acción de gracias

i realized today that i have a lot to be thankful about in general, but especially in the last year. so on my walk home from school, i came up with this list of what i'm thankful for...

1) my family- my parents are the most supportive people in my life. they encouraged me (well dad a little reluctantly) to come to spain. when i'm feeling homesick, they're always there to talk to me and make me feel better, always reminding me that i'll see them soon. it's pretty amazing to have parents who support you so much in whatever choice you make, and i feel so blessed that they're my parents. and then of course sean and kathleen, who always make me laugh. sean is my drinking/sports buddy, kathleen my shopping buddy. having siblings is a blessing, but being as close as we are is a double blessing. and family extends to my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, all who have offered me words of encouragement when i decided to experience a foreign country. one thing my aunt joanne wrote to me was "never mistake being alone for loneliness." that was one of the best pieces of advice i received before i left, and everytime i feel homesick or like there's no one to talk to, i remember that quote. sorry that was mushy, i'll try to be funnier now...

2) my friends- new friends and old friends!!! my US friends, always keeping me updated on what's happening back home, always interested in my stories, some even planning trips to see me! what more can a girl ask for. and my new friends here, who can relate to how i'm feeling, and are always willing to go out for tapas and travel. or help me out if i need it.

3) food- this has several subcategories, because i've realized that there are just some foods that make life a million times better, and they are...
churros con chocolate- my sundays would be pointless and boring without them.
eggs- since they are basically the only thing i eat, i might be dead if they didn't exist.
stove top stuffing- two boxes arrived in the mail the other day from my mom. after a bitter internal struggle, i decided to share them at our thanksgiving dinner on saturday. guess you can't be selfish on thanksgiving.
french fries- no explanation necessary
croquetas- my favorite tapa of all time. so crispy and delicious

4)laughter- while being in spain, i have realized how much i laugh. i find everything funny. for example...
my students- every single class makes me laugh. sometimes on purpose, sometimes not. yesterday while the professor was teaching the possessive "s", he asked, "what does Charlie's chicken mean?" and one girl blurted out, "pollo que se llama Charlie!" (a chicken named Charlie!). the entire class could not stop laughing, and she was such a good sport about it, laughing along with them.
the leg of ham in the teachers lounge- i wish i was kidding. there is a whole leg of ham. see picture below.
the skinny black santa trying to sell bootleg dvds in the middle of the road today

5) opportunities- how many people are able to do what i'm doing?

6) airmail- how else would i have stuffing for thanksgiving?

7) trivia night at hannigans- actually makes monday my favorite day of the week

8) skype and facebook- you can keep in touch with any and everybody

9) a job- unlike a lot of people in spain, i have an income!

i know there's a lot more things i'm thankful for, but right now i need a siesta (#10), will add more later!

came up with a few more!!
11) hot water! those few days without was quite the eye-opener

12) that i'm healthy! and my friends and family too!

13) airplanes - i just can't imagine how the pilgrims did it!

14) that i get to see my friends and family in 28 days :)

two weeks worth of catch-up

as predicted, i'm not very good at keeping a blog! so now i have a lot to catch up on...

first of all, i am so happy here. don't worry mom, i'm not going to move here permanently, but right now i am just really happy. all the time too! but how can you not be when you're living in granada? it's impossible to be grouchy and moody and sad.

anyway, last weekend was a great one. on friday, my friends eve and kelsey and i went to our british friend tom's apartment since his roommate offered to cook dinner. his roommate is from italy, so we had the most delicious carbonara pasta i've ever had in my entire life. then on sunday, eve and i went to ronda, this really adorable little town about 2.5 hours away. the entire town was built on top of a really high gorge, it's actually kind of scary. the first thing we did when we got there was hike down into the gorge. really awesome pictures, but the hike back up was brutal! next up was visiting the bullring, which is the oldest in spain. ronda is really beautiful, but after you see the bullring, the church, and the gorge, there's not much else to do except walk around.(see pics below!)

