Un coche, dos alemanas, y esta alaskeña

Road trips have to be one of my favorite things to do on any given 3-day weekend in any country. Life here without a car actually isn't bad, but when I find out about cool, new places to visit (or want to buy groceries, or go to work, or go to Lepe city, etc) deep down I wish I had my own set of wheels. However, when my monthly expenses do not include insurance, gasolina, oil changes, repairs for that maldito transmission replacement, etc, I am glad to navegate this country by foot, friend's cars, or ever-so-thrilling public transportation.

Anywho, this weekend I found myself with two German friends, 4 wheels, and lots of great sight-seeing, hiking, and adventure, that took us from castles in the Sierra in Portugal, to waterfalls and lakes, to hiking the Flecha de El Rompido, sunsets at the beach, and more. I sure love this little rincón of Andalucía.

Salto de Lobo, Guadiana River

Mértola, Portugal, enchanting pueblo in the Valley of the Guadiana

Sunsetting over El Rompido

Good times hiking in the sand dunes..

They can't be speaking English

In spite of being sick for the past few weeks, I took my trip to Ireland to visit the one and only, Samantha Sanders, in the little city of Limerick, which can be known for the silly poems or more commonly for the ridiculous number of stabbings that happen there. The weather was chilly and rainy the whole time, but we still ventured out to see many sights in the South of the Emerald Isle. I think the highlights of this trip are best shared through pictures...

A 50€ round-trip ticket from Faro-Dublin

A visit with a good friend from home

Amazing castles

Visits with another good friend from home

Not getting hit by cars driving on the wrong side of the road

Hiking through some beautiful terrain

Charming little towns

Fall foliage in the woods

Breath-taking scenery


.

My first paletilla

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..

10 Oddities of Cartaya

This is my second year teaching in the Cartaya, a town of roughly 16,000, just 5 miles from the Atlantic Coast of Spain. Fortuately, this is also my second year commuting to work because living in there has never felt like an enticing idea. Some mornings when I have a free hour from teaching and bilingual meetings, I like to take a walk through the town or sometimes even grab a coffee and take a seat. I have to admit, the people watching is top notch in Cartaya City.
Here are some of the things I have noticed over my time there, things that would really make you go hmmm if you saw them happening in the US of A.

1. Abuelas mopping the sidewalks outside their humble abodes as a part of their morning routine
2. Being asked if I'm an immigrant from Poland who came here to pick strawberries for a living.
3. Old men decked out in their Sunday best on a Wednesday morning, sitting on a bench and arguing what year it is.

   

   Cartaya's 'Round' Plaza

4. Paying 1.50€ at any bar for the breakfast of champions: café con leche and a half toast with tomato and olive oil.
5. Castles and cathedrals older than my country are simply part of the landscape.
6. The main plaza in the town is called "Round Plaza" when it is definitely a square, or perhaps, a trapezoid.
7. It is not uncommon to hear locals blaming their bad hair day or bad weather on the economic crisis.
8. It is totally acceptable for the entire student body of the high school to skip class the days after the local fair and pilgrimage because they are hung over.
9. If you can understand the older folks of the pueblo, you can give yourself a pat on the back and bask in the glory of how well you have mastered Spanish. Or at least, the Cartayero 'dialect' of Andalú
10. How good it feels to work a second year in this white-washed pueblo of Huelva, but how equally nice it feels to take off for Ayamonte everytime that last bell chimes through the halls of the good ole IES.

La vida en la frontera

Ayamonte by night

It's been a month since I arrived back to Spain and to say the least, Ayamonte has not disappointed. I've been more active than ever (future blog might feature the amazing running and biking routes along the wetlands, river, and beach) and since it's my first year off college I have so much more motivation to study. To improve my Spanish, I am going back to high school! This year, I am sitting in on advanced math and Spanish language and literature classes with the oldest students. I'm at the high school all day anyway most days of the week, and it's a free opportunity, so why not?

