I pray that all is well with everyone. I apologize for my lack of posting. I have been trying to get another "job" (since we're not authorized to work, I just want to do some private lessons) and also trying to begin some volunteer work. My coordinator helped me out with my tasks by telling some of his students that I am interested in volunteering an hour of my time each week for a conversation class to help them with their English. This should be a different experience to me as I have never tutored before (didn't really have the time in school) and I will be working with a group of about 6-10 students in the Bachillerato (16-18 year olds) level. My co-worker works with some of the students this level in one of her classes during the week but all of my students are under 16 years old. So I will be spending the rest of my time off basically planning our conversation topics for each week until I leave. It should be an experience to say the least. I also looked into some women's shelters and immigrant's shelters to volunteer my time at when everything gets back to normal mid/late-January. I want them to call me back soon and tell me when I can start. I also have been looking into taking some dance classes both free and paid. One of the free ones I looked at is Bachata and it is once each week at a club. I am not so sure so I will see if my friend would like to go with me. The other class we are looking at taking is called Sevillanas. It's basically a local form of Flamenco. Many of the residents here do it during Feria de Abril (April Fair). So, as you can see, I have been doing a lot of planning, trying to make my remaining months as packed as I possibly can. I feel as though if I am extremely busy it will a) help me meet more Spanish speaking people, b) help me get some exercise (which I am trying to be better at from so much riding the bus and getting rides around here), and c) allow me to not focus so much on going home, which will subsequently make the time go by a lot faster.
What have I been up to since my last entry? A whole lot of stuff! Wow, I don't even know where to start. I have been to Ireland and Madrid since the beginning of December. So brace yourselves because this is going to be a nice and looooooong entry...
Friday (Dec. 5)- I woke up early (6:30 am) so I could get ready to meet up with everyone and catch the train to Malaga. We, four of us, left on the Ave (train- word means bird though) around 7:30-ish am. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride, minus the loud-for-no-reason older people in my car. We arrived at the Malaga train station (which is basically inside of a mall) and headed outside to get a taxi to the airport. This is why I'd much rather travel directly from Sevilla, not as many other things like worrying about transportation to other cities and connections and such, just from my house to the airport and from there on. The traveling to the airport wasn't difficult though, it just seemed tedious. We got to the airport and had to check in with Aer Lingus. We had to weigh our bags and found out we can only carry on 6 kg or lighter so three of us had to pay 18 euros to check our bags. I paid 18 euros for being 2 kgs over! This trip was already making me a poor woman fast. We got to Ireland in maybe 2-3 hours, landed in Dublin. We hopped on the bus (for only a mere 2 euro) and ventured off to our Ashfield House hostel. Sorry I didn't get any pics of it, I forgot. We then hopped on a bus in search of food. We walked around and happened upon The Porterhouse Pub/Restaurant. Absolutely delicious! I got the vegetarian burger which was really just a mushroom burger and "chips" (french fries). The mushrooms were marinated and then covered with a garlic sauce, cheese, onions, tomatoes, and other veggies. Yummy. Then we just decided to walk around Grafton Street where it was all pretty with Christmas lights/decorations. That night we went to sleep pretty early because we were tired and would be waking up early in the morning. It just so happened that I found a ring while we were walking. It's a traditional ring worn in Ireland that only fits my thumb but it's beautiful :)
Saturday (Dec. 6)- We woke up early as we were to rent a car to drive over to Galway. Galway is on the west side of Ireland. We arrived at Budget Car Rental and got an automatic instead of a manual just in case someone else needed to drive. So we were off on our mini-roadtrip, driving on the left side of the road of course. We stopped probably all of once on our way there I think. I enjoyed seeing the vast countryside of Ireland. It reminded me a lot of Georgia's country areas besides the stone walls in Ireland of course. There were sheep and cows and such. The cows looked slightly odd (in terms of colors and outer "coating"). We arrived in Galway around 1-ish (I didn't have a watch and my cell phone didn't work so the concept of time was pretty much lost for me). We walked around and decided to grab a bite at the Skeff Pub. I got a tuna melt that was pretty good. The set up there was like a cafeteria. We got out of there and walked through this little outdoors market with all types of food and clothing. They had sushi, crepes, vegetarian food out the wazoo and live turkeys. Yes, live turkeys. So sad.
Then we went into this one pub that had live performers. They were playing various instruments and I took video of it. Hopefully I can load it on here. After that we walked toward the ocean to take some pics and saw the Spanish Arch. 
Then a little tourist shopping and we were ready to head back after a quick coffee stop. We drove back to Dublin and ended up getting lost (of course, it was inevitable, we're not familiar with the confusing one-way streets of that city). It took us a few hours and the brave soul jumping out of the car at a few hotel stops to ask for directions in order to find our hostel. There was some nice sightseeing though! After we reached our hostel, we decided to head to the "city centre." It was time for drinks and food. We went to The Temple Bar Area and found this Mexican/Italian/Spanish restaurant. I got quesadillas and they were too good! Oh man! The tortilla was great all the way down to the sauce they put on top of it. I could definitely eat that again...like right now. Then we headed to the pubs. In both of the pubs, we went to, we ended up meeting Spanish people. The first pub, the guys were from Sevilla, the next one, one of the guys was from Cadiz. Andalucia was deep in Dublin that night! We left around 1:30 am so we could wake up early to return the car early.Sunday (Dec. 7)- We woke up early so we could head to the gas station and fill up the gas tank (this was the 2nd time because we got lost the night before). We asked the man there for directions so we wouldn't get lost again. We were planning to get there at 9:30 am the latest but arrived at 8:56 am because of the man's help. Wonderful! Then we headed to some breakfast spot that was set up like a cafeteria (I was beginning to see a pattern here, the place we were at in Galway was like that too). I had a yummy muffin with tea. Then we just walked around for the rest of the time. We bought some tourist gifts and then proceeded to the bridge, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and other monuments/attractions.
