Hey hey!!
So it’s been a looooong time since I’ve updated this bad boy. That’s because so much has happened lately that the thought of putting it down in words kind of overwhelmed me!
Ok. So I went to Paris to spend Christmas with my friend Linzy. We played volleyball together at USF and now she is playing professionally in a cute little town just outside Paris. Linzy’s mom, Leslie, also flew in from the States to visit. We spent four wonderful days in Paris before hitting the road. Paris is such an incredibly beautiful city, especially at Christmas time with all the lights! I think if I spoke French I could see myself living there for a little while.
A few days later we hopped in Linzy’s car and headed south for five or six days. First stop was Toulouse. Toulouse is a really darling town on the southern border, close to Spain. I would describe it as what you probably imagine when you think of a small French town. There was an open air market, cheese shops, wine shops, boulangeries, cafes, and wonderfully dressed families. That night we had dinner at a cute little restaurant called Entricot. As we were seated I looked at all the delicious food and noticed that one dish seemed to be really popular. When our waitress came over she asked if we were ready to order, but we were confused because we were never given a menu. She explained that there was just one thing on the menu: steak and fries. Well then, I guess we’ll have that! But this wasn’t just any steak and fries. It was reaaaally reaaally good steak and fries!
Next we made our way east to Aix en Provence, just outside Marseilles. This was even smaller than Toulouse. On Christmas Eve, we went out in search of a restaurant to have a semi-traditional meal. The problem was that most places were doing a Chri
stmas Eve special menu that cost around 75 euros. Just as we were starting to lose hope we stumbled upon a small, quiet little restaurant that luckily served the normal menu. It turned out to be absolutely perfect! We had some really delicious food and loved being surrounded by families. After dinner we asked our waitress for the best church to catch 
Christmas mass. She gave us directions to a very sweet little Catholic church. The mass was really beautiful, although entirely in French! But a nice thing about Catholicism is that it’s the same all over the world, so I could pretty much follow.
The next day we drove into Marseilles to check it out. Marseilles was interesting because it had so much potential to be a really beautiful city. It’s a port city so the town is centered around the water. There was a nice area with a castle up on a hill that overlooked the water, but outside of that, Marseilles was extremely dirty and not well kept. It really shows you what a difference local government can make. So we decided not to waste too much time there and left after about an hour.
Next we headed to Nice, one of my favorite cities in the world! I had been here before, so it was kind of fun to remember things that I liked and be a bit of a tour guide. We didn’t have hotel reservations in Nice and decided to just drive into town and hope something was available. We stopped at the first place we saw, which was right on the ocean. I figured it would be too
expensive, but upon asking it was ridiculously cheap. Linzy kept asking her to repeat the number because she thought she had misunderstood! We had a nice little room with a view of the Mediterranean. We spent three days in Nice, wandering around town, eating great food and drinking good wine and just generally enjoying ourselves. Linzy even convinced me to buy a beret! I highly recommend a visit to Nice if you ever get the chance. I especially love the old part of town where the streets are narrow and there’s lots of colorful laundry out on the line!
We made a day trip to Eze and Monaco, where I had also been previously. Eze is a little village up high on a mountain that requires quite the hike.
But the difficult location keeps it relatively “un-touristy” and preserved. There are great views of the ocean and lots of little shops. Next we hit Monaco, which isn’t really one of my favorite places, but nice enough none the less. We wandered around the ritzy town and even popped in the Monte Carlo casino! We didn’t actually gamble because from what I hear they don’t have quarter slots…
Finally we headed back to Paris for one more night before it was time to go back to Madrid. Overall it was a great trip. I had so many fantastic meals and it was a very relaxing couple of weeks. Being with friends really helped me to not be too homesick, and I also tried to keep in mind that this will likely be my one and only Christmas away from home in my life.
Linzy came with me back to Madrid to spend New Years here! Madrid has a reputation around the world for being the best place to be for New Years Eve. Two of my former roommates from college, Tressa and Kendra, also stayed with me for the big day! They were on a little European adventure and luckily Madrid was the first stop. I had so much fun hanging out with my college friends! It was also great to show them around Madrid and see how blown away they were. It helped to remind me of how lucky I am and what a cool city I live in.
