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

Dreamin of the Dolphin Song

What a week! The first part of the week I was mostly recovering from the weekend, where we celebrated a friend’s birthday and I didn’t get home until 6 and 7am each night. Definitely taking it easy this weekend!

Tuesday we had the day off for Festival de Pilar, so our new friend Hugo, who has taken us under his wing, picked us up and showed us a few places around Ferrol. First we went to El Castillo de San Felipe, which is a castle that was built at the mouth of the ría almost 300 years ago to defend the harbor from the British armies.

After that we headed up a mountain where we got to see our first view of the open ocean. We were also able to see a bit of Coruna across the ría and the Tower of Hercules, which is the oldest lighthouse in Europe (or the world? Not sure…)

And finally……….. the beach! We got there about a half hour before sunset, so we took off our shoes and let the ice cold water wash over our feet as we wandered across the beach. It was BEAUTIFUL. Then we took a seat and watched as the sun set over the ocean. How perfect! For all you old farts out there who don’t have Facebook, I have links set up on the right of the page that will direct you to my online photo albums. You do not have to have a Facebook account to view them, but if you are at work you might not be able to see them because some companies block the use of Facebook. So if that happens, just look at them on your home computer.

We then got Hugo’s tiny little car up the top of a mountain to see a spectacular view of the entire city of Ferrol lit up at night. Before that though, we had to stop and get gas, and after seeing that it cost almost $100 to fill up a 14-gallon tank, I will never again complain about American gas prices.

Nothing much else exciting happened the rest of the week, except for a few inappropriate comments made by students (the least of which was when a student asked me how old you have to be to buy guns in the US... you can't buy handguns in Spain).  Also, in most of my classes I'll get the students talking by asking them stuff like what kind of music they listen to (mostly Lady Gaga, Rhianna and Shakira) and then of course they ask me what my favorite music is, and I awkwardly pause for a few seconds before saying "ermm... well its not really stuff that you guys hear on the radio here..." and then I'll sometimes write a few names on the board for them.  Mostly they haven't heard of any of it except the occasional kid who recognizes the name Arcade Fire.  That is, until yesterday when I wrote Iron & Wine on the board and some girl says, "Oh I know who that is!" (though she followed it by saying she doesn't like them....)  I sat there wondering how in the world she knew who Iron & Wine was, when it hit me.... Ahhhh Twilight.  I forgot that they used an Iron & Wine song on one of the Twilight soundtracks....  I guess you can't escape the Twilight craze anywhere.

We still do not have internet at our house, and it looks like we may not be getting it for awhile. After searching everywhere for two weeks, we finally found a place (ironically, right across the street) that would let us get internet without signing a 12-month contract, but as we starting filling out paperwork we were told that in order to sign up we have to use a Spanish bank account that has been open for at least 3 months. Gosh, do they make it difficult for foreigners to get internet! So unless we can find some awesome Spaniard who will sign us up for internet under their bank account, it looks like we won’t be getting it for another two months… boo :(

Nothing too crazy is happening this weekend. Leslie is picking up her French friend right now who is going to stay with us for the weekend, and I think we might all go to Coruna tomorrow.

Sorry this post is a little dry and boring, I’m not really up to making it its usual colorful self (probably has something to do with our gas supply running out halfway through my shower and the water turning ice cold…) but hopefully next week’s will be better!

A few more things before I go:
First, Happy Birthday yesterday to Beautiful Brady, I hope middle age treats you well! Miss you like crazy :)
Also Happy Birthday today to my surrogate aunt, Ann Byrnes. Make sure Pammy and Danny take you out and celebrate!!
Last, but not least, Happy Birthday tomorrow to my super awesome Grandpa! Hope you spend it well!!  Sending you lots of love from this side of the world!

Finally, my roommate found this link and I thought it was kind of funny: In Spain, The Siesta Gets A Wake-Up Call

So make sure you browse through the pictures if you haven’t already and check out this week’s soundtrack:
Regina Spektor -- Folding Chair

Bye Bye :)

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Hey ya’ll! (my Texan roommate has been rubbing off on me…)

Welp, just finished up with my first week of school (no work on Fridays) and it seems to have gone pretty well so far. Monday I just had one class with 12 year olds, and they were so funny! They barely spoke any English but we still had jumbled conversations where they introduced themselves and told me basic things like their hobbies and favorite music. It’s so interesting how you can tell in 2 minutes who the brainiacs are and who is gonna need a little extra help. Tuesday I had a bit more of a variety with students anywhere from 12-18 years old. My class with the seniors, who theoretically should know the most English out of everybody here, spoke less than my 12 year olds and barely said a single word, so their regular teacher just ended up letting me leave after 5 minutes.

