What are Alan and Steven doing in Spain?

What are Alan and Steven doing in Spain?

We are teaching for the CIEE program, which stands for Council on International Educational Exchange. We lived in Sevilla, Spain for a month and took an immersion course that improved our knowledge of the Spanish language and culture. We lived with a host Señora which provided us 3 meals a day and laundry service. Following our stay in Sevilla, we moved together to a small town called Lucena where we will begin teaching English. The teaching assignment will begin approximately October 1st and conclude May 31, 2011.

We are placed at two different schools in Cabra, Spain in which the children range from the ages of 12-18. As Language and Culture Assistants, we provide the teacher and students with a native English accent along with providing first hand examples and experiences about the American culture.

Please read our posts to keep up with all of the unique experiences.



Our Journey of Traveling through Europe.... (Last Updated 01/18/11)
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Thursday, March 10, 2011

"The darkest thing about Africa has always been our ignorance of it." -George Kimble

Sierra Nevada Skiing Trips

Since we've been back from Christmas, we've taken a couple ski trips (January 22nd & February 11th) to the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It's such an easy trip that it's possible to ski the whole mountain in one day, and get back home to Lucena, or have a night out in Granada. It's only 45 minutes from Granada on the bus! The Sierra Nevada National Park is the largest national park in all of Spain. Here's a video collage of both trips.



1st Trip - January 22: Reid Owens, George Hicks, and Steven left from Granada in the morning at 8am and skied until the lifts closed around 4:30pm. Here's the slideshow from the 1st trip:



2nd Trip - February 11th: For this trip, we decided to save as much money as possible (as always) and wake up very early in Lucena and travel by car to the Sierra Nevada. Our awesome friend from Lucena was nice enough to drive a group of us to the mountains and we had a wonderful day of skiing. We couldn't have asked for more perfect weather. This ski trip included Carmen, Jose, Stephen Zewe, Alan, and Steven. Here's the slideshow from the 2nd trip:



Morocco, Africa with DiscoverSevilla

As you may recall, we traveled to Lagos, Portugal in September around the time of my birthday with a company called DiscoverSevilla. Through the trip to Lagos and living in Sevilla, we've made some really good friends that work with the company. They apparently "got a good vibe" from Alan and I and we've been asked to help out on some of their trips this Spring. So for February 25th-27th, Alan and I were asked to be tour guides for about 200 American students going to Morocco, Africa. Not only does that opportunity include traveling with a great group of people, but we didn't have to pay an insane amount to travel to Africa. Not many people can say they've been to Africa...for free. It was certainly a wake-up call being exposed to their culture differences. A completely different culture that makes you really appreciate what we have in the USA. However, it's incredible the way these folks operate on a daily basis.

We split up into 2 groups - one group of students stayed in Tanger, Morocco and the other group stayed in M'diq, Morocco. Both of our hotels were on the beach and had spectacular views. We rode camels on the beach, and toured a different city each day. The cities we toured were Tetouan and Chefchaouen. Take a look at our video and slideshow to see these places for yourself. Incredible experience.





Carnivales de Cadiz

The week of March 5th-13th, its seems that almost every city/town in Spain has their carnival. Although Cadiz is known to have the biggest carnival in all of Spain and is actually considered the 3rd biggest party of year in Europe - per some website ;) We actually got another call from our friends at DiscoverSevilla and they were taking 650 students to the Carnival! Alan and I were asked to be tour guides again, and we each had to control our own bus of 55 students - which isn't that easy considering that most everyone was "preparing" for the 3rd biggest party of the year. It's a carnival where everyone dresses up...and if you're not dressed up, well, then you are completely out of place.

Our responsibility through the night was to introduce yourself and thank everyone for coming with DiscoverSevilla. We had to explain the schedule for the night - arrival & departure times. Make sure that all 55 of our students were accounted for at the end of the night. And perhaps the most difficult part, we had to judge the 3 top costumes on our bus. 1st prize got a free trip with DS, 2nd prize for a free bottle of Vodka, and 3rd prize got a free DS t-shirt.

Alan and I had no idea what we were going to wear until the day before we left. We asked one of the professors at my school where we could find some costume ideas. Lucky for us, the first store we visited had something we thought would be pretty funny. "Sexy Abuela" or in English "Sexy Grandmother". We both bought this costume and went to the party as sexy old women. These costumes were quite detailed as you can see in the pictures (You've been warned!)

