I have officially lived in Spain for one month and things are still going great. Ben and I have gotten a lot of our necessary paperwork done that we have to do to be able to live here for such an extended period of time. We have also applied for internet so we should have a WiFi connection in our apartment by next Thursday! I will be able to keep in communication easier with everybody. We also had a land line put in our apartment today if anybody wants to call or telephone...(once we go out and buy a cheap one). Also, I have switched my blog so that people are now able to leave comments without having to make a Google account.
I have been very busy teaching kids from the ages of 3 to 19 years old. My second week of teaching at the Primary School (I teach at that school only on Tuesdays) I received a note from a little girl from a class I had met and talked with my first week of classes. I thought it would be nice to share with everybody on here. She had typed it on a computer, cut it out in a small square and used different colored pens to make lines around it for a frame. It was very cute and touching. I now figure that I can make somewhat of a difference teaching the students English here in Spain....well at least the young ones. Here is the note. It is half in English with some in Spanish. I will translate the Spanish into English in ( ).
hello hello hello I am called karem
Rodriguez gutierrez I am 10 years old
I am student of sesto (sixth) B and I to liked
much cuado (when) came to my class to speak
to us in English and to mostrarno (show us)
different photos yours me pleased n
much were very pretty the truth to ber (see)
when vuelbes (comes) to come to my class I
wait for to you since to my the
English costs a little to me has to
ber situ rambien (also) me you can write a
day of theses I wants to learn as much
English as your so that he enchants
the English to me and other languages
to be able to travel to different
countries and places and to know their
languages so that always it is good
send to many kisses and abrasos (hugs)
karencita good bye that estes (you are) well
always
Hope everybody is doing great! Hasta luego...
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Link for Photos
Hello! I just finished putting up a link to see some of my photos from last weekend´s winery tour. You can find the link by going to the left hand side of the blog under ´Links´and clicking on ´My Photos from Spain.´ I hope to have captions for the photos within the next few days as well as more photos for you so keep checking back! I am off to school now for 2 hours. Have a great day!
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Thanks for the Birthday Wishes!!!
I just wanted to take some time to say thank you to all for making my 24th birthday super great! Yesterday Ben and I woke up at 7:00 AM to go hand in our paperwork to receive our International Identification Numbers. It was very very early for us. We had to sit outside for about 2 hours until the place opened but it was worth it. It was very cold outside and now, because I wore flip flops and sat outside for a long time, have a head cold. Everybody here seems to be sick also. We were more prepared than we thought with our paperwork and we were out of the place in 10 minutes. After we were finished we went out for churros and chocolate for breakfast. It was so great! The day was spent relaxing around the city. I also had to do some laundry. I haven't had very much time here at all to do laundry so I was in great need! After laundry, Ben and I went to the grocery store and bought an amazing chocolate truffle cake.
Last night at around 8:30 we invited all of our new friends we have met here to go out to eat at Pizzeria Da Marcos. There were 9 of us. 4 of us were from the United States, 1 boy from England, 1 girl from Italy and the other girl from Germany. I was really hungry for pizza so this place in Calle San Juan (San Juan Street) looked great. The pizza I had was amazing! It had spicy hamburger meat, red pepper, oregano, cheese and tomato sauce on it. I received two gifts from my friends. A book in Spanish called "The Shadow in the Wind" and also a bath set. I am very excited to read the Spanish novel soon. After we got done eating, Ben and I headed back to enjoy the cake that we had boughten earlier. It was sooooooooo good. I haven't had cake that good for a long time! I am glad we will have the cake for awhile to eat.
Today I headed back to school to CP Breton de los Herreros. I always have Mondays free which is really nice. This school is for 3 - 12 year olds. Last week I met the older kids in the school. Today, I was in classrooms with 3, 4, 5 and 6 year olds! Wow, they have a lot of energy and do not know much English. I am on my long lunch break and I only have one more class left at 3:00 - 4:00. I am starting to think I will like having this long break at the school. It lets me relax a little bit and also have time to use the internet. I had learned last week that my school had WiFi to use so I brought my own computer today. After about 15 minutes trying to ask the Secretary for a password for WiFi I got frustrated. He only wanted to use his English with me yet he did not understand what I kept trying to ask him. So I finally asked him in Spanish and he handed me a paper with the password. Now, I will be able to load a few photos on my blog today. I plan to write bigger blogs on Tuesdays when I have my really long break.
