Since there are 90min in an hour....

I completely forgot that I was going to tell all of you guys about THANKSGIVING last week! It got really busy around the big day but I’ll go ahead and tell you about that right now.

My friend and I basically planned out Thanksgiving in Lucena this year. I mean there wasn’t a ton to plan but just had to sort out where the event would take place, who would bring what, etc. We ended up having about 10 people come to dinner…about half the people there had never celebrated thanksgiving (since they were from either Spain or the UK) so we were able to give them their first thanksgiving- how fantastic right! The most planning went into who would bring what food since we had a few people cancel out at the last minute and some others join in…luckily it all worked out in the end. I ended up bringing mac n cheese and the greens (collard greens) which I had spent a few hours cooking earlier that day. I basically started cooking at 3pm and didn’t stop until like 8pm…I mean some of the time was spent cleaning up and running to the store to grab things we needed but still- 5 HOURS!

We were trying to start around 6:30 which got changed to 7:30 which then became 9pmish lol. Like true Spaniards! To give you all some insight into what WE had…pretty much all the traditional food (well southern traditional food haha): Turkey (of course), gravy, stuffing, salad, deviled eggs, another appetizer of cucumber slices with some tuna mix a top, mac n cheese, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, green beans, collard greens (I wasn’t able to find collard greens but I did find chard so just used that instead), corn and dessert which were these little pastry cups filled with like a cream cheese, sugar and berry mix (they were so addicting)! The food was just amazing and everyone was so full after dinner we could barely move lol- just like how it’s supposed to go! We also had tons of leftovers…especially of my food because I am horrible at judging amounts. We were supposed to have about 10 people at dinner and I basically cooked for 20 haha. Luckily people loved the mac n cheese so people wanted to take it home. I was still left with 4 full containers of the stuff though, and a large container of greens, so guess what I’m eating every day for the next month?

*Thanksgiving photos will be added later. I have to wait for my friends to send them to me*

Needless to say the next day I wanted to relax and that did happen for the most part…I had a meeting in the morning for a couple hours for a new job I got. YEP you heard me right- I’m back to my old ways. I now have a 3^rd job here lol although this one is only 2 hours a week plus some prep time since I’m conducting English classes. So anyways, after the meeting I headed back home, hung out with my friend that had slept over since she’s living in a town a little ways away from us. I also had a challenge that day- JELLO SHOTS. One of the girls had made them for thanksgiving and had leftovers at the end of the night. I didn’t want them to go bad and no one else wanted them so I took them with me. THE CHALLENGE: finish the leftover Jello shots...I think there were 9 of them. And yes, I did eventually finish them but it took me all day haha. I think I will be taking a break from any Jello shots in the near future :)

Well, I have already told you about the next day in Rute so let me tell you about yesterday in Cordoba! There was a half marathon going on in Cordoba and some of my friends were running in it so myself and another friend (Andy) decided to go and cheer them on. We headed out on the 7:30am bus, walked about 45 min to where the race was starting and got there JUST on time! There were over 4,000 people running in the race!!! 

We (me and Andy) went and got some breakfast while the other guys were running and then waited for them towards the end. While waiting I had a great blonde moment: I was trying to figure out how fast of miles guys were running so I asked Andy how many minutes were in 1 hour and 20 min...then proceded trying to calculate it by myself. How did I do that? Out loud I said "so then 90min plus 20min..." not quite sure when an hour changed to 90min in my mind but it was great humor for the rest of the day. After getting laughed at we continued to wait for just a little bit longer- and then we saw our friends! They did great, finishing in about 1hr 37min and 1hr 42 min...which is about 8min miles throughout the race. CONGRATS STEPHEN AND AGUSTIN!

Me, Andy, Stephen, Agustin

random guy drinking beer

When the guys finished we celebrated by singing the Fresh Price of Bel Air theme song haha- well we were actually just trying to remember the words but same diff. The part I thought was hilarious about the race was that all the running got free sandwiches, water/juice and  BEER! I mean really- BEER? I did find out that they had non-alcoholic beer but I was just thinking that alcohol is probably the last thing you should be drinking after a 13mile race…maybe that’s just me though lol. 

After chatting for a while and hanging out, all of us headed towards a Christmas market that they had just started that day. They were just selling “Christmas/winter” stuff like scarves, umbrellas, holiday treats, etc. Although I said I wasn’t going to buy anything I, of course, was the one who walked out with the most stuff LOL! I bought 2 scarves, gloves and an umbrella since my other one is kinda flimsy. All great purchases considering it’s now starting to rain about every other day now :( not my favorite but there’s not much I can do about that. 

Afterwards we all just got a ride back to Lucena and headed home. I pretty much relaxed the rest of the day, didn’t do any chores that I was supposed to do haha, and talked with my boyfriend for hours. I will have to make up for my laziness though later this week since the next 2 weekends I will be in ITALY!!!

YES- ITALY. I haven’t told you all much about it just because I was focused on other things but now that it’s coming up I suppose I should let you all in on the trip. My new friend from Scotland and I are going to Italy for 9 days. We will be going to Florence, Cinque Terre and Assisi (small towns outside of Florence), Rome, Venice and Milan. I have no idea what to expect and I CAN’T WAIT! This week will be spent planning what we will do in each city. If you have any suggestions PLEASE post them on here to let me know! 

