Well it's been a roller coaster of feelings about living in a Spanish home. After 5 weeks, I think it's safe to say I'm adjusted to the differences in daily life and living with someone that I can't really talk to that much or say what I mean most of the time. Talking to the other kids about their homestay stories is always hilarious.. We all come everyday with something new that we did that was dumb, or something funny that we've noticed. Here are just a few of the funny stories I've had with my cute little old madre, Juani..
Dryers?
So they said they didn't have dryers in the homestays in Spain, and I had seen all of the neighbors and every other apartment with clothes hanging from balconies or clothes lines... But never saw ours in use for anything other than tablecloths. After three weeks of having freshly washed and dried clothes on my bed when I got home from school, I still couldn't figure out where these clothes were being dried! With my array of undergarments, I kind of hoped she had a secret dryer somewhere so the neighbors didn't see my laundry and think it was my 67 year old mothers.. When she left the other day, I searched everywhere for this dryer. Genius me forgot about the upstairs to the terrace we have. I had been up there the day I moved in but totally forgotten about it! So it turns out my delicates are indeed on display for the 5 high rise apartment buildings surrounding our one story little house :) great.
steamed vegetables don't exist here..
Juani is a great cook and makes always tries to make me feel at home :) the fruit and vegetables are so fresh here and I love that, until the veggies are cooked.. Spanish food has so much oil in it and everything is fried, sometimes multiple times even. I'm not a big fan of fried stuff like that, unless it's chicken strips or French fries, but I didn't want to insult her by asking for something different since it is a cultural thing too. So finally, after feeling crummy for a few weeks now, I spotted the cauliflower sitting in the pan after being boiled and I bit the bullet and said something.. In Spanish of course, because she knows literally no English.. After looking at me like, you want those like that? Really? I said, yes, that's my favorite! And from now on she's made me yummy steamed vegetables :) I told her the oil hurts my stomach, so she even drains my plate when she makes me fish or something so it's not just sitting in a huge plate of olive oil.. She's so sweet! Its the little things that help us deal with living in such a foreign place...
once again, nicest lady ever.
This lady must have done some research on me before I got here because she had peanut butter waiting for me when I moved in! They warned us that if you say you like something, you'll have it for every meal because they'll know it's something you'll like, but of course I kind of forgot about that the first day with so much running through my head.. Every morning since, the peanut butter is on the table waiting for me to dig in to :) I've just about gone through a small jar already.. yum. I also told her I liked black olives once when she asked if I ate olives and she got a jar specifically for me! I have them with just about every salad now too. They do taste a little different though.. even from the ones I used to have from Papa's martini that were soaked in Gin..
Brie please!
My friend Kim here is obsessed with cheese. Brie is really cheap here, 1 euro for a chunk of it, so she eats it like crazy. (She also doesn't eat meat, so cheese is her burger I guess..) I wanted to buy some, but I had to keep in in the fridge, so I showed Juani that I bought brie! She looked at me a little confused and says, that's not brie! That's (some other kind of cheese I've never heard of).. I was bummed! I was looking forward to that brie so much.. She said something like, you can return it tomorrow! But I had gotten it when I went to the mall (there's a grocery store connected), and didn't want to walk back there since it was night time.. We have a smaller grocery store right down the street I could've gone to also. She said something I didn't understand, put on her jacket and left. 20 minutes later, she came back with a chunck of Brie, more apples, and spreadable Brie :) She said, you can ask me for something that you like and I'll get it at the store for you! How nice :) I didn't want to ask for anything but it was so thoughtful of her to go out and get some just for me so I could take it the next day on our trip to Madrid :)
Picnic?
Many times CIEE has told us to ask our madres for a "picnic" (aka, sack lunch) when we go on trips or if we have class and can't go home for lunch. Most kids get a "bocadillo" (sandwich on french loaf bread, a wonder bread style is more expensive I think), and some kind of muffin or banana or orange. Without deli meat, I wasn't sure what to ask for in my picnic because I don't know what the norm is really.. Other than jamón, which I was hoping she would not suggest.. Juani, being the precious woman that she is, told me I could have anything! Haha bad idea to do that to me.. I said, well how about fruit and a small sandwich? She said, is that all? What would you like on your sandwich? I had no idea, so I said the go-to from the first day she made me one: scrambled egg sort of thing. Not only was my lunch the most gourmet out of everyone's "bocadillo's", she peeled and cut up all sorts of fruit! It was sooo good. The other kids were jealous they had muffins or oranges with seeds :) lucky me.
-k
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