This past Friday night Ben and I went out for supper with my teachers from the Primary School where I teach at in Logrono. It was a great night! We started out by meeting everybody at 9:30 at a local bar for a drink before we went to our restaurant to eat. There was a total of 22 of us that got together. I didn't have a clue that it was going to be the biggest meal I had eaten so far since being in Logrono.
We sat down and they started bringing around many bottles of water and wine to everybody. After the wine, they brought out baskets and baskets of fresh bread. The appetizers we had were amazing. There was a total of 5 different kinds of appetizers! I couldn't believe it every time a new one came out of the kitchen. The first appetizer we had was 'croquetas' which are ham and cheese snacks in a breaded shell. They remind me of mozzarella sticks. The next appetizer we had were very large mushrooms with a garlic taste. Then we had typical Rioja ham and slices of cheese. After the ham and cheese we had cut up octopus pieces that we on top of sliced potatoes. Finally we had salad that had fried red pepper, sardines and tuna with it. I tried all 5 of the different appetizers.
While we were eating the different appetizers a waiter came out and read off a huge list of foods that we could choose from for our main meal. Ben and I had no clue what to choose. I had no clue even what was a meat or a fish from the list. It was hard to understand the man. He talked very fast. Finally all of the teachers started trying to tell us what we should choose to eat. The two ladies across from me helped me choose my meal and Ben's. When my meal came out it ended up being a huge steak fillet with potatoes, kind of like french fries. It was really really good! I ate the whole thing even though I was already stuffed from all of the appetizers I had eaten. I completely forgot about dessert! I am not used to eating dessert after every meal. Here in Spain it is always served with each meal. We all laughed when we saw our dessert come out. It ended up being 7 pieces of different kinds of desserts for each one of us! It was unbelievable. I was so full but I had to eat (because I really wanted to and love dessert) all of the different types of desserts. I was really full. After dessert they brought all of us either a cup of coffee or tea. I chose to drink a tea. After the tea and coffee they asked everybody want kind of shot of alcohol they wanted. That is very typical for people to do after a meal here. I declined the offer due to how full I was by that time. I couldn't possibly add anything else in me. Finally the bill was about to be given to us. I was scared! I couldn't imagine how much we would pay for this incredibly excellent meal. It ended up only being 24 euros per person. That is about $35.60. I have never paid that much for a meal before but I swear it was the most food I have ever eaten before at a restaurant. We were also at the restaurant from 10:00 until 1:30 AM!!! They eat supper very late here.
We all decided to go out to the local bars next to the cathedral to go dancing for the rest of the night. We went to two different bars and stayed out with all of my teachers until 4:00 AM! It was so much fun. We danced and danced and danced! I hope that we will be able to go out dancing with my professors again. We were able to talk Spanish all night and learn a lot more about the Spanish culture from them. The meal on Friday night was like having another Thanksgiving Day dinner. It was great!!
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you are all having a fabulous day. Today Ben and I are going to host our first Thanksgiving meal here in Spain. We are going to have people from all over the world come over for it. There are going to be 11 people here including Ben and I. One girl from California, two boys from New Mexico, one boy from Florida, one girl from Italy, one girl from Germany, one girl from France, and one boy & girl from England. The people not from the USA are very excited because they have never had a Thanksgiving meal before.
We went shopping last night at a grocery store and found great things for our menu. We will have turkey breast fillets with sauteed mushrooms and onions, mashed potatoes with garlic, a lettuce salad with sliced almonds, orange slices, lemon juice & olive oil, corn niblets and a mixed bag of vegetables that consists of white asparagus, pepper, green beans, carrots. We are also going to have two different kind of desserts. We were unable to make a pumpkin pie but really wanted to.
It should be a great time. I am also very scared of how we are going to cook enough food for all 11 people and keep it warm at the same time. It will be served at 9 PM tonight. That is when people have supper here. It is actually kind of early. Most people eat about 9:30 or 10 at night! We have a nice kitchen but not as many pots and pans as well as serving dishes as we would like so we are just going to have to see what we can do with what we have. I hope everybody likes it! I hope that you all have a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving vacation. I will let you know tomorrow how the Thanksgiving Day meal went. Bye!
