Realizations

Firstly, I just wanted to say I have dreamed in Spanish! It was the night before Thanksgiving, so I guess you could say "Thanksgiving Eve,"- and I don't remember the dream at all except it was all in simple Spanish, but hey, I was still pretty excited.

Anyways, I really missed having Thanksgiving. I never really liked the holiday very much and I still don't, but I just missed the general spirit that we have in America around this time- everybody preparing plans and talking about how much they're going to eat. Here nobody, and I mean nobody even thinks about celebrating it. It's not like Halloween which has made its way to Spain and now a lot of people celebrate it. On Thanksgiving, I woke up, went to school, and it wasn't until halfway through the day when I realized what day it was.

I had intentions to do something for Thanksgiving here, but it just didn't work out with everyone's busy lives. Not to mention it's very expensive and time-consuming to prepare all that food. I told my family all about the holiday, and that was that. The next day, Friday, we actually had a get-together for AFS for Christmas, so I had to prepare my Christmas cookies the day of Thanksgiving. Here they are: (they are in Christmas shapes and they were supposed to have red and green sprinkles but Spain doesn't sell those!)

 

 

The AFS fiesta was really fun, there was TONS of food especially desserts which is always good! :) Every person brought something from their country- so besides all the Spanish dishes that our families brought, we had carrot cake and chocolate-chip muffins (obviously also from the US), a chocolate cake type dessert from Germany, a dessert similar to apple crisp from Denmark, and the dessert from Latvia which I really can't describe. It was the only one I didn't like :( It had raisins, and pineapple chunks, and a bunch of other things thrown in and although I'm glad I tried it, I definitely wouldn't want any more.

 

It was also bittersweet though, because Ida from Denmark is going home this week and it was like a goodbye party for her. We are planning to do something Thursday this week, (the day before she leaves!) but I still don't want her to go :( It makes me realize how glad I am that I chose to come for a year. Spanish is just now starting to sink its way into my head- I mean my speaking skills are moving along slower but I can understand a LOT. I know I can't understand everything, and when people don't vocalize and talk super fast I'm clueless, but I'm happy with where I am as far as understanding. 3 months, or even a semester in another country isn't enough to become fluent, for sure.

 

Anyways, these were the realizations I wanted to talk about:

 

Every exchange is different. Every student has a different experience, but it really doesn't atter. In the end the year is fulfilling for everyone. I don't need to compare my year to the years of the other exchange students because they are all wonderful in their own ways.

 

I have so much appreciation for my family in the US. I miss having that natural closeness with people who you're related to by blood. Appreciate your families guys! Coming into a family in another culture with another language- it's incredibly hard to integrate yourself. It's alot of work.

 

Well, with that I end this post. Thanks to everyone who reads this- I have over 5000 blog views now which is incredible. I hope you all enjoy!

 

Besos, Lani.



La Comida

So I know that I really need to update... trust me I've been reminding myself to write a post for a while now. It's just alot more difficult than you would imagine because my life here has kind of evened out, and it's normal now. It's just my life, and everything is regular, and it's hard to think the things I do here would be interesting to you guys. But anyway, in this post I'm going to talk about FOOOD. Because I haven't really touched on this subject very much yet, and in my opinion Spain has such an interesting cuisine, one that's very different from America.
So today I was running around my kitchen, taking pictures of everything that I could think of that's different in America, but there's alot of things I don't have pictures of- for example I can't really show the quanity of meat we eat here, etc., so I'll just talk about that stuff.


Okay, so first- this is the tiramisu cake we had for my sister's birthday party. It's pretty standard here to have cakes at birthdays just like in the United States.

Okay so this isn't anything Spanish- but I just wanted to show how strong my skittle collection is going! (My family sent me them in a package.) It's been hard not to eat them all at once since they are so delicious and they don't exist here. :(

So another thing I wanted to mention, obviously we have Fanta and Coca-Cola in America, but there's a lot of differences here. Firstly, there's Fanta naranja and Fanta limon (lemon and orange), so if you order a Fanta at a restaurant or bar, they always ask you which one you prefer. Also, EVERYONE in Spain drinks Coca-Cola. It's literally everywhere- and nobody bothers with the diet coke stuff- actually thinking about it now, I haven't seen a single Diet Coke can since I've been in Spain. They might drink other types of pop here, but I honestly couldn't even tell you because all I see people drink is Coca-Cola and Fanta. Oh, and these drinks are sooo delicious here- I've heard it's because Europe uses real sugar? I'm not really sure on that one but seriously... yum.

