Hello all,
Let's see in the last week and a half or so... I worked Mon-Wed as usually then last Thursday the plan was to go visit my Uncle Lou and his family outside London, and also my grandparents who are there now visiting them. Well, that didn't happen , because I foolishly booked with Ryan Air. Friends, do yourselves a favor and NEVER fly (or I should say, buy tickets with...) Ryan Air. I don't feel like telling the story in great detail again but basically here is what happened: Maggie and I booked online with ryan air and decided to do "online check-in" (since they charge you money to check-in at the desk for your flight...) and it said that do do online check-in one would need a european government issued identity card. we have cards that identify us, given to us directly by the spanish government. we put in our information, it cleared, we were allowed to print our boarding passes. so we thought we were set. but no, but government issued identity cards, that meant we had to be european CITIZENS to check-in online.... they failed to mention that little detail soooo.... maggie and we very rudely REFUSED to be allowed onto our flight for which we paid and checked-in.... because... as the ryan air lady screamed at us after we had been ripped off: "YOU ARE NOT SPANISH!!!!"... yes, thank you, mi corazon, i actually realized that on my own. i asked for customer service, i asked for a manager... these are are things that only exist in the US, appearently.
moral of the story: Ryan Air are lying liars that tell lies. They steal your money, and they do not feel bad about it. In fact, they are incredibly rude about it.
So anyway, after I called Uncle Lou and told him my sob (wah, literally) story Maggie and I concluded that the only way to really make those bastards at the airport sorry was to go out and get drunk. THAT would teach 'em.... haha well, we did forget our sorrows for a while! I met up with my intercambio Macarena and her friends from work and I told my story in Spanish with perfect usage and accent of every Spanish palabrota (bad word) that i know and Macarena was very proud of her new little Andaluza. The next day the only people really sorry about what happened to us was us.... big surprise.
Saturday, since we were in town, we were able to go to a Matanza (which literally means killing or massacre) put on by my our organization. Don't worry, they just killed two huge pigs, and it was their time anyway. We were invited to watch the slaughter, but I opted to walk down to the town to find a cafe con leche instead. The Matanza was at a huge country home of the big boss of our program who is an american lady that has been living her in spain for about 20 years now with her spanish husband. they built this huge house out in the country that they someday want to turn into a hotel. now though, it is just a huge place well suited for having about 150 people over for lunch. An afternoon of really good free food and drink and a chance to catch up with a lot of our fellow teachers that we hadn't seen in a while took a little of the sting of our stolen weekend. That night I met up with Macarena and a different group of her freinds and had a great time. They also wanted to make sure that I was well equipped for any argument i might have in spain, so the latter portion of the evening was spent translating various foul andalucian phrases literally into english. oh, fun with language. one thing about these andalusians... they are creative!! The next day we had planned to go to the beach but since I had been out with spaniards and therefore didn't get home until 6am, that was fine with me.
This week we wrote a very strongly worded letter to Ryan Air demanding a refund. We got a response very quickly. It basically said: Too bad. So, my only alternative is slander. I intend to send out quite a few emails warning my fellow participants here not to use Ryan Air.
This weekend we are planning on taking it easy because in March we intend to travel alot! Morocco, London (hopefully for real this time...) Semana Santa here in Seville, Barcelona... I shall update of course.
Take care!
Beso,
MC
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Thursday, February 7, 2008
A brief peek at carnaval in Cadiz
This past weekend we went down to check out the week long madri-gras-esque celebration of Carnaval in Cadiz. Cadiz appearently has the biggest and the best celebration in Andalucia, thus the logical place to go. There was some confusion as to when would be the best time for us to go and after getting advice from many different spanish sources we ended up going sunday afternoon because that was the best day to go see the "cultural stuff". (My intercambio Macarena had recommended that we go instead on Saturday night because that is when all the young people go out dresses up and party until the next morning, but this particular weekend calmer heads prevailed. haha i know, booo...)
