Renewed!

It is official. I renewed. If they accept me, I will be a Language and Culture Assistant for another year. 

Many have heard my internal debate on what to do next year, mainly relating to staying with my present school, staying in Andalucia or switching entirely. Here is My Decision: I am not staying at Al-Andalus, but hopefully staying in Andalucia  (I hope the Junta will understand the clues hidden in my motivation statement and put me in Sevilla - I want to row!), with Cataluna as my second choice and Asturias third.

I hope I made the right decision. I enjoy my school here, my coworkers are extremely nice and the students are good (aka they don't kill each other or get into many fights. I have also found a way to make them all be quiet). Almunecar is a beautiful little city by the beach with decent weather. However this is an opportunity to live in Spain, to explore what it has to offer. So I am taking it!

24 Amazing Things

I shall now count all the amazing things that I have done this month:

1 It was a beautiful day today. I am quite excited that summer is coming, that I will soon be able to go swimming. But some certain Spainards keep telling me that March is an insane month: One day it will be wicked hot and the next it will be wicked cold by SSS (Southern Spain Standards).

Cooking and baking here in Almuñecar 2-6. Valentine Snickerdoodles with Emily, chocolate chip cookies, yellow cake, strawberry pie, pork dumplings, soup of various kinds (todays is onion!) and kim chee (or soon to be... cross your fingers!)

From the Matisse show

7/8/9 I had some visitors:  Ted from Jaen, Emily from London, and Roxann from Malaga. Roxann, Emily and I met in Granada for a whirl wind visit. 10 Emily and I got to see the Alhambra and its Matisse exhibit (free!! You should all go. Yes you... even if you are in Minnesota, Toronto or elsewhere) and then we all went to watch the sunset in the Albizin, which we missed. However! 11 Some Bulgarians thought we an interesting and took a picture of it. The weird thing is that one of them lives in Almunecar.

12 One weekend I went up to Jaen to see Barb and others... and got to go on beautiful sunny hike/run in the mountains South of Jaen. It was like a run through an art gallery except with no security guards and it is uphill, outside.

Then back in Almuñecar I went to a wine tasting class 13 (Cata de Vino or something), which I understood about 20% of what the guy said. But I did get to drink some tasty wines from around Spain along with a food paring. I almost felt like I was at Top Chef, but it was in Spanish, and there was no Tom or Padma.

Early in the morning the next day, 14 I made my way up to Sevilla to see Prachi, a girl I knew back in Toronto. 15/16/17/18 We had fun with our British host, walking around the city, enjoying the sun (and 27 degree day!) next to the river, eating lots of tapas, saw a dj with silver
teeth play, drinking warm champagne in a doorway just because it was raining.

"Tomatoes are green
before they are red"

The Cathedral was beautiful, and people who live in Sevilla are lucky because they get in for free. I could spend hours in there.19+++ Some really good pizza there too: Goats cheese with Jalapeños. If you want to go, the pizzeria is near Cafe Central on the Alameda. It was fun to be able to communicate while traveling... it was the first time I actually felt somewhat comfortable with speaking Spanish. Took me long enough. I wouldnt mind living in Sevilla... I could start rowing again then!


Now for the future 20 I have many plans ahead for traveling: Valencia, Lagos, Paris, Amsterdam, more of Spain and London. 21 The Parents are invading Almuñecar along with the favorite daughter (Ana) and her husband in about two weeks now. I hope they enjoy my new home time and prepare themselves for a free tapas (still have to buy the drink though) marathon!!!!! 22 Annie-Bananie will be coming soon as well, dont know yet but it will be in March! Then 23, Semana Santa travels and visitors (Steph and Natalia right now), I hope Morocco is sane enough to allow for our visit.

Finally 24, which was what inspired this post was: Staring into fires It made me remember how I spent most of the day after New Years Eve. Staring into this fire:

Grocery Store Adventures

There are two main grocery stores in my town, Lidl and Mercadona. Lidl is a giant German discount chain that I believe mainly caters to the large German pensioner population living here. Half the food is labeled in German, which often results in increased confusion while grocery shopping. I love that I can find lots of crazy German beer to subsitute in when I am tired of Alhambra or San Miguel, but I really have a hard time finding cream cheese since there are three types that have the almost the same name, carton, price, etc... I usually go by the picture and buy via trial and error.

While Mercadona is a Spanish company that plays their jingle all the time while you are shopping, which often results in you breaking out humming, "Mercadona, Mercadonaaaaa" while walking down the street, or while doing the dishes. (this girl's version which is pretty bad, but it is better than the hundreds of Mercadona house remixes).

