Blog Abroad

Hey! I am now sitting in bed at Edison's house writing this, but am very tired as I have not been able to get much sleep. The flight was very long and uncomfortable although they did feed me dinner and breakfast. The girl who sat beside me actualy helped me alot when we got off of the plane and since we arrived so early in the morning, customs was empty and we made it through very easily. Edison met me at the exit which I appreciated very much, especially since I would have definitely gotten lost between the two trains it took to get here to Cabra. On the train rides I saw a TON of olive trees, but also a lot of open grass with only the occasional house or small town. There were several old stone buildings along the way which I would guess used to be watch towers.

Since having arrived, I have realized that understanding Spanish is not as hard as I expected, but speaking it is much harder than I would have thought as I still have a very limited vocabulary, so I struggle a little to talk to Edison's parents sometimes. As celebration on New Year's in Spain, families often make feast-sized meals. We ate a lot of appetizer sorts followed by a broth-based soup and a Turkey breast. We washed it all down with two different flavors of flan which were both delicious, by the way. After the clock strikes midnight, it chimes twelve times to let you know the hour. For each chime, people in Spain put a grape in their mouth and make a wish, but the chimes are so fast that you end up with chipmunk cheeks! We then toasted to a New Year with champagne, which I now know I do not like.

Some other fun things I learned today are: public restrooms in Spain do not have a door to close off the restroom, only stalls. Light switches are not actually switches, but buttons you press. Toilets do not have a tab to push to flush, but instead there is a large round button on the top of the toilet. Some families do not flush toilet paper, but instead they throw it in a wastebasket.