aprovechar

aprovechar: to take advantage of


Everyone is telling me to take advantage of my time in Spain, but the problem is is that I'm not quite sure how to go about doing that. I have found it incredibly difficult to make friends, thus there is not much to do that seems really fun alone. I went to the international club last night and met more people, so that was really good. Maybe things are starting to look up. I keep having dreams that I have already returned home and in my dreams I think, "I was in Spain for 2 seconds and didn't do anything. I have nothing to say to people about it!" It is pretty depressing. Luckily I wake up and realize that I still have two more months left, however it makes me analyze my time here thus far. Everyone told me that studying abroad would be a life changing experience, but I do not feel like my life has been impacted at all. Yes, I am learning a lot about the language and culture, but just like in my dreams, if I were to go home right now, I feel like I have nothing to say to people about Spain. I haven't had any great adventures or tons of laughs. Of course there has been laughter and fun activities, but other than that, I feel like all I do is waste my time. On a good note, I have recognized this and can now try to change it.


***Note: I'm not sitting and crying in my room all day, nor am I sitting around feeling depressed. Just to make that clear.


Enough of that personal stuff. I really hate writing what's on my mind, but for the sake of remembering Spain, I did.


I haven't really noticed more cultural differences. I have been here for about five weeks now and things that used to be abnormal are now normal to me, so my observational skills are somewhat lacking. I have really come to enjoy the mealtimes in Spain, and I would love to adopt this tradition in the U.S., but I'm sure that won't work out well, since no one else will want to follow suit. In case you forgot:


Breakfast - when you wake up
Snack - 11-12
Lunch - 2 - 3pm
Snack - 6-7 pm
Dinner - 9 -10pm


This is a great schedule because in the states we eat all our meals by about 7pm, which means that from 7pm until I go to bed I have to resist food. This usually does not work out well for me, and I end up snacking a ton, which leads to unhealthy overeating. Since dinner is so late in Spain, when I snack between lunch and dinner, I am able to be much more self controlled because I can tell myself "Oh, I don't want to get full because I will be eating dinner in a few hours." The dinner that follows is usually pretty light anyway. The other night I went to a big dinner at the Bonet house and it consisted of an appetizer of ham and crackers, a main soup/dish of potatoes and salmon, a course of 6 different cheeses, jams and bread, and a dessert of ice cream. Lunch is definitely the biggest meal and I like that. 


Welp, I decided to write this post instead of going running, so I suppose I will go do that now. 


Oh, one last thing. Two new shows were recently introduced to me- New Girl, thanks to Amy bo bamy, and Up All Nigh, thanks to Stephanie. It would not be a bad decision to go watch some episodes. Right now. Do it. They provide laughter and "American" humor for me here in Europe.