Speed lesson, go!

Aside from と, there's another particle that means "and:" や.

So, you could say:

パスタとサラダを食べました。
パスタ　と　サラダ　を　たべました。
I ate pasta and salad.
Literally: "pasta + と + salad + を + ate."

...or you could say:

パスタやサラダを食べました。
パスタ　や　サラダ　を　たべました。
I ate pasta and salad (among other things).
Literally: "pasta + や + salad + を + ate."

These two particles are not identical. There are two major differences: 

1) や implies an unfinished list of things, whereas と implies a complete list of things. For the above sentences, for example, the version with と implies that the speaker only ate pasta and salad. The version with や implies that other foods were eaten in addition to pasta and salad. 

2) や is not typically used in casual speech. When speaking casual Japanese, use とか instead of や：

浅草とか鎌倉に行きたい。
あさくさ　とか　かまくら　に　いきたい。
I want to go to Asakusa, Kamakura, and so on.
Literally: "Asakusa + とか + Kamakura + に + want to go."

That's all!

You'll see these a lot in the future, so don't worry if that didn't feel in-depth enough for you.

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