Mas fotos

Funny things the Spanish have said lately…

On my tan: that I look very “brown” lately.
On not wearing panty hose: “You aren’t wearing any panties!” *Me–I don’t think you know what panties means….*
On the similarites between my mother and me: You look like sisters!
On wearing shorts in 80 degree weather: “Aren’t you cold!?! You’re dressed like it’s summer!”

One a side note, something I find hilarious is that when a woman is wearing a tight outfit that’s the same color from head to toe, it’s called a body condom. (According to my German friend, Anna)

Other side note that has nothing to do with funny sayings: we figured out we can watch some shows in English now due to the cable converter box. It’s pretty awesome.

It’s getting harder to write these the sooner it is to the end…

With the weather changing and new group of friends, there’s been little time and motivation to write these as much. Lots and LOTS has happened since my last post so, I’ll try to be more or less concise.

We’ve been celebrating lots of holidays lately. One involved driving out into the country to pay respects to the Saint of Piedra-escrita in Campanario. On the way, you stop every 100 meters or so and drink beer and eat. I have a feeling this festival wouldn’t fly in the U.S. I was surprised they let it go on here because you are legally over the limit to drive at .025. Still, it was lots of fun. I got to ride a horse…there were tons of them! There were also lots of floats that were exciting to see. My favorite was Hello Kitty. I think it won third place.

Hello Kitty!

Speaking of floats, the beginning of the month was my family trip. My mom, uncle, aunt, boyfriend and I headed off to Sevilla, Ronda and Granada to celebrate Semana Santa–it’s a religious week in Spain celebrated by lots of drinking and parades. Their bus arrived a little late to Don Benito, so they didn’t get to our place until about dinner time. We welcomed them with a traditional Spanish tapas dinner. We got some amazing cheese for the occasion…then afterwards, we all went on a walk around Castuera. It was nice to show everyone where we’d been living for the past few months. I think they liked the town, but they were pretty worn out at the end of the day. Apparently the flight over wasn’t so enjoyable. They all ended up sleeping pretty hard since most Spanish houses don’t have windows into bedrooms. My mom was amazed when I woke her up at 8 AM. We then began our excursion to Sevilla. It was very scenic ride. Still, two hours in a cramped Spanish car was a little difficult. We were happy to finally arrive in Camas (a tiny town on the outskirts of the city) to park our car. There was a shady looking man hanging out around the parking lot, but we’ll get back to him later.

We hopped on a bus that took us into Sevilla and began our trek to the hostel. I don’t think my family was quite used to all the walking Europeans do…especially with luggage. After a 20 minute trek from the bus station, we finally made it and deposited our things there. Then we headed out to hit up all the big sites–Cathedral de Sevilla, La Giralda and some walking through the parks. Mom wasn’t too pleased when I finally found a kitty that let me pet it…I decided it’d be a good idea to pick it up, which led to a few scratches on my wrists and some disapproving looks. That day was also one of the days when the Semana Santa floats were passing through town. On a side note, Semana Santa isn’t a good week to try to travel around Spain. You’re always being cut off by parades, floats, giant crowds of people or millions of chairs sitting in the streets. Anyways, we went to our hostel’s sister establishment to watch the parade coming up from La Giralda. The aerial view was well worth it. We also had a lovely dinner of hamburgers–surprising better than most I’ve had in Spain–tortilla de patatas and tinto de verano. We stayed up there for quite a few hours, then we braved the crowds to try to bar hop. This basically just turned into getting one or two drinks to take the edge off the millions of people we were trying to manuever around. By the end of the night, our whole group was pretty tired; we dragged ourselves back to the hostel for what we thought would be some good sleep. In reality, it was sleep mingled with snores, motorcycles and drunken Spaniards outside our window.

Some other highlights from that day–watching the gypsies jip a British family out of 10 Euro. It was amazing. If you remember from my first Sevilla post, the gypsies are always trying to give you “free” rosemary, and they’ll put a curse on you if you don’t fork over a few coins for them. These idiots (the British family) took the Rosemary and gave the lady some coins. Then the gypsy started to read the mom’s fortune out of her hand. At this point, I decided I’d be a good person and intervene. I went to get the teenage daughter’s attention, and explained to her how badly they were getting ripped off. She tried, unsuccessfully, to get her mother’s attention. The mother ignored her, and was conned out of 10 euros. This proves two points, I believe: if your children are trying to tell you something, it’s probably best you listen (my mom learned this one the hard way when I was in 6th grade…thanks, mom. You know what I’m talking about!). Secondly, the gypsies are evil, dirty people. Anyone who knows me knows how adamant I am about this. Oh, and I just found out that they steal the flowers from people’s graves in Spain. As if taking their wallets and purses wasn’t enough. F’in gypsies….BAH!

