I am listening to Madonna´s new CD right now and my-oh-my do I ever love it. It´s superb. She really ought to stick to dancy type of music. I love the trance, it really puts you in this funky dancy mood...it makes me want to go to Madrid and party right now (I can´t wait for Dec.8th...yayyyyyyyy for Madrid clubs). Yeah, I´m going to Madrid from the 8th to the 11th of December, since we have some holidays here in Spain and I don´t have work (I love "puentes"). I am going to see everybody again, it will be so much fun! Hey Vince, or Randy...can I sleep over? Hehehehe
I think that my favourite songs off of her album are "Sorry", "Hung Up", "Future Lovers" and "I love New York". Just so incredibly good. Madonna has once again scored a major hit with this album...good job, Madge. :)
So, in other news, this week went by ultra super fast...which is awesome considering I worked A HELL of a lot! Maybe that´s why it went so fast...because I was basically just occupied 24/7...The intensive course is going really well, the guys are really nice and you would never guess that they were from the military (you would think that they might be uptight...but no!). So, we´ve had some great intensive courses so far...I still have one more week of intensives..and then, it´s back to normal. So, one more looong week (hopefully it will go by as fast as this week).
Nothing else new to report from work...it´s all going well, always busy with everything..so I guess that´s all I have to say about that for now!
In other news: HAHAHAHAH CANADA we don´t have -18 degrees :P Sorry....hehhehe let me laugh about this while I still can (winks). We have about 6 degrees here now daily (yeah, it´s not that much, but still....apparently the winters here in Logroño are not that cold..the coldest that it can get here is about -6..and THAT is even a lot for here apparently). This weekend will be rainy though, so I guess I will hang out in a shopping mall or something to pass away the weekend...maybe go see a movie with Caspar or something...(heheheh yes, he´s heard that joke already).
The cat is sleeping on my heater...she is so cute (when she BEHAVES). She´s such a big pain in the butt sometimes, but I still love her...the poopy.
In other news...I can´t wait to go to Germany for Xmas! I am sooo excited, it will be so nice to be with the whole family again :) There will be so much great food...mmmmmmm :)
On another note, my body won´t let me sleep in anymore :( I think that it´s because it´s so used to getting up early for intensives and early morning classes..grrrr. Like, what the heck, I woke up at 7:30 a.m. today when my Fridays are my sleep-in days since I only have class in the afternoon! argh...oh well.
Hmmm....nothing too new to report, I guess...this week was just hectic..I didn´t do anything except work all week, lol. Last weekend I went shopping and got myself a new sweater, new cute earrings (wearing them now) and a new jacket. I love new things. :) I also didn´t even spend that much for those three items, my mother would be proud of me, hehehehe. This weekend I have to go put money on my phone again since I only have 3 cents left...but, hey, considering that I charged it up in september the last time, I am doing pretty good.
Ok, well, I guess that´s it for this week....next week will be another giant work week, but I am managing :P Until next time folks, and Eve and Rachel keep on updating because I check it everyday! Love you all and miss you all xoxoxooxo H
Friday, November 25, 2005
Friday, November 18, 2005
Tomatina Pictures...finally!
Well, here they finally are: The pictures of the Tomatina in Buñol, Aug. 31st :) Yes, I know, I took forever to get these pics online (I don´t have a good digital camera so I had to get them put on a cd first). This week I finally hauled myself to a photo store and got everything developed..so here are the best pics, enjoy! The pic that you see on top is a pic that we took before the mayhem began...hehehe...from left to right: Kelly, Christine, David, Me, and Vince :) Yes, I am wearing goggles, ladies and gents! I think that my mom would have killed me if I hadn´t...hahah I mean, my eyes are so PERFECT anyways, I see like a hawk, right? LOL It was my idea to take this pic...I thought that the world might like to know that we are actually clean people :) Needless to say, the following pics will depict the insanity as well as the fun that we all had :) (I think I had the most fun getting "tomatoed" though haha) I will never forget this day!
My God...who knows how many thousands of spaniards there were...it was just unbelievable! I asked David to take this pic, since he is so tall and was able to tower above the others and take a decent pic of the crowd that was throwing millions of tomatoes in the air and at each other. The air reeked pretty badly of this acidic fruit (yes, it is a fruit ladies and gents..not a veggie..go look it up if you don´t believe me).
Hahahah besides bringing protective eyewear, I should have brought protective hairwear like this girl here...man, I still found tomato chunks in my hair a week later...and yes, I DO WASH. It was just so insane...look at the tomato pieces on the guy who is standing next to the girl with the pink squid-looking hairwear.
