You know you have lived in Spain when...

I found this group on facebook actaully, but most of the points are so true!

This list should give a little insight into my everyday life!


You know you've lived in Spain when...

1) You think adding lemonade, fanta or even coke to red wine is perfectly acceptable. Especially at lunch time.
2) You can't get over how early bars & clubs shut back home - surely they're shutting just as you should be going out?
3) You aren't just surprised that the plumber/decorator has turned up on time, you're surprised he turned up at all.
4) You've been part of a botellon.
5) You think it's fine to comment on everyone's appearance. And to openly stare at strangers.
6) Not giving every new acquaintance dos besos seems so rude.
7) You're shocked by people getting their legs out at the first hint of sun - surely they should wait until at least late June?
8) On msn you sometimes type 'jajaja' instead of 'hahaha'
9) You think the precious aceite is a vital part of every meal. And don't understand how anyone could think olive oil on toast is weird.
10) You're amazed when TV ad breaks last less than half an hour, especially right before the end of films.
11) You forget to say please when asking for things - you implied it in your tone of voice, right?12) You love the phenomenon of giving 'toques' - but hate explaining it in English
14) You don't see sunflower seeds as a healthy snack - they're just what all the cool kids eat.
15) You know what a pijo is and how to spot one.
16) Every sentence you speak contains at least one of these words: 'bueno,' 'coño,' 'vale,' 'venga,' 'pues nada'...
17) You know what 'resaca' means. And you probably had one at least once a week when you lived in Spain.
18) You know how to eat boquerones.
19) A bull's head on the wall of a bar isn't a talking point for you, it's just a part of the decor.
20) You eat lunch after 2pm & would never even think of having your evening meal before 9.
21) You know that after 2pm there's no point in going shopping, you might as well just have a siesta until 5 when the shops re-open.
22) If anyone insults your mother, they better watch out...
23) You know how to change a bombona. And if you don't, you were either lazy or lucky enough to live somewhere nice.
24) It's not rude to answer the intercom to your flat by asking 'Quien?' 25) You don't accept beer that's anything less than ice-cold.
26) The fact that all the male (or female) members of a family have the same first name doesn't surprise you.
27) The sound of mopeds in the background is the soundtrack to your life.
28) You know that the mullet didn't just happen in the 80s. It is alive and well in Spain.
29) You know the differenc between cojones and cajones, tener calor and estar caliente, bacalao and bakalao, pollo and polla, estar hecho polvo and echar un polvo...and maybe you learned the differences the hard way!
30) On a Sunday morning, you have breakfast before going to bed, not after you get up.
31) You don't see anything wrong with having a couple of beers in the morning if you feel like it.
32) Floors in certain bars are an ideal dumping ground for your colillas, servilletas etc. Why use a bin?!
33) You see clapping as an art form, not just a way to express approval.
34) You know ensaladilla rusa has nothing to do with Russia.
35) When you burst out laughing every time you see a Mitsubishi Pajero
36) You have friends named Jesus, Jose Maria, Maria Jose, Angel, maybe even Inmaculada Concepcion...
37) You know that 'ahora' doesn't really mean now. Hasta ahora, ahora vuelvo...etc
38)When you make arrangements to meet friends at 3, the first person turns up at 3.15...if you're lucky!
39) Central heating is most definitely a foreign concept. In winter, you just huddle around the heater under the table & pull the blanket up over your knees...and sleep with about 5 blankets on your bed!
40) Most women under 30 own a pair of those attractive 'Aladdin' style trousers with the crotch around the knees (you know what I mean!)
41) Aceite de oliva is 'muy sano', of course. So you help yourself to a bit more.
42)When women think that clear bra straps are in fact invisible.
43) When it's totally normal for every kitchen to have a deep-fat fryer but no kettle.
44) Te cagas en la leche....
45) To avoid that cheap Eristoff vodka you have to ask for 'un esmirnoff'
46) When you know what a guiri is / have been called one
47) When you add 'super' in front of any adjective for emphasis
48) When it's completely normal for men and women to have at least one facial piercing
49) When you pay for something that's, say, 8.50, you always ask, 'Quieres el cincuenta?'
50) Blonde girls actually start to think their name is 'rubia'
51) When you accept that paying with a 50 euro note is going to get you a dirty look if you're buying something that costs less than 40 euros
52) If something is great, it's 'de puta madre'
53) You can eat up to 5 times a day - first breakfast, 2nd breakfast around 11.30, almuerzo, merienda, cena
54) You know the jingle for Los Cuarenta Principales...
55) If you see someone wearing a T-shirt with something written on it in English, you can almost guarantee it won't make sense. (Pebble Night was a personal favourite)
56) When you go into a bank/bakery etc, it's standard practice to ask 'Quien es la ultima?'
57) Who needs a dryer when you have a washing line outside the window of your apartment?58) You know what 'marcha' and 'juerga' are. (Of course!)
59) You are more likely to call your friends tio/a, nena, chaval, macho or even tronco than their real name.
60) Love it or hate it, you can't escape reggaeton.

