So I've been home for exactly 2 weeks now. Although there are many things that feel strange about being here and although I miss Spain like crazy, it is good to be home. I love this little quote from TS Eliot's poem "Little Gidding" from which I stole the title to this entry:
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Here are some of my observations of things that really stuck out to me about being different from here and there:
-country music!
-soooo many American flags and patriotic stuff
-pick up trucks
-everyone in passing speaks English (that really threw me off at first)
-gross beer such as Budlight and Miller
-but great beer like Yuengling
-sporting events are quieter compared to Spain.
-crazy hot and super humid weather with ridiculous heat storms to follow
-no drinking in the streets before and after games
-jeans, shorts, t-shirts and flip-flops are everyday attire. acceptable for most locations
-gangster rap
-ghetto talk. Philly slang! I suddenly don't know any of it.
-yellow school buses
-smoking in a bar?!?!
-I no longer know who or how much to tip
-2nd hand shops/thrift stores!
-contact solution cost me $6 for 2 bottles in stead of $15 for 1
-15 foot pythons are found in my neighbor's yard... uh what?! did I suddenly move to the Amazon?
-National futbol games are only on the Spanish channel and certainly not in any of the bars
-uh... soccer. sorry.
-I can call and text whoever and whenever I want :)
-churches have 100's of people
-the coffee needs A LOT of help
-most vehicles are unnecessarily large
-no one knows who Javi Martinez, Juan Mata, Muniain, Bojan or De Gea are when I tell my story about meeting the national sub 21 team in the airport.
-I can wear heels and not tower over EVERYone. Just mostly everyone :)
-good bread is hard to find. and it costs more.
-however, good Mexican food is always right around the corner... (menos mal)
-People can actually pronounce my name!
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
wrapping up & saying goodbye
Sunday
-went to church in the evening. Then one family from a nearby town was there, I had only met them once. But for some reason the son had fun chasing me and trying to poke me. We discovered we share the same birthday, he’s just 10 years younger. He was amazed by it.
Monday
-I woke up early and took at 6.40 bus to Valencia. It was a trip I decided last minute. I had wanted to go to the beach but decided last minute I was definitely going to go and that I was going to go to Valencia because it was a little more convenient to get to. And I found really cheap hostel.
-the bus ride was like 4 hours. But it only cost 10 euros.
-I found my hostel with no problems but I was early to check in so I changed into my bathing suit, ditched my bag there, wandered to find a bus that I never found and that no one knew where to pick it up at. So eventually a man just told me to take a different bus to a different beach. Haha.
-I love Valencia beaches. They’re great. The weather was perfect too. Not too hot and with a continuous breeze. I think I enjoyed like 2 or 3 hours and then it started to cloud over and on my walk from the bus to the hostel it started to rain.
-later in the evening I went out for a walk around the city with the Canadian guy that occupied the bed above mine. I was surprised at how much I remembered my way around parts of the city since the last time I was there 2 years ago.
Tuesday
-I got up at a decent hour and caught another bus to the beach. Again, the same perfect weather. This time I only made it about an hour before it decided it wanted to rain. So I headed back to the center of the city.
-I hung out in the hostel and met some fun people. In the evening ended up going out for a bit with some Argentines and a Chilean. They were really funny people although I had moments where I really struggled to understand them and their accents.
Wednesday
-I checked out of the hostel and then walked around exploring a little bit, killing time until my bus.
- I got to the bus station and hour early, checked with information that my bus left at 3 just like the internet and the Quintanar station said. The man said yes and said I just pay when I get on. So I waited the hour, went to get on a bus and the driver was like “uh, your bus left at 1… the scheduled changed like a year ago.” And there’s only one bus that goes to Quintanar a day. Fantastic right. So I went upstairs and kinda yelled at the man in information. Ok, so I didn’t yell but I did go back and let him know that he gave me the wrong information and that I wasn’t very happy with it.
-so I called Eddie and asked him to look up the trains. Took a cab to the train station and bought a ticket for a train to Alcazar (a town 22 km from Quintanar) and waited the 2 hours for my train.
-on the train I got a hold of my friend Pilar and she said she could come pick me up.
-When I got off the train I was pleasantly surprised to see not only Pilar but Celia and Beatriz as well. And they told me that Miguel Angel and Jesus were on their way to meet us so we could all do dinner together. I like that group.
-so in the end everything worked out. I just got home a lot later than planned. And the train cost double than the bus. But I do like trains a lot more.
Thursday
-I went to school for just a tad to see the people.
-Went to Cuevas in the evening to hang out with some of the teachers and then later 2 of the guys.
Friday
- went to school to pick up a paycheck. And ended up going to 2 classes with my 3rd graders. Those were always 2 of my favorite classes.
-the one class was super cute. The girls were constantly giving me hugs and telling me not to leave.
-got a surprise visit from the landlady at like 10 pm (only in Spain is that acceptable) just to discuss the whole us moving out issue.
-started getting ready to pack
Saturday
-met up with some of the boys for a beer and to plan out the rest of our day.
-after lunch the same group of us met up again for coffee and then did some grocery shopping. Grocery shopping with these boys was so much easier than with the guys in the states. They were like “whatever you want, just throw it in the cart”
-while we were just chilling on the “paseo” we caught a random “parade” for someone’s bachelor party type thing. It was hilariously random. Only in Spain really.
-later we all went to Sergio’s for a chorizo dinner while watching the Spain vs. US friendly futbol match. They loved that Eddie and I showed up in Spain jerseys and that I hands down will always cheer Spain, even against the US. Spain has been my team since the beginning of my obsession for futbol, even before I came here.
-afterwards we went out for some drinks and a little dancing and it was all a ton of fun. I’m really gonna miss these guys.
Sunday
-went to church. They were all really cute about saying goodbye to me and gave me a CD of something I still have to check out. They put me on the spot and asked me to say a few words… haha. that was kinda awkward.
-afterwards I went over to Manuel and Ana’s for one last time to just talk and ended up staying for dinner. I’m gonna miss that family like crazy.
Monday
-cleaned the apartment a little and did some more packing.
-closed up business with the landlady and got some money back.
-got offered a better position with my summer job.
-said goodbye to Esther and then later to Eddie.
-went over to Bea’s apartment to celebrate her birthday with Pilar, Miguel Angel, Jesus and Celia.
Tuesday
-ended up back at the school to say goodbye to Pilar, the principal.
-stayed most of the rest of the day inside, due to bad weather and being done with saying goodbyes. I decided I couldn’t really handle anymore. Sometimes I prefer to just disappear. Instead I enjoyed watching some of my favorite shows that I’ll miss back home and futbol, of course.
Tomorrow’s the big day. I head home. Manuel’s gonna pick me up sometime between 6.30 and 7 tomorrow morning and help me take my stuff to the bus station. From the bus station in Madrid I’ll take a cab to the airport and my plane leaves at 12:30, stopping first in Lisboa, Portugal for a few hours before taking me to Newark. The second flight is suppose to take 9 hours. Can’t say I’m at all looking forward to sitting in one seat for that long. I can think of about 3276 things I’d rather do doing those 9 hours.
-went to church in the evening. Then one family from a nearby town was there, I had only met them once. But for some reason the son had fun chasing me and trying to poke me. We discovered we share the same birthday, he’s just 10 years younger. He was amazed by it.
Monday
-I woke up early and took at 6.40 bus to Valencia. It was a trip I decided last minute. I had wanted to go to the beach but decided last minute I was definitely going to go and that I was going to go to Valencia because it was a little more convenient to get to. And I found really cheap hostel.
-the bus ride was like 4 hours. But it only cost 10 euros.
-I found my hostel with no problems but I was early to check in so I changed into my bathing suit, ditched my bag there, wandered to find a bus that I never found and that no one knew where to pick it up at. So eventually a man just told me to take a different bus to a different beach. Haha.
-I love Valencia beaches. They’re great. The weather was perfect too. Not too hot and with a continuous breeze. I think I enjoyed like 2 or 3 hours and then it started to cloud over and on my walk from the bus to the hostel it started to rain.
-later in the evening I went out for a walk around the city with the Canadian guy that occupied the bed above mine. I was surprised at how much I remembered my way around parts of the city since the last time I was there 2 years ago.
Tuesday
-I got up at a decent hour and caught another bus to the beach. Again, the same perfect weather. This time I only made it about an hour before it decided it wanted to rain. So I headed back to the center of the city.
-I hung out in the hostel and met some fun people. In the evening ended up going out for a bit with some Argentines and a Chilean. They were really funny people although I had moments where I really struggled to understand them and their accents.
Wednesday
-I checked out of the hostel and then walked around exploring a little bit, killing time until my bus.
- I got to the bus station and hour early, checked with information that my bus left at 3 just like the internet and the Quintanar station said. The man said yes and said I just pay when I get on. So I waited the hour, went to get on a bus and the driver was like “uh, your bus left at 1… the scheduled changed like a year ago.” And there’s only one bus that goes to Quintanar a day. Fantastic right. So I went upstairs and kinda yelled at the man in information. Ok, so I didn’t yell but I did go back and let him know that he gave me the wrong information and that I wasn’t very happy with it.
-so I called Eddie and asked him to look up the trains. Took a cab to the train station and bought a ticket for a train to Alcazar (a town 22 km from Quintanar) and waited the 2 hours for my train.
-on the train I got a hold of my friend Pilar and she said she could come pick me up.
-When I got off the train I was pleasantly surprised to see not only Pilar but Celia and Beatriz as well. And they told me that Miguel Angel and Jesus were on their way to meet us so we could all do dinner together. I like that group.
-so in the end everything worked out. I just got home a lot later than planned. And the train cost double than the bus. But I do like trains a lot more.
Thursday
-I went to school for just a tad to see the people.
-Went to Cuevas in the evening to hang out with some of the teachers and then later 2 of the guys.
Friday
- went to school to pick up a paycheck. And ended up going to 2 classes with my 3rd graders. Those were always 2 of my favorite classes.
-the one class was super cute. The girls were constantly giving me hugs and telling me not to leave.
-got a surprise visit from the landlady at like 10 pm (only in Spain is that acceptable) just to discuss the whole us moving out issue.
-started getting ready to pack
Saturday
-met up with some of the boys for a beer and to plan out the rest of our day.
-after lunch the same group of us met up again for coffee and then did some grocery shopping. Grocery shopping with these boys was so much easier than with the guys in the states. They were like “whatever you want, just throw it in the cart”
-while we were just chilling on the “paseo” we caught a random “parade” for someone’s bachelor party type thing. It was hilariously random. Only in Spain really.
-later we all went to Sergio’s for a chorizo dinner while watching the Spain vs. US friendly futbol match. They loved that Eddie and I showed up in Spain jerseys and that I hands down will always cheer Spain, even against the US. Spain has been my team since the beginning of my obsession for futbol, even before I came here.
-afterwards we went out for some drinks and a little dancing and it was all a ton of fun. I’m really gonna miss these guys.
Sunday
-went to church. They were all really cute about saying goodbye to me and gave me a CD of something I still have to check out. They put me on the spot and asked me to say a few words… haha. that was kinda awkward.
-afterwards I went over to Manuel and Ana’s for one last time to just talk and ended up staying for dinner. I’m gonna miss that family like crazy.
Monday
-cleaned the apartment a little and did some more packing.
-closed up business with the landlady and got some money back.
-got offered a better position with my summer job.
-said goodbye to Esther and then later to Eddie.
-went over to Bea’s apartment to celebrate her birthday with Pilar, Miguel Angel, Jesus and Celia.
Tuesday
-ended up back at the school to say goodbye to Pilar, the principal.
-stayed most of the rest of the day inside, due to bad weather and being done with saying goodbyes. I decided I couldn’t really handle anymore. Sometimes I prefer to just disappear. Instead I enjoyed watching some of my favorite shows that I’ll miss back home and futbol, of course.
Tomorrow’s the big day. I head home. Manuel’s gonna pick me up sometime between 6.30 and 7 tomorrow morning and help me take my stuff to the bus station. From the bus station in Madrid I’ll take a cab to the airport and my plane leaves at 12:30, stopping first in Lisboa, Portugal for a few hours before taking me to Newark. The second flight is suppose to take 9 hours. Can’t say I’m at all looking forward to sitting in one seat for that long. I can think of about 3276 things I’d rather do doing those 9 hours.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
The end of schooool!
Tuesday
-one of my students heard me speaking Spanish to my friend Lourdes and he was hilariously surprised. I think I successfully lied for this whole year. At least to the grand majority.
-another one of my students who WAS one of my favorite 5 year olds pointed to me and said “you’re going to have a baby!” whatever kid. Whatever.
Wednesday
-my last day of school! it was weird.
-also my last day with Estefania. That family was so sweet when we said goodbye. They even gave me a little gift. It was super cute. Almost made me want to cry a bit.
-conversation with Alejandra was hilarious. I don’t know why but we talked about some of the most random stuff.
Thursday
-I had to write some “final memory” thing for the program. Not a big deal, but for some reason I made it into one as if it was some paper for college. Brought back some good EU memories… but I eventually got it done.
- In the evening I went for a run with my “best friend” Sergio. We’d talked about going running together for a while but it finally worked out this week. It was my first time in at least 3 weeks. And it was good for me cuz he set a good pace and made me run a little further than I probably would have if it was alone. And he taught me a new route. It was funny cuz he kept checking up on me to make sure I was ok. He’s always watching out for me :)
-after showering and whatnot I met up with some other friends for drinks and to just hang out.
-I love the futbol banter that Santi and I always get into. And I love how I called the one futbol player something not very nice and he scolded me and was like “I can’t believe that just came out of your mouth!” and he also gives advice on who not to hang out with in the town (the first being his son. Haha.) I like that he’s become quite fatherly with me. By far the best neighbor/bartender around.
Friday
-went and spend the day in Madrid shopping :) it was quite a successful day too.
-my intercambio of 2 days Jose was on the bus on his way to Paris so it was nice to have someone to sit and talk with on the ride.
-did lunch with Libby. I love that girl.
-got to see a glimpse of the protests going on in Plaza de Sol that have been going on for like 15 days.
Saturday
-I baked cookies again. There was suppose to be some church picnic thing. I went to go meet with the one woman who said she could give me a ride but I waited like half an hour and she never came (either she was just really late or she thought I was going with someone else) but I got tired of waiting cuz it’s something I kinda hate.
-I went to sit in one of my favorite places, outside of the one church to do some reading. It was really hot so I didn’t last too long.
-in the evening me, Eddie, his dad and grandfather (who have been around off and on since Monday) went to Cuevas to watch the big Champions League final. My 2 least favorite teams: Barca and Man U. No matter who won I was going to be sad.
-Barca won and there were mini parades in the street. And people (including Santi) throwing fireworks into the streets… hilariously entertaining.
-the dad of one of my students came over and tried to drape a Barca scarf around my neck- I ducked out of it as his wife and friends started yelling “nooo! Don’t do it! She’s a Madrid fan!” then he walked away disgusted with me.
-later Eddie and I went out with the boys for the normal Saturday night escapades. Some “famous” guy from Spain’s version of Big Brother was around. He’s from the next town over. Got to meet him. It was funny because he totally thought he was someone important with his limo and all but I’m like “dude, you’re on reality tv… and trash reality tv yet at that… not that impressive” but whatever.
-one of my students heard me speaking Spanish to my friend Lourdes and he was hilariously surprised. I think I successfully lied for this whole year. At least to the grand majority.
-another one of my students who WAS one of my favorite 5 year olds pointed to me and said “you’re going to have a baby!” whatever kid. Whatever.
Wednesday
-my last day of school! it was weird.
-also my last day with Estefania. That family was so sweet when we said goodbye. They even gave me a little gift. It was super cute. Almost made me want to cry a bit.
-conversation with Alejandra was hilarious. I don’t know why but we talked about some of the most random stuff.
Thursday
-I had to write some “final memory” thing for the program. Not a big deal, but for some reason I made it into one as if it was some paper for college. Brought back some good EU memories… but I eventually got it done.
- In the evening I went for a run with my “best friend” Sergio. We’d talked about going running together for a while but it finally worked out this week. It was my first time in at least 3 weeks. And it was good for me cuz he set a good pace and made me run a little further than I probably would have if it was alone. And he taught me a new route. It was funny cuz he kept checking up on me to make sure I was ok. He’s always watching out for me :)
-after showering and whatnot I met up with some other friends for drinks and to just hang out.
-I love the futbol banter that Santi and I always get into. And I love how I called the one futbol player something not very nice and he scolded me and was like “I can’t believe that just came out of your mouth!” and he also gives advice on who not to hang out with in the town (the first being his son. Haha.) I like that he’s become quite fatherly with me. By far the best neighbor/bartender around.
Friday
-went and spend the day in Madrid shopping :) it was quite a successful day too.
-my intercambio of 2 days Jose was on the bus on his way to Paris so it was nice to have someone to sit and talk with on the ride.
-did lunch with Libby. I love that girl.
