Akelare

My family and I went to a Michellin Star rated restaurant while we were in San Sebastian. Here is the food that I ate. It was all delicious and beautiful and I recommend going there when you have a lot of money!

Sea Garden- Prawn's Sand, Oyster Leaf, Mussel with "Shell", Sea Urchin Sponge, Shallot and Corn Pebbles, Codium Seaweed Coral

Prawns and Fresh Beans cooked in a Volcanic Rock Fireplace tableside

Mollusks in Fisherman's Net

Pasta Carpaccio, Piquillo and Iberic Mushrooms with Parmesan Cheese

Hake, in a Monkfish "Habbit" and Mussel Beans

Whole Grain Red Mullet with Fusili Sauces

Roasted Squab with a Touch of Mole and Cocoa

Traditional Almond Cake with Coconut Iced Mousse

A Different Apple Tart complete with Edible Apple Paper

Wine Country

As you may or may not know, Spain is pretty famous for its red wine. Most of it is made in the Rioja region of Spain which is in the north, just south of Bilbao. So, when my family decided to come for a visit, it was only natural that we decided to make a trip to wine country.

My dad, mom and brother Drew came to visit me for a week. And luckily, since I put in a bunch of extra time preparing the Easter gyncana, I got to take the week off to spend it with them. First they came to Sevilla where we got to see the Royal Alcazar, the Setas in Plaza de Encarnacion and Parque Maria Luisa. They also got to meet Javier, the 19 year old Spanish son of my coworker who is coming to live with us this summer. We went for a lunch with them at a restaurant called Modesto that lasted over 3 hours and was extremely filling. Then, on Monday they got the chance to come out to my school with me. So, I got to show them where I work and let me meet all of my students and coworkers. I think my favorite part about that is whenever one of the students would ask a question, they would direct it at a specific person. For example, one student would ask "What is your favorite color to the daddy?" or "What is your favorite animal to the mommy?"

Puppy at the Guggenheim

After spending time in Bormujos, we had to head to the airport to catch our flight to Bilbao. In Bilbao, we took a funicular to the top of the city and saw some amazing views, then ate a lot of delicious pintxos. Pintxos are tapas on pieces of bread. The next day we got to go to the Guggenheim. It was just as cool as the first time and I'm glad I had the opportunity to visit again. After the museum, my dad and I went to go get our rental car. The man in the shop said that we were getting a van and my mom had ordered a mini van, so I figured ok, sounds good. We went to the garage to pick up the car and BOOM we got the biggest car in the history of the universe. I am pretty sure this car is for creepy men to "sell candy" from. Anyway, we drove up to Azurmendi for lunch and the car managed to stall out a ton of times. We even had to have an old man help us turn it around on a hill. So, during lunch I called the place back and asked if they had any smaller models. We went back and traded the car then headed to Elciego in the Rioja region.

Back to Azurmendi for a second- it is a small winery that has a tour then lunch at it. The food we got there was delicious. We had beef, fish, potato-leek soup, croquettes with pistachios and dessert. The views from the winery (set on a hill) were amazing!

Our hotel in Elciego was called Marques de Riscal. It is a winery and luxury hotel that was designed by the same man who designed the Guggenheim. After getting checked in we decided to look around the hotel and find a place to have a glass of wine and relax. We then got ready for dinner and went to a restaurant called Asador Alameda in Fuenmayor which was delicious, but a bit too much food for night time.

The next morning we got up to do our big day of winery tours. We went to R. Lopez de Herrida Vina Tondonia winery first. This winery was very traditional, even down to having their own cooper (barrel maker) on the premesis. Luckily our tour was very small and we even got to see their "cathedral" where they keep the best wines that are aging. The cellar was pretty moldy, but we found out that the moldy environment helps the wine to age to perfection. After having some wine in their tasting room and purchasing a couple of bottles, we headed to Roda, the winery next door. We didn't tour here, we just tasted their wine. The tasting room was in a cave, so it was pretty cool! Then we went to Laguardia where we got to go into an extremely old winery called Carlos San Pedro Perez de Vinaspre. The owners son gave us a tour and even pulled wine out of the vats where it was aging to let us taste. After these two tours, we worked up quite an appetite. We went to a restaurant in Laguardia called Mayor de Migueloa and had an amazing meal with a funny waitor. After that, we headed to our hotel to tour the winery there. It was much more modern than the other places we saw- full of stainless steel barrels and machinery- so it was nice to see a different way to make wine. Andrew and I got to go to the spa and have massages afterward, which was super relaxing. That night, we went to dinner in our hotel where I had some delicious meatballs and potatoes.