Our last goal was to find some authentic live Irish music and we did just that. We went to this pub. The band had three musicians, a guitarist, a banjo player, and the last man played what looked like a cross between an accordion and bagpipes because he didn't have to blow into the bagpipes, he just squeezed. Very cool stuff. I actually enjoyed the music. I have to put my brother onto that Irish music. He just don't know! After our drinks, we went to Subway to pick up sandwiches (don't judge, I am low on funds now! 2.99 euro for a sub is just what I needed) and headed back to the hostel. We were to wake up at 4:30 am to catch our taxi at 5 am to be at the airport on time for our 7 am flight.
Monday (Dec. 8)- Our taxi driver was cool, he basically gave us a mini tour of Dublin and he sounded so Irish! He kept saying "love" and everything. It was great. I tried packing and it didn't look like they were necessarily weighing everyone's luggage but I was forced to check my 6.6 kg bag, yea, 0.6 kg over meant another 18 euros...Ugh. Can't do that again! The rest of the day I just caught up with talking to friends online and talking to my parents. I was so beat from the trip.Tuesday (Dec. 9)- Alain, our coordinator, came to pick us up again. I was supposed to meet with 4th year but I guess I missed the teacher and I didn't know where the classroom was and I went to the one we usually meet at but I didn't see anyone there. Oh well, I'd meet with another 4th year group later. Then I went to music class, where I was basically placed in charge again. We went over the lesson and they played their recorders a little. They played "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and "Jingle Bells." I thought it was funny besides the fact that I had a headache and they wanted to blast their instruments for the entire school to hear. Whatever, no pasa nada.
Alain thought it was so weird that I was willing to tutor for free but I talked to him about how much I volunteer back home and how it really made me happy to do so. He was such a great help I was too grateful. After that I had a break and then recreo. After recreo, I met with Emilio. He wanted to talk about something I was reading in the news. It was about a fight breaking out between a group from Mali and a group from Morocco. Then we started talking about race and racism in Spain versus racism in the U.S. He said he saw it more as based on class rather than skin color i.e. how someone lives and not how someone looks. I told him that in the U.S., it can often be based on what someone looks like first and then when people find out they have money then they are treated differently. Interesting conversation to say the least. Then I met with the 4th year students and talked about holidays more.
Wednesday (Dec. 10)- I woke up, caught the bus, arrived at the school, took some pics outside the school (por fin- finally), and went to the sala de profesores, teacher's room, to wait for Maria Jesus to come get me for our conversation hour. We met up and talked about Christmas and what my plans were and her plans.
Then I had two free hours, which might sound wonderful but they were bleh because I forgot my notebook with all my information I meant to look up. So I decided I would start learning another language. Wait, what? Yep, I looked up some online classes/lessons and plan on teaching myself some Italian and Portuguese. I figure it couldn't hurt. Plus I want to visit Portugal (and Brazil, so I will try to learn a little of both types of Portuguese seeing as how they are different) and Italy so why not learn a little bit of the language. So as of now I know how to say "hi, how are you," "I am fine, thank you," and "bye" in Italian. Not a bad start I guess. Especially since two out of three of those phrases have the same word in them. At least I'm trying, *sigh* although I doubt it'll do much, gives me a way to occupy my time. I then met with Ruben and we talked about the school system again but this time about extracurricular activities (I asked about a school newspaper, wondering if I could help out with it of course) but he said they had one before but no longer have a publication. He also said that students attend a separate school to partake in music classes instead of having say, a band class in their normal schedule. Interesting.
Then I met with Primero to talk about weather. Rafa said we'd be using the computers (i.e. the internet) so the kids got extra excited about it. But he told them if they acted like good girls and boys they could keep their computers on, if not, they had to turn them off. How I love Rafa, he cracks me up. So we went over what rain, snow, sleet, hail, etc. are. Then we had the kids check out a weather site and look up different cities and explain what the weather was like there. One student called me over and asked me where I was from again, the student sitting next to him said "Georgia, right?" I was so proud of him for remembering. So they looked up my city, and then Rafa decided to tell everyone to look up my city. They all pulled it up and Rafa had me ask them questions about what the weather was like there. So I heard about the rain over there guys, sorry! Hope you all are staying dry! Anyway, that was the bulk of the class. It was fun. After class, the same student that asked me the week before that if I had a boyfriend came up to me again and said "Jameelah, Atlanta is really cold now." All I could do was laugh. I told him it wasn't that cold there and tried to kid with him but he didn't really get it.
