Los bares de tapas: a revolutionary method of fine dining

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that I love food and everything about it.  I owe my mature taste for food and appreciation of its quality to my loving and wonderful parents, who I will be forever indebted to for many things, but especially for transferring their passion for food and the adventures that go along with it.  Not only do I have an ever present appetite for food in general, but also for new and exotic food.  As difficult as it is for me to decide what type of food is my very favorite, I would have to say that sushi is pretty high on that list, and has been since before sushi became a trendy new fad across the United States.

That being said, I came to Spain knowing that one of the things I would be spending the majority of my Euros on would be food.  How many times in my life am I going to have the chance to come to Europe and eat European food?  Since money doesn't grow on trees, I would have to say that the opportunity to consume Spanish food whenever I please for a relatively cheap price will not be at my fingertips very often after the conclusion of this semester.

I can hardly begin to describe all of the wonderful things I have eaten so far, and I have been here less than a week! However, last night was probably one of my favorite food experiences I have had abroad thus far.  For last night's adventure, a group of eight of us decided to go to a bar de tapas.  For those of you who have never heard of this common Spanish tradition, I will explain briefly.  A bar de tapas is, as you may have gathered, a type of bar that also serves small portions of various types of food.  The idea of going to a bar de tapas is to go with a group of people who each order a couple of tapas (small dishes) each, and then to either continue the night by going bar hopping and trying small tapas at each place or to simply stay at one tapas bar and each try a little bit of what everyone else in the group ordered.

Ensalada mixta y pulpo a la gallega

Last night, we chose the second option.  I ordered an ensalada mixta (mixed salad) and pulpo a la gallega (octopus).  Many of mis amigas were absolutely horrified that I was willing to eat octopus, but hey, I'm in Spain so why not! Once the tapas were delivered to our table, we each took sample bites of everyone else's tapas that they ordered.  Chloé also ordered pulpo a la gallega, and we both agreed that it was absolutely delicious and extremely flavorful as well.  Between the two of us, I think we convinced the majority of the other girls to try at least one piece as well.  My ensalada was just alright, I probably won't waste my time or Euros on that again.  Other than my slightly average salad, everything else was absolutely amazing.  Some of the other tapas I sampled included una tortilla Española, crepes con chocolate, one enchilada, and many others with names that escape me.

¡Otras tapas deliciosas!

This form of eating was absolutely heavenly for a person such as I; or in other words, someone who appreciates exotic food, is open to trying new food, and has a normally insatiable appetite.  It's also a perfect way to try a lot of new things all at once for an extremely cheap cost.  The particular bar de tapas that we attended was called El Tapón, a place extremely close to our apartment with an atmosphere that gave us the impression it was definitely one of the hot spots of Alcalá.  My new motto for the next bar de tapas I visit: eat first, ask questions later.

Las chicas perdidas

Today was our first official day of classes! Well, all we really did was go to the college and then take a couple Spanish placements tests, so tomorrow the classes will really start up. The tests weren't too hard, mostly just a not so subtle reminder that I have a lot to learn and a lot to review. But hey, that's what school is for, right? :)

The main subject of my post today, however, has nothing to do with school and more to do with the adventure that Chloé and I stumbled into this afternoon. We went to the university in the morning, but for our religion class every Monday we have to go to the church. We took the bus there yesterday no problem, but Blanca told us that we ought to walk there at least once and that it really wasn't that far. She gave us some pretty strait forward directions (which we thought we understood well enough between the two of us) and then Chloé looked up the address to the church on mapquest and we took pictures of it to take with us just to be safe. We left at about 4:30, giving us plenty of time to walk there and arrive on time for class at 5:00.

Well, needless to say, we were quite mistaken. The mapquest directions were not only off, but they took us completely off course. By the time we realized that we definitely were not anywhere near the church, we also realized that I had forgotten our issued emergency pay to go phone. So there we were, in the completely wrong location without a way of contacting our professor or any of the other girls in our group with nothing but our bags, a map, and our determination. So we made the most practical decision we could; we looked at our map, found our location and destination, and started walking.

Before our slight panic had time to fizzle down to calm determination, however, we had to walk to a sketchier part of town, all the while seeing old gangly men in our peripheral vision and trying our best to ignore the phrases "guapas" y "bonitas" as we forced our legs to move a bit faster than our already brisk pace.

After a while we began to feel more confident as we walked through the streets of Alcalá, all the while resisting the urge to check the time since we already knew we would be very late for class.

We came to a roundabout and turned onto the main road that we were sure would lead us to the church. Across the street as we were walking we saw the missionaries from our ward walking the other way and they totally gave us the stink eye. Probably because they knew we weren't in class like we were supposed to be. We continued checking our map, but there weren't many crossroads to reference so we simply assumed we were going the right way.