The next day, we got up and set out to get mom what she’d been yearning for the last two years….churros con chocolate! We went to a stand down by the river, and the excitement was palpable as mom watched them deep fry the dough and serve steaming hot cups of chocolate to other customers. When she finally had them, I think it was everything she’d been waiting for. After that, we headed down the river to see El torre de oro and take pictures from the bridge. Our next stop on the agenda was the Alcazar, which was another 20 minute hike back to city center. It’s really beautiful place, and I’ve enjoyed each time I’ve been. We then headed back to the hostel to take a mid-day nap. The procession parades were  going on all that night, and we wanted to have plenty of energy to view them. When we woke up a few hours later, mom, Lisa and I went to a Chinese supermarket and got the necessary supplies for a botellon. I had the addicted to tinto de verano after the first night we arrived, so that’s what we stocked up on. The processions were happening right outside of our hostel, so we all set up shop there to drink. Luckily, there was also a delicious pizza place right beside where we were drinking. It’s no surprise that’s what we ended up having for dinner. We ate quickly so we could get to the other side of town to see the silent procession–one of the most moving in Sevilla. Arriving an hour early, we staked out our spots. Lisa and I found a bar near by to grab a view beverages, and then we waited…and waited…and waited. When the parade did begin, it was beautiful. I was close enough to get some nicely detailed pictures as well.

Semana Santa

With the festivities still going strong, we headed back to the river again to see another procession. This was around 2 AM. We waited for a while for the floats to come, but we were all pretty tired. We decided to get one more drink by the river, then head back to the hostel. We had to be up early to catch our bus to Ronda…

It wasn’t that bad of a bus ride out to Ronda, except for the fact that vehicles and curvy roads don’t sit well with me. When we got there, we spent a good bit of time trying to figure out what to do with our luggage. We didn’t want to take it to our hostel because it was a good way outside of town, and we didn’t want to leave it in the bus station because it closed at 8 PM. We ended up begging a hostel to let us store our things in their baggage room–under the explicitly stated rule that we couldn’t use their bathrooms (we didn’t even need to). We then started off toward the main street where we encountered delicious homemade potato chips fresh from the fryer. They were so good! We needed something to tide us over until lunch time, and that definitely hit the spot. As we walked down the business district, we ducked into a few stores for some shopping. Then we made our way to the famous cliffs and El Tajo bridge. Mom wasn’t too big a fan of the heights, and I kept trying to push her buttons by getting close to the edge (where it wasn’t really that dangerous in the first place).  Ronda has to be one of my favorite places in Spain–it’s so beautiful that it’s overwhelming. We stopped along the way to see a church and some processions, but the real attraction was the views.

