Weekend in Jerez

Well, so we'll actually start before Jerez, but still, this was more or less the Weekend of Jerez in my books...

So Friday night we had our Noche de chic@s, where the whole school was invited; we had candy, we watched a movie in English (with Spanish subtitles...it was amusing to see how some of the translations just didn't quite capture what the slang terms were after), had pizza from Domino's (not quite like American pizza, but closer than the other "pizza" I have had), then I walked around town and talked with some of the girls...a great night...Also during Friday, Salud had told me that dried fruit is considered a "chuche" or junkfood...dried figs and raisins evidently make you fat and have lots of calories...after lunch I decided to tell her what I remember about caloric contents: 5 figs (from Dole, anyway) are about 130 calories...one "cucharada" (tablespoon, theoretically) of olive oil has 100 calories (and let's just say, she uses a whole lot more than one tablespoon in her cooking!) She was shocked both by the lower than expected caloric content of the figs and the higher than expected caloric content of olive oil...

Saturday: We slept in, relaxed, packed, had lunch, and headed for the bus station to go to Jerez to hang out with Ellen! We got there, the weather was wonderful, we wandered around the city center, stumbled upon another Jesus parade (Ellen asked a lady nearby who told us that it was "Día de Cristo de la Flagelación", which we guessed meant Flogging of Christ Day; sure enough, when we could actually see the "float," there was a depiction of Jesus being flogged) After the parade passed by, we crossed the street and checked out the cathedral there...I guess it was a barroque style one...perhaps I should've taken the art class here...Then we headed to Ellen's piso, hung out, made supper (I got to cook! I was super psyched), rented and watched the movie "Crash", then slept in late in the morning (especially since it was daylight savings)...then in the morning we had oatmeal (once again, I was psyched), relaxed, then walked around Jerez a bit, saw Ellen's school where she works, then stopped at a café to try some "jerez" or sherry...I believe they call it "vino de jerez" because it would be weird to ask for a glass of your town...AND I discovered that that area is where all beverages labeled as "sherry" must legally come from...Then we had lunch, and Ellen's housemate Fabi took us to the bus station in her car, yes, her car...what a luxury!

So yes, it was a very good, very relaxing weekend...and now I have class...