well well well. so much has happened since the last post. the two biggies of course are thanksgiving and the puente. lets start with el día de la acción de gracias. thanksgiving was simply wonderful, a crapload of work, but well worth it! we had thirteen people at our piso: five americans, three brits, and five spaniards. quite the mixture, i know. luckily everyone got along really well and there was plenty, i mean plenty, of food to go around! i got up at 530 on the saturday morning (we decided to celebrate the saturday instead of the thursday due to work) to stuff and cook the 9 kilo turkey which we bought at el corte ingles. a valiant attempt was made at gravy but alas, it tasted like tire grease, which ana our spanish roomie actually loved. blair made a tasty goat cheese salad and a spicy corn side dish. our friends brought mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumkin pie and lots of other goodies. we still have three bottles of wine left over and i only just threw away what was left of the turkey. during dinner we all said what we were thankful for, in spanish and english...claro. it was quite touching actually, and i realized how happy and grateful i was for all the friends, old and new, with whom i was able to share that special meal (corny and sentimental factor: high). everyone had a great time, especially the spanish girls because suprisingly it was the first time most of them had seen a turkey. it was like a movie for them which i thought was so funny!
moving on... el puente. in english this means a long weekend. it was constitution day on saturday and the immaculate conception on monday, and so we had a long weekend...and by long i mean longer than our normal three day weekend since we had monday off too. we went to the sierra nevada for two nights and granada for one night. the sierra nevadas are a mountain range in the south of spain where you can actually ski. we went skiing all day saturday and spent friday night and saturday night in a small village in between the mountains and granada city. this village was so small that i think we saw a total of 7 people including a group of rowdy jovenes hanging out by the playground waiting to start some trouble. skiing was so much fun, that is after the hour it took to get equipment and clothing, during which time i was told i needed the largest size possible in ski pants because clearly im obese, and of course also after another hour of waiting to get on the gondola to actually get to the ski lifts. i chose to rent blades because that is what i am used to now, but poor, frail blair rented skiis and they were so heavy she had trouble turning on the mountain. but i have to say, for not having skied for 8 years, she was pretty damn good. she managed to avoid all the gillipollas snowboarders that i think were pretty much on the mountain to form obstacles for skiiers. at lunch time, we enjoyed what were called "hamburgers" on the menu. they obvioulsy use this term lightly as we are still not sure what kind of meat was used. blair, audrey and i devoured our lunch while waiting for our friend angel who, we later found out, got lost on the top of the mountain and ran over a small child...it was his first time skiing. all in all it was an enjoyable day. blair and i made sure to get our money's worth of skiing and so we skied the entire day until the last ski lift when of course there was mayhem to get to the bottom of the mountain. all levels were funneled into one pista (slope) and i'm quite surprised no fatalities were reported. when we got back to our jamón-smelling hostel, we all passed out and slept until 11 when we awoke with hunger, ate some burger king and returned to sleep.
on sunday, we left for granada. we walked around the city but as it was a sunday, clearly most shops were closed. our hostel, el clandestino, was quaint...lots of graffiti, winding skecthy hill to reach it, and a mangy, sad looking dog that sat outside the door. however, appearances can be deceiving. it wasn't as crappy as it appeared from the front, and actually it turned out to be a perfect little place to stay for one night...i emphasize one night. we had a private room and bathroom and access to the kitchen. and so we prepared a feast of spaghetti and hotdogs for comida that we bought at the frutos secos, the only store that was open. we also splurged on a 3 euro bottle of tinto. when we finished eating, we all relaxed on the rooftop terrace and listened to what else but cuarenta principales, the saving grace of our road trip since no one had been able to burn cds. we decided to go for another stroll that evening before going out for the night. we walked around the arab quarter of granada and had some lovely tea at one of the many tea houses. we returned from our walk refreshed and ready to salir. calimocho (a mixture of cheap red wine and coke) was in order, claro. we drank our concoction and got ready to the sounds of french rap coming from the music of the guy that worked at the hostel. i think blair, audrey and i all had a little crush on him as he was quite good-looking, although clearly lacking in the motivation department since he was working in two hostels and tried to sell us weed. don't think you need a college education for that. we left the hostel and walked to calle elvira which is known for its tapas bars. we enjoyed the various tapas that came with our cañas. our favorite bar was la bella y la bestia where the tapas got better after each round of cañas you ordered. (we only ever made it to segundas). by two we were exhausted, and since audrey and angel were getting up early to go to the alhambra, we thought it best to head back to the hostel.