El Tajo Bridge

On the other side of this bridge, there was a cliff-side restaurant called Don Miguel where we had an amazing lunch. Scott and I both had the monkfish, which I hadn’t had since Barcelona. It’s a great dish, if you’ve never tried it. After our meal, we began the hike down to where I took this picture from. None of us wore very appropriate shoes that day, with the exception of Sandy (of course). It was a wonderful experience walking down through all the nature and taking in the beautiful views, but the hike back up was most painful. Not to mention I was in boots and leggings, making it seem about 10 degrees hotter. Strangely enough, I did see a few women doing the path in heels…props to them I guess, but that’s just crazy. About as crazy as people giving money to gypsies. Everyone was burning up when we got back to the top of the cliff, so we made a stop for ice cream and then headed off to the old part of town. Surprisingly enough, to get there was all uphill as well. When we made it to the top, we stopped for a break in the shade to have coffee. We each got two. Yes, we were that tired. After a good rest, we watched some more processions pass along. The floats weren’t carried from underneath, like in Sevilla, but instead were carried from poles sticking out on the sides. It seemed more traditional that way. We followed the parades up and down the town, and eventually ended up back at the Bullfighting Museum. It was really neat–there were many old costumes, defeated bulls, posters and such. Outside, mom paid 2 Euro to get her picture on a horse. This was really amusing to all of us, but I’m not allowed to post the pictures on here because mom would be “embarrassed” (however, if you want to see them, they might be on my snapfish account…hint, hint). After nightfall, we had a cheap dinner. Mom, Scott and Lisa had traditional bocadillos while Sandy and I opted for Burger King–a delicacy we rarely get since we live in the Spanish countryside. It was AWESOME, yet expensive. Then began the whole ordeal of getting to our hostel in Cartajima, a small town about 10 miles outside of Ronda. We ended up having to take two taxis out there, but in the end it was worth it. It was one of the coolest hostels I’d ever stayed at. It was very rustic, and being out in the country, we actually got decent sleep. Our host, Botz, was a really cool dude. We stayed up drinking and talking until 3 AM, listening to his stories of the punk days in England and his daze in Amsterdam. Every now and then, some children would throw firecrackers under the door, which would make a loud explosion. Thankfully, they ran out of ammo before we went to bed. The next morning, he cooked an amazing breakfast at the low cost of 4 Euro a plate. This hostel, El Refugio, is probably the best deal I’ve ever encountered in Spain. As we were leaving to catch the train to Granada, the children with firecrackers came back to give everyone a good wake up call. Scott, Lisa and Sandy headed out first to the train station, and Mom and I rode into town with some fellow backpackers a little later. While waiting for our train to leave, Scott and I went to get some Pork chop sandwiches for the train ride. They were very yummy.

We set off for Granada shortly after, which would be the last leg of our trip. We arrived somewhat later than first expected since we didn’t get to sleep until late the previous night. However, there was still plenty of sunlight to enjoy the city. The first thing that really strikes you about Granada is the snow-capped mountains in the distance. It’s quite a sight. I admired from afar as we began to search out our hostel. It was located pretty near to El Corte Ingles, so we all stopped by the super-mall to do some gift shopping. I picked up Sandy’s birthday present there, which I think he really liked. I got him a mini-sleeping bag to take on his walk across Spain later on. Mom and Lisa also got some things for the girls. After, we went on a small tapa tour. Granada is famous for its tapas it serves with drinks. They are much larger portions than you get in most other Spanish towns. I mostly remember the tasty sandwiches and shrimp, but we got a lot more than that. The variety was always surprising. Overall, our favorite tapa during the trip was probably fried calamari. They don’t seem to be as good anywhere else in the world. In one bar, we ordered calamari and Lisa and I had some delicious beer. She got the Duvel while I had the Chimay Blue–a little expensive, but worth it for its amazing taste and alcohol content. We strolled around Granada getting pictures of the Muslim architecture, and not surprisingly we ran into a few processions along the way. That evening, we went to the Alhambra for the night garden tour. We weren’t sure we were going to make it there in time because we got so lost, but after a few twists and turns, we found the right path. At the top, there were so many kitties running around! They were all very friendly, but this time I didn’t try to pick any up. The views of the city at night were beautiful. After we completed the tour, we headed back to town for a few more drinks and tapas to tide us over until morning. Then, as soon as it began, the last day was upon us. To start the morning off we went to take pictures of the Alhambra from the top of rather large hill. Up there, we saw a dog the size of a small horse. We stopped for coffees to admire the gentle giant and take in the view.

The Alhambra

After, we walked down the river and admired the natural beauty. We were going to try to find a cave village, but the map wasn’t very good. We ended up just taking a nice hike up a mountain. Mom was pretty stressed out at this point between recently finding out one of her credit cards had been blocked and getting ready to return home, so we decided to take the rest of the day pretty easily. Our last meal together was a Menu del Dia at a local restaurant. Lisa, Scott and Mom had the paella while Sandy and I had the chicken. It was all delicious! Especially the chocolate cake we had for dessert. Lunch brought our time in Granada to a close, and we hopped on a bus to the train station to go our separate ways. Unfortunately, it was Easter Sunday and all the trains were sold out. I’ve never heard of this happening–the trains are rather large, and the day before there were only three or four other people in our car when we came to Granada. Needless to say, we were pretty stressed about the whole situation. Turns out, we had to get on the same bus we had just gotten off of and go to the bus station. There, we bought our familys’ tickets to Madrid, and Sandy and I bought tickets to Sevilla. It had been a whirlwind week, but worth every second to spend time with my relatives and show them the country I love so much. It was tough saying goodbye, but it’s only seven weeks now until I see everyone again.

