Estoy resfriado

So, I'm not real thrilled about this little cold I've developed. However, I've been directed towards something called "anticatarral" which is like some kind of tylenol, anti-mucus, orange stuff. It sounds real good. I would really like to kick this soon so I can go out this weekend/feel better for Paris. 

The weather is a bit warmer (high 40's), but I could use a bit more heat! This week has been a bit dull with the cloudy weather, my cold, and homework. I need to find some more excitement that does not necessary involve a 6:30 am bedtime. 

Also, I REALLY wish I could do my own laundry, because I never know when she is going to do it!

This was an uneventful post, my apologies. I'll wait to write more till my life gets more exciting. 

Proyectando...(Scheming)

Buenas Días Todos,

Things seem to be falling into a bit more of a rhythm, which is great for someone like myself (slightly OCD). School work seems to be more regular, but not hard and I'm adjusting to the daily schedule, however the Saturday night schedule still feels like you've just been beat over the head a few times. 

More food news!! (This is turning into a food blog). I had this amazing tapas dish mi madre served for my Sunday for lunch. It's called Gambas al Ajillo which is basically just shrimp with garlic. The dish is essentially shrimps that have been cooked in oil, spices, and water in a little bowl then topped with a sunny side-up egg on top. The hot water cooks the egg more thoroughly as you eat it and you can dip some bread in the herb, shrimp, egg broth and it is heavenly. Apparently this dish is served frequently, but usually without egg, but you can always request it "con huevo". 

The other amazing dish I ate this weekend was this spinach cheese soup which I think is called Espinacas Sorpresa but I could be wrong. I'm wrong a lot here in Spain. Anyway, this cheesy spinach goodness was to die for. 

Last but not least, we ate something I did not like, but was very interesting called Dorada al la Sal which is Dorado fish breaded in salt. I think part of the reason I did not like it was the fish broke, so it was super salty. 

So, besides food. I've been trying to hit up these rebajas (sales) before they end, but also not buy a bunch because I'll never be able to bring it home. But I did buy a purse. Whoops. 

Then Saturday night we went out again. It was very similar to the last weekend. Ended late (6:30am) and involved to many different types of sugary drinks and awkward dancing. I definitely continue to invite too much attention with this crazy "dancing" thing, but whatevs. We had some very weird stuff to drink. At this one place called Chuppitería (basically a shot house) we had this cherry shot that came with a lollypop and this carmel tip drink. Muy raro. 

Well, i think that is it for now. I would love to learn how to insert pictures, and when I do, I will put some in my older blogs. 

Also, trip booked to Paris! For Feb 5-8th. Can't wait to see Claire! I love scheming and planning all this traveling.

(Ok, I figured out how to add pictures, but not how to add them seemlessly..sorry. So yes, those are pictures of the different dishes, fish, shrimp, spinach..etc)

¡Me voy!

"Keep Away From a Runaround Sue..."

It is now 3:03am. Quite early here is Spain. I decided to cut the night early and save some energy for Saturday night. 

I just came home from the classy bar called Boss where they had a live band that played pretty much "oldies" by request. It was fun, especially when they got the words wrong. They played some AC/DC, Pink Floyd, Clash,  and Violent Femmes, so it was a good time. 

I had an amazing lunch today, which makes up for the "deviled eggs" I had earlier. We had this soup that was like chicken noodle soup, only with bits of ham and more tomatoe-y followed by a garbanzo bean dish with carrots and onions and then an assortment of meat including chorizo, a a type of relleno (which tasted like a tamale) and then some other meat which was really dark. I don;t really wanna know what it was. It was amazing to have some delicious food that was not fried and had some nutritional value. 

I also tried squid at a tapas bar today called Sepia. It was garlic-y and delicious. 

Katie and I tried to do some shopping and spent the whole time bitching about how everyone in Valladolid is so stylish and attractive! Hard to keep up. Also, hard not to buy everything. 

Basically, my life right now consists of tapas, power walking in the cold, sour kiwis, Activia, window shopping, sangría, cold showers, and bad spanish. But I'm not complaining. 

I'm felling good, excited for the weekend. I do have a little homework, but, it will get done in four days. I miss Bill, and my parents, but not so much that it's debilitating. I actually think I'm less homesick here than at Macalester.

¡Que Barbaridad!

Hola,

So. I watched the Inauguration on CNN live stream with my class today. I thought it was pretty amazing. Thousand and thousands of people screaming "Oh-Ba-Ma!" was quite a sight. I thought his speech was great. It was eloquent, serious, personal, and moving. I thought he said exactly what he needed to say without sounding dogmatic or over-optimistic. I do worry he has a whole helluva lot on his plate, but I do sincerely believe that his attitude is  right on. Still, I have reservations and until I can SEE change happening around me, it all seems pretty abstract. Plus, he is gonna have one big fucking mess in Palestine/Isreal pretty soon and he did not really address that impending issue, but that may have been partly because it was out of place. And, even though it really was a historical event in that he is the first African American, I hate how that is harped on SO much by the press. The more they address it, the more it seems like they just can't get over the black thing. Yes, he is black. Move on. That's not to say it shouldn't be celebrated, it SHOULD! But, you know what I'm sayin'!

Food wise, I've encountered more adventures both good and bad. For example, the other day I was very excited to eat what LOOKED like deviled eggs. However, to my horror, they were filled with tomatoe-y tunafish and covered with this horrible egg yolk sauce. Ugh. But, then yesterday my mom made vegetables (more like mushy cauliflower and green beans, but whatevs) and these amazing meatballs. I'm trying to watch my eating though and it is so hard!! I get SO hungry around 11am and around 6pm. But, I'm trying to stick to only fruit as snacks and to cut down my portions. Just say no to bread!!

