Day 2

Yesterday was such a blur, but it was really enjoyable. Alicia made us all a Spanish lunch at 2 and then when she told me she planned to sleep during siesta, I was like yup, I'd be down for a nap. So I slept for a while and then Andrea and I played. It took all of a couple hours for her not to be shy around me anymore. Now she hugs me and holds my hand (Spanish children lace fingers with you like boyfriends do in the US haha). Ali got a haircut and then we walked to their cousin's house. Raul has 2 brothers and his mom that all live walking distance from our house. Spanish culture is much more family oriented than ours.


Pre hair cut baby


Post hair cut


Andrea

Marta, Andrea and Alicia's cousin, was celebrating her 9th birthday. She goes to a school where they only speak English to the kids. People here are obsessed with learning English, it's pretty crazy. So she and a bunch of her classmates all talked to me and were excited to meet me. It was just like an American birthday party except all of the adults drank mojitos with handpicked lemons and mint from the backyard. There was a pinata, cake, and singing.


Marta and two girls from her school with me

All of the adults were so nice and welcoming to me. I'm still getting used to kissing everyone's cheeks though haha. I chatted with a lot of people and we stayed until like 10:30. I was kind of crashing at that point in time though because it still kind of felt like one long day rather than two separate ones.

This morning I was the first awake at 7:30. Although during the week they told me they wake up early for work. I went on a 3 mile run down the beach just to check the area out. It's way different being in a small town as opposed to Valencia, the third largest city in Spain. But I love the feeling I have here.

I'm sitting out on the back deck, but Raul and Alicia are actually awake now. I just had a breakfast of nespresso and cola-cao and bananas. Everything is so Spanish here. I know that was literally the dumbest sentence of the century, but it's true! There is a large pig leg in our kitchen, we drink espresso out of tiny cups about 6 times a day, we heat our milk before drinking it. I'm just trying to soak it all in. Alicia asked me if it was normal for Americans to paint their nails pink haha. They probably think so many of my American things are weird.

Alicia just came and told me that we're going to a town today that has an olive feria, or festival, that has the best olive oil and all sorts of olive products like soap and such. I'm going to go shower (in my weird, tiny Spanish shower that has two shower heads ad a full length mirror (???)) so that I'll be ready. I just put my pictures of facebook, so I'm not going to bother adding any to the blog right now. Meh, lazy haha.

Things I find amusing:
-My Spanish mom is obsessed with Lenny Kravitz
-There is a Spanish cartoon entitled "Todo es Rosie" (Everything's Rosie)
-My Spanish children wear designer child perfume
-When Raul tells the dog to sit he kind of pronounces it wrong and says "shit"