Worth every minute.

To get to Madrid this past weekend we took the most economic (i.e. longest) mode of transportation: a six hour bus ride each way, but it was worth every minute.  My two friends and I arrived in the capital city around 5 o'clock in the evening, once we settled into our hostal we went out to explore.


We went to Plaza Mayor for some sangria and to unwind from the long bus ride. Our timing was perfect because we got to catch a beautiful sunset.











Our Saturday started bright and early with a trip to Starbucks for breakfast (!!!) and then a tour inside the Palacio Royal.  This is the only thing I didn't get to do on my last trip here and it was very cool to see. 









After the palace we walked around and stumbled upon/into the parade for the Chinese New Year.  There were eight or ten different groups walking, some were doing karate (or however you call the version from China) and some were carrying the dragon you'd expect to see in a Chinese New Year parade.

The whole weekend was really low-key and relaxing.  We spent most of the time just walking around, but just being in a new city was a great change of scenery.  I think it had a lot to do with the fact that the city (and all of Spain for that matter) is still in the winter lull, so things are barely busy and the weather is comfortable, only slightly leaning towards being too cold.

My favorite two parts of the trip were left to last: I got to go back to el Museo del Prado and then we wondered around el Parque del Buen Retiro for hours on Sunday morning while waiting for our bus back home to Málaga.

28 hours later.

Considering that I am getting ready for my next weekend adventure (to Madrid, by the way) I figured I need to write about what I have been up to the last few months.

19 November was one of the coolest and definitely the longest day I have had in Spain so far.  It was the day I went to Barcelona! (!!!!!!!!!!)  Why the excessive amount of exclamation points, you ask?  Honestly, it's not because of the city itself, but because it is the home of my most favorite football team, FC Barcelona. I was lucky enough to be able to watch a match and I'll have more on that later, but first things first.

My trip to Barcelona started very early, I was on the train headed to the airport Saturday morning at 6:30 in the morning, to catch my flight at 8:40.  We (my American friends Barrett, Emma, Sara, Meredith, and Michael; and our Spanish friends Alvaro, Cristobal, and Modran) went on the hour and ten minute-ish flight without any problems.  We quickly made our way to Las Ramblas which is the main street in the center of the city and then to La Boquiería market, the largest in the whole region of Cataluña.  Here we wandered around for a while and stopped to get brunch as it was now almost 11 am.  I got my favorite, which I usually get at any restuarant that offers it because I know I'll miss it when I come back home: jamón serrano con queso manchego.  I know I've already gone on a rant about its deliciousness before, so I won't bore you again, but it was amazing.

The picture on the top is just an example of one of the stalls in the market and it just shows all the variety and how big the place is.  According to Wikipedia (so therefore completely accurate) that are over 300 stalls in the market.  The bottom picture is from one of my favorite because it is nothing but fresh, yummy fruit drinks.  As you can see there are so many different colors and flavors: I got the strawberry and mango if my memory serves me correctly.


Next, we headed to La Sagrada Familia, a breathtakingly-detailed behemoth of a cathedral that has been underconstruction since 1882!  I could see the top of la Sagrada Familia from blocks away, peeking over buildings but we finally turned a corner and BAM! there she was.

Because of time and our budgets we did not make it inside, but trust me, there was enough to see just wandering around the outside that I was okay with that. 

do you see any creatures?

Next we made the mile and a half trek to Parc Güell. The park was designed by Antoni Gaudí, just like la Sagrada Familia, so there were a lot of similarities. It was an annoying uphill climb, but it was worth it at the end because of the amazing view of the entire city of Barcelona.

here is the top of la Sagrada Familia

The park was so colorful and practically everything was covered with glass mosaics.  If it wasn't an overcast day I am sure the place would have been sparkling.

you might remember this picture
and the one underneath from the final catwalk of
America's Next Top Model Season 6!

these two remind me of gingerbread houses.

this is a pretty iconic part of the park.

yours truly!

Now the highlight of the evening: the football game at the Camp Nou!!!  Looking back, I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked but I was too preoccupied with the game (plus my camera's zoom didn't do it much justice).   We won the game 4-0, by the way!

After the game we all met up at a bar near the stadium because only four of us actually went to see the game live.  Then we did some bar hopping until it was time to head to the airport for our 6 am flight back to Málaga.  By the time I had gotten the train from the airport to my house, had a quick snack and showered it was 9:15 Sunday morning.  It was an exhausting day: I fell asleep before the plane even took off, woke up about 20 minutes before landing; and was tired for the next two days, but it was absolutely worth it.

Slacking. Hardcore.

I just read through a friend's blog as she's preparing to head to Paraguay and I realized how horrible of a slacker I've been with this blog.  Has it really been two months since I've updated?  Over the next few days I promise to write about what I have been up to lately, but until then (actually, probably just until after lunch time) here's a cute picture from my school's Christmas performance.

Hodge Podge

the school across the street, from our kitchen table.

I've been told I need to do an update, but the reason I haven't done one in the last two weeks is because nothing exciting/noteworthy has happened.  So here is a hodge-podge of pictures I have taken... 

Here is my flat! I'm pretty sure I've already talked about it, but here it is again.  It's on the third floor of my building, with 3 bedrooms, one bathroom, a big living room and a great kitchen.  We're right next to an elementary school that is usually bustling with children from 9 am to nearly 6 pm, but luckily today and tomorrow are holidays so it is very peaceful.

our combo living room and dining table.



