I have to share. I just finished my first crossword puzzle (called a 'crucigrama') in Spanish! It only took a Spanish-English dictionary, an English dictionary, a Spanish Thesaurus, Google pages in English and Spanish, and 1 1/2 hours! Luckily everything I need is at my fingertips on the internet. Happy days.
I'll have a new Xmas post for you all soon!
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
Fieldtrip!!
Christmas is almost here and I have so much to share. A lot has happened recently. Last week was my last week of work until January 8th. I didn’t do a whole lot of actual work though. On Wednesday all of the students in the school (over 100 12-16 year olds) went on a field trip to Granada to the Science Park. I got to go along with six other teachers. I will certainly be volunteering myself for any other field trips in the future. It was a blast and it didn’t cost me a dime. The students have to pay to go, but part of that money is put toward feeding the teachers! Sign me up!
The Park itself was fascinating. I enjoyed all of the exhibits so much more than I would have when I was in school. One girl on the trip is actually from England, but her family now lives here in Spain. She speaks English and stuck to me like glue wanting me to explain everything. (I later taught some of the teachers the saying ‘like white on rice’) Some of the other students are getting used to having me in class now and they kept pulling me in one direction and then the other. We got to learn about the human body; blood, bones, genes, organs. Then they put on a show with eagles, hawks, and owls. The birds flew right above our heads a couple of times. There was even a video playing at one of the exhibits of a woman giving birth and it thoroughly grossed the students out. Haha.
When we were done we all went to the mall so the kids could be let loose for a couple of hours and the teachers could escape. The first thing the teachers did was go to the first restaurant they saw, order some food to snack on, and drink a beer! They very easily rationalized that we weren’t driving so it was a fantastic idea. I was super excited at one point because I actually made a joke in Spanish that everyone laughed at! It can be hard sometimes to make a joke, insinuate something, add your personality into what you are saying, etc because you are so concentrated on simply speaking and being understood. It was a good moment.
Next, we went to a Mexican restaurant to eat our meal. It was a very funny experience to have. When I was leaving the States, many people thought I would be eating food similar to mexican food in Spain, but I knew more about the food than the teachers did. To Spanish people a tortilla is an egg omelet. One of the teachers said her ears were warm from the spice and I tasted hotness ranging from mild to ketchup. :-) The principal was also worried about the time. We were cutting it a little close, so he made sure to ask the waiter about three times to bring the food out quickly. But before the waiter left the principal made sure they served coffee. Even in a hurry there’s always time for coffee in Spain. It ended up that some students came to track us down because it was time to go back to the bus and we were still in the restaurant.
The one downfall to the day was that I didn’t get to walk around Granada at all or see my friends there. It felt great to smell the fresh mountain air, though, and the view of the mountains and the Alhambra (Granada’s major site to see) was absolutely beautiful from the tower at the Science Park. I miss it a lot! Sorry, no photos of this trip. I completely spaced out and forgot the camera at home. Hopefully I can get some from the teachers and students when we get back to school.
Besos
The Park itself was fascinating. I enjoyed all of the exhibits so much more than I would have when I was in school. One girl on the trip is actually from England, but her family now lives here in Spain. She speaks English and stuck to me like glue wanting me to explain everything. (I later taught some of the teachers the saying ‘like white on rice’) Some of the other students are getting used to having me in class now and they kept pulling me in one direction and then the other. We got to learn about the human body; blood, bones, genes, organs. Then they put on a show with eagles, hawks, and owls. The birds flew right above our heads a couple of times. There was even a video playing at one of the exhibits of a woman giving birth and it thoroughly grossed the students out. Haha.
When we were done we all went to the mall so the kids could be let loose for a couple of hours and the teachers could escape. The first thing the teachers did was go to the first restaurant they saw, order some food to snack on, and drink a beer! They very easily rationalized that we weren’t driving so it was a fantastic idea. I was super excited at one point because I actually made a joke in Spanish that everyone laughed at! It can be hard sometimes to make a joke, insinuate something, add your personality into what you are saying, etc because you are so concentrated on simply speaking and being understood. It was a good moment.
Next, we went to a Mexican restaurant to eat our meal. It was a very funny experience to have. When I was leaving the States, many people thought I would be eating food similar to mexican food in Spain, but I knew more about the food than the teachers did. To Spanish people a tortilla is an egg omelet. One of the teachers said her ears were warm from the spice and I tasted hotness ranging from mild to ketchup. :-) The principal was also worried about the time. We were cutting it a little close, so he made sure to ask the waiter about three times to bring the food out quickly. But before the waiter left the principal made sure they served coffee. Even in a hurry there’s always time for coffee in Spain. It ended up that some students came to track us down because it was time to go back to the bus and we were still in the restaurant.
The one downfall to the day was that I didn’t get to walk around Granada at all or see my friends there. It felt great to smell the fresh mountain air, though, and the view of the mountains and the Alhambra (Granada’s major site to see) was absolutely beautiful from the tower at the Science Park. I miss it a lot! Sorry, no photos of this trip. I completely spaced out and forgot the camera at home. Hopefully I can get some from the teachers and students when we get back to school.
Besos
Thxgiving photos 3
Bottom to top this time: Me with Lynn (from Belgium) on the right and Juancho (Spanish) on the left. Next, this was day two's meal. You may notice that Julia is eating soup as the rest of us are going back for more turkey! Days two, three, and even four were not 'pretty' days. haha I actually have more photos of days these days, but the girls would vote me out of the group if I showed them. And the top photo is of Giselle and Lynn smiling about day four's pizza!Thxgiving photos 2
Top to bottom: The finished product that is making my mouth water just looking at it! Jesus SITTING next to the turkey which made me much more comfortable than when he was STANDING with the turkey (I need to get that photo from Julia!). The set table with food and friends. The yummy gravy that we didn't run out of. And finally, our tasty bird on the smallest serving platter known to man aka a big plate.
THANKSGIVING PHOTOS!
This is our fat turkey that JUST BARELY fit in the oven. The pots are the stuffing, mashed potatos, and green beans that kept blowing a fuse! The table is pre-food with what Frieda called our 'wonky' candles. I'm not exactly sure what that means, but I can take a pretty good guess.Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Christmas vacation is almost here!
Time has been flying by. Since Thanksgiving everything seems like a blur. Last weekend Julia, Frieda and I went to Sevilla for a night to see Julia’s cousin, Tavo. He is from Mexico, but working in Spain for a month. He was in Sevilla with 8 of his coworkers. There were 3 Mexicans, 5 Brazilians, and 1 Chilean. It was super fun meeting all of them. There were so many accents speaking the same language. One time when we were in a taxi with Tavo, the taxi driver was telling us something about Sevilla. I didn’t understand a thing he was saying because he had such a strong accent. Come to find out Tavo couldn’t understand him either even though Spanish is his native language! It made me feel better knowing it wasn’t just me. We didn’t have a lot of time to spend there, but we were able to have a couple of meals and see a little bit of the nightlife. It was fantastic to be in civilization again! Puente Genil can get pretty small when I don’t leave every once in awhile. There was actually traffic, diversity of people, and multiple-story buildings. It made me miss Granada (where I lived when I studied abroad) even more. I’m going to have to go back there to visit soon.
