Saturday, January 28, 2006

My Vaccillating Mind

Hmmm. Ok...(ponders). It appears that my mind is not so sure about where my body is going to be,later this year, after all.
Just a few weeks ago, like 2 or so, I was almost 100% sure that I wanted to go back to Canada and teach ESL there for a year or so in Toronto.
Now, I don´t know anymore. Yup, I´m still back to where I was (mentally speaking) a few months ago.
Truth is, yes I have my frustrating days with this different culture and mentality sometimes, but I love Spain. I really do. I feel like I am only beginning in improving my spanish...there is still so much to learn and see in this beautiful country!
Kevin and I have this routine every Friday now where we go see a movie together...we see the films in spanish of course, and it´s so awesome to be able to understand about 70% of the movie! I feel very accomplished...also, now that I hang out with the UN gang (hehe) all the time I get to practise my spanish every weekend...plus, in class of course, because when I teach English or German Vocabulary I often hear the spanish translation from my students!
I don´t know...I have just been thinking now about all the wonderful possibilities that this great country can still offer me...I feel like a year maybe won´t be enough, you know? I really want to hone my spanish skills more...I have already improved by so much! My spanish teacher would be proud, heeheh...
Thursday and last night, I went out with the gang and we bumped into Elena, Gavin and Dearbhla...which was cool cuz then we all started dancing together to this great spanish Reggaeton music (along with some typical flamenco and salsa music accompanied by dance beats)...it was just so much fun, and the clock was inching its way past 2:30 a.m., and I kept thinking how in Canada the clubs would already be closing...sucky.
Furthermore, one thing I don´t miss from Canada is of course the incredible cold...I cry like a baby now when it´s -3 here, which isn´t often. Most days we still have 7 degrees, it seems to be the norm for winter weather or something (not complaining, hehehe).
I know that I still have a while before I REALLY have to make up my mind about if I want to stay another year or not, but it´s really hard and I wonder if I will ever really know. Of course I love Canada, the beautiful country where I grew up..but I feel that Spain is only beginning to show me its secrets, and I still have so much to discover. I have already seen great places: san sebastian, madrid, toledo, barcelona, santander, cuenca and of course now logroño, but there are still many cities that I still want to see.
One of those places is the beautiful Asturias, located in the north-west of Spain. Oviedo is its capital, and this province is said to be the greenest of Spain. Even though it is located north, the temperatures are said to be nice, although a bit rainy sometimes. Life is also supposed to be very cheap, with awesome awesome food and very warm-hearted people. Mark my words, I will at least see this beautiful province on a weekend trip or something...I am thinking that I might go there for Easter, when I have 4 days off.
I´m terrible, eh? Got a new digital cam and still haven´t posted many pictures...don´t worry, haven´t been anywhere else except here in Logroño since I got it for Xmas...hmmm, I guess I´ll take some Logroño pics and post them here next time for you all to see ;)
In other news, Theresa, another new teacher, will be coming to Inlingua this Tuesday or so...I really hope that she will be fun to hang out with, I´m really looking forward to meeting her :) Fresh Blood.
So yes...in a nutshell, Heidi is still undecided about where she is going to spend her next year after her contract is over in Logroño. If I chose to, I could renew my contract, but I still want to travel and experience new things, so if I do stay for another year in Spain, it will be somewhere else.
Although I do sometimes miss Canada and of course my awesome friends, I don´t really have homesickness. Now that I have established myself here and am pretty much fully independent, I know that I´ll be ok here...
I feel like my life here is very cheap and I make good money, so I can save a crapload of cash for my future endeavours.
My NIE number still needs to get settled, but that´s a whole other story. More on that someday.
The sun is shining right now...I think I will take a nice long walk accompanied to dance music. Man, Logroño has great bars and discotecas...thanks, my UN people ;)
Soon, in 2 weeks time, I will be in London, yayyyy so much fun!
Heidi xoxoxoxoxo

1 comment:

Rachel said...

Stay in Spain! Don't come back until you're 100% done with all things Spanish. You can always plan on staying longer and end up coming back earlier if it's not working for you anymore, but if you pull up roots now and come back to Canada prematurely, it'll be harder to go back to Spain and you'll probably regret it. Spain seems like to good place to call home but that doesn't mean you can't come to Canada for a visit! If you're having second thoughts about coming back then you probably won't be happy here until you know for sure. Well that's just my humble opinion...Whatever you decide to do you'll make it work