OH! Random side note:

Mystery fruit...I will get the name at some point

Caqui/Kaki

I forgot to mention that I tried some more fruits that I thought you all may be interested in seeing…and took pics of course! Caqui/Kaki and some other one in the same family but a little different, unfortunately I don’t remember the name of the second one. Caqui is eaten by just cutting in half and scooping out the insides…its really soft and I’ve never had anything quite like it. The other one is a little more hard and is eaten more like an apple, but you peel the skin off. Well I just wanted to tell you about that so check out the pics!

CHOCOLATE. Now spell it in Spanish...

Like I mentioned Friday, this weekend had a change of plans. Yesterday I went to Rute, a town about a 20min bus ride from Lucena. I left my place at about 7:15am to catch the 7:45 bus. Of course the bus was like 20min late but that was just fine because nothing was open when I arrived in Rute anyways (there’s only 3 buses there on Saturdays: 7:45am, 3pm, 9pm so I caught the early one). I ended up getting there and walking around for about 45 min…just basically from where the bus dropped me off, which looked to me to be some random street (but there was a bus stop on the other side of the street I realized later when I caught the bus to go home). Another important thing to add: it was POURING down rain. GREAT- considering I couldn’t leave until 2:30pm…that was the next bus home. Luckily I was smart, layered up with leggings and pants, stockings and socks, 2 shirts, jacket, scarf and gloves! Just like I do in Seattle… although here it’s not quite as cold as there considering as how it just snowed last week there. Oh and check out this video. What happens when it snows in Seattle:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhZCyQ3emQg

Well, back to talking about the day…at about 9am I went into a café that was along my walk since I saw people inside. Of course what I didn’t realize until I got INSIDE was that it was only full of old men (about 10 or so)…drinking shots…at 9am. Yep, you know, the usual. Of course I stood out not only because I was the only girl in there but I also don’t look like I’m from here…so that caused a lot of staring. Well maybe that was just because were old Spanish men lol. I didn’t care though, just ordered my café con leche (coffee with milk) and read up on a book I have on Rome since Italy is coming up. 

After about an hour of staying indoors, out of the cold and rain, I headed out to do some more exploring. This time I followed some signs to where they had a park and some museums. I eventually found myself heading up towards the museum of jamon (ham) and museum of anis (anise- what they make licorice from). I did go inside the museum of jamon quickly, mostly to get out of the rain, but skipped the museum of anis because I wanted to have enough time to go see the chocolate museum (the whole reason I came of course!). So I headed down the hill towards the CHOCOLATE MUSEUM!
All in all it was about a 30-40min walk which would not be a big deal normally but this route was a little different. Only about half the route that I took had sidewalks. This was fine…up until I got to the highway. Apparently the only way to get to this chocolate museum is to drive or walk down the highway/main road hoping not to get hit by a car. Now the walk down the highway/main road was only about 10 min but the road isn’t busy since it’s a small town but there’s not much of a shoulder (if any on some parts). One part had a short cut…of course since it was raining the short cut was all muddy- awesome.  I got down just fine but didn’t even want to think about walking back up at that point since my boots were soaked through to my socks.

So I got to the museum and headed in! The first thing you walk into is the factory where they make all they’re candies and treats (they make an assortment of Spanish cookies/candies/etc.). It basically like you get a sneak peek inside the factory. After, you walk into a room where they have a set up with life size sculptures of the queen, princess and prince…out of chocolate. They were pretty amazing and VERY detailed (although in the pictures they don’t look as good). After walking my chocolate royalty I headed downstairs to the “Belen de Chocolate” (chocolate nativity scene)…

Before even seeing the nativity scene you walk by a, well, what looks like a gingerbread house…but made of chocolate and candy. I think it was kind of based on Hansel and Gretel since there was a witch in front. Well that and the fact that the house was made of candy and chocolate...kind of sounds like Hansel and Gretel to me! The house was pretty big too…about 2 ft wide, 4 ft long and probably about 3 ft high…I wanted to take some with me for the road but it was behind glass making it difficult. Why would they do such a thing???

Next was the nativity scene. Now that was amazing. The sign above it said “typical Seville nativity scene” (in Spanish of course) and it was basically a town made of chocolate, probably about 20ft by 10ft so, basically, BIG. The town was made of buildings of white and dark chocolate, different sizes and styles. Also they had people in the town (also made of chocolate) with animals, just like a normal town. The detail in the whole scene was just incredible. I took a ton of pics, I’ll probably post like half of them in my photo album- “Life in Spain.” 

