'Taking' decisions

Over the past month I've been comtemplating a decision I really didn't want to make: to stay in Spain another year or go back to the US (and when, June, July, September?). 

After much careful thought and weighing out of the options, I see myself getting on a plane bound for the other side of the pond much sooner than I had expected.

It's looking like June 19th is the day I'll be taking off from Portugal in route for New York to visit friends for a few days, then to Seattle to see the family, and a few days later, my hometown, Sitka, Alaska. My heart wants to be in both Spain and Alaska, but seeing that by staying here I'd be breaking even every month and in Alaska I could possibly save a few thousand dollars to go back to school, logic has made the decision for me.

So, suddenly I only have 100-some days left here and well, all I can say is that they are going to be taken advantage of. I want to see and do as much as I possibly can on my little 700€ monthly budget and more importantly, spend as much time as possible with all the wonderful people I've come to know in my two years here. This time I'm getting a one-way ticket out of here and sadly, I don't know when I'll be back.

au se eu te pego do inferno

Pego do Inferno

Who knew that in the middle of these orange and lemon farms in the Portuguese algarve, you could find this:

 

The water was cold.. but that didnt hold this Alaskeña back

dos mil doce

Soooo, in case you didn't already know, 2011 is gone and 2012 is here!

To sum up 2011, I'd say it was an interesting year, full of adventures, mis-adventures, my first time being 'deported', new friends, new languages, falling in and out of love with America and Spain over and over again. It was the year that brought me to Ayamonte, and for that I am a very happy chiquilla. 

2012 is off to a beautiful start. I rang it in with some of my best friends from Sevilla here at my house in Ayamonte and the weather has been ridiculously beautiful. I'm on vacation until the 9th and want nothing more than to be here enjoying the sunshine and vida ayamontina with friends, though tomorrow I am taking a biking day-trip to Tavira, Portugal (hooray for living next-door to the Algarve!!) 

I am so excited to see what this year brings, even though coming along with it is the looming decision of what to do when the summer and fall come around: return to Washington State to finish getting edumacated and make myself a 'real' teacher or stay in Spain and keep living the good life as long as I have work. It hurts everytime I think about it. After two years here, Spain has come to be home for me.

So, I'm not making any decisions yet, just doing paperwork to keep options open on both sides of that big Atlantic pond.

Wishing my friends and random readers a happy 2012 full of good health, happiness, and adventure.

 

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


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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.