Germs, Jigs, and Jelly

I am posting two entries in one day, so make sure you also read the following post.

Why "Germs, Jigs, and Jelly"? Well, today the millions of germs circulating through the handle bars on the Metro, the hallways at school, and the piso here finally caught up with me. I knew it would happen. I'm always one of the last ones to get it, but right when I think I'm in the clear and I start bragging about how I never get sick, it hits me. The night owl side of me has kept me up too late this week and defenses were down. So after my marathon day yesterday of school, home for lunch, grocery store, cooking, teaching an English class, more cooking at Vanessa's, and Thanksgiving dinner; I got sick. I woke up after 10 hours of much needed sleep and immediately started popping the cough drops and Ibuprofen. Really it's just a cold. I'm going to take it easy and see if it passes this weekend. I'm sure the fact that we have no heat in the apartment doesn't help. I'm NOT thankful for that!

And the jigs... Today, as there was standing room only, I carefully selected least full Metro car, only to watch a man with a bass (no, not a bass guitar, a full-sized bass) walk on behind me. That wasn't all. The whole band followed him: the guitarist, trombonist, accordion player, saxophonist, and bongo drummer. That's right. I scooted over and they began a lively jazz number. Now, instrumentalists on the metro aren't uncommon, but a SIX person band with very large instruments in a standing room only car! That's nuts. I will admit, though, I enjoyed the music and the whole situation was highly entertaining.

Finally, the jelly. Did you know that "jelly" in Britain is "Jell-o"? So when I brought peanut butter and jelly sandwiches into the classroom and wrote what they were on the board, the students thought we were going to eat peanut butter and JELLO sandwiches. Why did I bring PB and J sandwiches? Because they don't eat PB here! None of the kids had ever had them before. Instead of PB, kids typically eat Nutella (chocolate hazelnut cream) on bread. However, I did find a jar of PB at Corte Inglés (see former entry) for 4 Euros. Most of the kids loved them...which makes me wonder why they haven't caught on here. Maybe chocolate hazelnut spread is hard to compete with.