Comida!

So I said I'd tell you about school next, but food is just so much more exciting.  And I happen to currently be waiting for dinner so it's on my mind ;)  In Spain, the food and food schedule is super different from the U.S.  So let's start at the beginning of the day so you can see exactly what I'm eating and when.

Sometimes I splurge
on breakfast :)

I wake up in the morning and the first meal is breakfast (of course!)  But unlike the U.S., breakfast is really small here.  As opposed to the pancakes, waffles, fruits, muffins, doughnuts, french bread etc., my breakfast typically consists of a piece or two of toast with jelly.  Sometimes I'll make myself tea, but most the time I'm too lazy and drink water.

La Comida

Lunch, called la comida, is next.  When I eat lunch, the clock doesn't read 12.  Instead it reads 3 or 4pm.  This meal is by far the largest of the day, much like dinner is in the U.S.  Typically, I'll either have a pasta salad of some sort or a regular salad and some meat, along with bread (always bread!), fruit, and sometimes gazpacho.  The first day I saw lunch, I assumed it was for both myself and Natalia to share, but nope, it was all mine (and was all delicious).

After lunch, later in the evening, is the merienda.  This is basically a snack, and I usually eat a pastry while out exploring if I have one.  I'm really going to miss having pastelerías on every corner when I get back to the states.

Dinner is eaten around 9:30 in my family, although sometimes it's much later.  This meal is smaller than lunch, typically consisting of just a salad (well, and bread too).  Sometimes there's meat instead of a salad, but the main point is that this meal is smaller.  After dinner, we eat fruit!  Melon has been the big hit in our kitchen (it's delicious!) and then after fruit we will often finish the night with some ice cream.

Pinchos

Sometimes, instead of a merienda, I'll go out for tapas with friends.  Tapas are kind of like appetizers.  They're basically little foods that you eat before dinner (more as a social thing).  My favorite thing to get is pinchos.  Pinchos are basically tapas, except that they are all on a piece of bread and have a toothpick through them to hold everything together.  I've been trying different pinchos and have yet to find one I don't like.

So there you have it, a typical day of eating.  When I get back to the U.S. my schedule is going to be so messed up...