For the big night, we got dressed up (Kendra and Linzy even bought wigs!) and headed downtown to Sol. Sol is the most important plaza in Madrid and it is the place to be on NYE. Here’s how it works: Tons of people fill Sol and wait for 12:00. At the stroke of midnight, a giant clock tower rings out twelve chimes. With each chime, you have to eat a grape
for good luck. So you eat twelve grapes and then share hugs with everyone! It’s a cute tradition I think. My only issue was that seedless grapes don’t exist here. I’m not really picky but something about crunching on a giant seed just doesn’t sit well with me. So we bought special seedless grapes made just for New Years (uvas de suerte). They came in a can. This struck me as pretty odd but I went with it. They definitely weren’t the best grapes I’ve ever had, but they were lucky so I toughed it out.
After a couple more days in Madrid, it was time for Linzy to go home and for me to head to Dublin! I was so excited to add a new country to my list! The trip didn’t start out great, seeing as my flight was delayed about two hours. This did, on the bright side, leave me a lot of time to people watch in the airport. I noticed there were a lot of families where one parent was Irish and
one parent was Spanish. It was so interesting to me to watch the dynamic in terms of languages. The common system seemed to be that the Irish parent would speak only English to the kids and the Spanish parent would speak only Spanish to them. What was more interesting to me was that a lot of the kids would talk to both parents in just Spanish or just English. But the parent would continue to speak in their native language. I think it’s so amazing how little kids can pick up two languages so young. I wish I were so lucky!
Lucky for me, my friend here in Madrid, Eimear, is a dual American-Irish citizen and has lots of family in Dublin. So I got to stay with her at her aunt and uncle’s house! Upon arrival, I was greeted by Eimear, her aunt, uncle, another aunt, a brother in law, and tons of cousins! They were all so happy to meet me and so sweet and very concerned that I might need some tea. Dublin was really great, but I think the best part of the trip was staying with their family. They were all so nice and generous and hospitable. It was great to be with a family kind of like my own: two story house in the suburbs, roast beef and mashed potatoes for dinner, etc.
Dublin was a really charming city. I like towns where there aren’t a lot of landmarks you feel obligated to see, but you can just stroll and take in the scene. Of course there were a million pubs. I also went to Grafton Street and saw an area where some scenes were shot from one of
my favorite movies, Once. Maybe the highlight of the trip (other than having a pint of cider in a pub) was going to the Kilmanem Jail. It’s an old prison where some of the most important figures from Irish history, like leaders who fought for Irish independence, were jailed or executed. The tour was very informative and a little creepy. A good mix!
After five days in Dublin, it was time to head back to Madrid and get back to real life! I think Christmas break was just what I needed. I feel my spirits are really lifted and I’m enjoying my time a lot more here now. I can’t believe it’s already February and I have been here for over four months! Things at school are great. I’ve also been playing volleyball a lot lately which is fun.
Funny kid quote of the week:
I teach infantil once a week although I wish I taught it everyday! The kids are four so it’s pretty limited what we can do. Class is pretty much going over what day it is, some vocabulary, and then they do a coloring worksheet involving English colors. So for the coloring portion I always pick a table to sit with and color. On Thursday I’m coloring with some kids (they’re four years old by the way) and
one boy says to me, “Teacher you’re so tall! How’d you get so tall?” and I responded with something about drinking a lot of milk or whatever. Then one little boy says, “Profe, pareces como un elefante!!” (Teacher, you look like an elephant!!). I started laughing and said, “Oh really?” and he responded, “Well, you don’t have a trunk but otherwise….” Hahahaha I about died. Then a little girl said, “No no no Alvaro, elephants are fat! She’s not fat.” And I said, THANK YOU Maria! Maria is getting an A in English in case you were wondering. As for Alvaro…
Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well! Now that I’m back in the swing of things I hope to post more regularly.
