long time without updates

Sorry I havn't written in a long time it has been a crazy month but everything is going well here in Malaga. Thanksgiving was really good, although it was a little tricky and expensive to get a Turkey and we had our Australian friend make it all worked out. I am enjoying teaching a lot more than I was initially! The kids are behaving themselves and seem to like me a lot, the other day I walked in and they started chanting teacher which made me feel pretty awesome.

Greg visited which was really fun, we went to Granada, Nerja and Sevilla. In Sevilla Tamara, ( my Spanish friend from when I studied abroad) threw me a surprise party which was very very nice.

My birthday was really nice, went out for dinner with all the Malaga chicas and Greg then everyone went out to our favorite club.

Last weekend I went to London which was amazing, everything I thought it would be and more. We stayed with my friend Steph's friend Ryan in his very cute apartment. It was nice to be in the cold and London reminded me a lot of home. We spent a lot of time in Starbucks ( which we don't have here) drinking yummy drinks and people watching. I saw all the famous sights like Big Ben and Buckingham Palace, went to a Christmas fair, and a few pubs of course. I ate all the food I missed like bagels, sushi and hummus. One of my favorite parts was just relaxing on Sunday night with our new friends, watching Elf, drinking hot chocolate and eating cookies.

Most people are going home for the holidays aroune the 21/22 and coming back the 8/9 but Jacqui and I are staying here and Lauren ( my best friend) is coming on the 24th and we are going to do a lot of traveling. On the 25th we fly out to Rome for four days, then Florence, then Barcelona for New Years until the third! Lauren and Jacqui fly home on the 3rd and I am going to visit Tamara in her home city of Santander from the 3-8! I can't wait :)

crazy last week, and how the scarf started it all

This last week was crazy, both some good and some bad. So Tuesdays are my longest day, I teach 9-2, hang out with my British friend during siesta from 2-4 then teach the teachers 4-6 and I tutor from when I get there after school meaning I usually get home around 9. Well this past Tuesday I was walking to the Bus after school to go tutor and I walked by a store that had two euro scarves, so clearly I went in, well meanwhile my normal bus passed and I had to wait another half an hour for the next bus. By the time I got onto the bus it was dark and what do you know I missed my stop, well it was dark and I was in no position to get off the bus in a neighborhood I didn't know so I decided to call my friends who live at a stop down the coast and stay with them. Thank goodness they picked up and it ended up being oky after having a minor heart attack on the bus. I had a great time at Toren and Lc's we had a nice dinner and had a great time hanging out, everything seemed ok until the next morning when I got back to the town I teach in and tried to take money out of the ATM and it ate my card. My ATM card was my only source of cash so as you can imagine I had a minor heart attack. The bank would not give it back to me and even the school director came down to talk to them for me and they woulnd't budge ( side note my rent was due that day and I literally had a euro in my wallet). IT would nto have been such a problem if I had been paid already from my school into the Spanish bank account but ofcousre that was not the case. I spent the entire day online, and running back and forth to the bank...and decided to just wait until the next day. So the next day I had still not been paid and decided to stop by the bank and chat with them, only to find out there was a block on my account because of the way I opened it, and they tried to call me but because I had lost my cell phone and switched numbers they coulnd't get in touch with me, all I can say is oy vay. It all worked out I paid my rent and life is now good again.

THe one good thing that came out of that horrible day was that on the way home at the bus stop I made a Russian friend. There was a lady who sad down next to me and started speaking Russian on the phone so I decided to chat with her. We ended up chatting the whole ride, she took me to the Russian store in Malaga and out for coffee it was pretty great.

This weekend was also amazing, on Thursday night I randomly decided to stop by my friend Ashley's and we both decided we wanted to go somewhere that weekend. We were looking furiously online to find a cheap flight ANYWHERE but failed. Luckily our friend Greg invited us to visit him that weekend in his town Ronda which is located in the countryside. So we rallied the troops and took a bus friday night. Ronda is an incredible city, it rises up out of no where and has a huge gorge. It has incredible history and is actually where bull fighting started a very very long time ago. We arrived around 8 on friday with our group was: me, Ashley and our two swedish friends Lolo and Sandra ( Greg was lucky to have four lady visitors) luckily he had a three bedroom apartment to himself. Friday night we went to this bar called El Grifo which each table has its own tap, which is pretty awesome. That night we went out in the city and just had a great time, it was a lot less stressful then going out in Malaga since it is a small town and there are really only a few places to go out. Ronda felt a lot more like a Spanish town then Malaga which just feels like a big city and it was nice to get away from construction and get some fresh air.

