Pepper&Cinnamon...the perfect combo

Tonight we had tortillas de patatas with red peppers, sausage and onions as an optional topping for dinner. Two things about this: first, we eat red peppers more than anything- I think I'm beginning to smell like one- and second, its really good, I just think it would taste a little better with a dash (or 2 or 7) of black pepper. 

I actually ask if I can get out the pepper from the spice cabinet at every meal because almost everything she serves would go well with pepper on it. But tonight Cristina told me I was ruining her cooking by covering the taste with pepper! I tried to explain I was simply adding an additional taste that I liked but she didn't understand. She told me I could do what I wanted, it's my food, but I had "la tropeado"... destroyed it. Oops! But hey, I like pepper (thanks Stephen) and so I'm not backing down.

The same goes for MC and her cinnamon and/or nutella. She brings her own jar of nutella to the dinner table to add to bread and fruit and whenever cinnamon is an appropriate (or semi-appropriate) you better believe its coming out of the spice cabinet as well. Cristina thinks we are darn crazy but I know deep down she loves it. 

I went for a long run this morning trying to find a gym (which I never ended up finding) but as I was running I started making note of things that have been sticking out to me:

• street names are like if someone were talking gibberish and made up words right on the spot to mean something, and the words changed every time with no rules/structure. One map calls a street one name, another map another name, and on the actual street you can't find a street sign anywhere, but if you ask someone they'll give it a name and it'll be one you've never heard before.

• kids in non-college schools have identical uniforms right down to their shoes; they're all the exact same

• I can't figure out the stoplights for the life of me...I am convinced there aren't actually rules about needing to stop on red

• there are no such things as granola bars, only cookies

• even though the Spanish are very defensive about the stereotype of always running late, I've yet to have a class start or end on time

• even though conserving electricity and water is the primary concern of my senora's (and every other senora's) day, they still talk on the phone every waking minute that they're not cooking or eating

• more about phone calls: when saying "adios", it must be said at least 8 or 9 times before hanging up actually happens, and immediately following a meal Cristina calls her daughter to tell her what we've just talked about during it...sometimes the phone call happens during the meal in which she fills her in on what's happening in real-time

• when I finally did find a gym I found that they have some way different equipment than I've ever seen, but they also don't have spray stuff to wipe off machines when you're done using them...ew.

That's it for now...'ta luego!