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.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
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.
'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.
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.
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.
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.
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