French Tortilla

Hey, I'm back!!! AND I just finished lunch... it is about 3:45ish Spain time :)
Lunch = yuck. It was some kind of white beans... yuck. Cold tomatoes... yuck. Tuna... yuck. Green olives... yuck. Onions... okay, though preferably not cold. Egg... okay, depending on the way it is cooked.

Conchi decided that the reason I didn't seem to like it was because I am still unaccustomed to the amount of Olive Oil they use... not so sure about that. But then, she brought out the usual fruity dessert.... an Apple (yum) that was big enough to be a meal by itself!

I have found that a lot of food we are eating here is very similar to what we eat at home, but different. For example, last night I ate 3 hot dogs (though they looked like better quality meat than our hot dogs and were smaller in size) and mashed potatoes (not the real kind, but still pretty good). I don't USUALLY eat these together, but I like them both. She also gave me Ketchup. :) The night before, we had a potato soup which was REALLY tasty. Conchi also made what I have since learned is considered the French Tortilla. It is an egg cooked on the stove like normal but flat like a tortilla. To go with this, we had a slice of Bologna.

In other news, Monique has moved out into another house so I now have my own room and, more importantly, my own fan. yay! A word about that.... Monique was soooo rude! She arranged to be moved out and the school called Conchi during the day to tell her. Monique told me at school, but didn't come home with me. Later, while I was eating lunch with Conchi and Nacho, she came into the house and the kitchen, looked directly at me (and only me) and told me, IN ENGLISH, to tell Conchi she was getting her stuff and not coming back. Then she left, and went into the room to get her stuff. Conchi went in there after a few minutes and was talking to her. She was pretty much asking for Monique to go say goodbye and thank you to Nacho. (He had helped her when her luggage hadn't been here at first and had let her use his phone and stuff). But Moniue just kept saying "No entiendo. No entiendo." (I don't understand.). Then she left. The weirdest part was that she didn't even take everything! And. later that week, a box arrived for her from her mom with a few pants, shirts and underwear in case she hadn't received her luggage yet. They were boy clothes. Conchi thought that was the weirdest  thing ever, and I had to agree it was pretty strange.

One of the worst parts about that whole situation is that Conchi likes to discuss it with me over and over and over again. Now I have nothing against Spaniards, right, but they are racist. I'm not just talking in an "under the table" sort of secret way... but like in a "full out everyone knows" kind of way. To be fair, they have a lot of issues with people coming over illegally from Africa and causing trouble around the city, so it is no surprise they act the way they do a bit. Conchi had never hosted a "persona de calor" as she calls Monique, but had assumed it would really be no different than any other person...her mind is forever changed. It is a little sad that Monique's bad attitude has negatively influenced Conchi, but there is really no remedy for that.

I think I mentioned it before, but it is hot here!... though without humidity, so honestly it feels a lot better to me. Since I am not used to Celsius, though, I only just now realized that we went over a hundred at least three or four out of the eight days I have been here, maybe more.Thankfully, I have been very fortunate, I now realize, in ending up with Conchi. The only room in her house that has air conditioning is the kitchen, but she uses it freely, so that is nice. Also, she placed a fan in my room for me to use. She has actually come into my room before when I've not had it on and scolded me for not using it! This is completely different from some of the other students in my program! Some of them aren't allowed to use a fan even if they buy it themselves!

Also, in other news, I have figured out a little more of Conchi's children... Miguel is the oldest and lives in Malaga from what I can tell. I am in his old room, which has a bunch of sports posters, most of then American, including a SIGNED Michael Jordan poster. Cool. Now for Rosa and Nacho.... you'll never guess... TWINS! I think Rosa is older though. I am still not sure what she does, but Nacho gets up really early in the morning and works till about 3pm.They are both nearing 30 years old. Apparently in Spain, though, it is completely normal for kids to  live at home until in their 30s when they get married and move away. Miguel isn't married, so I am assuming he moved for work. I didn't want to ask in case it was a touchy subject, but the Mr. Conchi (or whatever his name was) appears to be deceased. Conchi's mother was over the other day, though... ancient! But Conchi was feeling particularly generous and fed me some of the ice cream they were sharing!

Hmm, what else? Oh yeah: SPAIN IS GOING TO THE WORLD CUP FINAL!
It is funny how many Spaniards were sure they would loose the semi-final. When they won, they lost it. Seriously. They were crying, screaming, running through the streets and jumping into the river and fountains.... some of them were even sin ropa  0_0

Umm... lets see.... I have started my classes. From 9am-11am I take Conversations with Dr T. Then, I have to high-tail it to the other building for my 11am-12pm Historia class. After that, I have a 1:30 to 2:30 Spanish Civilization and Culture class, then home for lunch :)

What is weird about classes here is that when teachers miss class, they just assign makeup classes or replacement classes. My History teacher, for example, missed the first day, so yesterday, he told us we had to come back later for another hour of class. And my Civ and Culture teacher made us stay an extra hour after class yesterday as well because she wanted to cancel class today. Dislike. Why should they get to do that??

Anyway, so this weekend is our only completely free weekend while we are here. I am pretty sure I am going down to Gibraltar tomorrow which I hope will be really awesome :) That's all for right now I guess.... time for my siesta (which reminds me, we Americans should also petition for a nationally recognized nap time).
Hasta luego.

