Pictures from Abroad

Well, I heard that two of our travelers are back now after their semester in Spain, so congrats to them for finishing up already!  They sent a few pictures from their Spring Break travels that took them to Paris, Florence, and Berlin.  Apparently, they had one minor encounter with some bed bugs while in Paris, but other than that, they had a BLAST!

They also traveled to Switzerland at some point for a winter feel in the mountains.  I had asked Caitlin about what her favorite foods were in Spain because I've always heard so much about great Spanish food, and she had some great comments about that.  She is living with a host family, and her host mom is a wonderful cook.  She's from the Canary Islands, which is part of Spain, but has a lot of African and Moroccan influence.  Caitlin says: "I've eaten more meat here than I do at home, which is different, but also a nice change at the same time. We actually have a pig leg in our kitchen that you can shave ham right off of whenever you want to. Sounds weird but its some of the best ham I've ever had! My host mom makes a lot of traditional spanish food. Paella is very popular, which is basically rice flavored with a bunch of spices (mainly saffron), and then with veggies, chicken, chorizo, seafood, or whatever you want. It's definitely one of my favorites. Another favorite are these things called croquetas. I can't really describe them, they look kind of like mozzarella sticks, but they're not made from cheese. Hard to explain but they're pretty much some sort of fried dough with any kind of meat, cheese, or fish chopped up in the dough. My explanation is not doing them justice and probably makes them sound disgusting but if you ever get the chance to try them you should. And the third big food here, and something I could eat every day for the rest of my life, is tortilla española. It's Spain's take on frittata pretty much, and is usually made with potatoes, egg and sauteed onion, but my host mom sometimes put tomatoes or zucchini in too. Tastes great hot or cold, or put in a sandwich."

Caitlin has a fabulous attitude about it all, and this sentence sums it up pretty nicely: 

"...it's always some sort of culinary adventure and I always try everything before asking what's in it just in case."