Comida

The food here is amazing!  There's always so much to eat though I never know what to do with all of it.  My cousin Christy taught me a phrase of what to say when I like the food but there's too much for me to it.  It's definitely come in handy for me.  We eat at 8:30 am, 2:30 pm, and 9:30 pm.  When we eat our meal I always feel so full after and never think that I can eat anything again.  Then around 4 hours later I am really hungry again.  My stomach hasn't adjusted to eating every 6 hours with huge meals instead of every 1-2 hours with tiny meals.  The other night for supper I ate 2 pieces of bread with cheese dip, two pieces of pizza, a cheeseburger, potato chips, and a thing of yogurt.  My exact quote to my mom was "WHO CAN EAT THAT MUCH FOOD!?!  Well apparently I can!"  I still can't believe I can eat that much but I think it's because I walk so much that I burn off all the calories.  It takes me about a 30 minute walk to get to anywhere I want to go so I do about 2-3 hours of walking everyday.  For breakfast everyday I usually eat cereal with chocolate powder on it so that way it makes chocolate milk.  I didn't think it would be pretty good at first but I actually love it.  I also have a hot chocolate every morning too.  Then with lunch I always have a fruit and at supper I always have yogurt.  We eat lots of soup, bread, and vegetables.  I think we've had some sort of potato at every meal.  I also like a lot of the food that she gives me.  Sometimes she gives me american type food like a cheeseburger or a hot ham and cheese but they're so good.  The cheese is way better here because it's not as gooey and more stringy which I love.  I was telling my mom that she should've sent me to a foreign country a long time ago so that way I could have broken my bad habit of being a picky eater.  When I come home I will definitely not be eating the same way.  Although I do miss my junk food a lot.  It's weird going from eating junk food every day to healthy food everyday.  Though they do have 3 or 4 bakeries on every single block.  So on my 30 minute walk to school I pass by so many bakeries.  Not going to lie i've definitely stopped in them quite a few times but I tell myself I need to get my sweet tooth fix in and it only costs about one euro.  These pastry shops will definitely be the death of my money besides all of the shopping.  A place that me and my friends have gone to a couple times is Cafe Futbol.  They have really good desserts there and the people are really nice. 

I couldn't resist a classic blueberry muffin

                                       
                                       A bunch of us at Cafe Futbol we had churros con chocolate
                                                   which are like funnel cakes. they were so good!

                                                        this is what the ice cream looks like

I didn't take any pictures of what my host mom makes because I think she would think i'm weird for doing that.  But you just have to trust me that it looks like classic Spanish dishes and they are very good.

Things that drive me crazy

So I know that I am in a different country and I need to accept their culture but some things just drive me nuts here.  First is that people j-walk like it's their job.  You go during the red light as well as green, you go all the way across a huge street (in which they have two or three lights), you go in front of cops, and you also go when a car is about to hit you.  These cars go even faster than in America.  I am starting to accept this one though because now I j-walk like it's my job.  There's always an opportunity to go so you just have to take up on it.  The cops don't do anything here like they would back home.  If we were home and I did it in front of a cop they'd be like what they heck are you doing.  Here when you go in front of a cop they just keep going about their business like it's nothing.  The second thing that drives me crazy is that there is dog poop everywhere.  It's on all the sidewalks and streets so you always have to watch where you're going.  It is so gross.  I think since i've been here i've only seen one person use a little doggy bag.  We definitely take it for granted back home to have yards and doggy bags in big cities.  I know this is a weird one but if you had to watch out for poop all the time it would make the life.  The last thing that drives me crazy... I couldn't think of one.  I guess I really only have two things that drive me crazy sometimes.  Oh well I guess that's a good thing because I'm embracing the culture!

My First Week Here

It's been a crazy first week! We left last friday and spent over 24 hours of straight traveling which was very tiring the first night.  I was with two other girls and we passed out at 9 pm and then didn't wake up till 9 am.  The next day we then met our host families and I live with just a host mom and she is a grandma.  She has kids but they are all out of the house and living in different cities.  She doesn't know any English and I know barely any Spanish so it's been pretty interesting.  Now I can figure out for the most part what she is asking but I can only respond with one or two word answers.  When we can't figure out what the other one wants we either do charades, use a dictionary, or google translate.  The google translate has been the best one because I can tell her exactly what i'm saying.  The weather here is in the 50's-60's which is really nice though.  The houses however are freezing! I have only 5 minutes of hot water a day and then a small heater in my room that only goes off for 2 hours at night and 2 hours during the day.  I am a baby when it comes to being cold at home so this is definitely a change.  I am constantly wearing sweats and slippers in the house but when I go outside I only have to wear jeans and a sweatshirt.  On Monday through Friday and this next week we have orientation before school starts.  In the mornings we have a meeting around ten for an hour and then class from 4-7 to review our Spanish.  Since I know barely any Spanish it's me learning everything.  I'm doing pretty well though  because I know lots of vocab and am able to make complete sentences now.  We have taken two excursions since I've been here to visit the city.  The first one we did was a tour of the downtown of Granada where we saw all the influences of Christianity, Islam, Moorish people, and Morocco.  We also learned a lot about the history of Granada and how the royal family used to live here.  They are also really big in politics because this is where the Supreme Court is of Spain.

Then a couple days later we went to visit the Albazien which is the older part of Granada.  To get to the top you have to climb up a really steep hill with lots of steps.  Let me tell you my butt was getting a workout and was hurting the next day.  If I lived up there and would definitely be very fit for when I came home.  Once we got up there the view was amazing and definitely worth the hike.  Granada is such a beautiful city and I can see why people like it here.