During the week I´ve busy with my private English classes I’ve been giving. I’m learning an incredible amount about my own language because people are always asking me ‘why’ and I can’t bear to keep saying ‘just because’ or that it’s just about memorization. For instance, the words demanded, poured, and worked. All end in the letters ‘ed’. But, each one pronounces the ‘ed’ differently. Demanded ends with an –id sound, poured with a –d sound, and worked with a –t sound. I have actually learned how to explain what words get what sounds. It is fascinating to me. I’m such a nerd sometimes. :-)
This weekend is the last full weekend before everyone starts leaving town to start their Christmas vacation. I get almost 3 weeks off! Then I work one day and get 3 more days off. Most people I know aren’t returning to the States for the holidays. Frieda is close, so she’s going back to Ireland, but the rest of us are traveling. Giselle is going to Rome, Julia is getting passed every couple of days from one coworker to another, Laurel is going to London, and I’m traveling too. I am very interested to see how Christmas and New Year’s are celebrated here. I’m sure there are things that are the same and things that are different. I just have to focus on wrapping up this week at school and then my next adventure begins.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Forgive me for the length - I've had DAYS to think of stuff to add. Enjoy!
The best Spanish Thanksgiving EVER!!!!
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday; I would even say my favorite day of the entire year. It is hard to be away from my family around this time. I was prepared to be sad this year like I have in the past when I couldn’t get home. What I got was something I never could have dreamed up. An American girl (Julia) and an Irish girl (Frieda) and I ended up banding together to attempt a dinner party. None of us had ever put on a dinner like that, but we figured that if we all pitched in we could come up with something. So, after several calls to mothers around the world, we picked Frieda’s house to host the event because she’s the only one with an oven and has the most space. Can you even imagine transporting a turkey down the road, ha – without a car. A couple days before, we all starting calling dibs on who could make what food. I said that if someone could cook the turkey, I could search one out. A whole turkey is not a super easy item here to find in small-town Spain. Luck would have it that a teacher I work with found out I was looking for one. She was dropping me off after school on Wednesday and took me right to the door of the open-air market. She even told me what door to enter and which stand to go to and to talk to a man named Manolo. I walked straight in and said to the man, “I’m looking for a turkey”, he said, “I have a turkey”, I said, “A whole one?” All he had to do was nod his head for a great big smile to appear on my face. He actually had two, big and bigger. Our dinner had a guaranteed guest count of 3…us. So of course I bought the 7.4 kg bird…the 16 lbs turkey. I also bought a box of freezer bags so I could eat turkey until next year.
We all work until early afternoon on Thursdays, so we decided to serve dinner Spanish style, at 9 or 9:30 pm. This meant I ran to Frieda’s house after school so we could get the bird in the oven by 3pm. And so began the experiment. We cleaned the turkey and got it in the oven. Set the timer for twenty minutes so we could adjust the heat as we had been instructed. So far so good. We then made note of the clock on the wall so we knew when to baste the bird. I left to wash up and get food from my house so I could be back in time for Julia to leave and give an English class. When I got back to Frieda’s an hour or so later she had a slightly funny look on her face and asked if Julia had gotten a hold of me. Apparently, when the timer ran out after those first twenty minutes, the oven shut off with it. Oops. So, I’m not sure exactly how long it was off, but we adjusted and figured dinner might be a couple minutes later going on the table. As a couple of hours passed, our bird didn’t look like it was cooking. This is when the first SOS call went out. The Irish mama got the call. She pulled herself out of her sewing class when her mother’s intuition told her the phone call might mean the turkey needed her help. So, again, we adjusted and figured dinner might be a couple minutes later going on the table. As the afternoon went on, we had several people call and say they couldn’t make it to dinner. We then proceeded to encourage guests to bring friends.
Arrival time of guests: 9:30pm. As time got closer, we needed to check the turkey to see if it was done. We didn’t have the pop up timer and we didn’t have a meat thermometer. What we did have -- two intuition-based, mother-recommended tests to “just know”. Seeing that our turkey intuition was in its first year of development and all mothers were several countries and/or an ocean away, we were going to have to wing this one. One test said the turkey was done, the other one said it wasn’t. We decided that it could use a little more time. Around this time, there were a few more food-stuffs to wrap up. On the stove we got the potatoes cooking and Frieda was working on her bread stuffing. Irish mama had told her she would need to use approx. 12 pieces of bread and that when properly mixed it should ‘be dry, but stick in your fingers and easily crumble out”. At piece number 16 she was starting to question the process. At closer inspection, the potatoes weren’t cooking at the desired speed. At even closer inspection, this was because they weren’t cooking. The breaker for the stove and oven blew from being overloaded. We turned everything off that was unnecessary and the breaker then blew about 10 more times. We adjusted and figured dinner might be a couple minutes later going on the table. We looked at the turkey again and decided that test number one was passing with flying colors and that test number two was never going to happen. Mr. Turkey needed to come out of the oven so he could sit and we could make the gravy. At this point the guests were trickling in and starting to chat. I had to pull Julia and Frieda away for a moment to get help pulling the turkey. A little while earlier they decided they should start sampling the wine to make sure it was suitable for the guests’ consumption. It was then suggested I find someone else to help me take the very HOT, very HEAVY turkey out of the oven. I agreed that would be a smart idea. Luckily, there was a very helpful Spanish guy up for the job. So, we continued with the loose ends. We turned the oven off to leave some electricity for the stovetop and little by little started to put the food on the table.
Final guest count: 8 – 3 American girls, 1 Irish girl, 1 Belgian girl, and 3 Spanish guys. Everyone gathered around the table and dinner was served at 10:30. We ended up with the juiciest turkey we could have asked for, mashed potatoes with the perfect consistency, gravy with the perfect flavor without anything extra added in, Irish stuffing that was the first thing to go, and so much more. Not only did we have edible food, we had DELICIOUS food. I couldn’t help but smile. The joke at my family’s Thanksgiving is that I can’t cook and thankfully I’m getting at least one good meal for the year. Well folks, looks like all I had to do was move to another country and get some international assistance to learn. It was the most amazing family meal. I was a quarter way around the world from all of you and I didn’t feel lonely. Everyone’s excitement was incredible. One of the Spanish guys (Jesús, yes, this is really his name) was like a little kid at Christmas or in a candy shop, maybe even a little kid in a candy shop at Christmas just because he was invited and got to be a part of the festivities. The funny thing is he wasn’t actually one of our original guests. We had invited some people from our favorite bar/restaurant (it’s called Etiqueta negra) and he stopped in there. They mentioned the party. He then nonchalantly called Frieda to say hello and ask “how she was doing”. She said we were cooking dinner and invited him to join. He said he’d be delighted and he’d be right over. She hung up the phone, took two steps, and the doorbell rang. Low and behold it was him. I can only imagine him standing outside of her door waiting for the invitation. And Frieda had no clue what Thanksgiving was about, but threw herself into it. She made sure we had candles and atmosphere. I couldn’t have asked for anything more. We didn’t call it a night after dinner, either. Around 12:30 Frieda and Jesús went downstairs to Etiqueta negra to check on our friends and see when they would get out of work. He went running around the bar showing everyone that would pay attention the photos he had taken of the party so far and of him so very proudly holding the finished turkey on a platter. What they probably didn’t notice in the photo was me “assisting” him in holding the turkey because I was so paranoid he was going to introduce it to the floor before we got to eat it. And Giselle, (an American whose parents are from El Salvador), invited some of her Spanish friends over after they left their Thursday night out with a group of teachers (this is the same group I usually join every week). They arrived around 2am, bringing another group of characters to join the mix. We talked and played games until we sent the last person home at 4:30. Frieda and I then crawled into bed at 5am, but not before we had one last turkey snack.
