Bones Festes!!

Ok, so that’s Italian, but I like saying Happy Holidays in Italian the best, plus it’s a tribute for spending Christmas in Italy 2 years ago. In Spanish it’s Felices Fiestas! So Christmas decorations were up about the time of Thanksgiving, but they didn’t turn on the lights until this past weekend for the two holidays (see below). It’s about time! I was so excited to see so many Christmas lights all around the city. There is a huge Christmas tree downtown and little Santa Clauses hanging from apartment windows.

There is also a Christmas market downtown that sells almost anything you want, including gofres (super thick waffles drizzled with hot melted European chocolate…can I say delicious?)…sound familiar Sonya? I think I might eat one a day!

Belén

That’s Spanish for “Nativity.“ There is a huge Nativity scene that you can walk around with lights and music, but they got it all backwards…the actual scene with baby Jesus is at the very beginning instead of the end. Hmmm… So that´s how you are getting to get it here...

So I just found another Nativity. I like this one better because it is of the actual ciudad vieja (old city) of Almería with the Cathedral, Plaza, Cathedral, etc. in miniature.

Carmen, the lady I give private lessons to told me about it. It’s great cause she tells me about all these little cultural things that I wouldn’t know about otherwise. She told me a lot about how the Spanish celebrate the holidays and what they do. So here’s a funny story that Carmen told me…
Her daughter, Eva, who is only about 6, had a family tree she was doing for homework. Well, she was asking her Mom how to say grandparents and great-grandparents and who came next after that. Then she asked, “Who was the first person?” She doesn’t have religious education in school so she doesn’t know much about that. She asked, “God or Zapatero?” So I guess it’s not as funny if you don’t know who Zapatero is…he’s the current President of Spain. Isn’t that so funny?! Little kids say the darnest things!

Speaking of Zapatero and politics, did you hear about the King of Spain, Juan Carlos, telling Hugo Chávez of Venezuela to shut up? Sweet! Now Chávez is asking for an apology and until (or if) the King decides to, there is a “freeze” on relations with Spain. No one knows exactly what that means…

Turrones

This time of year you can pick among 50 (at least! haha!) different kinds of delectable chocolate bars…pure goodness in a wrapper! So I found my new favorite…an arroz con leche chocolate bar. It is absolutely divine! Who would have thought cinnamon and chocolate went together so well?

Christmas in the Netherlands

So I found out that I actually have 1 whole week extra of my Christmas break than I thought because of exams- 3 ½ whole weeks! Today was my last day of work! This Christmas is going to be a little different this year for obvious reasons. The last time I was in Europe for Christmas most of my family was with me, but not this year. So I am going to celebrate by going to Holland and Belgium! I leave Christmas day to Amsterdam and will be there until the 30th. I will spend a couple of days there in Amsterdam; a day taking a tour to see the windmills, cheese factory, wooden shoe shop, a couple fishing villages; and a day to see both Antwerp and Brussels in Belgium. I can’t wait! It’s going to be so much colder though!

Right now here in Spain the weather is seriously paradise. This whole last week was warm enough during the day to wear just a t-shirt, even shorts…low 70s I‘d say. Lots of sun. Guess that’s what life is like on the Mediterranean! When I first got here back in October it rained off and on so I bought myself an umbrella, and it hasn’t rained since! I lived through UT for 2 ½ years where is snows and rains lots and I never owned an umbrella. Now when I finally get one I don’t even get to use it!

Well, I hope you all have a great Christmas!! I’ll still be in Spain to see what Christmas, New Year’s, and Reyes Magos (Jan. 6) is like so it’s all good. Reyes Magos (the 3 Wise Men) is like the Spanish Christmas. That’s why they weren’t so concerned about getting Christmas decorations up since their Christmas season is almost 2 whole weeks longer.

Cabo de Gata-Níjar

My friend Kirsten came to stay with me last weekend, and did we have fun! One of the days we went to a small beach village called San José. It was muy precioso! I loved it! A small village with white buildings on a nice little beach. So right next to Almeria is a huge Natural Park called el Cabo de Gata and San José is a village within the park. It is only about an hour on the bus from Almeria. The bus stopped in some pretty random places along the way. On the way back this dude got off seriously in the middle of nowhere and it was pitch black out. Honestly, where the heck did he think he was going?

