Professor Sharon

Buena dias!

Well, the two of us decided to take a little walk last night after classes until the tapas bars are open (You cannot eat anywhere until 8 pm here). A classmate had told us he had found a bar with Guiness on tap. We were up for a beer with some substance (beer- cervaza is very cheap and very pale here). We found the place, and had a great conversation with the pub-owner — Paddy of Paddy’s Pub. A true Irishman who had bicycled and lived in many parts of the world. His interest is world and US economy and we had a great discussion, not to mention a true pint of Guiness!

Then off to find our favorite row of restaurants and tapas bars for a bit for dinner. On the way we came across a beautiful church (not hard in any Spanish town we are discovering!) with its floats and stuff ready for the Semana Santa celebrations next week. The floats are truly astonishing. We hope to get to a couple of the processions next week, and I’ll post photos.

So off to our dinner. We decided to eat in a place that had quite large tapas servings so we could just order a couple of them. We decided to try to do the whole thing in Spanish even though this place had menus in English.

We ordered (or at least we thought we did)! a glass of wine for Rich and a bottle of mineral water for me. The bottle of water came with a glass with ice, lemon and what I thought was a little bit of melted ice in it. Any guesses, yet?

During the meal, I began to feel more and more light-headed and thought “jeesh, that’s a huge buzz for a beer!”. Well the bill comes, and one of the lines is Smirnoff! We try to discuss it with the waiter, he discusses it with the bar, and we figure it out! I don’t ever drink vodka, so I was clueless that in fact what I thought was water was a shot of vodka! No wonder I was tipsy!!

So we had a slow walk home! Rich had to be on guard for us both as I was in no state to see any foolishness going on about me!

So beware using your new-found language skills! (But I slept well!)