Two Weeks In…
Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.
Miguel Cervantes Don Quixote
Here we are, two weeks in, and this is what life is looking like…
what we eat:
lots of bread and cheese and yogurt. lots of bread and cheese and yogurt. kebabs and doners, pizza, seafood, ham (spain’s favorite), hot chocolate and churros (as often as possible), candy (obviously, it’s me), pastries (turns out europe does those well)
dave and pizza- the best things in life
seafood tapas, a national pastime
there are racks like this in most grocery stores. I had never seen so much ham before coming to spain
chocolate and churros, we are happy to do this one on repeat
candy!!! (check out the eggs)
macaroons are the ultimate dessert.I live for those beauties
what we do (besides eat):
walk, we walk everywhere. which I’ve chosen to believe balances out our eating. see new things- museums, castles, churches, parks, libraries, beaches, caves, parades, beautiful architecture, markets, street performers. more on all of that later. take pictures. read- I’ve got a goal to read a novel that corresponds with each location we are in.
what we wear:
pretty much the same three/four outfits on repeat. since it’s been chilly (yeah, yeah I’m a pansy), I’ve been wearing about half of my clothes all of the time.
things I miss:
american milk and hot showers.
new things I’ve learned about dave:
I already knew this, but it’s become even more apparent, Dave Clive travels well. his small span of emotion makes any situation pretty easy to handle. and he’s interested in everything, so we’ve been learning a lot. plus, he’s funny, so 24/7 life is pretty much a hoot. he’s doing a good job communicating. definitely not fluent but he is able to communicate with the people we interact with. he loves stracciatella yogurt, eats it twice a day.
things I’ve learned about myself:
I love kebabs, how had I never had one before this trip? I think pink buildings are adorable and I want to move into every one.
look how cute! dave isn’t digging the pink as much I am, pity
strange/funny/random:
I am not communicating well. a couple teenage girls tried to get me to answer a survey in a grocery story, I told them I didn’t speak spanish (which they clearly could tell) but I tried anyway. they would show me pictures and I pointed at ones I liked. I’m not actually sure what they were really asking. hopefully I didn’t screw up their data too much.
the internet in our apartment isn’t working. so currently, we are sitting in a lobby of the university of carlos III of madrid, pretending to be grad students. hopefully no one approaches us, because I’m assuming most grad students here can say more than ten words in spanish.
dave got his hair cut at a local barbershop in palma. apparently the dialogue went something like this:
dc (sitting in chair): haircut?
barber (already shaving dave’s head): this length?
dc: yeah
barber (after the haircut was mostly complete): okay?
dc: yeah, it’s good. thank you!
lots of dialogue happening here
the hours here are much later, the most exciting time to be out in madrid is between 9pm-midnight. our schedules are pretty shot. the only days we have woken up before 8am have been travel days. we are hoping to improve soon.
I have been passively prowling for mascara for a week. it’s much harder to find here than it was at home. I don’t think it’s worn as frequently over here?