Hail Paella

Today it hailed and I had paella. That's how I came up with the title of this post! Tehehe... :D. Seriously though, this morning I thought it was raining really hard but then Viviane told me to look out the window and I saw that it was all white so we thought it was snowing! People were taking pictures from their balconies because I don't think it normally snows here... remember just two days ago how sunny it was at the beach?

Anyway, Silvia invited Viviane and I to her parent's house for a Dia de los Reyes lunch. They are so nice :). Viviane and I left the house around 2pm (a normal hour for lunch here!) huddled under one umbrella, only to discover that it was hailing. There were little white granizos ("hailstones" in Spanish) everywhere, which I think were what we had mistaken for snow. Whatever the case, the weather was pretty gross today. By the time we got to Silvia's parents house our shoes were soaked through and we were freeeezing.

It's all good though because Silvia's parents' place was very warm and we had an amazing lunch - my first meal in a Spanish/Catalan home :)! Silvia's mom made seafood paella, which I thought was even better than the one at the Barceloneta because it was home made. Then we had salad as a second course with some side dishes like bamboo and olives. I'm noticing that olives are a common tapa here. When I first arrived, I got a can of olives as part of my welcome-food-package. I thought it was kind of random at the time but now I get it :).

These are from Viviane's camera, as I didn't take any pictures today...

Home made paella! Mmmm...

You can see the bamboo dish in the bottom left-hand corner. It was seasoned with some herbs and olive oil I think. It was valy good!

We also had some pineapple and these donut-y pastries and these nutty sweet dessert bars and chocolate straws. Needless to say, I was completely stuffed by the end of the meal. I think that's why I can't remember the names of all the different types of food :p. There were also many beverages... including a type of soda I hadn't tried before, wine of course, and baileys for the end of the meal. Silvia's dad told me that people here rarely drink alcohol by itself, but always with food.

For El Dia de los Reyes, kids get presents, just like at Christmas. I think that's so neat... it's like having two Christmases in a row :). Well, Silvia's mom surprised Viviane and I with presents! It was so nice of her - I felt like a little kid at Christmas time :).

I was originally planning to spend the afternoon doing a practice walk to my school but the weather was so bad that I didn't want to go outside at all. So after we got home, I stayed indoors and did indoorsey things like laundry and cleaning :D. We bought a shower curtain but we forgot to buy hooks so we still can't shower in peace. It's soooooo cold! It's like the cold rush of air you feel when you step out of the shower, only you feel it during your entire shower :(.

Omg tomorrow is my first day of school so I have to go to sleep! I hope I find my way there. If I don't blog tomorrow then I probably got lost in the Gothic quarter (where my school is located). Haha jaykay. Feliz Dia de los Reyes!