-got to see a glimpse of the protests going on in Plaza de Sol that have been going on for like 15 days.
Saturday
-I baked cookies again. There was suppose to be some church picnic thing. I went to go meet with the one woman who said she could give me a ride but I waited like half an hour and she never came (either she was just really late or she thought I was going with someone else) but I got tired of waiting cuz it’s something I kinda hate.
-I went to sit in one of my favorite places, outside of the one church to do some reading. It was really hot so I didn’t last too long.
-in the evening me, Eddie, his dad and grandfather (who have been around off and on since Monday) went to Cuevas to watch the big Champions League final. My 2 least favorite teams: Barca and Man U. No matter who won I was going to be sad.
-Barca won and there were mini parades in the street. And people (including Santi) throwing fireworks into the streets… hilariously entertaining.
-the dad of one of my students came over and tried to drape a Barca scarf around my neck- I ducked out of it as his wife and friends started yelling “nooo! Don’t do it! She’s a Madrid fan!” then he walked away disgusted with me.
-later Eddie and I went out with the boys for the normal Saturday night escapades. Some “famous” guy from Spain’s version of Big Brother was around. He’s from the next town over. Got to meet him. It was funny because he totally thought he was someone important with his limo and all but I’m like “dude, you’re on reality tv… and trash reality tv yet at that… not that impressive” but whatever.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Pasta, pizza, gelato, y vino
Wednesday/Thursday
-after my class with Estefania I caught a bus to Madrid, grabbed some food, then took the metro to the airport. Then I got to spend like 5 hours “sleeping” on the airport floor waiting to check in for my flight. I slept a little, waking up about every 20 minutes. One of those times I woke up to a fight between 2 men about 25 feet in front of me. Always a great way to wake up.
-actually that was just one of the ways that my trip to Rome started off not so great… other ways included:
-realizing I forgot my camera at home
-getting my brand new 13 euro bottle of sun block and face wash confiscated from security.
-not being able to find the hostel because there were absolutely NO signs marking it.
- While looking for it I got yelled at by some Italian woman.
-when I got to the hostel I found that it was quite unorganized and not the most clean looking place. I couldn’t check in a little early because nothing was ready so I went to walk around the town a bit. All I wanted was to sleep and shower.
-however, Rome is a beautiful city and exploring made me less in a bad mood. The city’s really cool and unique because you’ll be walking down a street that is all modern with shops and stuff all over the place and then you look across the streets and there’s these crazy ruins. I loved it. I was really bummed I didn’t have my camera. Looks like I’ll just have to go back :)
- I found an amazing pizza place to stop for lunch. That definitely made everything all better.
-I hit a point where I could no longer walk any more so I went back to the hostel and napped and then showered and then went to explore a bit more- finding the necessary coffee.
-I went back to the hostel to meet up with my friend Steph. We went to high school together. Well, technically only 9th grade, but we were great friends that year, and stayed somewhat in contact since. But she’s currently studying in a town like an hour from Rome. I decided to wait for her outside since it was impossible to find and I walked outside just as she was approaching the hostel. The timing couldn’t have been more movie perfect.
-soon we were off exploring the city together, talking non-stop. We eventually found a restaurant for a pasta dinner accompanied by a nice glass of wine.
Friday
-we headed out to explore some more. Checking things out with Steph was quite interesting since she’s an art student she had a different view on many things. I loved it.
-I also loved that if people spoke to me slowly and enunciated well in Italian I could understand them.
-we discovered many cool things- a turtle fountain, an elephant statue, some cool churches, a bunch of ruins…
-honestly, I really didn't care what we saw or didn't see. I was just really happy to be with Steph. She's probably one of my favorite people. She's just super sweet and encouraging. We had so many well needed conversations.
-it was another day that involved eating pizza for lunch, pasta for dinner (with another glass of wine) and gelato randomly during the day. Real Italian food is soooo good.
-besides walking the entire city, we even did some boutique shopping- both of us walking away with some unexpected items :)
-by the end of the day we were exhausted from soooo much walking and exploring. But we had such a fun time wearing ourselves out.
Saturday
-later in the morning we went to the train station and met up with 5 of Steph’s friends that she’s studying abroad with and off the 7 of us girls went to the beach. All we had to do was take the metro and then take a train thing. It took like 45 minutes total and only cost us 1 euro… not too bad.
-the weather was beach perfect. Really hot but with a nice breeze and not so humid. The water was a little on the cold side though.
-Ostia beach in Italy was just like being in South Jersey. I swear most of the people there thought people were scouting for new Jersey Shore cast members…
-it was a fun, calm day. I really enjoyed it. And Steph’s friends were fantastically nice.
-back in Rome, after saying goodbye to the other 5 girls Steph and I went around on a wild chase for a special souvenir for myself. We eventually did find one that was good enough.
-we were both quite exhausted from being out in the sun all day and having walked the whole town the day before that we decided to just go to the hostel and make our own pasta dinner. So another day that involved pizza, pasta, and ice cream just that the wine was substituted for a beer.
Sunday
-I was up super early, we said our goodbyes and off I went on a bus to the airport.
-in the airport I met a super nice couple from Chile. Chile might be one of my next destinations in the future. I met another nice Chilean couple in our hostel and I figure if the people are so nice, I definitely want to go.
-the flight went well. I got a window seat. Because it was a short flight we didn’t go that high and I could see a lot of Italy and Spain. I loved it. It was gorgeous.
-I made it back just in time to catch the 1:00 bus and therefore made it home in plenty of time to go church which made me really happy.
-my friend Fran was actually there too. He’s starting exams so he didn’t have classes for Monday so he had no rush to go back to college. It's always good to catch up with a friend.
Monday
-my last Monday of work. I’m gonna miss some of my classes. 2 of them were complete disasters today. Those are definitely 2 classes I’m not going to miss very much…
-the parent-teacher group gave me my last week of afternoon classes off as well. That was a nice surprise. However, I'm not sure if it's a "punishment" for having canceled my classes last Thursday to go to Rome... if so, it's the best punishment ever. haha. Now I’m going to have tons of free time!
-one of my favorite futbol players (Pepe Reina) was on one of my favorite shows (El Hormiguero). It was fabulous.
-after my class with Estefania I caught a bus to Madrid, grabbed some food, then took the metro to the airport. Then I got to spend like 5 hours “sleeping” on the airport floor waiting to check in for my flight. I slept a little, waking up about every 20 minutes. One of those times I woke up to a fight between 2 men about 25 feet in front of me. Always a great way to wake up.
-actually that was just one of the ways that my trip to Rome started off not so great… other ways included:
-realizing I forgot my camera at home
-getting my brand new 13 euro bottle of sun block and face wash confiscated from security.
-not being able to find the hostel because there were absolutely NO signs marking it.
- While looking for it I got yelled at by some Italian woman.
-when I got to the hostel I found that it was quite unorganized and not the most clean looking place. I couldn’t check in a little early because nothing was ready so I went to walk around the town a bit. All I wanted was to sleep and shower.
-however, Rome is a beautiful city and exploring made me less in a bad mood. The city’s really cool and unique because you’ll be walking down a street that is all modern with shops and stuff all over the place and then you look across the streets and there’s these crazy ruins. I loved it. I was really bummed I didn’t have my camera. Looks like I’ll just have to go back :)
- I found an amazing pizza place to stop for lunch. That definitely made everything all better.
-I hit a point where I could no longer walk any more so I went back to the hostel and napped and then showered and then went to explore a bit more- finding the necessary coffee.
-I went back to the hostel to meet up with my friend Steph. We went to high school together. Well, technically only 9th grade, but we were great friends that year, and stayed somewhat in contact since. But she’s currently studying in a town like an hour from Rome. I decided to wait for her outside since it was impossible to find and I walked outside just as she was approaching the hostel. The timing couldn’t have been more movie perfect.
-soon we were off exploring the city together, talking non-stop. We eventually found a restaurant for a pasta dinner accompanied by a nice glass of wine.
Friday
-we headed out to explore some more. Checking things out with Steph was quite interesting since she’s an art student she had a different view on many things. I loved it.
-I also loved that if people spoke to me slowly and enunciated well in Italian I could understand them.
-we discovered many cool things- a turtle fountain, an elephant statue, some cool churches, a bunch of ruins…
-honestly, I really didn't care what we saw or didn't see. I was just really happy to be with Steph. She's probably one of my favorite people. She's just super sweet and encouraging. We had so many well needed conversations.
-it was another day that involved eating pizza for lunch, pasta for dinner (with another glass of wine) and gelato randomly during the day. Real Italian food is soooo good.
-besides walking the entire city, we even did some boutique shopping- both of us walking away with some unexpected items :)
-by the end of the day we were exhausted from soooo much walking and exploring. But we had such a fun time wearing ourselves out.
Saturday
-later in the morning we went to the train station and met up with 5 of Steph’s friends that she’s studying abroad with and off the 7 of us girls went to the beach. All we had to do was take the metro and then take a train thing. It took like 45 minutes total and only cost us 1 euro… not too bad.
-the weather was beach perfect. Really hot but with a nice breeze and not so humid. The water was a little on the cold side though.
-Ostia beach in Italy was just like being in South Jersey. I swear most of the people there thought people were scouting for new Jersey Shore cast members…
-it was a fun, calm day. I really enjoyed it. And Steph’s friends were fantastically nice.
-back in Rome, after saying goodbye to the other 5 girls Steph and I went around on a wild chase for a special souvenir for myself. We eventually did find one that was good enough.
-we were both quite exhausted from being out in the sun all day and having walked the whole town the day before that we decided to just go to the hostel and make our own pasta dinner. So another day that involved pizza, pasta, and ice cream just that the wine was substituted for a beer.
Sunday
-I was up super early, we said our goodbyes and off I went on a bus to the airport.
-in the airport I met a super nice couple from Chile. Chile might be one of my next destinations in the future. I met another nice Chilean couple in our hostel and I figure if the people are so nice, I definitely want to go.
-the flight went well. I got a window seat. Because it was a short flight we didn’t go that high and I could see a lot of Italy and Spain. I loved it. It was gorgeous.
-I made it back just in time to catch the 1:00 bus and therefore made it home in plenty of time to go church which made me really happy.
-my friend Fran was actually there too. He’s starting exams so he didn’t have classes for Monday so he had no rush to go back to college. It's always good to catch up with a friend.
Monday
-my last Monday of work. I’m gonna miss some of my classes. 2 of them were complete disasters today. Those are definitely 2 classes I’m not going to miss very much…
-the parent-teacher group gave me my last week of afternoon classes off as well. That was a nice surprise. However, I'm not sure if it's a "punishment" for having canceled my classes last Thursday to go to Rome... if so, it's the best punishment ever. haha. Now I’m going to have tons of free time!
-one of my favorite futbol players (Pepe Reina) was on one of my favorite shows (El Hormiguero). It was fabulous.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
fiesta fiesta fiestaaaaa
Saturday the 7th
-weather was awful practically all day. I woke up to a huge thunderstorm. It was pretty cool to watch cuz it like never storms like that in Spain. We lost electricity for maybe 20 minutes.
-because of the rainy weather, it was a stay-inside-and-do-nothing- day. I skyped with the family for like 2 hours.
-afterwards, ended up at Cuevas to watch the Madrid game with Eddie. We ran into some of our students’ families and they invited us to sit with them and we had fun chatting it up with them.
-then we met up with the guys and hung out for the rest of the night. 2 of the girlfriends and one of their friends came along so finally I wasn’t just one of the guys :)
Sunday
-I went to my church for the first time in like 2 months. Definitely good to be back.
Monday
-back to school. My first Monday is a really long time.
-I love when I’m told I don’t have to go to one of my afternoon classes. Gives me time for a nap :)
Tuesday
-was in a weird mood all day. Just had a lot on my mind. Wasn’t even really in the mood to watch futbol (you know there’s something wrong) but I went to watch the Madrid game anyways. Santi continued to make fun of me for liking Ramos. So I pretended to be mad at him and used Eddie to deliver messages to him. Santi later felt bad and apologized profusely. Add this to the reasons he’s my favorite neighbor/bartender. His wife loves me too. She was trying to convince me to stay in Quintanar next year.
Wednesday
-I didn’t have my high school class ‘cuz no one showed up which was really an answer to a pray to give me time to relax a bit.
-I went over to Manuel and Ana’s for dinner which is always good.
-there was an earthquake in a town about 3 hours from here. I believe it was like a 5.3 or something so nothing was felt here. However a few people were killed and the town is a disaster. It’s kinda crazy that it happened so close to here.
Friday
-Libby came to visit again. It was also Angel’s going away party. He’s moving to Mallorca. The party was a lot of fun. We’re all gonna miss that crazy guy though.
Saturday
-Libby left around 2. On our way back from walking her to the bus station, Eddie and I ran into some of the guys and hung out with them for a bit.
-in the evening there was a parade for the festival of San Isidro, a very important and cherished holiday in this town. Some of the girls I’m friends with were in it so that was cool. There were a lot of tractors pulling the floats and a lot of people dressed in flannel and straw hats. Parts of it weren’t really much different from what you’d find in Berks County…
-After the parade Eddie and I hung out with our friends Pedro and Ali in a restaurant and later in our piso. They’re fun people.
-later Eddie and I went to meet up with the boys for a little gathering for our other friend Angel (Bombilla)’s birthday. That was fun because 2 of the guys Pablo and Alfonso were there and we hadn’t seen them since the first weekend we started hanging out with these guys ‘cuz they live in London so it was good catching up with them.
Sunday
-the big day of San Isidro. Pedro and Ali picked us up around noon and off we went to a field in the country with practically all the rest of the town. We witnessed the only traffic jam ever in Quintanar (cuz we were all heading to the exact same place). Haha.
-so for this holiday everyone goes and sets up camp of some sort in this field. Everyone just hangs out, does a cook out of their choosing with their friends, play loud music and dance, and of course drink (I mean, this is Spain). There’s also an auction, tug of war competitions and a competition where they hang a leg of ham on top of a pole and whoever can climb to the top and get it down wins it. Hilarious.
-for our cookout we did a calererta. My favorite. Our friend Isidro made it and he’s actually won prizes for his caleretas so it was really good.
-we hung out there until like 8.30ish. it was a ton of fun. I’m totally coming back to Quintanar next year for San Isidro. No matter where I am living the rest of the year. Haha.
-weather was awful practically all day. I woke up to a huge thunderstorm. It was pretty cool to watch cuz it like never storms like that in Spain. We lost electricity for maybe 20 minutes.
-because of the rainy weather, it was a stay-inside-and-do-nothing- day. I skyped with the family for like 2 hours.
-afterwards, ended up at Cuevas to watch the Madrid game with Eddie. We ran into some of our students’ families and they invited us to sit with them and we had fun chatting it up with them.
-then we met up with the guys and hung out for the rest of the night. 2 of the girlfriends and one of their friends came along so finally I wasn’t just one of the guys :)
Sunday
-I went to my church for the first time in like 2 months. Definitely good to be back.
Monday
-back to school. My first Monday is a really long time.
-I love when I’m told I don’t have to go to one of my afternoon classes. Gives me time for a nap :)
Tuesday
-was in a weird mood all day. Just had a lot on my mind. Wasn’t even really in the mood to watch futbol (you know there’s something wrong) but I went to watch the Madrid game anyways. Santi continued to make fun of me for liking Ramos. So I pretended to be mad at him and used Eddie to deliver messages to him. Santi later felt bad and apologized profusely. Add this to the reasons he’s my favorite neighbor/bartender. His wife loves me too. She was trying to convince me to stay in Quintanar next year.
Wednesday
-I didn’t have my high school class ‘cuz no one showed up which was really an answer to a pray to give me time to relax a bit.
-I went over to Manuel and Ana’s for dinner which is always good.
-there was an earthquake in a town about 3 hours from here. I believe it was like a 5.3 or something so nothing was felt here. However a few people were killed and the town is a disaster. It’s kinda crazy that it happened so close to here.
Friday
-Libby came to visit again. It was also Angel’s going away party. He’s moving to Mallorca. The party was a lot of fun. We’re all gonna miss that crazy guy though.
Saturday
-Libby left around 2. On our way back from walking her to the bus station, Eddie and I ran into some of the guys and hung out with them for a bit.
-in the evening there was a parade for the festival of San Isidro, a very important and cherished holiday in this town. Some of the girls I’m friends with were in it so that was cool. There were a lot of tractors pulling the floats and a lot of people dressed in flannel and straw hats. Parts of it weren’t really much different from what you’d find in Berks County…
-After the parade Eddie and I hung out with our friends Pedro and Ali in a restaurant and later in our piso. They’re fun people.
-later Eddie and I went to meet up with the boys for a little gathering for our other friend Angel (Bombilla)’s birthday. That was fun because 2 of the guys Pablo and Alfonso were there and we hadn’t seen them since the first weekend we started hanging out with these guys ‘cuz they live in London so it was good catching up with them.
