Joan, Xantel, Esteve and Jordi

Finally a beautiful, sunny weekend in Manhattan! So glad that winter is almost over…I can’t take much more. Besides, I’m glad that my new friends Joan, Xantel, Jordi and Esteve (from left to right), visiting from Barcelona, got to see a sunny day in this city. When I met them on the train, they were heading out to find somewhere to go dancing after spending the day in Little Italy and Chinatown. Talking about Little Italy and Chinatown of course got me going on food, and it so happens that Jordi is a cook by profession. (Actually he told me he was a “cook-er,” upon which Xantel corrected him and explained that a "cook-er" was something you cooked in, and a “cook” was the person who prepared the food. This was an interesting comment on English idiosyncrasy to me…why isn’t it “cook-er?”) Joan, Xantel and Esteve are all engineering students, and while I was impressed to learn this, I was caught up in the food thing. (I was hungry!) So we talked about favorite foods-

Jordi’s: rice cooked in milk, and also baked apples
Xantel’s: Mediterranean food- “very healthy, lots of vegetables”
Esteve’s: French fries and hamburgers
Joan’s: hot dogs

I think I would most like to eat with Xantel. : ) Although Jordi’s baked apples sound pretty good, too. Maybe dinner with Xantel, dessert with Jordi?

The one thing they’d like to tell the world, specifically Americans: “Spain is not Mexico!” Apparently, people had been confused about where they were from when they heard Joan speaking Spanish.

Anyway, I loved, loved, loved meeting my friends from Barcelona, and I almost wished the subway ride could have been longer. Alas, we had places to go, and lives to lead. However, when we parted ways, I did get very European kisses on the cheek from Jordi. Preciósa!