Buon Natale

Merry Christmas Everyone! I hope your was well, and I know mine was! My Christmas was spent in Venice, Italz which was amazing, and the most nontraditional Christmas I've ever had.  The trip started on Thursday night when we (Esteban (my friend from Ecuador) and I) had to sleep on the floor at the airport because we had an early flight to Venice and public transportation wouldn't open in time for us to make it. This was quite a poor start to the trip because it was the coldest night I've ever spent. The floor was like a refrigerator and all the benches were taken.  Esteban ended up sleeping on a bench and looked quite homeless which I laughed about quite a lot after not sleeping most of the night. I was waiting for him to get up to go to through security and I was sitting in a place where two benches had been pushed together to make more comfortable for sleeping, but these were very dirty and I was crunched up on one side of them where it didn't look quite so nasty.  Esteban came over to me and said with the most excitement I'd heard all day, ˝You didn't tell me you got this place!˝ As if I'd been sleeping at the Hilton while he was on some broken bench. Again, after no sleep this turned out to be one of the funniest things I'd ever heard and I proceeded to laugh for about twenty minutes and start all over again whenever I remembered the story. 
When we got to Venice, we were met by Diana who is an Ecuadorian friend of Esteban's, and she's studying in Venice. She was awesome and took us all around the city and the islands of Murano and Buran.  Murano is famous for the glass making and Burano was the cutest little town of all different colored, gorgeous buildings.  The weather was a little rainy on Saturday, but we made the most of it and marched around with our umbrellas and cameras ready. If you've never been to Venice, let me just say it is remarkable how much you can feel like you're in a maze. Sometimes you walk with a purpose and you're like a mouse trying to get to the cheese, but other times you're walking absolutely aimlessly and happy to find whatever may be around the next corner. I was oblivious and had no clue what to expect there. I had no idea there were no cars and how tiny the ˝streets˝ were. Over every bridge and down every alley was something new to discover but very old and beautiful. We made a dinner at home on Christmas Eve which was the most ridiculous, but hilarious, Christmas dinner I've ever had. Any kind of traditional Christmas food you can think of, I'm sure we didn't have it.  But, I loved it and it added a great new Christmas memory, all though I did miss my family and thinking about what kinds of food they would be having at home.  Christmas was a day completely devoted to exploring. I didn't really care to enter any of the buildings or museums because I was having such a good time wandering and exploring.  I love the city of Venice and would highly recommend it as a vacation destination.
However, today is Monday and time to move on to the next city. I was panicking this morning because we didn't have a print-out of our bus tickets from the Venice airport to Ljubljana, Slovenia.  So we found our way through the maze which is the city of Venice to a print shop early in the morning. After, a couple of guaranteed wrong turns the shop turned out to be closed so we hurried home to try to pull up our tickets on an iPod to make the most of it and hope the bus people don't care. Then, we were off to the airport. What we didn't anticipate is that absolutely no one at any information desk or bus ticket counter had ever heard of the company we had bought our tickets to Slovenia through.  Good thing we got there an hour early because, of course, I started freaking out and scurring around to find anything. I was feeling completely panicked and asking anyone I could find and searching the bus areas for anyone who could point us in the right direction.  Esteban, however, being quite smart while I was running around thinking we got ripped off and bought our tickets through a scam website, found a computer at the airport that could be used for a couple euros and found where the bus was supposed to pick us up ˝exactly.˝ This didn't turn out to be so exact though because with ten minutes until the bus was supposed to leave we still had no sign of where we really needed to be and get on. So, of course, and international bus would be like a tour bus with bathrooms and a giant display right? Well this is what we'd been looking for until I noticed a couple around our area wandering and searching and appearing just as panicked as we did. I finally asked the guy where he was going and he said Slovenia as well and he had luckily just found the ˝bus˝ which actually turned out to be more of a van with a driver who spoke zero English or Spanish and very little Italian.  We showed him our little iPod tickets and, after a few seconds or realizing we were never going to understand each other enough to explain ourselves, he just passed us through with a kind of, ˝whatever; get in,˝ kind of look.  There turned out to be a total of 5 passengers in our van and it looked pretty sketchy. I told Esteban that this is where they drive us to the middle of nowhere and kick us while driving away with all our stuff.  The driver was driving 150 km/hr in an 80 km/hr zone, and I quickly put on my seatbelt.  We ended up dropping this one guy off in the middle of nowhere off some random exit which didn't make us feel anymore comfortable with the whole situation.  A little while later, we pulled over at some random gas station just before the border of Slovenia where 6 very large, Slovenia women approached the van. There were only 4 seats available so we all kinda exchange worried glances.  Luckily, only 3 of them got in and not to be mean but one of the women had the thickest mustache I've ever seen. We continued on our trip and the driver took out something that looked like a strange water bottle, and as we slightly swerved back and forth over the centerline, Esteban leaned over and said, ˝Gosh, I hope that's not Vodka.˝ Needless to say, we arrived in Ljubljana intact and 45 minutes earlier than expected as a result of our speedy driver.
Anja picked us up promptly and took us with her cousin through some of the Christmas markets and to see some of the little sights of this little city. It was really cool and completely different from the other big, European cities I've been to which made it a little exciting.  When we got to Anja's house, her mom had made us a traditional Slovenian meal which was AMAZING!  Her parents are crop farmers and everything we had a dinner was homemade. We had a veggie that was pretty much saurkraut and a homemade sausage with homemade wine and cornmeal and mashed potatoes. Everything was so tasty and they made us eat until we were stuffed out of our minds.  Anja's parents can understand some but don't speak any English so it was kind of exciting to be a table with constant translations.  Esteban, being a food scientist, wanted to know all about the food and what her dad does while Anja's dad wanted to know all about the food and landscape of Ecuador. It was really fun, and we were welcomed so warmly. So far it's been amazing, and I'll try to keep up with the next adventures soon.  Tomorrow we're going on a tour of the farm and Anja's little village which consists of about 300 people.