Shortly after they got on the bus to Madrid, we departed for Sevilla. It wasn’t too long of a ride, and it was just getting to be nightfall by the time we arrived. We took a taxi back to Camas, and by some odd stroke of luck, we managed to direct the driver to where our car was park. The sketchy looking man was still in the parking lot, as was our car. He approached us and said he’d been looking after the cars parked there during Semana Santa to make sure nothing happened to them. He, his son and grandsons were illegal immigrants without jobs. To make ends-meet, he set up camp in the parking lot, hoping to be paid by people returning to their vehicles. We gave him a few Euros and lots of thanks, then started our drive back to Castuera. Two hours later, we arrived at home–completely worn out. It was a great nights sleep in our own beds.

Other than that, Sandy’s birthday came and went. We went out to the beach and grilled out burgers to celebrate. For some reason, Sandy and Steven thought it’d be a great idea to throw mortar bombs right beside the grill, and we were lucky we still had anything to eat by the time they realized their mistake. We also had a party at the house where I made him a strawberry shortcake for his birthday, and Steven provided us with tacos in a bag. It was a yummy evening.

Happy 23rd birthday!

That weekend, Ingrid went back to Taiwan. Now our group in Castuera is down to Sandy, Steven, Line, Anna and me. We’ve been going to the beach at Isla de Zujar now that the weather is summer-like. It’s about 80 every day here now. Still, the Spaniards don’t understand why we’re wearing shorts and t-shirts. I’ll never understand that. One day a few weeks ago, the Hosteria and Turismo school had a big feast that was delicious. There were three different types of pizza, lots of desserts, veggies, roasted chicken, swordfish and empanadas among other things. I was so full when I got home! Sandy also got a huge serving of everything since I brough Tupperware that day. He was pretty happy about that.

The car had been giving us trouble as of recently–the radiator fluid was really dirty and overheating the car a lot, but now Sandy has it pretty much fixed. He had to flush it out many times, but at least I don’t think it’s going to blow up every time I drive it now. Also, we took Trashy to the vet the other week to have her spayed. It was an hour drive out there, and we had to wait two hours for the operation to be completed. Sandy and I went to a few bars to pass the time. Then we got a phone call–turns out that Trashy isn’t a she at all. Trashy is a castrated male. For some odd reason, the vet didn’t take notice of this until after she cut him open and looked for ovaries for 15 minutes. This means that kitty still had to wear a cone for a week and take lots of pills–thankfully, he’s all better now and back to his usual self. Now he just wants to go outside and play with the neighbor cat all the time! Oh, and here’s a funny picture of him getting a bath before the vet…which he did not enjoy at all.

OH NO!!!

Last weekend, there was a hike out to the concentration camp outside Castuera that we took part in. We thought it was supposed to be something relaxed, but turns out it was a very emotional ceremony to remember the dead. It was very moving. We somewhat underestimated the amount of time we were going to be out there, so we were all starving by the time we got home. Luckily, we’d just visited Carrefour and had plenty of delicious things to eat (bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches).

So, I think that hits all the big points of what’s gone on in the past month. I’m looking for a job, so if anyone from the Raleigh-Durham area reads this and needs an employee, please send me an email. In the meantime, I’ll be emailing lots of alumni and applying to things online. This doesn’t seem to be working very well though; I think because no one is interested in looking at someone who doesn’t currently live in America. I have more hope for when I can go drop off resumes in person, but we’ll see.

It’s five weeks until my friend Randi gets here. I’ve finally finished planning out what to do and where to eat in Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague and Vienna, and my EUrail pass is purchased. Thankfully, my Grandma Kaky helped me out some so I can keep on living until my return . (Thank you so much!)  Soon enough I’ll be back home. I can’t wait to see everyone again! All I need is a new car and a new job to be all set for a new chapter in life!

Until the next time…(which I promise I won’t go this long again without writing…sorry!)

Life goes on…

So I haven’t written lately….we’ve been busy with our new international friends, and I think the rain makes it harder for me to write. For one, we can’t go anywhere and have nifty adventures in weather this horrible. Also, it just seems to make me lethargic. I don’ t think it’s ever going to stop raining here! The dam in Orellana has been open for two or three weeks now…the last time they opened it was over 13 years ago! I got some pictures of it, but I haven’t got enough new pics on my camera to upload them all yet. Another things I hate about the rain–perpetual mold in the bathroom. I can’t wait for Spain to return to its usual dry state!

