To celebrate the end of the course, my students and I went to lunch after class yesterday. The course doesn't actually end until next Thursday, but with people slowly getting jobs, yesterday was the best time for all of us to go. They wanted me to experience something that is typical Spanish. El Molar, the town where I work, is in the mountains. And in these mountains, there are many caves that people have turned into restaurants.
The course site is in the lower part of the mountains. After class, my students and I piled into two or three cars and I drove to the restaurant with Miriam and Mar. As we got higher on the mountain, I just got overwhelmed by the beauty of what I was seeing. I just kept saying, "Wow!, or "Oh my god!", or "I love this!". Miriam and Mar were laughing at me because I was just struck with awe. I can't even explain to you how awesome the view was. I'm not very good with describing images, so I'm not going to even try (maybe this is why I hated talking about imagery in literature back in my school days...f**king Scarlett Letter and its stupid rosebuds!). I wish I could've taken pictures, but of course I forgot my camera at home. Miriam did take pictures inside the restaurant so I will make sure to post them when she emails them to me.
My students were also laughing at me earlier because I was so fascinated when we were driving through very narrow streets. I've always wondered how people drive through these tiny streets. And now I've finally experienced it from inside a car! It was nerve-wracking but awesome!
Anyway, the restaurant was wonderful. It was called La Parilla (just like the great restaurant in Playa del Carmen). It is definitely a cave. You walk in and it's very, very dark. They have a couple of candles on each table to give the place a bit of light, but it was still very dark. When we walked out of the restaurant after lunch, my eyes hurt from the sunlight. Also, because it is very cold inside, they had a huge fire to keep it warm. The whole thing was very nice and romantic. All the girls and I were giggling and saying, "Oh this would be a great date place." Poor Joe, the only boy in class.
The students wanted me to eat real Spanish food, so I left them in charge of ordering. There was so much food! I had terrible food coma after. The meal started with salad and a platter of cheese and jamon (but from a cow, not a pig). Then came some grilled beef and lamb on a stick. The next part of the meal was the most difficult for me. It was a platter of morcilla and chorizo. For weeks, the students have been telling me about morcilla, which is basically pig's blood made into a sausage. And with my new "try anything" kick, I had to try it. My students wre waiting for my reaction as I was chewing on it. I have to say that it wasn't bad at all, but I just couldn't get the thought of it being sangre out of my head. So I stuck with eating chorizo...I love chorizo! Next came more salad and the main course, lamb cooked over fire. We ended the meal with a coffee and a chupito (shot) of various fruity cocktail.
It was probably one of the best meals I've had in Spain. It was a bit of expensive, 23 euros per person, but fortunately, it was my students' goodbye present to me. It was great...there's no better present than a good meal with amazing food.
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