Care Package

I now feel like a true expat...this week I received my first care package! When I was packing to move to Malaga, I was weary of bringing two large rolling suitcases because I was going to be in a new city, and I was going to be by myself; so to make things easier, I only brought one bag. For most people, this would have been plenty of room for clothes. But for me, a perpetual "over-packer," I barely made it a month wearing those clothes ;)

After days about an hour of agonizing over what to bring, and what could wait, I packed a suitcase of clothes to bring with me, a suitcase of heavy winter clothes for my family to bring when they come visit me, and a box of clothes for my Mom to mail to me when I got settled into my apartment.

I knew that my Mom was mailing me some clothes, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that she had secretly packed some goodies into my box. 

Please note that hair products definitely count as goodies :)

Thanks Mom!!!

"Real" Food

I haven't talked much about my apartment since I moved in (maybe a photo tour in the future?), but even though it's old, it's in a great location, and it's huge! The only drawback for me is the stove; It's not electric, we use butano, or butane, and it's not automatic so we have to light it every time we want to cook. While I have a gas stove at home, it turns on automatically, but here, I have literally been terrified to light this stove because I'm afraid I'm going to blow up the whole butano tank like a bomb.

The first couple of weeks we lived here I was too scared to even try to light it. While I didn't blow anything up, this also meant that any "cooking" I did involved the microwave. By the way, if you ever want to get looked at like you're completely crazy, cook some pasta in the microwave in front of some native Italians. But, after a trip to one of the largest grocery stores in town, I bought sooo much fresh food that I had to "conquer my fears" and light the stove (is that bad that my worst problem in life is lighting a stove?).

So here we are, my first "real" meal that I cooked in Spain....Chinese noodles with shrimp and broccoli!

Here's what you'll need: spaghetti noodles, water, broccoli, shrimp (I used langostinos, pretty much shrimp with the heads still on them), soy sauce, and olive oil. 

First you boil the water, and place the spaghetti in the boiling water for about 7-10 minutes. 

While you're waiting for the water to boil, cut the broccoli into smaller pieces, and shell the shrimp.

Sautee the shrimp and broccoli in equal parts olive oil and soy sauce (can't begin to describe how happy I was to find soy sauce in Spain). But, be careful with the soy sauce, especially if you're not using the low sodium kind because it can be very salty. 

This picture is from when I made a similar tomato based pasta so just pretend like you don't see the bacon,  thankyouverymuch. 

Lastly, when the noodles are done, drain them and add them to the shrimp and broccoli stir-fry. Add more olive oil and soy sauce to the noodles, but just enough soy sauce to turn the noodles brown.

Sautee the noodles in the stir-fry for about five minutes and then voila! You have Chinese noodles with shrimp and broccoli!

Buen provecho!

Addicted To Internet?????

Sorry I haven´t posted in so long. Although we found this wonderful piso, it doesn´t have internet. I never really realized how much I depended on/was addicted to internet until I had to go the last three days without it. It feels so weird not being able to check my e-mail or even update my blog, but, I now live in Malaga. What do you do when you live in the South of Spain and don´t have internet.....go to the beach!!! I´ve literally been to the beach almost everyday since I got here :) 

I don´t know if I mentioned this before, but Pablo Picasso was born in Malaga, and the city takes great pride in this. So yesterday, I went to the Picasso museum with one of my friends from the hostel, and it was a special treat because the museum is free on the last Sunday of every month. It was amazing to see such a large collection of Picasso´s works! There was a special exhibit of photographs of Picasso, and it was so cool to see him captured in the moment of painting some of his works, and then walk into the next room and see the actual finished artwork! 

Hopefully we can get our internet set up in the next couple of days and I´ll be able to share some photos. 

Until then...I´m going back to the beach :)

Day 2

Even though I was talking all of that stuff yesterday about how I wasn't tired even though I had been awake for a couple of days, when I finally went to sleep...it was a different story. I had plans to go apartment hunting with a girl I met at the hostel at 10 this morning, but I definitely didn't wake up until 1:30 this afternoon ;)

Since I got a late start, I just started looking for apartments on the internet, and calling to see if they were still available. Most of them had already been rented, or were too far out of the center. Luckily, the girl I met in the hostel, Andrea, has quickly become a friend and apartment hunting life saver. She has been here a few days, and has already been to about eight apartments, so she has seen what is out there.

I tagged along as she visited an apartment with a great price and perfect location in the center of Malaga; but just like everything else, if it sounds too good to be true, it is. Although the apartment had a large, open, living room with french doors made out of glass leading to a balcony, the kitchen, rooms, and bathrooms were very small. 

Luckily, we now have a lead on an apartment from one of the guys who works at the hostel, and we hope to go see it tomorrow. After apartment hunting all day, I'm going to try to go to dinner with some other Auxiliares who are also here in Malaga, and go to a salsa club tonight with Andrea. 

Dinner and salsa lessons...sounds like a great night :)