it rained all day monday but we were still able to fit in a last stroll through the arab markets where we picked up some presents and tea. we also enjoyed our last meal in granada with some chicken schwarma. exhausted and wet, we headed home in the car. blair had to take over driving for angel because he was exhausted and she did a great job with stick (that's what she said)! we arrived home after the almost 5 hour drive safe and sound!! over all it was an amazing weekend and everyone had a great time. now of course i must detox my body from the amount of crap that i ate and drank!
back at work now, trying to get into a regular schedule but its so hard when christmas is so soon, and there are so many things to think about! hopefully blair or i will be able to blog before christmas break. if not, well, too bad! besos
lunes, 8 de diciembre de 2008
martes, 18 de noviembre de 2008
vuelta a salamanca!
well it certainly has been a very long time since our last post. we really are terrible at this blogging thing. but we shall persevere and try to remember to tell you all about our exciting lives here in madrid!
in most recent news, we returned to salamanca friday night to relive our youth. when we arrived we were shocked to realize just how small salamanca is in comparison to everywhere else haha. how we lived there for 5 months and weren´t completely bored is kind of amazing. not that i´m badmouthing or disrespecting the wonderful salamanca, but en serio, its tiny. anyway, we managed to tour the city in an hour after a long comida in patio chico and a little shopping in H&M. while we were still full from comida, blair, audrey and i gorged ourselves on chocolate covered gofres, which are warm greasy waffles that you eat off a piece of paper. yum!
we arrived back at the hostel, which was actually a colegio mayor, or a residence hall, and siesta-ed until 930 pm when we decided to get our drink on. of course this is too early for spaniards so we decided to go to jacko´s for some litros first, the foreigner bar. then we thought doner kebab sounded like a great idea. and in fact it was!
after our little feast, we moved on to ubilinda, a pijo bar which has become the new tintin. oh tintin, what fond memories we have of you. thankfully, all of the bartenders moved over to ubilinda when tintin closed. the love of my life still works there and looks better than ever, and i wonder if he recognized me at all. i´m going to be painfully realistic and say, "no, eimear, you silly girl, of course he doesn´t recognize you. especially since you don´t have the cajones to actually speak to the guy." oh, how true you are, eimear.
well back to reality and away from that interesting inner monologue i just had. the dude didn´t recognize me at all, but that didn´t stop the fun. audrey and cristina were pooped since we had all gone out the night before leaving for salamanca. but blair and i could not forgo the opportunity to fiesta salamantino style. so we went to kandavia después and had a mighty fine time with some random group of 11 chicos...that sounds dirty and sketchy when really it wasn´t at all. they were a group of 11 friends who meet every year in a different part of spain to catch up, and this time they chose salamanca. go figure! the guy i hung out with most was very nice and sweet, i called him toothy(not to his face, claro, but with blair) because well, he had teeth issues. normally that would bother me, but when in spain! blair´s dude was well, he was interesting. he confessed his love to her while holding a soggy wet towel to his eye where his friend had just accidentally punched him. by the end of the night his eye was a lovely shade of blueish green. he also had a tattoo on his inner lip that said his name, just in case he forgot obvi.
so all in all it was a great, entertaining night. and its kinda nice to know that salamanca will always be there, and that not too much will change!
well back to reality and away from that interesting inner monologue i just had. the dude didn´t recognize me at all, but that didn´t stop the fun. audrey and cristina were pooped since we had all gone out the night before leaving for salamanca. but blair and i could not forgo the opportunity to fiesta salamantino style. so we went to kandavia después and had a mighty fine time with some random group of 11 chicos...that sounds dirty and sketchy when really it wasn´t at all. they were a group of 11 friends who meet every year in a different part of spain to catch up, and this time they chose salamanca. go figure! the guy i hung out with most was very nice and sweet, i called him toothy(not to his face, claro, but with blair) because well, he had teeth issues. normally that would bother me, but when in spain! blair´s dude was well, he was interesting. he confessed his love to her while holding a soggy wet towel to his eye where his friend had just accidentally punched him. by the end of the night his eye was a lovely shade of blueish green. he also had a tattoo on his inner lip that said his name, just in case he forgot obvi.
so all in all it was a great, entertaining night. and its kinda nice to know that salamanca will always be there, and that not too much will change!
lunes, 27 de octubre de 2008
Fotos!