The festivities didn’t end there. Julia and I stayed at Frieda’s house the whole weekend and the other girls kept coming back to visit. Friday we had another mini Thxgiving dinner, Saturday we had turkey sandwiches, and Sunday we opted for pizza. I’m pretty sure we remade the Irish stuffing three times. Yummm. Every moment of the day has been recounted at least twice, the good parts 3 or 4 times. I can’t tell you how much I have laughed and smiled in the last 4 days.
I have SO many photos. I’ll include a few so you can get a feel for how it all turned out. I hope you all had a fraction of the day that I had!! Love and miss you.
Besos, Haley
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday; I would even say my favorite day of the entire year. It is hard to be away from my family around this time. I was prepared to be sad this year like I have in the past when I couldn’t get home. What I got was something I never could have dreamed up. An American girl (Julia) and an Irish girl (Frieda) and I ended up banding together to attempt a dinner party. None of us had ever put on a dinner like that, but we figured that if we all pitched in we could come up with something. So, after several calls to mothers around the world, we picked Frieda’s house to host the event because she’s the only one with an oven and has the most space. Can you even imagine transporting a turkey down the road, ha – without a car. A couple days before, we all starting calling dibs on who could make what food. I said that if someone could cook the turkey, I could search one out. A whole turkey is not a super easy item here to find in small-town Spain. Luck would have it that a teacher I work with found out I was looking for one. She was dropping me off after school on Wednesday and took me right to the door of the open-air market. She even told me what door to enter and which stand to go to and to talk to a man named Manolo. I walked straight in and said to the man, “I’m looking for a turkey”, he said, “I have a turkey”, I said, “A whole one?” All he had to do was nod his head for a great big smile to appear on my face. He actually had two, big and bigger. Our dinner had a guaranteed guest count of 3…us. So of course I bought the 7.4 kg bird…the 16 lbs turkey. I also bought a box of freezer bags so I could eat turkey until next year.
We all work until early afternoon on Thursdays, so we decided to serve dinner Spanish style, at 9 or 9:30 pm. This meant I ran to Frieda’s house after school so we could get the bird in the oven by 3pm. And so began the experiment. We cleaned the turkey and got it in the oven. Set the timer for twenty minutes so we could adjust the heat as we had been instructed. So far so good. We then made note of the clock on the wall so we knew when to baste the bird. I left to wash up and get food from my house so I could be back in time for Julia to leave and give an English class. When I got back to Frieda’s an hour or so later she had a slightly funny look on her face and asked if Julia had gotten a hold of me. Apparently, when the timer ran out after those first twenty minutes, the oven shut off with it. Oops. So, I’m not sure exactly how long it was off, but we adjusted and figured dinner might be a couple minutes later going on the table. As a couple of hours passed, our bird didn’t look like it was cooking. This is when the first SOS call went out. The Irish mama got the call. She pulled herself out of her sewing class when her mother’s intuition told her the phone call might mean the turkey needed her help. So, again, we adjusted and figured dinner might be a couple minutes later going on the table. As the afternoon went on, we had several people call and say they couldn’t make it to dinner. We then proceeded to encourage guests to bring friends.
Arrival time of guests: 9:30pm. As time got closer, we needed to check the turkey to see if it was done. We didn’t have the pop up timer and we didn’t have a meat thermometer. What we did have -- two intuition-based, mother-recommended tests to “just know”. Seeing that our turkey intuition was in its first year of development and all mothers were several countries and/or an ocean away, we were going to have to wing this one. One test said the turkey was done, the other one said it wasn’t. We decided that it could use a little more time. Around this time, there were a few more food-stuffs to wrap up. On the stove we got the potatoes cooking and Frieda was working on her bread stuffing. Irish mama had told her she would need to use approx. 12 pieces of bread and that when properly mixed it should ‘be dry, but stick in your fingers and easily crumble out”. At piece number 16 she was starting to question the process. At closer inspection, the potatoes weren’t cooking at the desired speed. At even closer inspection, this was because they weren’t cooking. The breaker for the stove and oven blew from being overloaded. We turned everything off that was unnecessary and the breaker then blew about 10 more times. We adjusted and figured dinner might be a couple minutes later going on the table. We looked at the turkey again and decided that test number one was passing with flying colors and that test number two was never going to happen. Mr. Turkey needed to come out of the oven so he could sit and we could make the gravy. At this point the guests were trickling in and starting to chat. I had to pull Julia and Frieda away for a moment to get help pulling the turkey. A little while earlier they decided they should start sampling the wine to make sure it was suitable for the guests’ consumption. It was then suggested I find someone else to help me take the very HOT, very HEAVY turkey out of the oven. I agreed that would be a smart idea. Luckily, there was a very helpful Spanish guy up for the job. So, we continued with the loose ends. We turned the oven off to leave some electricity for the stovetop and little by little started to put the food on the table.
Final guest count: 8 – 3 American girls, 1 Irish girl, 1 Belgian girl, and 3 Spanish guys. Everyone gathered around the table and dinner was served at 10:30. We ended up with the juiciest turkey we could have asked for, mashed potatoes with the perfect consistency, gravy with the perfect flavor without anything extra added in, Irish stuffing that was the first thing to go, and so much more. Not only did we have edible food, we had DELICIOUS food. I couldn’t help but smile. The joke at my family’s Thanksgiving is that I can’t cook and thankfully I’m getting at least one good meal for the year. Well folks, looks like all I had to do was move to another country and get some international assistance to learn. It was the most amazing family meal. I was a quarter way around the world from all of you and I didn’t feel lonely. Everyone’s excitement was incredible. One of the Spanish guys (Jesús, yes, this is really his name) was like a little kid at Christmas or in a candy shop, maybe even a little kid in a candy shop at Christmas just because he was invited and got to be a part of the festivities. The funny thing is he wasn’t actually one of our original guests. We had invited some people from our favorite bar/restaurant (it’s called Etiqueta negra) and he stopped in there. They mentioned the party. He then nonchalantly called Frieda to say hello and ask “how she was doing”. She said we were cooking dinner and invited him to join. He said he’d be delighted and he’d be right over. She hung up the phone, took two steps, and the doorbell rang. Low and behold it was him. I can only imagine him standing outside of her door waiting for the invitation. And Frieda had no clue what Thanksgiving was about, but threw herself into it. She made sure we had candles and atmosphere. I couldn’t have asked for anything more. We didn’t call it a night after dinner, either. Around 12:30 Frieda and Jesús went downstairs to Etiqueta negra to check on our friends and see when they would get out of work. He went running around the bar showing everyone that would pay attention the photos he had taken of the party so far and of him so very proudly holding the finished turkey on a platter. What they probably didn’t notice in the photo was me “assisting” him in holding the turkey because I was so paranoid he was going to introduce it to the floor before we got to eat it. And Giselle, (an American whose parents are from El Salvador), invited some of her Spanish friends over after they left their Thursday night out with a group of teachers (this is the same group I usually join every week). They arrived around 2am, bringing another group of characters to join the mix. We talked and played games until we sent the last person home at 4:30. Frieda and I then crawled into bed at 5am, but not before we had one last turkey snack.
