Hotel Las Arenas

I went to the beach where the big Hogueras de San Juan (Bonfires of St. John) took place. This celebration, or festival dates back to pre-Christian times and marks the arrival of summer solstice, the longest day of the year. This celebration takes place from June 20-June 29. It is celebrated in many costal towns including Alicante (the biggest celebration) Velencia and Barcelona. Jumping in the sea at midnight is supposed to wash away the evil spirits and gain fortune and eternal beauty. Well here are pics of the hotel room and the beach

My Cave

Here are a couple pictures of my study table in my room and my tiny window. This is a typical study night. My computer, a little wine, cheese and Serrano and my class notes. I try to type my class notes in the afternoon or evening but I'm behind. I should have started from day one, but I didn't think about it until week two, so I'm trying to catch up.

Comidas en Espana

Spaniards, at least in Valencia eat FIVE meals a day! Here's how it goes:

Desayuno: usually between 7-8 AM it consists of something very light, such as expresso or cortado (expresso with just a little steamed milk in a cup just a little larger than an expresso cup. The may also have a biscuit (not like our southern biscuits but more like a mildy sweetened cookie) or a piece or a fruit. They DON'T EAT eggs, omelets, ham, bacon, sausage, cereal with milk, french toast or pancakes.

El Amuerzo: usually around 10-11 and it might consist of another piece of fruit, more coffee, maybe a glass of juice or horchata.

La Comida: Usually between 2-3 PM. In travel books they may call lunch "Amuerzo" but people who are born and raised here call the mid-day meal La Comida. This is the big meal of the day. This is when the Valencians eat Paella, meats, heavy soups etc. Remember many businesses close between 2-4 PM so this is a good time for a big meal and a little rest before returning to work. When they return to work at 4 they might work until 7:30-8:00PM.

La Merienda: This meal is between 6:00-6:30 and is mostly designed for children when they get out of school. Even small, elementary children have school until 4:30-5:00PM. This meal would consist of a little sandwhich (bocadillo) some milk or fruit, crackers etc.

La Cena: this is the last meal of the day and is taken between 9:30-10:30 PM. Again, nothing heavy. This is the time to eat tapas and light salads. The natives never eat Paella, steak, or heavy soups at this hour.

So that the rundown. Let me know what you think.

Paella

I know this may be boring, still, I thought I'd let you guys know the variety of paellas here in Valencia. These are from a paella restaurant called Marisco thus the name is incorporated into may of the recipe names. I've been to other restaurants with similar menus so I felt this was fairly representative. I'll try to supply more pics of the prepared dishes late.

Fideua De Marisco - this paella is made with thin pasta rather than rice. I've never tried it but I've seen it. It contains mussels, prawns, squid, sweet red bell pepper, artichoke heart and green peas

Paella de Arroz Negro - Black rice Paella made with squid ink that causes the rice to appear black. It contains squid, mussels, prawns, squid ink, artichoke hearts and peas

Paella Valencia - This is the actual paella most people HERE think of as being the local recipe. I had a small dish of this from a vendor in the street but I don't think of this when I think of paella. It contains chicken, green beans, carob beans and sweet red or green bell peppers

Paella De Marisco Pelado - peeled seafood including squid, prawns, mussels, sweet peppers and green peas

Paella Mixta - chicken, spare ribs, prawns, mussels, sweet pepper and green peas

Paella De Marisco - scampi, squid, prawns, mussels, green peas, red bell pepper

As you can see there is a sorta typical combination of ingredients. Interestingly I never see onion listed as an ingredient. The first time I remember eating anything like this is when my grandmother (Abuela Argelia) would make what we called yellow rice ad chicken (arroz con pollo). She would combine the rice and chicken in a baking pan and cook it in the oven. When it was almost done she would add roasted red pepper and green peas on top and then pop it back in the oven to finish. I guess it was basically a chicken paella.

Instructor Yolanda

This is the first picture I took of instructor Yolanda and I thought it was fully because it looks like she's nude. Actually she has a dress or shirt that is strapless and the way I took the picture made it look funny (to me). So I took another one a few days later.

instructors

These are pictures of my instructors. The one sitting is Yolanda the one standing is Sylvia. Sylvia mostly teaches vocabulary and Yolanda teaches grammar (the tough stuff). There is also a photo of me and the other student in my class named Karin from Sweden.

During one class the instructor asked where we would like to vacation. I think I said the Keys or the Caribbean. The other student, Karin says she wants to visit, Iran, Lebanon and Korea! So I mention that two American reporters were just sentenced to 12 years in prison in a closed trial that lasted 15 minutes. Karin's response was "what about Guantanamo?". I mentioned the folks in GITMO may have had something to do with the deaths of 3,000 Americans and the two reporters just happened to be in North Korea.

