Una lista aleatoria (A Random List)

This is not Barcelona. This is random stuff that happened before or after Barcelona.

1) Leche (Milk). On Thursday night, I was talking with Mayte while I was eating dinner. Turns out there was a huge misunderstanding that's lasted, um, the entire time I have lived with her. She thought Katie and I didn't like milk. We thought that they didn't have milk. El centro told us to never go in the fridge and that the kitchen is not our domain. Mayte would leave us out cereal with no bowls or milk or anything, so we never ate it and just assumed that there was no milk (it's also in cartons and looks different here, so even if we opened the fridge it wouldn't have been immediately obvious). She now keeps bringing it up, shaking her head and calling us stupid girls and asking us what kind of family wouldn't drink milk. But hey, the benefit is now that milk is back in my diet. Milk here is different (very processed), but milk nonetheless. Ok, maybe I should have kept this story to myself.

2) Intercambio (Exchange). I am going to have an intercambio with a sevillana girl, Natalia, sometime this week. I called her last week and had my first real, authentic, kind of lengthy phone conversation in Spanish. It was hard at times, but she sounded really nice and was really good humored. I was also pleased with myself that I didn't stumble too badly over anything. I'm excited for the intercambio. I want to have more interaction with the Spanairds, but it's hard when I have so much of an American bubble constantly around me. I've realized I have to make a conscious effort to really immerse myself (as with any study abroad program that Cornell has, I would imagine--they do too good a job taking care of you!). So conscious effort I will make!

3) Visas. There was a day last week where kids in the program were trying to buy tickets online and get money out of the ATM. Most people's cards were frozen. The airlines wouldn't accept dollars and the ATMs wouldn't give them Euros because of the instability of the stock market, etc, etc. I haven't tried to take out money, but I think it was just for that one day. Weird.

4) Naranjas (Oranges). I'm sick, and this morning when I came back and Mayte heard my voice, she made me fresh-squeezed orange juice with honey in it. It feels nice to be home. Er, um, back in Sevilla.