Jews and Buttered blankets

I feel like the only Jew in Spain. I haven't met a single Jewish person since I've been here. All of the American students in my program are Christian. Most of the Spanish people are Catholic. Every store and almost every restaurant is closed on Sunday. Where have all the Jews gone? On the bright side, it's interesting to share a Jewish perspective with my class of goyem. I may not know a whole lot about Jewish history, but my professors seem very surprised and interested in what information I have been able to bring to the class.

All of the American exchange students I've met so far have said that their host moms feed them too much. The complain that we don't eat enough, but the food here is so rich (and plentiful!). I think I've mentioned the abundance of food already. Ironically, I've noticed recently that the moms don't seem to eat or sleep. They serve us food and will often watch us eat, but they don't eat with us. One of my Spanish teachers says it's because they snack during the day and don't eat as much food as they serve us, because it would make them very large very quickly. My host mom goes to bed after I've gone to sleep, and wakes up before I've gotten out of bed. I think a lot of the other host moms do the same. It must be the siesta (mid-day nap) that keeps them standing.

One very noticeable aspect of Spanish culture is the acceptance of alcohol. If you go to a cafe at noon, you will see lots of people drinking beers and smoking. The other day in class we learned about "botellonas," great big bottles of alcohol that people drink in the street, in parks, or in other public places. Some days I see groups of people standing around drinking while I'm walking home for lunch.

Sevilla is gorgeous most months out of the year, but since we're still getting out of the winter months, it's been very cold and sometimes rainy. Most of the homes don't have central heating, they have radiators and space heaters. The first few days and nights, my room would get VERY cold. My host mom gave me some extra blankets, which helped, but didn't quite help enough. She just got a new space heater for my room, and that has been working very nicely. I'll definitely survive until the weather warms up. She's also lending me a coat, jacket, turtleneck, scarf, and pair of gloves to wear outside. Hurray for fabulous host moms.

Being a grateful guest, I tried to thank her the other day for the extra blankets. I said at the dinner table, "Gracias por las mantequillas extras." Everyone started laughing. The word I had wanted was "mantas." Instead of thanking her for the extra blankets, I had accidentally thanked her for the extra butter. Oops!