Sunday
-the big day of San Isidro. Pedro and Ali picked us up around noon and off we went to a field in the country with practically all the rest of the town. We witnessed the only traffic jam ever in Quintanar (cuz we were all heading to the exact same place). Haha.
-so for this holiday everyone goes and sets up camp of some sort in this field. Everyone just hangs out, does a cook out of their choosing with their friends, play loud music and dance, and of course drink (I mean, this is Spain). There’s also an auction, tug of war competitions and a competition where they hang a leg of ham on top of a pole and whoever can climb to the top and get it down wins it. Hilarious.
-for our cookout we did a calererta. My favorite. Our friend Isidro made it and he’s actually won prizes for his caleretas so it was really good.
-we hung out there until like 8.30ish. it was a ton of fun. I’m totally coming back to Quintanar next year for San Isidro. No matter where I am living the rest of the year. Haha.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Back to where I came from
Last week
- I worked Tuesday and Wednesday like normal. Nothing special there. The same old. But not as bad since I was coming back well rested and energized.
Thursday
-I was up early and on another 5 am bus to Madrid and catching the metro to the airport. This time not to meet someone but to fly myself to Zurich Switzerland! Flight took off around 9:30 and arrived 2 hours later.
-I was sitting next to 2 older American women from St. Louis. They thought I was Spanish and were a little surprised when I said I was American too. We talked the entire 2 hours. They were really nice and really curious about different things in Spain since they had only spent one day there.
-From the airport I took a tram to the place where I was couchsurfing. There was a misunderstanding between me and the dude so I sat and waited, reading my book for a while until he came to meet me.
-Ilir was this super cool Swiss guy who spoke perfect English. Like he would come up with words and phrases that were super slangish. And he was just super chill and laid back and really easy to get along with.
-later I gave myself a little tour of the town. It was quite pretty but I felt intimidated. Like all the people in the tourist part of the city are all dressed super well and expensively and all the shops are super pricey. I just really felt like I didn’t fit in.
-later Ilir and I went to meet his best friend at the train station and they took me to a bar in the university area for some good Swiss beer and bratwurst. They taught me enough German to order my beer. Haha. The university part of the city is a lot better, a lot more relaxed and I felt like I fit in a little bit more.
Friday
-After getting ready I went to the train station and bought myself a ticket to Baretswil. I had to take a short train ride to one town and then take a bus to the actual town of Baretswil. By sheer luck I got off at the right stop, the one closest to where I was staying. I surprisingly found couchsurfers in this small town of like 4500 and they had offered me to stay there even when they thought they weren’t going to be there. However the one roommate ended up staying. No one was there when I arrived but they had told me to just help myself to the unlocked apartment.
-after ditching my stuff and writing a note I went out to explore the adorable little town. I ended up having a little picnic lunch in the woods- some macaroni salad and a cheese sandwich.
-I briefly met the one roommate Fede before he returned to work and then later I met Sarah. She was a super sweet girl. Later in the evening she took me to see her family’s farm. It was a typical little Swiss farm on top of the hill. Their house was amazing. And from the 1700s! and her family was super nice. I enjoyed chatting with her dad. (ps. Pretty much everyone in Switzerland speaks perfect English. Even the small town farmers).
-they loved that I went to Baretswil because it’s where my ancestors are from and they told me that Hess is more Swiss last name than theirs. Haha.
Saturday
-I set out for a little hike. It was suppose to take me about half an hour but I got a little lost and it ended up taking me 2 hours. I also learned that when you ask a Swiss person for directions and they tell you that you have to go up a little hill, what they mean by a “little hill” is what we call mountains in PA.
-although I was super exhausted and frustrated, the long hike was well worth it. I made it to Tauferhole, or the Anabaptist Cave. The Anabaptist/Mennonites were persecuted in Switzerland for their differences in beliefs about baptism so they used to go to this cave to have church and whatnot. This cave was one of the main reasons I came to Baretswil. It was super gorgeous. I absolutely loved it. Quite possibly one of the coolest places I’ve ever been. I can’t even begin to explain just how cool it was to be there.
-on my way out, I ran into an older couple and the husband went to explain to me how the cave was a place where people went for safety and I said “yes, I know. those were my ancestors.” He and his wife were super impressed and very happy that I made the journey all the way from the US to find this cave in the small Swiss town.
-I left Baretswil around 3, cheating the bus and train system and riding for free back to Zurich where I caught a different train to Bern, the capital. (Sarah’s family loved that I’m from a town called Bernville).
-In Bern I couchsurfed with a young couple originally from Germany. They had another guest, a friend of theirs who just moved to Bern and was waiting for the new month to start to move into his apartment. All 3 of them were fabulous. Super outgoing, easy to talk to and just really friendly people.
-that night we hit the town and went… swing dancing! There was little crash course before a live band and other people who knew what they were doing came in. and it was a ton of fun. I laughed a lot and met a lot of people. Who would have ever thought I’d find myself swing dancing in Bern, Switzerland? Reasons why couchsurfing is such a great thing…
-on the way home they walked me through the “alternative” part of the city. It was pretty cool. Definitely different. And I would not have felt comfortable being there if I wasn’t with people who actually knew about it.
Sunday
- I did my own little walking tour of the old town. It’s beautiful. I loved it. Although I got a little lost on my way there and ended up in the ritzy part of town where all the ambassadors and whatnot live.
-everything in Switzerland is really expensive. The Franc is less than the Euro but prices on everything are ridiculous. Therefore, I didn’t buy much at all. Plus it was Sunday and most of the shops were closed.
-there was a demonstration thing for May 1st/Labor day. It was pretty cool to see. I met a Canadian kid there. And we walked around for maybe half an hour and bought some good expensive chocolate together.
-in the evening my 3 couchsurfing friends and I did a little barbecue in a lovely park by the river. It was fantastic. The people next to us were Jamaican and they played some sweet music.
Monday
-I left in the morning. Took a train back to Zurich and then flew back to Madrid. Our flight left more than a half an hour late for no reason. It was perfect weather in both places.
-I sat next to no one exciting. However there was an annoying small child in the row catawampus to me. He talked most of the trip and then when we were trying to land he refused to sit and be seat belted in and therefore screamed and cried the entire time. Like more than a half hour or so.
-I made it back in time to head straight to my classes.
Tuesday & Wednesday
-both days of non-stop. I had to make up for my Thursday classes that I ditched to go to Switzerland.
-Wednesday after conversation, I skipped out on dinner with Manuel and Ana to do dinner at Felipe’s. He and his girlfriend are visiting Quintanar for a week or so. I ran into Felipe’s mom earlier in the day and she took me to their house to pop in and say hi since I had been away during their first few days back. So I finally got to meet Felipe’s girlfriend. She’s quite possibly one of the nicest, sweetest people I ever met. I felt like we’ve known each other for a long time (probably cuz we’ve heard a lot about each other). They invited me over for dinner with them and some of their friends, most of who I had met before. So that was a lot of fun
Thursday
-went to Toledo again for another meeting thing for my program. Got to see Natalia and Casey. I was actually originally suppose to speak at this thing, like talk about my experience, but I backed out. Natalia ended up doing one though, so I went to hers and one other. Eddie, Piedad and I skipped out on the last one cuz we had to catch a bus so I could make it back in time for my 4 class.
-I ran into Celia on the street and ended up having a mini girls night with her, Pilar and Maria. We walked Pilar’s new puppy, went to Cuevas and then to another little restaurant and sat on the terrace and talked for hours. It was good catching up with them.
Friday
-today was quite the productive day. I got up and ran (only 3 miles because the wind was awful), I ran some errands, made an actual lunch of lentejas for me and Eddie, sent out a long overdue message to a friend, baked some cookies (I’m totally a great roommate) and RESTED! I traveled every single weekend in April and actually spent more days away from Quintanar than in it (I was only here for about 11 days out of the entire month!) so it’s been a much needed thing to finally stop and settle down a bit. That’s the plan for the rest of the weekend too :)
- I worked Tuesday and Wednesday like normal. Nothing special there. The same old. But not as bad since I was coming back well rested and energized.
Thursday
-I was up early and on another 5 am bus to Madrid and catching the metro to the airport. This time not to meet someone but to fly myself to Zurich Switzerland! Flight took off around 9:30 and arrived 2 hours later.
-I was sitting next to 2 older American women from St. Louis. They thought I was Spanish and were a little surprised when I said I was American too. We talked the entire 2 hours. They were really nice and really curious about different things in Spain since they had only spent one day there.
-From the airport I took a tram to the place where I was couchsurfing. There was a misunderstanding between me and the dude so I sat and waited, reading my book for a while until he came to meet me.
-Ilir was this super cool Swiss guy who spoke perfect English. Like he would come up with words and phrases that were super slangish. And he was just super chill and laid back and really easy to get along with.
-later I gave myself a little tour of the town. It was quite pretty but I felt intimidated. Like all the people in the tourist part of the city are all dressed super well and expensively and all the shops are super pricey. I just really felt like I didn’t fit in.
-later Ilir and I went to meet his best friend at the train station and they took me to a bar in the university area for some good Swiss beer and bratwurst. They taught me enough German to order my beer. Haha. The university part of the city is a lot better, a lot more relaxed and I felt like I fit in a little bit more.
Friday
-After getting ready I went to the train station and bought myself a ticket to Baretswil. I had to take a short train ride to one town and then take a bus to the actual town of Baretswil. By sheer luck I got off at the right stop, the one closest to where I was staying. I surprisingly found couchsurfers in this small town of like 4500 and they had offered me to stay there even when they thought they weren’t going to be there. However the one roommate ended up staying. No one was there when I arrived but they had told me to just help myself to the unlocked apartment.
-after ditching my stuff and writing a note I went out to explore the adorable little town. I ended up having a little picnic lunch in the woods- some macaroni salad and a cheese sandwich.
-I briefly met the one roommate Fede before he returned to work and then later I met Sarah. She was a super sweet girl. Later in the evening she took me to see her family’s farm. It was a typical little Swiss farm on top of the hill. Their house was amazing. And from the 1700s! and her family was super nice. I enjoyed chatting with her dad. (ps. Pretty much everyone in Switzerland speaks perfect English. Even the small town farmers).
-they loved that I went to Baretswil because it’s where my ancestors are from and they told me that Hess is more Swiss last name than theirs. Haha.
Saturday
-I set out for a little hike. It was suppose to take me about half an hour but I got a little lost and it ended up taking me 2 hours. I also learned that when you ask a Swiss person for directions and they tell you that you have to go up a little hill, what they mean by a “little hill” is what we call mountains in PA.
-although I was super exhausted and frustrated, the long hike was well worth it. I made it to Tauferhole, or the Anabaptist Cave. The Anabaptist/Mennonites were persecuted in Switzerland for their differences in beliefs about baptism so they used to go to this cave to have church and whatnot. This cave was one of the main reasons I came to Baretswil. It was super gorgeous. I absolutely loved it. Quite possibly one of the coolest places I’ve ever been. I can’t even begin to explain just how cool it was to be there.
-on my way out, I ran into an older couple and the husband went to explain to me how the cave was a place where people went for safety and I said “yes, I know. those were my ancestors.” He and his wife were super impressed and very happy that I made the journey all the way from the US to find this cave in the small Swiss town.
-I left Baretswil around 3, cheating the bus and train system and riding for free back to Zurich where I caught a different train to Bern, the capital. (Sarah’s family loved that I’m from a town called Bernville).
-In Bern I couchsurfed with a young couple originally from Germany. They had another guest, a friend of theirs who just moved to Bern and was waiting for the new month to start to move into his apartment. All 3 of them were fabulous. Super outgoing, easy to talk to and just really friendly people.
-that night we hit the town and went… swing dancing! There was little crash course before a live band and other people who knew what they were doing came in. and it was a ton of fun. I laughed a lot and met a lot of people. Who would have ever thought I’d find myself swing dancing in Bern, Switzerland? Reasons why couchsurfing is such a great thing…
-on the way home they walked me through the “alternative” part of the city. It was pretty cool. Definitely different. And I would not have felt comfortable being there if I wasn’t with people who actually knew about it.
Sunday
- I did my own little walking tour of the old town. It’s beautiful. I loved it. Although I got a little lost on my way there and ended up in the ritzy part of town where all the ambassadors and whatnot live.
-everything in Switzerland is really expensive. The Franc is less than the Euro but prices on everything are ridiculous. Therefore, I didn’t buy much at all. Plus it was Sunday and most of the shops were closed.
-there was a demonstration thing for May 1st/Labor day. It was pretty cool to see. I met a Canadian kid there. And we walked around for maybe half an hour and bought some good expensive chocolate together.
-in the evening my 3 couchsurfing friends and I did a little barbecue in a lovely park by the river. It was fantastic. The people next to us were Jamaican and they played some sweet music.
Monday
-I left in the morning. Took a train back to Zurich and then flew back to Madrid. Our flight left more than a half an hour late for no reason. It was perfect weather in both places.
-I sat next to no one exciting. However there was an annoying small child in the row catawampus to me. He talked most of the trip and then when we were trying to land he refused to sit and be seat belted in and therefore screamed and cried the entire time. Like more than a half hour or so.
-I made it back in time to head straight to my classes.
Tuesday & Wednesday
-both days of non-stop. I had to make up for my Thursday classes that I ditched to go to Switzerland.
-Wednesday after conversation, I skipped out on dinner with Manuel and Ana to do dinner at Felipe’s. He and his girlfriend are visiting Quintanar for a week or so. I ran into Felipe’s mom earlier in the day and she took me to their house to pop in and say hi since I had been away during their first few days back. So I finally got to meet Felipe’s girlfriend. She’s quite possibly one of the nicest, sweetest people I ever met. I felt like we’ve known each other for a long time (probably cuz we’ve heard a lot about each other). They invited me over for dinner with them and some of their friends, most of who I had met before. So that was a lot of fun
Thursday
-went to Toledo again for another meeting thing for my program. Got to see Natalia and Casey. I was actually originally suppose to speak at this thing, like talk about my experience, but I backed out. Natalia ended up doing one though, so I went to hers and one other. Eddie, Piedad and I skipped out on the last one cuz we had to catch a bus so I could make it back in time for my 4 class.
-I ran into Celia on the street and ended up having a mini girls night with her, Pilar and Maria. We walked Pilar’s new puppy, went to Cuevas and then to another little restaurant and sat on the terrace and talked for hours. It was good catching up with them.
Friday
-today was quite the productive day. I got up and ran (only 3 miles because the wind was awful), I ran some errands, made an actual lunch of lentejas for me and Eddie, sent out a long overdue message to a friend, baked some cookies (I’m totally a great roommate) and RESTED! I traveled every single weekend in April and actually spent more days away from Quintanar than in it (I was only here for about 11 days out of the entire month!) so it’s been a much needed thing to finally stop and settle down a bit. That’s the plan for the rest of the weekend too :)
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Family & Holy Weeks
Family week: I owe an update. I’m sorry. I’ve just been super busy these days. So since the last time I wrote my family came to visit. Well, my mom, sister and brother in law. We rented a sweet Audi and traveled around from the airport to Quintanar, to Consuegra to Toledo to Madrid to Avila to Segovia and back to Quintanar. It was a really good time. For me it was my first time in Consuegra and Avila. Both were nice. Consuegra has a castle and the typical windmills of La Mancha. Avila was super cute and charming. I loved it. I got a little sick in Toledo into our time in Madrid but nothing major. We made my Mom walk a lot. We laughed a ton. It was a whirlwind tour but it was enjoyable for everyone. I got to drive the Audi for a bit too. I’ve missed driving.
Holy week: Santander- The week after I worked a ton ‘cuz I had some classes to make up since I had missed them when the family came. But it was all ok because the weather was nice and I was no longer waking up exhausted. And on Friday started the Semana Santa holiday. I headed off to Madrid and caught a train to Santander (actually was close to missing it). I couch surfed and stayed with a family. They were super great. I liked them right away. After eating a little something the dad took me around on a tour of the town. In the evening the daughter Paula (who was like 18) took me for a botellon with her friends on the beach and that was fun. Saturday I went and explored more of the town and sat on a dock at the beach and enjoyed the nice weather and read a book. In the evening I watched the Madrid Barca game with the dad and 2 other American couch surfers that were spending the night. The dad was super impressed with my knowledge of futbol. On Sunday I went to Santillana del Mar, a small town like 40 minutes in bus away. The family recommended it to me and I’m glad I went. It was gorgeous. I loved it.
