FOOD FOOD FOOD!!!

I've been trying different restaurants 5 days a week. It's just impossible for me to post one restaurant one by one at a time.. that's just ridiculous. So, I've compiled two of the regular restaurants together. The food in both restaurants, like usual are delicious. It's a restaurant for goodness sake so there's no really terrible food. The most terrible food in a restaurant is still edible. Of course there are some which are below my expectations so there's no use posting those food.

The FIRST restaurant

Another type of paella. This one has no seafood but has all sorts of sausages and meat

This one was the starter... It's baked eggplant with cheese and bolognese sauce equivalent. I love this one..

Like I always said. There are three kinds of drinks all the time. Water, Carbonated water, and Wine... ALWAYS!!

The SECOND Restaurant

This is Flam.. It's the local traditional caramel pudding

Traditional homemade ice cream. If i'm not mistaken the main ingredients are egg whites and milk.

And these baked beans with three layer pork... Presentation wise is not nice but when you put in your mouth you'll never stop until the plate's empty..

And this is grilled monkfish from one very random restaurant. No trace of where and when but I'm pretty sure it's in Spain because we cannot find this fish in Malaysia.. Go and search in google what this fish is and I bet you'll not wanna eat them. Only food lovers like me will try good food.. =D

Obviously I'm a really greedy person. Hmmmm... why do I enjoy food so much?? But of course I'll watch my health and weight (Trying to bulk up here.. but only the face radius seem to fluctuate)

Till then....

First Restaurant Visited in Catalunya

One of the best privileges I get from the company I'm working for is free lunches. And it's not those kind lunches that you get from lousy cafeterias. I get to eat wherever I want and then claim from the company. So, my supervisor has been taking me to different restaurants everyday to try different food. This I should say would be the best opportunity.

I get to do what I like which is to eat and try all the local food and I don't have to pay a single cent. =D. It's like those guys who do food documentaries where they get to try all the different food for free.

So, this is my very first restaurant that I went to during the first day of work. It's an antique restaurant. Well, at least the building as it used to be a train station.

The restaurant building. It's taken from the x - railway line

The interior of the restaurant

In Catalunya (I shouldn't say Spain because the Catalans want to be recognised as the Catalans),
Most meals in Spain (or Catalunya) have three courses: starter, main and dessert. I guess it's the traditional European culture for meals. And of course, there are two main types of drinks. Water or wine.

This is my very first eat-out meal in Spain. It wasn't that extravagant but because it was my very first, it has a different memory.

Starter: Pasta Carbonara (I ordered this because it was the most recognisable name in the menu)

Main: Baked Fish with baked beans

Dessert: Rice with milk and cinnamon

The starter and the main was rather normal but the dessert, for me is new. I've been eating rice prepared in different ways but this is my first time I have it with milk. It's good though. Sweet.. and the cinnamon really goes well with it.

And this one, it's from another restaurant the next day. This is the really really local Spanish food. It's called Palla (paya). It's actually baked rice with seafood. The sauce has really complicated flavour as it has all kinds of seafood stock in it. But I love it.

Well, these are just two of the restaurants that I've visited. There are like ten other restaurants which I'll post slowly when I have the time. Working from 8 to 8 five days a week and then going out during the weekends doesn't really give me the time to blog.

More to come!!

First Week At Work

I think I've just thrown myself into a triple threat challenge. I'm in a company where only one person speaks English. I'm learning Spanish but I'm in the Catalunya region where people speak Catalan so that doesn't help me at all. And of course, Spain uses the European Union Standards which I've never seen before. And finally, all the technical terms used are in Catalan. People must think I'm crazy to have done such internship.

Two translation books which I have to read about the translation of the Engineering terms

But who cares!! I think I have made the best choice. No regrets. It's the first day of work and I already liked the company.

The office building for Aglomerats Girona. There're also factories which I haven't seen yet

There's even petrol tank for the trucks

The people here are very friendly. Well, for the company I work with at least. I feel accepted in the company. It's not like in Kuching where a trainee will be a trainee. In this company, ranking is not that important. Everyone tries to speak English to me, using whatever words they know. I on the other hand tries to speak in Spanish, using all the words I know. We had to use the primitive method of communication (using actions and drawings). It´s really funny though but it works. And luckily there´s google translation. The way we communicate is like MSN chatting. The only difference is that we´re next to each other.

This is how we communicate on site.. Drawing on the ground

I think I´ve got two advisors, Gabriel and Albert. They´re both engineers I think but in different departments. And they were really good. Although we have language problems, they´ll try their best to explain everything. Of course I have to be fast too. I make an effort to not let them explain the second time.

I started going to the site already on the first day in order to get to know how the people in Catalunya work. The first one was to the hills where there's road construction. And the second one was one of the old buildings for an old town which needs rehabilitation.

I don't know why the tree is not cut. Probably because it has two trunks

The excavation is so steep...but it works

The width did not reach the acceptable limit, so this is how they extend the existing lane width

The second site which I visited. This one is a nursery

I live in Girona but I work in Santa Cristina d' Aro which is a 25 minutes drive. Don´t know why I live in a different town but it was arranged for me like that. So, I have different colleagues driving me to and from work every day. I felt like a burden sometimes but I had no choice. And in the car, there´s always a long awkward moment of silence because there´s no internet in the car. I couldn´t stop grinning because it was so awkward and besides, that´s all I could do in the car. I don´t know if my colleague thinks I´m crazy. There´re so many topics in my head but I can´t express them in Spanish.

And I kept using the wrong words which I would only realise after I finish the conversation.

It's funny my name over here changed to JiUi... and they kept on pronouncing fast making it sound like Chui (Water).

Nevertheless, I feel so lucky to have been chosen by this company. This is exactly what I have imagined. Even more I think. There are so many girls working in the company and none of them are old women. And even better, the company pays for my lunch wherever I eat. Awesome.