How Did I End Up In Spain?

      

At the Monastery of Yuso in San Millan de la Cogolla in La Rioja, just two days ago.

    I met my Spanish boyfriend Javi when I was 19.  We were both studying abroad in Budapest, Hungary at the time.  When I decided to study in Hungary I was a freshman at The University of San Francisco, and had just come back from a summer living in Uruguay.  It was my first time out of the United States (besides Canada, which didn't count because I had driven there from Seattle).  Let's just say, I fell in love with being abroad.  In just six short weeks I was not ready to leave Uruguay.  I had gone there as part of the Amigos de las Américas program, which is essentially a "peace corps for teens," or so they said.  I had raised money my senior year of high school selling enormous boxes of grapefruits to complete strangers; marketing our cause to anyone who would listen.  In Uruguay, I volunteered in the Liceo (high school) of a tiny town called Libertad, and lived with an amazing Uruguayan host family.  Our goal was to teach hygiene and sexual education to Uruguayan teens.  Although the awareness- raising/volunteer aspect of the experience was enlightening, the friendships I made mattered the most.  I still am close with my Uruguayan host sister Laura, saw her just a few months ago here in Spain since she was studying in Salamanca. 

        

Laura and I in February, 2011 after a few pinxtos in the Calle Laurel in Logroño.

     My sophomore year of college I flew to Budapest with my dear friend Kat.  It was the first time I had been to Europe and I was beyond excited.  We landed in Budapest and were met by our Hungarian mentor who took us to our apartment just near the synagogue of Budapest.  Not having a clue what to expect, we were pleasantly surprised by how beautiful it turned out to be.  I immediately told my mentor that one of my goals while in Hungary was to keep up with my Spanish.  I know it sounds strange, but I had studied Spanish every year since I was five years old and decided to go to Hungary on a whim.  I wasn't ready to give up studying Spanish just because I was abroad.  So she told me that there would be Spanish Erasmus students at our university too, and that she was also the mentor of a French girl who we would meet in a few days.  Sure enough, we met Steph the week after, and I mentioned my Spanish predicament. 

The Most Beautiful Synagogue I've Ever Seen...in Budapest, just up the street from my apartment.

      

     A few nights later we were all sitting in Szimpla, a very edgy "ruin pub" that ended up being our go-to spot.  That was the night I met Javi for the first time.  We looked at eachother from across the picnic table, and eventually we were talking...me with my rusty Spanish, and Javi with his newly acquired English, and we've been together ever since.  Almost four years now...

Javi and I dressed as pirates for his town, Albelda de Iregua's summer festival...yes, I did his makeup like Captain Jack Sparrow.

      

     Since that night we've been through two years of long distance while I finished my International Studies degree at USF, a semester abroad in Bilbao, many visits back and forth from Logroño to San Francisco and vice versa, becoming a pareja de hecho (allowing me to live and work legally in Spain), a year of teaching English for the Ministry of Education and at an English Academy.  And now, here I am, sitting on my couch in my apartment across from Las Gaunas soccer stadium in Logroño, the capital of La Rioja, in Northern Spain.  Later on in this blog I will try to fill in the blanks of this summarized version of the past four years, but for the interest of cutting to the chase, now you know how I ended up here in La Rioja, and you will understand why I am going to start writing a compilation of traditional Spanish recipes.  

Abuela Pili and I at a family friend's house in Anguiano, La Rioja.

     Every weekend (or every chance I get to cook with Javi's wonderful grandmother Pili), I will record it with pictures and step by step recipes here on this blog.  This is my intention in starting this blog, to share some amazing and 100% authentic Spanish recipes with the world, and of course to learn to cook them myself.  Every weekend, we eat lunch with Javi's mother's mother.  She cooks us something delicious every time and now I am taking on the challenge of learning to cook her fabulous food...paella, bechamel stuffed peppers, croquetas, clams in tomato sauce, garbanzo soup with stewed beef, red bean soup, rice pudding, rabbit, and more.  She is absolutely adorable in every way.  She calls me her "nieta" (granddaughter) and sometimes I think she loves me more than Javi (just kidding).  So, next weekend you will meet her here on this blog as we will be cooking "arroz con pollo" (chicken and rice).  Until next time!