**At the end of the slideshow, there are two video clips. Click on them and it will take you to a new screen to view the videos.
1) Alan and I trying to imitate two old women struggling to walk down the sidewalk. HA! Pretty funny...at least to me.
2) An overhead video clip of the Carnival in Cadiz. It really puts the party and number of people in perspective.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

"The secret to staying intrigued on the road - the secret to truly being different from the frustrated masses - is this: Don't set limits." - Rolf Potts

Wow! I don't think the first 4 months in Spain could have gone by any quicker. It feels like Alan and I just landed here a couple days ago, couldn't speak hardly any Spanish, and were slapped right in the face with extreme culture shock. What a journey it's been, and we've got quite a lot of catching up to do with the blog. Our apologies for not having updates as of late.

But here we are, having just returned from our USA holiday visits - which I admit were much needed. Alan spent the entire break in Durango, Colorado where his family owns a house and traditionally spends Christmas. I went to Birmingham to spend time with the family, and snuck a few trips in to go hunting and to visit Nashville for New Years. Now we're back in Spain with a renewed energy and looking forward to finishing our adventure which concludes at the end of May 2011.
I'll pick up from where we left off with our last blog post. 

Barcelona

Our girlfriends, Katie and Emily, flew into Madrid and stayed with us for almost 2 weeks (November 17-28). They came to our apartment in Lucena for the first week while we worked during the day. We traveled to Barcelona on Friday, November 19 and came back Sunday, November 21 - we had an awesome trip. It was quite a feat for these "southern queens" to get accustomed to staying in a hostel with other backpackers and vacationers, but they did well. Luckily, we made a good choice in finding a hostel and the conditions were very clean and tolerable. We tried to visit all the landmarks, but that's virtually impossible in such a short trip. Some of the popular landmarks that we visited were Gaudi's Casa Batlló, Sangrada Familia, Parc Güell, and the famous Las Ramblas street. Below is a slideshow of photos and a video from that weekend.





Amsterdam

After returning from Barcelona, the girls flew home and we continued teaching and living our normal routine. We had a "puente" - the general term used for Spanish holidays - December 3-12. We were in a financial dilemma with the deadline to pay rent approaching, but we couldn't let this opportunity to travel pass by. On November 30th, Stephen Zewe (friend of Pittsburgh), Alanna Supersad (friend from Edmonton, Canada), Alan, and I booked flights to go to Amsterdam from December 6th-11th. We originally wanted to go to several places during this break, but the costs of such a trip became to high for us to handle. After much discussion, we decided to just travel to Amsterdam for 5 days. The weather was very cold as it was snowing when we arrived. The fog was almost overwhelming - we could hardly see the runway as our plane landed, and I was holding onto my seat handles tightly! Some of the famous places we visited were the Heineken Brewery, Anne Frank's House, Sexmuseum, and the Red Light District. Again, we had to pick and choose the landmarks that were most interesting to us because it wasn't affordable to pay a €20-25 entry fee for each museum or landmark. Needless to say, it was fun trip that none of us will ever forget. Check out the video and slideshow below that showcases our trip.






Cabra & Lucena

We have still yet to share any pictures of our town, but I did take some random pictures of Lucena (where we live) and Cabra (where we teach) while walking one morning. Below are a few pictures to have a peak at these towns, and we will try to capture some pictures of our schools and students sooner or later.



Funny Stories
During Christmas break, there were many stories that I told my family and friends about our experiences in Spain. Some of them were mentioned on the blog, but my Dad wanted to know why I haven't shared some of the most funny stories on the blog - so here goes:

Bar Incident
During the month of September while living in Sevilla, I was missing the first of important Alabama football games versus Penn State. So this particular Saturday, I had planned to stay home (Señora Concha's apartment) and watch the game. Keep in mind that a 7pm kickoff at home is a 2am kickoff in Spain. I expected my crazy Señora to lock the kitchen door as she normally does, so I had to prepare to stay up all night watching the game - approximately 2am-6am. I decided to walk down the street to a nearby park-type place called Alameda de Hercules and grab a beer by myself as well as bring back some snacks for the game. I went into first bar that I saw without pondering over what type of bar I was entering, ordered a beer, and sat down at the bar. Meanwhile, the guy next to me dropped his phone and I coincidently gave him the "hate when that happens look". Of course, I wasn't sure how to convey that type of message in Spanish so the look did justice. He proceeds to strike up a conversation of elementary Spanish - the typical "where are you from, what are you doing here" conversation. Soon after, he bought my beer. Now I'm thinking, "wow, this guy is welcoming". Little did I know that I was in a gay bar, and the only female in the place was a 4 year old playing cards with her gay father.


