One of the best parts of my day here in the 'Bao is dinnertime, or "a cenar" as they like to yell at me from the kitchen. During this time, I usually eat with the kiddos (mostly because I still can't seem to wait to eat dinner as a Spaniard at 9 or 10pm like the rest of the country), and this can lead to some very interesting convos.
For instance, just today we had a 10-minute conversation about Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson, how famous they are/were in the US and ALL of the details surround their death. Adrian even has a theory that Jackson's doctor poisoned him because he wanted to be famous but Esti kindly told him the truth, that he was going to die soon anyways because his body was wacked out. This OF COURSE led to a full blown discussion on transgenders and how they change THEIR bodies, including some demonstrations on adding/subtracting key body parts. Now mind you, I hardly ever add to these convos because as much Spanish as I know, the last thing I want to do is conjugate something wrong and have the whole family thinking I'M a transgender or something. Pass.
Another light dinner topic was the entirety of how babies are made, also complete with some suggestive hand motions/demonstrations. Maybe I never had the talk with my parents, maybe I did and I just forget, or maybe I blocked it out completely because of how awkward it is to ask your parents about something so controversial, but I can't believe the Telmo, Sara, and Adrian asked so many frank questions about babies and the whole shindig, while of COURSE Esti was there to give simple, concise, and sometimes disturbing answers. Ah, Spain.
Sometimes at dinner we forgo the talking altogether and just sing a song together. NOT kidding. From the Macarena (which I proudly know all of the words to when they are rambling/singing in the refrain, finally ) to Elvis Presley, to some Spanish TV shows I don;t follow, they know all the words and if I'm lucky, the dances. Sometimes I think I'm living in some bizarro cross between Full House and a Ricky Martin music video to be honest. As crazy and loud as it all sounds, I still probs wouldn't change it for anything. I've learned more about cooking, families, housekeeping, city-living, siestas, and more, INCLUDING vocab for all of the above, with my measly little familia of 7, so why would I ever change that? Besides, then how would I know where babies come from?
miércoles, 12 de mayo de 2010
jueves, 6 de mayo de 2010
One week, give or take
Well my friends I feel like I have finally assimilated myself enough into this new Spanish/Basque culture that I apparently no longer feel the need to update mah blog regularly anymore. But, as the complaints about this have also stopped I feel like you all have accepted that I am Spanish now, too. So all is well in the world! Except that I only have 8 days left to be a Spaniard, when did that happen?
These past few weeks have been pretty relaxed, no major trips besides a day trip to Santander to visit the beach and explore another part of the Spain coastline. (side note: if you ever need to fly to/from Spain for rull cheap, fly RyanAir to Santander and take a bus to Bilbao, it's only 6 euros one way and about an hour and a half, super easy-peasy!) We also had another family linner this past weekend for Spanish Dia de los Madres (Mother's Day) which was once again a hugeeeee 5 course event, but this time I was prepared and balanced everything out pretty well. This actually means I skipped an entire course of squid/octopus/some type of cephalopod (yeah I looked that up) that was stewed in its own ink and chopped up into huge tentacle parts, yikes. It even tasted like ink, if that's possible. BUT this seafood experience was evenly matched with another new food I tried (course two) which was regular pulpo (octopus) cooked with potatoes and some kind of sassy red spice, yum! It's not my new favorite Spanish cuisine, chorizo will have that spot for all eternity, but it was definitely better than I expected and I hope I get to have it again soon when I get back to the states. The rest of that day was spent doing homework and hanging out with the kiddos, who have finally accepted me as an English tutor and ask me questions about translations all the time now, in exchange for my own Spanish questions. It's actually pretty awesome because unlike Spanish classes where you ask once and then forget it until the next time you need some rare word, with the kiddos we draw pictures and they describe to me IN FULL the capacities of every word. They're pretty smart kids, ya know.
As for this weekend, I plan on going to a special showing of "Fiebre del Sabado Noche" (Saturday Night Fever, sans Sr. Travolta, obvs) on Friday night and then spending the rest of the weekend both studying for finals and hanging out with CIDE peeps. We have finals next week on Wednesday/Thursday which isn't too bad but I have 5 in only 2 days so that might be bad. Luckily they are only an hour each and mainly consist of one shorter essay or info from the second half of the semester so I won't have to cram, I mean study too hard. It is weird to think it's my last weekend in Spain, minus the 5 hours I have on Saturday morning to get myself to the airport, so I'm hoping I can make the most of it without making a fool of myself or failing finals. Who knows, maybe I'll start packing just because I'm so flippin excited to see everyone from home, but I also don't want to think about leaving just quite yet. Ah the bittersweet "adios" that awaits me in 8 days is going to be pretty awful I think, I'll be a fruit salad of mixed emotions, ranging from Grape "get me the heck on that plane ASAP" to Banana "but I don't waaaaaaant to leaveeeeeeee". I guess we'll see, but it'll be messy fo sho.
These past few weeks have been pretty relaxed, no major trips besides a day trip to Santander to visit the beach and explore another part of the Spain coastline. (side note: if you ever need to fly to/from Spain for rull cheap, fly RyanAir to Santander and take a bus to Bilbao, it's only 6 euros one way and about an hour and a half, super easy-peasy!) We also had another family linner this past weekend for Spanish Dia de los Madres (Mother's Day) which was once again a hugeeeee 5 course event, but this time I was prepared and balanced everything out pretty well. This actually means I skipped an entire course of squid/octopus/some type of cephalopod (yeah I looked that up) that was stewed in its own ink and chopped up into huge tentacle parts, yikes. It even tasted like ink, if that's possible. BUT this seafood experience was evenly matched with another new food I tried (course two) which was regular pulpo (octopus) cooked with potatoes and some kind of sassy red spice, yum! It's not my new favorite Spanish cuisine, chorizo will have that spot for all eternity, but it was definitely better than I expected and I hope I get to have it again soon when I get back to the states. The rest of that day was spent doing homework and hanging out with the kiddos, who have finally accepted me as an English tutor and ask me questions about translations all the time now, in exchange for my own Spanish questions. It's actually pretty awesome because unlike Spanish classes where you ask once and then forget it until the next time you need some rare word, with the kiddos we draw pictures and they describe to me IN FULL the capacities of every word. They're pretty smart kids, ya know.
