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Yesterday was extra neat-o because we went to the new Basque Culinary Institute. Whoa-ho-ho! It just opened in September, and is the first place in Spain that will offer a sort of degree in Gastronomy. Pretty sweet. For some reason I assumed all the 'students' would be middle-aged, but in reality they are our age. They divided us into groups and gave us a tour. The facilities are great! There is a different room/kitchen for each type of food: meat, fish, bread, pastry. And there is a room just for wine-tasting. After the tour, we stopped by the Food Fair that was being hosted. Free samples galore! The guy carved jamón serrano just for us. :) Then all the American and culinary students gathered to have some snacks and dessert prepared by the students that day. Delish! In general, they wanted to practice their Inglish (haha I wrote that, and I'm leaving it that way. English/inglés), but some didn't really know any English. There are students from throughout Spain, and even one from Mexico. Fancy that! I chatted (in Spanish) with a girl from Murcia. Our Spanish teacher reminded us it's pretty cool to have contacts at this school, because their teachers are top-knotch y "tienen futuro." That is to say...they aren't just going to be cooks at Fosters Hollywood (like a Spanish TGIFridays, if you will). I think it's cool because I am a fan of food in general. :D

Speaking of food, I told my host family I'll try to cook some typical Thanksgiving food for them when the time comes. Since I'll be missing the big feast back home. Key word is try. My host madre doesn't know how to make turkey either, but she said the butcher has a sort of 'pre-cooked turkey' so we may cheat jeje.

Then last night after a tasty tortilla de patata dinner, I decided to practice for today's oral exam (already happened, think I did bastante bien). I asked if I could read the examples for my madre while she put away dishes so as not to disrupt her. Oh, but this was not enough. Because then she got really into helping me, so we ended up sitting at the dining room table for a while, her having me read the sentences, then she'd reread them and mark a comma where a native would pause (I rush through sentences in Spanish when I have to read aloud). Then I would read the sentences a few more times. Profesora Marga, as my host padre called her haha. It was really useful though.

And for the academically curious, I have a 7 page paper to write in Myths & Legends. Topic: Summer solstices. Oh yeah! I'm excited, because the celebrations of Midsummer in different cultures have fascinated me for a while. Qué más... I think I get to write a paper about my favorite Spanish band (Extremoduro, claro), but maybe not. Por lo menos I have to give a presentation and analyze 2 of their songs. Must I pick only 2! Haha. And yeah, then there's regular classwork stuff. It seems like we learned a bunch of Basque words today. Aupi!