When Señora's away, the Americans will play

Tortilla de patata

Yesterday was one of the best days we've had since we've been here. About a week ago, Pilar told us that they would be taking a trip to some port on Saturday, and that she would leave out food for us. From that moment on, we were counting down the days until we had the house to ourselves. We woke up Saturday morning after hearing them leave, and we took advantage of our empty house. First things first: we decided to make a breakfast that wasn't corn flakes. There happened to be cooked potatoes sitting out on the counter from the day before (that isn't strange around here, trust me), and this was pretty much the breakfast gods telling me that it was time to try our hand at tortilla de patata. Pilar has made this for us before, but they usually eat it as a dinner food. It's essentially a giant omelet but the only thing inside is potatoes. Most of you know that I won't touch eggs at home, but I have slowly come to enjoy eating them, and I will never turn down a good potato dish. It took us awhile to figure out how Pilar does it, because she makes it a very particular way, and on the second go around I made one that looked pretty legit for being my first time. It wasn't nearly as pretty as hers, but I would say it tasted just as delicious. I might have found my calling as a chef, to put it lightly.

Our yoga room

After our breakfast, we turned the living room into our yoga sanctuary. Sanctuary might be a strong word, considering I was using a child sized towel in place of a yoga mat, but it was still exciting for us. Maggie's mom has an online subscription to yoga classes and we used Maggie's computer to do our class (Thanks Mrs. Barber if you're reading this!). It was a lot of fun and the most relaxing block of time I've ever spent in that living room. This was probably more due to the lack of children and Disney channel than the yoga, but it was something that I wish we could do every day.

Minnie Mouse and Magician

After yoga, we ate the lunch that Pilar set out for us, and we decided to take a nap to rally ourselves for the Carnaval in Cadiz. The nap was a great choice, and it might be the first nap I've had here that wasn't interrupted by a screaming child. After our nap we set out to buy our costumes. Sadly enough, even though we live 5 minutes from the costume shop and have ample free time, we ended up buying our costumes less than an hour and a half before we were meeting to leave. Looks like my reputation for being last minute has not been lost in Spain! We had set out to be butterflies, but after a grueling indecisive process, we changed our minds. In the end, Maggie was a magician and I went as Minnie Mouse. We were seriously lacking time once we got home, and had to race to get ready to meet our friends in time. This meant that the dinner we were supposed to have got switched for salami sandwiches eaten on the way.

A picture of our group

I guess I'm used to Chapel Hill where there are such things as themed parties and Halloween, but I have never gotten so many strange looks walking down the street in a costume. I realize that I had whiskers drawn on my face and mouse ears at 7 PM, but I feel like that is strangely acceptable in America. Maybe just in Chapel Hill...who knows. We met up with our friends, who also looked ridiculous, and headed together to meet the buses. After the bus ride to Cadiz, having no idea what to expect, we finally arrived at Carnaval. It is supposed to be the third largest in the world, and while I have never been to New Orleans, I think it may be similar. It reminded me of Franklin Street on Halloween, but on steroids. We met up with pretty much everyone on our program, and I even saw my old Spanish teacher from UNC. She is from Sevilla, but I never in my life expected to run into her in Spain...or when she was dressed as Sporty Spice. Carnaval was quite an experience. Our bus left at 3 AM, and we were all ready to go at that point. Some people on our group went with a different company, and their bus didn't leave until 5:30. I can't even imagine how they did it. As soon as we got on the bus everyone fell asleep, and Maggie and I made it back to our house in record time from the bus stop, because not much is more appealing than a warm bed.

It might be interesting to you guys that our best day was spent making potato omelets and doing makeshift yoga on towels, but I don't think I can even describe how it felt to us. The weather was perfect outside, and all day long we would just look over at each other and smile and say, "Today is the best day ever!" I guess I have learned the importance of having my own space...or maybe I have just reinforced the fact that I do not want children any time soon. Either way, yesterday was, without a doubt, the best day ever.