Feeling Better

Well, as it turns out, I made a good decision in staying home this weekend and recuperating...it was raining last night anyways, and my roommate (he works in a local bar) told me this morning that I didn´t miss much because there weren´t too many people dressed up for the carnival.
I was glad to hear that, because I was kinda miffed at being sick again...
Today though, after a good sleep (I´ve been having good dreams lately, I don´t know what I dreamt of last night, but I woke up laughing...that never happened before) and a nice webcam chat with Shane, I decided to go swimming at the sports center called Las Norias. It was snowing a lot today (which later turned into rain) but I just dressed up warmly and marched myself towards the center...and by golly it was worth it. My body feels so nice and relaxed now...you know, in a good, pooped way? :)
I will buy myself a new swimsuit soon and a swim cap (it´s mandatory at the sports center...I didn´t know that...at carleton we weren´t obliged to wear one. I actually borrowed an extra one from the lifeguard, lol...at least he was nice to me). It was a nice, relaxing swim, it being Sunday and most people probably huddling in front of the tv, wondering in awe at the snow which rarely falls in Logroño.
I shall have to make Dearbhla and Theresa come with me...if not, meh, I can go alone..it´s pretty relaxing and since everything is closed on a Sunday in Europe, there´s nothing else to do! Forget about even doing groceries....the only things that are open are cafeterias...that´s it.
It´s only 3:55pm now and I shall probably spend the rest of my Sunday watching tv and listening to music...it´s still kinda rainy outside...
The cat´s sleeping, as usual....
It´s a nice sleepy, quiet Sunday :)
I´m so happy that my cold is gone, now I just have some mucus to deal with...thank God I drank so many teas and rested up...I so needed it.
Wow, my mom´s coming next weekend...I can´t believe it. I hope that I won´t cry too much, since I get so emotional with my parents (and close friends, and sappy commercials, and the World Wildlife Fund, and...oh screw it...ok, I´m a crybaby). It will be so nice to see her again. :)
well, that´s it for me...March is in just 3 days!
see you soon
Heidi xoxoxo

Ugh...

Now I´m wondering if I´m even able to go to the carnival tomorrow...a full blown 2ND COLD! I can´t taste anything and can´t smell anything...I thought that my little sniffles could be controlled...but today it´s turned into something pretty ugly. I feel crappy. My sneezes are so strong that they hurt me. No joke.
It´s movie night tonight, so after seeing a "pelicula" (movie in Spanish) with Kevin and Theresa I think that I am just going to head home and take care of myself...hopefully I will feel better again tomorrow.
I´m planning on seeing "Un Mundo Nuevo" tonight (that new movie with Colin Farrell)...we´ll see what else is playing...maybe we´ll decide on something else.
I got a teenager´s class in half an hour...ugh, all I want to do is to drink tea and wrap myself up in a snuggly blanket. It´s not even that cold here...I´m telling you, we are spreading the germs around at work.
I have never had 2 colds in 1 Month.
Ugh.
Well, anyways, we´ll see...hopefully I´ll feel better soon...I still want to go swimming tomorrow but if my cold is still really bad I don´t think that I should go.
OH PHOOEY!

Red Wig, Anyone?

