Last weekend, I went to the famous wine museum in Briones, La Rioja. It was a beautiful Saturday, and simply perfect for a little weekend excursion with friends. Packed in 3 different cars, we made our way to the "Dinastia Vivanco Museum del Vino" which was about a half hour´s car drive from Logroño. The museum was amazing, but unfortunately I wasn´t allowed to take pictures. Needless to say, I learnt so much about the art of wine-making. It can take more than a week to expertly craft one single wine barrel!!!
Here is the museum from the outside. It was really gorgeous from the inside, and one can only imagine how many millions went into it. They had an interesting collection from corkscrews as well, from all over the world. We also got into a wine smelling frenzy (there were dozens of smell "generators" from petrol (!) to strawberry scents. I especially liked the humid earth scents and freshly cut grass ones. They make wine scents with these kinds of scents? Hmmmm).Afterwards, we all had "Patatas a la Riojana" at a friend´s place. She had a really gorgeous house, and we all sat and laughed together for a good 4 hours. It was all really delicious, and typically spanish. The potatoe stew actually reminded me of my father´s cooking! Ah, papa, I miss you...
At around 7 p.m., everybody went their separate ways (we had all agreed to meet up later again for some dancing and tapas). Me, Kevin and Iñigo however, decided to do a little mountain trekking/sightseeing. Iñigo drove us all the way up a mountain called "El Leon Dormido" (the sleeping lion). It was a huge mountain shaped just like a lion, quite beautiful as well. Again, it was situated about 20-30 minutes from Logroño, and the trip was well worth it! The view was wonderful, and we were overlooking the beautiful scenery just as the sun was setting...perfect timing.Is it a bird, is it a plane? No, it´s SUPERHEIDI!!! (insert cheesy music here). I had the brilliant idea of risking my life and acting like mr. tightpants himself. I think it´s a good shot actually :)
The silence was really welcomed...not that Logroño is a loud city (god, nothing like Madrid) but it´s nice every now and then to be completely surrounded by nature. I am a nature girl and will always be one. Sure, I enjoy the city as well, but I need to come up and breathe every once in a while...if you know what I mean :) I like this picture a lot, the sun was just setting over the horizon and the sun was an incredinle pink, light blue and yellow.
Heheheh, yes, Kevin...picturesque indeed! Here he is, framing the moment quite nicely. It was a great weekend overall and a nice getaway. Now, on to what I did this past week: Only good news seemed to hit me! First off, I will be back to my normal schedule after Easter since they found another teacher to take Maria-Josee´s classes! Yayyy! Plus, I AM GOING TO AUSTRALIA THIS SUMMER from the 10th of July to the 1st of August. I will also be in Germany for about 10 days, since I will be flying to Oz out of Frankfurt (2 for 1 deal, lol....German flight tickets are incredibly cheap...got mine for only 90 euros!!!) It´s gonna be great: I get to see my relatives and Shane this summer :) I have seriously ALWAYS wanted to go to Oz, and what better time than now, when he is there? We are going to have so much fun, I can just smell it, hehehehe. It´s all so exciting! More news: I have a job interview in Huelva, Andalucia (south of Spain, only 15 minutes from the Ocean!!!) on the 28th of April. The position is for an English teacher (wow..that would be teaching only 1 language and not 2..much easier on my brain, hehehe) to teach during the next academic year (fall 2006). I am pretty excited about that, the director from the school called "Centro Edimburgo" seemed extremely interested in my C.V....I checked out their website and they seem to be a really professional and friendly school. I hope that Huelva will be a nice little city (just like Logroño is). We´ll see how the interview goes! I´m still sending out my C.V to other companies, just in case...I like to keep my options open. It´s still pretty early anyways, and a lot can change. It´s insane...I´ve never been to the south of spain before (only the centre and the north...apparently the south is just out-of-this-world-different, with the people being even more extroverted and friendly). Man, when I do leave Spain one day, I´ll be able to say that I´ve REALLY seen Spain...I´ll have been practically everywhere! I still love this country and only really miss my parents and friends from Canada. There is still so much to discover from this beautiful country...and my spanish is improving tremendously.
Even though she can be a pain sometimes, I´m extremely happy that I brought Lucy along. I´m making my poor cat travel so much, lol...She went to the vet yesterday and got all of her booster shots again :) She didn´t like it and squirmed a heck of a lot, but I´m glad that that´s done now and that we can safely travel together again...she´s good for another year now! Ahhh the knooo is sleeping on my bed now (again). The vets had never seen a 100% pure siamese...they were telling me that they are extremely rare in Spain and quite expensive. Hehehe, yes, I know that my Lucy is beautiful :) She knows it too.
My mother and I chatted last night and she was telling me how she gave my other cat Nelly away to a friend. She is also planning on giving Blacky away. I´m a tad sad, but I know that it´s for the best, since my parents want to sell our house in the country. At least my canadian pets will have good homes and will be able to run around everywhere. My mom was telling me that Nelly is no longer alone and is even allowed to sleep in her new owner´s bed!!! That furball!!! She must be extremely happy about that. Plus, she has new cat friends and isn´t even scared of the owner´s dogs since they completely ignore the cats (unlike Bingo and Blacky did...although Blacky was worse). Blacky will be living close to a river, she´ll be leashed, but will still be able to run around a bit. So that´s that. No more canadian pets. Thank God I have Lucy...I think that I will always need to have a pet around me. Especially cats.
I went to see "Syriana" last night with one of my German students. It´s pretty incredible: this girl also has a job interview in Huelva! Wouldn´t that be crazy if we wind up in the same city again next year? She´s a nice girl, and we had a good time last night...it was nice getting out of the classroom and socializing with her. I thought that I would end up hating the George Clooney and Matt Damon movie, but I actually didn´t mind it in the end (although it was a bit complicated...).
Other than that, things are looking good. I have a 3 day week coming up and then it´s Easter Vacation time!!! I shall be going to Gijon, Asturias very very soon (on the 15th) and will be meeting up with my buddy Jason and his friends from Madrid. The cool part is that they have rented a car, so we´ll be able to go sightseeing in Asturias (the countryside and the mountains are supposed to be out of this world). Since April is a rainy month, I am crossing my fingers that we´ll get nice weather. I´ll be staying there until the 17th...I hope that it´ll be fun! You guys all know how long I´ve been talking about Asturias. Damn, it´s about time I go!
Tomorrow is Sunday and I am just going to relax and go swimming. It´ll be nice...the pool is usually empty in the afternoon around lunch time, and that´s when I usually go.
Nice, relaxing Sundays....ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Until soon!!!!
Heidi xoxoxooxoxo
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