Comida, Siestas, y una Ginkana

Buenas tardes! I have been keeping busy busy yet again and eating eating so much food!

La Comida (Food)

Man I just ate almuerzo (lunch) and I am stuffed! Literally every single meal here leaves me bursting at the buttons. For desayuno (breakfast) every morning my host mom or dad will make me toast with a cup of leche con chocolate (the best hot chocolate in the world!!!). They both have coffee, but since I don’t like coffee she makes me the hot chocolate, which is very popular here. After desayuno, they will send me off with some sort of fruit that I can eat later that day for a mid-morning snack around 11. The fruit I have been eating has been bananas, oranges, mandarins, apples, and pears…..which I am just loving!!

 Almuerzo is the biggest meal of the day and each meal we have had has been so different! There is always aceitunas (green olives), pan (bread) and queso (cheese) on the table though, which tastes sooooooo good, but is making me sooooooo fat!! I don’t know what kind of cheese it is, but it is DELICIOUS (coming from a Wisconsinite!)  They eat a ton of ham, but also a lot of beef and chicken. They really utilize garbanzo beans and various vegetables in their meals which would make it healthy except for the extreme amounts of salt and olive oil they use. They buy a couple HUGE jugs of olive oil from the super mercados, because they use it on, not even joking, everything…even the salads! Oh well, at least it tastes good! 

They then have a merienda (snack) around 5 or 6, which includes usually some tea, coffee, hot chocolate and a pastry or cookie. I am usually busy at this time, so by the time Cena (dinner) rolls around at 9:30-10 pm, I am STARVING! I don’t know if it is just because they snack all day or what, but my family isn’t even that hungry for dinner! It always consists of again bread, cheese, and green olives, but usually starts with some sort of soup and then some sort of meat like chicken with a salad on the side; or a tortilla which is really just an omelette with potatoes inside. Oh and also after every single meal there needs to be a dessert, but it isn't like what you are thinking! Dessert includes my choice of fruit or yogurt and some pudding or a piece of chocolate if they are feeling frisky! But my Sunday mornings make up for the lack of dessert, because Sunday funday my family eats churros for breakfast...yum!! 

Also, just an interesting side note is that for every meal everyone sits down and eats together. Even if I have to eat earlier or later because of my schedule, at least one person from my host family will sit down with me to eat. It has been different to actually sit down and take time to eat my breakfast or lunch. I am so used to eating on the go. It has been a pretty nice change!

Huge pig legs that are found everywhere! Only 140 euros!

A fresh mercado

Siestas

After my pretty chill day on Friday getting things ready for class and watching telenovelas with my family, my friends and I decided to go shopping on Saturday. Well....we still weren't used to the schedules of the siesta, so we really didn't have much time for any shopping! Here is the deal: The stores here open around 10:30 am and then are open only a few hours and close again at 2-2:30 pm. They then don't open again until 5-5:30 pm and close again at 8-8:30 pm. It is really hard to get used to, because we will walk all the way to the good stores and then we only have so much time until they close again! During the siesta everyone goes home to have lunch with their families and take about a 20 min nap. I am not a nap person, so I have been just using that time to catch up on various things.I really don't have that much extra time though, because the almuerzo takes up a lot of time! It is a whole event every single day, which is kinda fun.Although I love almuerzo, and it might just be the culture shock talking, but right now I am not really a fan of the siestas. Stay tuned to see if I change my mind over the semester or not! 

I did have time to buy my awesome phone though!

Ginkana (Scavenger Hunt) 

On Saturday we participated in a scavenger hunt around the city. It was pretty fun to explore the city more! I am really proud of myself for actually knowing how to get to places in this large city and not getting lost. I even helped some Canadian tourists find their way to las settas today! It helps to just take different ways every time. It's a lot of walking, but I enjoy the different views!

A creepy baby-man we found on our hunt!

The Catedral at night

A spot on our hunt-a very old heladeria (dessert place)

 My friends and I have been enjoying the evenings chilling with a tea or drink at various cafes or bars around the city. There are literally one every 3 buildings, so it isn't hard to find one! We found one restaurant right by our houses that has a very cool vibe and is owned by an Argentinian who had lived in Miami, LA, and Hawaii for some years of his life. He is so laid back and fits the surfer dude image perfectly. He claimed that he had the world's best pizza there, so we took him up on it and had some. He was actually right..it was so fresh and good!! The tea there is amazing too. I'm pretty sure we found our place to hang for the semester :)

The streets at night

Even though I have a visit to Alcazar and the start of my intensive 2 week grammer class to talk about, I sadly don't want to make this blog any longer than it already is haha. I will try to update soon though!