a couple of anecdotes from the Príncipe de Asturias awards

One. In the reception held before the awards ceremony, the one that only Pepe attended, he ended up eating at a table with the Chinese delegation from Xian, who had received the social sciences award.  It was Pepe, the three members of the team and two interpreters, trying to understand each other as best they could.  Pepe devoured fabada, while the Chinese ate jamón.  Pepe then asked the director of the foundation, Teresa Sanjuro, if it was true that the rice pudding (arroz con leche) in Asturias was more easily digestible than that in the south.  The answer was, “depends, if you compare it to a rock, then yes.”

Two. Meanwhile, David Julius, one of the winners of the Technical and Scientific Research award, asked Sanjuro if she could get him a ball signed by all the players of Spain, because “if I go into the laboratory with this ball, I’d become the most popular person in the university (UC San Francisco).”

Three. When the players arrived at the theater, they were greeted by shouts, cheers and of course flashes from the photographers.  As they entered the theater, one of those photographers started to follow them, but then remembered, “¡Coño! The royal family has yet to come!”