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.