If anybody has any ideas of what I could teach here for any of the English classes I will take ideas at abbylynnelarson@gmail.com. I have been trying to think of very easy songs for the little kids to repeat and learn. I am also hoping to play a lot of games and read many stories. I received one idea about a traveling bear from my mom yesterday about what cousin Tim told her so I think I will also use that so everybody in the US that I know may receive a bear in the mail. Also if you want to know my new address, I finally know how to write it! You can also email me for that if you would like.
Finally, this past Sunday, Ben and I went on a tour of two local winery's and also an old cathedral in La Rioja. They were very impressive. I will be posting photos from that excursion and also from our walk around the city soon. I will post a link on the blog. Here is one of the photos of me that was taken near the very famous bridge in Logrono.
Last night at around 8:30 we invited all of our new friends we have met here to go out to eat at Pizzeria Da Marcos. There were 9 of us. 4 of us were from the United States, 1 boy from England, 1 girl from Italy and the other girl from Germany. I was really hungry for pizza so this place in Calle San Juan (San Juan Street) looked great. The pizza I had was amazing! It had spicy hamburger meat, red pepper, oregano, cheese and tomato sauce on it. I received two gifts from my friends. A book in Spanish called "The Shadow in the Wind" and also a bath set. I am very excited to read the Spanish novel soon. After we got done eating, Ben and I headed back to enjoy the cake that we had boughten earlier. It was sooooooooo good. I haven't had cake that good for a long time! I am glad we will have the cake for awhile to eat.
Today I headed back to school to CP Breton de los Herreros. I always have Mondays free which is really nice. This school is for 3 - 12 year olds. Last week I met the older kids in the school. Today, I was in classrooms with 3, 4, 5 and 6 year olds! Wow, they have a lot of energy and do not know much English. I am on my long lunch break and I only have one more class left at 3:00 - 4:00. I am starting to think I will like having this long break at the school. It lets me relax a little bit and also have time to use the internet. I had learned last week that my school had WiFi to use so I brought my own computer today. After about 15 minutes trying to ask the Secretary for a password for WiFi I got frustrated. He only wanted to use his English with me yet he did not understand what I kept trying to ask him. So I finally asked him in Spanish and he handed me a paper with the password. Now, I will be able to load a few photos on my blog today. I plan to write bigger blogs on Tuesdays when I have my really long break.If anybody has any ideas of what I could teach here for any of the English classes I will take ideas at abbylynnelarson@gmail.com. I have been trying to think of very easy songs for the little kids to repeat and learn. I am also hoping to play a lot of games and read many stories. I received one idea about a traveling bear from my mom yesterday about what cousin Tim told her so I think I will also use that so everybody in the US that I know may receive a bear in the mail. Also if you want to know my new address, I finally know how to write it! You can also email me for that if you would like.
Finally, this past Sunday, Ben and I went on a tour of two local winery's and also an old cathedral in La Rioja. They were very impressive. I will be posting photos from that excursion and also from our walk around the city soon. I will post a link on the blog. Here is one of the photos of me that was taken near the very famous bridge in Logrono.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Hello Again!
I am still doing great here in Spain! I have been way busier than I ever thought I would be. On Tuesday I started meeting with all of the students here. I am sitting in a Teachers Lounge right now waiting to go to meet my next class. I am done working at my schools until next Tuesday. This weekend I have purchased a ticket to go on a Vinobus (a tour of vineyards in La Rioja). I can´t wait to take a lot of photos there. I will write more when I have internet again. It is harder than I imagined to find a place and time to have internet. Today we are going to a local bank to get a Spanish bank account so that the school will be able to pay us there. It will be nice to finally making euros instead of always thinking in US Dollars! Hope you can all come visit here. It is so wonderful and can´t wait to share it with all. I am off to my next class. I have 3 more classes left today. It is one of my long days. Goodbye!
Friday, September 28, 2007
Ready to start school
After three days of being gone in Madrid to attend an orientation and meet other people that are doing my same job here in Spain from many other countries I decided that I was ready to go ´home´ (to Logroño) and start work on Monday. I stayed in a hotel room with three other girls from England. It was great to meet so many people and exchange information with them in hoping we can visit them all around Spain during the year. It has been very busy here for my the past 2 weeks. I can´t believe I have been here this long already. It is great that I can call this place home as I feel very comfortable here.
I am supposed to start teaching on Monday morning but neither of my schools that I work for have contacted me as of yet. I am not sure of when schools start in Spain or where exactly I am supposed to go, but I guess I will find out more on Monday when I go in there hoping to find answers. We found out at the orientation that we are only supposed to work a maximum of 12 hours per week and that we usually will work Monday through Thursday. That schedule works great for traveling around. It will be very nice for the next year.
