You don't look American.

As I last told you I have been more and more accustomed to the Spanish lifestyle...staying out late at night. The weekend was perfect proof of just how well adjusted I am now after 4 months here. After my late night chatting on Thursday I again dared to go out the next night. Mostly because i hadn't really gone with my American friends since before the Christmas break. The whole idea was, go out for tapas, maybe bar hop a little and then head home relatively early because I was also going out in Cordoba the next night. So here's what happened:

I went to belly dancing class before we went out (I hadn't been in a month and I'd missed it SO much!) and got done around 10pm. Went directly to meet up with the guys after class and we started the night at the tapas bars, bar hoped some more and by the end of the night we had managed to check out about 5 different bars. That night ended at about 3am...of course we had some catching up to do so my 15 minute walk home turned into about 45min. Let me also just add it was literally freezing outside (took me about an hour to warm up my hand and feet).

The next day I woke up again around 2pm. Hmmm...this seems to be a great start of a bad habit. Not much got done that day except talking with Mike and attempting to get some research done for my trips. That night though, my friend and I went to Cordoba (about a 40min drive north) to meet with some friends and go dancing. We met up with another girl around 10pm, got some food, checked out a few places and ended up at a dance club. We were dancing for about 2 hours straight (that doesn't beat my New Years record but it's still a lot) to a mix of salsa music, Lady Gaga and Michael Jackson's- Black and White...and then again more salsa. I think we got home around 3am but I didn't even get to bed until past 5...i was chatting with my mom (there's a 9 hr time difference) about their visit coming up.

And THEN AGAIN I found myself waking up at 2pm the next day... What is happening to me? I think I'm turning into my brother...

Amazingly enough when getting up for work this morning, I was surprisingly refreshed. Lesson learned: stay out late, sleep all day and start the week rested and relaxed???

I also thought I should bring up an encounter I had today. I went to go buy some groceries and stopped by this shop (in the market). I'd been there a couple times so he knew me but only now did he ask about me.
His question: Are you English?
My response: No, I'm from the U.S.
His response: Oh, you don't look like you're American. You look more like you're from England.

Still not exactly sure how to take that...

You know you're in Spain when...

Today I got home at...2:30pm. why? I was up until 6am hanging out with my Irish friend Niki drinking some wine...or rather "fino" (much more dangerous) and eating chocolate...and popcorn. Maybe we should hang out more so that we don't have just one night to catch up on 2 months of stories haha. Well normally, in the states, this would be crazy to me to stay out that late but it has now happened so many times over here that I'm actually just used to it haha. This is going to be a dangerous habit (staying out late that is lol) to bring back to the states with me lol.


I also thought I would let yall know that last weekend I went to Granada, one of my most favorite cities in Andalucia! I'm just getting the pics up from it but check it out...its always crazy when I go there.

 This trip I went to meet up with a friend who'd just moved to Granada (only staying for a couple months though) and to visit my spanish brother, Carlos, and my favorite, crazy, multicultural group of Erasmus people. Seriously- its hilarious everytime I visit. In this one apartment there's a mexican girl, italian guy, french guy and my dear american friend Amanda...so pretty much the language of the house is frengspalian (that is french, english, spanish, italian) AND just to top that all of these people (except one) is here on their "year abroad." Doing a year abroad, called Erasmus, is super common in Europe in general and the people just go crazy, party, kind of show up for their classes and then party some more. REALLY- these people go out like 6 times/week. It's great...super unhealthy and exhausting but just hilarious to watch. So those are my friends there and anything we do together means we hang out with other Erasmus people...so other crazy people from all around the world.
 
When I went this weekend I was out until 7am the first night...the evening started at midnight, we went to a "botellon" (remember this word from the xmas eve post? basically a pre-party) where we played spanish trivia (and i was pretty much useless) and THEN went to the club at 3am-ish, danced with some crazy people, watched a girl just fall over and down the few stairs to the dance floor, hit her head, sit in agony for about 10min with a bag of ice on her head (that i got from the bar for her), and then 10min later get up to start dancing again. Also to note- that was not the ONLY time she fell down that night...anyways we danced and danced...until 7am and THEN went to bed. FIRST NIGHT

 

The next day I had to meet with my friend, we hung out, had some super spanish lunch with migas, spanish cheese, croquetas, and tortilla (the egg omelet type thing), walked and explored, had tapas plus a dish of eggplant with a syrup- although they usually use honey- and then the night started AGAIN. This time more calm...just going to a house party full of more Erasmus people (I'm assuming was a mexican pride fiesta because everyone had the mexican flag painted on their face) ...and staying out until 4am.

