I don't know what's wrong with me. I don't know why I've stopped writing. I think I'm just on the go so much that I'm thoroughly exhausted when I have a moment to myself. But it's good, it's really good being so busy. Sometimes I spend hours walking around the center with one of my friends. We go here, we go there, drink this coffee, that coffee, always laughing and making fun of each other. I never thought I would make such a good friend here, let alone a Spanish friend, let alone a male Spanish friend. Somehow he knows every 5th person walking by, every bartender, every store clerk, every in and out of this city. It's fun for me because I get to tag along and see all the different parts of the city that I would probably never walk to. Daniel's English is pretty damn good, but I caught him doing something pretty hysterical the other day. In the pouring rain we were stopped by two people wanting to ask us some dumb questions about who knows what. I stopped waiting for him to answer them in Spanish, but instead, he pretends to be an American and pulls out this legit American accent out of his ass. He pretended like he didn't know Spanish. It was completely hysterical on our end when he fooled those two idiots into thinking he wasn't a Spaniard. Always when people try to imitate an American accent (whatever that is) it's always this weird California surfer kind of voice. But hey, it worked!
We've been having a lot of rain, but I hear that's extremely normal for the month of March. This rain though is going to be the death of me, literally. I think I've almost lost an eyeball four or five times already. The average Spanish woman is about 4'10 leaving her umbrella right at the exact height of my face. I dodge left, I dodge right, and I pay attention because if I don't, I'm going to lose an eyeball. Everyone walks at turtle pace which doesn't exactly work with my New York, giraffe leg, get-the-hell-out-of-my-way-even-though-I'm-not-in-a-rush pace, so I think I need to have a little more patience, but when the sun is out I'm a really good slow motion Spaniard taking in the sunlight. With all of these umbrellas though, I've been noticing the older, nugget size women here a lot more often. "A lot more often"... is that English? Whatever, it sounds good to me. I've decided there is no point in changing how I write. I speak with fragments, so I shall write with fragments! Yeah fragments!!!!
This leads me into why I think I'm actually psychotic. Who talks like that? Today, I had one of those days that I realized I'm a bit of a weirdo. I started my day off by having extreme anxiety over my Spanish class. Every Monday and Wednesday... anxiety. Why? It's because I can't be in control of the situation. She's always calling on me when I'm not raising my hand and somehow I end up looking like a tomato, completely embarrassed, humiliated, and utterly uncomfortable. You'd think I would have grown out of the tomato phase by now, but out of 4 classes, I'm a tomato in every one of them atleast once a week. That's four tomatoes a week. But I raise my hand a lot so that's like 8 tomatoes a week. You would think that since I have the confidence to raise my hand that I wouldn't turn bright red after I say my thoughts, but no... life just doesn't work that way for me.
Uhhhh side story: The other day in SPANISH class we had a substitute. I let out a really loud "YES!" when the substitute told us our teacher would be absent. It literally shot out of my mouth. Woops! Whatever, the sub understood. She was so much fun this sub. Nice, calm, really cool and didn't scare the shit out of me like my other teacher who gives bitchy back handed comments all the time. I catch every single one of them. I don't like her games.... I digress. Ha Rabbi, I always think of you when I say that. But anyway, so we are going over recipes and food words in class. How perfect is that!? So the sub asked us what foods are specific to our countries or better yet, our states. Martyna raises her hand first and says that Idaho is famous for potatoes. Alright, alright, good example. I go next. Raise my hand, "New Jersey is famous for tomatoes." The entire class goes up in arms with dramatic noises and words like "What!?!?!?!?" If I could explain the tone of their voices it would sound like this, "Excuse me what!? Are you crazy? HUH!?!?!?!?" There I went. The tomato was talking about tomatoes. So, red as can be I turn around and say, "Uh, I live there. It's the Garden State. I live there. We're famous for tomatoes!" Ooooooooh was I mad. People making me feel dumb? Nope, doesn't fly by me. I didn't recover for another 20 minutes. All of our nice restaurants have on the menu "...made with Jersey fresh tomatoes." People can suck it. Whoever you are reading this, if I ever make you feel stupid for anything you say, punch me. Go ahead. Worst feeling ever.