Bilbao- I left Monday morning for Bilbao. It was like an hour and a half in bus. It was the most comfortable bus I’ve ever been on. I found my hostel with very little problem. Just as I was checking in, a girl from Australia was too. We ended up going out and exploring together. She was great. We got along perfectly. And she’s futbol obsessed too (but sadly a Barca fan). In the evening we went to a bar to watch a futbol game (it was only appropriate) and we ended up making friends with the bartender, Joseba, who we walked home that night because he lived basically next to our hostel. He couldn’t believe that Louise and I had only met that day, he thought we knew each other for a long time because of how well we got along. We went back to visit him the next morning because he promised us free coffee. Then Louise and I went exploring in the old part of the city. Bilbao is an interesting city. There’s not too much there. It’s known for the Guggenheim Museum but everyone told me it wasn’t worth the 13 euros to go in, so we didn’t. the best thing was the puppy made out of flowers in front of the museum. We searched for a basilica and never found it, after walking up a giant hill (cuz we couldn’t find the elevator). In the evening we met up with Joseba and one of his friends and they showed us around a bit and introduced us to the whole “pinxos” thing (Pais Vasco’s version of tapas). It was funny because the boys didn’t really speak much English and Louise didn’t speak any Spanish so I had to translate everything. But I didn’t mind. I kinda liked it. Louise left on Wednesday morning. I went to the Fine Arts museum ‘cuz it was free and then went to a park and napped and read a book. Then I got together with Joseba again and we watched the other Madrid Barca game where Madrid won the Copa del Rey! Woo! I was really excited. Him, not so much cuz Barca is his 2nd team. (Seriously, why does it seem that everyone I meet is a Barca supporter?)
San Sebastian- I left Bilbao Thursday morning and took another bus to San Sebastian, about an hour an half away. I struggled to find my hostel because all the streets have 2 names- one in Spanish and one in Basque but both names aren’t always displayed, and certainly never at the same point. But I arrived. There was a girl from China in my room also traveling alone so after I settled in a bit we went off exploring together, literally walking allll over the city. It was beautiful. I loved it. It was really hot out too. But the city is just cute and has a good ambience to it AND there’s a beach. In the evening I talked with another girl from our hostel who was from Sevilla. She was pretty cool. I went to bed kinda early because I was so tired from all the walking. Friday we explored some more. The weather was ugly and overcast. In the evening I ended up going out with another group of kids from our hostel. There were 2 other American girls, 2 people from London, and 5 from Australia and they were all super cool. I loved them. And it was great because we had all just met that weekend and we all got along super well as if we’d know each other for a while. We went out for pinxos and I had to help the one guy Dan out a bit cuz he doesn’t speak any Spanish so I had to tell him what everything was and order everything for him. Tim who works in the hostel was like “yeah, we’ll pair up the kid that knows nothing about Spain with the girl who’s practically Spanish and then we’ll have nothing to worry about.” Haha. later we all went out for drinks and then just danced for the rest of the night. It was a ton of fun. At one point me, Dan and Matt got separated from the group and I had to take care of the boys cuz they had no idea where we were or how to get back to the hostel (such bad senses of direction) and Matt said “this is like some sort of joke… There’s an American, an Australian and an Englishman walking down the streets of San Sebastian…” the next morning Matt, Arianna, Rachel, Jack, Scarlett and I went to the beach. Weather wasn’t great- a little overcast but not too cold. It started to drizzle so we went for icecream and then hung out talking in the lounge of the hostel. We said our goodbyes to Biffie, Matt, Brittany and Dan and that was sad. Then the remaining few of us went out for more pinxos in the evening and later just hung out talking. they were really a fantastic group of people. I’m so glad I met them. I would have been bored and lonely without them.
Back home: I left the next morning on a train to Madrid at like 9ish and tried really hard to get home in time for church but I couldn’t. I almost cried in the bus station. It was Easter Sunday and I just wanted to go to church. Plus I haven’t been to my church in town for a while and I miss the people there. I ended up hanging out with the boys. I watched them play some card and board games and then we made some food on a fire. Monday was still vacation and for me a day of nothing but rest, unpacking and laundry. And today was back to work. Wooo. So yeah, now you’re caught up. And this was the short version :)
Holy week: Santander- The week after I worked a ton ‘cuz I had some classes to make up since I had missed them when the family came. But it was all ok because the weather was nice and I was no longer waking up exhausted. And on Friday started the Semana Santa holiday. I headed off to Madrid and caught a train to Santander (actually was close to missing it). I couch surfed and stayed with a family. They were super great. I liked them right away. After eating a little something the dad took me around on a tour of the town. In the evening the daughter Paula (who was like 18) took me for a botellon with her friends on the beach and that was fun. Saturday I went and explored more of the town and sat on a dock at the beach and enjoyed the nice weather and read a book. In the evening I watched the Madrid Barca game with the dad and 2 other American couch surfers that were spending the night. The dad was super impressed with my knowledge of futbol. On Sunday I went to Santillana del Mar, a small town like 40 minutes in bus away. The family recommended it to me and I’m glad I went. It was gorgeous. I loved it.
Bilbao- I left Monday morning for Bilbao. It was like an hour and a half in bus. It was the most comfortable bus I’ve ever been on. I found my hostel with very little problem. Just as I was checking in, a girl from Australia was too. We ended up going out and exploring together. She was great. We got along perfectly. And she’s futbol obsessed too (but sadly a Barca fan). In the evening we went to a bar to watch a futbol game (it was only appropriate) and we ended up making friends with the bartender, Joseba, who we walked home that night because he lived basically next to our hostel. He couldn’t believe that Louise and I had only met that day, he thought we knew each other for a long time because of how well we got along. We went back to visit him the next morning because he promised us free coffee. Then Louise and I went exploring in the old part of the city. Bilbao is an interesting city. There’s not too much there. It’s known for the Guggenheim Museum but everyone told me it wasn’t worth the 13 euros to go in, so we didn’t. the best thing was the puppy made out of flowers in front of the museum. We searched for a basilica and never found it, after walking up a giant hill (cuz we couldn’t find the elevator). In the evening we met up with Joseba and one of his friends and they showed us around a bit and introduced us to the whole “pinxos” thing (Pais Vasco’s version of tapas). It was funny because the boys didn’t really speak much English and Louise didn’t speak any Spanish so I had to translate everything. But I didn’t mind. I kinda liked it. Louise left on Wednesday morning. I went to the Fine Arts museum ‘cuz it was free and then went to a park and napped and read a book. Then I got together with Joseba again and we watched the other Madrid Barca game where Madrid won the Copa del Rey! Woo! I was really excited. Him, not so much cuz Barca is his 2nd team. (Seriously, why does it seem that everyone I meet is a Barca supporter?)
San Sebastian- I left Bilbao Thursday morning and took another bus to San Sebastian, about an hour an half away. I struggled to find my hostel because all the streets have 2 names- one in Spanish and one in Basque but both names aren’t always displayed, and certainly never at the same point. But I arrived. There was a girl from China in my room also traveling alone so after I settled in a bit we went off exploring together, literally walking allll over the city. It was beautiful. I loved it. It was really hot out too. But the city is just cute and has a good ambience to it AND there’s a beach. In the evening I talked with another girl from our hostel who was from Sevilla. She was pretty cool. I went to bed kinda early because I was so tired from all the walking. Friday we explored some more. The weather was ugly and overcast. In the evening I ended up going out with another group of kids from our hostel. There were 2 other American girls, 2 people from London, and 5 from Australia and they were all super cool. I loved them. And it was great because we had all just met that weekend and we all got along super well as if we’d know each other for a while. We went out for pinxos and I had to help the one guy Dan out a bit cuz he doesn’t speak any Spanish so I had to tell him what everything was and order everything for him. Tim who works in the hostel was like “yeah, we’ll pair up the kid that knows nothing about Spain with the girl who’s practically Spanish and then we’ll have nothing to worry about.” Haha. later we all went out for drinks and then just danced for the rest of the night. It was a ton of fun. At one point me, Dan and Matt got separated from the group and I had to take care of the boys cuz they had no idea where we were or how to get back to the hostel (such bad senses of direction) and Matt said “this is like some sort of joke… There’s an American, an Australian and an Englishman walking down the streets of San Sebastian…” the next morning Matt, Arianna, Rachel, Jack, Scarlett and I went to the beach. Weather wasn’t great- a little overcast but not too cold. It started to drizzle so we went for icecream and then hung out talking in the lounge of the hostel. We said our goodbyes to Biffie, Matt, Brittany and Dan and that was sad. Then the remaining few of us went out for more pinxos in the evening and later just hung out talking. they were really a fantastic group of people. I’m so glad I met them. I would have been bored and lonely without them.
Back home: I left the next morning on a train to Madrid at like 9ish and tried really hard to get home in time for church but I couldn’t. I almost cried in the bus station. It was Easter Sunday and I just wanted to go to church. Plus I haven’t been to my church in town for a while and I miss the people there. I ended up hanging out with the boys. I watched them play some card and board games and then we made some food on a fire. Monday was still vacation and for me a day of nothing but rest, unpacking and laundry. And today was back to work. Wooo. So yeah, now you’re caught up. And this was the short version :)
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
"do you serve pigs blood"
Monday
-I’ve been waking up feeling completely exhausted. As if I didn’t just sleep 8 hours. Not a good feeling. But other than that I feel fine.
-I took a 2 hour nap. It was glorious. I love Spanish siesta
Tuesday
-another day with no energy = another 2 hour nap
-one of my 4 year olds saw that I had a package of gummy bears in my pocket and she asked if they were for her and I told her that they were for me and she said “but teachers don’t eat candy.” Not sure where she got that idea from.
Wednesday
-one of my 5 year olds gave me the finger… wonder where he learned that from
-my high schoolers confessed some good stories to me. When they asked if I had any similar, luckily I could honestly say no.
Thursday
-I went to school in the morning to make up for a day that I’m going to miss later. I felt like it was a waste of time. I just followed Piedad around and didn’t do much. Whatever.
-After my classes Eddie and I decided to go to Cuevas for just a little bit, both insisting we’d be home early… then I ran into 2 of my new friends Santi and Fran (I go to church with his parents but since he studies in Albacete he can never come) and their friend Carlos and I sat and talked to them for a while. And they made me move on to another place, promising me I’d be home by 1:30… but it really was a lot of fun. They’re super funny and not quite as crazy as the others. And they gave me a new nickname: Shunny Delight.
Friday
-the weather was gorgeous. Like 80º with lots of sun.
-around 4ish, Esther, Eddie and I went to Alcazar de San Juan to pick up Casey and his friend Ansel and off we all went to Toledo. The boys had never been for tourist purposes. It was a lot of fun being there with all of them. They’re all so funny. Casey was in this really random mood where he was cracking jokes all the time. In English and in Spanish. We also discovered that we’re like “kindred spirits.”
-we walked around the city for a while before going to Esther’s piso where we watched a movie. But Toledo is absolutely beautiful at night.
Saturday
-after coffee Esther and the rest of the “family” drove me to the bus station and got me on literally at the last minute and off I went to Madrid. I met up with Libby and did lunch and ice-cream
-later we went to pick up my race materials. The runner’s feria was super disappointing compared to that of Philly. However, they gave me the most random stuff in my goodies bag. My favorite being chicken broth. What?
-then I went to meet up with Alisa and off the 2 of us went to the Santiago Bernabeu for the Madrid vs. Sporting game. The stadium itself is incredible and we had sweet seats. In the 6th row in one of the corners. I conveniently picked the corner where my Ramos would be defending. It was perfect because my Granero played as well and he took a good chunk of corners right in front of us. It was a special game because they honored (the original) Ronaldo, one of Madrid’s historically best players and because Higuain played for the first time in months. It’s soo good to have him back. I’ve missed him
-however, Madrid lost 1-0. Off of a fluke goal. We had control the whole time and we didn’t play awful, we just couldn’t get it.
-the young couple sitting next to us were super nice. I liked chatting with them. And there was a fight a 2 rows in front of us between 2 Sporting fans and an old Madrid fan. There were several times I thought he was going to have a heart attack. Crazy.
Sunday
-after a night of not sleeping too well, I got up at 7 am and off I went to run my half marathon in Retiro park. On the metro I met another American guy in my program going to do the same and then in the park we met up with an American girl also in our program and off the 3 of us went to get our time chips and to check our bags. It was nice not being completely alone and they were both super nice.
-once the race started we all got split up. But I ran the whole 13 miles (21 km), without stopping. I ran slowly, but I made it. However, km 18 and 19 were awful. I thought they were going to kill me. It was a 2 km long hill. I think every Spanish insult crossed my mind aimed at whoever decided to end a half marathon like that. Jerks
- I was pretty much dead when I finished, but I finished. I sat in the grass and rested and stretched a bit then went back to Libby’s where I took a nap. When she got back after church we did lunch and then I caught a bus home and that was my weekend :)
-I’ve been waking up feeling completely exhausted. As if I didn’t just sleep 8 hours. Not a good feeling. But other than that I feel fine.
-I took a 2 hour nap. It was glorious. I love Spanish siesta
Tuesday
-another day with no energy = another 2 hour nap
-one of my 4 year olds saw that I had a package of gummy bears in my pocket and she asked if they were for her and I told her that they were for me and she said “but teachers don’t eat candy.” Not sure where she got that idea from.
Wednesday
-one of my 5 year olds gave me the finger… wonder where he learned that from
-my high schoolers confessed some good stories to me. When they asked if I had any similar, luckily I could honestly say no.
Thursday
-I went to school in the morning to make up for a day that I’m going to miss later. I felt like it was a waste of time. I just followed Piedad around and didn’t do much. Whatever.
-After my classes Eddie and I decided to go to Cuevas for just a little bit, both insisting we’d be home early… then I ran into 2 of my new friends Santi and Fran (I go to church with his parents but since he studies in Albacete he can never come) and their friend Carlos and I sat and talked to them for a while. And they made me move on to another place, promising me I’d be home by 1:30… but it really was a lot of fun. They’re super funny and not quite as crazy as the others. And they gave me a new nickname: Shunny Delight.
Friday
-the weather was gorgeous. Like 80º with lots of sun.
-around 4ish, Esther, Eddie and I went to Alcazar de San Juan to pick up Casey and his friend Ansel and off we all went to Toledo. The boys had never been for tourist purposes. It was a lot of fun being there with all of them. They’re all so funny. Casey was in this really random mood where he was cracking jokes all the time. In English and in Spanish. We also discovered that we’re like “kindred spirits.”
-we walked around the city for a while before going to Esther’s piso where we watched a movie. But Toledo is absolutely beautiful at night.
Saturday
-after coffee Esther and the rest of the “family” drove me to the bus station and got me on literally at the last minute and off I went to Madrid. I met up with Libby and did lunch and ice-cream
-later we went to pick up my race materials. The runner’s feria was super disappointing compared to that of Philly. However, they gave me the most random stuff in my goodies bag. My favorite being chicken broth. What?
-then I went to meet up with Alisa and off the 2 of us went to the Santiago Bernabeu for the Madrid vs. Sporting game. The stadium itself is incredible and we had sweet seats. In the 6th row in one of the corners. I conveniently picked the corner where my Ramos would be defending. It was perfect because my Granero played as well and he took a good chunk of corners right in front of us. It was a special game because they honored (the original) Ronaldo, one of Madrid’s historically best players and because Higuain played for the first time in months. It’s soo good to have him back. I’ve missed him
-however, Madrid lost 1-0. Off of a fluke goal. We had control the whole time and we didn’t play awful, we just couldn’t get it.
-the young couple sitting next to us were super nice. I liked chatting with them. And there was a fight a 2 rows in front of us between 2 Sporting fans and an old Madrid fan. There were several times I thought he was going to have a heart attack. Crazy.
Sunday
-after a night of not sleeping too well, I got up at 7 am and off I went to run my half marathon in Retiro park. On the metro I met another American guy in my program going to do the same and then in the park we met up with an American girl also in our program and off the 3 of us went to get our time chips and to check our bags. It was nice not being completely alone and they were both super nice.
-once the race started we all got split up. But I ran the whole 13 miles (21 km), without stopping. I ran slowly, but I made it. However, km 18 and 19 were awful. I thought they were going to kill me. It was a 2 km long hill. I think every Spanish insult crossed my mind aimed at whoever decided to end a half marathon like that. Jerks
- I was pretty much dead when I finished, but I finished. I sat in the grass and rested and stretched a bit then went back to Libby’s where I took a nap. When she got back after church we did lunch and then I caught a bus home and that was my weekend :)
Sunday, March 27, 2011
"I feel like I've known you my whole life"
Wednesday
-I was feeling better so I went to school to give it a try. I survived by the kids gave me a headache.
-sometimes promotional speakers will come in and yak during the break and they always give you promotional items just for sitting there and listening (or pretending to). This time I walked away with an electric skillet thing. Hahaha. it was either that or a Snuggie :)
-I went to another doctor because that’s what they told me to do on Monday. I got more medicine. But I liked this doctor. He had more personality. I made him laugh too.
-the weather has been sucking around here. Super windy all week. I really thought I was going to blow away walking to the high school. I’m so just ready for spring weather.
Thursday
-both of my roommates left me for the weekend.
-I went for Chinese for lunch with Pilar, Miguel Angel and Carmen before my 2 classes.
-I went to Miguel Angel’s for dinner with him and the girls too ‘cuz they knew I was alone for the evening.