The next day I was definitely more sluggish haha but had to meet up with the friends again to go to our favorite tea shop where we ate some crepes while sitting on the floor (with cushions though!), hung out with the cat that's always there, then met up with other friends who were late to meet up with us for the first place. We then went to ANOTHER tea shop/cafe where I just spent the whole time cracking up because the conversations going on were just beyond random (not to mention the mix of french, italian and spanish language use). But afterward I had to go because I had to go to work the next day :( Needless to say I came back exhausted and with tons of great memories AND some great clothes and shoes from the sales... I love Granada

the cat that's ALWAYS in the crepe/tea shop

Lucena!

My friend found a little promo video of Lucena (my town). It's in Spanish but you all can at least see what it looks like!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTZA2vuOeok

Planning my life and other random things

I have a bunch of random things i have forgotten to tell you about since I got here so let's just start with those:

First...
I need your help. I'm right now having to make some crucial decisions about my life and what I want to do with it. I have many options (such as staying in the states, working in Spain for another year, traveling, etc.) and one thing I'm trying to find out more about is working abroad in South America. I'm specifically looking for jobs where I can use my Spanish (although I'm fine using some English too), preferably something in business since that IS my interest, and around 3-6 months. I have been doing research now for weeks (or maybe even longer) just trying to find programs that don't cost an arm and a leg to do and it's been more than difficult to find many result. So what I'm asking of you is if you know or have heard of any jobs/internships/programs like what I'm looking for. I would really appreciate any info that you have since sometimes it's just about talking with people. THANKS so much for your help!!!

Also if you want any info on the program that I'm doing now, just ask! I'd love to help answer questions from anyone interested in the program.
Important note: If you or anyone you know wants to apply for next year (starts in Oct) APPLY NOW!
Website: Cultural Ambassadors

Next up, when I was traveling in Italy with my friend from Scotland she told me about an awesome radio website. Since the UK, in general, is really big in the music scene they have a lot of music that we don't even hear in the states...or that we hear WAY later. On the website you can check out the Top 40, listen to talk shows or even specifically search the type of music you like (Dance, Rock/Indie, R&B/Hip Hop). I suggest you check it out if you're tired of the same old, like me:

                                 Radio One (BBC)


Moving onto the next random topic...
there's a show in Spain called "Españoles en el mundo" (translation: Spanish people in the world) and about a month ago they had an episode on Seattle. In the show they basically talk with people from Spain living in a particular city and they show them around. I thought I'd attach the video so you can all watch it if you'd like...it's about 30min long. FYI- it's in Spanish

Youtube.com- espanoles en el mundo Seattle

(i also have it downloaded on my netbook but it seems it's too long to upload on here...)

Squid eyes...gross

Good job guys! 1993 views so we will be at 2000 in no time!!! Keep up the good work and remember to leave me some comments!



Now that you've received your praise for the day, let me tell you a little bit how the last few days have gone. I did end up going to Cabra on Saturday and explored around with one of the teachers that I work with, Antonio, and his children. The town is actually really nice and I got some great pics. We walked around for quite a while and Antonio explained a lot of the history to me about different parts of the town. I only stayed for a few hours because even after the first hour I started feeling horrible (my cold/cough hated me!) and I was exhausted and just overall unable to function.

I got back and just stayed in bed...minus the one trip to the store to buy some EXTREMELY necessary medicine to keep me from coughing up a lung. I did have to eventually leave my beloved bed to get ready to meet up with some friends. It was a friends birthday and I was going to introduce him to some of my Spanish friends so I kinda had to go. I was in and out within an hour, came back, got into pj's and went back to being a sloth, sitting in my bed and skyping Mike. Luckily for me the next day was Sunday! So I just stayed in bed....

Since then I've pretty much just been recovering and getting back to my normal schedule here. Classes just started back up on Monday so now I'm back to work! Over the break I added a few more side classes as well so now I have about 9 students of my own :) Its nice to stay productive...at least for someone like me. I've also gotten back into going to Pilates classes and will even be going to one in just a few min here.

One thing I have to mention is my cooking adventure that I had today. Just to state, I'm not big on cooking fish or seafood in general. Not because I don't enjoy eating it but mostly because my few attempts at it have usually ended in disaster...worse than my baking experiences (but we'll leave those stories for another time). I usually burn the fish and end up eating soup. SO today I dared to make some seafood soup. First things first, I had to go to the fish store (pescadería) since thats where you go to buy fish...its like a small fish market, but indoors, and there are many all over town. That was also a first but luckily for me I had my list of items I needed with me so I wouldn't forget any names!



