Year Abroad: The Puente where I went to visit Natalie and Seville

        We have another holiday.  It’s a long weekend for God only knows what, I think maybe All Saint’s day.  So essentially I don’t have work until Thursday of this week.  I should’ve had class on Wednesday but the teacher doesn’t need me.  So I bought a ticket to Seville and have been spending a few days chilling out with Natalie, my friend from Uni, and her mates here in Seville whilst exploring the beautiful city that I have dreamed of being in for years now. 

            I took the bus from Baeza at just after half four on Friday afternoon and got to Seville at half past 9.  Uhh.  Long bus journeys are not my style but they seem to be the norm here.  And at least my town is well connected with buses to all the major cities I’d want to visit, although I’m not sure I’d be willing to spend over 12 hours to get to Barcelona, might fly there.  I met a lovely old lady on the bus and had a small conversation with her.  Turns out she has a great niece who is currently on her year abroad in Ireland.  She wished me luck and then got off the bus in Andujar. 

            

               The bus continued its journey to Seville without much incidence, although in Cordoba we had to wait for ages so the driver could double check some stuff.  Cordoba is another place on my list and I can’t wait to head there for a visit.  I spent the whole journey listening to podcasts to keep myself sane, and luckily my seat was right at the front of the bus so I didn’t get queasy.  When I eventually got to Seville I was so happy to both be off that bus and to see and speak to another Scottish person in Glaswegian, no need to clear up my accent or to phrase things in different ways.  We walked to her flat which is in the Triana part of Seville and then we headed out to meet some of her friends for tapas (which is paid for here, not like in the more generous Jaen) and to see part of the city.  Walking over the bridge at night reminds me so much of the Clyde and heading to the cinema at quayside.  Also the Cathedral with La Girlada is so beautiful, both in the sunlight as well as when it is light up with lamps.  Seville is definitely somewhere where I’d want to spend a lot more time.  Might even look for a job here after Uni, I hope I’m lucky enough.

            Yesterday, Saturday, we headed out for a walk and headed to the Plaza de Espana.  This has to be one of my favourite places in the whole of Spain so far.  It is so beautiful and wonderful.  It was designed and built for the 1929 for the Ibero-American world expo fair.   It is a huge half-circle with buildings continually running around the edge accessible over the moat by numerous beautiful bridges. By the walls of the Plaza are tiled alcoves, each representing a different province of Spain, where people go to take pictures in their own region’s space.  It is currently used for government offices.  Imagine that was your view everyday going to work.  We spent a while here taking pictures and just people watching.  Afterwards we walked through the Parque de Maria Luisa and headed towards the tapas place where we were meeting some more of Natalie’s friends.  Nicola and Rachel from the first night were there along with Barry and Joe.  We spent about three hours just eating and chatting and calculating change…and then complaining when the Spanish people tried to rip us off. 

            Last night Natalie invited them all round for a lovely vegetable paella that she made from scratch.  It was so yummy.  I’m going to need to get her recipe and try to make some for myself.  Especially since I know that I wouldn’t have an anaphylactic reaction since there definitely wouldn’t be any seafood in it.  We all sat and watched Aguila Roja, a very strange Spanish show which is apparently really popular.  It is very dramatic and has the same level of violence, sex and gore that a HBO series has.  The main character is the Red Eagle and is a semi-ninja type.  He dons his mask and then protects the peoples.  We had the subtitles on but we really couldn’t follow the plot, as we kept joking and laughing the whole way through. 

            Today, Sunday, we headed to the Cathedral that houses La Giralda.  Last year we did a project at Uni about Moorish influence in the architecture of Andalucia and Natalie’s building was La Giralda.  With our student cards we got in for 2 Euros which gave us access to the Cathedral, the treasure room, the art gallery (which we didn’t go to) and to La Giralda bell tower.  The inside of the cathedral was elaborately decorated and contains many expensive altars and tombs.  The tomb of Christopher Columbus is here and inside the treasure room is all the evidence of Seville being a very important trade route with the Americas.  All the gold is from South America and must be worth an enormous sum.  I just hope Father Tom doesn’t develop a taste for solid gold communion sets. 

            One of the things we remembered about La Giralda was that it didn’t have steps going up it, rather it had ramps because horses used to go up there.  The ramps made it a lot easier to climb the 100m and 35 floors than if it had been steps.  The views from the top were well worth the climb and we had to battle with the other tourists to get to one of the many windows to look out over the city and to take photos.  It is amazing to experience all the history that these places have and to then go back out into the modern world. 

            My bus ticket is supposed to be for tomorrow afternoon but I am going to go to the bus station to see if I can change it for the bus leaving on Tuesday since I really don’t want to leave here yet and would like to walk around a bit more and get lost in the city.           

      

Year Abroad: The day in which Scotland lost to Spain...

