So my stepmom Laurie and her sister Lisa just left this morning... it was great to have a couple family members come visit me here in Spain! I am exhausted but I want to write about it a little bit before my other adventures commence and I have even MORE to write about.
Last week on Friday I met Laurie and Lisa at the Granada airport, then we rented a car and drove to Mojacar, a town in Almeria. I need to take a moment here and explain about Almeria. It is the desert of Spain, and it has an average of 100mm of rain a year. It is very dry and actually looks a lot like Nevada in some parts, but it also has some really weird and interesting rock formations. And it is quite obvious the moment we leave the province of Granada and enter into Almeria, because as soon as we do, the greenery stops and the desert begins! It was about a 2.5 hour drive, and by the time we got to our hotel we were exhausted so we didn't do much. But the next day we spent the day just exploring Mojacar, walking on the beach (Laurie touched the Mediterranean for the first time!), eating at seaside restaurants, and driving away from the clouds that were forming over our part of the beach and ending up in a nice sunny area, drinking wine (of course!). It was very relaxing, and it was so fun to be able to share this with them! That night we went and found a bar, where we enjoyed mojitos and I showed them what Spanish nightlife looks like (Children, teenagers, adults, and older people all at the same bar, dancing, clapping and having a great time together!)
The next day we drove south to some smaller towns. We stopped at some salt flats and saw flamingos (sadly, they were white, not pink), and we tried to lay on the beach but it was too windy! After seeing some other beautiful beaches, we decided to head back to Mojacar because the clouds were coming in. We were nice and snug in our hotel when Laurie and Lisa convinced me to go out for a walk on the beach with them. I grudgingly went at first, because it was lightly raining and getting dark, but it actually turned out to be very nice, mostly because even though it was raining, it wasn't that cold!
We headed to my town the next day, which was really exciting for me because I haven't been able to really share my town with anyone from my family yet, and I think its so cool that she now knows where I've been living and what I've been doing and has now met some of my friends. The first day I took them on a tour of my town, and we ate at a really great restaurant that had a nice view of the valley and mountains I live in. Later that evening we went out to drinks with some of my friends, but on the walk back to my place it was POURING down rain!! There was water all over the roads, and my shoes and my pants up to above my knees were SOAKED! I couldn't believe how hard it was raining.
Luckily, the next day the weather cooperated better and Laurie and Lisa had a fun time exploring some of the little towns near mine while I went to work. That evening they joined me for drinks and pizza at the place one of my students work. Then the NEXT day I only had one class, so I was able to hang out with them during the day. We toured the castle then sat outside and enjoyed drinks and tapas in the sun. At 5:00 I had my class with the four 9-year-old girls, and we have been working hard the last few weeks to prepare a play, Little Red Riding Hood. I told Laurie and Lisa to come at 5:30 so I could prepare with the girls, and they were giggling and running around like crazies, trying to get their costumes on and everything all set up and ready to go. Then Laurie and Lisa showed up, and they sat down with the girls mothers (who dont know English but still wanted to watch) along with their younger siblings. First I made them introduce themselves, and then the play began! They were so cute and did so well, and you could tell they were enjoying themselves up there. I had to occasionally help them pronounce a word or two from their scripts, but mostly they did it all on their own. Afterwards, everyone clapped and took pictures and then one of the girls moms brought out treats and coffee for everyone! I was not expecting it but it didn't surprise me, as Spanish women are very generous, as well as proud of their children, even if it's just acting in a silly English play in someone's living room. :)
After the play we had to rush to our appointment at the Arabic baths in my town, which was so cool! I'd never been there before, but we got into our swimming suits and went into the bath house, which had three pools in it- one hot, one medium, and one very cold, as well as a Turkish bath (a sauna). You could also drink tea and get a massage (we all got 15 minutes each!). It was so relaxing! I'm definitely going back there at least one more time before heading back home. After the baths we went to dinner and had Barbacoa! They of course LOVED the Presa Iberica, and Laurie told me, "I can see why you snuck this out of here in your purse!"
The next day we drove to Granada! I had a wonderful time showing them around, and I took them out to tapas that night, as well as made them try smoking hookah! At first I could tell Laurie was a little nervous about it, but when we did it I think she loved it! She was giggling the whole time and listening intently when I gave her tips about how to have more smoke come out of her mouth... They both seemed to really enjoy themselves as we sat there and passed the hookah around and drank our DELICIOUS tea. And finally, the last day we went to the Alhambra, which was beautiful but tiring. And I've already seen it all before so yes it was nice, but I prefer to sit at San Nicolas Mirador and take in the whole thing rather than see parts of it up close. The Alhambra is just so impressive and if you haven't seen it already in your life, I hope that someday you can! The last thing we did in Granada was go see a flamenco show that night, which was of course amazing! My favorite dance was two girls in red dresses dancing together with fans... their footwork is just beautiful and they put so much passion into it I just wanted to cry! The next morning I said goodbye to Laurie and Lisa... I really hope they had a great time, because I really enjoyed showing Spain to them!
And finally, if you are still reading, I have to tell you that I now have a job for when I get back to the States! I did an interview over Skype, of all crazy things, and had to also demonstrate my Spanish skills, but I got it! Its an office assistant position at an Immigration Law Office in Salem, and I am just SO EXCITED about this opportunity! The more I learn about it the more I think that this could be another great experience for me... YESSS!!! And I'm getting so ready to come home... I miss my family and friends so much. I know I'll probably miss Spain when I get home, but I am just so excited. Its going to be wonderful :)
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Italia
I suppose I should write about my trip to Italy now, but there is just so much to say! I'll try to cut it down to just the good and interesting stuff, but brace yourself... this could be a long one.
I arrived in Venice several hours before my mom and grandma, so I figured out how to get to our bed and breakfast (after a slight period of wandering around). What amazed me was that I had to take a BOAT. Now I knew that Venice had canals and everything, but for some reason I thought it would be more like Amsterdam, that had roads AND canals. But no. The only public transportation you can find in Venice is either a water taxi or a water bus (which I thought of more as a "boat metro"), and then you can walk. NO CARS ANYWHERE. Which makes sense because I can bet you that there are probably a total of 2 roads that cars could actually FIT on, and even then they would be trapped and not be able to drive more than a handful of meters. Most of the time while walking around I could stretch out my arms and touch both buildings on either side of me. Which was actually pretty cool!
Anyways, so I went to the bed and breakfast and took a shower and SLEPT, then went out to the boat stop where I thought my mom and grandma would show up. It took more than an hour of me waiting there, but FINALLY I saw them, and it was like a freaking movie. I saw them appearing through the crowd and then they saw me and I saw them and I had a huge smile and started walking towards them, and it was just so movie-esque that I had to slow-mo movie star run to them the last part of it, which just made us laugh and then I was hugging my mom! It was sooo great to see her, and my grandma. I think my mom started crying a little bit and I was actually surprised that I didn't, but I was close. So then I took my moms hand and led them towards our bed and breakfast, and then since we were all starving we went and had dinner on the big canal. It was so pretty. Then we walked around for a little while but we were all so tired that we went to bed early. The next day was spent just walking around and enjoying Venice. It is SO pretty, especially when the sun is shining! We took a boat down the main canal and just looked at all the beautiful and brightly-colored palaces, and the Rialto Bridge, and ended at San Marcos Cathedral. Inside it is all gold mosaics and the floor is so intricately done in more mosaics that my mom couldn't stop staring at it. After San Marcos we ended up in the shopping district, where we found this store called "Accessorize" (which I've been to before in London), that's like a more AWESOME and classy Claire's. And we spent a long time in here trying on hats and purses and earrings and looking in the mirror and laughing... generally acting like teenage girls, until the woman behind the counter started glaring at us. So we quickly bought our chosen items and left. Also, Venice is very famous for it's glasswork, so I bought this really beautiful ring as well.
I think then we bought a bottle of wine and went back to our bed and breakfast, and I had a suspicion that the place had a terrace on the roof, and I was right! So we happily went up many flights of stairs and spent the afternoon talking and drinking wine and eating chocolate on the terrace. It was so fun to be able to finally catch up with them and just BE with my mom and grandma. I missed them!
I also soon found out that I would be "Navigator" on this trip. I find it easy to place myself in comparison to where I have been before, and even in Venice it only took me a few times to know where we were and how to get to certain places. Several times my grandma or mom would start walking one direction, and I would have to re-direct them. Once my grandma left the hotel in Florence and turned left, a way we had never gone before, convinced that was the way to go, and I said, "Grandma! We've walked this way like 5 times now!" and she just laughed and turned to follow me. I swear, if I hadn't been there, they would have been lost half the time! It also made me feel quite important and knowledgable, so that was nice too! ;)
The next day we headed to the Cinque Terre, which are these five BEAUTIFUL coast towns on the west side of Italy. It is very mountainous and hilly there, so there is a train between all the towns... and there are also trails to hike! The first day we just went to Vernazza, the town that we were staying in, and of course ate some pizza and bought a bottle of wine and drank it right next to the ocean. The next day we got the train and started in the first town and began the hikes. The path between the first two towns was VERY easy, and it was actually called "The Pathway of Love" because it was the first path ever built between any of the towns, so suddenly there were twice as many people to choose from for a marriage partner! And so young people would meet on this path and be able to see each other. Also there are padlocks along the entire path, wherever a padlock can be placed. I guess if two people go to a romantic spot and close a padlock there together, it's good luck. Kind of cute!
In the next town we took a detour to a winery up in the hills, which was really fun! The woman let us try several white wines and a sweet wine. When we finally made it back down to the village, we realized that the pathway between this town and the next one was closed, so we took the train. In the next down, we had lunch. The waiter asked is if we wanted beer, so we said Yes, of course! And then he asked, "How many bottles?" And we looked at each other, and said, "Umm, three, of course..." And he gave us a strange look but went and got the bottles anyways. When he came back, he brought us HUGE bottles of beer! And opened them right away so that we couldn't object! Two would have been PLENTY, and we now realized the reason for his look. Another unexpected cultural hiccup that we could laugh about.
The next path between this town and the town we were staying in was a bit strenuous, so grandma took the train and mom and I went ahead on foot. It was a little difficult, but it was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! SO GREEN and lush and it went really high on the hill so we could see so far out to the ocean and look back on the town. We had a great time! And we got some good exercise to work off some of that pizza and pasta and beer. When we got back to our room, our legs were actually shaking a little bit from going up and down so many stairs, so we had a quick rest and then took the train to the last town. We of course brought a bottle of wine, and this town actually had a beach, so my mom finally got to touch the Mediterranean Sea for the first time! I know that that has always been a dream of hers, so it was really great to be a part of it. After walking around in the water a little bit, we opened the bottle of wine and sat in the sand and just watched the ocean and talked and soaked in the sun. It was perfect.
The next day we went to Florence, which was cool too! It was nice because we actually got a tour, so we learned about the Medici family and about how life was back then, and many other interesting things. Florence is pretty cool! The first day when we were having lunch, I noticed that the women sitting next to us were Spanish. I hadn't realized that I was missing speaking Spanish until I heard them, and then I DESPERATELY wanted to talk to them! So when I noticed they were done with their meal, I turned towards them and told them we had just arrived and was wondering if they had any suggestions on where to go. One of the women instantly whipped out a map and began telling me all the places we should go, with the other women piping in and adding tips. Soon I learned that they were teachers, there with a group of 80 students from their school. As we were having the conversation I looked over at my mom and grandma, because I felt a little bad that they couldn't participate as much as I could, and my mom looked so impressed! It was actually pretty cool to be able to show her my Spanish skills, because I dont think she had ever really seen me speak Spanish before. Then we realized that one of the women was an English teacher, so then they all began talking. And one of the women invited me to her house, if I was ever going to be in the north of Spain. Of course. I love how open Spanish people are :) But anyways, Florence was great! We saw many beautiful things and walked to the top of a hill to see it from above. The Duomo is so impressive... probably the biggest cathedral I've ever seen in my life. We went and toured this huge palace, and of course, ate pizza again. We also went to see David, that huge statue by Michelangelo. It really was amazing, the detail was so intricate... but my grandma, my mom, and I found ourselves reverting to quite an immature and middle-school-esque state of mind as we critiqued Michelangelo on his choice on the size of Davids "endowment" in relation to his huge hand size. Soon I had to divert us to another area as we doubled over in giggles... we seemed to be disurbing the real art lovers with our childish behaviour.
The next day we rented a car (with some difficulties at first, but thankfully it all worked out) and began our adventures driving around Tuscany. After MORE difficulties that included a motorcycle race and crazy Italian drivers, we finally ended up in Cortona. It, again, was beautiful! Cortona is a town set on top of a very high hill. Its small but so quaint and cute. And what made it even better was our bed and breakfast, where Paola took great care of us and placed us in our unique room... it had a tower! There was a small discrete door that opened up to a narrow spiral stone staircase that went up four stories, and of course there was a terrace at the top, with an AMAZING view!! We spent a lot of time up there with wine and snacks, enjoying the sunshine and the view of the valley below. In Cortona we also hiked to the top of the hill where a church and the fortress were, and we did a little shopping in town and of course wine tasting. I also discovered in Cortona that Italian and Spanish have enough similarities that I can actually have a very rough conversation while Paola's mother spoke to us in Italian and I translated (what I could understand) and responded in Spanish... her mother was very insistant in continuing with the conversation even though she could see I was struggling, but we seemed to actually communicate quite well considering we were speaking two different languages!
The next day we traveled to several little towns before ending up in Siena for the night. Over the few days while we were staying in Siena, we went to Montepulciano (and if you're a Twilight fan, its actually where the scene in New Moon was filmed as Bella runs across the square to save Edward), Pienza, and Volterra (yes, more Twilight stuff... I didn't see any vampires though!). Siena was okay, but we mostly just went there to eat in the evening and spent most of our time in the main plaza.
For our last few days we discovered a small, cute beach town on the east coast. The beach itself wasn't all that great, but the town was adorable! And it was more like a modern Italian town, with large roads with trees on either side, a nice downtown and harbor area, neighborhoods, a boardwalk with beach bars, and lots of restaurants and hotels (that were mostly closed as it wasn't yet tourist season). It looked like it would be a great place to visit in the summer. One of the days we rented bikes from our hotel and rode around for the morning, to the harbor, on the boardwalk, etc. It was so fun! I haven't ridden a bike since last summer! Our last night in that town we splurged, and instead of drinking our normal wine, we got mojitos and bar hopped a little bit.
And finally, we headed back to Venice for one last night before they flew out the next morning. Stupidly, we tried to DRIVE into Venice, which was so stressful and confusing that I'm surprised we actually didn't turn around and just drive back to the hotel. We did eventually figure out where to park, and ended up eating dinner at the same place we had eaten the first night we were there. It was a nice wrap-up of our trip. The next morning I went with them to the airport and it was so sad to say goodbye! I watched them go through security and then turned to go find the bus that would take me from the airport into Venice. For awhile I was just sad and didn't want to do anything, but I figured I should take advantage of being in Venice for a few more days. So I got on a boat to one of the islands, but while there I just felt trapped and sad and upset, so I got back on the boat and went back into Venice, where I was able to check in to my hostel and borrow a book from them. I spent the afternoon reading... it was so relaxing after so much travelling. That night, the hostel had a free diner at 8:00 for everyone, which was the PERFECT way to meet a ton of new people! I made new friends from Venezuela, Wales, Tennessee, Australia, Brazil, and many other countries around the world. And because the first question anyone asks in a hostel is "Where are you from?" rather than "What's your name?" everyone had a nickname based on where they were from. We had Aussie, Tennessee, Texas, Welsh, and Bruno (from Brazil. His name was just too awesome to pass up), among other people. We all went out that night, and at one point we were told we couldn't go into one of the clubs, and Texas yelled, "It's because we're American, isn't it!" to which I had to grab her shoulders and calm her down, while resisting the urg to shake some sense into her. But in all it was really fun making new friends! The next day Tennessee, the Aussie and I stood on the balcony of our hostel and just people watched for HOURS, and eventually I started taking pictures of tourists because they were so funny. And our buliding was pretty, so whenever we saw someone pointing a camera in our direction we would make ridiculous faces so that when they are going through their pictures later, they will look in the background and see us and start laughing... or at least we hope that's what they do!
Anyways, I'm so sorry this was so long! Hopefully it was entertaining enough for you and I hope you didn't get too bored. Another post about Laurie and Lisa's visit to Spain should be coming soon, in case you want to read more :)
I arrived in Venice several hours before my mom and grandma, so I figured out how to get to our bed and breakfast (after a slight period of wandering around). What amazed me was that I had to take a BOAT. Now I knew that Venice had canals and everything, but for some reason I thought it would be more like Amsterdam, that had roads AND canals. But no. The only public transportation you can find in Venice is either a water taxi or a water bus (which I thought of more as a "boat metro"), and then you can walk. NO CARS ANYWHERE. Which makes sense because I can bet you that there are probably a total of 2 roads that cars could actually FIT on, and even then they would be trapped and not be able to drive more than a handful of meters. Most of the time while walking around I could stretch out my arms and touch both buildings on either side of me. Which was actually pretty cool!