On top of that I wanted to take advantage of the language school here which offers German, French, English, and Portuguese classes. Seeing my English is already pretty good, I don't want to offend the French speaking their language, and the German classes were full, I've started learning Portuguese. It is rather convenient since Portugual is just a 5 minute drive or 10 minute ferry ride from here. I already understand a lot of the language since it's so similar to Spanish, but speaking it is veryy difficult. My goal is to change that.

Las compañeras en la terraza

Above is a  picture of my roomies and me on our terrace on a typical weekday night. The lights in the background are from the Portuguese town on the other side of the Guadiana River, Vila Real San Antonio. Our house is a diverse mix of girls and I'm so glad I found them, although our girl from Kansas City dyed my hair a very chocolately color and I had to tolerate an entire day of my students voting rather they liked me better as a rubia or morena.. gotta admire the brutal honesty of the Spanish people.

Ayamonte tiene un color especial

Somehow or someway everything went over smoothly this summer and on Monday, as planned, I got on my plane in Seattle, touched down in DC to sprint to my next plane, and landed in Madrid to see the Spanish sunrise early Tuesday morning. I spent a few days with amigos in Sevilla before I made my way down to Ayamonte, my new pueblo on the border of Portugal- a pleasant change from the un-fresh airs of Huelva. I'll be spending another year working at the same high school and I have returned with ganas. It feels great to be back and I am so content with my new town, new piso, and new roommates.

The view from our terrace: Portugal, La Guadiana, and the Atlantic Ocean.
I have a good feeling about this new etapa in my Spanish vida.

Labor Day again

This weekend marks the second time I've got to have a long weekend for Labor Day in four months. Why would Spain feel the need to observe this holiday in May, while America in September? Either way I am not complaining. I have been immensely enjoying three days off of my ridiculous summer job. Nights out, shopping in Portland, floating the river in the hot sun, and more... life is good.


Oh yeah, I got a job at a frozen vegetable factory. I work 7-4 most days of the week boxing corn cobs, sorting packages, throwing bad vegetables, and meeting all kinds of new characters. When all is said and done, I'll definitely put working this job as a 'good life experience that I do not desire to repeat'. It has its positives though: I have good hours, get paid to exercise, make decent money, practice Spanish most days, and have met some bizarre people I may never forget.


But work is only so many hours of the week and there has been so many more to fill up with adventures, embracing America, and quality time with the family.There's been spontaneous road trips, baseball games, bbqs, lazy days at the lake, fireworks, bonfires, hiking, beaching, nights in, nights out at the dirty, small-town bars, the culinary amazing-ness of American pizza, Mexican food, and Chinese, fun dates, speaking English, listenin' to country, waking up at 6am to run because that's what we do in America, reuniting with old friends to find nothing has changed, seeing my family every day and knowing I will miss them so much when I leave for Spain again. You get the picture.. in spite of having all my plans for summer in Spain thrown out the window, everything has fallen together oh so nicely and maybe there is a reason I had to go home for awhile.

 

This year I did NOT miss out on the annual family pig roast. 

My visa paperwork has been all done and sent out to my consulate so now I'm just playing the waiting game. I am set to take off in a short three weeks for Spain again.. I'll admit it's almost bittersweet to see this summer come to an end, but I'm excited for one more year of international adventures.

Wouldn't it be nice...

If the extranjería called me saying the they made a mistake and I didnt have to get a new visa, and I didn't have to waste several hundred dollars and hours and hours of time on beaurocratic nonsense? I can dream...

I've been in America for 6 weeks already. 6 weeks. Half of the summer is over. With the rainy weather and whatnot, I am longing for the land of siestas, fiestas, Spanish speakin', and sunshine.

What I've been missing:
1. My amigos
2. My awesome job
3. The weather
4. La playa
5. Speaking Spanish everyday
6. Tapas y cañas
7. People looking good.
8. Meeting interesting internationals
9. Fresh markets
10. The liveliness...
11. White-washed pueblos
12. Sevilla
13. And I could keep going on...

