Tribe of Two = AjF + sLk

Got to Spain three days ago, I’m already 100% adjusted of jet lag as of this morning. Might have something to do with the never ending supply of beer and wine and food, haven’t stopped since I got off the plane, but I think it’s really because of the sound healing sessions I’ve been giving. Armando’s family is really intense but super nice. His mom Maria keeps kissing me and feeding me ham. His dad Pedro likes to teach me Spanish vocabulary centering around food items, and he reminds me of my grandpa for some odd reason. Armando’s uncle Jose drove Maria and Armando to the airport to pick me up. As one of my carry on luggage (the most valuable one with my cyma and a load of cash) mistakenly got on a flight from London to Madrid that departed two hours later than when I departed, everyone waited with me at the airport until I found my luggage.

The first breakfast I had here was porras and churros with a thick hot chocolate. Churros and porras are both crunchy fried dough, one is a fat long stick and the latter a skinny stick bent into a half figure eight, tear-drop shaped if you will. I probably ate 2 pounds of jamon by myself in the first 48 hours of arriving here. The best ham is made with a black pig that has a strict diet of only acorn nuts, and ham made from these guys is called pata negra. It is just the most delicious thing in the whole entire world. You won’t stop eating it when I bring you some.

Maria cooked up a feast yesterday: Fidegua (imagine paella with pasta instead of rice), bacalau a-pil-pil (salted black cod cooked with garlic and olive oil), mejillones (mussels with peppers, olives and onions), pulpo (the most tender octopus with paprika),  lacon (boiled serrano ham), and cold cuts (manchego cheese, salchichon, lomo and jamon). For some odd reason the custom is to stop by a bar where you order a mini glass of beer and they give you small plates for free. So, prior to Maria’s feast we went and had oreja (pig ears), morro (cow’s face), and tortilla espagnola.

For Armand and I who have been mostly vegetarians for the last two years, all this delicious food started to feel like poison to our bodies. So, we happily decided to be salad-chomping strict herbivores for today and I hope tomorrow as well.

I don’t mean to sound like a pig by describing to you my trip in terms of food, but that is really what this country is centered around, followed closely by family and friends. I guess I’m here to work on my relationships with other people.

That’s all for now, we don’t have internet set up at the house yet, so I must keep this short. Tomorrow we will go to the Prado Museum in Madrid, can’t wait to see Hieronymus Bosch!!