Ahhh, Kelly, Christine and David..hahahah they sure got "tomatoed" alright...although I must say that they still look pretty clean compared to some other people that were there. Kelly kept saying: "I don´t get this...why are these people doing this again?" I guess her facial expression sums everything up. Pure stupidity, yes...fun? Hell yes. The only thing is that the acid from the tomatoes really made your skin itch and burn. Everybody was also always squinting all the time because they were scared of getting a tomato in their eye...guess the goggles weren´t such a bad idea after all (thanks Mom). Hehehehe..why do moms always know better?
David, Vince and Me. Vince also had the smart idea with the goggles..man, did we ever get hit with tomatoes...I got tomatoed everywhere (at one point I was having a one-on-one battle with Vince). LOL, after only a few minutes, our white shirts quickly became in need of a Tide commercial.
Bring on the trucks: the carriers of our weapons. By this point we were all throwing mushy tomatoes at each other..it was a real tomato soup party! We were all joking that we weren´t going to be eating any tomatoes for a really long time. Spaghetti, anyone? (yes, that is Vince at the bottom...he´s got his war-face on)
More people, more tomatoes, more itchy, burning skin...hahahaha. It is so strange throwing stuff at strangers..but man it was great :)
And here I stand before you all, after the madness: a very happy, and exhausted Heidi. Yes, look at that delicious ground...hmmm makes you want to start getting a spoon, no? So many people lost their shoes, it was ridiculous; the ground was so slippery! Showering after this event felt like pure heaven...and by showering I mean being hosed off in a car wash by David, lol. It was really insane, but hilarious! After the Tomatina, we all went to Valencia to soak up some rays and to swim in the Meditarranean Sea on the East coast...ahhh it was divine!I had so much fun that day and am happy to have finally been able to show you my crazy photos. There were a few others, but I think that these ones at the best (for some reason it wouldn´t let me post more anyways).
So, any comments are appreciated, and if not, no biggie..keep reading and hoped you like my pics of the crazy Tomatina in Spain!
xoxoxoxoxo love you all, H.
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Wow, writing on a Tuesday night...what´s wrong with me?
Well, here I am...back home, after a long day. I am kinda dreading next week...and the week after that. I am just wondering how the next intensives will go...I am going to be so so busy again (as if I am not busy enough with regular classes!). The last intensive course was AWESOME. The guards were so much fun to teach; we always had good discussions and always ended the class in a fun way. The next intensive class will be different since the students will be at a lower level (this reduces conversation time of course), which means that I will do most of the talking, which means that I will be more tired at the end of the day. I hope that their personnalities will be good at least. Well, we´ll see. At the very least, if they turn out to be shy, quiet students, it will only be for 10 days...
Wow. So tomorrow is Wednesday already. November seems to be flying by (wonder if it will fly by for the next two weeks!) I am already so excited for Xmas! I can´t wait to go to Germany now...it will be so much fun! Yayyyy...the last time I was in Germany for Xmas was 10 years ago..man, time flies!
On another note: Today I got an interesting email in my Hotmail Inbox. It was a job offer for a language school in Alcorcon, Madrid! I used to be a member of this website called Madridman.com, and some person saw that I had posted something about wanting to teach English, and then they emailed me today asking if I was still living there and if I wanted to teach at a Language school in Alcorcon! Man, if I would still be living there I would have jumped at the opportunity! It´s funny how things happen sometime. Of course, I am way happier living here and everything...so I wrote them an email saying that I wasn´t living there anymore and that I was already teaching somewhere else. :P
Today I had an hour break between classes, and went for a nice long walk in the rain. It was really refreshing. I also wanted to go pick up my pics at the photo store, but the lady said that they would only be ready for tomorrow. Grrrr...I should have gone to a one-hour photo place. Oh well. I will try going on Thursday (since I am going to be too busy tomorrow). I hope that they will turn out nice...I want to send them to everybody (I asked the lady to put them all on a cd).
The cat is going ballistic in my closet. She howled for me to open it, and now she is jumping everywhere inside. What a nut. Why do I love her again? Oh yeah, cuz she farts when she sits in my lap. Guess it´s a Pencov thing ;) And an Ayoub thing. We like our "prouts". Hahahaha
It has been raining a lot here for the past few days...but I don´t mind it. It soothes me, actually. It´s very calming in general.
I really like my bosses. They are so nice and helpful, I feel as though I can chat with them as if they were my buddies. It´s great! I always speak in French to them, since they are from France. It is really practicing my French...I swear to God, Eve and Cyn, when you will see me again I will speak with a much better accent. I am already losing the Quebecois accent, little by little. It´s awesome....and it is interesting to compare the quebecker French to the French from France. There are SO many differences, it is unbelievable!
