Halloween is coming!!!

This week I've trying to experiment with Spanish food...well actually I've just been trying to cook it but it has turned into experimentation. Like I'm mentioned on earlier posts, I'm trying to cook Spanish food while in Spain- logical right? This is proving to be a challenge though and I feel like I'm 15 again just learning how to cook something more complicated than toast. This week I ended up making Tortilla (tortilla española) and some potaje. Making the tortilla was a little more complicated than I had planned since my only recipe was on a website online and when I went to go cook the tortilla, of course, my internet was down. GREAT! Haha So I ended up having to cook the tortilla from memory, which really isn’t THAT hard to make, but considering I’ve only made it once before…well yea had to experiment. Normally a tortilla is just eggs, potatoes and onions but I also added veggies because I have too many (veggies) in my fridge and needed to use them up. It ended up pretty good although there are definitely some changes that I would make to it…like having a recipe next to me :)

Now onto the potaje…

Well I bought a cook book/magazine a few weeks ago and haven’t even been cooking anything from it. So last week I decided that I’m going to try to cook most of the recipes inside (some require instruments that I don’t have- like an oven). This adventure began this week with the potaje with garbanzos. Potaje is basically a basic soup and this one I made included garbanzos, onions, garlic, spinach, salt pepper and chili powder (so pretty simple). This actually came out quite good but then again it is in the “easy” level of the recipes haha.

Ok well now that I’ve been rambling on about food I guess I should talk about the rest of the week since I was more productive than cooking an omelet and soup. This week was the second week of Latin dance classes- and I LOVE IT!!! I will get a video at some point of what we’re learning although figuring out if I can post it on my blog is a different matter lol. We’re still learning just basic steps but it’s just hard enough trying to remember them since we only have class once a week, so basic is great for me right now. Tonight I also have belly dancing which I missed last week so we’ll see how that goes!

Remember how I told you about how I had to also learn Thriller? Well I wasn’t able to make it to the other practices but I did get to watch the performance…

Last night (Thursday) there was a Halloween party at the Language School. The party was GREAT and they definitely put some effort into it! Everyone from who wanted was invited but it was mostly just teachers and students from the Language School (most of the students are adults at the school). About half the people dressed up (not me- I’m still working on putting my costume together) and oh man- their costumes were great! I’m posting pics on my “Life in Spain” slideshow if you want to see more.

They also had events during the party including a pumpkin carving contest, best costume contest, best group costume contest and doughnuts on a string relay race (normally you’re supposed to use jelly doughnuts so it get really messy but jelly doughnuts don’t really exist here…at least I haven’t seen any). There were also tables of food to snack on during all of this. I joined in the doughnuts on a sting relay race…my friend got a nice pic so I will post that when I can get it from him. The whole idea of the doughnut contest is that one person from each team goes and eats the first doughnut HANDSFREE…and it’s on a string so it becomes a little more complicated. Once their done the next person goes and does the same thing. I have to say- it was very entertaining to watch but even more so to participate.

About half way through the party, they turned off the lights in the gym (where the party took place). And in walked the ZOMBIES!!! This is when the Thriller music started and the zombies began to dance. The dance was great and their costumes were amazing! Also at the very end of the night they showed the instruction video for Thriller and had everyone learn how to do the dance. Try it- it’s HARD!!!

Man if they do all this before Halloween day I can’t wait to see how Halloween night is going to be! I’m going to a Haunted House with some friends in a town nearby…it should be super crazy! I will be sure to take more pics!

OH! And I almost forgot! Today I Esther (program director) and I got dressed up in costume for school. We went around to a number of classes (the ones in ESO which are just the kids learning English) and briefly spoke with them about Halloween. They kids seemed to seeing us dressed up (or maybe they just liked laughing at us...) and I think some understood most of what I said...I hope lol.
We just talked about basic stuff, I mean my script was:

"Halloween is on Oct.31st. Halloween is a day for friends and families to celebrate. People dress up in scary costumes like ghosts, vampires, witches, skeletons, etc.

Children celebrate by dressing up and going trick-or-treating. (the explain trick-or-treating with getting the class involved)

Also, for Halloween families carve pumpkins and put a candle inside. Then they set the pumpkin outside for others to see."

Like I said- pretty basic but you have to keep in mind we were using a lot of words I'm sure are new for them so its important to make it simple. Also, I will post pics of our costumes as soon as I get them.*pics posted*

You knew this was coming...GRANADA!

*I finally posted pics for the previous post-check it out*

Oh man this has been a busy last week and it’s not about to stop. This week I start having English conversation classes with a few people which is great because here there are a lot of people who want to practice their English so this way I can get to know some people and make some extra money, yay! Also this week is Halloween week here so on Friday I get to dress up and walk around classrooms at the school to explain Halloween. This should be interesting since me and Esther (English program director at my school) will probably be the only ones dressed up lol. Then this weekend will be full of fun events but I’ll tell you more about that when it comes.

While we’re on the topic of Halloween- my director (Esther) - sent me an email today with a video clip she made. Here’s the link so you can check it out: http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/rfz9vMsQ4tpR9ADh . All the faces in it are of the teachers I’m working with this year…try to guess which one is me LOL (you’ll see what I mean when you check it out).

Well let me go ahead and tell you about Granada. Basically, Granada is awesome and that’s all you need to know.

Haha well I’ll go into that a little bit more. Before I headed to Granada everyone was telling me it was so amazing and that I would love it. I absolutely did love it but I think for different reasons that what the others were thinking. First of all I stayed with some amazing people and I have to say that they and my other friends that I met up with, like Carlos, MADE my trip- you guys are SO GREAT!