Don't get me wrong, I am very thankful to be spending time with my family (I've barely spent more than a few days with the fam in the past years), so it's been great getting to see my cousins, aunt and uncles, and spry 84 year-old grandma everyday. I'm staying with my cousin and her husband outside of Chehalis, Washington, so far up in the woods I don't even have cell service at home. I love it.

The visa paperwork has been a challenge (mostly to my patience and creative loophole finding), but the paperwork is doing its processing thing and I'm just doing what I can in the meantime. It's really proven how much Spain means to me and I feel like it'll all be worth it once my passport with fresh visa is back in hand and I'm on my red-eye flight filled with the anticipation of seeing my friends and livin la vida española all over again.

to be continued with fotos ... I'm off to the washington coast for the afternoon, the sun is trying to come out!!

América in a new light

Last week in a matter of a few days, everything I had planned out for the summer- work, travels, etc was all thrown out the window. After various phone calls, emails, and visits with the extranjería, delagación, bilingual coordinator, embassies, and consulates, I found out Spain wasn't going to accept my application to renew my residency for next year even though I already have a work or 'study' contract. I was told I had to go home to get a new visa 5 days before my 2010-2011 residency expired.


It was Friday when I got the news, so I did what any good Americana in Spain would do and went up to Sevilla for a despedida o, es decir, hasta luego fest. I returned home Sunday morning and packed, cleaned my apartment, met with the landlady, got my deposit, and headed to Lagos, Portugal with a good friend who was visiting me at the time. I bought a ticket to fly home Wednesday and tried my best not to think about how everything I had spent months planning out was taken away. Might as well try and enjoy my sudden last few days of vacation.



Jackie in Lagos, Portugal.


I left Tuesday at midnight for the 30 hour trip. Passing through customs in NYC, the only questions asked in my half-asleep, drained of everything state: are you ok? do you speak english? STAMP-STAMP. 'Welcome home.' Got to love America.


I landed in Seattle feeling alive again and more than thrilled to see my family. During my 30 hours in transit I realized, maybe this is a good thing. I've been hit a little by reverse culture-shock, but for the most part it just feels good to be home surrounded by my family here in Washington.


Some observations after a year away:
-There's a lot of English spoken here, and I cannot speak Spanglish. I'm trying hard to speak like a normal American.
-It's freaking cold.
-Wal-mart is simply too much to handle.
-There is an entire aisle of cereal, an entire aisle of bread, an entire aisle of pickles, etc., etc.
-Coffee is weak. So. Weak.
-FRIENDLY waiters/waitresses/customer service (maybe too friendly)
-Driving takes a lot more thinking than it used to.
-And it's pretty much impossible to do anything without a car.
-There's fast food everywhere.
-People are a lot bigger.
-are the past two points linked?
-Houses are big and carpeted and COZY.
-Everyone has a smart phone now.
-Living in the woods without street noise/drunken idiots in streets at night is simply wonderful.
-The fridge is huge and has automatic ice and water. ¡de lujo!
-I thought I was cool because I didn't have 'jet lag' in spite of the nine-hour time change. 3 days later, and 2 days full of naps, I found out that is impossible.


So here I am, without a plan, fighting jet lag, working on visa paperwork, family and friends all trying to convince me to stay with them for the summer and I feel the love. But for now, I'm off to fill out more applications!

Going home?

This email could mean I'll be home this month to get a new visa. Hasta pronto America? Nothing else to say. Only in Spain.


