Nutella=Hallelujah

Today was yet another good one :) We woke up, had some typical toast... and I really wished I had something different than just rock hard toast with a little spread of butter. I decided to try olive oil on my toast... Why not? We have it with every other meal! I'm going to come back to the states addicted to potatoes, olive oil, and bread. GREAT. Really good for me.... not. Haha. A girl's gotta eat what a girl's gotta eat here! Alex and I spent a very relaxing afternoon just strolling around downtown... checking out little random stores. We were kinda on a misson to find some Noxema pads to clean our faces with. Every single department store had every other face wash, BUT the pads. Apparently they don't carry anything like that in Spain? Today was actually the first day where I got very frustrated with the language barrier. They couldn't understand what we wanted, and kept coming back with random lotions and such. (sigh) Make-up remover will just have to do for now! Lets hope the Spanish air just keeps my skin flawless on its own. :) Anyway, we then had lunch which was really good! It was chicken with a red pasta sauce all over it and sauteed green peppers again. Whenever Maria finds out that we are fond of a certain food, we have it for the next three meals at least. In this case, it was the green peppers. haha. She's such a doll. We then tried to take a little siesta, but failed at actually getting some shut eye. It was nice to just chill out though. I have really grown to appreciate the way that everyone takes time to just slow down at one point in the day. Its crazy because if you walk down the streets from about 2:30-4, it seems like a ghost town. All of the businesses are closed down... Its actually really refreshing! Something I'm sure ill miss when i get back to the states. It makes me wonder if our crazy, busy, hectic lives in the states are really worth it?? I appreciate the sense of relaxation and reflection that taking a 'break' gives... It just seems to bring everyone back to earth, and also helps promote more family time! A common misconcetion though is that people believe spaniards take hour siestas. This is NOT true. Its generally a half an hour time where the family sits on the couches and watches tv. Siestas don't take place in your bed... unless you are Paige Blythe. (Then you take advantage of every minute of this trend in your bed) Class went well, and it was really cool to know that this was my last day of SOLID three hour grammar review! Whewfta. I really enjoyed these past two weeks of orientation though. My two professors were great, and so entertaining.. It was neat to start to catch onto their sense of humor in another language. It made me feel like I am starting to improve more than I ever thought I would in such a short amount of time. Dinner was typical- Tortillas with ham slices and salad on the side. Oh- and don't forget the bread with olive oil! I have olive oil coming out of my ears in this country. Is that Good? I'm not sure... then tonight we have just been packing for Morocco, and writing some post cards up! I got to have a long talk with Felica AND Kylie on Skype... which was GREAT! (Love you girls) :) The highlight of my day was: I FOUND NUTELLA IN A GROCERY STORE!! No more dry toast for Paige in the mornings! I told Paco and Maria that they can try it for breakfast in the morning... but the Maria looked at the label and told me that one serving would be 15% of her daily calory intake... so she said I need to eat it because i'm "small", but she shouldn't because she would blow up... hmm.... maybe thats why i like nutella so much? Never knew it was THAT bad for me? Shucks. Anyway- like I said- we leave for Morocco tomorrow, and will be there until Tuesday night. We're taking a large boat over the Mediterranean... and then staying with host families. I'm so excited to experience yet ANOTHER culture! What an opportunity! I'll be sure to update you all on everything that goes on there! Until then- keep on keeping on, and Blessings!