A Christmas message from Electronic Jessica....

Oh yeah! And I miss you all VERY much :)

 --Jessica

Bo Nadal!

Hello Blogger Followers,

First off, a very Merry Christmas to those of you who happened to be reading this on Christmas day or eve.  I applaud you for taking the time to actually read it.  Well done.  Let’s start off with a nice Christmas song to get this blog going….

Now that we’re all in a bit of a blue mood, I must say, I don’t really feel like blogging much today.  However, I know though that if I don’t do it now, it won’t get done until I get back, so here I am, blogging away.  I don’t know when or why, but apparently I somehow volunteered to write essays once a week for the rest of my life.  Can I get college credit for this?  My last post, the one about Paris, I had typed up in Word before posting (which I do with all my posts, as I am almost always too lazy to finish writing a post in one sitting), and it was 4 pages long.  Yeah, you heard me right. FOUR pages.  SINGLE SPACED!  Preposterous.  That’s not even including the pictures.

Okay, now that my little inner complaint monologue is over, I suppose I should write about something important, like what’s be happening lately.  Well, I was in Barcelona last weekend, though I probably won’t go too in depth about that.  As I said before, I don’t really feel like writing, so as opposed to my typical meticulous posts, I’m going to do this one fairly unfastidiously.  Sorry.  It is Christmastime though, so maybe you’ll find it in your hearts to forgive me.  I’ve been very conversational today, haven’t I?  Maybe I’m going stir crazy.

To tell you the truth, not too much happened in Barcelona anyway, as we were only there for a couple of days and on a bit of a budget.  The first night we got some super tasty tapas and then went to the MGMT show, which was cool, but predictably full of slightly younger kids.  Also, the lead singer looks remarkably like the dude from the movie Kick-Ass.  I wonder if he’s secretly the same guy.  After the show, my friend Sheena’s cousin, Gabby, picked us up and we stayed the night and her flat, where she has this amazingly and surprisingly cute and loveable Chihuahua named Leo.  Also for those interested, no, I did not spell “Chihuahua” right on the first try.  Microsoft Word kindly helped me out on that one.

Hmmm.  So let’s see…. The next day we got up and headed out to start our day of sight-seeing.  I remember on the car ride there, we listened to the Spanish version of “You’re the One That I Want” on the radio, which was absolutely hilarious.  Anyway though, we started off at the Park Güell, which is this amazing park designed by Antoni Gaudí, a very famous Catalonian architect.  He’s the same guy that designed the Sagrada Família, though I doubt you’ve heard of that either.  We wandered around for a little while, and the style of the gingerbread house-like buildings were so surreal that it almost felt like I had stepped into some sort of three-dimensional Hansel & Gretel cartoon.  After that we went to the Sagrada Família, which is apparently super famous, but I think most of its charm was lost on us since they were doing a bunch of construction of it.

Park Güell

Sagrada Família

Then we hopped in the car and headed toward the old town – or the “Zona Gotica” – where we roamed around most of the evening and stopped in a few shops.  Outside the Barcelona Cathedral there was this AMAZING pianist playing some beautiful tunes, so we sat on a stone bench and listened to him play for awhile.  He’s the first “street entertainer” that I’ve given money to in Spain.  Before heading back to the house to clean up, we stopped at this little hole-in-the-wall pub to grab a beer and use the bathroom, and as most hole-in-the-walls tend to be, it turned out to be a really interesting place.  We drank out of Estrella Galicia glasses (the type of beer made in Galicia, though I’m sure you could have surmised that one all on your own) and took in the atmosphere.  Though I won’t go into too much detail, my favorite aspects of this little place were the little figurine of The King (no, not the king of Spain) hanging from the beer tap, the American $10 bill hanging on the wall, and the little piece of white paper that said “you are my joy” taped above the stove.

Let's count how many great things we can find in this photo (click to enlarge)

Edward Scissorhands!
He actually took a snip at
some girl's hair too.

Later that night we went to a nice little Argentinean restaurant where we had the BEST empanadas (sorry Galicia, but these put yours to shame) and some tasty Argentinean food and wine.  We spent the next day roaming up and down Las Ramblas, a big street in the middle of the city that is more or less directed at tourists.  The street was lined with street entertainers, or “buskers” – people who dress up and pose on the street for money, and some of them were very entertaining.  My favorites were the Edward Scissorhands lookalike and the man sitting on the toilet.  We also stopped off at this absolutely amazing market, that had everything and anything you could possibly want from a market – tasty food, candies, dozens of different kinds of fresh juice, tapas, and of course the typical Spanish meats and cheeses. 

Pretty self-explanatory, but just in case you
didn't get it: Man on Toilet.

We ended up back in the Gothic zone for awhile and stopped in to see the Roman ruins that lay underneath the city.  Though it seemed really cool, it wasn’t.  The majesty of the ruins was practically ruined (pun intended) by the big cement pillars that stood every few feet to hold up the present-day building, and the very modern walkway that covers most of the surface.  All was not lost though, as we did get to learn that Romans used to wash their clothes with urine.  They even would set out communal “pee buckets” in the street for people to contribute.  In my opinion, I think we should start doing that again.  Oh yeah, and I also completely fell on my face in the middle of a crowded street.  It totally wasn’t my fault though.

So that was more or less my trip to Barcelona.  Apparently I wasn’t quite as apathetic about talking about it as I thought I would be.

Well let’s see.  Since I got back from Barca, I haven’t been doing anything too exciting, just been lazying around the house reading books, watching Six Feet Under, and trying to learn how to eat yogurt with a fork.  I did decide though that I have the best students in the world.  Yeah, they’re better than yours!  ;)  Before finishing up classes this week, a bunch of them gave me elaborately home-made Christmas cards that totally brightened my day.  They all said some sort of variety of “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year” but then a few of the older students went even a bit further, telling me how happy they are that I’m here and how they hope I come back next year, and a few lamented that I had to be away from family over the holidays and hoped that I wouldn’t feel so lonely without you all.  Though I must admit it has been a bit sad being away from home during this time of year, the students definitely made me feel like I’ve got a bit of home with me here too.

