comida

ok so over the last month or so,  i've realized a few things about myself when it comes to food. some things are because i'm now eating with other people for every meal and eating the food that they provide. other things are because i'm a tourist:

1. i am addicted to sugar. i cannot get enough. i need to have something that either 
    a. has sugar/is sweet or
    b. becomes sugar when digested (bread/starch)
even when i am completely full (which speaks to something i already knew about myself, but that has also become unmistakably apparent under these circumstances: i eat a lot!), i will make space for sweetness. and this happens throughout the day, not just after meals. it's a problem. let me know if you have ideas for therapy. lol. but seriously. 

2. i cannot mess with gelato. i just can't. i've told myself over and over again that it's worth the stomach aches, stomach growling, and you-know-what follows if i can have that cold creamy catastrophe clinging to my taste buds. just this once, i think to myself. but i'm wrong; one cone means at least 2 urgent trips per day to the servicio for the following 2 days. thank goodness sugar comes in other forms. 

3. drinking mucho agua while traveling really works! in vienna, i drank almost no water, as was my habit in states as a 20-year-old. and i was sick for 2 of the three months that i spent there. here, only the ice cream (and the effing pollen) have affected me. i haven't caught one cold, and i don't plan to. wish me luck for peru, though.

4. eating fruit never gets old. ever. i've been eating at least one orange every day for the last 33 days (yesterday i ate 3 oranges, plus sliced oranges in my salad), and i am still excited every time i'm 'bout to have one. the same was true when i was a child; for more years than i can count, i ate a pear for lunch every day. and before i came here, i was eating apples like an elementary school teacher tryina to keep the doctor away. but just now have i realized this. fruit is my jam! maybe i can use it to ween myself off the sugar...hm...

5. washing dishes ain't so bad. there was a long time -- the 16 years between first learning how to wash the dishes and about 4 months ago -- when i thoroughly despised this necessary chore. but other volunteers and i have had to do it as a condition of our WWOOFing arrangements. and am i really gonna try to duck and dodge like i've done with previous roommates (and my mom)? naaa. i'm tryina make a good impression so i can say i have some spanish friends when i get back to the states. lol. and something about picking up llama shit with your bare hands allows a little slack for scrubbing a pot with soggy, brown/green/white what-is-it that was once on my plate with food that has passed through my body. in other words my threshold for disgust has raised. so mommy, kettia, nicole, morgan, jennie, you'll be happy to know that i wash dishes every day...though maybe you would have been happier if that was true while i lived with you =/ #growingpains

6. i cook delicious food. i don't use a recipe (marc), nor do i have many staple dishes memorized. i just go into the kitchen and its contents tell me what i'll make. and, based on reviews from friends and family, 99% of the time it comes out delicious. lizzie and i share this skill, and she says it's because we're creative (she's a photographer and self-taught architect). i like to think of it that way. after all, cooking is an artistic expression. 

7. a tortilla in spain ≠ a tortilla in the us or mexico. i'm sitting in the pension in torvizcon a few weeks ago when my spanish and familiarity with local cuisine were quite minimal. the server gets to asking me what i wanna eat, what i want with my salad and chicken, do i want womp womp this, womp tortilla that, or womp womp the other. oh! yes, tortilla. something i recognize, i thought. a few minutes later, she brings what looks like a circle-shaped omlette with potatoes and spinach in it. it was wonderful, but there was not a lick of corn in sight. apparently tortilla means omlette in spanish spanish...? #pleasantsurprise