The festivities didn’t end there. Julia and I stayed at Frieda’s house the whole weekend and the other girls kept coming back to visit. Friday we had another mini Thxgiving dinner, Saturday we had turkey sandwiches, and Sunday we opted for pizza. I’m pretty sure we remade the Irish stuffing three times. Yummm. Every moment of the day has been recounted at least twice, the good parts 3 or 4 times. I can’t tell you how much I have laughed and smiled in the last 4 days.
I have SO many photos. I’ll include a few so you can get a feel for how it all turned out. I hope you all had a fraction of the day that I had!! Love and miss you.
Besos, Haley
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Post coming
Hey there. Just want to let you know I have a long and sassy blog written about my Thanksgiving here in Spain. I'm having a hard time getting it posted though. Any day I should have internet in my house and then it'll be much easier. So, I'll get it to you just as soon as I can. Today I'm off to Sevilla for the night with some friends. I just might have more stories to tell you when I get back!
Thursday, November 20, 2008
The adventures continue
Hey all! Quite a bit has been happening here. A few weeks ago I was starting to get sorta bored and one day I was really lonely, but the dam has burst. Last weekend I went with 4 others teachers for two days of presentations on Mountain Adventure/Trekking/etc. and then a day hike. The hike lasted 5 hours. We covered 6km (3ish miles) and climbed to a height of 1,900m (6,000ish feet). It was great. We had a rustic breakfast to start and then after, a big lunch was provided. It was funny; a day of healthy exercise wasn’t complete without a follow up of a couple of beers and a cup of coffee. I signed up for another trip next weekend. It is a day of presentations and then we’ll visit some local Cultural Heritage sites. I don’t understand the majority of the information presented, but it gives me an opportunity to connect with the teachers outside of school and to stay busy over the weekend. This weekend, I think I’m going to go home with my friend Marta. She teaches here in Puente Genil, but most weekends she goes back to her home town to spend time with her family. This time she has invited me to join. I’m looking forward to meeting her family and seeing a new town. I’ve been so very lucky that Marta was placed in P.G. this year. We keep each other moving. A couple of days ago we joined the gym together and she has promised to show me how to cook a few things. She thinks it is a tragedy that I eat store-bought ‘tortilla de patatas’. Tortillas here are basically potato omelettes, but a little different. It is practically the national food, so I’m gonna give it a shot.
Other than my weekend activities, my weekdays are filling in, too. I have started to give a private English class and will start a second one next week. It is a very interesting dynamic. I have studied Spanish for 12 years (it doesn’t seem possible that it’s been that long!), but now am teaching English and have to explain grammar that I haven’t thought about since I was in Elementary school. Plus, they tend to learn British English here. I have to be aware of the differences so I don’t lead them too far astray. For example: Say the words ‘little, Saturn, and thirty’ out loud. If you speak anything like I do, there isn’t the sound of ‘t’ in any of those words. They come out more like ‘liddle, Sadurn, and thirdy’. But when anyone gives me too hard a time about my accent, I just point out how they talk! In Southern Spain, they rarely pronounce the ends of their words and skip a bunch of letters in the middle. For example: Uno, dos, tres ends up sounding like Uno, Do, Tre. And the phrase ‘More or Less”/”Más o Menos” = ‘Ma o Meno’. And the word for ‘nothing’/’nada’ is pronounced na’a, without the ‘d’. It’s fun though. I am for sure going to have a Spain-spanish accent when I come back to the States. Plus, they tell me that if I can get to the point where I truly understand the accent in Southern Spain, I should be able to understand any Spanish there is! We’ll see if they are telling me the truth. In the two months I have been here I already understand SO MUCH more. The first week I remember thinking I’d never be able to understand anything on TV or a political conversation (you wouldn’t believe how fast they talk). The political conversation is still out of reach, but I started understanding a few words, then a few phrases, and now some actual conversations on TV. It is still exhausting trying to pay attention to a group of people talking, but I’m gaining speed on that too. Thursday nights a bunch of teachers get together for drinks and I’m to the point where I can participate in the conversation. I’ve been around them long enough now that I’m getting familiar with how they speak and that makes it easier to understand what they are saying. Other times, no matter how hard I try, I just don’t get it. There is one teacher I work with that is super cool and tries to talk to me, but for the life of me I can’t understand what the man is saying, try as I might! I’m not sure if he mumbles, or what. There is another teacher that I may never understand for the pure reason that she talks at the speed of light. I’ll admit I go with the ‘smile and nod’ method with these people. J It depends on the day as to how well I can communicate. One day someone will tell me I have a very good accent, the next they look at me like I have two heads when I open my mouth, the day after that I’m told I have an impressive vocabulary, and immediately following that someone talks down to me like I’m 4 years old because they think I’m incapable of forming a complete sentence. It’s quite the learning curve.
I can’t believe Thanksgiving is only a week away. If there is ever a time I love to be home, that’s it. My family will be able to shave off a few pounds of the required mashed potatoes this year. Marta and Sonia found out Thxgiving is my favorite holiday, so they said we could have a dinner here. I’m not sure about finding the right foods, but we’ll pull something together. I’ve heard about a bunch of Americans trying to find turkeys. It’s a pretty big deal to find one that is dead, feather-free, and lacking head and feet. As long as I have my mashed potatoes, I’ll be a happy chica.
I hope you’ve enjoyed the latest chapter of my adventure. Love and miss you all!
Besos,
Haley
Other than my weekend activities, my weekdays are filling in, too. I have started to give a private English class and will start a second one next week. It is a very interesting dynamic. I have studied Spanish for 12 years (it doesn’t seem possible that it’s been that long!), but now am teaching English and have to explain grammar that I haven’t thought about since I was in Elementary school. Plus, they tend to learn British English here. I have to be aware of the differences so I don’t lead them too far astray. For example: Say the words ‘little, Saturn, and thirty’ out loud. If you speak anything like I do, there isn’t the sound of ‘t’ in any of those words. They come out more like ‘liddle, Sadurn, and thirdy’. But when anyone gives me too hard a time about my accent, I just point out how they talk! In Southern Spain, they rarely pronounce the ends of their words and skip a bunch of letters in the middle. For example: Uno, dos, tres ends up sounding like Uno, Do, Tre. And the phrase ‘More or Less”/”Más o Menos” = ‘Ma o Meno’. And the word for ‘nothing’/’nada’ is pronounced na’a, without the ‘d’. It’s fun though. I am for sure going to have a Spain-spanish accent when I come back to the States. Plus, they tell me that if I can get to the point where I truly understand the accent in Southern Spain, I should be able to understand any Spanish there is! We’ll see if they are telling me the truth. In the two months I have been here I already understand SO MUCH more. The first week I remember thinking I’d never be able to understand anything on TV or a political conversation (you wouldn’t believe how fast they talk). The political conversation is still out of reach, but I started understanding a few words, then a few phrases, and now some actual conversations on TV. It is still exhausting trying to pay attention to a group of people talking, but I’m gaining speed on that too. Thursday nights a bunch of teachers get together for drinks and I’m to the point where I can participate in the conversation. I’ve been around them long enough now that I’m getting familiar with how they speak and that makes it easier to understand what they are saying. Other times, no matter how hard I try, I just don’t get it. There is one teacher I work with that is super cool and tries to talk to me, but for the life of me I can’t understand what the man is saying, try as I might! I’m not sure if he mumbles, or what. There is another teacher that I may never understand for the pure reason that she talks at the speed of light. I’ll admit I go with the ‘smile and nod’ method with these people. J It depends on the day as to how well I can communicate. One day someone will tell me I have a very good accent, the next they look at me like I have two heads when I open my mouth, the day after that I’m told I have an impressive vocabulary, and immediately following that someone talks down to me like I’m 4 years old because they think I’m incapable of forming a complete sentence. It’s quite the learning curve.
