Día Cuatro-Estoy más comoda aquí ahora. – Domingo, el 17 de enero.

So I didn’t have time to write yesterday (Saturday), I didn’t realized I would end up as busy as I was! We had a tour of Toledo at 10am. I ate breakfast by myself, I made toast with margarine and drank milk just like my host-dad suggested the first day I got here. Matu told me later that she got up to make breakfast for me, but I had already left, she really does spoil me. The tour was interesting, but it was in Spanish over a microphone, so I couldn’t hear a lot of it. We took a bus around for a bit, then did a walking tour of the part of Spain closer to us. There are over 80 churches in Toledo, and over 40 convents! We saw a nun, who our tour guide talked to for a bit. She didn’t want any pictures of herself taken. We saw where Paco _____ a famous Spanish guitarist lives, and also where all the extremely rich and powerful live in Toledo. It’s obvious where they live because their houses are built in isolated areas where it’s difficult to build houses… Toledo is so beautiful, and this tour just managed to increase my appreciation of Toledo’s beauty. All views of the city are amazing, no matter where you look at it from.

After the tour I hung out at the Fund for a little bit, then I took the bus home. I actually ended up meeting someone else who was taking the bus with me, Emily, and we ended up chatting and made plans to go out together that night with everyone else. Emily lives pretty close to me, as do a lot of other girls, I just don’t know exactly where they all are yet. I thought I was going to be late for lunch with my family, as it was already after 2pm, but I got home and they still hadn’t started eating yet. I’m still getting used to the eating schedule. They push food on me so much, they always say “Tienes que engordar!” which means “you need to fatten up!” I eat as much as I can, but 1. I’m not used to eating sooo much at lunch time, 2. I’m not used to eating a huge piece of bread with both lunch and dinner, seriously I could fill up on the bread alone it’s so large, 3. I’m not used to eating a huge bowl of soup + noodles with lunch and dinner, I am full after this “appetizer” 4. They eat about 5 courses, dessert is always fruit. For lunch we had fried chicken, an interesting vegetable soup which looked like a brown, gritty-ish paste, but actually tasted like vegetables, fried chicken, halved mushrooms with ?ham? and tossed in some sauce, bread of course, fruit, and Coca-cola. I mention the coca-cola because José kept trying to convince me that in the US we don’t have coca-cola. He actually loves doing this a lot. I asked if they had Pepsi here and he said yes, but then refused to admit that they were almost the same thing, haha. He also made fun of my jeans, which have the designer “holes” in them. He kept asking me if the holes were from rats, bahaha. When we eat it is always with the tv on, which is actually common in a lot of the families which I found out by talking with friends.

After lunch I went upstairs to siesta (my first!). Matu came in at around 5 and asked if I wanted to go shopping with her and her sister, Milagros. I agreed and minutes later Milagros was driving us to Luz Pajo, the huge mall they have here. There are probably 100 clothing stores and a few movie theaters inside, along with other things that I didn’t even see. We went to a few of their favorite stores, and boy are they thorough. I’m a pretty rapid shopper, I just skip through the store usually looking at things I like, but they went through every single rack, touching every single item, and once in a while talking about one of the items for a few minutes. I think we spent about an hour in each of the stores we entered. I have never spent so long in a store before. I didn’t get anything, and we ran out of time to get coffee (they were surprised….I was not!). Driving in Spain is…relatively scary. They have mostly roundabouts (I think I’ve seen one stoplight) and yield signs, and few stop signs (again, I’ve seen only like 2).

After shopping we came back home and ate salmon which was actually not bad, I was shocked. Of course this was accompanied by pesto (the red salsa thing I forgot the name of earlier), bread, soup, fruit and other things I think I am forgetting. Like always I was told I don’t eat enough and that I needed to become fat like my sister Olga. Yes, they say that. Even her boyfriend Raul says she’s fat right in front of her. I think it’s like a family joke? They say it so often, it has to be, but I still feel bad for her.

