Day 17

Sunday

So even though I went to bed around 5am I got up around noon. Not too shabby. I decided I wanted to go to the rastro (flea market) so I showered and had some lunch and got ready to go. I finally got there around 2pm and just wandered a bit until I ran into Emily and her friend Fabian. They wanted to go get a coffee so I decided to join them instead of buying lots of things I don’t need. Hehe. On our way to get coffee we passed by people selling DVDs (of course illegal bootlegs and some of them were filmed in the theater) and I decided I wanted to get some because we have no cable, or internet, and I don’t see my roommates often so I have nothing to do. I picked out “Monster House” and “Volver” (a Spanish movie by Almodovar-a famous director here) and it was 5euro total. I was very excited about the fact that I had movies and that it would be interesting because they would be in Spanish. So we sat down and instead of coffee, Fabian got a cerveza (beer), Emily got a tinto de verano (basically red wine and sprite), and I got a glass of white house wine. We also got some tapas. Emily and Fabian got some mussels and then we also all shared some patatas bravas (basically fried chunks of potatoes that come with a lot of Mexican food in the US). The bravas came with two different sauces. One sauce is pretty popular here, it’s called Ali-Oli. It’s basically mayonnaise and garlic. After our little “snack” we went back to Emily’s and Fabian left to go to Valencia (where he will be studying this year) so we all said goodbye. Then I used Emily’s internet for a bit to post my most recent blogs. We both decided that a postre (dessert) would be a good idea so we started walking around. We discovered a ton of cervecerias (bars) and restaurants that Emily didn’t know about. We also discovered how close she is to this big park and a very neat bridge which I will show pictures of. We walked through the park a little and discovered they were setting up for a festival which was kind of neat. We wandered a little more and discovered a pasteleria (dessert store)!!! I got something that was layered with basically flaky stuff and cream and powdered sugar and Emily got something that was flaky stuff with a orange marmalade inside. Unfortunately to me, Emily’s tasted like Pine Sol and I told her that and then had to explain what PineSol was because she didn’t know. It’s interesting every time we all have conversations because we have to say, well in the US this is how it’s done because to make a generalization that that’s how it is all over does not work. You have to be very conscious of the words you use as well. For instance, the word college doesn’t really exist for many places, or it means school in general or for Spanish in can mean high school. You have to say University or people very often get confused. The “major” you’re studying doesn’t work and some people assume that “roommate” means who you share a room with, not who you share an apartment/flat with. It’s very interesting every time because you always learn something new. Anyway, so we ate our desserts in the park and then headed back. I hopped on the metro and went on my way home. I stopped by an alimentacion (somewhat an equivalent of a gas station-pricewise but with more groceries) and got some pan (bread) and a tortilla de patatas (kind of like a big round hashbrown with some eggs and onions) to make another day. I came home and made some dinner and then watched Monster House which actually I understood even though it was in Spanish. I actually typed this the day of so my day isn’t finished yet, but I assume I might shower and then go to bed (or also wait for a call from Mike J ). I can’t wait to have internet so I can keep better in touch with you. I will talk to you all soon and I love you so much. Night!!!