<p>Marite - I figured it was Chinese or Japanese to begin with. Wasn’t sure.</p>
<p>Wow, Renee. Thanks. Great stuff. </p>
<p>I have no idea if she is in a USAL program (or what that is) but the side-trips you speak of seem close. I remember Toledo and Granada at least. I think they will have some free Sundays , also and I have suggested that if she’s that close to “somewhere” she wants to be it’s likely there’s a cheap way to get there - but to go in a small group. </p>
<p>I think DW mentioned pick-pockets so often to D that D just gave all her money to the first Spanish person she saw after clearing customs. Too much pressure. </p>
<p>Gee. There are some exciting summers in store for our kids, huh?</p>
<p>And as to the food- D is a bit of a seafood aficionado and from her description let’s just say I don’t believe the tuna was “sushi-quality”. LOL. We aren’t always on the ranch and D has a varied palate. Well, at least for a 19 year old. But no matter. The point was that she felt her language skills failed her , however sophisticated her palate may have been.</p>
<p>Curmudgeon,
Oh, didn’t spell it out-- USAL is University of Salamanca.</p>
<p>Oh, yeah, Curmudgeon, one of the best meals my husband swears he ever had in Europe was at a truck stop on the “interstate” right at the Spain/Portugal border, just on the Portugal side, on the way to Lisbon. There was a fast food side and a sit down restaurant side at the truck stop, and he, my D and a couple of other adults on the school trip followed the bus driver to the restaurant. He had some sort of fish, similar to snapper, in a garlicky tomato sauce, and he still raves about how good it was. I think the food in Spain left something to be desired, but it is hit or miss on these high school bus trips, you have to eat where they take you.</p>
<p>spaghetti al tonno</p>
<p>garlic,olive oil, parsley,canned Italian tomatoes,canned Italian tuna packed in olive oil, drained,salt, freshly ground pepper,3 tbsp butter, 1 lb. spaghetti</p>
<p>from Marcella Hazan</p>
<p>good stuff</p>
<p>While living in Italy I used to treat Italian friends to something they called
Pasta e Tonno al Forno. They loooved it.
I just called it Tuna Noodle Casserole.</p>
<p>Curmudgeon – please ask your D if she’s found the frog yet… If not, I bet she does before she leaves Salamanca. I loved every city that we visited in Spain but Salamanca was very special – the plaza at night is magical. Good for her. My D is making plans to spend part of next summer in Aix studying French. I’m looking forward to revisiting that venue too!</p>
<p>Cur,</p>
<p>I’m guessing the tuna spaghetti concoction is some sort of cold pasta dish with mayonaise and mixed veggies…the Spaniards have mastered this!</p>
<p>I predict your daughter is going to thrive in Salamanca! From what I know of her personality (extremely bright but on the shy side), she will blossom abroad! </p>
<p>The Spanish are very friendly, open people who like to have a good time! And the cities are so pedestrian friendly!!</p>
<p>I’m jealous!</p>
<p>
I think this comes the closest to what D described. LOL. BTW, she has expressed that the rest of the meals have been great although she has not described them in the 30 seconds I get with her that is not about the phone.</p>
<p>And I’ll send her looking for the frog.</p>
<p>Mommusic, I’ve been in a pleasant reverie since this thread started. I’d forgotten about the frog!</p>
<p>Another thing I remember about my time in Salamanca is that I actually felt sort of tall compared to most of the locals, and I am not quite 5’3"…so I bet Curmudgeon’s daughter is really feeling tall!</p>
<p>cur
does two weeks on a bus visiting East Coast baseball stadiums, meeting execs in the industry and seeing games constitute a “study abroad”? Thats what S is doing starting tomorrow. Its worth three credits and its called “Professional Baseball Stadium Management”.Every man I know calls it the trip of their dreams.His exotic fare will be sampling stadium food at each stop.
So far, S thinks its great being a Sports Management major!</p>
<p>“Professional Baseball Stadium Management”. What will they think of next? I had no idea that we could have received credit for our tour of Rock and Roll Stadium Shows. We just needed a catchy title for the class.</p>
<p>Someone mentioned using Skype to keep in touch with their student abroad. While that is good fun, if your child is in an immersion program, they are technically “cheating” when they talk to you. I have another suggestion. Look at <a href=“http://www.babelfish.altavista.com%5B/url%5D”>www.babelfish.altavista.com</a> and figure out how to send a translated message. I did that with my daughter, translating from English to Mandarin and back again. The results were absolutely hilarious. At one point after I had mailed her temporary tattoos of Chinese characters, she wrote to thank me for “the flower to puncture in yours body.” Try it and laugh.</p>
<p>Funny!
Anyhow - DD is in Nicaragua building a strawbale health clinic… She seems to be really enjoying the process, but the cement mixer went kaput, so they are mixing the batches up by hand. Ah, the adventures of our kids! It’s just amazing what they do!</p>
<p>A family friend of ours makes spaghetti with canned tuna in a red sause. It is delicious.</p>
<p>S will be working in hospital in northeast China this summer. He is combining his major, East Asian Languages & Civilizations, with his premed interests. They eat a lot of noodles in that part of the country (not much rice), I’m not sure about the tuna…</p>
<p>idad…what a cool program–can you provide a link?</p>
<p>My sister is a bit of a travel fiend. In the past year, she has done a language immersion program with homestay, an anthropology program that included a partial homestay, and a three month internship working and living independently (so no program). All three were on different continents, none of which were Europe. She went into the first one a very fussy eater who was oblivious and lacked common sense, and now she’ll eat anything and, though still oblivious, can certainly fend for herself.</p>
<p>Cheers: It was arranged through contacts made on previous visits to China.</p>