feliz navidad!

FELIZ NAVIDAD!

This pic is from our Christmas party in the piso. We were worried right before that it wasn't going to be good because alot of people cancelled last minute but it turned out to be really fun! A grand success! At first the party was mostly Americans, other English teachers but then we had about 15 Spaniards in our house! So, needless to say, the party was lively indeed. I bought a CD of christmas flamenco songs so eventually the party burst into song, as it should!

Today I went on an excursion with my gitanitos to see all of the natividies in Dos Hermanas. Let me tell you they takes their "belenes" very seriously here in Spain. There is a life size one in La Plaza that people line up for a few hours to see. Even the smaller ones are pretty intense, not just your typical jesus manger deal, oh no. We are talking like all of bethlehem , the wise men, teh shepards, light, water, moving effects... intense stuff. It was cool to see all of the belenes but walking from place to place was pretty tiring, screaming at the kids in Spanish the whole time to get in line, not steal the baby jesus, not to touch the belen, not to run away, not to kill eachother, etc. But then after that I was invited to the faculty christmas lunch which was by far the BEST meal i have had in spain. SO delicious. It was fun too, the teachers are much cooler when you get them away from school and give them a glass of wine. The PE teacher is really funny, he was telling jokes and for some reason I only understood the dirty ones haha, oh well, at least I got some of them! And, Ana Maria the directora (dictatora we say haha) came over to me twice to make sure i liked everything and, when we were going to leave she gave me a besito! hehe i think i am the favorite, yay.

Tommorow Maggie and I set out on our journey home. First we take the bus from Sevilla to Madrid overnight, ge tto Madrid at 7am, then take a flight from Madrid to Philly, then i continue to SF from there. Everyone say a pray for me!

See most of you soon!

Besos!!!

MC

A lovely weekend in the south of Spain

oh what a lovely time!

Wednesday evening my flatmates and I met Lydia at the train station and set out for El Puerto de Santa Maria, which is where our freind Hayley lives. The train was packed as I am sure many people had the idea to go to the southern province of Cadiz to pass the puente. We had heard there is quite the bustling night life in El Puerto, so of course we had to check it out.
First we hit a tapas bar and sampled some exceptionally delicious bacaloa, then we continued out with a very mixed group consiting of americans, brits, spaniards and of course our german.

The next day we headed to Jerez de la Frontera, the home of sherry wine. Jerez actually means sherry in Spanish, go figure. We went to the bodega of Tio Pepe which is one of the most well known sherry producers in the world! We had a great tour of the bodega, it was so much fun! We also go to sample two sherries ( one sweet and one dry, i liked both) and some tapas. It was the most lovely afternoon.

Friday we headed to Gilbralter by way of Cadiz. It was freezing in Cadiz that day so although we intended to do some more sightseeing there we decided to cut it short and catch an earlier bus to La Linea, which is the town right next to Gilbraltar since you can't actually bus in Gilbraltar itself, being a different country and all. In La Linea, we actaully had a lovely indian dinner, quite surprisingly delicious. (International foods in Spain are usually risky.)

