Oh how the time flies! How else could I start my blog but with that sentence? I feel like I was in Ohio yesterday opening Christmas presents, so we´ll start there. Since I last blogged I was in Ohio for a week to see everyone for the holidays. Right before I left Juan surprised me with his presence to say goodbye, awww how sweet. Then I was off! The plane ticket cost $1000 round trip, which hurt the bank account, but it was worth every penny. I spent most of the time in Morrow, but also spent 1 day 2 nights in Columbus. I didn´t get to see even half the people I would have liked to, but I did see RACHIE!!!!! Who, might I add, I have been missing like crazy lately. I had an amazing time with my family, just as I had expected. Overall, the trip was just what I needed to keep going.
Flight back to Madrid - December 31, and of course that was New Year´s, so we headed down to Sol with the jetlag and all. Side note - I highly recommend flying Delta or British Airways over US Airways when going overseas. New Year´s Eve was fun, but not a whole lot to tell. At the beginning of January I received the bad news that I wasn´t going to see Zach in Spain :( I was supertriste! With my schedule cleared for the 2nd due to Zach´s bad planning, haha, I went down to Granada with Emily and Sybil. His parents so graciously hosted all 3 of us in their house! It was tight, but we appreciated it a lot. After coming back to Madrid 2 really more exciting things happened. My friend Mary was in town visiting some old friends that she made when she lived here, and we got to spend the day together with a friend of hers. We ate some delicious Colombian food and went to Aranjuez. Then...JENNA CAME!!!! Yay! I can´t even explain how excited I was to see her. Juan came up from Granada to see us and helped us carry Jenna´s luggage through the snowstorm. She´s studying abroad for 4 months in Segovia, forgot to mention that. Her first little visit was too short, but not too long after I went up to Segovia to see her. The city is very enchanting and beautiful. I also was able to tag along with her study abroad group to a visit through a couple different pueblos in Castilla y León that had castles and such. It was the perfect visit to see my sis :)
In January, Jenna, DeAnna, Emily, Rita, Kristin, Rita´s friend Susan and I all went to Amsterdam too! I won´t go into too much detail, but it was awesome awesome awesome. The city is beautiful and the food is good. We went to the Anne Frank house, which is something you shouldn´t miss if you head up there. That same weekend when we got back, Jenna and I also went to a Real Madrid game. There were more people and the players were better, but surprisingly the atmosphere wasn´t that different from a Crew game.
Since then I´ve been in Madrid except one small trip to Granada. Some really exciting things have happened in the past couple of weeks though. 1 - I found out my sister Tricia is pregnant!!!!! Babies bring our family so much joy. I love thinking about how different all of my nieces and nephews are, and I can´t wait to see what the newest one will be like. Will he/she be quiet like Lily? Feisty like Abby? Easy going like Audrey? Serious like Andrew? Rowdy but caring like Austin? I am so happy for my sis! 2 - we bought tickets to go to Turkey for 12 days in April. 3 - Here I would like to combine all the little things that I love, like getting mistaken for a Spaniard, haha, hugs from my kids at school, portatil parties with the roomies, snow, a successful trip to the doctor, and making good food, just to name a few. Right now I am just looking forward to going to Salamanca, a Kings of Leon concert and Paris this month :)
I hope all is well wherever you are :) Lots of love, Laura
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Monday, December 15, 2008
6 weeks later...
Where does the time go? I have to look at my pictures of November to even remember what this month consisted of...
Elections were this month. We had a party.
I guess the most interesting thing for me to write about would be our trip to Barcelona. It was very fun, but very short. I got to see the beach, which always makes me feel happy. That sounds a little lame, but the ocean has always been a constant source of good feelings for me (even though I technically saw the sea). We pretty much stayed in the touristy areas, because we had little time to explore. That means I heard more English than Catalan or Spanish - not good! There was a lot of drinking and enjoying good times with the people I love here in Spain the most (if Rita and Juan had only been there...) Gaudi´s works throughout the city are breathtaking, and they make me think of something that would come from a magical, enchanting world that hasn´t conformed to restrictive shapes and forms. In Barcelona we also did a guided tour of the city on bikes. Anyone who knows me well just imagined me falling off, haha. Surprisingly I didn´t...well maybe not that surprising considering I went slowly and stayed in the back the whole time. All in all - I want to go back.
