La Buena, La Mala & La Loca

Hola!

Just thought I'd take a bit to list the things I love and don't so much love about Spain! I'm sure this list will grow/ evolve as I spend more time here but here's a basic start to it:)

La Buena:

1. Tortilla Española: seriously delicious. made of egg, onion, and potatoes, it's a basic tapa at just about all bars, and makes an awesome breakfast/ brunch!

2. Calimocho & Tinto de Verano: Red wine & Coca-cola and Red wine & lemonade/ lemon soda. Both are relatively cheap yet delicious!

3. Tapas with drinks: After ordering most drinks at a bar, most bars will give you a free tapa (little appetizer), usually tortilla española or bread with ham/ chorizo or olives

4. Learning Spanish: although it's a lot of work, having immersed in Spanish is definitely the quickest/ most enjoyable way to learn the language

5. Alioli sauce: delicious white sauce served generally served with potatoes or rice

6. Being so close to other countries: Portugal is only a few hours away, and France and a lot of other European countries are fairly easily accessible

7. Chinos: Like a massive junk store, owned by Chinese immigrants, everything is sold really cheap, and if you have the time and energy to navigate through everything, you can find a bunch of random, great things

8. White bread with meals: Spanish people appreciate their loaves of white bread and haven't caught on to America's obsession with putting whole wheat in everything

9. Clothes: people dress well here, the woman wear scarves, jean jackets, nice shoes/ boots and the men dress nice in collared shirts and nicer shoes

10. Beautiful scenery: I have actually really gotten to like taking the train places because you can see outside to the rivers and mountains and all the greenery

La Mala

1. Lack of food variety/ American food: I have been missing Chipotle since Day 1, and it is very difficult (especially in our region) to find foods from different regions. I could also use an awesome authentic American hamburger.

2. Siesta: This, in theory, is good, but this means most businesses are closed for up to 2 hours for siesta in the early afternoon. This is very annoying when you have things you need to get done and have to wait until siesta ends

3. Sunday closings: It's like Chick Fil-A times 200. Nearly everything is closed on Sunday, even grocery stores. Sunday is a "family day", but for us means finding food is that much harder.

4. Fish & Pig legs: At the grocery store, there is not much room between the ham leg section and the normal food sections. Also, the refrigerated section usually smells of fish, and upon looking for ice cream the other day, I stumbled upon frozen octopus. Not enjoyable.

5. Lack of appreciation of heating: A lot of Spanish places believe in saving energy, so I am going to have to get used to being cold inside as well. My school is freezing, and I generally wear my winter jacket all day there.

6. Lack of dryers: Spanish people generally don't own dryers either, opting to hang dry their clothes outside, or use a drying rack (like we have). This means our clothes take at least 2 days to dry completely, which isn't very pleasant especially when it's not warm inside or outside.

7. Poor sense of time: I have never been a super punctual person, but Spanish people take forever to do everything! Working at a school where the schedule gets changed frequently, and classes frequently end and begin late is very new/ irritating for me. Also, a lot of time, people get caught up in their conversation, and will stop walking to make a point about something. They can be running late, aware they are running late, and still take an extra 10 minutes to meander somewhere that only takes a few.

La loca:

1. Repeated vocabulary:

a. Venga
b. Vale
c. No pasa nada
d. Da igual.
e. Pues, nada.
f. Hasta luego.

A "good-bye" looks like this:
"Vale, venga, ciao. Vale, venga. Hasta luego. Ciao!"

2. Galician: This language follows me everywhere. It's supposed to be really close to Portugese, so I generally don't have a clue what people are saying when they are speaking it. A lot of the teachers at my school speak this, and I have been forced to listen to 30 minute long presentations given to the teachers in Galician ( Galego), which was awkward and confusing!

To be continued!