More Things American.

Cars. Cars here are a lot like American cars. They aren't the stereotypical tiny European cars you see in the movies. Here they are mostly average sized hatch-back sedans, or regular sedans, or SUVs and there many makers we see in the US. Audi, Mercedez-Benz, Honda, even Ford! I have also seen a couple mini-vans, and ZERO smart cars. But I did see one Mini-Cooper.

Marco Polo. There is a pool in the courtyard between the four apartment complexes where I live, and my window looks over the pool. Voices carry straight up the buildings and into my room, and for the past two days, I have spent the afternoons listening to kids play Marco Polo in the pool!

And some other things that are different:

Feet do not go on the furniture. Ever. Not on the coffee table or on the couch. Which, for someone who is most comfortable sitting with my feet tucked under me, it makes sitting on the couch and watching tv rather uncomfortable and unsettled. It's strange. And they also wear shoes everywhere in the house. No barefoot ever. Who likes shoes that much?! Not me! That's for sure. Especially after wearing shoes all day. No more shoes for me. No thank you. My family comes home, changes into comfy clothes and puts on flip flops to wear around. And it's not just my family either who wears shoes all over either...I was talking to some other students who are doing home-stays, and it sounds like their families do the same. Interesting.

Bugs. There are none! All the widows just open up to the world, and there are no screens in the windows anywhere!

In other news, I officially decided that I know the reason for siesta today. Lunch here is equivalent to America's dinner. In other words, it is the main meal of the day. Lunch is around 2 or 2:30pm, and dinner is around 10pm. Today, my host-mom made paella for lunch, a traditional Spanish dish made of rice and seafood. It was good, and I ate two helpings, and was comfortably full, thinking that was all we were going to eat, but then my host-mom pulled a pan of some sort of roasted bird out of the oven. Smaller than a chicken. So I ate some of that too. Then we had fruit. Which I'm learning they eat here after most meals like a dessert. Mostly melon and peaches, and the melon tastes like honeydew, but is dark green on the outside, and the size and shape of a football. But today, it didn't stop there. After the fruit, we had cake. Some sort of pound cake type thing. It was good. But left me with a full, after Thanksgiving dinner-type sleepy stupor. Who doesn't need a siesta after that?! I did. It was awesome. I slept for a good hour or two.

Anyways. That's all I have for now. Hope all is well back in the States. Go America! (in response to 9/11)