Weekend Fun

I’ve almost hit my one-month anniversary of Navalmoral: Part II. Things have been going very quickly, but slowly at the same time. The weekdays drag on and the weekends fly by.  But isn’t it always like that?

Work has been really good.  Little by little I’m getting the hang of teaching the little four year olds.  We don’t have any books or a curriculum, so it’s up to me to plan absolutely everything for my 11 classes, ages 4 through adult.  All of my mornings are spent making worksheets, looking up things online, and going to print things off at the printer down the street.  It’s a lot of work, but I’m enjoying it and above all, I’m just happy to be back in Spain.

The weekend after San Miguel, Whitney, Emma, Oscar, Josemi, and I went to Josemi’s hometown, about an hour and a half away, for a festival.  In the small town of about 3,000 people, Whitney and I, “las rubias,” stood out like sore thumbs.  After an afternoon of cañas, learning how to play the castañuelas from Josemi’s mom, eating Super Paco hamburgers, visiting a country house, and seeing some amazing fireworks, we began our night out in Alcúescar with a ride on the Toro Loco.  I had heard about this common fair attraction all last year, but I had never seen it.  Just picture a regular mechanical bull, but designed so about 6 people can sit on it, placed next to another bull.  The two bulls are on a platform that moves ridiculously quickly, and the actual bull moves up and down too.  Whitney, Oscar, Mamen, and I were the only ones brave enough to do it.  It definitely ended up being one of those “Spanish-things-that-would-never-be-allowed-in-the-States-because-of-all-of-the-potential-lawsuit” things. But it was a ton of fun and a week later, my legs were still sore from holding on so tightly.

Parade of people offering flowers to the Virgin.

I was a natural.

That night, we botellóned, introduced “Cheers to the Governor” (a wonderful drinking game) to the Spanish people, and Whitney and I became the celebrities of the town, meeting everyone and their cousins and being introduced as “Las Americanas!”  We danced the night away at one of the two discotecas in town and got back to Josemi’s house around 8.00 am. We were greeted by Josemi’s dad, already enjoying his morning coffee after a full night’s sleep.

Sleeping until a little after noon, we went to see a church auction before heading back to Navalmoral.  Best part of the auction- they were auctioning off a live rooster…I kid you not.  The rest of the afternoon, after driving back, was spent being lazy at home, resting up before work the next day.

This past weekend, I went to a city called Ávila with my friend, Juan. The city is about a two and a half hour drive away and the trip took us through super curvy mountain roads. The views were incredible.  We spent most of the day walking on the medieval walls that surround the entire city.  We breaked for lunch and a much needed café con leche at one point and then, right before heading back home, we took a walk through the fair that was in town. They too had a Toro Loco…but with four bulls! Also, they had a super cheap rip-off of the Tower of Terror. Don’t think I would trust that ride. After the day, we were exhausted, but when we got back to Navalmoral, we rallied, met up with friends, and headed out for some fiesta.

Incredible.

A beautiful city.

Terrifying.

At El Abuelo.

Sunday, Whitney and I were incredibly lazy all day and didn’t do much of anything. We had been planning to do a big apartment cleaning…but of course, that didn’t happen. That night, the event we had been waiting for for weeks happened…the premiere of Gandía Shore! That’s right…just like Geordie Shore, the British version of Jersey Shore, there is now a Spanish version which takes place just south of Valencia.  It was all I could have asked for, and more. With our Telepizza, we watched Spanish trash with the names “Labrador,” “Core,” and Arantxa make fools of themselves and it was excellent. Just two more days until the next episode!

It’s started to get rainy and cold in the past few days, so leaving the house is becoming a chore. I’m starting a new class today…two hours with a beginner level adult every Friday. I’ve got to get creative and think of ways to fill two hours with one person. 

Did you hear that stomping?

After last year’s San Miguel, this one had a lot to hold up to.  It definitely didn’t disappoint, but it was very different. After getting ready for the night, Whitney and I braved the rain and met up with friends at a delicious restaurant for dinner. We got our usual foods and drinks and enjoyed catching up with each other.  After dinner, we made our way over to “our bar.”  We spent the night meeting up with people there and dancing ridiculously (nope, dancing is not encouraged), then collapsed with exhaustion when we got home.

In the morning, I had another meeting at my academy at 11.00am, so there was no sleeping in for me.  The meeting was lovely, but did just remind me of the huge amount of work I needed to get done before Monday. Oh well, that’s what Sunday nights are for.  After I got home and Whitney woke up, we went to salir de cañas for the afternoon and luckily, the rain had stopped.  Basically beginning an eating/drinking marathon that would last until the early hours of the morning.  And eat and drink we did. With the old gang, as well as some new auxiliares here in town, we had fun bar hopping all afternoon, until the early evening when we made our way up to the fairgrounds and rode the bumper cars.  The bumper cars were my favorite part of Carnaval last year and I loved it just as much this time around. I feel like such a little kid when I ride them. It’s the best.

