Jan 16th – Day of Gelato

Today in civ we talked about a set of pictures we had be given by the professor that were typical images of Spain (futbol, olive oil, bull fighters, a comic about bulls, flamenco dancers, and paella) and were asked what we thought about them. After we read an article about olive oil and how the people love it so much. Which by the way, they cook everything with olive oil…hard to get used to. I mean it’s healthy and all, but…not when it drips from the meat. And this article was talking about how he loved it this way. He also talked about how it’s made in the spring/summer season when it is ready and they produce enough to last everyone for the rest of the year. This is because olives are not in season in the winter, so they have to make enough to last until the next harvest of fresh olives. So when this harvest time is, there is a huge festival here to celebrate it. Crazy to think of because it’s only olive oil! But I guess there is also a lot of symbolism with olives as well. Then after class, I went with my friends and we were headed to have our pastries. Thwarted yet again!!! It was closed for siesta….ugh I was so upset!! So we walked a little further to a little gelato shop just down the way. It was so amazingly great! I had Don Vito (which tastes like cake, and has chocolate morsels and berries) and stracciatello (which is Italian for chocolate chip, but not like ours). I was so surprised I remembered what stracciatello was since I hadn’t been in Italian for so long and I was kind of worried I would have trouble when I visit Italy. But hey if little things like that come back after only a long time, I think I will be just fine. The gelato here is out of this world, it is so good. I mean, you truly wouldn’t believe how different it is here as opposed to back home. After we finished, I waited for my bus and went to my host home. Ana was waiting for me with lunch, but she wasn’t sure if I would like it so she gave me a little and waited to watch my face. (my host family has learned to watch my face with new foods to see if I don’t like them or do, it’s kind of a game for them as they like to make fun of my expressions) Honestly, I think it has been my favorite meal I have had thus far and that’s even counting the paella, fish, rice (which were fantastic on their own). It was a soup that had different types of meat, beans, squash and something else that was green. I loved it so much, I had another huge bowl and I knew I had eaten too much. While I ate my fruit (which goes after every meal) I watched t.v. and I saw the most interesting thing. Grandma Jeannie sent an email of a video with an artist that made pictures with their hands out of sand. This same artist (I recognized, the style of their drawings) was doing a sand drawing for a commercial about fiber in your diet for women. Small world. Then I watched a show that was a Spanish version of ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ but it was called ‘Fama! A Bailar’. Strange how worlds away, we have the same types of shows in common.