A Bit More of Santiago

First I just want to take a moment to acknowledge the shooting in Connecticut, and explain a bit the differences between the schools in the USA and here. My heart breaks more and more with every new piece of information that comes out, and my friends here are sending good wishes to the families in Connecticut, along with me. I also got to thinking about my students here, and how not a single one of them has any reason to fear that something even remotely similar to this would happen here. Lock-down drills do not exist. Teachers are not trained on what to do if a gunman comes to the school. No one is shot in a mall. Gun violence does not exist here. Violence hardly exists here. All I can think about in relation to my students is how they are so lucky to not have to know what to do if someone comes to your school with a gun, like we all had to. I also have to say that not being in my country when a tragedy of this magnitude occurs is really difficult, it's not something I had even thought about, but of all the things that I miss about home, I miss the mutual understanding that comes after an incident like this. Although my friends offer condolences, it is nothing close to when I spoke with my family and friends back home.Of all the trials of being here, this one is the hardest. My heart goes out to all of those affected.
Moving on from this tragedy, I will update everyone on my life here. Things are going great at work, the students are learning so much and are so much fun. They have just finished their finals and this next week they are preparing for a Christmas assembly, I hope to be able to attend. To prepare for the assembly I have been asked to help teach the students how to sing. I'll pause here for laughter, for those of who have had the chance to hear me sing, I'm sorry, for the rest of you, you're welcome. I can only assume that this will help my admirers to stop admiring me.
At my apartment things have been going great as well. We all adore our new roommate, it was quite the upgrade from the last one. As it turns out Andrea stole from us, making this the second time I've been robbed in Spain. We all had given her money for the bills, and she pocketed it. We found out when our electricity got cut, a couple months of bills hadn't been paid, because she lied. So needless to say we all extra peeved with her, but there is really nothing to be done about it. Now we are all thrilled to have Francesca, and our money. And a clean apartment. With electricity. All of the things any normal person could possibly desire. I've been spending lots of my free time with Francesca and her friends, Giorgia and Giuly. They are all incredibly nice, and incredibly Italian. I am even learning how to speak some Italian, with my first full phrase being pezzo di merda (piece of shit). Galician men seem to think that foreign women like to have their asses pinched while walking down the street. We don't. We actually really despise it.
Tonight we went out and took photos of Santiago at nighttime, it is truly breathtaking. Here are some of the photos we took.

 Cathedral of Santiago

 Shadow of a pilgrim, amazing detail

 Plaza de Platerías

 Francesca, Giorgia, Giuly

Happy Holidays (in Galician)

I am really excited for this next week, because Kim gets here! I have been planning all sorts of great things to do with her, and then it's off to Turkey!