Okay, now into the real "typical spanish." If someone is going to make a chocolate cake here, this is what it will be like. My abuela made this one- It's made with layers of chocolate, a whipped cream type of vanilla, and chocolate- which has the consistency of chocolate pudding, but I don't think that's actually what it is. It's kept in the refrigerator, and we eat it cold. It is so delicious. After I took this picture, I actually had a little piece. Shhhh ;)

This is something why often eat on top of salads. I'm still in the process of figuring out what it is- the bag says "Rallado" but that just means grated so that doesn't help. I know it has a little bit of a seafood taste- I promise when I figure out the name I will update this post with it! *Okay, so it's imitation crab meat :)

The coffee maker that we have- it's old fashioned but I really like it. Although the coffee in Spain is SO STRONG. I can't even drink the cafe con leche which is like a sugared, watered-down version of the coffee here. People normally don't drink coffee in the mornings. It's much more common to have a cup or two after the big lunch. And if you're going to meet a friend for coffee, that implies you will meet at around 4 pm in the afternoon, after eating lunch.

BREAD- the staple of the Spanish diet. Well, that's what I would say anyway, that bread and meat are the staples. We always eat bread- with every lunch and dinner. Bread is a necessity because you have to use it to move the food in the direction of your fork. You break off a little piece, and use it like a tool. People go to buy fresh bread probably about every other day here. There's special stores called panaderías that only sell bread. People love their bread here, and I do too. :)

And here's the pasta that my brother loves- in the shape of bicycles. We have this for dinner a lot of times, since dinner is a very light meal- and we normally have it with some type of meat or an egg. 

This is our fruit supply- as you can see we have alot of oranges and nectarines. Those are the main fruits we eat, along with kiwis and sometimes bananas. We don't usually have apples very often, but the ones we do have are from my abuela's farm.

This is the seasoning that is used to make pechugas which is like breaded chicken breasts. Also it can be used to bread fish with when we have that. Not every time we have meat it's breaded though- we eat so many different parts of different animals and if we have cow or lamb, it's cooked on it's own without breading.

This is a quince- it's a type of fruit if you've never heard of it before. You can't eat it though, only use it to make jam and the most possible use in Spain- quinces smell really good so people put them in closets or rooms- like a natural air freshener!

And to finish off this delicious post, these are typical Christmas sweets! They are called polvorons- and there is a lot of different varieties as you can see. There are also ones flavored "cocoa" but those were polished off before I could get a picture ;). I like them- the texture is really odd because they are really dense and dry- but the taste is really good! (Oh and sorry the pictures are sideways, I tried about a million times to rotate them until I gave up.)

These flavors are: traditional (has walnuts within), cinnamon (my fav), one made with olive oil, and that last one literally translates to "homemade ice cream." Which it's definitely not, I tried it and all I can say is it's really good and it has little sesame seeds on top.


Alright, so I think that's enough about food :) Until next time, Besos;
Lani

¡Ya viene!

I'm writing a post guys! Sorry it's been so long, I'm a terrible blogger I know, but I just wanted to say it's coming! For now you can admire these two beautiful pictures of where I live :)

We went on a (amazing) mountain drive last weekend- and here's a picture. There's snow in the mountains already because last week it was pretty cold, but since I live in the city in the valley between the mountains, it almost never snows here in Ponferrada.

And here's a picture of part of the city- there's two rivers that run through Ponferrada and you can see one of them, although I'm not sure which. Also you can see the mountains in the distance. And note how alot of buildings look like castles- the architecture is beautiful here. Also, I live in the region Castille-Leon, and there are the most castles in this region than any other place in the world.

October is gone; ready for November!

Hello everyone!

