Chocolate Chip Cookies

One evening as I was walking home with my roommates we had a chocolate chip cookie craving. I to bake and they to eat. We decided to make some so we stopped by Más (the grocery store around the corner) and bought a Milka chocolate bar to use as the chocolate chips.  As we walked in the door to ask Isabel if we could use the kitchen we hear the grandkids playing. In the living room I found not only Ana and Juanito were over but both their parents as well. I decided to wait to ask Isabel and instead looked up the recipe to convert into Metric measurements/Celsius temperature.  This task completed I proceeded to the kitchen to see if Isabel had all the ingredients. She had everything except

1. Baking Soda: She only had baking powder and said that is all there is here in Spain, so I just put 2x as much in and its seemed to be okay.
2. Brown Sugar: Guate had prepared me for this one. Instead of b.sugar there is a strange dark sugar I can't even describe. I settled for this as well.
3. Vanilla: Much to my dismay there is no liquid vanilla extract as we know it here in Spain. They use a powdered or sugared vanilla made with artificial vanilla flavor! Yes, I ran to several stores to double check and called someone from the school to triple check. 'Tis the sad, sad truth.  

I feel compelled to take this moment to tell you about the different ideas about food going bad here. Meat is left out on counters, fruit eaten mushy and brown, mold simply "cut out" of things such as cheese, butter, or jelly and still used! "What you don't know can't hurt you" has gained a whole new meaning for me!
But back to the cookies. The family left for the park so I began to mix up the batter without any measuring cups or spoons (Julia Child would not approve) and with Isabel at my side watching and fussing. She wanted me to bake them in the little convection oven and turned it on herself. After the first batch was in for about 3 minutes I smelt burning cookies. I ran to the oven only to see she had set the cookies at the top of the confection oven set to 200 degrees C and only heating from the top!
By this time the family had returned and we were all crammed in the tiny kitchen. The oldest son was laughing saying we needed to call the bomberos, firefighters, to which the daughter replied with the "universal firefighter sound." Finally things were calmed down, I adjusted the oven to my liking when no one was looking and made the rest of the batter into blondies.
My roommates were extremely kind assuring me they tasted wonderful and, considering the long journey and many hardships they face, really they weren't all that bad. Chocolate chip cookies- not as easy as 1-2-3 in Spain!

Last Bit of Summer

This week was my most “Spanish” week thus far. I feel I am finally getting a handle on the city, the customs, and the language- hooray! My week started off with tapas and ended with tapas. On the bus back from Lagos two weekends ago my friend Katie and I met a Quebecois who was coming to Sevilla for a few days. We met up with him on Tuesday for Tapas. We had a great time walking around the Barrio Santa Cruz looking for a restaurant and finally choosing one with a nice patio. Sevilla is so beautiful at night with everything lit up and street musicians playing. Although we were originally looking for a tapas place we ended up eating at a restaurant, which was nice anyways.
Friday was a friend's birthday so Margo, Amber and I decided to take her out for tapas! Sara, the student ministries coordinator here, recommended we go to Taverna Coloniales and she was spot-on! We got there around 9:20 (early for dinner Sevillana time) and it was already packed. I was elected the one to squeeze my way up to the bar to put our name on the list for a table. We ended up only having to wait about thirty minutes before being seated. We sat on the third floor of this beautiful tapas bar. The tables were all marble (a cheap material here!) and the walls were warm yellows and oranges. Our waiter was a friendly young Spaniard who told us all the specials and looked shocked when we all ordered water instead of wine or sangria. We decided to order 2 tapas each and then share them all and we picked an excellent assortment! A shrimp tortilla (which is not like the American tortialla at all), fried cuttle fish, almond chicken, potatoes with marinara, sirloin with Roquefort sauce, spinach croquets, and a tostada (which in Spain is a large piece of fried bread with a sauce and cold meat on it.) I love tapas, it is the best way to get to taste a lot of different foods for a great price. For all our food we only paid 26 euros! We had a trendy American dessert at a place nearby called “Yogurtlandia.” Ha! Love it!
After tapas we decided to go look for a bar /museum which we heard has free flamenco. After much wandering we found “the red door” ! The building was stone and piano music was playing as we entered. There were photographs on the walls, wooden benches for sitting, and a lot of people. In a side room people were packed in around a little stage where one man played the guitar, one sang, and the lady danced. It was beautiful to she her graceful arms and precise wrist movements. She stomped her feet and swirled her skirt to the melancholy tune. The audience clapped and moved along to the music, enveloped by the sounds. On our way out we bought hand made silk flowers for our hair so the next time we can go we can be Spanish :)
Saturday the school took us to Huelva which is the old city where Christopher Columbus set sail for the America's in 1492. We visited the monastery where he waited for seven years to hear back from the King and Queen. Afterwards we got to see the life size replica's of the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria (remember that from 1st grade with Mrs. Madden?) We were like kids climbing the ropes, dashing below deck, and causing general chaos. But how many times do you get to play on boats like that? They were much smaller than I would have thought, let me tell you I would not cross the Atlantic in a boat that size! The afternoon was spent relaxing on the beach, enjoying the last drop of summer air.

