Jabri Boyd- May 23, 2014

It has only been a week and a half and oh the stories I could tell. Since I have been here I have had so many bloggable experiences and to be honest, it was difficult only picking one. But I did it so here we go. So it was the second day of our trip and I didn’t have any toothpaste. Why might you ask (good question), it was taken from me at the airport. I was pretty upset but hey, life goes on. So we get to Valencia and everywhere you look you see signs that read “Farmacia.” So I was like “yes, I will get toothpaste from there and all will once again be right with the world.” So later that day, after class and our ISA activities my roommate and I swing by one of the Farmacia’s on our way home. We spent about 15 minutes in there because she was looking for sunscreen and the employees weren’t too friendly. The first thing I noticed was the prices, they were pretty ridiculous. So Taylor didn’t wind up buying her sunscreen there and I picked up the cheapest tube I could find thinking that toothpaste just must be expensive in Spain.

 The story continues later that night when it was time to go to bed. I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth as I would any other night but as soon as the toothbrush hit my teeth I knew something we terribly wrong. I tried to continue brushing for a couple seconds thinking to myself “toothpaste in Spain is different than at home. You need to be accepting of different cultures.” But after about 15 seconds of brushing with that stuff I had reached my limit. I could not take it anymore. I spent the next 30 minutes picking this terrible, sticky, foreign paste out of my teeth and just used Taylor's toothpaste as I had done the night before. I came back in the room and told Taylor about my unfortunate experience and I’m pretty sure she just laughed at me. The next morning I was informed that I had brushed my teeth with…DENTURE GLUE!!! Yes, that’s right. For 30 seconds I rubbed denture glue in my teeth like it actually belonged there. I think it took like 3 days for the glue to get out of my toothbrush entirely. I look back at this experience and laugh so I hard I start to cry. My first  purchase in Spain was glue that elderly people use. I am really happy that I have this story to tell.

Volunteering with Devin on the left and Henry on the right

Paella eating!

Bike riding down the riverbed