My Spanish Diet

There is no doubt about it for me. Coming to Spain not only has helped me improve my spanish skills, but also has helped me become healthier. I am slowly losing weight (opposed to the fifteen pounds I lost within the first week) and my diet is much better.

I wrote last year how I wanted to eat less meat (Solving World Hunger One Step at a Time). I may have had a little success at first but soon fell back into the same old meat-eating ways. But when I came to Spain, my meat consumption changed drastically. I don't want to spend the money to buy meat. Four slices of lunch meat cost a euro! So I eat enough to get some protein in my diet.

On top of eating less meat, my vegetable consumption has also changed. For someone who wouldn't touch vegetables at one point, I actually crave some of them. When I went to Barcelona in November 2011 one of the dinners I had included some amazing fresh asparagus. So I had to start trying to cook it on my own. (And it isn't bad actually.) Another thing I learned to like here is Eggplant or "Berenjena" in Spanish. Although my method of cooking it doesn't look nearly like that at the bar where I learned to like it.

I bought several fruits and vegetables today that I have never eaten or cooked. I don't know how I will like them but I have an avocado, turnip and an artichoke to try. I guess I better get to researching how to cook them.

Not in the Scenarios

I found myself in a situation today that caused me to reflect back on my time spent studying Spanish at Arkansas State University. There have been a lot of times where I am in a situation and I think, "I know I learned that word in class at some point. Why don't I remember it now?"

I am a clumsy and forgetful person. It took me three trips to the market today to finally come up with all the ingredients and groceries I wanted for the next two weeks. The second trip is what caused the reflection. After shopping for about half an hour I made it to the check-out counter only to find I had left my money in the apartment. I had been shopping online for hotels before going to the market.

So the reflection was about the times in Spanish class when we had to act out a scene or come up with a skit and act it out in Spanish. Never did this scenario cross my mind: forgetting your money while shopping. The good news is although I figured out on the walk home how to say it, I was able to communicate my thoughts in a sufficient manner that we both understood. About 15 minutes later I was standing in the line again with the groceries waiting for me.