I Made A Friend

    Good news! I finally made a friend! She is from Poland, my same age and an Au Pair for another family. She speaks only a little English, but we worked out together last night and we are going to start running every night together! She agreed to help me with my Spanish (she speaks 4 languages, French, Spanish, English, and Polish) and I’m going to help her with her English! Unfortunately I have a feeling it may be a one-way friendship considering she can understand me but when it comes to speaking English she isn’t able to say much.  This results in me babbling on a lot and her nodding her head yes. Fortunately one of the few American shows she watches is How I Met Your Mother (my favorite show), so she will get all of my references, although I’m not so sure she understands my sarcasm….

            This past week has been interesting. The winds finally stopped. Cadiz is the wind capital of the world. The whole time I have been here they have had winds similar to California’s Santa Ana’s, except they lasted for 10 days straight. Yesterday they finally passed! So we were finally able to go the beach!

            I finally went shopping with the parents to the American equivalent of a Sam’s Club (unfortunately it was 45 minutes away). I died. I was a complete tourist in a super market! Not only did they have three aisles dedicated to alcohol, but they were also sampling alcohol right in the middle of the store! And in the back they had a whole winery. They also had a whole fresh seafood section with these huge whole fishes that you could buy, just like if you were on the pier!  And they’re meat section was huge, they sold full pigs, and meats I hadn’t even heard of. They also have this type of meat here called Jamon which is the leg of a pig (see the pictures below).

One of the biggest differences in the food here is that they don’t drink fresh milk. I honestly didn’t even know there was such thing as non-fresh milk, but apparently there is because they store their milk for weeks in advance and just drink it straight from the cabinet. When I explained to Ignacio (the Dad) that in America we drink fresh milk every day, not only did this baffle them, but they came up quickly with the explanation that it is because the milk man delivered fresh milk to our door step everyday…Spanish food is pretty amazing though, they cook everything in olive oil, and every meal is an event. Spanish cookies cannot compare at all to American cookies though. The family bought cookies at the store titled “American Cookies” they were simply chocolate chip cookies. They asked me if people in America really baked cookies and brought them to their neighbors. I told them that we really do, especially at Christmas time; they thought that was pretty funny. Pretty much the only fruit they eat here is cherries. I have never had so many cherries in my life. When we went to the market, the only fruit they had was peaches and of course cherries.

            On my day off I went to the mall! They have some really cool clothes here. There is this one store that I am obsessed with. It is a leather shop. I bought some of the coolest jewelry! And to reward my attempts at speaking Spanish, the storeowner gave me a free bracelet!

            My favorite times are after dinner on weekends when Ignacio, May, and Me sit and talk about all the differences between the USA and Spain. They tell me all of their impressions of the USA from the movies and I laughingly tell them what really goes on. They told me how strange it was that our McDonald’s don’t serve beer, because the McDonalds here do, and they told me how funny it is that Americans are allowed to carry a gun around, but can’t carry a beer in public. It continues to amaze me how many culture differences there is between Europe and America!

            Anyways, thanks so much everyone for all the support you have been giving me! It means so much! I hope everything is going good in California. Keep making those cookies Cali and have a great anniversary Mom and Dad J