i can't believe it's already the middle of november! next week i have two thanksgiving dinners to go to (so popular, i know...), but they don't have full turkeys here. or stuffing. or cranberry sauce. or pumpkin pie. or football. or the macy's day parade. but it will be fun anyway!!! the second week of december we have a four day weekend (actually we have tuesday and thursday off, so it's kind of a pointless week), and i booked a trip to paris! i'm so excited. i thought i was going to do soo much traveling here, but i'm finding out how difficult it is. i love granada, but it's really inconveniently located. almost no flights fly out of granada, so i either have to take a 2 hour bus to malaga or a 5 hour bus to madrid. even traveling within spain is kind of a pain! but i'm really really excited for january... i'm going to go visit sean in london for a few days!

have i mentioned how much i love my school? there is never a dull moment. and i guess i like it so much since i'm not the main teacher who has to yell at scream at the kids to be quiet every second. they really do talk nonstop. and like i said before, the teaching style here is extremely different from the US, and even though i love it, sometimes i feel bad for the kids. for instance, last week one of the students was telling on another, and instead of solving the situation, the teacher went off on the tattletale, telling him he looks and acts like a grandfather. i had to hide my face because the kid really does look like a grandfather. two weeks ago, in the third grade class, they were drawing pictures of animal habitats. when the biggest boy in the class came up to show the teacher his gorilla, she burst out laughing in his face. again, i had to turn so he wouldn't see me laughing, but the drawing was just so funny looking. when he walked away she turned to me and said "it's funny because it's big and looks like him!" i felt so bad for him that i went over and told him it was great. she then came up and told him it either looks like a man dressed like a gorilla or a gorilla dressed like a man. these kids can not have high self esteem. and just yesterday, while learning the formation of the present third person, the teacher became so frustrated that they didn't understand that she started screaming that she was going to jump out the window. then one of the girls started crying. i don't think yelling at them will help them learn, but then again, i'm not the main teacher, so i just try to be nice and help them as best i can.


pretty random series of thoughts, but i'll get better at writing, i promise!!

ps... there's snow on the mountains here!!!! so pretty!!

halloween and the greatest day of the year

since i haven't written in a while, i first have to acknowledge the awesome package i received from my family this week. it had a little bit of halloween, birthday, and christmas! and cheez-its (my obsession from the summer thanks to the waescos and their never-ending supply!!) and pez and sweedish fish. here is my newly decorated bookcase...

moving on...lucky for all of us here in spain, on tuesday we didn't have school because of all saint's day (and because it was my birthday...). so instead of having to stay in and do lesson planning (i wouldn't have done that anyway but it's beside the point), i got to celebrate my birthday... zombie style!!

i learned a lot about how the spanish do halloween in the past few weeks. the students all know about zombies, frankenstein, witches, ghosts, etc. they don't know about candy corn, they don't know how awesome trick-or-treating can be, and they don't know how to be creative when it comes to costumes. since it's only apartment complexes here, the kids can't really go trick or treating, which sucks for them because in my opinion eating all the candy is the best part of halloween. i saw very few kids out and about, and the few that i did see were the ones that came into hannigans. yes, they trick or treat in bars. as for costumes, everyone dresses up as something disgusting and scary and gory. the little girls that came into the bar were nurses with blood all over them. very adorable. but since i'm totally immersing myself in the spanish culture, my friends and i decided we should do as the spanish do. the result was a ton of white and red makeup all over my face. (see below) everytime i looked in the mirror i was actually scared of myself. so after an hour of getting ready, we were ready to head to hannigans for trivia (we are devoted.) i guess it was a little too early for some people since we were the only people out in costume... definitely got a few stares.

all in all, this was one of the most fun halloweens i've ever had. we wound up winning 2nd place in trivia (4 bottles of wine), getting a free bottle of champagne for my birthday at midnight (it pays to be friends with the bartender!), and stopped for french fries on the way up the steep hill to my favorite dance club in granada. it is basically a cave carved out on the side of a hill with an amazing view of the alhambra. to top off a great birthday, the next night we went out for sushi! and gelato of course