I need to write more things down so I don't forget them..

FOR EXAMPLE - 
A few days ago, I think it was on our 'Vuelta Practical de Sevilla' we were walking on El Puente de Triana (a very busy bridge - both with cars and pedestrians), and all of a sudden a middle aged woman in front of us got her foot caught in the sidewalk and fell. She may have yelled out a little, I'm not sure. AS SOON AS ANYONE (any sevillano, at least) heard her fall, they rushed over to help her. Not just the people who watched her fall from behind, but the people who were walking far in front of her and didn't even see it. All the American students in Grupo 5 were standing there watching in shock. 

After she was back on her feet, I turned to someone and said 'Wow, that was nice to see,' in reference to how so many people rushed to help her. Nito looked at me like I was crazy. I explained to him (after quickly explaining that I did NOT mean that it was nice to see her fall) that that's just something I would never expect to see in America. People around me agreed - we said most people would just walk on by, or watch at a distance just to make sure she was okay, but I'm not sure people would rush so quickly to help. He was pretty surprised by that notion, and said that if she had fallen and was hurt much worse, cars probably would have pulled over to help her. That's just really nice to think about.

But moving on, TODAY DURANTE EL ALMUERZO there was such good conversation between me and my host parents! First though, I'll just tell you about the food, since I know a lot of people take pictures of the food they eat. I feel weird doing that, but I asked Soraya to write down the names for me - they were all SOOOOO GOOD today. And I'm still not even 100% sure of what is in them.

GAMBAS REBOZADAS <3

First - Las Gambas Rebozadas. Literally means breaded shrimp. Fine, so that's like fried shrimp, right? NO. THERE WAS SOMETHING IN THERE WITH THE SHRIMP. I DONT KNOW WHAT IT WAS. I asked my host abuela Teresa but she talks much faster than everyone else so I never really know what she's saying. It started with a 'B'. I think it might have been egg?! Some sort of delish creamy sauce was inside the breading with that shrimp. Oh my god. 

You can't say they don't look like
Friendly's mini Mozarella sticks

Second - Croquetas.  When I first saw them I thought they might be mini mozzarella sticks like the ones you get at Friendly's. But Soraya explained to me that there are two kinds - those made with pescado (fish), and those made with carne (meat).. but for some reason it didn't really click to me that there was any sort of meat or fish in there.. I thought it was some cornmeally thing.. I don't even know, like a hush puppy or something? BUT THE ONE I WAS EATING HAD FISH IN IT. AND THE AWESOME PART ABOUT THAT is that I don't normally say I like fish but I honestly couldn't tell that that's what it was. Whatever it was, it was DELICIOSO.

Nom, nom, nomz of the jungle!

Third - Flamenquín. Literally means the little flamenco (como la baile sevillana!) Okay, so this looked like a giant Croqueta. IT ALSO TASTED QUITE DELICIOUS. But guess what?! IT HAD JAMÓN Y QUESO. AND JAMÓN in English is ham. AND I HATE HAM. But this was so good oh my gosh. I even told them, I was like, 'Normalmente no me gusta el jamón, pero me gusta muuuucho esto!' (in my stuttering, botched up spanish accent, obviously). NOM NOM NOM



But now to the conversation. The television was playing something about the US Election (apparently Spanish TV shows more about the US and US shows than Spanish luzluzluz), and my host dad Fernando asked me what I thought about it. Unfortunately the phone rang as soon as I began to say that I wasn't much into politics, so he ran to get it, and Soraya continued the conversation. I told her that my dad is very conservative but my school is very liberal, so I like to be somewhere in the middle. AND THEN SHE JUST SPIT OUT EVERYTHING IVE EVER THOUGHT BUT IN SPANISH. She was like, I like Obama because he doesn't think only of his country, but of the world, whereas Romney is just MEMEMEMEMEME (okay well this isn't that part where she repeated my thoughts because I don't really keep up with that stuff but it's coming). She said that both sides - liberals and conservatives make some good points, and that extremes on either side are MALO. SIEMPRE. And that being in the middle is best, to be able to reason in both sides. AND THAT IS SO ME IT MAKES ME SO HAPPY THAT WE BONDED. 

And then Fernando came back and we talked about languages and different words for things and how the English language's greatest fault is pronunciation and spelling (letrear), but the Spanish language's greatest fault is its ENORMOUS VOCABULARY AND SYNONYMS AND WORDS WITH A MILLION MEANINGS and also the conjugation of verbs. I was sooooooo de acuerdo. Estoy de acuerdo. Me encanta mi familia anfitriona!!!



...As I am writing this, Soraya is cooking dinner and I can smell it from my room (the apartment is sort of U shaped, so the window in my room looks out into the window of the kitchen....) AND WHATEVER IT IS SMELLS DELICIOUS. I just got a good whiff. The windows are always open here. For whiffings and such. ...... 

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OKAY IM BACK FROM DINNER AND SHE MADE MASHED POTATOES (puré de patatas) ... she was like te gusta?! and I was like YOU DONT EVEN UNDERSTAND HOW MUCH I GUSTA. :P What's weird is that I always learned that potatoes were 'papas' in Spanish... I wonder if there's a slight difference or if they're synonyms.. Also I learned that when you want to say something tastes good, you say Me sabe bien... SO THE VERB SABER ALSO MEANS TASTE?!?!?! baaaaaah :P

But now I'm actually ridiculously full but I'm going to go meet up with people soon so I have to digest asap. heh.

ADIOS