newest addition to fast food menus

so apparently, you can buy cervesas (also known as beer) at Mcdonalds and Burger King as your beverage. yum. such a terrible idea for the united states. oh and yesterday while i went swimming at my friend´s house, her 13 year old host sister and her 2 friends were just smoking cigarettes and drinking tinto de verano (a famous alcoholic beverage here). what??? spain is muy loco!!!

My trip to Segovia

This past weekend (our first weekend here), the MSU group traveled to Segovia, Spain for the day(Saturday). It´s about 1 1/2 hours away and was such a beautiful scenic drive there! Even though we left really early, I couldn´t fall asleep bc i didn´t want to miss out on the beauty! Don´t worry I got pictures! When we got there, we visited a castle, el Alcazar. It was beautiful, and so ornately decorated. Each ceiling in the rooms was different. It´s had many uses throughout the years, a monarch´s castle, a school, a library, and now a musuem. We saw the room of all the Spanish monarchs, a room full of actual weapons used in the olden times, the dungeon, the tower (had to walk up 127 steps), and the most gorgeous views!!! And then after that we went to an old Catholic Cathedral, beautiful as well! We couldn´t take pictures, but I´m sure you can imagine how grand and tall the ceilings were with all the paintings and sculptures of different biblical scenes! And then after that we saw 2000 year old Aqueducts! It is supposedly the way the city used to get water to Segovia. And Segovia is a sister town to Italy. If you can imagine what Italy looks like, it´s similar to what Segovia looked like. Then, on Sunday, the group went to Madrid, Spain. It was a 25 minute train ride. While we were there we went to the Prado, the museum full of Renaissance paintings like Goya, Rembrandt, etc. Really impressive, I mean I´m not much of an artist so I didnt quite understand the entire beauty, but I can definitely appreciate actual works painted years and years ago!! pretty cool! We also went to the museum, ReinaSofia. It was a modern art museum, full of really weird things. It wasn´t my favorite museum, but it was definitely an experience. The coolest part was seeing Picasso´s famous painting ¨"Guernica"! I never knew how big it was, only know what I´ve seen in the textbooks. The museum had all of his stages of the painting, each character in the painting´s progress as he did his scratch work! Just really neat, but I couldn´t take any pictures inside here. Then we just went to the Plaza Mayor, the main square, which was an experience in itself! There were so many people just hanging out, getting food, drinking. I loved it! There was alot of ppl trying to earn money. For example, a man dressed up as spiderman takings pictures with the people. He was fat and it was hilarious. There was also a man dressed up as a woman dancing, 2 mimes. One of which was a man in a rabbit suit. And the e.u. elections were 2 days ago, I believe, so there were 2 guys doing a skit of the candidates! On sundays in Madrid, they also have big street markets, like a flea market, where you can bargain. I tried to bargain for some sunglasses, and he wouldn´t budge. So I didn´t get them. They were 6 euros, about 9 u.s. dollars, i wanted them for 4 euros! bc i could get them in the states for 6 bucks!! But no cigar!! I´m going again some other sunday this summer! And now, this weekend some of the msu group is going to Salemanca, Spain for one day!! It´s supposed to be even more beautiful than Segovia, so sign me up! Mom, you would definitely be having God moments!

The food

The food. sigh. It´s a toss up how I feel about it. I explained how the meals work and what time people eat what. But the food is very different. For breakfast, I eat Special K cereal!! woop woop with strawberries! Really american, I know, but they have it in the grocery store. The first week I was there I ate "maiz tostado", which is basically toasted flakes, without sugar, so she put the sugar out as if she knew me already!! I love my host mom! And I think she really likes me. For lunch, I can´t complain! I´ve really liked the foods that she´s made me so far! It usually consists of rice with something else. I had paella yesterday, which is yellow(really good) rice with chicken, muscles, shrimp, and really whatever else you want to put in it! But the muscles were really good!! I was proud of myself! And I´ve also had something that looks steak quesadilla meat on white rice! Also really good! Dinner is on my own! I bought some peanut butter from the grocery store(definitely not as big of a food item over here), cream cheese and bagels, this awesome looking and tasting spanish dessert. It´s like a rich brownie with budding in different layers!! Definitely will buying that this summer! And i also got some choc chip muffins, and turkey-ham sandwhich meat! But at dinner time, alot of our group has been meeting up and eating at places. Places like burger king, pizza places, and a sandwhich shop. But all I really want is a genuine dinner meal!! WITH VEGGIES, BREAD, AND A STINKING RE-FILL WITHOUT HAVING TO PAY FOR IT! that´s my one complaint. Water isn´t free, and if you want a second drink you have to pay for it. You had to walk to the restaurant so you´re thirsty already, and then they sit the drink in front of you, you drink half of it, then you´re food comes, and then you´re fresh out of a drink!! not cool espana, not cool. mom, i miss your dinners!!! but this week sometime, Ana, our MSU leader is taking us all out to eat (paid for) to an italian restaurant so maybe I can get refills of water for free! but i could definitely get used to all the great desserts over here. I´m in heaven!! :)

