This weekend I hit the two month marker in my time in Spain. It is surreal to think that I have been living here for that amount of time already, up until now two months was the longest amount of time I had been away from home. I finally feel like I really have gotten into the groove of life in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, which is no small feat. This past week I began to use the gym, an act that benefits me in every possible way. My time at the gym allows me to de-stress, something that I have to do a little extra of while living with the family, it is also something normal, I would spend time to go to the gym back home, going to the gym also allows me to eat Narcisa's cooking and not have to go up a size in my pants. Finally it serves as comic relief. On Saturday I saw someone fall off her treadmill (because she was too into the Nick Jr show that was on TV, she's older than me and there was no sound either...). The radio plays music from the USA, but the station is local and the DJs like to sing the lyrics, something that never fails to make me laugh. It is obvious that no one apart from me understands the lyrics as these are songs that are heavily edited in the USA before being played on the radio. This week I have also been out to eat at the Mexican restaurant, TWICE! Two months of no enchiladas (another mile marker, I had never gone that long before without enchiladas, and hope to never go that long again) and I broke the streak by going twice. I got to teach my friends how to take tequila shots, something that the bartender was clearly impressed by as I am assuming the Spanish are not savvy to the method either. The waiters also seem to be from Latin America as they understand the terminology from Mexico when I talk (this is something that is the biggest relief of all, Mexico and Spain have very distinct terms, think USA vs England, but augmented). Looking back now I realize that maybe the gym hasn't been my stress relief this past week and perhaps my money would be better spent at the Mexican restaurant...
I began intercambios with Mari Fe this week, the Spanish/English teacher, and absolutely loved spending time with her. We met twice this week and she corrects every little mistake I make, which is exactly what I want people to do; at the same time if I say something that is just odd sounding (i.e. a phrase) she asks if it is said that way in Mexico and will also teach me how it is said in Spain, though she insists that there is no reason that I should change the way I speak if I don't want to. This is fantastic, I have nothing against learning Spanish Spanish, but I was offended when I traveled in January and was told I had to change my Mexican Spanish to Spanish Spanish. I can tell that I will learn a lot from Mari Fe, both about Spanish as well as about how to teach. She is patient and encouraging and really down to earth. I also met with Javier again and we went on a hike to la silla de Felipe II, a long hike I was not prepared for, but valio la pena (it was worth the effort/hard work/exertion), the view is incredible from the top. He also lent me some films by a Pedro Almodóvar, a director I had mentioned I adore. I also received two more phone calls from my flier and will be meeting Luis and Dario this next weekend. I am so excited to have the chance to meet with more people and practice more Spanish. I am starting to feel like it is getting very well polished and that by the end of the summer (when I finish being an Au Pair with this family) I will be all the way polished, with my grammar that is.
Jara and Ana (not the girls I live with, the house I go to once a day) continue to be the two cutest girls in Spain, this week they began using English when they talk as much as possible and I realized I mislead them. Jara asked me "que cierres los ojos pleeease, no te voy a dar teeckle teeckle" (close your eyes please, I'm not going to tickle you). I had tickled her a week ago and said "TICKLE TICKLE. TICKLE TICKLE" when I did it, without thinking about it, and that is a word she has picked up on. Because of the way I said it she hear 'teeckle' and she also believes that 'to tickle' is 'teeckle teeckle', it is so cute I have no reason to fix that pronunciation. The girls also clipped roses from their garden for me to keep in my room so it would be pretty. I enjoy my time with them so much and it is amazing to see that in such a short amount of time they have gone from no English to being able to understand what I am asking to using the words they know in their sentences. All of this just from playing games with me for an hour a day.
Friday night I sucked it up and went out in Madrid. It is not that I was against going out and having fun, it was the daunting idea of the lack of sleep it would entail. Indigo and I left San Lorenzo on the 10pm bus and arrived to Madrid and then to a restaurant at 11pm, for dinner. Normal. Following dinner was the bar. We met up with Emily and her friends at a bar where we hung out until 2am, closing time, not bed time. 2am means club time. At this point we went and found a dance club. We danced until 5am (though the club was open until 6am) and left for pizza and to catch the bus home at 5:30am. After the bus ride came the hike up my hill. When it was all said and done I went to bed at 7am. I had so much fun going out, but was so grateful that Saturday I had nothing to do because all I could do was sleep and watch movies.
Today a friend from Boise came to visit me in San Lorenzo. We took a class together my last semester at BSU and she has been studying in Madrid for the semester and we just found out a month ago we were both here. It was so much fun to be able to talk to someone from home, we could talk about restaurants we liked and use STREET NAMES! When I first said "The one on Apple St?" we both freaked out, irrationally to those around us, but I still hold that our reactions were warranted. We took a tour of the Monasterio de El Escorial, and I was thrilled to finally be doing that. I hadn't done the tour because when she asked a month ago if she could come visit I decided to wait and do it with her. The inside was beautiful, breathtaking really, with paintings, tapestries, church, crypts and a library.
