I predict...that you will probably reconsider red hair in the future.

So much time has passed since my last blog. I feel like I handed you a book, let you read the introduction, then plucked it from your hands. That wasn't very nice of me. In my defense, it has been a busy month.

We are beginning to settle into a routine of sorts. For instance, every Sunday a group of us gathers to watch American films and throw our healthy Spanish diets to the wind. This began when I casually commented to my friend Anne that all I really wanted in life was a PBJ sandwich. Spaniards eat a variety of foods, but peanut butter isn't typically on their grocery lists. Lucky for me, Anne is a vegetarian and brought several jars of Jif with her. She suggested we get together to eat some and--VOILA!--American night was born.

I have found a gem of a person in Anne. Besides being my classmate, shopping buddy, movie night hostess and the one who has peanut butter, she is my companion-in- chocolate. I actually think it's possible that she loves it more than I do and that's saying something. We are constantly finding new and tempting bars/cakes/pastries to try. We rationalize our consuming this multitude of chocolateness by splitting whatever treasures we find. You're probably thinking, "What's the big deal? We do have chocolate here." And you'd be undoubtedly correct, but I'm finding European chocolate is much creamier than its American counterpart.

The other day I was ecstatic to find the European equivalent to Snickers and Milky Ways because I hardcore love Milky Ways. In fact, I think the only chocolate candy that can't be found here is peanut butter cups. Funnily enough, when I was in Greece this past weekend (more to come on that) one of the guys who worked at the hostel said his American mother just sent him a care package containing a bag of Reeses because he missed them so much.

But I digress. The following Sunday I suggested we make S'mores. Now given that I just talked about how many sweets one can find in this beautiful city, you would think that that would have been a fairly simple mission. Finding the chocolate and cookies was a snap. Finding marshmallows that weren't covered in candy coating or that weren't in the shape of some sort of fruit proved to be difficult. We ended up settling for little squares of pink and white marshmallow fluff that worked well enough.

This same weekend I decided I wanted to color my hair. I have always wanted to add bright red streaks to my dark locks. Since I earn a paycheck from the military, it wasn't something I could have normally done. We live two blocks from La Mercadona, a grocery store, so I walked down and chose the brightest dark red I could find. And since I didn't bring one of those spiffy highlighting caps with me, I picked up some foil.

None of the girls present had ever dyed hair before, but I wasn't overly concerned. I mean, it's just dye; it can be fixed. The highlighting plan didn't work out so well (because I wasn't up to first bleaching my hair) so I decided to simply make all my hair the same red shade. I was more than a little surprised upon drying my hair to discover that I was now a full-blown redhead. We're talking so red that I could have been the odd love child of Bozo the Clown and Princess Ariel. Needless to say, the next morning I returned to La Mercadona and tamed the fiery red to a more sedate auburn.

The next week we tried something different. Two of our group were leaving the following Tuesday and they wanted to eat out. More specifically, they wanted Chinese food, so we found a little restaurant and went in. It is highly amusing to order food from a foreign country when you are in yet another foreign country. The menu was in Chinese and Spanish, which was only semi- helpful because we certainly didn't know all of the Spanish words. Anne had never eaten in a Chinese restaurant and I rarely do, so we had to rely on the other girls to figure out just what we wanted to order. For example, one dish on the menu translated to "arroz con tres delicias" or "rice with three delicious." What were these three delicious things mixed in with the rice? Oddly enough, our waiter, who was Asian and obviously spoke Chinese as his first language, had some of the most understandable Spanish I've heard here. Also funny was that the food was the same as at any Chinese restaurant in America, but the menu had a Spanish "menu of the day" option. The menu of the day idea works like this: you choose from a short list of foods a first and second plate. Desert and a beverage are included in the set price. It offers a lower price, but obviously less flexibility if you don't care for the plate choices.

Wow, this whole blog has been about food. Not my original plan but I'll continue the theme by saying a quick word on bars. The bars in Granada stand out for one major reason: they give you tapas. Now, if you know anything about Spanish culture, you'll know that tapas can be found anywhere in Spain. But I said that they give you tapas and that's what I meant. Granada is the only city where they come free. We've visited several places and I've tried some incredibly good tapas. My favorites include Thai chicken at Poe and cheese tortellini at d'cuadros. I hate wine but found a yummy drink called tinto de verano, which is red wine mixed with a lemonade-y beverage.

Also, in a similar vein, I love my family's cooking. I was not really looking forward to Spanish food because when I was here six years ago I flat-out hated it. Turns out I still dislike Spanish restaurant food, but loooove Spanish home cooking. Ines and Juani have made a variety of dishes. I'd try to describe them but this is already long and I couldn't do the dishes justice. They use the same ingredients that we have stateside but put them together differently. I'll be getting recipes before I leave, trust me. Speaking of home cooking, it's time for dinner so I'll quit now. Works out perfectly as all this talk of food has definitely jump-started my appetite.

Hasta luego!