Anyways, so I went to the bed and breakfast and took a shower and SLEPT, then went out to the boat stop where I thought my mom and grandma would show up. It took more than an hour of me waiting there, but FINALLY I saw them, and it was like a freaking movie. I saw them appearing through the crowd and then they saw me and I saw them and I had a huge smile and started walking towards them, and it was just so movie-esque that I had to slow-mo movie star run to them the last part of it, which just made us laugh and then I was hugging my mom! It was sooo great to see her, and my grandma. I think my mom started crying a little bit and I was actually surprised that I didn't, but I was close. So then I took my moms hand and led them towards our bed and breakfast, and then since we were all starving we went and had dinner on the big canal. It was so pretty. Then we walked around for a little while but we were all so tired that we went to bed early. The next day was spent just walking around and enjoying Venice. It is SO pretty, especially when the sun is shining! We took a boat down the main canal and just looked at all the beautiful and brightly-colored palaces, and the Rialto Bridge, and ended at San Marcos Cathedral. Inside it is all gold mosaics and the floor is so intricately done in more mosaics that my mom couldn't stop staring at it. After San Marcos we ended up in the shopping district, where we found this store called "Accessorize" (which I've been to before in London), that's like a more AWESOME and classy Claire's. And we spent a long time in here trying on hats and purses and earrings and looking in the mirror and laughing... generally acting like teenage girls, until the woman behind the counter started glaring at us. So we quickly bought our chosen items and left. Also, Venice is very famous for it's glasswork, so I bought this really beautiful ring as well.
I think then we bought a bottle of wine and went back to our bed and breakfast, and I had a suspicion that the place had a terrace on the roof, and I was right! So we happily went up many flights of stairs and spent the afternoon talking and drinking wine and eating chocolate on the terrace. It was so fun to be able to finally catch up with them and just BE with my mom and grandma. I missed them!
I also soon found out that I would be "Navigator" on this trip. I find it easy to place myself in comparison to where I have been before, and even in Venice it only took me a few times to know where we were and how to get to certain places. Several times my grandma or mom would start walking one direction, and I would have to re-direct them. Once my grandma left the hotel in Florence and turned left, a way we had never gone before, convinced that was the way to go, and I said, "Grandma! We've walked this way like 5 times now!" and she just laughed and turned to follow me. I swear, if I hadn't been there, they would have been lost half the time! It also made me feel quite important and knowledgable, so that was nice too! ;)
The next day we headed to the Cinque Terre, which are these five BEAUTIFUL coast towns on the west side of Italy. It is very mountainous and hilly there, so there is a train between all the towns... and there are also trails to hike! The first day we just went to Vernazza, the town that we were staying in, and of course ate some pizza and bought a bottle of wine and drank it right next to the ocean. The next day we got the train and started in the first town and began the hikes. The path between the first two towns was VERY easy, and it was actually called "The Pathway of Love" because it was the first path ever built between any of the towns, so suddenly there were twice as many people to choose from for a marriage partner! And so young people would meet on this path and be able to see each other. Also there are padlocks along the entire path, wherever a padlock can be placed. I guess if two people go to a romantic spot and close a padlock there together, it's good luck. Kind of cute!
In the next town we took a detour to a winery up in the hills, which was really fun! The woman let us try several white wines and a sweet wine. When we finally made it back down to the village, we realized that the pathway between this town and the next one was closed, so we took the train. In the next down, we had lunch. The waiter asked is if we wanted beer, so we said Yes, of course! And then he asked, "How many bottles?" And we looked at each other, and said, "Umm, three, of course..." And he gave us a strange look but went and got the bottles anyways. When he came back, he brought us HUGE bottles of beer! And opened them right away so that we couldn't object! Two would have been PLENTY, and we now realized the reason for his look. Another unexpected cultural hiccup that we could laugh about.
The next path between this town and the town we were staying in was a bit strenuous, so grandma took the train and mom and I went ahead on foot. It was a little difficult, but it was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! SO GREEN and lush and it went really high on the hill so we could see so far out to the ocean and look back on the town. We had a great time! And we got some good exercise to work off some of that pizza and pasta and beer. When we got back to our room, our legs were actually shaking a little bit from going up and down so many stairs, so we had a quick rest and then took the train to the last town. We of course brought a bottle of wine, and this town actually had a beach, so my mom finally got to touch the Mediterranean Sea for the first time! I know that that has always been a dream of hers, so it was really great to be a part of it. After walking around in the water a little bit, we opened the bottle of wine and sat in the sand and just watched the ocean and talked and soaked in the sun. It was perfect.
The next day we went to Florence, which was cool too! It was nice because we actually got a tour, so we learned about the Medici family and about how life was back then, and many other interesting things. Florence is pretty cool! The first day when we were having lunch, I noticed that the women sitting next to us were Spanish. I hadn't realized that I was missing speaking Spanish until I heard them, and then I DESPERATELY wanted to talk to them! So when I noticed they were done with their meal, I turned towards them and told them we had just arrived and was wondering if they had any suggestions on where to go. One of the women instantly whipped out a map and began telling me all the places we should go, with the other women piping in and adding tips. Soon I learned that they were teachers, there with a group of 80 students from their school. As we were having the conversation I looked over at my mom and grandma, because I felt a little bad that they couldn't participate as much as I could, and my mom looked so impressed! It was actually pretty cool to be able to show her my Spanish skills, because I dont think she had ever really seen me speak Spanish before. Then we realized that one of the women was an English teacher, so then they all began talking. And one of the women invited me to her house, if I was ever going to be in the north of Spain. Of course. I love how open Spanish people are :) But anyways, Florence was great! We saw many beautiful things and walked to the top of a hill to see it from above. The Duomo is so impressive... probably the biggest cathedral I've ever seen in my life. We went and toured this huge palace, and of course, ate pizza again. We also went to see David, that huge statue by Michelangelo. It really was amazing, the detail was so intricate... but my grandma, my mom, and I found ourselves reverting to quite an immature and middle-school-esque state of mind as we critiqued Michelangelo on his choice on the size of Davids "endowment" in relation to his huge hand size. Soon I had to divert us to another area as we doubled over in giggles... we seemed to be disurbing the real art lovers with our childish behaviour.
The next day we rented a car (with some difficulties at first, but thankfully it all worked out) and began our adventures driving around Tuscany. After MORE difficulties that included a motorcycle race and crazy Italian drivers, we finally ended up in Cortona. It, again, was beautiful! Cortona is a town set on top of a very high hill. Its small but so quaint and cute. And what made it even better was our bed and breakfast, where Paola took great care of us and placed us in our unique room... it had a tower! There was a small discrete door that opened up to a narrow spiral stone staircase that went up four stories, and of course there was a terrace at the top, with an AMAZING view!! We spent a lot of time up there with wine and snacks, enjoying the sunshine and the view of the valley below. In Cortona we also hiked to the top of the hill where a church and the fortress were, and we did a little shopping in town and of course wine tasting. I also discovered in Cortona that Italian and Spanish have enough similarities that I can actually have a very rough conversation while Paola's mother spoke to us in Italian and I translated (what I could understand) and responded in Spanish... her mother was very insistant in continuing with the conversation even though she could see I was struggling, but we seemed to actually communicate quite well considering we were speaking two different languages!
The next day we traveled to several little towns before ending up in Siena for the night. Over the few days while we were staying in Siena, we went to Montepulciano (and if you're a Twilight fan, its actually where the scene in New Moon was filmed as Bella runs across the square to save Edward), Pienza, and Volterra (yes, more Twilight stuff... I didn't see any vampires though!). Siena was okay, but we mostly just went there to eat in the evening and spent most of our time in the main plaza.
For our last few days we discovered a small, cute beach town on the east coast. The beach itself wasn't all that great, but the town was adorable! And it was more like a modern Italian town, with large roads with trees on either side, a nice downtown and harbor area, neighborhoods, a boardwalk with beach bars, and lots of restaurants and hotels (that were mostly closed as it wasn't yet tourist season). It looked like it would be a great place to visit in the summer. One of the days we rented bikes from our hotel and rode around for the morning, to the harbor, on the boardwalk, etc. It was so fun! I haven't ridden a bike since last summer! Our last night in that town we splurged, and instead of drinking our normal wine, we got mojitos and bar hopped a little bit.
And finally, we headed back to Venice for one last night before they flew out the next morning. Stupidly, we tried to DRIVE into Venice, which was so stressful and confusing that I'm surprised we actually didn't turn around and just drive back to the hotel. We did eventually figure out where to park, and ended up eating dinner at the same place we had eaten the first night we were there. It was a nice wrap-up of our trip. The next morning I went with them to the airport and it was so sad to say goodbye! I watched them go through security and then turned to go find the bus that would take me from the airport into Venice. For awhile I was just sad and didn't want to do anything, but I figured I should take advantage of being in Venice for a few more days. So I got on a boat to one of the islands, but while there I just felt trapped and sad and upset, so I got back on the boat and went back into Venice, where I was able to check in to my hostel and borrow a book from them. I spent the afternoon reading... it was so relaxing after so much travelling. That night, the hostel had a free diner at 8:00 for everyone, which was the PERFECT way to meet a ton of new people! I made new friends from Venezuela, Wales, Tennessee, Australia, Brazil, and many other countries around the world. And because the first question anyone asks in a hostel is "Where are you from?" rather than "What's your name?" everyone had a nickname based on where they were from. We had Aussie, Tennessee, Texas, Welsh, and Bruno (from Brazil. His name was just too awesome to pass up), among other people. We all went out that night, and at one point we were told we couldn't go into one of the clubs, and Texas yelled, "It's because we're American, isn't it!" to which I had to grab her shoulders and calm her down, while resisting the urg to shake some sense into her. But in all it was really fun making new friends! The next day Tennessee, the Aussie and I stood on the balcony of our hostel and just people watched for HOURS, and eventually I started taking pictures of tourists because they were so funny. And our buliding was pretty, so whenever we saw someone pointing a camera in our direction we would make ridiculous faces so that when they are going through their pictures later, they will look in the background and see us and start laughing... or at least we hope that's what they do!
Anyways, I'm so sorry this was so long! Hopefully it was entertaining enough for you and I hope you didn't get too bored. Another post about Laurie and Lisa's visit to Spain should be coming soon, in case you want to read more :)
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Presa Iberica
I feel the need to write one more post before my big adventure to Italy which begins on Saturday (2 days from now!) when I leave for Seville to stay the night before my flight at 6:30am. First off, I am so excited to see my mom again that I get jittery every time I think about it, and spending a week exploring Italy with her and my grandma is going to be absolutely amazing! I'm pretty sure that if it weren't for me living in Spain, this type of vacation wouldn't have happened for the three of us so I am just so thankful that I have this opportunity.
It seems that Spain doesn't have four seasons, but two. It took about one week for the weather to turn from cold and wearing sweaters to quite warm and wearing tank-tops. And I know from here on out it's just going to get hotter, and I'm happy that I'm leaving in June before the REAL hell hits in July and August, where they say that it's almost impossible to leave your house, it's so hot. Our first very nice day was last Friday... Magda and I went over to Roberts apartment to firstly use his oven to make crepes for all of us, and also to enjoy his wonderful balcony. I looked around the apartment at one point and was amused at the fact that I was spending the day in an apartment with one American girl, one Polish girl, one Irish guy and one French guy. It was so diverse but we were having an excellent time, drinking tinto de verano, sitting out on the balcony soaking up the sun, and eventually eating the crepes Magda so nicely made us. Tomorrow I think we're going to head over again to use his oven and make a chocolate cake (Magda just got the recipe from her mom). I've really enjoyed staying in Priego for the past month and getting to spend time with these great people. But from here on out, I am busy every weekend! First Italy, and then Laurie and Lisa come to visit me and we're going to explore Almeria, and then the next weekend Granada, and then after that I'm going to Nerja (a town on the coast) with one of my American friends here in Priego, and then Julie comes and we're going to Granada and then traveling to Barcelona and Lisbon, and then we spend one Saturday night in Priego while I pack and have some sort of goodbye party, and then I go home! I have a feeling its going to go very fast from here on out, but I'm excited for every bit of it.
This week went surprisingly fast... I finished up one of my private classes because the students I was having class with have their exam next week and then my services are no longer needed. My other classes are continuing though, and I'm planning to have my four 9-year-olds perform Little Red Riding Hood first for Laurie and Lisa, and then for Julie when she comes. They are super excited about it and I think it will be good practice for them, reading and pronouncing English words while acting out a play. Today after class their moms were in the kitchen and they invited me to stay for a cup of coffee... I love feeling a part of this community. Last week I was walking through the town at the hour where EVERYONE likes to "dar un paseo," which means that people take a walk through the main street of town just to see if anyone they know is out so that they can stop and talk. And I ended up seeing a ton of people that I knew, including one of my students, a couple people from my conversation class, and three out of my four nine-year-olds. I was walking across the plaza of the city hall where there were many people sitting having a drink at the tables, and the kids were playing soccer or just messing around like normal, when suddenly I spotted my girls and they saw me and started squealing and ran over to me and gave me a hug and started talking to me in Spanish and were generally very excited. It was so sweet, and it felt really nice to be able to walk around this town and recognize some people and actually be able to stop and talk to others. I love feeling like a part of this community, and I really wish that this kind of thing would happen more in Oregon... but oh well. I'm just glad that it's at least happened here.
And finally, I would like to end today with a story about the dinner I had tonight. Magda and I returned to the place where we found some AMAZING steak, and ordered it again... it did not disappoint us! We were happily eating our salad, presa iberica (the steak), and our french fries, when suddenly we realized that we were both very full, and we still had about a third of our steak on each of our plates. This would not be a problem in the US... we would simply have to ask for a to-go box, and then be on our way. But not in Spain. People don't take food home in Spain. If you don't finish your food, you leave it there. And being an American, I was shocked at this. ("WHAT?! You don't take home your extra food?! What a waste of money!") But in Spain it's just not done. But we were so full that all Magda could say was, "Whoa" on repeat, and I was wishing I could have fit a pair of sweatpants in my bag (I kept thinking about Joey on Friends when he had to eat that whole Thanksgiving turkey... he kept saying in my head, "Why am I wearing JEANS? I need my sweatpants! Stupid!" and "I'm getting the meat sweats" as he dabbed his forehead with his napkin). And we began talking to our steaks saying things like, "Don't worry steak" and "I won't leave you here alone." So I had Magda look out for the waiter, and when she said he wasn't looking, we quickly put our leftover steaks on our napkins and wrapped them up safely and put them in our purses. And oddly I feel proud that I can now say, "I've had a steak in my purse." So then we quickly paid for our meal and went the 30 feet back to our apartment and laughed as we told our Spanish roommate Maria what we had done, who then relayed it to her mother with whom she was talking to on the phone at the time. But we were proud of ourselves for saving our PRECIOUS steaks and being able to enjoy them at a later date.
Anyways, I hope you all are doing well! I will be back in the US in two months from yesterday! Mostly I'm excited but I have many adventures to look forward to until then. :)
It seems that Spain doesn't have four seasons, but two. It took about one week for the weather to turn from cold and wearing sweaters to quite warm and wearing tank-tops. And I know from here on out it's just going to get hotter, and I'm happy that I'm leaving in June before the REAL hell hits in July and August, where they say that it's almost impossible to leave your house, it's so hot. Our first very nice day was last Friday... Magda and I went over to Roberts apartment to firstly use his oven to make crepes for all of us, and also to enjoy his wonderful balcony. I looked around the apartment at one point and was amused at the fact that I was spending the day in an apartment with one American girl, one Polish girl, one Irish guy and one French guy. It was so diverse but we were having an excellent time, drinking tinto de verano, sitting out on the balcony soaking up the sun, and eventually eating the crepes Magda so nicely made us. Tomorrow I think we're going to head over again to use his oven and make a chocolate cake (Magda just got the recipe from her mom). I've really enjoyed staying in Priego for the past month and getting to spend time with these great people. But from here on out, I am busy every weekend! First Italy, and then Laurie and Lisa come to visit me and we're going to explore Almeria, and then the next weekend Granada, and then after that I'm going to Nerja (a town on the coast) with one of my American friends here in Priego, and then Julie comes and we're going to Granada and then traveling to Barcelona and Lisbon, and then we spend one Saturday night in Priego while I pack and have some sort of goodbye party, and then I go home! I have a feeling its going to go very fast from here on out, but I'm excited for every bit of it.
This week went surprisingly fast... I finished up one of my private classes because the students I was having class with have their exam next week and then my services are no longer needed. My other classes are continuing though, and I'm planning to have my four 9-year-olds perform Little Red Riding Hood first for Laurie and Lisa, and then for Julie when she comes. They are super excited about it and I think it will be good practice for them, reading and pronouncing English words while acting out a play. Today after class their moms were in the kitchen and they invited me to stay for a cup of coffee... I love feeling a part of this community. Last week I was walking through the town at the hour where EVERYONE likes to "dar un paseo," which means that people take a walk through the main street of town just to see if anyone they know is out so that they can stop and talk. And I ended up seeing a ton of people that I knew, including one of my students, a couple people from my conversation class, and three out of my four nine-year-olds. I was walking across the plaza of the city hall where there were many people sitting having a drink at the tables, and the kids were playing soccer or just messing around like normal, when suddenly I spotted my girls and they saw me and started squealing and ran over to me and gave me a hug and started talking to me in Spanish and were generally very excited. It was so sweet, and it felt really nice to be able to walk around this town and recognize some people and actually be able to stop and talk to others. I love feeling like a part of this community, and I really wish that this kind of thing would happen more in Oregon... but oh well. I'm just glad that it's at least happened here.
And finally, I would like to end today with a story about the dinner I had tonight. Magda and I returned to the place where we found some AMAZING steak, and ordered it again... it did not disappoint us! We were happily eating our salad, presa iberica (the steak), and our french fries, when suddenly we realized that we were both very full, and we still had about a third of our steak on each of our plates. This would not be a problem in the US... we would simply have to ask for a to-go box, and then be on our way. But not in Spain. People don't take food home in Spain. If you don't finish your food, you leave it there. And being an American, I was shocked at this. ("WHAT?! You don't take home your extra food?! What a waste of money!") But in Spain it's just not done. But we were so full that all Magda could say was, "Whoa" on repeat, and I was wishing I could have fit a pair of sweatpants in my bag (I kept thinking about Joey on Friends when he had to eat that whole Thanksgiving turkey... he kept saying in my head, "Why am I wearing JEANS? I need my sweatpants! Stupid!" and "I'm getting the meat sweats" as he dabbed his forehead with his napkin). And we began talking to our steaks saying things like, "Don't worry steak" and "I won't leave you here alone." So I had Magda look out for the waiter, and when she said he wasn't looking, we quickly put our leftover steaks on our napkins and wrapped them up safely and put them in our purses. And oddly I feel proud that I can now say, "I've had a steak in my purse." So then we quickly paid for our meal and went the 30 feet back to our apartment and laughed as we told our Spanish roommate Maria what we had done, who then relayed it to her mother with whom she was talking to on the phone at the time. But we were proud of ourselves for saving our PRECIOUS steaks and being able to enjoy them at a later date.
