Come EGGain?

Jan 6, 2009

Today I got egged. Not once, not twice, but three times. Yup. Egged. I can honestly say that this is one of those things that I know happen to people but I just assumed (and hoped!) I would never experience. But, indeed it did.. I still can’t believe it.

Today is the day of Kings in Spain which is when they give presents, some give a few presents on the 25th now due to cultural influence but traditionally it is done here on the 6th. Today is a religious day. Families are together, people go on walks and hang out with their friends, more or less like our Christmas day.

The weather was pretty nice so my roommate and I decided to go sit out and read on the beach. There is an elevated area with benches near the beach that a lot of kids sit on and I had noticed that there was a huge group of young guys sitting there...they were probably 15-16ish. I could see them looking at us which I’m now quite used to since I’m pretty much the only redhead in town but I’ve had young guys come up to us on the beach and harass us before so I was a little leery. A few minutes later something hit us, at first I thought it was sand but upon closer inspection, I realized we were getting pegged with eggs from about 15 guys, in the middle of the afternoon, in front of everyone out with their families on the boardwalk, on El dia de los Reyes Magos. 

The first time it happened I thought it was hilarious and just about died laughing since never in my life did I think I would be able to say that I actually got egged, and my roommate and I were pretty stunned but decided to keep on reading to A) make a statement and B) enjoy the nice weather since we had been cooped up in the apartment due to rain. A few egg stains never killed anyone. 

But then they came back. With more eggs than before. This time not quite as hilarious since 15 high school guys with an unlimited egg supply can be a little freaky and very messy. I did find one egg that hadn’t broken and gave it to Mirna since my aim is terrible and I was kinda shaky..she did manage to hit the ring leader, one tiny piece of dignity restored! 

So we packed up and headed back to the boardwalk with as much pride as we could muster up, and they continued pelting us with eggs...thankfully you can dodge eggs pretty easily so it was just annoying at this point. Also a bit embarrassing since this was clearly causing a scene and it seemed like everyone in Barbate was out with their families. Some older people were nice enough to comfort us and call the police while we tried to quickly dodge the scene and get home and wash our clothes.

We didn’t recognize any of the guys and they most likely wouldn't be any of our students since they seemed a little older. So we don’t know if they went after us because we were 2 girls alone on the beach and easy prey, or if they knew who we were and wanted to torment the foreigners. Who knows?

Either way, it gives me a priceless memory and comic story...teenage boys will be teenage boys I suppose.

The day that I got egged...ohhh man. Just another day in Barbate. ;) 

New Year New Beginning

Happy New Year!

The last weeks before my family came to visit were getting pretty rough and I was finding myself in a place I truly didn’t want to be in. So the 2 weeks in Malaga traveling with family were therapeutic and allowed me to re-evaluate my time in Spain and make a plan to improve the situation. 

I fell in love with Malaga while I was traveling around with the fam and am going to plan a time to go back and visit to spend more time there and feel it out some more. Malaga has a beautiful center of town, is near the beach (the med!), and has 2 vegetarian restaurants! Mainly Spaniards live there and there are few English speaking tourists but in the 3 towns nearby do have a good population of English speaking tourists for the times you need to be around the native language. 

My Mom and Mike and I had a wonderful trip and did a lot of traveling as well as a lot of chilling out, something that was desperately needed. Our hotel also had some English channels on TV which meant a fun surprise for me, American movies...in ENGLISH!!!

We also visited Cordoba, Granada, Sevilla, and Gibraltar. In Gibraltar we traveled up to the top of the “Rock” and went into an incredible cave and then took a tour of the WWII tunnels that were occupied by the British military who actually lived in the Rock for about 3 years. No map has ever been made of the tunnels so that no one will know their exact locations. We learned that the American military used these tunnels to practice when they were preparing to go search for Bin Laden. 

There are also 300 monkeys living in Gibraltar and we got up close and personal with them as our driver had one jump on me without telling me first, after he had just told the tour group not to touch or feed them because they bite. So I was not too pleased with the surprise but gave the monkeys a second chance for a photo. 

