That Little B****

Wednesday - March 23, 2011 - Spain (Girona)

Day Six

Hello again. It's me Caleb. I hope that you already know that by now. If you don't, leave this site and never come back. Just kidding. But it might not be a bad idea to learn more about me if you are going to continue to read this blog. 

I'm still loving Girona and the surrounding countryside. I never imagined that I would feel this way for another place besides the united states. I'm beginning to like the idea of calling it my home. I secretly say "I'm going home." when I leave the group to go back to my room. How sad is that? People and city of manhattan, you need to step it up. Fast.

That wasn't very nice was it? Maybe I should just say city, because I really do miss all my peeps. Well, most of you.

Tuesday had to be my favorite day so far. We had our first cooking class. It was at this five star restaurant on the countryside of Girona. The place was gorgeous. Notice this reoccurring theme? Our teacher's name was Chef Vincent. He was freaking hilarious. And he cussed. A lot. We became good buddies fast. My favorite quote of his? He was talking  about going to the market one day and he wanted to buy this great cut of meat. The only problem was that he was like third in line. He said he noticed this lady in front of him had her eye on the same piece. He then proceeded to tell us that he thought to himself "that little bitch is going to get it before me." and sure enough, she did. I would have been knocking me some little bitch on the side of the head and running away with that piece of meat. Thats probably a lie, but I'm not really sure because I've never been in that situation before. I guess I just don't feel so passionate about the meat I eat. 

Such dirty minds.

Anyways, we made several different types of food. We had cod, potatoes, tortillas (I think it was really quiche), mushroom mush balls, and of course, wine. The best part of this was that we got to eat the finished product and it was absolutely amazing. Not bad for first timers.  I am so excited to try to make this at home and for our second cooking class on friday.

Today, we visited small niche markets of chocolate and cheese. Yummy! 

The chocolatier that we visited would put any chocolatier in the United States to shame. This guy was a very sophisticated, very nice older man. His wife was just as amazing. Although, I do have to say, she kind of talked like one of the aliens off of Mars Attacks. But who cares? I don't. Especially when they make chocolate that would make God happy.  Not that God isn't happy. Hopefully you know what i meant. Actually, this guy is so famous for his chocolate, even Prince Charles of England buys his chocolates from him. Awesome right? If you are not impressed, feel free to leave and go stuff your face with something not famously known. My parents should be happy though. I bought them some, and it was freaking expensive, but so worth it. I just hope it makes it back to the U.S. without melting or getting damaged.

Our next stop was a small, small, family owned and operated, goat cheese producer. First impression: this is gross. If you have never had the chance to eat goat cheese, I dare you to go find some and try to munch on it for more than five seconds. It can be some pretty potent stuff. Well the smell of this place wasn't much better. Thank God I have the ability to get used to any smell within ten seconds because I may have had to leave and vomit. But this guy and his mom were so nice and they had perfected the art of good goat cheese, that I left very impressed. I even sampled several pieces of the cheese and didn't even get sick. They also made plain yogurt. Usually I dont like plain yogurt, but again, they had perfected it and I loved it. Absolutely a great place to visit.

Our last stop for the day was the IRTA. I can't remember off the top of my head what exactly this meant, but I can tell that it was a food science research institute. Now, I'm not a big fan of research. I find it very boring and it's one of the main reasons I don't want to go to grad school. But this place was very cutting edge and everyone there was working on some really interesting projects. For a couple of hours, I was definitely into the idea of going this route with my degree. Then I remembered all five thousand other things that I wanted to do with my life and I had me a new topic to think about for the plane ride home.

Beautiful day. Beautiful places. 

Didn't take long for my roommate to ruin it with his nastiness. He's so gross, I can't even write about it. Yeah, I'll let your thoughts marinate on that till I get home.

(sleep)