Chicken Curry

Thursday March 17, 2011

Thursday night after finishing my private classes I met Helen. We went to get our eyebrows and legs waxed. I still cannot get over how cheap it is to get anything waxed here, it's amazing...4 euros for eyebrows, 2 euros for lip, 10 for legs, 5 for armpits... I afraid this is a bad habit I'm not sure I will be able to keep up with in the US...

After waxing with our faces red, we got the rest of the supplies for dinner. Helen had curry powder from London and we were dying to have some spicy chicken curry. Ever since I was in London and had it three nights in a row, I have been obsessed and droll over even the thought of it. So we went back to Helen's and started cooking. It was actually easier than I thought, seeing as how I have never made a curry in life... this could either be a very good or dangerous thing lol...

Tops off to the chefs...the curry was amazingggg!! So delicious!

{Yogurt, Mint and Cucmber Sauce}

{I made a version of mango chutney that turned out surprisingly perfect}

{The curry}

Mwak,

jaclyn

Spring.

Spring.

{sunset walking to my private classes}

Spring has sprung in Cuenca. It's so nice to walk between private classes and see all the plants and trees coming back to life. There's something about the spring weather. It's not just nature that wakes up but people come back to life too. It's like in winter everyone walked around like zombies and now everyone has a little more patience, wears a smile that's a little bit bigger and walks a little slower.

This spring I'm looking forward to: beaches, bathing suits, drinking sangria sitting outside on a terrace, pink nail polish, wedges, freckles, running through the gorge and more beautiful sunsets.

Thank you spring,

jaclyn

Carnaval Weekend 2: Villarrobledo, Night 2

 Saturday March 12, 2011

On Saturday we got up around two and made ourselves a lovely breakfast of crepes, eggs and potatoes. We dropped Helen off at the train station and headed to watch the big Carnaval parade in Villa. 

{Breakfast of champions}

 We went to one of Mary's friends apartments because there was a balcony overlooking the street with the parade. We drank wine, listened to music and watched the parade.The parade consisted of groups of people in costumes. People spend the year thinking and creating the costumes and some of them were so impressive and spectacular.

{Carnaval parade}

{Groups of costumes: storks.}

{Ashley, Me, Mary and Haley}

{Dancers}

{Wine on the balcony}

{Me and Mary}

 After the parade, we went to the store to think of a costume idea. I saw candles and got the idea to be Statues of Liberty seeing as we all were American. Well, Krista is from Bermuda but has a U.S passport so it worked.  We bought candles and construction paper to make the crowns and torches. Then we ran to the fabric store to buy green fabric for the dresses and ran home to get ready. We went out to dinner to a restaurant with their Spanish friends. It was a huge restaurant with family style eating. They brought out for 15 of us 4 plates of everything... one for every 4 people to share. There was so much food and it came in courses.We had jamón, manchego cheese and the weirdest one was pig's tail. It wasn't bad, it was just really chewy.

{Krista and Carlos}

{Me and Mary on the other side of the table}

{One of the courses was pig's tail}

After dinner we headed to the locale (space owned by people in Villa who use it for drinking, dancing, basically a bar for friends with a BYOB policy). From the locale, we walked around in the plaza checking out costumes, dancing, and taking short breaks in the locale. I totally lost track of time dancing in the plaza with the live band and looked at my phone... 7:00 AM.

{Statues of Liberty}

{Our torches lit}

{Our torches made with candles}

 Our torches kept going out when we were walking around in the plaza and we had to ask people to light them. It was easy because we just walked up to anyone smoking. They loved it as they lit it they said "Fuegoooo!"

{In the plaza, drinks and torches in hand}

{Lady Liberty}

{with my Villa girls}

{What is left after a botellon}

{the aftermath}

 what a great weekend, one of my favorites that i've had here! so many memories...

kisses,
-jaclyn

Carnaval Weekend 2: Villarrobledo, Night 1

 March 11

For the first night of Carnaval, Helen and I dressed as Flamenco dancers. Mary, Krista and their friends in Villa dressed as Chinese geisha's and made a Chinese dragon. It was so amazing! They put a lot of time into the dragon. We got ready and headed over to their friends locale. The concept of a locale is very common in Villa. I had never heard it of it before. It is a room, space, apartment that is solely used as a personal disco. It is where people drink, dance, eat and hang out on the weekends. It isn't a bar or club in the true sense because everyone brings their own drinks. So we headed there and then went back and forth from the locale to the main square in Villa all night - parading around with the dragon and taking breaks to refill and use the bathroom in between.

Flamenco babyyy.

My little Spanish Helen.

Flamenco couple.

Chinese dragon head.

Tapas at the locale before heading to the plaza.

Geisha's.

Assuming the dragon.

Grand entrance into the plaza.

Beautiful Mary.

I was so impressed by how much effort they put into the costumes. It's like our Halloween, people think all year of costume ideas for Carnaval. 

Car Fresheners.

Prettyy Krista.

The gong leading the dragon.

Inside the dragon.

Look what the stork brought...

Chinese costumes.

Barbie Boxes.

The Spanish Bull.

Krista, Mary, Helen and Me.

Kissing the dragon.

With Helzbelz

Oh Krista.

 

Every night around 1:30 AM, they give out prizes for best costumes. The prizes are very manchego (very typical of our region in Spain)... wine, jamón and bread. We won Villarrobledo bread. Apparently, the jamón is the most coveted prize saved for only the best of the best costumes.

On stage accepting the prize, bread.

View from the stage of people in the main plaza.

Mary running with the winning bread.

Leaving my mark at the locale.

got a little carried away...

I loved being a flamenco dancer for the night!

Great night 1 of Carnaval!!!

On the wall of the locale..."Happy Drunkenness and Prosperous Hangover."

Loved loved loved night 1 of Carnaval... great costumes, great friends, great music... couldn't have asked for a better introduction into Carnaval!

one more night to go....
jaclyn