Sunday evidently was the more family-orientated day of carnaval, as we were surrounded by so many adorable little babies in costume! (Mags managed to get a few pictures of the more adorable ones, they are linked to my picassa!) More family-oriented day, does in no way mean that partying of the grown-ups really stops. There was evidence everywhere that the partiers from the night before had done the event proud, and many of them at 2pm were crawling off to bed to rest for a few hours before doing it all again, but many were still going strong! Sundays main even was "Los coros", or choruses that compete before carnaval in a big 'theatrical espectacular'. The winners get to ride on floats pulled by tractors and sing their songs for the crowd. I was thinking alot about my dad watching the coros because although i did not understand all of the words, the coros basically sing very silly songs with light-hearted and low brow humor. Certian gestures were frequent and children and grandmas sang right along to silly songs about the follies of the town-idiot and this encounter with the town whore. All around good family fun. There was one group of old people in particular, i would say well into their 70s,about 10 of them, stinking DRUNK by 3pm, in these incredible matching go-go dancer costumes, singing, clapping and marching toward the festivities in a congo line. now THAT is the way to age.
We unfortunately did not have time to stay for the big parade and fireworks that night because they weren't until late and we needed to make the last train back to seville for work the next day, boo. on the train though, sitting righr behind us was a group of coro singers (all quite inebriated) who proceeded to sing all of their songs to the whole car. One of the pre-recs for being a member of a coro is you have to be a HUGE HAM so needless to say, they were QUITE amusing and we had literally a front-row seat. Mags has some video , which I will try to post here!
Here are some pics from Carnaval:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mclauerman/CarnavalCadiz
It is now Thursday, almost the weekend again! My weeks fly by now because of all of my classes I am pretty busy! I have also been trying to not get sick because nearly all of my fellow teachers are. I was thinking about going down to Cadiz again for another round of carnaval but I think my sinuses may prevent me from doing so.
also big news: JENNIFER GETS BACK TOMORROW!!! hooooray!
haha and because of that fact... we need to clean up the apartment!
hope everyone is well at home.
beso,
mc
Sunday evidently was the more family-orientated day of carnaval, as we were surrounded by so many adorable little babies in costume! (Mags managed to get a few pictures of the more adorable ones, they are linked to my picassa!) More family-oriented day, does in no way mean that partying of the grown-ups really stops. There was evidence everywhere that the partiers from the night before had done the event proud, and many of them at 2pm were crawling off to bed to rest for a few hours before doing it all again, but many were still going strong! Sundays main even was "Los coros", or choruses that compete before carnaval in a big 'theatrical espectacular'. The winners get to ride on floats pulled by tractors and sing their songs for the crowd. I was thinking alot about my dad watching the coros because although i did not understand all of the words, the coros basically sing very silly songs with light-hearted and low brow humor. Certian gestures were frequent and children and grandmas sang right along to silly songs about the follies of the town-idiot and this encounter with the town whore. All around good family fun. There was one group of old people in particular, i would say well into their 70s,about 10 of them, stinking DRUNK by 3pm, in these incredible matching go-go dancer costumes, singing, clapping and marching toward the festivities in a congo line. now THAT is the way to age.
We unfortunately did not have time to stay for the big parade and fireworks that night because they weren't until late and we needed to make the last train back to seville for work the next day, boo. on the train though, sitting righr behind us was a group of coro singers (all quite inebriated) who proceeded to sing all of their songs to the whole car. One of the pre-recs for being a member of a coro is you have to be a HUGE HAM so needless to say, they were QUITE amusing and we had literally a front-row seat. Mags has some video , which I will try to post here!
Here are some pics from Carnaval:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mclauerman/CarnavalCadiz
It is now Thursday, almost the weekend again! My weeks fly by now because of all of my classes I am pretty busy! I have also been trying to not get sick because nearly all of my fellow teachers are. I was thinking about going down to Cadiz again for another round of carnaval but I think my sinuses may prevent me from doing so.
also big news: JENNIFER GETS BACK TOMORROW!!! hooooray!
haha and because of that fact... we need to clean up the apartment!
hope everyone is well at home.
beso,
mc
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
back to the "real" world
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
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
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
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