On Friday when I left, I got to Granada and met up with my friend Amanda (who I met at the airport in London because we both had the same flight for Malaga, Spain- AND- coincidentally she’s also doing the same program I am) around 11am. When I got to her place she was giving me the break down to who’s living in her apartment and everything. What she told me made me a little nervous…she’s living with a Mexican girl, Italian guy and French guy…common language Spanglish lol…and the roommates were all about 20 years old…and they go out (to clubs) like every night. I was thinking- “what am I getting myself into” lol. But I have to say- that group was SO much fun and by the end of the weekend I definitely didn’t want to go. I laughed so hard the entire weekend- pretty sure that I laughed more this weekend than I have in the last year…I’m serious lol... and I laugh A LOT (obviously with all my "lol"s). The mix of everyone was just so much fun and super diverse which I loved. I think the fact that in the house, at any point, you could hear someone speaking French, Spanish, English or Italian…and our conversations were usually a mix of all four (of course I only understood and spoke English and Spanish). So basically these people were amazing and I will be headed back to Granada sometime soon.

Now let’s get back to the rest of what happened in Granada. Friday was basically the day of exploration with Amanda, the French roommate (Jb) and friend (Justin)…we walked around the old neighborhood of Granada- the Albaicín. In that neighborhood there were lots of shops…Middle Eastern style I suppose… and small, pretty roads. We stopped at one point at this…what I suppose would be considered a café in the US and had some tea and crepes. SUPER YUMMY! And I felt like a pregnant woman after that because only an hour before we had eaten big sandwiches, tapas and drinks. The crepes were too yummy to not eat though. The café also had an AMAZING view of the Albaicín (neighborhood) and of the Alhambra, so, not too shabby.

This was a banana, chocolate and cream crepe

Later that night we went to a free Flamenco performance (Flamenco can be both music and/or dance- this performance was both). OMG it was amazing. I have no idea how that woman moved her feet so fast…all I can say is that I don’t think I’ll be attempting that any time soon. There were also 3 men playing the music- one on guitar and two others singing. The performance was just amazing and I’ve never seen anything like it before. I would say that if you have time, go on YouTube and look up “flamenco” so you can see what I’m talking about. It’s just hard to describe because there’s not really anything like it in the states. Remember- flamenco can be a dance or singing or both so the videos on YouTube may be a mix of any of those…

After the performance me and Amanda headed back to the apartment. The others (all her roommates and some friends) headed out to go to a botellón (I’ll explain that in a minute) and whatever else…we were just TOO tired to go out, especially since 2 out of 3 nights before Granada I only slept 4ish hours.

*Botellón- a specified place where people are allowed to drink in the street. Everyone brings their own liquor and mixer and you drink and socialize. This is super common to do before going out to clubs since drinks in clubs cost more $$$. This is really similar to what people do in the states except in the US people go to someone’s house to drink prior to going to a club/party and they call it names like pre-funk/pre-party/etc. (depending on where you’re from they call in different things). The botellón has a history lesson with is but I’m going to cram it into a sentence since this post is SUPER long. Botellón history: People used to drink in the streets long ago, citizens didn’t like it and wanted to “clean up” the town so they made designated areas where people could go and drink. Voila!

The next day I hung out with Carlos…remember him??? He’s the guy I met on couchsurfing…he’s studying in Granada so obviously couldn’t pass up the chance to allow him to be my personal tour guide. We met up around noonish and basically explored the town for the rest of the day…when I say the rest of the day- I mean the REST OF THE DAY (until about 11pm) so it was definitely a full day. We wandered around Granada and he gave me some history lessons as to past events in Spain, and Granada in particular. He really likes history so it was great for me to be able to learn about since I’ve forgotten pretty much all the Spanish history that I learned in college. We also went inside the big cathedral in Granada and it’s just STUNNING. I took pics so I recommend you check them out.

*All my Granada pics are in the Weekend and Holiday Adventures album*

We eventually went to a restaurant to eat. The theme of the restaurant: all around the world. Since it’s so easy to find food from around the world in the US you may not realize that that is pretty much impossible in Spain…this place being rare to find. Inside they have pictures of people and places from all around the world. Also their tapas there are foods from different parts of the world- the ones we had were like Indian theme and possibly Chinese (an Asian noodle dish). The food was actually pretty good and something similar to what we would think of as take-out food in the states.

*Just a little side note- Granada is known for its tapas. Why? Because whenever you order a drink (beer, juice, water, whatever) you get a tapa with it. Tapa being a small dish of food to be shared with others and of course the more people who get drinks the more food on the plates (since obviously more people will be eating). Tapas do still exist in a lot in other cities, of course- IT’S SPAIN!, but sometimes they charge you extra for it or only have tapas certain times of day.*

So after eating we went to a museum and explored there for a little bit. Afterwards we headed towards the Alhambra. Now all the tickets online for the Alhambra were booked- at least on the website i checked- (I checked on Wednesday for tickets that weekend) so we didn’t go into the main areas but there are some free parts that you can explore and those were great. Surrounding the Alhambra there is a lot of vegetation actually, not like dry land filled with olive trees that covers most of Andalucía, and it seemed very similar to some parks in Seattle. Different trees but it was pretty green actually and I even saw some mini waterfalls. The landscape surrounding the Alhambra was just beautiful and our walk down, through the town, was just as amazing. We even got to walk through a very typical European street- the really skinny ones- that you see in movies and pictures.

After all that wandering we rested for a little bit and then headed back out. There was a tour going on to show parts of Granada that aren’t very touristy. The theme of the tour this night: water. So Carlos, his girlfriend, his roommate, the roommates girlfriend (and to make it more confusing to explain, both the girlfriends are each other’s roommate haha) and me went on the tour and learned about…well, water. It actually was really interesting because we got to learn about the different methods on how people would get water WAY long along and how the water would be cleaned, like how they would get all the dirt and feces out of the water…they used turtles…now I’ve got your attention. Basically a lot of the dirt would sink but for the stuff that would float they put turtles in the water to eat it…then the turtle feces (from these particular type of turtles) would sink and people could just scoop out the water they needed. Like I said though, this was a LOOOONG time ago.