In Gilbraltar itself we only had time to go up to the top, snap a few pictures, see some monkeys and come back down againt o catch the bus to go back to El puerto because our poor little Hayley FORGOT her passport so she couldnt cross the border into Gilbraltar! So the poor thing had to stay ont he Spain side will we ran up the rock. We didn't run, we cable car-ed, but still we did so quickly. I would like to go back there and explore more, it is a very interesting place. You literally cross a fence and you are in a teeny tiny peice of Britian, surronded by Spain. Which is still a bit of a sore subject with the Spaniards, all of whom highly discouraged us from visiting there. (haha on of Hayley's friends in El Puerto told us that is was a "shit hole".... he spoke some English.) We were very glad that we ignored them though, it was awesome!

Saturday night we were back in El Puerto and we ended the weekend proudly, staying out with the Spaniards until about 5am. Sunday we managed to get ourselves on the train back to Sevilla and pour our tired little bodies into bed.

Photos of all of these events can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mclauerman/ElPuertoJerezGibraltar

This week, probably as a result of such a packed weekend, we have all been a little sick. I continue on trying to teach "Jingle Bell Rock"... they are getting it... slowly....

Today a very exciting thing happened: We got our NIEs! This was the last buerocratic hoop we had to jump through, to get our resident identification cards. With these cards, we will not only be let BACK into the country after christmas but we are also let in for free to many sight seeing spots around sevilla. So to celebrate we met Lydia and went to the Alcazar Gardens and I climbed the Giralda! What a full and productive day!

Tommorow we are going to have a Christmas-themed dessert potluck at our piso... should be fun!

I fly home next Thursday, less than a week!

Better go with 'Jingle Bell Rock'....

Que pasa chicos....

I beleive my last post was about Thanksgiving and we are already doing Christmas! Noelia informed me since my class has the most time with an English teacher, we are expected to sing our song for the christmas program in english. So I had the bright idea to do "the 12 days of christmas' because then every student could have one line each. i had such grand ideas for our performace... (actually mom thought of it) i was going to have them all holding cards of a partridge, turtle doves, etc... but what i forgot when planning all this is that my students are completely incapable of being quiet much less waiting their turn to sing their part. en fin, the 12 days of christmas went down in fiery fiery flames. after the second day trying with 12 days, i brought a back up. now,we are going to sing 'Jingle Bell Rock' because it is only 3 verses long, they already kinda of know the regular jingle bells, and i told them they could wear sunglasses and pretend to be rock stars and they thought that was super. we already have about 2 lines down. Fi-ja-te.

Que ma.... oh here is a weird story for you... so I'm jogging last week... wait, but first let me just mention that people don't really jog in spain. well the spaniards don't. pretty much the only people that jog are the american college students. and me. so ok, im jogging along and i pass in front of the university. there parked in front, is a car of 4 chicos. the one in the back proceeds to pull out a STUFFED HAMBURGER. it was like a pillow, but in the shape and likeness of a hamburger. he proceeds to kind of shake the hamburger at me and try to say, in english, "Jam-beer-gur! Hambur-a-gur! Hamburger!" I just gave them a weird look and kept jogging. ..... but seriously WHAT THE F?!?!?! i mean i know i looked pretty american with my long sleeve tee, calf length work-out pants and my adidas.... but what the hell?!? what are they thinking, "oh, yes if i just shake this thing at this girl as shes jogging and say 'jamburger'....' i dont even know. but, i guess on the bright side, if the worst cultural harassment i am going to get for being american is to have a stuffed hamburger shook in my general direction while im jogging.... thats not so bad. just weird.

kat has illustrated this incident:



anyway, this weekend is the puente, a 4 days weekend! woohoo! we are going to stay with our friend Hayley down in El Puerto de Santa Maria, from there we are going to spend a day in Jerez, and we are also going to Gibraltar to see the monkeys. YES, if you didn't know there are monkeys in Gibraltar. and i am going to visit them!! my friend Lydia, the german girl from my school, is going to come with us, should be heaps of fun.

Hasta ahora,
MC

I will post about it next week, hopefully without mention of a rabid monkey attack.