La Comida

This entry might be a bit boring, but I thought I would chronicle our daily food consumption for those of you who are interested...anyone?

La comida (food) here has been fairly good. Before we leave for school, we each have 2 pieces of toast (pan tostada) with either butter and jam or nutella, which has become my favorite. Since when do you put a layer of chocolate on your toast? Steve drinks some Sunny D and I have some hot milk (whole I'm sure) with some stir-in coffee crystals. We also have some eggs- Steve's are scrambled and mine is sunny-side up.

For la comida (lunch-ish meal), everyone comes home and this is the big meal of the day at about 3pm. We always start off with a different home-made soup and then our bowls are cleared and plates prepared. The main meal is usually some sort of meat (Steve is in heaven) and a side. Today we had rice, chayote (a kind of strange vegetable) and taquitos (little tacos). Steve ate 8 and they were quite impressed. They were egging him on to eat more, but he almost exploded. We usually finish up with something sweet, which is my favorite part. One of the more popular sweets in our family is a big block of coconut flavored sugar that is colored BRIGHT pink on the top. They slice it and serve it on the point of a sharp knife. We're hoping to buy some to bring back to the states...quite interesting.

After la comida, we usually take a little siesta. Today, we slept for 3 hours and woke up in the dark, a bit groggy. We tend to venture out to the streets when the shops open back up (they close for the "lunch hours"). While out and about, we swing by school to check email and then do a bit of window shopping. Until today, we haven't had much money, so we've been pinching our pesos. We were down to 20 pesos, which is roughly 2 dollars.

We return home about 9pm and eat a light snack for dinner. We typically are fixed a sandwich, quesadillas, or toast, which I slather with Nutella. Again, Steve drinks Sunny D or mango juice and I have some stir-in decaf. The coffee here really leaves something to be desired...

They have just started letting us help a bit, which includes getting a plate/glass/silverware for ourselves. Usually, they set the table, serve us, and clear our dishes when we finish. We feel a bit like snobish Americans. They also have a maid/servant who comes on Mon, Wed, Fri. She does all the laundry (except ours), cleans the house, and cooks the food. They seem to treat her pretty well, but it's still a bit uncomfortable.

We're trying to figure out what to buy our family for Christmas... if you have any ideas, please send them our way!

Take care amigos!