Subject: Renovaciones de auxiliares
>
> Por fin puedo escribiros para deciros algo definitivo de esto y no son
> buenas noticias.
> Se han recibido en las Subdelegaciones del Gobierno de las diferentes
> provincias de toda Andalucía, instrucciones precisas desde el Ministerio
> para que NO SE HAGAN RENOVACIONES DE TARJETA A LOS EXTRANJEROS, en
> general, que no puedan demostrar la justificación de su permanencia por
> motivos de estudios o trabajo. Incluso en las provincias donde ya se
> habían empezado a tramitar, han sido paralizadas y denegadas.
> Nuestros auxiliares que tienen la confirmación de la renovación de su
> puesto para el curso próximo, al no tener estudios o trabajo demostrado
> desde mayo hasta octubre en nuestro país, no podrán renovar sus tarjetas.
> Es decir, se tienen marchar a EEUU y empezar a tramitar otro visado,
> porque sino, no llegarán a tiempo para Octubre. Aún así, será complicado.
> Se que ellos no lo comprenden, pero es lo que hay. Se ha intentado desde
> diferentes organismos y personas apelar a la compresnión del ministerio
> y ha sido en vano.
> Así pues, os lo digo para que lo sepáis y para que podáis decírselo
> también a ellos.
> Ana
>
> --
> Ana Mª Calatayud Tenas
> Responsable Provincial de Plurilingüismo
> Servicio de Ordenación Educativa

Las montañas

Aracena. The mountains in the far-off corner of Huelva, and unsuspecting land of the infamous Pata Negra, some of the best jamón in the world.

Tapita de jamón. Riquisimo.

View from the Castillo.

Pedro.

A wonderful excursion to kick off my one month vacation with a friend is headed back to the States way too soon.

Itinerary for the month:

Sevilla

Playas de Huelva

Portugal

Galicia

Camino de Santiago (starting in Asturias)

Soria's San Juan festival

Madrid

¡A currar! in Castilla la Mancha

Coming soon: a blog about how to become a legal immigrant.. I'm a little scared to fly seeing my tarjeta de residencia expires in 10 days and the extranjería fails at communication. I'm headed back there Monday morning to try and resolve this mess.

I hate despedidas.

This week is full of goodbyes as the year wraps up for us auxiliares de conversación, and it's left me feeling rather bittersweet. Last night was a goodbye dinner in Sevilla with friends, and today the only reason I went to work was for the 'despedida' of my lovely co-assistant and myself (even though I'll be back to Cartaya for round two in the fall). I'm looking forward to some summer adventures with my new job, travels, América, and the Camino de Santiago, but I sure am going to miss some of the great people I got to meet this year. Living abroad is such a wonderful experience, but the coming and going of people makes it so much harder.

A little gift from Rafael Reyes high school--- Cartaya city, hand-crafted by 'Rafael' himself.



I'm so glad today was just an hasta luego and not a real adiós.

Fall into place

After a long time of pondering if I'd go home or stay in the new country I call home for the summer and a good amount of worrying and debating both options, everything just sort of fell into place. During Semana Santa I found out I got a job teaching at a summer camp outside of Madrid and it was then that I realized that was what I wanted all along. I will be living and working in the monastery of Uclés teaching English to a group of Spanish niños. (And of course spending a lot of time at the pool...).



Uclés summer home(pic from Forenex)

El tiempo pasa volando.

Time really has been flying by since I moved to Punta Umbría. Sometimes I don't know how or where it goes, but between work, studying, extra private classes, beach time, and weekend outings, it goes fast. It's Sunday morning and for once, I am not suffering from 'Sunday Angst' thanks to the fact that in Spain, the whole week before Easter is a vacation. Thank you Semana Santa. A couple friends from Sevilla are coming down to spend the week with me at the beach and I'm stoked! Biking, beaching, and going out are all in works and I'm thinking about buying a blow-up pool for the roof terrace... could be some good times.

The cultural outings that come along with living in a foreign land..


Who doesn't love a good wine tasting?



Huelva Recreativo.. lower division magic!

After vacation I only have 5 weeks left at the high school and then it's summer break for me! Jackie will be visiting for two weeks and then I might be up on the Camino de Santiago hiking like a pilgrim again. Work plans are still up in the air, but I've got many possibilities of English teaching plus the back-up option of going home to see my family and friends and practice English. I am so glad I renewed my contract because I am not done with Spain yet, not even close. Hasta la próxima...

