Parqueso

Hello!

I miss you! Whoever you are… if you are in Spain reading this, if you are from the States, I miss you. Lately, I just want to be around the special ones in my life and say goodnight to work. Probably because I have to change schools and my schedule could go all out of whack again just when it was starting to even out…

This past weekend was Jennifer’s last one here. She’s my Canadian friend who was au pairing for a family here. She got on a train for the long journey back this morning. For the last 4 days or so it’s been all Jennifer, all the time. I’ve been sort of a homebody the last few months, so I strapped it on and took one for the team.

The festivities began Friday, going out the Chinese food, then out downtown until 4. It was really fun and I hadn’t done that in a while. However, I had to coach a game the Saturday morning at 9 and got home at 5… you do the math. I rested up after getting our butts kicked and a big group of us went to a sidreria in Pamplona and went out for a bit after. A good time was had by all. The lack of sleep was totally worth it.

Sunday, I woke up at around 12 and realized I had a test on the whole first half of the year of my Spanish class. I started to study and then got a call from Irene because I had planned to have lunch with her, her dad and her grandma that day. I nervously walked back out the door at 2 that afternoon to meet them to get a ride over to Bene’s (grandma) without my usual helping hand/hindrance, Inyaki, by my side.

Bene has the cutest dog ever named Chiqui (chicky). He’s so good all the time and tiny and doesn’t smell bad and they seem to be the best of friends. Irene and Paco and I sat in the living room with the pup for a few as Bene finished up cooking. Mom, this is the kind of dog you want. He’s got mostly black fur with a little bit of Jack Russell tan coloring in the face. He comes to about my mid calf and doesn’t jump or drool and just reaches up and puts his chin on your knee when you sit near him, so cute. Oh, and your hand doesn’t smell after you’ve pet him.

The lunch was fabuloso. We had a paella and some roasted pork ribs that were delish ish ish ish. She even made a cake that had this creamy middle and frosted it, so yuum. In the middle of the paella, I reached in to serve myself more and Bene said, “I like what you’re doing.” Confused, I replied, “eh?” And she said, “the food is here to eat, never have shame about it, just eat,” or something to that effect. It was great. I told Inyaki about it later because I thought she might have been teasing me. He said she’s never ironic.

After the coffee, Irene looked over at me innocently and said, “wanna play Parcheese?” I said sure, I’d never really played before, but sure. As soon as everything was set up, I realized I had no idea what I was in for. The Mayos are professionals. The only sound you could hear for the first few minutes was the click of dice against the walls of hand sized wooden rolling barrels or Paco and Irene telling me it was my turn. The dice were being rolled so fast I had no idea when to go and when to stop! If someone rolls a 6, they go twice, so sometimes I would roll in the middle of someone else’s turn and they’d get annoyed.

Paco tried to take me under his wing and tell me when to move and which piece and where, but I was a little frazzled and not understanding too well. I think he ended up getting a little irritated at me. It was actually pretty funny because I’d never seen this side of them before, the Parcheese just brought it out of them. I ended up winning the last game so, yeah!

On the ride home, Paco helped explain some of the stuff I needed to study and I ended up getting a good grade on the test. My professor even told me that I’ve improved a lot, which was nice to hear. He always says, “es el amor.” (it’s the boyfriend). To which I respond, “no, es la familia del amor.” (it’s the family of my boyfriend). Inyaki has helped a lot, yes, but one of my big motivations has been not to look like an ass in front of his family and to be able to hold a conversation.

So, that’s all that’s new with me. Hangin’ in here trying to find a balance and think about the future, or at least to plan the next year. Hope to talk to you all soon! Loves!