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 :)
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