  • Lesson learned: Examine the atmosphere of international bars before entering.


Kitchen Head Bumper
Standing at 6'4", I am one of the taller people in Spain. So everything from shoe and clothes sizes to construction of ceilings and walls - everything is made for short people. I can't count the number of times I have hit my head since moving to Spain, and in our kitchen lies one of my biggest problems. I just decided to make a bumper for my head, and now I cook with no pain. Here's a glimpse of how I fixed my problem  :)

Kitchen Bumper


'Dag Gum' Americans
Katie and Emily tried very hard to learn some Spanish while they were here, but in the end, they had a very difficult time communicating without our help.

One day, they wanted to come to Cabra to have lunch with us after we finished classes. We explained explicitly how to get to the bus station and they seemed to have no problem figuring it out together. But I guess they look more foreign than we do...after being in Spain for 4.5 months, we've never had any authoritative figure ask us for our passports or visas. The first time they tried to travel through the bus station, two policemen asked them for their passports to make sure they were here legally. I guess it was their bright blonde hair.

The next day, Alan had a work schedule in which he had a 2 hour break and he asked Emily if she would come to Cabra via bus and have lunch with him. After her and Katie's journey to Cabra the day before, she thought this was a perfect idea and she would have no problems doing it by herself. So, after Alan had already gone to school early in the morning, she woke up and starting walking to the bus station....until she ended up on the other side of town with no clue how to get to the bus station, or back to our apartment. After taking several wrong turns, pointing at maps, and asking questions in Spanglish, she somehow finally made it to the bus station. Through the struggle of finding her way to the bus station, her original plans were thrown for a loop because the 12:00 bus had already left. Her next obstacle was remembering where she was going, Cordoba or Cabra? Cordoba is the city about an hour north of us (which would've been disastrous had she chosen this route, with no working cell phone), or Cabra (the town in which we teach and is approximately 15 minutes).

Without knowing what time the next bus would have been, she only had a limited amount of time to have lunch with Alan as he had to return to school eventually. Running out of options, she looks at the closest elderly Spanish man, points directly at the pay phone,sw and says "Taxi...taxi to Cabra." Seeing her bright blond hair and state of confusion, this elderly man laughs his way to the phone to call a taxi for her. Thank God she chose the Cabra route, as Cordoba would have not only been an expensive taxi ride, but it would have been quite a scary situation with no way of getting in touch with her. She eventually made it to the center of Cabra in Plaza de España where Alan was waiting on her. I'm pretty sure Alan received a hug even tighter than the one he received when she arrived at the airport.


  • Lesson learned: If you appear foreign, always hold your passport with you. And don't allow someone that doesn't speak Spanish to travel without having some way of communication with an English speaking person.


Life with No Car
Booking the flights for Barcelona was quite a task because the return flight was incredibly cheaper early Monday morning than a return flight on Sunday afternoon. We chose the cheaper option to take the 6am flight back on Monday morning, and be a little later to work. Alan only had one class that day, he just told his bilingual coordinator that he wasn't going to come in. On the other hand, I had 3 classes and felt that I needed to try and make it to class. Our 6am flight required us to wake up at 4:15am, and catch a tax into the airport. We arrived in Malaga at 8:30am to catch the first bus back to Lucena at 9am. This bus got us back home by 11am, which gave me just enough time to run home - shower, eat, and come back to the bus station for a 12pm departure to Cabra for class.

In the midst of my hurried morning, I had already called my bilingual coordinator to let him know I would be late. Following my shower and quick lunch, I was forced to sprint back to the bus station in order to make the 12pm bus on time. I recognized a bus driver and jumped on the bus as quickly as I could. I realized within about 15 minutes that I didn't recognize the route we were taking. I asked the lady sitting next to me if the bus was going to Cabra, and she said no. So after all of my effort to make it back to school on that Monday, I had gotten on the wrong bus and went the opposite direction. It was so frustrating and embarrassing to have to call my bilingual coordinator back, and tell him that I wouldn't be coming to school anymore because I rode on the wrong bus. I ended up in a town called Benameji, and had to sit there until 3:30pm until another bus came to take me back home to Lucena. It was probably my most frustrating day in Spain thus far.


  • Lesson learned: No matter how sure you are, always ask the bus driver where he is going as you board the bus.


Friday, November 12, 2010

My Life Be Like

After a well-needed resting period during the past couple of weeks, we are gearing up for the weekend. The last 2 weeks have included teaching and chilling. We're glad to have time around our small towns because we still have plenty to learn about the history, culture, what to do, who to know, etc.