Friday
-I spent my morning cleaning. Finally our kitchen looked nice and organized! And for a whole weekend! Not just a few hours :)
-ventured out and got a haircut. Finally. Before I had such a fear that something would go wrong and they’d try to give me a super Spanish haircut that I can’t pull off. But my hairdresser was super sweet and she even invited me to hang out with her and her friends sometime. She’s 24. I love this town and how the most random people are so friendly.
-Pilar and I went later to pick up her 2 sisters at the bus station and then the 4 of us had lunch together and just hung out for a while.
-later I went back to the bus station, this time to pick up Libby. We didn’t really know each other at all at Eastern, but had a bunch of friends in common so last weekend when we met up in Madrid we made plans for her to come visit here to see the pueblo life. and I’m sooo glad she came. We had such a fun weekend together and it was like we had been good friends all throughout college.
-in the late evening we went to the local so she could meet some of the boys. She really struggled to understand them because they really speak pueblo.
Saturday
-we slept in kinda late and then went off to meet some of the group for some food. And by some food, I mean a ton of food. Like hours worth of endless supply.
-later Libby and I went to the one church for a concert thing ‘cuz my friend Javi was playing the trumpet and he had invited us when we ran into him earlier.
-then in the evening we went out with the guys and that was a ton of fun cuz they’re all so funny and they really made Libby feel a part of the group as well.
Sunday
-Libby left on the 7 am bus. Then I came home and slept some more. We changed our clocks so we’re back to being 6 hours ahead of the east coast.
-I went to church but it was locked and no one was there. Bizarre. I was looking forward to going because it’s been a while since I’ve been to this one.
-I was feeling better so I went to school to give it a try. I survived by the kids gave me a headache.
-sometimes promotional speakers will come in and yak during the break and they always give you promotional items just for sitting there and listening (or pretending to). This time I walked away with an electric skillet thing. Hahaha. it was either that or a Snuggie :)
-I went to another doctor because that’s what they told me to do on Monday. I got more medicine. But I liked this doctor. He had more personality. I made him laugh too.
-the weather has been sucking around here. Super windy all week. I really thought I was going to blow away walking to the high school. I’m so just ready for spring weather.
Thursday
-both of my roommates left me for the weekend.
-I went for Chinese for lunch with Pilar, Miguel Angel and Carmen before my 2 classes.
-I went to Miguel Angel’s for dinner with him and the girls too ‘cuz they knew I was alone for the evening.
Friday
-I spent my morning cleaning. Finally our kitchen looked nice and organized! And for a whole weekend! Not just a few hours :)
-ventured out and got a haircut. Finally. Before I had such a fear that something would go wrong and they’d try to give me a super Spanish haircut that I can’t pull off. But my hairdresser was super sweet and she even invited me to hang out with her and her friends sometime. She’s 24. I love this town and how the most random people are so friendly.
-Pilar and I went later to pick up her 2 sisters at the bus station and then the 4 of us had lunch together and just hung out for a while.
-later I went back to the bus station, this time to pick up Libby. We didn’t really know each other at all at Eastern, but had a bunch of friends in common so last weekend when we met up in Madrid we made plans for her to come visit here to see the pueblo life. and I’m sooo glad she came. We had such a fun weekend together and it was like we had been good friends all throughout college.
-in the late evening we went to the local so she could meet some of the boys. She really struggled to understand them because they really speak pueblo.
Saturday
-we slept in kinda late and then went off to meet some of the group for some food. And by some food, I mean a ton of food. Like hours worth of endless supply.
-later Libby and I went to the one church for a concert thing ‘cuz my friend Javi was playing the trumpet and he had invited us when we ran into him earlier.
-then in the evening we went out with the guys and that was a ton of fun cuz they’re all so funny and they really made Libby feel a part of the group as well.
Sunday
-Libby left on the 7 am bus. Then I came home and slept some more. We changed our clocks so we’re back to being 6 hours ahead of the east coast.
-I went to church but it was locked and no one was there. Bizarre. I was looking forward to going because it’s been a while since I’ve been to this one.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Misc. overdue adventures
Thursday the 10th
-there was like a fight in class with my 10-11 year olds while we were playing a game. So I made us all go inside and sit in silence. We started with 5 minutes and every time someone talked we added an extra minute. I don’t even know what happened but it wasn’t cool.
-after the class I returned to the piso, grabbed my suitcase and headed off to the bus station. Seriously, I don’t stop doing things.
-I got to Madrid and then hung out in the bus station there for a good 3 hours. I felt a little bit like a homeless person as they shut things down and made me move myself and all of my things a few times.
-over night buses… I’m not completely sold on them. It was super cheap but I can’t say I really slept or was all that comfortable.
Friday
-I arrived in Sevilla at 7 am where my friend Nadia met me. She’s one of my friends from Eastern that is studying in Sevilla this semester just like I did and she was the main reason I was visiting Sevilla.
-we went for coffee, churros and then more coffee – talking lots and lots.
-Carlos met up with us and then we went to meet Nadia’s host family who is just super sweet. Her host mom is great and for some reason she thought I was funny.
- Pepe and Jose joined us for lunch and things are always fun with those 2.
-afterwards I was in dire need of a siesta and so I slept for like 3 hours.
-in the evening Nadia, Carlos, Pepe, Jose, Juan and I went out for drinks on Calle Betis, the place I avoided all 4 months of me living in Sevilla because it’s generally coated with Americans. This time it was acceptable since I went with a bunch of Spaniards.
Saturday
-after lunch, Carlos and I headed into the center and met up with Nadia. It actually stopped raining for a few hours so we went for a little stroll. We hit Plaza de España. I swear I somehow always end up there. But they’ve finished the construction stuff they were doing. They have these maps of all the provinces in Spain so we walked all over looking for Toledo’s. of course it was all the way at the end. And sadly Quintanar was not on it. Nor any other town I know around here. Lame. I was very upset. So we went to look for the one of Ciudad Real and there I met 3 men who are from a small town there and they were so surprised when I told them I’m living in Quintanar.
-later Carlos and Nadia walked with me to a bar to watch the Real Madrid game with my friend Antonio, but the other 2 left soon after for work and for dinner/homework.
-after the game and going for a walk and catching up with Antonio, he dropped me off at the Nervion Plaza where I joined up with Pepe and his friends for the rest of the night. I’m super excited because some of them will be coming to the US in June! Yay!
Sunday
-we slept in late because we were out late and then we did nothing because the weather was absolutely awful. After lunch Pepe came and then him and Carlos dropped me off at the train station.
-I barely missed the one bus and then I had to wait a good 3 hours for the next one. The Madrid bus station is becoming my new best friend.
-our bus driver kinda frightened me. And we took the long way home. So my attempt to make it home early by taking the train instead of the bus failed.
Monday 14th-Wednesday 16th
-back to school. Nothing special this week.
-my Wednesday afternoon class with the 5-7 year olds is a disaster. I really don’t know how much more of it I can take. Individually they’re all super cute, super sweet kids. But as a whole group I just can’t handle it. No matter what I try with them just fails. I don’t think I’m made for teaching small children.
Thursday
-my Thursday group of 5-7 year olds is so much more enjoyable. They’re just a calmer group and they generally do what I want them to.
-I stopped by at Cuevas for like half an hour. Mainly just to say hi to Santi since I hadn’t seen him in so long.
Friday
-I got to catch the 5 am bus to Madrid again. I’m seriously about to know everyone on that bus headed to work by name. This time I was headed to the airport to pick up Amy. She was going to Sevilla to surprise Carlos for his birthday but she had a 12 hour layover in Madrid so we got to spend the day together. It was fantastic.
-we went on a spur of the moment trip to the ritzy side of town in attempts to find my Sergio Ramos. And we definitely found his house. Thanks to an amazing police officer who will remain anonymous. We asked him if he happened to know where he lived and he was like “yup, I know exactly where he lives.” Then he proceeded to pull out a map and showed us how to get there. And then he gave me a post card of Sergio Ramos so I’d have something for him to sign in case we ran into him. But we didn’t. but we did find his house. Haha. it was a realllly funny way to spend the morning and we came out with some really good stories. I officially love the police of Madrid.
-later we met up with Libby, another EU grad. She actually just returned to Spain. It was good hanging out with her too.
-on my bus ride home, I started to feel sick. Like sore throat, head ache and chills.
Saturday
-I woke up and didn’t feel any better. Therefore my plans to go to Las Fallas in Valencia had to be cancelled. I was super bummed.
-instead I got to stay inside all day and do nothing, feel like poop.
- the only time I left the house was to go watch the Madrid game with the boys at the one guy’s house.
Sunday
-continued to feel awful, feverish and everything- so it was another day of just resting and hanging out on the couch watching a bunch of youtube…
Monday
-I called the doctor and the receptionist tells me he’s on vacation till Wednesday. So I called Piedad and she told me I could go to the urgent care place so she picked me up and went with me. I’ve got strep throat. Yay.
-but a funny thing happened at the doctor’s. the one gave me a thermometer to check my temps and I was about to put in my mouth and he was like “NOOO! Not there!” apparently in Spain they ALWAYS put it under their armpit. Oops. Piedad was just like “why would you even think of that?” and the doctor was like “I have a friend from Minnesota and he’s always trying to stick things in his mouth” haha.
-there was like a fight in class with my 10-11 year olds while we were playing a game. So I made us all go inside and sit in silence. We started with 5 minutes and every time someone talked we added an extra minute. I don’t even know what happened but it wasn’t cool.
-after the class I returned to the piso, grabbed my suitcase and headed off to the bus station. Seriously, I don’t stop doing things.
-I got to Madrid and then hung out in the bus station there for a good 3 hours. I felt a little bit like a homeless person as they shut things down and made me move myself and all of my things a few times.
-over night buses… I’m not completely sold on them. It was super cheap but I can’t say I really slept or was all that comfortable.
Friday
-I arrived in Sevilla at 7 am where my friend Nadia met me. She’s one of my friends from Eastern that is studying in Sevilla this semester just like I did and she was the main reason I was visiting Sevilla.
-we went for coffee, churros and then more coffee – talking lots and lots.
-Carlos met up with us and then we went to meet Nadia’s host family who is just super sweet. Her host mom is great and for some reason she thought I was funny.
- Pepe and Jose joined us for lunch and things are always fun with those 2.
-afterwards I was in dire need of a siesta and so I slept for like 3 hours.
-in the evening Nadia, Carlos, Pepe, Jose, Juan and I went out for drinks on Calle Betis, the place I avoided all 4 months of me living in Sevilla because it’s generally coated with Americans. This time it was acceptable since I went with a bunch of Spaniards.
Saturday
-after lunch, Carlos and I headed into the center and met up with Nadia. It actually stopped raining for a few hours so we went for a little stroll. We hit Plaza de España. I swear I somehow always end up there. But they’ve finished the construction stuff they were doing. They have these maps of all the provinces in Spain so we walked all over looking for Toledo’s. of course it was all the way at the end. And sadly Quintanar was not on it. Nor any other town I know around here. Lame. I was very upset. So we went to look for the one of Ciudad Real and there I met 3 men who are from a small town there and they were so surprised when I told them I’m living in Quintanar.
-later Carlos and Nadia walked with me to a bar to watch the Real Madrid game with my friend Antonio, but the other 2 left soon after for work and for dinner/homework.
-after the game and going for a walk and catching up with Antonio, he dropped me off at the Nervion Plaza where I joined up with Pepe and his friends for the rest of the night. I’m super excited because some of them will be coming to the US in June! Yay!
Sunday
-we slept in late because we were out late and then we did nothing because the weather was absolutely awful. After lunch Pepe came and then him and Carlos dropped me off at the train station.
-I barely missed the one bus and then I had to wait a good 3 hours for the next one. The Madrid bus station is becoming my new best friend.
-our bus driver kinda frightened me. And we took the long way home. So my attempt to make it home early by taking the train instead of the bus failed.
Monday 14th-Wednesday 16th
-back to school. Nothing special this week.
-my Wednesday afternoon class with the 5-7 year olds is a disaster. I really don’t know how much more of it I can take. Individually they’re all super cute, super sweet kids. But as a whole group I just can’t handle it. No matter what I try with them just fails. I don’t think I’m made for teaching small children.
Thursday
-my Thursday group of 5-7 year olds is so much more enjoyable. They’re just a calmer group and they generally do what I want them to.
-I stopped by at Cuevas for like half an hour. Mainly just to say hi to Santi since I hadn’t seen him in so long.
Friday
-I got to catch the 5 am bus to Madrid again. I’m seriously about to know everyone on that bus headed to work by name. This time I was headed to the airport to pick up Amy. She was going to Sevilla to surprise Carlos for his birthday but she had a 12 hour layover in Madrid so we got to spend the day together. It was fantastic.
-we went on a spur of the moment trip to the ritzy side of town in attempts to find my Sergio Ramos. And we definitely found his house. Thanks to an amazing police officer who will remain anonymous. We asked him if he happened to know where he lived and he was like “yup, I know exactly where he lives.” Then he proceeded to pull out a map and showed us how to get there. And then he gave me a post card of Sergio Ramos so I’d have something for him to sign in case we ran into him. But we didn’t. but we did find his house. Haha. it was a realllly funny way to spend the morning and we came out with some really good stories. I officially love the police of Madrid.
-later we met up with Libby, another EU grad. She actually just returned to Spain. It was good hanging out with her too.
-on my bus ride home, I started to feel sick. Like sore throat, head ache and chills.
Saturday
-I woke up and didn’t feel any better. Therefore my plans to go to Las Fallas in Valencia had to be cancelled. I was super bummed.
-instead I got to stay inside all day and do nothing, feel like poop.
- the only time I left the house was to go watch the Madrid game with the boys at the one guy’s house.
Sunday
-continued to feel awful, feverish and everything- so it was another day of just resting and hanging out on the couch watching a bunch of youtube…
Monday
-I called the doctor and the receptionist tells me he’s on vacation till Wednesday. So I called Piedad and she told me I could go to the urgent care place so she picked me up and went with me. I’ve got strep throat. Yay.
-but a funny thing happened at the doctor’s. the one gave me a thermometer to check my temps and I was about to put in my mouth and he was like “NOOO! Not there!” apparently in Spain they ALWAYS put it under their armpit. Oops. Piedad was just like “why would you even think of that?” and the doctor was like “I have a friend from Minnesota and he’s always trying to stick things in his mouth” haha.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
To the land of Doctor Mateo & David Villa
Saturday
-Angel told me he could give me a ride to Madrid in the morning. I waited half an hour for him outside in the freezing cold and he never came… so I walked to the bus station and caught the next bus but therefore missed the train I wanted to take and had to wait more than 2 hours for the next one.
-while I waited an older woman asked me for help with something and she said that she and her husband were going to Asturias to which I said “me too.” And she asked if I was from there (score! Not everyone can tell I’m a foreigner!) and I told her that I was actually from the US and she was like “wow! You speak really well!” always nice to hear :)
-while I was getting on my train Angel called to apologize. The poor guy felt awful for oversleeping.
-I saw a really attractive boy waiting for the same train and so I thought “Dear Jesus, sit us together.” So I get on the train and I sit. And then he gets on and he sits next to me. And I then I found out I was sitting in the wrong car and had to move. Poop. It made me laugh though.
-instead I got to sit by myself. But there was a man across the aisle from me that insisted on clicking his frickin’ pen for like half an hour. Thank God for Ipods :)
-The scenery on the way was absolutely beautiful. Snow covered mountains, vast fields of nothing-ness, green pastures… I think everyone needs to visit Asturias and they need to go by train, car or bus so they can see everything beautiful on the way.
-I struggled a bit to find my hotel because the streets of Oviedo, like most of Spain, are not marked very well. I think I asked at least 12 people for help but everyone was super nice and I eventually arrived.
-later I walked around the streets finding a place to eat but I’m just terrible at making decisions and I meandered around for quite a while until I eventually settled on a place.
Sunday
-I went out to explore Oviedo in the morning and was disappointed to find it was one of those cities where everything is closed on a Sunday
-then I discovered the outside market and the city came alive.
-I just kept walking and ended up finding the super charming part of the city. It was gorgeous. Just the smells and the sounds mixed with the prettiness of the city… I fell in love with Oviedo. Definitely the perfect city to travel to alone.
-I walked everywhere. Like literally. I found a beautiful park and ended up returning there after my siesta to write and eat some Pelotazos (which are these cheeto things that Abby and I used to eat on our travels together).
-in the evening I went to church. I had googled an evangelical church and went. I’m super glad I went. It was big (well, bigger than mine in Quintanar and my old one in Sevilla). It was youth Sunday which was fun and I loved the worship and I met so many nice people. Including a guy from New York, who’s doing missions with the Jewish population in different parts of Spain.
-After church I went to try to find somewhere to eat and watch the Madrid game. It was bizarre because most of the bars and stuff were closed. Yeah, it was a Sunday, but there was a freakin’ Madrid game on. Even all of Quintanar is open on game days.