Tortilla Espanola

Okay, July 2nd 2010
Friday, Day 2.... Test Day.
Test? We had to take a placement test at 9am so the people at the University of Granada could make sure we were placed in teh correct class level. There were three parts:
1.) Written.... I got about a 6/9 on this.
2.) Grammar.... 4/9... yeah....
3.) Oral.... 5/9ish
My average? Still not sure what they officially decided but it was a 5 or a 6. So, yay!!!!!

This is my breakfast...for today and every day while I'm here!

I should tell you about Breakfast, though. When Monique and I woke up, we went to the kitchen. Conchi asked what we wanted to drink. When I asked if she had milk, she wanted to know if I wanted chocolate or sugar put into it and if I wanted her to heat it up. She looked a little weird-ed out when I kept wanting plain white milk. It was room temperature. eww. She also gave each of us one piece of toast and then put a basket of these cracker-like things in front of us. Monique didn't really like the cracker things so she asked for another piece of toast. I seriously thought Conchi was going to throw a fit. She kept saying things like "One piece of toast EACH and then the crackers." Then, she huffed off and brought Monique another piece of toast. She said "TWO pieces of toast each morning, now. You will get TWO pieces."
Monique speaks practically no Spanish, mind you, and does not seem very interested in trying, so communicating is going to be a hassle.  Whew, but with that out of the way, we prepared to head  off to the school.

Conchi walked with us to the University for our tests so we would know where to go... it is about ten minutes away.I might have never found it, though if it wasn't for her! While we walked, she pointed out things along the way, like a really old movie theatre or a big fountain. She tried asking us about ourselves a bit, but Monique kept lagging behind and was uncooperative.

This is the school. Unreal, right? It is just this cute courtyard! Actually, it reminds me of my high school, which also had Spanish styled courtyards like this. The top had a retractable roof to create shade during the afternoons. 

After the tests, we had an "orientation." Basically, Thompson told us some stuff and then some lady gave us some papers to fill out and then this guy (I will call him Rec Guy until I remember his name) told us about  activities we could participate in.

This is the whole UCF group!

When we finally went home for lunch.... Spaghetti!!! It was very Hamburger Helper tasting though, and Conchi gave us each about four times the amount that I would ever be able to eat in one setting...and then grumbled when we couldn't finish it. Monique didn't like it, but I thought it tasted okay even if there was wayyy too much to eat. There was also a girl there, Rosa, who looks to be in her late twenties. At first I had no idea what she was doing there, but then she explained that she was Conchi's daughter who also live at the house. Apparently she had been out until late the night before.
While we were eating, Rosa asked if I wanted a Banana as well. I would eat a couple bites of Spaghetti then take a bite of banana and so forth.... Rosa could not believe it! She kept saying "No, No, the Banana is for after the meal. You like them together?" This leads me to believe that fruit is more like a dessert.
After lunch, Monique wanted to go out for a bit but first Conchi taught us how to work her locks. She has a crazy door! It has four dead bolts that close when the key is turned all the way... no amount of credit-carding will get you through these locks!
So I stayed in, trying to get the internet to work.... got to Skype with dad (yay) and then went and walked around for a bit. I could see the hills and mountains through the buildings.There is still snow on the tops!


When I got back, Monique had just taken a shower and had been told she was using too much water. Now our showers the first day had been about 5 minutes each... I thought that was pretty good for two United States girls, right? Instead, Conchi wants us to get wet then turn the water off and wash ourselves THEN turn the water on again to rinse off. I tried my best to use AS LITTLE WATER AS POSSIBLE when I went in next.I was not lectured, so I guess I did an all right job.
Okay, so it is 9:30 right now as I am writing this, and I am HUNGRY! Monique was laying down so I went into the kitchen to see what was for dinner. Nobody was there. Well, I didn't know what to do about that so I went back to the room and told Monique. Thankfully, Conchi's daughter popped her head out of her room just then and told us she was making dinner. Back in a flash!

~*~

Hello again!
About dinner...I did not eat much. Now I know I am a pretty picky eater sometimes but you'd think I would like at least one thing in a meal.
1.) Spanish Tortilla. Now, I've had some of these that did not taste too outrageous but this one tasted like mayonnaise. Cold mayonnaise. For those of you who don't know... a Spanish tortilla is generally made out of potatoes and eggs and is approximately an inch thick.
2.) Salad. I DO NOT like salad. It just taste like leaves to me. This one had some tuna stuff in it too, I think. I ate some to be polite...and in the hopes that my salad aversion might have gone away, but I did not enjoy it!
3.) Bread with a sort of think buttery/cheesy spread (this is pretty common in Europe) with some large pepperoni-like slices of meat on top.
I pretty much ate the bread and it's spread. For the record, I might have eaten more of the meat but it was hard to bite off with the bread. I also ate a pear afterwords.

After dinner, Monique and I walked around until about 11- which is not very late here. In fact, we passed streets and alleys full of restaurants and bars that were overflowing with people. There were people of all ages out late, too including families with small children. Some of the streets in the most popular sections have lights strung overhead, which are nice to walk around under. 


It was pretty interesting. We headed back and I am pretty much set to go to sleep right away... I think Monique is still adjusting to the time change here though. The Beach is tomorrow!