Living in España: Call my crazy…no really, I felt like I was going insane

So! After my amazing trip to Belgium with my wonderful friend Camille I jumped back into normal life, which consisted of correcting tests, celebrating Thanksgiving, and getting ready for my Christmas trip. But first….I moved! haha yea…turns out me and Spaniards don’t get along so well. Our customs are just too different and there were a myriad of differences between the four of us. Just to name a few, the boys were dirty, they were rude, up too late and too loud, and oh yea, smoked cigarettes and marijuana in the apartment. So, needless to say, I got the heck outta there before Christmas so I’d be comfortable before I left and didn’t have to worry about all this when I got back. Anyways, after much arguing with the landlord and forking over far too much cash, I am in my new apartment with much more agreeable roommates. I’m now living with 3 other people, 1 Turkish Erasmus boy, 1 Irish teacher like me, and 1 British teacher like me! So we’re much happier, have schedules that are very similar and have much more in common. Oh yea, and I can be out in the kitchen without smelly cigarettes, pot or seeing flies from dirty dishes. While I am glad for the experience I had living with Spaniards, I decided it was time to move on, and that I will learn Spanish another way. I have managed to make plenty of Spanish friends here so far, so I’m not too concerned. I know it was an experience I was meant to have, so I’m glad I had it, but am ready to move onto a better living situation.

ANYWAYS! After that debacle I’m finally in my new cozy apartment in my slightly smaller apartment, but much more agreeably one, and preparing for my Christmas Vacation! And this year, it literally is a vacation. I’m traveling! I received a wonderful invitation from my good Peruvian friend Jessica, to spend Christmas with her and her sister in Munich, Germany this year. As you can see, I’ve met quite a lot of interesting people here. Jessica is working on her Master’s here and her sister is married and lives in Germany. So since she’s here she’s taking advantage of the close distance and spending Christmas with her sister, and upon hearing that I had no where to go a couple months back she invited me to go with her! So I’ve been spending the rest of my time preparing my trip. Since I know so many amazing people I decided on a very basic itinerary for Christmas (compared to some auxiliaries itineraries which consist of visiting at least 5 different cities). So I will be spending Christmas in Munich, moving along to Salzburg afterwards to spend the New Year, and finishing in Vienna to see Sophie again and stay with her gracious family! I will return to Spain a day before I need to return to work, which begins on Jan 8! and will be a very happy person. I feel very fortunate to have received this invitation because Christmas is such a family affair that I am so happy Jessica is willing to share her family with me. In addition, I am very fortunate to only be paying for a place to stay in one of the three locations that I’ll be going to.

Also! I had a few other fun things happen to me, all which included cracking my computer screen and dropping my keys down the elevator shaft (hey, at least it wasn’t my phone!). But at the end of two pretty hellish weeks I moved in and went to a school fundraiser for my 4ESO students who are planning a senior trip to Madrid in March. It was a fundraiser to help them raise money to pay for the trip. One of the teachers I work with, Reyes, helped the kids organize it, and since I’ve talked to her about it before I thought I’d go and support the kids and all her hard work. Also, it was the first night of my vacation, so I thought, why not!? This was quite fun and interesting because for starters, Spanish schools don’t really do things like this. The sense of community and school dances don’t really exist here so it was really interesting to see how they put on something like that. Overall, the night consisted of the students selling sandwhiches and soda (none of that crap snack food you see at school dances) and they had a stage set up for the girls to dance an Arabian dance that they’re been learning from Reyes. Reyes is a dance teacher to these students and takes multiple dance classes, so they wanted to show off their skills. Also, at the beginning of the night Reyes told me they were going to play Just Dance, so I thought how cool that they have Just Dance! haha, they don’t. Apparently you can look up Just Dance dances on youtube with the dance moves. So they set up a projector and put youtube videos on the wall for the students to look at and dance to. Reyes and I got in there and did some dance too. Over all, it was really fun, but freezing cold. There’s no such thing as an indoor gym, they have an outdoor patio where they hold everything. So by 8:30 I was a little frozen and headed out while the rest of the students and Reyes were learning how to Salsa. haha, Only in Spain will you learn to salsa at a school dance, and not encounter any grinding or dark corners for the boys and girls to hide in.

A video of my kids dancing

The students looking at the screen to dance to Just Dance outside! I even joined in a bit, much to my students delight. haha I decided to make a bit of a fool of myself.

All of these girls are my students, and they danced so well.

Later that night I went to a pot luck Christmas party with all of my British coworkers and had a blast with them. We were up till about 3 AM and then continued the party on Friday afternoon with a company lunch that went from about 2:30 to about 7. We started off at the restaurant where we ate a ton of food, and drank a lot of wine and beer and then moved to the bar by about 7 and I ended my night by about 9:30 or so at night when I returned home. It was a great day, full of really great fun memories and I feel really grateful and blessed to be able to work at Covent Garden because it has lead me to meet so many amazing, kind and fun young people just like me who love teaching and love Spain and learning Spanish. So while I felt pretty under the weather for a week or so, this was a great way to wrap up my first full semester in Spain. (Is it weird that I still think of my life in semesters? haha)