McDonald's España vs McDonald's America

I can't even front I love McDonald's. I started off at the age of 2 asking for one single cheeseburger. Problem pickiness started then, my mom said I would try to wipe the ketchup, onions, pickles, mustard, whatever was on the burger I would take my time and wipe it off then eat my cheeseburger! The birth of the plain cheeseburger for EeTisha Shamese Riddle was in 1987 lol. Anyways, Micky D's in Spain vs. Micky D's in America. Who wins??

España hands down!!! America needs to take notes because Spain is not playing any games!

First off, they sell chicken wings! Alitos de pollo. Delicous. Extra value (they call it McMenu) meal with chicken wings and fries and a beverage for about 5 euros.

Second, you have a choice of french fries. Normal and Deluxe. Normal is the the regular fries that we have in America they taste EXACTLY the same believe it or not. Deluxe is like mini potatoe wedges and they are DELICIOUS. I AM ADDICTED TO POTATOS DELUXE! They come with this dipping sauce. I have no idea what the dipping sauce is but it's white and got something in it. My description is terrible of this sauce but its great with the fries. (Only reason I tried it was because I ran out of ketchup lol)

Third, your choice of drink. You can have a glass of beer with your McMenu (Extra Value Meal)! I think that is the most important reason right there. Personally, beer is not my thing its disgusting i hate beer but just the idea of getting alcohol with your value meal is crazy!

BUT, there are some negatives.

First, no free refills! Matter of a fact free re-fills anywhere here is rare. They need to get it together because after a long practice I can't ration my sips of soda.

Second, they have the food sitting in the heating tray. But because I always have a special order my food is always fresh. Ha! I got around that negative!

McDonald's no matter what country you're in...I'm lovin' it!!

*besos*

Song and Funny Clip Of The Day (12-19-08)

Video of the Day

I have ben on a Martin kick thanks to my fellow bored professional Men's Basketball player in Germany, Cleve. He always send me clips of Martin watch this episode or watch that episode. So today I found my favorite episode "Suspiscous Minds" The episode where Martin thinks one of his friends stole his CD player. All I have to say is Kujo (a stuffed animal rockwilder) and Bruh Man. HILARIOUS!!! Here is the last 5 or 6 mintes which is the funniest.




LOL

Song of the Day: In the Way by: Ne-Yo...If you ever been in a relationship and it was always some kind of outside factors keeping you from the person you love.



Lines that hits me the hardest:

And I don't like it no this aint cool/ Feelin like theres something just dont want me near you/ The world/ keeps getting in the way/ Trying to get to you/ but it seems like/ everyday there's something new/ Baby the world/ keeps getting in the way/ With you is where I wanna be/ but it just wont let me/ Cuz it keeps getting in the way...

Yet another classic Ne-Yo song

*besos*

Culture Shock Part II

Okay so on my previous note I talked about my drive from the airport to my apartment. (Pics coming soon) All of the buildings look exactly the same and because of that my coach and I were walking around from building to building trying the keys to see if they fit. Ok, I'm getting ahead of myself the setup of alot of "flats" or apartments you have gate to get into where the apartments are, once you find your apartment building its another gate then you walk inside and find your door. After walking around for like 10 minutes we find it and I walk in and I was like "wow"! The place is crazy! Three bedrooms, one in a half bathrooms, large living room and dining room, large kitchen which is unusual here supposedly, laundry room. We were hooked up! The thing that got me was "alright I see the washer where is the dryer?" So I looked out of the widow and saw all of my neighbors clothes hanging from a line. I was like "oh hell naw a line?" I couldn't believe it. But, the line was a big help of helping me find my building because I look up and see my leopard thong and my other intimate clothing just hanging three flights up in the wind. "Welp, There's my building!"

A big issue I have here is the food. I am the pickiest eater in the world and to top it off I have know idea how to cook. I lived off of fast food my whole life. They said Spain was really Americanized so I just assumed it would be fast food all over the place. WRONG. Aint no damn fast food but McDonald's and Burger King in my city. Spanish people LOVE to cook, therefore, fast food is something they eat every blue moon. Like at McDonald's people get all dressed up and go on dates and what not. One day I was in there and this chick had on a mini skirt and a fancy shit with heavy make up all that like she was really going somewhere and her boyfriend was dressed really nice too. I'm thinking they are getting their food to go. Nope. They are on a real date sitting across from each other gazing in each others eyes an all this eating a damn big mac...get the hell out of here go to a real restaurant, or better yet go home. lol. But everytime I'm in McDonald's I see that all the time.

I'm getting off track but I had big issues with my lack of cooking abilities I ended up losing 16 pounds these 3 months. When I first got here I went on strike until someone took me to McDonald's so sometimes I didn't eat for days. To me Ramen noodles is not dinner! I'm use to eating 3 times a day with the last 2 times is some sort of fast food. Big adjustment but now I eat Ramen noodles (of course), Frozen Pizza, French Fries, and occasional chicken wings. Terrible I know but thats the best I can do. Problem with it is not the health value...but the price! Frozen foods are not cheap! Frozen pizza I like is 2.89 Euros per pizza, the cheap chicken wings are 10 wings in a bag for 3.89...Ramen noodles 63 cents per bag! Basically I spend 50 bucks a week for food. It's really killing my pockets.

One thing I think is really cool is all of the fresh bakery's. They are all over and the breads and doughnuts (i don't experiment with unknown foods so we'll leave it at that) are delicous! I love it. I look forward to Wednesdays which are my off days to walk to the bakery and get doughnuts and breadsticks.