As for this weekend, I plan on going to a special showing of "Fiebre del Sabado Noche" (Saturday Night Fever, sans Sr. Travolta, obvs) on Friday night and then spending the rest of the weekend both studying for finals and hanging out with CIDE peeps. We have finals next week on Wednesday/Thursday which isn't too bad but I have 5 in only 2 days so that might be bad. Luckily they are only an hour each and mainly consist of one shorter essay or info from the second half of the semester so I won't have to cram, I mean study too hard. It is weird to think it's my last weekend in Spain, minus the 5 hours I have on Saturday morning to get myself to the airport, so I'm hoping I can make the most of it without making a fool of myself or failing finals. Who knows, maybe I'll start packing just because I'm so flippin excited to see everyone from home, but I also don't want to think about leaving just quite yet. Ah the bittersweet "adios" that awaits me in 8 days is going to be pretty awful I think, I'll be a fruit salad of mixed emotions, ranging from Grape "get me the heck on that plane ASAP" to Banana "but I don't waaaaaaant to leaveeeeeeee". I guess we'll see, but it'll be messy fo sho.
sábado, 24 de abril de 2010
Some Telmo-isms for your enjoyment
As most of you know, I live with six other people: Marta and Esti, my host parents, Ane the 12-y.o, Adrian the (now) 9-y.o, Sara/Meg the 7-y.o, and last and definitely not least, Telmo, the spicy little 5-y.o. Now I love everyone in this family because they are of course loving and welcoming, and not a day passes when something hilarious or ridiculous doesn't go down, but of all of these peeps the funniest and most outrageous is Telmo. He is only 5 yet he has more worldly knowledge than any child under the age of 10 I've ever met- even his siblings know he is the boss and makes the best jokes. So I thought it was only fair that you all got to hear some of his Telmo-isms and get in on the joke that is this little Spaniard's whole philosophy on life. (p.s. all of his sayings are translated into English so no worries, they're still hilarious.)
Airplanes: Poor Telmo is terrified of flying and because of this, his travel plans are pretty limited. For Easter they had to drive to Salamanca which is only about 4 hours away but with 5 people squished into a European baby-car with only one Nintendo DS, things probs got ugly about 2 hours in. That said, I asked him if he would ever want to visit me in the US when he got older, to come study and/or learn English. He said yes, probably, because he wants to see the United States and "Nueva York", but then quickly replied "but only by boat, planes are the worst, the worst because they hit trees and crash into the ground and everybody dies, so boats are better. Boats are the best." I couldn't really argue with this because I also hate the idea of plane crashes, but I did thank him for reminding me about the terrors of flying 3 weeks before my cross-Atlantic 12-hour flight. Jerk.
Novios: Novios in Spanish are boyfriends/girlfriends, and my new favorite hobby is telling Telmo we are novios when he asks me if I have one here or in the US. I tried explaining to him that I didn't have one and when he kept asking me about it I finally told him HE was my novio. Needless to say, he is 5 and the thought of novios only pleases him when he makes fun of Ane for her potential novios at school, but otherwise he is disgusted. So of course I told everyone in the family we are novios and he started screaming "No, no! No way!" and when I asked why, he simply said "because you are way older than me and will die way before me, it doesn't make sense." This kid is a genius! Those 16 years between us probs would mean I'll die at the super old age of 100 (fingers crossed) and he'll only be a springy 84-year old, right? Yeah, that's what I thought.
Death: All the talk about our future together and dying brought up some questions Telmo had about his death, or more specifically how he wants to die. Although I told him I was afraid of dying because I am only 21 and would rather live my life than think about how I'm going to die (morbid much?), Telmo assured me he isn't afraid to die, even now at his age. However, he quickly added a clarification, saying he was "terrified to die on a cross like Jesus. I hope I am never put on a cross, what do you call that kind of death?" Hahah so I told him it was crucifixion and he probably had nothing to worry about, considering they haven't really crucified anyone on the cross since about the 4th century. He wasn't convinced though, and asked why they crucified Jesus (kind of a loaded question there, I skipped it) and why they would do it to other people, himself included. The whole convo eventually ended with me assuring him that they only crucify people they don't like, and everyone likes Telmo so he has nothing to worry about, as long as he remained a good kid. Haha definitely one of the most interesting convos, how does this kid even know about crucifixion and why is he thinking about it so much?? Hopefully I helped him without scaring him into being a good kid (the cross is waiting for you Telmo, be good!)
FIFA: FIFA, for those who don't know it, is the Federacion Internacionale of Football Association, kind of an odd mix of languages there but we'll let it slide. Telmo is probs the biggest fan and has ranked all of the teams in his favorite order, their professional ranking, and a cross between the two, of his fav teams in order of their greatness. He also loves playing FIFA soccer with me on Playstation because he knows I can't figure it out and always loses, and the one time I did lose he quit the game and then promptly laughed in my face, punk. (He also makes me watch the replays of his goals about 20 times, in case I missed it when it happened to MY goalie.) Anyways, if you ever need advice on which team to have as your favorite and second favorite, have no fear because Telmo has it figured out: of course, Liverpool is and will always be THE BEST because they have Fernando Torres, a Spaniard who is pretty good, I guess. That said, the rest of the teams are all tied between Athletic Bilbao, Barcelona, and Athletic Madrid, which are in fact the best teams in Spain but I guess to Telmo the best in the world, as well. He hates it if you don't have your teams ranked and ready to explain at any moment, so if you ever meet him, have your lists ready and get ready to be fought to the death if you don't like Liverpool, or as he says it, "Liv-ver-poooooooooooool!" Oh, and don't even try to pick Liverpool as your team on FIFA Soccer, he has all the control and gets the biggest kick out of picking Liverpool first and then changing all the names of the other teams in the system to "Bhsdfhsuf-asdfs" and other jibberish. Again I say, punk.
