Can I just say that Spain is beautiful. I wasn't expecting it to be so green; it doesn't beat the green in New Hampshire though. I'm currently living in Alcala de Henares which is just outside of Madrid. It's an old city with cobblestone streets that are pretty narrow. It's quaint and cozy. I believe it's home to Miguel de Cervantes--author of Don Quixote.
I'm not much of a city girl but I'm loving this whole take the bus to school and el tren everywhere else. We've been doing so much walking that my feet, legs and lower back hurt. Hopefully it won't be hurting the whole time I'm here. As far as the country goes, I'm loving it. I am, however, having trouble with the language--as expected. Taking a two year break from Spanish classes and then going to Spain and not speaking English (we signed a contract saying we wouldn't) wasn't the best idea. It's been hard so far but things are slowly coming back to me and I'm definitely learning so much.
I've had a few interesting experiences with the food here...let's just say, I'm not a huge fan of it as of yet. Breakfast is small, we only have one piece of toasted bread (pan tostada), a small glass of Nestle chocolate milk and two small muffins that are plain and individually wrapped. Lunch is the biggest meal, it's equivalent to dinner in the United States. We always go to our Abuela's house for this. One lunch last week we had this seafood "surprise" that had shrimp, calamari, chicken and something else. It was so gross. Okay, the yellow rice it was on had some good flavor but I'm not a fan of seafood. I probably should have tried the seafood portion but it looked so gross that I was afraid I was going to throw up, and I didn't want to risk that. The funny thing is, Erynn, my roommate, likes seafood. When we were served our meals I looked at her plate and it didn't look too bad but then I looked at mine and there had to have been about ten calamari tentacles. So gross. Anyway, we eat dinner here at the house I'm staying at. That meal is a regular size. Okay, one more thing about the food. The family I'm staying with makes a joke about apparently how little I eat. It's kind of funny because the Abuela makes such a big deal about it and says it's because I don't want to get fat. The truth is I really don't have room for three helpings.
One last story and then I'm done writing for today. Erynn and I went exploring the city one day and decided to talk with some old people that were sitting in this park. We practicing speaking in Spanish and were trying to better understand their culture. So, conversation had died down a little when this balloon blew to my feet. Not knowing the word for balloon in Spanish, I asked the old man how to say it. He picked up it up and said "globo". It wasn't until he picked it up and tried to hand it to me that I realized he wasn't holding a balloon. It was a condom that had been blown up like a balloon. Suddenly, I was so confused because I didn't know if he had taught me how to say balloon or condom. Meanwhile he was trying to hand it to me...no way was I gonna touch it! Haha Oh my goodness. So funny. Erynn and I basically ran away.
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