I can’t believe Thanksgiving is only a week away. If there is ever a time I love to be home, that’s it. My family will be able to shave off a few pounds of the required mashed potatoes this year. Marta and Sonia found out Thxgiving is my favorite holiday, so they said we could have a dinner here. I’m not sure about finding the right foods, but we’ll pull something together. I’ve heard about a bunch of Americans trying to find turkeys. It’s a pretty big deal to find one that is dead, feather-free, and lacking head and feet. As long as I have my mashed potatoes, I’ll be a happy chica.
I hope you’ve enjoyed the latest chapter of my adventure. Love and miss you all!
Besos,
Haley
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
PHOTOS 4!!!!
First one is my bedroom. Nice big bed to stretch out in. Second - lots of closet space. Third is the bathroom with a window that opens to the terrace. This is also where my washer is. No dryer - all clothes are hung out to dry. Hope these photos help you understand where I am and how I'm doing!Besos,
Haley
PHOTOS 3!!!
First is my kitchen. Everything is brand new. Second is door to the terrace. On bright, sunny days I like to open it up to let the sunshine in. Third is my diningroom/livingroom. In spanish homes these rooms are usually combined because in the winter the heater is put under the table. Then you pull the table cloth (which is more like a blanket) up over your lap to stay warm. There is rarely central heating.PHOTOS 2!!!
First one is my rocking chair! Second one is the back of my house. It is a very old building. They've done some remodeling inside. Third is my entry way. Left to the kitchen, dining/livingroom, terrace. Right to spare room. Straight to spare bedroom, my bedroom, and bathroom. Fourth is the spare room that I shut off because I just don't need the space. Fifth is the spare bedroom. It doesn't have it's own door. It is in between the bathroom (left) and my bedroom (right). I put up my maps already as you can see.
PHOTOS!!
The first two are random streets in Puente Genil. The last three are from my terrace!! I have a view of the country side. There is a cover for when I want shade. In the one photo I've pointed a few things out for you. The writing is smaller than I thought, but if you click on it, it should open up bigger. One box is pointing to where I hang my clothes to dry and the other to where I work.Settling In
I finally have all of my stuff from Granada and am settling in quite nicely. My roommate didn't stay long. Her job moved her somewhere else, so I have the place to myself. It is pretty quiet but I'm trying to find ways to keep busy. I have a book of short stories that I am reading, in Spanish of course. The goal is to pick one story when I get home from work and read it out loud while I'm preparing lunch. Thankfully there isn't anyone to hear me! It's pretty bad, but with time it will get better. Then after lunch, I read the story again, but this time the English version to see how much I understood. And pretty soon, I am going to try to translate some stuff for one of my classes. The teacher needs to translate the second year Science textbook for next year. It isn't the whole book, just chapter titles, activities, definitions, basic ideas. Generally, I'm just here to assist the teachers. For instance, he (Joaquin) would translate the text and I would correct his errors. But, he asked me if I wanted to correct his translations or translate it myself. I said I would like to try to do the translating. I welcome the challenge! In truth, I need something to throw myself into. Plus, I’ll get a chance to see if it is something I enjoy.
Work is going well. It is very easy. I basically get to talk to people. And thankfully, I like the people I am talking to. We laugh a lot and get a little bit accomplished in the process. I’m spending a lot of time reading out loud in English so they can hear how things are supposed to be pronounced. The hours I spend just talking to the teachers, so they can practice English, are fun and I learn a lot. Sometimes we talk about Spain stuff, sometime US stuff and often the differences and similarities between the two. The cool thing I realized is that I can use these hours to learn about things I have questions about. There are no rules or guidelines to what we talk about, so we get to talk about what ever we like that day. It is cool. Everyday hear is like an upper level Spanish class that they are paying ME to take. For people that don't like school, this wouldn't exactly be 'cool', but I love it. Sometimes I get to the point of overload, but that is how I'm going to learn. It is absolutely exhausting to talk to a group of people for several hours and understand what they are saying and try to be a part of the conversation. I still have difficulties expressing complex thoughts or things in the past. Ideally, I'd take a grammar class to review or get some good books to reteach myself, but it'll be a little while before that will happen. Everyone has been so patient with me. Last night, Marta and I went to Sonia's house for dinner and to watch a movie instead of going out. At one point Sonia asked me to put some food on the table in the other room. Or so I thought. I frequently understand parts of a sentence and then put them together to figure out what is going on. I understood 'put this on the table' and 'there are two pieces for each of us'. I was close. She actually asked me to take the food to the table, and serve it onto our plates, two pieces for each of us because there wasn't going to be room for all of the dishes. Close enough for me! We had a laugh when she realized I hadn't completely understood her.
One very big difference for me this time in Spain is that I am actually living here; not passing through, not a guest in someone’s home. This means I have to cook for myself. And as many of you know, this is not one of my strong points. J I have never had much need to learn how to cook meals. Oh, the times have changed. Now I spend 1-2 hours everyday cooking and doing dishes. Everything I eat comes off of the stove top. I DO NOT have a microwave-I do not have an oven-I do not have a toaster. If I want to reheat leftovers, they go back in a pan. If I want to heat water or milk, they go in a saucepan. It’s been a very steep learning curve! Also, common ingredients differ here, so I’m getting used to what my staples are. And HAM, I can’t tell you how many varieties of ham there are! It is going to take me a lifetime just to be able to tell them all apart. Little by little, though. Today’s dinner turned out pretty good, last week my big experiment failed miserably. Haha. And when all else fails, downtown there is a take-out pizza place that is pretty good and a take-out hamburger place that I’m saving for an emergency.
Work is going well. It is very easy. I basically get to talk to people. And thankfully, I like the people I am talking to. We laugh a lot and get a little bit accomplished in the process. I’m spending a lot of time reading out loud in English so they can hear how things are supposed to be pronounced. The hours I spend just talking to the teachers, so they can practice English, are fun and I learn a lot. Sometimes we talk about Spain stuff, sometime US stuff and often the differences and similarities between the two. The cool thing I realized is that I can use these hours to learn about things I have questions about. There are no rules or guidelines to what we talk about, so we get to talk about what ever we like that day. It is cool. Everyday hear is like an upper level Spanish class that they are paying ME to take. For people that don't like school, this wouldn't exactly be 'cool', but I love it. Sometimes I get to the point of overload, but that is how I'm going to learn. It is absolutely exhausting to talk to a group of people for several hours and understand what they are saying and try to be a part of the conversation. I still have difficulties expressing complex thoughts or things in the past. Ideally, I'd take a grammar class to review or get some good books to reteach myself, but it'll be a little while before that will happen. Everyone has been so patient with me. Last night, Marta and I went to Sonia's house for dinner and to watch a movie instead of going out. At one point Sonia asked me to put some food on the table in the other room. Or so I thought. I frequently understand parts of a sentence and then put them together to figure out what is going on. I understood 'put this on the table' and 'there are two pieces for each of us'. I was close. She actually asked me to take the food to the table, and serve it onto our plates, two pieces for each of us because there wasn't going to be room for all of the dishes. Close enough for me! We had a laugh when she realized I hadn't completely understood her.