I spent the ENTIRE (Dec. 11-15) weekend (taking out my braids. No lie, I started on Thursday (only one hour) and then continued on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Because my hair is so thick, when I got the braids, a lot of individual braids had to be done. So you can only imagine how difficult it was for me to remove them. I was so frustrated that I just wanted to cut my hair off and start again (or at least cut most of the braid out, which would cause me to cut off my hair anyway). I actually snipped the ends of one of my braids to make it easier to unravel but ended up cutting some of my hair so I stopped that asap. I don't think I'll be getting micro braids again unless I'll have someone help me take them out.
Thursday (Dec. 11)- another glorious day! It all started with me not knowing what I would be doing in Primero's class. Last week we (meaning Alain and my co-worker because they have class together before it's all three of us) decided that we would be singing Christmas carols in the Primero class because the students told Alain they wanted to sing. But we didn't decide anything after that or even discuss it. So when he asked me what my plans were for class, I genuinely had no idea. But then he said we would just discuss Christmas and then sing carols. Me? Sing in class? I don't know if the kids would like to be subjected to such punishment. I did plan on singing the carol but we got into a deep Christmas discussion and then started talking about random off-topic subjects. Whatever. I noticed the students were a lot more chatty this time, but I figured it was because we were getting closer to Christmas break so they were a little rowdy (and we've never really just had a class where they could simply speak without a book to go by...). Then off to my math class to do some more reading of exercises and lessons. And finally, my conversation class with Rafa! We talked about his work for class that was based on relationship phrases. It was pretty interesting trying to explain something like "I'm on cloud 9" or "head over heels" unless there was pretty much the same saying in Spanish. It was fun trying to explain it though.
Friday (Dec. 12)-Although I spent most of the day unraveling my braids, I was able to leave my room for an hour or two in search of this place I needed to find in order to apply for a job. I will not talk in too much detail about what the job entails but I will talk about the process. Well, I basically went to an agency but first I had to make sure I had my CV (Curriculum Vitae) bka resume to many but with a different format. I also had to take three fotos carnet (smaller-than-passport-size photos). I went to find the place and felt so entirely stupid. I stayed on this one street for the longest, asked 2 people, until the second guy told me (which I actually understood) that I was on the "even" side of the street and needed to be on the other side. This isn't a Spain thing, this is an everywhere thing. How I didn't catch on, I don't know. But it was weird because the place wasn't right across the street, it was across the street, waaaaaay down the street. So that was probably why it was also difficult. I went in, asked someone about the position and dropped off my stuff. The woman said I would get a call soon to schedule an interview. Interview?! I don't know why it didn't dawn on me that I'd need to have an interview, guess I just figured they'd look at my CV and hire me. Smart, right? So I got a call from the woman about an hour later and she scheduled me for Monday afternoon and told me to bring copies of my passport/ID and my fotos.
Saturday (Dec. 13)- I took out my braids and went to the Maxi Dia to buy some juice and juice boxes (I really like juice obviously) and to check out some shampoo deals. Fun day!!!!
Sunday (Dec. 14)- I cut off all of my hair________only kidding! But I wanted to. Instead, I spent the whole day taking out my braids. I also started learning Italian online. I can say the numbers (1-10), ask the time (and somewhat answer), and some other short greetings. This is what happens when you have so much time on your hands that you want to prevent insanity by initiating a trade, craft, or anything that you have to learn. I'm thinking about learning basic Italian and Portuguese (since I want to go to Italy and Portugal). And the languages are very similar to Spanish so it shouldn't be TOO difficult. Check back with me a few months from now though.
Monday (Dec. 15)- I prepared myself for my interview. I looked up some key words that I didn't know and made sure I had all of my copies and anything extra I needed. I also decided to see if my tarjeta de residencia (residency card) was ready. I went outside (mind you all, my hair was not completely out of the braids so I just had it all hanging out all wavy and crazy looking) to go to the bus in order to go to Plaza de Espana. I am used to getting looks but this time I knew the staring would be because I'm different and my hair brought added attention upon me. It amused me greatly. I arrived at the Plaza to stand waiting until I mustered up enough courage to ask someone for assistance. I was told I didn't have to wait and could just walk in and wait in the line to pick up my card. I did that and got my card! Yay me! I feel soooo official now.