So after spending some time in chocolate heaven I headed outside to figure out how I was going to get back up the hill and to the bus stop. I figured I should probably try to get a ride considering how dangerous it was coming down the hill. I waited around for a while until I could catch one of the tour group bus drivers and asked her about getting a ride up the hill. She was beyond nice and told me that wouldn’t be a problem, the only thing was they were headed all the way to the top of the hill, which adds on another 20 min of walking. I was just fine with that as long as I didn’t have to walk up that highway with no sidewalk… So I waited about an hour outside at the chocolate place I got on the bus with the rest of the tour group. The people on the bus were crazy and super fun, singing songs, making lots of noise- pretty much a typical Spanish get together lol. We got to the top in about 10min and then I started on my venture down the hill again. On a positive side note- I did get to see a pony on my walk down hill! haha

When I got to the bottom I went on a search for the bus station only to find out there is only a bus stop, just like any city metro bus in the states. Now I had about an hour to kill before the bus was scheduled to come. I ended up just chatting with a guy from Morocco who was also catching the same bus as me. After an hour had passed, the bus still wasn’t there, OF COURSE! I was about 30min late to come get us, which normally would have been fine but since my feet had been wet for the last 2+hours I was getting super cold! Anyhow I did end up getting home, changed into nice warm clothes and threw my stuff next to my space heater to dry off. I still haven’t caught a cold yet so I’m happy but now I know just to stay indoors when it rains like that! Either that or just made friends with cars so I don’t have to walk everywhere lol. I figured out that it may just be easier to stick to tour groups with events like that, but lesson learned.

It’s getting late here so tomorrow I will tell you about how today went in Cordoba!

Change of plans

I was supposed to go to Malaga this weekend but a few things changed so instead I will go to Rute to see nativity scenes made of CHOCOLATE! and then head to Cordoba on Sunday to support my friends who are running in a half marathon. Since it was thanksgiving and all this week I have a lot to tell you about and also a lot of pics to add to my albums. That is all going to happen later this weekend though. I need to get some rest to get up early...but soon enough I can tell you all about the amazing thanksgiving I had here in Spain...

I should be forbidden from Carrefour

The best slippers ever! (found Carrefour)

I don't know if I've mentioned Carrefour before but I just went there tonight. Its basically like Walmart, but with less deals... and I actually shop there (I'm boycotting Walmart in the states lol). I've only been there a few times but each time that I've gone its like I got crazy and want to buy everything. Maybe its just the fact that I have to go to different shops to buy my fruit/veggies, meat, and bread but when I walk into a place where I can find almost everything (just like in the states)...well, it becomes dangerous for me to be there, for my wallet's sake.

I mean I do make lists and everything but anytime I go to the store hungry or after 9pm...well that all goes to hell. Anyone who knows me, knows that we DO NOT go to the store after 9pm otherwise I'm walking out with half of their food. So guess what time we went to the store...8:45pm...and we stayed there until it closed (10pm) haha. What am I gonna do with myself?

So continuing talking about food, because it's one of my best friends, I cooked  A TON this weekend! I was trying out my recipes for Thanksgiving on thursday... so I made some mac-n-cheese and greens (which is some of the food I usually eat on the big day). Everything went fine with the cooking minus the fact I forgot that I dont own a can opener...and evaporated milk comes in a can. I ended up stabbing the can many times with my scissors to make 2 holes with which to pour out of...and I still have all my fingers!I think it's time to buy a can opener though...

Anyhow, I'm definitely going to make the mac but not sure about the greens...I will try mine and then see (I was full when they finished cooking so still haven't tried them yet). I'm also going to have my friend bring along some sweet potato/yams that she'll throw in the oven and then we can just mix together with some butter and brown sugar...I figure enough butter and brown sugar can make anything taste good, right? Luckily my friends are cooking the turkey so I won't have to worry about that and everyone else is bringing a dish as well. The dinner should be great! And we'll also be sharing our evening with a few native Spanish people so that we can show them how its done!

Well aside from the turkey day prep, which by the way the whole reason for going to Carrefour...which of course led to other purchases haha, I also made some other delicious dishes. I made pork tenderloin, cut into pieces, and cooked in a red sauce with tomatoes, onion and garlic- TASTY! Aside from that I made a salad of cod, oranges, onions and olive oil- also super yummy, easy and healthy! Pics are posted and I will get the recipe up soon. Oh and I've added some recipes on the "cooking" page so check it out! I think I'm going to have to somehow figure a way to divide the recipes by meal but I haven't figure it out so far so I may just end up having to make different pages for main dishes, sides, salad, desserts, etc. I will keep you updated with any changes made.

 Since all I had to do this weekend was cook a few hours, the rest of the time I was pretty bored. Everyone was pretty much gone plus it was all cloudy out and cold so I pretty much stayed inside, under covers since its super cold in my apartment. I ended up watching "Salt," "Get Him to the Greek" and "The Other Guys." They were all good but I really liked Salt a TON. If you haven't seen it yet and like action movies, go watch it! I have a few more on my computer to watch...but I'll do that in time. This week and next I need to focus on my trip to Italy- yay! If you have ANY ideas on Italy- Please share!!!

Before we get too far ahead of ourselves though...this weekend in Malaga! It should be great- MOSTLY because I'm going to go see the new Harry Potter- in English! I can't wait...

I need SUN in my life

It's a little later than I planned to write this but oh well, better late than never! This post is going to be a little bit picture-less but I will make sure to make it up to all of you!