Most of the time, I do shop with my eyes and don't even bother trying to read labels. Now I am trying to get a better understanding of the food available by studying the selections. The main differences I can spot are in meat and cheese. Cheddar selections are one thing I miss here, along with string, pepperjack and marbled cheese. Now I get to choose between Tierrna, semicurado, curado (all appearing to be a mix of goats, sheep and cow's milk) and what appears to be different types of American cheese. And the deli selection, I have no idea where to start. So I take one random sliced meat product each week... and this week it's a type of lomo embucado. Tasty.

Yo Quiero

Just discovered, Lidl's ice cream selection is sad.  Strawberries/Cream, Chocolate/Cream, Cookies/Cream and Caramel/Cream. While all good choices, I would love some Ben & Jerry's Phish Food.

Ba-ad-bureaucracies

Sitting here in the light, listening to the rain and the birds outside, I am overcome with tiredness.

As many of you know, I've been having a few silly issues since coming to Spain. Bureaucracies and I never seem to interact in the most efficient manner. For example, my visa process, taxes, my current idiotic relations with my US bank and now the post offices. Today I went to try to figure out where my holiday packages I sent to the US were, since no one stateside has received anything as of yet. The PO here said it was in the US, and the PO there says it is still in Spain. Where is this package???

This might be a bit of an exaggeration, but I feel I cannot rely on the institutions that I grew up with. Maybe I will go live up in the mountains in a cave and keep my money in my mattress from now on. 

Theme of the Week: Decisions

Ewww... Everyone that knows me, knows how I hate decisions. Easy decisions like what to eat, when to sleep (usually) are easier to make. Especially easier when faced with bigger decisions, like -->

Usually around decision time, I am a queen of procrastination. My room is now spotless (ish), I studied Spanish for an hour, folded my clothes and organized my desk, and now even writing in my blog!

So the few of you that actually read this, want to help me out with a few?

Decision Number 1: Job

Deadlines are coming up for reapplying for the next year. For everyone that doesn't know, I am a Language Assistant at a Secondary School in Almunecar, Spain. I will reapply because I dont have a clue otherwise what to do with my life, and I do need another year (at least) of Spanish to get really good. So good that I might be able to beat my sister in a Spanish Speaking Contest (like that would EVER happen).

On the application, there are three choices: Stay in your present school, Stay in your autonomous community (aka Andalucia) or Go somewhere else in Spain. 

If I choose to stay at my school: I already know many of the students, teachers, policies, etc and I like them all. BUT, the town is very small so I would probably live in Granada. 

If I choose to change: I do get to experience other cities/areas of Spain. But might end up in an even smaller town and I do like the playa.

Decision Number 2: Ahora

Connected with the previous decision, what to do now. Should I move or should I stay? I am lazy and only have a couple months left here that I could spend getting into shape (procrastinating on running by blogging), studying Spanish and enjoy the beaches- it is getting warmer. 

Or should I suck it up and move up to Granada. Which will take lots of energy.

Decision Number 3: Summer

Aww, the Summer. I am hearing horror stories from residents of Almunecar. The heat, the humidity, the heat... We will see if I can handle it or if I am even here TO handle it. 

Summer decision requires finding a job: potentials in Europe are au pair or English Language camps (if anyone knows of any openings, anywhere! Send them to me). Or I could return to the States and do something there- maybe State Fair again. Then another activity I have been pondering is a 10 day meditation class in Italy... but I doubt I could do it. 10 hours a day, for 10 days, without talking... hmmm...

Now I am going to get ready to run (with more clothes on than in the picture- its 13 C and very windy)

Fried Food = The Best

I got a craving for some spring rolls (and I would not repeat my Cleveland Airport Panda Express Incident - eww) and made lumpia (like a springroll) wrappers in my piso. My last adventure with batter was "interesting" - I tried to make pupusas and I used what I thought was corn meal, but instead it was corn starch. Which resulted in fried frisbees. This time I was successful!

Fry babies, fry!

As for the wrappers, I was super surprised at how easy it was. Last time I made dumplings, I had an adventure in the China town grocery store when I was trying to find cilantro but didn't know how to say it in Chinese or what it looked like. It just took me about an hour, then the dumplings came out uber salty.

Anyhoo.... From my research there seems to be two schools of lumpia wrappers. One with a more liquidy batter and the other was "goopy" (that was the word used). My recipe was the liquid batter and were kind of like crepes but a bit more flexible and they cooked much quicker. The fun part of making these was I got to use my hands to pull the wrappers out of the pan. Only burnt myself twice.