Next big thing was a trip to Granada for Juan´s birthday. The weekends there are always too short, but very amazing. We went to the Sierra Nevada and walked around a little bit with his friend Sergio. His friend is very, very nice, but with him the language barrier is more present than ever. It is impossible to understand his accent! There are always a few miscommunications, but I try to just laugh them off :) We also went to see an improv show and ate at the restaurant where Juan works. For his birthday I gave Juan a shirt that said ESTAR GUARS. Anyone who knows how native Spanish speakers pronounce words in English will think that´s funny. Juan loved it, which made me happy because everyone knows how difficult it is to give a really good gift. We wrapped up the weekend with a delicious cake from his mom, and then I took the 5 hour bus ride home.
The week after that was Thanksgiving time. We had a great dinner that Saturday, but it´s never the same without family. DeAnna´s brother´s roommate was in town, and we did the usual going out routine that wknd. Nothing very notable happened...
Last weekend I found myself in Granada again - I can´t seem to stay away. I hope his parent´s aren´t too overwhelmed with my presence yet. That´s right, I stay at Juan´s parents´ house, and they might be the nicest people I´ve ever met. Juan was in Madrid this past Thursday and Friday to go to the Gogol Bordello concert, and it was cancelled :(
Now I´m just plowing through this last week of work until I GO HOME!!! Rita is coming to Madrid on Friday, so we´ll spend our last 3 days in Spain in 2008 together, which I´m very excited about. I miss her a lot. So, yeah, only good things to write about. I love Madrid more and more all the time, I get to see my family and friends soon, and Jenna is coming to Spain on January 6!!!
Last thing - anyone who wants to see me should know that I´ll be in Ohio the 22-30. I´ll be in Columbus the 26/27. Call me!
Elections were this month. We had a party.
I guess the most interesting thing for me to write about would be our trip to Barcelona. It was very fun, but very short. I got to see the beach, which always makes me feel happy. That sounds a little lame, but the ocean has always been a constant source of good feelings for me (even though I technically saw the sea). We pretty much stayed in the touristy areas, because we had little time to explore. That means I heard more English than Catalan or Spanish - not good! There was a lot of drinking and enjoying good times with the people I love here in Spain the most (if Rita and Juan had only been there...) Gaudi´s works throughout the city are breathtaking, and they make me think of something that would come from a magical, enchanting world that hasn´t conformed to restrictive shapes and forms. In Barcelona we also did a guided tour of the city on bikes. Anyone who knows me well just imagined me falling off, haha. Surprisingly I didn´t...well maybe not that surprising considering I went slowly and stayed in the back the whole time. All in all - I want to go back.
Next big thing was a trip to Granada for Juan´s birthday. The weekends there are always too short, but very amazing. We went to the Sierra Nevada and walked around a little bit with his friend Sergio. His friend is very, very nice, but with him the language barrier is more present than ever. It is impossible to understand his accent! There are always a few miscommunications, but I try to just laugh them off :) We also went to see an improv show and ate at the restaurant where Juan works. For his birthday I gave Juan a shirt that said ESTAR GUARS. Anyone who knows how native Spanish speakers pronounce words in English will think that´s funny. Juan loved it, which made me happy because everyone knows how difficult it is to give a really good gift. We wrapped up the weekend with a delicious cake from his mom, and then I took the 5 hour bus ride home.
The week after that was Thanksgiving time. We had a great dinner that Saturday, but it´s never the same without family. DeAnna´s brother´s roommate was in town, and we did the usual going out routine that wknd. Nothing very notable happened...
Last weekend I found myself in Granada again - I can´t seem to stay away. I hope his parent´s aren´t too overwhelmed with my presence yet. That´s right, I stay at Juan´s parents´ house, and they might be the nicest people I´ve ever met. Juan was in Madrid this past Thursday and Friday to go to the Gogol Bordello concert, and it was cancelled :(
Now I´m just plowing through this last week of work until I GO HOME!!! Rita is coming to Madrid on Friday, so we´ll spend our last 3 days in Spain in 2008 together, which I´m very excited about. I miss her a lot. So, yeah, only good things to write about. I love Madrid more and more all the time, I get to see my family and friends soon, and Jenna is coming to Spain on January 6!!!
Last thing - anyone who wants to see me should know that I´ll be in Ohio the 22-30. I´ll be in Columbus the 26/27. Call me!
Monday, November 3, 2008
octubre en Madrid
Soo, it´s been 3 weeks since the last update...time goes by so fast here.
