Spain!

So I've now passed my first week here in Spain, and things are settling down into a steadier rhythm.  To my immense relief, most of the family speaks decent and very understandable English (much better than my Spanish) and the one who doesn't provides opportunities for me to try my halting Spanish and to work on my comprehension, which is terrible.  So the more practice, the better!

I've done a lot and tried a lot of new things so far.  The first day, I went to the street market with the parents to get the ingredients for paella (more on this later) and saw the normal (fruits, veggies, bread) and the not so normal of bloodied carcases hanging from the ceiling.  Though it's all very normal for the Spanish.  I actually watched as a butcher took the skinned body of a rabbit and carved it up into pieces, including the matter-of-fact finale when he split open its skull with his huge knife.  I couldn't help but wince, and the butcher and my Spanish family enjoyed laughing at my squeamishness.

Aside from the rabbit, we also got a massive amount of seafood for the paella.  Paella is a very Spanish dish, which has a bunch of kinds of meat mixed in with yellow rice.  When the mother brought it out, it looked so pretty I just had to take a picture.  Anyone who knows me, however, knows that I'm not that fond of seafood, though I'll always try anything once.  In this case, I had a little bit for lunch that first day and on Monday when I was left to my own devices and everyone else went to work or school.  The dad said that paella usually takes better the second day anyway, as the flavor can soak more into the rice.  I'd say that's true.  So a seafood paella isn't my favorite dish, but I tried and ate the clams, muscles, shrimp (yes, there were entire shrimp bodies in there) and even some of the rabbit (but not the brains) with my rice.  I really feel bad because I'm sure there are so many other seafood fans out there who would have appreciated the feast so much more than me.

There are a lot of things I've had to get used to that are a little different from back home.  The biggest is obviously the language barrier.  I've found that I can say a lot of things in Spanish, but not necessarily anything that's relevant to the particular situation I'm in at a given time.  It's hard to come up with Spanish on demand, but the mom came with me the first time I needed to explain what I wanted in a cell phone, and I've struggled by after that.  Comprehension is definitely my biggest hurdle, because I'll recognize words or phrases, but by the time my brain processes and translates them, the person talking is three sentences down the road.  Slower is definitely better!  The first night, I had no comprehension at all, but after a week I'm picking up on some of the spitfire conversation across the dinner table.

The other main difference is the meals and eating times.  The biggest meal of the day is lunch, which is usually a few courses around two o'clock in the afternoon.  And by a few, I mean three or four LARGE dishes, where you're expected to want seconds.  It's a good thing I'm left to my own devices for most of the lunches.  Dinner is a smaller meal, which I thought was typically going to be around eight or nine in the evening, but oftentimes it stretches until ten or ten thirty, like with tonight when everyone is busy. 

But when I say a smaller meal for dinner, I'm only echoing what the family has told me, because their smaller meal is still two courses and size of a normal/large dinner for me at home.  And that's not to mention all the snacking they do in between!  Tapas are always eaten throughout the day, it seems, and they don't mind having cheese, ham, and chips even right before dinner.  There's no such thing as spoiling your dinner here.  And right after dinner is dessert!  It can be sweets, but often it's just fruit.

So much food!  It's a good thing my new home is up a series of minor hills and on the third floor of a building without an elevator.