Let´s start with the fun stuff. After many hours of botellón-ing (pre-gaming, for you American types), we finally made it out to the streets. Audrey´s using her extra-long arms to get a group shot, though, God forbid, we slow down our quick pace to the bar. She and I are celebrating our 180s on the LSATs, and Eimear doesn´t need a reason to celebrate.
(PS, if you think we 180s on the LSAT, just go ahead thinking that.)
Oh, hey apartment! Of all the pisos we saw, this was one of the few not entirely decorated by Ikea. But it´s super big too! If the walls weren´t as thin as newspaper, we could totally have a rockin´ dance party. Instead, we can hear, in the apartment above us, the dog´s toenails as he walks, and the clock chiming every fifteen minutes in the apartment next to us. Genial!
the other one.
Ok, this is my post in response to Eimear´s post about her school etc etc etc. Now, she threw in a bit about her situation with boys ¨if you know her at all.¨ Well, for me, on the subject of children, if you know me, you know my feelings on children. What´s a nice way to put it? They´re not my fave. But for kids, the bigger the better. That said, what age group do I teach in four classes a week? Oh, three-year-olds. No pasa nada.
I´ll be in charge of a group of 12 or so kiddos for 15 minutes entertaining them with a book in English. Yes, I´m supposed to keep the attention of three-year-olds with a book in a language they don´t understand and five pictures of barnyard animals. That´s like going into battle wearing armor made of tin foil.
My other classes are with seven-year-olds. They´re another story. I teach English and science classes (in English) with them. A few days ago we were studying parts of the body, specifically the organs. The teacher asked, ¨What are these things in your body that help you breathe? What are they called?¨ A kid raised his hand and said, in Spanish, ¨Boobs?¨ Hmm, good try, but no. It was all I could do not to laugh.
Even so, sacrifices of their sass and craziness is all made up for by the fact that we work 16 hours a week. Can´t complain. (Much.)
I´ll be in charge of a group of 12 or so kiddos for 15 minutes entertaining them with a book in English. Yes, I´m supposed to keep the attention of three-year-olds with a book in a language they don´t understand and five pictures of barnyard animals. That´s like going into battle wearing armor made of tin foil.
My other classes are with seven-year-olds. They´re another story. I teach English and science classes (in English) with them. A few days ago we were studying parts of the body, specifically the organs. The teacher asked, ¨What are these things in your body that help you breathe? What are they called?¨ A kid raised his hand and said, in Spanish, ¨Boobs?¨ Hmm, good try, but no. It was all I could do not to laugh.
Even so, sacrifices of their sass and craziness is all made up for by the fact that we work 16 hours a week. Can´t complain. (Much.)
one month down, eight to go!
so as it turns out, we are kinda crap at this whole blog thing, mainly because well we don´t write anything. but we would like to think that the two previous posts were brilliant to say the least. this is an important post because it marks our fifth week here in madrid. we have survived a whole month filled with ups and downs, laughter and tears. therefore this post will be a summary of month one and the shenanigans we have gotten up to.
first off, lets discuss our piso. in simple english, its fuckin awesome! we really lucked out both in the greatness of our apartment itself and of the spanish girls we live with, mainly one of them because we don´t really know the other. but that´s not important. what is important is that we are very happy living together as the old couple we have become. yes, we truly have become an old couple: we eat our meals in silence(not an angry silence, just a comfortable silence), we take long strolls, and blair takes the rest of my sugar that i don´t use in my cafe. so really we have nothing to complain about in regards to our living sitch.
now on to the meat of this sandwich...the teaching. we both work about 45 minutes from our house so communting is a bitch, but you just get used to it and the metro is super fácil to use. my school is west of the city while blair´s is in the northeast. i am teaching 5 and 6 year olds mostly, with a few classes of 9 and 10 year olds. i have to be honest, i love it! i really love teaching, too bad it pays mierda. but i can live like this for year. i think i am very luck with the school i got because the location is good, the teachers and staff are friendly and helpful, the kids are great and don´t have any major behavioral issues, and the other auxiliars are wonderful! plus i get a free meal everyday. and let me tell you, spanish school lunch is nothing like the crap you get in the states. it is a hot, three course meal, which, for the teachers, is buffet style, but the kiddies get served by their lunch ladies. pretty sweet deal if you ask me! so that´s a little summary about my school. blair has a slightly different experience due to the different location and student body, and of course the people she works with. she will let you know all about that!