Those are the major Telmo-isms that come to mind as the most fantastic, to finish here are just some fun facts about the kid:
-will eat ketchup on ANYTHING salty, fish and steak included. I think this kid single handedly keeps Heinz-Europe in business, sometimes I catch him licking the bottle (OMG gross, I stopped using ketchup about 3 months ago).
-will also eat sugar on ANYTHING relatively sweet, we're talking fruit, yogurt, cereal, ColaCao, etc. One time for breakfast on Sunday, which is usually a treat day, the kid ate toast with butter and SUGAR. Ewww.
-hates elevators because they are too small and have the potential to also hit trees and crash when everybody then dies. Maybe not the trees part, but the crashing/dying part, true.
-cries at the sight of blood, whether it's his or anybody's, and yells "Ahhh que asco!" (Ahh that's gross!) and the tears come. We all giggle at it.
Airplanes: Poor Telmo is terrified of flying and because of this, his travel plans are pretty limited. For Easter they had to drive to Salamanca which is only about 4 hours away but with 5 people squished into a European baby-car with only one Nintendo DS, things probs got ugly about 2 hours in. That said, I asked him if he would ever want to visit me in the US when he got older, to come study and/or learn English. He said yes, probably, because he wants to see the United States and "Nueva York", but then quickly replied "but only by boat, planes are the worst, the worst because they hit trees and crash into the ground and everybody dies, so boats are better. Boats are the best." I couldn't really argue with this because I also hate the idea of plane crashes, but I did thank him for reminding me about the terrors of flying 3 weeks before my cross-Atlantic 12-hour flight. Jerk.
Novios: Novios in Spanish are boyfriends/girlfriends, and my new favorite hobby is telling Telmo we are novios when he asks me if I have one here or in the US. I tried explaining to him that I didn't have one and when he kept asking me about it I finally told him HE was my novio. Needless to say, he is 5 and the thought of novios only pleases him when he makes fun of Ane for her potential novios at school, but otherwise he is disgusted. So of course I told everyone in the family we are novios and he started screaming "No, no! No way!" and when I asked why, he simply said "because you are way older than me and will die way before me, it doesn't make sense." This kid is a genius! Those 16 years between us probs would mean I'll die at the super old age of 100 (fingers crossed) and he'll only be a springy 84-year old, right? Yeah, that's what I thought.
Death: All the talk about our future together and dying brought up some questions Telmo had about his death, or more specifically how he wants to die. Although I told him I was afraid of dying because I am only 21 and would rather live my life than think about how I'm going to die (morbid much?), Telmo assured me he isn't afraid to die, even now at his age. However, he quickly added a clarification, saying he was "terrified to die on a cross like Jesus. I hope I am never put on a cross, what do you call that kind of death?" Hahah so I told him it was crucifixion and he probably had nothing to worry about, considering they haven't really crucified anyone on the cross since about the 4th century. He wasn't convinced though, and asked why they crucified Jesus (kind of a loaded question there, I skipped it) and why they would do it to other people, himself included. The whole convo eventually ended with me assuring him that they only crucify people they don't like, and everyone likes Telmo so he has nothing to worry about, as long as he remained a good kid. Haha definitely one of the most interesting convos, how does this kid even know about crucifixion and why is he thinking about it so much?? Hopefully I helped him without scaring him into being a good kid (the cross is waiting for you Telmo, be good!)
FIFA: FIFA, for those who don't know it, is the Federacion Internacionale of Football Association, kind of an odd mix of languages there but we'll let it slide. Telmo is probs the biggest fan and has ranked all of the teams in his favorite order, their professional ranking, and a cross between the two, of his fav teams in order of their greatness. He also loves playing FIFA soccer with me on Playstation because he knows I can't figure it out and always loses, and the one time I did lose he quit the game and then promptly laughed in my face, punk. (He also makes me watch the replays of his goals about 20 times, in case I missed it when it happened to MY goalie.) Anyways, if you ever need advice on which team to have as your favorite and second favorite, have no fear because Telmo has it figured out: of course, Liverpool is and will always be THE BEST because they have Fernando Torres, a Spaniard who is pretty good, I guess. That said, the rest of the teams are all tied between Athletic Bilbao, Barcelona, and Athletic Madrid, which are in fact the best teams in Spain but I guess to Telmo the best in the world, as well. He hates it if you don't have your teams ranked and ready to explain at any moment, so if you ever meet him, have your lists ready and get ready to be fought to the death if you don't like Liverpool, or as he says it, "Liv-ver-poooooooooooool!" Oh, and don't even try to pick Liverpool as your team on FIFA Soccer, he has all the control and gets the biggest kick out of picking Liverpool first and then changing all the names of the other teams in the system to "Bhsdfhsuf-asdfs" and other jibberish. Again I say, punk.
Those are the major Telmo-isms that come to mind as the most fantastic, to finish here are just some fun facts about the kid:
-will eat ketchup on ANYTHING salty, fish and steak included. I think this kid single handedly keeps Heinz-Europe in business, sometimes I catch him licking the bottle (OMG gross, I stopped using ketchup about 3 months ago).
