Don´t stop ´till you get enough, indeed

Ayer estuve en Plamplona, y que buen dia era! Habia ido con mis amigos Kevin y Javier (gracias Javi, que buen guia eres!) y realmente no puedo quejarme de nada porque teniamos mucha diversion...estabamas andando en todas partes de la ciudad y hemos visto muchos monumentos de Hemmingway (yo creo que la mayoria de la gente le connoce..no? jejejeje)
I had a really nice, relaxing time with my friends and it was nice to get out of the city again for a little bit. It was great speaking spanish all weekend. I hate to say it, but..ah, who am I kidding, not really: I´m so proud of myself :P It´s incredible how much I know now...
Saw the famous Plaza de Torros in Pamplona, churches, ancient walls of the city, a really beautiful park named after a japanse designer, etc...all in all, a great day!
But the day didn´t finish there.....OH, NO!
After going back home to freshen up, me and Javier met up downtown and walked to a bar called La Redondad(which is pretty close to where I work). There, we met up with Eduardo and eventually all of my spanish friends. Pintxos/Tapas were had and of course wine and the occasional beer...but of course, being me, I stopped eating and drinking much earlier than my other friends, and just walked around with them enjoying their company and chatting about whatever. Spanish nightlife is THE BEST. Love it. Love it. Love it.
Anyways, back to my story.
I bumped into one of my favourite adult students (who I unfortunately don´t teach anymore because of a change in my schedule) and we ended up talking about the various parts of Spain and where I should work next. He gave me great advice, and I am still looking, not yet completely sure that I want to go to Huelva. It´s always nice speaking with him, I was actually really sad when I had to teach another class instead of his. Oh well, I still bump into him now and then, that´s what´s great about living in a city that has 175,000 people instead of 4 million.
Our group of friends seemed to get bigger and bigger as the night progressed and I eventually bumped into Gavin and his group of friends. I got introduced to lots of new people, which is great because I am sure I´ll see them again and they were very interesting.
The bars/tiny dance clubs were packed; things peak at about 3 a.m. Still, as custom, we moved from packed bar to packed bar, dancing and chatting away until the wee hours of the morning.
At around 4 a.m., me, Gavin, Juan (from Guatemala, real nice guy), Kevin, Jan (german guy), and our favourite bar/dance club owner Sala (from Marocco) went to a discoteca called Aural. Yeah, I was the only girl, but it´s all cool with me. Dearbhla had decided to go home earlier because she was tired, but I just loved the music so much and was having such a great time that I decided to stick it out longer.
The Techno/Dance music blasting in Aural reminded me of Madrid, and I just knew that I needed to dance, dance, dance. To be quite honest, I think I was the only girl in the whole discoteca who was REALLY dancing away, lol....most people were just shuffling from side to side. I don´t know, guess I´ve just always been a bit crazy like that. Maybe it´s the German techno-freak in me, since so many Germans love that kind of music. It was funny because our group was dancing the most, and most of us (were not even from Spain). Well, apparently the southern spaniards dance more than the northern ones, so..I guess I´ll see when I go to Andalucia in June for my interview. :) I just love to dance.
So, I had a lot of fun there.
But noooooooooo, at 6 a.m., when the discoteca closed, IT STILL WASN´T OVER YET. (grins)
So, as I said before, Sala is the owner of our favourite bar/dance club, right? Well.......he reopened his bar just for us! One thing though, because it´s against the law to reopen bars that early in the morning, we had to sit in the dark with only the faint light of the distant bathrooms to help us see, but we ended up having a heck of time in there, from around 6:30-8 a.m.....hahahha oh man, good times, good times...
He gave us free drinks (but I only insisted on water, no more beer for me) and bocadillos (chorizo sandwiches...mmmmm) and we ended up chatting and laughing away about random things, Gavin and Kevin all the while mimicking famous people, repeating retarded quotes and Gavin screaming that, being irish, he´d bomb us all.
At one point, we were all playing "Air Bongos". Yup, you can imagine the insanity of it all...hahahah.
At 8 a.m., we decided to go to a cafeteria for a coffee...so we all headed to "La Granja" which is located almost right beside my work. Yeah, heheeh as you can tell, my work is situated in a very good location. :)
Me, Juan and Jan all had our "Cola-Cao" (hot chocolate, name is a brand) and Gavin and Kevin had their cafe con leche. I hate coffee, but everyone will tell you that spanish coffee is just really really good. Anyways, Sala, had decided to go home to sleep at 8, so it was just us troopers left at the very end.
Surprisingly, I was tired (of course) but we had all hit that stage where you are so tired that you are actually kinda really awake. Weird feeling.
At 9 a.m., with my head almost hitting my hot chocolate cup, we all decide to head back home for a good night´s (or should I say day) sleep....
Man oh man oh man...such good times, ones that I´ll never forget. It was so nice of Sala to have opened his bar just for us...and to have given us all of that free food and drinks :) Thanks Sala, you are one awesome dude!
I only have about 2 months left in Logroño (well, depending on what happens really) but I must say that I have met so many and such great people...people who have made my stay in Spain incredible and exciting. I´m happy to be staying at least another year...how can one get tired of all of this?
Besides going out during the weekends for various spanish trips (Asturias was AMAZING! I had a heck of a great time with my Madrid friends...if my job offers don´t appeal to me I´m heading to Asturias) I take lots of walks along the Ebro where I live and relax on the grass..the weather has been nice and we are expecting 22-28 degrees this upcoming week. Ahhhhhhh...
I´ll be super busy in May, because we will be having ANOTHER intensive course (ugh) but, oh well...money is money. We are all having a meeting on Tuesday to discuss the schedules and also final report cards for the children and teen classes. At least June will be very very light for me, since I have a lot of junior classes...kids finish on the 8th of June at Inlingua!!! So, even if May is long, June will seem a lot shorter, so it´s one last big effort before Germany and Australia :)
I feel so blessed to be able to do all of this; to travel the world, work, meet new people, dream and wonder about life...and live comfortably. It could all be far worse.
Incidentally, my stupid roommate has been having BIG fights with his girlfriend...they are quite pathetic. And she keeps coming back! Argh....I´m always hoping that she goes away for good, but the dumbo doesn´t.
Oh well.
I´m having such a great time here that I choose to ignore them, and it helps.
Lucy is doing well, she is as active as ever, and I´m glad that she is still healthy and playful :)
I really wonder where I will be working in Sept, hopefully I´ll really know before I leave for my month long vacation...
Keep on dreaming and doing it a-la-Disco Stu,
love Heidi oxooxox

...

I now have 4 job offers, all over Spain...
How did this happen?
Which one to choose?

April, April, you´re finally here!

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