happy halloween!!!

Costumes, carving pumpkins, candy, dance parties, bobbing for apples, trick-or-treating, candy corn (my favorite!)....whatever it may be, I´m missing it this year!! I hope you all have a blast and eat so much candy that it makes you sick! Haha! I used to eat ALL of my Halloween candy in about 3 or 4 days after going trick-or-treating. And I had plenty of it too...a pillowcase full! I had a really bad sweet tooth, well ok, I still do!! So I was going to celebrate Halloween by watching The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (the best movie ever as some of you well know...atta boy Luther!), but my computer is busted so I won´t be able to. I get to talk about Halloween this week in class and I´m going to have them write scary stories, so it should be fun! What´s everyone´s plans? Send me some pics of your costumes...!!

Thursday is the day of Todos los Santos here in Spain, kind of like Day of the Dead in Mexico, so I don´t have class. I might meet my friend Kirsten, who was with me on my BYU Study Abroad before, in Malaga for the weekend since it´s a long one.

Well I went out with my roommates this weekend, and we didn´t even leave the house til 11:30 pm. The party doesn´t start til later here in Spain! I got a grand tour of all the finest bars here in Almeria...I thought we were going out to some tapas bars, but I was wrong on that one! I also have hung out with some American girls that are here on the weekends as well, there are 3 of them so it´s fun to have someone to talk to about the experience here.

So I feel like I´m barely starting to make some progress with my speaking abilities. I feel like I definitely spoke better at the end of my Study Abroad 2 years ago though! I´ve started to use vosotros, but man am I butchering it! I´ve never actually learned it (all my teachers said we would never use it) so I´ve just been attempting the impossible. It gets easier the more you use it though.

As for cooking...there is no oven or microwave in my apartment so basically I have to fry everything on the stove in olive oil, of course! There isn´t the same type of food here so none of my recipes really work. I´ve basically just been making stuff up as I go along and see what I can come up with. Hasn´t been too bad really. I like to improvise when I cook so it´s all good...

church

So yesterday was a great day! First of all, I missed the bus to be at church on time...again, but when I got there, nobody was there! Turns out daylight savings time ended, so I was actually a half hour early instead of late! I met so many wonderful people, everyone was so friendly and anxious to talk to me. I met a wonderful lady from Argentina that wants me to come to her house and then this other lady is like so concerned that I´m by myself here in Spain and is really entertaining. I also met a girl who is good friends with Monica, the girl I stayed with the last time I was here.

I met a wonderful couple who invited me over for dinner after church. He, Pablo, is a counselor in the Bishopric and from Ecuador & she, Eliana, is the Relief Society President and from Spain. They are fairly young, about late 20s and I really like them a lot! They have two kids as well. They even already invited me over to celebrate Christmas with them! How nice is that! I spoke with Pablo at church and they already want to give me a calling and put me right to work. They think it´s wonderful that I am here and can be a great strength to the ward there, especially with all the extra time I have I will have many opportunities to serve. So I´m excited for that. The ward is fairly big and they are looking to split it in 2009. There is a brand new 2-story church building here in Almeria that serves many different cities around the area.

I also attended a baptism yesterday as well. So I was gone for about 9 hours yesterday, but it was so refreshing to spend time with Pablo and Eliana. We had a good time and some good discussions - in Spanish of course!!

random info...

Oh man!! Talk about never-ending hunger…it’s the worst thing EVER! Since I walk so much everyday I’m ALWAYS hungry…it’s crazy, let me tell you. And I walk quite a bit too. Last Friday I walked home from my school and it took 1 ½ hours, mind you I took the long way since I didn’t have anything better to do. I have since found a shorter route. It’s great though – I don’t mind walking. I get to see a lot.

So there’s no delicious pastry shop near my house…at first I thought that was the worst thing that could ever happen, but I think that may be a good thing as I would probably go there everyday and blow up like a balloon as a result. I haven’t taken the pleasure of going to one yet, but I will soon…a delicious napolitano sounds heavenly! I finally had the “delicious bread from Spain” made as a bocadillo with tortilla española and tomate – let me just say…amazing!! Sorry, I don’t usually speak with such language…it mostly comes out when I type things…I don’t know…

I don´t have a dryer here in my apartment, in fact nobody typically does here in Almería, so I have to hang all my clothes on a line to dry. I´ve never dried my clothes that way before so the first time I did it, I felt like they were all going to fall off!! I put like 3 or 4 clothespins on just to make sure! Cause if they did fall, they would fall 4 stories into someone else´s line and then I would have to go knock on the door and explain that my laundry had fallen. That is my fear at least... it´ll take some getting used to.

