Today was my first day of internship. I work 16 hours a week: 2 hours Monday and Wednesday at Casal Uruguay teaching English; 1.5 hours Tuesday Thursday at Centro Peruano teaching English; 3 hours on Monday doing administrative work with my boss María Elena and 2 hours on Tuesday; 2 hours at some undetermined time during the week to follow-up with my other boss and prepare lesson plans; 1 hour independent prep. This is in addition to the eleven hours I spend in class. I end work every day between 7:30 and 8:00 PM so my Monday to Thursday work week is pretty packed. In preparation for the next two months of this glimpse into real life, I spent yesterday doing this:
I treated myself to a strawberry-yogurt batido (milkshake) and a strawberry-cream gelato too. Soaked it all in. And to prepare myself just for today, I ran down to the bar/restaurant next door in my 15 minute break between classes to treat myself to a cafe con leche and this:
I think this breakfast combo is going to become part of my routine on my 9 AM Mondays and Wednesdays now that I know it exists. If Profe Josep needs to wait a minute for me to finish my cafe y croissant, so be it. He'll understand better than anyone else; here in Barcelona, it's necessary that you se tranquile.
To prove that I've been progressively adjusting to life here, today I had a lunch of toast and tapenade, some canned mussels packed in a sauce of tomato, garlic, and olive oil (I was put off at first but it was DELICIOUS) at 3:00 PM and got back for dinner at 8:30 PM and didn't eat till 9:00 PM. Before I forget, the following recipe is for my dear sister Christine and my dear friend Esther Pak who equally appreciate my cooking and follow this blog consistently enough for me to dedicate this recipe to them:
2 servings of the pasta of your choosing (remember to salt the water and add olive oil)
Creamy tomato sauce:
2 large cloves of garlic minced
1/2 small yellow onion chopped small
1 can preferably unseasoned but high quality tomato sauce
1 tbsp crushed red pepper
4 tbsp cream (or two glug-glugs if that makes sense)
handful of mozzarella cheese (this goes out to my brother-in-law who won't eat stinky cheese)
3-4 basil leaves minced or 2 tsp dried basil (although fresh is always preferred)
oregano, salt and pepper to taste
Sautee garlic and onion together in olive oil. Add red pepper right before they start browning. Sautee for another three winks more but don't let the red pepper burn (it burns easily) and then add the tomato sauce. Bring it to a boil and add cream. Let the sauce come to a simmer and then add cheese. Add seasoning and basil when the cheese is nice and melty and then top it on your pasta and you have dinner! Since I know you people (my big sister and Esther and then by default my brother-in-law and Joy) are carnivores, you can throw some ground up spicy Italian sausage in the pan somewhere between the garlic/onion and the red pepper. Let the meat brown; it'll cook the rest of the way in the bubbling sauce. Sorry there's no photo. I was too hungry to get my phone out.
So that's it. The dinner that brought my nerve-racking although very successful first day of work to a close. My boss fed me lunch and we bonded over chats about food, family, felines (that never happened but I do love me some alliteration). And then two hours of English workshop.
The majority of my class (approx. 20 students) is older than me (30-50 years of age) but I love them. They're all from Latin America and as I told them today in class, "Me gusta que la mayoría de ustedes sino todos ustedes son de Latinoamérica porque aprendía el español latinoamericano y no el castellano de aquí y me odia la forma vosotros" and they laughed because, let's be real, we all hate using vosotros. And that was our icebreaker: sharing a common dislike for a grammatical conjugation.
Alright folks, I need to shower and sleep and do homework some time before 10:45 AM tomorrow. As they say in Barcelona's native tongue of Catalán: Bona nit.
Beast to the left and the beauty to the right up ahead of me.
Or vice-versa if that's the way your roll. No judgment.
And to my left...
boob alert.
I treated myself to a strawberry-yogurt batido (milkshake) and a strawberry-cream gelato too. Soaked it all in. And to prepare myself just for today, I ran down to the bar/restaurant next door in my 15 minute break between classes to treat myself to a cafe con leche and this:
Glazed croissant
To prove that I've been progressively adjusting to life here, today I had a lunch of toast and tapenade, some canned mussels packed in a sauce of tomato, garlic, and olive oil (I was put off at first but it was DELICIOUS) at 3:00 PM and got back for dinner at 8:30 PM and didn't eat till 9:00 PM. Before I forget, the following recipe is for my dear sister Christine and my dear friend Esther Pak who equally appreciate my cooking and follow this blog consistently enough for me to dedicate this recipe to them:
2 servings of the pasta of your choosing (remember to salt the water and add olive oil)
Creamy tomato sauce:
2 large cloves of garlic minced
1/2 small yellow onion chopped small
1 can preferably unseasoned but high quality tomato sauce
1 tbsp crushed red pepper
4 tbsp cream (or two glug-glugs if that makes sense)
handful of mozzarella cheese (this goes out to my brother-in-law who won't eat stinky cheese)
3-4 basil leaves minced or 2 tsp dried basil (although fresh is always preferred)
oregano, salt and pepper to taste
Sautee garlic and onion together in olive oil. Add red pepper right before they start browning. Sautee for another three winks more but don't let the red pepper burn (it burns easily) and then add the tomato sauce. Bring it to a boil and add cream. Let the sauce come to a simmer and then add cheese. Add seasoning and basil when the cheese is nice and melty and then top it on your pasta and you have dinner! Since I know you people (my big sister and Esther and then by default my brother-in-law and Joy) are carnivores, you can throw some ground up spicy Italian sausage in the pan somewhere between the garlic/onion and the red pepper. Let the meat brown; it'll cook the rest of the way in the bubbling sauce. Sorry there's no photo. I was too hungry to get my phone out.
So that's it. The dinner that brought my nerve-racking although very successful first day of work to a close. My boss fed me lunch and we bonded over chats about food, family, felines (that never happened but I do love me some alliteration). And then two hours of English workshop.
The majority of my class (approx. 20 students) is older than me (30-50 years of age) but I love them. They're all from Latin America and as I told them today in class, "Me gusta que la mayoría de ustedes sino todos ustedes son de Latinoamérica porque aprendía el español latinoamericano y no el castellano de aquí y me odia la forma vosotros" and they laughed because, let's be real, we all hate using vosotros. And that was our icebreaker: sharing a common dislike for a grammatical conjugation.
Alright folks, I need to shower and sleep and do homework some time before 10:45 AM tomorrow. As they say in Barcelona's native tongue of Catalán: Bona nit.
Okay this is my 3rd shot at writing a comment and hopefully it will work. i'm thinking it might actually work because wesleyan gmail is a bit more powerful now? according to those emails that were sent out.
ReplyDeleteyay! shoutout! you do know me so well and hopefully I can use that recipe soon. i do have a internship potluck coming up...
thought your first picture was a woman topless..
translate your spanish for those who don't understand (me) :)