Friday, March 7, 2014

A summary of normal life

Hello!

I know it's been a while since I've written a blog, but honestly, nothing that exciting has happened to me since I got back from London. It's pretty, well, normal here. But I thought at the very least I should catch everyone who does read my blog up with life over here.

I just finished my conversation classes with the teachers in the area. I must say, I'm really going to miss them! They were quite fun, and I learned a lot. I'm hoping to snag a few more private lessons to make some extra income, and it looks like I'll be able to do that. And, my regular work is going well. The students like  me (my 1eso class clapped when I came in) but that's mostly because they think, and I quote 'English is boring', and when I'm there we play games. (Jokes on them, they're actually learning English when they play the games, bwa ha ha).

I had great success with one game, which was fairly simple, but entertaining. Basically, you put a bunch of random letters on the board. From there, the students had to take the letters and make words. You see who can make the longest word, the most words, etc. They really enjoyed coming up to the board and writing the words the found, and even my usually non-participatory students wanted to join in. Sometimes, the best classroom stuff is the easiest. 

Recently, Spain enjoyed carnival, a roughly four day festival. It's much like Mardi Gras, you dress up in costume and party, but with a Spanish feel. I went out Saturday for dinner with some friends, joined them in group costumes (no one will ever see those pictures), and went out afterwards to some bars. The dinner was fine. It was really late, so late in fact that we didn't finish eating until 1 am. Yeah. It was late. The food was a bit disappointing, cold and slow and not very tasty, and I thought perhaps the waitress might give us a break off the 25 Euro menú cost. Not so. What she said, after we expressed our feelings was, "Sorry. Not my fault, you know? But you can smoke if you want." None of us smoked.

The bars I have to say were a bit much for me. I'm getting better with the lack of personal bubble in Spain, but packed in a club to the point where you can't even dance or breath, where people are shoving into you every five seconds and the music is blasting so loud you can't hear yourself think... well, I wasn't exactly having a good time. I'm not really a club person to begin with, but for the rest of Carnival, I stayed home and hung out.

After Carnival was Ash Wednesday. As you may have seen if you're friends with me on Facebook, I was confused all day by the fact that I saw not a single ash covered forehead. Not one. I know Spain isn't as Catholic as it used to be, but come on? What about the old ladies and the kids in Catholic school who went to mass during the school day? So I went to mass about 7:30 (19.30) and was all ready to get ashes smeared on my forehead. All seemed very much the same (though I missed the traditional English Ash Wednesday hymn. You know the one I'm talking about.) But when I went up, and started pushing my hair away from my forehead, the priest gives me a funny look. I realize that they don't do that here, instead, they sprinkle the ashes on top of your head in the form a cross! Mystery solved!

Other than that, nothing  much to note. Normal life, paying bills, trying to get the heater fixed, and enjoying the above 60 degree weather we're supposed to be having for at least the next seven days.
I'm most excited about what's coming up: Holy Week. I've got a trip planned to the south of Spain, to the three most famous cities; Córdoba, Granada, and Sevilla. Sevilla's Holy Week celebrations are legendary, and I can't wait to see them. I'll be there for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and most of Friday. Córdoba is a little town I've heard, so I'll be there on Saturday. And Granada is home to the Muslim palace and fortress, the Alhambra. It's a beautiful building, and I'm so excited to see it in person. I bought my tickets today online on the advice of some friends, and thank goodness I did. All of Holy Week, except for Monday and Sunday, was completely sold old. Luckily, those are the two days I'll be there! I think I got one of the last tickets for Monday as well, as there was basically only one slot I could choose from, all marked with the number 1. I must say I'm feeling quite lucky. So, in April, expect some gorgeous pictures!


I've got three other must see cities to visit before I go; Segovia (with its Roman Aqueducts), San Sebastian (a Basque costal town), and Barcelona (need I say more?). Anything beyond that will be a bonus, and I do have promises from friends to take me to their home towns (usually small towns in the vicinity of Burgos and Aranda). With all that, it should satisfy my desire to explore Spain before I head home. Only 97 days left in my program. How time flies! 

(PS Have a Holy Lent!)