We went shopping last night at a grocery store and found great things for our menu. We will have turkey breast fillets with sauteed mushrooms and onions, mashed potatoes with garlic, a lettuce salad with sliced almonds, orange slices, lemon juice & olive oil, corn niblets and a mixed bag of vegetables that consists of white asparagus, pepper, green beans, carrots. We are also going to have two different kind of desserts. We were unable to make a pumpkin pie but really wanted to.
It should be a great time. I am also very scared of how we are going to cook enough food for all 11 people and keep it warm at the same time. It will be served at 9 PM tonight. That is when people have supper here. It is actually kind of early. Most people eat about 9:30 or 10 at night! We have a nice kitchen but not as many pots and pans as well as serving dishes as we would like so we are just going to have to see what we can do with what we have. I hope everybody likes it! I hope that you all have a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving vacation. I will let you know tomorrow how the Thanksgiving Day meal went. Bye!
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Exciting Times Ahead!
As I sit here drinking some hot strawberry cream tea, eating some wonderful Spanish cookies and listening to Christmas music at 6:00 PM on Sunday evening, I figured it was a great time to tell you all about my exciting plans for the start of December and Christmas break.
First, I am going to explain a few of my previous photos in the last blog that I posted. I wanted you all to completely experience what the photos actually were of. The first photo is of the three strange faces. I saw those in Museum Wurth in a nearby city next to Logrono. There was three white round objects in this small dark room. All of a sudden these three faces were projected on to the white objects. They continuously were moving their eyes, noses and mouths. It was quite a sight to see! I had to capture the looks of them on my camera.
The second photo is of the huge man sitting with his arms wrapped around his legs. This man was very big. He would change colors every few seconds. The man also also had many embossed words of the body parts all over his body such as head, leg, arm, nose....etc. It was really cool. I took many photos of this man. I liked the blue color the best.
The third photo from the museum is the blue dress. I captured the dress with the photo in the background of it. At one time the dress in the photograph was actually worn by two sisters. The dress could fit two people and now they have it on display at the museum with the original photo of the sisters in it next to it. I thought it was pretty cool and artsy. Okay, good. I really wanted to clarify the photos that were taken from the museum so that you could capture the whole effect and experience like I did. Now, on to the fun times that lie ahead for me.
I am very excited to say that we just bought plane tickets to go travel to Milan, Italy. Ben, our friend Kara from California, and I will be going to Milan on December 7 - 11. I decided to take an extra day off of work to be able to see all Milan. According to Wikipedia, Milan is considered one of the largest cities in Italy and one of the most highly developed urban centers in Europe. The metropolitan area of Milan accounts for 7.4 million people! I can't wait to experience it. I absolutely love all types of Italian food and can't wait to try them all. We are going to be staying in a hotel that is close to the center of the city. Milan has the second largest church in Italy and the third largest in the world. We will be about a 10 - 15 minute walk from that church. Right after we purchased our plane tickets this past week we found out that December 7th is the Festival of the Patron Saint Ambrose. We will be arriving on that evening to have a ton of people celebrating. It should be a fun time while there are so many people celebrating. Also, one exciting thing I also found out is that Milan holds Leonardo Da Vinci's original "The Last Supper" in the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie. I hope we are able to view it while we are there. If you want to read more about Milan and what other cool things the city has to offer you can visit Wikipedia by clicking here.
