Torrential Rain

The other day in one of my more advanced classes I was teaching them weather vocabulary. Words like scorching, snowdrifts, mild. But this past week I realized that here in Galicia they really only need to know words like gale, blustery, hailstones and torrential rain. That's what we've gotten here lately and it just keeps on coming.

Pulpo a la Gallega

Yesterday Jose had an itch for Pulpo a la Gallega (Galicia Octopus). We both love it, but we normally eat it in a restaurant. While I was putting together the new shelves I bought for the laundry room, Jose went out a bought a whole octopus. So today we popped the sucker in a pot! Here are some photos of the process...(looks gross, but it is oh so good)

Recipe (for those who are up to the adventure):

1 whole octopus
olive oil
rock salt
spicy paprika

1. Boil water in a large pot (copper pot preferably)
2. Once water boils dip the entire octopus into the water and take it out 3 times (so that the skin doesn't get to mushy)
3. Let boil for about 30-45 minutes.
4. Take pot off the stove and let stand (still in the pot with the water) 30 minutes.
5. Cut up into bite size pieces and place on dish (preferably a circular wooden one)
6. Add a little bit of olive oil on top
7. Sprinkle with a little rock salt and spicy paprika
8. Serve with toothpicks
9. mmmmmmmmmm...good

Swimmer's Ear

My weekend consisted of spending 3 hours Friday night in the Spanish ER waiting for a doctor to tell me I had swimmers ear and to give me some ear drops. Here you normally make an appointment with your doctor during the week and they'll see you right away, but if you need to see a doctor at night you have to go to "Urgencias" the equivalent of the ER at the hospital. You tell the secretary what the problem is, then you wait with about 50 other people in the waiting room until they call you in for "classification". That's where they decide the urgency of your illness. (Of course, people who are injured really badly don't have to go through this process...they are rushed straight in to see a doctor.) Then you just wait to be called. The waiting room is full of flu victims, sprained ankles, broken ribs, ear aches and things like that. Normally I would have just gone to the pharmacy down the street to pick up some ear drops, but Jose insisted that a doctor tell me what I needed. We Americans tend to self-diagnose and self-medicate, but the Spaniards go to the doctor for EVERYTHING. So we preceeded to wait for 3 hours for some ear drops. However, I am happy to say that my ear ache is finally getting better, and I can now chew solid food without being in excruciating pain.

For Ashlash, who's never home when I call...

Oh how I love her, let me count the ways...

1. Having old 80s movie marathons and then reciting them constantly over the years
2. Being the only person who would eat at Taco Bell with me
3. Eating candy until our faces started to sweat
4. Sneaking the above mentioned candy into movie theaters
5. Opening Mountain Dew cans in the theater(which had also been snuck in) during the Pepsi commercial right when the man opens his can on the top of a mountain
6. Leaving strange, scary sounding messages on our answering machine for fun, and then dad's boss calling and being completely bewildered by the messages
7. Taking me shopping and spending her own money on me when she didn't have to
8. Hanging out with me on the weekends when she could have been out with her friends
9. Her Sally voice
10. Locking me in the play room in Wilmington
11. Taking me to a New Kids on the Block concert
12. Taking me on Spring Break with her and her friends
13. Making tacky, plastic earrings in the oven
14. Buying a karaoke machine and singing together for hours on end
15. Her Patrick Swayze poster :)

And the list goes on...