Yay for a Swiss Vacation!

Last week we had Thursday and Friday off of school so I took off for the weekend and went to Geneva, Switzerland to stay with some cousins I have there and see some sites. I haven´t seen these cousins in probably about 10 years so it was really good to catch up.  On Friday, Aunt Annette took me to the international side of Geneva. She showed me some of the big buildings and explained what they´re used for, and we got to go on a tour of the United Nations building which was really interesting because I didn´t know very much about what they do and are used for.  Friday night was a going away party for my cousin, Elise. She´s going to be studying for six months in Alaska.  I don´t speak a word of French so her friends had a nice time practicing their English.  It was really weird to be in a place where something besides Spanish is the language being spoken because I kept hearing a foreign language and that made me want to be speaking in Spanish. I´m glad to be back where I can semi-communicate with the people, but French is a really pretty language to listen to. 
    On Saturday, cousin Alexzandra got there with a friend. Olivier showed us around the old part of Geneva. This weekend was the Escalade which is a festival that commemorates the last attack on Geneva which was in 1602 and everyone wears Medieval clothes and we say cannons fired and sword fights and all that fun stuff.  It´s the only festival they have all year and it seems to me a slightly strange thing to celebrate, but it was fun.  We got to celebrate Alexzandra´s birthday so we went out to a restaurant and had fondue. It was a cute place with guys playing traditional music and wearing costumes and playing instruments like cowbells and a really really long horn. 
    On Sunday, Aunt Annette and Uncle Pierre took Alexzandra, her friend and I to the mountains for a little excursion.  We went to the mountains right on the border between France and Switzerland. There was a little train that we took to the top of the mountain, and it brought us to one of the most beautiful views I´ve ever seen. It was also refreshing to see some snow up there, but it was also good to be able to escape the snow just by going back down the mountain. We then went to the Chateau Chillon which is a little castle right on the lake. They had a medieval village set up inside so it was really fun to look around and imagine how much it would stink living there without modern conveniences.  This castle is where Mary Shelley got her inspiration to write Frankenstein. It was really beautiful and a little creepy when we went down to the prison area.  There was a door about 10 or 15ft off the ground and the tour guide told us that was the entrance where they literally ´threw people into prison.´ Ouch. On the way home, we saw the most beautiful sunset I´ve ever seen in my life. My pictures don´t do it justice, but seeing the mountains and the colors painted across the sky just made me really think about how awesome God is that he would give us something so beautiful.  It´s so true how His creation cries out with His majesty.

     I had a really awesome weekend, and my cousins were so hospitable! It´s amazing to be blessed with such great family and people who will take care of you. I´m a little bit sick now. I think I caught a cold on the airplane or something so I´m going to be spending this week resting up as much as possible because my Christmas trip is just around the corner and I´ll need to be in tip top shape.  I miss everyone, and if you think of it, shoot me and email or facebook message about what´s going on in your life because I´m pretty cut off from everyone at home. Talk to you soon!

A Rough Week Followed by an AWESOME Weekend!!

Well, the last couple weeks were a bit hard because I bought a computer that didn´t work. Then I spent hours on the phone with Spanish-speaking Dell people who were all crazy and could not fix my computer. It led to a lot stress and a 45€ phone bill because there aren´t toll free numbers here.  All these stressful hours were draining and led to my first culture-shock experience where I missed Taco Bell and my mom´s chocolate torte.  Finally, on Thursday UPS came to pick up the computer and take it away which was a huge weight off my shoulders.  This is why I haven´t been writing lately because there was just nothing good to say for awhile there.

