since returning from peurto over a week ago, i have been quite a busy lady. (most fervent apologies for not keeping up with the blog as a result. i know many of you have jobs you don't want to do!!!) first of all, i have set up 2 more private classes for myself, putting my hours outside of school to just about 10 hours a week! it took some major engineering of my schedule but luckily one of the moms was cool and was willing to work with me so it is going to work out. i will meet one of my new students today in fact. it's kind of like im working for a living now or soemthing. my schedule is starting to look like it did before, full of apointments and to-do lists. wednesdays for example i am literally booked from 8am until 9pm.
i have been worrying a bit lately that with all of this work teaching english, and thus speaking english all the time, that i am not speaking enough spanish. this was getting frustrating because improving my spanish is my whole point in being here. to help remedy this though, i have set up and intercambio, or basically a language exchange with noelia's sister who needs to use english for her job. Macarena is really great and we are not meeting twice a week. she is great to practice with because not only is she patient, but my spanish kicks her english's ass so i feel much more comfortable and less embarressed of the state of my spanish.
Macarena is so sweet that she even texted me to go meet her and a few of her freinds for a beer on saturday night but i was already in route to a party with some other freinds. the party was put on my 2 girls at are in my same teaching program and it was mostly americans, spackled with varied europeans and of course a healthy dose of spaniards. that night we acgtually ended up adopting a little passle of euros because a guy in our program that we are freinds with had brought 8 freinds and had NOT made an sort of hostal reservation, assuming they would just stya out all night. although that plan does often work, by 5am at a club well across town from where they were theoretically planning to crach on the floor, the few that had managed to stay out that late were getting pretty tired, so maggie and i kindly offered our futon. i beleive we had a scottish girl, an irish guy and a belgian as well. they all teach in san lucar and have invitied us to visit anytime.
what else... well of course my little gypsies... they are doing fairly well! we have moved into making actual sentences in english now, instead of just learning vocab. we are currently working on prepositions and pronouns , ex: "where is juan? HE is ON the table." also, i am putting the ol' psychology major and experience working with ABA to good use by creating a token economy system for reinforcing learning and good behavior!!! i even set up a special adapted version for my oh-so-special juan herredia. (thats my 11 year old with the extreme ADD, and meriad other behavioral issues who also can't read. he's a treat.) but yeah, juan go his first sticker today, i was stoked. he chose the one that said "super!" for his token sheet, and one that said "great!" for himself.
ok, if i am going to get my essential tuesday afternoon siesta in i'd better get to it.
i hope you are all happy healthy and generally doing fabulous.
beso fuerte,
MC
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Sunday, January 20, 2008
first week back at school and a most excellent weekend..... (this post has been in draft form for over a week!!!)
after more or less getting over jet lag i had my first day back with my little darlings about a week ago now. they were only mild to medium badly-behaved. last week i started working with them on questions and answers such as what is your name, how old are you, where are you from, and what is your favorite color, food etc. copying and studying these things was not terribly interesting for them, so i said that they better study because a special person was coming to interveiw them and was only going ask in english. after a while i realized that i HAD no special person, other than myself. so, i told them that my "twin sister", a famous interviewer in the united states, with her own television program (that can only be viewed in the US, haha). i fabricated a story about having to go to the airport to pick up said twin sister and after recess noelia brought them to a different room where i had changed my clothes and tried to make myself look as much like a glamorous famous interviewer as possible. at first they were veeeery skeptical, but after a while of trying to ask me questions in spanish, they bought it! well some of them did, the others are clever enough to tell that i am a horrible liar and could see that my not being able to keep a straight face meant that was indeed not my famous twin. wether they fell for my rouse or not, the goal was definitly accomplished, they asked and answered the questions we learned in english. hoooray.
link to my Orripo album where you can see all of my little darlings:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mclauerman/Orripo
This weekend we went down to El Puerto to visit our dear freind Hayley and to celebrate her birthday! We arrived Friday and went over to her freind fernando´s house ( amgio essspecial.... weeeee! jeje me mates? bueno, no importa!) who has a an oven to bake her a proper american birthday cake. the two of them attempted this the night before but the foam-like discs that resulted had a taste very reminicent of glue. evidently they were in desperate need of a clever and domestically inclinded (HAHA) woman such as myself. anyway after a while of eyeballing and making meteric conversions in our heads, the second time around the cake turned out to be lovely.
much to lydia´s schegrin, (Germans do NOT celebrate birthdays, or even say happy birthday on days OTHER than the actual birthday. none of this stretching it out for 3 weeks business, no. so strict, the germans) we started celebrating on saturday (her bithday was on sunday) first with a lovely breakfast at a cafe right on the beach. maggie said she wanted to take my picture and send it to all of her freinds because i was wearing a tank top, on the beach, in january. (she is from wisconsin, its evidently like 20 below there or something.) we continued the revelry with a tradional spanish lunch wih food typical of the region -- all manners of fried fish. so good! there were 10 of us, a feat to sit a one table, and we had not only good food and cerveza but also good company. and later of course we had the tradtional american birthday party at hayley's apartment. (by tradtional i only mean that there was a cake with candles and the american happy birthday song accompanying the booze.) we did the spanish proud and danced the night away in el puerto well into the light of the next day. we returned to sevilla tired and happy :)
link to my Orripo album where you can see all of my little darlings:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mclauerman/Orripo
This weekend we went down to El Puerto to visit our dear freind Hayley and to celebrate her birthday! We arrived Friday and went over to her freind fernando´s house ( amgio essspecial.... weeeee! jeje me mates? bueno, no importa!) who has a an oven to bake her a proper american birthday cake. the two of them attempted this the night before but the foam-like discs that resulted had a taste very reminicent of glue. evidently they were in desperate need of a clever and domestically inclinded (HAHA) woman such as myself. anyway after a while of eyeballing and making meteric conversions in our heads, the second time around the cake turned out to be lovely.