On a similar note, today I had a couple tutoring sessions with my teacher friends, and I went home to have a nice family meal with one of the ladies and take a tour around her village and the surrounding mountains.  She prepared Pulpo Gallego, which is Galician octopus, and something that Galicia is very famously known for.  Though I’d been avoiding trying it for this reason and that, I finally gave in and figured I should at least have a taste.  Everybody around here and the rest of Spain considers it to be the tastiest thing ever, but I personally couldn’t figure out what all the fuss was about.  I don’t plan on ever eating it again.  Aside from that though, we had a very tasty stew and some Cognac and turrón for dessert.  It was really nice being able to have a real family meal with a real family for once, instead of the pathetic little meals we cook at our apartment in our freezing cold kitchen.  I’m very grateful for all the people here who have been kind enough to take us into their homes and treat us like family, and I feel very lucky to have landed in the part of Spain with some of the nicest people in the country.  They frequently remind me of Nebraskans.  :)

Here’s a few random pictures we’ve taken around here lately that I haven’t shared yet:

Christmas cookies with our initials!
The rest of the shapes are butterflies and snails.  It's all we could find.

The view out our balcony with the street all lit up.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and Leslie and I plan on going to one of her teacher’s houses for the night and hanging out with her family.  Again, with the nice people bringing us into their homes!  After that we will probably be spending a quiet Christmas day together in the apartment, and then Leslie will leave Christmas night for Madrid/Malaga, and I will be joining her the following night for a few days in Malaga before a head up north to Scotland!  I’m really excited, but slightly scared that my flight is going to get cancelled because of the snow.

Well with that, I wanted to leave you all with some end of the year quotes that I have been collecting over the past few weeks.  I only just started writing down the odd things we say around here, but I think I might start making it a regular thing, because they are quite funny.  Anyway, enjoy: 
--“Hombro, tienes hombre?”  -- my dear Leslie.  Translation: “shoulder, do you have man?”
-- Vidal, one of the teachers I tutor, talking about making a turkey for his family over Christmas and stuffing it with apples, raisin, and ham.  Only in Spain.
-- Hugo constantly referring to the Cornhuskers as the “Cornflakes”
-- Walking by two Spanish senoras talking about 2 million Pesetas.  FYI ladies, we changed to the Euro over 5 years ago….
-- “I don’t really know what to say to that… I hope you don’t get a bunion too?”
-- “He’s actually really cute despite his dread mullet situation”

Well folks, that it.  It's 4am and I surprisingly did write this whole post in one sitting, so I apologize if it sounds loopy and erratic.  Though I won’t be writing any novel length posts until the next year, you all might want to check back in tomorrow or the next day for a special Christmas gift left by yours truly under the Blogspot Christmas tree….

Without further ado, here’s the second half of this week’s soundtrack.  I’ve clearly been in a very Bright Eye’s Christmas mood lately.  I probably would have posted the entire Christmas Album if I would have thought you guys would actually have listened to it.  Anyway:

Merry Christmas!

Quick Stop

Hey!  Just wanted to stop in and say hello before I leave for the weekend.  Heading to Barcelona in about a half hour, so I again won't be around for my usual Friday update.  Not much has happened since my last novel-length post anyway, so I promise you're not missing anything.  Sending positive thoughts to those who need them, love you all and thinking about you lots.

Hope everybody has a good weekend

Well Jessica, welcome to Paris

Hey peeps,

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve posted!  As most of you know, I have been SO busy the past couple of weeks, and I have really just not been able to sit down and breathe for more than 5 minutes at a time.

Now I’m sure a lot of you are tuning in to this blog to find out how Paris was, and yes, of course it was amazing, but lots of other stuff has been going on in the past few weeks too so I feel as though I should do a quick recap of everything else that’s been going on first.  [Yes, you are perfectly allowed to fast-forward if you like.]

So, Thanksgiving.  I don’t even live in the United States and I yet I got to have TWO Thanksgiving dinners!  The first one we had was among our American friends here in Ferrol (there are about 10 of us working in or around the city) and some of our Spanish friends that we invited.  We had it on the Saturday before Thanksgiving at Sheena, Callie, and Laura’s house, and despite the fact that their kitchen literally almost went up in flames, the finished product was a delicious turkey that could rival anything cooked back home.  The rest of us brought heaps of sides or desserts: stuffing, mashed potatoes, veggie casserole, deviled eggs, pounds of empanadas brought by our Spanish guests, and even Mike, the American boy from Chicago, surprised us all with a yummy Italian eggplant dish.  I made my famous (and artery-clogging) pumpkin butter gooey cake, which turned out to be a big hit among the Americans and Spaniards alike, who were very wary of any dessert made from pumpkin – the only thing they ever eat with pumpkin is soup.  All in all, it was inexplicably nice to be able to celebrate among new friends and family, and very nostalgic as the 18 of us went around the table and said what we were thankful for.

Our second Thanksgiving dinner was less extravagant and more Spanish, and was held at the Language School in Ferrol where Katharina works.  We were offered free tickets to the banquet as long as we went up in front before dinner and talked a little bit about Thanksgiving and Black Friday.  Luckily, I had essentially done the same speech 12 times that week in each of my classes, so it was as easy as pumpkin pie (which this dinner was sadly void of).  After we spoke, everybody was served a small plate of generic turkey and pureed potatoes (Spanish version of mashed potatoes… very different and lacking salt, pepper, butter, or anything else that makes your mouth water and gives you a heart attack at the same time) and a tablespoon of stuffing.  After that each table was served a plate with random desserts that were shared with everybody.  The food may not have been quite up to par as the dinner with our American friends, but it was still a great evening celebrating.  We even made a few new Spanish friends who we went out with afterwards and who promised they would take us to the Mexican restaurant in town.