I had some time to blow before my interview so I hopped on the bus to head towards my interview location and ended up hanging out down the street until it was time for me to go in there. I arrived about 15 minutes early and my interviewer was obviously not ready to see me. She was interviewing someone else as I was told. I looked at the guy and he was wearing jeans and a sweater. I'm sorry, didn't she say that was an interview? Ok...but then another young lady came in and she, also, was wearing jeans and some casual shirt. I, on the other hand, donned my brown dress pants with my button-down brown and beige shirt and boots. As I waited, I wondered how the woman would greet me. I understand how everyone here greets with the two kisses on the cheeks but for an interview? No way. But I decided to let her lead. She put out her hand for a handshake and that was that. Great. So we started the interview process. Did I mention the entire thing was in Spanish??? What??? I have enough difficulty with interviews in English let alone another language. But this one was pretty smooth after much praying and asking God for strength. She asked me some general questions like where I'm from and if I speak English fluently (you might laugh but she said she met an American that didn't know English fluently- didn't know that was possible, maybe she was joking). Then she got into the serious questions like why I was interested in the job and what I wanted to do and what I have done in the past. It wasn't as bad as I thought though. She made me feel very comfortable and told me if I had any questions to stop her and ask. There was only one time that I had to have her translate something into English for me. Lucky for me, the position asks that people have a strong mastering of English, so yay me! After that, she gave me her business card and told me to fill out some facts on the computer and then if they were interested in me, they'd call me for a second interview. Cool enough. I survived my first interview in Spanish. And did pretty well! I was so excited that I went home and took out the rest of my braids. What a wonderful treat to such a great day! (<- sarcasm by the way)
Tuesday (Dec. 16)- I had another lovely day of classes with the 4th year kids. It is so frustrating when the students don't understand and don't try to understand! And that is what happened with both of my 4th year groups today. Granted there are always students that actually try, in the first class I had about two out of 10 and the second class was more than half, but when the ones that don't try start speaking in Spanish to each other it really bothers me. The first class was SUPER quiet. I felt like I was talking to myself most of the time. Then I had music, which was fun. One of the students looked at me like "Oh, your hair is different!" but he didn't say anything. Funny. We finished the lesson, did some practice exercises, and they started singing "Old Saint Nicholas." They started singing it using the notes instead of the lyrics (and the notes they sing are Do-re-mi, not A-B-C). They were all so ready to play it on the recorder it was funny. Then they finally sang the song with the lyrics (after the bell rang). Can I just say I love when songs in English are sung by native Spanish speakers? Yea, well, I do. It was soooooo cute. Then I had a break where I went to the bank to withdrawal some money. See, we're having Feria del libro at my school. This is literally translated into the Book Fair and it's when a company sets up shop within the school to sell books to students that may need them for class and also sell books for leisure. I was so excited about this! We (teachers and students) got a 25% discount on the books too. Then I had a conversation class with Emilio where he told me about visiting Morocco and we talked about the differences in the importance of family for Spanish people versus American people. Interesting stuff. Then I had another 4th year where 3-4 of the male students would not stop talking. When I say they were starting to get under my skin that is no understatement. I just wasn't trying to deal with it. Luckily there were a couple students that couldn't deal with it either and helped me in shutting the guys up. We talked about holidays again in that class.
Wednesday (Dec. 17)- I first went to the bank to deposit my December check. I'm surprised we got it so early, I felt like I just got paid. Of course, I'm not complaining. Especially since that Ireland trip left me scrapping "pennies" to pay for certain items. It was as easy as 1-2-3. Then I headed to the school. I met up with Maria Jesus (the music teacher). We started talking about random topics and she told me that she has been listening to podcasts in English to practice her understanding. I thought that was a great idea and she showed me where to find some free Spanish podcasts so that I could practice listening skills and understanding. We also talked about the differences in how houses here are built versus houses in the U.S. and she mentioned Sweden as well. It all started when we were talking about snow and I mentioned how my parents were happy to be in GA versus NJ where there is snow that has to be tended to and such. She said that when she was in Sweden (the students participate in an exchange program every year with Swedish students) that one of the teachers told her that there are some streets that are heated for safety purposes. We then talked about houses here and how they don't have heat. And then we got to the subject of carpets (or the lack thereof) and how there are marble floors in every house in Seville and at first Maria Jesus didn't even know what I was talking about. She wasn't even familiar with the word "carpet." That proved it right there! I kept saying "I know you've heard of carpets, you had to have!" Then proceeded to try to explain what they were. We finally were on the same wavelength when she told me moqueta is Spanish for carpet. I was sure I had never heard anyone use that word here. No surprise there. She told me she has a rug in her home and the cleaning woman would get angry about it because it was so hard to clean. I tried to tell her that carpet makes a house feel more like a home. It makes it so comfy and you can lie on the carpet by the fireplace and enjoy a conversation with your family. Nothing tops that! She simply took my word for it though. Next, I was supposed to meet with Jose Ramon but he came with about 10 minutes to spare and explained how he already took his test the day before in his English class and thought he did ok. But he told me that there are five subjects and if he gets below a five (on a scale of 1-10) on just one of the subjects he would have to retake the class. Wow, that seems extreme. Next, Rafa came to me to show me a couple youtube videos he wanted to show the class. He asked me to come up with some questions to ask the class. So I spent the next hour watching kids around 12 or 13 (the ages of the students) give a weather forecast. Pretty funny stuff.
The kids saw one of the videos the day before and deemed it the "Alejandro" video because the kid in the video looked a lot like one of the kids in class, Alejandro. Hil-ar-i-ous! Ruben had to cancel on me so I took the time I would've had with a conversation hour with him to simply type up the questions and make copies for the class. Rafa was more than happy that I had typed them up. He asked me to e-mail them to him so he could use them in the following years. Yay me! So we headed to the classroom (which had to be changed to another classroom because of the need for a projector) and the kids were super excited about that (I swear they get excited about everything). I passed out the worksheets and heard gasps from some of them. I didn't think it was that hard, it was based off of what was said in the video (verbatim). One of the students said, "Jameelah, you changed your hair" and I responded by shaking my head and saying "Yea, unfortunately." And she said, "Yes, it's very...strange" and made this weird face. Clearly I need to get it styled! So Rafa starts playing the video and then it stops to start buffering again. This is the only issue we really have, the Internet is extremely slow in the school so when you plan a lesson around it, you're really taking a chance because the technology is not always reliable and the Internet goes down often. After much loading and reloading, we played the video. After the third time of playing it, the students were able to successfully complete all of the questions.
