This last week was a much needed slowdown. I have mostly slept in while staying up late and seeing as much of Barcelona as I can. I have seen more of the El Born area, and it is one of my favorite places to walk around because of how old that part of the city is. It blows my mind how a lot of those parts of the city are older than the United States. I also like those areas because there are not cars running through the streets constantly honking and almost running you over. It reminds me of Girona where there is so much history and it brings a small town feel to the big city. The business in that area is also more of what I imagined when going to Spain, with loads of restaurants and small shops that keep the area lively.
One of the big highlights of the week was our cooking class. It was a blast getting to go in and be hands on in making some of the best dishes that I have tried throughout our time here in Spain. We made 2 different types of paella, croquettes, patatas bravas, chorizo and an apple custard dessert. My favorite dish that we made was the chorizo, but by far the most fun to make was the seafood paella. We got to clean shrimp and a cuddlefish to use in the dish and topped it off with squid ink. I could not believe that squid ink would be a main part of any dish in the world, but it turned out amazing. Our chef was a very nice and we realized while eating that he is a very famous 5-star chef and we went the entire time without even realizing it which was really cool. During the class, he dove into the intricacies of the restaurant world. There is so much that goes into making a well running and profitable restaurant that I have never thought of. His job was to go into restaurants and help them be more streamlined in their kitchens to lower cost and increase the level of customer service at the same time. Doing these things will increase the profit of the business itself, so he can really turn around these businesses for the better.
I have found that throughout my trip, spanish has come a lot easier for me. My restaurant spanish has been my biggest jump, as it has been where I have spent the majority of time speaking the language. I have gotten very good at being able to communicate at a very low level, which is one of my favorite things that have happened for me on this trip. The biggest thing that I have noticed however, is that I am able to understand spanish at a much higher level than I can speak it. I may not be able to respond with a great sentence to people, but I can almost always figure out what they are trying to communicate to me which I would not have guessed I would be able to do after only a month of being engulfed in the culture. We are coming up on our last week here and I have some mixed emotions. On one hand, I do not want to leave this amazing place with the great food and life that comes with being here. On the other, I am very excited to get back home to the comfort of America and my family. I am going to try and get the most out of this last week that I can and then look forward to the full day of travel to get back home.