-will also eat sugar on ANYTHING relatively sweet, we're talking fruit, yogurt, cereal, ColaCao, etc. One time for breakfast on Sunday, which is usually a treat day, the kid ate toast with butter and SUGAR. Ewww.
-hates elevators because they are too small and have the potential to also hit trees and crash when everybody then dies. Maybe not the trees part, but the crashing/dying part, true.
-cries at the sight of blood, whether it's his or anybody's, and yells "Ahhh que asco!" (Ahh that's gross!) and the tears come. We all giggle at it.
lunes, 19 de abril de 2010
Finals, Fiestas, and Family Parties
Gah! It's been a week! Lo siento todos, but things are starting to get a bit more hectic yet comfortable here so I am finding myself busier and away from my computer more often, which is great for me but leaves you all in the dust! My apologies. That said, I probs won't have too many more posts (at least from Bilbao) because I only have 3.5 weeks left in the whole program! Can you believe that? I remember when I had 3.5 MONTHS, and now here I am, fluent (well, practically) and thinking about packing to leave. Oh. Em. Gee.
This past week went by pretty quickly, I had lots o' homework after my huge break and I didn't even really have classes until Tuesday so that helped the week fly by. This weekend was pretty packed, too, but with more exciting adventures than reading "El Sur" for my Cine class, blah. On Friday I went to the beach with some friends and although it took about 4 hours, the sun finally did come out fully and I got myself a nice little tan (tan here means pink tinge more than anything, I'm Irish, remember?). It was still nice to just fall asleep on the hot sand or read without having to take notes or do anything more- I hope all the weekends coming are like this so I can at least spend one day every weekend just soaking up some vitamin D and maybe getting some color before I return to colder spring weather again. After the beach we grabbed a glass of vino blanco in the Irish pub in Algorta, where Linden lives, and I met new new peeps who I had yet to talk to from the program, so that was nice. That night was uber exciting with my Cola-Cao (think Nesquik) and Seinfeld episodes all curled up in bed, but I was still a little tired from country-hopping so staying in and sleeping in was great. On Saturday I did some homework and not much else, as I've said before, weekends here can be pretty dull during the day because of the 48 hour siesta everyone seems to take on Sat./Sun. But Saturday night was great because I went to a birthday party for one of the girls in the program and most of the CIDE kids ended up going, so everyone who I never see on weekends because they live in the dorms was there and we got to catch up! It was pretty nutso though, with so many Americans in one little bar plus alcohol- let's just say there were many a hungover status updates on Facebook on Sunday.
Speaking of Sunday, after going for a run and accidentally running into a real race (oops), my family surprised me when they had about 13 people over for a linner event (lunch and dinner, it was at 4:30 when we finally ate "lunch", which lasted for 4 hours), with the g-parents, aunts/uncles, cousins, nephews- you name it, someone was probs there to fill the role. I was pretty happy because usually at these events, I can just sit and people watch/listen most of the time while the Spaniards go crazy and argue/yell/laugh/etc., so it's a pretty entertaining day to say the least. We had a 5-course meal, not including the sorbet-champagne drink we had between the fish and meat (yeah we had fish AND meat), and went through about 6 bottles of wine, so needless to say at around 8:30 I went to my room and passed out. Most of the family had left so it was fine, but Marta's cousin and his partner and son stayed forever and chatted loudly in the kitchen about who knows what. I would have stayed to listen but I had to get some tarea done and I also was just plain pooped from translating that much Spanish for so long. I finally feel pretty competent in my Spanish skillz but at times I just get really burnt out and the last thing I want to do is try and listen, translate, comprehend, translate, and speak Spanish with a native who obvs doesn't quite understand what I'm saying (stupid Pittsburgh accent strikes again). But, I do still enjoy being able to talk in Spanish at all, and my listening/reading skillz have increased incredibly since coming to Bilbao, so I can't complain.
Some fun facts about the linner party though: Telmo got his mouth rinsed out with soap for telling his uncle to eff off when he wouldn't let him play soccer the way he wanted to, first time I've even seen that outside of A Christmas Story; the entire Areizaga family now knows how to say several curse words in English, probs my fault; I now know how to completely tell someone off using only slang, an issue for me in Spanish and English. If you still can't imagine this family look to the show "Modern Family," which has all of the same characters, but Spanish (including the two dads, wayyy older spouse, and "cool" parent who knows all the words and dances to High School Musical (which was actually on during the party in Spanish, go figure). It's really a great family and I'll miss them all a ton, luckily I exchanged addresses with one of the aunts who has two boys learning English, so I can at least stay in touch with a few of them (they also offered me a place to stay whenever I visit again!). Otherwise I'm going to do my best to come back eventually to Bilbao (although hopefully much sooner), just so I can go to another linner party and watch how tipsy Spaniards really have family parties.
This past week went by pretty quickly, I had lots o' homework after my huge break and I didn't even really have classes until Tuesday so that helped the week fly by. This weekend was pretty packed, too, but with more exciting adventures than reading "El Sur" for my Cine class, blah. On Friday I went to the beach with some friends and although it took about 4 hours, the sun finally did come out fully and I got myself a nice little tan (tan here means pink tinge more than anything, I'm Irish, remember?). It was still nice to just fall asleep on the hot sand or read without having to take notes or do anything more- I hope all the weekends coming are like this so I can at least spend one day every weekend just soaking up some vitamin D and maybe getting some color before I return to colder spring weather again. After the beach we grabbed a glass of vino blanco in the Irish pub in Algorta, where Linden lives, and I met new new peeps who I had yet to talk to from the program, so that was nice. That night was uber exciting with my Cola-Cao (think Nesquik) and Seinfeld episodes all curled up in bed, but I was still a little tired from country-hopping so staying in and sleeping in was great. On Saturday I did some homework and not much else, as I've said before, weekends here can be pretty dull during the day because of the 48 hour siesta everyone seems to take on Sat./Sun. But Saturday night was great because I went to a birthday party for one of the girls in the program and most of the CIDE kids ended up going, so everyone who I never see on weekends because they live in the dorms was there and we got to catch up! It was pretty nutso though, with so many Americans in one little bar plus alcohol- let's just say there were many a hungover status updates on Facebook on Sunday.