Last week was Semana Cultural at the Hosteleria and Turismo school. We got to have nifty demonstrations and try lots of tasty things. A man came and gave a chocolate demonstration. I hope that some time I can try to make chocolate stuff like he did; it looked pretty advanced though! I was there last week, and I’ll go back this week too. I had spent two weeks in a row at the high school, which wasn’t that bad since one week was really short due to Carnival. Besides, it’s not so bad teaching over there now that I make stops to the bar next door before my rough classes. Or after a hard day, I can always go and get a beer an tapa to get my nerves back to normal before heading home.

Barbara, the girl from Italy, went home the other week. We made her a big American meal the week before she left–chicken, biscuits, apple pie, mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus. She loved it! We also had over Anna, Line, Steven and Adrian to eat. A couple days later, Barbara made us a large Italian dinner before she left. She made an interesting tuna pizza…I might have to try my own hand at it some time. Sandy and I have also been having Steven over for dinner more often. We enjoy the extra company. One night he came over and we had baked potatoes and grilled shrimp. I made a strawberry pie for dessert, but I was somewhat disappointed in how it turned out. I’ll probably make another one again soon to get back into my groove.

Sandy and Steven have finished basketball as well. I think that Sanz more or less enjoyed it. He celebrated last night by going out  with the team to drink…and he was adorably hung over this morning! The team is still going to do pickup games on the weekend, so I’m happy the boys will still have that entertainment. We’re also trying to host an American Party on the 12th–complete with beer bongs the boys enthusiastically already constructed and used. We’ll finally have “walking tacos.” This is a bag of Doritos with cheese and ground meat mixed up inside…apparently popular in Iowa. It sounds delicious…

Trashy is doing well. She’s not too fond of the rain either…she can’t go outside and explore! The one day it was sunny out, she managed to hop over into our neighbor’s garden. We had to go over to their house to retrieve her–silly couldn’t find the path back across. Since then, her outside privileges have been limited.

Sandy and I also got some great packages in the mail lately–Thanks to Janice and Richard for the toffee, and Tony and Leah for the care package! I’ve already finished “Homer’s Odyssey,” and it was really enjoyable! We’ve also been snacking on all the delicious treats!

It’s also close to my mom, uncle Scott and aunt Lisa to visit. I’m so excited to see familiar faces from back home! I can’t wait to show them all around this place I love so much. We’ll be going to Sevilla, Granada and Ronda in southern Spain. After that, I’m going to need to start buying things to prepare for Randy and my’s great trip at the beginning of June…we’re going to have an awesome time traveling though Amsterdam, Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. Before that though, I think Sandy and I are going to go visit Lisbon with Rocio sometime in April–it should be lots of fun. I want to see some of the castles they have there!

Other than all that, I can’t believe it’s already March. It seems like just yesterday we were arriving here, and in less than no time I’ll be back in the USA–I just hope I can find a decent job! No one seems to be replying to candidates currently based overseas, so I’m hoping in-person job hunting will go somewhat better. We’ll see….

Well, I hope to have some more adventures to post if the rain ever stops. Until then…

Goodbye Party for Barbara

Oh, and we got a digital cable converter…so now instead of only getting six channels, we get 20! Oh, the technological advancements!!!

Carnaval

Last weekend was Carnaval here in Spain and around the world. It’s a long weekend in which the people have parades, drink and eat lots of food. The celebration is most similar to Halloween in the U.S., only here it lasts five days instead of one night. Last Friday, Sandy’s school and all the other schools for young children gave a parade. It was pretty amusing to see Sandy in his costume dressed as an African.

Cute Kids

Sandy the Africa

All the little children were adorable too. I took way too many photos, to say the least. Steven met me at the parade to watch. We walked along with the people until they reached the large tent at the end. Then Steven and I went to get a drink while we waited for Sandy. All of the town was out for the festivities. The costumes were pretty varied too. Here, people prefer to make their costumes and travel in groups. After a beer at the Plaza Bar, we went to pick up Sandy and head to La Perla Negra. There, we had another beer or two while Sandy’s students taunted him from a booth. After that we hit up the casino bar to have a couple more beers and tapas. Thank goodness for tapas–free food you get with beer–we would have been really drunk if not for them! We decided it was a good idea to rest up for the party that evening, so we all headed back home to nap and have dinner. Much later, we went back out to drink with the townspeople. It was the “quiet” night of Carnaval, so it was a little boring. We only stayed for a few hours, then headed back to rest up for day two.