I also had a class with Begoña, in which we mostly talked about the differences between driving ages and drinking ages in the United States and Spain. They couldn’t believe how early we get to drive. Apparently they don’t get to until they’re 18, the same age they are allowed to drink. Everything is so laid back here, there’s no way we ever would have been able to have a conversation like that at an American high school. One of the teachers at my roommate’s school was even drinking a non-alcoholic beer during one of the breaks.

Today (Thursday) I had a really fun class with a big group of senior girls (and one boy, not sure how he lucked out) who were really energetic and talkative. They mostly spoke in Spanish, but at least they talked, and I’m sure after a few weeks they’ll be talking more in English. In one of my classes somebody asked if we have tornadoes in Nebraska, and everybody got SO excited. They wanted to hear everything about them, which I thought was so funny.

Oh yeah, one of the English teachers here told me today that she had a 12-year-old student ask her if I traveled here from America every day…. Ohhh kids.

Wednesday we took a trip to Santiago de Compostela, the capitol of Galicia, for the orientation for everybody participating in the Auxiliares de Conversación program. It was mostly dry and boring (they’ve gotta be kidding if they seriously expected us to pay attention for 3 hours while they talked in Spanish about a bunch of legal crap) but lunch was so tasty! The dessert was this apple flan stuff that is still making my mouth water.

While we were there my roommates and I met and exchanged numbers with other teachers from around Galicia and figured out who else is living in Ferrol. I saw my friend Max again (met him on the airplane from Philadelphia to Madrid – our seats were randomly next to each other) who is teaching a few hours south of me. We also took a tour around Santiago and saw some of the trekkers who were finishing up their Camino de Santiago. If you don’t know what the Camino is, please Google it. It’s basically where people come from all over Spain and Europe – WALKING – to the cathedral in the center of the city. It’s supposed to be a religious pilgrimage for people from all around the world, but it can be a very spiritual experience for even non-religious people. My roommates and I are going to do it in the spring from Ferrol, which isn’t as hard-core as what some people do but the journey should still take about 3-4 days on foot.

Hopefully with our new contacts we’ll be able to find more people to go out with this weekend. Last weekend was pretty calm; we just grabbed some tapas and went to a low-key Spanish reggae concert at a bar with Begoña’s son, Gonzalo. About five minutes ago the bartender (who is very fond of us and likes to call us her “niñas”) tried to introduce us to this boy who was in the bar, but he looks about 19…

The weather here has been… so-so. The Earth is apparently always taking a bath, and I guess I’m required to take one with it. My biggest problem is that I have no water-proof clothes, so it’s been difficult to function here. I’ve got to get an umbrella and some non-suede shoes soon if I’m going to survive. The rain is, however, very peaceful and calming. Sitting in my room while listening to it pounding down is so meditative, I could do it all day every day (which, let’s be honest, it’s possible to do if I really wanted to).

Other random happenings from the past week:

-As my roommates and I walk down the street, one of them trips over something, so we stop and look to see what it was. Yep, it was a ham bone. In the middle of the sidewalk. Only in Spain. (pictures coming soon)

-Then, last night we’re just hanging out in the apartment and we hear a ruckus going on down below, so we run to the balcony to see a man (seemingly sober) yelling at his girlfriend and chasing her around the street. This lasts for a good five minutes, eventually he breaks some sort of bottle and then yells “Por que no te calles?” (why don’t you just shut up) and then spits in her face. Oh, que pasion!

-I saw a sign today that said “vending 24 horas” which for some reason I just thought it was sooo funny.

-I watched JK Rowling’s interview with Oprah (puke) and when she said she doesn’t believe magic exists my heart broke into a million pieces. Can she really believe that after all the magic that Harry Potter has created? Also, mixed feelings about her comment about the possibility of writing the 8th, 9th, 10th, etc, HP books…

-And finally got kebaps last night! They were super tasty, but definitely not the best ones I’ve had – they used ranch instead of the traditional tzatziki sauce that I’m used to. Still though, it hit the spot. I realized yesterday that this time is Spain is drastically different from last time, as I hadn’t had any of my three addictions yet – kebaps, helado (Spanish ice cream), and tequila shots—all of which I had on almost a daily/nightly basis last time….


I’m starting to miss lots of things from home, like going to concerts! I’m sad I missed the Lincoln Calling festival, and it seems like there are some really good shows coming up…. Jealous! But mostly I’m missing all you folks, and I hope you all know how much I truly appreciate the support you give me every time I post something new. Mom and Dad, I know I don’t say this enough but I couldn’t have done ANY of this without you guys. Love you all.

Here again we’re at the end of another blog, and now it’s time for the soundtrack:

The District Sleeps Alone Tonight -- The Postal Service

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUIBnmdJJ50&ob=av2


Waiting for Superman -- The Flaming Lips (the Iron & Wine version is quite lovely as well)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr799iX0qGo <--Flaming Lips

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5gBt-zpb-w&feature=related <-- Iron & Wine


Gotsta head out, thanks for reading :)

Jessica the Giant

Why hello again!