This week at school it was my turn to plan the lesson for the Infantil age group which is the 3-5 year olds. I had to teach them clothes such as: trousers (British English of course), shirt, skirt, hat, shoes, and dress. I came up with the idea of making a little girl on a big piece of paper. Sally helped me decorate her clothes. Her name was Lucy which is coincidentally the name of our dog, and (how embarrassing!!) she came to school without her clothes!! Haha, the kids had to help by sticking her clothes on and saying their names.  It was a lot of fun, and I was impressed with myself because I'll admit I'm not the most creative person.
This weekend, FOR MY BIRTHDAY :), I went to Madrid for Mexican food with my friends and it was a blast! It was great to eat some awesome food and just kick back with the girls. We got all dressed up and had a good time. Two new friends came with us. One girl from Mexico (hence the Mexican food) and one girl from Poland (who can actually pronounce my last name. Go figure!)  I got to practice a lot of Spanish because the Mexican girl can speak English fluently, but its easier for the Polish girl to understand Spanish.  It was a great birthday party.
Yesterday, Alfonso, one of my Spanish teachers, took me to a store near Madrid with Anja to help me buy a new computer. This was SUCH a blessing! I don´t know very much about computers anyways let alone enough to understand the guy telling me about all the specs in Spanish.  Alfonso explained everything very slowly and in terms he knew I would understand, and after some thinking and testing, I bought a really good computer its an HP with a screen so big I have to sit a little farther back. It was a good birthday present for myself.  After, he took Anja and I to Ávila which is a historical town about an hour from San Lorenzo.  He ended up spending his entire day with us; he´s so nice and it´s great to have people like this in your life especially in a foreign country where I don´t have my own car or the knowledge of these places. Ávila is up there with Paris in the most beautiful places I´ve seen. Of course, Paris and Ávila can´t really be compared because they´re beautiful for completely different things. Ávila is a city that was built around 1085 so it´s almost 1000 years old and it´s surrounded by castle walls. You see castles in movies and pictures and storybooks, but to see one in real life was the most amazing experience ever! The wall still stands in it´s entirety and there is a beautiful cathedral that still stands inside.  We tried different sweets that the city is famous for and enjoyed some great tapas. We went into this place where there were things used by a famous saint which happened to include one of her fingers with a ring on it!! I´m sorry my Catholic friends, but I will never understand the significance of keep someone´s intact bodypart.  I really didn´t think I could handle much more because I was overwhelmed by all these amazing sturctures, then Alfonso drove us to a lookout a little outside the city after dark to see the entire city and walls all lit up. It was absolutly breathtaking!
Today, when I got home from church, we celebrated my birthday with a special dinner. Stephen made some awesome jumbilaya and Marina made a beautiful birthday cake with 21 candles on it. It was so nice and I felt right at home.  They even got me a present which was a case for my new computer. The case they bought was for the little computer that I just bought and Marina told me she bought this case then came home and I said I was returning that computer haha. She kept the receipt though so I´ll just exchange it. I´ve been so blessed to have a great family and friends here, and I´m getting better at my Spanish all the time. So things are going great just in time for my birthday tomorrw. I´m sure I´ll always remember my birthday in Spain! :) Happy Birthday to me!! 

P.S. These last two pictures are especially for Hud and Dad. The first for Hud because we had been talking a lot about the Lord of the Rings since we had been around castles and all and then we went around a corner and this reminded me of a slightly chopped version of the White Tree of Minis Tirith or Gondor or where. I thought you, of all people, would appreciate it. The second is for Dad. You would have gone crazy with all the awesome roads through the mountains we took to get to 'Avila. There were motorcycles everywhere and it made me think of you :) Enjoy!!

Paris

Wow! It's been a long time since I've written and so much has happened. My computer broke a.k.a I dropped it and had to buy a new one. So, since I've been limited in my computer use, I haven't had time to fill everyone in. I'll just write about my trip to Paris though because it was by far the most exciting!

I skipped school on Friday to head out early. Don't worry this is totally fine :). We got to see sooooo many historical sites. It was amazing and exhausting. Luckily, everyone speaks English so we had no problem communicating even though I speak maybe 10 words of the entire French language. My favorite food was the crepes that we could buy pretty cheap  on the street. They also sold good panini's there :). All the architecture is amazing and old and beautiful. The most amazing building, however, was Notre Dame. It was absolutely breathtaking both inside and out. I took pictures because it is impossible to even attempt to describe how magnificent it is. The Eiffel Tower of course was a necessary stop on the itinerary. It's one of those places that you can't believe you're actually seeing in real life. It's always just been on tv or the internet or something, but to be able to stand beneath it and view all of it was an incredible experience. Another marker in France that I thought I'd only ever see on tv or movies or internet was the Mona Lisa.  It's so familiar and so simple, but so elegant and surreal.  You've probably already noticed an unusually large amount of descriptor words so I suppose I should just stop trying, but every landmark we went to see was beyond words and I'm so excited to have had the opportunity to see them all in real life. On Saturday, we met up with my cousin, Alexzandra, and she took us to a famous little cafe where Hemmingway used to go. The coffee was great and she took us next to try some amazing macaroons which were really expensive, but they were worth the experience. Another memorable stop was to a little cafe where Alex's guide book said we could find the best hot chocolate ever. It turned out to be the most expensive hot chocolate ever, too. Ringing up at 7 euros, we enjoyed the thickest, chocolatiest cup of deliciousness I've ever brought to my lips. We only ordered 2 because it was a fortune, but the lady was really nice and brought us 3 anyways.  We were lucky enough to see several plazas and famous squares and building in the city. They were all spectacular and our feet were begging us to stop seeing more. I had to massage my feet at the end of each night because they wouldn't stop throbbing.  We went to the Arc de Triomphe and strolled down the Champs Elysees and one of our final events was seeing St. Champelle which is a small church with the most amazing stained glass windows in probably the entire world! I'm sure my pictures will speak for themselves and I'll have all of them posted on facebook really soon! I'll be sure to fill you in more frequently on what's going on here.