Okay… so what else has been going on lately that’s I’ve been too busy to talk to you guys?  Hrmmm.  Well, I started tutoring about a month ago, and that actually takes up a lot of my time.  Right now I have about 6 or 7 people that I have extra classes with, plus an English book club that we have about once or twice a month.  It’s so strange, because unlike the rest of my roommates, all of my “students” are actually teachers from either my school or other schools around Ferrol, so it’s very bizarre to be the one teaching a teacher.  Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around?  When did I stop being the student?

Other than that, not much else has been going on.  We had a couple of CouchSurfers stay with us a couple weekends ago, and then this past week/weekend, well, I was in Paris.    :)

What to say about Paris?  I don’t even know.  It was beautiful, of course.  I was blown away, to say the least.  I have gotten so used to Spanish scenery that it really doesn’t excite me much anymore, so it was quite nice to go to another country and get that awe-struck feeling again.  Mathieu (our French friend we were staying with) and I left his house at about 8:30 Friday morning since he had to go to work, and after about 15 minutes of commuting into the city via the metro, we are finishing going up our last escalator when he turns and says (in his French accent), “Well Jessica, welcome to Paris.”  Ahhhh :)

Notre Dame

So, that first day was… long.  Leslie wasn’t going to arrive for another 8 hours or so, so I had the whole day to spend walking around the city.  I started off on Avenue de L’Opera and walked down to Area 1 where the Louvre is.  I wandered around the little courtyard for awhile, admiring the glass pyramid and the gardens, when I get a little shock and realize, Hey, that’s the Eiffel Tower in the distance!  It was pretty foggy that day, so I could only just barely see it, but I think that’s when it really hit me that I was actually in Paris.  Then I walked down along the river and explored Notre Dame, which was beautiful with a giant Christmas tree in the front, and after that I mostly roamed around the city in awe, refusing to take the metro or sit down anywhere, which eventually resulted in an ankle problem and me limping around Paris for the next 4 days.  Oh well, it was worth it!

The three of us all finally met up again at 6 and headed back to Mathieu’s place, where Leslie and I showed him our appreciation for letting us stay at his house by cooking a nice Spanish tortilla.  Leslie also became interested by one of Mathieu’s videos games about “the Great American West” (which, by the way, westerns and cowboys are something that Europeans in general find very entertaining) and so we turned it on and Leslie tried at her chance at being a cowboy.  When I eventually picked up the controller and absentmindedly wandered around the Great American West, I asked Mathieu where the game was supposed to take place anyway.  The sentence was barely out of my mouth when I screamed – there’s Chimney Rock in the background!  And right next to it?  The bluffs of western Nebraska!  Holy smokes!

Anyway, Saturday we toured around the city, where Mathieu tried his hardest to get me to be a “good tourist” and take pictures with everything.  Fortunately, he was half-successful and I came home with 484 pictures….  We started at the Arc de Triomphe and then headed to the Eiffel Tower.  The tower was cool, but I wasn’t truly impressed by it until we went back the next night when it was lit up.  It was… breathtaking.  I’m not sure what else to say about it, but it is really very majestic at night.  After exploring other various attractions on Saturday, Leslie and I FINALLY went to go see Harry Potter!  We’d been waiting to see it until we could find a theater that played it in English – everything is dubbed in Spain, and we flat out refused to see it in Spanish.  I’m sure none of you really care about that little fact, but honestly, it was one of the highlights of the trip, :)  To add to the perfect night, right afterward we got some super tasty crepes – banana and Nutella please!

Leslie and I at the Arc de Triomph

Hanging out underneath the Eiffel Tower, no biggie :)

The river that cuts through the city

Eiffle Tower lit up -- every hours it sparkles!

Hallways made out of bones in the Catacombs

Sunday we wandered around a bunch more.  At one point we were on a really jerky and crowded metro, and I was standing too far away from any of the bars to hang onto, in between two Parisian boys who took turns grabbing and steadying me as the train jerked back and forth.  It very easily may have been the highlight of my trip, ha!  Anyway though, we tried to go to the Louvre but when we got there, there was a line half a mile long, and we later found out that it was because it was free admission day, so we left and headed toward to the Catacombs – which were one of my favorite things we saw.  The Catacombs are basically a huge underground ossuary, housing the bones of thousands of people who perished in the 17^th and 18^th centuries.  The bones were then later re-arranged in an artistic way, and are open for viewing.  It was both incredibly creepy and unbelievably fascinating at the same time, but I loved it.  One of the craziest things about it though is that this underground graveyard lies underneath apartments and restaurants and the such… kind of creepy.

Click for Wikipedia page about the Catacombs of Paris 

After the Catacombs we went to Montemartre, which is a bit outside of the city and is where the Basilica of the Sacré Cœur is located on the highest point of Paris, giving you a really cool view of the entire city.  Unfortunately we didn’t have much time to spend there, as we had to hurry to a soccer match – Paris vs Brittany.  Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much from the match, as from my experience the French are not quite as crazy as the Spanish, but it turned out to be a ton of fun.  The fans were crazy, and Mathieu would translate most of the phrases they were chanting.  The big difference though?  Although the French were loud and crazy during the match, immediately following it they went back to their calm and composed selves, it was almost like flipping an on/off switch.  After a victory in Spain, the Spanish celebrate all night long and typically into the morning, so it was a bit different to say the least.  After the match we headed back to see the Eiffel Tower lit up and then to eat a tasty authentic French meal – onion soup, Boeuf Bourgignon (a super delicious beef stew), and apple tart.  I may or may not have spilled wine all over the table by the end of the night….

Basilica of the Sacré Cœur in Montemartre

View of the city with Mathieu, me, and Leslie

We spent most of Monday at the Louvre, which was absolutely incredible.  The building used to be a castle, and you enter into the museum part via the now-underground moat.  The first real piece of work you see is this brilliant sphinx, and it completely sets the tone for the rest of the visit.  The next floor is of Egyptian and Greek artifacts (we actually saw a piece of bread that was 3500 years old) and an incredible hall full of beautiful sculptures.  Upstairs is the famed Mona Lisa (really not all it’s hyped up to be) and other paintings.  We didn’t have time to go to the third floor, so I guess that means I’ll just have to go back.  For lunch we left the Louvre and went to a Jewish district hoping to get some tasty Hanukkah grub, but we ended up settling on a nice little Middle Eastern place with the BEST mint tea I have ever had.