This weekend is Carnival Weekend in Logroño...and apparently, EVERYBODY dresses up! From young ones to adults, it´s THE chance to dress up like a moron and parade around town in the various bars. Needless to say, the little child in me is jumping with excitement. Now if I only knew what my costume was going to be...yikes, it´s in 2 days!!!
I don´t feel like spending a fortune on an extravagant costume, so I will probably just buy a cheap wig somewhere and play around with makeup and the clothes that I have already got...Or I might go as an overgrown child and bring a teddy-bear with me...hey, that seems easy to do! Hmmmm....I might just put my hair in pigtails and wear pink....add to that the teddy bear...voila! Wow, I actually came up with an idea while typing in my blog. Awesome. My coworkers better dress up, dammit.
So yayyyyy carnival weekend where I live! This weekend, my mother will be experiencing the carnival in Germany:) There, the carnival is AWESOME (Cologne) because people throw candy in the streets. I can kinda remember picking up the sweets from the streets when I was around 4 years old...wow.
Anyways, I´m really happy for her...I hope that she will have a lot of fun with everybody. She´s coming to see me in less than 2 weeks! Hopefully we´ll have enough time together and that the weekend won´t seem to go too too fast...yikes, after all she will only be 2.5 days with me. I better make the most out of it.
March is just around the corner, thank God. This month, my health has been terrible. I had everything from a stomache flu to 2 colds (still dealing with 2nd cold). Everybody is kinda sick at work, too. We must be spreading the germs around, lol...how nice. It´s those little kids I tell ya...it´s them! Arhhhhhh squish them all, they be germies, they be germies! LOL...
As usual, I have a shitload of errands to run tomorrow (Friday being my freest day of the week). I am looking forward to going swimming again this weekend...either Friday or Saturday. It should be good, and they have a sauna as well apparently...ahhhhh that would be so nice right now! Me so very very excited :P
Besides that, nothing too too new to report. I can´t wait for Spring, and also for all the stupid constructions to be done here...it´s kinda depressing at times when you hear hammers and drills going off every day. Hopefully they will be done with the work on calle portales when my mom comes on the 3rd or 4th of March.
Eve, I had a dream about you...I dreamt that we saw each other again and that we just talked about our hair, LOL. You had extremely looooong hair, and it was all straight and shiny and beautiful...and I remember asking,¨Why is your hair so long? You cut it so short last summer..it couldn´t possibly have grown so fast!¨ To which you only shrugged and said that you had hair that just grew so fast...and that it was nothing unusal. I remember being jealous of your hair in my dream, LOL....unfortunately, that´s pretty much all I remember...sorry! I don´t remember my dreams THAT much in detail anymore as I once used to....I know that you do, though :P
Well, that´s all for me for now...still have another 2 hours before my next class starts...sweet.
Love you all, oxoxoxo Heidi

There and Back Again

(ring-ring) Hello, UK! My weekend trip to London with Shane proved to be a success. We stayed at a nice, friendly hostel and got to see the major sites together...we ended up seeing way more things than we thought we were capable of! Of course, I have way more pictures, but I couldn´t upload them all, so here are some of the best ones.
There was no question about it. I HAD to get a pic of myself standing in one of the traditional phone booths...don´t I look like Bridget Jones? heheheh Yeah right...maybe if I practised my accent a little more (ahem hem hem) a-la-constipated-Queen-style. ;)
Shane picked me up at the airport with beautiful yellow flowers, one of which I still have pressed in paper (it still looks pretty, awww). From there, we took the "tube" (they don´t say metro) to our hostal, which took about one hour! Wow, I don´t know if Heathrow is really that far away from London Central or if our hostal was (Lambeth North), but wowzers.

Like I said before, our hostal was great: the people were friendly, we had breakfast included in the price, and everything was clean..."Journey´s Inn", you have my vote of approval, along with Shane´s. Also, our hostal wasn´t too far away from the giant sight-seeing wheel (this isn´t the view from out hostal, but since I´m talking about it...). We didn´t decide to go on the wheel, since it cost a lot and went REALLY slow...we figured we might as well walk and take in as much we could, since our stay was short.

We had decent weather on Friday and Saturday,
except that Saturday evening was REALLY cold (you know that sort of damp cold that goes in your bones? yeah, that one). Shane and I were walking all over the place, and by the end of the day were chilled to the bone...brrr London sure ain´t as warm as Logroño! What a temperature difference..
This picture is of the War Museum which was about 2 minutes away from our hostal. I didn´t have time to go inside, but Shane did. It looked pretty impresive from the outside, to say the least.



