I have been a huge slacker

So as you may have noticed I have been a huge blog slacker for the last four months, I think I am going to blame it on the fact that my computer was broken and because everything happens 100 times slower in Spain it just got fixed. It is amazing how fast time goes by and that I am going home June 10th. I avoided buying my ticket for a while since buying my ticket meant that this adventure was over, but I finally bought it last week ughhh.

Since the last time I wrote a lot has happened, I traveled to Portugal and had a ridiculous time, Malaga has almost flooded (a few times), my kids have actually been behaving themeselves more or less and I have started figuring out my life after Spain.

I traveled to Portugal with 3 of my friends; we stayed in one of the nicest hostels I have stayed in, we had our own room with comfy beds, great food and it was only 12euros a night! I had been to Lisbon when I studied abroad but it is a beauiful city and there was so much more to see. Although walking around the city itself was a lot of fun the best part of the trip were the adventures we had going out. Alex had made some friends the last time she was in Lisbon and they took us out this time as well. They rented a private room in an amazing Sushi restauraunt that by the end of our meal had turned into our own personal discoteca- limbo stick included. The second part of the trip we went to Oporto, Portugal which is a small beautiful town on a river. The hostel there was nice too and we were thankful since we spent most of our trip inside due to a monsoooon. None of us had rain boots since this much rain is not common and our feet were constantly soaked. When I finally found a pair of rain boots they broke the next day...great luck. In Porto we went to some really nice restauraunt and had some great Portuguese food which I actually like a lot more than Spanish food, it is less fried and to me had a lot more flavor, of course we tried some port wine also.

Since my last post I also joined a gym which is only one minute away from my house ( had I known this the first four months my life would have been very different haha) Since I have joined I have recruited almost all of my Malaga friends to join as well, and by the nice looks the Spanish people give us I really think they love having large groups of loud Americans in their classes... They have really fun classes and instructors who work as hard for " Operacion Verano," operation summer. As much as I love working out the most fun I had related to the gym was the other night when it hosted a party ( only in Spain). The gym rented out a bar in an area that we had never gone out with before called Torremolinos. Although we had to take an 18euro cab ride the night was worth it. It was nice to have a change of scenery and hilarious to see all of our gym buddies out with us. We ended up becoming amigos with the Gym owner who then invited us, along with our our gym instructor, to another discoteca where we danced until the morning :)

Minus this weekend, when it is raining once again, the weather has finally been improving. Everyone tells us that this is the most rain they have ever seen in Malaga, lucky us to experience this phenomenon. I am determined to be the most tan I have ever been by the time I go, which isn't very tan but it is good to have goals right?

Well now that I have my computer up and running which is a whole different story I will try to update more.

Adventures from Winter Break

So I havn't updated anything in a while since I have been traveling for the last two weeks so I have lots of exciting things to share! Before I start though I would just like to share that I can currently see the breath in my room and it is the coldest it has ever been in Spain, no more Costa del Sol.

We ( me, Jacqui and Lauren) started off our adventure in Rome, we left very early on Christmas Day, which was an adventure in itself. The night before we left we realized that it may be difficult to get a taxi at 6 30 am on Christmas, we looked online but couldn't find any numbers that would pick up so we decided to go out and look for some cabs. After walking around in the rain for an hour we finally got two cab company numbers but when we called them they said it wasn't certain we could get a cab so to call in the am and confirm. We woke up the next morning and one of the companies confirmed that they could, but when I called to cancel the other one no one picked up. Somehow at 6:30 when we went outside there were three cabs waiting for us...and started fighting over who got to take us..woops.

We flew into Rome and had no problem getting to our hostel, we were in a room for four but there were only three of us so we basically just hoped for the best with our new roomate. When we got into our rooms we found Enzo. Enzo was the most typical looking Italian man you could find, he was about 30 and traveling alone. We said Hi but I think we woke him from his nap so he wasn't very happy. We were a little anxious at first especially about leaving our things un attended with Enzo, but we soon learned that Enzo would be the highlight of our trip. There isn't really a good way to describe him except hilarious, one night we were planning to stay in when he suddenly ran out and told us he was going to get presents, twently minutes later he came running back into our room with two bottles of champange singing " I am Santa Claus, I am Santa Claus.)

