Blog escrito en los Estados Unidos

Pues, un amigo me advisó a escribir en español en mis “blogs”. Yo escribía en inglés cuando yo estaba en España, asi que voy a escribir mis blogs en español cuando estoy en los Estados Unidos. Tiene sentido, no?

Ahora, llevo unas seis semanas en Carolina del Norte. Y algunas cosas importantes han pasado durante este tiempo. La cosa más importante es que yo he encontrado trabajo Voy a trabajar en Raleigh, la capital de Carolina donde vive mi novio. :) Y tambien es donde vivía durante mi estancia en la universidad. Por eso, casi todo mis amigos viven allá. Voy a ser una profesora de inglés para extranjeros. Y tambien voy a tener una clase de español durante la segunda mitad del curso. Voy a trabajar en un instituto o el centro educativo más parecido. La verdad es que los institutos en los Estados tienen los niveles iguales del tercero y quarto de ESO y primero y segundo de bachillerato. Primero y segundo de ESO están en una escuela llamada “middle school” cual es entre colegio y instituto.

Estoy muy contenta con mi trabajo. Empieza en el medio de agosto. Asique, no tengo mucho para hacer ahora. Estoy buscando pisos en Raleigh. Y no puedo decidir. Unos son demasiado caros, otros son muy viejos, etc etc. Pero tengo muchas ganas para vivir sola. Ahora yo vivo con mis padres en High Point, pero en el principio de agosto voy a vivir en Raleigh solita solita. Nunca en mi vida, he vivido sola. Siempre he compartido pisos con amigas o con mis padres. Espero que no tenga miedo cuando viva sola. Y tambien espero que no sienta muy triste sin compañeras de piso. Me gusta tener amigos/compañeros con quienes puedo hablar.


Echo de menos mucho España. Un cosa que extraño que me ha sorprendido es vivir dentro del centro de una ciudad. Me gustaba caminar a todos los sitios. En los Estados, no puedo caminar a ningún sitio falta otra casa en mi calle. Siento que no reciba el ejercicio que necesito.

Pero, echo de menos mucho el español. Me encantaba hablar en español y oír el español todos los días.

Necesito encontrar un amigo con quien puedo hablar en espanol.....

Echo de menos todos mis amigos en Don Benito.

Muchos besitos!!!!

My LAST night in Spain.

Since I am getting ready to head back to the USA I thought I would put down some of the things I am looking forward to in the USA and then some things I am going to miss about Spain and then some things I really like about Extremadura specifically.

What I’m looking forward to in the motherland:

-Seeing Spencer

-Seeing all my other friends and family.

-Carpet in houses.

-An education system I understand

-Central heating and air

-Good service

-Efficiency

-Being able to understand everything thats going on

-Being able to drive wherever I want, whenever I want.

-International food– like japanese. Yumm, im thinking about sushi and hibachi and fried rice now.

-Seeing diversity

-Good milk

-Cookouts and 4th of July

-Cheap sunscreen

-Good, reliable internet

-Being in the same timezone as friends and family.

-Less noisy motorcycles– they are terrible in DB.

What I’m going to miss about Spain:

-All of my friends here :(

-Hearing and getting to speak Spanish allll the time.

-The Spanish hospitality– the Spanish are so kind and so helpful and caring

-Braseros (heaters that go under round tables that keep you nice and toasty in the winter.

-The cheese They have delicious cured sheep’s cheese that is just the best thing ever.

-Catalanas and tostadas– typical spanish breakfast with a toasted baguette, olive oil, pureed tomato and cured ham- yummmm

-Feeling special just because I’m an American and am a native speaker of English.

-Bacalao Dorado– my favorite extremaduran dish.

-Being able to travel almost anywhere in europe easily and cheaply.

-Sevillanas class

-Hearing flamenco pop played loudly in cars.

-The unifying culture things, like how everyone knows how and when to clap during a flamenco soung.

-Tinto de veranos and cerveza con limon

-fresh bread, yummmm

-cheap rent

-All the holidays. As one of my teachers said to me one time, “Spain might rank last in work ethic, but they have got to be first in partying” (translation)

-Getting to walk everywhere I need to go and not need a car.

-Spanish foodin general. I used to not like, but I have come to love some dishes.

-The beautiful architecture

-Being able to see really, really old things. Like the Roman theater in Merida.

-The siesta

-Persianas (blinds)– they really keep the sunlight out.

