Spanish word of the day: Membrillo

It's been a busy few days over here with class and homework and every day things! I'm learning a lot already and trying lots of new foods so that's exciting. That also means I haven't blogged in while because I get too sleepy at night and just push it off until the next day. I'll try to do short recaps because I need a nap today before heading out to do more things. 

Tuesday: After class, I came home for lunch and had a delicious lintel bean soup, I think, with chorizo and then some fresh fish! With my group we went out to the Palacio de Magdalena. It used to be a summer home for King Alfonso XIII and his family for many years and then housed an international university and now is simply a historical monument. Below the palace is a mini zoo with penguins and sea lions and at one time, polar bears. Then you hike up to the top of the hill where the palace is located and simply walk around and look at the beautiful view of the city from all sides. It is not opened to the public to tour unfortunately. On the way back, I rode the bus for the first time and at one point was the only person on the bus when the driver decided to take a 15 minute break so that was an adventure. We had hamburgers that night for dinner except it was just the meat and cheese and then french fries, no bun. Also an adventure. 

sea lion friends 

Palacio de Magdalena 

Bikini Beach- when Spain was under dictatorship, the women covered up at the beach, but the private beach of the palace housed international students and female students wore bikinis. Hence the name.

Wednesday: we learned a ton in school yesterday. It was crazy. I won't bore you with it now though. It also rained a lot. Our whole walk to school it rained. For lunch, Ana fed me way too much food, but I ate it all (we had a very yummy carrot and pumpkin soup!) and then had a cup of coffee and then watched the news with her. I then met up with people to do a bit of shopping and by that I mean we went to Zara. If you haven't heard of that store, maybe you've been living under a rock or maybe you just don't like shopping, but take a minute and look it up, quite interesting. I spent too much and I don't have room for it, but I'll feel very Euro when I wear the clothes so that's what matters right? It rained on us again when we left so that was fun... For dinner we had sandwiches with tuna, ham, lettuce, cheese, and tomato on them. It was actually really good, and I ate two. Then came time for me to try dessert. Ana had to explain it to me in detail because it was very strange. It was a gelatinous looking substance, but it was in solid blocks around the plate with cheese in the middle. Fruit they make the dessert with is called el Membrillo, which in English is called Quince (ironic). I have never heard of the fruit quince but apparently it's a thing. Here they take the meat of the fruit and make it into almost like a stick of applesauce. That's the best way to describe it and is called Dulce del Membrillo. 

this is the dessert form of membrillo, que interesante no?

Today: had my first quiz in school and we finally started learning about civilization things in my spanish civ class instead of modern day Spain so we are going places now. For lunch, we had some salad and then some kind of chicken-like meat with vegetables and mashed potatoes and then an unbelievably delicious and sweet white chocolate ice cream with milk chocolate pieces on top. I then showed them what mango is hahaha Ana bought two at the store the other day, but they were a little too hard to eat until today. So Ana, Ana, and Javier sat at the table and watched as I peeled it, and struggled to cut off pieces, and then ate around the pit so they could see it. Mom Ana didn't really like it at all, and daughter Ana thought it was pretty good, but sweet. I then proceeded to eat the rest of it! Then Javier, daughter Ana and I watched a lot of stuff about fútbol so that was fun sibling time. 

Now on to the rest of the day. I chose to update y'all on my life and not take a nap and am going to meet a friend to run at a park. We shall see how this goes. Gotta burn off all the food I've been given! Tomorrow I leave for Seville and Granada and maybe Córdoba so you'll have to check back Monday for an update on that trip. I have never been more excited to go to a place that's 90 degrees and sunny. I miss the sun and sweating. 

So, hasta luego! 

me on top of the world