That Spring Thang

I love it...

whether it's a little carnaval adventure in the mountains


Goin' out with amigos in Sevilla



or a long walk on the beach after work.

La Costa de la Luz

Last week I finally bought something I've been meaning to buy for awhile:



Ever since I came to Huelva I noticed there are a ton of bike paths around the pueblos and the coast surrounding the city and I really wanted to get out on them and see where I ended up. Now that I live on the coast in one of the cities connected to all the those green byways, I finally dropped a few euros to buy myself my bici, and I'm glad I did.



There are path ways through pine forests (that smell amazinggg), near the coast and down to the beaches, through the wetlands where you can spot flamingos, to Huelva city, and even to Cartaya. I'm tempted to bike the 20-odd kilometers to work one of these days.. la guiri en bici!!



The weather has been beautiful today (after a good two weeks of storms), so I took advantage of not having to work and biked most of the way to El Rompido, where I ended up at a beach. There I enjoyed a little sun basking before heading towards home to get some lunch. Of course, I got a flat tire along the way and the trek was turning out to be really difficult. Not to worry! A group of Spaniards on bikes stopped saying 'ha pinchaóoo' (Andalú for you have a flat), I tell them I knew but didn't have anything with me to fix it. They did though! They pump up my tire, compliment my Spanish, ask me about my story, and even offer to ride with me home since they live in my pueblo too. I told it wasn't necessary and gave them lots of gracias's, they giggled and said thank you very much in English for some reason then headed on their own sweet way down the highway. Definitely bringing a flat kit and bombín on future outings..

Life on la Costa de la Luz is pretty great so far. I'm only 15 minutes from Huelva, but it feels like another world on the beach. I found out just last week that my renewal application was accepted for my beca, so I will be spending another year around here working at the same high school in Cartaya. Should be some good times in '11-'12.

One year

Well, six months studying in Sevilla back in 2009 and a good six months of this 2010-11 academic year makes for an entire year of my life spent in España. It's official. And I still love it.
So I hear you asking, but whyy do you love it there? And thinking about it, it's not just the fiestas, the travels, the crazy Spaniards, or the oh-so-rico jamón. Day-to-day life and being able to function and thrive in a whole nother world all by myself makes me a happy woman. I work, I study, I hang out with friends from all over the world, and just enjoy the ins and outs of living as a stranger in a strange land that has come to feel like home. The fact that I now live a few minutes walking from the beach now makes things even better.
Sometimes I think back to my arrival in Madrid as a fresh-off-the-red-eye-flight American who couldn't even structure a sentence in Spanish and didn't know a single person, and how overwhelmed and nervous I was to be in a foreign country. It's so amazing to look over the 12 months I've got to spend here, the amazing times, the people I've met, the places I've been able to travel to. I feel so damn lucky.




So, Spain, here's to twelve great months and hopefully many more to come.

La playa

I upped and moved to the beach.

Once again, I don't have internet at home and it's a beautiful thing (we'll see how long it lasts..)

The things you miss.

Every person living in another country has the things they miss, and though I rarely find myself homesick for America, I think it's finally time to make a list of things that make me nostalgic for the mother land.