Granada was absolutely amazing, as usual. I have never met anyone who didn´t fall in love with that city, so if you ever find yourself in Spain, it´s necessary that you go there for a day or two. There is a certain charm about it, especially in the Albaicín, the Arabic quarter of the city. Even after living there for 4 months and visiting a couple of times, it never fails to impress me. I stayed with Juan´s family while I was there, and they were incredibly nice; I didn´t expect anything less. Thursday night in Granada we went to the Arabic baths, which was relaxing of course. There were 3 different pools - one with hot water, one with warm and one with cool. There were also massages involved...unbelievable I know. Friday of that weekend we were able to see Carmina, our old host mom, and she made us some of her delicious food. It was nice to be able to speak to her a lot more this time around because of my improved Spanish. Saturday we also got a home-cooked meal from Juan´s parents, who invited all 7 of us to come over and eat some of the best food we´ve eaten so far in Spain. Overall, a great weekend, and I´m pretty sure that being able to spend it with Juan had something to do with it ;) I was sad to go.
After that, we had a weekend in Madrid with our friend Kristin who finally arrived! The weekends spent here in Madrid are a balance of partying, doing touristy things to discover the city, and relaxing. The Thursday of that weekend, the 23rd, was DeAnna´s birthday, so we made cake and stuff. I was too poor to buy a present, but I did buy her some steak and potatoes and cooked it because that´s her favorite meal. DeAnna left the next day for Valencia and like I said, we spend the weekend with Kristin. She was here last year and already has a bunch of connections, and it was nice to meet some new people.
This last weekend was Halloween, and more importantly, Juan came to visit. Halloween was strange, as it should be in a country that doesn´t traditionally celebrate it. And as far as Juan´s visit, words can´t describe, so I´ll just leave it at that. That last sentence doesn´t make much sense because I already described good times with my measly words, but whatever. Sometimes I feel like blogs are better if you don´t edit the stupid things you write. So yeah, that´s that.
School is still great, so I don´t have too much to say about that. Today we started giving English classes to the teachers in the school who were interested. It went very well I think. The only other notable thing is that I am developing real relationships with the students, and that makes me feel really happy. They like me, which helps them open up to me and then I understand them better, which makes me a better teacher.
Next on the agenda is Barcelona on November 14th. I have always wanted to go there, and unfortunately I will only be there 3 days, but I know we´ll have a great time, as always! I can´t believe that trip will be 10 whole days after tomorrow´s election. I won´t blog too much about it, because everyone who knows me well knows where I stand. I will feel very disillusioned if a particular candidate wins, even though I know that all politicians are more alike than we want to admit. I just want what helps the most people; sometimes I think it´s so simple. Usually I don´t, but every once in a while...
Ok, that´s it. Peace, love and happiness.
(right Trish?)
Granada was absolutely amazing, as usual. I have never met anyone who didn´t fall in love with that city, so if you ever find yourself in Spain, it´s necessary that you go there for a day or two. There is a certain charm about it, especially in the Albaicín, the Arabic quarter of the city. Even after living there for 4 months and visiting a couple of times, it never fails to impress me. I stayed with Juan´s family while I was there, and they were incredibly nice; I didn´t expect anything less. Thursday night in Granada we went to the Arabic baths, which was relaxing of course. There were 3 different pools - one with hot water, one with warm and one with cool. There were also massages involved...unbelievable I know. Friday of that weekend we were able to see Carmina, our old host mom, and she made us some of her delicious food. It was nice to be able to speak to her a lot more this time around because of my improved Spanish. Saturday we also got a home-cooked meal from Juan´s parents, who invited all 7 of us to come over and eat some of the best food we´ve eaten so far in Spain. Overall, a great weekend, and I´m pretty sure that being able to spend it with Juan had something to do with it ;) I was sad to go.
After that, we had a weekend in Madrid with our friend Kristin who finally arrived! The weekends spent here in Madrid are a balance of partying, doing touristy things to discover the city, and relaxing. The Thursday of that weekend, the 23rd, was DeAnna´s birthday, so we made cake and stuff. I was too poor to buy a present, but I did buy her some steak and potatoes and cooked it because that´s her favorite meal. DeAnna left the next day for Valencia and like I said, we spend the weekend with Kristin. She was here last year and already has a bunch of connections, and it was nice to meet some new people.
