The Spanish Traveler's Alphabet Book: P-Z

Pa Pamericano- This song plays at every discoteca/bar in Spain. It was popular a while ago, but we’ve all discovered it this semester. Listen once and you’ll love it, trust me. Click here.

Quiet- Don’t expect any. Night life is actually at night—people of all ages get dressed up every evening around 8 and meet up in the streets (it’s uncommon to have friends over to your house), and then people my age go back out after dinner until about 6am. I’m always listening to gossip or songs from my window!

Ryanair- Not as, well, easy as Easyjet. Still very cheap, and the carry-on luggage sizes are a little bigger, but this is choice #2 for me.

Socorro- This means “help” if you’re being attacked by someone out here. Everyone was a little freaked out when this was the first bit of advice we received here, but since I don’t hang out in alleys at 7am with drug dealers I haven’t had any problems…however, you may want to practice just in case.

Tortilla española- Whenever I cheat on aceite con vinagre, it’s with tortilla española. If heaven were in tapas form, it’d look like this:

Undergraduate degree- This is the reason you’re going to class. Don’t forget!

Vale la pena- Anything that is worth visiting/eating/seeing/learning is “vale la pena.” It’s a useful phrase, but we hear it so much out here that it’s become a joke. (Ask me in person for more details).

Walking- Get used to it! I despise physical activity of all kinds (well, in a gym at least) but if you want to get anywhere you need to walk it. It’s actually doing me a lot of good- even though I eat a loaf of bread a day (I kid you not) I haven’t really gained any weight because I’m constantly walking. So put on your newbalance, grab a map, and go exploring because you won’t regret it. You may even forget that your feet hurt.

X- hmmm. There’s not a lot of X words in Spanish. I guess xenophobia counts, but I don’t have anything to say about that.

Yo no lo sabía- This means “I didn’t know that.” You’ll probably use it a lot.

Zzzs- Sleep? What’s that? I rarely sleep in here and I stay up very late, but it’s because I don’t want to miss anything! I feel like every day is Christmas Eve because I am excited for the next day (minus all of midterms week) which is really juvenile of me but it’s a great feeling to be excited about something all the time.

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