Besitos
So it’s been a looooong time since I’ve updated this bad boy. That’s because so much has happened lately that the thought of putting it down in words kind of overwhelmed me!
Ok. So I went to Paris to spend Christmas with my friend Linzy. We played volleyball together at USF and now she is playing professionally in a cute little town just outside Paris. Linzy’s mom, Leslie, also flew in from the States to visit. We spent four wonderful days in Paris before hitting the road. Paris is such an incredibly beautiful city, especially at Christmas time with all the lights! I think if I spoke French I could see myself living there for a little while.
A few days later we hopped in Linzy’s car and headed south for five or six days. First stop was Toulouse. Toulouse is a really darling town on the southern border, close to Spain. I would describe it as what you probably imagine when you think of a small French town. There was an open air market, cheese shops, wine shops, boulangeries, cafes, and wonderfully dressed families. That night we had dinner at a cute little restaurant called Entricot. As we were seated I looked at all the delicious food and noticed that one dish seemed to be really popular. When our waitress came over she asked if we were ready to order, but we were confused because we were never given a menu. She explained that there was just one thing on the menu: steak and fries. Well then, I guess we’ll have that! But this wasn’t just any steak and fries. It was reaaaally reaaally good steak and fries!
Next we made our way east to Aix en Provence, just outside Marseilles. This was even smaller than Toulouse. On Christmas Eve, we went out in search of a restaurant to have a semi-traditional meal. The problem was that most places were doing a Chri
stmas Eve special menu that cost around 75 euros. Just as we were starting to lose hope we stumbled upon a small, quiet little restaurant that luckily served the normal menu. It turned out to be absolutely perfect! We had some really delicious food and loved being surrounded by families. After dinner we asked our waitress for the best church to catch 
Christmas mass. She gave us directions to a very sweet little Catholic church. The mass was really beautiful, although entirely in French! But a nice thing about Catholicism is that it’s the same all over the world, so I could pretty much follow.The next day we drove into Marseilles to check it out. Marseilles was interesting because it had so much potential to be a really beautiful city. It’s a port city so the town is centered around the water. There was a nice area with a castle up on a hill that overlooked the water, but outside of that, Marseilles was extremely dirty and not well kept. It really shows you what a difference local government can make. So we decided not to waste too much time there and left after about an hour.
Next we headed to Nice, one of my favorite cities in the world! I had been here before, so it was kind of fun to remember things that I liked and be a bit of a tour guide. We didn’t have hotel reservations in Nice and decided to just drive into town and hope something was available. We stopped at the first place we saw, which was right on the ocean. I figured it would be too
expensive, but upon asking it was ridiculously cheap. Linzy kept asking her to repeat the number because she thought she had misunderstood! We had a nice little room with a view of the Mediterranean. We spent three days in Nice, wandering around town, eating great food and drinking good wine and just generally enjoying ourselves. Linzy even convinced me to buy a beret! I highly recommend a visit to Nice if you ever get the chance. I especially love the old part of town where the streets are narrow and there’s lots of colorful laundry out on the line!We made a day trip to Eze and Monaco, where I had also been previously. Eze is a little village up high on a mountain that requires quite the hike.
But the difficult location keeps it relatively “un-touristy” and preserved. There are great views of the ocean and lots of little shops. Next we hit Monaco, which isn’t really one of my favorite places, but nice enough none the less. We wandered around the ritzy town and even popped in the Monte Carlo casino! We didn’t actually gamble because from what I hear they don’t have quarter slots…Finally we headed back to Paris for one more night before it was time to go back to Madrid. Overall it was a great trip. I had so many fantastic meals and it was a very relaxing couple of weeks. Being with friends really helped me to not be too homesick, and I also tried to keep in mind that this will likely be my one and only Christmas away from home in my life.
Linzy came with me back to Madrid to spend New Years here! Madrid has a reputation around the world for being the best place to be for New Years Eve. Two of my former roommates from college, Tressa and Kendra, also stayed with me for the big day! They were on a little European adventure and luckily Madrid was the first stop. I had so much fun hanging out with my college friends! It was also great to show them around Madrid and see how blown away they were. It helped to remind me of how lucky I am and what a cool city I live in.