Almería isn´t that nice of a city, but there are all kinds of new apt. buildings being built, especially by where I live. and I don´t understand because there tons of apts. either for rent or for sale all over the city! It´s crazy because all of the buildings are old and really crappy on the outside with lots of graffiti, but you can walk inside the fanciest apt. inside of it with marble floors, high ceilings, extravagent decorations, etc. You would never know that they are so nice...

I´m pretty much all set with everything that I need. I just opened up a bank account here the other day, into which my school will direct deposit my monthly salary. I think I still get paid the full amount this first month, even though I was 2 weeks late. Can´t beat that! Then I got my monthly bus pass, my insurance card (I´m covered for everything, even specialists), and just applied for my foreign identification card. All I have to do now is extend my visa.

About Spanish fashion...all the guys have mullets, of course, and the girls all wear those pants that get skinny at the bottom (I forget what they are called) with those flat ballet-style shoes. So I seriously don’t know how they get those pants on. Oh…sorry, if they’re your style…maybe you can tell me!! Haha! The girls don´t have spikes on top of their heads like the last time I was here, but the new style is bangs. Aaah! Very short straight ones across the forehead - not very cute in my opinion. You can pretty much wear whatever you want - anything goes. If you don´t match at all...you´re good! This is all in Almería mind you, I don´t know if it´s like that in the rest of Spain. And don´t forget the man purse - everyone has one! I wish I could take some pictures of people, but that´s too obvious.

my first week teaching

So here is picture of the view from my school, which is at the top of the city on a hill. The city slopes downward to the ocean. You can see part of the castle walls. I have yet to see the castle, but hopefully soon. Anyway, this first week teaching was fantastic!! I really enjoyed it! My schedule of teaching is Mondays from 7-9 pm, Tuesdays from 5-10 pm with an hour break halfway through, Wednesdays from 4-7, Thursdays also from 4-7, and Fridays are free. I love the schedule! At first, I didn´t know if I would like teaching in the evenings, but I have the mornings free to do whatever and it´s actually really nice.

I teach alone, which is not common. All the other people I´ve talked to doing this, teach with another professor. I´m just in charge of speaking and getting the students to talk and express their opinions. So I don´t have to teach any grammar, give howework, grade papers, or anything like that. I still have a designated subject to talk to them about, but it´s a lot more relaxed. I teach the higher English courses and have 12 different classes total so I never have the same student twice in a week. That way I only have to prepare once a week. That means I have about 250 students or so. And learning names is difficult enough, but with Spanish names...a lot harder! I have 6 classes of level three, 4 classes of level four, and 2 classes of level five. Most of my students are older, in their 20s to 40s, and I have some high school students as well so it´s a good mix. They all pay attention to me and hang on my every word. It´s great! I´ve never had that before, especially not at Thatcher HS! Haha! I think they are excited to have me here, but are also a little nervous and scared to talk. Not so much in the higher courses, but definitely with the third level. It´s funny cause I´ve noticed some things that I never have before. For example one class pointed of that I always say "you guys" and the professor thought that was typical American. We have some weird phrases in English if you think about them as well. For example "to do the splits." Where did that come from?´

Anyway, I´m really enjoying teaching and glad to finally start. I was getting a little anxious there with nothing to do for a week. Hopefully I will be able to start giving private lessons as well to make a little more income. We´ll see if there´s any interest... Next week, I get to talk about Halloween so that should be fun!!

sunset on the beach

a day at the beach...

Ok, so a couple of days at the beach...Since I can't start working til next week I've had a lot more time on my hands so I decided to take advantage of the beach. While it's not that great, it's still the beach! The water is FREEZING though! I may just take advantage of the sun for the time being and start swimming in the Spring. There are a few hard core swimmers out there, but not many. Maybe I'll join 'em... The beach is a grey-sand beach. I've always wanted to go to a black sand beach so I guess I'm building up slowly. I've also started going running along the beach. It's not the same as running out in the desert behind my house (which I LOVED), but it works. There's always tons of people out and about getting their exercise, so I'm not the only one.