   
     What could be worse than your national football team being beaten and knocked out of an international championship?  I'll tell you what.  Having the winners of the match be Spain, and having them win 3-1 while you are sitting at a bar with a ton of Spanish people who then take the mick out of you for the rest of the night.

     Yup, this is exactly what happened on Wednesday evening.  I mean deep down I knew it was going to be near on miraculous for Scotland to win against the world champions.  But as a Scot we hope against hope that we will overcome.  And we had beaten Spain not too long ago.  Granted that was in the much cooler climes at Hampden with a home crowd, and I for one know how tough it is to do anything in this freaking heat.  But when we got that one goal...

     At least we got one.  And there is always next time.  I'm just going to continue my mission to destabilise Spain from the inside.  I'm teaching the kids in my accent...they'll be Scottish by the time I'm done with them.  And then we'll see who wins.

 

Year Abroad - The week I joined a band/ started work/ went to a feria/ went to Jaen and was mobbed by children

So here I am.  At the end of a very busy week.  So much has happened in such a small space of time that I can’t believe I only got here less than two weeks ago. 

This week’s main things are.  1) Saw la banda de Baeza, 2) I started work at the school, 3) We went to the feria in Ubeda, 4) The training course day in Jaen and 5) We saw a flamenco concert.

Last Sunday morning we went to see a concert by the local wind band.  They seemingly only play Spanish music, either by Spanish composers or about Spain.  It took us forever to find the park where the concert was being held.  After the concert was over I went and spoke to the conductor/director about whether or not I could join.  He said yes.  Mission 1 accomplished.  Once my trumpet gets here I can go to the rehearsals and start learning some very different music than what I’m used to.

On Monday night I cooked Megan and I a meal to celebrate the start of our actual jobs here in Baeza.  Luckily I have Mondays off, but it would be better if we had the same day off at the end of the week just so that if we chose to we could travel together.  It also makes it annoying because the other assistants that we know also have Friday off, so they all party on Thursdays.   Actually it seems that every night here is a cause for going to bars and getting our free tapas, so we aren’t complaining.  So I cooked the chicken and it was going to go with some potatoes.  But…and here is the kicker, it seems that my hob doesn’t get hot enough to boil water… and I still don’t have a kettle because every time I go to buy one, the shop is shut for siesta.  So I ended up cooking them in the microwave and serving slightly hard mash.  Interesting fact learned on Monday was that Americans don’t know what “ice lolly” means.  I literally had to take one out of the freezer and show Megan before she was like “oh a Popsicle”.  The culture shock doesn’t seem to be between me and the Spaniards, more like between me and the Americans!!

Tuesday was my first day of work.  I only have two classes on a Tuesday and a “material” meeting to sort out my stuff with Gloria.  I gave my PowerPoint in English and then the kids asked hundreds of questions.  They are very good at understanding English and the first years are really keen to speak out in English, which is always a good sign.  The main questions that I was asked was “Do you have a boyfriend?” and “What is your favourite…[insert something here]?”.  This was the pattern for the rest of the week, although I have also done some dictations for the art classes and read out some sheets for my other classes.  This role seems to be as a glorified tape recorder.  Not that it bothers me, it’s what they pay me to do.  And it’s fun.  The kids can even understand my accent.     

Tuesday after school we went straight to la Feria de San Miguel in Ubeda.  Ubeda is a town about 20 minutes away from Baeza.  It shares a lot of the same history as Baeza, but is a bigger town with around 100,000 people.  So we got there and headed straight into one of the restaurant tents.  We were presented with so much food and I tried everything that I could.  My favourite things were a) something which is essentially pizza but that isn’t cooked.  It is on a piece of bread and it cold tomato sauce and cheese, b) fried bread with rice and chorizo and chicken and c) the Spanish version of black pudding on ochio bread.  They wouldn’t tell me what was in the ochio until after I had tried it and even then they were like “you’d rather not know”…once I found out that it was blood pudding I just laughed…I’m Scottish…we eat this for breakfast…  After the food we went across to the tent where there was flamenco dancing.  It was really loud but it was amazing to watch the people doing their traditional dancing, all age groups and all professions (I was there with a bunch of school teachers).  There were even some women in the traditional dresses and a little boy in his traditional clothes, little boots and a suit with a red sash.  We only stayed until around half 6 as Megan and I were falling asleep where we stood.  In the car on the way home they were asking about if Scotland had a national anthem.  So I said that we didn’t really have an official one but that there are a few that fit the bill, including “Scots wha hae” and ended up giving a rendition.  They had never heard of Rabbie Burns…not even Geni who had studied in Stirling for a year…

