September 14, 2012 5:30 pm
Yesterday morning, after eating a breakfast of tea, bread, and cheese, Fortunata asked me to peel peapods and lima bean pods in order to take the beans out. At first I thought she was giving me the peapods to eat, so I peeled one pod and ate a couple of peas before realizing what she actually wanted me to do. I’m glad she didn’t see me eat the peas! The peapods were pretty easy to peal, but the lima beans were much harder. The lima bean pods had much tougher skin and were moldy, which was gross. But the beans themselves weren’t moldy, so I had to peel off the pod, and then peel off the outer layer around the bean to get to the edible part. Many of the beans had my finger nail marks in them. It was a lot of work for not very many beans. I hadn’t realized how much work it takes to just cook peas and lima beans (coming from my privileged, canned world). I don’t really like peas and lima beans, so I hadn’t been eating them all when we had them for lunch, but now I know how much work it takes Fortunata to prepare everything, so I will eat my peas and lima beans!
Yesterday was rainy and cloudy, so it was freezing. After peeling the peas and beans, I went back to my room and put on a ton more layers and warm socks. Then I burrowed under my covers for an hour until my Spanish class. After Spanish we had lunch, which was cabiche – cold vegetables and chicken in a vinegar and lemon broth. It was good, but I was mostly excited that we had tea instead of our usual juice for lunch because it was so cold. After lunch I got in bed and stayed there until dinner – reading, writing, using my ipod, sleeping, etc for four and a half hours. I’m pathetic, I know, but I usually don’t spend any time in bed during the day, it was just SO cold! Thankfully we had soup and more tea for dinner and then it was bed time – I don’t think if I’ve written about what time we go to bed in previous posts – dinner is over by 7:45 or 8 and then it’s time for bed, which means I am usually asleep by 9 at the latest. I love it!
Today was a better, more productive day. Although it was still pretty cold, it was not nearly as cold as yesterday. Today, after breakfast, I helped take the leaves off of various herbs. Nothing smelled familiar, but it all smelled good. Fortunata used the herbs to make a cream of corn soup that was green because of the herbs and had cheese, potatoes, and the lima beans from yesterday in it. It’s fun doing these little things to help out with the food.
During lunch today, I was not able to follow what Ricardo and Fortunata were saying at one point and I must have had a very confused look on my face because Fortunata turned to me and explained that she and Ricardo had been speaking Quecha (at least I think that’s what she said). She then explained to me, in Spanish, that she had told Ricardo that there were not many tourists at the market today because of all the wind. I think that either my Spanish is improving or Fortunata is more patient with me (well, probably it’s a combination of both) because today we were able to have a short conversation that I understood and I think she actually understood me without either of us repeating what we had said. It was only a few sentences, but I am very happy with my Spanish progress. However, even though I am happy with my progress, my Spanish classes are starting to feel very difficult – we have moved past the basics and are talking about the various past and future tenses. It’s frustrating, but practice makes perfect, right?
No comments:
Post a Comment