We then tried loading the next one and while we were doing that, Rafa went around asking the students to see an assignment they had the day before. While he was doing that, one of the kids in front of me, Dani, started laughing and talking in Spanish and pointing at something on the screen. He turned to Alejandro and started telling him, in Spanish, what he was laughing at. Javi, another student in front of them, wondered what was so funny so Dani told him. I started giving Dani one of my looks and shaking my head, Javi pointed me out and told Dani to turn around. Javi and another student sitting next to him said "Jameelah understood you!" and started laughing. I could do nothing but laugh. We waited some time and then the video still wasn't loading so we called it a day. After school, I decided to go home and chill.
Thursday (Dec. 18)- My last day at the school! So sad :( I went to Alain's class first, having no clue what we were really going to do. I saw him and he said he wanted me to take a group of students and distribute the winter break books to them. He had given some students the option of reading some English books over the break, just for fun, no tests or questions afterwards. There are some students that are not doing that well and he sanctioned them off and gave them to me. Before we did that, I told him I wanted to take a picture of the class. He told me to tell the students that and see what they thought. I said "Ok guys, I want to take a picture of you all." All of sudden they started screaming and one student said "No! No picture of me!" and proceeded to cover up his face with his hood. Another student said "Yes! Yay for pictures!" and started smiling all hard like I was going to take the picture right then and there. Too funny. So Alain suggested we go outside so they could all stand on the steps and I could get a better group shot. We did and they were so excited to take the picture. I swear I love those kids.
When we finished, I screamed "Thank you!" as they were walking inside and Javi turned around, thought, and said "De nada!" and smiled. I told him, "It's you're welcome" and we laughed. Then I got my group of the kids that were struggling and we went to a different classroom. Alain told me they could have up to two books if they wanted. They were really excited about it. You would've thought I was giving out free candy or something. They all chose 2 books and I had them spell their names to me (even the easy ones). I realized that a lot of them even had difficulty doing this. So I decided we would have a little Christmas discussion. I asked them questions like, "When do you celebrate Christmas?" and "What do you do to celebrate Christmas?" I realized that these students were indeed in need of some more practice/help. They didn't understand a lot of what I was saying and just sat there and smiled. I had to ask them many times if they understood and when they didn't, I would try to explain it in simpler terms. If that didn't work, I would get one student that did understand me, to explain it to them in Spanish. I try my hardest not to use Spanish in the classroom. I don't think it's beneficial for them to hear me speak Spanish and think that since I understand it, they can use it all the time. When the older students use it, which is often, I listen to them, then I repeat their question in English and then answer it in English. I don't know if this helps but I think that the more English they hear, the better it is.After that class, my day was pretty much done. Because it was the last day of classes, a lot of teachers either cancelled on me or said they were going over exams in their classes so there was really no reason for me to be there. Because it was still Feria del Libro at the school, I figured I'd buy some Spanish books. Talk about splurging, I ended up getting four books. I figured since I would be traveling to Madrid on Friday, I'd need some reading material, and I also thought some titles looked rather interesting. Maria Jesus, the music teacher, helped me make my decision. She is a very sweet person and when I left, told me that if I wanted to call her I could. She said her family would be back in town for New Year's. Emilio, the math teacher, also told me that I could call him if I needed to. Alain did the same. My school's pretty awesome, I must say.
So that was my final day of classes for 2008. *Tear* Upon reflection, I am so thankful that I chose to do this program and come here to teach. I never thought in a million years that I would be teaching, let alone teaching in a foreign country to which I had never visited. And on top of that, I never thought that I'd like, scratch that, I'd love what I do and where I am. I absolutely adore my students, they make my days go by so fast and they make me laugh and keep me interested. I feel like I'm a student of my own.
I went to do some last minute shopping for my trip to Madrid on Friday. I rode the bus to time it and see how long it'd take to get to Plaza de Armas, the bus station I would be leaving from. I bought my ticket which was pretty darn cheap. And then I did some walking down to the Center to do a little shopping. I don't know why but I was wearing my boots with the heels and that was the dumbest decision. Needless to say, my feet were KILLING me by the end of my journey. I went to Maxi Dia to pick up some snacks (since I'm the snack queen) and then I hightailed it back home. I ate, made my sandwiches, talked to the fam and friends, and went to bed.
Friday (Dec. 19)- So I have to be honest, like I usually am, I was pretty nervous about the trip. I was afraid I would forget something, frightful I would pack too much, scared I would be late, among other worries. Thankfully, my mother and father were there to talk me through it. My mom made sure I had the essentials and I headed off. I was nervous about being late because I had to catch two buses to get to Plaza de Armas and I wasn't sure how the buses ran that early in the morning on that side of town. Plus, I'd be carrying my heavy bags. I left at 8:30 am and it ended up only taking 30 minutes. Talk about thanking God! It went faster than I had ever expected, even faster than the day before it took me an hour. So that left me with an hour to chill and eat and read my newspaper. My bus was on time, early actually. It came at 9:45 am. I boarded it and prepared myself for the 6 hour bus ride. Yea, 6 hours. But you know what? It wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. We only had one 15 minute stop, the seats were comfy, there was a little headphone plug in area like in airplanes, and they played two movies (which were skipping so I didn't bother too much). There was also a bathroom inside there but I didn't check it out. I got a seat in the very back which meant I had a ton of room where I just placed my bag in front of me instead of overhead. Unfortunately, I had to sit next to some girls around my age that were all loud and talking, joking around, filing and painting their nails, and other things. It wasn't too bad though. I dozed off a few times but mainly read.