So I told you all I would tell you about Thursday night... That night I went to Batuka (remember- the dance/exercise class) and went home to get un-sweaty lol. I was getting ready because I had told Paul (my friend who works at the language school here) that I would drop by to talk with his class. He teaches English so it’s good practice for them to speak to as many native people as possible...plus its good for them to hear different accents. Since most people here have a British accent, if they speak English, to most people my accent is very strange/different. Anyhow, after his class we went out for a few beers. I wasn't planning on staying out late since I had gone out the night before, but I should have know, I was hanging out with Paul! haha Everytime I hang out with him we always talk for HOURS and have a great time, meaning I don't get home until LATE. Well we stopped at a few bars and had some tapas and ended the night around 2am lol It was a great night and I love hanging out with good people...but it meant that the next morning instead of going to spinning...I turned off my alarm clock about 10 times so that I could sleep in hahaha. It was great...I had belly dancing that night anyways...

Well on Friday, like I said, I slept in. Eventually I got out of bed and got ready to head over to Teresa's house for lunch. I usually go over earlier to learn how to make what she cooks but I got a little sidetracked and arrive late this time...meaning we all were STARVING by the time I got there! The food was great and I ate way too much, as always. Let me try to remember what we ate… we had a potato salad type dish, toast with a blue cheese spread, a salad with pieces of orange and cod (which I loved! I’m going to make it this weekend too!), THEN a really savory meat dish with like pieces of very tender steak, veggies and sauce (mostly olive oil). And of course to top it off, we each had a piece of fruit.

After dinner, a tea and a nap I learned how to make chocolate truffles…the easy way. OMG I’m in trouble lol! I’ve never attempted truffles before in my life because all the recipes I’ve ever seen look, well, very challenging to say the least. Luckily, I’m in luck here and my amazing friend Teresa, who loves chocolate just as much as I do, has a great and easy recipe. I will get some pics up soon (my camera was dead so we used hers). I will post the exact measurements on my “cooking” page but to give you the gist of it…you take some dark chocolate, white chocolate, butter, and condensed milk. Throw it in a bowl together and then put it in the microwave for a few min until it’s melted but not burnt. Mix together and then let it set in the fridge. Once relatively set form into balls and roll in chocolate sprinkles- voila! I was amazing at the ease of this- and they taste SO GOOD! We also put some in pastry dough to heat up in the over- also very easy and delicious. I don’t know why but everyone I know is such amazing cooks- I love it…

Basically after the chocolate-fest lol we got ready to head to belly dancing. I went for two hours this time since I won’t be here next week. Actually I won’t be here the next 3 Fridays so I will just have to practice on my own…in ITALY! I will tell you about that as it gets closer though…just know that I’m going.

Today is gross and cloudy out so it’s been a bit of an off day for me. I did do some food shopping so I can cook tomorrow and possibly today…although so far I haven’t moved very far from my bed since getting back home haha. So anyways I went to a store that’s supposed to have most everything…well except for the “American food” that I need for thanksgiving! Of course. I had to improvise with a few items so we’ll see how it turns out. I’m doing a test run the weekend of the food for Thursday. For those of you that don’t know- this next Thursday, Nov. 25^th, is Thanksgiving. Some of my friends and I are having a dinner…probably the only thanksgiving dinner in Lucena…or Spain for that matter lol. It should be great! I will make sure to take lots of pics!

I'm falling asleep...

Well there hasn't been too much excitement here especially since I was sick earlier this week. On Monday I went to work as normal, came home, ate, took a nap...then woke up and got ready for pilates. I got to pilates and started feeling a bit ill (nauseous) but I stayed and afterward met up with my spanish mom, Elena, and just continued to fill sick. I couldn't even eat anything...which is VERY odd for me! Eventually I went home and went to bed. I got up, ate a small breakfast and then randomly started getting dizzy. So I pretty much ended up staying in bed all day Saturday just trying to eat some food and not fall over when I got up.

Needless to say I didn't make it to my latin dance classes :( so I will just have to catch up next week. Yesterday was also pretty mellow. Since its late right now and I'm half awake I will just catch you all up on last night and today, tomorrow. So look forward to another posting tomorrow!

Oh, what? You don't speak English?

I LOVE Sundays here in Spain. Nothing is open so I am “forced” to stay in my house which is good for me because I’ve now deemed it my “domestic housewife” day lol just meaning it’s the day that I clean my whole apartment, do laundry and some cooking. And now that it’s starting to be rainy out, the fact that there’s nothing to do on Sundays is a great excuse for me to stay inside…where its warm…well at least a little warmer. 

So today I decided to retry making the Spanish Tortilla, with a recipe this time, and it turned out great. Along with the tortilla I also made some more of the spinach & breadcrumbs mix as well as a variation on tuna salad (I found the recipe on a great website that has tons of Spanish food AND pics! Check it out at: http://www.adelgazar.net/cocina/recetas.htm ). Tonight I will also be re-making the stuffed pork loin and I’m hoping it will come out prettier this time. Check out all the pics on my “cooking” page which is listed right above all my posts…and under the “spain, spain, spain” title. GO LOOK!!!

Well I suppose I should fill you all in on the rest of the week.

