Well, today was awesome. Woke up at 11am after 12 hours of sleep, which I thought would compensate for the 30+ hours of no sleep, but NO. I was exhausted once more by three....though I think that was more from the lack of brain power to stay awake, due to the fact that 90% of it is being used to listen and try to translate in my head, 8% is for attempting to speak brokenly back, and two percent is just DEAD. I'm struggling to find English words already, which I realized when it took me six minutes to figure out the word for cantelope, and that was two minutes after I actually saw one. Day one of no English was a difficult success to come by, but here we are, passing into day two, and I'm not jumping to find the nearest plane!
Fernando (bro-bro) and I had breakfast of jamon de york (Ham slices), on tostada con mantequilla (Delicious bread halves, with butter and oil, toasted...YUM YUM YUM, DELICIOSO!). During breakfast, and for a short while afterwords, we watched EspongaBob, Scooby Doo, and (my choice) some priest in a Catholic church, here in Spain, give a message to a grand total of nine people in this enormous church. I only chose it because he spoke SO slowly, and it was quite easy to figure what he was talking about, when he spoke about it for roughly 10 minutes, and repeated a whole bunch'a stuff. SIMPLE. After breakfast, we played cards! Mentiroso (sort of like BS), Go Fish (simple to explain, more fun when there is more than two of you), and Dutch Blitz! My host father arrived when we were just about to begin our third game (he loved it that much), so he played as well! It was hilarious! And much fun was had by all. We had lunch after cards, which consisted of a very different version of Chicken noodle soup, bread, salad, tortilla de patatas, SALMON and much much fruit. In the soup, instead of pieces of chicken, was a single meatball type item, in a broth of some sort (which we squeezed lemon juice into, for MORE flavor), with short spaghetti noodles. Different, but good! The tortillas de paptatas was left-overs from last night, but it was just what it sounds like. More of a pie than a tortilla actually, but it was filled with potatoes and other item sent straight from the cooking heaven, so it was VERY delicious. The salmon was great, because salmon is always great. And the fruit....OH the fruit. There is no comparison between peaches, watermelon, and cantelope from Publix, and the fruit from a fresh Mediterranean market. NO comparison. Heavenly. Fresh. Perfecto.
After lunch, it was time for gifts! I know it was silly to worry so much about if they would like it or not, but I actually felt like I had just won the lottery when they all said they gifts were perfect. Key Lime Liquer is the way to go! Of course, they all loved the Ghiradelli chocolate, and the picture book of Florida (translated in to Spanish, French, German, and English) as well! Next was the lovely Spanish tradition of SIESTAAAA<3 I didn't actually sleep, even though I was absolutely exhausted, but I began unpacking, and making sticky notes for items around my room...I've got to learn some how. Como se dice, and no entiendo, I'm sorry to say, are probably the most commonly used phrases from my miniature Spanish vocabulary at the moment, apart from vale, si, and gracias. Finally, to end the day, we went to a carnival sort of event along the Playa del Meditterraneo! It is always there, but recently it has been especially busy, because tourist season is ending, and everyone is paying their final visits. I got a braided bracelet with the colors of Spain, and then we had Kebap for dinner! I heard from my host family that it's the best in Torrevieja ( which doesn't sound very impressive, but based on the fact that there were three other Kebap restaraunts on the same street, I was impressed). It was great! I didn't very much like the salsa picante like I'd hoped I would once I arrived (silly, I know), but overall it was great. We saw some of Fernando's friends from school who are also studying music, and five of the 8 told me that they would teach me Spanish, if I would teach them English....UHHH YESSSSS! That brings me to a grand total of six tutors, and I've only been here for one day! Home after that, where we played parchese, a board game that was very easy to understand, and finally went to bed....Well, except for me of course. I'm still here, documenting my day for not only my avid readers, but myself as well! It's difficult to remember all that we did, when my memory box is full of assorted Spanish words and phrases to write down for later! Ah well, es la vida de estudiante de intercambio.
Well, buenas noches para ahora. Thanks for reading all that (if you made it this far), and I hope you enjoyed hearing about my adventures abroad. I certainly do enjoy making them, and I don't plan on missing out on a single opportunity to create more!
Besos, Nicole (Cole--my host mom) (Nik 'Neek'--my host brother) or (KNEEcole--my host father).
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