Mummy!

The sculptures were utterly AMAZING.

Can't believe how real it looks!

Hey Mona! What up?

Outside view of the Louvre and the glass pyramid

Champs Elysées with the Arc de Triomph in the backgroun

Later that night we met back up with Mathieu and went to Champs Elysées, which is a magnificent street lit up for Christmas and lined with little Christmas shops full of various gifts.   Some of them had food and drink, including crepes, waffles, and this incredible concoction of warm wine (also available for an extra euro was adding an extra shot of liquor to it).  After scarfing down some delicious waffles covered in Nutella and jam, Leslie said what might be the greatest thing I’ve heard in awhile: “Well, should we go get some of that hot wine with booze in it?”  What Leslie, do we not consider wine to be booze anymore?  I guess that’s a direct result of living in Spain, where wine is cheaper than water and it is drunk as such.  We also stopped into Sephora, which is apparently not just a store for women, as there were men walking around and perusing the aisles.  This is France, after all.  After grabbing some macaroons at the most famous place in Paris (it wouldn’t be a trip to France without them) we headed back home and packed for our departure.

Favorite part about Paris?  Well the snow of course :)  Ask the other two, I was just a little too excited about it.  The night I got there it had only snowed enough to make a thin layer on the ground, but right away I had my hands in it and even managed to make a mini snow ball to toss at Mathieu.  Though he didn’t show it, I think he was annoyed.  Other than that, I discovered that France and Spain are very similar in terms of way of life, such as the commonality of the bocadillo, or the excitement of soccer, though the people are very different.  Spaniards are very loud and in your face (I’ve recently been pondering whether it is actually possible to whisper in Spanish, and so far all signs point to no), whereas the French are very soft spoken and more dignified.  Personally, I prefer the Spanish.  :)

Well anyway, I think that brings us to the end of another blog.  Congrats if you made it all the way to the end, you probably deserve a prize!  Sorry it was so long, and I won’t be offended if you didn’t read it all, but a lot has been going on lately!  Keep an eye out for new photo albums going up on the right.  I haven't had the chance to upload them yet, but probably within the next week.

The soundtrack to this week’s blog goes out to none other than my Dad, whose birthday was on Monday.  Hope you spent it well, and I hope you know I couldn’t be doing any of this without you. Love you!

 Until next time!

In November, drinking Horchata

Sheesh, is it the weekend already?  Not sure I can handle another one this soon.  The week has been mostly calm and uneventful, but a weekend full of concerts, costume parties, and spontaneous road trips is still dragging on me a bit!

Needless to say, the Vampire Weekend concert was AMAZING.  We unfortunately missed the Jenny & Johnny show, but VW more than made up for that.  The energy of the bass player alone was incredible; I don’t think he could have been more excited to be there.  And I have to hand it to the Spaniards, not only do they know how to do a concert right, but almost every single person in the crowd was singing along to the music.  Maybe we should start using Vampire Weekend to teach our students English.  Also, Spanish hipsters = pure awesomeness.

As I’m sure you fellow Nebraskans can understand, it was a big bummer that I had to miss Jenny’s show.  Even considering she was playing with Johnny, it still would have been great.  So that sucked big time.  Well, you can imagine my delight when we’re leaving the show and I see none other than Jenny Lewis hanging out outside her bus.  I think it goes without saying that I turned into a squealing little girl reminiscent of pre-teen Twilight fans and my giddiness turned up about 15 notches.  Add to that the half-liter of beer and gulps of sangria I drank before the show and we’ve got a bit of a Jessica problem on our hands.  Basically, after dancing around awkwardly behind her while she took some photos with other Americans, I ran up to her and blabbed out a run-on, hard to understand sentence.  She was super sweet though, and when I told her I’m from Nebraska (you know I gotta play that card) she seemed surprised and asked what I was doing here.  A few more things were said (including me telling her that she’s “kind of my idol” bahaha) before I got too nervous/excited and ran off.  Definitely an experience I will remember with horror/ecstasy forever :)   (Jami did I do you proud? Haha)

Anyway though, that obviously made my weekend.  After the show we headed to Fernando’s friend’s house for a costume party, where I put together a super last minute costume made mostly out of what I could find in my closet and the dollar store.  I think it turned out pretty well.  The party was fun, and just like everybody else here Fernando’s friends get a big kick out of me being from Nebraska, so every time I enter a room I would get a big chorus of “Nebraskaaaa!!!!!”  yelled at me.  I wish people did that in the States.

Fernando as Frankenstein's puppet, me as a safari something, a ballerina, fighter pilot, and a Spanish dude.

Beautiful Laura (Fernando's sister) as Wonderwoman and two Spanish flapper friends.  As you can see, Laura stole my animal scarf thing pretty early on.

We wasted our Saturday with sleeping until 2, which is pretty much inevitable when you don’t get home until 6am.  After eating and showering, it was about that time to start planning the night again.  But aha!  Fernando’s sister Laura gets a call asking if we want to go to Valencia for a football (soccer) match, so why not?  We packed a bag, hopped in the car, and headed to Valencia!  We didn’t get there until sometime after midnight, and after being in the car for however many hours and not having eaten for even more, we were staaaaarving.  But of course, in the main city-center area where we were staying, all bars/restaurants had to mandatorily close their kitchens after midnight.  Awesome.  After begging countless places to give us food, a nice owner of a little bar took pity on us and illegally gave us some tasty Italian-Valencian grub.  The rest of the night was mostly uneventful, though we did hear the absolute BEST song mix ever – Bob Marley layered with MGMT.  Sounds strange, but it was unbelievably amazing.

