Before going home to spend Christmas with the family, I went to two of Christmas dinners, one with my school and another with friends. They were enjoyable but the one with my school was at a hotel and was Spain’s version of buffet type food. It wasn’t bad but not the best meal of my life. The second, a dinner, was at Lizzaran where we have been going on almost a weekly basis. It was really fun and the food was delicious! We stayed very late into the night and even played musical chairs and some other Spanish party games.
The next day I went to Madrid with friends and did some sight seeing. For the night we attempted to go out to a “posh” sort of club but the crowd was a bit ridiculous and the lines- way too long. However it afforded me some of the best people watching ever though as we tried to talk are way in… the upper crust of Madrid was actually allowed in and I felt like I was seeing the Spanish cast of Gossip Girl. super SUPER nicely dressed guys and girls, def was jealous of some of the clothes! In the end we ended up going home and forgetting our dreams of hanging with Madrid’s VIP’s, maybe next time!
I flew out early the next morning and arrived in Toronto to some very happy parents. Christmas break was wonderful, and I was happy to have a good 3 weeks to relax and do nothing. It went by very quickly and I by the end was sad to leave. I went to a Syracuse Basketball game, celebrated New Years in Rochester and had more cups of coffee and meals out than I can count on my hands and toes.
I flew out of Toronto and my parents and I went up early to appease my desire to go shopping.
Toronto is a very cool city (photo on the right!) that I would love to spend more time in, after a couple more years in Spain of course!
Once back in Madrid, met up with my friend Lorna and we headed to the bus station to come back to Extremadura. Upon coming home I met up with some of the girls and without missing a beat we headed out for a bit. Over the break a new “disco” had opened up in Mérida, called Izaro. We checked it out, pretty fancy but will certainly cater to a certain crowd here in Mérida.
Also it snowed in Mérida on Sunday the 10th for the first time in over 25 years... I think its because I brought the snow with me ;). It was fun to see everyone so excited for snow and taking pictures, and using umbrellas as if the snow was rain! It was a great way to be welcomed back to the city. Back at school on Monday, it was not easy to get back into the swing of things but I managed after a few stressful days.
Most of January I spent in Mérida with my normal weekly schedule: Work during the morning, private lessons on Tuesday and Wednesday and out for a coffee or pincho during the evening. Also trying to stay in shape and run the days that I can muster the energy. Some highlights of the month included a trip to near by Almendralejo; we went in and actually looked around the city during the day, which was nice.
Also, we rented a car the a couple weeks ago and drove to Trujillo, a near by town where Cortez was born. Renting a car was a great idea, except it has been a while since I’d driven stick and it took a few stalls and tricky situations to get the hang of it. Round-abouts are one thing that I am NOT good at. Had a close call with one car but we made it there and back alive. It was interesting to see the Cortez museum and the way Spain portrays the conquest.
We visited a cheese and wine museum and I had the best white wine, La Luz, I’ve enjoyed here, similar to a Riesling and only 4 euros for a quality bottle, man do I love Spain!
Also during this trip we went to a National Park called Monfragüe.
By far the few hours we spent climbing up to a castle in the park and eating sandwiches on top, are some of my favorite hours in Spain ever. It was green and beautiful with eagles and hawks flying near by. I will be making a trip back when my Mom comes to visit without a doubt!!
Some more highlights of daily life: Sara (my roommate) and I LOVE Mercadona, a grocery store. The issue is that it is a long trek to get to and taking the bus can be a bit of a complex adventure. Finally we got a ride from one of the guys I do a class/intercambio with. Not only did he give us a ride, but he pushed our cart around too… It was pretty much amazing!
Another highlight was the discovery that Mercadona has HUMMUS! IT is clearly not like hummus from home but still tastes pretty good. Mercadona also has cold milk…most of the milk here in Spain is UHT milk and therefore just can be left at room temperature until you actually open the box/ carton, where as our milk is pasteurized in such a way that it has to be refrigerated from the start. Overall, with grocery shopping and cooking I am doing a little bit better than college (aka not just living off cereal and sandwiches).
I have been cooking some more and also baking a bit. The baking is still a challenge as the oven and the ingredients aren’t the exactly the same and measuring things is more like eyeballing. I made gingerbread cookies before Christmas… they were all right but less than spectacular. I also made chocolate chip cookies…the dough was delish but the end result…not bad but def not amazing. I am going to attempt again to make cookies and bring them into my favorite class this week and do a lesson on cooking, vocabulary and typical American baked goods.
In other areas of life, I am going to be going to Denmark in about a month to visit my friend Ryan from college. He is playing basketball over there, so I’ll get to see a game and see another country that I would otherwise probably never thought to visit.
Also, here in Mérida we have something that feels like a group of Spanish friends around are age. We’ve hung out with them the past few weekends and have had a couple“botellóns” (hanging out in an apartment and having some drinks!). Most of them are 22 and 23 and are nice and pretty easy to get alone with well. It has been super nice to have people to hang out with a well as they have cars so our walking has been cut down quite a bit! Also, we have started to make friends with the Churro stand man. Churros are like fried dough but so much better. They come in long sticks are somewhere between fried dough and funnel cake in flavor and texture. The stand opens at 8 am so if you stay out late enough (no joke) you can have them for breakfast before you go to bed. We’ve started eating them after we eat dinner Sunday night, and even got hooked up with some free churros. The owner of the stand loves to talk about bringing Churros to the states and we assure him, they would sell like hot cakes!!
This coming weekend is Carnival and here is Spain it is HUGE. There are groups that dress up and sing and they have competitions for the best groups as well as costumes. A group of us Language Assistants are going to Cadiz for Saturday Night, the 3rd biggest Carnival festival in the world. As Carnival is when Spaniards get dressed up like we do for Halloween, we needed a pretty amazing costume... “Cloudy with a Chance of Rain!!!”
Scratching your head? We’re going to wear all blue and then attach clouds and carry around water guns and when people ask what we are, squirt them and say "Cloudy with a chance of Rain.” Obviously the language change makes this costume even more ridiculous, “nublado con la posibilidad de lluvia.” We get mixed reviews from the Spaniards… some love it some just look at us like we’re speaking a foreign language ;) go figure. Either way I am excited because I have always wanted to do this costume for Halloween thus doing it for Carnival and with 6 other girls is like a dream come true!
Also we are going to Sevilla to catch the bus to Cadiz so I am preparing for some quality shopping. Spain has what is called “rebajas” two times a year, now then again in August I believe, where past season merchandise is drastically reduced in price. Here in Mérida the shopping is far from amazing so I’ll have to spend a lot in Sevilla to make up for it. I am super exited for a store called Bimba y Lola , reminds me a bit of a mix between JCrew and Urban Outfitters… really cool clothes and hats and jewelry...aka FABULOUS!!
Hopefully this month I will be better with blogging, once a week por lo menos! Plans for this week include joining a little gym near by all that bread and wine I am consuming is not going to bode well for beach season that is right around the corner ;). Also, I have to send out some postcards, aka buy stamps…well hope all is well! BESOS from Spain!
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