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!