home is where the heart is

Now having lived here for a year and a half, sometimes I wonder which place is more my home right now: North Carolina or Madrid? Of course North Carolina is my home home (if that makes sense) and there are things I always miss when I'm here: my family and friends, barbecue, Carolina basketball, Bojangles, all things UNC. However, since I started my life post-college here in Madrid I feel like my life is more here than in NC. I definitely noticed it when I went home for Christmas. I saw everyone when they were home and off work but once they went back to their lives, I felt like NC wasn't where my life was at the moment. As I am trying to decide in the coming year what I want to do, figuring out where I feel more at home is a big factor. Where I'll be next year and what I'll be doing is the million dollar question. I'll let you know when I answer it.

farting around

his weekend I went to Burgos (a city in Castilla y Leon) with Alberto for a big meal with all of his friends. It was called "La Gran Alubiada" because we were going to be eating alubias, which are a bean typical to eat in Castilla y Leon. We arrived on Saturday, hungry and ready to eat! I was excited to try alubias because I had never had them before but everyone told me in the group that although they were delicious...they gave you gas. There were jokes all day about farting, not surprising since I have found Spaniards are pretty open about bodily functions. We sat down for our meal around 3 in the afternoon and first had the alubias. They looked like this:

It was the perfect soup for a cold place like Burgos and so delicious! After 2 bowls of the alubias came the huge plate of meat. I was already full but how could I pass up morcilla de Burgos, ribs, pork belly, basically the entire pig on a plate. Mmmmmmmmm pork. Although I was totally stuffed they brought out desserts, coffee and after meal liquors. We sat around till the restaurant closed digesting our food and hoping they person sitting next to you wouldn't pass gas hahaha. It was something really fun to do and a really delicious meal!

new year's resolutions

I usually don't make too many new year's resolutions but this year I decided to have a few in mind:

1.I definitely want to keep up with my healthy diet and lifestyle this year. I started changing the way I ate to lose weight over the summer and had success so I want to keep it up.

2. Travel more outside of Spain. Last year I traveled a lot around Spain because it was cheaper and easier. It was definitely worthwhile and I got to see a lot of the country, (although I still have more places I want to go!). However I would like to take advantage of cheap flights to see more of Europe and travel farther.

3. Use Groupon. Okay this is a silly one but I am signed up for the Madrid Groupon and I always read the emails and say "Wow, that's a really good deal!" and then never actually get it. So I decided to do at least one a month. This resolution I've already got a head start on, I bought one yesterday! It is this new craze in Europe that is getting your feet exfoliated by fish! It really freaks me out but you can go and put your feet into a tank filled with these little fish and they nibble on your dead skin. My roommate Tory did it in England and said it was a unique experience. Although I might faint if I look down and see all those fish, I decided to do it! I'll definitely blog about how it goes...

Happy New Year!