-People. Friends, family, etc. Missing people and being 10 time zones away from home is definitely the worst thing about living abroad.
-Houses in America. Carpet, central heating, and yards are essentials for houses back home, yet here due to the climate they are veryy hard to find.
-DRIVING. The sweet freedom of having my own set of wheels.
-Not being a foreigner. My Northern European roots and strange accent really set me apart from the crowd.
-Being familiar with things. the etiquette for phone calls, doctor's appts, health insurance system, anything and everything. though this has improved greatly in my time here..
-American English in my everyday life. I get so much more exposure to British/broken English here. and in teaching, it's really hard to explain a dialect and grammar that are not your own.
-Movies and TV that are quality and not dubbed. And not feeling guilty for indulging in English speaking programs.
-Fareinheit, miles, pounds, dollars: I miss them and I don't. Euros are so much prettier and the metric system makes sense, it's just not what I grew up with. Whenever I'm talking about distance, money, time, or weight in Spanish I have to change languages and systems.. keeps a mind active, but sometimes I miss simplicity.
-Wearing sweats or whatever I want to the store and not being stared at.. They take what they wear here way too seriously. I love getting harassed for not wearing a scarf when it's 50 degrees or that wearing shorts or flip flops anywhere but the beach is unacceptable.
-Running in the streets without getting yelled at.
-Certain foods. Easy access to peanut butter, oatmeal, good wheat bread, endless cereal selection, good pizza, cheddar cheese, salty ketchup, non UHT milk, steak, even power bars, yummo.
-American festivities. BBQs, theme parties, apple pie, etc.


-Did I mention I miss my friends and family? Ok. that's all.

Groundhog's Day

It's 'holidays' like this that make me miss the US of A.

Spain has no idea that today, Feburary 2nd, is kind of a big deal. It's basically a joke, but I love that we all wait anxiously to see whether or not the groundhog sees his shadow and the never ending debate of rather that has anything to do with winter ending or not. From the latest facebook status updates, winter is due to end soon in America. I'm hoping and praying the same applies for Huelva- I'm getting a little tired of being so cold I can see my breath inside my house.

My groundhog's day has involved dentist round 2 and finding out that I get to experience the joys of Spanish oral surgery as early as next week! My jaw hurts something horrible these days and I can't wait to just get this over with. On a lighter note, dental office 2 did have a veryy cute assistant who comforted me through the process and I definitely will be headed back there for a few fillings once all the wisdom teeth mess is taken care of!

On a totally different note, my university interviewed me last month and wrote a fun article.. you can check it out here on their website

Cultural Experiences.. o algo así

In spite of the fact that I have lived in Spain for nearly a year now, I still find myself calling things that would be of the norm in daily life in the United States definite cultural experiences here. Trying to get internet, going to the doctor, going to the farmacia, going to work, dealing with the policia (or umm getting hit on by them as well as sleezy imigration officers, etc), going to the gym, asking old men for directions, paying bills, etc, etc, all result in experiences that make me go 'hmmm' in either a good, bad, ugly, or hilarious manner. Even after a year of Spain, I still find myself surprised by so many things, and find the language barrier with the Andalú Spanish still getting in my way of communicating with ease in every situation, though it continues getting easier as my vocabulary extends out to every new situation I have to embrace and I slowly master translating their words into the words I learned in Castellano.

Here's an artistic look at the dialect spoken in the deep south of Andalucía (I think this chaval is from Jerez de la Frontera): http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1186801052692540560#

After a long week of pressure headaches and one tooth giving me hell, I decided I had to dive in and have yet another cultural experience: el dentista. This morning, I arrived to my appointment on time (5 mins early, pure america style), checked in, then proceeded to read juicy spanish gossip magazines for a good 40 minutes while nervously awaiting my fate. I finally got my consult, explained the problem, got xrays, and then was taken to the exam room where I waited another 30 minutes staring at a big screen tv with an xray of my mouth. There anyone could see the cause of the pressure: giant wisdom teeth growing in the wrong direction. Awesome. My dentist told me last year I wouldn't have to get them out.. apparently things change. So after an excruciatingly long wait, the dentist comes in, finds a few cavities, then tells me to come back with her to the office to discuss what we should do--which doesn't even involve removing my wisdom teeth. Meh. I am going to ask around for a better dentist asap who doesn't try to convince me to get braces I don't need or root canals. Eek.