Sunday we toured around Valencia; it’s a BEAUTIFUL city.  Around midday we stopped at a café and drank Horchata, which originated in Valencia, and it was surprisingly yummy and refreshing!  Although we asked around to try and find the café that Vampire Weekend drank Horchata at and inspired the song, we had no luck.  My favorite direction-giver was this lady who was eating some kind of bakery sweet, and during the entire conversation she had meringue all over her face and didn’t seem to care.  Later on we went to a little restaurant that we were told has the best paella in the area, and it definitely did not disappoint.  Everything from the gracious owner to the singing waiter with beautiful hair was perfect.  Then with the men playing guitar and the little girls dancing around, I could have stayed there forever.  Gosh, I love Spain.   :)

mmmmm Paella!

Horchata!

After that all of us were in a food coma, so the obvious thing would be to go take a nap in a park, right? Right.  So we did that, and then started making our way to the stadium for the match.  The match was… so-so.  Our tickets were free, and therefore way up in the boonies where there were hardly any people, so it sort of lacked the excitement of a regular football match.  Also, Valencia is really good, and Getafe, the team from Madrid, is pretty bad, so it wasn’t a very good match anyway.  We ended up leaving after the second goal was scored so we could get back to Madrid at a decent hour.

So, this weekend I came to a few minor (or major) revelations.  The first happened when I met a new American acquaintance this weekend and she asked me where I was from.  When I told her I’m from Nebraska, she responded with “Ha, I’m sorry!” and though I settled with giving her a deathly glare, I so desperately wanted to kick her and say “I’m not.”  She’s from Chicago, how fancy.  I realized that no matter how much we all bitch and complain about Nebraska and how there’s nothing to do, I am so absolutely thankful that I grew up there and was raised amongst some of the nicest and most caring people on the planet.  After being thrown out into the world and seeing the way some people out here treat each other, it makes me miss the eternal warmness and generosity of being from the Midwest.  Also, I think the fact that all my students and Spanish friends/acquaintances love that I’m from Nebraska makes me love it as well. :)

My second revelation came while traveling in Madrid and Valencia this weekend.  I was seeing two of the coolest cities in Spain (maybe 2 out of the top 10? There are a lot of cool cities in Spain…) and I actually found myself missing Ferrol!  I guess this place is home now huh? How crazy.  My friends here are slowly but surely becoming my family and this calm little place is becoming my home.  Well, as long as I’m not homeless anymore.  I suppose I should probably try to get used to the rain then.

Hmmm… other stuff…. Oh yeah! I finally got my puppy fix!  One of the shops we walked by in Valencia had this adorable puppy playing around, so of course we stopped and rubbed its belly for a few minutes.  I also watched a bunch of dogs romping around in the park where we took our nap, it was great.  And I got paid finally! Anybody want to take bets for how long the money lasts? There was also a dude on a segway at the airport in Madrid, and it was absolutely hilarious.  Oh yeah, did you know there’s not a word in Spanish for awkward?  It makes things extremely difficult sometimes.  How could they not have word for it? It’s so essential! Awkward turtle!

Rain season here is starting, so that’s kind of a bummer.  The Galicians sure know how to live in the rain though.  EVERYTHING is waterproofed – from the fitted plastic coverings on strollers right down to the waterproof doggie jackets.  It’s great.  They also have little umbrella stands in every single bar, cafe, store, office, etc, and little plastic baggies that are the exact size of your umbrella.  They've thought of everything!

Welp, I think that’s the end of this blog, I’m sort of all blogged out right now.  Considering the last couple of paragraphs don't really make much sense, it's probably a good idea that I stop.  I’m sure I’m leaving out tons of stuff, but you probably don’t need to know every single detail anyway.  Hope all is well back home, go Skrrrrs!

This week’s soundtrack is pretty much perfect for last weekend:

Ciao!

GAH, Gallego!

Hey Dudes!

It’s been a busy week/weekend (like always, right?) and the infamous Galician weather has finally snuck up behind us.  It rained for about 36 hours straight, and it’s supposed to rain for on and off through Sunday.  I guess it’s a good thing then that I’m going to Madrid for the weekend, huh?  The rain pretty much makes you want to do nothing.  All day, every day.  We virtually sit inside all day, not wanting to go out and get soaked.  Plus, the Galician government is just awesome and hasn’t paid us yet (and refuses to do so until everybody turns in their paperwork – which, considering people are still arriving, is probably not going to happen for awhile) so there’s nothing for us to do anyway.

I made my first Spanish tortilla a few days ago!  It’s been probably two years since I’ve attempted the feat, and it was a success!  It was super yummy, and I can’t wait to explore different variations of it.

Apart from the rain and gloominess, it’s been a pretty good week.  Lots of random but interesting things happened this weekend, and it appeared as if every night was boys’ night out.  It’s so crazy how different the social norms are here.  In the United States, dance clubs/bars are mostly filled with girls in their 20s dancing.  They’re either dancing with a group of girls or occasionally with a brave guy who goes out onto the dance floor and sways back and forth a bit, but mostly just stands there.  Am I right?  Well, it couldn’t be more different here.  The guys here go all out on the dance floor (well, I guess they do in all aspects of life), and a lot of times they exclusively dance with each other.  They’ll dance on platforms just like girls do in the States; it’s almost like the roles here are switched around.  There are even some pretty good dancers!  Shocker!  :P  On Thursday we saw a bunch that resembled the Spanish version of a Guido, and though I tried desperately to describe to my Spanish friend what exactly a guido is, I’m not really sure he got it. It’s a Jersey thing.

Other random stuff about this weekend?   We definitely saw a man helping his small boy pee in the middle of a busy street a couple days ago.  No big deal.  This weekend, we accidently ended up hanging out with the homeless dude who lives in a little nook across the street from our house and annoys the crap out of us.  That was definitely…. interesting.  I’m also pretty sure we saw the tallest man in all of Spain on Friday.  