The weather is fabulous here! It is mostly sunny with a few clouds coming and going. It rains occasionally, but even still it's pretty warm. The temperature is around 80 degrees during the day and mid-70's in the morning and night. It's funny though cause almost everyone is wearing jackets or long-sleeves and it's not even cold! I don't get it. Of course being on the coast, there is always wind. Makes it nice for laying on the beach though, cause you don't get too hot! Hey, hey, hey! It doesn't get dark here until about 8 pm and I don't know when the sun comes up cause I haven't gotten up early enough to see...I'm starting to fall back into the Spanish lifestyle with going to bed later and getting up later. Back home in Thatcher it was the opposite. I actually liked getting up early. Never thought that day would come...

Ok so I opened up my egg carton (which they don't refrigerate in the store), and there was still chicken feathers stuck to one of the eggs!! Aaaah! Not what I was expecting. Don't worry, I'll still eat it - I'm on a tight budget you know. Haha! I'll just pretend that someone dared me to eat it...works every time! I haven't totally changed my ways for eating to the Spanish lifestyle. I get to hungry and usually end up eating dinner around 7 or 8, a lot earlier than 10 or 11!

Sometimes I feel like I'm in a third world country with feather-covered eggs, 3 choices of salad dressing, trash everywhere and freezing cold showers. Yup, haven't had a warm one yet - ok, so just the other day I figured out what was wrong. Plus Almeria is a little older city, nothing as nice as Alcala de Henares, where I was before. Sorry to break it to you Spain goers - you were in one cool place! Have fun at the reunion by the way...sorry I can't make it! No, I'm loving being here though. It's been great so far!

and the adventures begin...

I went to my school today to talk specifics. I’m going to be teaching 12 different classes, which are all in the evening. I will be teaching the 3 upper levels of English – intermediate, advanced intermediate, and advanced. I have 2 classes on Mondays, 4 on Tuesdays, 3 on Wednesdays, and 3 on Thursdays with Friday FREE!! Not too bad I’d say. That way if I want to go somewhere on the weekends I have plenty of time. So far I haven’t spoken any English – they have explained everything to me in Spanish. They even complemented me on my good accent. Alright! I still have a loooong way to go though. It’s good that I’m living with 2 natives as well. Well, if people can’t tell that I’m not Spanish by my accent, they can definitely tell by my shoes! Here I am tromping around the city in my Chacos and everyone else has their nice pretty heeled shoes and pointy shoes…seriously, I haven’t seen a pair of comfortable shoes yet!

On the way home I apparently took the right bus, but going the WRONG way. I ended up in the hills above the city in this really ghetto area with makeshift shacks. Elise, it reminded me of the time that we took the ruta in Mexico up into the mountains and the driver made us get off in the middle of nowhere. Well, this was just like that, except the driver was kind enough to let me stay on the bus. It took me an hour and a half to get home though. My theory is this: If you don’t get lost at least once or twice in a new city, you’ll never really find your way around. Always works for me anyway! That’s how you really get to know a city.

Well I was supposed to meet 3 other girls from the States tonight, all at different times, but didn’t end up doing so. I was so excited to meet them too. But that whole bus fiasco threw me off and then my phone died so I had to go back home (not close to the city center) to recharge it. Then it started pouring and I got soaked, plus it was getting late. My phone was about to die again so I just said forget it. There’s always tomorrow! I know these girls through email – we have been emailing for a couple months, but I have never met them. It’s funny cause each of them don’t know the others, but hopefully I will be able to get them all together soon…

new phone!

Looks fake eh? Ok so I just got a cell phone here in Spain. And guess what?! It's free if you call me! Ok, wait, let me rephrase that...It's free for ME if you call me, but of course you would have to pay to call. Sorry, sounded better than it actually is eh? Anyway here is my number if anyone wants to give me a ring! You might have to dial a 0 before the 34, I don't really know exactly...