This last weekend was Halloween, and more importantly, Juan came to visit. Halloween was strange, as it should be in a country that doesn´t traditionally celebrate it. And as far as Juan´s visit, words can´t describe, so I´ll just leave it at that. That last sentence doesn´t make much sense because I already described good times with my measly words, but whatever. Sometimes I feel like blogs are better if you don´t edit the stupid things you write. So yeah, that´s that.
School is still great, so I don´t have too much to say about that. Today we started giving English classes to the teachers in the school who were interested. It went very well I think. The only other notable thing is that I am developing real relationships with the students, and that makes me feel really happy. They like me, which helps them open up to me and then I understand them better, which makes me a better teacher.
Next on the agenda is Barcelona on November 14th. I have always wanted to go there, and unfortunately I will only be there 3 days, but I know we´ll have a great time, as always! I can´t believe that trip will be 10 whole days after tomorrow´s election. I won´t blog too much about it, because everyone who knows me well knows where I stand. I will feel very disillusioned if a particular candidate wins, even though I know that all politicians are more alike than we want to admit. I just want what helps the most people; sometimes I think it´s so simple. Usually I don´t, but every once in a while...
Ok, that´s it. Peace, love and happiness.
(right Trish?)
Sunday, October 12, 2008
It's been too long since I've updated. If anyone was reading this, they probably stopped when I didn't write for 2 weeks, but oh well :)
The last two weeks have been filled with apartment hunting, starting school, trying to avoid eating doner kebab (my Spanish replacement for Chipotle), and killing cockroaches. That's right, cockroaches. Once we found an apartment, we also found our little visitors crawling all throughout our kitchen. They have since been dealt with, but it involved a bottle of raid, hunting strategies, tears from our landlady and an exterminator.
My piso is way north of the center in Valdezarza, and my school is very far south in Valdemoro, so that leaves me with an hour and a half commute that I make twice a day. I know that was a bad decision, but we were desperate for a place to live, and I've already started getting used to it. We were so desperate because we were living with DeAnna's old roommate Berny for, I don't know, 5 or 6 days. If anyone has seen my pictures on Facebook, she is the woman in the pink hat that posed all over Madrid and made me take her picture. She is from Argentina, knows all sorts of famous people, has a poster in her room that says Jesus, te amo. -Berny, wears slutty clothes, tells people she's 28 despite the fact she has a 21 year old son, has published books....you see where this is going. She might also be a compulsive liar. The jury is still out on that one.
My school is awesome. Although the kids are pretty poorly behaved, I really don't blame the kids. Imagine you are 6 and someone is talking to you in a language you don't understand. All your friends are around you, and the teacher lets you have pencils, erasers, pencil sharpeners, and sometimes even clay on your desk. Then the teacher asks you to do something from a WORKBOOK! Yeah, I probably wouldn't pay attention either. So I work with 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders, and the older the better for me. The 8 year olds can understand and produce so much more English. They also have a really strong desire to communicate with me, and it's very endearing to watch them try. We tell all the students I don't speak any Spanish. One day I'll catch them saying something bad.
I had a great weekend with Emily and DeAnna, which are the 2 lovely ladies I am living with. We are fairly calm throughout the week since we have to get up at 6:15 to 6:30 in the morning. Plus, the metro closes at 1.30 am. However, Friday and Saturday there is a night bus called the buho (owl in English), that runs all night from downtown to our apartment. That gives us the opportunity to stay out as late as we want, just like the Spaniards do. It's been fun :)
This next weekend I'm going to Granada, so that's next on my agenda. I'm leaving Thursday when I get out of school, and I am very, very excited. I get to see my friend Juan, who we met when Emily and I lived there, and we are also going to try to hunt down our host mom Carmina. It should be great!
Last but not least...I love and miss all my friends and family!
The last two weeks have been filled with apartment hunting, starting school, trying to avoid eating doner kebab (my Spanish replacement for Chipotle), and killing cockroaches. That's right, cockroaches. Once we found an apartment, we also found our little visitors crawling all throughout our kitchen. They have since been dealt with, but it involved a bottle of raid, hunting strategies, tears from our landlady and an exterminator.
My piso is way north of the center in Valdezarza, and my school is very far south in Valdemoro, so that leaves me with an hour and a half commute that I make twice a day. I know that was a bad decision, but we were desperate for a place to live, and I've already started getting used to it. We were so desperate because we were living with DeAnna's old roommate Berny for, I don't know, 5 or 6 days. If anyone has seen my pictures on Facebook, she is the woman in the pink hat that posed all over Madrid and made me take her picture. She is from Argentina, knows all sorts of famous people, has a poster in her room that says Jesus, te amo. -Berny, wears slutty clothes, tells people she's 28 despite the fact she has a 21 year old son, has published books....you see where this is going. She might also be a compulsive liar. The jury is still out on that one.
