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...