Speaking of Sunday, after going for a run and accidentally running into a real race (oops), my family surprised me when they had about 13 people over for a linner event (lunch and dinner, it was at 4:30 when we finally ate "lunch", which lasted for 4 hours), with the g-parents, aunts/uncles, cousins, nephews- you name it, someone was probs there to fill the role. I was pretty happy because usually at these events, I can just sit and people watch/listen most of the time while the Spaniards go crazy and argue/yell/laugh/etc., so it's a pretty entertaining day to say the least. We had a 5-course meal, not including the sorbet-champagne drink we had between the fish and meat (yeah we had fish AND meat), and went through about 6 bottles of wine, so needless to say at around 8:30 I went to my room and passed out. Most of the family had left so it was fine, but Marta's cousin and his partner and son stayed forever and chatted loudly in the kitchen about who knows what. I would have stayed to listen but I had to get some tarea done and I also was just plain pooped from translating that much Spanish for so long. I finally feel pretty competent in my Spanish skillz but at times I just get really burnt out and the last thing I want to do is try and listen, translate, comprehend, translate, and speak Spanish with a native who obvs doesn't quite understand what I'm saying (stupid Pittsburgh accent strikes again). But, I do still enjoy being able to talk in Spanish at all, and my listening/reading skillz have increased incredibly since coming to Bilbao, so I can't complain.
Some fun facts about the linner party though: Telmo got his mouth rinsed out with soap for telling his uncle to eff off when he wouldn't let him play soccer the way he wanted to, first time I've even seen that outside of A Christmas Story; the entire Areizaga family now knows how to say several curse words in English, probs my fault; I now know how to completely tell someone off using only slang, an issue for me in Spanish and English. If you still can't imagine this family look to the show "Modern Family," which has all of the same characters, but Spanish (including the two dads, wayyy older spouse, and "cool" parent who knows all the words and dances to High School Musical (which was actually on during the party in Spanish, go figure). It's really a great family and I'll miss them all a ton, luckily I exchanged addresses with one of the aunts who has two boys learning English, so I can at least stay in touch with a few of them (they also offered me a place to stay whenever I visit again!). Otherwise I'm going to do my best to come back eventually to Bilbao (although hopefully much sooner), just so I can go to another linner party and watch how tipsy Spaniards really have family parties.
lunes, 12 de abril de 2010
Spring Break Mega-Monster-Ginormous-Herculean Entry! Oh boy.
Hello my loyal followers, hopefully not too many of you have forgotten about me across the pond as I have been AWOL for almost three weeks! So sorry, but as promised, here is a VERY abridged version of my Spring Break(SB) travels!
My break technically started on March 25th but as I had no real travel plans, I just stuck around the 'Bao going to the beach and out to little cities around Northern Spain until my family arrived on the 1st. It was so relaxing to just take my time doing what I wanted for a few days without classes and with plenty of sunshine, I hope all of you get the opportunity to travel to Spain even for a few days of tapas, siestas, and sunshine! When my fam did arrive, we immediately got all checked in and then hit up the Gugg and Casco Viejo for dinner, so I could show them the top spots of the city and then a little more on the walks to each place. I think they had a pretty good time, I'm sure we could have spent a week doing EVERYTHING here, but they got to see the major highlights, including the Funicular ride up one of the mountains surrounding downtown for a full view (just like the one in the 'Burgh!)
On Friday we left for Brussels where my pops and a rental car were waiting for us. Unfortunately, the weather was not as lovely in Belgium as most of the days we were there it was raining, cold, and wiiiiiiindy (cue wind sounds), but we made the best of it and saw everything major in the city like the medieval government buildings and churches. The best part, though, was getting to see my parents' wedding church and first few houses as a couple/newlywed in Europe. According to the rents, most of them seemed pretty unchanged, with the exception of the surrounding neighborhoods being much more populated or urbanized due to 23 years of change. I think my older bro got the biggest kick out of it as we got to see where he was born, his first house, and some of his old romping grounds (aka very small playgrounds or other people's houses). It definitely made my parents' dreams come true to have a family reunion back where it all started, the only problem is now all future family vacations will probably blow. (How can you top visiting the church where your parents got married over 25 years ago?? And the birth place of the eldest?)
During the Brussels spell we made a day trip to Bruges and Holland (so cool! clogs!) to see some more of the old hangouts of my parents and the famous sites of more medieval churches and government buildings. (*Warning, from here on out almost everything I talk about will not be mentioned specifically because it is either a) a medieval church, or b) super old government buildings in the medieval town square.) However, we did get to see the North Sea, some working windmills, and the beautiful streets/canals/buildings that apparently make it "Venice of the North". For such a small city (compared to my other SB trips), it was packed with tourists, probably out enjoying the small patches of sunshine we were lucky to get. For me, this city was also one of my favs because I got to drive there! That's right, I got to spend some quality time behind a manual minivan, driving my fam across borders at speeds up to 140km! (Only around 88mph, but Doc Brown and Marty McFly would have been proud.) Luckily I didn't have to drive on the left side of the road or anything, but it was nice to drive a car again since it's been almost 4 months and I feel like forgetting how to drive when I work at the Transportation Department might not look so great. It was a pretty easy trip, too, considering we made about 4 turns the entire trip since apparently all the roads in Belgium are stick straight and go on for literally MILES in a line (look it up on Google maps, you will fall asleep it is such a boring route). Can't complain though, the driving control-freak in me was satisfied for the whole semester. :)
After Brussels, Dad had to get back to work (someone has to pay for our trip), so he left Belgium while we went off to one of my favorite cities in the world, Paris!! I had already gone there on a school trip after graduating high school, but it was nice to go back and see some of the sights again and have some of my French come flying back to me just in time to order "Croque Madames et un coca, s'il vous plait". Ahh it was so wonderful! We were staying in the Latin Quarter which was only about a 5 minutes walk away from Notre Dame and the heart of the city (literally from where all the roads begin), so at night we were able to take walks to the Ile de la Cite and around some of the more eccentric parts of Paris.