For the big night, we got dressed up (Kendra and Linzy even bought wigs!) and headed downtown to Sol. Sol is the most important plaza in Madrid and it is the place to be on NYE. Here’s how it works: Tons of people fill Sol and wait for 12:00. At the stroke of midnight, a giant clock tower rings out twelve chimes. With each chime, you have to eat a grape
for good luck. So you eat twelve grapes and then share hugs with everyone! It’s a cute tradition I think. My only issue was that seedless grapes don’t exist here. I’m not really picky but something about crunching on a giant seed just doesn’t sit well with me. So we bought special seedless grapes made just for New Years (uvas de suerte). They came in a can. This struck me as pretty odd but I went with it. They definitely weren’t the best grapes I’ve ever had, but they were lucky so I toughed it out.After a couple more days in Madrid, it was time for Linzy to go home and for me to head to Dublin! I was so excited to add a new country to my list! The trip didn’t start out great, seeing as my flight was delayed about two hours. This did, on the bright side, leave me a lot of time to people watch in the airport. I noticed there were a lot of families where one parent was Irish and
one parent was Spanish. It was so interesting to me to watch the dynamic in terms of languages. The common system seemed to be that the Irish parent would speak only English to the kids and the Spanish parent would speak only Spanish to them. What was more interesting to me was that a lot of the kids would talk to both parents in just Spanish or just English. But the parent would continue to speak in their native language. I think it’s so amazing how little kids can pick up two languages so young. I wish I were so lucky!Lucky for me, my friend here in Madrid, Eimear, is a dual American-Irish citizen and has lots of family in Dublin. So I got to stay with her at her aunt and uncle’s house! Upon arrival, I was greeted by Eimear, her aunt, uncle, another aunt, a brother in law, and tons of cousins! They were all so happy to meet me and so sweet and very concerned that I might need some tea. Dublin was really great, but I think the best part of the trip was staying with their family. They were all so nice and generous and hospitable. It was great to be with a family kind of like my own: two story house in the suburbs, roast beef and mashed potatoes for dinner, etc.
Dublin was a really charming city. I like towns where there aren’t a lot of landmarks you feel obligated to see, but you can just stroll and take in the scene. Of course there were a million pubs. I also went to Grafton Street and saw an area where some scenes were shot from one of
my favorite movies, Once. Maybe the highlight of the trip (other than having a pint of cider in a pub) was going to the Kilmanem Jail. It’s an old prison where some of the most important figures from Irish history, like leaders who fought for Irish independence, were jailed or executed. The tour was very informative and a little creepy. A good mix!After five days in Dublin, it was time to head back to Madrid and get back to real life! I think Christmas break was just what I needed. I feel my spirits are really lifted and I’m enjoying my time a lot more here now. I can’t believe it’s already February and I have been here for over four months! Things at school are great. I’ve also been playing volleyball a lot lately which is fun.
Funny kid quote of the week:
I teach infantil once a week although I wish I taught it everyday! The kids are four so it’s pretty limited what we can do. Class is pretty much going over what day it is, some vocabulary, and then they do a coloring worksheet involving English colors. So for the coloring portion I always pick a table to sit with and color. On Thursday I’m coloring with some kids (they’re four years old by the way) and
one boy says to me, “Teacher you’re so tall! How’d you get so tall?” and I responded with something about drinking a lot of milk or whatever. Then one little boy says, “Profe, pareces como un elefante!!” (Teacher, you look like an elephant!!). I started laughing and said, “Oh really?” and he responded, “Well, you don’t have a trunk but otherwise….” Hahahaha I about died. Then a little girl said, “No no no Alvaro, elephants are fat! She’s not fat.” And I said, THANK YOU Maria! Maria is getting an A in English in case you were wondering. As for Alvaro…Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well! Now that I’m back in the swing of things I hope to post more regularly.
Besitos