 Back to the main story- after the tour (it was a few hours) we went to a bar and had tapas and drinks. Just hanging out with those guys was so much fun and they were so nice so I really had a great time. The girls were also asking me about if the stuff they see on TV (like about prom when the guy gets the girl a corsage, the clothing style, etc.) was actually true. What’s funny is that we never really think about the fact that so many of our customs, traditions and habits just simply don’t exist in other places (like here in Spain people have no idea that in the US we don’t celebrate saints days…and if you’re not sure what a saints day is or its relevance, check out the end of my posting New Phone from Sun, Oct.17). That’s what’s great about traveling though, you are able (if you have an open mind) to take in and learn about different traditions, foods, ways of living, etc.

Las curvas! (caves)

I swear I can’t tell a story without getting sidetracked! Ok so that night I got to Amanda’s apartment at 2am-ish. We literally left right when I got there to go out to a DISCOTECA! A discoteca is pretty much a dance club…but not like any club I’ve been to in the states- EXCEPT maybe Tao when I went to Vegas a few years ago. The discotecas in Spain are just full of people dancing and this night at Camborio (the name of the club was particularly PACKED- no exaggeration. Also, just to give you some reference as to how much more awesome this club was as compared to those in the states… When you walk in you can go either into the “caves” or upstairs to the dance floor. The “caves” are actually caves where they’ve basically carved out lots of rooms where you can dance or sit (there’s a pic in my album of this!). If you instead want to go up to the dance floor you walk up some stairs (about one story) and are back outside again but this time onto like a large patio.

View from Camborio

You can sit on the patio and enjoy the amazing view of the Alhambra OR pass through the patio to go inside to the dance floor. The room with the dance floor only has glass panes for walls and also looks out to the Alhambra. On this particular night the place was packed so we had to push our way through so you couldn’t really see any view from inside. Also the music was a big variety of old and new school American music, some French, Spanish and I don’t even know what else. Basically- it was great and this wasn’t even one of the best clubs (the one we had originally planned to go to had a HUGE waiting line so we went to Camborio).

The line (at the other club)

After the club we headed home but not before making a pit stop for some Shawarmas. A shawarma is like a gyro but wrapped with like a tortilla…Mexican tortilla that is. The whole tortilla thing gets confusing here because in Spain:

Tortilla= Tortilla Española = egg omelet w/ potatoes and onions

Tortilla francesa (French)= scrambled eggs

Tortilla Americana (American)= pancakes

Tortita= what we in the states would call a tortilla

So I’m sure you can now see why that becomes a little confusing lol

Thanks guys!

So we finally got home at about 5am and we all went to bed. I didn’t get out of bed until 2pm the next day. It was a pretty mellow day so lucky for you I don’t have much more to write haha. We (all the roommates, Amanda and me) went to lunch-5pm lol- where we ate WAY too much and had WAY too many laughs. Like I said before, everyone is crazy in that apartment so even doing things like eating lunch was really fun lol. I had to leave though not long after that (my bus left at 8pm). So basically I’m already thinking about when I have time and $ to go back to Granada. END OF STORY.

So thanks everyone for a great weekend! I had so much fun and will be coming back!!! Oh and shout out to Francesca :) Love you!

Continuation...

So to continue off where my last post left off...I got a present from the teachers at my school :) I went home and decided to dig into my present a little hehe. So I drove straight for the chocolate- of course ;) -and paired that with some of the homemade cinnamon sweet alcohol. I also documented my celebration with me, myself and I so you can all take a look in my photo album. I have to say, I AM pretty awesome, so don't be UNCOOL and miss out! LOL totally joking by the way...kind of ;)

After school I went to meet up with a friend. Long story short, she had to take care of some medical stuff and it took longer than she thought...pretty typical is Spain actually lol. So while I was waiting for her I met an interesting man. He was probably about 60ish and at first seemed very nice...like all Spanish people. Within about 10 min of talking with me he was on to saying I'm the prettiest girl in Lucena and blah blah lol. From there it went to...well some what of an inappropriate conversation in U.S. terms. Not anything graphic but he definitely told me about what was going to happen with our "relationship." I couldn't stop laughing- and when I decided to leave to go home after waiting for a while for my friend, the man demanded that I come back so he could give me some advice. Of course that didn't happen and I told him he could tell me later. It funny that when you tell someone something rather direct like that here in Spain the respond quiet well. Then man seemed perfectly content that he could tell me later- although I doubt we will see each other much...or ever (I will ignore him if I see him again and pretend my Spanish got worse haha- GAME PLAN!).

 So after that fun encounter I headed home, ate some food there (I have a problem- my problem is I am incapable of cooking for one so I have TONS of extra food at my place-look in the fridge!). Later on I had a coffee with my newly claimed second mom, Elena (Carlos' mom), and she also got me a cute gift! Afterward I spent my night watching my favorite shows- Desperate Housewives and Modern Family. I am actually addicted to those shows. Not a joke :)

Since my birthday was pretty mellow we decided we (other people I've met here) would go out Thursday  (today) for a celebration.Tonight was great, Niki, my new friend Paul and myself all went out to the bar; had some birthday shots...after eating some tapas; then migrated to another bar. I left before everyone else did because I had to head to Granada in less than 5ish hours, yippee- another night with minimal sleep!

Yesterday I actually went to Cordoba...ID stuff...so I left my place at 7am. I was completely exhausted by the end of the day...but not for just NO reason.

