"almuerzo" means lunch

Good evening viewers,

I am taking a "Travel as a Narrative" English composition class here (I'm sure I've mentioned this before). But I decided that I want to include some of our class writings in the blog so that you can read a little bit of what we students write about this beauty of a place. So the first one is from yours truely and it is my assignment due tonight. Yes, I do have a night class in study abroad. But don't worry because I actually really enjoy it. Plus, we change it up and go to cafés and such to have class sometimes. It's a grand ol' time.

Oh side note- we have had our Peru video ready to post for 3 days now but our internet (the awesome one that you guys get to hear about at least once a week) will not stay connected for long enough to download the sucker. Pero, no preocupadan (Don't worry). Pronto. Pronto y muy pronto.

So here's my essay for the day. Disfrutan! Enjoy!

"I can smell it from all the way up here in the loft. I am in the middle of typing a paper for my English class, but it is now 12:29 and I cannot help but smell the occasion that awaits me in only one minute’s time. We have lunch promptly at 12:30 every weekday and today is my professor Nathan’s birthday. Every birthday boy or girl gets to select his or her very own Happy Birthday lunch, complete with a delectable dessert of choice. Thus far, there has not been one meal served here that I have not wanted to dive into, swim around, and slurp up. And I do not anticipate today as the day for change because Nathan gave me a sneak-peek of his Birthday menu.

I do not how I am going to finish this paper in one minute, though all I lack is a closing sentence. I cannot get my mind or my nose, and not to mention the saliva dripping from my lips, off of the heaven that I smell downstairs. Final sentence, you must await my return. Who says you can’t have your cake and eat it too? I am going to have mine right now and I am certainly not leaving it to be eaten by any of my other voracious classmates.

I turn the corner of the kitchen and who is there to greet me with a “Buen Dia!” and a big smile, but the infamous Raquel and Mariela. They are our cooks here at Casa ACU. Raquel is a head taller than Mariela and both Uruguayan women wear ACU T-shirts hidden by a well-used apron, hair tied back with colorful handkerchiefs. Every weekday they arrive at around 8 in the morning to set out the breakfast food. Immediately thereafter they start cooking lunch and the aromas of oregano and garlic often fill the house, making it near impossible to focus during Spanish class. They use oregano in Uruguay like we black pepper in America.

Today the table is filled with toppings for the chivitos, which are Uruguayan oversized sandwiches with everything a creative mind can come up with piled on top. Nathan requested grilled chicken chivitos. Good thing grilled chicken is healthy because I certainly make up the calories and fat with the olives, bacon, cheese, ham, French fries and mayonnaise stacking up to the apex of my sandwich. My chivito is officially un-bite sizeable. Lucky for my mouth and belly, I have encountered this “problem” too many times before. I simply practice the squashing technique and voila! A Panini!

I better not eat the whole thing because Nathan told me what he requested Raquel for dessert—“anything with a whole lot of chocolate.” He might as well have told them, “just go ahead and make me some heaven.” Raquel and Mariela make the best desserts I have had in my young adult life. Even foods I do not think I like turn into love at first bite when consumed from the hands of Raquel and Mariela. They have had years of experience. I cannot wait to sink my teeth into the “anything with a whole lot of chocolate” dessert because I know Mariela worked in a chocolate factory for seventeen years before she got this job.

Both of these women have been cooking their entire lives and they both have big families to feed every night when they leave the Casa. They have worked here for about nine years now and only started taking cooking classes when they got the job. They cooked and cleaned the Casa for the ACU students and took cooking classes in the evenings. Raquel told me that in even during her childhood she made little foods for her baby dolls and all through school she always molded cooking equipment, the majority of which were broken by her brothers’ roughhousing. I know how she feels. I find it odd that Mariela does not like cooking much because since I arrived here just three months ago, her food has found plenty of ways to make it’s claim on my body. Raquel, on the other hand, is so passionate about cooking that she cannot even name a favorite type of food to cook because they all bring her so much joy. If she could cook one food after another, after another for the rest of her life she would be happy. I once asked her if she had any other favorite hobbies besides cooking and she just laughed and said, “watching cooking shows.”

There it is—the chocolate heaven. If it were a light my pupils would definitely be burned out right now. I make my way through the maze of chairs and up to the kitchen counter, my eyes fixed on the goal. This prize is more like a surprise. Not only does this chocolate cake contain four types the richest, gooiest chocolate ever to set sail on my tongue, but Raquel and Mariela baked dulce de leche into the middle of the cake. Wait- there’s more. Raquel just pulled hot fudge off the stove to pour over my mound of chocolate. Father, forgive me for what I am about to do."