One very big difference for me this time in Spain is that I am actually living here; not passing through, not a guest in someone’s home. This means I have to cook for myself. And as many of you know, this is not one of my strong points. J I have never had much need to learn how to cook meals. Oh, the times have changed. Now I spend 1-2 hours everyday cooking and doing dishes. Everything I eat comes off of the stove top. I DO NOT have a microwave-I do not have an oven-I do not have a toaster. If I want to reheat leftovers, they go back in a pan. If I want to heat water or milk, they go in a saucepan. It’s been a very steep learning curve! Also, common ingredients differ here, so I’m getting used to what my staples are. And HAM, I can’t tell you how many varieties of ham there are! It is going to take me a lifetime just to be able to tell them all apart. Little by little, though. Today’s dinner turned out pretty good, last week my big experiment failed miserably. Haha. And when all else fails, downtown there is a take-out pizza place that is pretty good and a take-out hamburger place that I’m saving for an emergency.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Photos are coming
I forgot to tell you that photos are coming. The cable to connect my camera to my computer is in Granada still. Hopefully I can post some of my house and town soon! Besos
It´s official, I have 2 heads and 4 eyes....
I can´t believe I´ve been here for two weeks already! It doesn´t feel like it in the least. I finished my first week at school. It was exhausting and great. There are so many facets to my job and I am always doing something different. 4 of my 12 hours are spent in class with a teacher. 2 of the classes are with first level; one is Natural Sciences and the other Math. Then, I have 2 English classes; one with third level and the other with fourth level. There are four levels in the school and they correspond more or less with 7th-10th grade. In these classes I do a lot of pronunciating of words. The students spend a lot of time alternating between repeating what I say and staring at me. Many of them are very good at doing both simultaneously. My other 8 hours are spent outside of class with teachers. These hours are split into 2 parts and sometimes overlap. With some of the teachers, I help them go over materials they plan to teach, in English, in their classes. Other teachers simply want help improving their English. The school in is the beginning stages of being a Bilingual School. In this type of school, students don´t just take English classes, rather, in addition to English classes, they also have some of their other basic subjects taught partially in English and partially in Spanish. However, it is just starting and their proficiency level of English is still very low and their desire to learn English is often lower. Lucky me. ;-) I need to use my novelty to my advantage to try and get them interested.
One thing I have had a difficult time adjusting to is the noise level. Everything ECHOS is Spain. Their buildings are made of Cement, Brick, Tile, Marble, Metal.... They don´t have much use for material that absorbs sound like carpet, wood, drywall, wallpaper. Today one class was working in groups and I was trying to go around the room to help them pronounce their exercise, but couldn´t for the life of me hear what they were saying in any language. Even in the teachers´lounge it is difficult. When there are only a couple people in there, I can hear just fine, but get the whole bunch of them in there and I have to stand right next to the person trying to talk to me. No wonder Spaniards don´t require as much personal space as Americans do, they can´t hear each other if they stand very far apart! Another thing that shocked me was on my first day when the bell rang in between classes. I asked how much time there was until the next bell and I was told there is only one bell. Students actually just go to their next class. Frequently, students are in class before the teachers are. There are 6 hours of class everyday, but they are not the same 6 subjects each day. Teachers have quite a few hours a week when they don´t have class. They are not required to be in school if they don´t have class. For example, if a teacher does not have class the first hour, but they do have class the second hour, they can show up just before 2nd hour. And I mean ´just´ literally. One morning I arrived for first hour, which starts at 8:30, and the teacher arrived at 8:29, at which point the students were already sitting at their desks. This is not uncommon! And then if a teacher doesn´t have a fifth or sixth hour, they can go home. It is all very different and interesting.
Thankfully, I have made a friend in Puente Genil. Marta is a teacher at my school. She is a year older than me, this is her first year teaching, and teaches the third level English class that I´m in. She isn´t from P.G., so she doesn´t know anyone either. She did by chance run into a classmate from High School the other day, so now we are 3! Last night we ended up walking around town for an hour trying to find a certain office so we could sign up for an aerobics class. It´ll be great. We´ll be able to keep busy together. We even got to talking and Halloween and Thanksgiving came up. I said Thanksgiving was my favoriate holiday of all and they decided we are going to celebrate it together! This is awesome because it is a non-existent holiday here!! Now I have the girls to spend Thanksgiving with (we´re working on more people) and Juanmi and Toñy to spend Christmas with. Yipee.
There´s still more I want to share, but I´ll let this settle in for a minute first. I hope you are enjoying my tales of adventure because I am loving living them!
One thing I have had a difficult time adjusting to is the noise level. Everything ECHOS is Spain. Their buildings are made of Cement, Brick, Tile, Marble, Metal.... They don´t have much use for material that absorbs sound like carpet, wood, drywall, wallpaper. Today one class was working in groups and I was trying to go around the room to help them pronounce their exercise, but couldn´t for the life of me hear what they were saying in any language. Even in the teachers´lounge it is difficult. When there are only a couple people in there, I can hear just fine, but get the whole bunch of them in there and I have to stand right next to the person trying to talk to me. No wonder Spaniards don´t require as much personal space as Americans do, they can´t hear each other if they stand very far apart! Another thing that shocked me was on my first day when the bell rang in between classes. I asked how much time there was until the next bell and I was told there is only one bell. Students actually just go to their next class. Frequently, students are in class before the teachers are. There are 6 hours of class everyday, but they are not the same 6 subjects each day. Teachers have quite a few hours a week when they don´t have class. They are not required to be in school if they don´t have class. For example, if a teacher does not have class the first hour, but they do have class the second hour, they can show up just before 2nd hour. And I mean ´just´ literally. One morning I arrived for first hour, which starts at 8:30, and the teacher arrived at 8:29, at which point the students were already sitting at their desks. This is not uncommon! And then if a teacher doesn´t have a fifth or sixth hour, they can go home. It is all very different and interesting.
Thankfully, I have made a friend in Puente Genil. Marta is a teacher at my school. She is a year older than me, this is her first year teaching, and teaches the third level English class that I´m in. She isn´t from P.G., so she doesn´t know anyone either. She did by chance run into a classmate from High School the other day, so now we are 3! Last night we ended up walking around town for an hour trying to find a certain office so we could sign up for an aerobics class. It´ll be great. We´ll be able to keep busy together. We even got to talking and Halloween and Thanksgiving came up. I said Thanksgiving was my favoriate holiday of all and they decided we are going to celebrate it together! This is awesome because it is a non-existent holiday here!! Now I have the girls to spend Thanksgiving with (we´re working on more people) and Juanmi and Toñy to spend Christmas with. Yipee.
There´s still more I want to share, but I´ll let this settle in for a minute first. I hope you are enjoying my tales of adventure because I am loving living them!
Saturday, October 4, 2008
There was an Italian, a Spaniard, a German, and an American living together....