After spending about 4 hours in the police station for the ID stuff...just waiting pretty much the entire time, we finally got everything sorted. We, meaning myself and another girl...from OREGON!, hung out and later met up with another new friend I've made- from Scotland. We ended up exploring more of Cordoba that I haven't seen! We went to the river and then over to Alcazar, where they have some towers/buildings to explore and a very large garden that is absolutely beautiful. Parts of the garden had kind of Alice in Wonderland feel...with plants and trees shaped like vases and other strange shapes... which is a little confusing after functioning on minimal hours of sleep.

By the end of the day though, I was absolutely spent...even before the time we finished looking at the gardens I was exhausted, so that night I slept like a baby!

I ended up leaving that evening and walked directly to the Language School- where my other friend told me something was going on. Little did I know I would be learning how to dance to Thriller that night lol. YEA. We spent an hour just working on the first 17 steps- there are over 30!- and we're supposed to perform it next week for Halloween haha. Of course it will probably be half speed and not even half the dance that we show. Oh and on top of that we only have 3 days in total to practice with each other and I can make it one of the days....lolol I can't wait to see how this goes! Well I'm off to live life in Spain.

Feliz cumpleaños...a mi!

I am now officially one year older...just waiting for the wrinkles to kick in any day now lol. Actually if you know me, you know that the rule with me is that you're not allowed to say you're old until you can collect social security haha so I have a while to go.

My birthday here was actually pretty relaxed but thats kind of how I like to do things anyways, so for me it was great. Well, that and the fact I'm considering just being in Spain for 9 months to be the best birthday present ever. That does NOT of course excuse you from getting me a gift... nice try though.


On the morning of my birthday I had to work for a few hours, so after pressing the snooze button on my alarm about...hum, 10 times!...I got up and got ready for school. When I got to school my coworkers were really nice and all remembered it was my birthday- not what I was expecting because if I were to tell someone I recently met in the states it was my birthday they probably would have forgotten...even if I told them hours before lol. They also got me a gift which was sooo sweet and just made me smile. Inside the basket was white wine (of course...what good basket comes without wine???), organic olive oil, a type of HOMEMADE cinnamon liquor or maybe liqueur (not sure how one would define it), some membrillo jam type stuff (check the oct 8th posting to learn more about membrillo), goat cheese in olive oil, turron and sugar (haven't tried it yet so don't know what it tastes like...but i'm sure I'll like it- it has sugar) and ALSO a plate of HOMEMADE mini pastries and homemade truffles- chocolate and coconut!!! How sweet of them right?

the rest of the post will be finished later today/tomorrow because i'm about ready to pass out after a long day in Cordoba and then learning the dance to Thriller...

morcilla

Well I thought I should let you all know that today...I ate Morcilla. If you aren't aware of the translation, morcilla means blood sausage...and yes I tried it today. I was actually kind of nervous because I mean, I even pick out the blood on chicken lol. I even had a girl tell me it was really gross and super grity so that was going through my mind as well. BUT I swore to myself that I would try everything (or mostly everything) in Spain that's put in front of me. I mean I've already eaten bull penis at home (eating it was not on purpose but i dont recommend it- it's like eating rubber) so what could this hurt. I just got nervous because the idea of eating blood...well its like eating blood lol.

a pic from Google of Morcilla

So, I tried it...and in my opinion, BLOOD SAUSAGE actually tastes pretty good. It didn't have a weird texture or anything. It just tasted like a sausage with a rich flavor. I know the name sounds horrible, mostly because people now a days don't eat blood or cook with it (except for maybe Twilight fanatics), but if you visit Spain I would recommend you try it. I had it mixed with a few other meats and some pig fat (lol I'm sure some of you are making some really weird faces right now) so it wasn't just the morcilla but maybe I can work my way up to that because seriously it was pretty good.

If you want to learn more about morcilla visit  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_pudding . There's not much history on wiki but here a mini history lesson:
Back in the day when people lived on farms and raised all their own food, people would use all the parts because they couldn't afford to waste anything. Therefore the even the blood was used in the cooking and still is in some places to this day (in Spain for example). So all you spoiled city people (don't worry I'm one too)- get out of your comfort zone and try something new! I sure did and I didn't even keel over and die haha

New phone

*I have added new photos...and a few other changes (added some stories) to the MADRID posting*

Yesterday was a really off day...I think I may be coming down with something- AGAIN. So this weekend will be pretty low key.

Well so my birthday is coming up on Monday-TOMORROW- so I've been making plans to buy a few things for my bday. If you've ever met you know I like to cook....so I'm buying myself kitchen supplies lol. Yes that's seriously what I want because I feel helpless when I can't cook everything that I want. A week or two again I also was thinking about this and was determined that I wanted a slow cooker. I use it for meals at home (not a ton but a few) and I just love having one. Now finding one in Spain- pretty much impossible. In addition, when I explain what it is people seem to get really confused. I soon figured out that no one uses those here but what I did find out was that EVERY uses pressure pots. If you don't know what that it (I sure didn't) its just like a pot with a lid and it creates pressure inside when you heat something in it (over a burner) which cooks it faster. This is used a lot for cooking beans, in soups for example, really fast. Anyways, I finally figured out where to buy a slow cooker- at their big store (Carrefour- I wrote about it in an earlier post). I've been planning on buying this thing for a few weeks now and actually ended up buying it. Yesterday I ended up returning it...The indecisive me has follow the rest of me to Spain! I do have reasoning for this though- I feel that since I'm living in Spain I should be cooking like the Spanish do, therefore using the same kitchen equipment

Oh yea, but instead of buying a pressure pot, I purchased a hand blender...I will get the pressure cooker later lol. Elena (Carlos' mom) said I can borrow one of her's (pressure cooker) in the meantime- that way I can see how much I use it and everything.