Apparently, all of my friends in Madrid are broke (that´s why I haven´t been getting a lot of sms from anybody). Am I ever happy to have a real full-time job! I guess Canterbury doesn´t give that many hours in the end...I had finally gotten an sms from R today and he told me that he barely has enough money for his phone, that´s why he hasn´t sent me any sms. I guess that V has the same problem...man, I really wish I could hear from him, at least some kind of email! Well, at least Kitty is going to be in Madrid soon again (she had left in July). I want to see her for the second week of December, when I have a 4 day weekend ;) I want to go clubbing again with everybody (we´ll see who can afford it, man).
Other than that, everything is good here. I can´t wait to speak with my parents again, I haven´t spoken to them for 1.5 weeks now...maybe they will be home this weekend and we will be able to chat again (crosses fingers).
Ok, that´s all for me, I am really tired now and should go to bed soon....since I have an early morning class at 7:45 a.m. (yeah, pretty early, eh?)
H.
Wow. So tomorrow is Wednesday already. November seems to be flying by (wonder if it will fly by for the next two weeks!) I am already so excited for Xmas! I can´t wait to go to Germany now...it will be so much fun! Yayyyy...the last time I was in Germany for Xmas was 10 years ago..man, time flies!
On another note: Today I got an interesting email in my Hotmail Inbox. It was a job offer for a language school in Alcorcon, Madrid! I used to be a member of this website called Madridman.com, and some person saw that I had posted something about wanting to teach English, and then they emailed me today asking if I was still living there and if I wanted to teach at a Language school in Alcorcon! Man, if I would still be living there I would have jumped at the opportunity! It´s funny how things happen sometime. Of course, I am way happier living here and everything...so I wrote them an email saying that I wasn´t living there anymore and that I was already teaching somewhere else. :P
Today I had an hour break between classes, and went for a nice long walk in the rain. It was really refreshing. I also wanted to go pick up my pics at the photo store, but the lady said that they would only be ready for tomorrow. Grrrr...I should have gone to a one-hour photo place. Oh well. I will try going on Thursday (since I am going to be too busy tomorrow). I hope that they will turn out nice...I want to send them to everybody (I asked the lady to put them all on a cd).
The cat is going ballistic in my closet. She howled for me to open it, and now she is jumping everywhere inside. What a nut. Why do I love her again? Oh yeah, cuz she farts when she sits in my lap. Guess it´s a Pencov thing ;) And an Ayoub thing. We like our "prouts". Hahahaha
It has been raining a lot here for the past few days...but I don´t mind it. It soothes me, actually. It´s very calming in general.
I really like my bosses. They are so nice and helpful, I feel as though I can chat with them as if they were my buddies. It´s great! I always speak in French to them, since they are from France. It is really practicing my French...I swear to God, Eve and Cyn, when you will see me again I will speak with a much better accent. I am already losing the Quebecois accent, little by little. It´s awesome....and it is interesting to compare the quebecker French to the French from France. There are SO many differences, it is unbelievable!
Apparently, all of my friends in Madrid are broke (that´s why I haven´t been getting a lot of sms from anybody). Am I ever happy to have a real full-time job! I guess Canterbury doesn´t give that many hours in the end...I had finally gotten an sms from R today and he told me that he barely has enough money for his phone, that´s why he hasn´t sent me any sms. I guess that V has the same problem...man, I really wish I could hear from him, at least some kind of email! Well, at least Kitty is going to be in Madrid soon again (she had left in July). I want to see her for the second week of December, when I have a 4 day weekend ;) I want to go clubbing again with everybody (we´ll see who can afford it, man).
Other than that, everything is good here. I can´t wait to speak with my parents again, I haven´t spoken to them for 1.5 weeks now...maybe they will be home this weekend and we will be able to chat again (crosses fingers).
Ok, that´s all for me, I am really tired now and should go to bed soon....since I have an early morning class at 7:45 a.m. (yeah, pretty early, eh?)
H.
Saturday, November 12, 2005
I should forget my keys more often!
Well, here I am...back in my own apartment again! You know what happened to me last night? After work, I was walking home when I suddenly realised that I had forgotten my keys in the apartment. Of course, I tried to ring for my roomate but nobody was home...also, he didn´t reply to my phone calls. So, what to do at 10pm? CALL THE IRISH FOLK! So I called Gavin and Dervla and met up with them at this bar called La Antigua, where we all had these awesome tapas...Their friend Valentin was also there (great guy from Romania, absolutely hilarious) and we ended up hopping from bar to bar, and drinking way too much wine and this other peach-tasting drink (I cant remember its name for the life of me). They just kept telling me: what do you want to drink? what do you want to drink? I did pay for one round of drinks, so at least I paid my share too :P Ah, Heinekens and peachy drinks...