So back to reality and when I say reality I mean the main flow of the blog, but it has no flow because it goes in and out and in and out just like my brain works. It's all over the place. Sorry, hope you all can follow the madness....
Vale (okay,) so with all of this anxiety over Spanish class, which I could go on and on and on about, but I'll spare you all, I actually forgot what time class was. I sprinted out of the house today because I didn't know if I had to hand in my composition I wrote or if it was okay to just email it to her like I have done in the past. I was so terrified that the line at the copy place would be so long that I even contemplated taking a taxi from my house three minutes down the street to the metro station. Well, good thing I didn't. So I see my friend on the train, but that was it, only one. Usually the whole world is on the train. Hmm... fishy. So we're walking to class and she tells me that she needed to go pay for the gym. And I was like, "No, you can't! You're going to be late for class!" Well no Sara, take a breather and calm down. For the past 2 months class was at 10:30, not 10 ya freak of nature. So now I was 40 minutes early for the dreaded Spanish class.
I went to the library where I am a regular at the vending machines. I always buy a coffee, a water, and this 90 calorie delicious chocolate healthy snack thing that keeps me from eating my arm off before I tear into my bocadillo at 1:00 like a ferocious animal. I then walked to the other building where class was and the security guard said I couldn't come inside with my coffee. Ugh, this loser with way too much power. So I stepped outside, which was the better idea anyway because the sun was shining and it was gorgeous outside. Sit down, spill my coffee a little, lick my sticky finger, realize I have a stamp on my hand from the club last night, think about how everyone is going to judge me for not showering at 3 AM, and take out my banana to eat. I smiled because Pepi now makes a slit in the top because the rubber banana is impossible to open without a knife. Biting a banana peel is gross b-t-dubssss. That's slang for "by the way" Nan and Pop :-) So I'm done with my banana and start having a crazy conversation with myself. If I really listen to what my brain and my other brain are saying to each other, it's quite loony. Some guy walked outside to eat his banana and you know what I said to myself, "Yeaaaa banana guy!" Yeah, banana guy? Huh? Who says that? Because I just ate a banana and he's eating a banana does that make him my friend or make him more likable? I. Have. Issues. Then I looked down at my ankle and realized how I only shaved one leg in the shower yesterday because there’s not enough hot water to do both. Ugh, the problems I have. Then I write a speech in my head. Ever do that? You come up with a speech that you would say to your boss, or your teacher, or the bully at school if the time arose. Which, it never really does. But I was writing a big speech today about my Spanish teacher. Grrrr that woman.
Then as I was sitting there and a human being finally walked by. Who was it? A guy from my program that I don't like. Why don't I like him? Because he's not friendly. You have one shot with me. If you don't leave a good first impression, then you probably won't have much luck changing my mind. So he walked right by me without saying hello. What a loserrrr! Enough about him.
So I have about a million and one things to talk about, so I might as well start with the BEST thing. My art teacher told us all about a restaurant here that is unbelievable. He told us that the guy who owns the restaurant is an artist and when he opened up his restaurant, he infused many different cultures into his food and created masterpieces on the plate. Want to know how I know I'm a loony? Because I was so excited about the food he was talking about that I couldn't pay attention for the rest of class. I was honestly turned on by the thought of this meal. I swear, turned on. That’s the only way to describe it. I day dreamed about food for the rest of class. Later when I got home I tried finding the menu online like I always do, but nope, no menu. But! There was a blog. So I checked out the chef’s blog, saw some pictures, and was happy. So I went and boy was it good! Salmon and mango, rice with mushrooms and parm, avocado with fried bananas, hummus and unbelievable babaganoush. This meal was fan-tas-tic. All tapas, or big plates, all to share, AND I had two friends visiting at the time so I got to enjoy it with some good friends. Pictures to come soon...
I'm trying to play catch-up so here we go...
