la playa y paella

last friday we all headed to the beach. let it be said that it was a huge ordeal. we left home around 11:30 or 12. if we had gone by car (which we couldn't have) it would have taken less than an hour. we went by bus and train, so it took about 3 hours. then, once we were there, we had to eat some more. so we stopped somewhere and got some paella. i am glad i tried it, but honestly, it's too seafoody for my tastes. i prefer the non-seafoody seafood, such as squid, scallops and non-fishy fish. anyway, i did get a kick out of the restaurants' menu: it translated boquerones fritos as "fried kinds of anchovy", and sardinas plancha as "sardines it he irons"(it should have been like, fried sardines or something). obviously, they couldn't decide who was ironing the sardines, so they put both "it" and "he". 

funny menu-english

paella 

after we ate, we went down to the shore. it was a really pretty day, but just not quite hot enough to want to swim. it was nice and breezy. the water was...cold. i felt like a floridian saying that it was cold, but i guess when florida is the place you know when it comes to beaches, you can't help it. it felt good to wade in the water though, and feel it's saltiness on my legs. it reminded me of when we'd swim in the mediterranean back in the mid 90s. i mostly sat and chatted with rubén's cousin, laura. i really don't remember what we talked about it, but we talked about it for close to an hour. then we packed up, ximena did some shopping, and we headed home. we got back around 1 am, grabbed random food for supper and went our separate ways.

train ride from beach to barcelona

i think i'm running out of things to say. good thing i'm going home tomorrow. yes, i leave at seven in the morning to catch a metro and bus to the airport. i just weighed my almost-packed bag and it's only 44 lbs. this means that i can go buy something that weighs up to 5 lbs. YES! 

¡vale! ¡vale!

vale: OK! fine! all right!

the first day i was here, i heard this word nonstop. I had no idea it was so popular. it's kinda like the usa "like". i mean like, totally. during conversations, i would respond with "ok" (in a spanish accent, of course). i thought that was acceptable. it is in some other countries. but that first night the dad told me to say "vale" en vez de "ok". so now i'm saying "vale" all the time. vale.

the weather has been mostly cloudy since i got here-they say it's unusual. but i think that in a few days it will clear up. i hope so, because i mostly brought summery clothes. but when i find myself wishing it were sunny and warmer, i remember that it's an oven in tennessee. i guess it's not so bad here, afterall.

let's see, what would you guys like to know. well, the food. the food tastes very different. ok, moving on...:P but seriously, a lot of olive oil and salt are used. and lots of fish. i think that my stomach is rebelling to the food because it hasn't had anything similar to what it's used to. i had some green tea today, thinking "how could anyone go wrong with green tea?" but lo and behold, it was hardly green tea. it had a bean-ish flavour. i think that i'll make a run to the store soon and buy some danon yogurt (i saw some today!) and maybe nutella. just some comfort foods for my soul :)

i have yet to take pictures of the town. last night was the perfect opportunity, but i didn't take my camera with me. and i do hate to feel like a tourist. speaking of which, while i was at the train station, an older man was talking to me and thought i was from argentina. didn't he even hear my american accent and butchered use of spanish? 


the family i'm staying with is "real" nice. the parents, rubén and ximena, are both from colombia. they have been in spain for about 10 or 11 years though. they have two boys, daniel (4) and pablo (3), and a little girl, sofia (8 weeks?). they don't know any english, which is good. i guess. last night i had to watch part of casablanca because i just wanted to hear english! aah, rick's new york accent and sam's jolly voice sounded like music. 


vale, i hate rambling. ciao!