Big news! I finally moved into my new apartment last night and met my new roomies…. But before we talk about that let’s do a recap of the past week…

Fernando was a very gracious host and I kept pretty busy in Madrid. I took the first day and a half or so to get over the jet-lag and mostly just lazied around his house. Friday night reminded me of two things: how one night out in the Spanish bars can ruin a favorite pair of shoes forever; and also that I am going to have to start training if I am going to be expected to stay out till 7am again. Nonetheless, it was a entertaining Spanish night reminiscent of the old days back in Salamanca (can you say MGMT and Kings of Leon?)

Saturday I was oh-so-sad that I wasn’t in good ol’ Nebraskee to watch my friends and family get drunk and yell at the TV screen during the Husker game. However, it turns out you can go halfway around the world and find the exact same thing happening, so I was at no loss. So Saturday night I traded in the red and white for a night spent with four Spanish boys watching the Barcelona fútbol (soccer) game and playing MarioKart.

Earlier this week I finally got contacted by a woman from my school, Begoña, who has been incredibly helpful and sweet. Tuesday I took an 8 hour bus ride from Madrid to Ferrol and Begoña picked me up and took me to our school in Neda to have a look around. Dios mío, I forgot how young high school kids are! They all look super sweet and Begoña tells me they can’t wait to meet me. Up until last night I had been staying at Begoña’s house (overlooking the water with palm trees and cats in the yard) and mostly hanging out with her 15-year old son Pablo, who will be one of my students. Everybody is so excited, I’ll be the first teacher from the United States at the school so they’re really excited to hear more about my “culture”. What a shock it will be when I tell them all the super fun stuff there is to do in Nebraska….

Begoña and Pablo gave me a bit of a tour of the city the first couple days I was here, and I think I’m really going to like it. The first day we drove up this big mountain to see the view of the cities and the ría (no translation for it, but it’s basically a combination of a big harbor/river thing) and luckily it was a sunny day (apparently I won’t have too many of those) so the view was beautiful. The country here is just amazing altogether, with the clouds and moon so close, and little cottages nuzzled up in the mountains in the country. Begoña also showed me around the streets of Ferrol and the outside of my apartment (which she set up for me) and we walked around a little castle that used to guard the entrance of the ría.

Aaaaanyway… my new apartment is AMAZING! Its huge, with about 5 bedrooms, a living room, dining room, extra room thing, a cute kitchen with granite countertops, a dishwasher and AN OVEN… something I’ve never seen in Spain before. Looks like I’ll be making some enchiladas :). It even has a washing machine. I’ll post a virtual tour sometime soon, but right now the place is a bit of a mess while all of us are trying to unpack.

Oh yeah, did I mention the location? Its right next to the city center, on the street that has all the fun shops and eateries, and its right above a store called Zara Home (Spain’s equivalent of Urban Outfitters or Anthropologie). And the street over is where all the bars and pubs are, so it will be really safe easy to get home at night… though the 3 flights of stairs (no elevator, uh-oh Jessica) might hinder us in our drunken states. My roommates are all really nice, one is from Oregon, one is from Texas, and one is from Germany. We had a “fancy” dinner together last night (spaghetti and cheap champagne) but I guess there’s nothing really too crazy to report yet about them, I’m still getting to know them but it seems like we’ll get along really well. You’ll be interested to know though; I’m the tallest one in the house. I’m not really sure how it’s possible, but it is, and I love it.

After going to my school to fill out paperwork and stuff today, I headed home with the excitement of getting a schwarama/kebab… which I haven’t had since last time I was in Spain (every night of the week) but unfortunately I didn’t make it. I got pooped on by a pigeon and had to head home. Instead I had cereal for lunch :(

Monday I’ll start my first real day of work, and the thought of actually teaching has become slightly daunting. The teachers at the school though are very sweet, and I’m sure they’ll help me out when I need it.

Anyway, that’s the end of another blog (battery is about to die, so I really have no choice). Sorry it’s been so long and this was such a mega-long (and rushed!) post, but I’ve gone without much internet lately so I haven’t had much of a choice.

Oh yeah, and I found 20 Euro on the street today, so that's good.

Before you go though, check out today's blog's soundtrack:

Jenny Lewis -- See Fernando (gosh I can't imagine why...):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHXwi4V3kVo

I'd also like to give a special nod to Lady Gaga's "Alejandro" because, thanks to my new friend Max, that song has been stuck in my head since I got on the plane in Philly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niqrrmev4mA&ob=av3e

And and and also Beach House (in general) for being absolutely perfect music for an 8 hour plane ride.

(And maybe also the New Pornographer's Together album for being a stellar bus ride companion)



Until next time lovies....