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!