Silly little things..

I find these lists a little hard to write now because I have become so accustomed to everything here but i had these jotted down in my journal so I thought I might share them with you...
1. Spanish school is very traditional. Teachers literally lecture the whole 40 min of class. There is no discussion within the students or hands-on projects. Teachers talk and students take notes in every class.
2. Students call their teachers by their first names.
3. Cell phones are generally expensive here. For example it is really expensive to call a mobil phone from a house phone and a mobil phone from a mobil phone, but it is free to call a house phone from all phones.
4. Most people here absolutely love the movies and know a lot about actresses and actors.
5. Eggs, rice and tomate frio (which is like ketchup but more tomato-y) is a common lunch meal.
6. When spanish people study, they STUDY. Like they don't leave their house for a week and study every day.
7. Spain is a really energy conservative country. Almost every household air-dries their clothes along with being super conscious of how many lights are on and such and there is tons of wind energy here also.
8. Soup kind of like "chicken noodle" but with out the chicken, peas and carrots. So just noodles and broth is super common here along with lentils, and garbanzo beans cooked with sausage and meat.
9. The health-care system here is wonderful I was recently sick and had to go to the doctor so my housekeeper Pepi walked me to our clinic that is right across the street from my house, I showed them my ID and health insurance card and waited for about 15 mins. The doctor asked me my symptoms, checked my breathing then put all the information in a computer that was in the room. He diagnosed me and wrote me a prescription for the medicine.
10. Spanish men are very upfront with woman they don't know. For example it is common for older men to whistle and scream "guapa" which means beautiful at a woman walking down the street.
11. People don't say thank you as much as Americans do. When I first got here I found people looking at me funny when I would say thank you for everything.
12. I was recently 10 mins late to school because of traffic and when I entered the common area the secretary wouldn't unlock the door to the hallway. If you are able to get into the hallway, once you open the door to the classroom you must ask permission to come in.
13. I experienced a fire drill the other day at school and this is how it went. A bell that sounds exactly like our in between classes bell went off. Everyone looked around and was confused because clearly class was not over. The teacher then said...everyone outside it is a practice fire drill. So every ran outside in a chaotic state and then everyone realized it was raining. So the whole entire school huddled under the entrance to apartment buildings next to my school. We were not in any form of organization. I didn't even know where my teacher and rest of my class was. Very sufficient , wouldn't you say?
14. No one really moves out of their house with their parents until they are out of university or even older. 25 or 26.
15. My favorite word that spanish people say in english is cousin. They pronounce it like this "cowsin" haha

Here are a few silly things I miss from the US...
!. Bagels. We have no such thing here.
2. Hanging out at home with friends only because here in Spain you almost never have friends over. Your house is generally a place for only the family. I found this super hard to grasp when I first got here.
3. Hot-tubbing. I have yet to see a hot tub here and this is the typical thing to do in Tahoe.
4. Mexican food mexican style. This is impossible to find here.
5. Snow! I never thought I would miss it, but i miss those days where you know it is a snow day without even getting out of bed.

El Fin de las Fiestas

Hello all!

Sorry it has been a little while since I updated everyone. My holiday season has come to an end, here in Spain. I will say it was great, but I was not used to it being as dragged out as it was here. I went to Barcelona with my host father and I have to say it is hands down the coolest city I have ever been to next to San Francisco. The only way I can really explain it is by saying it had SO much history along with TONS of life. When we arrived, on Christmas Eve, we had dinner at my aunt's house, Anna my host Father's sister. We had raw salmon, shrimp, bread, crab and chicken. After, she set up a scavenger hunt with clues to our presents hidden throughout the house. It was lot's of fun. During our stay my host father stayed at his sister's house and Nerea and I stayed at Anna's best friend's house, Nuria. On Christmas Day we woke up and the weather was sunny for a change and prepared for a big Christmas lunch at Nuria's house. Nuria's Mother made typical Chritmas food for Catalunya. We had a soup that had huge pasta shells in it for starters and then cooked garbanzos, potatoes and sausage for the main course. And then of course for dessert we had what's called Turrón which are a typical holiday sweets here in Spain. There a couple different kinds but they are usually similar to peanut brittle, but chewier. After lunch we went to the center of the city and Nuria and my host father gave me a walking tour. Keep in mind in Barcelona they speak two languages, Castilian Spanish, and Catalan. Therefore, many times I was quite confused in fact I remeber asking my sister what they were speaking and she just looked at me with a blank face and said, "Catalan." I felt stupid at first, but by the end of the trip I had picked up a couple words. It is super similar to spanish but some words are cut off for example "pan" means bread and in Catalan "pa" is bread.
These are some pictures of the things I got to see on my night tour on Christmas, some of which are on the famous street, Passeig de Grácia.

Here we have two of the famous Gaudí houses, Casa Milá and Casa Batlló



Here is a picture of the "Macy's of Spain" lit up in Plaza Catalunya.

Here is probably the prettiest Cathedral I have ever been in, in Spain. I am sorry, but I do not remember the name.





The next day I got to see more of the city along with the famous La Sangrada Familia by Gaudí and Parc Güell also designed by Gaudí. I was honestly blown away by the architecture in both places, I completely feel in love with Gaudí.





During the rest of my stay I got to see a lot of places of Barcelona that the typical tourist wouldn't see. Along with Tibidabo a church and Theme Park on the top of a moutain that overlooks Barcelona. In the following pictures: Me below the famous Christopher Columbus statue. He is said to be pointing to the Americas, but he is clearly pointing at the Mediterranean and then
view from Tibidabo.


While in Barcelona I also got to of course walk the famous Las Ramblas and go to the famous St Josep market.




After returning from Barcelona I celebrated New Years here in Madrid with my sister and host father. We had dinner at home, oven baked fish, and then at midnight we ate 12 grapes at countdown. This is a tradition for good luck in Spain and it is a lot harder than it looks. Nerea and I then went out with some friends at 3:45am, we got hot chocolate and churros for breakfast and then finally returned home at 9:00am. This is typical for Spain. I then spent the rest of my break hanging out with friends and relaxing. The weather here in Madrid has been quite chilly. We actually got a lot of snow this past weekend and Emma, Sam and I all went to Parque del Retiro and took pictures of the pretty snow covered park.


I am now back in school and my next big adventure is Paris! At the end of February.

I wish you all a happy New Year from 9,000 miles away.
Besitos!