We of course did some of the obvious touristy stuff, like a bus tour around the major sites and going up the Eiffel Tower, and it was so nice to do them with my family (Dad was there in spirit, of course). Some of the best parts of the trip were waiting in line for the more touristy attractions because I got to hang out with my bros and do crossword puzzles or chat with the Mom. It's those little things about traveling in Europe I think I like the best, when you are waiting around for something or even just taking a walk through the city and you suddenly remember where you are, like standing next to a church that's been around since 1160. It's surreal to think people were doing almost exactly that in the same spot so long ago and that everything is still there as a functioning civilization! Ah my history nerdiness is making me emotional, let's move on.
My family eventually had to leave me in Paris on Wednesday but luckily Linden met us on Tuesday night and the next day the two of us headed off to London for a 5-day UK extravaganza! We were mostly excited just to be speaking English again, even with the funny accents and lingo (e.g. crisps = chips and chips = fries, wtf??). For this entry, I should almost list the things we DIDN'T see because we traveled ALL OVER that city and even out to Windsor Castle where we got to be within the same walls as the Queen!
(We got to see Buckingham Palace [pic] but she was actually inside the Castle with us, somewhere!) We didn't see the London Eye, as in see it from inside (you could see it from all over the city, why spend 30 pounds going inside?), nor did we get to see Parliament or Westminster because we couldn't take pictures anywhere! For some odd reason those Brits liked to charged us for everything but then not allow any photography almost everywhere. They do like having video cameras, though, as nearly every square inch of the city is covered by CCTV, the Big Brother of the UK that has cameras EVERYWHERE. According to our tour guide, just during our little 2.5 hour tour we were probably filmed by over 300 cameras. Whaaaaaa??? I personally think it's uber creepy- why do they need that much coverage? Do crime rates actually go down because they have some Joe Schmo watching the whole world all the time? Weird. Ah well regardless of not seeing some sights and being filmed against my will and knowledge, I feel in love with London. I could really see myself living there if necessary, the public transportation system is practically perfect and the whole city just has a very welcoming feeling. Bilbao is just as nice of a city and sometimes has many more welcoming people, but at least in London it's not a daily struggle to understand them. Paris is still in the top three for Europe favs, but as of now London is a very close contender; they of course all fall under Bilbao first, just because it is my first overseas home and I feel like I have a real family here, who actually celebrated my return from SB with hugs and shouts (not really that special though, if you remember the Spaniards' volume issues).
Oh and I must mention that somehow along the way I found myself back on the Camino de Santiago not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES! In three separate cities! I knew it was a European phenomenon but couldn't believe that it still stretched all the way across Europe to Bruges, Brussels, and Paris! So cRaZy! (Also, sorry Thomas looks like a psycho here.)
All in all it was a pretty successful trip, and although it made me love traveling again (no more airport panic attacks as of yet!), it also made me ready to stop traveling for the rest of my semester until I make my final BIG trip back to the states- I do love Europe and especially Spain, but at this point I am about ready to go back to working, living, and playing in NYC with my friends and fam. Only 32 days left on my Spanish adventure, and with no real plans things could get interesting!
My break technically started on March 25th but as I had no real travel plans, I just stuck around the 'Bao going to the beach and out to little cities around Northern Spain until my family arrived on the 1st. It was so relaxing to just take my time doing what I wanted for a few days without classes and with plenty of sunshine, I hope all of you get the opportunity to travel to Spain even for a few days of tapas, siestas, and sunshine! When my fam did arrive, we immediately got all checked in and then hit up the Gugg and Casco Viejo for dinner, so I could show them the top spots of the city and then a little more on the walks to each place. I think they had a pretty good time, I'm sure we could have spent a week doing EVERYTHING here, but they got to see the major highlights, including the Funicular ride up one of the mountains surrounding downtown for a full view (just like the one in the 'Burgh!)
On Friday we left for Brussels where my pops and a rental car were waiting for us. Unfortunately, the weather was not as lovely in Belgium as most of the days we were there it was raining, cold, and wiiiiiiindy (cue wind sounds), but we made the best of it and saw everything major in the city like the medieval government buildings and churches. The best part, though, was getting to see my parents' wedding church and first few houses as a couple/newlywed in Europe. According to the rents, most of them seemed pretty unchanged, with the exception of the surrounding neighborhoods being much more populated or urbanized due to 23 years of change. I think my older bro got the biggest kick out of it as we got to see where he was born, his first house, and some of his old romping grounds (aka very small playgrounds or other people's houses). It definitely made my parents' dreams come true to have a family reunion back where it all started, the only problem is now all future family vacations will probably blow. (How can you top visiting the church where your parents got married over 25 years ago?? And the birth place of the eldest?)