The monasterio houses almost all of the kings and queens of Spain in the Pateon de los Reyes, a beautiful, circular room with marble caskets floor to ceiling (no photos were allowed anywhere inside, sorry, here is the Wiki link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Escorial). The library was my favorite part with the ceiling split to represent the seven 'liberal studies', including language, medicine and math. At the end of the tour we had limon granizados, a lemon slush that is unreal, lunch at a bar with NASCAR on TV, and housing the Spanish version of typical NASCAR fans (a treat in itself...) and finally we went for a walk around the town. It was so fun to show the town to a friend and I hadn't realized until we were walking around how much I actually know about San Lorenzo and that I have really begun to make it my (temporary) home.
The photos we took are of the monasterio, the gardens that surround it and of Marilyn and me. I also snapped some shots of a typical street in the downtown area of San Lorenzo (the area with apartments) and the 'gym' that is at the park. These work out spots are set up in all the parks in town, and most of the cities in Spain actually, and are typically used by the elderly or children who don't know they are working out. I look forward to a week full of intercambios and new experiences. HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!
I began intercambios with Mari Fe this week, the Spanish/English teacher, and absolutely loved spending time with her. We met twice this week and she corrects every little mistake I make, which is exactly what I want people to do; at the same time if I say something that is just odd sounding (i.e. a phrase) she asks if it is said that way in Mexico and will also teach me how it is said in Spain, though she insists that there is no reason that I should change the way I speak if I don't want to. This is fantastic, I have nothing against learning Spanish Spanish, but I was offended when I traveled in January and was told I had to change my Mexican Spanish to Spanish Spanish. I can tell that I will learn a lot from Mari Fe, both about Spanish as well as about how to teach. She is patient and encouraging and really down to earth. I also met with Javier again and we went on a hike to la silla de Felipe II, a long hike I was not prepared for, but valio la pena (it was worth the effort/hard work/exertion), the view is incredible from the top. He also lent me some films by a Pedro Almodóvar, a director I had mentioned I adore. I also received two more phone calls from my flier and will be meeting Luis and Dario this next weekend. I am so excited to have the chance to meet with more people and practice more Spanish. I am starting to feel like it is getting very well polished and that by the end of the summer (when I finish being an Au Pair with this family) I will be all the way polished, with my grammar that is.
Jara and Ana (not the girls I live with, the house I go to once a day) continue to be the two cutest girls in Spain, this week they began using English when they talk as much as possible and I realized I mislead them. Jara asked me "que cierres los ojos pleeease, no te voy a dar teeckle teeckle" (close your eyes please, I'm not going to tickle you). I had tickled her a week ago and said "TICKLE TICKLE. TICKLE TICKLE" when I did it, without thinking about it, and that is a word she has picked up on. Because of the way I said it she hear 'teeckle' and she also believes that 'to tickle' is 'teeckle teeckle', it is so cute I have no reason to fix that pronunciation. The girls also clipped roses from their garden for me to keep in my room so it would be pretty. I enjoy my time with them so much and it is amazing to see that in such a short amount of time they have gone from no English to being able to understand what I am asking to using the words they know in their sentences. All of this just from playing games with me for an hour a day.
Friday night I sucked it up and went out in Madrid. It is not that I was against going out and having fun, it was the daunting idea of the lack of sleep it would entail. Indigo and I left San Lorenzo on the 10pm bus and arrived to Madrid and then to a restaurant at 11pm, for dinner. Normal. Following dinner was the bar. We met up with Emily and her friends at a bar where we hung out until 2am, closing time, not bed time. 2am means club time. At this point we went and found a dance club. We danced until 5am (though the club was open until 6am) and left for pizza and to catch the bus home at 5:30am. After the bus ride came the hike up my hill. When it was all said and done I went to bed at 7am. I had so much fun going out, but was so grateful that Saturday I had nothing to do because all I could do was sleep and watch movies.
Today a friend from Boise came to visit me in San Lorenzo. We took a class together my last semester at BSU and she has been studying in Madrid for the semester and we just found out a month ago we were both here. It was so much fun to be able to talk to someone from home, we could talk about restaurants we liked and use STREET NAMES! When I first said "The one on Apple St?" we both freaked out, irrationally to those around us, but I still hold that our reactions were warranted. We took a tour of the Monasterio de El Escorial, and I was thrilled to finally be doing that. I hadn't done the tour because when she asked a month ago if she could come visit I decided to wait and do it with her. The inside was beautiful, breathtaking really, with paintings, tapestries, church, crypts and a library.
The monasterio houses almost all of the kings and queens of Spain in the Pateon de los Reyes, a beautiful, circular room with marble caskets floor to ceiling (no photos were allowed anywhere inside, sorry, here is the Wiki link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Escorial). The library was my favorite part with the ceiling split to represent the seven 'liberal studies', including language, medicine and math. At the end of the tour we had limon granizados, a lemon slush that is unreal, lunch at a bar with NASCAR on TV, and housing the Spanish version of typical NASCAR fans (a treat in itself...) and finally we went for a walk around the town. It was so fun to show the town to a friend and I hadn't realized until we were walking around how much I actually know about San Lorenzo and that I have really begun to make it my (temporary) home.
The photos we took are of the monasterio, the gardens that surround it and of Marilyn and me. I also snapped some shots of a typical street in the downtown area of San Lorenzo (the area with apartments) and the 'gym' that is at the park. These work out spots are set up in all the parks in town, and most of the cities in Spain actually, and are typically used by the elderly or children who don't know they are working out. I look forward to a week full of intercambios and new experiences. HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!
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