34 693 257 825

Cell phones here in Spain are darn expensive! It's actually cheaper for me to call the U.S. than to make a local call. How crazy is that?! Text messages are also expensive. Many companies here charge different prices at different times of the day - it's never the same. So just be grateful for what you have - free nights & weekends, free mobile to mobile, 1000 free texts - whatever it may be!

escuela oficial de idiomas

That's the name of my school. Today I went to get my bus pass with my roommate Yoli and she went with me to the school - we kinda got lost. She is from Granada and doesn't know her way around Almeria very well either as she just moved here to go to the University. She is so hard to understand!! Everything is slurred together and here in Andalucia, they drop the "s" off the end of words and the "d" between vowels. So instead of hearing Granada, you hear Grana, or hablado becomes hablao. It's going to take some getting used to. I've started using the zeta (or theta as I like to write it) again, but I have yet to make it consistent in my speech since I'm not used to it yet. That'll come quickly though.

So the school that I thought where I was going to work ended up being a different school all the way on the other side of the city. So much for walking...Apparently it just moved in the last couple weeks and it used to be in the same neighborhood where I live. Fancy that! That would have been perfect. Pero está bien, no pasa nada. It was funny cause I was looking all over for a pay phone to call my school. I ended up walking pretty far and what do you know?! There's one right outside my apartment building! It took me a while to finally get a hold of them, but I finally did and planned to go later to meet with them about my job. Well, turns out that today was actually the first day they were open, so it wouldn't have done me any good to have come 2 weeks ago anyway! I already can't start working til next Monday since they already have the schedule made for this week. Fine with me - more time at the beach! I am going in again on Thursday, though, to get the run down and see how things are done. In the meanwhile, they gave me the textbooks to start looking through. I am going to be the only American teaching at the school - the first American they have ever had! I guess the students are all really excited to have an American, but nervous about not understanding me. Funny, cause I'm always afraid that I'm not going to understand the Spanish/Mexican people when they talk to me - I've never had it the other way around. Should be interesting...I'm excited to finally start teaching! I'm going to have anyone from the ages of 14 and up.

Well, I plan to do some more exploring this week since I'll have such a busy schedule once I start working next week. Maybe I'll even go to a bullfight...

spain...at last

I finally made it here after a good 28 hour trip, plus a 9 hour jump ahead in time. Getting sleep was limited on the plane, kinda hard to do when you’re sitting up, but I managed a few hours here and there. My first flight to LA was on a tiny plane that I couldn’t even stand up without hitting my head. Guess my nickname Treetops (courtesy of my brother) is pretty accurate eh? Yeah, I know you’re all laughing at me, but there was another lady that was at least like 7 feet, no joke. So we were in it together! I then flew to Atlanta and then to Dublin.

So I decided to double check my weight limit for RyanAir (my plane from Dublin to Almería) one last time and realized that it wasn’t just 15 kg, but 15 total!! For both bags! That is only about 33 pounds. So I only ended up taking one bag, which I had to repack at midnight the night before I left. Good thing I realized that beforehand though, otherwise I would have had to pay like $450 for being over weight. I still had to pay a little and my dad will send me me other bag. Looks like I'll be without for a couple of weeks though.

I had about a 7 hour delay in Dublin and wanted to go out and see the city, but I ended up not doing so (sorry Jessica and Jimmer) for three reasons: 1) the airport was a zoo, 2) I’m cheap and didn’t want to spend the money (expensive to leave luggage), and 3) I had already seen most of the city before. So I took the opportunity to work on my Anatomy labs. Then, I met this guy, Bart, from Poland and we talked on and off for a while. He didn’t know too much English, but we got by. It was nice to have someone to wait with for a couple hours though. I don’t think that he understood my reason for leaving when I finally had to go check in. He was like, “Wait, what is happening?” I felt bad to leave him, my new friend!

After my many hours of traveling and sitting for so long, my ankles don’t exist anymore. Aaah! It looks like I have elephant feet, but the swelling should go down within a couple of days. Then my back feels broken from lugging my backpack all over, but no worries! The joys of traveling!

I took a taxi from the airport in Almería to my apartment, but when I got there, no one was there! My roommate, Mercedes, came just after a few minutes of waiting outside. The apartment is really nice! The city is really old and therefore many of the apartments are old, but mine is fairly new. I actually live on the outskirts of the city, closer to Nueva Almería. I think I really lucked out with my apt. with just randomly picking it. Plus, the neighborhood I live in is really good, compared to the others. Here is some pictures of the kitchen and living room to give you an idea. My other roommate is Yoli, who is 18 (young enough to be my student), but I really like her too! I have no complaints about the apartment except one – my bed is super squeaky!!! Maybe I’ll have to bounce all the squeaks out! haha! The best part is that I can get wireless Internet from my room! This is the outside of my apartment building. I live on the third floor, which many of you know is actually the fourth since Spain counts the second floor as the first.