-Learning something alll the time, whether its something about the Spanish language or Spain itself. I learned atleast one thing everyday it seemed like.

-The atmosphere of going out for tapas at lunch and then just continuing to hang out the rest of the day till after dinner.

-How talkative the Spanish are.

Fun things about Extremadura:

-How they always talk about the weather, and how unusual its acting.

-Their crazy accent– they drop “s” and “d” like they’re going out of style and the sing their sentences. Its so fun and “tiene mucha gracia”.

-Merida and Guadalupe– fabulous places that should not be overlooked by people traveling to Spain.

-Everyone has so much pride in their region, its quite endearing.

-The beautiful countryside

-All the sheep I see all the time.

-How everyone is obsessed with “jamon” (ham)

-The rural atmosphere.

This, of course, is not everything, just a few things that came to mind. This has been an amazing experience and its almost unreal for it to be over. I have thoroughly enjoyed it and I have learned so much. With that said-- I am also so excited about going back to the US. I miss Spencer and my friends and family so much. I am excited to be able to share with the americans everything I have experienced in Spain.

Un beso. (my flight leaves in about 12 hours!

Wrapping Up life

So it has been a strange week so far. I have been saying goodbyes and closing things out. I feel like I am undoing everything I did at the beginning. Like I had to go to city hall to void my statement on residency in don benito. I went to the back to transfer all of my saved money to my US bank account and close out my Spanish bank account (this hasnt happened completely yet-- it was kind of difficult). I am packing everything-- all the stuff that I had found a place for and organized. I have this weird void sensation that sense I am un-doing everything I did before that I leave with no lasting mark on Don Benito. Not that I should have one, but that its like when I leave everything continues on and no one will remember me. I mean I know my friends will remember etc etc. But I have no lasting legacy. Don Benito was an important part of my life, albeit short, but it always will be, but Im not an important stage or a stage at all in Don Benito's long life. That kind of makes me sad. This experience has been so wonderful for me, and I wish I could have done the same thing for the town I have been in. But thats the way it always is with these type of things.

This trend will be continuing until I leave on a plane a week from today. -- the goodbyes, the packing, the erasing of my don benito life. The emotion of it all is finally hitting me.

Another weekend in the town of Calabazones

My next to last weekend in Don Benito:

First I had my good-bye ceremony for everyone in my program. It was really good to see all of my friends and people I havent seen since October. Here is a picture of my mentor and I:

The next day, I finally went to the museum in Don Benito. Its called El Museo Etnografico. Its about the history of Don Benito and how DB used to be in the past. It was actually really good. The tour guide was great and the museum was a lot bigger than I expected. Here is a pic of Carol Ann and I out front:

That night there was a "Rock/Blues" concert in one of the Plazas in Don Benito. It was alright. The music wasnt exactly of highest caliber, but it was definitely cool to be outside and have that kind of atmoshpere.

On Saturday I had lunch and spent the afternoon with one of the teachers I work with and her friends that I have hung out with before. We kinda jumped around some places in DB and then we headed to Medellin to have coffee at Quinto Cecilio, the fancy restaurant on a hill that has beautiful views of the countryside. I have probably talked about it before. Here is a picture of the view:

That night there was another concert in Don Benito. It was also an outdoor concert but in a cooler location. It was in the ampitheater outside of Ave Maria music school which is built in a greek style with scuptured gardens-- definitely a cool site.

Here are some pics of the concert:

Fortunately a lot of my friends were able to come also. Here are some pics of us at the concert:

This is me and my friend Sara: (shes spanish, but also speaks english and french really well!)

This is Alfredo, Violeta, Pedro J and me:

The English speakers!!! Lotte, Becky, Carol Ann and me:
Four bands played. The first was Spanish, the next two were Portugese and the last was an American group from Minnesota. Everyone agreed the last group was the best! Hehe, Viva America!

It was an awesome weekend, like they always shape up to be. And now I only have one more to go. It better be just as great!

This past weekend...

This past weekend I got to participate in many activities. It started on Friday when I got to participate in the Dia del Centro at Santa Amalia. This is kind of like "field day" in the US, where there are all these special activities. They had all sorts of workshops like board games, juggling, karaoke, social dance, broach making, etc etc. The first thing we did, however, was have the typical Spanish breakfast of chocolate con churros. Heres a photo of the big vat of chocolate that was served and heres a pic of some of the professors at my school enjoying the breakfast.