I crashed at their place afterwards..it was about 3:30 a.m. or so. Their apartment is really cool, heheheh I will probably be seeing that place a lot.....it is so huge and has 2 guest beds!!! They also have a lot of antique furniture and everything from the people who used to live there...so yeah, really really cool place. I'm happy that they found such an awesome apartment.
Today we all slept in until about 12:30 in the afternoon...then, we went shopping! There is a ginormous mall here that I had never seen before! It had such awesome selection and had really really really good prices...I couldn't believe it! Next weekend I am going to go on a shopping spree, I am soo excited! I need to get new shoes and new pants, some new sweaters, and...hahahahhah yeah yeah...can you tell I haven't been shopping in ages? I haven't bought myself a new article of clothing since I have arrived here.....I know!! Well, I have a lot of clothes here already, but I am planning on throwing some old stuff away or giving it to charity...I need a change :) I'm already excited on my upcoming new purchases, lol! Really, and attached to this great mall is a huge grocery store, cheap again! This is a really good quality mall, and I almost fell over everytime I would look at the prices...Seriously, Eve, you would adore this place! I wish you could come shopping here with me, hehehe.
I got a bit nostalgic when I saw the mall...it reminded me of Canada a lot, but in honesty...it had much better prices..and they are in Euros to boot!
Wow...it had been 4.5 months since I had stepped in a real, enclosed, indoor mall. Seemed like forever!
I had a really nice day with Gavin and Dervla, and we all did our groceries together, it was nice. I felt like I was their 3rd roomate, lol. They are such awesome people, so nice and friendly...always there to lend a hand when you need it!
So last night, I was mad that I had forgotten my keys...but now I am thinking that it wasn't such a bad thing in the end after all :) We had an awesome time together...long live forgetfulness!
I crashed at their place afterwards..it was about 3:30 a.m. or so. Their apartment is really cool, heheheh I will probably be seeing that place a lot.....it is so huge and has 2 guest beds!!! They also have a lot of antique furniture and everything from the people who used to live there...so yeah, really really cool place. I'm happy that they found such an awesome apartment.
Today we all slept in until about 12:30 in the afternoon...then, we went shopping! There is a ginormous mall here that I had never seen before! It had such awesome selection and had really really really good prices...I couldn't believe it! Next weekend I am going to go on a shopping spree, I am soo excited! I need to get new shoes and new pants, some new sweaters, and...hahahahhah yeah yeah...can you tell I haven't been shopping in ages? I haven't bought myself a new article of clothing since I have arrived here.....I know!! Well, I have a lot of clothes here already, but I am planning on throwing some old stuff away or giving it to charity...I need a change :) I'm already excited on my upcoming new purchases, lol! Really, and attached to this great mall is a huge grocery store, cheap again! This is a really good quality mall, and I almost fell over everytime I would look at the prices...Seriously, Eve, you would adore this place! I wish you could come shopping here with me, hehehe.
I got a bit nostalgic when I saw the mall...it reminded me of Canada a lot, but in honesty...it had much better prices..and they are in Euros to boot!
Wow...it had been 4.5 months since I had stepped in a real, enclosed, indoor mall. Seemed like forever!
I had a really nice day with Gavin and Dervla, and we all did our groceries together, it was nice. I felt like I was their 3rd roomate, lol. They are such awesome people, so nice and friendly...always there to lend a hand when you need it!
So last night, I was mad that I had forgotten my keys...but now I am thinking that it wasn't such a bad thing in the end after all :) We had an awesome time together...long live forgetfulness!
Saturday, November 05, 2005
Whirlwind of Events...
Wow, I am back! Phew...it has been quite a ride, let me tell you. (Looks at calendar) Yup, sorry for having taken so long to update, but let me tell you, I have been a very busy girl for the past 3 weeks! Let´s just say that today is finally Saturday again and it´s laundry day (yup, I have 4 loads to do, and with the slow european washing machines it can take up to almost an entire day, lol)
Where to begin? Well, on October 12th, which was a National Holiday, I took the early 6:30 a.m. bus out of Logroño and drove to Madrid to pick up Shane...hehehe he didn´t know about it, it was a surprise! He thought that I was going to pick him up only at the bus station later that evening, but no, this girl is full of surprises, hehe! He was quite happy to see me at the airport, as was I, of course. I really missed him, we had talked a lot on msn for the past couple of months, and had emailed each other a lot, so it was nice to finally see him face to face again. It felt a little surreal, and we still couldn´t believe that we were both in Spain together.