Coming back to Barbate was a bit of a struggle as I was already missing having my family with me but I tried to be positive and optimistic. The evening I got back was a Saturday night and I had planned on going out with my roommate Mirna. She was not feeling well though so she gave me Mario’s number, one of the guys I had met before I had left. So I went out with him and his friend to a bar that a bunch of their friends had rented out for the holidays. I was able to make some new friends and get a lot of Spanish practice in and actually stayed out late and had a great time! I also befriended a guy that I had seen at the gym and am working on making him my new Spanish friend! :)

Fishy Business

October 10, 2008

After school on my third day of classes I went to the open market to see about getting some seafood for lunch. The market was full of women stocking up on lunch and dinner items and little stands with fresh fruits and veggies. There were also stands with the fresh catch of the day and I walked from stand to stand searching for what I imagined uncooked calamari to look like. I couldn’t easily identify any so I asked one of the vendors if they calamari. He pointed out something that looked more like a whole fish but I was clueless so I bought one and took it home for my first cooking attempt. 

It did not go well. I hadn’t looked closely at the calamari, or whole squid at this point, and hadn’t realized that the head was still in tact and I swear it was an alien, with its beady little eyes glaring at me. After freaking out a little I chopped it off quickly and hid it where it wouldn't be staring me down as I cut up the rest of it. As I was quickly trying to make it into what it looked like when I ordered it at restaurants I cut into the ink and it exploded all over the counter and freaked me out even more. If I hadn’t paid so much for the one calamari I would have thrown it away, but I was cheap and determined. I had to clean out the rest of the ink and and put out some other gross stuff that I didn’t want to identify. It was becoming very clear to me why I had become a vegetarian in the first place and I screamed “EWWWWWW” and “ICK ICK ICK ICK” the entire time until I got the 5 sad little pieces into the frying pan. 

They actually came out pretty tasty, but I will not be repeating this experience any time soon. I described what had happened to Mirna later and she promised that she would be the official fish cooker from now on. 

Our stove also has a personality all its own. You have to turn on the gas manually on our patio to get the hot water and to turn the stove on. Then you have to take a match to the burner once the gas is turned on to get the flames going. It was a little scary at first since I was not sure how close to get the match to the burner before it would light. One of the burners however, is supercharged and if you turn it on while one of the other burners is already lit, the flame will jump to it, and it will light by itself. Also, every once in a while, when you go to light it, you will find yourself engulfed in flames for a split second. A little unsettling. 

Hiking in the Park

After classes today Mirna and I hiked up one of the trails in the park in our town and it was amazing. It took us up to these cliffs and an old ruin. The pictures don't even do it justice. The view from the top was spectacular. While we were hiking up we kept seeing horse hoof prints which I was excited about because I am interested in riding here. When we got to the top we found the horses and were invited for a drink of Manzanilla Wine, which is like a sherry wine, by the "society" a group of older friends who went riding together. They were wonderful and one couple in the group was from Belgium but had a place in Spain and spoke wonderful Spanish. 

First Day Teaching

Monday was my first day at school and I went without Mirna the other American teacher since she went to Cadiz to get some paperwork taken care of. I was glad though because it put me on the spot to practice my Spanish. Everyone in the school was so incredibly nice and their English was much better than I had expected.

I was only going to work with two teachers but after talking with the PE teacher about teaching aerobics and telling the music teacher that I wanted to learn guitar they switched my schedule so that I work with both of them as well and I also have Friday’s off! Which will be good for traveling.

The kids are adorable. Mirna chose to work with the older (7+) children so I work with the little ones (3+). We pretty much just sing good morning songs and play with puppets and color. With the older ones its the same thing. They are learning school things (pencil, eraser-they call it a rubber, desk, chair). The three year olds are my fav because they are quieter and are super cute. The older kids scream at me from all directions to help them, look at their coloring etc. Maestra!!! Teacher!!! Alejandra!!! They are fun though and are so excited to learn English. We also play games like Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar, and I Spy. 

One of the little 3 year old girls just walked around the room saying Mama for the entire 1/2 an hour. It was cute but I didn’t really know what to do when she just stood in front of me repeating that. 

After the second day the teachers that I work with invited Mirna and me out for a beer after classes. It was fun to get to know them outside of the classroom and practice Spanish while they practiced their English a little as well. 

Tomorrow one of the administrators is taking us to get bank accounts and I have my first music class! 

I also watched some TV during lunch yesterday and Sweet Valley High was on...in Spanish...awesome. 

That night when I went grocery shopping I ran into one of my little girls from school and she and her sister followed us around the grocery store talking non-stop...it was kinda cute...even though I had no idea what they were talking about.

