As I write this, it’s 8pm and it’s the first time all day I’ve been able to sit up. Last night I inexplicably (or explicably, if you count the 48 hour exposure to 15 children and pouring rain) came down with a fever. And jeez, there’s nothing like a fever to make you cry for your mom, especially when you’re in a new country with people you don’t know all that well yet! But, I think the fever’s broken and I’m feeling more or less human again.
So where was I that I was around tons of kids and pouring rain all weekend? A beach resort! The family I’m living with goes every year with their friends, and despite the rain, the kids clearly had a good time. I became slightly more stressed when my charges increased from one toddler to two toddlers and numerous 12 year olds, especially when the swimming pool was involved, but I have to admit, it was nice to be able to go to the restaurant whenever I wanted and order a cappuccino. I may never live the “all-inclusive” lifestyle, but it’s nice to join families who do!
And on Sunday, we had a brief period with no rain, so I was able to go for a walk on the beach and the sand dunes.
In other news, so far, my days have consisted of waking up late (oops). While I do feel like I should start waking up earlier to maximize the time I have in the morning, it’s also nice to let the family do their own thing in the morning and start my day with the house to myself. Plus, in justification of sleeping late, I’ve never consistently worked until 9pm before!
Because of the differing schedule, days have an entirely different feel here. While at home, I may have felt that 4-5pm was later in the afternoon and dinner was approaching, but here, 4-5pm feels like early afternoon with the whole day ahead of you.
In general, kids in school bring a snack/pre-lunch to school, which they eat at about 11. School finishes at 2 and they all head home for lunch, the biggest meal of the day. Dinner, on the other hand, is usually a salad or small tapas (bread, cheese, meat, olives, etc) eaten around 9pm. Dinner is always followed by tea and chocolate, while lunch is followed by an espresso.
In my family, 3 lunches a week are eaten at the grandparents’ house, and I’ve been welcomed there as well (in contrast to my previous experiences living in other countries, this one has dropped me right in the middle of an entire extended family, which is a new situation!). None of the grandparents speak English, and only a little bit of Spanish (as I mentioned in my last post, the main language spoken here is Catalan), but they’re all incredibly sweet. Lunch is usually pasta, a meat dish, or other hearty meal and is often accompanied by wine, as is dinner.
I’ve also adapted to a new “way” of eating, and I’m not sure if this is cultural or just specific to this family, but I imagine it’s at least somewhat cultural. All of the dishes are placed in the table, and you grab what you want using your own fork (no serving utensils). Salads are essentially communal, and you use your fork to take bites directly from the bowl (if you have an especially large forkful, you may place it on your plate and eat it in subsequent bites, but usually it goes straight from the salad bowl to your mouth, via your fork).
Olive oil and salt are always on the table if you’re having bread, and lunches are often accompanied by small dishes of olives or pickled peppers. Olive pits go right on the table until you’ve finished eating, when you can put them on your empty plate.
While food is generally healthy here, they do eat a lot of sugar and other things that the U.S. has mostly begun to turn away from, like margarine instead of butter. I spent a lot of time thinking about this dichotomy: that America is considered such an overweight, unhealthy country, but we’ve (to a large degree) woken up to the dangers of sugar consumption and replacement foods like margarine, so why is Europe (generally considered healthier) still eating them?
The one explanation I could think of is that American’s eating habits were so unhealthy for so long that we went off the deep end, as it were, and had to fix it pretty fast. Hence the fairly recent but dramatic rise of gluten free, vegan, paleo, and whole food trends, among others. Relatively healthier Europe never had the same penchant for fast foods, diet foods, soda, etc that the U.S. has had, and so they’ve never had to course correct their eating in the same way, and thus the 2 year old eats chocolate pretty much whenever she wants. Oh, but how good is the chocolate here!
Last week I took a short day trip to Porto Cristo, the nearest town on the coast (about 15 minutes by bus!). I only stayed for a couple of hours, since I had to work in the afternoon, but I was able to get a healthy dose of beach.
Who knows what will be next!
Going Out Your Door 