Anyway, so we were tortured that we didn’t bring our swimsuits with us…the water was so crystal clear and tempting. Seriously, even in the port at night you could still see the bottom. So we did some exploring and there is supposed to be a lot of very nice beaches around the area. We wanted to rent bikes to ride around, but the tourist office was closed when we got there, so we opted to walk. It was better that way cause our walk turned out to be a full-out hike. Yep, we were hiking along the edges of cliffs that dropped into the ocean at some points. It was so beautiful though!! I love the outdoors, and I definitely loved this! We hiked for about 4 hours and saw some pretty amazing things. The map shows the Cabo de Gata and if you look for San José on the lower right side of the cape, we walked from there almost all the way to Playa de Mónsul.

There are some fabulous beaches around (the kind I had in mind when I first found out that I was assigned to a beach city). And none of them are commercialized since it is a Natural Park, right? I’m definitely going to be going there in the Spring when I can swim and explore some more.

The terrain was amazing, definitely a lot prettier than around Almeria (a scorched desert - worse than AZ). So the ocean came in on the beach, which turned into sand dunes, then desert with yuccas and prickly pear, then grass with trees and flowers, then volcanic rocks, and then mountains. To top it all off, there were pine trees growing in the village. Such broad vegetation! It was incredible!!! Enjoy the pictures!! But let me just tell you…they don’t do it justice…

There is a small prickly pear forest between the beach and mountains...

A wind sufer taking a break on the beach...

Can you see the sailboat off in the distance?

Small beach between volcanic rock only reachable by foot...

Eating ice cream on the beach in Almeria...

chuches

Check out these GINORMOUS chuches!! I had to dedicate a whole entry to them because I was SOOO excited. So check out the size compared to the regular-sized chuches…huge!! Definitely one the best discoveries yet…

qué dia de perros!!

My little space heater broke and I’ve had to go without heat for the last week. Let me tell you, not very fun. I’ve had to wear tons of layers. The worst thing is that it is so much warmer outside because of the sun, right? It’s warm enough to wear shorts outside while I have to wear a coat inside. Hmmm, there’s something wrong with that…I finally got it replaced though so it’s all good now! Exchanging it was quite the hassle, but well worth it. I had to go back and forth between a couple of places. Then when I was checking out (I bought some other things) the security officer had to come and inspect my bag with my new heater…standard procedure. Ha! I surprised they didn’t look in my backpack!

Then the same day my wireless Internet stopped working and hasn’t since. So I’m back at the locutorio for the time being until it comes back up, if it ever does. So my updates may be like this, just to warn you - a bunch at once!

feliz dia de la virgen imaculada

So Kirsten and I were hoping to see some type of procession to the Cathedral, but the whole plaza was pretty empty when we went. We did get a chance to look inside (I hadn’t even been inside yet), both of our first Cathedral to go into in Spain. Well, minus the other 100 we saw when we were in Spain before!! Ok, so that’s a little of an exaggeration, but not much if you include all the little churches. So here’s some pictures of the Plaza de la Catedral. There was a ¨puente¨ last weekend which means if there is a holiday on a Thursday, it is ¨bridged¨until the weekend with Friday off as well. Sounds like a good idea to me!

feliz día de constitución!

This is more of a formal holiday and isn't really celebrated that much, except everything is closed. In Madrid this time of year you can celebrate by wearing masks or wigs. I never really figured out if that was to celebrate Day of the Constitution somehow, Christmas, or the coming new year. Anybody know? Here's a big assortment of choices of masks and some dude displaying a very lovely wig...think what you will...

feliz dia de santa kristina!!!

So my students told me that today is the day of Saint Kristina (really Cristina, but hey, what does it matter?). So everybody named Kristina gets to celebrate the day. In Spain everyone gets 2 days to celebrate: your birthday and your own day of the Saint you share the same name with. Everyone celebrates a few of the big, famous Saints days, such as San Jose on June 24, which here in Almeria everyone goes to the beach and has fires. Sounds fun to me! So then my students told me that I must invite them over to celebrate!

oh happy day!!

Ok so life is grand! I just got my new computer and got the Internet working again (hopefully for good), got my other suitcase in the mail a couple of weeks ago, got myself a little space heater to keep me warm (since there’s no dryer to sit on top of!), hung Christmas lights in my room, and best but not least…found a scrumptious döner kebab restaurant that has arroz con leche for dessert - the best combination ever!! I’m going to take advantage of that for sure! They even serve the food on glass plates - now that’s quality! So I have so much to catch up on. If you get tired of reading, at least scroll down until you see pictures of the castle here in Almeria.

sundays

• Maria Carmen y familia
  Today I spent the day after church at Maria Carmen’s house and met her family; she is the only member. I ate delicious albondigas (meatballs), which are coming to be one of my favorite Spanish meals, along with morcilla (blood sausage). I could have done without the latter, but I ate and ate. Asking for a little more rice ends up being a whole plate full, then you eat two pieces of fruit for dessert, then chocolate a little later, and to finish off roasted chestnuts! Wow, what a meal! So I’ve never eaten chestnuts before…they are pretty good! Interesting though. The middle is soft, not like a nut. You’ll have to try them.
  

