La navidad en Baeza

I promised that if I had a bit of time I would be sure to submit one more short post before my long absence from my blog.  So here I am, on the eve of my departure to Rome, Venice, Zagreb, and Madrid for a whirlwind Christmas vacation and what promises to be an exciting trip for Russ and I.

But before I depart, here is a little about my last week and Christmas in Baeza.  First off, for everyone that is wondering, we do have a Christmas tree in our apartment.  Ellen went out and bought one and thanks to Julie’s friends back home we have decorations for it as well.  It hasn’t really seemed exactly like Christmas here, so this has been a nice touch to put all of us in the holiday spirit.  I also received a nice stocking with some Merry Christmas notes from my parents and my family back home.  And along with a few other nice cards from family and friends, it has been a different but memorable holiday season already.

On Monday, the teachers and staff at my school had their annual Christmas dinner.  Well let me tell you, it was everything I expected and more.  The dinner started immediately after school on Monday at 3:00.  The restaurant was a really nice place by the cathedral.  We had our own private room and more food and drinks than we could handle.  We talked, ate, drank, gave toasts (yes I even had to give one too!), and simply had a great time together.  The more and more I’m here, the more they are including me in the things they do and although at times it requires great patience by them, I am continually improving my Spanish because of this.  When they all get in a group and start talking it can be almost impossible to follow the conversation!  That day I also had my afternoon class at 4:30.  However, when the time approached and I began to regretfully explain that I had to leave, one of teachers simply said, “Oh no no no.  You don’t have to work anymore today.  No one does!”  And with that, she called the school and instructed them to inform my students that class was cancelled for the day.  An hour and a half later when I was supposed to go teach my tutor student, I called and said that I would not be able to come then and would call later when I was able to make it.  However, as we left the restaurant a little while later and I started to say my good byes, I was stopped and asked, “Where are you going?  The party is not done yet.”  We then made our way to a local bar and had a few more drinks and more fun.  Well, almost six hours later, our Christmas dinner had finished.  I regretfully called my tutor student and told his mom that I would not be able to make it that day, but she more than understood.  Things sure are different here.

On Thursday I went out to lunch after school again with a smaller group of my teachers, which was great, and today, Friday, we had churros y chocolate for breakfast during our recreo (breakfast break).  They sure know how to do Christmas here!

Wednesday night, myself, Ellen, Julie, Caroline, Justi, and Miguel Angel all had a small Christmas dinner as well.  One last time to get together before everyone parts ways for the next couple of weeks.  It is hard to believe that some of these friends of mine are already home or are going soon, when I will not step on American soil for somewhere around another seven months!

To finish off this final blog post for 2008, here are some night and day shots of the beautiful Christmas decorations in Baeza for the holiday season.  We walked around a bit tonight.  Today was almost 60 degrees and as hard as that makes it to believe its Christmas time, the decorations are wonderful here.

Merry Christmas to all and I hope that you find joy in being with the ones you love during the holidays!

Cadiz

Well, it’s been a few days now and after letting my body recharge, fixing the heat in our apartment, and getting back into the swing of things in school (although a three day week isn’t exactly all that demanding), I feel I can now accurately write about and reflect on another exciting weekend.  After getting together with Russ two weeks ago in Cordoba, we decided that I would try and head down to Cadiz for the puente.  Puente is the Spanish word for “bridge” and is what they use to describe a day off from school or a long weekend.  The puente this last weekend on Monday is called la Immaculada or “the feast of the Immaculate Conception”.  This really marks the beginning of the Christmas season here in Spain.  But enough about religious celebrations, back to my much more exciting weekend.

I departed from Baeza on Thursday afternoon, when I caught a 5:00 bus heading to Cordoba.  I had a 28 minute layover in Cordoba, where I needed to catch the last train of the day, to Cadiz.  Unfortunately, due to the rain that day, my bus was 24 minutes late.  I found myself running to the ticket counter, but upon arriving received the bad news that I could no longer buy tickets here for the train.  However, the man also told me that if I ran, I might be able to catch the train and then buy a ticket after boarding.  Like a bullet I ran to the platform of my train, only to find it empty.  After some disappointment I asked a man nearby if the train to Cadiz had just left.  Thankfully he told me that it was late too!  A minute later, my ride to Cadiz rolled into the station and I hopped on.  