Anyways, I hope you all are doing well! I will be back in the US in two months from yesterday! Mostly I'm excited but I have many adventures to look forward to until then. :)
Sunday, March 27, 2011
March Slowness
March has been a pretty uneventful month. I didnt plan any trips, so I've been staying in my town every weekend, hanging out with my friends here and just living the boring life. Last weekend Magda and I went to our friends apartment for a barbeque and to use his oven to make some Polish cookies, which were AMAZING, even though they were a little deformed in the end. The boys we were hanging out with loved them, and enjoyed them while I beat them at poker, for once in my life! We were playing with euro pennies and 2 cent pieces (I dont understand the point of 2 cent pieces...), so I didn't actually WIN anything except pride. Earlier that week we also celebrated St. Patricks Day with the same friend who's Irish... he decorated his apartment in green and orange and many corny things that his friends and family had sent him from Ireland, including hats that light up and weird green and orange wigs. We drank beer and ate dinner, and then I watched as Magda made crepes while tipsy (hilaaaarious!), which we all enjoyed later with whipped cream and fruit. Then we went out to the sparsely populated bars and danced the night away, as if we were the only people there (which was almost true).
A few weeks before that I was on the radio for the first time in my life! My bilingual coordinator and another teacher at my school just started a new radio program where for an hour every Monday they pick a country and try to interview someone and play music from that country. They asked me to come for their United States day, and at first I was really nervous about my Spanish skills and almost didn't want to go. But they reassured me that it would be okay, so I sucked it up and went, and it actually turned out to be really fun! I brought some music including Sweet Home Alabama and they had some Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash, and Bob Dylan CD's with them. And they interviewed me about if American high schools really are like what they see in the movies, with the jocks and the cheerleaders and all that (Yes. But sometimes less extreme cliques and stereotypes), and what was the ideal most important to Americans (our independence), whether I missed my car (HELL YES), among other things. And I was actually really pleased with myself and my Spanish skills! I realized that I do speak pretty good Spanish, and even if it's not perfect and I still dont know some vocabulary, I can get my point across. I was surprised to find myself really enjoying the hour and was happy that I came. It was also fun being in a radio station environment. One time Jon, the other teacher, forgot to put the CD in with the next song, and Fran and I were making hand signals to him frantically while keeping our voices casual, and when he finally figured it out we had to stall while he put it in and got it ready. It was hard not to laugh out loud at some of the things that happened while we were talking into the microphones. No one can SEE us, they can only hear us, and that was a very different and comical experience. Like there are two different stories going on... the one our voices portray to the listeners and the one that is actually happening for us.
This last Friday I finally got out of Priego since being in the Canary Islands. We didn't go quite that far, but Magda and I did tag along on a shopping trip to Cordoba with one of our friends and her sister, in a CAR. I was SO happy to be in a car once again, with the windows rolled down... it's actually starting to get pretty warm here, in the mid 60's, which is a great change from the cold before! I can sleep in just a t-shirt and sweat pants now, rather than bundling up in a sweatshirt and socks and a hot water bottle. Anyways, so we went to Cordoba and had lunch with our friends cousin, then we all went downtown and had coffee before we went shopping. I didn't find very much but it was so nice to be out of Priego and in a city with so much going on. We went back to Priego that night and the next day Magda and I continued our shopping spree in the town, to the limited stores that are here. Afterwards we met my other roommate Maria and some of our friends from my school, and we had tapas and drinks sitting outside in the sun. It was wonderful!
But I do blame Spain and tapas for the fact that my pants are starting to feel a little tight. I know I've gained a little weight while I've been here, so lately I've started running. At first I was hesitant about it because people here don't seem to understand "running for excercise," but now I don't care. It's time for me to do something about the fact that I sit around and do nothing a lot because lately a lot of my classes have been canceled and I end up having nothing to do. For instance, I didn't have any classes at my school on Thursday, and I dont have any tomorrow (Monday), either. I know that this may seem nice to some people, but it's horrible not having anything to do for this long. For a day or two, its great. But when it continues and you begin to feel unproductive and without a purpose, it starts to really suck. So anyways, I run the back way to the track (so that there will be less people staring and honking at me) which is about a mile, and then I run a mile on the track and then walk back to my place. It's a pretty good workout so hopefully if I keep that up I'll feel better and more healthy soon. Also I should probably stop eating chocolate and tapas. I can always get into better shape when I go home, but for now I just want to NOT have to buy new pants!
One last thing. I was looking through my sisters photo album on facebook and it really hit me how much I miss home. Spain is fine but I hate looking at pictures of my family and not seeing myself in them. I've realized here that I don't want to miss birthdays and Christmases and holidays and trips and Brayden learning to read and Cassy heading off to college and other big and little events. I like traveling, yes, but I've realized that I don't want to be away from my family and friends at home this long ever again. I want to be there in those photos with them. Although I've made some great friends here, it's lonely without the people I love in my life. I'm looking forward to meeting my mom and Grandma in Italy in two weeks (CAN TIME GO A LITTLE FASTER RIGHT NOW PLEASE?!), and then having Laurie and Lisa visit me, and then having one of my best friends visit and travel with me also. These last two months are going to go by SO fast as soon as I head off to Italy, so in a way I'm glad that I spend all of March in my town. It's the last time I'll spend this much time here, and even though it's been pretty boring I'm glad I've been able to attempt to enjoy it as much as possible and to relax before my final adventures here begin.
A few weeks before that I was on the radio for the first time in my life! My bilingual coordinator and another teacher at my school just started a new radio program where for an hour every Monday they pick a country and try to interview someone and play music from that country. They asked me to come for their United States day, and at first I was really nervous about my Spanish skills and almost didn't want to go. But they reassured me that it would be okay, so I sucked it up and went, and it actually turned out to be really fun! I brought some music including Sweet Home Alabama and they had some Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash, and Bob Dylan CD's with them. And they interviewed me about if American high schools really are like what they see in the movies, with the jocks and the cheerleaders and all that (Yes. But sometimes less extreme cliques and stereotypes), and what was the ideal most important to Americans (our independence), whether I missed my car (HELL YES), among other things. And I was actually really pleased with myself and my Spanish skills! I realized that I do speak pretty good Spanish, and even if it's not perfect and I still dont know some vocabulary, I can get my point across. I was surprised to find myself really enjoying the hour and was happy that I came. It was also fun being in a radio station environment. One time Jon, the other teacher, forgot to put the CD in with the next song, and Fran and I were making hand signals to him frantically while keeping our voices casual, and when he finally figured it out we had to stall while he put it in and got it ready. It was hard not to laugh out loud at some of the things that happened while we were talking into the microphones. No one can SEE us, they can only hear us, and that was a very different and comical experience. Like there are two different stories going on... the one our voices portray to the listeners and the one that is actually happening for us.
This last Friday I finally got out of Priego since being in the Canary Islands. We didn't go quite that far, but Magda and I did tag along on a shopping trip to Cordoba with one of our friends and her sister, in a CAR. I was SO happy to be in a car once again, with the windows rolled down... it's actually starting to get pretty warm here, in the mid 60's, which is a great change from the cold before! I can sleep in just a t-shirt and sweat pants now, rather than bundling up in a sweatshirt and socks and a hot water bottle. Anyways, so we went to Cordoba and had lunch with our friends cousin, then we all went downtown and had coffee before we went shopping. I didn't find very much but it was so nice to be out of Priego and in a city with so much going on. We went back to Priego that night and the next day Magda and I continued our shopping spree in the town, to the limited stores that are here. Afterwards we met my other roommate Maria and some of our friends from my school, and we had tapas and drinks sitting outside in the sun. It was wonderful!
But I do blame Spain and tapas for the fact that my pants are starting to feel a little tight. I know I've gained a little weight while I've been here, so lately I've started running. At first I was hesitant about it because people here don't seem to understand "running for excercise," but now I don't care. It's time for me to do something about the fact that I sit around and do nothing a lot because lately a lot of my classes have been canceled and I end up having nothing to do. For instance, I didn't have any classes at my school on Thursday, and I dont have any tomorrow (Monday), either. I know that this may seem nice to some people, but it's horrible not having anything to do for this long. For a day or two, its great. But when it continues and you begin to feel unproductive and without a purpose, it starts to really suck. So anyways, I run the back way to the track (so that there will be less people staring and honking at me) which is about a mile, and then I run a mile on the track and then walk back to my place. It's a pretty good workout so hopefully if I keep that up I'll feel better and more healthy soon. Also I should probably stop eating chocolate and tapas. I can always get into better shape when I go home, but for now I just want to NOT have to buy new pants!
One last thing. I was looking through my sisters photo album on facebook and it really hit me how much I miss home. Spain is fine but I hate looking at pictures of my family and not seeing myself in them. I've realized here that I don't want to miss birthdays and Christmases and holidays and trips and Brayden learning to read and Cassy heading off to college and other big and little events. I like traveling, yes, but I've realized that I don't want to be away from my family and friends at home this long ever again. I want to be there in those photos with them. Although I've made some great friends here, it's lonely without the people I love in my life. I'm looking forward to meeting my mom and Grandma in Italy in two weeks (CAN TIME GO A LITTLE FASTER RIGHT NOW PLEASE?!), and then having Laurie and Lisa visit me, and then having one of my best friends visit and travel with me also. These last two months are going to go by SO fast as soon as I head off to Italy, so in a way I'm glad that I spend all of March in my town. It's the last time I'll spend this much time here, and even though it's been pretty boring I'm glad I've been able to attempt to enjoy it as much as possible and to relax before my final adventures here begin.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Carnaval craziness
Today I learned a new word in Polish. I dont know how it's spelled in the language, but it sounds like, "Shwishish" and it means, "Are you listening to me?" I LOVE IT! I know some words in Polish now, which is always fun when Magda is talking to her friends and I can say "hi" (Chesst) and "thank you" (Jeinky). I can also say "good" (Dobra), "good morning" (Jen dobre), "yes" (tak), and of course, "f**k" (koorva). Also, "noh" means "yeah" in Polish. So sometimes I see Magda nodding her head and saying "noh" which really confuses me! Magda also clicks her tongue like she's trying to get a horse to gallop when she is getting the attention of her one year old cousin, which sort of irks me because to me it sounds like she's making noises you'd make to an animal at a child! I know this is a ethnocentric thing to feel, but I just can't help it.
Anyways, moving on from Polish. I realized today that the reason I love my private classes so much is not because I get to teach, though that is still enjoyable, but it's the fact that I get to spend time with people and connect with them. In my one-on-one class with this 26 year old girl, all we do is have conversations and I correct her grammar and pronunciation. But I get to learn about her and make a connection. Today in my class of nine-year-olds, I gave them a vocabulary quiz, and then we read their book they have for their English class, Little Red Riding Hood. I had them read it in English out loud (correcting their pronunciation) and then translate it into Spanish (I feel great that I understand their translations and can correct them when they're wrong). At the end of today I suggested that when we finish the book, I should have them perform it as a play, and the girls got so excited! I love seeing kids like that, and I feel great that I can get them excited about learning. One of the things they learned today was "Who is it?" so when one of their mothers knocked on the door at the end of the class, they yelled, "WHO IS IT?!" and then burst out in fits of giggles. Kids are really quite easy to please.
Last week I went on a hike with some of the fourth year classes at my school. The hike was 10 kilometers through the Spanish countryside, and it was beautiful! First of all, there were no olive trees to be seen, just natural landscape. We saw a small waterfall and walked through valleys and hills. Near the end of the walk we were trecking through a canyon that was so impressive and beautiful! I found myself holding my breath as I turned a corner, in awe of what was in front of me. I feel so lucky that my school takes every opportunity to include me on any excursions, understanding my desire to experience all I can while I'm here.
This last weekend was exhausting but HILARIOUS. We went to Carnaval. In Cadiz. This celebration of Carnaval (equivilant to Mardi Gras) in this city is one of the biggest and most popular celebrations in Spain. The gist of Carnaval is that EVERYONE dresses up (like Halloween), and has a huge party on the streets. So on Saturday some friends and I took a bus from Granada to Cadiz, which lasted four and a half hours. When we got there, Magda and I put on our costumes (Bees! We had bought them from a chino store and they were slightly too big, so we had to take them in a little bit by sewing. I can do at least one domestic activity!) and headed off towards the main plaza in Cadiz with our friends. We got there, found a kebob place because we were starving, and just stood there and watched people walk by. I think I was laughing for about two hours straight, simply because people REALLY get into their costumes! People really like to dress up as groups in the same costumes or as a theme... the first thing that got me laughing was this group of men that were dressed up as chickens. They would find an innocent bystander, and then circle around them and "peck" at them for about 10 seconds, and then continue on and find their next victim. Everyone would be laughing and the people in the middle just slightly nervous until the chickens moved on. There were people dressed as sheep and the Three Musketeers and the Pope and the Frog Prince and anything you could imagine, even a man dressed as an (almost) naked woman. There was even a group of people dressed as BOTELLON (they were all a different alcohol bottle). These other guys dressed as sailors walked by and I yelled, "MARINEROS!" and they all turned around and saluted me, and continued on. I also yelled at some people dressed as Superman and they flexed their muscles at me! Everyone was really into their costumes and I was having such a great time, just watching people walk by. Spain is crazy though with their parties. People bring their own alcohol and they were drinking it anywhere, and the ground is just a huge trashcan. This huge plaza was PACKED with people, I could barely walk around! It had to be one of the craziest parties I've ever been to.
At five in the morning, the bus came back and we got on and began the long ride back to Granada. Everyone looked bedraggled; my wings were gone, peoples makeup was smeared, costumes ruffled and we all were exhausted and smelling like booze. After the five hour bus ride, Magda and I looked real classy walking around Granada trying to get another bus back to Priego in what we had been wearing under our bee dresses (tight black shirts, black tights, shorts, and boots) and messy hair from the night before. It was like I was on the longest walk of shame ever, but without the shame part actually happening, and I kept finding glitter everywhere. I felt like Ke$ha. Thankfully I am back in Priego for this weekend, so there will be much less craziness and I can actually relax!
Anyways, moving on from Polish. I realized today that the reason I love my private classes so much is not because I get to teach, though that is still enjoyable, but it's the fact that I get to spend time with people and connect with them. In my one-on-one class with this 26 year old girl, all we do is have conversations and I correct her grammar and pronunciation. But I get to learn about her and make a connection. Today in my class of nine-year-olds, I gave them a vocabulary quiz, and then we read their book they have for their English class, Little Red Riding Hood. I had them read it in English out loud (correcting their pronunciation) and then translate it into Spanish (I feel great that I understand their translations and can correct them when they're wrong). At the end of today I suggested that when we finish the book, I should have them perform it as a play, and the girls got so excited! I love seeing kids like that, and I feel great that I can get them excited about learning. One of the things they learned today was "Who is it?" so when one of their mothers knocked on the door at the end of the class, they yelled, "WHO IS IT?!" and then burst out in fits of giggles. Kids are really quite easy to please.
Last week I went on a hike with some of the fourth year classes at my school. The hike was 10 kilometers through the Spanish countryside, and it was beautiful! First of all, there were no olive trees to be seen, just natural landscape. We saw a small waterfall and walked through valleys and hills. Near the end of the walk we were trecking through a canyon that was so impressive and beautiful! I found myself holding my breath as I turned a corner, in awe of what was in front of me. I feel so lucky that my school takes every opportunity to include me on any excursions, understanding my desire to experience all I can while I'm here.
This last weekend was exhausting but HILARIOUS. We went to Carnaval. In Cadiz. This celebration of Carnaval (equivilant to Mardi Gras) in this city is one of the biggest and most popular celebrations in Spain. The gist of Carnaval is that EVERYONE dresses up (like Halloween), and has a huge party on the streets. So on Saturday some friends and I took a bus from Granada to Cadiz, which lasted four and a half hours. When we got there, Magda and I put on our costumes (Bees! We had bought them from a chino store and they were slightly too big, so we had to take them in a little bit by sewing. I can do at least one domestic activity!) and headed off towards the main plaza in Cadiz with our friends. We got there, found a kebob place because we were starving, and just stood there and watched people walk by. I think I was laughing for about two hours straight, simply because people REALLY get into their costumes! People really like to dress up as groups in the same costumes or as a theme... the first thing that got me laughing was this group of men that were dressed up as chickens. They would find an innocent bystander, and then circle around them and "peck" at them for about 10 seconds, and then continue on and find their next victim. Everyone would be laughing and the people in the middle just slightly nervous until the chickens moved on. There were people dressed as sheep and the Three Musketeers and the Pope and the Frog Prince and anything you could imagine, even a man dressed as an (almost) naked woman. There was even a group of people dressed as BOTELLON (they were all a different alcohol bottle). These other guys dressed as sailors walked by and I yelled, "MARINEROS!" and they all turned around and saluted me, and continued on. I also yelled at some people dressed as Superman and they flexed their muscles at me! Everyone was really into their costumes and I was having such a great time, just watching people walk by. Spain is crazy though with their parties. People bring their own alcohol and they were drinking it anywhere, and the ground is just a huge trashcan. This huge plaza was PACKED with people, I could barely walk around! It had to be one of the craziest parties I've ever been to.
