Just a Saturday in Spain

Ok, so that last post was quite lengthy. It literally took me hours to finish! But that's ok. Today wasn't nearly as fun, but it was still a good day. I like the weekends because we can relax a bit. This morning I woke up about 9:30 and got ready to walk down to the Plaza. It was raining, again. Before we came, we were told that Spain was in a drought! I'm pretty sure that we brought the rain with us! Oh well. Not a reason to dampen my day! Punny... Anyways! Today was my friend Chantelle's birthday (happy birthday Chantelle, if you're reading this!) so we all met up to do something fun. Aaron, Logan, Michael, Eric, Chantelle, and I went to a couple of shops, then headed down to la Casa de Cervantes to take a tour. Cervantes is a famous Spanish writer. He wrote "Don Quixote: Man of La Mancha."

That was also pretty cool to see, because I watched the movie of the book in my 9th grade Spanish class! Senora Denney would be so jealous. :) After touring the house and taking some pictures, we headed over to a modern art museum to check out the free exhibit. We've found that free activities around town are definitely the best. The only problem is, we've nearly exhausted all the free places here in Alcala! Our bus and train passes aren't active until May, so we can't really go anywhere until then unless we want to pay more money to get around.

I'd rather wait and use that money towards souvenirs. I'm too much like my mom! Ha ha! After the art museum, we wanted to go on a tour through this convent, but we couldn't find the entrance! Chantelle really wanted to see it because she read about it online, and it was kind of a bummer not to be able to. I was also really looking forward to seeing some nuns. We saw some walking around yesterday as we were driving out of town, and I loved them! I wanted to get a picture, but we drove by too fast. Drat. Maybe another time! Since we couldn't find the entrance, some of the guys ran over to the office of tourism in Alcala and asked about it. Apparently the time online was incorrect. However, by this time, I needed to get back home for lunch with my family because it takes a half hour or more to get home. A little later we had a lunch of broth and noodles, the typical bread and salad, meat (I think it was chicken or pork, but sometimes it's better not to ask!), and fried potatoes with Santi, Jesus, and Miguel (poor Gloria has been sick!).

It was pretty good! I must say, I have been eating little bites of seafood here and there, but I still cannot stand it in the least bit. I usually just force myself to swallow it before I can tell myself that it really is seafood. That was my biggest fear of coming here, and it has been realized here and there. Pretty sure I'll never get over it though. After lunch, Lyn and I went back upstairs and read, Skyped, wrote in our journals and blogs, and took a nap. It was nice and relaxing, especially since we've been so busy and it's too cold outside to do anything comfortably. I wrote some more, then we were called down for dinner. Dinner consisted of fried rice with shrimp and ham (definitely didn't eat the shrimp), mini hot dogs without the bun, potato chips, and, of course, the typical bread. Usually, for dessert we have a piece of fruit, a yogurt, or a container of flan or jello. So far, the food has been pretty good (with the exception of a giant slab of salmon for dinner one night that I strategically avoided!).

My favorite thing to eat is the bread, which is good because we have it at every meal. Hopefully I won't get sick of it anytime soon! Breakfasts are always small: a piece of toast, a fruit, and maybe a yogurt or a breakfast cookie. Other people in my group have said they have bread smothered in a chocolate sauce like Nutella every single morning, but we haven't had that yet. That's probably a good thing though, because I would gain a ton of weight here! After dinner, we sat and talked with Gloria for about 45 minutes. I really enjoy this time! It helps out my comprehension a ton. There are a few things that I don't understand because of how fast they speak, but I usually just ask her to repeat it and it's fine. We talk about the government, the weather, the geography of Spain, everyday life, suggestions of how to better my stay here, etc. She also loves to talk about students she's had in the past whom she absolutely adores. I hope I can be one of those someday that she tells other students about! Well, time to Skype home real quick and get to bed. We stay up way too late! No wonder we're always so tired. :)