This week Katharina’s boyfriend Jonas stayed with us, and he told me something really funny that I think you’ll all get a big kick out of.  So apparently when he was learning English in high school in Germany, one of the chapters of his English book was called “Nebraska: The Middle of Nowhere” ahahaha!!!  Ohhh how great!  Typically when I meet people over here, the only thing they know about Nebraska is that it’s cold all the time (to which I have to correct them and tell them how hot and disgusting it is in the summer), and occasionally somebody will know that we grow a little crop called corn.  I just couldn’t believe that out of all the states that they could have picked to do a chapter on, it was Nebraska!  He told me a few things that he remembered from the chapter (which I can’t really remember it anymore) and it was mostly accurate!  :)  Jonas if you’re reading this, leave in the comments what you remember from that chapter!

So I’m pretty sure that people here intentionally speak in Gallego while around us Americans so we can’t understand them. [NOTE: for those who don’t know, Gallego is a language spoken only in Galicia.  It sounds a bit like a mix between Portuguese and Spanish, though it has entirely new vocabulary and stuff like that.  Almost all official documents are written in Gallego, and although we are usually able to translate a bit of the written word, we are lost when they speak it.]  WTF?   Yeah, kind of frustrating.  There have been times when I’ve been around Galicians who know that I am American, and I’ll hear them speaking in Spanish, but when they notice me noticing them, they immediately switch to Gallego.  Little do they know, switching to Gallego is entirely pointless – speaking in Spanish is sufficient enough to avoid the straying ears of us Americans, as we are more than likely not going to put forth the extra effort to try to eavesdrop on their conversations.  It’s just not worth the effort involved.

I’ve got a pretty exciting weekend planned.  Tomorrow I’m heading to Santiago for the night and then I’ll be catching a plane to Madrid on Friday morning for the Vampire Weekend/Jenny & Johnny show that night! Should be a ton of fun.  A couple of friends and I also just bought tickets to the MGMT show in Barcelona on December 16^th, so I’m FINALLY going to get to Barcelona!  Speaking of shows, I heard about the Lumberjack Throwback 90s Dance Party at the Bourbon, and I think that out of all the things that I am missing while being in Spain, that may have been the biggest.  Somebody had better have taken pictures (better yet, video!) and post them on FB!  

Shoot, I've gotta run!  Didn't have time to talk about too much stuff, but I'll get back to it when I get back from Madrid.

This week's soundtrack:

Catchya later folks :)

Thanks everybody :)

Just wanted to say a big fat THANK YOU to the bunches of people who caught the not-so-subtle hint (more like demand) today.  Glad to know you're still out there :)

Love you all.

PS -- can somebody please tell me who is reading my blog from Denmark? I wasn't aware that I knew anybody there, but whoever you are I would very much like to come stay with you!

Janglin' Souls

Alright, so unfortunately I have to start off this week’s blog with a bit of a finger shake at all of you.  I have to say, I’m slightly (okay, more than slightly) disappointed that nobody responded and commented the last week and a half when I asked about Halloween plans and whatever else is going on back home.  I miss you all like crazy, you don’t even know, and all I really want is to know what’s going on in your lives.  That being said, another week with no contact from home (though I have to exclude my wonderful mother and sister and a few others from this) and there will be no more blogs! :P

Okay, now that I’m done throwing my temper tantrum, it’s blog update time.

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted (yeah, I’ll admit I was on a bit of a hiatus) so I’m going to have to think for a few minutes about what’s all been happening.  Today was the start of my week, as we had Monday off for Festival and I had Tuesday off for other school reasons, so I had a long weekend (no work on Fridays either) and only a two-day week this week.  What a hard life :)

Oh yeah!  Sort of big news, at least for those who don’t have Facebook – I booked a flight to Paris!  I’ll be there December 2-5, and I’m suuuuper excited (well, duh).  Our French friend, Mathieu, told us that Paris is unbelievably beautiful during Christmastime because the entire city is lit up with Christmas lights, which works out perfectly because we have a really long break in early December and I didn’t know what to do with it!

Sooooo….. Speaking of Christmas.  I hate to be the one to break the news (but right, who else is going to do it) but it looks like I won’t be coming home for Christmas… plane tickets are so expensive, and the stress of flying and having jet-lag is just not worth being home for only two weeks and then having to say goodbye to you all again.  Solution? Everybody come see me in Spain instead! :)

Well, since I don’t get to come back home over Christmas, any ideas for what I should do???  I’m considering spending it on a beach in Majorca, but in reality I realize that that would probably be way too lonely and pathetic, so I’m up for suggestions!  A friend here is going up to Scotland for New Years for a huge festival there, and I’m considering joining her, but other than that I have no ideas!  So if you guys know of any places that are supposed to be really good that time of year, let me know!  

Let’s see… what else has been going on?  Last weekend two of Katharina’s German friends stayed with us and we all went to this little village called Cedeira where we first went to this church called San Andres, where it is rumored that his finger was buried or something, so people go there offering various body parts and ask for him to help heal them.  Weird place.  Also there was some saying about how if you go there once while you’re alive you don’t have to return when you’re dead, whatever that means.  We also saw a little bit of the highest cliffs in either Galicia or Spain (I can’t remember everything) but it was really foggy and rainy so we didn’t get so see much.  A horse just about bit off my hand thinking it was food and then later on there were two wild horses (which are everywhere) that blocked one of our cars for a little bit.  After that we headed into town for the Samhain festival (sort of similar to Halloween), where the whole town groups together at around 9 or so and then walks through the streets in the pitch black.  Sort of hard to explain, and honestly I never really got what the point was, but it was fun and I’ll post some pictures soon. (PS, there’s a link up at the right for a few new photos I took around Ferrol the past week.)

The fountain where all the girls go to splash water of their faces -- it's supposed to make you more beautiful

Pumpkin carving contest at the Samhain festival

The leaders of the Samhain "parade" through the town

(remember to look out for the rest of the pics in a day or two, I'll post a link when I get the chance, but I can't do it right now while I'm at my school)

Other than that it was a pretty calm weekend.  Nobody wanted to dress up with me, so unfortunately I just went as Jessica the American, though I did go all out and wore some of Leslie’s red lipstick, something I haven’t worn since… well, ever.  Monday we had a little potluck dinner thing with all the people in our program who are living in Ferrol, plus a Scottish dude who had been here working in the shipyard the past month.  There are only about 10 of us in Ferrol, but it was definitely nice to get together with everybody over good food, wine, and gin and tonics.