No, this is not the start of a joke. It was almost my life. Finding a place in Cordoba proved harder than I thought. I was THIS close to renting a place with a Spanish guy, an Italian girl, and a German guy. I even gave them a holding fee to keep it for me until the next day. If I hadn´t, they were going to show it again in mere minutes. But, as soon as I left and thought about it more and talked it out something didn´t feel right about it. I can´t say exactly what didn´t sit right, but I do know my gut was telling me it wasn´t the place for me. And if there is anything I have learned in my short time here on earth, it is that my gut is usually right! So, I gave the keys back and went on my way. This is not to say that I was without worry and/or frustration. By this point I was super tired from sleeping in a different bed every night and traveling constantly. Then I had my orientation for work. I met people that had decided to live in the city and commute and I met people that were living in the small towns near their schools. I met an American that was looking for a roommate in Puente Genil. Again, I felt conflicted. Finding spanish people to live with is not that easy. Most live with their parents until they have finished University and then have families of their own. I do not want my spanish to suffer by living with an American, but I also don´t want to live in a box on the street! There were a few assistants at the orientation from the previous year that spoke about their experience. So, even in my sleepy haze, I knew that the only this that would help me figure this whole thing out is INFORMATION. I´m just that type of girl. So, I pulled one of the returning assistants aside and asked her what she thought given her experience. I basically asked her if she thought it would be better to commute and live with Spaniards (hopefully) or live in PG with an American. She felt it was very important to live near the school and in the village. You get to know the people you live near and become a part of the community. If you live in the city, you can´t attend after hours school events and you are always worried about the time and the bus or carpooling schedule. In the end, she thought it best to live with an American if necessary in the village and force myself to get out and interact with the community. After this, I decided to take a leap of faith and go to PG for a few days to find a place to live. The American girls that live here in PG have been a lot of help, but they are not the type I´d want to live with. They have been a little evasive in meeting up and joining together to look for apartments. That´s fine. I like knowing they are here, but I´d rather they not become my circle of friends that I see everyday. If that happens, I won´t get out and interact with the locals. But, luckily, one of the girls gave me the number of her new landlord saying that he had another apartment for rent. I put him on the list. Another bit of luck was that one of the assistants here was gone for the weekend and offered me his place to stay in while he is away! Super cool. I have an apartment to myself for a coule of days...and for FREE. I love free. Yesterday I called a bunch of numbers about apartments. An apartment search would normally be daunting, but add on the fact that I have to talk to these people on the phone, in spanish. I really hate speaking in spanish via the phone. But, it was a great test for me and I accomplished it. Unfortunately, everyone I called said they had already rented their places out. Argh. Today is Saturday and nearly everything shuts down over the weekend. That leaves me to wait until Monday and Tuesday to continue looking. Not good considering I don´t have a place to stay past tomorrow. But, I tried one last number that hadn´t answered. He then gave me another number. And that´s when the sun came out from behind the clouds and I heard the choir. (Or something like that.) What I am trying to say is...I HAVE A PLACE TO LIVE! I´m on the outskirts of the town in between the center and my school. I even have a terrace outside the backside of my house with a view of the countryside and the olive groves!! The owner is wonderful. She and her family live upstairs. She so warm and helpful. I think we both feel good about the situation. Her husband travels some and she wants to feel comfortable and safe with who is living in her house. Already, she has been very helpful, offering to show me where the market and closest stores are and said if I have to go to the far away big grocery store some time I can go with her in her car. For the month of October, I am going to share the house with another girl (I think she is Spanish). They already said she could stay there for a month while she looked for a place and neither of us mind sharing as it is a month´s time paying half of the rent. With how cautious my landlord is being, I am comfortable that it will be a good situation. The girl has a couple small dogs, so it should be nice having animals around. Hopefully they aren´t crazy or anything! Anyway, it is only a month and that frees up some money for me to get some basics things and get set up. I am SUPER excited. I move in tomorrow. I can breathe now. And I´ll have a washer!!!!! I desperately need to wash clothes. I thought I was only going to be gone from Granada for a few days, but it is turning into a week or longer. This Thursday or Friday I´ll be able to go back to Granada and get my stuff and bring it back to my HOME in Puente Genil!! So, all this said, I´ll have an address soon. And hopefully I can get internet in my HOME soon so I can write more often in smaller blocks! haha. This is looking like a novel. For now I have found an internet cafe and can communicate when I need to. That makes me (and my parents!) very happy.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Apartment Searching
My search for a place to live has begun. I left Granada yesterday to come to Cordoba to check things out. Unfortunately, it rained all day yesterday and wasn't exactly conducive to walking around to look for apartments. So, I buried myself in my room at the hostel and did some footwork on the internet. It is amazing how much better connected I am this trip. I have even set up an online phone system so I can call anywhere in the US for free. All I need is an internet connection and a headset. One very cool thing about this system is that my friends and family (that would be you!) in the US can call me for free, too. I now have a local Cheboygan, MI phone number that you can call and it will ring on my computer where ever I am in the world! If you would like that number, you can get it from any of my parents or send me a comment, email, etc. so I can send it to you. It came in handy the last couple of days. As my last post said, I got a spanish cell phone (in the future I may refer to this as a mobile - they use a lot of British English translation here). I also brought my American cell phone with me to use for the first week during my settling in period. Well, when leaving Granada, I had the lovely experience of getting pickpocketed. Argh.... I knew the guy tried, but I checked the pocket and didn't think he got anything. Wrong. He managed to grab my American cell phone. Before I left home I told myself I should write down my numbers in case I ever lost the phone. I got through the letter 'C'. Oops, that isn't very far. So this wasn't a welcomed experience, but it wasn't anything to get too worked up about. I suspended my service temporarily and I still have a Spanish cell phone...right? Wrong. Once I got to the hostel I went to use it and forgot that I need a pin to unlock it after it has been turned off. The pin was in Granada. The planets weren't exactly aligning in my favor. Thankfully I was able to call my cell phone company, my parents, and eventually my friends in Granada to let them know all was well.
I had to turn my focus to the apartment search despite the cell phone debacle. The hostel gave me a map and an idea of where to start looking. Today started out a little less wet, but the flyers posted were all a bit soggy. After a long walk I collected quite a few possibilities. Then I hopped on a bus to Puente Genil to see the town for the first time. It seems like a nice place. Not too sleepy, not to busy. It's too bad I didn't find a single posting looking for roommates. I talked with one local girl and she said there isn't much for shared apartments. I can't tell you how many times I've gone back and forth trying to decide whether to live in P.G. or Cordoba. Finally, I have decided (maybe :-) ). I had to think about it from a different point of view. The most important thing for me to accomplish here in Spain is to speak spanish as much as possible. My job requires me to speak English, so it won't happen much there. If I rent an apartment in P.G. and live by myself, I won't have access to the language and culture there, either. I don't want to end up spending all of my time watching Spanish television! (I am finding that their games show will be good learning tools.) So, for this moment, I've decided to live in Cordoba and make the commute to P.G. I have sent several emails out already inquiring about postings. Tomorrow when I get to Granada I'll have Juanmi and Toñy to help me make phone calls to those without email contacts.
I am taking each challenge one at a time. Once or twice I have caught myself wishing I had been placed in Granada because it would be so much easier. But, if I was looking for easy, I wouldn't be here. I am here for the adventure and the challenge. It will be good for me to learn a new place and meet new friends on my own.
For the next week I'll go between Granada and Cordoba. I have an orientation in Cordoba on Thursday and will probably start work in P.G. on Monday. I was supposed to start on Wednesday, but they told me it wasn't necessary because they don't have my class schedule finalized yet. My contact there said someone would pick me up from the bus station when ever I decided to arrive - whether that be Wednesay, Friday, or next week. Details, details. I love it. We'll see if I say the same thing when I am trying to get my resident paperwork processed! haha.