After we get back from Milan we will just have one week before we head off to Madrid to meet up with my family on the afternoon of December 20th! We have rented a great apartment in a fabulous location, Puerta de Sol, that will fit all 7 of us to stay together. It will be good to walk to all the tourist locations that everybody wants to see when they go to Madrid. On the 22nd we are planning to head for a day trip to Toledo. A small city that is about an hour away from Madrid. Last time I was in Spain I bought a sword from Toledo.We are going to be staying in Madrid until noon on the 23rd and heading to Logrono. We will be celebrating Christmas in Logrono on the 23rd - 26th. We have a few day trips planned to such places as Bilbao and maybe Pamplona. Bilbao is known for the Guggenheim Museum and Pamplona is known for the running of the bulls in July. We will be heading back to Madrid on the 29th to spend two more days there until my family flies out on the 31st. I can not wait for all of our adventures with my family to begin. After they leave on the 31st, Ben and I are planning to stay in Madrid to celebrate the New Year and head off to take a long way back to Logrono going through cities such as Segovia, Valladolid and Burgos. They are all in northern Spain. We are lucky we have vacation from December 20th - January 8th.
Due to Spain not having Thanksgiving Day here the streets are getting covered by hanging lights ready for December 1st. Pablo, the boy I tutor, told me that they will turn all of the lights around the city on the night of December 1st. I can't wait to be walking around the city with all of the Christmas lights on. I will miss the snow but the Christmas season will still be great here without it! Another great thing for Christmas here they actually have little huts that sell chestnuts that have been roasting over an open fire! Ben and I tried 7 of them the other night. They were great. I never knew that they actually had them. I just thought it was part of the song.
Ben and I are going to plan a big holiday Thanksgiving dinner for all of our friends here for Thursday evening. We are still trying to find out if Spain has turkeys that you can bake. We don't know for sure. If not, we will be having chicken for supper. We are going to try make it as traditional as possible. There should be about 14 or 15 of us in our apartment! Luckily we have a lot of free space to share with everyone. I also will be teaching all of my classes this week with worksheets and photos the story of Thanksgiving. Well, I am very excited for all of the wonderful events that are going to be happening in the next coming month! I am off to prepare my Thanksgiving Day classes. Have a great and wonderful Thanksgiving everybody! I will be missing the great food that my Grandma Bernie prepares for us every year. :) Speaking of which, I really enjoyed having my last slice of banana bread that I brought in the plane to Spain right when we moved in to our apartment. Thanks again Grandma! Here is me back in September with my last slice of banana bread. I had to take a photo with it.
First, I am going to explain a few of my previous photos in the last blog that I posted. I wanted you all to completely experience what the photos actually were of. The first photo is of the three strange faces. I saw those in Museum Wurth in a nearby city next to Logrono. There was three white round objects in this small dark room. All of a sudden these three faces were projected on to the white objects. They continuously were moving their eyes, noses and mouths. It was quite a sight to see! I had to capture the looks of them on my camera.
The second photo is of the huge man sitting with his arms wrapped around his legs. This man was very big. He would change colors every few seconds. The man also also had many embossed words of the body parts all over his body such as head, leg, arm, nose....etc. It was really cool. I took many photos of this man. I liked the blue color the best.
The third photo from the museum is the blue dress. I captured the dress with the photo in the background of it. At one time the dress in the photograph was actually worn by two sisters. The dress could fit two people and now they have it on display at the museum with the original photo of the sisters in it next to it. I thought it was pretty cool and artsy. Okay, good. I really wanted to clarify the photos that were taken from the museum so that you could capture the whole effect and experience like I did. Now, on to the fun times that lie ahead for me.
I am very excited to say that we just bought plane tickets to go travel to Milan, Italy. Ben, our friend Kara from California, and I will be going to Milan on December 7 - 11. I decided to take an extra day off of work to be able to see all Milan. According to Wikipedia, Milan is considered one of the largest cities in Italy and one of the most highly developed urban centers in Europe. The metropolitan area of Milan accounts for 7.4 million people! I can't wait to experience it. I absolutely love all types of Italian food and can't wait to try them all. We are going to be staying in a hotel that is close to the center of the city. Milan has the second largest church in Italy and the third largest in the world. We will be about a 10 - 15 minute walk from that church. Right after we purchased our plane tickets this past week we found out that December 7th is the Festival of the Patron Saint Ambrose. We will be arriving on that evening to have a ton of people celebrating. It should be a fun time while there are so many people celebrating. Also, one exciting thing I also found out is that Milan holds Leonardo Da Vinci's original "The Last Supper" in the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie. I hope we are able to view it while we are there. If you want to read more about Milan and what other cool things the city has to offer you can visit Wikipedia by clicking here.