Let’s start with Wednesday, right after I posted the last post. I did head to pilates class right after my posting but got there (15 min early) and it was already full- there’s a 20 person max- so I’ve learned my lesson and will be earlier next time. No big deal though because this would give me some downtime to relax. I also had 2 English conversation classes that night too but the first one canceled (she was sick) so I had 3 hours all to myself! It was great and I caught up on some desperate housewives and modern family while getting my chocolate binge (thick hot cocoa and bread covered in Nutella)! Haha

Then the next day (Thurs) I got to sleep in since I don’t work until noon! After work I went to Elena’s house (she’s now deemed my Spanish mom) and had lunch with the family. I love it when she cooks because I always get to try things that I’ve never tried before (like the morcilla)! After lunch I headed to my first spinning class- I’m not planning on going twice a week because I absolutely loved it and the instructor is great (she’s always the same instructor I have for pilates). I ended up skipping pilates that night (thinking my body would hate me the next day if I did both spinning and pilates) and went to my friend Steven’s place to help him with his blog (I don’t know if I’ve mentioned him before but he’s from Pennsylvania and doing the same program here as me). After doing that I finally went home and did what??? Got ready to go out of course! I mean its Spain- what else would you do with your free time?!?! Thursday night is a kind of a big night to go out. I mean not as much as Saturday but it’s about as popular as in the states (at least for college kids). 

 I’m so glad I went out that night because I met some great people. I met one girl who’s from Spain and learning English. She just has a great attitude and is super excited to learn English so I thought she was great. She’s also looking to move and work in the states for a year if she can so please let me know if you hear of any internships or opportunities for international people/students (I don’t think she’s a student currently though). I know she would greatly appreciate it!

With this new friend and a few other people we ended up going to about 5 different bars, it’s pretty typical to bar hop here (in Lucena at least) especially since in this city there are no cover fees. The last bar we went to got interesting because a fight almost broke out right next to me right in the middle of a conversation I was having with a guy who sells furniture. Luckily some people broke up the fight so all was good. Anyways this guy that I met sells quality furniture to many different countries (I think he said France, Africa and a few more) and is interested in expanding business to the US…we’ll see if anything comes of this :) If anything I have just made a great contact and person! I probably ended up meeting 10 new people that night which was great for me because I love meeting new people! Well, when all was said and done I ended up getting home at 5am…no that’s not a typo lol The next day…or rather, later that day I was exhausted to say the least.

Friday was pretty much just as exciting for me because I got to learn how to make some new dishes with Teresa (another mom that I’ve adopted here in spain lol. I also work with her in the school). Before I got to her house though I stopped by the ATM. As I was putting some money on my phone (here you can do it at the ATM) I looked to my side and there was one of the teachers from the school. We don't talk that much but every time he sees me he says "hi" (in English) so the same happened when I saw him. I guess I forgot I was in Spain for a minute because as soon as he said hi I started talking to him in English...but the thing is-he doesn't really speak english. LOL Basically the conversation didn't go very far and I had to run anyways. I hope I didn't confuse him too much lol. 

Anyhow, I got to Teresa's place around 2pm and she had already started on some paella, which was delicious, and showed me how to make so VERY BASIC other dishes. One of them was just small heads/stalks (or whatever you would call it) of romaine lettuce covered with some wine vinegar and a sauce just made from olive oil and some sautéed up garlic (minced). The other dish was pretty much some big prawn just cooked with salt only in a big electric grill pan. Of course all the food was super good- like always! Also, Teresa had ordered a new macbook air and it had arrived while I was there! So I got to see the amazingly slim laptop- seriously this thing is THIN! Here's a pic with it as compared to the macbook from 2 years ago:

We also did some experimenting…with homemade granola! Teresa and Rafael (her husband) usually eat granola but made by Kellogg’s. Now I mean Kellogg’s is good and everything but homemade is ALWAYS better (well if you know what you’re doing) and its super easy to make! (I will post the recipe on my cooking page too) The granola came out SUPER GOOD and I think I’m now addicted lol. So after all the food experimentation, eating and hanging out I went to my apt to meet with my landlord. He came over to help me go buy a gas tank (since one of them ran out- of course it ran out in the middle of me taking a shower haha). I also learned what I need to do to turn off and on the gas tank…you know so my house doesn’t get filled with gas and kill me. Minor details. Afterwards I headed to belly dancing. I still LOVE belly dancing class and Friday was fun because we learned another move! After class I just went home because I needed to sleep! 

I’m glad I stayed in Friday night because I ended up being out for 12 hours straight plus some on Saturday.  First I had to run some errands to get food for cooking today. I also had a “meeting” set up with the man I met who sells furniture (Juan Carlos)…who also happens to be friends with Elena! We basically started at a local restaurant/bar, then to a very exclusive one (just for friends), then to a different restaurant near my apt, then a bar and then another bar…until 2am! HAHA It was kinda of ridiculous but also beyond great. The exclusive place we went to was just a little bar inside a garage and when we first started walking into the garage I was thinking “where the HECK are we going!” The place was probably about 10x15 feet big and it’s really just a place for the owner and his friends to hang out and sing flamenco. We went there to listen to the flamenco (since he was friends with the owner) and it was amazing. 