I had to turn my focus to the apartment search despite the cell phone debacle. The hostel gave me a map and an idea of where to start looking. Today started out a little less wet, but the flyers posted were all a bit soggy. After a long walk I collected quite a few possibilities. Then I hopped on a bus to Puente Genil to see the town for the first time. It seems like a nice place. Not too sleepy, not to busy. It's too bad I didn't find a single posting looking for roommates. I talked with one local girl and she said there isn't much for shared apartments. I can't tell you how many times I've gone back and forth trying to decide whether to live in P.G. or Cordoba. Finally, I have decided (maybe :-) ). I had to think about it from a different point of view. The most important thing for me to accomplish here in Spain is to speak spanish as much as possible. My job requires me to speak English, so it won't happen much there. If I rent an apartment in P.G. and live by myself, I won't have access to the language and culture there, either. I don't want to end up spending all of my time watching Spanish television! (I am finding that their games show will be good learning tools.) So, for this moment, I've decided to live in Cordoba and make the commute to P.G. I have sent several emails out already inquiring about postings. Tomorrow when I get to Granada I'll have Juanmi and Toñy to help me make phone calls to those without email contacts.
I am taking each challenge one at a time. Once or twice I have caught myself wishing I had been placed in Granada because it would be so much easier. But, if I was looking for easy, I wouldn't be here. I am here for the adventure and the challenge. It will be good for me to learn a new place and meet new friends on my own.
For the next week I'll go between Granada and Cordoba. I have an orientation in Cordoba on Thursday and will probably start work in P.G. on Monday. I was supposed to start on Wednesday, but they told me it wasn't necessary because they don't have my class schedule finalized yet. My contact there said someone would pick me up from the bus station when ever I decided to arrive - whether that be Wednesay, Friday, or next week. Details, details. I love it. We'll see if I say the same thing when I am trying to get my resident paperwork processed! haha.
Friday, September 26, 2008
I made it!!!!!
Hey everyone! I made it safely to Spain. I am in Granada with my friends Juanmi and Toñy. Tomorrow I am going to Cordoba to look for a place to live. I wish I could stay here in Granada longer, but I can come back any time I want to visit. Juanmi and Toñy have been a HUGE help. Today, Toñy and I went around town. To my benefit she is sick and didn't go to work, but not so sick as to stay in the house all day. Now I have a spanish cell phone! I wasn't looking forward to figuring all of that out in Spanish. I'm still a bit rusty when it comes to communicating. It gets easier all the time, though. We had breakfast at a local cafe where I had my FAVORITE thing... toast with tomato. It is way better than you are thinking. It is fresh baguette bread toasted with tomato that is prepared more like applesauce. Put some olive oil and salt on top and there you go. Mmmmmmmmmm. After breakfast we even bought the tool for me to try to make it myself. Granada is the same as I remember. I love turning a corner and remembering something from one of my visits. So far I don't feel overwhelmed in the least. How wonderful to have a support system already in place. I'll be living a couple hours away, but I'll never be alone. They have already invited me back for Christmas so I won't be by myself. Yea!
Tomorrow I'll catch a bus to Cordoba and stay in a hostel for a couple days. I can go to Puente Genil from there. I still haven't decided which city to live in. For now I'll walk around to check out different neighborhoods and collect some numbers. Like buying a cell phone, I haven't been looking forward to making phone calls about housing. It is hard for me to understand Spanish on the phone. But I'm in luck! My friends are going to help me with this, too. Hopefully by Wednesday, when I start my job, I will have figured it out and will have a place to live. For now I'm going to leave the majority of my luggage here in Granada. This is great because I have everything I could fit on the plane with me. I'm sure it was a sight to see me lug it all from the airport baggage claim to the bus and then down the street to a taxi and into the apartment. Ay!
It is amazing how quickly my brain is switching over to Spanish. After two days here it is hard to think in and write in English. So, bear with me if I throw in some Spanish words once in a while or get creative with the grammer and spelling. I'll try to explain as I go. If you have ANY questions along the way, ASK! It is hard for me know what to tell you. Email me, leave a comment, whatever. I haven't quite figured out my phone system yet, but as soon as I know, you will know.
Hasta luego! (literally, 'until later' or See ya later)
Haley
Tomorrow I'll catch a bus to Cordoba and stay in a hostel for a couple days. I can go to Puente Genil from there. I still haven't decided which city to live in. For now I'll walk around to check out different neighborhoods and collect some numbers. Like buying a cell phone, I haven't been looking forward to making phone calls about housing. It is hard for me to understand Spanish on the phone. But I'm in luck! My friends are going to help me with this, too. Hopefully by Wednesday, when I start my job, I will have figured it out and will have a place to live. For now I'm going to leave the majority of my luggage here in Granada. This is great because I have everything I could fit on the plane with me. I'm sure it was a sight to see me lug it all from the airport baggage claim to the bus and then down the street to a taxi and into the apartment. Ay!
It is amazing how quickly my brain is switching over to Spanish. After two days here it is hard to think in and write in English. So, bear with me if I throw in some Spanish words once in a while or get creative with the grammer and spelling. I'll try to explain as I go. If you have ANY questions along the way, ASK! It is hard for me know what to tell you. Email me, leave a comment, whatever. I haven't quite figured out my phone system yet, but as soon as I know, you will know.
Hasta luego! (literally, 'until later' or See ya later)
Haley
Saturday, August 30, 2008
6 cities, 4 time zones, and 1 tired chica in a pear tree
I have started my US tour. I started in LA on Monday. SO much fun. Ate all kinds of good food, got to spend lots of time with my friend Kevin, and even went overnight to San Diego to visit with some old friends. Everything we could fit into three days, we did! Thursday was my cross-country day. I woke up in LA and proceeded to stop over in Phoenix, El Paso, Dallas, and Detroit. Then drove to Grand Rapids with my friend Mel who was so great to come pick me up. Needless to say, the trip was exhausting, especially after not sleeping much in California! Sleep would have been a complete waste of short and precious time. :-) I'm so happy to see everyone in Grand Rapids again! Mel and I didn't stop talking for a minute on the drive from Det. to GR. Last night I went in to Leo's (where I used to work) and had dinner. HEAVENLY! I've been dreaming about what I was going to eat. It was as good as I remembered. Tomorrow is their yearly picnic and I'll be going to that. Burgers, beers, and friends, sounds good to me. The next stop is home to Cheboygan!!! I can't wait to see my parents and grandparents. And of course I'll go to Petoskey to see my sister and Cedarville to my aunt's restaurant. That'll be torture. haha. Shrimp jammers from Pammi's are calling my name already!
I have 24 more days until I leave for Spain. I can hardly believe it! It isn't in the forefront of my brain right now because I'm doing so much visiting and traveling. But once I get back to New Mexico, I'll have six days to finish packing and make sure I'm prepared. Ay, ay, ay. How cool. Such a rough life. :-)
I'm off now to meet up with some friends and catch up. Hopefully I'll be seeing as many of you as I can very soon.
Besos,
Haley
I have 24 more days until I leave for Spain. I can hardly believe it! It isn't in the forefront of my brain right now because I'm doing so much visiting and traveling. But once I get back to New Mexico, I'll have six days to finish packing and make sure I'm prepared. Ay, ay, ay. How cool. Such a rough life. :-)
I'm off now to meet up with some friends and catch up. Hopefully I'll be seeing as many of you as I can very soon.
Besos,
Haley
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