Alcohol and Fire

It was another perfect day here in Belmonte!  We started the day with a two-hour presentation workshop designed to help the Spaniards get ready for the presentations that they will do on Thursday.  We split into small groups and each presented part of the process of preparing a presentation.  Afterward, I had free time, which I used to work on my own presentation for this evening.  Then I met with another one-to-one.  It was beautiful outside and we noticed that they had put lounge chairs out by the pool (though we still have not received official word that we can use it), so we decided that it was enough of an invitation for us to go in and wade.  The Spaniard I was talking to traveled to China back in 1992 and spent 45 days there, and she had some great stories to tell.

Four of the Spaniards are in a Vaughan Master Class, which is a very big commitment.  It is a full time, five month class where they go to class five hours and have five hours of homework every day.  This Vaughantown is part of the Master Class for them, and they will have another in July.  They are young, and looking for their first "real" jobs (except for Edi who already owns two businesses), and they hope that intensively improving their English will help them.

After lunch and another one-to-one, I had yet another free time.  My final one-to-one was with Enrique, who lives in Valencia.  This is important information because my host in Valencia next week will be busy all day on Sunday, and I will be on my own.  Enrique told me to call him if I needed anything while I was in Valencia, so maybe we can make some plans for Sunday if he is not busy with his family.  At the very least, he gave me some good ideas of things I should see while I am there.  It actually won't bother me to have the day to poke around by myself, either, so we will see what happens.

Before dinner was the entertainment hour.  My presentation was about Normal, IL and how it got its name.  As part of my presentation, I handed out the Beer Nuts that I had brought, which they were very enthusiastic about.  Most had never seen them.  One girl came up to me afterward and asked, "The name of Normal, Illinois - is it true?  It is really called Normal?"  Even some of the Anglos had never heard of it before.  Another girl is going to ask her sister-in-law in TX to send her more Beer Nuts, so she wanted to know if they sell them all over the US.  So, I think it went pretty well!

After dinner was our queimada, the witches incantation to ward off bad spirits (and, I think, to replace them with alcoholic ones).  The concoction of high octane alcohol, lemon, apple, cinnamon, sugar and coffee beans is set on fire and ladled until the flames turn blue.  Alba did manage to set the table on fire a couple of times, but she blew it out before any damage was done. Then the queimada is distributed, and everyone gives a toast to the group before tasting it.  If you ever get a chance to taste queimada...don't.  It tastes a little like gasoline and it smells worse.  But it is fun to watch it being made, and we had three wonderful witches to read the spell in the three languages - English, Spanish, and Gallego (the dialect from Galicia in northwestern Spain where the ceremony originated).  It was very funny.

See? There is only a little bit of fire on the table, it's nothing!