At five in the morning, the bus came back and we got on and began the long ride back to Granada. Everyone looked bedraggled; my wings were gone, peoples makeup was smeared, costumes ruffled and we all were exhausted and smelling like booze. After the five hour bus ride, Magda and I looked real classy walking around Granada trying to get another bus back to Priego in what we had been wearing under our bee dresses (tight black shirts, black tights, shorts, and boots) and messy hair from the night before. It was like I was on the longest walk of shame ever, but without the shame part actually happening, and I kept finding glitter everywhere. I felt like Ke$ha. Thankfully I am back in Priego for this weekend, so there will be much less craziness and I can actually relax!
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Lanzarote and Toledo
This past weekend Magda and I went to Lanzarote, an island in the Canary Islands. We left from Priego at 1:00 for Cordoba, and then from Cordoba to Madrid on a five hour bus ride. It was long and boring, but I was amused by watching this girl in front of me play a computer game where the main person was a bright pink pig, who had to collect apples. I saw that a couple other people were watching her too, and sometimes I wanted to take the controls from her and say, "HERE, let me try. You are frustrating us with your inability to do this one move." But I simply sat there and laughed under my breath at this game, and looked away when I wanted to steal her computer and do it myself.
We arrived in Madrid and quickly figured out the Metro... I am getting quite accustomed to traveling in all sorts of modes of transportation. We figured out how to get to our hostel, and left the metro at the correct stop. We walked along a street for about two blocks, and that is all that I saw of Madrid... the rest was underground on the metro, train stations, bus stations, and airports. The first hostel was crap, but we paid a crap price, so we definitely got what we paid for! The next morning we woke up very early and got back on the metro to get to the airport. After checking in and going through security and finding our gate, I noticed that there were other American girls waiting to go to Lanzarote. And I realized that I was annoyed! There were about five girls sitting together, speaking American English together, using all our little habits like saying "like" all the time and talking about college-student topics, like who is going out with who and hooking up with who... I was so annoyed. I dont know if it was because they were American or because they were American college girls, but I wondered to myself how I was going to survive when I get back to the USA! Perhaps its only when I hear the TRAVELLING, and representing the US in that way. Maybe when I get back to the US it will just fade into the background...
Anyways, we got to Lanzarote and it was absolutely beautiful! Mid-70's, sunny, warm, fresh. We got a taxi to our hotel, and I watched the island fly by me on the way there. It reminded me a lot of the big island of Hawaii, where most of the island is volcanic rock, but palm trees thrive along the beaches. We arrived to our hotel and stood in our room, shocked. We didn't have a hotel room, but a small apartment. There was a living room, bedroom, bathroom and kitchen with a small stove, a sink, and cupboards with plates and silverware. The door to our apartment was wooden double doors with large windows in them, and the doors opened up to the rest of the hotel which was outside, filled with plants, and a nice big pool with a snack bar/real bar right next to it. It was PERFECT! Magda and I jumped around and squealed with happiness for about a minute, and then put on our bathing suits and went out to the pool to order some sandwiches and well-deserved cocktails (which were HUGE!). The girl working at the bar seemed surprised when I spoke to her in Spanish. I realized quickly that most of the people on the island were retired couples or vacationing families from Northern Europe, who didn't know any Spanish. The girl at the bar and her co-worker who I met later both thought I was from Italy, which I take as a compliment! I didn't have an obvious accent! The evening bartender also made me speak to him in English for a little while, because he rarely hears American accents and he thought it was cool.
After we spent some time relaxing next to the pool, Magda and I went and explored the beach, which was also very nice! A lot of the beaches weren't beaches at all, but expanses of volcanic rock. When there was a beach, there were a lot of people on it because they weren't very large. But the weather was amazing; I was beaming at the fact that I could walk around in a t-shirt and shorts and be completely comfortable. Eventually we went back to our hotel and laid next to the pool a little bit more, and indulged in happy hour (two-for-one beers!). We went to our hotel around 6:00 to take a nap... and ended up sleeping until 7:30 the next morning! Magda and I have decided that we shouldn't be allowed to nap anymore, because we seem to suck at it. But we hadn't slep much the night before, we had travelled and walked a lot that day, and drank alcohol. So we weren't that sad about our nap-turned-into-full-nights-sleep.
The next morning we went and got some breakfast and laid by the pool until noon, when we had to switch hotels because of availability issues. The next hotel we went to was just as nice, with an apartment-style hotel room, a balcony and a pool we could lay by. I spoke to the man at the reception counter in Spanish, and he seemed to appreciate it. I spoke Spanish as much as I could on this trip... I got compliments almost every time I did! I'm not sure if they say I have good Spanish because they're just surprised to hear me speak Spanish because most foreigners don't, or if I actually have good Spanish. But I like hearing it all the same! But anyways, we had to wait a little bit for our room to be cleaned, so we were sitting in the cool reception when a British guy came in and started trying to speak to the man sitting at reception. It was obvious that this man didn't know much English, and I saw the two struggle to communicate. The English man finally got pissed and started to leave, and I jumped up and said, "Wait, sir! What do you need?" And he looked at me for a moment and told me, and I translated for the Spanish man, who replied and I translated that to English. This went on for a little bit, until everything was figured out. The English man left, and the Spanish man turned to me and said, "Thank you." and then he sighed and said, "That man has been drunk for the entire week." And as soon as he mentioned it, I realized that yes, this man definitely seemed a little drunk. Soon the English man came back in and got something sorted out, and then he looked at me and said, "You speak very good English." And I stared at him for a second. And then replied, "Oh. I'm American." We laughed a little bit and I left in a slight shock. How did he not know I was fluent in English?! I chuckled about this for the rest of the day.
Magda and I left the hotel and went to walk around for awhile, then came back and laid next to the pool for a couple hours. During this time I got up and walked about 20 feet down the road to the supermarket and bought beer, pringles, and some food for the morning. I put the food away and brought the beer and pringles to the pool, and Magda and I happily had a picnic next to the pool, drinking the cold beer and devouring the chips. It was wonderful, and so relaxing! Eventually we got hungry for real food, so we ventured out and walked along the road next to the beach, looking at all the restaurants for something good. I found a Mexican restaurant and was thrilled! We went in and I asked in Spanish if it was open because there was no one there, and they said yes so we sat down and I ordered Chicken Fajitas for us. While taking our order, the waiter said, "You have great Spanish! I was upstairs when you asked if the restaurant was open, and I thought you were Spanish!" I was so happy again! Lanzarote was just one huge ego boost for me and my Spanish skills. Anyways, so the fajitas got there, with the chicken on a bottom platter, the tortillas on the second platter, and little dishes of sour cream, guacamole, and salsa on the top. I happily dug in, but Magda stared at this for a second, then turned to me and said, "I'm confused. How do you eat this?!" I started laughing and it took me a minute to calm down before I could show her how to take the tortillas out of their little holder, put the chicken on it, put some sauces and rice on it, and then how to roll the tortilla. It was such a strange and wonderful feeling, teaching a foreign culture to someone who had never experienced it before. The fajitas were amazing, and I only wanted more when it was gone, even though I was full to my eyeballs.
That night we decided that we WOULD go out, and there would be NO taking any naps for us! While waiting for an appropriate time to go out, I taught Magda how to play quarters, but with a 5-cent euro rather than a quarter. And she had ENORMOUS beginners luck, and I was totally crap at this game, so I ended up drinking an entire beer in the time that she had two sips! I should have never taught her that game. When it was 11:00 we left the hotel and began walking along the beach road, looking at all the bars and restaurants and trying to decide where we would go for our first drink. At one of the places, a waiter began talking to us, and asked us where we were from. I said the US, and Magda said Poland. As soon as she said this, the man said something that I couldn't understand, and Magda suddenly laughed loudly and threw her hands over her mouth and doubled over in shock. The man was Polish! So of course we stayed here, and Magda and this guy talked for several hours while he was working, and I sat there happily listening to them. Magda barely gets to speak Polish. He was fluent in Spanish also, so at one point he asked me if I was okay with them speaking Polish, and I said, "Of course! She doesn't get to speak Polish very much, so don't worry! I'm perfectly fine." He also made us rather strong mojitos, and we ordered two, so I had fun with that also. He was very friendly and even though he was speaking a different language, I could tell he was a nice guy. Magda did eventually get a little too comfortable speaking Polish, because the next day when we went back there for our last drink, she at one point said something off-handedly to me in Polish. She suddenly looked at me as if she forgot who she was talking to and burst out laughing, then said in English that she was tired. I just laughed at all of these different languages converging.
Anyways, after our two mojitos we said goodbye to the Polish guy and headed down the road, where we found some clubs. We chose one even though it was rather empty because we had to pee, but they convinced us to stay by bribing us with 2-for-1 drinks. The guy at the door who was telling us about these specials wasn't Spanish but spoke English with an accent... and when he heard my American accent he stared at me and said, "Wow, you have a sexy accent!" And I was completely flattered! I dont ever know what people think about American accents, but to hear its sexy was kind of awesome! So we went in and had our cheap drinks. We were two of the only people there, so the DJ (and owner of the bar) told us we could request any songs we wanted, which we happily did for about an hour, dancing around by ourselves and having a generally good time. When that bar closed we continued down the street to a much more crowded club... this was obviously where the party was. Magda began dancing around and I went to sit down and began watching these two guys play pool. They noticed me watching and asked me if I wanted to play, which I did! I tend to be better than I think I am at pool after I've been drinking, and I had a great time. Eventually Magda found us and we all were playing together. These two guys were also on vacation, one from the Dominican Republic and one from France. We had a nice time but eventally headed back to our place at 6 am.
The next day we slept, ate and laid on the beach, enjoying our last moments in Lanzarote. In the evening we were at a bar, and the bartender looked at me and said, "These girls are from America too!" And I said hi, but turned back to Magda to continue our conversation. Then suddenlly I paused, because I heard these girls speaking Spanish. They were TERRIBLE. Their accent was just ridiculous, and I know I should give them props for trying, but hearing such a horrible spanish accent for me is like hearing nails on a chalkboard. And I figured out that they were studying in Granada, which means they SHOULD be working on their accent, no excuse! Magda saw my face and said, "Time to go?" To which I nodded, trying not to feel like a snob, and we left.
The next morning we sadly checked out of our hotel and got a taxi to the airport. We flew back to Madrid, and because it was too late in the afternoon to get a bus back to Cordoba and then Priego, we went to the nearby Toledo by train. We got there about an hour until sunset, so we ran around and tried to take as many pictures and see as many things as possible before it became absolutely black outside. When it did, we went to a bar and ordered some wine and beer and food, and made friends with the bartender, who was from Colombia. People in Spain are so friendly and they love to talk to the people they are serving and make friends! We had a great time talking to them, and when we got our check at the end of the night, they only charged us for two drinks when we had ordered six. It was a nice little present for our last night on vacation.
The next day we began the long journey back to Priego. We took a taxi, train, metro, and three buses. I missed my car SO MUCH. As we our bus was entering the Granada bus station, I saw the bus to Priego leaving. I moaned in agrivation... we would have to wait three more hours to catch the next bus! So while waiting, Magda and I began playing games like normal. We have become very good at entertaining ourselves in bus stations. We played this soccer game she taught me in my notebook, and then we played that connect the dots and make boxes game that I played with my students back in the US sometimes. And then Magda suggested battleship, to which I happily agreed and we drew our ships and began playing. She said, "B-5."
"Hit!" Crap, she got one of my boats!
"B-4"
"Miss. G-1?"
"Miss. B-6" She said.
"Hit." I knew she would sink my boat now, she only needed one more.
"C-5." I stared at her. What?
"Why didnt you sink my ship?"
"I'm trying!" She replied.
"But... boats can't be touching you know."
"I know!"
I stared at her. "Well then why didn't you sink my ship? You only had one more!"
"I told you, I'm trying!"
Confused, I looked over at her paper where she had drawn her boats, and suddenly yelled, "Your boats are wrong!" Her fleet of ships looked like a tetris game, with boats not in lines, but her three- and four-square boats shaped in any way that four squares can be placed together and still touching.
"No they're not! This is how we play in Poland!" She replied.
"Yes they are! Boats can't be curved! What is wrong with your boats?!"
"There's nothing wrong, this just makes it more difficult!"
"BOATS CAN'T BE CURVED!" I repeated loudly. What the hell is she thinking?!
"THEY'RE NOT REAL BOATS!" She half laughed/yelled at me. By this time, people are staring at our fight. We were yelling at each other in English in the middle of the bus station. I suddenly take a deep breath and sit back in my chair, arms crossed in defiance. It takes me a full two minutes to re-think my rules to battleship before I can accept it and begin playing again, with these new rules. It was a ridiculous thing to have an argument about, and we was laughing soon... but changing the rules to such a simple game that I have always played in the same way really caught me off guard! It was a funny cultural encounter.
We finally made it back to Priego, where it was freezing! We burst into our apartment and Maria was on her phone, but we didn't care. We began yelling out our experiences to her and she laughed and had to put her phone conversation on pause while we told her the most important things in excited voices, and finish the conversation later. I look back on this simple memory and I know that I'll miss things like this when I come home. I realized today that I only have 13 weeks left here in Spain... 3 months next week. It really shocked me. I also bought a hostel today for my last night in Spain before I fly home... that almost made me cry! I know that it will be nice to be home, but I will really miss Spain. Its such a crazy feeling to have, so I just try to ignore all these things and simply live the rest of my time here in the best way!
We arrived in Madrid and quickly figured out the Metro... I am getting quite accustomed to traveling in all sorts of modes of transportation. We figured out how to get to our hostel, and left the metro at the correct stop. We walked along a street for about two blocks, and that is all that I saw of Madrid... the rest was underground on the metro, train stations, bus stations, and airports. The first hostel was crap, but we paid a crap price, so we definitely got what we paid for! The next morning we woke up very early and got back on the metro to get to the airport. After checking in and going through security and finding our gate, I noticed that there were other American girls waiting to go to Lanzarote. And I realized that I was annoyed! There were about five girls sitting together, speaking American English together, using all our little habits like saying "like" all the time and talking about college-student topics, like who is going out with who and hooking up with who... I was so annoyed. I dont know if it was because they were American or because they were American college girls, but I wondered to myself how I was going to survive when I get back to the USA! Perhaps its only when I hear the TRAVELLING, and representing the US in that way. Maybe when I get back to the US it will just fade into the background...
Anyways, we got to Lanzarote and it was absolutely beautiful! Mid-70's, sunny, warm, fresh. We got a taxi to our hotel, and I watched the island fly by me on the way there. It reminded me a lot of the big island of Hawaii, where most of the island is volcanic rock, but palm trees thrive along the beaches. We arrived to our hotel and stood in our room, shocked. We didn't have a hotel room, but a small apartment. There was a living room, bedroom, bathroom and kitchen with a small stove, a sink, and cupboards with plates and silverware. The door to our apartment was wooden double doors with large windows in them, and the doors opened up to the rest of the hotel which was outside, filled with plants, and a nice big pool with a snack bar/real bar right next to it. It was PERFECT! Magda and I jumped around and squealed with happiness for about a minute, and then put on our bathing suits and went out to the pool to order some sandwiches and well-deserved cocktails (which were HUGE!). The girl working at the bar seemed surprised when I spoke to her in Spanish. I realized quickly that most of the people on the island were retired couples or vacationing families from Northern Europe, who didn't know any Spanish. The girl at the bar and her co-worker who I met later both thought I was from Italy, which I take as a compliment! I didn't have an obvious accent! The evening bartender also made me speak to him in English for a little while, because he rarely hears American accents and he thought it was cool.
After we spent some time relaxing next to the pool, Magda and I went and explored the beach, which was also very nice! A lot of the beaches weren't beaches at all, but expanses of volcanic rock. When there was a beach, there were a lot of people on it because they weren't very large. But the weather was amazing; I was beaming at the fact that I could walk around in a t-shirt and shorts and be completely comfortable. Eventually we went back to our hotel and laid next to the pool a little bit more, and indulged in happy hour (two-for-one beers!). We went to our hotel around 6:00 to take a nap... and ended up sleeping until 7:30 the next morning! Magda and I have decided that we shouldn't be allowed to nap anymore, because we seem to suck at it. But we hadn't slep much the night before, we had travelled and walked a lot that day, and drank alcohol. So we weren't that sad about our nap-turned-into-full-nights-sleep.
The next morning we went and got some breakfast and laid by the pool until noon, when we had to switch hotels because of availability issues. The next hotel we went to was just as nice, with an apartment-style hotel room, a balcony and a pool we could lay by. I spoke to the man at the reception counter in Spanish, and he seemed to appreciate it. I spoke Spanish as much as I could on this trip... I got compliments almost every time I did! I'm not sure if they say I have good Spanish because they're just surprised to hear me speak Spanish because most foreigners don't, or if I actually have good Spanish. But I like hearing it all the same! But anyways, we had to wait a little bit for our room to be cleaned, so we were sitting in the cool reception when a British guy came in and started trying to speak to the man sitting at reception. It was obvious that this man didn't know much English, and I saw the two struggle to communicate. The English man finally got pissed and started to leave, and I jumped up and said, "Wait, sir! What do you need?" And he looked at me for a moment and told me, and I translated for the Spanish man, who replied and I translated that to English. This went on for a little bit, until everything was figured out. The English man left, and the Spanish man turned to me and said, "Thank you." and then he sighed and said, "That man has been drunk for the entire week." And as soon as he mentioned it, I realized that yes, this man definitely seemed a little drunk. Soon the English man came back in and got something sorted out, and then he looked at me and said, "You speak very good English." And I stared at him for a second. And then replied, "Oh. I'm American." We laughed a little bit and I left in a slight shock. How did he not know I was fluent in English?! I chuckled about this for the rest of the day.