I picked up some rosada (a white fish- possibly red hake?), squid, clams and some shrimp- all very fresh mind you. I was going to imitate the recipe I learned with my friend/spanish mom, Elena :), when she cooked it a few months back. Let me also say right now that I have NEVER in my life cooked seafood besides fish and shrimp...now I would have to behead and de-feet some shrimp as well as dismember some squid. The shrimp wasn't too bad considering shrimp are almost always cooked whole here (on the grill and what not) so you have to take off the head, feet and shell before eating them anyways.










The squid was another story. First- I've cut up squid before but never one WITH a head...and eyes. And the eyes were looking at me- so what did I do? Poked one. After proding at my food I had to start the...dissection. I, first, had to remove something similar to a spine that looked and felt exaclty like a flexible piece of plastic...
I even thought it was plastic at first and that the poor thing had eaten it. But alas, this was not a sign from the North Pacific Gyre reminding me of how plastic is destroying sealife (among other things) but instead just the spine. I realized this only AFTER working on the second squid. The after the spine was removed I had to basically squeeze out the head since it didn't just fall off (there were parts "stuck" on the inside of the body). I had to also cut off the top of his head, just like he was getting a buzz cut, to get off the tentacles. Then was the easy part, cut up the body into rings and add that (and the tentacles) into the soup. And that was the story of the squid(s) who became my dinner.

The only other seafood I had to handle was the fish and the muscles- both of which both just thrown directly in the pot of soup, left to stew for a few min. In the end all was fine, the soup turned out great and none of the sea creatures came alive and tried to run away.

Want some candy?

I hate getting sick. I now have had a cough for the past 2 days and it won’t leave me alone. It’s taking all my energy and it needs to leave! If you know of any remedies please let me know…so far I’ve been using honey, lemons and water to try to get rid of this.

Moving on, before I was stricken down by this horrible sore throat, I had been keeping myself busy. Well as busy as one may get during a vacation. Last time you heard from me I was recovering from New Years eve so let me update you on what’s been going on. 

After 2 days of rest, well plus half a day of cooking a cleaning, my week started back up as normal, kind of. Monday I had 3 conversation classes and ALSO went out for a big event in the middle of the town. In the plaza they were having a fundraiser for cancer with a HUGE cake. Well not quite 1 huge cake but rather a ton of smaller ones all adding up to 300kilos (600lbs) and over 144 meters (about 470ft) long. The cake is called Roscon, which is a circular cake (although the dough is much different than cake in the US) filled with cream in the middle. Along with the cream in the middle they hide “prizes” – like little toys and candies, so its wise to take small bites. The whole idea is that there are 2 important “finds” inside the cake. The king and the broad bean. What happens if you find one or the other? If you find the king- you “become” the king and get to wear the crown that comes inside the box. If you find the broad bean on the other hand you get to pay for the roscon for the next year…essentially its bad luck. For the fundraiser roscon I didn’t find anything inside…but the next night I had roscon again with Teresa and the family, I found a little toy-LUCKILY it was just a little fish and not the bean. It would have been a little hard to buy the roscon if I was in the U.S. although a great excuse to come back and visit …

the unlucky broad bean

my fish and witch found inside

Now for the fundraiser they ended up making the cakes straight and then spread them out over tons of tables in the shape of a…well, rectangle. I suppose that’s much easier than actually making a gigantic roscon…although I would have really liked to see THAT! They also hid candies inside… So my friends and I waited in line, good thing we got there early because the line got super long. We all ate our cake and one of our friends found one of the candies that they had hidden inside. After all that excitement I had to head back home for another class. 

The next day I had some more classes in the morning and later, after some lunch, went on a 2 hour walk with a new friend. We walked along the trail that they have here that goes through multiple towns. Needless to say, we didn’t quite make it to the next town but next time I will try to make it that far…although that will be at least a 3 hour walk (there and back). On the trail, called the ‘Via Verde,’ we saw some beautiful sites including a graveyard, empty fields and also some horses! Considering that in southern Spain there is not much green anywhere it was a nice change. The rest of that night I just rested since I was exhausted from the walk…obviously I need to get back into my exercise routines.

Alright now let’s talk about Wednesday. Just to give you a little background on the 5^th and 6^th of January…in Spain the 6^th celebrated as the “three kings day” because that is when the 3 kings came to visit baby Jesus and bring him gifts. So what happens on these days? Well- a giant celebration for one. On the evening of the 5^th, there are big parades everywhere (well in the bigger towns). The parade is full of floats of all different themes that throw candy and toys to all the bystanders. This year some of the themes included Willy Wonka and the umpa lumpas (from the modern movie), super heroes, Avatar, Aladdin and Jasmine, etc. Luckily for me I got the TRUE experience and got hit in the eye with one of the hard candies- before we even got there I was warned by my friends about that. Great fun. 