• Isabel y familia
  The people in the ward have been super nice! Last weekend I went to another member’s house, Isabel and her family. I ate another delicious meal of course. Her husband makes pastries for a living and I ate 2 desserts at their house, plus a chocolate napolitano after church. They are both bigger people and they even said themselves that they like to eat well, especially dessert! Just like me!! So you can imagine that it worked out very nicely…haha! They were a little hard to understand, but I managed. Isabel’s husband, Andres, promised me that I will speak perfect Andalucían by the time I leave and dance the sevillano as well! Wow, what a promise!

more school

So I already have my favorite students. I know that as teachers we aren’t supposed to do that, but it just happens, right? You can’t help it. But I teach so many different students that I always forget who is in which class, so it’s always a surprise when I walk in. I don’t think I’m ever going to learn all of their names - impossible. Now that it’s cold my squeaky voice has decided to present itself to my students. It’s funny cause I know they want to laugh, I can see it in their faces, but they don’t dare. But then I laugh so then they do. Always entertaining to say the least.

Speaking of voices, some things that I’ve noticed is that generally speaking, not always true, the women have lower voices and the men have higher voices. Or maybe just the people I have observed have been the few that that is true for. Also, Andalucí ans speak very loudly. Isabel’s husband even said so himself. At church, there will be 5 people speaking at once all very loudly. I have no idea how they have a conversation or discussion like that, but it seems to work!

On my way home from school the other night, there were some people conducting interviews and doing research on the bus for that particular route. I was one of the lucky ones to be interviewed, how exciting! They just got information about how close you lived/worked to the bus stop, how long it took you to walk, how long the bus ride was, your nationality, etc. Never seen that before…

lots of exercise

I played paddle again last weekend and I think I am getting better. It’s really fun! Has anyone ever heard of it? Maybe it’s more European. I still can’t serve very good (has to be underhand) so they finally just let me serve it like tennis (overhand)- much easier! Antonio told me that I will be a pro after 2 or 3 more matches. Ha, we’ll see about that! I played with a different group of guys, but they were just as good as the other guys - too good!

Also, I went swimming this week, but not just any swimming - swimming laps. I’ve never swam laps before in my life! I really enjoyed it though. I worked on my backstroke and free style. I might even join the club and go a couple times every week. There’s some hard core people there though, a guy had a trainer there timing his laps. I’ll just stay out of his way…

I still go running on the beach 2 or 3 times every week. The other day I saw some surfers! They had to have been beginners though, cause the waves really weren’t that good. As you can see I’m staying active - it’s obligatory with all the delicious things I eat. Hehe!

Alcazaba

I finally visited the local castle here, it was about time! Funny, my roommate didn’t even know that there was a castle here. I don’t know how you couldn’t, it’s HUGE! The biggest tourist attraction of Almeria. I think she watches just a little too much TV…I think the people here take all the castles and old buildings (tons) for granted because they are so common.

Almeria still isn’t very touristy like other cities in Spain. Probably because it’s in the very corner, not very pretty, not much to see, etc. It’s just not as popular. There is more of a Moroccan influence here than European. I wasn’t excited when I first got here, but it grows on you. I now consider it my home and actually really like it! There’s so much to explore.

Oh right, the alcazaba…It’s a really cool castle! I think way more so than the one in Má laga that I saw. It is situated above the city on the hill so you can look out and see the city and harbor. For you history buffs…it was originally founded by the Moors in the year 955 (imagine that!) until taken over by the Catholic monarchs, who built and added more to the structure. Under the protection of this massive fortress, Almería became the most important port and market in Andalucía, or Southern Spain. Merchants and travellers from Egypt, Syria, France, and Italy frequented the port and brought a lot of revenue to the city.

The castle itself has three different parts and there is a mosque, underground water cisterns, baths, etc. They are still working on under covering much of it as the picture shows where they are digging.

There is a small valley that dips down where a wall follows until the top of the opposite hill. There is also a big statue of Christ there as well. Here is a close-up.

Here are some pictures of the city from the view of the castle, which is the opposite side of the city from where I live. I live in a nicer area. Can you see the big passenger ship docked in the port ready to leave for Morocco?

When I was leaving, there was a bride and groom taking their wedding pictures with the castle in the background. The bride’s dress was gorgeous, of course, and the groom was wearing a purely gold suit! Cool! Imagine this picture with a bride and groom in the foreground…