The first: smoking. I'm sure most of you know that smoking is HUGE in Spain. I was talking to my spanish culture teacher and she said that over 50% of the population smokes! I would have guessed more than that because when I'm walking around the streets it seems like every single person has a cigarette in their hand. No matter what time of day it is. The smell really doesn't bother me too much anymore because I am getting very used to it. The thing that sucks is that when I go inside somewhere, whether it is a cafeteria, cafe, bar, or anywhere really I come out smelling like smoke. You can tell if I have been to a bar or cafe by smelling my clothes even the next day. It's awful! I have to air out my jackets and my jeans before I can wear them again. I guess it wouldn't really matter if I didn't though because everyone smells like that.
The second thing has to do with wine. As many of you know I am a wine major and observing wine trends is very interesting to me. I am actually taking a wine compliance class here (taught by Cal Poly) and have been learning a bit about Spanish wine from that class and also just from tasting it! -----side note: It is SO nice to just be able to go to the grocery store or wine shop and just pick up a bottle of wine, I am getting to try so many different types of wine! I dont know what Im going to do when I get back home and I can't do that for 6 more months!!----- Yesterday we went to a couple wine shops and got to see something that was really interesting to me. The first wine shop that we went to had taps of wine. Underneath in a kind of cellar they had giant concrete tanks full of "table wine", at least 5 different types. People come into this shop toting their empty 5 liter water bottles and pay by the liter to get these bottles filled with wine! The wine is so cheap too, I think the prices were something like a few euro for a couple liters of wine. The people that were mainly coming in were older and had giant jugs for them to fill. I didn't get to try any of this wine, but I'm sure it wasn't very good. Which brings me to my next trend: people like to mix other things with their wine. Whether it is a calimocho, sangria, or wine with sparkling water (which is common for table wine). I have no idea why this is so popular here, you hardly ever see people mixing things with their wine in the US. Any insights to this? I'm thinking its just an economical issue, its cheaper to do this!
Update on the food issue: Still haven't talked to mama, Laurel and I are nervous to do this... but yesterday we had a pretty good meal so that is promising :)
Some weeks and days I feel like my spanish is improving tremendously, others I feel like I am in the exact same place that I was when I first got here. It's frustrating when I can't communicate with people because my vocabulary just isn't big enough. At night time I feel so mentally exhausted from just constantly having to think before I even attempt to talk to someone. Spanish is hard! All the conjugating of verbs is really hard to get the hang of. I am really glad that I am totally immersed though because I am learning soooo many new things everyday.
Going to go take a siesta now!
Love you guys :)
p.s. If there is a specific question you have for me or something you are wanting to know about Spain or my experiences, leave a note! Sometimes I don't know what to write about because I kind of do the same things everyday...
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