Crema de Cacahuete y Platanos

I just discovered that instead of suffering through my disgusting chorizo and bread sandwiches or ham and bread sandwiches my host mom has been making me and leaving out overnight, I can take advantage of my peanut butter and adding bananas to make a peanut butter and banana sandwich, which tastes better, and I do not have the risk of contracting something from warm meat. Having meat be left on the counter for hours at a time does not appeal to me or my stomach. However, it was a sad day last night when I ran out of my Skippy peanut butter from the US. I was told before I came here Spain does not have peanut butter but luckily I have seen it in the supermarkets, and when I return from Madrid or even tomorrow, I plan on purchasing another jar. As I made my sandwich yesterday, my host mom just stared at me with interest, because she does not get how peanut butter can taste good on everything from bread, to bananas, to possibly even carrots?? But...I am American and we put peanut butter on everything and I explained this to her. Needless to say, I just finished my sandwich and it was delicious! Hopefully I won't be going back to chorizo and ham for awhile.

This Thursday I leave to go to Madrid for 5 days with my program, which I am really looking forward to and nervous for. I am nervous because our advisor gave us a list of all the terrible things that can happen to us while we are there from being robbed or getting lost in the red light district behind the restaurant we will be dining in multiple times. To avoid these catastrophes I think I will be wearing my money belt continuously, because it should be pretty hard to get to. As for my camera, I have to figure out a way to hide it somehow on my body, but I guess I will figure that out when I get there. We are going to be going to the Museo del Prado which is a famous art museum, as well as the Escorial where some of the past kings are buried. It is also Halloween while we are there and we plan on doing something fun for that as well!

I have come to realize that on the weekends, people don't sleep here. The night life does not even begin to start until around 2 or 3 am, which is the time everything is ending in the US. Therefore, these 5 and 6 am mornings on the weekends have been kind of rough on my sleeping schedule, but worth it in the end...I mean I only have less than 2 months to make the best of everything here! Speaking of only having less than 2 months...I have a lot to accomplish in the next few weeks. The morning after we come back from Madrid I am giving a presentation on Olive Oil, so I have to have this all completed before Thursday morning. Luckily I have a partner so my work is not as much as it would be if I was presenting alone. I have my outline, and just have the power point and actual practicing of the speech to go! Not to mention we have an exam 3 days after my presentation...so I have to start studying for that as as well. The week after next is Mid-terms aka Examenes Parciales. I have an exam in each class for 2 hrs so I hope to do well on them! The Friday after mid-terms is our huge DELE exam that could certify us as fluent in Spanish if we pass. Right now the grammar part is what is killing me, but hopefully my grammar class in the next few weeks can prepare me for what I am going to endure on the DELE exam. I am nervous for it because I really would like to pass, considering I want to be able to teach the basic level of Spanish when I become an elementary school teacher. I had my practice interview today which is the oral part of the exam, and it went better than expected. The lady conducting the interview said I had good fluidity and interaction with her which is surprising considering I think my Spanish is horrible. I just had a few grammatical errors that I need to work on, but that is to be expected considering grammar is the part I am not passing on the exam yet. 2 weeks to improve it though!!! After the DELE we leave for Sevilla on Saturday for one night, the following weekend I go to Madrid and get to visit one of my best friends from high school who is studying there. After Barcelona I have a weekend in Granada, and then the following weekend we have a 5 day break before finals where I also will be staying in Granada due to the cost of traveling expenses to go anywhere else. Then, finals begin and the day after finals end I finally get to go home!!! So in reality this next month and a half is going to fly by incredibly fast...I hope, because I am so ready to come home now. After receiving a wonderful care package yesterday from my parents, I began to miss home even more. I have been here over 2 months which is a long time away from my family and friends. I cannot wait to get back to WU but I am nervous about starting up classes in English again. I am a Rhetoric major which involves a lot of writing, and I am scared it is going to be difficult to adjust back to applying theory to write 10-15 or even 20 page papers, but I know I am not the only one who has gone to a foreign country to come back and undergo the same transition.

I was talking to my mom yesterday about the oil here, because I have been doing a lot of research lately on olive oil due to my upcoming presentation. I realized when I get back to the US my body may undergo some difficulties adjusting back the horrible oil we use. Olive oil is so much more healthier for your body and I have not experienced any health problems like I do when I am home in the US. On the bright side, maybe this will force me to cut out eating fried food in its entirety which will be difficult considering the cook in my sorority tends to make a lot of friend food, or food with a lot of grease. I guess we will see what happens.

Oh I forgot to mention my little adventure I had yesterday trying to acquire a flu shot. I have asthma and therefore I am at a higher risk of contracting the flu, so I usually receive an annual flu shot. My advisor said I was able to go to a local pharmacy to receive one but he left out one minor detail...they don't inject them there. My host mom went with me, which was very helpful considering the adventure I had after the pharmacy. I bought a flu shot thinking, oh I am just going to sit down, they will inject my arm and I will be on my way...WRONG!!! I purchased the shot to find out afterwards you have to go to a separate clinic to have it injected. This was all very confusing to me, as it was all explained in Spanish. My host mom took me to 2 different clinics to see if they could help me. Keep in mind it was the siesta hour, so EVERYTHING was closed, as I was carrying around my little bag with a box of the influenza virus. Finally, she took me to her clinic which happened to be open. The receptionist was very nice and got me in right away and I did not feel a thing when the nurse injected me. It was just a stressful thing to go through considering in the US I just go and have it injected by the same person in the same place. My host mom said I need to come here every year to receive one since it didn't hurt at all like it does after I get one in the US. I think it is a great excuse don't you?

I think this is all for now. Like I said, I have a busy few weeks coming up, so I might not get around to updating this for awhile, but I will at some point after Madrid to let you know how that experience went!!! Wish me luck, and that I come home with everything I went with!