Caballos y...cerdos?

So, I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. I just didn't feel like it, happens sometimes.
Anyway, a LOT has happened, so I'm going to try to just sum things up into a main point.


Monday night I went to my first Rotary club meeting. We met at a really fancy hotel just about a 10 minute drive from my apartment. Isabel accomanied me, which was fine by me. When we got to the hotel, we were met by a few Rotary members, who welcomed me to Spain. We stood in the hotel lobby for about 15 minutes, exchanging small-talk. I was trying to figure out what we were waiting for when we finally took an elevator down one floor, and went toward one of the hotel's several conference rooms. I inhaled, ready too see all the people that I would surely be introduced to, and walked into -- a tiny, empty little room. It turned out we had been waiting in the lobby for the other Rotary member, and we'd all taken the elevator down together. Isabel, Me, and the 5 Rotary members. I couldn't believe how small the club here is. I'm used to Eugene, which has several clubs, and mine, the Delta Rotary, has about 30 or 40 members, maybe more. We talked about some rotary business for quite awhile, and then we had dinner. Dinner consisted of a ton of things I'd never had before. Nothing looked fishy, so I went for it. The first thing I tried was really good -- some sort of ham-and-cheese thing (nooo, ham and cheese in Spain? never) Next was this interesting-looking thing that looked like fried meat of some sort. I took a bite, and after pondering the strange flavor, I remembered that Kaitlyn Heater, who went to Spain 2 years ago, told me the strangest thing she had tried was fried chicken's blood. I asked one of the Rotary members what it was, and they all laughed.
"Oh, it's...uh, it's Pork." he told me.
"Just try one."Isabel said.
"Oh I already did. It was very...different."
"It's fried pig's blood." one of the other rotary members spoke up.
so, there you have it. I ate fried pigs blood. Needless to say, my appetite really wasn't all that good after that. :)

Saturday I FINALLY got to ride. I went to el Club Hipico Anezcar, (In English it would be Anezcar Riding Club), which I found online in the US. So I took a lesson there Saturday at 1:00 p.m. and it was great! Obviously it's no Equispirit (my barn back home, for those of you that don't know..), but it will certainly do for my time here. I rode a horse named Morito, and he was great. (Caution, horse-speak ahead) He may not have had the best conformation, but he was totally sound, and had that great jumper-canter, super easy to sit. I only got to jump about 2 feet, because I was in the lower-level jumping class so that the trainer could assess my riding skills. no biggie. While I was there, I saw these HUUGE (and I mean HUUUUUGE) muscley, but somehow still fat, high-level dressage horses. One was definetly a lippizan, not sure what the other was. They were having a dressage lesson in one of the (who knows how many?!) other arenas. Also, toward the end of my lesson, a guy came in riding this really impressive chestnut gelding. Well, Monday morning there was an article about Anezcar, accompanied with an impressive picture...of the Chestnut gelding. (see picture) So, I'm going to have weekly lessons at anezcar, starting Saturday. yay!

I'll leave you with a picture that will be greatly appreciated by my aunt and uncle. This is a picture of three adorable dogs that were playing on the hill behind our apartment. A dalmation puppy, an Old English Sheepdog puppy, and what I think was a boxer.

Besos!
~Gwen