-I eventually found a place but I asked the bartender for a menu and he was like “at this hour?” but it was like 9.30ish, the normal time to eat in Spain, so I explained that I just wanted tapas and he was like “oh yeah, we have tapas” so I order something and it comes out on this giant plate, like a full meal. I was really confused.
-and I asked the same guy a question about the first part of the game that I missed and he gave me a super generic answer which actually kinda made me mad because I was like “just because I’m a girl doesn’t mean I don’t know anything about Spanish fútbol. I want the details!” But whatever.
Monday
-I was super excited for this day because I was finally going to Lastres, the town where my favorite show Doctor Mateo takes place. I got on my bus and it was perfect because one of the first songs played was U2’s Beautiful Day, and that it certainly was.
-I saw my first black and white cows since PA.
-I missed my stop and ended up in the next town over, but the mistake ended up being a good thing because I got to see the one house from the show and the fútbol field from a hilarious episode. I explored this cute little town for about an hour before the next bus game.
-and I have to apologize to Chinchilla because I think Lastres may now be my favorite town ever. I mean, there’s a beach, a castle (somewhere. I never made it there), and Doctor Mateo.
- I went to try to find the castle and ended up on an actual hike in the woods. And I don’t recommend anyone trying that in wedge boots.
-but this town was beyond gorgeous. It was so beautiful I seriously almost cried. And the weather was perfect. I could not have picked a better day to go.
-Before I left I had to have some cider with my lunch because Asturias is known for it. And I learned that I should probably never drink it again. I didn’t feel that great afterwards (and honestly I didn’t drink a lot) and that was also one of the things I drank that time I ate the whole chicken. So now I’m convinced it was the sidra that made me sick.
-When I got to Oviedo I did a little bit of shopping and ate the best kebap I’ve eaten to date. Sooo gooood.
Tuesday
-I woke up early to go out and buy some Asturian milk and cheese.
-I caught a train back to Madrid at 11ish. And can I just say that seats on the train that face each other are super awkward…
-at the bus station in Madrid I ran into 3 of the people that work at the school so I didn’t have to ride back home alone, however I slept most of the ride.
Wednesday
-back to school. Nothing special happened. I had to be outside for my 2 gym classes and it was terribly cold. I can’t believe it’s this cold in March. I miss Andalucia. Heck, I miss the nicer weather from up north.
-I went to Pilar’s for dinner with her, Celia, Eddie, Bea and Benni. It’s always fun with them. I’m glad I had the chance to spend time with them since I feel like I never see them.
-Angel told me he could give me a ride to Madrid in the morning. I waited half an hour for him outside in the freezing cold and he never came… so I walked to the bus station and caught the next bus but therefore missed the train I wanted to take and had to wait more than 2 hours for the next one.
-while I waited an older woman asked me for help with something and she said that she and her husband were going to Asturias to which I said “me too.” And she asked if I was from there (score! Not everyone can tell I’m a foreigner!) and I told her that I was actually from the US and she was like “wow! You speak really well!” always nice to hear :)
-while I was getting on my train Angel called to apologize. The poor guy felt awful for oversleeping.
-I saw a really attractive boy waiting for the same train and so I thought “Dear Jesus, sit us together.” So I get on the train and I sit. And then he gets on and he sits next to me. And I then I found out I was sitting in the wrong car and had to move. Poop. It made me laugh though.
-instead I got to sit by myself. But there was a man across the aisle from me that insisted on clicking his frickin’ pen for like half an hour. Thank God for Ipods :)
-The scenery on the way was absolutely beautiful. Snow covered mountains, vast fields of nothing-ness, green pastures… I think everyone needs to visit Asturias and they need to go by train, car or bus so they can see everything beautiful on the way.
-I struggled a bit to find my hotel because the streets of Oviedo, like most of Spain, are not marked very well. I think I asked at least 12 people for help but everyone was super nice and I eventually arrived.
-later I walked around the streets finding a place to eat but I’m just terrible at making decisions and I meandered around for quite a while until I eventually settled on a place.
Sunday
-I went out to explore Oviedo in the morning and was disappointed to find it was one of those cities where everything is closed on a Sunday
-then I discovered the outside market and the city came alive.
-I just kept walking and ended up finding the super charming part of the city. It was gorgeous. Just the smells and the sounds mixed with the prettiness of the city… I fell in love with Oviedo. Definitely the perfect city to travel to alone.
-I walked everywhere. Like literally. I found a beautiful park and ended up returning there after my siesta to write and eat some Pelotazos (which are these cheeto things that Abby and I used to eat on our travels together).
-in the evening I went to church. I had googled an evangelical church and went. I’m super glad I went. It was big (well, bigger than mine in Quintanar and my old one in Sevilla). It was youth Sunday which was fun and I loved the worship and I met so many nice people. Including a guy from New York, who’s doing missions with the Jewish population in different parts of Spain.
-After church I went to try to find somewhere to eat and watch the Madrid game. It was bizarre because most of the bars and stuff were closed. Yeah, it was a Sunday, but there was a freakin’ Madrid game on. Even all of Quintanar is open on game days.
-I eventually found a place but I asked the bartender for a menu and he was like “at this hour?” but it was like 9.30ish, the normal time to eat in Spain, so I explained that I just wanted tapas and he was like “oh yeah, we have tapas” so I order something and it comes out on this giant plate, like a full meal. I was really confused.
-and I asked the same guy a question about the first part of the game that I missed and he gave me a super generic answer which actually kinda made me mad because I was like “just because I’m a girl doesn’t mean I don’t know anything about Spanish fútbol. I want the details!” But whatever.
Monday
-I was super excited for this day because I was finally going to Lastres, the town where my favorite show Doctor Mateo takes place. I got on my bus and it was perfect because one of the first songs played was U2’s Beautiful Day, and that it certainly was.
-I saw my first black and white cows since PA.
-I missed my stop and ended up in the next town over, but the mistake ended up being a good thing because I got to see the one house from the show and the fútbol field from a hilarious episode. I explored this cute little town for about an hour before the next bus game.
-and I have to apologize to Chinchilla because I think Lastres may now be my favorite town ever. I mean, there’s a beach, a castle (somewhere. I never made it there), and Doctor Mateo.
- I went to try to find the castle and ended up on an actual hike in the woods. And I don’t recommend anyone trying that in wedge boots.
-but this town was beyond gorgeous. It was so beautiful I seriously almost cried. And the weather was perfect. I could not have picked a better day to go.
-Before I left I had to have some cider with my lunch because Asturias is known for it. And I learned that I should probably never drink it again. I didn’t feel that great afterwards (and honestly I didn’t drink a lot) and that was also one of the things I drank that time I ate the whole chicken. So now I’m convinced it was the sidra that made me sick.
-When I got to Oviedo I did a little bit of shopping and ate the best kebap I’ve eaten to date. Sooo gooood.
Tuesday
-I woke up early to go out and buy some Asturian milk and cheese.
-I caught a train back to Madrid at 11ish. And can I just say that seats on the train that face each other are super awkward…
-at the bus station in Madrid I ran into 3 of the people that work at the school so I didn’t have to ride back home alone, however I slept most of the ride.
Wednesday
-back to school. Nothing special happened. I had to be outside for my 2 gym classes and it was terribly cold. I can’t believe it’s this cold in March. I miss Andalucia. Heck, I miss the nicer weather from up north.
-I went to Pilar’s for dinner with her, Celia, Eddie, Bea and Benni. It’s always fun with them. I’m glad I had the chance to spend time with them since I feel like I never see them.
Friday, March 4, 2011
“We’ve got joints in the supply room”
Monday
-the weather was super weird. After a weekend of gorgeous weather, it go super cold again. and it even flurried a little bit. Ridiculous.
-one of my students asked if I was pregnant… I think he was trying to be funny. Yeah, failed attempt.
Tuesday
-I was in the break room and Pilar the principal comes in and says in Spanish “hey we’ve got joints in the supply room” and I was just like “uh, what?!” Then she explained that one of the slang words for a joint has an actual meaning as well.
-Like usual I went to Pilar’s for conversation with her boys. They’re always a lot of fun. However, dinner… not so much. Pilar’s stressed about a lot of stuff going on- something happened in the family and there’s problems with some families at the school so we had some hard conversations.
Wednesday
-there was testing going on all week, I think it’s kinda like our Standardized Tests so I ended up actually only having one class all day. But we had churros and chocolate during the recess break so it was totally worth me coming in :)
-my class with the 5-7 years was super frustrating. Classes had been going well when I had only 9 kids, but now they’ve added more and I’m up to 14 kids and this week and last week were just disasters. The part that bothered me the most about it was that I put more planning into this lesson than I had in the last few weeks and I couldn’t get anything done.
-my class with my 10-11 year olds went better. However the concept of being relatively quiet and not yelling certainly does not exist with Spanish children.
-At Manuel and Ana’s they busted out the moonshine for me, always a good time.
Thursday
-ran some errands in the morning and I ran into a bunch of people I knew.
-my Thursday 5-7 year olds are a better group. The one boy Alberto is one of my favorite little boys ever. He always gives me lots of hugs and tells me he loves me. I was talking to his mom afterwards and I told her that I’m going to Asturias this weekend and he was like “me too! I’m coming with you.” It was super cute.
- in the evening I went to Cuevas and watched the Madrid game with the boys. At least time we had a crazy 7-0 win :)
Friday
-I ran an 8 mile. My knee isn’t 100% but it’s not so bad to run on. Some moments feel better than others. Other than that, I did just about nothing today. I try to take as many calm, do-nothing days as I can these days :)
-the weather was super weird. After a weekend of gorgeous weather, it go super cold again. and it even flurried a little bit. Ridiculous.
-one of my students asked if I was pregnant… I think he was trying to be funny. Yeah, failed attempt.
Tuesday
-I was in the break room and Pilar the principal comes in and says in Spanish “hey we’ve got joints in the supply room” and I was just like “uh, what?!” Then she explained that one of the slang words for a joint has an actual meaning as well.
-Like usual I went to Pilar’s for conversation with her boys. They’re always a lot of fun. However, dinner… not so much. Pilar’s stressed about a lot of stuff going on- something happened in the family and there’s problems with some families at the school so we had some hard conversations.
Wednesday
-there was testing going on all week, I think it’s kinda like our Standardized Tests so I ended up actually only having one class all day. But we had churros and chocolate during the recess break so it was totally worth me coming in :)
-my class with the 5-7 years was super frustrating. Classes had been going well when I had only 9 kids, but now they’ve added more and I’m up to 14 kids and this week and last week were just disasters. The part that bothered me the most about it was that I put more planning into this lesson than I had in the last few weeks and I couldn’t get anything done.
-my class with my 10-11 year olds went better. However the concept of being relatively quiet and not yelling certainly does not exist with Spanish children.
-At Manuel and Ana’s they busted out the moonshine for me, always a good time.
Thursday
-ran some errands in the morning and I ran into a bunch of people I knew.
-my Thursday 5-7 year olds are a better group. The one boy Alberto is one of my favorite little boys ever. He always gives me lots of hugs and tells me he loves me. I was talking to his mom afterwards and I told her that I’m going to Asturias this weekend and he was like “me too! I’m coming with you.” It was super cute.
- in the evening I went to Cuevas and watched the Madrid game with the boys. At least time we had a crazy 7-0 win :)
Friday
-I ran an 8 mile. My knee isn’t 100% but it’s not so bad to run on. Some moments feel better than others. Other than that, I did just about nothing today. I try to take as many calm, do-nothing days as I can these days :)
Monday, February 28, 2011
Stress followed by tranquility
This week was pretty average. I was back to my full schedule, plus a little bit more. I felt super stressed, overwhelmed and exhausted the whole week. Not cool.
Tuesday
- I helped Arturo with his English class. His students are really kinda interesting. One of them makes me really sad for the youth of Spain. I ran into my friend Chupi there (since classes are held in his house) and Arturo was so surprised that I know his brother.
Wednesday
-After all of the craziness that is my normal Wednesday, I went to dinner with Miguel Angel, Maria, Bea, and Celia at Pilar’s house. Whenever we have dinners together, there’s an endless supply of amazing food. I always end up eating until I feel sick.
-I’m too much like my dad. I insisted I could find a shortcut from one of my private conversation classes to the high school but I think it ended up taking more time…
Thursday
-I had to spend the day in Toledo for something with my program. It was lame. I was mad I had to wake up early and waste my morning on my day off to sit and not pay attention to someone ramble in Spanish about something I felt was highly irrelevant. Eddie and I passed notes about fútbol gossip like we were high schoolers
-the only practical thing about the morning was the one workshop we had to go to where we listened to 2 others talk about their experience and the things that they do with the students. It gave me a few ideas. But this was the thing I was asked to speak at, but thankfully they told me last week that they had asked too many people to speak and they didn’t need me to do it. That would have just made my week way more stressful. But apparently I’m signed up to speak in May…
Friday
-I decided I’m taking a super chill weekend and just completely relaxing because I felt super stressed and exhausted all week. So I slept in, then went for a 6 mile run, later I went to the park to sit and enjoy the beautiful weather.
-we got a new fruit shop across the street. I’m super excited about it. And it’s all like super cheap. We got a whole bunch of fruit for under 5 euros. And then they gave us free lettuce. Haha. They’re totally going to know me in name before I leave here.
Saturday
-Another beautiful day so I started my day reading in the mini-park. I went to the actual park after lunch.
-later Eddie and I went to Cuevas and watched 2 games of fútbol then went to watch a 3rd one with Angel and Chupi in the local but it didn’t work so we ended up coming back to our piso.
-my favorite moment of the 6 hours of fútbol was that Angel asked me a question and I responded “uh, what? Sorry, when fútbol’s on, I’m like a guy and don’t pay much attention to what’s going on around” and he said “like a guy? Eddie and I are sitting here having an actual conversation during the fútbol game…”
Sunday
-There was a British girl at church. She just arrived from Portugal and is here focusing on her Spanish. She was super sweet and I had fun chatting with her about our different experiences.
-So overall it was a really calm and restful weekend which was more than necessary.
Tuesday
- I helped Arturo with his English class. His students are really kinda interesting. One of them makes me really sad for the youth of Spain. I ran into my friend Chupi there (since classes are held in his house) and Arturo was so surprised that I know his brother.
Wednesday
-After all of the craziness that is my normal Wednesday, I went to dinner with Miguel Angel, Maria, Bea, and Celia at Pilar’s house. Whenever we have dinners together, there’s an endless supply of amazing food. I always end up eating until I feel sick.
-I’m too much like my dad. I insisted I could find a shortcut from one of my private conversation classes to the high school but I think it ended up taking more time…
Thursday
-I had to spend the day in Toledo for something with my program. It was lame. I was mad I had to wake up early and waste my morning on my day off to sit and not pay attention to someone ramble in Spanish about something I felt was highly irrelevant. Eddie and I passed notes about fútbol gossip like we were high schoolers
-the only practical thing about the morning was the one workshop we had to go to where we listened to 2 others talk about their experience and the things that they do with the students. It gave me a few ideas. But this was the thing I was asked to speak at, but thankfully they told me last week that they had asked too many people to speak and they didn’t need me to do it. That would have just made my week way more stressful. But apparently I’m signed up to speak in May…
Friday
-I decided I’m taking a super chill weekend and just completely relaxing because I felt super stressed and exhausted all week. So I slept in, then went for a 6 mile run, later I went to the park to sit and enjoy the beautiful weather.
-we got a new fruit shop across the street. I’m super excited about it. And it’s all like super cheap. We got a whole bunch of fruit for under 5 euros. And then they gave us free lettuce. Haha. They’re totally going to know me in name before I leave here.
Saturday
-Another beautiful day so I started my day reading in the mini-park. I went to the actual park after lunch.
-later Eddie and I went to Cuevas and watched 2 games of fútbol then went to watch a 3rd one with Angel and Chupi in the local but it didn’t work so we ended up coming back to our piso.
-my favorite moment of the 6 hours of fútbol was that Angel asked me a question and I responded “uh, what? Sorry, when fútbol’s on, I’m like a guy and don’t pay much attention to what’s going on around” and he said “like a guy? Eddie and I are sitting here having an actual conversation during the fútbol game…”
Sunday
-There was a British girl at church. She just arrived from Portugal and is here focusing on her Spanish. She was super sweet and I had fun chatting with her about our different experiences.
-So overall it was a really calm and restful weekend which was more than necessary.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
and then I became a blonde...
Tuesday
- I had this obnoxious cough and whatnot so Pilar told me not to come to school at all.
-I went to the doctor’s for the first time in Spain. He just confirmed my symptoms and prescribed me some new meds and sent me on my way. Woo.
Wednesday
- I was feeling better so I went to school a little late. We took one of my group of 4th graders to the pool and that was pretty funny.
-I canceled 2 of my afternoon classes so I could rest up.
-I discovered that one of my high school girls loves Sergio Ramos too. If this was a class where I gave grades, she would totally get an A. I’m not the only one in this town, let alone in Spain :)
Thursday
-I continued with all of my afternoon classes because I was feeling a heck of a lot better. Definitely not perfect, like not good enough to go for a run, but a lot better.