After listening to flamenco and drinking too many glasses of wine (but it was so good! AND completely organic/natural, yay!) we headed to the next spot to eat lunch. This place is seriously not even 5 blocks from my place and I pass by in every time I go “into town.”  We got there and they were starting to close down but apparently this guy (Juan Carlos) is best friends with everyone so they let us stay and made us some AMAZING food (even though they were already shutting down the kitchen).  I don’t even know how to describe some of the food we had because it was SOOOO good. They also had some of the best olive oil that I’ve had here yet…at its only like 3 euro!!! Anytime I have someone visiting I’m taking them to this place! Just to give you all a glance at the food we had:
 

 So after I was completely stuffed and halfway to a coma from the delicious food we headed to another bar. We got there and ended up seeing one if his friends who just happened to be sitting with the girl I had met the night before (the one wanting to travel to the states)! We stayed at that bar for a while just chatting and in addition I made another friend although this one is only 9 years old lol. In most (if not all) bars in Spain and I think pretty much all Europe, kids are allowed to go into bars as long as they’re with their parents, so it’s not unusual to see kids running around in bars.  So that night I got my hair done by this girl and we played a bit of hide and seek lol. I loved it!

Well, like I said, after that bar we headed to another. At that point I was getting really tired so I only stayed there for like 20 min, if that, before I had to head home so I wouldn’t just fall asleep right there on the bar. Needless to say, I SLEPT IN this morning! Another reason why I love Sundays here! 

Tonight will be pretty chill. I’m planning on hanging out with my friend Niki (the Irish girl) and then just resting up for another week, which is sure to be filled with plenty of events! I’ve also added another English convo class bringing me up to 5 hours/week right now. It’s great for me because I love talking! 

Well remember to go check out my cooking page as I’m adding directions for another recipe!

I'm such a foodie

Alright everyone, there are few things for you to note: 
 1. I added some pictures from Halloween…including me one of me in the doughnut eating competition lol. Super flattering right?

2. I have created a new page (right below where it says “spain, spain spain”) called “cooking.” This is where I’m going to post all the recipes that I’ve, well, attempted haha and I will also post pics with them.  This will take a little bit of time as most recipes I have to rewrite and translate from Spanish but it shouldn’t take too long.

Now on to more exciting stuff…

My days are starting to blur together here lol so we’ll see if I can even remember the time line of the last 3 days.

Sunday night I experimented once again with some food!

I made the cheese and spinach stuffed pork with a few minor changes…

First off I tried to butterfly open the meat so I could stuff it and, well, that didn’t really work because the fillets were too thin and I only have a big chopping knife to work with. So instead, since I had 4 fillets, I pounded them out to make them thinner and then just sandwiched two together! Other than that and the facts I added spinach to the recipe, everything turned out just fine…and tasted good too!

 I also made some soup with carrot, pumpkin, potato, a radish type thing, onion, water and chicken broth. I was trying to follow Teresa’s recipe but lacked a few ingredients and had some other random ones that I needed to use up hence my made up soup dish. The soup actually came out pretty good, although it wasn’t very flavorful, so next time I will actually follow a recipe and see how that is. 

So moving onto the rest of the week:

Monday I got registered at the gym and went to my second class of Pilates. Lucky for me when they made the card they used the same ugly photo that I also have on my residency card. Hooray! Lol  Anyways, the class was great and we got to use those balls that you always see in Pilates videos. This class was definitely harder than the last and I felt extremely uncoordinated (nothing new there) but whatever, at least it’s a work out.

The rest of my week (well the last 3 days) hasn’t changed much (a few hours of work at the school, some English conversation classes, eating, trying to improve my Spanish, etc.) and I don’t want to bore you with my every day routine…at least not yet. In a few months when I have nothing to talk about I can bore you all to death with all the details! One thing I have begun is having a ritual siesta every day, but now just for like 30min a day instead of the 1-2 hrs like previously lol.

I’m also going to try to upload the video of the moves we’re learning in my latin dance class but I’m not quite sure how to post that. Every class the teachers show the moves from that day…and previous ones… and I’ve been recording it on my phone to help practice the steps. If you have any ideas on how to post a video on a blog please let me know. I may just have to make a youtube account though to do it…we’ll see what happens.

One other thing I wanted to mention is that along with everything else new that I’ve been learning about here, I recently tried some new fruits. One of them is called a Chirimoya and its SO GOOD! You eat the fruit by scooping into it with a spoon. The black things are seeds are they're huge so you can't miss 'em (you just spit them out). The fruit it just really sweet and nothing like anything I've ever tried before. I also had some other one that looks kind of like a roma tomato but I don’t remember the name nor can I find it in fruit stores- I will keep trying though!

Well I’m off to get ready for another pilates class!

The first step: Admitting you're an addict

Alright everyone...I know you've all been waiting for this...

Grab your champagne bottles and party hats...and get ready to celebrate because...

I FINALLY have my I.D. card!!! haha yay! If you don't remember- that is why I've been to Cordoba a million times since I’ve been here (well actually just 9 just for the ID card but that still a lot). Now let’s all relax because I'm officially in Spain legally - always a good thing, right?

