Last weekend and upcoming events

Last weekend on Saturday I went out with four friends: Sydney, Elizabeth, Julia, and Alex. I met them at the SYA school at 4 pm, and another group of friends coincidentally were meeting there at the exact same time and we were all going to the same place, Puerto Venecia. It's a huge shopping area and is known for having, Primark, which is one of the cheapest stores in Zaragoza. It's pretty far away. We took two buses to get there and it took us about half an hour. It was my first time in there. (all pictures from the internet)

Map of Puerto Venecia.

When we got off the bus the first building I saw was Primark. It's huge; it has two floors. As a little side remark, I think most of the malls here are much bigger than the ones in the US. The  Corte Inglés is a very well-known mall here and there's one in Zaragoza that has more than five floors! I think it has seven! Anyway, four of us wanted to go look in Primark first. Elizabeth went somewhere else. We took the escalator up to the second floor where the women's clothing was. I looked at some shirts and sweaters but didn't buy anything. At first I did like a sweater, but because everything is quite cheap, the quality isn't that good either. In the end I didn't like the sweater. Sydney, Julia, and Alex bought some things though. Sydney and I lost Julia and Alex after she paid for her things. She and I left Primark by ourselves and wandered around a bit. She spotted a Spanish "Starbucks." I don't drink coffee, but most of the SYA students do, and several of my friends really wish there were a Starbucks in Zaragoza. This particular café we saw was not a Starbucks but looked like one, and when we entered Sydney thought that it was even better because it offered more drinks and food. We ran into the other group of friends again and they had gone to Primark also. Apparently everyone had the same ideas. I didn't buy anything because I was saving my money for dinner. We chatted for awhile and then Sydney and I left to find our friends. We had all planned to meet at the ice rink at 6:30 pm, so we went to find it. I heard that it is the biggest outdoor ice rink in all of Europe, but it is quite small. I was surprised when I heard that.Elizabeth, Julia, and Alex were all skating when we found it. I didn't want to skate and neither did Sydney. They tried to convince us to go on the ice with them, but we said no. It was really cold and windy. Not a good combination. 

Sydney and I wandered around. There was a Corte Inglés and we looked in there. We bought some pumpkin (calabaza) seeds and they were very good. We were very interested by a ham shop because where else in the world can you find a shop solely dedicated to ham? There was pieces of ham on display and hanging from the ceiling with labels for each one. It smelled like ham. There were waffle cones with ham in them. I wanted to take a picture but thought that would be weird. We left the shop. 

There was a movie theater. We checked out what movies were playing. On a wall to our right was a huge thing of candy that reached to the ceiling. It was divided into sections and each  section had its own candy. It was very colorful. 

Puerto Venecia has an outside-shopping part and an inside-shopping part. We decided to  take a look inside. We walked through a store called Stradivarius, which is also the name of  some famous violins. Next we looked in a store called Lefties. I actually thought that it would  have things for left-handed people, but it did not. It would have been interesting if it had. We walked back to the rink to find our friends. It was almost 8:30 pm. They told us that at 8:30 the rink would be cleaned and that they wanted to go back on the ice right when it was finished because it would be very smooth. Alex love hockey and she said that she cried when she was able to go on the ice. She hasn't skated since coming to Spain. We decided that we'd meet for dinner at 9 pm which would give them enough time to skate some more. Julia and Sydney had told me of a Japanese restaurant called Noodles and Fun in Puerto Venecia. I wanted to go there. The inside was very clean and orderly. The seats were more like stools with very comfortable cushions. The tables didn't have a lot of elbow room, but that was fine. I ordered Good Rolls (sushi) and nabeyaki udon (noodles). The Good Rolls were regular sushi and the nabeyaki udon was a soup with thick noodles, seaweed, and different kinds of meat. Everything was delicious! And I was proud that I could it all everything with chopsticks. When we finished we walked back to the bus stop and hoped and prayed that the last bus hadn't already gone by. We saw a lot of people waiting there and that was a very good sign. We hadn't missed the bus! I got back to the apartment a little before midnight. 

Not the same restaurant but it gives you an idea of its appearance.

The next day, Sunday, I did homework and studied, nothing really special. 

Today, Thursday, the 6th, and tomorrow, Friday, we don't have school! It's because today is the celebration of the 1978 Spanish Constitution and Saturday is the celebration of the Immaculate Conception. I guess since the two holidays are so close together most schools give us Friday off, too. It's great. More time for studying for those finals we have next week. So next week is finals week for us. On Monday and Tuesday we'll have classes in the morning and time to meet with the teachers in the afternoon. The exams will begin Wednesday and each one is two hours. Then the week after that we have one week of regular classes, which is very different from what I'm used to. I don't really like it because I want to rest after taking six exams for twelve hours, but I guess the teachers want to get ahead. Christmas break starts Friday the 21st. I haven't made any definite plans for the break yet, but I know I definitely want to travel with several friends. Where is the big question. During this mini-vacation we're having many students are travelling to different parts of Spain: Valencia, San Sebastián (País Vasco), Tarragona (Cataluña). They all sound very exciting.