"Live! Live the wonderful life that is in you! Let nothing be lost upon you. Be always searching for new sensations. Be afraid of nothing."
— Oscar Wilde
— Oscar Wilde
Ohh blog, it has been some time…
It would just be way too much to give you a day by day detailed diary so I will try to hit all of the high points/low points/silly moments/”only in Spain” moments etc…
However the most important message I wanted to relay to all who have been reading and staying caught up with my life over here… I am so happy!!I really find myself walking down the street or on the metro or wherever with a smile on my face. I have a superb family supporting me always and sending their love (and occasional 24 hour visits to Madrid, thanks Mama), the most wonderful boyfriend who always supports me and is the most excellent Skyper in the entire world J and amazing friends who are happy to live vicariously through my interesting adventures over here. You all give me something tremendous to miss, and I am so thankful for that. So for all of you wondering how I am holding up, life is fabulous.
I still love my school; all the teachers are so nice and friendly. One of the teachers who I am with a lot of the time told me if I ever needed anything at all to tell her. She said her daughter studied in the United States and her host family really took care of her and treated her like family. She wanted me to have a similar experience in Spain and that I should think of her like family J
I figure it is only fair for me to include not only the good parts of Madrid but also the parts that are not so much butterflies and rainbows…
After my last blog I was planning on heading to the south of Spain, Huelva to be exact, where Katie Carlson is working in a similar program as mine. It’s about a 7.5 hours bus trip to get to Huelva so I prepared myself by not getting much sleep Thursday night so that I could sleep for most of the bus ride on Friday. I headed to the bus station right after school.
Made it to the bus station at about 3pm to make the 4pm bus, but it was the wrong bus station- of course. So I had to take the metro about 7 stops south, at 3ish on a Friday the metro was JAM PACKED with sweaty people trying to get out of town. I made it to the ENOURMOUS bus station and wandered around until I found the ticket counter (at this point it was about 345pm). I missed the first bus and bought a ticket for the next bus at 10pm. I went home, relaxed for a couple hours and told Katie I wouldn’t be arriving until 5 am… I headed back to the bus station at about 830pm. My ticket said plaza: 30, so naturally I headed to platform 30 to wait for my bus. At about 945 I got a little suspicious when all of the people I thought were waiting with me at platform 30, got on the bus at platform 29. So now it was 15minutes until my bus was said to depart and I was the ONLY person standing at platform 30… I asked about 4 bus drivers, 2 other people who worked there and anyone in a 10ft radius of myself, but no one would help me find the correct platform. I felt completely helpless, no one would give me the time of day and I had no idea where to be. I walked around to other platforms and finally found someone who would help me…
Turns out, Plaza: 30 was my seat number. The bus was at platform 15 (which it said nowhere on my ticket) and he informed me that the bus left about ten minutes prior to our conversation. UUGHH.
For those of you who know me well, you may be aware that I do not function well when I have not slept an sufficient amount… I’m sure that being a little overtired had something to do with the breakdown that occurred in the bus station. I was a little upset that I had lost 23 Euros, I was MORE upset that I had to call Katie and explain that I wouldn’t be making the trip that we were both very excited about; I felt awful, I was MOST upset that NO ONE would give me two seconds and help me figure out where I was supposed to be. I MISS MY MINNESOTA NICE.
Needless to say I went home and had a glass of wine and got some much needed sleep.
I have made new plans to go visit Katie in December, we have a couple days off (go figure) and I am going to head her way… there are talks of heading to Granada to go skiing in Sierra Nevada J
AND to further lighten the mood:
It has been decided—I am keeping a log of all the hilarious things said by my Spanish roommate and company- (as you read, it is best to create some sort of Spanish accent)
(While wearing mittens)- “I would look like a little idiot wearing these…” ßBecause she couldn’t use her fingers.
“I am going to piss myself” She meant to say- I have to go to the bathroom…
“I have to go pee-pee” … I followed this comment by asking her if she was 4 years old.
“boop job”= Boob job.
After a long night of drinking the next day her boyfriend said, “Last night I was like a hammer…” He was trying to use the expression we taught them: to be hammered (drunk).
“I have to go to my master”- She had to go to her Master’s program at the university, not a Master, like slave Master...
“I want to have an American Pie birthday partyyy” (Just like the movie)
“Kelley, can you make curls in my hair with your curling machine” in reference to my hot rollers.
Haha, it’s always something…
My Mom came on another visit!!
Mom came on the flight with her girlfriends, Michelle, Mary, and Denise. Mary and Denise are still flight attendants so they worked the flight and mom and Michelle went along for the ride.
I met the ladies at around 10am on Sunday. My Mom, Michelle and I trekked across town to go see my piso while the other ladies took an early siesta from working on the flight. I received more goodies from home!