Wrong again! We asked a friendly restaurant employee how to get to the point marked on our tourist map and we soon discovered that we had gone the opposite way we needed to go...yet again! Laughing at ourselves and hardly able to believe how silly we must have looked to the missionaries and to the general public of Alcalá, we turned around and began retracing our steps. Then a wonderful thing happened that made this entire two hour trek worth it: we spoke to the most beautiful Spanish man I have yet encountered.

He was a policeman who saw us checking our map again once we reached the large roundabout and he said to us "¿Necesitáis ayuda, chicas? Porque parecéis muy perdidas." Translation: Do you guys need help? Because you seem really lost. I don't know what was this man's best feature, he had almost everything going for him. Dark clean cut hair, some sexy scruff on his defined jawline, a nicely fitting uniform, and deep blue eyes that I definitely wanted to be lost in for the rest of the evening rather than being lost in Alcalá. Luckily Chloé asked him for some more detailed directions and he gladly helped us figure out where to go from there to finally get to the church building. Apparently my tongue tied symptoms around striking men is much more severe when a language barrier is involved as well.

Ten or fifteen minutes later we finally made it to the church, exhausted and tired and embarrassed that we had completely missed out religion class, but we at least made but on time for FHE! Our professor was very understanding and our other group members felt nothing but sympathy toward our predicament.

So that was our first big adventure in España! I hope there will be many more to come, especially if they involve more hombres guapos ;)

The University of Alcalá de Henares

The view from our apartment

I still can't believe I am living in Spain! I went to bed last night expecting to wake up in Idaho or Utah because me being here in Europe still doesn't feel quite real yet.  However, after a long, hot, and sweaty night (no, it's not what you're thinking...we don't have air conditioning, so I was perfectly capable of getting hot and sweaty all by myself) my body decided it was time to start the day at 6:30 am Madrid time.  Chloé and I each took showers and were informed by Blanca that we are to make our own breakfasts every morning, which is better anyhow since Blanca stayed out later than we did last night so this party animal needs her sleep.  We then proceeded to walk around Alcalá for the next couple of hours, taking pictures and exploring the suburb of Madrid that will be our home for the next three months.  After an extremely fast paced conversation with an attractive man at an information station, we were able to procure three different maps of the city that we will be using quite a bit over the next week.

One of the main courtyards of the University

We met up with the rest of the group at the Plaza at 11:00 for our tour of the University of Alcalá de Henares, where we will begin our studies on Monday.  The interesting thing about the University is that there isn't one central campus like American schools, the different colleges are spread out throughout the city.  I'm not sure exactly which one we will have most of our classes at, but all of them are pretty close and equally breathtaking so we shouldn't have any problems.  

 My favorite part of the morning was when we went through some of the historical background of the University.  This guide spoke to us in English, which I was grateful for because if she had spoken to us in Spanish I definitely would have missed out on some of the core details.  The University was first created by the Catholic church, but then the government of Spain took it over during one of the religious movements and did away with a lot of the church influence in the school.  This is especially for my friends at BYU: if you think the honor code is strict, just think about some of these rules these university students had to follow back in the day:

The exam room where students would go through
an extremely thorough process to earn their PhD's

-The students had to live as if they were living in a convent while studying at the University (okay, so that rule is the same for unmarried BYU students) 

-The students had to wear robes as if they were in a convent

-Only men could study there

-If a student was heard speaking nay language other than Latin, they were thrown into prison for a few days, without food and with repeated physical punishment

-If a student was seen speaking with, walking with, or associating with a woman in the city, he was thrown into prison

-If you were thrown into prison or didn't comply with the rules enough times, you were expelled

Personally, I don't think any of us have it this bad.  Obviously all those rules were done away with a long time ago, but it was extremely interesting to learn about.  The building we toured around is extremely old, but it had been restored and repainted in parts so that visitors can enjoy a more fulfilling historical experience.  We did many other new and exciting things today, but I'm going to keep things short and sweet and give you all something to look forward to.  ¡Hasta luego!

Breathtaking ceiling architecture, pieced together
without glue or other adhesives

¡Estoy Aquí!

