Another Super Day

Well, last week I had a Super Sabado in Xativa and Bocairent, and this week a Super Viernes (Friday)! All of us in my class (Alexandra, Montreal; Heiner, Switzerland; Mae, Phillipines; Karim, Hague; and Agnes, Germany) came to morning class ready to call it a week. Over the four days so far, we worked hard, were taught a lot and tried to retain some. We were confronted this morning with Professora Raquel, a funny and very expressive instructor, but she teaches almost exclusively in Spanish, very little English , and speaks muy rapido, which requires a great deal of attention, and frankly, mental energy.................. After the break, Raquel handed out a sheet of paper which had a headline that included the words "Mercado Central" (the huge market I've referred to earlier) but I didn't pay much more attention until we all started to leave class and school for ----- Mercado Central! Yes, a school field trip!

We proceeded to hike to Mercado, about ten minutes, and were given 30 minutes to find the following: a spice (picante), a sweet (dulce), something native to Valencia (valenciano), the price of a kilo of naranjas (oranges), five items that begin with the letter "A", a live fish (pescado), something that one can't find in one's native country, something disgusting and the name of the beer specialty store in mercado. A bit of a scavenger hunt that required conversations with vendors and a great deal of meandering. In less than 25 minutes, my team high-fived our successful searches and returned to the meeting place with a complete list of finds. BTW, the live fish we found were anguillas vivas (live eels) swimming in a little pool, and the something disgusting was a strange form of pork sausage....................This was a welcome end to the week of classes!....................Last class of the week was our daily "Conversacion" hour, where I and the aforementioned group joined with another beginner class to - well - have conversation. It was bittersweet, since it was the last day for Hassan, our friend from Syria, who was returning home (now Egypt) for Ramadan. Hassan is a classically handsome young medical doctor (and the best student of all of us) who charmed everyone for his two weeks and has invited us all to visit him in Alexandria and Dubai. Yeah, you bet, I'm going!