Magda and I left the hotel and went to walk around for awhile, then came back and laid next to the pool for a couple hours. During this time I got up and walked about 20 feet down the road to the supermarket and bought beer, pringles, and some food for the morning. I put the food away and brought the beer and pringles to the pool, and Magda and I happily had a picnic next to the pool, drinking the cold beer and devouring the chips. It was wonderful, and so relaxing! Eventually we got hungry for real food, so we ventured out and walked along the road next to the beach, looking at all the restaurants for something good. I found a Mexican restaurant and was thrilled! We went in and I asked in Spanish if it was open because there was no one there, and they said yes so we sat down and I ordered Chicken Fajitas for us. While taking our order, the waiter said, "You have great Spanish! I was upstairs when you asked if the restaurant was open, and I thought you were Spanish!" I was so happy again! Lanzarote was just one huge ego boost for me and my Spanish skills. Anyways, so the fajitas got there, with the chicken on a bottom platter, the tortillas on the second platter, and little dishes of sour cream, guacamole, and salsa on the top. I happily dug in, but Magda stared at this for a second, then turned to me and said, "I'm confused. How do you eat this?!" I started laughing and it took me a minute to calm down before I could show her how to take the tortillas out of their little holder, put the chicken on it, put some sauces and rice on it, and then how to roll the tortilla. It was such a strange and wonderful feeling, teaching a foreign culture to someone who had never experienced it before. The fajitas were amazing, and I only wanted more when it was gone, even though I was full to my eyeballs.
That night we decided that we WOULD go out, and there would be NO taking any naps for us! While waiting for an appropriate time to go out, I taught Magda how to play quarters, but with a 5-cent euro rather than a quarter. And she had ENORMOUS beginners luck, and I was totally crap at this game, so I ended up drinking an entire beer in the time that she had two sips! I should have never taught her that game. When it was 11:00 we left the hotel and began walking along the beach road, looking at all the bars and restaurants and trying to decide where we would go for our first drink. At one of the places, a waiter began talking to us, and asked us where we were from. I said the US, and Magda said Poland. As soon as she said this, the man said something that I couldn't understand, and Magda suddenly laughed loudly and threw her hands over her mouth and doubled over in shock. The man was Polish! So of course we stayed here, and Magda and this guy talked for several hours while he was working, and I sat there happily listening to them. Magda barely gets to speak Polish. He was fluent in Spanish also, so at one point he asked me if I was okay with them speaking Polish, and I said, "Of course! She doesn't get to speak Polish very much, so don't worry! I'm perfectly fine." He also made us rather strong mojitos, and we ordered two, so I had fun with that also. He was very friendly and even though he was speaking a different language, I could tell he was a nice guy. Magda did eventually get a little too comfortable speaking Polish, because the next day when we went back there for our last drink, she at one point said something off-handedly to me in Polish. She suddenly looked at me as if she forgot who she was talking to and burst out laughing, then said in English that she was tired. I just laughed at all of these different languages converging.
Anyways, after our two mojitos we said goodbye to the Polish guy and headed down the road, where we found some clubs. We chose one even though it was rather empty because we had to pee, but they convinced us to stay by bribing us with 2-for-1 drinks. The guy at the door who was telling us about these specials wasn't Spanish but spoke English with an accent... and when he heard my American accent he stared at me and said, "Wow, you have a sexy accent!" And I was completely flattered! I dont ever know what people think about American accents, but to hear its sexy was kind of awesome! So we went in and had our cheap drinks. We were two of the only people there, so the DJ (and owner of the bar) told us we could request any songs we wanted, which we happily did for about an hour, dancing around by ourselves and having a generally good time. When that bar closed we continued down the street to a much more crowded club... this was obviously where the party was. Magda began dancing around and I went to sit down and began watching these two guys play pool. They noticed me watching and asked me if I wanted to play, which I did! I tend to be better than I think I am at pool after I've been drinking, and I had a great time. Eventually Magda found us and we all were playing together. These two guys were also on vacation, one from the Dominican Republic and one from France. We had a nice time but eventally headed back to our place at 6 am.
The next day we slept, ate and laid on the beach, enjoying our last moments in Lanzarote. In the evening we were at a bar, and the bartender looked at me and said, "These girls are from America too!" And I said hi, but turned back to Magda to continue our conversation. Then suddenlly I paused, because I heard these girls speaking Spanish. They were TERRIBLE. Their accent was just ridiculous, and I know I should give them props for trying, but hearing such a horrible spanish accent for me is like hearing nails on a chalkboard. And I figured out that they were studying in Granada, which means they SHOULD be working on their accent, no excuse! Magda saw my face and said, "Time to go?" To which I nodded, trying not to feel like a snob, and we left.
The next morning we sadly checked out of our hotel and got a taxi to the airport. We flew back to Madrid, and because it was too late in the afternoon to get a bus back to Cordoba and then Priego, we went to the nearby Toledo by train. We got there about an hour until sunset, so we ran around and tried to take as many pictures and see as many things as possible before it became absolutely black outside. When it did, we went to a bar and ordered some wine and beer and food, and made friends with the bartender, who was from Colombia. People in Spain are so friendly and they love to talk to the people they are serving and make friends! We had a great time talking to them, and when we got our check at the end of the night, they only charged us for two drinks when we had ordered six. It was a nice little present for our last night on vacation.
The next day we began the long journey back to Priego. We took a taxi, train, metro, and three buses. I missed my car SO MUCH. As we our bus was entering the Granada bus station, I saw the bus to Priego leaving. I moaned in agrivation... we would have to wait three more hours to catch the next bus! So while waiting, Magda and I began playing games like normal. We have become very good at entertaining ourselves in bus stations. We played this soccer game she taught me in my notebook, and then we played that connect the dots and make boxes game that I played with my students back in the US sometimes. And then Magda suggested battleship, to which I happily agreed and we drew our ships and began playing. She said, "B-5."
"Hit!" Crap, she got one of my boats!
"B-4"
"Miss. G-1?"
"Miss. B-6" She said.
"Hit." I knew she would sink my boat now, she only needed one more.
"C-5." I stared at her. What?
"Why didnt you sink my ship?"
"I'm trying!" She replied.
"But... boats can't be touching you know."
"I know!"
I stared at her. "Well then why didn't you sink my ship? You only had one more!"
"I told you, I'm trying!"
Confused, I looked over at her paper where she had drawn her boats, and suddenly yelled, "Your boats are wrong!" Her fleet of ships looked like a tetris game, with boats not in lines, but her three- and four-square boats shaped in any way that four squares can be placed together and still touching.
"No they're not! This is how we play in Poland!" She replied.
"Yes they are! Boats can't be curved! What is wrong with your boats?!"
"There's nothing wrong, this just makes it more difficult!"
"BOATS CAN'T BE CURVED!" I repeated loudly. What the hell is she thinking?!
"THEY'RE NOT REAL BOATS!" She half laughed/yelled at me. By this time, people are staring at our fight. We were yelling at each other in English in the middle of the bus station. I suddenly take a deep breath and sit back in my chair, arms crossed in defiance. It takes me a full two minutes to re-think my rules to battleship before I can accept it and begin playing again, with these new rules. It was a ridiculous thing to have an argument about, and we was laughing soon... but changing the rules to such a simple game that I have always played in the same way really caught me off guard! It was a funny cultural encounter.
We finally made it back to Priego, where it was freezing! We burst into our apartment and Maria was on her phone, but we didn't care. We began yelling out our experiences to her and she laughed and had to put her phone conversation on pause while we told her the most important things in excited voices, and finish the conversation later. I look back on this simple memory and I know that I'll miss things like this when I come home. I realized today that I only have 13 weeks left here in Spain... 3 months next week. It really shocked me. I also bought a hostel today for my last night in Spain before I fly home... that almost made me cry! I know that it will be nice to be home, but I will really miss Spain. Its such a crazy feeling to have, so I just try to ignore all these things and simply live the rest of my time here in the best way!
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Valentines Day and other things
I have been feeling really happy with life! I got another two students this week for private lessons, so that raises my purpose factor as well as my money intake. Monday was Valentines Day, and Fran my supervisor bought me a rose, and our school gave everyone red carnations, so I got two flowers that day! The next day I recieved an e-card from mmy Grandma, a REAL card from my mom in the mail, a package in the mail from Olivia, which simply contained a belated Christmas card and two boxes of Cheez-its, which made me so happy! Also, we are trying to figure out if Laurie can visit me in May, which would be wonderful. On Wednesday I took a trip with some of the classes in my school to the near-by Cabra to see a play that was actually pretty funny, even though I only understood about half of what was going on. I have also started looking for jobs at home, mostly in International Programs offices at some universities, which I really hope works out! I would love to travel some more but I really need to start paying for my student loans, unfortunately. Oh well, I'll get to go home and see my family and friends for awhile before I decide how to set off on my next adventure.
Also on Wednesday I went out to lunch for the first time in a LONG time with my roommate. We went to this restaurant right down the street, and for 9.50 euros recieved soup, salad, a drink, a HUGE portion of barbequed chicken, fries, wine, and a dessert. It was a great deal and DELICIOUS! I feel like I need to get out there and eat more local cuisine, and now that I'm making a little bit more money, I can.
I should be more embarassed about this upcoming story but I really just think it's hilarious. Last week I was walking home from school, and I wasn't watching where I was going because I was looking down at the first year students attempting to play volleyball, which seemed to be a huge struggle for them just to get it over the net... and then BANG, I walked right into a pole! I was not expecting it AT ALL, and my knee and chest took most of the impact, while my arm flung around the pole because my body was still trying to move past it and hadn't realized what happened. I'm just thankful that it wasnt my FACE that took most of the impact! After I realized what had happened, I listened closely for outbursts of laughter but didn't hear any, so perhaps that means that no one saw me. As I continued my walk home limping slightly, I began hystarically laughing at myself the entire way home and into my apartment, and could barely talk to my roommate when I got there! I wish I could have seen myself do that!
Besides all that, not much has been happening lately. I have been sick for the past few days and finally feel better today, so mostly I have been just sitting around my apartment. I have started this sort of scrapbook thing for my adventure her in Spain, so that has been taking up a lot of time too, which is great. Also, today I skyped with my mom and grandma and we began booking places and formulating our plan for our Italian adventure in April. I am even more excited now... it seems so much more real and I can't wait!!!! I hope you are all doing great, I miss you and I will see you in less than 4 months... don't know really how I feel about coming home, but I know that it will be great to see all my family and friends again :)
Also on Wednesday I went out to lunch for the first time in a LONG time with my roommate. We went to this restaurant right down the street, and for 9.50 euros recieved soup, salad, a drink, a HUGE portion of barbequed chicken, fries, wine, and a dessert. It was a great deal and DELICIOUS! I feel like I need to get out there and eat more local cuisine, and now that I'm making a little bit more money, I can.
I should be more embarassed about this upcoming story but I really just think it's hilarious. Last week I was walking home from school, and I wasn't watching where I was going because I was looking down at the first year students attempting to play volleyball, which seemed to be a huge struggle for them just to get it over the net... and then BANG, I walked right into a pole! I was not expecting it AT ALL, and my knee and chest took most of the impact, while my arm flung around the pole because my body was still trying to move past it and hadn't realized what happened. I'm just thankful that it wasnt my FACE that took most of the impact! After I realized what had happened, I listened closely for outbursts of laughter but didn't hear any, so perhaps that means that no one saw me. As I continued my walk home limping slightly, I began hystarically laughing at myself the entire way home and into my apartment, and could barely talk to my roommate when I got there! I wish I could have seen myself do that!
Besides all that, not much has been happening lately. I have been sick for the past few days and finally feel better today, so mostly I have been just sitting around my apartment. I have started this sort of scrapbook thing for my adventure her in Spain, so that has been taking up a lot of time too, which is great. Also, today I skyped with my mom and grandma and we began booking places and formulating our plan for our Italian adventure in April. I am even more excited now... it seems so much more real and I can't wait!!!! I hope you are all doing great, I miss you and I will see you in less than 4 months... don't know really how I feel about coming home, but I know that it will be great to see all my family and friends again :)
Monday, February 7, 2011
Almeria and Dream Hotel Rooms
This past weekend Magda and I decided to get out of Priego (finally!) and go on an adventure. This adventure turned out to be in Almeria, which is 2 bus rides and about 3 and a half hours from Priego (not including "layover" time in bus stations). Almeria is on the coast and is an old port town for Spain. Magda and I were just excited to be going somewhere new and to the beach!
We got there around 2:00pm on Friday afternoon, and the first thing we did was find our hotel so that we could drop off our things. The second thing we did was sit in the sun outside at a restaurant and order a couple drinks and recieve a few free tapas (just like in Granada!). It was SO WARM sitting in the sun... it was the first time that I could remember being able to sit outside in a t-shirt and feel comfortable. Magda and I couldn't stop smiling as we drank our wine and beer and scarfed down our tapas. After we were done relaxing there, we moved on to another bar for another drink and another tapa. It was the perfect introduction to Almeria.
After that second bar we had intended to leave for the beach but instead caught a glimpse of a huge statue of Jesus Christ on top of a hill, so of course we started a short pilgrimage towards him. We couldn't see a direct path up, so we decided to make our own path. Just as we were beginning up the hill through the grass and random garbage, someone called out, "RUBIAS!" (BLONDES!) Hearing our eternal nickname, we turned and a guy was motioning to us towards a different path. We looked to where he was pointing and saw some stairs, so we took his advice and followed the path more travelled, waving to him and yelling our gracias.
When we got to the top, not only did we find Jesus, but we also saw the castle, which looked a little similar to La Alhambra, but not as amazing. It was a spectacular view though... we could see the harbor and some huge ships out at sea, and the expanse of Almeria (which in terms of architecture is not that impressive... it's the beach that makes Almeria so beautiful). We had fun taking pictures and looking at the view for awhile, and then headed back down towards the beach. There's a boardwalk all along the ocean and the beach is wonderful... it was warm and sunny and the water was unbelievably clear and blue. We were beaming with happiness.
To find food, we simply had to walk down the boardwalk and check out the menus at the restaurants. We finally decided on one because their lasagna was pretty cheap, but the waiter told us that they were out of lasagna, so we ordered a plate of fried seafood. There were 2 trout-like fish... I think they were just thrown into the frier alive, because they were completely intact, and a bunch of little anchovies that I believe came to the same fate. There was also calamari and some kind of white fish (which looked nothing like the animals they came from, thank God), which I could actually allow myself to eat. After our fish we treated ourselves with some crepes with ice cream... Delicious!
By now the sun was setting and it was getting a little cold, so Magda and I headed back to our hotel room. We ADORED this room. It was simple: two twin beds, a mini fridge, a desk, a mirror, and a bathroom. The reason we adored it was because A) There was a heater, and B) We had a seemingly infinite supply of hot water in our shower that we didn't have to pay for! This room was a luxury to us after months of freezing bedrooms and 4 blankets on my bed and heating myself with a hot water bottle and my hair dryer... All I had to do in this room was flip a switch and it was perfect! I only needed ONE blanket, and not because I needed to be warm, but because I liked having a blanket on me. At one point I was TOO HOT, and I said to Magda, "Whoa. I am TOO HOT. I need to remember this feeling." Additionally, the hot water that I didn't have to pay for or worry about running out was almost a shock. I took full advantage of this situation by taking about a half an hour shower. Just because I could. I know, save the environment and everything, but I feel like I do that enough in my apartment in Priego, that I could allow myself a long, hot shower. I think we fell asleep around 10:00pm.
The next day we got up relatively early to catch a bus to a nearby town, San Jose. We rode the bus through a very desert-like landscape and arrived in the town within an hour. It is very small, and we just started walking once we were there. We ended up on a back road and a trail that led to some beaches that were BEAUTIFUL and warm! I even was just wearing my bikini at one point... it was amazing. After we relaxed next to the ocean for awhile, we walked along the beach and ended up at the foot of this rather large hill, which of course we decided to climb. It was quite the hike but being up on top of that hill was breathtaking... We could see the CLEAR blue water of the bay we were just in, and the edges of San Jose. The ocean stretched out for miles and we were on top of it all. I could have stayed there all day! But unfortunately hunger overtook us so we began the long hike back into town, where we ended up at a restaurant next to the harbor. Our waiter liked us so he gave us a free chupito (little glass) of Peach liquor, and offered to show us around and go out with us that night in Almeria since he lived there. He seemed really nice so we accepted, and he gave us his phone number so we could call him.
After dinner we went and found a supermarket and bought a can of beer each, and went and sat on the beach and talked and watched the waves and kids playing with their parents until it got too cold to be there anymore. We then went and found a bar to sit at until our bus came to take us back to Almeria. When we finally got back to our hotel room, we took more long, hot showers, and fully intended to go out... we just wanted a little nap first. That little nap turned into sleeping all night, which I really didn't mind. I only had so much time in that hotel room and I wanted every minute I could get! ;)
The next day we checked out and sadly headed back to Priego. The bus schedule sucks on Sundays so we ended up having to stay in the Granada bus station for 4 hours before our bus back to Priego finally came. We entertained ourselves by reading, listening to music, eating, and playing a sort of football game with coins... we were veeerrry bored. But now I'm back in Priego, in my cold apartment, teaching yet again. Almeria reminded me just why I adore being in Spain (TRAVELLING!), and about the many opportunities I have coming up in the near future. I have to take advantage of every remaining moment here! Four months from yesterday, I'll be home. Not sure if I'm happy or sad about that, but I think I'll be ready.
We got there around 2:00pm on Friday afternoon, and the first thing we did was find our hotel so that we could drop off our things. The second thing we did was sit in the sun outside at a restaurant and order a couple drinks and recieve a few free tapas (just like in Granada!). It was SO WARM sitting in the sun... it was the first time that I could remember being able to sit outside in a t-shirt and feel comfortable. Magda and I couldn't stop smiling as we drank our wine and beer and scarfed down our tapas. After we were done relaxing there, we moved on to another bar for another drink and another tapa. It was the perfect introduction to Almeria.