Moving onto to my phone:
I decided to get a different phone, as a side present for me. I mostly decided this because Movistar (the big company here) is RIDICULOUSLY expensive. Yesterday morning I headed over to Yoigo (a new company) and switched! yay Now, I got a new phone number, it would have taken 7 days to keep my old one and im impatient, and a new phone! It's definitely newer than the one I was using- borrowed from a friend (thanks cesca for loaning yours to me!). My recommendation if you ever come to spain...check out Yoigo (or Orange) because they have really good prices and they were super friendly to me (not so much at the Movistar store I went to...).

After I bought my phone I pretty much wandered around town...bought some fruits and veggies from the market...then headed back to my apartment...took a nap (love siestas!)...then got up and made some soup. I was feeling really run down so the homemade soup definitely helped a little.

Anyhow, later that evening (around 6pm) I was sitting in my room, being lazy, and started to hear noises from what sounded like a marching band getting ready to, well, march. And sure enough- I looked out my window and what did I see...a marching band.

They eventually began and started marching down the street...I had no idea what was going on so I just took pictures and watched them from my window. About 30min later they came back...this time with more people. Behind the band was a group of people holding up what looks like a shrine with the patron saint on it. What happens is a large group of men, and boys, carry these REALLY heavy shrines around town. For the men its pretty much like a proud tradition, so all the mothers are really proud of their sons when they start carrying on this tradition. This type of "parade" is pretty typical though in Spain and if you've ever seen pics or movies of their holidays, you've probably seen this. I figured out that this was for the patron saint Teresa whos "day" was on Friday, I believe. They celebrate their patron saints more than they celebrate people's birthdays here! It was great and I took a bunch of pictures.

Later that night I found out from Elena that each neighborhood is associated with a saint so on that saint's particular holiday, they will do a procession though that neighborhood- this week it was my neighborhood.

Oh and one thing I forgot to mention- on Friday (because it was the patron saint Teresa day) they had a mini party at the school. I don't work on Friday's but Teresa invited me, because it was "her" day and she was bringing cakes. Also when it is someones patron saint's day (if they have the same name) you have to give them besitos- the kiss on each cheek. I loved it because I got to eat cake for breakfast (I woke up late lol) but this is very big here...so I'm excited for the rest of these days throughout the year lol

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT

So this is a question for all of you. I would appreciate if you would leave a post with your comments.
So the question I have is:

If I'm living in Spain, shouldn't I be going though a bottle of wine in like a day??? (May I remind you- the really good wine here costs 5euro...)

Its taken me over a week to go through a bottle of wine and I'm not even drinking full glasses lol...I feel that this is a problem and that I need to change it pronto- hence why I ask for your opinion.

Madrid- FINALLY!

*A full slide show of all the pics from Madrid can be found on the right column of this blog- right above my favorite books and below the recent comments and amazon search box. Click on the slide show and it will take you to the full album in a separate window*

Ok I’m sorry that I’ve kept you all waiting. I’m starting to live the “Spanish life”- meaning everything is “mañana, mañana” (tomorrow, tomorrow). I don’t know how I will function if I ever return to the states LOL. So since about a week has passed since my last real posting this is going to be a long one…OH how I can talk!!! Anyways- Madrid- I’m going to try my hardest to condense this but seriously, the trip was ridiculous. You should probably grab some popcorn and a drink. I’m not kidding, it’s a long story. Now…what you’ve all be waiting for…

SATURDAY

This last weekend me and my friend Niki (the Irish girl) decided we would go to Madrid for the weekend. We figured we would just buy the midnight bus tickets so we could sleep (or at least attempt to) on the bus and arrive in Madrid in the morning. At least that was the idea… story of my life right? So we go to head over to the bus station to buy tickets which is about a 30 min walk from my place. Of course on this day it was POURING down rain. Yep the only day it has really rained so far since I’ve been here and it was on the day we had all sorts of errands to run, like buying the tickets, clothes, food…and then an umbrella. The rain of course was pretty warm so not even as close to as bad as Seattle where if it’s raining your hands start to go numb lol.

So we purchased the tickets…only 32 euro ROUND TRIP (and yes- I can see you glaring at me out of jealousy) haha. Afterwards we wandered into a few shops to try to find bags/small luggage to take with us to Madrid. That was an adventure in itself because small duffle type bags are basically impossible to find, at least in Lucena. I, of course, got sidetracked and found the shoe section (lol) and got a pair of SUPER cute boots and one of those little waist scarves that belly dancers use that has little metal coin looking things to make noise- obviously I don’t know what it called but hopefully you get the picture.

Moving on, after wandering around Lucena we each went home to eat/pack/drink wine :) until later that night when the bus came.

When I headed out for the bus station it was raining again, of course. It was like every time I was walking through the town it would rain more, but whenever I was inside the rain would lighten up haha…my bad karma. The bus came and picked us up on the side of the road next to the bus station (the bus station was closed so I guess that’s just the way they do it)…it really confused me at first though especially when I arrived to the bus station and everything was closed haha. The bus was pretty much just like a grey hound bus (in the states) and you can sit wherever. So our whole goal was to sleep on the bus, wake up in Madrid and then scour the town…again, this went a little differently than planned. Sitting on the bus- great. Sleeping on the bus- not so great. So when we got to Madrid 5 and a half hours later both of us had gotten a little sleep off and on but we were both kind of out of it, I think Niki more so than me.

AFTER ARRIVING IN MADRID

6am in Madrid...

