June 7-8 – Visit to a Winery and Wine Tasting

Mon. June 7th
• Had my Literature class in the morning and my Language class in the afternoon. One of my friends transferred out of our class so now there are only 3 students. It’s kind of nice because we really get one-on-one attention. For example, in class we read a passage and really worked on our pronunciation and tried to sound less like “Americanos” and more like “Españolas.” We focused on the short “oh” sound and learned that words that have “ci” and “ce” sometimes sound like “th” (which is really interesting since “th” doesn’t exist in Spanish!) It was pretty cool and definitely beneficial when conversing with our host families.

• For lunch, I decided to see if American restaurants taste the same in Spain and went to KFC. They didn’t have my fave food of potato wedges, which was disappointing, so I got Crispy Strips and French fries instead. And I’m happy to report they pretty much taste the same.

• When I returned home from school at the end of the day, I found Sira in the bathroom covered head to toe in dirt because she had been playing on the terrace barefoot. She was about to take a bath and I asked if I could help. I ended up being the one who bathed her and it was a lot of fun! She played with this collection of marbles (which she called “bolas” in Spanish) and enjoyed flinging them in the tub. In all my years of babysitting, this was actually the first time that I had ever given a bath to a young child. Then I helped to brush and blow dry her hair. Loli took pictures of our bathing adventure.

• For dinner, Loli made a hamburger and French fries from scratch which was really cool and yummy! After dinner, I wrote an essay for my Spanish class. Definitely not a fan of this whole daily homework during the summer thing, but it’s all good.


Tues. June 8th
• Today during my break between classes, I wandered around the city with my friend in search of interesting and cheap postcards. We literally walked over, went down a random street and ended up where we started, and then took a bus to the Cathedral. I got some cute postcards and stamps for them (the postcards were 20 cents each and the stamps were 1 Euro each).

• While wandering, we got hungry and went to a bakery and had some delicious chocolate pastries. One had chocolate on the top and was made of doughy bread and the other resembled a small croissant and had chocolate on the inside. Sooo good!

• Instead of my language class today, we had an excursion! We went to visit a winery called Bodegas Can Majoral, which is in the town of Algaida. We went on a tour of the factory and learned the process of how wine is made. We got to see the machines, the cellar, the barrels, and a bottle-labeling machine. And after was the best part: the wine tasting! The bodega had 3 types of wine: white (blanca), rose (rosa), and red (tinta). We were given about half a glass of both the white and the red. I preferred the white, but both were very good and very sweet. They didn’t have cheese to go with it, but instead we had chips, bread biscuits, and pretzel sticks.

• After, we were given the opportunity to go to the gift shop and buy bottles of wine to give to our host families or bring back to the U.S. Most students did a combo but I talked to my host parents at dinner the previous night and they requested a bottle of vino tinto (red wine). I bought a bottle and they wrapped it up in a safe box for me.

• So while at the winery, I was wearing one of my favorite pairs of black sandals that are good for walking because they had arch support. However during the field trip today, I suddenly felt the left shoe break and the 2 pieces holding it together separated. I was very sad and used a makeshift solution so I could continue walking in it. When I got back home, I showed both the broken one and the good sandal to Loli and she said that she would look at it and see if she could fix it. Just a few minutes later, she came into my room and told me that it was all fixed! It seriously looks good as new and I told her that she is my magical helper and was very grateful!


Tomorrow I’m planning on going to the beach with a friend during our 6 hour break in-between classes so that should be fun. And I’m very happy to report that all of my sunburns have now faded into a tan (yay!) and only the tops of my feet are still a little red (but they thankfully don’t hurt anymore). Hope everyone back home is enjoying their summer so far! Adios!