Dia de España and a Lazy Weekend

It was a good week at school in some respects because Wednesday was a national holiday so we got the day off. This day is a celebration of Columbus' discovery of the Americas. Michelle, Anja, and I went to Madrid. We got there at around 11 in the morning which was when the parade started. We only stayed for a little bit because there was a million people and it was a strange parade. The only things we saw were military personnel and tanks driving down the road. But, after this we went to Retiro Park which had a lot of really cool things to see. I was really exhausted from the previous two days of school so I ended up sleeping for an hour on a bench in the park in the sunshine. It's still incredibly hot during the afternoons in Madrid. It's starting to cool down a little in San Lorenzo, and I think by Wednesday it's supposed to finally start acting like fall.  We went shopping in the evening and had a good lazy day strolling around the city. One of the reasons I was so tired this week was because I had 5 different language exchange classes. I'm getting a lot better at listening comprehension which is wonderful. I think my speaking is getting better too, but that's a little harder to gauge.

This weekend, I didn't have any plans. I thought about going into a museum in Madrid today, but the one I wanted to go to is only open until 2:30 on Sundays. I really needed to sleep in so I didn't go. Anja came over yesterday when Marina and Stephan hosted a big BBQ for their friends, and after one thing led to another, she ended up staying until 6:00pm today.  It was great! We did nothing of importance; we ate a ton of food and played cards all day.  It was really good to do nothing this weekend because I'd just been so tired and slightly under the weather. It's time to get my head back into school mode, and hopefully I can get a good night sleep tonight to make my week a little less exhausting. I posted a new album to Facebook of the day in Madrid. Hasta luego. :D

Alcalá

First thing I have to say is: if you haven't watched the video of Sally's skit on my Facebook wall, you need to find someone with Facebook and watch it.  It sums up so much of how adorable she is.



On Thursday, I had my first exchange class. In a language exchange class, we're supposed to speak Spanish half the time and English the other half so that both parties can benefit. So I met with a man named Alfonso, he's probably around 40 and he's a music theory teacher and a really nice guy. He's all excited to show me around this area of Spain, and, being a teacher, he's really good at keeping the conversation going which is especially difficult for me to do in Spanish because, by habit, I just don't talk very much when people are speaking Spanish around me. I found this guy because Marina sent out an advertisement for me to around 25 people she knows in San Lorenzo who might be interested or know someone who is interested in exchanging languages.  I got about 10 emails back and started trying to fit people it. So far, I have 4 different people I'll actually meet with at some point.

On Saturday, Stephen made paella for lunch which is a very traditional Spanish dish and it was amazing!!! I really need to learn how to make this one, but it sounds extremely complicated so I'll have to do a lot of observing in the future if I actually want to replicate it well.

On Sunday, William had a concert in Alcalá which is a historical city (kind of like how San Lorenzo is historical for having the monastery) near Madrid.  William is the Escolania which is a boys choir at the monastery and it's one of the two best boys choirs in Spain. They sang for the pope who came to San Lorenzo sometime earlier this year.  Stephen, Marina, Sally and I went early to visit the town and we had no idea that it was Cervantes week which means the medieval festival was going on. Apparently, its the biggest medieval festival in Spain.  Alcalá is where Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote, was raised. We took a tour of his house, and he was from a very well-to-do family, but compared to the mansions of today it was so small. It was really cute, and Marina is a great tour guide. She showed Sally and me different pieces of furniture and what they were famous for and used for during that era.  The town was absolutely gorgeous and still maintains so many attributes of the old cities. For the concert, we went to the Magisterial Cathedral of Alcalá de Heneres which is a breathtaking cathedral that was built hundreds of years ago.  It was an extremely pompous ceremony and when the boys started singing I had goosebumps. It sounded like what I imagine the angels singing will sound like.  I was shocked that my little escolanos could be so antsy and disruptive in class, but then turn around and sing so beautifully.  I could have sat and listed to them all day. We were all extremely exhausted by the time we stumbled in the door, but it was well worth it.