Once I arrived in Madrid, I texted my friend to tell her I was there. She had previously sent me some instructions like which Metro (train) stop she lives off of. I was hoping it'd be easy to find it coming from the bus station and it was. They are connected thankfully. In Seville, there is no Metro system (yet, they're working on it and should have it done sometime next year), so when you arrive at the bus station, you either take local buses or take a taxi (or bike, which I don't suggest if you don't know where you are). So it isn't too easy. But Madrid's Metro reminded me a lot of NYC's Metro system and since I was so familiar with how to work that, this was no problem. I didn't get lost or anything, chose the right train to get on and all. I was pretty proud of myself to say the least, seeing how my sense of direction generally sucks. I called my friend once I got off at the stop and she directed me on how to get to her place. I found it and got settled. My lovely friend then took a brush to my scary head of hair and brushed the it like crazy (and I mean that literally, it was crying out for a brush before). We went out to do a little shopping because her roommate clued us in to a sale going on and we bought boots for 13 euros! Yes! Love it! I got some black ones since I already have brown. Then we went to H&M and then Claire's because I needed some earrings, since I always manage to lose the ones I have in my ears, while they're in my ears (advice: don't sleep with earrings, I'm pretty sure everyone knows that though, I'm just too lazy/forgetful to actually take them out). Then we got some Mickey D's and chilled that night.
Saturday (Dec. 20)- We (my friend and I) decided to walk around the city a little. She gave me a nice little tour; I got to see the palace and Catedral. I’m pretty sure we saw some other stuff too but I don’t remember too well. I took a few pics though, so no worries. Also, I plan on returning for a Valentine’s Day Tea my friend and her friends will be hosting. So this was my relaxing/tourist-but-not type trip. We went to a street called Lavapies in search of a place to eat. We decided on this Indian restaurant because the man was basically standing outside soliciting diners (this is apparently how they do it because there are so many restaurants people can choose from). He said if we went to his restaurant, he would allow us to use the Monday-Friday menu, although it was Saturday and prime eating time. Oh yes! We could pick a drink, first dish (appetizer), second dish (with rice), and a postre (dessert) all for 7 Euros! Very nice! So I chose the vegetable samosa, some spinach dish that ended up tasting a lot like creamed spinach with potatoes (so I loved it), and a coconut tart. Yummy! After that, we caught that itis and decided to go back to the piso (flat). But we were way too lame Friday night so we were set on going out that night. And we did! I forget the names of the places we went to but the first one was this Moroccan restaurant. We chilled there. Then we went to a hip hop club that you really had to know where you were going in order to get there. It was a nondescript door down a street that wasn’t very busy, go figure. Good times!
Sunday (Dec. 21)- This was an interesting day as well. My friend’s roommate told us about a Baptist church where the sermon is in English! So we decided to go and check it out. The name of the church is Immanuel Baptist Church and it was a short bus ride from my friend’s piso to get there. It is a quaint little church in a building that reminded me of community center type place. After that, my friend and her roommate wanted me to check out this place that had some type of food (can’t remember what) but it sounded good. And it is supposed to be able to fill you up for the entire day. Guess we can go back though because when we got there it was PACKED and people were waiting to be seated. They really only have like two dishes, fish and chicken I believe. But it’s so good that everyone loves to eat there. So we ventured back to Lavapies to have some Indian food (I know, again, but I didn’t mind). This time it was a lot more people and we were practically pushed into one of the restaurants by a solicitor. I basically got the same thing except I got the creamed spinach type stuff (Aloo something) with cheese. It was yummy. We also got a different dessert. I think it was simply called dulce, which means sweet in Spanish. It was like a donut hole soaked in some sweet syrup (but with a thinner consistency). I think I’ve had it before though. We then walked around a little bit more and headed back to the piso. Had to make that night a nice and relaxed one.
Now, I will just talk about what we did up until Christmas Day, because I honestly can’t recall which days we did what. We saw more of the city, went to El Retiro and Museo del Prado.
The first one was a nice little park in the area. Well, not little, it was a rather large park. My friend told me it was a lot like Central Park. Which reminds me; Madrid made me feel like I was back in NYC. As soon as I got off the bus, I was sure I was back in the Big Apple. The Metro (that’s what it’s called in both places), the big crowds of people, a lot of other things just took me back to the summer of 2007. The only difference was the pace. Because Spain is generally a more lax country, the people don’t tend to rush as much when walking. So that was nice, although I used to be very impatient walking behind slow people, now my patience is a lot better. So we walked around the big park which also housed a cute lake where people would get row boats and such, great place for couples to go. There were also some monuments and whatnot. We then went to the Prado Museum. They weren’t really letting people in to the side we wanted to go into (it was split up into two entrances, one for the Rembrandt exhibit and the other for the regular exhibits) so we just chose to go get some food in the meantime. We went to a nice place called The Wok I think. We chose el menu del dia (menu of the day) to get our money’s worth. I got wontons! I was so excited. They were basically my fave crab rangoon but not as good. My friend got the tempura which came with a whole bunch of tempura. It was like a meal all on its own. The next dish we got was a type of rice noodle dish (reminded me of my wonderful and fave Thai meal, Thai spaghetti with tofu that I end up making Thai noodle because I exchange the spaghetti for rice noodles…soooo good) with veggies and shrimp. It was good and even better when I put some of the sweet chili sauce on it. And some of the spicy chili sauce. That is one thing, Spanish people don’t really do spicy that much so food that should be spicy (i.e. Indian food) is rarely that. Kinda sucks when I love spicy food with a passion. Just like when I went to the pizza place that first week in Sevilla and one of the girls wondered if they had chili peppers and she ended up getting olive oil with peppers added. It was funny, Spanish-style spicy. Then I got a dulce de leche postre and my friend got the café postre. Both quite delicious. We headed back to El Prado and ended up buying student tickets for the Rembrandt exhibit because it would only be there until January 4 or 6.