At first I was afraid that I would barely have enough time to see him, since I would be working so much with the intensive courses and everything, but it actually worked out pretty well. We would meet up for coffee during my breaks or have a quick lunch together, or quick breakfast etc, so in the end it was all good.
Our first weekend trip was to San Sebastian (you know, one of the places where U2 performed this past year, hehehe). It was soooo beautiful. Sam Sebastian is located on the North coast of Spain, a little North-East actually. We had awesome weather, and spent a nice relaxing weekend together there. I have a nice seashell as a souvenir, from when we were walking barefoot along the beach together. I just felt so alive that weekend, the beach was beautiful and there were some castle ruins on the east part of the city. The castle ruins were located on a hill, and Shane and I went hiking there a bit and were amazed at the beautiful scenery.
Our hostal in San Sebastian, because we hadn´t booked anything, was very last minute and so-so. It was called Pension Aussie (because an Australian owned it) and it was alright in terms of providing us with a decent place to sleep and put away our stuff, but it was kinda shitty looking, lol. Let´s just say that we were happy to have found a place really quick and didn´t care about luxury at that point. After all, we came to see the city, not to have a 5 star hotel :P The room was ok, in fairness, but very old and needed a wallpaper job, lol. I think that the wallpaper was from 1960, lol.
But, man oh man, San Sebastian was really beautiful and I would recommend going to see it. The little streets with all the bars remind me a little of Logroño, it was really cool walking through the streets at night and just seeing the packed bars full of people enjoying their beers and Pintxos. Yes, I said Pintxos and not Tapas. San Sebastian is located in the Basque country, and the language spoken there (although castellano is heavily used there too) is incomprehensible to a normal Spaniard. It´s an entirely different language, it´s not even a dialect. Thank God the people speak castellano there as well, so I was able to speak with the waiters, pension owner, etc.
The second weekend, for my birthday, we went to Barcelona! I was so excited for that trip, even though we had to leave at midnight on a friday night to spend as much time as possible in the city. Again, we had amazing weather. When we got there, the sun was shining and the birds were singing. It was so beautiful, I prefered it to Madrid by a tenfold. We visited this beautiful GORGEOUS old cathedral where there were white geese (!) in this little plaza that was located right before you entered the church. In the square surrounding the geese, there were little shrines devoted to different saints, and it was interesting walking around and trying to guess what these saints symbolised. Also, there were palm trees right behind the geese! Yeah, doesn´t sound like an ordinary church, does it? Well, it sure wasn´t! When we finally entered the cathedral, my jaw dropped. It was the most beautiful church I had EVER seen. Ever little detail was etched into wood or ceramic with the most minute details, and everything screamed of antiquity and real, pure, "holiness". Shane and I both agreed that it made us want to attend mass that Sunday. I am not kidding you, this was A CHURCH. I could have honestly seen myself go to mass every Sunday, and I am not a very religious person..hehehe Dad, you would have LOVED this cathedral, you who loves old churches! It was enormous and oh so so beautiful. One of the highlights of Barcelona, definitely.
The port was also really lovely. We walked alongside it, and took a bunch of pictures. It was really awesome. Later, we went to our Hostal, (yes, this time we had booked a room) to put our stuff away and to take a little nap since we hadn´t slept well on the bus. The hostal was very nice, very cute and comfy, and the showers were awesome! Great water pressure...(sadly, I don´t have great water pressure here in Logroño...something that I miss from Ottawa). This hostal was called Hostal Grau and it was very close to downtown. I recommend it. Friendly staff, too :)
The most famous street of Barcelona, which was super super close to our hostal, is called Las Ramblas. It´s so much fun walking down that street! There are little flower stands, animal stands, and magazine stands everywhere! Also, on weekends, some people dress themselves up as various characters and "mime" their way to money from the public. You know what I mean, those people who stand really really still and only move once you throw a coin in their hat or whatnot? I loved seeing the various get-ups. There was one guy dressed up as Humphrey Bogart, and he was just standing there, all still. I got super curious and threw a coin in his little receptacle thingy. The guy really looked the part. When he heard the clanking of the coin, he turned to me and said "Hey, baby" and then swiveled around and pulled a fake gun out, and Shane took an awesome picture of that.
Also, right off from Las Ramblas was an AMAZING food market. It had everything and was so huge. We had fun just walking through the maze of people and stands, easting fresh fruits and this REALLY good organic salad thingy. I saw so many different kinds of fish I had never seen before. Oh, and newsflash: I now LOVE calamare! It´s so good here in Spain, I really recommend the fish here.