So anyhow, the parade continues through the town, pelting people (some were nicer than others) with lots hard candies and toys and confetti. I mean LOTS of candy…(from what I’m told) this year not so much but just a few years ago, after the parade, the streets were literally coated in candy and wherever you walked, there was candy. This year there was still a lot of candy on the ground but you could manage to find ground to walk on to avoid making your shoe sole out of candy.

Now back to the floats, mixed among the floats are 3 distinct and very important ones- those of the 3 kings. These floats are the ones that give out the most candy and toys so the kids (and adults) go crazy when they go by. The whole idea is that they go through the town and in the end they come to the center of the town (the big plaza) where there is a nativity scene set up. From there EVERYONE is in the town center while the 3 kings go to the nativity scene to deliver their gifts to baby Jesus. All these festivities last from about 7:30 (when the parade starts) until roughly 11:30/midnight (when the gifts are delivered to baby Jesus and all the floats leave). People leave the event with bags full of goodies- I guess everyone likes free stuff. By the end of my night I had my purse and pockets full of candy and the bottom of my shoes covered in it, confetti all over my hair and in my clothes (found plenty more confetti when I took off my shoes at home) and my throat was killing me.

Early that day I had also had classes, a lunch out with a friend from the school and her family, dessert with Teresa and her family and THEN the parade…I’m sure all that talking did NOT help my throat one bit.

The next day was the 6^th. This is basically Christmas day in Spain because during the night of the 5^th, the 3 kings come to deliver presents to the children. The next morning the children come down to find all their presents under the tree! 

Oh and I should also mention that TODAY, the 7^th of January, is the start to all the SALES!!! They have huge semi-annual sales here that are supposed to be crazy. I have decided to keep myself indoors and away for at least the first few days…while all the crazies run around the city buying clothes. 

Tomorrow I will be headed to Cabra so look forward to an update about that!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!

oh how i love the holidays

Remember, a few posts ago, that I mentioned that Spanish people are crazy, staying up until early hours of the morning. The latest I had been out at that point was 4am…so we had to beat that record. We’ll get to exactly when I got home in just a minute. Let me first give you some background info on what happened…

See the wine barrels in the background?

I’m not sure how YOU celebrate your Christmas eve but here in Spain people go out to parties. Well this is kind of a new thing but none the less its what I did. First I went over to my ‘families house’ (my Spanish family) for dinner. We started dinner around 10pm…relatively normal Spanish dinner time. I left around 12:30am to go meet up with some friends and go to a party. Well we had a “botellon” at a friends house. Botellon is just basically a pre-party to hang out and have a few drinks before going to the actual party. SOOO after about 3 hours of that we finally headed over to the bodega (large building where they store wine kegs (or at least that’s what they look like) and also have parties from time to time. Its almost like an empty warehouse, but less scary looking. Anyhow we got to the party and it was full with probably over 1,000 people I’m sure… There were about 10 of us in our group and we all danced, talked and had some drinks until when? 10AM. YEP not a typo- 10AM. Definitely the latest I’ve ever stayed out in my life…and for a good reason. I spent 2 days recovering haha

 

A few days later was New Years eve. Let’s go over the tradition that they have here. First everyone has a big meal with their family (just like on Christmas eve) and then at midnight comes the fun. The 12 seconds right before the clock strikes everyone eats 12 grapes…one for each second. It becomes even more difficult when you’re trying to shoves grapes down your mouth and in the middle you start cracking up…yea I didn’t quite make it through all of mine but I’ll try again next year. We did have some champagne as well, a tradition I’m more familiar with for new years and apparently is a worldwide thing, well at least in the US and Spain.

After spending a few hours with my new family over here I had to head out to meet with some friends and go out for a new years party. Earlier, about 2 weeks before, we had purchased tickets to this party which was in the lobby of a really nice hotel in my town. We got to the party at around 1:30am and there were still a lot of people missing. The majority of people weren’t even there until 2 or 2:30am!
Well we danced the night/morning away with some drinks and a few snacks the staff was bringing around (sandwiches-yum)…until when? 8am. The party ended then so we had to leave…and at that point my feet were killing me, I could barely walk after dancing 7 hours in heels. We headed over to a bar close by for some CHURROS! I mean come on…did you think we’d just go home after the party? Haha well after the churros we all did head home, we all got a ride since pretty much none of the girls could walk in our shoes. Then again I spent the whole day recovering and trying to get my sleep schedule back on track.



Other than staying out ALL night and morning the last week or so has been pretty calm, a lot of relaxing, sleeping, eating and not exercising…just like a winter break should be. Soon I will need to get back into my schedule of pilates but not just yet…you know I wouldn’t want to be overly ambitious during my break :)