January sunshine

January is the month of the year I have never been fond of (July has always been my personal fave). Back home in Alaska/Washington State, it is 31 days of bitter cold that drag on and on, and bad things always seem to happen, from break ups, to loss of loved ones, to anything that brings complete misery to any stable white girl. New year's resolutions are usually broken by the 10th, the dark hours make it ever so hard to get out of bed, and promises of having a great Spring semester usually are never carried out until March or April rolls around and I'm able to take the snow tires off my car. One might guess I'm another SAD sufferer who could never return to the Great North of Alaska-- sorry mother land. It's crazy to think about where I might be living and what I will be doing 5 years from now; the future is wide open...

Anywho, take my vida, move it thousands of miles away from the northern US of A, and none of that seems to be a problem. Thanks to the weather in Andalucía and all kinds of good happenings lately, it is turning out to be a wonderful start to 2011. As of the 10th, I am back to work, back to online classes, always trying to fit in errands and fun in between, and loving it. I should be having some visitors from América during the next few months and I'm soo excited to spend some time with them and show them around the place I call home. Probably moreso Sevilla than Huelva. Gotta love fresh air.

I'm feeling motivated, energetic, ready to get things done, and of course, with ganas to travel some more. Goals for the Spring include Istanbul (not Constintanople), Greece or Croatia, and of course, more travels around Spain and many weekends across the border in Portugal.

Come visit me!!!

January 2, 2011. At the beach. Nearly 70 F. Lovin' it. (jamón chips)

I don't speak dutch.

I have been free from work, school and any other commitment for a good 15 days or so now, spent time in 2.5ish countries, and already I know Monday morning will be back to real Monday morning way too quickly and I'm going to have to start getting up at 7 am and remembering what day of the week, what year it is, etc, etc.
To put a long, hilarious story into a nutshell, vacation time and the fake holidays have treated me very well and brought along many good and well, interesting, adventures. I got to spend three days in Amsterdam, three days in País Vasco, 1 day on the autobus, 6 hours sleeping in Granada, and a good week or more resting up and perfecting my Northwestern American English in Huelva with an amiga from my university back home. I have slept like a princesa.

My three days spent in Amsterdam were a mix of bright lights, dutch delights, a ton of English speaking, and very freezing cold weather (yes, I have become so weak after living in Andalucía that 30 degrees Fahrenheit is basically unbearable now). We stayed in a Christian hostel in the infamous Red Light District and it was an adventure in itself sharing a room with some potential Hungarian drug dealers. Good times. The definite highlights of Amsterdam were the Heineken Experience, the Van Gogh museum, and just the prettiness of the city itself covered in snow and decorated up for Christmas with surprises around each and every corner. Due to my ultimate whiteness, many locals came up to me trying to ask me questions in Dutch, and I did not understand a word.


A hot mess of Christmas lights in Amsterdam

On Christmas morning, we woke up bright and early to head out to one of the coolest airports I've ever been to and fly back to the wonderful land of Spain, destination Bilbao. The airport was in a state of cheering up dreary Christmas passengers. There were many random happenings put on by employees there, complete with live music, acrobats, remixing of Christmas carols, and most flights heading out for on-time departures.

We arrived to a sunshiney Bilbao earlier than scheduled and were instantly impressed by the beautiful, clear Spanish spoken by the Basque people and the amazing landscape of the North of Spain. It didn't seem like Christmas one bit and I didn't mind. We spent three days in Bilbao and there is something I can't quite describe about it, but I was enamored and didn't want to leave. Our amazing "Christmas miracle" four star hotel gave us the gift of free tickets to the Guggenheim and it has to be one of the best museums I have ever been to. It is very unique and sparks so much thinking as you go through its many rooms and expositions, I would love to go back. Part of me will always want to live in the north of Spain.

Beautiful, sunshiney days in Bilbao

Today is the final holiday of Spain's crazy holiday season, and the Reyes Magos did not bring me any gifts, which means I must have been bad or slept so long that someone stole my present. Oh well, I am really glad the holiday season is officially closed until next year.