Katie and Emily are coming into town on Sunday so we're very excited to see them. They are flying into Madrid on Sunday morning. We're all traveling to Barcelona the following weekend, so it should be a wonderful trip.

I finally got my camera back from the repair shop in Sevilla. All of our pictures recently have been taken from still-shots from Alan's video camera, so it'll be nice to have a camera again for the trip to Barcelona.

I've been working on a video from my trip a couple weeks ago to Nerja and Torre del Mar.  They are 2 small towns on the beach, and each has its own essence. I feel like this video puts our trip in perspective - check it out.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

“The worst thing about being a tourist is having other tourists recognize you as a tourist.” – Russell Baker

The map below shows the location of where we live, work, shop, workout, etc. The southernmost town is Lucena and the town in the north in Cabra. Double click the map to zoom in on each city. Click and hold your mouse to move the map around and see where everything is located. Click the different icons to see a description of each place.


View Steven & Alan's Map in a larger map

Blog Post - October 21, 2010

Alan and I decided to update the blog with a video discussion of our experiences rather than writing about them. This video includes explanations of finding an apartment in Lucena, our schools, trips to Granada and Malaga, internet, and mobile phones. Please let us know by commenting if you prefer our blog posts in writing or video.


Tour of Apartment in Lucena, Spain


Weekend in Granada, Spain


Weekend in Malaga, Spain


Day Trip to Córdoba, Spain


Bloopers
This is a small collection of blooper clips that we did not make the final cut. We thought they were pretty humorous so we thought we would share them with you guys. Enjoy.


More...
This past weekend Steven traveled to the southern coast of Spain to two different towns, Torre del Mar and Nerja. Alan chose to stay home with some friends in Lucena. Another video and details will be posted soon about Steven's trip.

Hope you enjoy the videos. Hasta Luego.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

“When you come to a fork in the road….take it” – Yogi Berra

It’s been awhile since we’ve updated the blog as we’ve had quite a busy schedule the last few weeks. Let’s take a few minutes to catch everyone back up to speed. This could be a lengthy post, so we hope you are up for reading it!

Following our trip to Marbella, we continued classes throughout the week and spent the weekend of September 10th -12th in Sevilla. We probably would have gone to a nearby beach for a day trip, but I honestly think it was American football that kept us in town. We were able to watch the Auburn and Alabama games via internet. Then, on Sunday we went to our first bullfight and caught some NFL games at a “Tex-Mex” restaurant nearby Sevilla’s famous Cathedral. Below, you can watch a few video clips of the bullfight. Warning: Video content is fairly gruesome. It’s part of the Spanish culture.





The next week (September 13-17), we continued classes and my birthday was Thursday, September 16th. Turning 23 in Spain seemed really weird being away from family and friends, but fortunately, we couldn’t have asked for a better group of people in Sevilla. A large group of us went out to eat and our good buddy, Luis, surprised me with a cake and candles. He bought those “dad gum” sparkling candles that are impossible to blow out. We’ve made some really good friends during our stay in Sevilla, and while we are looking forward to having our own home and living space, it’s going to be difficult to say goodbye to these relationships. Luis has become a great friend to the entire CIEE group, and we’re very thankful for all the help he provided. Below are a few pictures from my birthday night.



There’s a local travel organization called DiscoverSevilla that does a brilliant job getting in contact with all the international students studying in Sevilla. We decided to travel with a group of 110 international students, primarily from America, to Lagos, Portugal for the weekend (September 17th – 19th).
We arrived in Lagos on Friday around noon and hit the private beach right after checking into the hotel. The beach was a small cove surrounded by many 100 foot tall cliffs. We took approximately a 300 yard swim offshore to a cliff that we were able to jump off. For being a 6’4” man, Steven sure didn’t act like one when he was standing over the edge of a cliff pondering on whether to take the leap. Steven has an extreme fear of heights that came into play at just about every place we went in Lagos. After much heckling, he finally decided to give in and take the jump. Back on the beach, we listened to what we like to call “The Friend-Maker”, also known as Alan’s Bose iPod Speaker, threw the Frisbee, and drank “ron con limon”. Friday night, we went to a place called Joe’s Garage. It was kind of a “hole in the wall” type place with loud music and lots of Americans. Great party, great time.