At night, we just walked around town to see the people and everything. Barcelona was really nice..and for my birthday we had nice dinner together and all of my coworkers sent me sms messages on my cell phone :) It was nice, I hadn´t expected all of them to do that for me. Shane also gave me nice presents for my birthday, beautiful earrings, a U2 t-shirt and some cd´s. He also wrote me some nice things. Thank you so much Shane! xoxo
For our 3rd weekend trip, we went to Santander. This trip was good in the way that it was very relaxing, it is a smaller city and there isn´t too too much to do when you compare it to a big city like Barcelona. Again, we walked along the beach and took nice pictures. It was very windy that Saturday, but it was alright. Our hostal was simply called Hostal Madrid because it was located on a street called Madrid. That hostal was made out of a private home, hahahha the owners were really nice but at first it felt like we were intruding their home or something...hehe! We had a nice big room though, and it wasn´t overly expensive.
We mostly walked all around the little city and visited an outdoor zoo where seals and penguins were. I imagine that in the summertime there are other animals as well, but since it was a bit cooler, those were the only animals that were able to survive in those temperatures. So, all in all, Santander was a nice relaxing trip, and Shane and I really took our time and didn´t rush ourselves for anything.
It was very hard seeing him go last Wednesday, just because I was so used to seeing him everyday for 3 weeks. But, I am better now. I have a lot of good friends here and I have my big Lucy Poo as company...hahaha we still cuddle together at night, she keeps me warm :P
Now, moving on to my classes for the month of October. Well, I have finally gotten used to my routine now, and it´s a lot of work. But, I am enjoying it...some days are of course better than others, and that is with any kind of job. I am still very grateful that I got a full-time job so fast. Yesterday was pay day, hooooray! Wow. I feel very accomplished. At 23, I can already live totally independent here on the salary that I am making. Logroño is really not an expensive city and I could seriously live off my monthly salary here in comfort. It´s insane to think that I have already come so far so quickly. I feel so much older mentally and spiritually. I don´t know, in a way I am still the same kid I once used to be, but these experiences here will change my life forever.
I have good classes on the whole, interesting and nice students. I have gotten used to the personalities of my students already, and am also more comfortable now with my children´s classes. Some of my kids classes are a real joy to teach, there is only one kids class that really demands a lot of energy and discipline (and that is a class that has a really bad history, lots of teachers quit that class before). I have developed a system now with the children when they are being too disruptive. I remain optimistic with that class, since I do really like some of the children. Things have gotten better on the whole with that class, so that´s good.
With my adult and teenage classes, I have no problems and I have great fun teaching them as well. Oh, and before I forget, I had some intensive classes with military men for 2 weeks, and that was actually a lot of fun too. Those guys were hilarious and so much fun. We all went out for dinner at the end of their course and then went dancing together (!). Hahaha, certainly not the type of military men I was expecting at first. The dinner was amazing in itself, I ate the best steak ever! It was so good. We also had a lot of great tapas beforehand..mmmmmm. Oh so good. The next intensive course start Nov. 21st....and it will be a lot of work again, so I am happy to get a little break from that now...my normal schedule is more than enough work!
I really love the people that I work with. Thank God, otherwise I wouldn´t have bothered staying. To me, the work atmosphere is the most important thing in the workplace. If there is tension, why bother staying and being unhappy? I am happy that everybody is so nice and respectful. :)
In other news, I was sooo looking forward to going to the circus (an Italian Circus, ohh la la) but we found out last night that it costs 16 euros per ticket!! Argh, what???! They do that on purpose, saying "kids get in for free" and then make the accompanying parents pay an insane amount that they know the parents will pay anyways because they want to make their children only happy. Grrrr...here I was looking forward to something different. I was 11 years old the last time I went to a circus. Dammit. Yeah, I know, I am a big kid. But white tigers! C´mon!
It´s getting colder now. We have about 10-15 degrees during the daytime now and 5 degrees at night. Oh well. At least I am escaping the -20 degrees temperatures this winter. :P
Mom, Dad, Daniel, I miss you! Even though I know I will have a great Christmas in Germany with everybody, I wish I could also spend it with you at the same time...oh well, I guess you can´t win everything, eh?
Well, I think that this is enough for now, keep checking this blog because now I will have more time to update it over the weekends and stuff, since Shane is now gone and life is back to normal. Hehehe no more weekend trips for a little while, gotta save more now!
Love you all, your chiquitita from España xoxoxoxooxoxox
Where to begin? Well, on October 12th, which was a National Holiday, I took the early 6:30 a.m. bus out of Logroño and drove to Madrid to pick up Shane...hehehe he didn´t know about it, it was a surprise! He thought that I was going to pick him up only at the bus station later that evening, but no, this girl is full of surprises, hehe! He was quite happy to see me at the airport, as was I, of course. I really missed him, we had talked a lot on msn for the past couple of months, and had emailed each other a lot, so it was nice to finally see him face to face again. It felt a little surreal, and we still couldn´t believe that we were both in Spain together.