Upon arriving in Cadiz, I found Russ and we headed off to his piso (apartment).  I am not lying when I say that he lives on the beach.  Although his door faces the main avenue, the backside of his building is on the path alongside the beach.  Absolutely beautiful.  Not to mention, the beach in Cadiz is one of the longest and uninterrupted beaches in the world.  By this I mean that it is not broken up by docks, ports, or bridges jutting out into it.  It literally goes off in both directions almost as far as you can see from his building.  Cadiz itself is a very old city, in fact it is actually the oldest still standing city in Western Europe and dates back to 1104 BC and the Phoenicians.  I could talk plenty more about the history, but this fact alone is what really amazed me.

It was 11:30 at night when I arrived and after not having any dinner, I was quite hungry.  So we dropped my bag off at his apartment, which he shares with another auxiliar from Toronto and a Spanish teacher, and we headed to grab a burger at a place outside his door.  We then walked around the corner to the apartment of two of Russ’s friends, Shane and Aoife, two of the coolest people that I met in Cadiz.  They are an Irish couple who moved down to Cadiz at the end of the summer, sort of on a whim.  They wanted to get out of Ireland for awhile and randomly chose Cadiz.  Well they were really cool and lots of fun and after meeting with them for a bit, Russ and I left and met up with some of his other friends at a bar in the old part of Cadiz (Russ lives in the new part).  In Cadiz, there are a ton of Erasmus students from all over Europe.  These are university students who decided to study abroad at another university in Europe.  Well apparently the University of Cadiz is quite popular because this night and every other night that I was in town, we hung out with some of these students.  Spain, France, England, Ireland, the US, Italy, Hungary, you name it.

Friday was probably our laziest day in a way of the weekend.  We slept in and then walked around a bit while getting some food for a late lunch.  The one item on our agenda that was the opposite of lazy and relaxing was our trip to the pool for Russ’s swim practice.  He has been training with a team down there and on this day I decided I would join them for practice.  I don’t regret it, but there were definitely several times that I thought I might throw up, not to mention I could not get my body to function the way it used to.  For those of you swimmers reading this, 6 x 100s stand ups long course are not the easiest thing to do after one practice since July.  It wasn’t pretty but I got through it.  

Following swim practice, we returned to Russ’s apartment where we met Ruth, his roommate from Toronto.  Russ and I then went to a really good tapas restaurant down the beach, where we waited to meet up with Ruth and head down to the old part.  After her arrival, we hopped on a bus and made our way to our friend Paige’s apartment where we got a great view at night of the city from her roof.  After wandering around the old part for awhile at night, we made our way to a really cool tapas restaurant where we met up with Shane and Aoife.  Despite how incredibly hot it was in there, the food was absolutely great and the six of us had a great time.  Following this we made our way back to the same bar we had been at the previous night, which they call the pirate bar even though it has nothing to do with pirates.  Although the bartender did resemble one quite a bit.  Here we met Russ’s other roommate Christian, as well as several other of their friends.  After two other stops and a bit of dancing, we ended the night and made our way home.

Saturday, and I’m sure Russ will agree to this as well, was the best day of my trip.  After a disappointing start, the fun never stopped.  Our initial plan was to rent a cabin in a town a little less than an hour away.  However, when the prices ended up being much more than we had been told, we dropped that idea.  What came of this bad luck was much good fortune.  After much trouble finding an open grocery store, we found a little shop with bread, meat, cheese, drinks, and other snacks, we formed our picnic lunch and headed down the beach to the dunes where we would spend the afternoon.  Russ, myself, Shane, Aoife, Will, and Ali (an Irish auxiliar) spent the day eating, drinking, talking, and listening to music on the beach.  It was absolutely fantastic and perfect weather.  Will, Russ, and I even managed to do a refreshing but very brief ocean swim.  The water was pretty cold!  The day also really provided me a great opportunity to really get to know some of Russ’s friends here in Cadiz.  They are some good people and hopefully I’ll be seeing them again.