Why hello, Mr. President...

On Saturday, there was a parade for all the older kids in town. We headed out to see this a little after 6 PM, and it was quite a show. There was even a pirate ship float that shot out confetti! A few things to take note of when the Spanish dress up in costumes. They seem to like to have groups of people in the same costume–large groups of 10 to 15 people. Also, the boys and the men really like to dress up like women. You see this every once in a while in the U.S., but here it seems to be the norm. To us, a lot of the costumes here seemed to be a little stereotypical. Instead of choosing one specific person to be, people will be African or Asian. However, I did get a picture with Mr. and Mrs. Obama (see above)–take note of the “blackface” that doesn’t have any stigma attached to it here. Even the town crazy showed up to lead the parade into the tent–he’s always a hoot.

After the parade passed, we went home to have some dinner. That evening we went out to party in the tent some more. I had on some awesome makeup–I didn’t feel like going out and buying a real costume. The kids from Steven’s and Sandy’s schools crowded around us the whole night–they wanted to talk about drinking and our costumes. They never seem to tire of how us Americans do things. We bar hopped and got some Spanish hot dogs–which are a baguette with a hot dog down the middle of them. Other than a lot of drinking, nothing much went on that night.

Rockin' the Snooki

Sunday was Valentine’s Day. Sandy got me some lovely Fererro Roche chocolates, made me a card, and took me to a lovely Italian dinner at our favorite restaurant in Don Benito. I had the best pizza there! I gave him a nice picture I drew and a Spanish cookbook. He even made me lunch from one of the recipes! Other than that, we had a pretty relaxed day. I talked with one of my students on facebook, and she invited me to go to Badajoz (the capital of Extremadura) with her on Monday. It sounded like fun, so I decided to go while Sandy stayed home and studied for the GRE.

Cristina, my student, lives in Orellana and is 20 year old. I went to her house early on Monday and had lunch with her family. That evening, she and her friends were going to botellon in their costumes in Badajoz. That’s the big night for students in the area to celebrate Carnaval. She and her friends were galaticas (a.k.a. people from the future), and I just put on a mask of makeup. That evening I had my first Telepizza (the only pizza delivery service in Spain), and it wasn’t that bad. All of Cristina’s friends were really nice. I was able to hold my own in conversation throughout my visit, so that was nice. There were only a couple of times that they started talking rapidly, and I couldn’t understand. After we had dinner and got ready, our group headed out. It was around midnight when we got to our destination to drink, which was out in a big plaza. Sadly, it rained the whole time. People said there was a lot more going on last year. I’m so tired of rain! It never seems to stop raining these days! Anyways, I only made it until 5:00 AM—which I thought was pretty damn good for a girl who never goes to bed past 2 AM. Cristina and a friend walked me back to the apartment we were staying at, then they went out again. She said they didn’t get in until 8:30 AM. I don’t know how the Spanish do it! We slept until 2 PM the next day, then woke up and headed back to the apartment where our ride was staying. There, we ordered some lunch and visited with her friends a little more. I didn’t end up getting back home from Badajoz until 8:30 that evening. It was a great trip, but I was Spanished-out by the end of it! It was nice to speak English with Sandy for a little while.

Our group from Carnaval

It was nice not to have work until Wednesday. Luckily, I didn’t have any classes on the day I got back. Hence, I only had to suffer through the high school students for one day this week. I’ve begun to have beers after work at the bar next door to take the edge off from having to deal with those kids. Next week, I’ll go to the high school again since I need to spend two consecutive weeks at the Hosteleria school. We’re going to make sock monkeys there…I’M SO EXCITED!!!