During the Brussels spell we made a day trip to Bruges and Holland (so cool! clogs!) to see some more of the old hangouts of my parents and the famous sites of more medieval churches and government buildings. (*Warning, from here on out almost everything I talk about will not be mentioned specifically because it is either a) a medieval church, or b) super old government buildings in the medieval town square.) However, we did get to see the North Sea, some working windmills, and the beautiful streets/canals/buildings that apparently make it "Venice of the North". For such a small city (compared to my other SB trips), it was packed with tourists, probably out enjoying the small patches of sunshine we were lucky to get. For me, this city was also one of my favs because I got to drive there! That's right, I got to spend some quality time behind a manual minivan, driving my fam across borders at speeds up to 140km! (Only around 88mph, but Doc Brown and Marty McFly would have been proud.) Luckily I didn't have to drive on the left side of the road or anything, but it was nice to drive a car again since it's been almost 4 months and I feel like forgetting how to drive when I work at the Transportation Department might not look so great. It was a pretty easy trip, too, considering we made about 4 turns the entire trip since apparently all the roads in Belgium are stick straight and go on for literally MILES in a line (look it up on Google maps, you will fall asleep it is such a boring route). Can't complain though, the driving control-freak in me was satisfied for the whole semester. :)
After Brussels, Dad had to get back to work (someone has to pay for our trip), so he left Belgium while we went off to one of my favorite cities in the world, Paris!! I had already gone there on a school trip after graduating high school, but it was nice to go back and see some of the sights again and have some of my French come flying back to me just in time to order "Croque Madames et un coca, s'il vous plait". Ahh it was so wonderful! We were staying in the Latin Quarter which was only about a 5 minutes walk away from Notre Dame and the heart of the city (literally from where all the roads begin), so at night we were able to take walks to the Ile de la Cite and around some of the more eccentric parts of Paris.
We of course did some of the obvious touristy stuff, like a bus tour around the major sites and going up the Eiffel Tower, and it was so nice to do them with my family (Dad was there in spirit, of course). Some of the best parts of the trip were waiting in line for the more touristy attractions because I got to hang out with my bros and do crossword puzzles or chat with the Mom. It's those little things about traveling in Europe I think I like the best, when you are waiting around for something or even just taking a walk through the city and you suddenly remember where you are, like standing next to a church that's been around since 1160. It's surreal to think people were doing almost exactly that in the same spot so long ago and that everything is still there as a functioning civilization! Ah my history nerdiness is making me emotional, let's move on.
My family eventually had to leave me in Paris on Wednesday but luckily Linden met us on Tuesday night and the next day the two of us headed off to London for a 5-day UK extravaganza! We were mostly excited just to be speaking English again, even with the funny accents and lingo (e.g. crisps = chips and chips = fries, wtf??). For this entry, I should almost list the things we DIDN'T see because we traveled ALL OVER that city and even out to Windsor Castle where we got to be within the same walls as the Queen!
(We got to see Buckingham Palace [pic] but she was actually inside the Castle with us, somewhere!) We didn't see the London Eye, as in see it from inside (you could see it from all over the city, why spend 30 pounds going inside?), nor did we get to see Parliament or Westminster because we couldn't take pictures anywhere! For some odd reason those Brits liked to charged us for everything but then not allow any photography almost everywhere. They do like having video cameras, though, as nearly every square inch of the city is covered by CCTV, the Big Brother of the UK that has cameras EVERYWHERE. According to our tour guide, just during our little 2.5 hour tour we were probably filmed by over 300 cameras. Whaaaaaa??? I personally think it's uber creepy- why do they need that much coverage? Do crime rates actually go down because they have some Joe Schmo watching the whole world all the time? Weird. Ah well regardless of not seeing some sights and being filmed against my will and knowledge, I feel in love with London. I could really see myself living there if necessary, the public transportation system is practically perfect and the whole city just has a very welcoming feeling. Bilbao is just as nice of a city and sometimes has many more welcoming people, but at least in London it's not a daily struggle to understand them. Paris is still in the top three for Europe favs, but as of now London is a very close contender; they of course all fall under Bilbao first, just because it is my first overseas home and I feel like I have a real family here, who actually celebrated my return from SB with hugs and shouts (not really that special though, if you remember the Spaniards' volume issues).
Oh and I must mention that somehow along the way I found myself back on the Camino de Santiago not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES! In three separate cities! I knew it was a European phenomenon but couldn't believe that it still stretched all the way across Europe to Bruges, Brussels, and Paris! So cRaZy! (Also, sorry Thomas looks like a psycho here.)
All in all it was a pretty successful trip, and although it made me love traveling again (no more airport panic attacks as of yet!), it also made me ready to stop traveling for the rest of my semester until I make my final BIG trip back to the states- I do love Europe and especially Spain, but at this point I am about ready to go back to working, living, and playing in NYC with my friends and fam. Only 32 days left on my Spanish adventure, and with no real plans things could get interesting!
martes, 30 de marzo de 2010
Update!
Just a quick update, there is currently no internet in our apartment (or cable, too bad it's a rainy day and both of these would be perfect because God knows I'm not hanging out outside), so I will not be updating before my big trip! I have little stories from this week and I will hopefully have more with the fam, but I will do a HUGEEEE MAJOR MONSTER update on the 13th when I am back in business in the 'bao. Have a great Easter everyone!
jueves, 25 de marzo de 2010
Spring Break!
Can you believe it is already Spring Break time?? I can't, that's for sure. After this little 3 week hiatus I will only have ONE MONTH left in Espana. (!!!!)
That said, I'm not actually doing anything official for the next week, mostly because I a) don't want to spend too much money, and b) wasn't sure where to go last minute. I'm excited to stick around Bilbao though because the last weekend I spent in Bilbao was in February! So i think it's about time I spend some time with the locals, especially now that the kiddos think I'm hilarious(ly bad at Spanish) and there will be Easter parades all week for Semana Santa- what better way to learn about a country than watch some religious celebrations with booze!