much to lydia´s schegrin, (Germans do NOT celebrate birthdays, or even say happy birthday on days OTHER than the actual birthday. none of this stretching it out for 3 weeks business, no. so strict, the germans) we started celebrating on saturday (her bithday was on sunday) first with a lovely breakfast at a cafe right on the beach. maggie said she wanted to take my picture and send it to all of her freinds because i was wearing a tank top, on the beach, in january. (she is from wisconsin, its evidently like 20 below there or something.) we continued the revelry with a tradional spanish lunch wih food typical of the region -- all manners of fried fish. so good! there were 10 of us, a feat to sit a one table, and we had not only good food and cerveza but also good company. and later of course we had the tradtional american birthday party at hayley's apartment. (by tradtional i only mean that there was a cake with candles and the american happy birthday song accompanying the booze.) we did the spanish proud and danced the night away in el puerto well into the light of the next day. we returned to sevilla tired and happy :)
Friday, January 11, 2008
ella ha vuelto
si, estoy en España otra vez!
it took me a little longer than expected to get here... there was a little hurricane at SFO on Friday which but a bit of a crimp in my travel plans. Luckily, once I figured out that there was no way I was making my connection I managed to convince the nice airport lady that I did NOT want to spend any night in Philidelphia, so the next available flight out of SFO was not until Monday. This was a slight bummer for a few reasons: 1) my suitcase was checked to Madrid so even though I was tapping out of travelling for the weekend, it was going to Madrid without me. 2) I wanted to be back in Spain before Jan. 6 because it is Reyes Magos, the day that Spaniards exchange presents, have a parade and really party for Christmas. 3) My freinds Maggie and Hayley were waiting for me with Magos party plans. BUT the pros were obvious: another weekend with my beloved family! and I just did not have the physical strenghth to battle a very angry airport chuck-full with frustrated people.
So I set out o Monday for real, it had stopped raining, and all went about as smoothly as possible. I arrived on Tuesday and basically slept until Wednesday evening, only leaving the house to pick up a pollo asado for dinner. Thursday I managed to be more useful, did errands, cleaned the house and went to tutor my high school boys. The older one, Miguel, who is 16, won a scholarship to go study in London for two weeks this spring! I am so proud of him! We spent our whole class talking about the kind of guitar he wanted to find in London. ( He is VERY into guitars, has his own band, etc. ) So I got a lesson about every different kind of guitar and the differences between each, only having to occasionally correct his grammar and give him new vocabulary. A win-win. I also went jogging again, I beleive for the first time since the hambuger incident. I was a little nervous, and I still felt like people were looking at me funny but I arrived back home, unscathed. When I consulted Javi, the younger boy that I tutor, he confirmed that people are looking at me because it IS weird to go jogging in Spain, so if I was going to run around like a weirdo, I was just going to have to deal with the stares, so there.
Today I still have not gotten over this pesky jet-lag! Mags and I went out last night, and I have been sleeping all day long! I need to force myself to stay up during the day to finally get back on this schedule. I just had some breakfast at 6pm, on California time! It's ok, I still have the weekend to get over it.
Ok, just wanted to update to let everyone know that I have made it back, safe and sound.
Beso,
MC
it took me a little longer than expected to get here... there was a little hurricane at SFO on Friday which but a bit of a crimp in my travel plans. Luckily, once I figured out that there was no way I was making my connection I managed to convince the nice airport lady that I did NOT want to spend any night in Philidelphia, so the next available flight out of SFO was not until Monday. This was a slight bummer for a few reasons: 1) my suitcase was checked to Madrid so even though I was tapping out of travelling for the weekend, it was going to Madrid without me. 2) I wanted to be back in Spain before Jan. 6 because it is Reyes Magos, the day that Spaniards exchange presents, have a parade and really party for Christmas. 3) My freinds Maggie and Hayley were waiting for me with Magos party plans. BUT the pros were obvious: another weekend with my beloved family! and I just did not have the physical strenghth to battle a very angry airport chuck-full with frustrated people.
So I set out o Monday for real, it had stopped raining, and all went about as smoothly as possible. I arrived on Tuesday and basically slept until Wednesday evening, only leaving the house to pick up a pollo asado for dinner. Thursday I managed to be more useful, did errands, cleaned the house and went to tutor my high school boys. The older one, Miguel, who is 16, won a scholarship to go study in London for two weeks this spring! I am so proud of him! We spent our whole class talking about the kind of guitar he wanted to find in London. ( He is VERY into guitars, has his own band, etc. ) So I got a lesson about every different kind of guitar and the differences between each, only having to occasionally correct his grammar and give him new vocabulary. A win-win. I also went jogging again, I beleive for the first time since the hambuger incident. I was a little nervous, and I still felt like people were looking at me funny but I arrived back home, unscathed. When I consulted Javi, the younger boy that I tutor, he confirmed that people are looking at me because it IS weird to go jogging in Spain, so if I was going to run around like a weirdo, I was just going to have to deal with the stares, so there.
Today I still have not gotten over this pesky jet-lag! Mags and I went out last night, and I have been sleeping all day long! I need to force myself to stay up during the day to finally get back on this schedule. I just had some breakfast at 6pm, on California time! It's ok, I still have the weekend to get over it.
Ok, just wanted to update to let everyone know that I have made it back, safe and sound.
Beso,
MC
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
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.
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.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
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
Friday, December 14, 2007
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!
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!
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
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.
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.
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