Following our time on the beach, we all parted ways and Russ and I headed back to his apartment to rest a bit and eat some more food.  What we didn’t realize was that we would spend this time on ichat with David, Tyler, Sean, and Jason.  For those who don’t know David is in Ohio and the other three guys are in Minneapolis and are all some of our best friends.  Russ and I, and later Shane and Aoife, all enjoyed this.  It really was the best of both worlds, as we got a little of everything that day, from Cadiz all the way back to the US.  To end the night, we all headed out to Rockodromo, a nearby bar with really good American and British rock.  It was a great day in which we really did everything that I could have possibly imagined.

Sunday, my final full day in Cadiz, we awoke and after heading down to the beach for a bit started a nice long walk that would ultimately take us nearly all day.  Starting at Russ’s, we we headed down along the beach towards the old part of the city.  Before making it very far though, we made a pit stop at a great Chinese restaurant that Russ knew of.  I felt very satisfied as we walked out the door.  As we made our way to the old part, unfortunately we found many places closed.  That was actually a common theme all weekend.  Most of the tourist attractions, although there aren’t many, were closed for the holiday weekend or open very few hours of the day.  However we did get to see the main city wall, the cathedral, many cool old buildings, and a castle/fort on the water.  At the cathedral, we started by heading up the tower to get a great view of the city.  It was a bit cloudy that day, but the view was spectacular.  Cadiz is literally almost completely surrounded by water.  On one side you have the port, where there often are huge cruise liners that at night are completely lit up with incredible lights.  And on the other side is the public beach and the Atlantic Ocean.  It is a beautiful place.  I found myself trying to imagine what it would be like during Carnival, the Mardi Gras type festival, and I really couldn’t.  I am planning to come back for the opening weekend of the festival and will definitely post again for that.

The cathedral is not all that different than many of the others that I’ve seen.  Although, it might be the newest one that I’ve visited.  It was built in the 1850s and the one really noticeable thing that is quite different from others is the width of it.  It is not a long cathedral at all.  Hopefully you can see from the front facade how incredibly wide it is.  More like a square than a typical cathedral.  Inside, there is one other large difference.  Underneath the cathedral is a large tomb.  The only other tomb I have seen in a cathedral is the one in the chapel in Granada, but this one in Cadiz completely dwarfs Fernando and Isabel’s.  It is a large circle with several separate rooms branching off and the echo in the center of the circle was fantastic.  

After leaving the cathedral we walked along the beach until we reached the narrow road that led us out to the castle/fort.  Once again, unfortunately the inside of the castle was closed on this day, but being the adventurers that we are, Russ and I headed down off the path onto the rocks.  We journeyed into the night around the castle.  At times the road was treacherous, but thankfully we both made it all the way around the castle without any injuries.  After we finally made it back to the path, we walked back to the plaza that surrounds the cathedral and found a little cafe to enjoy a Fanta and rest our legs for awhile.  Then we hopped on a bus back to the new part and Russ’s apartment.  Soon afterwards, we went and grabbed a bite at a decent donor kebab place and then relaxed at Will’s with some friends.  To finish off the day, we headed back to Rockodromo to enjoy a few more drinks and some great music before calling it quits for the day.

Monday, we woke up and headed towards the train station where I was to leave at 11:00.  After a quick breakfast nearby, we parted ways and I headed to Sevilla where I was to catch a bus back to Baeza.  What turned out to be some good luck, I had a two hour layover in Sevilla, so I grabbed a map and started walking.  Being that is was a religious holiday, the streets were filled with families and people enjoying the day.  I walked around the cathedral (yep it was closed) and made my way down to the river where I enjoyed a bocadillo (sandwich) before grabbing the bus back to Baeza.  After arriving in Baeza shortly after 8:00 that night, I finally was back to the “real world”.  Too bad it would only last a few days as my work week was only to be three days!  How awful!