so now that we have covered home and work we can move on to social life. we have a small core group of american friends with some spaniards interspersed. hopefully this can expand as we came to spain to speak spanish and meet spaniards! the girls we hang out with are a great group and we are so happy to have met them! it has become a little ritual that we go out thursday nights, maybe rest on friday but not usually, and then go out pretty hard core on saturdays...because that´s what you do in spain! its pretty much impossible to return before 6am even when you try to because there is always anther bar to go to! speaking of going out, meeting guys here has been quite the adventure. if you know me at all, you know i like the boys. but these spanish boys are a whole different story. i have had my fair share of ridiculousness which i am too embarrassed to write about and i have only been here one month. i cant even imagine what the rest of the year will be like jajaja!
pero bueno, no pasa nada! better get back to some good ol´ spanish tv on the 6 channels we have.
taluego!un beso!!
first off, lets discuss our piso. in simple english, its fuckin awesome! we really lucked out both in the greatness of our apartment itself and of the spanish girls we live with, mainly one of them because we don´t really know the other. but that´s not important. what is important is that we are very happy living together as the old couple we have become. yes, we truly have become an old couple: we eat our meals in silence(not an angry silence, just a comfortable silence), we take long strolls, and blair takes the rest of my sugar that i don´t use in my cafe. so really we have nothing to complain about in regards to our living sitch.
now on to the meat of this sandwich...the teaching. we both work about 45 minutes from our house so communting is a bitch, but you just get used to it and the metro is super fácil to use. my school is west of the city while blair´s is in the northeast. i am teaching 5 and 6 year olds mostly, with a few classes of 9 and 10 year olds. i have to be honest, i love it! i really love teaching, too bad it pays mierda. but i can live like this for year. i think i am very luck with the school i got because the location is good, the teachers and staff are friendly and helpful, the kids are great and don´t have any major behavioral issues, and the other auxiliars are wonderful! plus i get a free meal everyday. and let me tell you, spanish school lunch is nothing like the crap you get in the states. it is a hot, three course meal, which, for the teachers, is buffet style, but the kiddies get served by their lunch ladies. pretty sweet deal if you ask me! so that´s a little summary about my school. blair has a slightly different experience due to the different location and student body, and of course the people she works with. she will let you know all about that!
so now that we have covered home and work we can move on to social life. we have a small core group of american friends with some spaniards interspersed. hopefully this can expand as we came to spain to speak spanish and meet spaniards! the girls we hang out with are a great group and we are so happy to have met them! it has become a little ritual that we go out thursday nights, maybe rest on friday but not usually, and then go out pretty hard core on saturdays...because that´s what you do in spain! its pretty much impossible to return before 6am even when you try to because there is always anther bar to go to! speaking of going out, meeting guys here has been quite the adventure. if you know me at all, you know i like the boys. but these spanish boys are a whole different story. i have had my fair share of ridiculousness which i am too embarrassed to write about and i have only been here one month. i cant even imagine what the rest of the year will be like jajaja!
pero bueno, no pasa nada! better get back to some good ol´ spanish tv on the 6 channels we have.
taluego!un beso!!
domingo, 19 de octubre de 2008
fiesta en madrid
it has been a few days since we last wrote, and that's just out of pure laziness. right now it is 4:10 in the afternoon on sunday, and blair and i are sitting in our sala watching One Fine Day, dubbed in spanish of of course. this type of lazy sunday appears to be the norm after a weekend of some serious partying. fiesta here in madrid is most definitely a way of life. thursday night blair and i went out with one of our american friends and her spanish friend who knows everyone in madrid. we stayed out until 730 in the morning, ending the night, or rather beginning the day with the traditional churros y chocolate. this of course took a toll on us friday when we could not physically do anything but sit/sleep/eat. of course, that only prepared us to go out on saturday night, last night, where we first went to a really cool underground bar that only serves sangria and then to kapital, one of the largest discotecas in madrid, 7 floors. to be honest, i'm not sure if that was my scene, but it was most definitely an experience. once again we did not arrive back home until 6 am. so today we are taking it easy once again. this whole fiesta thing takes a toll on the body, but hey, when in rome!
martes, 14 de octubre de 2008
Week three in Madrid
Hola a todos!