Tomorrow we are planning to sign a contract for our apartment. We will have it until June 30th. I have been living in my suitcase so far and it will be great to be able to unpack it and make the new living space our own. There is plenty of room for all to come and visit. We would love the visitors and be able to show you around our town!
Next week we have decided that we are going to find an internet company and get internet in our apartment. It is very nice to live very close to the library but we think it would be easiest for us to update blogs and write emails if we had an internet connection there. The internet is free at the library but it tends to be very slow.
I have adjusted well to the Spanish lifestyle. I am sitting here writing this blog at 8:20 PM and going to have supper afterwards. It is weird but normal now to eat so late. I will update you more on our apartment and put up some photos of it next time. We have found out that we are by about 15 different disco bars and bars so it might be loud on the weekends. We shall see. The great thing though is that around the corner from us is a 7 theater movie theater. I hope to be able to go and watch many spanish movies.
Since Ben and I have been to Logroño for a week already before going to Madrid we acted like tour guides today when 2 other people that were coming to Logroño for the school year came with us on the same bus. It was great! Little did I know I would already have so much experiences to share. We will have a lot more by the time other people come visit.
Hope everybody is having a wonderful start to the fall season. The leaves are just starting to fall here and are very beautiful! I hope to go on many walks and take a lot of photos. The leaves on the trees here are a lot bigger than back home.
¡Hasta luego!
I am supposed to start teaching on Monday morning but neither of my schools that I work for have contacted me as of yet. I am not sure of when schools start in Spain or where exactly I am supposed to go, but I guess I will find out more on Monday when I go in there hoping to find answers. We found out at the orientation that we are only supposed to work a maximum of 12 hours per week and that we usually will work Monday through Thursday. That schedule works great for traveling around. It will be very nice for the next year.
Tomorrow we are planning to sign a contract for our apartment. We will have it until June 30th. I have been living in my suitcase so far and it will be great to be able to unpack it and make the new living space our own. There is plenty of room for all to come and visit. We would love the visitors and be able to show you around our town!
Next week we have decided that we are going to find an internet company and get internet in our apartment. It is very nice to live very close to the library but we think it would be easiest for us to update blogs and write emails if we had an internet connection there. The internet is free at the library but it tends to be very slow.
I have adjusted well to the Spanish lifestyle. I am sitting here writing this blog at 8:20 PM and going to have supper afterwards. It is weird but normal now to eat so late. I will update you more on our apartment and put up some photos of it next time. We have found out that we are by about 15 different disco bars and bars so it might be loud on the weekends. We shall see. The great thing though is that around the corner from us is a 7 theater movie theater. I hope to be able to go and watch many spanish movies.
Since Ben and I have been to Logroño for a week already before going to Madrid we acted like tour guides today when 2 other people that were coming to Logroño for the school year came with us on the same bus. It was great! Little did I know I would already have so much experiences to share. We will have a lot more by the time other people come visit.
Hope everybody is having a wonderful start to the fall season. The leaves are just starting to fall here and are very beautiful! I hope to go on many walks and take a lot of photos. The leaves on the trees here are a lot bigger than back home.
¡Hasta luego!
Saturday, September 22, 2007
We made it!
Hello everybody! Ben and I have made it to Logroño, Spain. I have had barely any time to write due to the Fiestas of San Mateo that are going on in our city and also looking busily for an apartment to start living in. Everything here has shut down for all of the Fiesta. I will write more and post photos and video when I have time. Things are going great here! The fiestas are ending tonight so the pace here should slow down a more. We have experienced so many different things in just the little time that we have been here that I can not wait to share it with all of you in my next blog. ¡Hasta luego!
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
The Official Countdown to Spain!
21 days....Wow, the official countdown has begun. 21 days! Wow, not very much time left at all. The craziness that I will be living in Spain very soon has started to hit. I am starting to get very excited now. As of August 31st, I will no longer have a job in the US. I have been doing much packing of my apartment lately and I am taking a short break to update you all on the adventure of Spain. We have bought our plane tickets and we are leaving at noon on Monday, September 17th out of Minneapolis. After we arrive in Spain, Ben and I plan to take a bus or train, haven't decided what we would rather ride in, straight to Logroño. It will be a very long 2 days but very much worth it. We will head to Madrid after a few days of apartment searching to go through orientation with many different people from all over the world. It will be exciting!We received emails to say that we are both going to be teaching two different schools each. The 12-18 hours of teaching might grow to be even longer!
