Well, today it was back to class after a fun weekend and a free day of relaxing yesterday! This morning, my culture and medicine class took a field trip to a company called "Borges" which creates natural products that fit into the Mediterranean diet. We listened to a presentation where they told us about how their business has grown and become an international company that exports their products to many countries. We also learned about the typical mediterranean diet and some of the differences between their diet and ours in America. We have definitely noticed differences between the two diets - the biggest on is the massive amount of bread they eat here! Literally, I think when I get home I will be so sick of bread and carbs...we are definitely missing out on protein here! After the presentation, we got a tour of the factory where the products are actually made. It was really cool to see all the machines making the different foods, like nuts and dried fruits. It was a really cool tour and I really enjoyed learning more about their company. They also gave us free goody bags, with olive oil, dried fruit, and nuts...score!
We headed from the tour straight to lunch because it was 2 pm and we were all starving! After enjoying lunch at the campus, me and a couple friends headed to "El Corte Ingles" which is basically a nice Walmart to pick up a few things. I wanted to get some fruit and nuts to snack on so that I can try to get some more nutrients because it's a little hard to eat something other than carbs. We all feel like we are continually starving because their eating schedule is so different here and we are still trying to get used to the food. I'm surprised at how much I don't enjoy the food here. I think part of it is that we eat in the same restaurant every night and have to order a week in advance, so we don't know what we like when we order. But, I'm getting used to it and I'm going to make sure I drink enough water and eat healthy.
After our shopping adventure, we came back to the dorm and hung out for a little bit until our excursion. We got to cook our own dinner tonight - traditional Roman food! We divided into 4 groups of 8 and each table had a different dish to make for the group. My group made this interesting egg salad with mustard and nuts and oil. Other groups made salad with roses (yes, flowers), bread with cream cheese, and some weird date things. They also made us chicken and gave us rose wine (it was gross). We also had to wear funny crowns and pretend like we were at a traditional Roman meal. It was an interesting experience, but I can't say that I loved the food. I think we were all still hungry afterward, so of course we went to get ice cream! We also split some McDonald's fries...we are convinced our bodies are craving fats and proteins that we don't get here. I'm not a McDonald's girl at all and I have never wanted chicken nuggets, a burger, or fries so bad in my life. It was still a really fun night though - we enjoyed cooking and spending time together! That is mostly it for what is going on here today! I think I am off to bed soon, it's 12:30 here and I'm exhausted!
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