After we get back from Milan we will just have one week before we head off to Madrid to meet up with my family on the afternoon of December 20th! We have rented a great apartment in a fabulous location, Puerta de Sol, that will fit all 7 of us to stay together. It will be good to walk to all the tourist locations that everybody wants to see when they go to Madrid. On the 22nd we are planning to head for a day trip to Toledo. A small city that is about an hour away from Madrid. Last time I was in Spain I bought a sword from Toledo.We are going to be staying in Madrid until noon on the 23rd and heading to Logrono. We will be celebrating Christmas in Logrono on the 23rd - 26th. We have a few day trips planned to such places as Bilbao and maybe Pamplona. Bilbao is known for the Guggenheim Museum and Pamplona is known for the running of the bulls in July. We will be heading back to Madrid on the 29th to spend two more days there until my family flies out on the 31st. I can not wait for all of our adventures with my family to begin. After they leave on the 31st, Ben and I are planning to stay in Madrid to celebrate the New Year and head off to take a long way back to Logrono going through cities such as Segovia, Valladolid and Burgos. They are all in northern Spain. We are lucky we have vacation from December 20th - January 8th.
Due to Spain not having Thanksgiving Day here the streets are getting covered by hanging lights ready for December 1st. Pablo, the boy I tutor, told me that they will turn all of the lights around the city on the night of December 1st. I can't wait to be walking around the city with all of the Christmas lights on. I will miss the snow but the Christmas season will still be great here without it! Another great thing for Christmas here they actually have little huts that sell chestnuts that have been roasting over an open fire! Ben and I tried 7 of them the other night. They were great. I never knew that they actually had them. I just thought it was part of the song.
Ben and I are going to plan a big holiday Thanksgiving dinner for all of our friends here for Thursday evening. We are still trying to find out if Spain has turkeys that you can bake. We don't know for sure. If not, we will be having chicken for supper. We are going to try make it as traditional as possible. There should be about 14 or 15 of us in our apartment! Luckily we have a lot of free space to share with everyone. I also will be teaching all of my classes this week with worksheets and photos the story of Thanksgiving. Well, I am very excited for all of the wonderful events that are going to be happening in the next coming month! I am off to prepare my Thanksgiving Day classes. Have a great and wonderful Thanksgiving everybody! I will be missing the great food that my Grandma Bernie prepares for us every year. :) Speaking of which, I really enjoyed having my last slice of banana bread that I brought in the plane to Spain right when we moved in to our apartment. Thanks again Grandma! Here is me back in September with my last slice of banana bread. I had to take a photo with it.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Some Excursions in Spain
We have had the opportunity to do a lot of different things living here in Logrono so far and it has only been 2 months! Here are a few things that I have enjoyed doing since the middle of October.
Ben's high school invited him and I to go along to a tour of a new museum that has opened up just outside of Logrono on October 18th. It is called Museo Wurth. It is a German/Spanish museum made with many different art pieces from all over the world that one German man had collected and now put in a museum. There was a book opening the night that we went to the Museum. We were even given the book as a free gift for going to listen to the speeches. We got to explore the museum for about an hour and then were able to feast on many different types of tapas (appetizers) and wine for free before heading back to Logrono. I enjoyed the museum a lot! Here are some photos from the museum.
On October 20th Ben and I enjoyed traditional food from Spain. We indulged in churros and also another thing I can't remember the name of. It is like fried mini potato chips and then you either put spicy ketchup, guacamole or garlic mayonnaise on them. They both were very good! We bought them at a local place called "La Perla". It is a small shop set up right on a corner of the street and they open every night.