Saturday we woke up and I made us a huge breakfast of french toast, bacon and eggs. Then we spent the afternoon exploring the city and of course went out for Churros. After a nice siesta we made a huge dinner and began the nights festivities. We went to a spanish botellon which is basically a huge party outside where we made lots of Spanish friends. We went out until the early morning per usual it was a great time.

The most interesting person we met that weekend was a guy from New Jersey who was actually training to be a Matador there in Ronda. He had a car and took us around the city to sites we could not see otherwise and even drove us back to Malaga which saved us a lot of time, money and stress.

Overall the weekend was amazing, I didn't stop laughing the whole time we had a great group of people. When I came back to Malaga I was just in a great mood and felt like it gave me a new burst of energy for life in Spain.

lots to talk about

I have not written in a while and I have lots of things to update. Last weekend I went to sevilla to visit my spanish friend Tamara. Tamara studies at the University of Sevilla and was my neighbor when I studied abroad and I had an amazing time. She was so hospitable and it was really nice to be back in Sevilla. Sevilla is a much bigger and prettier city than Malaga, although I have the beach here Sevilla is just amazing all around. I spoke spanish all weekend since her roomates don't really speak any english. We went out Saturday night and the highlight of that was seeing a group of people singing and dancing out in the park, we ended up joining them and spending a few hours listenin to flamenco and dancing ( or trying to). The next day Tamara and I went for a bike ride around the city down by the river which was beautiful the weather was still really hot there it was in the high 80's! Not to be a stereotypical American but we went to starbucks because I really wanted an ice coffee and it was amazing :)

I also remembered where the Russian store was and we went in there, the lady working was very confused. She tried to speak to me in Spanish but I responded in Russian and then spoke to Tamara in English, so I had some explaining to do. Tamara was amazed because she had never heard Russian and I got some of my favorite foods that I missed.

This school week was great, it was Halloween so the kids were really excited. I had fun teaching them Halloween words and having them draw haunted houses, its funny because I don't think that they know that you can dress up like anything they thing that the extent of possible costumes is brujas ( witches) diablos ( devils) and vampiros. One of my classes dressed up during their time with me and we had a costume contest, they actually clapped for me when I left the class which was amazing since normally they won't let me talk without interrupting.

I also picked up some extra classes particulares ( private lessons). Now I will be giving four classes a week, which although makes my days long i don't mind since I have a long Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and then its the weekend again. The new family I am tutoring for lives down the street from the other girl I tutor for and are extremely nice. On thursday they wanted me to tutor but I said I couldn't since I had nothing to do during siesta ( the family lives a ten minute bus ride from where my school is so about 40 minutes from my apartment) so they said why don't you just come have lunch with us. So on thursday I have lunch with the family, mom, dad , kids we have coffee we chat and it's actually really fun.

Only in Spain

What I saw today:

A man chasing after a bus, I thought he was just trying to get the drivers attention until I saw that there was no driver. Runaway bus...crashed into a tree and a sign. It had a cracked windshield and a huge dent...the bus driver backed up the bus, and people got on and it went on its route. Only in Spain.

Hot Water Update, WE HAVE SOME! My roommate spend the afternoon looking for a place we can get a Butane tank because that is how you get hot water and gas here. We have been out for about two weeks. So my roommate saw a man with the gas tanks, followed him, made friends with him and he finally brought us a tank and set it up so we don't blow up our house. We also learned that next time we need to get gas we just listen on Mon and Wed for the man yelling on the street ( hard to find which one since everyone is always yelling) and then yell out the window and he will come up.

gypsy market

So this morning ( despite going to bed at 3 am) all of the roomates and some other amigos woke up at 8 to go to the gypsy market. Every city has one of these and they are just outrageous and so much fun; you can get just about anything you want there. When I was in Sevilla a few years ago I would go almost every week to buy amazing olives, really cheap fresh fruit and lots of scarves and jewlery. Today for two euros I got two new pairs of earrings and sun glasses which was a pretty good deal not to mention a ridiculous amount of fruits and veggies ( which we bought out of gypsy peoples trunks, don't worry we washed them well). We literally bought 20 avacados for four euros, about 15 tomatoes for two euro, not to mention the cucumbers, mangos, pumpkins ( just for decoration) and much more.