 

our kitchen!

  

here is a picture of the euro coins.  think there's enough different kinds?  There is 1 and 2 euro coin and then a zillion other tiny denominations. Apparently it's very convenient to have a 1 and 2 euro coin (like having a $1 and $2 coin), but I just think it's heavy.  It's deceiving about how much money you have too, but I guess in a good way. Because I had 9 euro in coins and didn't even realize it. 

 

This is called a "suso".  It's a lot like a Bavarian creme donut, but not a donut shape (obviously) with granulated sugar sprinked on top!  It only costs 90 cents, which is about $1 and this is just half of it. 

These are Maryland cookies. They only sell them in the UK and whenever I tell someone I'm from Maryland they go, "Oh, like the cookie!"  No, not like the cookie because we don't have them in the US.  When Lauren's boyfriend came for the weekend he brought me a package of the cookies so I could finally try them :)  They taste like chips a hoy cookies, but yummier!

Fuengirola

[ff-when-HE-roll-uh].   

This past Sunday I went to Fuengirola with about eight friends to see a bull fight.  That's right, a bull fight.  It was incredibly sad, I cried, and I'll never go again, but it was something that I felt like I needed to see while in Spain and I'm glad I got it over with. 

Fuengirola was a 50 minute train ride from Málaga and before the plaza de toros we have a snack at a little restaurant inside a park. I had a bocadillo de queso y jamón and it is probably one of my favorite things to eat, ever.  The bocadillo is a toasted sandwich with a bit of olive oil, a layer of cheese, and then a layer (or two, if I'm lucky!) of delicious jamón (salted, dry-cured ham that is similar to prosciutto).  But enough about ham!

The plaza de toros (bull ring) was right around the corner and we sat at the very top and in the hot, hot sun, because the seats in the shade are more expensive.  I won't go into details about the actual fight, because I'd rather not think about it, but I was surprised to see that part of the show was actually with a man on a horse instead of on his feet with a cape.  I was thoroughly impressed to see his skill in controlling the horse and the trust the horses had in their rider.  He had the horses dance, walk sideways, and other awesome things to attract the bull, since he didn't have the red cape to use.  

  

elo estefany!

That's what I hear whenever I go into one of my classrooms or run into a student walking around the school.  As I was leaving school today to catch the bus and a few students said, "elo Estefany" (Hello, Stephanie!) I realised that I can defintely get used to this "teaching" thing and actually look forward to seeing them every week.  I hope soon my novelty wears off and we can learn a lot from each other, especially my preschool and second grade class.  I think once I can understand them speaking super fast and without regard for my language barrier, I will be set with my Spanish! 

It's Thursday night here in Málaga and my work week ended at 2pm this afternoon, but it only had three days in it anyways because yesterday was a National Holiday to celebrate Cristobol Colon "discovering the Americas."  I spent the day laying on the beach for about five hours. That's right, baking in the sun on the beach in the middle of October. And what do I plan on doing for my day off tomorrow? The beach. But a different one, about 15 minutes away on the bus :)

Here are some pictures of the last two weeks I've been here. I hope to update more  frequently once my internet gets sorted out.

here the water is up to my knees, but you can still see your feet when the water is up to you're armpits!

my friends and I caught about 20 hermit crabs, each with a different shell.

a view from the beach, towards the port/where I live.

the Mediterranean, at Nerja.

the beach, from sitting on my towel. Nerja.

enjoying some tinto de verano. with my friend, Michael.

at the reception after the teacher assistant's meeting. with my two roommates (Leona, left and Lauren on the right).
(p.s. that's Leona's boyfriend on the far left and another assistant at my school in the background)

Whirlwind of a week

I had this whole blog post already written out and saved but it got lost somewhere in cyberspace, so here is a version of what I remember:

Hi :) Since it is probably just my family and friends back home reading this, thanks for being patient for me to take almost a week to write anything.
I've settled into an apartment that I found on my second day here and moved in on the third.  I found out about it through a friend of another teacher assistant (who at the time I hadn't even met yet.)  It's an amazing 3 bedroom, one bath flat with a padio that we've already comfortably squeezed 5 people into and huge ceiling to floor sliding doors that open up for a great breeze.  I am in a perfect spot for walking to my one school in about 30 minutes and another is a ten minute walk to the bus stop and then a 40 minute bus ride.  Those both might sound like a long time, but they pass by quickly, promise.

My classes range from really great to "I don't know how I'm going to survive a year of this", but luckily that's only one class and I hoping that it will get better throughout the year.  The teachers are all very nice and the students are in an amazing bilingual program and actually want to learn. Here's my schedule in case you want to be jealous of how much I have to do ;) Mondays 11:45-2:45, Tuesdays 1030-2ish, Wednesdays 8:15-11:15, Thursday 10:30-2ish, Fridays no class.

I have not done too much exploring yet, since I already know a lot of the city.  But this weekend I have plans to go to a nearby town and spend all day on the beach, it should be exhausting :) And hopefully by next month when my pay check gets to me I'll be able to plan some trips to other cities.

I'll try to add picture of my flat and neighborhood this weekend.