On October 27th, we went on a tour of a local winery, Franco-Espanolas, that is just across the river from our apartment. We met up with Juan, our friend, who was confused about just being able to go there on our own. We ended up talking with one of the tour guides and getting a personal tour for just the three of us! It was my favorite wine tour. We even received diplomas from the place after the tour was finished!
Here is a photo of some beautiful leaves in Logrono during the fall. It is weird. I think that since they grow a lot of grapes here for wine that the soil must make the leaves in the fall turn especially darker red colors. I have never seen such brilliant colors in the fall.
On October 28th, Ben and I received free tickets to go watch a local basketball game in Logrono. It was fun to go watch a sports event live. Our team here is called Caja Rioja. Caja Rioja is the name of a large bank company in Logrono.
On Halloween night Ben and I carved a pumpkin. We had all of our friends that are doing the same as us here over for good pizza and then went out to an Irish Pub afterwards. It was lots of fun! At the bar they had scary people dressed up with chainsaws and would turn off all the lights in the bar and run around. I was scared!
This photo of the cathedral by our apartment was taken very late on Halloween night. It is one of my favorites here so far!
One important holiday in Spain is celebrated on November 1st. It is called All Saints Day in the United States. They celebrate All Saints Day a lot more than they do Halloween. The week before All Saints Day the flower shops sell huge amounts of flowers and then people visit the cemetery on that day. They also have no school on that day. They have two types of pastries that are very popular for that day as well. They are called Huesos de Santos (Bones of the Saints) and Bunuelos. Ben and I tried one of every flavor. They were great! The bunuelos are on the left and the Huesos de Santos are in the middle next to our favorite bread here to buy!
This is just a quick tour of what we have been up to lately in Spain from October until now. There will surely be a lot more on its way. I can't wait to celebrate the Christmas holiday season here! I am also very excited that my parents, Tony, Rob and April are coming to visit us from December 20th - December 31st. If anybody wants to come visit us here just let us know! We would love to have visitors any time and have seen some great roundtrip prices for the spring months. Have a great rest of your Monday. Also, make sure you read the next blog below this one. I was so ambitious today I wrote two blog entries and don't want you to miss out on either one! Bye and until next time.
Ben's high school invited him and I to go along to a tour of a new museum that has opened up just outside of Logrono on October 18th. It is called Museo Wurth. It is a German/Spanish museum made with many different art pieces from all over the world that one German man had collected and now put in a museum. There was a book opening the night that we went to the Museum. We were even given the book as a free gift for going to listen to the speeches. We got to explore the museum for about an hour and then were able to feast on many different types of tapas (appetizers) and wine for free before heading back to Logrono. I enjoyed the museum a lot! Here are some photos from the museum.
On October 20th Ben and I enjoyed traditional food from Spain. We indulged in churros and also another thing I can't remember the name of. It is like fried mini potato chips and then you either put spicy ketchup, guacamole or garlic mayonnaise on them. They both were very good! We bought them at a local place called "La Perla". It is a small shop set up right on a corner of the street and they open every night.
On October 27th, we went on a tour of a local winery, Franco-Espanolas, that is just across the river from our apartment. We met up with Juan, our friend, who was confused about just being able to go there on our own. We ended up talking with one of the tour guides and getting a personal tour for just the three of us! It was my favorite wine tour. We even received diplomas from the place after the tour was finished!
Here is a photo of some beautiful leaves in Logrono during the fall. It is weird. I think that since they grow a lot of grapes here for wine that the soil must make the leaves in the fall turn especially darker red colors. I have never seen such brilliant colors in the fall.
On October 28th, Ben and I received free tickets to go watch a local basketball game in Logrono. It was fun to go watch a sports event live. Our team here is called Caja Rioja. Caja Rioja is the name of a large bank company in Logrono.
On Halloween night Ben and I carved a pumpkin. We had all of our friends that are doing the same as us here over for good pizza and then went out to an Irish Pub afterwards. It was lots of fun! At the bar they had scary people dressed up with chainsaws and would turn off all the lights in the bar and run around. I was scared!