Today I got all settled in with the few things I have (bummer) and then took a walking tour of the city. Mercedes drove me around this morning and showed me the grocery store, my school, the mall (H & M!!), the beach, and the university. So the beach isn’t that great, in fact it’s dirty in places, but hey, I’m not complaining. A beach is a beach! All I want is the sun and water and I’m happy! It's also a very short beach, from the walkway to the water. The beach is about 10 minutes walking from my apartment and then I walked all along the beach to the other end of the city and then back. The city is really old and most of the streets downtown are little one-way narrow streets. In fact, many of the cars have to park on the sidewalk! All of the sidewalks are tiled, literally (no stamping). And for those of you who don’t know much about Spain, all the stores are along the bottom of apartment buildings. There are no houses like in the U.S., but the closest you will find is like a bunch of duplexes hooked to each other such as these.

I also walked past the ferry to Morocco. I’m actually planning on going sometime this week. Ok, not really. It’s a joke Mom and Dad!! I do want to go though. It was interesting because everything on that side of the fence was in French: exit – sortie and bathrooms – toilette. I tried to get a good view of the Castle there at the other end of the city, but only got pieces of it such as these. It’s supposed to be the second biggest in Andalucía, next to the Alhambra in Granada. Close to the ferry dock is a port with lots of boats. There is a long, narrow park along the beach that runs the length of the main part of the city and I saw this building along side of it with lots of palm trees. It's my first new favorite building - I love architecture and the outside appearance of buildings!! It reminds me of Pirates of the Caribbean, I'm not sure why.

Tomorrow I will call my school about working and hopefully start soon. Until then, I plan to go to the beach a couple of times! The weather is really nice – upper seventies I would guess, but there’s always wind since it’s right on the coast. I’m not too fond of it, but I’ll get used to it. Everything is really close and I can walk just about everywhere. I was even thinking that I wouldn’t have to get a bus pass, but church is the farthest away so I’ll get one anyway. Oh, I also love the fact that there are mountains around. Couldn't do without that...

Hope you enjoy the pictures!! If you have any questions, please ask – I never know what to write…

I almost forgot the BEST part...I found a couple of döner kebab places! Now I know for sure that I'm in the right place! Can't wait to sink my teeth into one those delicious things! Viva kebabs!

au revoir!

Oh wait, that's the wrong language! Hasta luego! Hopefully I will get a chance to start picking up another language since I'll be teaching at a Language School - I can pick from French, German, Italian, or Arabic.

I just wanted to write one last time from the States and in English. Oh, didn't I tell you....the rest of my blogs are going to be in Spanish! I figured that I better start practicing as often as I can, so find a translator if you don't know Spanish! Ok, just kidding. Of course I'm going to write in English! It hasn't really hit me yet that I'm actually moving to another country until just today. I had a nice drive through the beautiful desert to Phoenix for the last time today and it was the last day for me to drive. Boy, am I gonna miss that! I love to drive! Especially on the curvy roads! Fortunately I got one last curvy road tonight driving to meet my friend Anjane' for dinner.

Well it has always been my #1 dream to buy a one-way plane ticket somewhere and I finally actually did it. I leave at 7 am tomorrow morning and fly through LA, Atlanta, Dublin, then to Spain. The whole trip is going to take me almost 30 hours total so I'm in for a real treat! Good thing I love take offs and landings! It's great! If you haven't done it...well, you're missing out! Next post I should have some beautiful pictures of Spain....

I got it! I got it!!!

Ok, well not exactly....I found out that my visa got approved today finally!! I should get it in the mail in the next couple days and then I'll have it! That was my last hurdle in leaving so I'm glad that I don't have to worry about it anymore at least. My plane leaves next Friday, October 12. Too bad I can't leave earlier, but then I'd have to pay even more to change my ticket again. I'm already suffering from changing it the first time! Good thing they took me back at the pharmacy! Well, just wanted to share my spectacular news!! Now I can start packing......now that's the hard part!