Speaking of the kids/family, things are going super well these days. Marta and Esti have always been sop friendly and helpful, and now they really treat me like a member of the family with extra sarcasm, etc., but the biggest change so far is the kids' acceptance of me in the fam. They've started hugging me and greeting-yelling at me when I come home from long trips/days, and Telmo (the 5-year old and my new bfffl) has even started remembering things I like, how old I am, and how high I can count (it's kind of a big deal to him, he can only count a bit past 100, whereas I can count to a million! Yeah not infinity, at least not in Spanish). It's a pretty good feeling when I realize they are finally relaxed around me and I get to see/hear/live Spanish jokes and stories through these little developing personalities, especially with the parental commentary (I've learned many a command and sarcastic comment that way). They definitely still give me odd looks sometimes when I struggle through pronunciations (I will EVENTUALLY learn to roll my r's), but that hasn't stopped them from trying out embarrassing jokes on me, usually involving a play on words where I say some sort of bathroom word yet don't realize it- kinda like Spanish-nino hazing. Ah well I will take all the embarrassment and silliness with this family because they have honestly helped me improve not only my Spanish, but my new-situation/family coping skills tenfold. It makes a bit sad, too, to think that chances of them coming to America for any reason are pretty slim so I might not see them again for a long time, if not forever, but I guess that's all the more reason to come back to Spain. :)
As for Spring Break plans, the fam (Mom, Dad, Will, Catie, and Teej) come next Thursday when we will spend a day in Bilbao then fly off to Brussels to see where the rents were married/lived, as well as where Will was born. I'm pretty excited to have the whole family back where it all started at my parents' practically-medieval-it's-so-old church, I'm sure the family photo will be a backup Christmas card for years to come because of the story behind it. After a few days in Belgium we'll drive down to Paris where Pops will depart (big AAA plans) and the rest of the fam will stick around until Wednesday and then fly back to the States (bummer). THEN Linden is meeting me on Wednesday in Paris for some quick extra sightseeing and on Thursday we'll be whisked off to London for 5 days filled with sights, (supposedly awful) British food, possibly a day trip to Dublin, and finally my two favorite parts of the trip: ENGLISH AND STONEHENGE! Bahhh remember how psyched I was about the Aqueduct? Yeah Stonehenge is like a million times older and cooler than that so as you can imagine I am UBER PUMPED to touch some prehistoric rocks and do touristy cartwheels on the grass in front of the main circle while taking sweet picssss. Yeah, that's happening. I'll update anything exciting this week but if not, I will have a mega entry in two weeks all about my travels through Europe! A luego!
That said, I'm not actually doing anything official for the next week, mostly because I a) don't want to spend too much money, and b) wasn't sure where to go last minute. I'm excited to stick around Bilbao though because the last weekend I spent in Bilbao was in February! So i think it's about time I spend some time with the locals, especially now that the kiddos think I'm hilarious(ly bad at Spanish) and there will be Easter parades all week for Semana Santa- what better way to learn about a country than watch some religious celebrations with booze!
Speaking of the kids/family, things are going super well these days. Marta and Esti have always been sop friendly and helpful, and now they really treat me like a member of the family with extra sarcasm, etc., but the biggest change so far is the kids' acceptance of me in the fam. They've started hugging me and greeting-yelling at me when I come home from long trips/days, and Telmo (the 5-year old and my new bfffl) has even started remembering things I like, how old I am, and how high I can count (it's kind of a big deal to him, he can only count a bit past 100, whereas I can count to a million! Yeah not infinity, at least not in Spanish). It's a pretty good feeling when I realize they are finally relaxed around me and I get to see/hear/live Spanish jokes and stories through these little developing personalities, especially with the parental commentary (I've learned many a command and sarcastic comment that way). They definitely still give me odd looks sometimes when I struggle through pronunciations (I will EVENTUALLY learn to roll my r's), but that hasn't stopped them from trying out embarrassing jokes on me, usually involving a play on words where I say some sort of bathroom word yet don't realize it- kinda like Spanish-nino hazing. Ah well I will take all the embarrassment and silliness with this family because they have honestly helped me improve not only my Spanish, but my new-situation/family coping skills tenfold. It makes a bit sad, too, to think that chances of them coming to America for any reason are pretty slim so I might not see them again for a long time, if not forever, but I guess that's all the more reason to come back to Spain. :)
As for Spring Break plans, the fam (Mom, Dad, Will, Catie, and Teej) come next Thursday when we will spend a day in Bilbao then fly off to Brussels to see where the rents were married/lived, as well as where Will was born. I'm pretty excited to have the whole family back where it all started at my parents' practically-medieval-it's-so-old church, I'm sure the family photo will be a backup Christmas card for years to come because of the story behind it. After a few days in Belgium we'll drive down to Paris where Pops will depart (big AAA plans) and the rest of the fam will stick around until Wednesday and then fly back to the States (bummer). THEN Linden is meeting me on Wednesday in Paris for some quick extra sightseeing and on Thursday we'll be whisked off to London for 5 days filled with sights, (supposedly awful) British food, possibly a day trip to Dublin, and finally my two favorite parts of the trip: ENGLISH AND STONEHENGE! Bahhh remember how psyched I was about the Aqueduct? Yeah Stonehenge is like a million times older and cooler than that so as you can imagine I am UBER PUMPED to touch some prehistoric rocks and do touristy cartwheels on the grass in front of the main circle while taking sweet picssss. Yeah, that's happening. I'll update anything exciting this week but if not, I will have a mega entry in two weeks all about my travels through Europe! A luego!
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