Ok so lots to tell... Started classes 2 days ago. My class schedule is kind of intense especially since my classes are pretty far away. Every morning I have spanish class at 9:30. This means I have to leave my house at about 8:50 in order to make it there on time because the bus takes about 30-35 minutes! This kind of sucks, but oh well... at least I get to know the town very well! Then it sometimes goes until 1:00 and sometimes til 2:00. After spanish class we come home on the bus and have lunch waiting for us! As many of you know, lunch is the biggest meal of the day. Its like dinner and lunch for us is switched. Kind of strange but I love big lunches! Let me tell you about some of the things our madre has made for us so far:
Pork with bell pepper in a sweet sauce with garbanzo beans in some sort of liquid (chicken broth?) and then for dessert this chocolate pudding/jello thing
Vegetable soup with potatoes in a sort of clear broth, fried potatoes (french fries) and chicken cooked on top of the stove (dark meat)
Lentil soup in a tomatoe/clear broth, fried fish, fried egg
These things are all for lunch. Usually dinner is a bit more bizzare. For instance last night she made us hard boiled eggs with the yolk scraped out and inside (like a deviled egg) was a tuna mixture with mayonesa (mayonnaise is a bit different here) on top! Tonight she left us rice with two little hot dogs.
Because of the new food here my stomach is kind of perma-upset. I think I just need to get used to the food and the times of the meals. OH! today I had the most amazing pastry. It was like a croissant filled with custard and dipped in chocolate. I'm not sure what it was called I just kind of pointed to it and they wrapped it up and gave it to me. It was only 1 euro!
Thats another thing that I have been noticing... the prices of everything. At clothing stores I have been finding that things are pretty comparable to things in the US. Such as: a pair of cheap heels cost 25 euro. In the US you can totally find a pair of cheap heels for $25. But since the euro is much stronger than the dollar it costs way more for me. But things such as that giant pastry was only 1 euro. In the US you could never find such a giant pastry for only $1! You would probably pay at least $3 for it. So pricing of things are very strange...
Another thing I have noticed (sorry for the long explanations btw, I am kind of using this as my journal so I want to have this stuff for myself as well) is that things really aren't that different here. In my "culture of Spain" class there is a guy that is from India and today my teacher wanted us to ask her "Por que en Espana..." so basically why do they do ______ in Spain? The people from the US were asking questions like why do people always wear shoes in the house etc. The guy from India had 2 questions: Why do grandparents not live with their families. Because in his country his grandparents, his parents and him all live in the same house. His second question: How do people meet and get married? In his country it is all arranged marriages and he didn't understand why or how people have boyfriends and girlfriends.
I guess this just opened my eyes that although I am in a different country and many of the things are different than the US, there are so many more similarities that I just don't realize. These two countries are very much the same, with only a few cultural differences.
Anyway... tonight is my roommates birthday and we are going to go out for the first time in Valladolid. I am very excited! Yesterday I had a drink called a Calimocho, red wine and coca cola! Sounds disgusting right? Well apparently it is very popular among the young people here so I decided why not try it?! It was actually pretty bomb. I guess the sugar in the soft drinks are different here so I don't know if it would be the same in the US. I think I will ask about other popular drinks tonight just so I can try the best of Espana!
Going to eat dinner now... Miss everyone! Can't believe its only been 8 days since I have been gone. HOW WEIRD.
xoxo
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