Random Story #1: What a cultural experience did we have a few weeks ago. Sevilla was playing at home and of course we live next to the soccer stadium. Marissa and I weren't interested in the game, we were interested on making it to the metro on time. There we were, black tights, heels, skirts, make-up, the whole shi-bang. We walk down our street, make a left, and a heard of men are walking right at us. Everyone dressed in red and white, everyone testosterone crazy, and there we are, two Americans all dressed up walking straight at them. The hooting and the hollering, the ass grabbing (only one man thankfully) it was all quite interesting. We thought it was over until we reach the actual street. Image: 300 crazy Sevillian men on one side of the street, me and Marissa alone on the other. We were hysterically laughing! We love our sports in America, we sure do, but here it's different. All of these men become family when they're at the game. We made it through the crowd and headed for the metro. Sevillian. Men. Everywhere. So we go down the stairs to the train and a nice circle forms around us. Oy vay, these men. All harmless, honestly. They just love to stare. We got on the train, more stares. Train moves, Marissa fell onto a man's lap. It was all too much. It was all too Spanish...
Random Story #2: Talk about a cultural experience... how about the other day when I had lunch with Pepi and she handed me a plate full of fried anchovies!!!! Yeahhhhh that was interesting. Pepi lead me through the process. She would pick up the small guys and pop them right into her mouth. The bigger ones she would hold the tail, pick at this, pick at that, and de-bone the fish. 1,2,3 I was a pro. Do you expect anything less? I had a larger fish, don't know what it was, but that sucker was a whole other story. Pepi needed her glasses for that one. Lots of little bones. I don't mind doing work for my food (lobster, crab legs, etc.) but this was too much. I swallowed way too many bones and by the end I had enough. But the whole experience was great. She was so proud of how good I was about the whole thing. I'd pull a perfect spine out and she would say gooood, goood. What a cutie.
Random Story #3: I haven't mentioned that I've been stealing menus from restaurants. I know, it's illegal, but I only take the real crappy ones. I gotta.. it's a keepsake.
Random Story #4: We stupidly had churros before dinner one night. We were so full that we struggled through dinner and then cried ourselves to sleep because we were so full. Well, we lied to Pepi. We didn't want her to know how foolish we were. We knew she would be mad if we didn't eat. A few weeks went by and either Riss or myself mentioned something about churros. Pepi, "You ate churros? When???" Uh ohhh, busted. We tell her everything. We tell her everything because we have to talk about something at dinner. So she knew that we would have mentioned churros, but we didn't. Busted. She says, "I've never seen you in there. I'm there all the time." Oh you live their Pepi? I didn't know that because I thought you lived here with us. What are you the churro queen? Nope. So this came up at dinner because we did the same thing again, had churros while our friends were visiting. We were done eating at 7 and by the time 9 came around for dinner we were so tired and so full. Lesson learned. I roughed it, Marissa did not. She blamed it on the nap she took and how she can’t eat after she eats. I dug into the béchamel lasagna (KILL ME) and somehow survived. Pepi was pissed at Marissa. Told her that people are starving and it’s such a shame. She mad her feel really bad, and I did not appreciate that. I guess Pepi has an angry side too…
Slight heart attack, thought I just deleted this whole thing. Thank God for the back button.
Random Story #5: We had a lot of visitors for Penn State's Spring Break. It was my best friend's break also. She is studying in Florence so she headed my way with her roommate who I'm also friends with and then her sister flew in from Long Island. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't fantastic, but we managed to have a good time. We did the whole discoteca scene at night, touristy things during the day. Danielle has an awesome new camera and I was her muse for the day. I liked playing "model"... not going to lie. We also went to Cadiz for Carnaval. All of Southern Spain rushes into this beautiful beach town, dresses in crazy costumes, drinks heavily, and has a party. It was a good time, but I was done after an hour. I've never seen creativity like at this carnival. The people came up with crazy ideas. The girls dress in actual costumes, not whore attire like they do in the US. Kelly, Danielle, Christiana, and I were all rock stars. My friends were a smurf, a bird, an 80's runner, 3 blind mice, a cat, a lady bug, Simon and Garfunkel (won best costume and a free trip to Portugal) and some other good things. Things I saw from strangers: man walking around with a huge wheel barrel carrying a huge penis, men dressed as women, more men dressed as women, huge groups doing group themes like Trojan fighters and sumo wrestlers. These people went ALL OUT. It was nuts. At one point we jumped on the back of the line with the Trojans marching down the street. We marched to the beat of their drum and danced around. Then it was ruined with 700 drunk kids shoving to get on buses. It took a few hours. It was not pretty. Never again.
