Day Eight - Spain 2011 - "Is there another eye? Can I eat it?"

Friday - March 25, 2011 -Spain

Day 8

What it is yo(s)? How's my favorite creepers? Doing good? Ready to creep it up? Alright, let's blow this joint. 

Sorry that was a little inappropriate. It's what happens when I listen to rap. I get in touch with my crazy side. Or at least another side to my crazy side, because as I have heard several  times over this trip, I'm apparently one crazy ass person. What do you think? 

Be careful how you answer that. This blog let's me have a direct line into all ya'lls thoughts.

 Not really. I haven't quite mastered big brother yet. I'm getting there though.

Let's get to my trip shall we?

Thursday was a very peculiar day. I have officially dubbed it the Day of Fatty Acids. Doesn't sound too appetizing does it? Our first stop of the day was an olive oil producer. This couple grew up in holland and after the fall of some important person in spain, they figured that it was the prime time to buy a house and start their business. So they did. Lucky bastards. The land and accompanying house that they purchased was phenomenal. They had a 16th century house that was huge, a tennis court, a huge garden with solar panels, a pool with an accompanying fire pit and lounging area, and of course acres and acres of olive trees. The lady showed us around her property with the enthusiasm of Meryl Streep portraying Julia Childs. It kept us all entertained. We also got to sample four of their different oils. The owners kept talking about how we were going to taste all these different fruits and spices in the oil. Do you think I tasted all that?Hell no. All I tasted was grass and a burning sensation as it went down my throat. Don't get me wrong, it didn't taste bad, but I was a little disappointed. Still didn't stop me from buying some. I don't know about all you, but I don't get the opportunity to visit Spain very often so, "why not?"

Our second stop of the day was a rice producer. Absolutely boring. No lie.the guy was very nice and the facility was kind of cool, but good grief, I could not get into it. I mean how hard is it to make rice and how could you have an hour conversation about it. Actually, I'm sure it is a very sophisticated science to grow rice and I'm sure there are plenty of interesting things to have a convo about, but at the moment, I wasn't seeing it. The best part of the tour was the fact that they had baby goats. Absolutely adorable. If I could have snatched one and made it through customs in the U.S., I totally would have. 

But the end of the plant tour wasn't the end our rice tour for the day. Blah. We proceeded to go to a restaurant where we would eat lunch made of rice and seafood. It's called paella. I was a little excited at first, but that excitement went away pretty quick. When the owner brought it out, it was soupy mixture of all things that looked nasty. I usually like seafood, as long as it doesn't have an extreme fishy taste. I mean, I don't think that is too much to ask for. Well, this shit was really fishy and therefore really nasty. I did not enjoy it one bit. Kind of ruined my day.

Friday. Well Friday was a hard day for me. Really hard. For some reason I had convinced myself and all others in the trip that I was going to find one good thing that I liked about everybody and then tell them all to their face. Extreme, right? Yeah. Like I said, rough day. I feel like you all know me well enough to know that I don't give compliments very much. Let alone sixteen different compliments in one day. But, I did. I finished at ten at night, but I freaking did it. Yay me.

Activities for the day included our second cooking class. We made some sort of chicken and shrimp meal that I quite enjoyed. 

We also visited a winery. Our tour guide told us to not expect magnificent wine from this place because she was just taking it over from her dad and had not perfected the taste. I thought it was all magnificent. I guess I don't have am extreme palate that analyzes everything. 

Thank God.

 I love food too much to want to do that. 

After the winery, we visited a beautiful viewpoint of Costa Brava. If ever you get a chance to go on a mediterranean cruise, and I know you all are rich enough to do it, you better go. It looks like it would be spectacular. The water was so blue-green and clear,  and the surrounding cliffs were awesome. I can't wait for our cruise.

We then visited a city that my friend Ashley and I dubbed "Ceramic City". I honestly cannot remember what the hell the real name was so we will just stick with that. And, surprisingly, I bought many gifts for people here. Who would have thought? Definitely not me.

Dinner definitely made my night. Or at least part of it. Kind of ruined my later night. Quick background story. At this point in our trip, just hearing the word tapas makes us all want to vomit. Its actually a great way to lose weight. Every couple of hours, one could just shout out "Tapas!" and we wouldn't want to eat for awhile. Come on, where the hell is all the greasy cheeseburgers, taco bells and fake Mexican food restaurants at? How do these people live without having fast food?

 I guess that's why they are all skinny bitches. 

Anyways, the menu for dinner really freaked us out. For one, we couldn't read most of it, and for the part we could read, it sounded like it was going to be disgusting. We were absolutely wrong. Appetizers consisted of calamari, fish that tasted like it was from Long John Silvers, delicious bread, and for it's first debut in my mouth, escargot. I loved it! The texture was a little noxious, but the taste was delicious. Dinner consisted of steak. About damn time!! I had steak with mushrooms and I thought I had died and gone to heaven. 

Now, why did I have to go and ruin this? I have no clue, but I did. My friend Vivian, who is Chinese (no I am not racist, but this is pertinent to the story), got some sort of fish. It was big and creepy and reminded me of a piranha. She told us that it was customary in China to first eat the eye of the fish. I was like, "ok, I should eat an eye". Wtf? Like, seriously Caleb, what are you thinking? Apparently I wasn't, because I ate it. Don't believe me? I have a video. It was freaking nasty. (creepy voice) "Things that make you go  ugh"

It didn't effect me right away but for some reason my mind could not stop dwelling on the fact that I had eaten a fish eye. Can you guess what happened? Yep, I totally vomited. And it was sad. I watched all this beautiful food that I loved so much come right back out of my mouth in a not so beautiful form. Made me want to cry. 

And guess what was at the top of the pile? The fish eye. And it was just looking at me saying "haha sucker. That's what you get".

Ok, I'm sorry. That was a little much. Would it make you feel any better that I never saw the fish eye? Ok, I thought so.

Only 24 hours till I come home!!

Well alright then, not everyone clap and cheer at once. Bastards. ;)

(sleep)