Today, I was almost dead from exhaustion when I got home. This morning, Emily had an appointment to maintain legal residency in the country, so I was teaching alone.  Teaching is SO tiring. I could never do it for the rest of my life.  It's especially hard when the kids literally have no clue what you're saying.  I was about toast by lunch time. In the second hour of lunch, I met with Alfonso to practice Spanish and he took me the Seat of Felipe II which is an overlook onto San Lorenzo. It's said that that's where he sat to watch the progress of the monastery. It was gorgeous! There were granite boulders the size small buildings and the expanse was really breathtaking. In the actual stone seat, there was the initial S.M. which when translated stands for His Majesty.  It was really cool! We happened to run into another couple of people who were practicing Spanish. The guy had overheard us speaking in English and asked us if we were also trying to exchange languages. This guy was from L.A. and he was traveling around to the different historical places with this girl who was helping him and learning English as well.  After lunch, I had the WORST class of the entire week. It's this one particular class of five year olds. There must be something wrong with their teacher because there is about 8 or 9 legitimately bad kids in this class. By the end of that hour, I was really struggling to remind myself why I go to work at a school every day.  Already dead on my feet, I had another language exchange class after school with a girl named Patricia who is 15 and was in L.A. for three months this summer. She doesn't want to lose the skills she's picked up so she was up for exchanging time.  Needless to say, I'm really tired now and  happy because tomorrow is the Spanish version of Columbus Day so we don't have school. Michelle, Anja, and I are heading into Madrid for sightseeing probably in the old part of town.  I'm sure it will be fun, and Thursday, I'm going to meet with another lady to practice Spanish. So, hopefully I'll be getting better soon.

Classes

I'm working hard to get into a comfortable routine here. It's hard to establish my role in the class because I'm often sharing the role with two other teachers which gets confusing at times. Also, I'm trying to keep into a routine of putting myself in places where I'm going to learn the most Spanish. This week is the beginning of routine because October is when the kids have gotten used to the class schedule then they can add additional classes for after school. Sally, for example, will have painting, dance, music theory and violin which means I won't see her until a bit later in the evening.  I had a good time practicing my Spanish with Anja yesterday over lunch, and I'm working to be more comfortable speaking to adults like the teachers at the school. The way of life is so relaxed here I just love it.  I can't really express how much I appreciate things like: having a coffee break from 10:45 to 11:15 every morning, all the restaurants have outside seating and you can sit and talk for as long as you want, eating tapas (a snack/ hors d'oeuvres they bring you for free when you stop for a drink), and working in a place as beautiful as the monastery.  Emily and I have been working a lot more to prepare our lessons for the classes. It's sometimes difficult because we work with 5 different teachers in every age group from 3-11 so trying to stay on the same page can be challenging. Today, Emily and I went up to the top of the monastery which is one of the privileges of working there and having all the keys :). It was really beautiful, and being able to stand up someplace so high to see your surroundings gives you a chance to take a step back and really notice how beautiful everything is.



As of right now, I'm making rough plans for a trip over Christmas break which will include: Rome, Vienna, Berlin, and Barcelona. (Hopefully). It's all so exciting.  Miss everyone back home, but also having a great time here! Hasta luego!

It Just Keeps Getting Better

So, I survived that horrible class that I was in all last week, and I'm so glad its behind me! Since my last post, Anja has decided to stick it out until December with that family. I'm really happy she's staying for purely selfish reasons :), but I think it'll be okay because now we're all used to this woman's insanity.  On Friday, Emily, my teaching partner, left for London and we only had one class so I said it was no problem for me to just cover it so she could head out on her trip. I was really excited to plan my first solo class. I was teaching them more about telling time in English. They had already been learning it for awhile so they knew what we were talking about with clocks. I had it all planned out. They had to write 3 hours of a schedule for a day. I wrote an example sentence on the board so basically they just had to fill in a couple of words to make it their own. Also, I had a fun game at the end. It, however, turned out to be a disaster because for some reason they couldn't understand what I wanted them to do, but they weren't getting my Spanish version either. I know I'm not crazy because one girl did it perfect the first time. The game also didn't work because I discovered most Spanish kids don't have quite the competitive drive that I do. All in all, it was great in theory, and I'm still pretty happy with the activities I planned.

I was really excited for this weekend because on Saturday I went to the Prado Museum in Madrid. It was fantastic! I went by myself which was good because I could go at my own pace. I saw Velasquez's Las Meninas which I was really pumped about because it's always exciting to see a famous painting that you recognize. There was also a lot of Goya which I could recognize.  These paintings were really fascinating and going by myself really gave me an opportunity to ponder what these works of art meant in their time and to their artist. The thing that amazed me most beyond the fact that I could never in a million years paint something like these paintings was how huge they are.  For example, Las Meninas is about 10 ft. high and 8 ft. wide. You would need a ladder to paint this. How can someone not only have a vision to create a painting from nothing but also be able to keep their thoughts straight when they can only see a tiny portion of the picture at any one time? I was really incredible.  