A Weekend in Lagos

Thursday was a big day of tests, my first two test here in Spain. I was pretty worried, but it ended up great. My hand was pretty dead after writing pages in Spanish for history and paragraphs for grammar but it was so satisfying to be able to do it! I have passed the three week mark here in Spain and “they say” after that everything starts to fall into place with language learning—I guess we'll see!
Friday I headed off to Lagos, Portugal with six of my friends. The bus left at 7:30am (still dark here in Spain) and was five hours. Needless to saw we were ready to be there. But it was so worth it, Lagos is preciosa, absolutely beautiful. Gorgeous blue water with giant rock formations jutting out from the land, palm trees, and lovely breezes. We spent about forty minutes wandering the cobble stone streets looking for our hotel getting very different directions from every person we asked. It was exciting that people in Lagos speak more English than Spanish so we had a mini-break from language learning as well. And thankfully Portuguese is close enough to Spanish that we could read most the signs!
Saturday we took a boat to take us out around the cliffs and caves. Our tour guide, Luis, was wonderful. He was pointing out all sorts of rock formations to make us laugh like elephants, camels, and even Michael Jackson's face! We spent about an hour an a half admiring the beauty! The water was magnificent blues and turquoise. We were even able to swim! I was the first to dive off the boat and find out just how cold the water was! A few of us swam to the rocks to climb up into one of the caves where we saw crabs, sea urchins etc. The water was so clear we could see our toes and a probably about 3 meters down. Luis jumped in too after taking pictures for us. It was wonderful.
I would like to say that we explored a lot of the town but really we were so captivated with the beach that most the time was spent there. Swimming, reading in the sand, looking for purple and orange shells, or just staring at the beautiful creation before us. If you get the chance go to Lagos.

Ill in Spain

I have come down with a terrible sore throat accompanied by a general achiness and strong headache. And though I feel pretty miserable this too has been a very interesting cultural lesson! Yesterday I told Isabel how I was feeling (I figured sitting on the couch for more than four hours needed an explanation) and she immediately began to tell me I needed to take some of her medicine. I told her I had taken ibuprofen to which she responded that she wanted to see the bottle. I show her and she told me those were way too weak and next time I needed to take hers. That night at dinner she said Amber (who by now was feeling sick as well) and I could not have ice since our throats hurt and could not drink cold water. We obeyed and only had lukewarm water. She also decided that we got sick because the previous weekend at the beach we had gone from the hot sand to the cool water too many times.
Before bed she opened my window to let the fresh air in but told me to leave my fan off because that also makes your throat worse. I took her stronger ibuprofen and fell into bed. In the middle of the night I woke up to Isabel standing over me telling me to “toma, toma!” I began to drink from the cup she held to my mouth. The hot sweet liquid burned. It was lemon juice and honey. She kept telling me to drink, drink, so I chugged the liquid and fell back asleep. In the morning she told me I was okay and didn't have a fever because she had checked on me twice during the night to make sure I didn't get one. I thanked her and took my shower. I really wanted milk so I went to the kitchen and poured myself a glass of milk to go with my magdelenas for breakfast. Isabel came in and said, “oh no! You cannot drink milk, you need to drink another lemon drink!” I gave her my cup of milk and sat down like a good girl and waited for another cup of the lemon juice and honey. This cup, drank while awake and more slowly, actually felt really good on my throat.
On the way to school Amber and I laughed sharing our stories about Isabel coming in during the night to make us drink the potion and feeling our necks for fever.
Isabel is so kind to us, caring for us as if we were her own daughters—even if it is a bit excessive!

Càdiz

Saturday I took a day trip to Càdiz, the oldest city on the Iberian Peninsula—over 3,000 years!  It is about 2 hours outside of Sevilla by train on the very southwest bit on the Atlantic. Some classmates and I took a historic walk around the city through its tiny cobbled streets. We took pictures in giant magnolia trees and finally walked along the sea wall to Victoria beach. It was a perfect day on the beach, sunny and with a light breeze. Apparently the wind can get very strong in Càdiz and cause the sand to fly everywhere, but we were blessed with a calm day. The sand was soft and warm and we were there during low tide so we had plenty of gentle water for swimming. After spending most of the day at the beach we went to the Torre Tavira which is the highest point in the city. In it we climbed many steps to the top where we saw a demonstration of the camera oscura. It was very fascinating to see the city through this picture.

 Yesterday, Sunday I made it to a church here in Sevilla called Prosperidad. It was so refreshing. I knew almost all the songs we sang (from going to church in Guate) and as I joined with the other believers in song my body shook with emotion and tears of thanksgiving filled my eyes. I had forgotten the joy and peace that come when as one body we lift our voices to worship our Lord. All the cultural differences, language barriers, and frustrations of a new country melt away when as one body we join in worship together. I think I am finally come to understand that my home is with the Lord and in His presence not in any earthly place.