Well, I might have one more entry before I leave for my Christmas break travels.  But if not, I wish all of you a wonderful and safe Christmas. and New Year’s.

Until next time.

Turkey Day!

I realize that there hasn’t been much time since my last blog post, but I am leaving today to visit Russ for the weekend in Cadiz and I thought I’d better say a little something about my Spanish Thanksgiving before embarking on this new adventure.  Thanksgiving was a different experience here, but a memorable one that won’t be forgotten.

First, before the actual day of Thanksgiving, I spent the week and a half leading up, talking to my classes about the american holiday.  It was a lot of fun actually as I found out that they really new either nothing or next to nothing about our important and one of my favorite days of the year.  We talked about the history, traditions, Macy’s parade, football, and of course all the food we eat.  It definitely made me miss the family a bit during this time, but that’s okay.  Next year I’ll have to double up on my mashed potatoes!

As the day approached, myself and the other auxiliares here in Baeza began to plan a Thanksgiving dinner of our own.  We knew that we could find certain things here in the stores; corn, beans, desserts (although no pumpkin pie), and mashed potatoes.  But my main concern was the turkey!  Where could we find a turkey here?  They do have deli packs of turkey in the big super market here, but I wanted to do a little better.  So I asked the mother of the boy that I tutor every night where I could find one.  Her response was (translated in english for you), “Turkey?  Oh, we have about 15 of those running around our hacienda.  Would you like one?”  At first I thought she was joking, but on the Monday before Thanksgiving I asked again and she told me that she had already made the call and one was to be killed for me on Tuesday morning, skinned and prepared so that all I had to do was stick it in the oven!  How great!  Well as you can guess, I was the hit of the party.  I got up and cooked the turkey on Saturday morning.  (We obviously didn’t have the day off on Thursday and even though I don’t work on Fridays, some of us do, so we waited until Saturday)  It wasn’t the biggest turkey but it turned out to be quite good.  I was a bit surprised at my turkey cooking skills.  But it actually wasn’t that hard.  The one problem was that we ended up having 17 people at our dinner!  Americans, Belgians, Spaniards, and Scots. The turkey was rationed, but everyone got some and I think really enjoyed it.  Along with the aforementioned food items, we had a pasta salad, a baked pasta dish with lots of cheese, lots of desserts, and enough wine and beer for everyone to enjoy.  We ate dinner and then sat around and talked in a mixture of both Spanish and English.  A couple hours later we watched Love Actually, one of my favorite Christmas time movies, and then went out on the town in Baeza for a bit.

I definitely missed my family for this holiday, but my Baezan family and I had a great time and it will be one that I won’t ever forget.  And just so you all know, I will be thinking of you during Christmas and New Year’s, but Russ and I are traveling to Rome for Christmas, then Venice, and Zagreb for New Year’s before returning back to Madrid where I will meet my friend Julia who is coming to see me for a week.  So don’t feel sorry for me as I am unable to enjoy the holiday season with you all!

Well, I must prepare for my bus/train ride to Cadiz!  More on this adventure next week.  As always its great to hear from you.  I hope you are still enjoying my stories.

Cordoba

Is this really my life?  How did this happen to me?  These are some of the questions that I keep asking myself and this last adventure was no exception.  Although, I do feel that maybe I should just stop with these questions.  Life is simply great and I am stuck with it.

My most recent adventure took me, along with my two roommates, Julie and Ellen, to the wonderful city of Cordoba.  Our trip started on Friday when we hopped on a bus here in Baeza, to make the 2 hr and 30 min ride to our destination.  It was an easy one, but a bit long for me as I was giddy with anticipation.  The reasons for this excitement are many, but most importantly were the Mezquita, the Arab Baths, and to once again see my long lost friend Russ, whom I had yet to see since parting ways back in September in Barcelona.  It is strange because of all of my best friends, Russ is the one that I have seen most recently, but being away from everyone for so long, has made these visits mean even more.  As I’m sure you can guess, I can’t wait to see my Croatian friends along with everyone and anyone that comes to visit me in the spring and summer months.