After that second bar we had intended to leave for the beach but instead caught a glimpse of a huge statue of Jesus Christ on top of a hill, so of course we started a short pilgrimage towards him. We couldn't see a direct path up, so we decided to make our own path. Just as we were beginning up the hill through the grass and random garbage, someone called out, "RUBIAS!" (BLONDES!) Hearing our eternal nickname, we turned and a guy was motioning to us towards a different path. We looked to where he was pointing and saw some stairs, so we took his advice and followed the path more travelled, waving to him and yelling our gracias.
When we got to the top, not only did we find Jesus, but we also saw the castle, which looked a little similar to La Alhambra, but not as amazing. It was a spectacular view though... we could see the harbor and some huge ships out at sea, and the expanse of Almeria (which in terms of architecture is not that impressive... it's the beach that makes Almeria so beautiful). We had fun taking pictures and looking at the view for awhile, and then headed back down towards the beach. There's a boardwalk all along the ocean and the beach is wonderful... it was warm and sunny and the water was unbelievably clear and blue. We were beaming with happiness.
To find food, we simply had to walk down the boardwalk and check out the menus at the restaurants. We finally decided on one because their lasagna was pretty cheap, but the waiter told us that they were out of lasagna, so we ordered a plate of fried seafood. There were 2 trout-like fish... I think they were just thrown into the frier alive, because they were completely intact, and a bunch of little anchovies that I believe came to the same fate. There was also calamari and some kind of white fish (which looked nothing like the animals they came from, thank God), which I could actually allow myself to eat. After our fish we treated ourselves with some crepes with ice cream... Delicious!
By now the sun was setting and it was getting a little cold, so Magda and I headed back to our hotel room. We ADORED this room. It was simple: two twin beds, a mini fridge, a desk, a mirror, and a bathroom. The reason we adored it was because A) There was a heater, and B) We had a seemingly infinite supply of hot water in our shower that we didn't have to pay for! This room was a luxury to us after months of freezing bedrooms and 4 blankets on my bed and heating myself with a hot water bottle and my hair dryer... All I had to do in this room was flip a switch and it was perfect! I only needed ONE blanket, and not because I needed to be warm, but because I liked having a blanket on me. At one point I was TOO HOT, and I said to Magda, "Whoa. I am TOO HOT. I need to remember this feeling." Additionally, the hot water that I didn't have to pay for or worry about running out was almost a shock. I took full advantage of this situation by taking about a half an hour shower. Just because I could. I know, save the environment and everything, but I feel like I do that enough in my apartment in Priego, that I could allow myself a long, hot shower. I think we fell asleep around 10:00pm.
The next day we got up relatively early to catch a bus to a nearby town, San Jose. We rode the bus through a very desert-like landscape and arrived in the town within an hour. It is very small, and we just started walking once we were there. We ended up on a back road and a trail that led to some beaches that were BEAUTIFUL and warm! I even was just wearing my bikini at one point... it was amazing. After we relaxed next to the ocean for awhile, we walked along the beach and ended up at the foot of this rather large hill, which of course we decided to climb. It was quite the hike but being up on top of that hill was breathtaking... We could see the CLEAR blue water of the bay we were just in, and the edges of San Jose. The ocean stretched out for miles and we were on top of it all. I could have stayed there all day! But unfortunately hunger overtook us so we began the long hike back into town, where we ended up at a restaurant next to the harbor. Our waiter liked us so he gave us a free chupito (little glass) of Peach liquor, and offered to show us around and go out with us that night in Almeria since he lived there. He seemed really nice so we accepted, and he gave us his phone number so we could call him.
After dinner we went and found a supermarket and bought a can of beer each, and went and sat on the beach and talked and watched the waves and kids playing with their parents until it got too cold to be there anymore. We then went and found a bar to sit at until our bus came to take us back to Almeria. When we finally got back to our hotel room, we took more long, hot showers, and fully intended to go out... we just wanted a little nap first. That little nap turned into sleeping all night, which I really didn't mind. I only had so much time in that hotel room and I wanted every minute I could get! ;)
The next day we checked out and sadly headed back to Priego. The bus schedule sucks on Sundays so we ended up having to stay in the Granada bus station for 4 hours before our bus back to Priego finally came. We entertained ourselves by reading, listening to music, eating, and playing a sort of football game with coins... we were veeerrry bored. But now I'm back in Priego, in my cold apartment, teaching yet again. Almeria reminded me just why I adore being in Spain (TRAVELLING!), and about the many opportunities I have coming up in the near future. I have to take advantage of every remaining moment here! Four months from yesterday, I'll be home. Not sure if I'm happy or sad about that, but I think I'll be ready.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
I am American
Today I taught English in a math class. I haven't been in a math class for about 5 years, and even though I was just going over English vocabulary, as soon as I saw those equations I went right back to that feeling I had in high school... that voice that always said to me, "What is the POINT?! When will I EVER need to know this shit?" They were doing algebraic stuff, like x(x-1)= blah blah blah in these huge long equations. As I was sitting there politely listening to the teacher go over a problem on the board, one of the girls leaned over and asked, "Ashley. Do you like math?" And I looked at her, made a face, and said, "No. I hate it." and she giggled and I grinned at her and said, "I am so sorry you have to do this." She nodded her head somberly and said, "Me too." I smiled. It's nice to know that some kids around the world feel the exact same way as I did, and still do, about this subject.
Today I also went to a teachers lunch after school, where I ate delicious Spanish food (still mostly potatoes, ham, cheese, mayonaise and bread ingredients), talked to the teachers in both languages, and was served probably a little too much alcohol to be teaching a class in an hour, but you know, when in Spain. My class actually ended up being just fine, so no worries about that! Every time I get done teaching I realize that I really enjoy it, and I hope that my students are actually learning something from me and that I'm helping them develop their skills and not just blabbing at them for an hour. I got a new student the other day and tomorrow I'm off to find her house for an hour of conversation practice. It should be interesting! Last week I showed my group of nine-year-old girls pictures from my life in Oregon: snow skiing, wakeboarding, tubing, the beach, my dads house, my family, prom, college... there were so excited to see these pictures, and exclaimed, "ARE YOU RICH?!" At first I tried to tell them that no, I'm not... just well-off in USA terms. But looking at those pictures, I changed my mind. I AM rich. Both my parents have nice houses in a beautiful location, every member of my family has their own car, we go snow skiing, my dad owns a boat so we can go to the lake every summer, we can drive to the beach, my dad and Laurie have 2 horses and a barn and a gazebo where they got married and I paid to go to a nice college with my own money... we have so much money and so many opportunities in the United States that we take for granted while at home, and it shocked me when I realized this here in Spain. I asked some of my students today where they have traveled, and only two out of ten students had even been outside of Spain... an area about as big as Oregon and Washington combined. I looked at them and said, "YOU'RE IN EUROPE! It's cheap to travel here!" And the looked at me and said, "No... it's not." It's cheap for ME to travel here. I also realized that cheap is a relative term.
Another thing... I've heard many people, including my mother, say, "We're from the United States. We don't have culture." Bullshit. When my mom said this, I suddenly went into teacher mode and gave her a nice long lecture. It must be because of my intercultural communication degree as well as having the opportunities to live in other countries... having the ability to look at the US from the outside in, and attempting to give lessons on American culture. And ever since then I have been jotting down notes about American culture in relation to Spain. Would you like to hear what I've discovered? Doesn't matter, you'll hear it anyways. So for those of you that think that the USA doesn't have culture, here's your answer:
YES IT DOES.
Let me back that up with some observations.
1. The most important thing you need to know about the United States is that almost everything we do is based on INDEPENDENCE. Big word. Important word. We are taught from elementary school to think on our own. We are encouraged to raise our hands and give our opinions, to talk, to discuss, to debate. To have our own ideas and to stand up for them. At 16 we all want our own car, our ticket to freedom. At 18 we are encouraged to move out of our parents homes and become independent (In Spain, people often live with their parents until they are married, and that could be sometime into their 30's). The American Dream is to have your own house, car, and live with your immediate family (living with extended family is a rarity).
2. It is considered extremely rude to stare, whistle, make noises or say crude things to women in public.
3. Children in the US have bedtimes, where the parents "tuck them in" and sometimes read the a story. (In Spain, there is no bedtime and children stay up as late as their parents)
4. Babysitters. Parents leave their children with (normally) a teenage girl who takes care of them while the parents go on a date or other social activity. (In Spain, there is no such thing as a babysitter because kids go with parents everywhere, even to bars.)
5. NO ONE under 21 is allowed inside US bars. (It is common to see children running around bars with their parents, drinking a soda or playing soccer outside.)
5. Neighborhoods are where the houses are, and town is where the stores are. The mixing of the two is not popular. (In Spain, many apartments are above the shops, so the towns are more compact. Ex: In Spain, I can walk across a town of 20,000 people in 30 minutes. In the US, it would be impossible to walk across my town of 4,500 people in the same amount of time.)
6. Americans greet each other by a wave, a nod, or a handshake when meeting for the first time. If it is between friends, its a handshake (between men) or a hug (between anyone really... the men make it more manly by slapping each other on the back), or perhaps one kiss on the cheek between close female friends/relatives. (In Spain, a handshake between men and two kisses on the cheek between men/women and women/women, whether its the first time you're meeting them or its your best friend. No hugs.)
7. Students call their teachers by their last name, with Mr, Mrs, or Miss as a prefix. (First names in Spain)
8. The most popular sport in the USA is AMERICAN FOOTBALL, and it's barely played or even known of anywhere else.
9. Americans are very impatient (this is a generalization, but I find it to be rather true). We hate to wait in lines for a long time, especially ones that aren't moving, even if we have nowhere we need to be afterwards. We can get nervous, antsy, or even sometimes upset. It's why we hate the DMV so much.
10. Just think of what we do for holidays such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Valentines Day, the 4th of July... the food, the traditions, the customs. They are special.
11. It is thought to be unacceptable to begin drinking before 5:00 pm and sometimes people feel uncomfortable doing this. Hense the phrase, "It's 5:00 somewhere" as an excuse to break this norm. (Spain doesn't care.)
12. Cafes in the US ONLY have coffee, no alcohol, and normally close around 6:00pm. People go to cafes to relax and talk and even to do work or homework in a students case. (Cafes in Spain normally have coffee AND alcohol, so they are open later)
13. The work day is normally from 9:00-5:00 with a one hour break for lunch at 12:00. People either bring lunches to work/school or buy food. Dinner is the biggest and most important meal of the day, when the family sits down together around 5-7:00.(Lunch in Spain is the biggest and most important meal of the day, and is served after school and during siesta, around 3:00pm)
14. The US DOES NOT SHUT DOWN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY, and has 24-hour grocery stores. (It is impossible to do anything between the hours of 3-6 in Spain, and everything closes at about 9:00, at least in my town)
15. Taco Bell.
16. Americans need about an arms length of space between whomever they're talking to to feel comfortable in conversations with acquaintances, less between closer friends. (This distance is less in Spain)
17. Aaaaaalllll the clapping games, jump rope songs, chants and other playground activities, as well as childrens songs and nursery rhymes.
18. It is impolite to start eating your food at a restaurant before everyone has their plates, unless the person without their food says it's okay that they begin.
19. Cups, pints, gallons, Farenheit, feet, inches, miles, ounces, pounds... that whole damn system.
20. Cuss words are STRONG in the US, and it is NOT OKAY for children to say them or for adults to say those words in the presence of children. (I hear kids here saying the equivilants of f***, s***, and bast*** all the time. They're just not a strong in Spain. ALSO, Spain has a much less puritan view of sex. There is no censoring of music.) The US is kind of prude-ish in some senses.
21. There are places to SIT and TALK in dance clubs.
22. Grocery stores (like Safeway) where you can find EVERYTHING you want in one place. I sound like a commercial.
23. The Flag. The Pledge of Allegiance. The Star-Spangled banner. Our short but very eventful history as a country.
Anyways, I'm sure I'll continue to think of more things to add to that list, and I know that some of you are also living abroad and have found things about American culture that you might want to add as well, and I would love to hear from you. I'm somehow weirdly interested in this subject. I also have a list of things that I'm excited about for when I get home, but that will have to wait for another blog. I go back and forth from being homesick and liking it here, and the more I travel, the more I teach, and the more people I meet, the happier I get. But it's when I sit around, bored in this small town, that I get homesick. And I know that when I get home I'll be right back to wanting to travel again, but I already know that it will be nice to sleep in my own bed, have faith in my electricity again, a warm house, and a dryer. A hairdryer is not meant to be used for heating my room, drying my clothes AND drying my hair ;) As for now I continue to plan trips even though I'm pretty sure I can't afford it (right now I'm being really stubborn and am refusing to withdraw money from my credit card... so I have 5 days until I get paid and 5 euros left. It's like a game. I'm going to win.) Next weekend Magda and I are taking a bus to Almeria, and then at the end of February we are flying to the Canary Islands for a few days. In March I am DETERMINED to get to Barcelona, and in April I get to spend 2 weeks with my wonderful mother and grandmother in Italy... I already have a countdown going, 10 weeks! And finally in May my very awesome friend Julie is coming to visit me and end my trip traveling around Spain and Portugal before we come back to Priego, pack my bags, and head home. Julie... brace yourself for enduring many goodbyes... SPANISH goodbyes, which may take a whole night/a couple days. BUT that is a long ways from now, and I have a lot to look forward to! And the first thing is going to my coordinators house this weekend to eat food, speak in Spanish, and meet his family along with my other co-workers family... and to basically have a wonderful day. I'm smiling :)
Oh also, one more thing. Thank you Grandma Mishler for sending me this WONDERFUL blanket that I'm using at this very moment, and for the Cheez-its. They were so beautiful and orange and salty. A perfect gift. And thank you also to Grandma Shenk, for the Christmas presents... most importantly, the DVD of Christmas and New Years. For a little while I felt like I was really there, just sitting and listening to my families normal conversations about work and people and telling stories, and watching them open presents and thank each other and hug. My favorite part though, was watching Brittany, Cassy, Crislyn, Caralyn, and Siera ROCK at that ridiculous wii Dance game, and laughing as Kellen, Gabe, Daniel and Josh attempted the same thing... ;) And at New Years, when almost everyone I loved in the world was squished into that one room with the bright orange carpet, counting down and kissing and hugging each other at the stroke of midnight... that was special, as well heartwrenching. I love you all. It looked like you brought in the new year with style, as always, and I miss you so much. I can't wait to get home and beat you at pinnacle... Just kidding! You know I suck. But I am excited to try next year ;)
Today I also went to a teachers lunch after school, where I ate delicious Spanish food (still mostly potatoes, ham, cheese, mayonaise and bread ingredients), talked to the teachers in both languages, and was served probably a little too much alcohol to be teaching a class in an hour, but you know, when in Spain. My class actually ended up being just fine, so no worries about that! Every time I get done teaching I realize that I really enjoy it, and I hope that my students are actually learning something from me and that I'm helping them develop their skills and not just blabbing at them for an hour. I got a new student the other day and tomorrow I'm off to find her house for an hour of conversation practice. It should be interesting! Last week I showed my group of nine-year-old girls pictures from my life in Oregon: snow skiing, wakeboarding, tubing, the beach, my dads house, my family, prom, college... there were so excited to see these pictures, and exclaimed, "ARE YOU RICH?!" At first I tried to tell them that no, I'm not... just well-off in USA terms. But looking at those pictures, I changed my mind. I AM rich. Both my parents have nice houses in a beautiful location, every member of my family has their own car, we go snow skiing, my dad owns a boat so we can go to the lake every summer, we can drive to the beach, my dad and Laurie have 2 horses and a barn and a gazebo where they got married and I paid to go to a nice college with my own money... we have so much money and so many opportunities in the United States that we take for granted while at home, and it shocked me when I realized this here in Spain. I asked some of my students today where they have traveled, and only two out of ten students had even been outside of Spain... an area about as big as Oregon and Washington combined. I looked at them and said, "YOU'RE IN EUROPE! It's cheap to travel here!" And the looked at me and said, "No... it's not." It's cheap for ME to travel here. I also realized that cheap is a relative term.
Another thing... I've heard many people, including my mother, say, "We're from the United States. We don't have culture." Bullshit. When my mom said this, I suddenly went into teacher mode and gave her a nice long lecture. It must be because of my intercultural communication degree as well as having the opportunities to live in other countries... having the ability to look at the US from the outside in, and attempting to give lessons on American culture. And ever since then I have been jotting down notes about American culture in relation to Spain. Would you like to hear what I've discovered? Doesn't matter, you'll hear it anyways. So for those of you that think that the USA doesn't have culture, here's your answer:
YES IT DOES.
Let me back that up with some observations.
1. The most important thing you need to know about the United States is that almost everything we do is based on INDEPENDENCE. Big word. Important word. We are taught from elementary school to think on our own. We are encouraged to raise our hands and give our opinions, to talk, to discuss, to debate. To have our own ideas and to stand up for them. At 16 we all want our own car, our ticket to freedom. At 18 we are encouraged to move out of our parents homes and become independent (In Spain, people often live with their parents until they are married, and that could be sometime into their 30's). The American Dream is to have your own house, car, and live with your immediate family (living with extended family is a rarity).
2. It is considered extremely rude to stare, whistle, make noises or say crude things to women in public.
3. Children in the US have bedtimes, where the parents "tuck them in" and sometimes read the a story. (In Spain, there is no bedtime and children stay up as late as their parents)
4. Babysitters. Parents leave their children with (normally) a teenage girl who takes care of them while the parents go on a date or other social activity. (In Spain, there is no such thing as a babysitter because kids go with parents everywhere, even to bars.)
5. NO ONE under 21 is allowed inside US bars. (It is common to see children running around bars with their parents, drinking a soda or playing soccer outside.)