I love this picture. To me, it just encompasses everything in one single shot. I especially like the crooked lamp on the left side. Oh, Big Ben, you sure are big! I do have some close-ups as well, but I still prefer this shot. You can see the old fashioned taxis a little bit on the bottom as well.
It was a grey day overall, but not too cold at this point...thank God we had a nice hearty breakfast at the hostal to carry us through our long trek through jolly old England. :)




Here we have her...Buckingham Palace. I tried to get the whole building in, but it was a little hard...I actually climbed the ginormous statue facing it to get a better shot (but to no avail..you can´t climb it too much anyways). I also took various pics of the gate and everything, and more close-ups, but I here´s the overall feel of it. Shane and I tried to get a close-up of the british flag, but the wind was weak so it was hard to get a good shot. So many people! While I was there I tried to imagine the havoc that must have ensued here when Diana passed away...



LOVE IT! All taxis in London are old-fashioned (except they are partially "destroyed" by advertisements plastered all over them). When I took this picture, Shane and I were looking for a cute little café, and when I saw one parked right where we were standing I got all excited and took this chef-d´oeuvre. The Red and Black are kinda nice together, no?
On another note, speaking of advertisements is making me think of graffiti. All over London, there are signs saying "To Let".....now guess what missing letter somebody spray painted in the middle of that sign. Yup. LOVE IT AGAIN!
Ask Shane for the pic ;)


Shakespeare´s Globe Theatre. This pic was taken on the day that I was leaving...so we didn´t have time for a tour (although Shane took a tour the next day and loved it). The tour was 40 minutes apparently. Well, it looks pretty impressive from the outside, the door of the Globe Theatre was open and I tried to sneek in a shot, but it was raining and it was too far away to see anything. I´m sure Shane has some good pics of that. We did go to the Tate Modern Museum together afterwards, and that was cool...lots of great art. It was a nice way to escape the rain.



Ah, Shane...thank you so much for a wonderful trip, I will never forget it! You and I have the best of adventures together (so many spanish memories as well, eh?). Now you are in Australia, and maybe we will see each other there this summer...(crosses fingers).
Shane and I saw Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Tate Modern Museum, Portobello Market (great market where Shane bought me a giant yummy chocolate Truffle), Globe Theatre, London Bridge, and we just walked everywhere downtown! I don´t remember all the names, but I just had an awesome time. Hahaha even though we were in England we went to an Indian restaurant on the Friday night (sooooo good! We asked the waiter for their business card) and on the Saturday we went to a Vietnamese restaurant (so-so...I was feeling a little sick that night, which thank God quickly passed).
I took this pic of Shane when we were warming ourselves up in a little coffee shop called Nero. It´s a great coffee place, kinda reminds me of UK´s answer to Second Cup (although there are PLENTY of god-awful Starbucks). On the other side of the street was a little sign that was barely noticeable. It read "Charles Dickens used to work here as a child". I thought that was pretty neat...I barely missed the sign, too.
Shane and I had planned on going to see "Guys and Dolls" or "The Producers", but unfortunately everything was sold out or they just had single seats avalaible. It would have been fun seeing a musical together, but I´m sure we´ll catch up on that someday. We actually enjoyed a quiet classical rehearsal, on the Saturday afternoon, in a little church (forget the name!) when we wanted to warm up. It was pretty soothing, and very nice...the group was rehearsing Vivaldi for a concert that they were holding later that night. We got a free preview, he he he...
So, all in all it was an incredible weekend trip that went, of course, far too fast. I had such an amazing time, and it was nice to spend time together with Shane. Everything was worth it, and I am still amazed that we did this. I am happy what we are both doing...now he is in Australia and will live so many crazy and fun adventures of his own! I´m proud of him, I´m sure that he´ll have a great 2006 in Oz. We are both in different parts of the world, and 10 hours apart, but we are doing what is best for us and will only have great stories to tell each other in the end.
(smiles)
Anybody wanna come and meet me somewhere in Europe? I´m up for another weekend trip..how about somewhere in Greece or Italy? :)

London tomorrow!!!!

I´m leaving for Jolly ´OL England tomorrow! Hooorayyyy!
Yes, I will take pictures :)
I´m so excited!!!!