We continued eating/drinking and went out for dinner.  I was so full by this point and desperately in need of water hydration that I took a time out from eating and drank about 2 liters of water. From there, we went back to “our bar,” hung out for the rest of the night (a bit calmer than the night before), then hit it home to sleep very well.

Sunday morning I woke up to the noise of Flamenco music and stomping coming from outside my window.  Whitney and I live on the fourth floor in a building on the main street of town, so we were pretty much in the center of things.  There was a full stage set up directly below us, where there was a Flamenco show happening.  And when I say Flamenco show, I mean a Flamenco dance recital of little ones.  It was precious.

Later, some of us met for lunch, then stopped by an artisan market that was happening in the park. We peeked into an Arab tent and eventually sat down for some Arabic tea and hookah. Reminded me of the mother country.  Then we just walked around the market, buying some sweets and other knick-knacks, then said our goodbyes and went home to start thinking about work starting the next day.  We were glad to take a break from lesson plans by stepping onto our balcony and watching the closing San Miguel fireworks while eating arroz con leche. Life is good.

Eagle, owl, hawk, FOX, and other wild life at the market.

Last year’s San Miguel was a blur to me, filled with tons of introductions, faces, but with wonderful weather and so much life and energy. This San Miguel was much more comfortable, spent with great friends, not that great weather, and a little más tranquilidad.  But I wouldn’t change any of it for the world. Next stop, Carnaval!

La vuelta

So after saying goodbye to my blog for my time in Spain last June, today I’m officially reopening this metaphoric and literal “chapter” of my life. In other words, I’M BACK.

When I got home to Virginia in June, I was so happy to see my family and friends and to eat all of the American food I had missed.  The goodbyes in Navalmoral were hard (just go back a few entries), but I thought I had made peace with them.  Wrong. Though it was nice to be back home, I couldn’t stand being away from Spain.  I missed everyone and everything there. I was again (like after study abroad) that annoying girl who started every sentence with, “Well in Spain…”  I needed to go back.

I spent basically my entire summer staying up all hours of the night researching how I could possibly go back to Navalmoral.  An English academy in the town eventually wanted to hire me and after what seems like hundreds of hours of work, figuring out how I could get a visa, I got all of my paperwork together and headed to the embassy.  The academy wanted me to start work October 1^st.  I applied for my visa September 10^th. They say it takes between 4-6 weeks to process. Things did not look promising.

I spent the next 14 days constantly looking up the USPS tracking number on the prepaid envelope I had turned in with the visa.  At exactly 12.01am on the 15^th day, the USPS website told me the envelope was “in transit.”  That next day, at 12.30 in the afternoon, the postman rang my doorbell.  My visa had arrived after only about 2 weeks! By 1.00pm, I had bought my plane ticket for the next day.  After all, I was going to start work in less than one week.

My last 24 hours stateside were spent eating my final sushi meal, packing, freaking out, packing more, freaking out some more, and cramming in as many goodbyes as I could. At 11.00am the next day, I was in the car with my dad to the airport.  We grabbed some lunch and a pre-flight beer, then I was on my own. 

The journey was uneventful.  I flew through JFK to Barajas and while I didn’t sleep much, when we landed, I couldn’t have been more awake.  If walking through the Madrid airport and collecting my luggage wasn’t surreal enough, taking the Cercanías to the bus station and getting on a bus to Navalmoral seemed almost impossible. I did sleep a little on the bus ride, but woke up with plenty of time to anticipate my big return “home.”

At the station, Mamen (roommate last year) and a mother of kids I used to teach both met me.  After some huge hugs and besos, the mother took my bags and me to my new apartment (she’s also the relator).  Whitney, my roommate this year (an American who taught in Navalmoral two years ago and became a great friend last year during her visits back), was away until the next day at an orientation for the official program (that I’m not a part of this year), so I had time to settle in by myself.  After a nice hot shower, I ate lunch with the relator lady and her kids, visited with Mamen in my former apartment (weird), and took an amazing siesta before meeting up with some of the old gang for dinner at my favorite restaurant. It was as if I had never left. The next day, I made my first Mercadona visit of the year, used a friend’s internet to reconnect to the world (until we get our own in the apartment), unpacked a lot, then took a (yes, another) siesta.

I was awoken from my sleep when my phone rang.  It was Whitney, asking me where I was.  I said, “Um, in the apartment.” She said, “What??” and hung up. Then I heard her…she was there too! I guess I had been in some deep REM.  We had a great reunion, caught up on each others’ lives, then later, I went to the academy I’ll be working at so I could get familiar with it and some of the people there (I also went there the next day to meet the directors). I’m really excited about it and think I’ll really like working there.

After I got back from the academy, it was time to get ready for the evening, as it was the start of SAN MIGUEL 2012!!!