Random Bitz and Bobz from the last month

 This instalment is just a bunch of random side notes about observations or experiences from the last month.

Funny

I was funny in Spanish. As many of you know my biggest fear was that I would never be funny again as humor can be tricky. I was not sure that I would every master Spanish to a degree that I would be funny again...intentionally. But I succeeded in making 4 Zaragoza natives laugh with me at one of my comments on the day we signed our lease to our piso.

It has not happened again since except with my Spanish teacher who is fluent in both Spanish and English, so I don't count that. 

License Plates

We were riding in a taxi yesterday, when I noticed that the license plates on all the cars are generic EU (European Union) plates. They did not appear to be individualized by country. The only difference that I noticed was that the taxi' license plates were all blue. 

When we got back home, I looked it up and they are individualized by member country.

Iced coffee and ice

I have always preferred iced coffee to hot coffee except when it is really cold. I hardly say anyone drinking iced coffee when we first got here. All coffee is made fresh to order from an espresso machine, Don't get me wrong here, the coffee os very good and I have become an aficionado of cafe con leche. But I was missing iced coffee. Then one day we were out and I saw waiter walk by with two cups of coffee and a glass with a piece of ice.

Side note here: This brings me to the second part of this one...Ice. Spain, Zaragoza at least has enormous ice for drinks. Wide thick tubes 2-1/2 inches long by 1-1/2 inches. At most you may get 2-3 pieces in a large glass. The only place I have seen different ice was at IKEA, they had the small bb style ice in their drinks.

When we left the restaurant, we happened to walk by the table with coffees and a cup with ice. The man was drinking iced coffee! I now know to order a café con leche con hielo. I also finally broke down and tried a premade iced coffee from the drink fridge at a grocery store. I had not orriginally recognized them to be coffee but later saw characters on a Spanish show we are watching drinking one and it dawned on me that they were iced coffee.

Origami

I know, I know, Carlos already wrote about it. But as the gruñosa (grumpy one) who begrudgingly tagged along to the origami museum I need to go on record that it really was cool. We all enjoyed it and liked different aspects of the experience. This was my favorite.

Tomatoes again!

It is hot. I mean it is summer in Spain after all, and that really makes me appreciate fresh cool foods. I expounded on the produce not that long ago. The summer fruits really are top quality and it is so refreshing to bite into cold, crisp, juicy watermelon or an exquisitely tender and juicy peach. But the stars of the show are the tomatoes. I am heading the direction of eating my body weight in tomatoes in the next month or so. I will leave you with this one last image.