My classes

So....I get busy..sorry for not being a very good blogger! But I started my classes last wednesday! Those 3 days were probably the longest week ever. The days went by so slow. We took a test to see what level we would start out in. I´m basically in the lower level of the advanced level. But there are 2 levels above me! But I´m with the highest level people from MSU. So it´s a little difficult. We´re not learning new themes, but they are the more difficult ones. In my class we have one Chinese girl named Ariana (but i´m pretty sure that´s what her spanish name is), another korean girl named Carmen (who is I hate to say it, kind of skanky), and a girl from Brasil (named Daniela). Everyone else is from the U.S. There is this one girl who is not from State, but from Seattle, and she annoys the heck out of me. When she speaks Spanish it sounds like she is singing. Me molesta(it bothers me). But I have 3 classes each day. I go from 9 until 2:30. I have grammar from 9 till 11, then we all get a break from 11 till 11:30, then we have conversation with Jesus from 11:30 till 12:30, get a 5 min break, and then another hour of conversation. Then from 1:30 till 2:30 we have culture class. For the first week we just watched a movie, La lengua de las mariposas, about the spanish civil war. Jesus is my favorite teacher! He´s really enthusiastic and funny, and is the most conscience of speaking clearly! Grammar is in the morning, so Im usually tired! And Inaki is my culture teacher(for now, it changes each week) and I can´t understand his spanish ever! During our 30 min break I eat my snack that my host mom packs me. It usually varies. For the past 2 days I´ve had a sandwhich with nutella(bascially chocolate cream)...VERY GOOOOOD! but she´s also packed me a ham and cheese sandwhich, but when i say ham, it´s not the ham i like from home. But that´s another blog in itself.

Monday, our first day we got to kind of get to know Alcala. School didn´t start till Wednesday, so monday was pretty sweet. The ppl of Alcala are so chill, very laid back. I still havent quite figured out why there´s so many ppl walking around during the daytime. It´s like no one has a job because there are so many people out in the Plaza de Cervantes just out and about. It surprised me when I finally saw a man in a business suit! Monday, my feet hadnt quite begun to the feel the pain that would come from walking so dang much! But walking around I heard alot of american music which was really amusing to me, like Lil Wayne, Jason Mraz, Lady Gaga, John Mayer, and T.I. I highly doubt they know what the lyrics are saying. But the style here is really different too, especially from the south. I´ve seen alot of mullets and manpris...also know as man capris. Obviously mullets are back in style, run and tell the neighbors! The guys here would probably be considered gay in the U.S., but here it´s just fashionable. I haven´t met any spaniards yet. But i thought yall would find it interesting the famous drink here in Alcala, tinto de verano. Its red wine mixed with sparkling somethinig or other. But wine is very big here. and so is jamon (ham)...ham on everything! In the morning I eat cereal...they have basiclaly frosted flakes, except a spanish brand, and i bought some special k with strawberrys. After lunch, the "dessert" is yogurt. not much of a dessert to me. donde esta el chocolate????? but the food really isnt that bad. well tuesday we take a placement test at the universidad to see what classes we start out in. and then after that later on in the afternoon, we have a tour of the different buildings of the university! Very old stuff!!

So, after basically 24 hours of flying, I landed in Madrid at 10:30ish on sunday may 31. We left from Memphis, then flew to Houston, TX, then to Newark and THEN to Madrid. The flight from Houston to Newark was awesome! Probably the coolest plane I´ve been on. All the seats had tvs where you could listen to music, watch shows, play games, or watch movies. Needless to say, I watched Taken (again)...probably not the smartest idea! And the ride to Madrid was MISERABLE. It was freezing and I swear they gave us tissues for blankets. Ken, I don´t know if you would have even liked this cold. So I never fell asleep on any of the flights, especially the Madrid one. But we land and I get both of my bags smoothly, and then we caught a bus to meet our host families in Alcala de Henares, Spain. I was expecting major awkwardness. And it kind of was. But my host family is Vanesa and Jesus, accent mark on the "u", and they have 2 little kids, Oscar and Claudia. Oscar is 5, and Claudia is almost 2. They are really cute. I learned how to say "high five" in spanish! pretty neat! That first night I did not feel so good, and I was having major texture issues with the food. And i usually like everything! But that passed and now I´ve been eating basically everything. These people eat ALL THE TIME. breakfast is "desayuno", lunch is "comida", which we eat at like 3:00, and then "tapas", similar to munchies and people get some drinks at that time too, and then dinner "cena" at like 9:00. It´s pretty ridiculous, the food schedule here. But I walk ALL the time because I live 30 min away...its a pretty long wakl to school each day. So have no fear parentals....I´m DEFINITELY getting my exercise. The first night I had rice with "fideos", kind of smaller brown pastas, some baked chicken, and bbq....which honestly was some of the worst bbq i´ve had. I´ve been too spoiled. They don´t put any sauce on it, at least not this one! But i slept like a baby that first night needless to say!