The last little tid-bit of news is this–yesterday evening, Sandy and I went to see Avatar in 3D in Don Benito with some other international people here in Castuera. We went with Anna from Germany and Barbara from Italy. We got a little lost though, and missed the first 15 minutes of the movie. Still, the effects were amazing, and it was neat to finally see a film in a Spanish theater. I had a headache afterwards from the goggles though. When we got back to Castuera, Barbara made us some carbonara. We hung out at their apartment for a while. Whenever we hang out with them, we have to speak spanish because it’s the only language everyone knows. Ha, ha. Barb made me some coffee after dinner. It was near midnight, so when I got home I went into a small cleaning frenzy. Sandy found out yesterday he has strep throat, so every thing is on me for a few days. Today I made him some chicken and rice soup. We still have a ton left, so I think it will tide him over until he feels better. Now, I’m going to go make some chocolate chips cookies to repay Barb for her pasta. I’m glad this weekend is more relaxed than the last one because I had gotten really behind on everything! Hope everyone in the U.S. had a great Valentine’s Day and weekend as well! Oh, and sorry you had to wait so long for this blog post!

Trip to a creepy old graveyard…

Yesterday, Sandy and I went to an abandoned old castle in Magacela–a town between Castuera and Don Benito. It was a nice day out, so I packed us some sandwiches, mandarin oranges, red wine and dark chocolate for lunch. We found the town pretty easily thanks to Spain’s few roads and high visibility. It was a long way up to the top since the town is located on the side of a mountain. At one point, Sandy had to turn around in the road, and we almost went off the side of the mountain. Luckily, we made it out of the ditch after a scare or two. We parked the car and tried to find the path up to the top. We went the wrong way, however, so we ended up having to rock climb to the top and jump over an old wall. Once we were inside, the place was amazing.

We’d seen lots of castles in tact and well taken care of, but this one was really different. It was all in ruins. There was an old church that was in pretty good repair, but it was locked. We could only look from the outside in. We went to explore the high tower in the middle since we thought we’d get the best views from there. After a short climb up a wobbly old ladder, we were at the top. It was beautiful. No one was in sight, and we could see for miles in all directions. We sat down for our lunch there. The sun kept on poking out from the clouds, and there was a slight breeze. Not many people get to enjoy so solitary a lunch!

At out lunch spot.

I went lightly on the wine, since I was afraid of going down the ladder tipsy. We made it down alright and continued our excursion. From the top we could see an old graveyard, so we headed there next. It was the most creepy graveyard I’ve ever visited. All of the graves were broken into except for a couple of children’s graves. These graves are above ground, unlike most graveyards in the U.S.  All the skulls were missing from the bodies. In some graves, the people’s clothes still hadn’t deteriorated and their shoe soles were left. Someone’s pelvis was lying between two underground graves. It was shocking to see how people could allow this to happen to a graveyard. In one of the first graves we looked at, Sandy spotted a femur. It wouldn’t go in to get it, so I crawled into the grave and brought it out for inspection. It looked like these graves had been open to the elements for a long time. Sandy thinks it’s because poor people came to steal anything of value from the dead, which would make sense in the times of Franco when things were exceptionally bad for Spain. We put the femur back and walked around a little more, taking in what was definitely the weirdest graveyard we’d probably ever visit.

Open Graves

Do you see the bones?

After that, we walked around the ruins some more and began to make our way down the mountain. The car was still where we left it, thankfully–I was a little afraid it might roll away. We hopped in and started off to our second destination…Carrefour! (AKA Wal-Mart of Spain) We had to pick up some essentials that we can’t find in Castuera–such as soy sauce, peanut butter and tortillas. It was a good afternoon out and about. We headed home to rest and hang out with Trashy. Sandy then went to basketball practice, and I caught up on Grey’s Anatomy. All-in-all, it was a good day. We don’t really have anything else planned for this weekend. Sandy has a game today, and I’m going to read some more in “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.” Maybe something good will even come on TV!

La Pequena Sara Palin

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A weekend more exciting than usual.

On Thursday, we went to the Hosteleria and Turismo school to have dinner. The students there needed to practice their cooking/serving skills, and we volunteered to be practiced on. It was well worth it because all the food was delicious! We started out with a rice and beef broth appetizer, and then chose from various plates on the menu. I had the shrimp carpaccio for my first plate and steamed tuna for my second. Everyone was served a delicious mixed fruit plate for dessert. Sandy and I had a great time hanging out with Rocio and the other professors. The dinner went until about 11:30 that night, and after we came back home. Sandy was still getting over a cold, so we turned in for the night.