After frying

 Since I had spinach  to get rid of and some recently found feta cheese, I decided to make Spanakopita Lumpia. Another reason is that I do not have an oven and don't even want to think about trying to make filo dough... eek. The filling was pretty easy to make. Just chop up some spinach and cilantro, throw that into a bowl with some salt, parsley and chili pepper. Then chop up some onion and red pepper (I added the pepper in the second round of rolls), saute them and once cooked. Throw in the green stuff and once wilted, throw in some crumbled feta and pepper. And that is ready to go!

I will definitely have to make these wrappers again and play around with the filling. 

At them with some fresh cucumber and pico de gallo
Tasted good with BBQ sauce too  but everything tastes good with it

January Thaw

My walk 

Just like in Minnesota, Spain appears to experience a January "Thaw" or a week of 20 degree (Celcius) temperatures with sun (none right now though). I spent the last weekend in Almuñecar and decided to explore the area a bit more, which involved walking to La Herradura without a map. Used my urban navigation skills (aka following cars and standing on tree stumps to try to see where to roads went) to get there. Maybe this weekend I will head up into the mountains!

After Christmas, I somewhat followed my vague itinerary and ended up floating around Spain. Catching bus after bus and even a train! Me and Alsa (the bus company here) are best friends now. So here is what really went down after Christmas.

First! I went back to Almuñecar to digest that amazing Christmas dinner and do some laundry. (exciting!!!). Then I finally got off my bum and went to visit friends in Granada. Made some pumpkin pies from scratch (inspired by Roxann and her pie!), attempted to make chili and then ate some yummy alBONdigas ala Dave.

After a couple days there, I headed up to Linares which is a city near Jaen - only takes like two hours to drive there from Almuñecar but the bus from Granada took three hours! The bus changed in Jaen and I, being the organized individual I am (already missed one bus that day - another story), lost my ticket and had to talk my way onto the new bus. In Spanish! They probably just took pity on the poor blonde girl whose Spanish was funny, but I got on the bus!!!!

Linares' Unique Xmas Lights

Finally in Linares, I got to stay at a work friend's family's apartment. Joaquin's mom was so nice to me and I got to sleep in a real bed! I barged in on their New Years celebrations: eating lentils for Medio Dia and then eating the 12 grapes at midnight, all to get good luck in the new year. J's family had a special dinner that evening (with all 40+ people, his Abuela had 9 children herself, she is quite a lady), where I got to try lots of new dishes and also get to see how a Spanish family celebrates the holidays. After midnight and a family concert, we headed to a cabin to celebrate 2011. I got to meet some more Auxilares and real Spaniards too! I have have understood about 30% of the conversation, it's all a learning process. Supposedly my Spanish has improved- or my ability to pretend I understand. I am a good mime.

Artwork in the Underground

Sleeping Beauty's Castle... Really

Two days were spent at that cabin, bbq-ing, playing with Turkeys and enjoying what little sun there was. Then  I caught the train to Madrid (with 2 minutes to spare to buy tickets). 

In Madrid I met up with Casey from Orientation and finally met Esteban, another Auxilare who is living there. Madrid consisted of a walking tour, a Museo de Jamon, experiencing the brand new No Smoking Indoors rule, exploring the Underground and its graffitti, walking around el Prado and Rebajas (like Black Friday but goes on for a month of so.) Esteban and I took a day trip to Segovia, saw the castle that inspired Sleeping Beauty's castle and then caught a bus to Cordoba the next day.

Chris asking for Money

In Cordoba, I stayed with another coworker's family and ate LOTS. That is the theme of the holidays here: eating, drinking, talking, eating, and more drinking. I got to eat Spanish style ribs (with a honey sauce, yummm) and fried food in a shell, which is something the State Fair should think about. I was shown around the Mosque, the Catholic Kings Castle (where Colombus asked to go exploring)  and walked around the Juderia (that word makes me giggle). By then, I was pretty tired from all this bumming around and the fact I only brought clothes for 4 days was a bit of issue seeing that I was gone nearly two weeks (I brought enough undies! I'm prepared somewhat).

Fried Shell with Meat inside, then crackers with Pate
 One Meal in Cordoba. 

Overall, I believe my holidays went pretty well. Got to explore alot of Spain and distract myself from missing my family and friends back home. I miss you all back home and even the cold! 

Happy New Years Everyone!