When I got home, I took a nap because a girl was picking me up at 11:30 pm to go the fiestas of Las Rozas, a town nearby.  Yes, this is extremely late at night, but one thing I've learned since being here is that on weekends, Spaniards don't do anything before midnight. These strange hours are very apparent on Sunday mornings when the city looks like a ghost town until about noon.  The fiestas was something fun to see. I guess every town does it, but really its like a big carnival. There were rides and tons of food. I had a "Kebab" which was basically gyro, and it was so good.  This picture is of a bull riding-type ride at the carnival which was hilarious.  It was a good experience, but carnivals aren't really my favorite. Something I learned while I was there is that every town in Spain has its own fiestas each year which includes running with the bulls. I thought that it was only a few major cities that did this, but apparently they all do there are just certain towns more famous for it.  

Today, I had the privilege of going with Stephen and William and their friends to a high-ropes course in the mountains in another town. It was a beautiful day! It was just a little chilly because we were in the mountains, but perfect because when you're doing something strenuous you don't want to be baking.  I listened to all the safety instructions in Spanish and passed the safety test.  After a couple courses with the younger boys, I decided to try the extreme course.  This guy was explaining to me in Spanish what to expect, but this time I didn't really catch enough of the instructions to fully understand what I was getting myself into.  Let me give you a hint as to how hard this extreme course was; you have to be over 18 to even attempt it.  One thing that I did hear from the man was, "point of no return." I was just thinking, "Ya whatever, I'm sure I can handle it." So, I climb up and do about two of the obstacles which were both drastically more difficult than the other courses I had already done.  Have you ever seen the show American Ninja or whatever it's called? Well the next challenges looked a bit like that.  Right as I was working to convince myself to try the monkey bars, which by the way I can't really do when I'm 6 feet off the ground let alone 25, this guy comes over and asks me if I was told the instructions. I replied with a simple si because I was trying to get in the zone for what was about to come. Then he asks if I speak Spanish and I admitted only a little.  He then proceeded to explain to me in English what was coming.  Basically he laid it out like this, if I can do the monkey bars and think it's easy I'll probably be fine, but if the monkey bars are a bit difficult there's probably no way I can do the rest. Should I get across the monkey bars and realize I'm too tired to complete the rest, I have to climb back across the monkey bars to get down. If I keep going past two more obstacles though there is a trapeze and once I go across that I'm forced to finish and the challenges are more difficult there.  So, needless to say, I quit. But, it was fun while it lasted and me and the instructor had a good laugh in Spanglish when I got back down.

In the same part of the mountain as the high ropes course, the guy we were with took us on a short walk to show us the road that was built by the Romans to get from the southern to northern plateaus.  It was built around 2500 years ago which is older than Jesus.  It was really cool to see and think about because we don't really have such old pieces of history in the States.  

I'm having so much fun here, and it's finally starting to hit me a little at a time that I actually live in Spain! Well, as much as I'd love to have a weekend forever, tomorrow is Monday and I'm hoping with this new week I can work harder in learning more Spanish and getting into a routine of speaking it more.

Fun Weekend Behind, Long Days Ahead

Well, I had a wonderful weekend. Most of the time was spent just relaxing with friends. On Saturday night, Anja and I spent hours just sitting in the city center in San Lorenzo just watching people and practicing my Spanish.  It really exciting to watch people who are so different from me and what I know. The mannerisms, the conversations it's so different. There's this strange feeling that everyone is so different, but somehow we're all people and still somewhat the same. On Sunday, Anja and I spent the day in Madrid shopping.  We were a bit worried when we got there because it was 11:00am and all the shopping stores were still closed.  After walking around and going in a random store here or there that was open, around noon all the stores opened. Quite strange for me, but apparently it's normal for Spain. I got tons of great deals, and I had a lot of fun showing Anja how to bargain shop.  Madrid is really a beautiful city, and it's so huge. I love being there and watching the people and being in the hustle-and-bustle of the city.  I'm really looking forward to being able to go to museums and learn a bit about the history of the city.

This week, I have to take a class in Madrid.  It's because of my job at the school. The program is set up on student visas so with a 20% unemployment rate in Spain right now we need to be fulfilling our claims of being students along with working so we're required to take this class. I lucked out by being allowed to take this one week long intensive course then I will go one Monday each month to Madrid for an evening class. The other option was to have to go every Monday which is extremely inconvenient for me and the family I work for.  So far, I've really disliked this class. These adult teachers are probably the most rude, argumentative people I've ever had opportunity to be in class with. They didn't listen or participate and were constantly being rude and telling the whole world their thoughts on something that everyone was otherwise perfect not knowing.  Anyways, after being in the class from 3-9 it's a bit exhausting.  I don't really have much time in the day right now. I wake up and immediately go to school, then to Madrid, then to bed.  I think, after this week, things will fall more into a steady pace and they won't be quite so new and overwhelming.

