When I was in Junior High School we had the opportunity to choose which language we wanted to take between the options of French or Spanish. My sister and brothers had all chosen French, but for some reason I thought that Spanish made more sense for me to learn. I think it was because it is a language that is spoken regularly by so many people in the United States, and even though it wasn't something that I knew I might want to speak and understand at some point in the future, it just seemed to make more sense to learn Spanish instead of French. It's something I've always been glad that I learned even though I don't remember as much of it as I used to know, but over the years I've definitely been able to understand some things that some people say that I wouldn't have been able to understand otherwise.
My teacher for Spanish was a younger woman who was fairly new to the school, and she did a lot of fun things with us. She had spent time in Spain and she had us reading books and visiting with all kinds of interesting people, and she took us to a Spanish restaurant in Boston for a class trip. While we were there we had to order everything and speak in Spanish and it was such delicious food and such a fun experience that it gave me a love for Spanish food and Spanish restaurants that I've had ever since. I went to that Spanish restaurant several times after that trip, and on one or more occasions that same teacher brought a smaller group of us to celebrate graduations and awards and things that we had done in school that were special that she wanted to celebrate with us. As I got older and was able to drink Sangria, I learned more about that too, and that's another thing that I enjoy whenever I have the chance to have it and remember those beautiful times at that lovely restaurant.
At times over the years I have learned how to make some Spanish dishes like Paella, and I discovered an excellent recipe for Sangria that I used to make all the time for summer parties. But somehow the restaurants I've tried have never seemed as wonderful as that special place that holds some lovely memories of those long ago days in Boston.
A few weeks ago I received a message in my inbox after I had been liking some posts on the Instagram page of a restaurant in Hoboken called Sangria. The person who wrote me the note invited me to come in to the restaurant and so the next time I was meeting with a friend for dinner I suggested that we go there. It was really such a wonderful experience from beginning to end, with food and Sangria and service that were all excellent. We sat outside and enjoyed the afternoon that drifted into evening, and even though I didn't have to use any of the language in my conversation that day, the food itself brought back so many memories of the first time I had been to a Spanish restaurant and how special that experience can be.
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