The one where I meet Madre dos.

Today, I finally moved out of the hostel and met my host mom (señora)! I call her Señora Gracia, but when referring to her in my blog or to others, I call her Madre dos. Even though I was sad to leave my roomie Julia, I was excited to get out of the hostel and get to my actual home for the semester. I was very nervous to meet Madre dos, but it turns out she is so nice! Her apartment is on the third floor and has 4 bedrooms and 2 full baths. I have my own room, bigger than my room at home and school, and my own bathroom! I can tell Laura, Madre dos' daughter, lived in this room when she was little as the pictures of puppies, flowers and butterflies still remain. It is a little chilly, because a lot of apartments do not have central heating, but thankfully it is not as cold here as it has been in Chicago! She is very accommodating and corrects my horrible spanish which is very helpful.
Madre dos made a potato stew for lunch. To me, it tasted more like a potato soup than stew with many various vegetables that I cannot name. We also had bread with "queso" and a salad. There is bread at every meal here, carbs carbs carbs! I really like the salad here because most have a olive oil/vinegar dressing that is very delicious. I am definitely going to be open to trying new things because the food here is much different. It will also be very hard to stay away from all of the bakeries and candy shops. It will be a miracle if I don't come back obese. Even after our big lunch, we had a HUGE dinner consisting of a dish very similar to fried rice, sausage, lasagna, salad, and corn... ay dios mío. Not to mention the plate of chocolate and cookies that is always offered. But I'll stop complaining.
The apartment is a little less than a mile away from school, which isn't too bad and some live a lot farther. On the other hand, it is very close to a lot of shops and little cafés. Luckily Julia and Jenn live very close to me so I will always have someone to walk with. After I unpacked my stuff in my room, I walked around the city with Jenn and Julia and bought a hair dryer and straightener from 'El Corte Inglés'. This place is like a department store on steroids and has everything you can imagine, even more than a super target. The best part is all popular American products are sold there. I can't wait to do some more shopping here (:
Tomorrow, we are going on a 6 hour tour of the Alhambra and then after, Jenn and I are going to join YO10, the gym very close to our apartments. Overall, I feel very blessed to be living with Madre dos, she is wonderful and I look forward to my days ahead.

My bed

My desk

The closet

Bathroom

Bathroom