Since it was 5:30AM when we arrived, nothing was open so we just stayed at the bus station about an hour. After we headed down to the metro (underground bus system). Trying to figure that out when you’re half awake was VERY DIFFICULT. I was pretty much willing to just sit on the bus for an hour or two and let it drive us around in circles until I could wake up a little and figure out what was going on lol. Niki ended up figuring the whole system out…its actually pretty easy once you do figure it out…so we were only on the bus for no more than 30min. We got off at the “puerta del sol”- just a kind of famous location…in the center of town. Because it was still EARLY and dark we sat in a bar/restaurant drinking coffee and orange juice for another hour or two. Eventually we left…as some drunk guy walked in and was kind of harassing some American girl lol (keep in mind that this was about 8 or 9am at this point). 

Walking around Madrid was amazing, especially that early in the morning (it was on a Sunday so nothing opens until 10am or later) because there were barely any people walking around. We just wandered for a couple hours because 1. The hostels wouldn’t let us check in until noon and 2.

The town was SUPER empty in the AM

The friend (and sister) of Niki’s that we were going to meet up with- had just gone to bed a few hours before that so they were dead asleep. I was wide awake so exploring and walking around was just fine by me...although I know Niki was exhausted. We walked by tons of places, most of which I don’t know the names, but one I do remember was the royal palace. It was HUGE and so beautiful. The buildings here are amazing…I know it’s just like everyone and their mom says…but it’s very true and the pictures don’t do it justice- SO COME VISIT ME! I took about a million photos while walking around so make sure to look at the MADRID album (I’m creating a separate one for Madrid)- be sure to check it out.

I tried the one on the left- called a Palmero (I think)

2 days in Madrid= me in bed all day today

Ok so I just got home from Madrid EARLY this morning...5am. I've been sleeping since and I'm still exhausted. I'm will have to tell you all my stories later and trust me- there's A LOT. I also took a ton on pics and will be making another album to put on here. Now I get to go work on a power point about my life lol. And then I will go back to sleep again :)

I speaks the English SO good

I have now gone from thinking like “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” to “I must have a really bad Karma.” I have now been to Córdoba 5 times for my IDs and I will still need to return at least twice more (for a second ID that I didn’t originally knew that we needed). I keep reminding all the other Americans here (that I met at the orientation) to calm down because we’re in Spain but I seem to be having a hard time following my own advice now. I’ve been actually quiet calm this whole time but that is starting to change. This is mostly just starting to change because I keep hearing these other people (in my program) complaining about how they had to travel ALL the way from their town (usually an hour trip for most in farther out towns like me), that they can’t get their ID on the same day, how they’re going to have to return AGAIN, that this process should be easier and we shouldn’t have to travel SO far to get ID’s, and blah blah blah. Maybe it’s just making me mad because I wasn’t complaining when I had to return the second and third and fourth and fifth time…I just tried to laugh it off, because I mean come on, what were they expecting in SPAIN??? I can see why we have such a bad rep lol. So with all that said, I’m hoping to have all my ID stuff finished within 3 more trips to Córdoba over the next few weeks. Luckily Córdoba is a GREAT city so I’m hoping to make my way over to the Mezquita the next trip that I take up there and maybe meet up with some new friends I made there. The only reason that didn’t happen today is because I dead tired from waking up at 6am…after falling asleep at 1am.

I was going to vent about my apartment situation but figure there’s no point and I would like to NOT be the typical complaining American. So let’s spin this to be positive note- I’m still searching and I have a few options. I’m really just waiting for the RIGHT option because I would really prefer to live WITH someone and preferably a Spanish speaker. I will probably end up moving in a 2 bedroom place and wait to see if I can find a roommate (due to the poor economy some landlords are reducing rent if only one person lives in a 2 bedroom place, for instance, so it wouldn’t really be out of my price range) OR move into someone’s house (I have a few options there). Now it’s just a matter or figuring out what is right for me since I have some flexibility right now since I have awesome landlord here…which is also a dilemma, because they’re so nice I don’t want to move out and disappoint them! I will just be actively searching for the next week to try a figure out a solution to my problem…hopefully it works in my best interests!

Let’s move onto school/work…so far, so good. The teachers have been great and are super excited to practice their English…and also pretty nervous. Since they rarely get to practice and use their English they get pretty embarrassed about it but I completely understand where they’re coming from because I used to do the same thing. I mean we have similar issues with language in schools too…so unless we use the language frequently…like if we are submersed into another country where they only speak that particular language… it’s difficult to become really fluent (at least for most people). Anyhow starting next week I will be entering in the classrooms and get to “show off” my English. That should boost my self esteem lol. Apparently the kids are also excited so we’ll see how that goes. 

Chicken and liver!

I have also been trying to learn how to cook Spanish food. This is going to take a little while to learn, especially with my lack on kitchen apparatuses, since they just eat such different food than I’m used to. Since I don’t know the first thing about Spanish cooking…except that they eat a lot of pork...I asked my friend’s mom if she could teach me. I’m planning on going over at least every other week to try to learn new things. This week we made seafood soup with octopus, small clams, baby shrimp and some white fish; pork with garlic…lots of it; chicken drumsticks and wings with…liver possibly? Lol; and a bread pudding type dish (plus she sent me home with another dessert she had made previously- Membrillo in sugar water with cinnamon).

The start of my collection...

I’ve only tried the soup and pork so far (I already ate them so that's why there's no pics) so I will have to let you know how the liver tastes…I hope I don’t gag lol but I really want to try everything new here…except maybe the blood sausage, ugh. The food I did try was AMAZING and actually pretty simple to make. She told me that she likes to make pretty simple dishes which sounds great to me since I’m very new the Spanish cuisine. What I really liked about the food also were the common ingredients: olive oil, garlic and white wine. I will have to stock up on those things because I’m telling you…plenty of each was used in all the dishes (minus dessert of course). When I try to replicate the food we made- because that’s my next step in learning- I will make sure to take pics. You WILL be jealous ;)

MEMBRILLO!