Alright well, new subject:

Ensaladilla Rusa

This week has been a little crazy. I've been making Spanish food (earlier this week I made Ensaladilla Rusa- like potato and egg salad with lots of veggies), shopping (omg I can't stop!), working out (Latin dance, belly dancing, Batuka and Pilates) and more. I've been inspired by one of the teachers at my school who is probably the most lively and busy person I've met here in Spain. She is constantly on the go and I suppose her energy is contagious because now she's got me wanting to get so much accomplished every day. This woman seriously exercises like 3 hours a day...I'm beyond impressed. So, this next week I'm planning on join the gym here, this is in addition to my belly dancing and Latin dance classes :) The gym is actually really cheap (15euro) and I can go to any of the classes I want (for the most part). There's a whole range of classes but the ones I'm interested in are Pilates, spinning, batuka, and other types of aerobic exercise like that. I'm hoping that I don't die of exhaustion in this first week haha...

To expand a little on how this all came about let me tell you about Thursday...

In the morning I got up and had some errands to run before school started. Went to the bank to get some stuff sorted out and then bought some groceries. I began work at noon which started with conversation hour with Teresa. Now I will start expanding a little bit more on the details of the day... After 2 hours of work with Teresa we headed out to her house. First we dropped by a bakery to grab some bread, homemade bread. This is when she told me that many places get frozen bread and reheat it but a few make it right there in the store...NOW I know where to go! When we got to her place (about a 15 min walk) we got ready to cook- oh yea! We started out by making the fish (just seasoned with some salt, pepper, parsley and garlic) and threw that in the oven. Then moved onto some toast with olive oil, fresh tomato, cheese and parsley, also put in the oven to heat up. Afterward, Teresa started on some pumpkin soup (this one she was showing me so I would know how to make it but not to eat that day). She had prepared some zucchini soup the day before which is what we actually had with lunch. I'm not sure how she did it but everything seemed to be timed perfectly.

After making all that food...which didn't seem to take more than about 30min...we ate! (and the pumpkin soup continued to cook).

After about an hour or more of eating and chatting with Teresa and her husband (Rafael), we had some tea/coffee and then took a nap. Once again- I love siestas! We each got a couch and rested up to be ready for the rest of the night…After napping we had some caffeinated tea to wake up, chatted a bit more, then Teresa and I were off to the gym! That is where it got interesting.

The first gym class we went to was Batuka. Now I’m not sure if any of you are familiar with Batuka but it basically mixes dance and music to create an aerobic workout. Check out this video to see what I’m talking about (the video is in Spanish but it's mostly just dancing anyways):

Batuka!

The teacher in our class pretty much moves just as fast and you just kind of have to watch and go along, hoping you may POSSIBLY be doing a few things right. I’m particularly horrible at learning choreographed dance so I’m sure you’d get a kick out of watching me doing exactly opposite of the teacher lol. That was just my first class though and Teresa assured me that they do the same dance each class and just add a few new things in…so I will be back to try again!

Second class we went to was Pilates…and I LOVED that. Before going in I was nervous that I would struggle a ton in the class because all the Pilates videos I’ve seen look, well, pretty much impossible. Luckily for me there were “normal” people in the class so we did Pilates that everyone was able to do. Now I’m planning on becoming a Pilates fanatic :)

Finally after about an hour and a half of exercise (each class was about 45min) we finished the day…this was at 10pm lol. Then I headed home, ate some dinner and went to sleep.

The next morning I had to wake up and catch an early bus to Cordoba…well the 8:45am bus so not super early. I got to Cordoba, picked up my ID, which took no more than 15min (amazing considering I usually sit in there for hours) and met up with a new friend I made a different time I was in Cordoba. We headed straight for the market…I should be banned from those...we’ll maybe not considering Spain’s economy right now. Can helping boost Spain’s economy be counted as a good deed??? If so I’m all in.

The markets are just made up of stands where they sell shoes, purses, pants, legging, shirts, socks, tights, and pretty much all types of clothing for cheaper than you would normally find in stores. They even have snack food there like olives, nuts and dried fruit (stuff that doesn’t really need refrigeration). There is pretty much a market in every city/town (including mine) but this one in Cordoba was huge! I think I fell in love…too bad I’m not rich :( haha I'm seriously loving shopping way too much here, hopefully this doesn't turn into an addiction, otherwise I may need to find A.A. (Alcoholics Anonymous) but for shopping!

All the stuff I bought

So obviously I ended up buying tons of stuff…that I was going to have to lug back home with me…SMART. After the market we even checked out some other stores, where I got a pair of jeans, but that was it! I swear! By the end of the day I was exhausted. Once I got home, I had about 20min to rest before I had to head to belly dancing class. I was pretty much half awake the whole class and I think I probably looked angry…because apparently when I’m not smiling the world thinks I’m mad. I suppose that means I have an angry face lol or maybe I just smile too much normally. I don’t think either is the case so moving on…

I basically came home, passed out and even the next day I was tired. This was only after 2 days of exercise (well, and to be fair, a full day of shopping). We’ll see how well I function after a full week of working out haha.

I almost forgot to tell you all that this weekend I also made some more food. I made a super yummy lentil and sweet red pepper soup (recipe on epicurious: Lentil soup recipe) and also some fried up spinach with breadcrumbs that Teresa told me how to prepare. The picture doesn’t look all that great but it tasted super yummy (look in the "Life in Spain" album). Next time I make it I will try to make it more presentable lol. Today/tomorrow I’m gonna try to make pork loin stuffed with spinach and cheese as well as pumpkin soup. After making all that I will probably have enough food to feed a family of 5 haha, hence why I will need to exercise. Now I’m off to relax and rest up and then go to a lunch later today!

