My host family took me out to dinner last night to celebrate the start of classes. I think celebrating the start of the school year is ridiculous because no one wants to go back to school. However, I appreciate every opportunity to celebrate. We went to a restaurant called Estrella Central. It’s a Chinese restaurant here in Madrid. The restaurant specializes in duck and sushi, so we ordered duck and sushi. A whole duck, I believe the proper term is peking duck because the chef carved it right at our table. First we ate the skin with tortillas, then the chef prepared the duck meat in two other dishes. One was a stir fry with asparagus, and the other was meat sautéed with a simple sauce. After two bottles of wine, sushi, tempura vegetables, duck, fried ice cream and limoncello, all left satisfied.

All this and I didn’t take a single picture. I know, I know, I’m terrible. I wish I could share this meal visually! I promise it won’t happen again.