One quite unfortunate thing that is happening though is that Anja is with a family whose mother is extremely difficult to work with. She gets yelled at a lot for really stupid stuff, and even if it was legitimate, we're adults and expect to be scolded accordingly. Maybe if something is wrong or done a way this lady doesn't like she could just tell Anja to do it different next time, but unfortunately she's been horrible. Anja is looking now to move out by the end of the week because of a final "last straw" argument because Michelle and I went over to their house on Friday night and Anja didn't tell the mom. But, the mom had just said the night before that she was cool with people coming over and only if they were going to spend the night did she need to let the family know.  Anyways, it's really stressful for her, and we're all hoping she can find another job in this city or at least in Madrid so she's close.  Pray it all works out for her. Thanks :)

Driving

Yesterday, I only to teach two classes. So during the afternoon, which was completely free, my friend Anja taught Emily (the other teacher) and I how to drive a stick-shift.  We started out in a little supermarket, and after a few tries, I thought I was ready to try the road.  I suppose I was cocky or maybe I thought the whole world would stop for me to learn to drive. Needless to say, it didn't.  I did very well overall because I didn't crash or stall out, but i was panicking the whole time.  There were a million roundabout; I didn't know where to go. It was so scary. Emily kind of had the same experience. We weren't bad at driving, but everyone drives crazy here and people were screaming out their windows at her. By the time we got out of the car we all had headaches and tense shoulders from all the stress. It was really fun, but I hope I can do it for real very soon.

In one of the classes that we had yesterday, a little third grade boy raised his hand during an activity. I came over and asked him what he needed and he replied, "Eres muy guapa." Meaning, you're very pretty.  It was so cute. On that note, Grandpa, I think I found my Don Juan. His name is Diego and he's 3. Anja takes care of him and he doesn't speak any English.  He's a little bratty, but his good looks win me over every time. :)

I'm really glad it's the weekend. I think we're going to pick blackberries in the countryside in a little bit.

Trying to Get into the Swing of Things

Well, I'm halfway into my first full week, and it's pretty hard to adjust. I'm not used to working all day. Spain is really good in that they are more laid back, and I love meal time and break time.  The kids are wonderful, but they're exhausting.  They talk very loudly which I'm trying to get used to because by the end of the day my ears hurt a lot making me really sensitive to sounds. It's definitely something I need to get used to and mostly a problem because the monastery is the most echo-y building I've ever been in.  Something about the stone walls and floors I guess. Yesterday was exceptionally exhausting because right off the bat, I went to have coffee and practice Spanish with my friend Anja who speaks fluently.  This was good, but I have to focus a lot on something as simple as speaking.  Then, after morning classes, I had lunch in the teacher's comedor which consisted of focusing even harder because they speak about as fast as....well, I guess, as fast I do when I'm telling a good story. So, I'm sure you can imagine how hard I had to try to understand.  By the end of school, my head was pounding and my legs throbbing. I've always heard of people getting headaches from trying to listen to a different language all day, but something I didn't expect is that it actually made me a bit nauseous. After school, I went to a birthday party of a girl in Sally's class. I had taught her class earlier that day so all the kids at the party knew who I was. I was tired, but I didn't want to pass up the opportunity to be around people who don't speak English.  I ended up talking to a couple of 4th graders for most of the party because they were excited to help me learn Spanish.  The little kids spent most of their time on the trampoline, and when I went out to watch, they all started screaming, "¡Profe! ¡Profe!"  followed by a lot of high-pitched, fast, unintelligible Spanish.  They were all upset because there could only be "cuatro niños" on the trampoline at a time and so-and-so had been on for the longest...blah blah blah.  Finally, after a couple minutes of trying to get them to share, one of the dads came over and announced in Spanish that it's like at the fair they have two minutes and then they have to listen to me when I tell them switch. By the time I got home at 8:30 yesterday, I was dead. I went to bed at about 9:30. So far, this job is the most fun and great experience I've ever had, but I really need to adjust to the time and schedule before it will be comfortable going for so long.

This morning was the first time Marina left me alone to get Sally up and ready for school. She had to go to Madrid at around 7:30 so I was just going to get Sally ready alone. I was sleeping and heard a knock on my door. I opened my eyes to try and figure out what all the banging was and the first thing I noticed was that it was kind of light in my bedroom. I quickly grabbed the clock and saw it was 8:30! We have to leave at 8:40 to get to school on time! I threw the door open in a rush to see Sally standing there all dressed in her school uniform and had her backpack ready to go. All she said was, "Are we late?" in a calm little voice.  I've never met a more responsible 5-year-old in my life!  I quickly gave her a piece of bread with some oil on it, packed her snacks for the day, threw on some jeans and we were out the door.  Of course this would happen on the first day I'm left alone! I kept telling her I was so sorry I didn't wake up on time, and when I asked her how she woke up since she doesn't have an alarm she said, "I don't sleep so good in the morning." I asked her why she didn't wake me up if she was up for so long, but she calmly reminded me that she doesn't know how to tell time yet.  We got to school on time, but we were pretty exhausted. I had to call my teaching partner and tell her I couldn't get there on time because I had only enough time to get Sally out the door.  When I got back to the house to shower and rush back to school, I went to make Sally's bed because she needs to make it herself on Wednesday's and I didn't want her to get in trouble since I didn't remind her which was  my fault.  When I got to her room, I saw her bed nicely made! She's so much fun! I love not knowing what funny thing she'll say or do next.