Friday we woke up and headed out to Santa Amalia. It’s a little town on the other side of Don Benito. One of the women I work with at the H & T school invited us to come to her house for lunch. We arrived in the plaza at 1, but Maria Teresa wasn’t there to meet us yet. We decided to get some drinks at the big bar in plaza. There, we were served by a Portuguese woman who spoke nearly fluent English. She had lived in England for six years. We had a nice conversation with her while we drank and ate our tapas. Teresa arrived and had a beer as well.  When we left, the Portuguese woman was nice enough to cover our bill since she insisted she never got to practice English anymore. We promised to come back since she was so nice, and it didn’t hurt that the tapas were delicious and abundant as well. From the bar, we walked to the elementary school to pick up Teresa’s son, Fernando. On the way, we stopped at one of her friends houses. The friend had a son around our age who’d actually been to Chapel Hill, Raleigh and Durham. It was pretty surreal. He also spoke almost fluent English. We promised to stop by later for a coffee and continued toward the school. Fernando was full of himself! He want to show Sandy and me all the interesting things he had and all his talents. He was a cute kid, and the same age as my sister Mia. We got back to Teresa’s house and had a huge lunch with her, her husband, Fernando and her daughter Isabel (17-year-old). We started out with the traditional salchicon, chorizo, jamon and lomo with bread and cheese. I filled up pretty quick on all that. Then came garbanzo bean soup. It was very hearty as well. I thought that had to be all the food, but there was still more! Then we had more meat–chicken, something akin to pot roast, and pig’s ear (which we weren’t very fond of). She also tried to give us some blood sausage, but after the pig killing, I couldn’t make myself eat any. Teresa also wanted to give us a large dessert, but we all we had room for was a little fruit. She gave us the largest orange’s I’d ever seen. They were amazing.

After lunch, we headed to the nearby town of Medellin. It was a beautiful town with old castles and beautiful views. We explored an old church and walked around the perimeter of the castle. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to go in because it was about to close. We’re going to have to go back another time. While walking through the town, we were followed by a one-eyed dog. I named it Lefty (since that was it’s only good eye). She was a sweet girl, but I think she had been abused before because she was very skittish. Sandy also found a baby snake and picked it up! That grossed me out. When the sun started to go down, we headed to a bar on the top of a hill opposite the castle. The views were spectacular. Teresa also knows the owners of the place. The gentleman that owned it was pretty loaded from what we understood. He was a businessman of sorts. He was also nice enough to buy us our drinks.

Maria Teresa, Me and Fernando

It was getting pretty late by that time, so we headed back to Santa Amalia to meet Maria Teresa’s friend again. At her house, we had more chorizo, jamon, etc. with white bread and cheese (I don’t understand how they can eat so much of it all the time!). We also had a chance to talk more with the woman’s son, Eusebio. He apparently goes to the U.S. every summer. We spent another hour or so talking and making friends. Then, we decided to make the trek home. We finally got back around 10 PM to a very hungry Trashy. She got a special treat for having to be alone all day.

On Saturday, we didn’t really do much since we’d been so busy up until then. Sandy and Steven went to their basketball game around 6 PM, and I did some house cleaning. I’ve been trying to finish “Vanity Fair” this weekend, so that’s what I’ve been in to a lot during my free time. I also finished watching the series “Pushing Daisies.” If you haven’t seen it, it’s pretty good. Unlike most other TV programs I’ve seen. When Sanz and Steven got back from their ball game, we all went to a goodbye party for one of the other foreigners here in Castuera. The Russian was going back home. We arrived at the party pretty late due to said basketball game. There was plenty of left over food though, so we chowed down. It was like an international buffet. There were foods from Denmark, Spain, Russia and France. Then the group headed out to bar in town. It was pretty smoky inside the bar, and Sandy and I couldn’t make it very long. We ended up dipping out at about 2 AM to come home.

Now, it’s Sunday. I’ve cleaned again (it’s what I seem to have the most time to do), and I’m also in the process of doing laundry. We’re about to watch The Simpsons, which is basically the only interesting thing that comes on TV on a regular basis. Tomorrow starts a new work week, and I happen to be at the high school–so wish me luck! Next weekend, Sandy and I are going on a weekend trip with Rocio. It should be exciting. Until then, I doubt if anything too interesting will happen to us.

Pues, hasta la proxima vez!

Cat Business – Le chat homme d’affaire

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The Best of Dave Chapelle

Something that’s hilarious. It has subtitles in Spanish if you’re trying to learn a little. Its also on my American Culture website.

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