Sunny Sunday

Today we went topless on the beach! It was great but for some reason we were the only topless ones. Hmmm.... Mohawk showed up and stood a short distance away and just stared at us for a good hour and a half. We also found out that he likes Sarah, lucky girl! 

I walked around town got a feel for my new little pueblo. It’s very cute and there are lots of surf shops and little boutiques that seem to have some potential. A lot of the buildings are white which almost make it look like a pueblo blanco from some spots. I also located the park that has some running trails I want to check out and which also is the location of the fully nude beach. 

While I was walking (and dodging piles of dog crap which are everywhere since people don’t clean up after their dogs) I saw a man go by on a scooter with his dog on the scooter with him! I couldn’t believe it, one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen.

I start school tomorrow! Mirna is not coming with me since she is going to get her residency card so I will be all alone with my shaky Spanish! Yikes!

Life in Barbate

October 5, 2008

Yesterday Sarah went to look for an apartment while Mirna and I went to pay the landlady and sign the contract. Our landlady was very sweet but spoke so fast that I had a difficult time understanding much of what was going on. As we were leaving she asked my my name again and I said Alejandra, which I want to use here because Spaniards always tell me that Alex is a boys name here, and Alejandra sounds way better when they say it in Spanish. I then thought that she responded with, “Oh you speak a little Spanish!” so I replied, “un poquito” then quickly realized that she had said that I had a Spanish name, which I had replied “a little” to. Oh well. Leanne told us that she once asked for a “bocadillo de polla con queso.” Wanting a chicken sandwich with cheese, she actually asked for a dick sandwich. With cheese. Gotta love awkward miscommunication. 

We then went out for tapas with the other girls and got a new drink called a “tinto de verano” which is similar to sangria. I then gave up on the no fish rule of my diet and had some of the most amazing calamari of my life. When in Rome! And it’s just so fresh here. I also don’t feel that bad because I need protein and I can’t get a lot of the things that I ate in the US to get it. 

That night Sarah and I got ready and went to the other girls apartment and  when we arrived there was a guy there that one of the girls had become friend with the night before. His name was Ramon, and none of us could understand a word he said. I swear it wasn’t Spanish. He had shown up to “pick up his jacket” which he had left there that morning and then apparently proceeded to make himself comfortable and invited his friends over.  We dubbed one of his friends “mohawk guy” for obvious reasons. Now I had not seen any of these people the night before so I had no idea what to expect. Well mohawk showed up with another friend, Baldy (don’t know his name either). So Sarah and I are meeting these people and there really aren’t even words that can fully capture these people. Ramon is a truly a nice guy, as far as I can tell, he just didn’t finish school and maybe that is why his Spanish was...unique. Oh, Mohawk also had no front teeth...like not just the front 2, at least 4-6 were missing and he's only 21. I've never appreciated oral hygiene more. And Baldy didn’t speak one word to me the entire time but stared like it was his job. The best way to sum up this experience is a quote by Sarah, “If I wanted to hang out with carnies from Wisconsin I would have...” People in Sevilla described some of the people from Barbate as Spanish rednecks, I can only assume these were the type of people they meant. 

  Sarah and I went down to the boardwalk after a bit and stumbled upon the cutest little cafe that was very bohemian with some extremely sexy waiters. We hung out there for a little then met up with the girls at another bar before we headed to The Botellon aka, The Fast and the Furious: Spanish Style. Everyone and their brother drives down to the river to drink, smoke etc with their tricked out hatchbacks and ridic stereos thumping. It was the most insane thing I’ve ever seen. It was mainly guys and we met a lot of people, I had the same limited convo with about 8 different people that I was really not interested in talking to. I’m all about practicing Spanish but not with ppl that are sketching me out. We hung out for a while with some guys at the very farthest end of the Botellon. I was also getting semi annoyed by  one guy holding a hooka who felt it was necessary to keep blowing hooka smoke in my face.  Maybe this was flirting? No me gusta. 

We then went to a club where we found out there was a 5 Euro cover so we were about to walk away when the bouncer grabbed us and let us in for free. We headed to the bar to look around and another bouncer hooked us up with free shots that were like carmel (yum!). I was happy about the sweet deals we were getting but the place was not having a great night. It might have been fun had there been more than 15 ppl there, I mean there was a DJ and everything! Sarah did ask the female bartender about locating a roommate and the bartender was actually interested, so it ended up being a good thing we went there. They also ended up living together!