First of all, I want to tell you a little bit about the city that I am going to be living in. I have been doing a lot of research on the city itself as well as Spain for quite awhile now. Logroño is the capital of the province La Rioja. According to Wikipedia the population of Logroño was 147,036 in 2006. It is a very nice sized city. To read more about the city on Wikipedia you can go here.
Logroño is in the north eastern part of Spain. It is very close to Pamplona, for all of you that know of the Running of the Bulls. We plan to visit that city often.
Logroño is in the wine country of Spain. It is known for its great wine all around the world. The winery's close for the year on November 4th. I hope we get the chance to go tour some before the end of the season!
Most things I have been reading on the internet for Logroño have all been in Spanish. I have found one really great website in English that I thought I would share with you. It is the tourism website for Logroño. On that website you will find many different PDF's that will show the highlights of the city. Maybe after you read over some of them you will get the bug to come visit us. We are always welcoming all friends and family to come stay and visit! We would love to have guests. I am hoping to catch on to the Spanish culture and learn how to cook so when people come visit they can try some of our home cooking.
Since Logroño is in the valleys of Spain, we have a large river going through our city known as the Ebro River with a very pretty bridge that goes over it. Along the edges are beautiful mountains. I am very excited as there is a ski resort not too far away called Valdezcaray and I am hoping we may even get to go skiing some time!
Some of the links that I frequent to learn more about La Rioja and Logroño are located below. I will continue to write more about the city and culture. As for right now, I must keep packing my apartment as quoting my mom who I talked to earlier this evening said, I am in the final countdown. Only 21 more days. Hope you enjoy the links!
La Rioja Tourism
Spain Information
La Rioja
Valdezcaray Ski Resort
Rioja Sports
Logroño Tourism in English
Logrono Tourism in Spanish
Logrono - Wikipedia
Spanish Living
Ideal Spain
http://www.vcarious.com/Travel-Guide/Spain/LaRioja/Logrono.html
http://www.euroresidentes.com/euroresiuk/guides-spain/guide-to-rioja.htm
http://www.totallyspain.com/spain_travel_information.asp?id=12
http://www.davidandjuliecurran.me.uk/
http://www.wineintro.com/regions/spain/links.html
First of all, I want to tell you a little bit about the city that I am going to be living in. I have been doing a lot of research on the city itself as well as Spain for quite awhile now. Logroño is the capital of the province La Rioja. According to Wikipedia the population of Logroño was 147,036 in 2006. It is a very nice sized city. To read more about the city on Wikipedia you can go here.
Logroño is in the north eastern part of Spain. It is very close to Pamplona, for all of you that know of the Running of the Bulls. We plan to visit that city often.
Logroño is in the wine country of Spain. It is known for its great wine all around the world. The winery's close for the year on November 4th. I hope we get the chance to go tour some before the end of the season!
Most things I have been reading on the internet for Logroño have all been in Spanish. I have found one really great website in English that I thought I would share with you. It is the tourism website for Logroño. On that website you will find many different PDF's that will show the highlights of the city. Maybe after you read over some of them you will get the bug to come visit us. We are always welcoming all friends and family to come stay and visit! We would love to have guests. I am hoping to catch on to the Spanish culture and learn how to cook so when people come visit they can try some of our home cooking.
Since Logroño is in the valleys of Spain, we have a large river going through our city known as the Ebro River with a very pretty bridge that goes over it. Along the edges are beautiful mountains. I am very excited as there is a ski resort not too far away called Valdezcaray and I am hoping we may even get to go skiing some time!
Some of the links that I frequent to learn more about La Rioja and Logroño are located below. I will continue to write more about the city and culture. As for right now, I must keep packing my apartment as quoting my mom who I talked to earlier this evening said, I am in the final countdown. Only 21 more days. Hope you enjoy the links!
La Rioja Tourism
Spain Information
La Rioja
Valdezcaray Ski Resort
Rioja Sports
Logroño Tourism in English
Logrono Tourism in Spanish
Logrono - Wikipedia
Spanish Living
Ideal Spain
http://www.vcarious.com/Travel-Guide/Spain/LaRioja/Logrono.html
http://www.euroresidentes.com/euroresiuk/guides-spain/guide-to-rioja.htm
http://www.totallyspain.com/spain_travel_information.asp?id=12
http://www.davidandjuliecurran.me.uk/
http://www.wineintro.com/regions/spain/links.html
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