Feb 13th – Day of Cuban Food

After my only class for the day, I started finishing the last page and a half of my composition for Thursday. I had corrected the mistakes from the first one, and now I needed to just finish writing this one and type it up. Then I can print it and have it ready for tomorrow. The latest revision was already printed and stapled. This comp was no problem since it was purely informative so I had no worries about it. So far, I have been doing extremely well with Lent and haven’t stressed or rushed and I have been slowly gaining patience with taking the time to do things. I was feeling pretty good about it, but still about this time I was feeling homesick for my family and culture. Here in Spain guys give new meaning to ‘giving it the old college try’ and you can literally have a staring contest with every male stranger and lose every time. Staring is not rude here or creepy, and being sleazy is actually completely okay. Every guy is a huge, open and don’t care who sees or knows, sleaze. No wonder the girls here in Spain are so standoffish to every guy…I would be too if that were my culture. And right now I really am in the midst of my 2nd stage of studying abroad. To the point where on Skype I tell my mom that I wish I was fugly. She says she’s sorry, tells me that I just need to realize what stage I’m in with studying abroad and that it’ll get better for her pretty baby swan. And that she only makes pretty babies, so she doesn’t know what to tell me. This makes me crack a smile to hear my mom’s sass. Thanks mom. After I left school I went to my host home to have lunch and take my siesta. Surprise, another dish I fall in love with! Ana tells me that she has prepared a Cuban lunch for me and hopes I’ll like it. (Before Adrian was born, Pepe was transferred for work to Cuban for 5 years and Ana really took to the culture while they lived there…so did he) it was black beans, with tan rice. But the beans were like a soup and had squash (I think yam) and meat of some sort. Then she made me fried plantains. It was awesome in just the first bite…Ana, seeing my pleased face, made me a bigger plate. I ate to my heart’s content, and then took my nap. When I woke up, I finished writing my paper and started typing it up. After I had dinner, and we went to the post office. When we got there, Ana told me to go in while she found a parking spot. I went in and sent off my valentine for James. It was surprisingly easy and much cheaper than sending it from the states to here. When she came in, she gave my message from the mailman to the guy at the desk. After checking my passport and me signing a paper saying I received it, we left. Ana started to back the car up and the car hit something. Looking back I couldn’t see it, but I thought it was a pot hole. Eek! Then the front two wheels went over and we were over it…it was a curb that was half blended with the dirt so you couldn’t see it. Oops. Then we came back to my host home and pulled into the garage. Going up the stairs into the house, Ana and I laughed and she said, “Nothing happened” and winked at me. I winked back and said okay. I finished typing the rest of my paper and then went to sleep.