Then we discovered that the ticket we bought allowed us entry into both parts of the museum so that was pretty exciting. Rembrandt, known for his contrasting use of light and dark, had some pretty interesting pieces, including many religious portrayals. We then went to see some Velasquez, Goya, and other artists I briefly learned about in Spanish class. I do really enjoy art though, good stuff.Can't forget to tell you all this...I got my hair done! So, as you all have read my past complications with my hair, I finally got to go to the hair salon. The Dominican hair salon to be exact. I got my hair done at a Dominican salon in New York once and it looked great so I was more than ready. I was there alllllll day! I felt so bad for that lady. She was working hard. She had to comb out my hair about three times. Then, since they only use blow dryers to straighten, she proceeded to blow out my hair section by little section. And here was the resulting hair...
We went out one of those nights. We first went to an Irish pub (made me feel like I was back in Ireland) and had a field day there. My friend ordered the onion rings there which came with a yummy sauce (she’s not a sauce person, which balances out how much of a huge sauce person I am).Then we walked down one street and found another nice and relaxed spot. I loved it, so calming. One day we pretty much bummed it, watching youtube videos and talking about Facebook and other internet-related fun. I definitely love my friend’s place though. Nothing at all like mine (in a good way). She has, get this, a microwave AND an oven, heat, and a dish washer. Yeah, talk about spoiled. We also went to the most adorable tea shop. It was like something out of a little girl’s dream. I had some tasty fruity tea with the nicest looking cupcake (it looked way better than it tasted though; it was all about how it looked for me though).
Back to the piso, it was cute how she and one of her roommates bought and decorated a little Christmas tree and even hung up stockings with everyone’s name on them. There would be six of us for Christmas Day (and a day or two afterwards).Needless to say, staying with my friend made me want to step my game up too. We bought tortilla Espanola con cebolla (Spanish potato omelet with onion) and I fell in love. See, I never bought it because I didn’t know it could be heated up without a microwave (stupid, I know, especially since it’s made on top of the stove in the first place). We also had pasta (tortellini con requesón- tortellini with ricotta cheese) but my friend and her roommate must be on some top chef tip because they were both making pasta and actually preparing the sauce and stuff. All I do with my pasta is make it, add tomate frito and I’m done. They actually cut up tomatoes, garlic, onions, and add all these spices and stuff. It was too good, but I’m ok with all that preparation. When I want to eat, I want to eat, not cook ;-). But this was only a taste of what they would do for Christmas dinner. Another one of those days, we headed to my fave place, 100 Montaditos! My friend had never been so we wanted to check it out. I don’t know if I’ve said this before (probably have) but everything on their menu is 1 Euro and they give you little sandwiches with chips. I got 3 or 4 sandwiches, one with tuna and tomatoes and this fried onion stuff on top (got it before, it’s always good), salmon with cream cheese, one with tortilla and aioli sauce, and I feel like I got another one but I can’t remember. Of course all of this with my Fanta Naranja, which I am now officially addicted to. We also went to church on Christmas Eve, this group included me, my friend, her female roommate and her boyfriend, and her male roommate. The service was really nice with the pastor preaching on knowing what role we play in this life and how we should basically let go and let God. We have to be the ones to know that He knows what’s best for us and He will be patient with us until we decide we want to walk with Him. I really enjoyed it. Now on to some more really good stuff…
Christmas Day!!! One of the first Christmases on which I was not awake super early (not because of mere excitement from gift anticipation but just because it’s always hard to sleep the night before), I was really looking forward to talking to my family and the food. My friend’s sister was coming into town that morning so she was up and out of there by the time I woke up. The guys were in the kitchen cooking up some breakfast. It included some spiced apples my friend made, real Belgium waffles my friend bought while she was in Brussels, scrambled eggs, and bacon. I definitely fell in love with those waffles. They had sugar baked into them…like, real sugar! No sugar needed basically.