The three of us arrived in Cordoba around 8:00 pm on Friday and were met by Annelies and Russ at the bus station.  I charged him as he tried to run from my advances.  Just as I expected!  We then took the 15 minute walk from the station to the apartment of Annelies and her roommates where we would be staying for the weekend.  After saying hi and dropping off our things, we grabbed a taxi and made our way to a Mexican restaurant for dinner.  There were nine of us, so we had a very nice dinner, eating enchiladas, drinking Mexican beer and margaritas.  Although I would say that it was not as good as Mexican food in the US.  The Spanish just don’t know how to spice their food up!  But it was nice to have something different for a change.  After lingering at the table for another hour or so, we decided to walk next door and catch the midnight showing of the new Bond, Quantum of Solace.  My first experience in a Spanish movie theater was a good one.  Here all the American films are dubbed in Spanish and without subtitles.  I understood most of what was going on, but probably missed much of the humor.  Sarcasm, irony, and jokes in a foreign language are a hard thing to catch on to.  After leaving the theater, we met up with Russ’s and my new friend Paige.  She had come with Russ from Cadiz for the weekend and was hanging out with some of her friends that she knew in Cordoba.  After making it to their location, we had some drinks at a couple different bars.  Here is where I met her friends, Jorge and Fernando, two of my new best friends here in Spain.  It turns out that Tracy, another new friend, had been an auxiliar like me two years ago, met Jorge in Cordoba, fell in love, and the rest is history.  She is now living here in Spain!  Just like in the movies!  Anyways, this whole group is one that I hope to spend a lot more time with over the next several months.  They are all great friends and we have talked a lot already about return trips to Cordoba and trips together elsewhere in Spain.  I’m sure you will be hearing more about these new friends in my life.

Saturday started out with sleeping in as the night before turned into one that was quite late.  After waking up and getting some breakfast, we headed down towards the Mezquita.  For any of you who do not know what the Mezquita is, you should.  Mezquita is spanish for mosque and the Mezquita here in Cordoba is one of the great architectural treasures in the world.  Built in 785, it is in almost perfect condition even today after more than 1200 years!  It is famous for two reasons.  First the inside is composed almost entirely of pillar after pillar connected by wonderfully decorated arches.  See picture.  The second reason is the cathedral that is there today, constructed in the center and on top of the mosque itself.  The history of this plot of land begins with another church that was torn down by the Muslims before the construction of the Mezquita.  Then, in the 15th century, at the end of the Moorish reign here in the south of Spain, the Christians built the cathedral on top of the mosque as a sign of their re-conquest.  Although in my opinion, the cathedral does not even come close to the splendor that is the mosque and because of this it actually has the opposite effect.  In fact, it is said that Charles V came to Cordoba after construction had already begun and was appalled at what they were doing to such a beautiful building.  We spent over an hour walking around and inside the Mezquita and seeing everything it had to offer.  You can walk everywhere inside.  There is a museum, you can see the cathedral, and see how strangely incorporated the two religions are in this odd building.

After the Mezquita, we headed towards the Guadalquivir River, one of the longest rivers in Spain, which goes through the city.  There is a great bridge where you can walk around and enjoy a lazy afternoon.  We even went down to the banks and and spent some time enjoying the afternoon.  Done with this, we headed back towards the Mezquita and found a nice little cafe where Russ, Ellen, Julie, and I sat down to enjoy a nice afternoon snack and reenergize a bit.  Towards the end of this rest stop, Veronica, one of the girls we were staying with, met us and took us around more of the city.  We enjoyed a great walk through the Judaría and into some really nice plazas.  The Judaría is the neighborhood surrounding the Mezquita.  It is made of almost all white buildings that house apartments and houses, cafes, restaurants, and numerous small shops.  The streets are very narrow.  A great little Spanish neighborhood.  As it began to get dark, we made our way to a nearby Mercadona (spanish grocery store chain) to pick up some food for a cheaper dinner at our friends’ apartment.  We settled on some pasta, took that back with us and enjoyed a small siesta followed by a great and filling dinner.  Thanks girls!

