This fire is outta control, we gonna burn this city! Burn this city!

My trip to Valencia with Sarah and Carly during the weekend of March 19th for Las Fallas is documented in this video:



Notice the song and lyrics: "We're gonna burn this whole city down!"

Like I said, these people are CRAZY. The city could catch on fire any minute, as shown by the raging flames. How this never actually happens, I don't know.

BBQ Pizza

Right now I am eating a frozen pizza labeled as "BBQ" that I am pretty sure contains pulled pork.

Spain, this is a culinary accomplishment.

Does that really work on the ladies?

If I haven't already mentioned, catcalling here is ridiculous. Catcalling, or when guys whistle/holler/make noises at women as they walk by, is very common here.

Yes, you may see it in the city, or even in the suburbs I hear the occasional drive-by catcall. But what is more common in the states is just staring. Guys simply stare at the women.

But the Spaniards love to make it a little more verbal. Thank goodness I am not blonde, where the catcalling is a little more ridiculous since they all know you aren't a native Spaniard. Being brunette has helped it be less of the "you're a foreigner so I will make you super uncomfortable" type catcalling.

So, what exactly do they say/do? Well, the most common is "hola chica" (hey girl) or "guapa!" (beautiful girl)

Or, in the case of my Granada trip last year, in the area called Little India, the storeowners said "por favor! Quiero saber tu nombre! Solamente tu nombre!" (I just want to know your name! Just your name!)

Or, in the case of Carly while waiting at the bus station to go to San Sebastian last weekend, a homeless man, in English, said "I LOVE YOUUU"


But they also make sounds. They whistle sometimes, but what's more common is random noises, like kissing sounds, this hissing "SSSSTTT" noise, or this odd sucking noise you make to get peanut butter off the roof of your mouth. Except I think they do it to attract women. Ew.

I have the unfortunate walking route between my internship and school that goes right through road construction. That, of course, means there are construction workers, the most infamous catcallers. I usually ignore them and act like I don't hear them at all. I especially try not to smile, even though it's hard not to when they say such ridiculous things.

Today, however, I couldn't help myself.

I walked by the construction site and hear a group of guys yell "guapa! chica! ey! ey! guapa!" at me, but one voice strains to stay above the rest, reciting a whole paragraph of things...
"hola! Chica guapa! Que tienes mi corazon en tus manos! Mira! Te quiero! Que quiero casarme contigo! Podemos tener una vida maravillosa! Guapa! Por favor!" (Beautiful girl! You have my heart in your hands! Look! I love you! I want to marry you! We can have a wonderful life together! Beauty! Please!)

After the first couple sentences I was biting my lip not to smile because it was so weird. Then I just full on broke out laughing and smiling, but still kept looking straight ignoring whoever was talking. His friends started laughing at him as he continued his rant.

Happily living with squirrels in your house

About animals...

I learned today that (spanish) people willingly have squirrels as pets...that live in their house. Ohhhhkay then.

Secondly, I learned the word for sloth in Spanish, which is "perezoso", which means lazy. Like, if I were to say "he is lazy" I would say "es perezoso." Apparently that is what sloths are called. I mean, it makes sense since sloth means laziness as well...but it's just funny!

No, not emo kids.

Welcome to what I have learned was Spain/Argentina's equivalent to the emo trend of America: Floggers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flogger_%28fashion%29

It only kills your liver, no big deal.

The past week or so I have had a bit of a cold. I thought it was just allergies or something, but it turned into swollen tonsils (which really aren't that big of a deal since I get them ALL THE TIME). Since I am technically enrolled as a student at the University of Alicante, I can benefit from their free health care provided by the school!

So I went to the equivalent of a wellness center on campus (I have never been to one at Loyola, so I don't know what it's like back in the states) which seemed very professional. There were 3 or 4 doctors there, wearing lab coats, thin-framed glasses and fuzzy-grey Santa beards, so you know they were legit. After a little bit of a wait, I had my turn.

By the way, originally Luis (the program director for USAC) was going to take me and the other kid (who had a high fever for a couple days) to the doctor, but he was less familiar with what I had so he insisted Larissa take us (another USAC office worker) in case there was anything "private" or "womanly" that needed to be explained in Spanish. I insisted that all I had was a sore throat and a runny nose, but he insisted Larissa go.

So I let Larissa come into the room with me so I could communicate better with the doctor and in turn understand his instructions. He looked in my throat and said I had a small cold, not related to allergies. I told him that I lived with a little boy who seemed to have a runny nose and cough, so I probably caught it from him. He seemed to agree. He wrote me a prescription for this medicine that dissolves in water, told me to take it 1, 2 or 3 times a day depending on how I felt, and then I was done.

Apparently I didn't need the prescription. Larissa said it wasn't necessary, but with a written prescription it would be cheaper.

So onward to the pharmacy part. I walked in to the nearest pharmacy (they are on every street, marked by a large neon green flashing cross) and it smelled like cigarettes.


Cigarette smoke is something you love to smell in a place of health.

So I gave her the prescription and she got me the tablets. Then she asked if I needed anything else, so I got ibuprofen to ease the swollen tonsils (I assumed the other prescription meds were antihistamines for the nose and watery eyes). Then I got Kleenex (by the way, I have yet to see BOXES of kleenex anywhere! only little purse packets!), and some stuff called Lysopene or lizopene or something that are these minty tablets that relieve a sore throat (like cough drops). And it all was only 10 euro.

These tablets I got with the prescription need to be dissolved in water, and they are just like alka-seltzer tabs. But instead of putting it in 8oz of water like the instructions say, I put it in about an ounce of water and down it like a shot. Who wants to drink 8 oz of disgusting fizzy lemon water with a ton of small sips? This is a lot less painful.

So I was taking those tabs, along with the ibuprofen I got, with breakfast for the next few mornings.

I didn't get a chance to talk with my mom (who is a nurse) about these drugs I was taking, so I just took them once a day. I felt a little better, and I didn't have as much of a runny nose.

But then I talked with my mom, and figured out what I was taking. The fizzy tabs were the equivalent of acetaminophen, one gram. That one tab I took with breakfast was the equivalent of two extra-strength Tylenol tabs, or almost 4 regular Tylenols.
And the ibuprofen I was taking was the equivalent of three regular advils.

So I was waking up in the morning, eating breakfast, and taking three advils and four tylenols.

After I figured that out, I only took the ibuprofen.

I talked with my friends about it and asked them what they think would happen if one took too many painkillers like that. Mike said with a laugh, "it just wreaks havoc on your stomach and liver. No big deal."

And also I have been drinking coffee on occasion. The coffeemaker in my host family's house makes one cup at a time. I have been pressing it to make one full cup of coffee, only to realize that that is 4 espressos, or four whole cups of coffee.

Luckily my host parents have been making me normal cups up until recently.

But I am sure that's great for the stomach, too.