cook it and gives tips on how to cut things. For example, yesterday he told us not to hold a sandwich while you cut it because you might cut through it and into your palm. Big flippin´duh Tony! At the end, we get the recipe and get to taste the food.

Kim and I spent part of the time listening and part of the time discussing trips we want to plan to Morocco and London. The food was good, but not all typically Spanish or anything. Antonio kept trying to get these beans to cook and they just weren´t right for him. I said, open a can and heat the beans up in a pan! (not actually out loud, just in my brain) But, he had to add things and use a fancy pot that took 2 hours. Well, it was almost time to go and he was getting so frustrated with these beans. He grabbed the pot hastily and it tipped all over the stove and the bean goo flew everywhere.

Well, he was in the right place... immediately, two Spanish mamas jumped out of their seats and went to work. They found the paper towels, stopped the bean juice from making it to the floor, cleaned Antonio off with the magic lick the thumb and wipe combo. They fussed and fussed until I think the whole kitchen was cleaner than it had been when he started. It was adorable.

I don´t have my recipes on me, but I´ll post the names for you soon so you can check it out. I´m pondering searching for another cooking class and asking for my money back on this one because it´s just not what I want. I was thinking tortillas and pallea (sp?) and Antonio´s all about coffee custards and frufru beans.

Others... I just wrote an entire two pages in Spanish on some books I read for class. We have our final next week which I have no idea how I´ll study for yet. We´ve got a big game this weekend against a team we are tied for 3rd, I think, in league. Sunday will be my first trip to San Sebastian if all goes well.

Yesterday I had practice which was nice. At one point we were playing a game where if you get the rebound you get points as well as for scoring. So, I got a rebound and everyone sort of stood and looked at me and stopped playing. So, I just tossed the ball into the court because obviously there must be some big reason no one was moving. As soon as I did this my whole team yelled at me, "Darby, no, Leyre no está en tu equipo!" Well, I knew that Leyre was not on my team but no one was even moving. I wish I could have said to them in Spanish, "well, why´d you all stop playing? I figured we were done. I´m not a freakin´ idiot, you´re just lazy and I confused it with being done!" Anyhow, I said this in english, in not so many words, and everyone started laughing. It was weird. I know from now on if practice needs to be lightened (which it almost never does) I´ll just blurt out my true feelings in english and laugh because I could say almost anything and no one would know what I said, except maybe one person there. I wonder if they´ve ever done that to me?

Good times abound and time for a run. Loves and misses!