Here is a photo of one of the workshops. The students are playing "futbol chapas". Basically the same rules as soccer but played with bottle caps.

After all the students left the professors got to celebrate and eat some pinchos (little bits of food; like appetizers). Here is a pic of the sweet spread of food we got to eat!

It was really fun, and Im glad I got to see it. At the end of the day, all the students and professors got a cap and like bag thing with the Santa Amalia motto.

That night I went to a concert. It was deemed as "flamenco pop". It wasnt that awesome but I do like the strong influence of flamenco music on modern music in Spain. I think it shows how the people want to maintain their culture/heritage.

On Saturday I was going to go with some friends to Santa Amalia (where I teach) to go to the Rumeria. This is the fiesta/celebration for the patron saint of the "campesino" or the farmer. The saint being honored was San Isidro. The other town I work in-- Valdivia was also having a rumeria to honor San Isidro. But anyways... I was going to go with some friends, but in the end they couldnt go, so I was like thats too bad, but oh well. Then one of my american friends somehow convinced me to go there on bicycle. So we did. It was 20 kilometers there and then 20 back. This may not sound like much, but I dont ride bikes often so it was a pretty scary prospect to me. But the road there and back is pretty flat so it wasnt too bad.

We still got kind of a late start so we ended up only having 3 hours to enjoy the rumeria. It was quite an experience. It kind of reminded me of a mix of a football tailgate and a state fair and a reunion. Groups of family and friends set up their own tent where they just hang out and and eat and talk all day. I told the director (principal) of my school that I was planning on going and he said to make sure and come by his tent, so I did and let me tell you they had some delicious food!!! All home made and fresh. But ofcourse they just kept loading up our plates. I was already really full and then they gave me like 5 desserts. But every one they gave me they told me about how this grandma made it from scratch and it was typical extremaduran-- so there was no way I could say "no"! I walked around and say a lot of my students as well. They were so excited that I was there and just amazed. I am so glad I went. But as I said, we only got to stay 3 hours because we had to return on bike before the sun went down, so we petaled pretty intensely back to ol' DB.

The rumeria was on top of this mountain right outside of Santa Amalia. Here is a pic with me and the landscape:

Here is a pic of the general craziness of cars and such at the rumeria. They had one of those blow-up bouncing things. It was a Simpson's one. No surprise there-- they love the simpsons here.

This is a picture of Paco's (the principal) tent and his family and friends:

This is me, Paco, and my american friend Justin right before we head back to DB:

ON Sunday, I went to church like always and then right after I headed out to a small village called Magacela with some friends. This is a beautiful small town that is on a mountain side. Its very close to Don Benito, but I hadnt been yet so it was a good experience. We ate lunch at one of my friend's family's house. Here is a view from the rooftop terrace:
Here we are at lunch. The names of everyone from left to right: Lidia, Eva, Adolofo, Violeta, Me, Becca, and Sarah. Sarah, Becca and I were the Americans, if you cant tell.
So, there is a castle at the top of the hill-- its very beautiful. But believe it or not, I forgot my camera. Que lastima! So here is a picture of the mountain and town and castle from down below after we had left:

Sunday night, Barcelona won La Liga. Essentially, they won the national championship. Just a little background info-- the two most popular teams in Spain are Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. Thus, they are fierce rivals. So, in honor of their win all the Barcelona fans (nickname: Barca) came out to celebrate in the main plaza in Don benito. This includes them all jumping in the fountain and slinging water everywhere. People brought out their car speakers and megaphones and sang, honked their car-horns, clapped and celebrated for hours. And the cool thing is that all over Spain at the exact same time were simliar and many much larger, celebrations. I have a video below.

So, I feel like I had another full and wonderful weekend. I had wanted to go to Portugal, but I am glad that I got to see more of the culture of Extremadura. I am going to miss this place.

Mariah visits Don Benito!