Best Weekend in a Long Time

I had the entire weekend off which was really fun. I usually will end up babysitting one night each weekend, but it wasn't necessary this time. On Saturday, I was invited to a BBQ with  some other Au Pairs, and we just had a great time eating tons of awesome meat and talking for hours and hours.  They gave me this stuff that looked like a black meat with rice kind of mixed in it inside a casing. I asked what it was, and they wouldn't tell me until I was finished. It tasted really strange. It wasn't terrible, but I didn't really like it. Turns out, it was coagulated blood! YUCK! I'm really glad they didn't tell me until I was done.  I met a ton of new people there and it felt good to hang out and relax. Unfortunately they all spoke English, so I didn't get to practice my Spanish. I'm still working on getting more exposure.

Today, my new friends Anja, a Slovenian Au Pair, and Michelle, another American Au Pair, decided to go hiking to the top of the mountain. I've never been hiking so I didn't really know what I was getting myself into. Anja and I were complaining and breathing heavily before we were even out of site of the beginning of the trail.  We had lunch on the way, but we had no clue where we were going.  Michelle's "dad," Jose, explained how to get there in Spanish and Anja is the only one who can understand well enough, but apparently we should have had more people listening because we got very lost. At least we just kept trucking up the mountain, but what was supposed to be and easy trail turned out to be almost straight up.  We were basically on a cow's only trail because it was so steep and didn't seem to be going anywhere in particular just up. It was the most exhausting, terrible, fun, exciting adventure! We did manage to find our way to a proper trail on the way up marked by a white and red spot on a rock which was really exciting.  We got to relax at the peak for awhile before heading down.  At this point, what we thought was going to take two or three hours total had already taken 2.5 just to get to the top.  The way down should've been a breeze right? Wrong.  We somehow managed to get way more lost than the way up.  We just kept finding random trails taking us down, but when we finally got down we realized we were on the wrong side of this dam, but, determined not to have to retrace our steps by walking back up the mountain we decided to find an alternative. This led to crawling through picker-bushes and climbing down 10 ft sheer walls. I jumped and nearly broke my ankle at the end of this one.  Needless to say, we find our way back at the end of a 5 hour date pretty exhausted.  We were really proud of our wilderness survival skills. (Hud, if I would've had your machete, my life would've been a lot easier.)

So, we get back from all this excitement ready to just sit around and do nothing. I took the girls to my house for a break before they walked home, and I wanted to introduce them to Sally and William. When we got there, the kids were playing outside. The house is in a walled space as most places are in Spain, and Sally was excited to see us so she was standing on the top of the wall talking and telling us about her day as we headed up the stair to see her. Right as we were getting to the top, the dog hit her from behind and pushed her off the wall. I heard Anja gasp and I turned around just in time to see this poor little girl hit the stone floor ten feet below.  She was screaming and I scooped her up and ran inside. It looked like she had fallen on her side. I knew her head and neck didn't hit, but I was shocked she didn't break her ribs.  After several minutes of crying, she bounced back and went outside to play.  My friends and I all sat on a bench for about 20 minutes exhausted and in shock.  We were all just glad she was alright. She only has, in her words, "a sore bum" and a little bruise on her ankle.  She's a tough little kid.

I'm ready to start a new week. :)

First Day of Teaching :)

These kids are so cute! They're so much more respectful than American kids. It's nice to be in a house where the parents still teach the kids how to behave properly and without negotiating.  In the classroom, I work with another American girl and we teach the kids common phrases to say and explain them in English so we just give them a chance to really use their language skills. It was really exhausting today because the kids are a handful and have so much energy and it still feels like I'm waking up for the day in the middle of the night. I really love the people here though, and one of my favorite things is that we have coffee break every morning and go across the street from the school to socialize. I'm really trying to understand the language, and so far, I really only speak in Spanish to the little kids because I'm not embarrassed with them, but a lady I met this evening sounded really interested in teaching me Spanish and having me teach her English.  I really want to learn more so I'm listening a lot and looking for more ways to interact with Spanish-only speakers.

Tonight, after dinner, which we ate at 9 o'clock by the way, the kids had Friday night dance party! It was adorable. They're just so open and don't care about being embarrassed. I laughed the whole time, and most of their moves are really good for their ages.  Tomorrow, I was invited to a BBQ at someone's house. I don't actually know this someone yet, but he always invites over the Au Pairs I guess. My new friends who are other Au Pairs will be joining me.  It's a blast to be meeting new people and doing new things. Almost everything has something about it I've never experienced before so it's overwhelming at times, but I try to welcome it because it's something more to know.

The pictures are mostly of the monastery. That's where the school is so it's really awesome to work in a 16th century palace/monastery.  Also, this is my little buddy, Sally.