But as for Spanish foods in general I haven't tried any. Why because I don't know what it is therefore I leave it alone. They might think I'm rude but its not because its Spanish, I just don't fool with food. I'm black and I don't eat soul food so please my Spanish homies don't take it personal.

In real restaraunts the service is iffy. Sometimes the waiters and waitresses are really nice they get you what need they work hard which is unusual according to my coach. I'm saying to myself "unusual hmm?" Well my question was answered when the bill came and it was time to tip. 10%?? 15%?? Not even close you give them change!! I wouldnt want to serve your ass either if you gave me 35 cents! He said, "If you like the food and service you leave them some coins". Wow. All this time I was tipping the pizza man 2 or 3 Euros!! Coach told me the pizza man probably thinks I am his queen because you dont tip here! Oops. Well at least I made somebody happy. I'm glad I know now but still I feel bad just giving waitors and waitresses spare change. I mean they have a hard job!

The people. Super friendly and really nice. I guess I'm use to rude people but I'm a friendly person if I make eye contact with you I'm going to say hello whether I know you are not so these people are right up my alley! Only thing is that you have to kiss people "dos besos" two kisses. Me I am not the most affectionate person in the world and I have to kiss everybody I meet! It was an adjustment but now I don't care kisses for everyone!!

*besos*

Journey Break

Just wanted to take a break from explaining my journey in Spain to show you some of the videos and music I watch and listen to in my spare time (yes I have plenty of it).

My Funny video of the day has to go to Boondocks Bootleg. In anticipation for the next season of The Boondocks series they creator of the show put together Boondocks Bootleg which are short videos of sketch comedy. Good stuff.



LOL!!!

The Song of the Day has to go to Musiq Soulchild's "Deserveumore" off of his newest album OnMyRadio. If you don't have it you need to get it. The CD is great.




I can't get enough of this song...the lines that get me is...
"I'm explaining what I'm fighting for/girl there's no one who deserves you more/ So stop subscribing to those crazy thoughts/ Cause there's no one who deserves you more/ Who gave you love/ Don't change on me/ I'll go halfcrazy if you choose to leave...

Culture Shock! Part 1...Stepping off the Plane

Well for starters, I am late writing this. I touched down in Madrid Spain September 7th 2008 and it is December 17th! On the verge of my Christmas break, I decided I need to get this whole blog thing jumping.

After waiting almost an hour to get my bags, I found my coach outside waiting for me. I took a look around and saw all of the tiny cars! If you remember the show Family Matters, the car that Steve Urkel had well that's what alot of the cars look like (I am not exaggerating either). ----------->


It was a short drive from Madrid to Alcobendas but I noticed on the highways there was no kind of big SUV's or Trucks. I also realized that they drive on the correct side of the road. I don't know why I was under the impression that they drove the wrong way. Anyways, I asked why are the cars so small. He said, "The roads are extremely narrow, parking is scarce, and most importantly gas is like 2.00 a liter" I'm saying to myself a liter? Damn! That's like 6 bucks a gallon. (I don't know the actual conversion that was my guesstimate) Glad I don't have a car here!

Once we got to the apartment first off, there was nowhere to park so we just parked in the middle of the street and turned the hazard lights on. I'm saying to myself "what the hell we just gon leave the car here?" Indeed we did. The street is narrow but you can stop your car in the middle of the street. As a matter of a fact, you can even block cars that are parked in well you can't but everyone does it. For example, your at a store and there are no available parking spaces no problem just block people in. I'd be mad as hell if i came out the store and saw somebody parked behind me blocking me in. Oh quick story: My roomate wasn't paying attention aka she wasn't looking out of her rearview mirror as she was backing out of a parking spot. Now mind you we walked from the gym to her car why she didn't see this bright red car blocking her in I still have no idea. But anyways, she turns the car on, radio on goes in reverse...BOOM hit the damn car. She cursing in spanish about to cry and I just started laughing because how the hell did you not see that car LOL.



Next observation is the Circles. They tell me the reason for the circles is because it makes traffic run smoother without having a lot of traffic lights. Okay whatever. They say that but yet there are huge circles like 3 lane circles as soon as you go around it theres a damn traffic light. So what's the point? I don't get it. But the only problem I really have with the circles is not the circle itself but the damn drivers not understanding the rules of driving in the circle! The person already in the circle is suppose to have the right away...so you think. Nope, you get in where you fit in, who cares if another car is already in the circle. Then in the huge circles (The ones that's 3 lanes or more) its chaos. The car in the left lane randomly crosses to the far lane to turn off the circle, the car in the middle goes straight, and the far lane wants to continue to go around the circle. A damn mess. Then while you switching all these damn lanes once you turn off the circle to drive on a straight away you have to immediately switch lanes because of cars parked in the middle of the damn street! I fear for my life everytime I get into a vehicle.



Most people don't have cars they walk, take the metro, cercanías, or bus. I will go into detail about my adventures on the metro (lord help me) in part 2 but the point I'm making is that its pretty pedestrian here. So when people are in the crosswalk they have the right away. Wrong. I don't know what the mortality rate is with vehicles and pedestrians it has to be high. My coach says it isn't but I don't see how. People are in a huge rush all the time. I blame the people who made the streets because they have random crosswalks at these crazy circles i talked about earlier. So you have people zooming around the circle coming to a complete stop because of the old couple trying to cross the street. Crazy my roomate rarely stops I say to myself "did she not see that man!" "We are going to jail, I'm too pretty to go to jail" lol. But the crosswalks be so random and people don't look either that don't help the case so I can't put all the blame on the drivers.

That was driving in the suburbs, just wait untill I explore Madrid.