Random Events

After my adventure to Granada, I went to hear a band play whose lead singer is friends with some of the friends I have made. The bar was fun, the company was great, and after a couple of beers the band wasn't "excruitiatingly horrible." A little back ground info on the band: their name is Ice Cream (yes, like the creamy frozen desert); their style is heavy metal rock; and all the members are Spanish, speak Spanish, yet choose to sing in English. Oh, it gets better! The lyrics to one of their songs is literally, "I scream; You scream; We all scream for ice cream!" repeated 15 times. Haha the irony of it makes me laugh every time I think about it :) It was fun though to go to a live, local concert. Live music/bands are rare in Spain, unlike the U.S. where you can find a dozen a night in every major city and at least one every weekend in most other towns. They do not even play at the local coffee shop. How do bands begin/become famous if there is no place for them to play? How many independent bands exist in Spain? Are they all undercover in their basements? This would seriously make a very interesting research topic for a music major - Kate Powers, You should look into this :)

Last Sunday I joined friends for a potluck lunch. The food was delicious, the company was great, but the Spanish games were quite difficult. We played basically the equivalent of Taboo but in Spanish. Asking cultural/historical questions in Spanish, having to describe a specific word in Spanish and then quess it, acting out a Spanish word, and drawing a Spanish word. At my turn, I didn't know the first word in Spanish and no one could describe it to me, so the second word I chose was "kilo" easy enough to understand, but then I had to draw it...I drew a balance and they guessed every word but kilo. Haha. I felt pretty stupid, but it was a good way to truly immerse myself. Fortunately/Unfortunately my team wasn't so great at the game either. We came in dead last by a lot. Oh well, it was a good time and its definitely something to strive for - to play Spanish Taboo like Spanish was my first language.

The Sunday after Christmas, I joined Franciso's family again for a Spanish Bar-B-Que. It was delicious. They are such a fun group of people. His brother also has a pet bull dog name Bono. I also tried my first Spanish sherry, which I must say was quite nice - smooth and sweet. It is amazing how universal the concept of bar-b-que is. In Argentina it is called "asado," in spain "barbacoa," and in the U.S. "bar-b-que." The only difference is the meat varies from location to location, but they all include enormous amounts of meat, beer/wine, and good company.