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 :)
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| 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.
