When I was in Chile for two weeks this past Fall, something that I absolutely loved was that we had amazingly fresh vegetables with every meal, especially avocado. I love love love avocados, so that helped too. Here in Spain, it’s not avocados that they eat with everything but it is aceite de oliva (olive oil). Literally, Manoli cooks EVERYTHING with olive oil. She will give me vegetables/ensalada(salad) with olive oil and vinegar (She made me a plate of steamed but cold broccoli the other day with olive oil and vinegar on it… I went back to my room and ate granola bars instead). Also, in the cafeteria at school and in all the restaurants in Sevilla instead of having salt and pepper on the table, it’s olive oil and vinegar. It’s definitely interesting putting olive oil in everything; it eventually kind of makes everything taste the same. Manoli brags about how good it is for your body but oh, what I would give for a Hillstreet vegetarian omelet with hash browns or Chipotle.
It has been almost three weeks since I first got here. I’m still getting used to eating at such crazy meal times (desayuno @ 7ish because of school, then Merillat and I eat galletas (cookie-ish things that we take from breakfast every morning) in between classes, almuerzo @ 2:30, y cena @ 9pm). I’m still working on taking siesta regularly too. I often find myself trying to finish homework, pre-write emails, pre-write my blog, or make a list of errands to do for the rest of the day, when I’m really suppose to be napping. I was talking to a friend about it on Friday and we were talking about how it’s just culturally a very different mindset because Spaniards put a lot of value in rest. Being American, I feel so inclined to be busy ALL THE TIME, or just constantly finish my list of things to do. It’s just different and takes some getting used to I guess.
Pictures: 1) Olive oil & vinegar at Mama Terra (a restaurant), 2) ensalada fruta - Manoli makes this every sunday night. It is literally AMAZING. Oranges, apples, bananas with honey, carmel, and chocolate sprinkles. 3) ensalada with vegatables and instead of dressing, olive oil and vinegar.
