Saturday, April 11, 2009

In Between The Rain And BBQ's Its All About The Image

March 28th

We didn't have any large plans for my mom's last day in Granada.  I spent part of the morning working on my application for the "Loft Student Manager," position that I would like to do next year at UCSD.  I would be working for ArtPower! as the liaison between students and staff, planner of the performing arts events and manager of the new social space, the Loft.  I would have to do a lot of coordinating with my RA commitment as they both would require significant amounts of time.

Heiko and Nathalie woke up and we decided that we would have an "international dinner," tonight and would go grocery shopping.  The nice weather that we had had all week turned bad as outside it was raining and chilly.  We spent an hour at Mercadona buying all of the necessary, mixed ingredients.  Heiko decided  he would cook some fish and bought two fresh dorados.  My mom would make a vegetable dish.  We came back and unpacked everything.

My mom had to mail a postcard and then wanted to head up to the Alhambra.  The post office was closed, so we continued up the hill to the Alhambra stopping along the way to look at the shops.  I saw a straw hat and a plain white shirt that I thought would make the perfect outfit for Egypt.  We decided to buy it on the way back down.

Walking up through the Alhambra woods was gorgeous.  Cool, green and with the ambient sound of running water.  We walked back up to the fountain to take pictures.  After checking out the photo exhibit, we cut across the street to Carmen de los Martires.  By now the weather had cleared up, almost hot.  The gardens were beautiful.  The wisteria in bloom.  I was hoping to find the peacocks that roam the grounds and was lucky enough to run into a whole covey.  The hens were on the balcony while the cock walked around, almost fanning his tail.

Stopping in the stores on the way back, I bought my white t-shirt and straw hat.  I would have my "look," for my trip to Egypt.

Back home, Heiko and Nathalie were in the kitchen.  Heiko had filled the fish with onions, garlic, tomatoes and cilantro.  He would grill them whole in the foil wrapping.  

Although intended to be ready at 5, our dinner went on for the next 4 hours as we got everything ready and found that we were out of charcoal.  This required Antonio, who had just come back from Sevilla with a new bike, and me to walk halfway across Granada to Hipercore, the seemingly only store in Granada to have charcoal.  It was raining hard as we hurried back.

Back home, I realized I'd bought the wrong kind as I'd bought charcoal for a gas grill.  Jonathan Garvey had come over to and between him, Heiko and me we were able to get the grill going despite the incorrect fuel source and pouring rain.  Our dinner turned out to be good but in stages as we ate my mom's cut up vegetables (the difference between Spain and the US clearly defined by Antonio's adding of salt and olive oil to all of the raw vegetables) and then some great grilled cheese and garlic.  We eventually got to Heiko's fish which was really good as well.  It was nice talking to my roommates and I think everyone had a good time.

After a Minnesota goodbye with Jon, my mom, Heiko and I walked over to Plaza Bim-Rambla for one more ice cream.  We walked around the Cathedral and then back home.  

My mom and I quickly finished packing.  I loaded up my green backpack for what I would need in Egypt.  Having lost an hour of sleep because of daylight savings time, I went to bed at 1:00am.

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