This and That

Hopefully after the last post you all don't think that I'm hating it here and catching the next bus to Barcelona!
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After another exhausting day of teaching on Friday (though nowhere near as bad as Thursday), the weekend finally arrived. On Saturday we stopped in at Casa de Formatge and finally bought some cheese. We'd been to this store many times for the free samples, but we figured it was probably time to buy something before they kick us out. Jeff is keeping a log of all the cheese we try. I’ve never really been much of a cheese expert, but I’m enjoying trying so many different types of cheeses here. That night we had a feast with our cheese, baguettes from the shop down the street, jamón, tortillas that I made with bacon, pickles, grapes, apples, chocolate, ice cream, cookies, and happy hippos.
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For our feast we also caved in and bought a bottle of the ‘typical Andorran liqueur’ from our favorite shop down the street. El Gautxo, sort of a mini-mart, is great not because of what they sell, but because of the owners. It is run by this little old couple who are so very proud of their store. “The best prices in Andorra, and the best service!” is what the lady always tells us. “Not like the Andorrans,” she always adds at the end, making a face. The man is Catalan and the woman is “from the other side,” which I’m not sure how to take. Somebody commented that they remind them of muppets. I can see that. They always ask how the students are doing, and one time the man got all worked up about how kids these days don’t respect their teachers because they don’t call them señor or señora anymore, but things like Paco and Pepe. The first couple times we went there they kept pushing their cigarette price list on us and encouraging us to buy whiskey (Alex told them that we were too young for whiskey, and the lady told her that she’d go to hell for lying… I feel like I’ve told this story before, so sorry if you’ve already heard it). ANYWAY, we see this ‘typical Andorran liqueur’ every time we walk in and just couldn’t resist any longer… Seriously, it comes in different flavors and has what looks like a branch of something you’d find in a fish tank covered in rock candy. All the bottles look like they’ve been sitting in that exact same spot since Andorra was founded by Charlemagne. It tasted like cough syrup; the cherry kind, not Dimetapp. Lol. Never again.
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Sunday we went to Ordino for a food festival (which we didn’t end up attending because there was a 30 euro entrance fee). There are seven parishes here in Andorra: Andorra la Vella (the capitol), Canillo, Encamp, Escaldes-Engordany, La Massana, Ordino, and Sant Julià de Lòria. So far I’d only seen Escaldes (where we live), Andorra la Vella (the center of town), Sant Julià (where one of our government meetings was), and Encamp (on the way to the hike). Ordino was my favorite so far. It was the pretties and felt the least commercial. Instead of the food festival, we found a restaurant were we had a menu del día (usually a 3 course meal for around 10 euro). The waiter was great, the food was great. I will definitely go back. The waiter even stopped at our table to ask Rakhee, a vegetarian, where she gets her protein from, because he seemed to be very worried about her. He told her that when she gets older, “Your bones will turn to glass!”
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School started up again on Monday, so I’ve taught three classes so far this week. I haven’t had to face my dreaded Thursday classes again, but one teacher told me that she talked to her students and they should behave, or else after two weeks the bad ones will get pulled from my classes and sent to the library for the rest of the year. Woot! Right now I am just trying to get ahead of things concerning lesson plans so that I can get my copy requests turned in on time! Today I had no classes but I went into school to get some things ready for tomorrow (printing worksheets when nobody is watching...), but right when I was getting ready to leave the all-school faculty meeting started and I couldn't escape. At least it only lasted twenty minutes, not like the two hour meetings some of the Fulbrighters have had to go through. I think all they discussed were the parent-teacher meetings coming up and buying a new coffee maker. Oh, and I found out that I have to plan a Halloween party this year. If you have any ideas of small Halloween-type games the students can plan for each other, let me know!