At first I was afraid that I would barely have enough time to see him, since I would be working so much with the intensive courses and everything, but it actually worked out pretty well. We would meet up for coffee during my breaks or have a quick lunch together, or quick breakfast etc, so in the end it was all good.
Our first weekend trip was to San Sebastian (you know, one of the places where U2 performed this past year, hehehe). It was soooo beautiful. Sam Sebastian is located on the North coast of Spain, a little North-East actually. We had awesome weather, and spent a nice relaxing weekend together there. I have a nice seashell as a souvenir, from when we were walking barefoot along the beach together. I just felt so alive that weekend, the beach was beautiful and there were some castle ruins on the east part of the city. The castle ruins were located on a hill, and Shane and I went hiking there a bit and were amazed at the beautiful scenery.
Our hostal in San Sebastian, because we hadn´t booked anything, was very last minute and so-so. It was called Pension Aussie (because an Australian owned it) and it was alright in terms of providing us with a decent place to sleep and put away our stuff, but it was kinda shitty looking, lol. Let´s just say that we were happy to have found a place really quick and didn´t care about luxury at that point. After all, we came to see the city, not to have a 5 star hotel :P The room was ok, in fairness, but very old and needed a wallpaper job, lol. I think that the wallpaper was from 1960, lol.
But, man oh man, San Sebastian was really beautiful and I would recommend going to see it. The little streets with all the bars remind me a little of Logroño, it was really cool walking through the streets at night and just seeing the packed bars full of people enjoying their beers and Pintxos. Yes, I said Pintxos and not Tapas. San Sebastian is located in the Basque country, and the language spoken there (although castellano is heavily used there too) is incomprehensible to a normal Spaniard. It´s an entirely different language, it´s not even a dialect. Thank God the people speak castellano there as well, so I was able to speak with the waiters, pension owner, etc.
The second weekend, for my birthday, we went to Barcelona! I was so excited for that trip, even though we had to leave at midnight on a friday night to spend as much time as possible in the city. Again, we had amazing weather. When we got there, the sun was shining and the birds were singing. It was so beautiful, I prefered it to Madrid by a tenfold. We visited this beautiful GORGEOUS old cathedral where there were white geese (!) in this little plaza that was located right before you entered the church. In the square surrounding the geese, there were little shrines devoted to different saints, and it was interesting walking around and trying to guess what these saints symbolised. Also, there were palm trees right behind the geese! Yeah, doesn´t sound like an ordinary church, does it? Well, it sure wasn´t! When we finally entered the cathedral, my jaw dropped. It was the most beautiful church I had EVER seen. Ever little detail was etched into wood or ceramic with the most minute details, and everything screamed of antiquity and real, pure, "holiness". Shane and I both agreed that it made us want to attend mass that Sunday. I am not kidding you, this was A CHURCH. I could have honestly seen myself go to mass every Sunday, and I am not a very religious person..hehehe Dad, you would have LOVED this cathedral, you who loves old churches! It was enormous and oh so so beautiful. One of the highlights of Barcelona, definitely.
The port was also really lovely. We walked alongside it, and took a bunch of pictures. It was really awesome. Later, we went to our Hostal, (yes, this time we had booked a room) to put our stuff away and to take a little nap since we hadn´t slept well on the bus. The hostal was very nice, very cute and comfy, and the showers were awesome! Great water pressure...(sadly, I don´t have great water pressure here in Logroño...something that I miss from Ottawa). This hostal was called Hostal Grau and it was very close to downtown. I recommend it. Friendly staff, too :)
The most famous street of Barcelona, which was super super close to our hostal, is called Las Ramblas. It´s so much fun walking down that street! There are little flower stands, animal stands, and magazine stands everywhere! Also, on weekends, some people dress themselves up as various characters and "mime" their way to money from the public. You know what I mean, those people who stand really really still and only move once you throw a coin in their hat or whatnot? I loved seeing the various get-ups. There was one guy dressed up as Humphrey Bogart, and he was just standing there, all still. I got super curious and threw a coin in his little receptacle thingy. The guy really looked the part. When he heard the clanking of the coin, he turned to me and said "Hey, baby" and then swiveled around and pulled a fake gun out, and Shane took an awesome picture of that.