This past weekend, Mariah came and visited me in Don Benito. It was so much fun, but the bad thing was it rained on and off all weekend. Friday had some of the best weather, so we took advantage and did the pilgrimage to la Ermita de las Cruces (the Chapel of the Patron saint of Don Benito). The weather was perfect for the trip there. It was sunny, not too hot. Just wonderful for a bike ride. So we took our time, took some pictures, enjoyed the day. Its 8 kilometers from the edge of Don Benito to the ermita so when we got there we were ready for a break. Unfortunately, when we got there the chapel was closed! And it was supposed to be open. We got there after siesta and everything. Later we found out that the caretaker had passed away so the chapel was in a transition time. So, I felt bad that after our "pilgrimage" we didnt really get to "finish" it since we couldnt see the Patrona. But oh well. So we rested in the area for like 10 minutes and all of the sudden dark clouds started rolling in, so we jumped back on the bikes and headed back to Don Benito. It started sprinkling on us, but it wasnt too bad. It was pretty amazing how quickly we made it back when we thought we might get drenched. Luckily we did not get drenched, so even though our legs were killing us the last kilometer we made it back nice and dry (well pretty dry).

Here are some pictures from our pilgrimage/ bike ride:

All along the path their are crosses to "lead the way". This is the only part where there are 3 crosses.

We stopped at a little bridge/creek area. There was this cute little stepping stone path across the creek.

Here I am looking pretty stupid. My expression came out way more ridiculous than I thought in my mind. But I wanted proof of my bike excursion, so here it is. :)

The land all around this path is sooo flat. Not like NC at all. But so beautiful in its own right. The bike I used is the one laying down. It had no kick stand so it was always on the ground. Haha.
Another image of the pretty creek!

That night we went and watched Iron Man 2 which ended up to be a big mistake. We both kept falling asleep!

On Saturday we went to this restaurant called Quinto Cecilio around midday because it has beautiful views of Medellin, its castle, and its roman bridge. It wasnt raining then, so we sat on the patio, but you could feel the rain was coming.

That afternoon we tried to take a walk around Don Benito but we ended up having to walk under umbrellas most of the time.

The rest of that day we pretty much just talked.... and Sunday too. It was awesome to be able to talk about everything that has happened this whole year. Mariah and I have such similar lives-- we both majored in Spanish, both have done this same program in Spain this year, we were roommates in Raleigh last year, we both want to be Spanish teachers, AND we both want to live in Raleigh next year. So it was good to be able to talk about everything-- our plans for next year, spanish, teaching, etc, etc. Talking it all out has made me even more excited about coming home and getting started with things.

I was definitely sad to see her go on Monday morning. But its so close to the end now, that it wont be long till I can hang out with all my friends all the time back in NC.

I miss you all! Only 23 days!

besitos!

2 Weekends, 3 destinations, Many Memories

So the past two weekends I was lucky to get to travel. The last weekend in March I went to the small town, Cabeza del Buey, where my friend Cheri lives. Myself, Justin, and Nick went together to spend a tranquilo weekend in the "Ox's Head". While we were there we took a little hike up the mountain next to Cheri's town. We walked up a path called the "Sierra del Calvario" which guides hikers by posting 14 crosses along the way. Once we got to the summit, the view was wonderful.

Here is a view of Cabeza del Buey from the summit:

This is another view from the summit. That little chapel is the end point of the "Sierra del Calvario" hike.

After hiking back down, we made delicious fajitas at Cheri's house.

This is a picture of Justin, Cheri, and I infront of the cross in the center of town.

Here is a beautiful view of the countryside surrounding Cabeza del Buey.

I really love seeing the small towns of Extremadura. You get a sense of the real life of Spaniards. Plus the countryside is stunning this time of year.

Now on to this past weekend; the first weekend in May. There was a "Feria de Queso" (Cheese festival) in Trujillo, Spain. I had been to Trujillo twice before (the first time barely counting), but I decided that I could not miss the cheese festival! (plus I wanted to go to Guadalupe and I had to connect thru there anyway). I ate soooo much cheese and I got soooo full! But it was delicious!! I tried so many different kinds. Some better than others. I tried cheese desserts and cured cheese and fresh cheese. In this picture I'm eating Requeso cheese. Its like fresh cheese, very light and soft. It had marmelade on top, so its kind of desserty. I tried lots of cured sheep's cheese because I was trying to find some that I really liked. Because I had been having trouble finding good sheeps cheese in the grocery store. And luckily after 3 or 4 samples, I found one I really liked that wasn't too expensive. Oh, also, you had to pay for samples. Which was kind of lame, but Spanish cheese is really expensive, so I guess they had to help out with the prices.

Before and after cheese tasting, we walked around Trujillo. (I went with two other american girls who live in the next town over from Don Benito) Because this was the third time, I did a little more exploring into different areas and I got to see some beautiful ruins of churches.