So this post begins with Halloween. Typically Halloween isn't a big deal here, but from what my family has told me I think it's growing and more and more people are beginning to celebrate it. My mom isn't the type to let any kind of holiday pass by without a fiesta, so naturally we celebrated. About a week before, she had found these devil costumes in an advertisement that were only 10 euros each. So she called up all her friends and created this plan that we would all (my family and my mom's friends with their families) go out for a walk and to dinner on Halloween. All of us (minus the little kids) wore the same devil costume. It actually was pretty funny walking down the street all as devils because not many people were dressed up, and they were all staring at us. After we ate dinner (first we had tapas at a bar, then we went to a pizza place), we dropped the kids off at home since it was 12 am. Then we went out to the discotecas! Honestly these are so fun. Everyone is just dancing all night and enjoying themselves- the nightlife in Spain is incredible.

We got home around 3 or 4 am, I don't really remember, and went straight to bed. Oh, I should mention- Thursday and Friday we had no school, not to celebrate Halloween, but for Día de los Santos. Thursday was the day to celebrate this- but it's a sad time when you take flowers to the cemeteries for the gravestones of your ancestors. I appreciated the break off of school and had planned a trip to Valladolid, the capital of Castile-Leon (the region I live in).

So on Thursday I caught a bus at 12:30 pm, with plans to arrive in Valladolid at 4:30. And I did this alone!!! I felt such a sense of independence, traveling in a foreign country alone. Although nobody talked to me, it's probably better that way, because I didn't have to explain the whole "I'm an American, I don't understand, Can you please speak slower?" When I got to Valladolid, Monica- an AFS volunteer was waiting for me and she took me to her house where I would be staying for the next 2 days. That night there was an AFS Halloween Party and I got to see some of my wonderful international friends. AND I got to meet some Spaniards who live in Valladolid and had gone on exchanges to Tennessee, Arkansas, and New Zealand. The party was really fun- we ate gummies and talked and decorated with spiderwebs and balloon garlands and carved pumpkins. I think my pumpkin was the definite winner ;)

My lovely Hungarian friend Lucy <3

Took me a second to remember what we were doing, I think it was that there was a cool echo effect?? hahaa

Making pumpkin towers

Pumpkin tower

This picture is actually scary

Carvingggg

The best pumpkin :D

YUMMM the best part ;)

Oh and we are crazy exchange students- so actually we did eat some pumpkin. I have no idea whose idea it was, but it tasted alright, kinda like melon without a strong flavor.

After all this, the people that weren't wearing their costumes yet got dressed and we all painted our faces white, with red paint for blood and black for black eyes. The funny thing is none of us Americans had known previously that we were going to be going out after the party at Monica's house. But it's Spain, so I guess we should've expected. :D We left the house at about 10 pm for the discotecas and bars. (Just so you know, in Spain you only have to be 16 years old to get into the bars and discotecas, so we follow the law haha.) It was a lot of fun and we did tons of dancing. At 1 am we had to return home, and we all came back exhausted and happy.

Scary with our face paint

And happy :)

On Friday I started the day just relaxing- eating breakfast, watching some Spanish TV shows. Although for breakfast I did try something really delicious from Argentina (Monica is originally from Argentina.)

Argentinian Dulce de Leche Spread

Spanish juice which is delicious

Between 5-6 pm my AFS friends Megg and Paige who live in Valladolid took like 5 buses, and then walked up a mountain to get to me. How sweet :). We first walked around and they showed me the center of the city, El Corte Ingles, and Plaza Mayor- plus alot of other sites in Valladolid. Paige could barely talk because she had no voice- so we stopped at a sort of restaurant for coca colas. We were planning on going to the discotecas and bars that night but they don't open until between 8-9 pm, so we spend an hour or two with just our coco colas. Such a Spanish thing to do ;). Then, we wanted to each something for dinner- so we decided the cheapest way would be just to go to a supermarket. We ended up buying salt&vinegar chips, these sour olive things that are AMAZING, and a bottle of water. Kinda a strange dinner, but it was really good. And then, you're not gonna believe this- we ATE AND WALKED ON THE STREET. I can't remember if I've mentioned this before in my blog, but Spaniards have this idea that Americans eat and walk all the time- I guess they see it in movies or something. Here in Spain nobody does it- you sit down at a restaurant or eat at home. But what else were we supposed to do- sit down in an aisle in the grocery store?? So left with no choice, we were walking down the busy streets of Valladolid eating chips and olives. So fun.