After the market I had a nice little siesta and woke up to a lovely surprise from my roomates, they bought a huge bob marley poster that said " bob smile," can't wait to see that everyday haha.

Today was overall amazing, I went to the beach for a while where we hung out with our new British and Australian friends. Had some chocolate and churros, for the first time ever, and attempted to make a curry meal with our fresh curry from the market. We kinda failed and it felt like we were doing a science experiement in our kitchen but clearly we still ate it.

I have been cooking a lot in Spain since I have a lot more free time, I have almost perfected the tortilla espanola which is pretty exciting.

Oh last funny note, Ashley and I can now proudly say we have given into the Spanish tradition of dumpster diving. Everyday we watch people from our balcony go through the trash, they come fully prepared with equipment in hand to take away any treasure they may find; our experience wasn't that extreme but I did climb almost into a dumpster haha. We were walkin a back road and found a dumpster full of shards of really pretty tiles that they must have had left from destroying a building and we got out some really pretty pieces ( don't worry we didn't actually climb in, and I did shower after - even though we still don't ahve hot water)

on that note time to watch some tele and go to sleep

updates!

Lots of updates on life! First i'd like to talk about school and say that Spanish children have no discipline at all, they just don't listen to teachers. They are loud and crazy, ( really cute) but out of control. Teaching is pretty good, I work Tuesday Wednesday Thursday and most of the time I am just in the classroom talking to the kids. I have first, second, fourth and sixth graders. The first graders are super cute and hug and give me kisses on the cheek all the time( oh yah no no touching rules here kids can climb all over you and no law suits). The really split the classes into good and bad kids so some of my kids are amazing and other classes are just nuts. I am in classes durin the arts and crafts time, which is really just drawing and no crafts at all. The school director thought it would be a good idea to have me in there for whatever reason but it's really hard to incorporate enlgish and art. Some of the teachers let me do whatever I want, others have me take them into small groups, and some just utilize the fact that they have me and go for coffee breaks and leave me with 24 screaming second graders ( fun!). Besides that overall teaching is fun, I teach the teachers for two hours a week which is actually my favorite part since they listen to what I say and want to learn. My commute to school is pretty awesome, I have a 20 minute walk through the center of town and then a 20 minute bus ride along the mediterranena which is a pretty sweet deal.

Besides that life is pretty good, our apartment is great and we spend a good amount of the time sitting on our balcony and watching what goes on in our Barrio ( neighborhood). There is always something going on outside our window whether it be people fighting or a group of 200 roller skaters its never boring. Who needs a tv when we have our balcony.

We have had two dinner parties at our place which were pretty fun. I have been cooking a lot and get a lot of compliments which is surprising because I didn't think I was a very good cook.
Last weekend we went to Granada for the day, we were planning to go to Gibraltar to see the monkeys but the bus schedule didn't work out so we just decided to take the bus to Granada. IT was an hour and a half ride and we just spend the day walking around and exploring. They have amazing shopping! It is all things imported from Morracco, there is still a huge muslim influence there, they have a lot of hookah bars and amazing falafel. There was also a festival going on it was pretty much like a Spanish King Richards Fair, so that was also a nice surprise.

The Spanish night life is out of control! It is a big adjustment but I am working on being able to stay out until the morning light without drinking redbull haha. We usually sit on the balcony until about 12 30 and then head out for the night. Nothing too crazy has happened although the other night when my friend Maria ( she is from Sweden and awesome) were in line for the really popular club called Sala Gold, there was an expensive cover but lucky for us the security guy sketchily came and invited us to the back entrance where we were introduced to the owner and he bought us a drink. Last night we went back there and he recognized us and bought us a few drinks, he is definelty a good person to know.