This photo of the cathedral by our apartment was taken very late on Halloween night. It is one of my favorites here so far!
One important holiday in Spain is celebrated on November 1st. It is called All Saints Day in the United States. They celebrate All Saints Day a lot more than they do Halloween. The week before All Saints Day the flower shops sell huge amounts of flowers and then people visit the cemetery on that day. They also have no school on that day. They have two types of pastries that are very popular for that day as well. They are called Huesos de Santos (Bones of the Saints) and Bunuelos. Ben and I tried one of every flavor. They were great! The bunuelos are on the left and the Huesos de Santos are in the middle next to our favorite bread here to buy!
This is just a quick tour of what we have been up to lately in Spain from October until now. There will surely be a lot more on its way. I can't wait to celebrate the Christmas holiday season here! I am also very excited that my parents, Tony, Rob and April are coming to visit us from December 20th - December 31st. If anybody wants to come visit us here just let us know! We would love to have visitors any time and have seen some great roundtrip prices for the spring months. Have a great rest of your Monday. Also, make sure you read the next blog below this one. I was so ambitious today I wrote two blog entries and don't want you to miss out on either one! Bye and until next time.
So little working hours but yet so busy
Well, it has been about a month and haven't sat down to write a blog. So here it goes. I am really enjoying my time here in Logrono. Everybody here is in more of a routine and time just keeps flying by faster than ever. Each week seems to get done faster than the next.
Here is a typical week for me here. On Mondays, Ben and I don't have classes so we are either gone on vacation or taking a nice day to relax. On Tuesdays, I start class at 9:00 am at the Primary School. Each Tuesday I have different age groups each hour. I sometimes get very confused on how old all the different classes are. Also, at that school I work with the ages of 3 - 12 year olds. The three year olds love to repeat what I say even though they have no clue what I am even saying. I guess I must be kind of interesting, new and different to look at. I work from 9:00-11:00, 11:30 - 12:30 and again at 3:00 - 4:00. They take very long lunch breaks at the Primary Schools.
On Tuesday evenings I tutor two different families. I tutor a 6 year old boy and an 8 year old girl from 6:25 - 7:25 PM. I then walk across the street to go tutor two boys ages 8 and 13 years old from 7:30 - 8:30 PM. Tuesdays are my super long work day!
On Wednesdays I start my week at the Institute (or high school level kids). I work on Wednesdays from 12:10 - 2:25. It is 3 different classes but yet it feels like so long to teach. I guess being at the high school age means it is not cool to want to learn English from an American.
Every Wednesday afternoon from 4:00 - 5:00 I tutor a 13 year old boy Pablo. He is very easy to tutor and is even willing to walk to our apartment so that I don't have to walk very far twice on Wednesdays.
Thursdays I work from 8:30 - 1:30 PM at the Institute. I have two classes of 16-17 year olds and two classes of 15-16 year olds. Fridays I work from 10:45 AM until 1:30 PM.
Even though I work only 12 hours a week and tutor for 3 extra hours I seem to keep myself very occupied. I love to go shopping at the local supermarket to find good deals on food, trying the local food, taking walks around the city, watching and learning new things on Spanish television, and also meeting up with friends for coffee with milk (cafe con leche). I also have to make time to do the necessary laundry most weeks. Saturday and Sundays we try to go discover something new in the city or travel around Spain.
This past Saturday night we went out with friends and I realized that I sometimes don't match what the people are wearing here. I was told that my cute gloves I wear in North Dakota look like big oven mitts and that my 'cool' shoes from North Dakota look great for hiking in snow in the winter in North Dakota. So after hearing that, I decided to venture out this morning and find new shoes! I bought a cute new pair of shoes that I can wear. They were on sale for 12 Euros which is about 18 US dollars. They are sure not like my good old brown boots I have been wearing for the past 2 months here that I love so much! I have decided that I am going to spend a little extra money here on the clothes and shoes. Those are some things that are specialties here in Spain.
