My Lunch Has Eyes

Tuesday April 15, 2008

When your food has eyes that are looking back at you, it’s a good sign that you should probably not eat what is on your plate. I took that advice and ran with it. Today at lunch we had paella, which is a rice stir-fry with a bunch of different kinds of seafood. I can’t eat fish or seafood and apparently there is a difference (Encarna informed me). I kind of poked around my plate for a while, moved the shell and mussel away, tried a bite, and then after a few minutes Encarna asked what was wrong. I told her that I just couldn’t eat it. Allison had a little creature that was mixed in with her paella, which we later learned was a mini lobster slash alien looking hybrid. While Encarna was making me a sandwich I created a sign for the creature, which we named Pepe, to “hold” in its claw. Allison took pictures and afterwards Sam and Allison actually ate the little goober. I don’t know how they did it…especially after its dissection. I felt bad for not liking lunch, but there was no way that I was going to eat the dish.

Dead week is starting to wear on us all and the whole class is getting a little tense and stressed out. I keep trying to tell myself that I would be just as stressed if I was in the States doing finals, but Spanish finals are a bit different. They are in Spanish…I will survive them and hopefully I don’t live up to the name of the week! Wish me luck.

Tonight we had an exchange of our own. When Allison and Sam got home they decided that before we cooked tacos (for Encarna, even though she started her ‘diet’ yesterday) that I had to give them a make-up lesson. Sam and I are trading skill sets. She is teaching me how to cook and I am teaching her how to be a girl. It’s proven to be pretty interesting and funny at the same time. I used Allison’s face as the model and showed Sam how to put on day make-up and night make-up. Allison kind of looked like a Picasso painting because afterwards she had two different “faces.” But when she turned to the side and you could only see half of her face at a time, how lovely she looked! Afterwards we all headed to the kitchen and made fried potatoes and tacos. It was delicious, and Encarna loved them. She asked a million questions about how to make everything and she even mooched some Coca-Cola off of us that Sam and Allison bought earlier in the day. What a diet! Sign me up to be on that one. Sam, Allison, Encarna, Rocio and I had a great conversation about men/ex-boyfriends and relationships in general. I’m pretty sure at one point Encarna even called Sam a conquistadora (conqueror/man-killer) of men. It was classic. She is an absolute hoot.