We decided to stay in malaga this weekend, today we went to the beach and it was amazing! Then we ventured to Corte Ingles, which is a huge department store chain all over Spain which has everything you could ever want. We invested in a bunch of differenct sauces like hot sauce and curry which we can't get anywhere. Shopping here is a very old country experience since you have to go to about 200 places to get everything you need. We go to the main grocery which doesn't have produce or meat, we also go to the Panaderia ( bakery) for bread and the Fruteria for fruits adn veggies, then the Carneceria ( butcher) where we get a whole chicken and pretty much butcher it ourselves. After being here there isn't too much that will gross us out back home.

We are actually waiting for our friend to bring over the chicken so we can start making dinner so I am going to get that started. OH yah we don't have an oven, so we make just about everything on the grittle, oh and we have gas water and stove so we have to use a lighter to light our stove and almost get burned everytime and have not had hot water in a week since we don't know where to get a new tank. That's life in the Barrio for you, everyday is an adventure.

amazing

This weekend was amazing on so many levels. Kerrie is here which is awesome, she is our first guest! Friday night we went to a discoteca that was on a giant ship in the harbour that was a replica of the Spanish Armada ship. It was really cool especially when we snuck by the barriers to run upstairs to the top deck until the security guards made us get down ( they weren't really that mad). It is crazy how fast time goes, we got home at five am but it felt so much earlier!

Saturday we managed to get up by noon and decided to do a day trip to Nerja, a beautiful town I had been to before on the medditerranean. It is only about an hour bus ride away! On our way we stopped at " Dunkin Coffee" a really good Dunkin imitation, Spain pretty much disregards all copyright law. We tried to get ice coffee but since Spain is against it I got coffee and a cup of ice, Kerrie tried a donut and said it was not up to us standards.

We took the Bus and got to Nerja around 3 pm where it was still super hot! The water there is incredible, very green and clear. There is a place called the Balcon de Europa which looks out onto the ocean and is one of the most beautiful places I have seen. We decided to head down to the beach to have some of the most traditional Paella you can find, it is made on the beach on an open fire and was soo good. Since we then had a food coma we took a nap on the beach ( tough life). We were only planning to stay for the day but decided that we needed more time there. We by accident found the hostal I had stayed in before and booked a night, it was only 50 euros for 3 of us in a really nice room; the only downside was that all we had was what we were wearing but we decided being dirty was worth the view.

That night we went out and had a great time, we made lots of friends. Nerja is super populated by British people so we made friends with some kids working there and did not pay for a single drink all night.

We got up around ten and headed to the beach! The sun was so hot that we only stayed about 2 hours but it was beautiful. The water temperture was perfect and I had a great time until I got bit by a fish. I really did and it kinda hurt, I screamed and made a little scene on the beach super embarassing.

We headed back later in the afternoon, and despite the fact that we probably smelled a little we had a phenomenal time :)

this has been such a crazy week, but after lots of stress and running around we finally have a very nice apartment in Malaga. Finding apartments was crazy we literally walked around looking for " se alquila" signs and calling to ask how many rooms there were etc. After having lots of failed attempts we decided to go through a realator, and althought it was pricey it was worth it. We ended up finding a nice three bedroom apt ( me Jacqui and a girl Kristen) with pretty equal rooms, two bathrooms, a nice living room and kitchen. We literally have seating for 21 people. Our land lords are super nice, they went out and bought us new bedding, pans, cups, couch covers, and much more.

I had my first day of school yesterday and it went very well. The director of the school Inma showed me around and introduced me to all the teachers and kiddos. I am also working with British woman who has lived in Spain for a few years with her husband and daughter. I am going to be working with the first, second and third graders who are super cute.

I am starting to get to know Malaga pretty well, it is very different than sevilla. It is much more of an industrial city and less pretty but it is also nice and I am sure we will learn to love it. I am glad that I get to go teach in a quiet town and can take a nice walk on the medditerranean right after I get out of school.

Yesterday we took a very long bus trip to IKEA to get some houes necessities and decorations, it went pretty well minus I broke my french press on the way home :( I also had a bad experience today with my laundry, I somehow dyed all my white clothes blue...oops, at least its not an ugly blue.

I am meeting my friend Kerrie at five at the bus station, she wil lbe here for four days and I am super excited! We are going to make dinner tonight with some kiddos then go out for our first real outing in Malaga! OLE.