After walking a bit, we sat down on a bench in what I think was the Plaza Mayor to finish our dinner. Another funny thing, a Spanish man asked us for directions to somewhere- I'm amazing that he chose us considering how American we looked in that moment.

Some of my best friends <3

I WILL return to Spain just to eat more of these!

Paige with our chips in the Plaza

Also, I almost forgot- we went to a Spanish candy store! It was wonderful- candy all along both walls!

I was happyyy

Then we were off to the discotecas- it was alot of fun and we met alot of nice Spaniards. We got invited to go out the next night with a bunch of girls, so I was kinda sad I couldn't stay in Valladolid longer. The discotecas are typically pretty full- going out is a part of Spanish life- but were some with almost nobody. We left the ones with almost no people pretty quickly because they are just not as fun. Around 1 am Monica picked me up, and took me back home. I had a cup of hot tea and than went to bed.

That night, at about 3 am, Michelle's (Monica's daughter) friend from Finland arrived by bus. He is going to stay visiting in Valladolid for 2 weeks. We spent the morning on Saturday with him until I had to leave at 2:30 pm to catch my bus back to Ponferrada. It was really interesting as he shared alot of cultural differences that Finland has with Spain and America. For example, in Finland they shake hands with everyone, and Finns are generally quite shy and don't talk with people. Quite the opposite from Spain where you kiss everyone upon first meeting them and everyone is loud and talks to you.

Finnish

Absolutely AMAZING cookies from Finland

Spanish milk- quite different and it's not refrigerated

Graffiti is EVERYWHERE in Spain

The huge shopping mall- there's nothing really English about it

Every wondered what the inside of a Spanish mall looks like?? The Same!

And yummy yummy yummy Finnish chocolate

After walking around Valladolid with Michelle and the guy from Finland, (So sorry, if I remembered his name I would write it.) we ate lunch at 1:30 pm- a pretty early hour for lunch in Spain. Then I took the bus back home. And it felt really good to be back home, with the familiar. Even though Valladolid is amazing, I honestly prefer Ponferrada because it's smaller (still 3x the size of Avon Lake) and I can actually walk around on my own. It's safer, and better for me because with my terrible sense of direction- I would be lost all the time in Valladolid. But life here never stops, and after arriving my family and family friends went on a walk and then to our friends' house. Then we went to the centro comercial (mall) and we ate at McDonald's with more friends. (I actually have eaten at McDonald's 3 times in my two months here- more often than in the US.) When we got home at 10:30 pm, we watched the second half of a James Bond movie until midnight. Oh, but before that, I opened my care package from my parents!!! It's wonderful to have peanut butter and skittles again- and my family wanted to try peanut butter right away.

WOOO HOOO thank you thank you thank you to my family :)

The big test

So now for the big truth: they actually didn't all hate it! First they all smelled it, and my mom and brother liked the smell but my sister didn't from the beginning. My dad remembered the smell as he spent a year in the United States as a teenager.Then they tried it- my mom said it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be! She said she liked the taste, but not the texture- and although it's not something she would eat everyday, it was decent! My brother didn't say much, I think he thought it was alright but certainly didn't want more. My sister wasn't a fan. But I can imagine it's something very very different for them- not a texture or taste that they've ever been introduced to before. It's probably like how the cold ostrich meat was for me- literally a huge shock. But anyways, I was thrilled to get peanut butter again and ended up finishing up the little snack size cup.

On Sunday, we hung out at home until going to another friend's house a bit out of Ponferrada in the mountains. For lunch we had cochinillo- which literally translates to roast suckling pig. It was quite a sight, this little baby pig with ears. I guess it's actually a food typical of Valladolid. I tried a few bites, but honestly didn't really like it so I had crema de calabacín- zucchini soup which was very tasty. I hadn't brought my camera with me- so here's an internet picture- but it literally looked exactly like this-

Hopefully you're not squeamish

Well, I think that's about all for this post. It's now 9 pm on Sunday and I have done none of my homework, but at least I've updated you guys! I hope you've enjoyed!

Besos, Chao
Lani.