Classes have been good.  Last week I mostly talked about Halloween and showed them pictures of trick or treaters, haunted houses, and zombie walks.  This week I only have 4 classes (as opposed to my usual 12) so there shouldn’t be too much excitement.  In my only class so far this week we just did a classroom activity where I read about after-school jobs for teenagers in the US, and I realized that that doesn’t exist here.  People here don’t get their first jobs until they’re in the twenties, and they typically have the same job for their entire life.  Can you imagine!  That’s insane; I think I would go crazy if I had to do the same thing my whole life.  The economy is even worse here than it is in the States (they are in what they call a “crisis”) and my teacher said that people are worried that these students won’t even be able to find jobs at all when they graduate high school and college (not even the crappy fast-food jobs that people can easily fall back on in the States if they have to), so that is slightly terrifying.

Other than that, my students are constantly entertaining me.  Last week, one of the boys (about 14 or 15 I think) had been imitating Cristiano Ronaldo all week.  If you don’t know who he is, look him up on Wikipedia.  He’s probably one of the most famous people in Spain (and kind of Europe).  But anyway, it was hilarious.  The week before that, one of the kids fell over sideways in his desk on the floor.  The desk fell with him.  Today there was a girl who had apparently looked up “tirar un pedo” in her dictionary and for the rest of the class was repeating “fart” over and over.  So the kids are great.  And I’ve been wanting to think of something to get them from Nebraska (or the States in general) thats cheap and easy to ship over here (ie- a cornhusker sucker) so if any of you have any ideas, let me know!

I think it’s time to head out now, I’ve got to run to my next class, but before I leave I’d like to reiterate my need for home-grown love and stories with juicy details, so PLEASE either leave me a brief comment to let me know you’re still alive or a long message via Facebook or email to help me pass the time during siesta.

Love you all, sorry if I was a bit bitter in this blog.  Oh yeah! And a super thanks to my awesome sister-in-law for sending me a surprise care package with all sorts of winter/water proof gear.  It rained all weekend so I got to put that umbrella to good use!  Bryan, thanks for picking such a super gal to marry :)

Don't forget to check out this week's soundtrack:

Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros -- Home

Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros -- Janglin'

Cheers!

Let there be Light!

Buf! What a weekend it’s been.  I know I just updated a couple days ago and typically I only have time to create new posts on Fridays since that’s my day off, but it’s been a weekend full of splashes of nostalgia and lots of bad luck, and I just didn’t feel like waiting.

So first off, I had a taste of home on Friday that could turn any day into a great day.  Two words: wheat beer.  Mmmmmm.  How I have missed it!  It was an unexpected delight, and reminiscent of days spent back home.  When Sarit and I told Hugo what wheat beer is, he asked “corn?” because, of course, he just looooves talking to me about corn.  Apparently there was an episode of Family Guy where somebody went to Nebraska and they came back saying that the only thing people in Nebraska talk about is corn – we have nothing else interesting to say.  Hugo thinks that’s really funny.

My second dose of nostalgia – live music!  Bar shows are some of the greatest (and most missed) aspects of Lincolntown, and aside from the Reggae show we went to the first weekend here, I haven’t seen much live music.  Well, I take that back.  I guess we hear lots of live music if we count the accordion player who wakes us up every Friday morning by playing in the street outside our house…  Anyway though, it was great to hang out in a little bar and watch the singer/songwriter make his magic.

Hmmm so what else happened this weekend?  Saturday we walked down to the port with the two girls who were staying with us, and then we walked through some neighborhoods we hadn’t seen yet and through a beautiful park with peacocks!  On the way home we grabbed some “chestnuts roasting on an open fire” which are very popular here, and so delicious!  But by then it seemed our luck had run out, and as we’re heading home I get a call from Leslie saying she was hanging out at the apartment when she heard a POP and then all the lights went out.  Crap.  After running through the house shining our tiny cell phone lights all over the place, we finally find the fuse box and try to get it figured out.  Of course, we are 5 American girls and have no clue what we’re doing, so Hugo, our prince in shining armor, does a few tricks and voila! we have light!  We thanked him by making a nice stir-fry with rice noodles and veggies (his first time eating anything of the sort) and then hung out at the house drinking PORT WINE -- yummy, I love being this close to Porto -- till midnight or so when it’s considered acceptable to go out.  Did I mention I fell down the stairs as we were leaving the house?

We spent the night dancing, our last stop at some tacky cowboy-ish discoteca attached to the train station that actually turned out to be quite fun, after which Leslie and I headed home at around 7:30.  Arriving at the house, we see a note stuck to the door that says “electricity out again, can’t fix it. Joder!”   Crap! We come in and bang around, trying to flip the same switches that Hugo did last time, and of course we have no luck. 

All day Sunday we had no power, but spent the day trying to use up the stuff in the fridge that would go bad the quickest and running to the only open store (we are in Spain and it’s a Sunday…) to buy candles.  Hugo has no luck with it, so we pretty much give in to the fact that we are spending another night without light.  Blah.

But aha!  After unplugging everything in the house and searching for anything that might still be plugged in, I realize… the dishwasher!  We unplug it, flip the fuse box switch, and we have light!  However, we now have no working dishwasher :( though I guess I’d take lights over a dishwasher any day.

This week I'm talking about Halloween in my classes, nothing too exciting but they do seem to find it interesting.  If anybody has ideas of interesting stuff for me to tell them let me know!

Well I think that’s it for now, I’m pretty sure there was something else I wanted to add but I can’t remember it at the moment so it will just have to wait till later.  The soundtrack for this blog is less about the music and more about the video, it's stupendous and I think you all will enjoy it very much.  The first minute or so is a bit slow and repetitive, but trust me, it gets better.  Make sure you wait it out till the end!