-I went over to Manuel & Ana’s for dinner because I hadn’t seen them all week.
Friday
-I stayed inside all day sending out updates on my life to friends and cleaning up a little bit.
Saturday
-Eddie and I were invited to Angel’s best friend’s birthday party even though we’ve never met him. It was a lot of fun. Pedro’s uncle prepared this amazing lamb, just like they had done at Pilar’s mom’s birthday. It’s soooo good.
-this group of people gave me a new nickname… they call me Rubia, which we would translate as blonde, but here in Spain my hair is considered blonde since most Spanish people have really dark hair. At first I tried to fight it (I’m NOT blonde!), but then I just embraced the new nickname.
-I’m teaching Eddie some good east coast/Philly/PA dutch words. This weekend he learned “outten the fire” haha.
Sunday
-Eddie and I went over for lunch at Angel’s house with his family. They’re a super nice family and his mom makes a good paella :)
-later us and some of the boys went to see the Quintanar fútbol game. My first time going. It was fun but I had to leave early to go to church.
- I had this obnoxious cough and whatnot so Pilar told me not to come to school at all.
-I went to the doctor’s for the first time in Spain. He just confirmed my symptoms and prescribed me some new meds and sent me on my way. Woo.
Wednesday
- I was feeling better so I went to school a little late. We took one of my group of 4th graders to the pool and that was pretty funny.
-I canceled 2 of my afternoon classes so I could rest up.
-I discovered that one of my high school girls loves Sergio Ramos too. If this was a class where I gave grades, she would totally get an A. I’m not the only one in this town, let alone in Spain :)
Thursday
-I continued with all of my afternoon classes because I was feeling a heck of a lot better. Definitely not perfect, like not good enough to go for a run, but a lot better.
-I went over to Manuel & Ana’s for dinner because I hadn’t seen them all week.
Friday
-I stayed inside all day sending out updates on my life to friends and cleaning up a little bit.
Saturday
-Eddie and I were invited to Angel’s best friend’s birthday party even though we’ve never met him. It was a lot of fun. Pedro’s uncle prepared this amazing lamb, just like they had done at Pilar’s mom’s birthday. It’s soooo good.
-this group of people gave me a new nickname… they call me Rubia, which we would translate as blonde, but here in Spain my hair is considered blonde since most Spanish people have really dark hair. At first I tried to fight it (I’m NOT blonde!), but then I just embraced the new nickname.
-I’m teaching Eddie some good east coast/Philly/PA dutch words. This weekend he learned “outten the fire” haha.
Sunday
-Eddie and I went over for lunch at Angel’s house with his family. They’re a super nice family and his mom makes a good paella :)
-later us and some of the boys went to see the Quintanar fútbol game. My first time going. It was fun but I had to leave early to go to church.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
When Justin came to visit
Random stuff since the last time I wrote
-I started teaching my first high school class. Since it was the first one it was all getting to know the students and whatnot. There were 7 of them and they were really quiet. But I really like them. I think they’ll be fun; I just have to get them to talk more. I have a feeling I’m going to enjoy these classes more than with the little ones. However, now my schedule is even more ridiculously busy.
On Thursday the 3rd my cousin Justin came to visit. I got to get up nice and early and take the 5 am bus to pick him up at the airport. We couchsurfed in Madrid for the weekend, meaning we slept on a strangers couch. Haha. It’s this network I heard about and had always wanted to try it and figured the best time to try it would be with Justin around and it’s totally legit. Our host Luis and his girlfriend were awesome. Super sweet people. I toured Justin around to all the main sights. We walked around everywhere. Literally. I discovered I know my way around the city a lot more than I had thought. And I finally got to take advantage of Rebajas (Spain’s sale season) and do some shopping.
On Saturday we went on a day trip to Segovia, which was one of the cities on my list of places I didn’t want to leave Spain without seeing. And it was beautiful and charming and even a little bit more so than I had hoped. I absolutely fell in love with the city. It has Roman aqueducts from like the 1st or 2nd century, for goodness sake! I think we covered that whole city by foot too. For dinner, back in Madrid, I took Justin to Casa Mingo, the place with the best chicken I’ve ever consumed. I like it so much so that I ate a whole chicken by myself. Yes, that’s right folks. A whole chicken.
On Sunday I woke up not feeling so great. I blame it on the chicken. Not the fact that I ate a whole one (I swear I’ve eaten more than that in one sitting before) but on the meat or something. But I sucked it up, not wanting Justin to miss out on the experience of Retiro, the huge outdoor market. I ended up throwing up in the metro station on our way home. Luckily I was prepared. But because of that, our plans to go to Toledo were changed and Monday was spent with me on the couch all day except for a short tour around Quintanar.
Tuesday- I felt completely better. After school, Esther took us to Campo de Criptana, a town close by that has the windmills that are famously linked with Don Quixote. On the way back we stopped in Toboso so see the house museum of Dulcinea. It was all pretty cool. And in the evening, I even convinced Justin to go on a 5 mile run.
Wednesday- Justin got to come to school with me for a bit and see part of my hectic schedule, although I did cancel one thing. My 4th graders loved him- like all the girls thought he was cute and all the boys thought he was great because he could dunk a basketball. My kids in the afternoon loved him as well and they behaved super well so he didn’t get to see the bad side of them. Haha. He also got to meet Manuel and Ana- we went over for dinner and he loved them as well because they all made a point to use as much English as possible.
Thursday- we squeezed in our trip to Toledo, we just had to leave on the 6.30am bus. But I like Toledo a lot and figured it was one city he shouldn’t miss out on since it’s so close and so pretty. I got to explore a few things I’ve never seen before either so that was cool. In the evening after my classes, we had dinner with the whole crew- Miguel Angel, Celia, Pilar, Lourdes, Bea and others. It was a lot of fun and they made sure to have a lot of typical Spanish food for Justin to try.
Friday- we caught another early bus to Madrid and I dropped Justin off at the airport. I had a lot of fun with him and was glad he got to come visit and see part of my life over here. Finally someone took me up on my offer! After dropping him off I went back to the bus station and met up with Alisa, an Australian girl from my program that’s teaching in Madrid. We met on Facebook and had talked about traveling together so it finally worked out for us to do just that. So we caught a bus to Salamanca together. And luckily, we got along great. She’s a super sweet girl and I had a lot of fun traveling with her.
Salamanca is quite beautiful. Smaller than I had thought cuz I think we saw like everything from the outside on the first day, but saved touring some things for Saturday. And I ran into Tomas and Alex (Eddie’s friends that had visited us the other week) so that was funny. Later we ran into 3 other auxiliares that Alisa knew and so we went out for dinner with them and that was fun. It was refreshing hanging out with a group of girls again. It was actually a really relaxing weekend. Since neither of us were feeling fabulous, we rested and slept as much as we could, while still being able to see things. And eat ice cream every day. I think Alisa and I will try to travel together again, one of us just has to become a little more decisive so we don’t struggle to decide on a place to eat. Speaking of eating, she took me to a Japanese restaurant and I learned to kinda use chopsticks. I even managed to eat rice with them. but yeah, it was a really nice weekend. And now I have another city to check off my list :)
-I started teaching my first high school class. Since it was the first one it was all getting to know the students and whatnot. There were 7 of them and they were really quiet. But I really like them. I think they’ll be fun; I just have to get them to talk more. I have a feeling I’m going to enjoy these classes more than with the little ones. However, now my schedule is even more ridiculously busy.
On Thursday the 3rd my cousin Justin came to visit. I got to get up nice and early and take the 5 am bus to pick him up at the airport. We couchsurfed in Madrid for the weekend, meaning we slept on a strangers couch. Haha. It’s this network I heard about and had always wanted to try it and figured the best time to try it would be with Justin around and it’s totally legit. Our host Luis and his girlfriend were awesome. Super sweet people. I toured Justin around to all the main sights. We walked around everywhere. Literally. I discovered I know my way around the city a lot more than I had thought. And I finally got to take advantage of Rebajas (Spain’s sale season) and do some shopping.
On Saturday we went on a day trip to Segovia, which was one of the cities on my list of places I didn’t want to leave Spain without seeing. And it was beautiful and charming and even a little bit more so than I had hoped. I absolutely fell in love with the city. It has Roman aqueducts from like the 1st or 2nd century, for goodness sake! I think we covered that whole city by foot too. For dinner, back in Madrid, I took Justin to Casa Mingo, the place with the best chicken I’ve ever consumed. I like it so much so that I ate a whole chicken by myself. Yes, that’s right folks. A whole chicken.
On Sunday I woke up not feeling so great. I blame it on the chicken. Not the fact that I ate a whole one (I swear I’ve eaten more than that in one sitting before) but on the meat or something. But I sucked it up, not wanting Justin to miss out on the experience of Retiro, the huge outdoor market. I ended up throwing up in the metro station on our way home. Luckily I was prepared. But because of that, our plans to go to Toledo were changed and Monday was spent with me on the couch all day except for a short tour around Quintanar.
Tuesday- I felt completely better. After school, Esther took us to Campo de Criptana, a town close by that has the windmills that are famously linked with Don Quixote. On the way back we stopped in Toboso so see the house museum of Dulcinea. It was all pretty cool. And in the evening, I even convinced Justin to go on a 5 mile run.
Wednesday- Justin got to come to school with me for a bit and see part of my hectic schedule, although I did cancel one thing. My 4th graders loved him- like all the girls thought he was cute and all the boys thought he was great because he could dunk a basketball. My kids in the afternoon loved him as well and they behaved super well so he didn’t get to see the bad side of them. Haha. He also got to meet Manuel and Ana- we went over for dinner and he loved them as well because they all made a point to use as much English as possible.
Thursday- we squeezed in our trip to Toledo, we just had to leave on the 6.30am bus. But I like Toledo a lot and figured it was one city he shouldn’t miss out on since it’s so close and so pretty. I got to explore a few things I’ve never seen before either so that was cool. In the evening after my classes, we had dinner with the whole crew- Miguel Angel, Celia, Pilar, Lourdes, Bea and others. It was a lot of fun and they made sure to have a lot of typical Spanish food for Justin to try.
Friday- we caught another early bus to Madrid and I dropped Justin off at the airport. I had a lot of fun with him and was glad he got to come visit and see part of my life over here. Finally someone took me up on my offer! After dropping him off I went back to the bus station and met up with Alisa, an Australian girl from my program that’s teaching in Madrid. We met on Facebook and had talked about traveling together so it finally worked out for us to do just that. So we caught a bus to Salamanca together. And luckily, we got along great. She’s a super sweet girl and I had a lot of fun traveling with her.
Salamanca is quite beautiful. Smaller than I had thought cuz I think we saw like everything from the outside on the first day, but saved touring some things for Saturday. And I ran into Tomas and Alex (Eddie’s friends that had visited us the other week) so that was funny. Later we ran into 3 other auxiliares that Alisa knew and so we went out for dinner with them and that was fun. It was refreshing hanging out with a group of girls again. It was actually a really relaxing weekend. Since neither of us were feeling fabulous, we rested and slept as much as we could, while still being able to see things. And eat ice cream every day. I think Alisa and I will try to travel together again, one of us just has to become a little more decisive so we don’t struggle to decide on a place to eat. Speaking of eating, she took me to a Japanese restaurant and I learned to kinda use chopsticks. I even managed to eat rice with them. but yeah, it was a really nice weekend. And now I have another city to check off my list :)
Sunday, January 30, 2011
2 americanos + 1 mexicano +1 española w/ 10 nicknames
Monday
-in the morning I went to the post office and the older man that works there is hilarious because he always tries to flirt with me or something. The first time he asked me questions about the US and then told me that he thinks Americans are an attractive group of people. This time, he told me I had nice eyebrows. I cracked up and said thanks and continued on my way to school.
Tuesday
-right after the sun went completely down and it turned completely black, the sky was the most beautiful shades of blue I’ve ever seen.
-I was walking from one of my conversation sessions and I heard 2 little voices call my name and I turned around to see one of my 5 year old fan club boys running at me at full force from his family’s business into my arms. There’s really nothing better than that.
Wednesday
-I got to skype with my Abby! It was a glorious 40 minutes or so.
-I went to Manuel & Ana’s for conversation with Alejandra and for dinner for the first time in like 2 months. It was so good to be a part of that family again. I’ve missed my meaningful conversations with Manuel. This week he helped me partly decide something huge.
Thursday
-I went to Cuevas in the evening and got to catch up a bit with Celia since I hardly see her anymore.
Friday
-I’m back to running! I ran a 4 mile with no pain! Woo!
-2 of Eddies friends from college came to visit for the weekend ‘cuz they’re both currently studying in Madrid so we showed them the pueblo life introducing them to las Cuevas and our new townie friends.
-We ran into an older man who knows the one guy Angel and he was amazed to find that the guys were Americans and then he points at me and was like “but you’re from here, right?” and I was like “yes, absolutely. I’ve lived here my whole life.” It was fabulous. And his son was wearing a Franklin & Marshall hoodie that he just bought at some store. Kinda a random college hoodie to sell in Spain, no?
Saturday
-We toured them around the town and we discovered the Bullring for the first time ourselves. Haha. I knew the general area, just never went exploring over that way.
-In the evening we were with the townies again. This time for the one guy’s girlfriend’s birthday party. I love that it was held in a garage that had 3 tractors. Nothing too different from what would happen in Bernville.
-And… I finally got a nickname! Well actually I have like 5. Everyone in the small towns apparently has a nickname. Some of the teachers at my school call me Chinon or some variation like that. But within this group, many of them call me Sara because Shannon’s just too hard for them. Haha. So from Sara I’ve become Sarita or Sarilla. And then the one guy calls me Sofía and another Sharon Stone and another just Stone. So now I pretty much answer to anything that starts with an S when I’m around them.
-in the morning I went to the post office and the older man that works there is hilarious because he always tries to flirt with me or something. The first time he asked me questions about the US and then told me that he thinks Americans are an attractive group of people. This time, he told me I had nice eyebrows. I cracked up and said thanks and continued on my way to school.
Tuesday
-right after the sun went completely down and it turned completely black, the sky was the most beautiful shades of blue I’ve ever seen.
-I was walking from one of my conversation sessions and I heard 2 little voices call my name and I turned around to see one of my 5 year old fan club boys running at me at full force from his family’s business into my arms. There’s really nothing better than that.
Wednesday
-I got to skype with my Abby! It was a glorious 40 minutes or so.
-I went to Manuel & Ana’s for conversation with Alejandra and for dinner for the first time in like 2 months. It was so good to be a part of that family again. I’ve missed my meaningful conversations with Manuel. This week he helped me partly decide something huge.
Thursday
-I went to Cuevas in the evening and got to catch up a bit with Celia since I hardly see her anymore.
Friday
-I’m back to running! I ran a 4 mile with no pain! Woo!
-2 of Eddies friends from college came to visit for the weekend ‘cuz they’re both currently studying in Madrid so we showed them the pueblo life introducing them to las Cuevas and our new townie friends.
-We ran into an older man who knows the one guy Angel and he was amazed to find that the guys were Americans and then he points at me and was like “but you’re from here, right?” and I was like “yes, absolutely. I’ve lived here my whole life.” It was fabulous. And his son was wearing a Franklin & Marshall hoodie that he just bought at some store. Kinda a random college hoodie to sell in Spain, no?
Saturday
-We toured them around the town and we discovered the Bullring for the first time ourselves. Haha. I knew the general area, just never went exploring over that way.
-In the evening we were with the townies again. This time for the one guy’s girlfriend’s birthday party. I love that it was held in a garage that had 3 tractors. Nothing too different from what would happen in Bernville.
-And… I finally got a nickname! Well actually I have like 5. Everyone in the small towns apparently has a nickname. Some of the teachers at my school call me Chinon or some variation like that. But within this group, many of them call me Sara because Shannon’s just too hard for them. Haha. So from Sara I’ve become Sarita or Sarilla. And then the one guy calls me Sofía and another Sharon Stone and another just Stone. So now I pretty much answer to anything that starts with an S when I’m around them.
Monday, January 24, 2011
"if you're an adult, why don't you have a baby?"
Monday
-I met with my new intercambio. Felipe put us in contact. His name's José.
Tuesday
-so there’s some youtube video floating around from back in PA, about some girl falling into a fountain while texting at the Berkshire Mall (where I used to work, for those of you who don’t know) and they totally showed it on the news here in Spain. Like what?! However, they didn't source the location. lame.
-one of my 3rd graders peed his pants…
-I taught one of my 4 year old boys to flirt. It was hilarious. I had winked at him and then he sat there and tried for a while to return it. Adorable.
-attempted to go for a run, but didn’t even make it a mile before I started to experience some knee pain. Last time I ran it had started to hurt after the run but not during. Suuuuck.
Wednesday
- one of my 2nd graders asked me “if you’re an adult, why don’t you have a baby”- Apparently all adults should have children…
-In the evening I went over to Miguel Angel’s and hung out/helped Celia study English/had dinner with them, Pilar and 2 of the new teachers that just started a few weeks ago.