Why can't halloween be once a month?

Before I get into the adventures Halloween let me debrief you on the rest of my weekend. 

Friday-belly dancing class :) it was great- hopefully i dont turn into a gypsy while living in Spain.

Saturday- double birthday party for one of the teachers at my school and her husband (and I got to join in too since my bday is also in October). Man oh man I ate SOOO much food...there was so much to try and I couldn't pass up trying new foods...I'm such a foodie!!! Soon to be a fatty if I keep this up lol. We all had so much fun and I got to meet a ton of new people, once more.

Sunday- HALLOWEEN...what you've all been waiting for...

I think I love Halloween even more now that I’m in Spain…even though about 99% of people don’t celebrate it. I’ve actually learned more about the history of Halloween in Spain and done more “Halloween” things here than I normally do in the states. For instance I’ve learned about the history of Halloween, trick-or-treating and jack-o-lanterns here. When I was in the U.S. all I knew was that you get candy if you’re a kid, if you’re older- you go to house parties and if you’re older than that you sit in the house and wait for trick-or-treaters ;) This year we (some of my new friends here and me) went to a Haunted House. The people who organized and set up the haunted house were a group of Spanish people, most of them working with one of the Americans in Lucena (who by the way is from PA), who went all out on Halloween. It was GREAT! These guys are so creative, especially since Halloween isn’t really even celebrated in Spain- everyone was so amazing.

And I got to be vampire, yay! (fyi I’m not a vampire fanatic- I’m just happy that I dressed up as something actually ‘halloweeny’ since I haven’t done that since I was like 7 yrs old). I loved doing the makeup for this vampire costume and got some great ideas from this website: http://www.fashionface.tv/

The girl who does her makeup on there is beyond talented and has some great ideas about makeup in general- if you have some time check it out. You can also find her on youtube. Now back to the Halloween party...

Let me give you a breakdown of what happened…

Each person was set up with a partner (this ended up changing into bigger groups but that didn’t really change anything).  One group would do the ‘scavenger hunt’ first and then after those people would stay in the house to help scare the next people. Then the next group would go in, etc. (there were 3 groups). We got to the house and were met by Igor (like the hunchback), who guided us through the night to the different rooms. When we got the porch/entrance, there was an “old” map outside on the table. There were no lights except a lantern that was all we had to use for our scavenger-like adventure.

How the adventure began was we had to communicate, through walkie-talkies, to a scary voice from inside the house. The whole idea of the night was that we had to enter in, go into a particular room, find a certain object, return back to the porch/entrance and wait to be prompted to go back in for the other object. The complication was that there were super scary creatures inside the house that would attack us if we got to close or disturbed them…we had to though because almost always the object was right around them (obviously done on purpose). The different characters inside the house included a crazy masked man with a chainsaw (which had an actual motor so it sounded like a real chainsaw), 2 exorcist type girls and usually (in most rooms) someone else hidden under a black sheet so we couldn’t see them very well, since the was VERY LITTLE light. All the people scaring us did a great job and stayed in character SO well I don’t even know how they did it. Igor also filmed this whole night- I can’t wait to see some of THAT video! lol

 

Basically, to summarize, there was a lot of screaming and running around the house. The whole thing took probably an hour or more…I’m not sure because I wasn’t really keeping track of time so I’m sure it was longer than an hour. These guys just went all out and it was so great. I wish there was more than one Halloween now!!! Why is it only one day?!?!?!

So after all the craziness we all hung out and ate some food and had some drinks. We also played some really funny game where you dance with a partner- the catch is that you have to have a piece of food in your mouth (usually you would use bananas but we didn’t have enough so we used bread slices) between you and your partner. So if that didn’t make sense let me try again: you have your mouth on one side of the bread (or banana) and your partner has their mouth on the other side. The idea is that with the bananas it looks really, well, awkward and inappropriate. The goal of the game is to not let your food drop out of either partner’s mouth…which is difficult when you also have to have your hands behind your back. The game was just hilarious…especially when you take photos lol. We also played musical chair but that’s definitely not as exciting as the other dancing game.

After all that excitement we went out to the bars, where NO ONE was dressed up and they all starred at us lol. By the end of the night I was just exhausted and was just very thankful that we had the next day off. This particular Monday (today) was a holiday so no one had to work- YAY! (There’s usually about 1 day a month that we have off to make a 3 day weekend- unless there is a long holiday- then we just have the long holiday) So this morning about half the people from last night went out and had churros and chocolate. FINALLY! This is such a Spanish thing to eat (not regularly but just every once in a while) and I JUST tried it today...after being in Spain for almost 2 months. I mean I've tried the chocolate, and I've tried the churros  but I haven't had a chance before this to try them together so, yea, it was a good start to the day. The rest of the day I just spent relaxing, watching TV and doing some cleaning. This weekend was just so full that I needed a day of rest!!!

This next week should be pretty mellow, but then again that’s what I always think and it never turns out that way… Well, make sure to take a look at the Halloween pics that I have posted and I may even have a video at some point (some of the guys are going to edit the footage from the night and make it into a little video)