Foodie Adventures: Day 1

Thursday, February 19

The day has come and gone. It seemed like so long ago when Rachel and I were planning her trip down here. At first I didn’t know if it would work out, but in the end, I’m so glad that it did!

Rachel arrived in Madrid later than anticipated. While she was still flying through the air, I waited at the arrivals gate; the incorrect arrivals gate, actually. After I re-checked the board and realized that I should be at the neighboring arrivals gate, but still had to wait about 45 minutes, I went to grab an overpriced cheese sandwich, then moseyed my way over to arrivals Gate 1. I enjoyed my sandwich as I sat, amused at the large group of Asians walking by me. I wondered if they were Japanese, and I was pleasantly satisfied when I saw the last few group members wearing masks. Only in Japan. :] There were also Spanish high school students cheering every time the arrivals doors slid open. They, too, were waiting for a flight from the UK and to keep themselves busy, created the game of cheering for random people. The first few times it was funny. Some people waved back, fist pumped, and cheered as they passed the group of high-schoolers. Other people walked on in a puzzled way or craned their necks over the rowdy crowd to find their rendezvous. As each wave of strangers came through those doors, I stood on my tippy-toes to attempt to find Rachel and her “turtle-shell backpack.” I thought about her plane being even more delayed and I wanted to check the arrivals board, but I didn’t want to leave my prime observing area. So I waited. And waited. I watched as the high school students finally cheered for the correct group of people, who were also high school students (from Ireland, I think). I watched as they all nervously greeted each other. And waited. Until finally, an hour later, the last couple stragglers were coming out. Rachel was one of the last ones. I lost sight her, as she was walking behind a larger person. When I saw her again, we couldn’t help but bro-out a little bit, giving each other a “Hey wassup?” of a head nod. Then when we were close enough, hugs were in order!

After the initial greeting, we made our way to the Metro station inside the airport. 1 line transfer and a short walk later, we were at my apartment, ready to get the weekend started. The first order of business was to feed Rachel. I figured, since it was her first night in Spain, I’d make her a Tortilla Española. I bought a new pack of eggs specifically for this dish. So we cut the garlic and onions and potatoes. Then fried everything and what not. I was about ready to get the eggs, which were sitting on the counter and I saw that one corner was a bit off the edge. So I went to move something (I can’t remember) out of the way, and CRUNCH! Eggs to floor. Fail. 11 eggs were in a goopy mess on a floor that I will just say I will never eat off. Epic fail. SO, all my eggs are gone. After having a hardy laugh and cleaning up the gross mess, I ended up borrowing 3 eggs from my roommate and the tortilla was a success. That was such an epic fail. For the entire time Rachel was here, we measured the amount of “fail” by comparing it to 11 broken eggs. Beautiful.

After a nice dinner of tortilla and pre-sliced chorizo, Rachel and I headed to bed only to talk for another 3 hours. Ah, it felt great to have someone familiar to talk to! The weekend started off great!

February 23, 2010. Uncategorized.