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