Day 13 - La Vida Te Da Sorpresas

I must say, perhaps more than anything, Spain has taught me how to appreciate everything I have.

For instance, now, when I get on the internet, I am so thankful that it works. So thankful that I don’t have to try and hurry and do all I can on the internet in 5 minutes because the signal may go out at any minute.

And food. For some reason, I was really, really hungry this morning, so I got a tortilla española, and it was so DELICIOUS!

It’s not to say that I’m going without food, obviously, but it just works differently here. They legitimately only have three meals a day here, and that’s not what my body is used to. I don’t eat a lot at once in the States, but I eat often during the day.

So, today, it was the best class so far with María after our morning break because we took the whole hour to talk about Spanish food and customs.

She kept repeating, “La comida es para hablar” (Meals are for talking). And we talked about how in Spain, they literally eat the WHOLE animal. For example, the whole head of a fish (except the eyes), and the whole head of a pig. They chop up pig ears and dip them in sauces. I don’t know if I can deal with that. Maybe if no one tells me what it is. Maybe. We talked about how here, both hands have to be above the table at all times, and it’s REALLY hard for me not to have one hand below the table when I eat, I’ve noticed. Just what I’ve been used to, I guess. She talked about how EVERY meal is eaten together – no one EVER eats alone, unless it’s a strange exception. She said that if she and her husband have the same work schedule, he will wait for her to get home so they can eat together. And if she’s running late and calls him and tells him to go ahead and eat, they will argue about it because he will say that he wants to wait for her. I like that a lot J

We talked about how Spaniards always interrupt each other during conversation, and how parents teach children to take small bites when eating because they may need to interject into the conversation at any moment. Kinda funny.

I love how she was telling us to listen to “la música de la lengua” (the music of the language), and how in certain situations, intonation is everything. It is so beautiful.

Headed home really quickly for lunch with Berta – Claudia and Luis were at Berta’s mom’s house. I can’t remember for the life of me what we ate, but I remember I liked it.

Headed out quickly to meet up with Stephanie to catch the train to Gijón. The people from the University wanted to change plans at the last minute, which perturbed me a wee bit because I was under the impression that we were going to hang out a bit at “La Semana Negra,” but we didn’t even end up doing that, so I guess it wouldn’t have mattered.

I have never seen more people on a beach in my life. It was just unbelievable. But it was such a gorgeous day, and I honestly liked all the people around because then you could do SO MUCH people watching J

It made me really happy and sad at the same time to see how affectionate couples are…especially younger people. They were just laying on the beach lost in each other’s presence, and honestly, I just wanted to cry. It was a beautiful thing, but I missed Sean so much. I just wanted to lay on a beach with him and hold him and talk and be with him. God, it’s making me tear up even now.

It was like heaven, but with a big ol’ chunk missing. Like going to heaven and expecting to see someone that you’ve been missing your whole life, and they aren’t there.

However, Liz, Alee, Stephanie, and I all found a great spot semi-near the water and talked for a long, long time. I think we were on the beach for at least three to four hours.

We talked a lot about religion because Liz has said before that she is seriously considering becoming a nun, and I was just fascinated by it. So we had a very long conversation about that and religion in general. It was awesome.

Had fried eggs, chicken nuggets (more or less), and French fries at the train station while waiting for the train out.

Came home, was going to start on homework, and didn’t.

Didn’t quite have the night I was expecting, but “la vida te da sorpresas” (life is surprising). I obviously have a lot of issues that I need to work through, and I’m going to do what I can to the best of my ability.