First cold of winter 2006

Ugh...(takes a sip from 10th cup of tea). The winter demon finally got to me: a full-blown cold! Here I was, thinking that I would manage to escape its clutches since I´m in sunny Spain. Wrong!
Well, I guess I probably caught it due to the fact that I take long weekend walks right by the Ebro river where the winds are colder and harsher....yesterday was a sunny day, so I stupidly took my long walk with my coat half-way open....dammit, it wasnt even really cold! Oh well...too late now :P
One of my early afternoon classes got cancelled today, so that was awesome...I tried to nap a little more, but unfortunately I couldnt...maybe it is all the caffeine from the tea in my system.
The weekend was very relaxing, I didnt do too much at all yesterday, and that is just fine by me, since I make it a point to do the least bit possible on a Sunday...so I just watched some telly and took my usual walk *for which I am now paying the consequences....oh, you sure can fool, mr. sun!
It is another beautiful day today, and we are expecting 11 degrees and sunny practically all week...yayyyy...In just 4 days I am going to London for a weekend trip of a lifetime :) I hope that we will have decent weather...but if not, meh, we will make the best of it.
Ivanie, I dont know what the heck is the matter with you, but you STILL havent updated your blog...and you told me that you would LAST weekend, lol....we are all waiting with......anticipation *insert rocky horror inside joke here.
*sneeze sneeze
I can just imagine how bad my cold will be by the end of my workday....ohhhh dear. God help me. I hope that it will go away by Friday at least. *crosses fingers
So, I talked again with my mom and dad yesterday and it looks as if she will be coming during the first weekend of March or so...yayy :) It will be so nice to see her, plus I will get rid of a lot of crap...well, as much as I can!
While trying to nap a little while ago I started thinking about everything that has happened to me since my arrival in Spain. I feel like a different person in some ways..I havent really changed, but my perspectives on life have a little. I am pretty happy living independently, and think that I am doing very well for my first year of teaching. Yesterday when I was talking with my parents I realized more and more that I could live another year here....yes, I do miss them, but my life is merely beginning and there is a whole lot left to see of Europe. I am not very homesick at the moment...
I am also already looking forward for Spring...when does it officially start? April? I dont remember...
Man, I cant believe that I have been living here now for over 7 months...time really does fly by, in some ways.
Until soon, your chiquitita with her mugs of tea Heidi xoxoxoxo

Epiphany

Last night was one of many nights that I will never forget. As usual for a Friday night, me and kevin went to go see a movie, this time: "Walk the Line", but in Spanish it was called "La Cuerda Floja" (The Loose Cord, strangely enough). Theresa, the new teacher, came with us and all really enjoyed the movie. Joaquin really did a good job in my opinion and I would recommend that everybody go see it :)
Afterwards we went to "El Domino" where we met up with Eduardo and Angel. We then proceeded to several other bars, and the night seemed to be just like another typical Friday night in Logroño (i.e awesome tapas, great music and good wine).
But then, I got a message from Dearbhla and Elena telling me that they were waiting for us at the "Stress" discoteca...so we then all made our way to the great discoteca where I know the dj since he was one of my students from one of our intensive courses.
The music, being great as always, made me all giddy and happy and dancy like Steve Urkel and a Polka showdown. After a few minutes of dancing, I needed to go to the bathroom and suddenly found myself literally surrounded by a bunch of spanish men and women...they basically "held" me there in the circle and then danced around me in a circle with their arms wrapped around each other. Me, being in a great mood and giddy as stated before, danced like a happy fool in the middle. Then, in a moment I will never forget, they all raised their arms a few times and said: "A La Rioja!!!!!! A Logroño!!!!". I felt like my happy state of being had conjured these people up and that they were screaming what was inside my soul..it was so...beautiful. I couldn´t stop smiling, I felt so happy at the crazyness of the spaniards, the music, everything! They then ALL greeted me with kisses on both cheeks and I got to learn where they were from. They were a bunch of spaniards from Murcia who were on a wine tour in Logroño for a few days. They were all really nice and outgoing, and one of the guys told me that the southern people are basically all like them, so hmmmm maybe I should go visit the south a little more, since I´ve only been in the central, east, and north of Spain :) The people seem so great and friendly!
Somehow, my group of friends eventually mixed up with the murcians, and we all proceeded to dance together, it was really cool. We then all went to another bar/discoteca called "Bonsai" where we all danced to dance and latina music...I got to practise spanish dancing, hheehhe I don´t think I was tooooo bad...although my dance partner was far better, hey, it´s in their blood after all! I´ve got an excuse......hehehehe
So it was a really great night in the end. Those southern murcians from Cartagena were really in a party mood, and we all rocked the house together.
I love Spain so much...man, before Xmas I was seriously contemplating going back to Canada...but...more and more I am feeling very comfortable in Spain and am seeing and feeling the culture to the fullest! Maybe I am feeling this way now more because my spanish is improving a lot...making me feel more at ease and like I belong. It´s just such a beautiful country, and who knows? I am beginning to think more and more that I would love to stay another year...
It´s funny how fast the mind can change its opinion, but well, that´s what happens with people..we are not very stable mentally, are we? heheheheh
I still REALLY want to go to Asturias...I was asking the Murcia spaniards what they thought of Asturias, and AGAIN, nothing but praise...Semana Santa approach already so that I can visit those lush lands :)
Now I am listening to Melendi´s hit "Asturias"...how appropriate.
Until soon, vuestra chica en este pais bonito que se llama España, Heidi!