I've now booked a trip to Amsterdam for 5 days in mid February. I'm very excited. 

More later!

¡Hasta Luego!

Naranjas y Pescado

Greetings from Spain!

Welcome to my blog. Hopefully this will provide some entertainment for my friends and a place reflect and/or vent for me. It unfortunately might also provide some great black mail material for my enemies but I'm going to try to avoid that and try and self censor a bit. 

  I'm now on my second week here in Spain, and it has been quite a roller coaster. It began with a travel catastrophe where I ended up stranded, crying, and speaking bad spanish at 3am in downtown Madrid, but now I'm fine. It was one of the more traumatic experiences of my life and I like pretend it didn't happen. But now I'm here and safe and having a great time. 

Valladolid is a great little city. It's very compact with lots of high rise apartment buildings with stores and shops on the ground level. In Valladolid, you walk ALOT. I think I cover at minimum a good six miles a day but certainly have walked more than that. I live in an apartment building on Paseo Zorilla which is a big main street lined with cafés, bars, and small clothing shops. My room has two beds (sometimes she hosts more than one student) and is highly decorated in a mildly abrasive shade of yellow. But, I mean, yellow is cheerful. There is a window in my room that overlooks the busy main street, reminiscent of an apartment in NYC. The apartment itself has three bedrooms and one bathroom that I share with my host mom and brother, Carlos. My school is a 20 minute walk from my house, which is fantastic. The city is full of small plazas, fountains, statues and beautiful old spanish churches. I particularly love the dark red, yellow and pastel blue colored buildings and the way the city is always full of light (Except at from 7-8am). 

There is so much to say, I don't know where to start. I guess I'll start with the basics. 

First and foremost, La comida. The food here is definitely different. My host mom has cooked a variety of different things, the majority of which has different meats (mostly pork, fish, and beef), potatoes, bread, soups, and oil. There is usually at LEAST one fried item, usually french fries. For example, for lunch today I had a rice, carrot, and chorizo stew situation, followed by an entire fish that was deep fried. I still don't know what kind of fish it was. All I know is that it was caro (expensive) had both a spine and two inedible fins on the top and bottom, that I butchered it horribly (and was chastised accordingly in spanish) and I could see the eye socket. ¡Que horrible! After lunch I had to grab an orange to cleanse my confused pallet. Every morning I eat (or am allowed to eat) Yoohoos (some kind of cereal with monkeys on the box) and fruit. I've been eating a lot of kiwis and crappy apples. 

The good news is Tapas. Tapas are muy deliciosas. On Friday night I went out for tapas and ate the Best Calamari Ever and other assorted goodies. I'm still learning all the ins and outs of ordering tapas. It can be complicated because there are different words for different sizes (raciones o tapas). The other good news is Sangría and run miel (run shot with honey).  

I think the hardest adaptations I've had to make are the daily schedule, the language barrier, and shower limitations. People in Spain typically get up around 9-9:30, eat a tiny breakfast, then head to work/school (Except my classes start at 9am). Then, at 2pm, all the businesses close and everyone goes home for La Comida which is a big lunch. Then, after La Siesta, which is optional, the businesses re-open at 5pm until 9pm. Dinner is at 9:30pm, after which everything closes except Tapas and Bars. Tapas close at midnight and bars stay open til 3am, sometimes 6am. Everyone goes out Saturday night and everyone sleeps all day Sunday. 

I am speaking a lot of spanish. My host mom doesn't speak a lick of english, plus, she mumbles and speaks really quickly. I've gotten better, but it can be really hard feeling like an idiot. All my classes are in spanish, but they are super easy and my spanish seems to be way better than average among the American kids. But, I have a long way to go in terms of conversational spanish. When we went to the bars Saturday night, I tried talking to some Españolas and I think it came out something like this (In english):

Me: "Hello! What is your name?"

Them: "My name is Juan. Where are you from? Are you from around here?"

Me: "I am a student"

Them: "Uh, Cool. How long have you been here?"

Me: "What? My name is Grace."

Them: "Yes."

Me: "My Spanish is bad"

Them: "Uh, kinda"

Finally, the other living limitations have been hard. You can't have more than one light on at one time. Showers need to be limited to 5-10 minutes and you must turn the water off while you shampoo, etc. It is best if you do everything except shower/use the bathroom in your own room. Plus, its weird to not get to chose or cook your food or clean your clothes, things I've been doing for years. I'm trying to run once and a while in an effort to fight against fried food. But they stare at you when you run!! I don't know how people stay thing here, honestly. 

The other important thing I've learned is the Spanish are extremely stylish but do not dance. Everyone here wears NICE clothes. The young women wear skinny jeans and high leather boats with nice button up wool coats and scarves. No earrings. The mean wear slacks and leather jackets. The young men all look like they play on Real Madrid, with highly groomed hair and soccer jackets. At the clubs, there is loud music, black lights, alcohol, but no dancing. Only awkward swaying. I was quite the celebrity at the Discoteca Saturday night because I like to get down. The guys would clap for me and stare in curiosity at my strange foreign movements. Once in a while they would approach me and take my hand, moving me in a slow circle. That's it. No other forms of touching. They will talk, but no touch. 

Alright, well that certainly is enough for today. There is more to say, but I'm tired and it's Siesta time. If any of you bloggers has any tips or advice for me, I still do not know how to put in pictures, format it, etc.

¡Besos!