5. Neighborhoods are where the houses are, and town is where the stores are. The mixing of the two is not popular. (In Spain, many apartments are above the shops, so the towns are more compact. Ex: In Spain, I can walk across a town of 20,000 people in 30 minutes. In the US, it would be impossible to walk across my town of 4,500 people in the same amount of time.)
6. Americans greet each other by a wave, a nod, or a handshake when meeting for the first time. If it is between friends, its a handshake (between men) or a hug (between anyone really... the men make it more manly by slapping each other on the back), or perhaps one kiss on the cheek between close female friends/relatives. (In Spain, a handshake between men and two kisses on the cheek between men/women and women/women, whether its the first time you're meeting them or its your best friend. No hugs.)
7. Students call their teachers by their last name, with Mr, Mrs, or Miss as a prefix. (First names in Spain)
8. The most popular sport in the USA is AMERICAN FOOTBALL, and it's barely played or even known of anywhere else.
9. Americans are very impatient (this is a generalization, but I find it to be rather true). We hate to wait in lines for a long time, especially ones that aren't moving, even if we have nowhere we need to be afterwards. We can get nervous, antsy, or even sometimes upset. It's why we hate the DMV so much.
10. Just think of what we do for holidays such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Valentines Day, the 4th of July... the food, the traditions, the customs. They are special.
11. It is thought to be unacceptable to begin drinking before 5:00 pm and sometimes people feel uncomfortable doing this. Hense the phrase, "It's 5:00 somewhere" as an excuse to break this norm. (Spain doesn't care.)
12. Cafes in the US ONLY have coffee, no alcohol, and normally close around 6:00pm. People go to cafes to relax and talk and even to do work or homework in a students case. (Cafes in Spain normally have coffee AND alcohol, so they are open later)
13. The work day is normally from 9:00-5:00 with a one hour break for lunch at 12:00. People either bring lunches to work/school or buy food. Dinner is the biggest and most important meal of the day, when the family sits down together around 5-7:00.(Lunch in Spain is the biggest and most important meal of the day, and is served after school and during siesta, around 3:00pm)
14. The US DOES NOT SHUT DOWN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY, and has 24-hour grocery stores. (It is impossible to do anything between the hours of 3-6 in Spain, and everything closes at about 9:00, at least in my town)
15. Taco Bell.
16. Americans need about an arms length of space between whomever they're talking to to feel comfortable in conversations with acquaintances, less between closer friends. (This distance is less in Spain)
17. Aaaaaalllll the clapping games, jump rope songs, chants and other playground activities, as well as childrens songs and nursery rhymes.
18. It is impolite to start eating your food at a restaurant before everyone has their plates, unless the person without their food says it's okay that they begin.
19. Cups, pints, gallons, Farenheit, feet, inches, miles, ounces, pounds... that whole damn system.
20. Cuss words are STRONG in the US, and it is NOT OKAY for children to say them or for adults to say those words in the presence of children. (I hear kids here saying the equivilants of f***, s***, and bast*** all the time. They're just not a strong in Spain. ALSO, Spain has a much less puritan view of sex. There is no censoring of music.) The US is kind of prude-ish in some senses.
21. There are places to SIT and TALK in dance clubs.
22. Grocery stores (like Safeway) where you can find EVERYTHING you want in one place. I sound like a commercial.
23. The Flag. The Pledge of Allegiance. The Star-Spangled banner. Our short but very eventful history as a country.
Anyways, I'm sure I'll continue to think of more things to add to that list, and I know that some of you are also living abroad and have found things about American culture that you might want to add as well, and I would love to hear from you. I'm somehow weirdly interested in this subject. I also have a list of things that I'm excited about for when I get home, but that will have to wait for another blog. I go back and forth from being homesick and liking it here, and the more I travel, the more I teach, and the more people I meet, the happier I get. But it's when I sit around, bored in this small town, that I get homesick. And I know that when I get home I'll be right back to wanting to travel again, but I already know that it will be nice to sleep in my own bed, have faith in my electricity again, a warm house, and a dryer. A hairdryer is not meant to be used for heating my room, drying my clothes AND drying my hair ;) As for now I continue to plan trips even though I'm pretty sure I can't afford it (right now I'm being really stubborn and am refusing to withdraw money from my credit card... so I have 5 days until I get paid and 5 euros left. It's like a game. I'm going to win.) Next weekend Magda and I are taking a bus to Almeria, and then at the end of February we are flying to the Canary Islands for a few days. In March I am DETERMINED to get to Barcelona, and in April I get to spend 2 weeks with my wonderful mother and grandmother in Italy... I already have a countdown going, 10 weeks! And finally in May my very awesome friend Julie is coming to visit me and end my trip traveling around Spain and Portugal before we come back to Priego, pack my bags, and head home. Julie... brace yourself for enduring many goodbyes... SPANISH goodbyes, which may take a whole night/a couple days. BUT that is a long ways from now, and I have a lot to look forward to! And the first thing is going to my coordinators house this weekend to eat food, speak in Spanish, and meet his family along with my other co-workers family... and to basically have a wonderful day. I'm smiling :)
Oh also, one more thing. Thank you Grandma Mishler for sending me this WONDERFUL blanket that I'm using at this very moment, and for the Cheez-its. They were so beautiful and orange and salty. A perfect gift. And thank you also to Grandma Shenk, for the Christmas presents... most importantly, the DVD of Christmas and New Years. For a little while I felt like I was really there, just sitting and listening to my families normal conversations about work and people and telling stories, and watching them open presents and thank each other and hug. My favorite part though, was watching Brittany, Cassy, Crislyn, Caralyn, and Siera ROCK at that ridiculous wii Dance game, and laughing as Kellen, Gabe, Daniel and Josh attempted the same thing... ;) And at New Years, when almost everyone I loved in the world was squished into that one room with the bright orange carpet, counting down and kissing and hugging each other at the stroke of midnight... that was special, as well heartwrenching. I love you all. It looked like you brought in the new year with style, as always, and I miss you so much. I can't wait to get home and beat you at pinnacle... Just kidding! You know I suck. But I am excited to try next year ;)
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Christmas and New Years
Sorry I've been MIA for so long! I've been traveling all winter break, and when I got back a few days ago I began watching How I Met Your Mother online... so I got a little addicted to that and was too lazy to do anything else than sit here and laugh at that show. But now I have a little bit of motivation, so it's time to write about the last month.
For Christmas I stayed in my town. Work got done on the 23rd and it was too expensive to buy tickets BEFORE the 25th, so we waited until the 26th to begin our winter break travels. My friend Linnaea, who I went to college and Mexico with, came down from north of Madrid so we could spend Christmas together, as she was also going to be joining me on the trip. On Christmas Eve we woke up to an absolutely gorgeous day! It had been raining for awhile so the clear blue skies were a wonderful gift. It was still pretty cold, but it was nice in the sun. We started our day out shopping at some local cheap clothing stores. I bought myself some really comfortable cotton pants, a cute black hat and a scarf... Merry Christmas me! Spaniards dont usually open presents until the 6th of January, the day of the Three Wise Men. Santa Claus is a relatively new idea here... but The Three Wise Men seem to be similar to Santa, delivering presents to children. While we were walking back to my place, we decided to instead get a drink, because all the bars were FILLED with people out having a nice Christmas Eve and celebrating. In Spain everyone has a big Christmas dinner on the 24th, and if they're religious they go to mass at midnight, and then afterwards, they go and party alllll night! And sleep in the next day, doing relatively nothing on actual Christmas. So we decided to follow suit.
We walked by the City Hall and saw that there were tables and chairs set out in the plaza in front of it, and people sipping on beer or wine, talking to friends, and children playing soccer on the sides, like normal. From the City Hall there was a constant stream of Christmas carols, in Spanish and English. It was such a wonderful setting that we decided to go to the bar and order some wine. I think I've mentioned it before, but in Spain, especially in Andalucia, when you order a drink you are sometimes given a free tapa (a small appetizer dish). This seems to have become so common that some people take their tapa for granted and don't even eat it! So there we were, standing at the bar, and we notice that there are these tapas sitting there (little sandwiches with a piece of tortilla (a little omelet thing) and cheese). We were eyeing them, trying to decide if they were unwanted or not. The bartender comes and takes our order, and he goes off to get our drinks. When he comes back he asks us if there is anything else we need. "Our tapas?" we ask. He remembers and goes off to get them. While he is gone, another bartender starts to clean the unwanted tapas up, and Linnaea and I look at each other in a slight panic. No! Don't take the tapas away! So when the bartender brings us OUR tapas, we snatch the unwanted tapas as well and head out the door to the sunlight. We toast to our tapa snatching success ;)
Sitting outside was a WONDERFUL way to spend Christmas Eve. I think we were there for maybe 2 hours, just talking, drinking wine, listening to the Christmas carols and soaking up the sunlight. I texted my friends that were also still in town, Kate and Will, and they came and joined us. It was such a community thing: people were everywhere enjoying themselves and children were riding bikes around, two at a time. Once they tried three kids on one bike, which didn't work very well but I enjoyed watching their efforts. I felt so content and happy :)
Later that day I skyped with my mom and sisters while they opened their presents and I opened the package they sent me. Unfortunately they didnt have my package yet, but I really wasn't surprised. It's coming from Spain. They have no rules on time. But it was great to see them and I was surprised that I wasn't really feeling homesick yet. I did feel ridiculous though, as my mom took a picture of Brittany and Cassy on either side of the computer where my head was ;)
For dinner, instead of buying NEW food before we were going to leave on a two week vacation, I just made something out of what I already had. Kate and Will joined Linnaea and I for my chicken fajitas and Kates soup that she brought over... and of course, wine. I can now say that I made Christmas dinner! (shhhhh, I know that's misleading!) After dinner we watched The Family Stone, and at about 11:30 we headed out for midnight mass. To sum up mass: It was very catholic. I have been to just a few catholic services, mostly in the catholic countries I've visited but once in the US, but it seems to be the same everywhere, no matter what language it's in. Stand up, sit down, say prayers and words in unison that I dont even know in English, shake your neighbors hand and say something along the lines of "Peace," Kneel, listen to a sermon, eat bread and drink wine if you feel so inclined. I liked it though. Catholicism is very much based on rituals that unite the group into a community, which I find really interesting and almost comforting. All over the world, you can depend on a Catholic service to be practically the same, except for the language. Sometimes the choir would sing Christmas carols, and when it was a song that we knew in English, Linnaea and I would sing the English version under our breaths, just to feel like we could join in. The church was freezing but beautiful. I love old churches like this, that you can find in almost every city in Europe. Theres something about their percieved holiness that is very intriguing and peaceful, like they really are connecting you closer to that higher power. I'm not a religious person, but I believe there is something more than us, and very much appreciate spaces such as these magnificent churches. They are special places, places for connection, and you can feel it in the air, it's almost magical. Divine... frozen in time.
Anyways, sorry! So yeah we went to midnight mass, and then afterwards we went out and got a couple beers at a club until quite late into the night. Not quite Spanish style, but close enough. On Christmas day, Will and Kate came over again, and all we did was sit on my couch, watch Christmas movies, eat grilled cheese sandwiches, and of course drink wine. It was very relaxing. Later that day I was able to skype with my Dad, Laurie, Brayden, Britt and Cass while they did Christmas, and this was when I began to get homesick. Christmas is all about children and their excitement for presents and life. So seeing Brayden open his presents, his face lighting up and his exclaimations of joy as he shoved them up to the camera so I could take a better look, definitely made me long for home. I should be there, I should be able to take that present in my hands and say, "WOW that's so cool! After we're done opening presents, lets open it and play it together!" But needless to say, I couldn't say that. I could only say the first part, and then after that I sat back and continued to watch Christmas from a distance. "Brayden" (Laurie) had also sent me a package in the mail. It turned out to be these beautiful earrings, and I thanked Laurie for them. Then I turned to the card. Inside was a two-sided coloring page from Brayden (colored very well, I might add), and a card. Inside, it had a picture of Brayden, and a message that was very obviously written by him. It said, "Hi Ashley. I miss you. I love you. Brayden." Laurie later told me that Brayden had decided what he wanted to say, and Laurie just told him what letters to write. It was my favorite Christmas present.
Okay! On to my trip to London and Belgium. I will just give you the highlights, because a lot of it was just walking around, eating, traveling, and sleeping. But every place was wonderful in it's very own way. It's amazing how many places are out there and how different every place seems to be. So first of:
LONDON
*I drank tea in the British Museum and saw the Rosetta Stone, mummies, mayan writing, and other old and interesting things.
*We attended an evening prayer in Westminster Abbey. We thought it was going to be an Evensong, which would have been much better, but the choir didn't come on Wednesdays so it was just a prayer service. But it was nice to see the inside of the church.
*Watched Harry Potter 7 Part 1 IN LONDON! If you have seen the movie: There is a part, after the wedding, when the three of them apparate into London. They arrive at Picadilly Circus, which was ONE BLOCK AWAY from where I was watching the movie! Yesssss
*I was interviewed by a random British news channel about the most influential thing that happened in 2010. I said the Oil Spill, though it took several takes for me to get the wording right, mostly because I was nervous to be on TV, but also because instead of "economically" I said "economic...ally." Oops.
*CAMDEN MARKET is really great!! It's made out of these old, huge, horse stables, and every vendor sets up their goods in a stall, and then closes the stall at night and locks it up. Really cool stuff on sale, and cheap food!
*Visited Kings Cross (Sorry, more Harry Potter nerd stuff), and got a picture at Platform 9 3/4. It was under construction though, so it wasn't the REAL fake Platform 9 3/4, if you get what I mean.
*Went to Cambridge for the day and saw the BEAUTIFUL colleges there.
-->Photo Album for London: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2051918&id=65202675&l=97404941c5
-->Photo Album for Cambridge:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2051919&id=65202675&l=3570be5bf3
BRUGES
*Took a train under the English Channel to Brussels to get there. I went UNDER THE OCEAN.
*Linnaea and I accidentally sat in the first class section of the train for almost half the journey from Brussels to Bruges. When we got kicked out and couldn't find another place to sit, we just sat in the space between cabins on the floor, which we found amusing rather than upsetting. I played the Lifestock game with her... basically me screaming out what and how many of the livestock I saw outside the window on the door of the train. I think she got tired of it but I was having a wonderful time ;)
*BRUGES IS BEAUTIFUL. Please look at my photo album, as that will explain more than I ever could about its beauty. Everywhere we walked, it was picturesque. They also had a Christmas market going on, and Linnaea and I bought a crepe with nutella every morning, and we at least once a day got hot chocolate with amaretto. If you have never tried this, YOU MUST.
*I ate a traditional Flemish meal (or so the cool old Dutch guy at the table next to us told me). It was this vegetable that tasted like artichokes, wrapped in ham and SMOTHERED in delicious cheese. It was wonderful! They old guy told me that during WWII when all the captains or something like that had to get together to do some strategizing, each country made a meal from their home land, and this was the meal that that part of Belgium decided to bring. He was pretty proud :)
*New Years: Linnaea and I went out for drinks with this really cool French couple we met at our hostel, and then while they went off and did their own New Years Eve thing, we went to the market where I bought pasta for dinner, as well as of course another hot chocolate with amaretto. After that was done, we had a frustrating time at a club, where we had to pay 40 cents to pee (I paid in 1 and 2 cent coins, because I was indignant at having to pay to pee), got our drinks stolen by one of the bartenders and had to ask for another, and some French girl tried to pawn off this creeper guy onto us while we were sitting next to a stripper pole (no one was on it). So we decided, screw this, so we went back to our hostel (which had quite a decent bar with good, inexensive Belgian beers) and toasted our drinks to New Years, danced, and made new friends. Definitely not the epic pinnacle tournament I have with my family normally (I MISSED YOU GUYS!), but still pretty good.
*Met a guy staying at our hostel from YAMHILL, OREGON. 15 minutes from my college. He ended up hanging out with us the next day and then we went to Amsterdam together.
*Took a day trip to Oostende, abut 20 minutes away from Bruges by train and on the ocean. Said hello to the North Sea, which reminded me of the Oregon Coast because of the fog and the cold, but the waves were muuuch smaller. It was nice to see the ocean all the same.
-->Photo Album of Bruges: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2051920&id=65202675&l=f76da9ca7d
AMSTERDAM
*Amsterdam is also very beautiful, with nice architecture and cute streets and canals full of boats everywhere. Also, Amsterdam is HUGE on bikes, so there are also bikes locked up (and sometimes not) to almost anything that they could be locked to. Well done, Amsterdam.
*Our friend from Yamhill was smoking an joint the entire time we were there while walking around on the street. It was the craziest thing. He would keep us updated on his highs, like, "Oh, this one is a head high," or, "This one is more of a body high," or even, "Dude, guys. This high is a focused high. I'm so focused."
"On WHAT exactly? We're just walking." I asked
"Yes," he replied, "I'm focused on walking. And my feet."
I took just two puffs, just to say that I had smoked while walking down the street in Amsterdam.
*Heineken Tour- We got two beers at the end, which was cool ;)
*RED LIGHT DISTRICT- Craziest place I've ever been! Sex shops everywhere and elaborate displays of vibrators. Explicit pictures from pornographic movies and an Erotica museum. Theaters with live sex shows and other shows that I don't even want to know about. But the craziest thing of all- The prostitutes. So. There are usually about 4 red doors in a row, and each red door has a very big window in it. The small room inside is lit with a red light. Sometimes the curtains are shut, sometimes the room is empty, but most of the time there is a (normally quite hot) girl standing there in the window, wearing skimpy lingerie, posing in seductive ways and beckoning to any man passing. Wow. Twice I saw a man EXIT from these rooms, and I got totally creeped out. One of the two came out with a HUGE grin on his face... I had to turn away out of disgust and the fact that I was afraid I would laugh in his face as he passed me. Red doors have scarred me for life. But surprisingly, walking around in the Red Light District was not uncomfortable. Its not like it was in a sketchy part of town, it was RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE, so even though what was happening there was iffy, the town itself was still very beautiful.