I said goodbye to Caroline and Becca at 1:00, because they were going back to Villanueva/Don Benito. So, I was on my own for the rest of the trip. After siteseeing/wandering and Cheese festival-ing I went to the bus station to catch the 2:15pm bus to Guadalupe and then something happened that has never happened before. The bus was full! And they would not let 4 of us on. I was one of those 4. Sooo, luckily there was another bus to Guadalupe at 6:15. So I just had to wait another 4 hours. Thus, I went back into Trujillo and wandered around and hiked around the hill the castle is on. So it wasnt a compete loss. And then when 6:15 rolled around, there were enough seats on the bus. Whew! The reason the bus was so full before was because one of the main bus companies that run in Extremadura is striking currently, but not a complete strike. They are running "servicio minimo" (minimal service). So when they normally run 5 buses, they run 2. Thus, all buses were much more full then normal. When I couldn't get on the 2:15 bus I was like this might be a sign that my trip is not going to go well.

But I finally did get to Guadalupe-- 4 hours later than I had planned, but there was still a couple hours of sunlight left when I got there so I got to walk all around and see pretty much everything. Another auxiliar in my same program lives there, Liam. And he showed me around and told me everything about Guadalupe. He was a great tourguide! :) It was great to get to talk and catch up as well.

Here is a view of the famous Monastery in Guadalupe:

This is a picture of me in front of the bridge that was built for a train-- the tracks were never laid. So, now its just a little pedestrian bridge. But lovely just the same.

The next morning I got to take a guided tour of the monastery. Which was pretty impressive. They have amazing paintings-- Goyas, Zubarans, El Grecos. And many beautiful illuminated manuscripts and music books. However, I unfortunately, didnt get to "visit" the virgen of Guadalupe and kiss her platter thing because the tour went long and I had to get on the bus. Too bad! But overall, I was so happy I got to visit the Monastery and Guadalupe in general. It was so beautiful and a wonderful little trip.

We were not allowed to take any pictures inside the monastery nor the church, but we could take pictures of the cloister. This is in mudejar style and probably one of the more beautiful cloisters I have seen in a church/monastery.

So I caught the 11:45am bus to Miajadas after visiting the monastery. The way back down through the mountains and to Miajadas was beautiful. There were fields and fields of wildflowers. I tied to get pictures of them, but none of them turned out too nice. But this one picture might give you an idea:

So, then I arrived in Miajadas at 1:10pm. Plenty of time before the 2:10pm bus to Don Benito. So I took a little walk around miajadas and had a cocacola light and a tapa. Then I got back to the bus station to sit and wait right next to the platform a good 15 minutes early. Ready to get on the bus. 2:10 passes, 2:15, 2:30--- still no bus. One other guy was waiting as well and I asked him if he knew anything about the bus. And he said that it has to come, it always comes. Well once it hit 3:00pm I decided to do some investigating. Now, I knew it was Labor Day in Spain, so I was like well this company could be on the holiday schedule which means that the bus wont come till 9pm. Which is a pain, but atleast it comes. But then I go and make sure, and there is a sign saying that the company will be running NO buses because its Labor Day. So, then I check the other company (the one on strike) and of course the buses that would have gone to Don Benito were cancelled. So I asked the guy who works there if there were any buses at anytime going to Don Benito that day and he said "not one" (but in spanish ofcourse). So, here i was stranded in the small town of Miajadas that is only 20 kms from Don Benito. I was so close! But 20kms was not possible walking. It was a little too far. I could have 10-12 kms, but 20 was pushing it. And I would have been walking on the highway-- a little dangerous. So I started calling/texting people to see if anyone could come and rescue me. :) I contacted probably 10 or 12 people. Finally one of my teachers called me back and said she would gladly come and pick me up. Yay!! Saved! Once she picked me up, we ended up driving out in the country to go hunt down the horseback riding place. We drove around alot looking for it and once we found it, it was closed! Too bad! But it was a beautiful day to drive in the country.

So I must say this past weekend was very adventurous. And even with the travel stressors, it was totally worth it. Guadalupe was so beautiful! These weekends and trips make me love Spain so much-- as if I didnt love it already. At the end of every trip Im so happy and content with what I had done and seen... it makes me sad to know that in a month I am going back to the US and probably never returning to live in Spain again. Bittersweet.