Saturday, we woke up to leave for a Sailboat Cruise with unlimited sangria at 11am. Our group took 2 large boats out into the Atlantic to view the coast and all of its rocks and cliffs. We broke up into small groups and boarded another small motor boat which took us on a tour in and out of the "grottos". There a several pictures that you will be able to view, but no pictures or words can describe how magnificent these scenes truly were. After the Sailboat Cruise, we went to a different beach that was more comparable to an Alabama or Florida beach. Very open, with soft white sand. The water is not near as warm as it is on the Gulf Coast. It’s just cold enough to make you take a deep breath.

The most spectacular part of the whole trip to Lagos was seeing the sunset from the extreme southwest tip of Europe, also known as the “Edge of the World”. It always seemed so ludicrous for ancient explorers to think that this was the end of the world, but seeing the landscape ourselves makes their assumptions more tolerant. We’ve both agreed that this was by far the most beautiful setting we’ve ever experienced, and may ever experience for the rest of our lives. We’ve got to go back!

Now, Sunday. We traveled to another beach that was just as gorgeous as the others. Off into the distance, there were rolling hills as far as you could see. This beach also offered a surfing school that we couldn't resist. We paid 35€ for 2 hours of surfboard and wetsuit rental, as well as lessons from one of their instructors. Alan and I both were able to pick it up fairly quickly. Surfing absolutely wore us out…you’re talkin’ about some sore muscles…whew! We returned from Lagos Sunday night.

Please view our video and slideshow from Lagos below (*Turn sound on*).





Here are a few more cultural adaptations/outrageous rules from my Senora that I encountered over the last couple weeks.
  • Returned to Sevilla from Lagos. Tad and I both had notes saying we were not allowed to touch our fans. She went as far as taping the pull cords onto the fan base so that it was not reachable without a ladder. Several days later, we talked her into using the fans because we were having trouble sleeping.
  • The kitchen door was also locked before we got home from Lagos, and this forbids me from even getting a cold glass of water.
  • The next day, she told me that I had to buy her a new desk chair because it was now extremely wobbly from me sitting in it every day. I didn’t know how to say “piece of crap” in Spanish, but I sure would have tried to mumble it out if I had had the slightest clue. Senora and I went to the furniture store together to buy a new chair and she tried to get me to buy her a much nicer chair than the one I broke! I told her I wasn’t going to buy anything except a chair that was identical. We eventually agreed on the a chair for 40€.
  • Best Senora Story Yet! The very last night that we are staying in her house, Tad and I were getting ready to have a few beers with the group before we left the next morning. While I was putting on clothes, Tad was hanging out in his room and began to feel a bit warm. He reached over and turned the fan switch on. Without making more than 3 full spins, the entire ceiling fan (base and all) fell to the floor.  It was extremely loud so I walked into Tad’s bedroom to find the fan on the ground, glass and wood shattered everywhere. The only thing left on the ceiling was a few broken wires! Here comes Senora….Que pasa? Que pasa? (What’s wrong? What’s wrong?) She tried to tell Tad that since it happened in his bedroom, that he was responsible for the fan. She believed that Tad was pulling too hard on the fan pull cord, but he didn’t do anything but touch the wall switch. Not to mention, that if he was under the fan when it fell, he would’ve been severely hurt. Anyway, we left Senora the following morning with only 1 ceiling fan in our 2 bedrooms. There was no way she was going to get us for rent, a new desk chair, AND a new ceiling fan!
On Saturday morning (September 25th), Alan and I took the train to Cordoba, and then took a bus from Cordoba to Lucena. For 5 nights, we are staying at Hostal Sara in Lucena. Sunday is bad day to begin looking for apartments because there is only 1 returning bus throughout the whole day. So, we have spent today doing as much research on the internet as possible. There is certainly anxiety building about searching for a place to live. We are attempting to prepare a script for any questions and answers that could be useful in a housing conversation. We drew many weird stares as we walked around for breakfast this morning. It’s completely different than being in a large city like Sevilla – it’s not very often that these small towns see Americans. Much less, two guys with southern accents.

It should be a very fun experience over the next couple days. We must find a place to live before Thursday, and start work on Friday, October 1st.

Hope everyone is doing well. Miss everyone at home.
Hasta luego – Alan & Steven

New Video of Marbella Trip - September 3-4, 2010

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Steven's look alike!! - Jesulin de Ubrique

This is one of the most famous and richest bullfighters and singers in Spain, Jesulin de Ubrique. More than 10 people have randomly told Steven that he looks just like him. Thought you guys could share in our humor. Here's one of his songs that a Spaniard friend posted on Steven's Facebook wall.