Blair and Eimear here. We have finally created a blog so that you can live vicariously through us, experience the ups and downs , but mainly the ups, of living in Espana! By the end of the year (or, mejor, by the end of this blog entry), you'll all be buying tickets to come visit us here in glorious Spain.
We arrived about 3 weeks ago, with no place to live, no money, and no real idea of what we're doing here. So who wants to visit? After a week of searching for apartments (the most hilarious being a semi-crooked, hacienda-like little number on the back side of the train station), two days of a very Spanish-run orientation (meaning totally unorganized and slow-moving, but with wine at lunch), Eimear's two stolen passports (damn you, Ikea!), an LSAT for Blair (it was in English, but it might as well have been in Spanish), and two weeks of work (where to begin?) we're settled in, mas o menos.
We are working in opposite ends of the city, so we take the metro every morning to work from our piso (apartment, for all you non-Spanish speaking people). The metro in Madrid, like the subway in New York, is quite an interesting place. You can see many strange and unexpected things (Ecuadorian flute players, people selling bootleg dvds, and my fave the Romanian accordian players). However, immigration is a relatively new thing in Spain since Franco wasn't a fan of non-Spaniards, that whole dictatorarship thing. However, now there is a huge influx of immigrants from Latin America and Africa. Well obviously the best way to check their papers and whether they are legal is to have frequent raids in the metro station with dogs and 20 police officers and rope to create a corral/holding pin in the corner. We have witnessed this multiple times, and while it was somewhat amusing (like a weird movie), it's also kind of scary and troubling. Spain definitely has some things it needs to work on! Don't even get us started on the bureaucracy and lack of organization of the Comunidad de Madrid, oh to work for the Spanish government! It really makes you appreciate the efficiency of the States.
That's enough ranting for now. Tomorrow's blog (gross word) will be more exciting, promise! We are going to bed so we can be fresh and cheery for the wee ones in the morning, even though half the time they don't understand a word we are saying!
Buenas noches y hasta luego!
Bleamer
Blair and Eimear here. We have finally created a blog so that you can live vicariously through us, experience the ups and downs , but mainly the ups, of living in Espana! By the end of the year (or, mejor, by the end of this blog entry), you'll all be buying tickets to come visit us here in glorious Spain.
We arrived about 3 weeks ago, with no place to live, no money, and no real idea of what we're doing here. So who wants to visit? After a week of searching for apartments (the most hilarious being a semi-crooked, hacienda-like little number on the back side of the train station), two days of a very Spanish-run orientation (meaning totally unorganized and slow-moving, but with wine at lunch), Eimear's two stolen passports (damn you, Ikea!), an LSAT for Blair (it was in English, but it might as well have been in Spanish), and two weeks of work (where to begin?) we're settled in, mas o menos.
We are working in opposite ends of the city, so we take the metro every morning to work from our piso (apartment, for all you non-Spanish speaking people). The metro in Madrid, like the subway in New York, is quite an interesting place. You can see many strange and unexpected things (Ecuadorian flute players, people selling bootleg dvds, and my fave the Romanian accordian players). However, immigration is a relatively new thing in Spain since Franco wasn't a fan of non-Spaniards, that whole dictatorarship thing. However, now there is a huge influx of immigrants from Latin America and Africa. Well obviously the best way to check their papers and whether they are legal is to have frequent raids in the metro station with dogs and 20 police officers and rope to create a corral/holding pin in the corner. We have witnessed this multiple times, and while it was somewhat amusing (like a weird movie), it's also kind of scary and troubling. Spain definitely has some things it needs to work on! Don't even get us started on the bureaucracy and lack of organization of the Comunidad de Madrid, oh to work for the Spanish government! It really makes you appreciate the efficiency of the States.
That's enough ranting for now. Tomorrow's blog (gross word) will be more exciting, promise! We are going to bed so we can be fresh and cheery for the wee ones in the morning, even though half the time they don't understand a word we are saying!
Buenas noches y hasta luego!
Bleamer
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