The Rain in Spain

So today while he was in class, Dan made me go get groceries. By myself. We found a grocery store that sells normal milk by the pint. Dan and I go through about two gallons a week... We like milk. Anyway, this grocery store is a teeny little place about 12 blocks away. Getting groceries on my own was a difficult task for numerous reasons. I don't speak the language obviously. It's hard to even get around in the crowded store without being able to communicate but it's impossible to find anything and it's not like I can just go ask someone where something is. Plus I have no idea if what I'm buying is any good as not only can I not read the labels but normal brands and names of things are completely different than at home. Like even if it's a brand that is common back home, here they have changed the brand name, the name of the product and the packaging. Even though it is the exact same thing. Only one person, besides the cashier said anything to me and mostly I just stared stupidly at her. I did however, survive the trip.

Not too much happened this past week. Just getting used to our surroundings and with Dan being sick, and jet lag, we weren't up for much. The first day we were here our group was given a tour of the city. We're staying in Logrono. It was founded by the Romans in the tenth century and it's cool cause there's still places where you can see the original city wall.

These are pictures from our tour.

This is a statues from one of the churches. This

is probably inapropriate to say but the saying in

the town when people do something bold is that

'They've got more huevos than the horse.'

Dan really wanted this river to be the one

from Indiana Jones.

This one is the biggest cathedral in town. It

was built in the 17th century.

Some street.

Most of last week I went to at least part of Dan's class. It was a class on the pilgrimage people go on starting I think, in France and ending in Santiago, Spain. They believe that's where the apostle James ended up. It would've been interesting if I could understand everything but I was still able to pick up on pieces.

Thursday night Dan had his cooking class. We went to a restaurant and watched/helped the chef make a three course meal that we then got to eat. This cooking class happens once a week and is part of Dan's culture class. The last week they will be teaching flamenco dancing as well. One of the selling points of me coming along was that I could go to the culture classes and participate etc and go to the lower level Spanish class and just listen. The first day our USU professor guy, Kevin, who had told us I could do that, told us no, I can't go to a class that Dan's not in. Then Thursday after I and the other two wives had gone to the cooking class with our husbands, we all got an email from Kevin saying wives are not allowed to go to the cooking class either. Still no word on whether we still get to go to the dance class. We are all bugged.

Dan finally got to go to the doctor on Friday (They gave him some medicine and he's doing much better.) and then after that the plan was to go visit a castle about a half hour away and then go to a festival that was just in the next town over. It was raining, as it has done just about everyday so far but right as we got to the tiny town where the castle was it started pouring so hard and the wind was blowing so much that we just had to get right back on the bus and didn't get to walk up the hill to the castle. Then when we got to Lardero where the festival was, we were told nothing really was happening that night because of the rain. Fail.

Saturday we went with our friends Matt and Hailey around town looking through the cathedrals and such. We were supposed to go to some huge cathedral a few towns away but because it was the weekend, the buses weren't running so much so we ended up not going. Fail again. We found a cafe that serves churros with chocolate and oh my, they were so good. I just got a cup of hot chocolate which was basically melted down chocolate and we dipped our churros in them. I couldn't even finish the chocolate, it was so rich. After walking around town we were going to try for the festival again, but then we discovered that in the square they had set up a huge tv for the quarter finals of the World Cup that night, Spain vs Paraguay. (I think.) So we decided we definitely had to stay and watch as we were in Spain and it was fun. Though we failed on our plans again.

Dan's churro and chocolate with the Germany

vs. Argentina game in the background.

Watching the Spain game.

Finally Sunday night we were able to go to the festival. We were told things usually started around nine pm but of course when we got there at nine pm, the bull fight and all the good stuff was over already because it was Sunday and they did everything earlier. Fail. But at least I got to go to some kind of carnival on the fourth of July.

Festival!

Dan pretending to be a bull in the ring.