Last week we entered into the Lenten season with Ash Wednesday. I started off the day nice and early with vía crucis (Stations of the Cross) at 6:30am outside the Cathedral. I was invited by Tania to go and it was a neat experience to process along surrounding streets with a huge crowd participating at such an early hour. Later in the day I went to Mass and was not surprised in the slightest to see the church extremely packed. Something about getting ashes on the forward is very appealing to people. After the Mass was over, people who had popped in at the end of Mass, asked the priest to give them ashes and soon there was a line of people who were just passing by at the right moment and wanted to get some ashes. It’s too bad there isn’t as much enthusiasm for receiving Jesus as there is for receiving ashes. It would be nice to see the churches that packed on a Sunday. On Thursday night at midnight, so actually Friday morning, I went to San Miguel's vía crucis, which involved a procession out of the church with a large statue of Christ and of Mary. It was like getting a taste of Semana Santa/Holy Week since those statues will be taken out again for that.
San Miguel's Vía crucis
Last Friday and Saturday were baking days. Tania and I are fundraising for the trip to Rome for Holy Week (did I mention I was going to Rome?!) and she suggested we sell something American to make it more appealing. So I suggested peanut butter cookies (a classic) and over the course of two days we made around three hundred cookies. All the ladies who test-tasted them said they were buenísimo (great) and thanks to Tania knowing a lot of people we (mostly she) sold them all. We brought some to sell at the end of a retreat for older ladies and were able to make sixty-five euros. The next day Tania sold sixty euros worth at work and to friends and family and the rest the following day. I guess the novelty of a typical American treat really does sell around here.
Peanut Butter Cookies!
Besides the peanut butter cookies, I’ve done some baking recently and both things I attempted turned out rather well, much to my surprise and joy. I made bread pudding for Mardi Gras and it was as delicious as I remembered it to be. I shared it with my flatmate, Ismehen, and also with Tania, and both said they liked it despite some misgivings based on it’s name. This week I made blueberry bread and although I was a little too generous with the blueberries causing it to have some problems staying together, it tasted good anyway.
Bread Pudding
Blueberry Bread
The other day at school, one of the teachers I work with asked me to help him distinguish the difference between “sheet” and you guessed it, “shit”. For Spaniards the sound “i” makes is a long “e”, hence the struggle. He wanted to make sure he was saying the right word when he asked students to take out their sheets. Yes, my life in Spain can be quite entertaining sometimes. Or not so entertaining when it comes to incidents like yesterday at my nanny speaking job. Rosa, bless her soul, decided it would be fun to take a huge sip of water and then let it explode out all over me. Really, I'm just grateful that I got the brunt of it and not my laptop. Well that's all till next time amigos.
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