*On a more somber note, we also visited the Anne Frank House, where her and her family were hidden before they were found by the Nazis and taken to concentration camps. The showed the Secret Annex that was hidden by a bookcase that was actually a door, and all their rooms, the kitchen, and bathroom. There were marks on the wall of the growth of the girls while they were there, and in Annes room she had put up pictures out of magazines on her walls to make it more homey. It was so crazy, to be there, where they were hiding. Only their father survived the concentration camps.
*We also visited the Van Gogh museum, where I couldn't take pictures, but it had some nice pieces in it. None of his really famous work... I think those are at the bigger museums around Europe.
-->Photo Album of Amsterdam: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2051921&id=65202675&l=f5618cba38
BRUSSELS
*Very big-city. The cute part of Brussels was right in the very center, but besides that, yes, just a big city that could have been anywhere in the world. We did see the European Union Parliment though, which was pretty cool! Brussels is the capital of the EU, so it's where all the decisions are made regarding it.
*Saw palaces and that statue of the little boy peeing... never figured out why that was so famous.
*Finally ate a Belgian waffle... which is NOTHING like any waffle I've ever had before. It was freaking amazing.
*Oh, met a guy from CORVALLIS in our hostel. He knew Katie Frank, the girl that I grew up with and whose dad was with my mom for a long time. And he dated Katies friend, who I also knew. SMALLLLL WORLD.
*Went to Delirium Cafe, which had 25 beers ON TAP and a total of 2004 beers at the place. They are SERIOUS about their beers in Belgium.
*Saw the Atomium. A HUGE Atom-shaped museum, I guess. Dont remember why it was built... sorry!!
-->Photo Album of Brussels: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2051922&id=65202675&l=9a3dcb3b7d
That's about it! Getting back from Brussels was quite the task though. We had to take the metro, train, bus, plane, another train, sleep in a hostel in Malaga because we got back to Spain too late to catch any buses to our town, then the next morning bus, bus, bus, and finally back to Priego. My first day back teaching went really well though, mostly because we are moved into a new school!! It has two floors, large classrooms that actually FIT everyone, Smart Boards, computers, offices for every department, a nice staff room, a large cafeteria, gym, outside courtyard area, and CENTRAL HEATING! I love it, and in comparison to that jail we were in with tiny classrooms, thin walls, muddy ground outside every classroom, and crazy heating systems, it's like a palace.
When I got home I had three christmas cards waiting for me, as well as a package from my grandparents which included an AMAZING fleece blanket (from Target... when I saw this, I got strangely homesick and teared up a little), a packet of gravy and a packet of mashed potatoes, a candy cane, and CHEEZ-ITS! My favorite snack in the US. It was just little things, but it made such a huge difference... I was so happy, and still am because of it! Also, I had my first private class that day as well, which went really great as I had 12 kids and was able to do more things with them. I really enjoy teaching English, and this is something I need to NOT forget. Its really cool to see them excited about learning or actually GET it, and to know that I did that. Anyways, that's my huge, long, hopefully not too boring update on my life here. Hope you are all doing well!! :)
For Christmas I stayed in my town. Work got done on the 23rd and it was too expensive to buy tickets BEFORE the 25th, so we waited until the 26th to begin our winter break travels. My friend Linnaea, who I went to college and Mexico with, came down from north of Madrid so we could spend Christmas together, as she was also going to be joining me on the trip. On Christmas Eve we woke up to an absolutely gorgeous day! It had been raining for awhile so the clear blue skies were a wonderful gift. It was still pretty cold, but it was nice in the sun. We started our day out shopping at some local cheap clothing stores. I bought myself some really comfortable cotton pants, a cute black hat and a scarf... Merry Christmas me! Spaniards dont usually open presents until the 6th of January, the day of the Three Wise Men. Santa Claus is a relatively new idea here... but The Three Wise Men seem to be similar to Santa, delivering presents to children. While we were walking back to my place, we decided to instead get a drink, because all the bars were FILLED with people out having a nice Christmas Eve and celebrating. In Spain everyone has a big Christmas dinner on the 24th, and if they're religious they go to mass at midnight, and then afterwards, they go and party alllll night! And sleep in the next day, doing relatively nothing on actual Christmas. So we decided to follow suit.
We walked by the City Hall and saw that there were tables and chairs set out in the plaza in front of it, and people sipping on beer or wine, talking to friends, and children playing soccer on the sides, like normal. From the City Hall there was a constant stream of Christmas carols, in Spanish and English. It was such a wonderful setting that we decided to go to the bar and order some wine. I think I've mentioned it before, but in Spain, especially in Andalucia, when you order a drink you are sometimes given a free tapa (a small appetizer dish). This seems to have become so common that some people take their tapa for granted and don't even eat it! So there we were, standing at the bar, and we notice that there are these tapas sitting there (little sandwiches with a piece of tortilla (a little omelet thing) and cheese). We were eyeing them, trying to decide if they were unwanted or not. The bartender comes and takes our order, and he goes off to get our drinks. When he comes back he asks us if there is anything else we need. "Our tapas?" we ask. He remembers and goes off to get them. While he is gone, another bartender starts to clean the unwanted tapas up, and Linnaea and I look at each other in a slight panic. No! Don't take the tapas away! So when the bartender brings us OUR tapas, we snatch the unwanted tapas as well and head out the door to the sunlight. We toast to our tapa snatching success ;)
Sitting outside was a WONDERFUL way to spend Christmas Eve. I think we were there for maybe 2 hours, just talking, drinking wine, listening to the Christmas carols and soaking up the sunlight. I texted my friends that were also still in town, Kate and Will, and they came and joined us. It was such a community thing: people were everywhere enjoying themselves and children were riding bikes around, two at a time. Once they tried three kids on one bike, which didn't work very well but I enjoyed watching their efforts. I felt so content and happy :)
Later that day I skyped with my mom and sisters while they opened their presents and I opened the package they sent me. Unfortunately they didnt have my package yet, but I really wasn't surprised. It's coming from Spain. They have no rules on time. But it was great to see them and I was surprised that I wasn't really feeling homesick yet. I did feel ridiculous though, as my mom took a picture of Brittany and Cassy on either side of the computer where my head was ;)
For dinner, instead of buying NEW food before we were going to leave on a two week vacation, I just made something out of what I already had. Kate and Will joined Linnaea and I for my chicken fajitas and Kates soup that she brought over... and of course, wine. I can now say that I made Christmas dinner! (shhhhh, I know that's misleading!) After dinner we watched The Family Stone, and at about 11:30 we headed out for midnight mass. To sum up mass: It was very catholic. I have been to just a few catholic services, mostly in the catholic countries I've visited but once in the US, but it seems to be the same everywhere, no matter what language it's in. Stand up, sit down, say prayers and words in unison that I dont even know in English, shake your neighbors hand and say something along the lines of "Peace," Kneel, listen to a sermon, eat bread and drink wine if you feel so inclined. I liked it though. Catholicism is very much based on rituals that unite the group into a community, which I find really interesting and almost comforting. All over the world, you can depend on a Catholic service to be practically the same, except for the language. Sometimes the choir would sing Christmas carols, and when it was a song that we knew in English, Linnaea and I would sing the English version under our breaths, just to feel like we could join in. The church was freezing but beautiful. I love old churches like this, that you can find in almost every city in Europe. Theres something about their percieved holiness that is very intriguing and peaceful, like they really are connecting you closer to that higher power. I'm not a religious person, but I believe there is something more than us, and very much appreciate spaces such as these magnificent churches. They are special places, places for connection, and you can feel it in the air, it's almost magical. Divine... frozen in time.
Anyways, sorry! So yeah we went to midnight mass, and then afterwards we went out and got a couple beers at a club until quite late into the night. Not quite Spanish style, but close enough. On Christmas day, Will and Kate came over again, and all we did was sit on my couch, watch Christmas movies, eat grilled cheese sandwiches, and of course drink wine. It was very relaxing. Later that day I was able to skype with my Dad, Laurie, Brayden, Britt and Cass while they did Christmas, and this was when I began to get homesick. Christmas is all about children and their excitement for presents and life. So seeing Brayden open his presents, his face lighting up and his exclaimations of joy as he shoved them up to the camera so I could take a better look, definitely made me long for home. I should be there, I should be able to take that present in my hands and say, "WOW that's so cool! After we're done opening presents, lets open it and play it together!" But needless to say, I couldn't say that. I could only say the first part, and then after that I sat back and continued to watch Christmas from a distance. "Brayden" (Laurie) had also sent me a package in the mail. It turned out to be these beautiful earrings, and I thanked Laurie for them. Then I turned to the card. Inside was a two-sided coloring page from Brayden (colored very well, I might add), and a card. Inside, it had a picture of Brayden, and a message that was very obviously written by him. It said, "Hi Ashley. I miss you. I love you. Brayden." Laurie later told me that Brayden had decided what he wanted to say, and Laurie just told him what letters to write. It was my favorite Christmas present.
Okay! On to my trip to London and Belgium. I will just give you the highlights, because a lot of it was just walking around, eating, traveling, and sleeping. But every place was wonderful in it's very own way. It's amazing how many places are out there and how different every place seems to be. So first of:
LONDON
*I drank tea in the British Museum and saw the Rosetta Stone, mummies, mayan writing, and other old and interesting things.
*We attended an evening prayer in Westminster Abbey. We thought it was going to be an Evensong, which would have been much better, but the choir didn't come on Wednesdays so it was just a prayer service. But it was nice to see the inside of the church.
*Watched Harry Potter 7 Part 1 IN LONDON! If you have seen the movie: There is a part, after the wedding, when the three of them apparate into London. They arrive at Picadilly Circus, which was ONE BLOCK AWAY from where I was watching the movie! Yesssss
*I was interviewed by a random British news channel about the most influential thing that happened in 2010. I said the Oil Spill, though it took several takes for me to get the wording right, mostly because I was nervous to be on TV, but also because instead of "economically" I said "economic...ally." Oops.
*CAMDEN MARKET is really great!! It's made out of these old, huge, horse stables, and every vendor sets up their goods in a stall, and then closes the stall at night and locks it up. Really cool stuff on sale, and cheap food!
*Visited Kings Cross (Sorry, more Harry Potter nerd stuff), and got a picture at Platform 9 3/4. It was under construction though, so it wasn't the REAL fake Platform 9 3/4, if you get what I mean.
*Went to Cambridge for the day and saw the BEAUTIFUL colleges there.
-->Photo Album for London: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2051918&id=65202675&l=97404941c5
-->Photo Album for Cambridge:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2051919&id=65202675&l=3570be5bf3
BRUGES
*Took a train under the English Channel to Brussels to get there. I went UNDER THE OCEAN.
*Linnaea and I accidentally sat in the first class section of the train for almost half the journey from Brussels to Bruges. When we got kicked out and couldn't find another place to sit, we just sat in the space between cabins on the floor, which we found amusing rather than upsetting. I played the Lifestock game with her... basically me screaming out what and how many of the livestock I saw outside the window on the door of the train. I think she got tired of it but I was having a wonderful time ;)
*BRUGES IS BEAUTIFUL. Please look at my photo album, as that will explain more than I ever could about its beauty. Everywhere we walked, it was picturesque. They also had a Christmas market going on, and Linnaea and I bought a crepe with nutella every morning, and we at least once a day got hot chocolate with amaretto. If you have never tried this, YOU MUST.
*I ate a traditional Flemish meal (or so the cool old Dutch guy at the table next to us told me). It was this vegetable that tasted like artichokes, wrapped in ham and SMOTHERED in delicious cheese. It was wonderful! They old guy told me that during WWII when all the captains or something like that had to get together to do some strategizing, each country made a meal from their home land, and this was the meal that that part of Belgium decided to bring. He was pretty proud :)
*New Years: Linnaea and I went out for drinks with this really cool French couple we met at our hostel, and then while they went off and did their own New Years Eve thing, we went to the market where I bought pasta for dinner, as well as of course another hot chocolate with amaretto. After that was done, we had a frustrating time at a club, where we had to pay 40 cents to pee (I paid in 1 and 2 cent coins, because I was indignant at having to pay to pee), got our drinks stolen by one of the bartenders and had to ask for another, and some French girl tried to pawn off this creeper guy onto us while we were sitting next to a stripper pole (no one was on it). So we decided, screw this, so we went back to our hostel (which had quite a decent bar with good, inexensive Belgian beers) and toasted our drinks to New Years, danced, and made new friends. Definitely not the epic pinnacle tournament I have with my family normally (I MISSED YOU GUYS!), but still pretty good.
*Met a guy staying at our hostel from YAMHILL, OREGON. 15 minutes from my college. He ended up hanging out with us the next day and then we went to Amsterdam together.
*Took a day trip to Oostende, abut 20 minutes away from Bruges by train and on the ocean. Said hello to the North Sea, which reminded me of the Oregon Coast because of the fog and the cold, but the waves were muuuch smaller. It was nice to see the ocean all the same.
-->Photo Album of Bruges: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2051920&id=65202675&l=f76da9ca7d
AMSTERDAM
*Amsterdam is also very beautiful, with nice architecture and cute streets and canals full of boats everywhere. Also, Amsterdam is HUGE on bikes, so there are also bikes locked up (and sometimes not) to almost anything that they could be locked to. Well done, Amsterdam.
*Our friend from Yamhill was smoking an joint the entire time we were there while walking around on the street. It was the craziest thing. He would keep us updated on his highs, like, "Oh, this one is a head high," or, "This one is more of a body high," or even, "Dude, guys. This high is a focused high. I'm so focused."
"On WHAT exactly? We're just walking." I asked
"Yes," he replied, "I'm focused on walking. And my feet."
I took just two puffs, just to say that I had smoked while walking down the street in Amsterdam.
*Heineken Tour- We got two beers at the end, which was cool ;)
*RED LIGHT DISTRICT- Craziest place I've ever been! Sex shops everywhere and elaborate displays of vibrators. Explicit pictures from pornographic movies and an Erotica museum. Theaters with live sex shows and other shows that I don't even want to know about. But the craziest thing of all- The prostitutes. So. There are usually about 4 red doors in a row, and each red door has a very big window in it. The small room inside is lit with a red light. Sometimes the curtains are shut, sometimes the room is empty, but most of the time there is a (normally quite hot) girl standing there in the window, wearing skimpy lingerie, posing in seductive ways and beckoning to any man passing. Wow. Twice I saw a man EXIT from these rooms, and I got totally creeped out. One of the two came out with a HUGE grin on his face... I had to turn away out of disgust and the fact that I was afraid I would laugh in his face as he passed me. Red doors have scarred me for life. But surprisingly, walking around in the Red Light District was not uncomfortable. Its not like it was in a sketchy part of town, it was RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE, so even though what was happening there was iffy, the town itself was still very beautiful.
*On a more somber note, we also visited the Anne Frank House, where her and her family were hidden before they were found by the Nazis and taken to concentration camps. The showed the Secret Annex that was hidden by a bookcase that was actually a door, and all their rooms, the kitchen, and bathroom. There were marks on the wall of the growth of the girls while they were there, and in Annes room she had put up pictures out of magazines on her walls to make it more homey. It was so crazy, to be there, where they were hiding. Only their father survived the concentration camps.
*We also visited the Van Gogh museum, where I couldn't take pictures, but it had some nice pieces in it. None of his really famous work... I think those are at the bigger museums around Europe.
-->Photo Album of Amsterdam: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2051921&id=65202675&l=f5618cba38
BRUSSELS
*Very big-city. The cute part of Brussels was right in the very center, but besides that, yes, just a big city that could have been anywhere in the world. We did see the European Union Parliment though, which was pretty cool! Brussels is the capital of the EU, so it's where all the decisions are made regarding it.
*Saw palaces and that statue of the little boy peeing... never figured out why that was so famous.
*Finally ate a Belgian waffle... which is NOTHING like any waffle I've ever had before. It was freaking amazing.
*Oh, met a guy from CORVALLIS in our hostel. He knew Katie Frank, the girl that I grew up with and whose dad was with my mom for a long time. And he dated Katies friend, who I also knew. SMALLLLL WORLD.
*Went to Delirium Cafe, which had 25 beers ON TAP and a total of 2004 beers at the place. They are SERIOUS about their beers in Belgium.
*Saw the Atomium. A HUGE Atom-shaped museum, I guess. Dont remember why it was built... sorry!!
-->Photo Album of Brussels: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2051922&id=65202675&l=9a3dcb3b7d
That's about it! Getting back from Brussels was quite the task though. We had to take the metro, train, bus, plane, another train, sleep in a hostel in Malaga because we got back to Spain too late to catch any buses to our town, then the next morning bus, bus, bus, and finally back to Priego. My first day back teaching went really well though, mostly because we are moved into a new school!! It has two floors, large classrooms that actually FIT everyone, Smart Boards, computers, offices for every department, a nice staff room, a large cafeteria, gym, outside courtyard area, and CENTRAL HEATING! I love it, and in comparison to that jail we were in with tiny classrooms, thin walls, muddy ground outside every classroom, and crazy heating systems, it's like a palace.
When I got home I had three christmas cards waiting for me, as well as a package from my grandparents which included an AMAZING fleece blanket (from Target... when I saw this, I got strangely homesick and teared up a little), a packet of gravy and a packet of mashed potatoes, a candy cane, and CHEEZ-ITS! My favorite snack in the US. It was just little things, but it made such a huge difference... I was so happy, and still am because of it! Also, I had my first private class that day as well, which went really great as I had 12 kids and was able to do more things with them. I really enjoy teaching English, and this is something I need to NOT forget. Its really cool to see them excited about learning or actually GET it, and to know that I did that. Anyways, that's my huge, long, hopefully not too boring update on my life here. Hope you are all doing well!! :)
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