Hola mis amigos y amigas! I am pleased to report that all of my travels proceeded without any problems and I arrived in Madrid at 7:00 am this morning.  I met up with 4 other girls from my program on the flight from Charlotte to Madrid and we had a bit of a wait before the bus picked us up at 10:30.  The director of the first half of the program, Professor Cluff and his wife, were able to find us pretty easily, surrounded by our piles and piles of bags in the waiting area of the airport looking like a group of very disoriented and very tired American girls.  The bus we got on was HUGE, I swear the seats on this charter bus were nicer than the seats on any of our flights.  We then proceeded to Terminal 4 to pick up the rest of the girls and all was well.  We drove for about half an hour on the bus, during which all of us attempted to communicate only in Spanish and succeeding pretty well for the most part.  When we arrived in Alcalá de Henares, the bus stopped across the street from a plaza.  Our director then told us to get off of the bus and grab our luggage from below, we were about to meet our host families! The director's assistant (her name escapes me) proceeded to read off our names and the names of our roommates, hand each of us our school ID and bus pass for the month, and point us in the direction of the present representative from our host family.  Chloé and I were immediately directed to a friendly looking woman standing among many equally friendly looking women.  She introduced herself as Blanca, and then we proceeded to haul our wheeled luggage a few blocks away to a 5th floor apartment.  Chloé and I share a small room with two twin size beds and plenty of closet and dresser space.  Blanca lives alone and more often than not has at least two foreign exchange students living with her, especially students from BYU.  Once we arrived at the apartment, we started to unpack while Blanca made us lunch.  We ate some wonderful pasta, watermelon, and salad made up of tomatoes, onions, and cucumbers.  She gave us pretty hefty portions and also asked us several times if we wanted more, which I expected might happen.  We also met Blanca's nieta (niece) Miranda, who just returned from a trip to the United States with her Mom.  She doesn't live with Blanca but I figure we will be seeing a lot of her.  She is four years old and adorable! She kept going under the table and tickling our feet during the whole meal.  After we ate to our heart's content, we took a crazy long siesta! We meant to sleep for only two hours, but due to an alarm malfunction it was more like four hours.  Once we finally woke up, Blanca made us some hot sandwiches for dinner and we ate arroz con leche for dessert, which I think I have eaten once or twice in my life but I definitely did not remember it being this good! After that we freshened up a little and went to walk around the plaza and the rest of Alcalá de Henares.  We didn't buy anything, but we found a lot of shops that we definitely want to go back to tomorrow or sometime soon, including an exotic candy store and countless gelato y helado shops! My ice cream addiction will definitely not be neglected here.  I still can't believe I'm going to be living here for three months, it seems like some crazy dream that I am going to wake up from tomorrow or a vacation that is going to fly by.  I understand about 60% of what Blanca says to us, but when we met some of her friends earlier they talked so fast I maybe got about 5% of all that they said.  Hopefully I will be able to adjust pretty quickly.  Obviously I don't expect to be fluent by tomorrow, but these three months will definitely kick my Spanish skills into high gear.  ¡Hasta luego, amigos!

Bon Voyage!

Alright, so I realize that the title of this post isn't in Spanish or English, but don't worry, I won't be going tri-lingual on you all anytime soon.  To my utter shock and delight, I managed to fit everything I planned on packing and more into one checked bag, a carry on bag, and a laptop bag! The fear of possible forgetfulness is increased about ten times when you are leaving the country for a three month period; I have simply accepted the fact that I will need to do some shopping soon after I arrive in Spain.  Which will be in less than 24 hours! I am currently waiting to board my first flight of three in the very miniature and cute Boise airport.  I never appreciated this tiny airport until I experienced traveling in much larger, more chaotic airports.  I love the little airport of my hometown, it's so simple and easy to understand! I am trying to take in as much of the simplicity, calm, and English speaking as I can before leaving the safe haven of Boise, Idaho and then my home country all together.  I am so beyond grateful for the opportunity I have to participate in this study abroad program.  I am grateful for the educational and cultural opportunities that will be at my very fingertips for the next few months.  I hope to post on this blog as often as I can, but to be frank I have no idea what to expect.  Until later, folks!

The Packing Conundrum

Hello everyone! It has been quite some time since I have posted on this blog, but that's because I have been too busy having such a fun-filled summer in Boise and all over the United States!  To sum up this summer briefly would be impossible (especially with summarization skills such as mine), but I can proudly say that it was very productive yet fun filled each and every day.

Now to get to the point: I LEAVE FOR SPAIN IN 4 DAYS! I am somewhere between excited and terrified.  However, as my aunt told me this summer before my triathlon: excitement comes from the same place as fear, it's all about how you label it.  So, I have chosen to look at the symptoms I am experiencing when I think about my upcoming adventure as side effects of nothing but pure excitement.

These next few days are bound to be some of the longest and shortest days of my entire summer.  Short because I am trying to see as much of my Boise friends and family as possible before I leave the country, and long because I have a looming problem ahead of me that I am not sure how to approach: packing.

I must admit, I am notorious in my family for being the heaviest bag packer.  Not only because I am a woman and therefore a victim of the heavy packing stereotype, but also because I am an extremely over analytical woman, meaning that I think of almost every possible scenario, outfit, weather mishap, or other problem that may require cramming yet another item into an already overstuffed suitcase.  I always to fill or overfill my large LL Bean duffel bag for any trip I go on, whether it be camping in the mountains for a few days, a week long beach trip, or even an overnight sleepover.

The Madrid, Spain program I am about to participate in will last for a grand total of three months.  My over skeptical, over packing brain cannot even begin to comprehend all of the things I might possibly want to pack for a three month period.  So I have done what any person of my condition ought to do; I have written a checklist, one that I have revised and shortened at least five times over.  In the next few days I will attempt to fit said checklist items all into one checked bag, one carry on, and my laptop messenger bag, armed with nothing but my ever present determination to succeed and the knowledge that I must strive to reform my heavy packing ways.  Wish me luck, I will most certainly need it.