You should also be jealous as I have taken up belly dancing classes! The class just started tonight but it was too much fun so I will be there every week. One of the teachers I'm working with invited me and I'm so glad I went...plus this way I can hopefully make some Spanish friends. I also may take some Latin dance classes as well...we'll see how much energy I have lol. The classes are only like 15-25 euro a month (1 hour class/week)...not bad huh?

As for this weekend…I’m going to Madrid YAY! Well that is as long as tickets aren’t sold out or something…this weekend is a puente (which is just an extended weekend) so a ton on people are traveling. This should be an adventure and I’m sure I will take lots of pics and try to be extra touristy once again. I won’t be updating my blog until I come back of course so hopefully with all of my rambling there’s plenty of reading material to tide you over :)

This is just a side note but it is too good to not tell you about. I went to one of the big stores here (kind of a cross between Fred Meyer and Costco I suppose) where they pretty much have EVERYTHING. We asked if they had any wall calendars and they only had ONE...Eclipse theme LOL

R.I.P. Dwight Clark

This is really sad but I think it is important to share. I freshman at WWU (Western Washington University) was found dead recently. I felt it was important to share this because it is a tragedy for anything like this to happen. Please pray for his family and friends.

More about the story:
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2010/10/06/1655567/dwight-clarks-body-found-in-bellingham.html

How to order a pillow

It has been a busy couple of day, but I will get to that in a minute. First I thought I would share with you the funny language mistakes I have made so far:

1.      A few nights ago I went to a bar and it had been kind of a long day. I decided I would order a beer that I remember I liked called “Alhambra.” I went to order and asked the guy if I could get an “almohada” thinking I had asked for an “Alhambra.” He looked at me like I was a little crazy and I did the same to him because I swore I ordered an Alhambra beer…so again I asked for an “almohada.” At this point it was obvious that I wasn’t getting through so I just asked for a wine like my friends had ordered. After about 10 minutes of trying to figure out why he couldn’t understand what I had said I realized what I had ordered…a pillow. Lesson learned- don’t order pillows at a bar. Lol

2.      I was talking with some friends about going to Malaga late last week. Since it was my first time going they were giving me advice like where to go, what to do, what to eat, etc. One thing they recommended was to eat the fried fish there. Since Malaga is right along the ocean they’ve become famous for their seafood, of course. I wanted to then tell them that I like fish so I’d probably enjoy that. I was trying to sound more like I was from Andalucía, I was attempting the accent (the Andalusian accent basically means that you kind of get rid of the “s” and “d” in a word) so I said that I like “pecados.” What I meant to say was like I like “pescados” which is fish in Spanish (the dead ones because the live ones have a different name) but, again, trying to have the “andaluz” accent I didn’t pronounce the “s” and said pecado. One tiny problem with what I said…”pecado” means sin. Lesson learned- only omit the “s” at the END of a word…otherwise you may end up “liking sins” 

As of yet those are really the only two I have but I’m sure I will have lots more after 9 months…how lucky for all of you.

The last few days have kind of been a blur…and no it’s not because I’ve been drinking too much wine! More like I’ve been really exhausted. I’m not sure if it’s having to change back and forth from English to Spanish or not knowing where I’m living next week or the fact my phone company charges more than it costs to buy groceries for a month (I’m kind of joking…but only a little). All this is sure to change but as of right now I can seriously understand why the Spanish have siesta- and I’m SOOOO thankful for it.

I’m sure you are all interested in how work is going…since that’s why I’m here, right?? Well, at least that’s why I’m living in Lucena. So on Monday I worked for just a couple hours (one hour of conversation and one more just looking over their class materials) and that was a nice, easy intro day. Tuesday was a bit more…well, BUSY since I had to return to Cordoba. Tuesday was the orientation for all the “students” working in the province of Cordoba. When I got to Cordoba I headed towards the street where the orientation was to be held…of course, in Spain there are certain addresses that don’t have numbers lol. That is to say it just tells you the street and you get to figure it out from there. Now, since this was a big meeting, relatively about 80 or 90 people in the program were there, one would think, “this shouldn’t be that hard to find” but of course that’s never the case when you think it. I ended up running into a few other students in the same predicament as myself so we became a small mob in search of this place. In total, we probably asked about 10 people (either living or working on that street) if they knew where it was…and of course about half said one way and half said the other. I definitely enjoy how people give directions in Spain…they typically get you within a 5 block radius and then it’s your job to figure the rest out lol. Needless to say, we found the place and they hadn’t started by the time we arrived (I’m guessing we were about 10-20 min late) because, well, it’s Spain. The whole thing was just a few hours long and in that time we had a 15 min break and then lunch…with wine and beer…in a school (again- love Spain).

Since I’m not really what you would call a “shy” person (yes I know you’re laughing), I met a few girls from the states, one from Scotland (her accent is AWESOME), 2 from Belgium (well at least I think they were both from there- they both spoke French), 3 other people living in Lucena but teaching at different schools, one girl from Canada and OF COURSE someone I knew. She’s actually from Seattle and doing the same program here in Spain, which just so happens to be in the same province I’m in, and it just so happens that we used to have cross country meets together (she went to a different high school but very close by). I already knew it was a small world and this kind of stuff just keeps reaffirming that.

I basically spent the rest of the day…literally the WHOLE rest of the day talking with people that I met…until about 10pm. It was a great day though and met some great people. I really enjoyed the fact that I met two girls from Belgium who knew no English so we spoke in Spanish- that alone made my day. 