On Thursday, we only went to one winery. It was called Bodegas Ysios and was extremely modern. The winery was built in the early 2000's by an architect called Santiago Calatrava. He is very famous in not only Spain, but the world for his unique style of architecture. After seeing the modern process of winemaking and buying a bottle, we headed to Logroño for tapas on Laurel Street. The food was amazing and they were even having a promotion that for every tapa you bought, you got a tiny envelope that you opened and (maybe) won a free tapa somewhere else. My mom won one, but we didn't end up using it. After tapas, we drove to San Sebastian to return the car and get to our final hotel. We got to Hotel Londres just in time to have an hour on the beach then see the sunset. That night we ate at a place called Branka which I highly recommend!

The weather didn't stay in our favor for going to the beach on Friday. It was really cloudy and foggy. So, besides our big lunch at Alkelare (a post that is going to be separate cause I have pictures of all of our courses), we did a lot of sitting around and being lazy. Saturday we climbed to the top of Monte Urgull or Jesus mountain as I like to call it. The views from the top were great, but probably would have been better had it been less foggy. Then we saw Saint Mary's Basillica in the old part of town and got some lunch. We relaxed for the afternoon since a lot of things closed during siesta, then headed out for a pintxos dinner for our last night together.

It was an amazing trip and I am so glad that my family could come and we could experience all of these adventures together.

It's been awhile!

I know it's been quite some time, so I am going to try and catch you up on everything and not make this too long!


After Semana Santa with Joanna, life went back to normal for like 2 weeks. I was still working on the past tense in 6th grade, a food unit in 1st grade and a clothes unit in 2nd grade. However, since I live in a foreign country, life can only stay normal for a short time. 


The last week in April was the Feria de Abril. This fair was started hundreds of years ago as a trade fair. Farmers would bring their best crops and animals to trade for money or other food/animals. The tradition has lasted so long because it has evolved into a week long eating, drinking and dancing festival. Some things have stayed very true to tradition- the women wear flamenco dresses (this was their best apparel) and men wear their Sunday's best and take women around the fair on horses. Some things have been added such as casetas. A caseta is a tent that is usually owned by a family (extended family too) where food and drinks are served for the entire 7 days, 24 hours a day. The families invite their friends into their caseta and pay for whatever they offer their guests. So, it is a pretty big deal to be invited to a caseta. There are also public casetas where anybody can go and those ones tend to be more fun for dancing Sevillanas (flamenco) because there is space for dancing. I got to experience a few different casetas of friends and coworkers. I got to try a bunch of different foods and the typical Feria drink- rebujitos (Manzanilla wine and sprite-not my favorite!) And I even got to dress up!

Most schools in the Sevilla area take some days off around the Feria so that families and teachers can go and stay out late! So, my school had the Friday of the week of Feria and the Monday after off. Then Tuesday was Labor Day in Spain. So, since I had a long weekend, I traveled to Ireland with some friends. We got to spend a couple of days in Dublin doing a walking tour, seeing the Guinness factory, and shopping. We also got to spend a day in Cork where we went to see the Blarney Castle and kiss the Blarney Stone.  Kissing the stone is supposed to make a person more eloquent, but I don't think it really did anything more that give me a bit of a head rush from tipping upside down.

After getting home from Ireland, I had a pretty exciting week at school. We started working on the end of the year English plays in 1st and 2nd grade. The first graders are going to be acting out one of the stories from their books called The Enormous Carrot. The story is about a family who works together to pull an enormous carrot out of the ground and involves a lot of muscle showing and muscle man music. It is very cute. Then, with the 2nd graders we are doing the play The Ugly Duckling. We added a bunch of parts to the play so that all of the children have a role. There are ducks, parrots, monkeys, sunflowers, butterflies and swans in the show. It is very cute and I think it will all come together after a few more practices.


Ok- so this gets you to the point where my family came to visit me. I am going to end this post and write a different one about their visit cause it was very special and there is a lot to say!