Sounds you never thought you'd miss...

Just the other night, a cold night, I heard a familiar noise. Well I guess it wasn't a familiar sound, but it sounded familiar to me. I was lying in my bed, and heard what I thought to be a snow truck. Like I said, it was cold, but it VERY rarely snows here in Ourense. I came to the conclusion that it was not a snow truck, but probably a street cleaning truck or a garbage truck in the distance. However, for those few seconds, I was comforted by that noise. There is something very homey about that noise. I suppose it reminds me of being at home, probably in Strongsville, late at night or very very early in the morning...and hearing it. I remember that when I was younger that noise always gave us a glimpse of home for a...SNOW DAY! So yes, they're big ol' ugly trucks. But I love them. And the noises they make :)

DONE!

So, I´m officially done with year one of grad school! Though I will be working a lot on papers this summer, it´s a pretty great feeling finishing the year. Ahhhh. Now time to relax. But not really, because my best friend Carrie is coming and I´ve got to start packing!! That´s quite difficult when you have over 30 pairs of shoes.....

Living with a host family

This is completely an excuse to not do a project that's due this week, but oh well :)

I love living with a host family. Most of the time. It's kind of strange, now that I'm 24 (woah!), that I live with a family in Spain that makes my meals and cleans my room, does my laundry, changes my sheets, but I speak all Spanish with them and I figured, this will be the last time ever that I will be pampered. 

Normally it's fine. I am a pretty independent person, so living with this family is great, because they are often out of the house working. But there are times, like right now, when I'm just like, "ughh I can't wait to live on my own." 

Why "right now"? Well, it's 3 PM. And I still haven't eaten lunch. I'm getting crabby because I'm hungry, but have to wait until they're done preparing lunch to eat it, logically. I just don't get it. 

I just wish that I could go into the kitchen, make myself a sandwich, and be done with it. But, it doesn't work that way in Spain. And that's all. One annoyance of living with a host family....

cravings

So, the Spanish food isn't too bad, but I'm getting a little sick of it. I guess more than anything, I'm just craving certain American foods. Here's a list of some places I hope and plan to go during the first, ohhhh, 24 hours back in town.

1. Chipotle. I actually think my parents are bringing it to the airport. Or having it waiting for me at home :)  3 veggie tacos, black beans and rice, fajita, mild tomato salsa and a little corn, a teeny eeny bit of sour cream and cheese, lettuce and guacamole. 

2. Geppettos pizza. plain cheese. with marinara to dip. with ranch to dip. a nice coke would be good too. 

3. Niko's (whose name has changed, to something I don't know): a junior gyro with everything, easy onion. yuuuuummy. 

4. Bagles. Preferably Brueggers. a square asiago one with plain cream cheese, or a wheat one with veggie light cream cheese.

5. good, grilled hot dogs. 

6. Mom's good pasta with good sauce. no more of this tomato paste ketchup-y spaghetti-o type sauce

7. Subway. a subway club with provolone, grilled. with spinach, tomato, cucumber, honey mustard and a bit of salt and pepper. YUM. 

8. sushi. yum yum yum yum. They have it here, but it's not nearly as popular. I've only ever seen one place in Alcala, but I'm sure there are several in Madrid. I am craving the shrimp tempura. my fave. 

I'm sure this list will be edited and added onto. But I'm off to a good start. I'll have a lot of catching up to do during that first day back, eh?

Was that a lawnmower?

I woke up this morning to a noise that seemed very familiar from my little suburban neighborhood back home: a lawnmower. Still half asleep, it almost comforted me. Until I realized that it could not have been a lawnmower, because there is very very very little grass in Spain. I mean, once you get out of the cities into more rural areas, especially up north, sure there's plenty of it. But if I were to look out my window right now, I don't think I'd see much...

[The noise, as it turns out, was the street cleaner]

I bless the rains down in africaaaaa...

Ok, so during my trip to Tunisia, Africa there was no rain. But that's a good song.

So what can I say about Africa? There is too much, really. But I'll give it a whirl.

I decided to go to Tunis (Tunisia), Africa for my spring break this year with four other people. I had never ever thought of doing that, but once my friend Kelsy mentioned it, I couldn't get it out of my mind. Easy as that. We headed to the northern coast of Africa for a week in a 4 star hotel on the beach. It was nothing less than an incredible experience--some good things, some bad, and a lot of really weird things :)  ...

1) We arrive at the hotel, like I said, 4 stars. I guess their star ratings are a bit different in Africa. We loved it, it was fine, don't get me wrong, but it's not what you'd expect. Everything was just fine. Food was just fine, though I haven't been craving anything that I ate there. Open bar selection consisted of: beer, vodka, whiskey, and a Tunisian rum, a couple of liqueurs, and juice if you'd like to mix. We're college kids, we're not used to a variety anyway. So this was a beach resort, as I said, with a big pool and a beautiful beach just beyond the pool. Does a 4 star usually give their guests beach towels? well of course. At the good ol' Riadh Palms, this was not the case. Are stray cats eating off of the enclosed patio tables a normal occurrence in a 4 star? Doubtful. But we were blessed with their presence for an entire week :)  Like I said, not complaining, just quite funny. 