Rome was very cool overall minus the fact that the weather wasn't great. We went to the Vatican one day to see St. Peters Cathedral and the sistine chapel, but only St. Peters was open so we had to come back the next day. We woke up super early to be there before everything opened and when we arrived at 7:30 there was already a line of about 400 people. Despite the long wait it was totally worth it. The art inside was amazing! We saw all the major sites, made a wish in Trevi fountain, saw the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps and the Colloseum. My favorite was probably the Colloseum at night, it had special beams of light shining through it for New Years.

After Rome we took the train to Florence. We were lucky enough to know someone who helped us get a Villa/Hotel instead of a Hostel which was beautiful. We were the only non-couples there and probably the only people under the age of 60 but thats ok. Our room was amazing, we had a towel heater and endless hot water which was pretty much all we could ask for. It rained the entire time we were in Florence so that was a big bummer, but it was still beautiful. Florence had amazing leather and I think I actually spent about 2 hours deciding which pair of leather gloves to get, ( I finally picked a bright blue because that will clearly match everything).

Obviously food is the main reason anyone goes to Italy but we actually had a bit of a hard time finding amazing Italian food, most of what we had could be done better in the North End of Boston. We finally had an amazing meal at the Za Za tratoria where Jacqui and I decided to go all out, we had a bottle of the house wine which was amazing, and I had nocci (sp?). Side note if my spelling is horrible it is because my computer is in Spanish and no longer corrects my English errors.

Barcelona!

Barcelona was my second to last destination on this big adventure, I had been there before but this experience was nothing like my last. Jacqui and I were joined by our friend Brittany as well as our two Swedish friends Lollo and Sandra. The last time Lauren was in Barcelona, the previous summer, she had made friends with a few Español hombres who became her personal tour guides on the trip. Unfortunetly, Lauren got sick in Florence and had to go home early, but her friends were still nice enough to pick us up from the airport. We had no idea what they looked like, and vise versa so we just told them to look for the, " Americanas quien parece perdidas" aka the Americans who look lost and it actually worked. The guys names were Carlos and Alian and they were awesome. They lived in a town about twenty minutes outside of the City and came in everyday/night to show us around.

Our Hostel was called the 4 Fun Hostel, but the only reason it was fun was because we were in it. It was hidden with no sign, on a back street near las Ramblas, our room was dark and cold but at least the beds were comfy. Our first night in Barcelona started off nicely, we had a delicious Paella dinner in a plaza and then decided to check out the discotecas. We had a nice time dancing and decided to make our way home around five since afterall it was a Wednesday night. On our way home there was a man who started yelling "piropos" or cat calls at us, since we live in Spain we didn't think much of it since it's a regular day occurance until he came really close to us at the door of our hostel. We started yelling at him in both English and Spanish to get away from us but he wouldn't leave us alone, until he grabbed my bag and ran away. I had my new bag that I bought in Florence, tucked tightly under my arm, he grabbed it and ran and of course I ran after him. I chased him until he went down an alley and then I decided that it was probably best to turn around. Luckily the only valuble thing that he took was my camera with all my pictures of Italy and my children at school before Christmas. I was obviously upset but decided I wouldn't let it ruin the rest of my trip.

The rest of the trip basically involved a lot of dancing. Everynight our Spanish friends took us out to amazing discotecas and salsa bars. All of the people we hung out with were in love with salsa and took classes all the time, originally they wanted to teach us but once they saw our great dance ability they decided it best to just let us watch them.

We had a very typical Spanish New Years. We brought in the new year at a bar near our apartment, since our hosts were spending time with their families and would not be able to pick us up until 2 am. We followed the Spanish tradition and at the strike of midnight we quickly ate 12 grapes; one for each month of good luck. Our friends came and got us around 2: 30 and we danced until the sun came up in a huge discoteca.

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