Friday, January 30, 2009

Café con leche and the Boston Tea Party

I don´t typically drink coffee when I´m in the US, but coffee is such an obsession in Spain that I thought I should give it a try to see what all the fuss is about. The most common way to take your coffee in Spain is con leche. Here´s how it works: Your waiter brings over a small mug that´s half-full of strong Spanish coffee made by an espresso machine. He places the mug in front of you, then tops it off with a pitcher of steamed milk.

Now you might be thinking: ¨that sounds a lot like the lattes I get from Starbucks¨. Trust me: it´s not. As I said, I don´t typically drink coffee when I´m in the US, but now I´m having thoughts that I should bring home a case of Spanish coffee and buy an espresso machine when I get home. It´s that good.


Well, my time in Spain is already half-way through. I certainly feel more comfortable speaking Spanish than I did two weeks ago, but I have the feeling that I´d need another several weeks to really speak well. Sadly, I´m due back in the office on Feb 16.

In class this week, each of us had to give a presentation about our home country. During my presentation, someone asked about the Boston Tea Party, and I´m happy to report that I was able to relate the story without too much difficulty. This is a big improvement over last week when I struggled to tell the story of the first Thanksgiving. So I guess progress is being made after all...

4 comments:

  1. good job on your progress! and on indulging in some coffee :0) i had to go get a starbucks after reading this, it made me crave it. i thought of you while watching the semi-finals today, it was two guys from spain!

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  2. LOL... Cristian eres tan gracioso. Cada ves que leo tu revista me haces reir. Sigue escribiendo porque queiro saber lo que sucede mañana. Ademas, me supongo que despues de dos semanas estarias escribiendo tus experiencias en español. No malgastes tu tiempo en España. Disfruta, escribe y platica porque cuando regreses tenemos muchos amigos que anhelan concerte en persona.

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  3. roman, tienes la razon... debo escribirlo en español para practicar más. el problema es que la mayoría de los lectores no lo hablan. pero me has enseñado dos palabras nuevas: malgastar y anhelar (la segunda me parece un pocito poetica). ahora los dos están en mi cuaderno de vocabulario.

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  4. Haha..now i know i will definitely love Spain!..i have to have my coffee..with milk is good but i also include a pound of sugar..lol..Yea to progress. :) and Roman's getting better too!

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