Today has been a bit calmer since I spent 3 hours at the school for work and was able to come home and take a nap a little while after that. I’m still really focused on trying to find a place, figuring out what a TIE is (some sort of extra ID that I need to go get…in Cordoba of course), starting up a bank account and all those fun little things that you don’t think about unless you up and move to a different country. Now, I have to figure out how to clean a floor…the Spanish way haha (they have mops…don’t worry- it’s not THAT different).

CHOCOLATE!!!

Ok I'm totally stealing this from a friend on facebook. He posted this on my friends wall and I thought you should all see it...because it is great!!! Just go to this link (its safe) and read on!
http://lokwi.com/item/994

And then there was ONE

This last Friday was officially the first day of school for me! I actually went into the office at 10am like I was told...and no one I work with was there haha. Now I KNOW I'm in Spain! Everything was fine and I only had to wait like 15 minutes until the secretary came and got me...to sign some papers AND to tell me I get to go back to Cordoba! Awesome! (well not really since I've been there 4 times already in less than 14 days) This time it's not for the student ID card though, although I think I would feel weird if I didn't drop by the Police Station, so maybe I'll just pop my head in to say hi haha. I actually have to go to an orientation for people in my program, although I have no idea how many people will be there. I'm assuming its just for the people working in Cordoba and its surrounding area, but this way I will get to meet other in the program too.

After I met with the secretary the program coordinator for my school found me and we went over my schedule. I also got a copy of the calendar year...and the are PLENTY of breaks yay! So now I'm starting to plan were I will travel to and when- I'm REALLY looking forward to this!

Well now for the really exciting news...
So I went home after being at the school for about an hour (great first day lol) and after about an hour of being at the house my roommate (the 2nd one) came home. She told me that she ALSO got accepted into another school and was moving out! So now I've gone from 2 roommate to none is less than a week. GREAT! Why does this keep happening!?!?! I've even talked to multiple people from Lucena and they say thats not normal. So basically now I'm living in a 3 bedroom apartment, by myself, in a city where its very difficult to find a roommate...hum. I mean even though we signed a contract and everything, the landlord I guess told them that it would just be void since we had just signed it less than a week ago...and we haven't put any money down either...

So now I have to find roommates or move out. This should prove interesting. There is a pair of students coming to look at the apartment tomorrow (Monday) but I'm having doubts because they're students (probably around 18 years old) and I don't want to have to worry about them up and moving too. So I've asked around here to see if anyone knows someone looking for a roommate...pretty much no one does...but I did get one phone number. I called her this morning and we're going to talk later because she was driving at the time. I'm hoping this will all work itself out pleasantly...please pray for me lol. I do have back up options if I can't find roommates but they are all more expensive, which means less doing stuff for me. So I'm hoping I can find roommates whether its for this place or not- plus I want to work on my Spanish anyways and I figure living with a person who only speaks Spanish may move that along. Now I'm just waiting to see what happens...in time this too shall pass...right?

Luckily I went out with some of Carlos' family, who are super nice and I always feel comfortable around, to Montilla (a nearby town) that night and was able to calm down a little. We went to what was basically a farmers market and then for some tapas. I bought my first bottle of wine and the market! I have yet to try it but I've very excited...

Since Friday was full of stress from the roommate situation, on Saturday myself and my new Irish friend, Niki, decided to go to Malaga for some beach time. We headed out around 9:30am and the bus ride took about and hour and a half...so not bad. From there we took the train to Torremolinos (which only cost about 2 euro for a 30 min train ride). Torremolinos is a VERY pretty beach and very touristy. We wandered down to the beach to relax and hung out there for a little less than two hours. Since we are SOOO smart decided not to use sunscreen...yes, really, this did happen. It was windy so it really didn't feel that warm and I KNOW that's when people tend to burn but I didn't want to buy a bottle of sun lotion for 10 euro and instead decided to suffer the consequences. Now I look like a tomato.

My burn is actually not bad in most places and is only on one side of my body (front)- my tummy is just bright red lol. The burn actually doesn't hurt, which is weird from my lengthy experience from sunburns, so it more just looks like I tried to dye my stomach with red food coloring. I've also been putting on lotion like every 2 hours because I do NOT want to deal with pealing skin. I already stand out enough and I don't want to even more by looking like a reptile shedding skin. If you have any suggestions- other than dumb ones like "wear sunscreen"...because DUH! lesson learned- then I'm all ears. I occasionally have to learn this lesson over...typically every few years because apparently I have slight Alzheimer's and can't seem to recall anything. I guess its just more like selective recall lol. Because of my slight reddish glow, I have decided to stay inside all day. Since its Sunday this will be easy since pretty much nothing is open. So this is actually great timing.


After getting back from Malaga yesterday I rested for a few hours and then met back up with Niki and some people she's met here. We went to this bar which soon began to fill with people and about half of us (about 10 people) we all English speakers. Now that is really weird because since I've been here I've met ONE person who's a native English speaker and probably two more that can speak English. Definitely not a typical night but I got to meet some cool people from all over the world, Britan, England, France, Argentina, so it was GREAT. We stayed out until about 3am which is very normal here. Even when I decided to leave one of the girls asked me if I was coming back :) I'm going to have to get more used to this. And also get used to the smoke...I think I inhaled more smoke last night than I have my entire life. Now my clothes smell, probably enough for people to think I'm a smoker...but luckily laundry day is coming up (either today or tomorrow).

Random note: At the bar we went to there was a poster up for an event happening next weekend. It made me laugh and made me realize even more how there are pretty much ONLY Spanish people here, very different than Seattle where there's a whole mix of everything. Take a look:

Today is basically a relax day...it was meant for cleaning but I see that might change haha. Tomorrow will be the first actual work day for me so I think I should rest up...all day. Especially since its going to be a LONG week...a whole 4 days and 12 hours...lol. Time to go eat something and then take a siesta!