On November 2 - 5 Ben and I went to San Sebastian. It is a city on the northern coast of Spain about 2 hours away from Logrono. It has very beautiful beaches and I hear it is super crowded during the summer months. Unfortunately when we went it was too cold and cloudy to enjoy the beach. The cloudy weather though did make for great photos and we were able to explore around the city a lot. San Sebastian and the northern area of Spain is known for their political demonstrations. During a climb up a mountain to see a huge monument of Christ we were able to see one of the demonstrations from far away. You will see a photo I took of it below. It was very loud even from that far away. I have posted some more photos from San Sebastian on the blog if you click on the link to the left. Here are a few that I really like from San Sebastian... Hasta luego!
Here is a typical week for me here. On Mondays, Ben and I don't have classes so we are either gone on vacation or taking a nice day to relax. On Tuesdays, I start class at 9:00 am at the Primary School. Each Tuesday I have different age groups each hour. I sometimes get very confused on how old all the different classes are. Also, at that school I work with the ages of 3 - 12 year olds. The three year olds love to repeat what I say even though they have no clue what I am even saying. I guess I must be kind of interesting, new and different to look at. I work from 9:00-11:00, 11:30 - 12:30 and again at 3:00 - 4:00. They take very long lunch breaks at the Primary Schools.
On Tuesday evenings I tutor two different families. I tutor a 6 year old boy and an 8 year old girl from 6:25 - 7:25 PM. I then walk across the street to go tutor two boys ages 8 and 13 years old from 7:30 - 8:30 PM. Tuesdays are my super long work day!
On Wednesdays I start my week at the Institute (or high school level kids). I work on Wednesdays from 12:10 - 2:25. It is 3 different classes but yet it feels like so long to teach. I guess being at the high school age means it is not cool to want to learn English from an American.
Every Wednesday afternoon from 4:00 - 5:00 I tutor a 13 year old boy Pablo. He is very easy to tutor and is even willing to walk to our apartment so that I don't have to walk very far twice on Wednesdays.
Thursdays I work from 8:30 - 1:30 PM at the Institute. I have two classes of 16-17 year olds and two classes of 15-16 year olds. Fridays I work from 10:45 AM until 1:30 PM.
Even though I work only 12 hours a week and tutor for 3 extra hours I seem to keep myself very occupied. I love to go shopping at the local supermarket to find good deals on food, trying the local food, taking walks around the city, watching and learning new things on Spanish television, and also meeting up with friends for coffee with milk (cafe con leche). I also have to make time to do the necessary laundry most weeks. Saturday and Sundays we try to go discover something new in the city or travel around Spain.
This past Saturday night we went out with friends and I realized that I sometimes don't match what the people are wearing here. I was told that my cute gloves I wear in North Dakota look like big oven mitts and that my 'cool' shoes from North Dakota look great for hiking in snow in the winter in North Dakota. So after hearing that, I decided to venture out this morning and find new shoes! I bought a cute new pair of shoes that I can wear. They were on sale for 12 Euros which is about 18 US dollars. They are sure not like my good old brown boots I have been wearing for the past 2 months here that I love so much! I have decided that I am going to spend a little extra money here on the clothes and shoes. Those are some things that are specialties here in Spain.
On November 2 - 5 Ben and I went to San Sebastian. It is a city on the northern coast of Spain about 2 hours away from Logrono. It has very beautiful beaches and I hear it is super crowded during the summer months. Unfortunately when we went it was too cold and cloudy to enjoy the beach. The cloudy weather though did make for great photos and we were able to explore around the city a lot. San Sebastian and the northern area of Spain is known for their political demonstrations. During a climb up a mountain to see a huge monument of Christ we were able to see one of the demonstrations from far away. You will see a photo I took of it below. It was very loud even from that far away. I have posted some more photos from San Sebastian on the blog if you click on the link to the left. Here are a few that I really like from San Sebastian... Hasta luego!
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