Thursday
-I gave all of the 10-11 year old girls in my afternoon class American names. They loved it. They chose the Spanish name Carla for me. Not sure why, but I’ll take it.
-I went to Cuevas with my friend Sheila & our other teacher friends. It was also part 2 of the Madrid- Atleti game, so I was more involved with that…
-Eddie & I made new friends. Well, there’s always the same group of guys at Cuevas to watch the games and we’ve always exchanged small talk but this time they invited us to hang out with them in their “local” whenever we want. A “local” is usually like a small room where a shop or small business had once been, that groups of friends will rent out so they can have their own space to hang out & do whatever. So we went and the guys played videogames and we all just hung out.
Friday
-pretty much a do-absolute-nothing day. The only time I left the piso was to go out and buy a watch since mine broke. And I think I started a watch obsession. There are so many cool watches! But I love that I spent like half an hour just talking to the family that owned the watch shop. They were super friendly. And they were able to fix my Fernando Torres watch, unlike anyone in the US.
Saturday
-In the morning Eddie and I went and went and met up with our new friends and met more of their group. 2 of them took us to Toboso, the next town over that is the hometown of Dulcinea, Don Quixote’s lady. But we went for a parade for their Carnivales. It was a really short parade, but still entertaining. And we got free coffee out of the deal because the waitress accidently charged someone else for our stuff thinking that we were all together.
Sunday
-In church, they sang one of my favorite songs for the first time. I listen to it in Spanish more than in English and Felipe’s mom was amazed that I know the song in both languages.
-I met with my new intercambio. Felipe put us in contact. His name's José.
Tuesday
-so there’s some youtube video floating around from back in PA, about some girl falling into a fountain while texting at the Berkshire Mall (where I used to work, for those of you who don’t know) and they totally showed it on the news here in Spain. Like what?! However, they didn't source the location. lame.
-one of my 3rd graders peed his pants…
-I taught one of my 4 year old boys to flirt. It was hilarious. I had winked at him and then he sat there and tried for a while to return it. Adorable.
-attempted to go for a run, but didn’t even make it a mile before I started to experience some knee pain. Last time I ran it had started to hurt after the run but not during. Suuuuck.
Wednesday
- one of my 2nd graders asked me “if you’re an adult, why don’t you have a baby”- Apparently all adults should have children…
-In the evening I went over to Miguel Angel’s and hung out/helped Celia study English/had dinner with them, Pilar and 2 of the new teachers that just started a few weeks ago.
Thursday
-I gave all of the 10-11 year old girls in my afternoon class American names. They loved it. They chose the Spanish name Carla for me. Not sure why, but I’ll take it.
-I went to Cuevas with my friend Sheila & our other teacher friends. It was also part 2 of the Madrid- Atleti game, so I was more involved with that…
-Eddie & I made new friends. Well, there’s always the same group of guys at Cuevas to watch the games and we’ve always exchanged small talk but this time they invited us to hang out with them in their “local” whenever we want. A “local” is usually like a small room where a shop or small business had once been, that groups of friends will rent out so they can have their own space to hang out & do whatever. So we went and the guys played videogames and we all just hung out.
Friday
-pretty much a do-absolute-nothing day. The only time I left the piso was to go out and buy a watch since mine broke. And I think I started a watch obsession. There are so many cool watches! But I love that I spent like half an hour just talking to the family that owned the watch shop. They were super friendly. And they were able to fix my Fernando Torres watch, unlike anyone in the US.
Saturday
-In the morning Eddie and I went and went and met up with our new friends and met more of their group. 2 of them took us to Toboso, the next town over that is the hometown of Dulcinea, Don Quixote’s lady. But we went for a parade for their Carnivales. It was a really short parade, but still entertaining. And we got free coffee out of the deal because the waitress accidently charged someone else for our stuff thinking that we were all together.
Sunday
-In church, they sang one of my favorite songs for the first time. I listen to it in Spanish more than in English and Felipe’s mom was amazed that I know the song in both languages.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Back to the grind
Monday
-back to work. It was kinda good to be back around the kids.
-it was an important day in the world of fútbol because they gave out the Golden Ball for the “best player in the world” and all of Spain (including me) is mad because it should have been given to someone else…
Tuesday
-I started running again. Nothing like having to re-start my training because I hadn’t run the entire 3 weeks of Christmas break but instead ate like there was no tomorrow. But luckily it was like 50º and therefore a lot less painful. Meanwhile, it was snowing back in PA. hahaha. Suckers :)
Wednesday
-it was back to teaching my afternoon classes. Can’t say I’ve missed those. But I started to speak a little Spanish with my 5-7 year olds and they were amazed. I told them I only speak a little but I could perfectly say the most grammatically complex segment, but if I speak slowly, quietly and throw in random English words that I know they know, they totally believe that I only speak the most basic Spanish. And then I told them it was a secret and they all gasped, covered their mouths with their hands and sat wide-eyed. And I said “so you can’t tell you siblings… or your friends… or your parents.” And they were like “oh, ok. We promise.” And then one of my 5 year olds said “but if I tell my brother, he won’t understand. He’s only 2.” So I gave her permission to tell him. They were super cute about it all.
Thursday
-in the evening I met with my intercambio Felipe to watch the Madrid game. He’s a Barca fan and therefore we clash there but I think he was entertained by some of my comments and my reaction to the best part of the game… my Ramos scoring.
-it was rather sad because Felipe’s moving to Germany on Monday so this was our last time hanging out unless I go visit him and his girlfriend. But it’s sad cuz he was like my first friend in Quintanar, at least outside of school. but I’m super excited for him to go to Germany.
Friday
-a day of absolute nothingness
Saturday
-In the evening Eddie, Pilar and I went to a bonfire that was in honor of the one Saint. There was chorizo fresh off the grill and wine for a euro, traditional manchego dancing, and a ton of people. It was fantastic.
Sunday
-I went to my church for the first time in like a month. It was good to be back. And the one couple gave me a worship CD because they saw it somewhere and thought of me because it's in English. I thought that was fantastic.
-afterwards I made Eddie watch Fired Up with me. haha. He likes it. He's a fan. Now when I quote it, someone finally understands me. However, it's not the same as watching it with my EU crew :(
-back to work. It was kinda good to be back around the kids.
-it was an important day in the world of fútbol because they gave out the Golden Ball for the “best player in the world” and all of Spain (including me) is mad because it should have been given to someone else…
Tuesday
-I started running again. Nothing like having to re-start my training because I hadn’t run the entire 3 weeks of Christmas break but instead ate like there was no tomorrow. But luckily it was like 50º and therefore a lot less painful. Meanwhile, it was snowing back in PA. hahaha. Suckers :)
Wednesday
-it was back to teaching my afternoon classes. Can’t say I’ve missed those. But I started to speak a little Spanish with my 5-7 year olds and they were amazed. I told them I only speak a little but I could perfectly say the most grammatically complex segment, but if I speak slowly, quietly and throw in random English words that I know they know, they totally believe that I only speak the most basic Spanish. And then I told them it was a secret and they all gasped, covered their mouths with their hands and sat wide-eyed. And I said “so you can’t tell you siblings… or your friends… or your parents.” And they were like “oh, ok. We promise.” And then one of my 5 year olds said “but if I tell my brother, he won’t understand. He’s only 2.” So I gave her permission to tell him. They were super cute about it all.
Thursday
-in the evening I met with my intercambio Felipe to watch the Madrid game. He’s a Barca fan and therefore we clash there but I think he was entertained by some of my comments and my reaction to the best part of the game… my Ramos scoring.
-it was rather sad because Felipe’s moving to Germany on Monday so this was our last time hanging out unless I go visit him and his girlfriend. But it’s sad cuz he was like my first friend in Quintanar, at least outside of school. but I’m super excited for him to go to Germany.
Friday
-a day of absolute nothingness
Saturday
-In the evening Eddie, Pilar and I went to a bonfire that was in honor of the one Saint. There was chorizo fresh off the grill and wine for a euro, traditional manchego dancing, and a ton of people. It was fantastic.
Sunday
-I went to my church for the first time in like a month. It was good to be back. And the one couple gave me a worship CD because they saw it somewhere and thought of me because it's in English. I thought that was fantastic.
-afterwards I made Eddie watch Fired Up with me. haha. He likes it. He's a fan. Now when I quote it, someone finally understands me. However, it's not the same as watching it with my EU crew :(
Sunday, January 9, 2011
La Navidad. A little bit of everything
highlights of the last 3 weeks
-the Christmas program at school. Most of my 3 & 4 year olds were dressed up like Santa or Sheppards. It was super cute.
-Afterwards was a lunch with the teachers at the school. I had a lot of fun there. I love the other teachers I work with. For me it compensated the Hess Christmas party I missed out on the weekend before because I was surrounded by good people and good food.
-I spent Christmas break with my various teacher friends. I visited 7 different towns and stayed in 5 of them in the region of province of Albacete.
-1st was La Roda with Miguel Angel and his family. The first full day of vacation we went with his friend Pepe to see the city of Cuenca (town number 2). I’d been wanting to go for a while and finally got to go. It’s small but quite cute and charming.
-I spent Christmas Eve with the family of Miguel Angel. There were a lot of people and a lot of food like shrimp and chicken. The children sang Christmas carols (instruments included), some of us played bingo and Santa Claus even showed up. I love how the family party lasted until 2 am, children included.
-Christmas day was spent with Miguel Angel’s girlfriend Carmen’s family. Very calm but enjoyable.
-Town # 3. Chinchilla! I just adore the town, maybe I’ll live there after I retire. The one night Carmen and I went on a walk right as the sun was going down and it was just gorgeous. Rather chilly, but
-on the 30th, 9 of us from the school, including significant others, had a big dinner together with amazing food.
-Town #4. Fuente Alamo. The town of my friend Pilar’s boyfriend Ramon. A small town of about 3000 people. Pretty ugly, with nothing to see. And literally in the middle of nowhere. Full of farmers and hunters. Quite possibly Spain’s version of Bernville :)
-I bonded with Ramon’s 3 sisters while the 5 of us girls did our hair, nails and makeup together for New Years Eve.
-For dinner we stayed in the house. We were “12 + 1.” I learned how to eat different seafood. In Spain at midnight, the bells chime 12 times and each time the bells ring, you have to eat a grape. It happens really fast but it’s fun. The family had their own tradition where you write 3 desires for the new year and you stick the paper and 20 euros under your plate for all of dinner. After midnight, the grapes, a toast of champagne, we went outside and burnt the paper with desires (but not the euros). It was 2 am before the one sister’s boyfriend decided it was a good time for us all to go to his house to wish his family a happy new year. And his parents, aunts and uncles, all in their late 50’s-late 60’s were there awake and excited to see us. We didn’t leave there until about 4 am. Oh Spain… :)
-there were 2 people in the town that were exactly like 2 characters from Doctor Mateo. Like so similar behavior wise it was creepy.
Town #5- Pozohondo. Pilar’s hometown. Super small. 1500 people. Super calm with not much to see or do. Here I was served freshly squeezed orange juice for breakfast and also tried pig tail and rabbit brain. And trust me, both are a lot better than they sound. The brain was actually pretty good. And I knew what it was when I tried it because I watched Pilar spoon it out of the skull.
Town #6 Albacete. 8 of us gather again for dinner, this time at Andres & Lourdes’ house in the province’s capital city, therefore bigger than all the other towns combined. It’s a decent sized city with plenty of things to do but still on the calm side. They have a big outdoor market about the same size of my Sevilla market. I went with Lourdes, Celia and Pilar. Of course I loved it.
- I went to a parade for 3 Kings Day (it’s another part of Christmas here where instead of Santa, the 3 wise kings bring gifts.). We appeared on TV for all of Castilla La Mancha to see. Lourdes’ father called to tell us he saw us. Woo-hoo! We’re famous!
-In order for the 3 kings to come we each set out a shoe and left chocolate and water for the kings and their camels. I love that Andres & Lourdes made me celebrate El Día de los reyes like I was a little kid since it was my 1st experience of the holiday.
- we went to the movie theater to see 3 Metros Sobre el Cielo. It was alright. I like parts of it but found other parts really frustrating. Haha.
- And I went wedding dress shopping. No worries, Mom, it was for Lourdes’ best friend, not for me :) But that was nice since I’m missing out on that experience with 2 of my best friends back home.
-We had another dinner with the same crew of teachers and significant others. This time at Celia's house.
-I got to visit Peñas de San Pedro (town #7), the hometown of Lourdes. It's small but rather cute. and it has a castle type thing! well, it's all in ruins and it was mainly used as a fortress but it was super old and super cool. And I had to climb a mountain to get there. It was a great little adventure!
-the Christmas program at school. Most of my 3 & 4 year olds were dressed up like Santa or Sheppards. It was super cute.
-Afterwards was a lunch with the teachers at the school. I had a lot of fun there. I love the other teachers I work with. For me it compensated the Hess Christmas party I missed out on the weekend before because I was surrounded by good people and good food.
-I spent Christmas break with my various teacher friends. I visited 7 different towns and stayed in 5 of them in the region of province of Albacete.
-1st was La Roda with Miguel Angel and his family. The first full day of vacation we went with his friend Pepe to see the city of Cuenca (town number 2). I’d been wanting to go for a while and finally got to go. It’s small but quite cute and charming.
-I spent Christmas Eve with the family of Miguel Angel. There were a lot of people and a lot of food like shrimp and chicken. The children sang Christmas carols (instruments included), some of us played bingo and Santa Claus even showed up. I love how the family party lasted until 2 am, children included.
-Christmas day was spent with Miguel Angel’s girlfriend Carmen’s family. Very calm but enjoyable.
-Town # 3. Chinchilla! I just adore the town, maybe I’ll live there after I retire. The one night Carmen and I went on a walk right as the sun was going down and it was just gorgeous. Rather chilly, but
-on the 30th, 9 of us from the school, including significant others, had a big dinner together with amazing food.
-Town #4. Fuente Alamo. The town of my friend Pilar’s boyfriend Ramon. A small town of about 3000 people. Pretty ugly, with nothing to see. And literally in the middle of nowhere. Full of farmers and hunters. Quite possibly Spain’s version of Bernville :)
-I bonded with Ramon’s 3 sisters while the 5 of us girls did our hair, nails and makeup together for New Years Eve.
-For dinner we stayed in the house. We were “12 + 1.” I learned how to eat different seafood. In Spain at midnight, the bells chime 12 times and each time the bells ring, you have to eat a grape. It happens really fast but it’s fun. The family had their own tradition where you write 3 desires for the new year and you stick the paper and 20 euros under your plate for all of dinner. After midnight, the grapes, a toast of champagne, we went outside and burnt the paper with desires (but not the euros). It was 2 am before the one sister’s boyfriend decided it was a good time for us all to go to his house to wish his family a happy new year. And his parents, aunts and uncles, all in their late 50’s-late 60’s were there awake and excited to see us. We didn’t leave there until about 4 am. Oh Spain… :)
-there were 2 people in the town that were exactly like 2 characters from Doctor Mateo. Like so similar behavior wise it was creepy.
Town #5- Pozohondo. Pilar’s hometown. Super small. 1500 people. Super calm with not much to see or do. Here I was served freshly squeezed orange juice for breakfast and also tried pig tail and rabbit brain. And trust me, both are a lot better than they sound. The brain was actually pretty good. And I knew what it was when I tried it because I watched Pilar spoon it out of the skull.
Town #6 Albacete. 8 of us gather again for dinner, this time at Andres & Lourdes’ house in the province’s capital city, therefore bigger than all the other towns combined. It’s a decent sized city with plenty of things to do but still on the calm side. They have a big outdoor market about the same size of my Sevilla market. I went with Lourdes, Celia and Pilar. Of course I loved it.
- I went to a parade for 3 Kings Day (it’s another part of Christmas here where instead of Santa, the 3 wise kings bring gifts.). We appeared on TV for all of Castilla La Mancha to see. Lourdes’ father called to tell us he saw us. Woo-hoo! We’re famous!
-In order for the 3 kings to come we each set out a shoe and left chocolate and water for the kings and their camels. I love that Andres & Lourdes made me celebrate El Día de los reyes like I was a little kid since it was my 1st experience of the holiday.
- we went to the movie theater to see 3 Metros Sobre el Cielo. It was alright. I like parts of it but found other parts really frustrating. Haha.
- And I went wedding dress shopping. No worries, Mom, it was for Lourdes’ best friend, not for me :) But that was nice since I’m missing out on that experience with 2 of my best friends back home.
-We had another dinner with the same crew of teachers and significant others. This time at Celia's house.
-I got to visit Peñas de San Pedro (town #7), the hometown of Lourdes. It's small but rather cute. and it has a castle type thing! well, it's all in ruins and it was mainly used as a fortress but it was super old and super cool. And I had to climb a mountain to get there. It was a great little adventure!
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