La experiencia en el mercado

We are in week two of adventures in Spain. Students have been enjoying getting to know the city and the culture of Madrid. To get a closer look at how the Spanish buy their fresh food, we took a visit to the Mercado Barceló. Students were tasked with buying groceries for us. They had to find each item on the list and know how to order it - similar to how one orders at the deli. Do we order by weight? By quantity? By slice? SO many questions and options!

After gathering everything on the list, students enjoyed exploring the mercado and it's exotic fruits. Many bought pastries and fresh fruits.

I thought that going to the market would be uneventful, but it turned out to be very fun, and we learned not only Spanish, but also about the food we eat. One man selling meat told us how ham is prepared, and another man selling fish told us how to eat something that looked like a clam. My favorite part of going to the market was eating figs for the first time, which are not sold often where I live. What surprised me the most was seeing all kinds of fishes and other sea animals on display. There were some that were huge like an eel, and others that seemed inedible, like barnacles. - Taylor W.