Dr. Pepper
Peanut butter
Supplies to make turkey cookies for thanksgiving
Tupperware
Washcloths
Teapot
Winter coat
English books for my tutoring (Thanks Pops)
And other goodies… THANK YOU
We unpacked and decided it was best to keep moving so that the jetlag didn’t hit them too hard. We had a very interesting lunch experience. We wanted to order something small, like a sandwhich or soup. The man at the restaurant informed us that it was a MUCH better idea to order the lunch menu. First plate, second plate, and dessert for 10 Euros… Okay fine.
1st plate: I have NO idea what was in our soup. We each got our own loaf of bread.
2nd plate: Half of a chicken per person. French fries drenched in oil.
3rd plate: coffee for mother and I and a block of Ice cream for Michelle… which she ate after letting it de-thaw for about 7 minutes.
I don’t know if I’ll be going back there… and really this explanation gives our experience no justice, something’s you just have to see to understand or appreciate.
We walked down one of the busier streets to get some good photos on our walk back to the hotel. The street we walked down was shut down for the day because they were having a free concert on the street during the night. Katy Perry, Linkin Park, and Thirty Seconds to Mars (for the Spanish MTV music awards, no big deal)
We met the other ladies at the hotel and headed to Marius Bar, the same spot we had our flight attendant/beer/tapas experience during mothers previous visit.
After this we headed to Templo Debod to show Michelle and Denise the best view of Madrid. It was another beautiful night and the view was spectacular, per usual. Mary had heard about a flea market in Plaza España and we all decided to check it out. It was full of scarfs, jewelry, trinkets, food, posters, tons of neat things!
After this we made our way across town to Plaza Mayor to get to the US Airways’ legendary and much loved Mesón del Champiñón and had the BEST mushrooms I have EVER had! We also had calamari, pimientos de pardon, and sangria…
Next stop: Marcado de San Miguel, possibly my favorite little place in Madrid. It is an indoor market with the most magnificent atmosphere—I will put pictures up to show! But we enjoyed a glass of wine with a little tray of pastry treats, and took pleasure in watching the different groups of people enjoy their Sunday night! After this the ladies were kind enough to walk me back to my piso. We made it about half way until we hit a sea of people at the outdoor concert, the entire street was crammed, but for reasons unknown, the sidewalk was wide open for us to walk ourselves within about 40 yards from the front of the stage… They are not quite as aggressive at concerts, unlike any American concert I have ever attended. We made it for the last act (Linkin Park) we were able to stand in plain sight of the concert and had the best time watching Spaniards scream the words to English songs, in which they had NO clue what they meant.
This was by far one of my favorite nights in Spain yet, take that back—favorite day.
So during their 24 hour visit I would have to estimate we spent about 11-12 hours walking around Madrid J
Other news from my life:
I am tutoring private lessons 3 times a week; hopefully soon that number will jump to 5. On Tuesday and Thursday I tutor two 5 year old girls- their English consists of about 6 elementary songs, the colors, numbers, and “I’m fine thank you, and you?” (I don’t think they really know the meaning) So try to do as much coloring, games and songs as possible. I have a new student starting this week who is a 7year old boy, we shall see how his English is… and hopefully I will be adding two 10year old boys on Thursday. I’m making 15 Euro per hour, so it is great!
I was asked the other day from a young boy if I was Irish or English. I had to smile…
I showed my roommate some pictures of family and friends: she concluded that my dad looks very American (it’s okay dad, she says I am the most typical American girl). She thinks that ALL my brunette friends look Spanish… especially Jayme Lu and Katie Coffee.
She was absolutely shocked when she saw my dad sitting in the hot tub while it was snowing. “He is crazy, that water is cold?”… they don’t have hot tubs here.
One of my favorite things to do here is put in my headphones and walk for hours, just wandering the city and taking pictures. I see something amazing every time.
aaand speaking of walking- I have lost 16 lbs since I have been here… the whole walking around for hours and hours and hours in beginning while looking for a place to live really kick started this whole process.. I walk everywhere and I am eating really healthy. This is actually pretty comical…
-I went from waking up at 5 am this summer a couple times a week to go running, frantically trying to lose weight… I would lose a pound or two here and there and then gain it back- THEN I get my butt over to Spain and it has literally been falling off, I have never felt better!!! J J
I am planning a trip to Amsterdam in January during their Fashion Week.
Went and watched the Vikings be incredibly disappointing last night.
Madrid has Christmas lights up EVERYWHERE, they turn them on the last week of this month J it is going to be beautiful.
Aside from all the above, life is pretty normal here in Madrid. Becca and I made a trip to Starbucks the other day, they still remember us by name from our lovely first couple of weeks living there and using their internet.
Two days until Mom’s birthday, happy early birthdayyyy!
It’s about a month until I am home for Christmas, I AM SO EXCITED! There is nothing better than Christmas in Minnesnowta surrounded by all of the people I love.
Besitos,
Kelley
Marcado San Miguel
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