Random Story #6: So today I took the scenic route home and found some weird store that pretty much sells everything. We're going to Morocco tomorrow and we were told to bring little packets of tissues because toilet paper doesn't exist. What the hell do they wipe their ass with? Come on people, everyone’s got to do it. Wiping your ass is universal. Anyway, so I went in this store to find tissues. Found a huge back for .90 Euro and went to pay. Some old, old, old lady was standing in front of me taking her time. The clerk said "13.70" and the woman was like wow oh wow, so expensive. Blah blah blah lady just pay and move on with your life. She takes out two 5 Euro bills and her change purse. I bet this lady doesn't have enough money. She kept asking how much and the woman at the counter kept saying 13.70, 13.70. How much? How much? Ugh taking forever. This old woman was honestly trying to get away without paying for all of it. What a classic old lady. Spanish, American, Puerto Rican, they're all the same. Finally I couldn't take it anymore so I handed over 50 cents. The clerk thought I was so nice and sweet. Old lady on the other hand didn't care that much.
Random Thought #1: I found out the other day that the email I had waited 3 months for wasn't in my favor. The company I wanted to intern with, the company I have been dying to intern with for four years has rejected me. After a few "rejection tears" and talking to Marissa, it took me about 35 seconds to realize that it was a blessing in disguise. I liked the idea of Aramark or the idea of that type of company because it's as 9-5 as I'm going to get in this industry, but if I know my dream is to have a restaurant, why not just dive into the restaurant world? After speaking with my Uncle Marty, he was going to try and see if he could pulls some strings with a restaurant group down in Atlanta. How awesome would that be? I would get to live with my family that I haven't seen since 8th grade, and I would get to be learning everything I possibly could about the business. I have this anxious feeling all of the time because I am so excited for what is to come for me. Aramark just wasn’t the right choice right now. So I took my Aramark mint that I've been walking around with for months now out of my make-up bag. I don't know why it was there, but I brought it with me here I guess to remind me about it all the time. Well, I took it out. And Marissa and I have decided to not throw it out, but to throw it into the bull-fighting ring when I get to go to one in the next few weeks. I feel like that's a really symbolic way to let go of the company...Just my thoughts...
Random Story #7: I spent 3 hours with Pepi the other day hanging out in the living room. She was such a grandma to me. She takes such good care of me, too good. She refused to let me get up to help her set the table, she refused to let me sit in my regular seat. She made sure I was tucked in on the couch with my feet near the heater. She brought me a little piece of ham to hold me over before dinner was ready. She's just the best. I stayed up all night studying. I fell asleep on the couch in the middle of the night, had a nightmare, and went upstairs to sleep for a little while. In the morning she found me to be awake. I've never seen her early in the morning. Her hair was crazy, maybe even crazier than mine. She had this look of pain and shock because I was awake so early. She insisted I had breakfast. I kept saying no, it's fine, no it's fine. Well, that never works. So what did I get? Fresh squeezed orange juice. I have never seen juice in my house let alone freshly squeezed. Guess this means I need to study in the morning more often. Then came toast, and coffee, just the way I like it. We talk about everything. I can have actual, honest conversations with her. About my parents divorce, friends I love, people I don't like so much, my scary Spanish teacher, loans, work, internships. I enjoy my time with her a lot. She's very comforting, and I'm extremely lucky to be in this house. Some of my friends have no relationships with their senoras and that is so sad to me. I know I say this at the end of each entry, but I'm so happy. I'm so happy to be here.
Tomorrow, heading to Morocco. Not just to see some mountains, or to shop but to do an exchange program. We will be living with families, shitting in a hole, playing with kids at a school, going to a women's center, talking to people in the Peace Corps, having discussions about the different cultures living in Morocco, talking to Moroccan and American students, everything you possibly can image. Oh, and we get to get scrubbed down in an Arabic bath. We have the option of going topless, but I say "When in Rome!" Half of our program went last week and most of the girls did it.. I think I will too. You only live once!
I found out there's a stat button on this blog, and I can trace where my blog has been viewed. I have some interesting countries on this list and thrilled to have found out that my blog hasn't been viewed 140 times, but really over 600. Putting yourself out there is difficult, and a bit scary, but I'm glad I have been getting positive feedback and that my friends and family can all share in my adventures. Until next time...
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