Ah, children...

Today I bent down to help a kid with his homework.
A kid sitting right behind the kid I was helping says, in Spanish:"Teacher, your G-string is showing!!! HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHA!"
I had to crack a smile.
8 year olds know the difference between a g-string and normal underwear.
Awesome :)

February: Could Shape Up to be Great!

Ahhh a new month, here we are: Feb.1st! I´m happy that January is finally over, I usually hate that month. Well, February isn´t usually better, but this year´s February announces itself to be far better, in my opinion. Why, you ask?
In just 9 days, I am going to London! For the first time ever! I am extremely excited, it will be so awesome, I can just feel it :) Plus, I´ll get to see Shane before he continues his adventure to Oz, so it will be nice to see him off and to share my London experiences with him.
Also, my mother is going to come visit me sometime at the end of this month (or early March at the very least)! She isn´t sure of the exact date yet, and it won´t be for too long, but it will be nice just to see her face and to show her where I live and work :) She will also rid me of two giant suitcases packed full of odds and ends that I brought and don´t need. Yup, me, the pack-rat (points to herself).
oh....and yesterday I FINALLY GOT MY NIE NUMBER!!! Yayyyyy, it´s important to have this number, cuz it means that you can do everything that a native spanish can do, plus you pay less taxes :P So I was extremely happy about that as well :) I´m all set basically, and this week is pay week (also awesome). It´s incredible how much money I can save here...I´m pretty proud of myself, hehehe.
The week started off on a good note, at least. I had a lot of energy on Monday, for some reason...today is my loooong day, so hopefully my energy will last me through 10pm at least.
I met the new teacher Theresa, and she seems nice, although a bit quiet and shy. I chatted with her for a quite a bit, and told her that I wanted to take her out this weekend, to show her the Logroño nightlife :) Plus, she said that she wanted to come see a movie with us this Friday, which is cool. She seemed a little nervous about starting to teach (she´s pretty new at it, as I was back in October), but I think that I somewhat reassured her. I´m sure she´ll do fine...
In other news, my mind just can´t stop thinking about Asturias. I really don´t know why I am THAT obsessed over it, I mean, it does look nice and picturesque...but what is really pulling me towards this place? Hmmmm....strange forces, heehehe...google Asturias and you´ll maybe see why I want I want to go there...just so beautiful. Gijon and Oviedo are on my list of cities to see in Asturias...oh Easter, come hither!
I am wearing a new black shirt, and the cat keeps wanting to jump on my lap....which of course I don´t want cuz that means that I will be covered in hair (even though she has short hair and actually loses very little)...shoo Lucy, shoo! God, I love her to pieces though, I find her so gorgeous...I have never found a cat so gorgeous before.
Ok, enough drooling over my cat...Heidi, you´re sick.
The sun is shining and it will be 11 degrees today. Spain, I love you (insert picture of heart here).
I´m a little tired right now and will take a wee nap before my next class starts....
Until soon, your chiquitita Heidi xoxoxoxo