Cáceres Creativa

I've been introduced to two of the art faculty at Universidad de Extremadura and have been invited to attend any of their classes I might be interested in. One of the professors invited me to go to a city event called Cáceres Creativa, saying it could be neat to see what's going on in the city art-wise, and why not bring a friend. (Cáceres is one city nominated to be the European Capital of Culture in 2016; therefore, there are a lot of events, concerts, and otherwise going on in the city.)

So Thursday, Oct. 1st, I met up with an ISU friend and we walked with the professor into the old part of Cáceres. The event was held in one of the restored medieval buildings, Palacio de Toledo-Moctezuma. People were pretty dressed up, and I found out it was supposed to be for professors of UEX, city council people, and other businesspeople of the city. The bigwigs! (Do you s'pose that term comes from the era of ginormous powdered wigs?) It's pretty cool to meet someone who can persuade others that her foreign students should be able to attend the event.

We got there right about 8:00 when it was supposed to start, but true to Spanish culture, the program started late. (I'm not a fan of starting late when it's so hot you have to use the program book for a fan or else melt into a puddle. And I was even wearing a fairly lightweight dress!) There was a powerpoint slideshow projected onto the wall while two speakers spoke about the possibilities in making some renovations and innovations in Cáceres. I liked seeing examples of urban landscaping from other wordly cities, some from the U.S. The MC was a cute young magician who did some card tricks, coin sleights of hand, and something with water and colored sand.

Afterwards we partook of hors d'oeurves and cocktails. Well okay, so mostly they served lemon and orange Fanta and Coca Cola (which, by the way, is not as bubbly as the coke in the 'States), but later they served some wine. There were a lot of different finger foods to try, all served on silver platters (I'm not kidding!) with white linen. And I have advice for you all: no matter how weird it looks, if it's that expensive it's going to taste really good. Even the pukey-green mousse served in a mini-reeces-pbcup-sized pastry cup was delicious. I tried sardines, really pungent cheese, thin jamón slices, crunchy bread wafers, caviar, and a bunch of other trifles concocted with a variety of foods.

I must say I enjoyed the evening.