Not wanting to waste any time on our current adventure, Russ and I headed out to meet up with our new Spanish friends.  The rest of the girls were a bit tired and decided to siesta before heading out that night.  I can’t even begin to explain how happy I am that I didn’t partake in this.  Russ and I arrived at our friends’ apartment, enjoyed a glass of wine, and then Jorge, Fernando, Tracy, Paige, Russ, and I made our way out for the night.  First however, their apartment is right on the Guadalquivir River and is an amazing place.  Not too big but very nice and spanish people are so hospitable.  They were so happy to open their doors to us.  As we headed out, they took us out to a couple spots where we could get some great pictures of the bridge over the river and the Mezquita at night.  The pictures obviously didn’t come out great, but the views were breathtaking.  After this, we made our way to my favorite night life place of the weekend.  I don’t know what the name of this bar was, but it was located on the roof of a building right on the river.  Parts of the club were indoors and parts outdoors, the drinks were amazing, the music great, and the company unbeatable.  Russ and I had a great time and I definitely hope to return to this place on my next trip to Cordoba.  When out at night in Spain, the experience is quite different than in the US.  People of all ages go out.  Everyone from those younger than me, to 60 year old men and women.  In my opinion, it really makes for a fun atmosphere and one that is hard to come by back home.  After leaving this bar, we made our way to two more that night and met up with Ellen, Julie, and our hosts.  We all had a great time as we drank and danced the night away.  Too much fun.

The next day, after not enough sleep, we rolled off of our inflatable air mattresses and headed back to the Judaría where our Arab bath awaited.  Although a little bit pricey, this is an experience that I most definitely recommend.  For 90 minutes we enjoyed maybe the most relaxing experience of our lives.  The experience is something like this:  The bath house consists of a series of different temperature baths.  A cold bath (and by cold, I mean take your breath away cold), a large warm bath which is more like a large baby pool, a hot tub, and finally a steam room that has something in the steam that smells great.  The idea is to progress from bath to bath as many times as you wish for your designated 90 minutes.  I spent most of my time in the warm bath and the steam room, but combined it makes for a great way to shock the system and relieve any tension that you might have.  During this time, you also receive a 15 minute massage when your number is called.  I felt total relaxation as I walked out the door.

Feeling that we needed some food and drinks in our system, we made the short walk to the famous Bar Santos right outside the Mezquita for some fantastic tortilla potata and salmorejo.  For those that don’t know, tortilla here is actually more similar to an omelette and salmorejo is a spanish soup from Cordoba that is based from tomatoes and bread.  Delicious.  Along with a Coke, we enjoyed our meal and then headed back towards the bridge and the river, where we crossed, made our way to the banks, and laid down in the grass for a wonderful siesta.  At least an hour later, we finally got moving again as we slowly made our way back over the bridge where we were planning to stop for Russ to pick up a sweatshirt that he had left over at Jorge and Fernando’s apartment.  Well, this turned into an afternoon stop where we were treated to a feast complete with pizza, leftovers, drinks, and conversation about all the crazy events of the weekend.  These guys really are some great guys and I hope to stay good friends with them throughout this year and long into the future.  Finally after leaving, we met up with Veronica and Annelies and made our way back to their apartment where we briefly stopped to pack up our stuff and head back to the bus station.  After saying good bye to them and Russ, we parted ways and Ellen, Julie, and I were on our way back to Baeza.

The weekend was a whirlwind and probably the best since arriving in Spain.  I really can’t put into words what I think of Cordoba, our fun there, and especially the new friends that we met.  I hope to see all of them soon and to obviously return as soon as possible.  As for my next adventure, this next week is Thanksgiving, which I will soon be writing about.  I hope you and your families are enjoying a wonderful start to the holiday season.  It will be a bit of a different one here for me, but one that I’m sure will be unforgettable.

Hasta pronto.