2) The languages: French and Arabic. Luckily our friend Dustin is fluent in French. It would have been a lot more difficult without him there. I loved hearing the natives speak and seeing all the signs and products in French and Arabic. Obviously I'm a language lover. Many people spoke minimal English and their accents were so cute! They often called us "baby girl", and with their accent it didn't sound so bad. 

3) The markets: Some people hate them, pushy vendors trying to drag you into their stores, but I love them. I don't know why, I guess I just think they're kind of a fun experience. there are some interesting things that they sell--food, spices, perfumes, hookahs, souvenirs (they love the camels!!), lots of jewelry, purses, clothes...you name it. But what I like most is observing the people. They really are pushy, they'll say anything to get you in their store, and it is annoying at times. But it's what they do, it's how they live, it's their culture. And I really improved my bargaining skills! we actually bargained for a taxi ride back one time, ha.

4) CAMELS. We did go on a camel ride. Normally the ride includes: camel ride, horse ride, donkey ride, lunch, but we didn't want to make it a whole day thing so we bargained down the price and did just the camel ride. We ended up having the greatest guide and he did a few extra things for us since we didn't have the whole tour, like going to see baby camels. It was really funny, they were all making their camel-y noises and afraid of us, but being the tourists we are, we went in, took pictures, gave them kisses, etc. Then, since the tour is normally like 3-4 hrs, and ours should have been about an hour and half, we went back to meet with our ride....who came 15 minutes late, then 15 more, then 15 more...After a while, we were getting antsy (probably because we were still sitting on our camels...haha) so we went down the road a bit to where a group of native children were playing soccer. We asked our tour guide if we could go play with them...heck, why not? So we go, and it's us against the kids. We didn't understand each other at all, but it was so much fun, so liberating even. 

5) Sammy, "Vince Vaughn", Baby Louis, etc. These were just a few of the guys who worked at the hotel. they were super nice and funny, and after a few days of talking to them during "snack time" where they made pizza, little turkey sandwiches and CREPES (the same snack time where the cats were eating off the tables), they, like every man in Tunisia, asked us if we wanted to go to the "disco" with them. They were harmless, and the disco was right down the street. It ended up being a great night, and although it was difficult to communicate, we did so with gestures, by dancing, and by doing lots of cheers with our drinks :) It was sad to leave them at the end of the week.

6) Hotel animation team: normally in big hotels, they have the animation team, who organizes activities, games, workouts, contests, and usually has a show at night. The Riadh Palm's animation team more or less did this. But, just as the hotel was juuuust under its claimed 4 stars, so was its animation team. I guess the strangest thing for us was that they were all men, since in Muslim culture, women are kind of prohibited from things like that. So, all the games/activities during the day were led by the men, not so weird. But when we went to one of the night shows....you can imagine our reactions when we saw a group of guys dancing to songs that clearly should have a female character, like Celine Dion and the Titanic song. In several of the skits and dances, the men had to dress up as a girl. It was really interesting, but that's their culture and the way they've always lived, so by golly, good for them.

7) Living conditions: Obviously we didn't see too much of the poverty because we were in a resort, but we're sure it existed. After talking to several of the workers at the hotel, they were very open about sharing their lives with us. There was one whose father had died and at a very young age (maybe 12 or 14) he dropped out of school to start working and providing for the family. The average salary for someone who works at the hotels there is 300 dinar a month, which is roughly equivalent to 165 euros. A month! In one week I spent much more than that, and would buy silly things while there. Like a 4o euro day trip, a 15 dinar camel ride, a 10 dinar beach towel, etc. It just kind of makes you think, and although I've been complaining about the exchange rate all year, I still have much more than they do and should probably realize that and think about it more, especially when I think I've got it bad. 

 

I could go on. There's so much to talk about, but maybe in order to discover other things, you should go visit Tunisia. It was a great experience and I'm glad I went. Yet another culture to learn about and whose differences you can value...

Until next time...

Coffee break catastrophe

So, while studying for my midterms, I starting to feel a bit tired and decided that I needed coffee. Normally my host mom has coffee made in the kitchen, but there wasn't any. So, I decided to make some, I mean, how hard could this be?

I had never used this particular coffee maker, but it seemed as simple as any coffee maker I had used before. I got the bag of coffee grounds out and looked at it for the instructions. (I know how much to put in at home, but I think the coffee is a bit different here, much stronger, and so I wanted to be sure.) So I looked, and searched, and nowhere on the package did I find instructions on how many cucharadas (spoonfuls) to put in. A bit frustrated and confused, I just decided to try to make it how I normally do in the states. Done and done. Or so I thought...

I went back into my room to study a bit and after about 10 minutes assumed it'd be done. I was walking back into the kitchen, saying to myself "I'm going to laugh if I walk in and there's coffee everywhere..." Then I walk in, and...you guessed it...there's coffee EVERYWHERE. all over the countertop, dripped down to the floor. I was like, what in the world could have happened. When I opened the door where you put the filter in, it was a big coffee soupy mess. I tried my best to clean up without anyone knowing what had happened. Used paper towels and one of my own washcloths and then took the trash out. As far as I know, nobody knows. It's a good thing they don't know English and can't read this blog. :)

So, I still don't know what happened--what I did wrong--and still don't know how to make coffee. Which is even extra pathetic since I worked in a coffee shop. Maybe one day I'll learn...