Then we opened gifts. I got earrings from my friend and some chocolates from her female roommate (those chocolates were great too). Needless to say, it was looking like a lovely Christmas Day. After we were all done opening gifts, my friend and her female roommate got ready to prep the food and I decided to talk to my family. Oh how I miss them! Our talk made me miss them even more. But the countdown to them coming is on. Christmas apparently wasn’t the same without me. My first Christmas away from home, it better not be the same! My dad told me he woke up early by himself and went downstairs by himself to open gifts, by himself. I had to laugh because I didn’t realize that I really am the person that wakes everyone up to open their gifts and if I don’t do that, my gifts are already open and I’m already watching television by the time everyone gets downstairs. But I was more than happy to talk to them, it was refreshing. So we got ready for dinner and do you want to know what was on the menu? Maybe you don’t, because I don’t want your mouth to get all salivating and wishing for the food. But I’ll torture you just a little…macaroni and cheese, rice and beans, sweet potatoes, garlic shrimp, mashed potatoes, green beans, turkey, corn fritters (more or less, they were supposed to be cornbread but we had technical difficulties), and plantains. I think that’s it, here’s a picture of the yummy goodness that ended up in our stomachs…
The next day, I would have been happy with doing nothing but we (my friend, her sister, and I) chose to go to Toledo. We went to the Renfe station (train) to buy our tickets for around 15 Euros. We had to buy some later tickets because we arrived too late to the station. So we chilled at the station and ate. I have to say this, I had a tuna pizza and you know what? That stuff was gooooooooood. I didn’t think it would taste that great but it really did. It was basically on sandwich bread but great nonetheless. Anyway, we headed to Toledo (which took all of 30 minutes).
We went on a nice little walking tour of the city. I love it because it’s on the top of an extra big hill so you can look down and see everything.
I wasn’t going to say much about Toledo because the pictures more than speak for themselves (although you won’t see all of them) but I have this complaint. We went to a restaurant there that was absolutely HORRIBLE. I don’t remember the name unfortunately (I thought I would without writing it down, foolish, I know) but I think it was something like “Judicios” or something and I know it was in quotations so don’t go there! It was some word that I wasn’t familiar with (I don’t even know if it was a Spanish word but definitely a Spanish restaurant). What went wrong first…we walked in and it seemed difficult to seat us (maybe because the place was busy or something) but there was a table right in front of us that was empty. Then, I didn’t see anything on the menu I was trying to eat (not even the menu of the day which is a first) because I wasn’t trying to pay 7 Euros for a salad and the seafood consisted of one or two dishes (one of which was hake in cider-huh?). But there was a menu hanging up over the bar that featured tapas. I said I wanted to eat off of that because I could just get a sandwich. The waiter told me I couldn’t. Um…what? He didn’t even say why (or maybe I was too upset to hear him). The third problem, we were trying to figure out what I was going to do about my food situation and the waiter kept rushing us. Wow. So I just got up and went to the bar to order and I think the manager or owner could tell there was trouble so he came up to me and asked what was wrong and I told him and he said I could order from there so I ordered a tuna sandwich. That easy. Fourth problem, I got my sandwich in 5 min. but my friend and her sister’s food took 30 min. Yes, but we were not the only ones. The table next to us didn’t get their food; neither did the table behind us. For their first dish, my friend and her sister ordered soup and paella. No reason at all it should’ve taken that long. We finally got it and my friend’s sister's paella was horrible. She said Rice-A-Roni would’ve been better. The people in the table next to us got their first dish after us and it was only a salad. So sad. Then, the steaks came. They ordered steak and potatoes and got steak and like 5 or 6 french fries. The face on my friend’s sister was priceless. All in all the meal was a disaster. My sandwich was cool, a little dry but a sandwich. See, service here can be horrible all it wants because they don’t do the tip system. So people don’t have to work for their tip, they simply work for what they always get paid. But Toledo all in all is a cute little city, known for its marzipan and black with gold encrusted jewelry/plates/trinkets. We were in the super touristy part and there were pretty decorations and lots of people and other nice things. I enjoyed it.
After we arrived in Madrid, my friend’s sister and I went to the supermarket to pick up some things and my friend went to get churros. My first time having churros! So, I have, off and on, extremely been missing funnel cake for some reason (which is weird because I don’t have it like, at all, back home) but I have found my temporary substitute. Churros taste just like some funnel cake to me! Minus the powdered sugar (which would make them absolutely perfect). They use sugar but it’s more the granulated kind. Still so so good! I am officially in love. She also bought the chocolate covered ones but I was stuffed and then forgot to take it when I left the next morning. Ugh! Anyway, that was my wonderful week in Madrid.
I celebrated my friend’s (from the program) birthday when I got back to Sevilla. We went out Sunday night to Tabernas Coloniales. I am officially in love with this place (can you tell I’m officially in love with a lot of stuff nowadays?). Let me tell you why. Not only do they have a decent menu (in terms of price and amount too) that includes tapas, medias, and raciones, but they also have good food! And this was some good Spanish food. I had the croquetas de espinacas (spinach croquettes-new fave food), patatas bravas, and pimientos (peppers). I also tried the sauce of my friends’ dish; it was a chicken with potatoes and almond sauce. That sauce was something serious! She said she will probably go back with her friend in a week or so and I definitely want to be on that invite list because I will get a plate of those spinach croquettes and patatas bravas and be done! The next day, her official birthday, we met up and talked a little.
I spent hours upon hours deciding what to wear and what to do with my hair for New Year's Eve. Then I fell asleep..sad, right? I woke up in time to pray and send my family a Happy New Year e-mail. Then I got ready to go to the club with some friends. We bought tickets to Bandalai.
We got there and it was pretty packed. I had a lot of fun there. Until we meet again blog!
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