Comida...foooood

Yesterday my Papa Newcomer brought to my attention there are some words on the blog that are in Spanish, and of course, these words may make it difficult to understand the blog. Here I’ll translate everything to make it a little easier to navigate.

Datos personales – personal information

Ver todo mi perfil – see all of my profile

Seguir – to follow (the blog)

Seguidores – followers (people that follow the blog)

¿Ya eres miembro? – Are you already a member?

Acceder - access

Archivo del blog – blog archive

Publicado por – published by

Comentarios – comments

Página principal – main page

Hopefully everyone can understand it a little better now! Anyway, today I attempted to make my first Spanish tortilla, which is made with eggs, thinly sliced potatoes and chopped onions. It almost looks like a quiche, but without the crust. A tortilla is easy to make, however it fills up the entire pan so it is hard to flip. In order to flip the tortilla, I placed another frying pan on top of the first one and awkwardly turned it upside down while my roommate Nataschia watched (most likely expecting me to fail miserably). Although some of the potatoes and eggs fell out (making a huge mess), I think that I was semi-successful. It also turned out pretty tasty! I shared it with Tyler, Nataschia and our other roommate Valentina. They all said it was very good also. With a little more practice, I’ll be a tortilla master by the time I come home.

After trying my prized tortilla, Valentina introduced me to “ndujia” (don't even ask me how to pronounce it), which is a type of meat that’s only found in her hometown of Sorianello, Italy. It is spread on toast or even put in different pasta dishes and it’s interesting, to say the least. It looks like the meat that is inside of sausage and it’s very, very spicy. I tried it with the toast and actually liked it. She’s an awesome cook and loves to show me the different foods that are eaten in her region of Italy.

Things are still going well and I proud to say that I have not gotten homesick yet. I’m sure it will happen at some point, but I love all of the different things that I’m experiencing so I can’t imagine that I will be anytime soon! The rest of the day will be spent relaxing, as we were out until about 4:30 AM last night. It’s a rough life here in Spain.

 Pre-flip...so far, so good

Post-flip...it was a lot messier. This was after cleaning up a bit.

The finished product!

I took a quick picture of the ndujia.

I thought I should include a picture of Valentina too; I'll miss her when she leaves!

El primer día de clases...the first day of classes

Classes started today (except for one because the professor was sick), and none of them seem to be too difficult. I was surprised at how laid-back the professors are, because many of the students will talk while they are talking and the professors really don’t seem to care. It’s almost annoying because the professors speak very quietly, so it makes it nearly impossible to hear. I guess I’ll have to remember to sit a little bit closer to the front next time. I’m going to be taking three courses this semester, all of which are in the same room and one right after another. It’s very convenient.

In our class we met a bunch of other students from Spain and they invited us to get a beer with them because the second class was canceled. I’m amazed at how often everyone drinks here. When we got to the little bar across from the campus, everyone ordered a beer or an “anís” on the rocks (liquor that tastes a lot like Sambuca). While we were there, a girl named Pipa taught me how to make origami swans. The students in my class are trying to make 1,000 of them (each with a name and a message) for a student that was in a car accident over winter break. I made two of them, and I think we will probably be making more tomorrow!

The trip has started!

After months of preparations and planning, I can't believe that I am finally in Spain. Even more, I can't believe that I am already five days into my stay! Despite the slow, laid-back way of life here, time passes quickly. I am always amazed when I look at my watch and see that it is already six in the evening.

Much has happened in these first couple days. I've already met a lot of other international students from Italy, Germany, Austria, Scotland, Mexico and many other countries, all of whom are very nice and fun to be around. On Friday, La Universidad de Burgos threw a welcoming party at a local bar called El Cielo for all of the internationals. We stayed there for awhile and then left to check out some other bars in the area.

Last night our friends María, Belén and Álvaro took us out for Spanish tapas, or little appetizers, which is something that they normally do here to start out a typical night. When people go out for tapas, everyone in the group contributes about five euros before ordering, and each person gets a tapa and a glass of wine or a beer. Once the tapa and drink are finished, the group will continue on to other tapas bars for another of each. Last night we went to about four different bars for tapas and all of it was delicious. Afterwards we went to a pub to play a couple drinking games and drink Calimocho, which is half red wine, half coca-cola. It might sound gross but it’s great! It’s my new favorite drink. We went to a couple of other places throughout the night, all of which were packed with people and a lot of fun. Here in Spain everyone stays out until about four in the morning and many people will stay out until six or seven. Needless to say, I didn’t wake up very early this morning.

Today was very warm and sunny so Tyler and I went exploring through the city to get to know our way around better, and to see how long it takes to walk to the university from our apartment. There were so many people out just walking around and relaxing on benches, so I guess that everyone was trying to take advantage of the nice weather like we were. After walking around for awhile we were able to find the castle in Burgos, which is at the top of a mountain outside of the city. The view of the city is breathtaking and I’d love to go up there at night to see Burgos all lit up. Fortunately, Tyler had his camera with him so he took plenty of pictures of the beautiful scenery.

My classes at the university will start tomorrow and I am actually pretty excited to see what they will be like. I’ve been told that they don’t require very much work outside of class, which will be great if that is true! I want to have as much free time as possible so that I can really enjoy my time here in España. :)