I'm not positive about what Karin does for work but I think she said she's a librarian in Sweden. The instructor is asking about various different things as a lesson and we answer and its an interaction type thing. So she asking about things and whether they are very important, important, or not important at all. and of course there are varying degrees, in fact the instructor drew a scale on the board with very important on one end, important in the middle and not important at the other end. The instructor, Sylvia, ask what we think of money (amongst other things). So I say money is very important because it allows us to live a nice comfortable life and allows us to help others and having money is better than not having money. So Miss Swiss says "oh, money isn't very important". Either she and her family are rich and don't have to worry about money or she is unrealistic about how the world works. Money isn't the most important thing and the attainment of money and wealth shouldn't consume a person, however, as I said, when you have money you can live comfortably and you can help others less fortunate.

Dinner

Walking along "restaurant row" I saw so many dishes with fish and prawns, langostino, mussels, octopus on and on... I hadn't eaten a thing all day and now it was 9:45 PM. I found a little bar with a TV and people watching a soccer match between Spain & Uruguay. I actually starting think soccer wasn't a half bad sport, it certainly takes tremendous athletic skill.

Entonces, after 2 glasses of Tinto I walked a few doors down to a restaurant called La Marcelina. It was more of an upscale restaurant even though I was wearing shorts a t-shirt and flip flops they served me. Of course I ate alone. None of the people from school were around and I didn't know anyone else. The menu was extensive and none of it was in English. I knew I wanted a seafood paella, (see pictures of all the paella pans and the kitchen) but I wanted it with the mussels in the shells and the prawns and shrimp whole. I ordered Sopa De Ajo which is a garlic soup. I've been wanting to try that for a long time. It was one of the best things I have ever put in my mouth! I had it only once before in Puerto Rico but that was so long ago I don't remember. I have some recipes for this soup now I know I want to try this at home.

Next I had Pulpito which are baby octopus that are sauted in a wine sauce and served in a little tera cota dish straight from the oven. The garlic bread was toasted and it was actually rubbed with whole garlic. I enjoyed my appitizer and soup with a glass of the house wine called Murviedrt. I believe the name refers to a type of grape or a region where it is grown. Finally my paella came. It was simply called Paella Marcelina, the house specialty. It is prepared when you order it rather than plated from a larger paella that was prepared in advance. It contained, bacalao (cod), camaron (shrimp), and mejillon (mussels). It was fantastic! I had to order a portion for two because they don't make individual servings of this dish. So I had plenty to bring home for today.

Beach II

Just a few more pictures of my time at the beach and another example of the parking situation here.

Next to where I stayed was a five star hotel called Hotel Las Arenas that was beautiful. I tooks a picture from front and back. I think I might stay there next week for a day or two.

La Playa (the beach)

I stayed at the beach on Saturday and Staurday night. The hotel was called El Coso. It was right on the beach (along with tons of other hotels). The sand is tan in color and water isn't really blue or green like at home. Its just a little different. The beach was crowded like at home. Maybe 20% of the females were topless which is not a big deal over here. Its a shame most of that 20% were Abuela's! There is a long prominade between the back of the hotels and the beach where venders set-up places to sell stuff. I saw the most wonderful looking seafood. I'll tell you about my meal in the next entry. I've included some pic of the beach. There is one where you can make out a montain range in the distance. It was much clearer in person. I'd like to go to the beach at the foot of those mountains.

Supermarket & Parking

These are pictures of the supermarket that is in the basement of a mall called El Corte Ingles. It's like a Publix Supermarket. First I have to say, I have no idea how to manipulate my text with the pictures so however it comes out is out of my control. Anyway, the first picture is of part of the seafood department. There are about 8 different types of shrimp, praws and Langostino's. They told me I cant take pictures so I didn't get one of the actual fish, to the left. Many, Many different types of fish & eel's. Usually whole fish and even live fish.

Next you will see all the Jamon Serrano's hanging. There must have been 100 of these. This ham is like Italian Procutto. Some of the pigs (cerdo) are farm raised and some are raised in the mountians free range. These are the most expensive and the have black hooves. They take the whole ham leg and place in in a carving rack then slice off thin pieces for you. I have never seen them put any ham on an electric slicer but I'm sure the do once they take it off the bone. The price can range from 10 euro/kilo to 145 euro/kilo. A kilo is about 2.2 pounds.

The last picture is an example of how close these folks park next to each other. This picture is not unusual. The cars are usually parked less than a foot apart. There are NO TRUCKs and No SUV's. There are 90% compact cars, Sabb, Peugot, Audi, Mercedes, Fords. Every now and then I see an expensive Benz or Audi sedan. The richer people live in apartments with underground parking. There are also hundreds and hundreds of mopeds & motorcyles (moto's)