Also, right off from Las Ramblas was an AMAZING food market. It had everything and was so huge. We had fun just walking through the maze of people and stands, easting fresh fruits and this REALLY good organic salad thingy. I saw so many different kinds of fish I had never seen before. Oh, and newsflash: I now LOVE calamare! It´s so good here in Spain, I really recommend the fish here.
At night, we just walked around town to see the people and everything. Barcelona was really nice..and for my birthday we had nice dinner together and all of my coworkers sent me sms messages on my cell phone :) It was nice, I hadn´t expected all of them to do that for me. Shane also gave me nice presents for my birthday, beautiful earrings, a U2 t-shirt and some cd´s. He also wrote me some nice things. Thank you so much Shane! xoxo
For our 3rd weekend trip, we went to Santander. This trip was good in the way that it was very relaxing, it is a smaller city and there isn´t too too much to do when you compare it to a big city like Barcelona. Again, we walked along the beach and took nice pictures. It was very windy that Saturday, but it was alright. Our hostal was simply called Hostal Madrid because it was located on a street called Madrid. That hostal was made out of a private home, hahahha the owners were really nice but at first it felt like we were intruding their home or something...hehe! We had a nice big room though, and it wasn´t overly expensive.
We mostly walked all around the little city and visited an outdoor zoo where seals and penguins were. I imagine that in the summertime there are other animals as well, but since it was a bit cooler, those were the only animals that were able to survive in those temperatures. So, all in all, Santander was a nice relaxing trip, and Shane and I really took our time and didn´t rush ourselves for anything.
It was very hard seeing him go last Wednesday, just because I was so used to seeing him everyday for 3 weeks. But, I am better now. I have a lot of good friends here and I have my big Lucy Poo as company...hahaha we still cuddle together at night, she keeps me warm :P
Now, moving on to my classes for the month of October. Well, I have finally gotten used to my routine now, and it´s a lot of work. But, I am enjoying it...some days are of course better than others, and that is with any kind of job. I am still very grateful that I got a full-time job so fast. Yesterday was pay day, hooooray! Wow. I feel very accomplished. At 23, I can already live totally independent here on the salary that I am making. Logroño is really not an expensive city and I could seriously live off my monthly salary here in comfort. It´s insane to think that I have already come so far so quickly. I feel so much older mentally and spiritually. I don´t know, in a way I am still the same kid I once used to be, but these experiences here will change my life forever.
I have good classes on the whole, interesting and nice students. I have gotten used to the personalities of my students already, and am also more comfortable now with my children´s classes. Some of my kids classes are a real joy to teach, there is only one kids class that really demands a lot of energy and discipline (and that is a class that has a really bad history, lots of teachers quit that class before). I have developed a system now with the children when they are being too disruptive. I remain optimistic with that class, since I do really like some of the children. Things have gotten better on the whole with that class, so that´s good.
With my adult and teenage classes, I have no problems and I have great fun teaching them as well. Oh, and before I forget, I had some intensive classes with military men for 2 weeks, and that was actually a lot of fun too. Those guys were hilarious and so much fun. We all went out for dinner at the end of their course and then went dancing together (!). Hahaha, certainly not the type of military men I was expecting at first. The dinner was amazing in itself, I ate the best steak ever! It was so good. We also had a lot of great tapas beforehand..mmmmmm. Oh so good. The next intensive course start Nov. 21st....and it will be a lot of work again, so I am happy to get a little break from that now...my normal schedule is more than enough work!
I really love the people that I work with. Thank God, otherwise I wouldn´t have bothered staying. To me, the work atmosphere is the most important thing in the workplace. If there is tension, why bother staying and being unhappy? I am happy that everybody is so nice and respectful. :)
In other news, I was sooo looking forward to going to the circus (an Italian Circus, ohh la la) but we found out last night that it costs 16 euros per ticket!! Argh, what???! They do that on purpose, saying "kids get in for free" and then make the accompanying parents pay an insane amount that they know the parents will pay anyways because they want to make their children only happy. Grrrr...here I was looking forward to something different. I was 11 years old the last time I went to a circus. Dammit. Yeah, I know, I am a big kid. But white tigers! C´mon!
It´s getting colder now. We have about 10-15 degrees during the daytime now and 5 degrees at night. Oh well. At least I am escaping the -20 degrees temperatures this winter. :P
Mom, Dad, Daniel, I miss you! Even though I know I will have a great Christmas in Germany with everybody, I wish I could also spend it with you at the same time...oh well, I guess you can´t win everything, eh?
Well, I think that this is enough for now, keep checking this blog because now I will have more time to update it over the weekends and stuff, since Shane is now gone and life is back to normal. Hehehe no more weekend trips for a little while, gotta save more now!
Love you all, your chiquitita from España xoxoxoxooxoxox
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