I took the 10:30 bus to the plaza where I met Emily. We walked to the Fund together to meet up with Elizabeth and whoever else. A lot of people were sitting outside the bar nearby drinking wine so we went and joined them. Emily and I tried verano tinto I think it’s called. It’s like sangria, and has red wine mixed with sodas, and is delicious. We call it the American drink because all Americans love it, haha. Everyone else was heading to a hookah bar, but we didn’t want to go, so Emily, Elizabeth and I went walking around Toledo looking at the bars and trying to choose one that looked like it had young people in it. Our plan was to just sample the city and what it had to offer. We walked into I think 2 different bars and ended up walking straight out again. I was shocked at how many bars had only older people in it! One bar we walked into had a birthday party going on, so that was a no, too. Finally we got to Pícaro. This bar was sweet looking. It had 4 levels and disco lights going and a dj, although no one was really dancing. Emily and I tried a mojito, which was really tasty, but expensive. We ended up leaving after only a little bit, since there wasn’t much to do there, and we walked to the Plaza where we found a large group from the Fund. A lot of them were Puerto Ricans and had gone to the salsa club, but it was empty. They had also been to one of the discotheques, but that was also boring they said. We decided to all stick together and try to find a discotheque that was hopping. Eventually we got to Camelot (after a ton of walking…I am still not used to walking Toledo yet. My legs, calves and butt are always so sore because you are either walking steeply up or down, there is hardly any flat ground.). Camelot is a discotheque in an interesting stone building. It was pretty full, and our large group made it very full, haha. We had a good time dancing to the, surprise, surprise, American music, and talking with a few of the Spaniards. Here we tried vodka caramel which was surprisingly very tasty. We asked one of the Spaniards what his favorite drink was and he replied whiskey with coca-cola, which we were told is made extremely strong. Gross. I don’t think I can ever be a true Spaniard if I have to drink that. We decided to pass on trying that, ahah. We eventually left Camelot in search of another discotheque, Circulo, which we found but required 6 euros to enter. So we just went back to Camelot, where this time we met a group of about 6 or 7 spaniards who we took pictures with and talked with a bit. Once we left, Emily and I caught the late bus (the Bono bus it’s called) without any problems. It turned out to be a great night, the people we were with were so much fun, and now I know where the salsa club is, and we’ve made plans to go there soon for sure! (the Puerto Ricans all know how to salsa, so I’m actually going to learn!).

Today I woke up at about 1pm and ate lunch (soup, bread, garbazo beans + potatoes, and they had meat to eat…but by then I wasn’t hungry and it looked super sketchy, almost uncooked. After lunch Olga asked me if I wanted to shopping with her and ______. I didn’t catch the last part. I said ok anyway, figuring she said with Matu, or her cousin (Milagros’ daughter) but then Raul showed up and we ended up driving to a small town near Madrid which has the only shopping mall open on Sundays, as every store is usually closed on Sundays. Raul is hilarious. He talks soo fast I normally don’t understand him, and he always has tons of energy, which is completely contrasted with Olga’s usual silence. Shopping with them was much better. We moved a lot quicker through the stores, and although I didn’t get anything I think I know what items I want to buy in the future. We had coffee after (chocolate expresso with whipped cream on top) and also a bizcocho, a cheesecake with a raspberry topping that was delicious. The mall we went to had even more stores than the one in Toledo. It also had an attached skiing ramp. Yes. The ramp is enclosed and has snow and trails, and everything. I couldn’t believe it. We left at about 7:45 in horrible horrible traffic. It took us probably 45minutes to get out of it and actually start moving. On the way back Raul told me to not tell José about “prisa”. I had no idea what he was talking about until finally I realized he meant speeding. Haha. I don’t understand a lot of what is said still, but definitely I understand much more than I did the first day or two. We stopped to get Olga’s cousin (I forget her name) and then stopped at a pizza store to pick up two pizzas. One of the pizzas was really good, with a white cheese and maybe white sauce on it. I couldn’t tell if there was sauce or not. It also had onions and bacon and other thigns I couldn’t identify. The other pizza looked exactly like the one we had the first night I was here. I stayed away from it until Matu said “oh you haven’t tried the other pizza! Eat it! You don’t eat anything! You need to fatten up!” So I was forced into having half a piece of that pizza which tasted exactly like I had anticipated, yuck. Of course Matu wanted me to, in addition to my 2.5 large pieces of pizza, eat bread and pesto and fruit, but I managed to convince her that I was indeed very very full. After dinner we watched a movie or a really long show about 7 teenage friends who were all pregnant, while Olga’s cousin played a game on her Nintendo DS. She’s like 30…haha I found this hilarious.