My school is awesome. Although the kids are pretty poorly behaved, I really don't blame the kids. Imagine you are 6 and someone is talking to you in a language you don't understand. All your friends are around you, and the teacher lets you have pencils, erasers, pencil sharpeners, and sometimes even clay on your desk. Then the teacher asks you to do something from a WORKBOOK! Yeah, I probably wouldn't pay attention either. So I work with 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders, and the older the better for me. The 8 year olds can understand and produce so much more English. They also have a really strong desire to communicate with me, and it's very endearing to watch them try. We tell all the students I don't speak any Spanish. One day I'll catch them saying something bad.
I had a great weekend with Emily and DeAnna, which are the 2 lovely ladies I am living with. We are fairly calm throughout the week since we have to get up at 6:15 to 6:30 in the morning. Plus, the metro closes at 1.30 am. However, Friday and Saturday there is a night bus called the buho (owl in English), that runs all night from downtown to our apartment. That gives us the opportunity to stay out as late as we want, just like the Spaniards do. It's been fun :)
This next weekend I'm going to Granada, so that's next on my agenda. I'm leaving Thursday when I get out of school, and I am very, very excited. I get to see my friend Juan, who we met when Emily and I lived there, and we are also going to try to hunt down our host mom Carmina. It should be great!
Last but not least...I love and miss all my friends and family!
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
auf Wiedersehen Musas Residence!
Tonight is the last night in the hostal! One week later, and I am still without a permanent residence. Well I guess we wouldn't call it permanent since I'll be back in the U.S. so soon anyways, huh? Tomorrow we have SIX appointments to look at pisos - what they call apartments here. So, you might think I'm homeless then, right? That might be the case if I didn't have such awesome friends like DeAnna to let me crash at her place. She lives with a woman named Berny who sleeps on the couch, so that will make four of us in a tiny one bedroom, but adaptation is what this experience is all about. Adapting to uncomfortable circumstances helps you grow as a person, which is all I'm looking to do :) We really thought we were going to take an apartment today, but in the end we all decided it was not the right choice. It was not as close as we would have like to the centro, the landlord looked a little sketchy, and they were asking for too much of a deposit. It was a REALLY cute place though. I know everything will work out, so don't any of you go worrying about me ;)
Besides the jetlag, minor language barrier and infrequent attack of stress due to the housing situation, Spain is perfect, just as I imagined. I love speaking Spanish and meeting new people while doing so. Unfortunately I haven't been able to let my social life flourish to its full potential, but it definitely will in due time :) Right now, I'm just taking it all in and becoming more and more appreciative each day of how lucky I am to be here with great friends, while still having so many people who love me and will wait for me at home. I'm so blessed.
Last thing....today is Apphia's birthday. I love her so much! I hope just one person who knew her reads my blog, and it reminds them about her birthday, and they take a minute to think about how absolutely wonderful she was. No one will ever compare :)
Besides the jetlag, minor language barrier and infrequent attack of stress due to the housing situation, Spain is perfect, just as I imagined. I love speaking Spanish and meeting new people while doing so. Unfortunately I haven't been able to let my social life flourish to its full potential, but it definitely will in due time :) Right now, I'm just taking it all in and becoming more and more appreciative each day of how lucky I am to be here with great friends, while still having so many people who love me and will wait for me at home. I'm so blessed.
Last thing....today is Apphia's birthday. I love her so much! I hope just one person who knew her reads my blog, and it reminds them about her birthday, and they take a minute to think about how absolutely wonderful she was. No one will ever compare :)
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
I doubt they eat that in Cuba
Nothing new really to write about. Spain, my hostal, and all my amigos are so amazing. The only bad thing that happened so far was that we ordered arroz a la cubana - white rice covered in a fried egg and ketchup. All the other food has been amazing though :)
Friday, September 19, 2008
Por fin...
he llegado! I am really too tired to write much of anything that would be of interest to anyone who happens to read this blog, BUT I am in Madrid and safe. My hostal is sweet and I'm still just looking for an apartment. My Spanish is better already, so that's a relief. Miss you all!
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