Dank Muff (Amanda)

Ok, so while I agree with Corey for the most part, I have my own take on some of the cultural aspects, and a few more that he didn´t mention that I have found to be very interesting.

First of all, his food situation seems to be a little better than mine. While I am very easy to please in the food category and will eat just about anything you put in front of me, the schedule has been a little difficult for me to get used to. For breakfast, I have a cup of espresso filled with whole milk (which even for me is a bit much first thing in the morning) and these very sweet cookies which are literally just butter, sugar, and flour. I have to eat at least 5 if I don´t want to starve to death, and even those only tide me over until about 11. We don´t eat lunch until 2:30, so we usually go to a cafe or a bakery to get something during our break at 12, which is obviously fine by me BUT we also go to a cafe in the afternoon between lunch and dinner AND usually a cafe or bar almost every night after dinner. So that adds up to be between 5 and 10 euros a day just on snacks and drinks alone... and that doesn´t count going out at night. Maybe that´s just inevitable but it seems like I´m buying a lot of food for already having paid for 3 meals a day. But we found our favorite cafe and favorite pasteleria (owned by the perfect little Spanish woman to own a bakery... cute, soft spoken, young, nice. Just like a movie, it´s wonderful) near Cursos, and I guess spending the money is all part of being here. But overall I like Conchi´s (mi madre) cooking, and even though I feel obliged to clean the plate, mealtimes are usually very pleasant and even sometimes exciting when she makes something new.

I must say that my favorite thing about the culture is how there are cafes and pastelerias and cervecerias and all sorts of food/hang out places all over the city. People are always going to hang out and have a coffee or drinks or tapas at all hours of the day (except from about 2-5, during which the city literally sleeps for 3 hours). I also love how the city comes to life at about 9 every night when people of all ages come out for tapas/dinner time and it doesn´t die down... especially on nights when students go out... until 5 or 6 AM. It is a very social culture and people spend most of their time outside their houses (which is very different from home, but I didn´t realize how much it changes the way of life until i got here).

Another thing I´ve noticed is that the Spanish men are not nearly as aggressive as everyone said they were going to be. All of the Spanish men I´ve met are very nice and even put in some effort to flirt instead of assuming we are easy American girls. The Brazilian men, on the other hand, are a completely different story. They´re crazy. Really good looking, but crazy. Something else is that the few times I have happened to make eye contact with a cute guy on the streets, they smile and say ¨adios¨. It really caught me off guard the first few times because we hadn´t even said ¨hola¨yet. I guess that´s how it works here though? Or maybe they are just letting me know they´re not sticking around and really do just mean ¨goodbye¨. Haha, it´s really not a big deal at all/huge cultural difference, I just thought it was interesting.

Anyway... tonight I went out for tapas with Evelyn and Jillian instead of going home for dinner and it was really nice. I can definitely get used to doing that after psych (since it goes until 9!). I started talking to one of the waiter guys who worked behind the counter and he could tell I wasn´t a fluent Spanish speaker (SHOCKING) and corrected me on some of my phrases (I really appreciate when people do that... we are clearly here to learn and it´s nice when people take time out to help!). Anyways, he is just starting to learn English and I told him that I am clearly trying to learn Spanish, so we exchanged numbers and are going to meet this weekend for an intercambio. I am SO excited because I am still so self conscious and not confident about speaking Spanish, especially to Spaniards, and I think this will literally be the best way to improve. And who knows, maybe it will be a good way to meet other Spanish people. The guy seemed really nice (and very cute, claro) so hopefully it will be a good experience.

Well, I am still deciding if I´m going out tonight... I met a girl from Belgium in one of my classes who is awesomeee (I kind of maybe want to be her, if possible) and we were planning on meeting up somewhere to intermix our friends, so maybe I will do that. I´ve been tired and lazy though, so we´ll see. I had the scariest nightmares all night last night, and have been in a very strange mood/really tired from not sleeping well. OH, and Adriana is coming to Spain soon EEEEE I cannot wait.

Hasta luego,
Amanda

P.S. My favorite quote from my teacher today: ¨Everything that is popular in America gets popular about 3 months later here... MacDonalds, Lady GaGa... ADHD¨. Funny.