Te Presento a Clara
Originally uploaded by tjdee

Today´s intercambio partner. She was lovely. We had a typical 2-hour lunch at a Caribbean/Spanish place, where I had my first cocido completo. It´s a soup full of chicken, sausage, pork etc. They serve you the broth with noodles first and then everything that was in the broth as the second plate. I had pears cooked in wine and a café con leche for dessert. As a certain Food Network personality would say, ay, qué rico!

As my Spanish was much stronger than her English, we spoke a lot of Spanish at first, but I think it all evened out. I helped clarify the age thing for her -- in Spanish you say "tengo 27 años" and someone learning English would translate that word for word, sounding really awkward. She helped me with some Spain-specific slang. She also freaked me out a little by appearing eerily similar to me cousin Suzanne at times.

Bueno, tío, tengo que irme. Hasta la próxima vez.