Dança Pa Panamericano


love you all, cheers :)

Whoops, forgot a title

It’s been a pretty average week, sort of starting to get into the routine of things.  All week at school I’ve mostly been doing a presentation of Nebraska culture.  At first it was hard to dig up interesting stuff about our fine state, but eventually I learned to embellish a little and exaggerate a lot.  They find tornadoes EXTREMELY exciting – they oooh and ahhh over pictures of them.  One of my slides was about music, and I was very impressed when one of my students knew who Bright Eyes and Elliot Smith were.  Smart girl.

I also try to tell them about the excitement of Husker game days in Lincoln, but can never quite relay exactly what tailgating is.  “Sitting in a parking lot and drinking beer all day?  I don’t understand.”  Every time I show a picture of the husker stadium there is a communal *gasp* as they take in the “sea of red” and their eyes widen when I tell them that it can fit the entire population of their town of 75,000.  Also, when I talk about American football (regular football is what they call soccer here… which, when you think about it, makes much more sense) they say “Oh yeah! Rugby!”  No, not rugby…

Mostly though, my students are hilarious and really quite sweet.  In one of my classes of kids about 14, a boy drew this elaborate picture on the chalk board that said “WE LOVE NEBRASKA!!” in the middle, and when the teacher made him erase it so she could write stuff, he got all upset, but settled for re-writing it in the corner of the board and then sporadically yelling “I love Nebraska!” throughout the class.  Then, in another class of 16-17 year olds, a boy raised his hand and patiently waited to be called on, and when I pointed to him he said “Ehh... You have very beautiful eyes!”  Boy, do they train their boys young here!  So needless to say, I have felt very welcome at the school.  Whenever I arrive or leave, I get a chorus of Hellos and Goodbyes from every which direction and typically an “I love Nebraska” thrown in at least once.  Well, at least I’m representing our great state well.

Ha, oh yeah, so funny story.  I’m going to have to give you all a little Spanish lesson in the process, so try to bear with me.  So, in the Spanish language nouns referring to people or animals or whatnot are generally given feminine and masculine forms according to what it referring to.  For example – Andy and Kyle are my AMIGOS but Jami and Cortney are my AMIGAS.  Masculine words will typically end in –E/ES or –O/OS and feminine words will typically end in –A/AS.  However, if I were to be talking about all four of them, I would just refer to them as AMIGOS; with the masculine ending (yeah it’s sexist, get over it) even though half them are female.  So anyway, back to my story.  Outside the teacher’s lounge there is a bathroom that says “aseos profesores” on the door – aseos means bathroom, so it means “professor’s bathrooms”.  It is just a one-room bathroom, no stalls or anything, so I sort of assumed that the –ES at the end of “profesores” meant teachers in general, not just men, and I had used that one a couple of times.  Well, earlier this week that one was occupied so I walked all the way down the hall to find the other and realized it said “aseos profesoras” on the door – with and –AS.  Whoops, looks like I’d been using the men’s bathroom, and nobody told me.  The other teachers have got to think I’m an idiot.

In general though, Spain really cracks me up.  There was a recipe on the back of my vegetable stock for “Vegetable Soup” – you know what the main ingredient was?  Bacon.  Also, they feel the need to write “Gluten Free!” on the most random things, like orange juice and ketchup.  Seriously? I would hope there’s not gluten in my OJ or ketchup, but thanks for clarifying, just in case.  Also, I absolutely LOVE the way parents dress their kids.  They dress kids of the same sex in identical outfits and then they will use the same color scheme if they have kids of both sexes.  It’s absolutely adorable.   Also, something that makes me slightly sad is the way dogs are trained to behave around strangers here.  Unlike in the US where dogs are trained to socialize and they typically love meeting new people and sticking their nose up their butts, dogs here pretty much ignore anybody who isn’t their owner.  I feel so rejected by the pooches here!  I need some dog-lovin’!

Since we’re discussing things I miss… Mmmmm enchiladas.  And Jimmy John’s.  And fast food.  And public restrooms with a) toilet paper and b) toilet seats.  And refrigerated milk and eggs.  But most of all…. I miss all of you!!!!!!!!!!  Wish you all were here!  For those of you who don’t have Skype yet – SHAME!  You had better get it soon! Also, I very much miss the familiarity of my bus drivers back home.  I miss getting a jolly grin and a "Hello!" and a "Cya!" when getting on and off my bus.  The bus drivers here could care less :(

Not a whole lot happening this weekend, we have two girls coming to stay with us who are friends with my roommates, but not much else.  Last weekend Leslie’s French friend Mathieu stayed with us, and we took him around for tapas (though he’s from France he’d only been to Spain once a long time ago – he had a lot to learn about Spanish food and drink!) and then on Saturday we took him to Coruna, where we just walked around a bit and ate at a sort of fancy restaurant – pics posted at the right. 

So you know, you guys get to hear about everything I’m up to all the time, but I have NO IDEA what’s going on back home!  And that makes me sad.  So from now on, I expect updates!  :P  I need some bits of home over here, even just the small stuff.  What’s everybody being for Halloween?  I assume it won’t trump our costumes from last year, but I still wanna know!  Let me know in the comments or something :)  People don’t really celebrate Halloween here in Galicia, though a few places try to make money off (tiny) pumpkins and kitschy decorations, so I’m craving some Halloween festivity!

Well I think that’s going to have to be the end of this blog, my roommies’ friends are about to get here and I’ve got to change out of my sweats so we can go out to eat!  And no, it is not socially acceptable to go outside in sweats here. *Sigh*

Until next time folks!  Hope everybody has a good weekend!

Enjoy this week's soundtrack:
Au Revoir Simone -- A Violent Yet Flammable World  

Also, I ran into this video while searching for the previous one and it's just so beautiful I couldn't help but posting it!  Check it ouuuut:

Au Revoir Simone -- The Lucky One

Love you all