Sevilla. Malaga, Torre dios mio

Today was crazy! Yesterday we were set on living in Rincon ( the town we are teaching in) but after a night of trying to find one person under the age of 50 and failing, we decided that was a poor decision. Then we decided we would live in Torre del Mar with Lc and Toren, we packed up our overnight bags and were ready to find a place to live. We took the bus and luckily had the same nice bus driver ( our only amigo in Rincon) who told us where to get off the bus and arrived in Torre. Torre was beautiful but also pretty quiet. All of these small Costa Del Sol towns look amazing for summer but pretty dead in the winter. In Rincon people were not really friendly and when we asked them where to go at night they pretty m much laughed at us and said," es tranquilo" basically meaning its tranquil here. We actually looked at an apartment in Torre which was very nice, but after talking to a few people decied it we should live in the City. So we got back on the bus and headed to Malaga. Malaga is not the most beautiful but it is supposed to be a lot of fun, it is a University town so at least we will have a lot of amigos. There are two other girls we met from our program Ashley and Chrysten who we are going to live with so we spent the afternoon looking for apartments. We only found one realator that had a four bedroom and we really liked it but the problem is for comission we have to pay first months rent. Tomorrow we are going to look at a few more places then hopefully make a decision since we start teaching soooon I just can't wait to be settled.

finally in Rincon

Jacqui and I finally got to Rincon, the town we are teaching in today which is exciting. It is beautiful and just outside of Malaga but it is a little small so I think that we will be looking to live in Torre del Mar with our other friends. Next few days will be full of apartment hunting and hopefully setteling in. After being in Sevilla for a week I am glad we chose to live in a different place, because although I love sevilla it willl be great to have a completely new experience. The most fun night I had in Sevilla was when we went out with our Spanish friends to a botellon also known as a street party, it is literally hundreds of people drinking out of bottles outside and hanging out. We were the only Americans and it was a ton of fun, although the Spaniards were very angry with us when at five am they wanted to go to the discoteca and we decided to go home. We also saw a really nice Flamenco show in the center.

photos

HERE

Hola todos,

I am finally in Sevilla, Ole! It is amazing and just as beautiful as I remember. My flight was pretty good minus that on the second part I had to pay 230 euros for my luggage and had a baby crying in front and in back of me but that is ok. My first day was great, lc and toren rented an apartment right in the center of the city so I went straight there and although I was very tierd decided to power through the day. We went to get tapas at one of the popular bars and then just wandered the city, we went back to visit our old school but sadly most of our favorite teachers where not there. But we went back to our favorite cafe and they remembered us all and gave us so much free food and sangria they just kept bringing us more yummy treats. At night we made our own dinner at the apartment but forgot a lemon so we just asked the restauraunt next door and they gave us one, I love spain!

one day to go, ole!

I feel like its fitting that this weekend was Rosh hashana and it's the start of a new year since there are a lot of big changes going on and I am excited to see all the good things this year will bring. I am super excited especially since LC just told me that they are renting an apartment for a few nights so I don't have to worry about a place to stay on my first day. I am going to pack all of tommorow considering I have not started ( woops). Thank you to everyone who has come to say bye it really has meant so much to me I have some amazing people in my life :) Next time I write I will be in Espana! OLE!

Its August 11th and I am starting to get a little nervioso! Time is flying and as much as I am super excited there are a lot of things/people I will miss also. Jacqui leaves in 16 days and Dawn is going to Hawaii in 10 days. I keep trying to find some good blogs about Malaga and things to do around there but am not finding too much..hmmm. I bought my ticket and fly out the 21 on Dublin air, and then have to take a vueling flight to Sevilla. The flight was cheap which is great but because I have to do a small european airline on the way to Sevilla that means I can barley bring anything which is going to be problematic, but I guess that means more shopping when I arrive :)

pre-departure

Getting all the visa stuff together is terrible, it has gotten a lot worse since last time I went to Spain. You have to get clean police records from everywhere you have lived in the last five years, and for me thats lets see like 7 places wooo. My appointment is july 13th so hopefully I have everything together by then because those consulate people are super picky with every detail. I am looking into flights right now and need to buy it asap because they keep going up. I'm going to buy a one way ticket because flights don't go out far enough for me to buy round trip. Lc, Jacqui, Toren and I are all in the same place so that will be an adventure for sure. It will definetly make it me get less homesick with some good friends. I am getting excited for the best coffee in the world and lots of cheap red rioja wine :)