Thursday morning we had to get up really early in order to get the bus to Jaen, the capital of the region, which is an hour away by bus.  The bus station is about 25/30 minutes’ walk from our building.  When we got there we found Dave trying to buy a ticket with no money.  We all got tickets and then got on the bus.  The bus was nice and modern and the route was pretty.  We just talked the whole way about random things.  We had a short walk to the Corte Ingles where we were to get another bus to the teaching centre which is up in the mountains near the castle.  We saw a large group of non-Spanish people, these were our lot.  We piled onto the buses and got chatting to other assistants from around the world.  The majority were Americans, in fact in Jaen region there are 75 Americans and only 16 British people, and it is only the British who have to do this for Uni so we are all 3 or 4 years younger than all the others.  It took me a while to find an accent from my country.  The only good thing to come from the meeting was the networking and finding the other assistants near us.  They also gave us a cracking good meal, which was far too much to eat.  It started off with some tapas, olives and nuts, and then we got paella (well actually I had beans with tomatoes and cucumber as I am terribly allergic to shellfish).  At this point we were all stuffed…but they brought out the main course, chicken and potatoes, most people ended up leaving it.  And after that a desert.  We are still all adjusting to the Spanish meal times. 

After the meeting we had an hour and a half to kill before our bus to Ubeda.  We had met some other assistants, Mat and Bekah, who were also getting our bus.  So we did what any self-respecting twenty something’s would do and went to the park.  We all got to know each other a bit better and Mat even ended up staying with Dave that night and us all going for tapas at the café Nejera.  Dave gave me one of his extra bottles of olive oil.  It is actually produce of Baeza.  And I can tell you that there will still be half this bottle left by the time I’m heading home, it’s that big.  Megan and I taught Dave how to boil an egg……………this is someone who has lived at college for the past four years…..

Last night, Friday night, it was time for a flamenco concert.  We were all to meet at the fountain in the plaza central, and as usual Megan and I were the first to arrive.  So we sit on the fountain.  Bad move.  We got swamped by all of our kids.  Literally mobbed my around 40 of them.  I kept thinking that they’d push us into the water, but they had more sense than that.  We went tapas-bar hopping.  Finally it was time to go and see flamenco.  The band started at midnight and it lasted until around 1am.  They were amazing!  The band members were all from Baeza, and Megan and I had actually witnessed their rehearsal as we were walking home on Thursday.  We heard music coming from a basement and peeped in.  They sang, played the music and they even did some dancing.  A lot of these songs are very old and represent the Gitana culture in Andalucia.  The rhythms are hypnotic and the pain and experience that the lead singer expressed was an absolute joy to hear. 

Well that’s all folks…tune in next time.                         

Feel free to leave a comment, if you want.

                       

              

Year Abroad - The day I found out my timetable/went out for tapas with some awesome Spaniards and Americans

     This morning I woke up once again to the sound of cicadas and a few hours before my alarm went off.  I guess I was just a bit worried that I'd miss my meeting at the school.  As it turns out I was still 10 minutes early, I always seem to overestimate the length of time it takes to get sorted.  So there I was sitting awkwardly in the staff room waiting for Geni, the bilingual coordinator.  Everyone is really friendly and of course the Spanish are very touchy feely.  I'm still not used to it, but I shrug off my British-ness and accept it.
     So off we went to our meeting where she explained my timetable and other bits and pieces about school life.  I will be in with 1st and 2nd years most of the time as well as one 4th year class.  The classes I'm in are Art (hey, I'm awesome at colouring in!!), Citizenship (apparently this is like debates and things, and I'm guessing is a little similar to Modern Studies - but we didn't have it in our school so I'm not really sure), Science (Geni said that this was a mixture of all the natural sciences, so I'm guessing it's like what we did at that stage in our school) and the class I really wanted History/Geography (again it's mixed social subjects).  I think I'm going to hate Wednesdays as I start at 8.15 am!!!!!  Umm....


     Reyes and Geni gave me a birthday present.  A really nice necklace and bracelet, very Spanish.

     

     I met the other language assistant who is living in the flat below me.  She is from North Carolina.  We went for a walk with Reyes, one of the teachers and the other American language assistant Dave, from Colorado.  The walk was fun and we were talking for nearly the whole time in Spanish, which is a big confidence boost for me as I'm getting better at understanding the spoken word and being able to respond correctly and naturally.  As I joked before this is the longest oral exam of my life!!

      Thursday nights, from what I gather, is the night that a group of teachers and the assistants go for tapas and apparently Salsa dancing.  Megan and I spent a lot of the time talking to a bilingual music teacher from the other high school in Baeza.  I got abondigas because they are one of my favourites and the actual proper thing was so gooooood.  They melted in your mouth and were amazing.

     All in all today has been another great day in Baeza, roll on many more.

   

Year Abroad - The Journey part dos...Madrid to Baeza

    
      The post previous to this was the journey from my home to Spain's capital city.  A journey of 1613 miles, which Google maps informs me would take 7 days and 14 hours to complete - providing you take a ferry to Santander (or are Jesus) and a lot of emotional turmoil.

          This post is about my day in Madrid before heading for the train to Linares-Baeza and the subsequent drive to Baeza, some 20km away. 

          I actually managed to get some sleep on the Sunday night.  I reckon all the emotions tire you out and the fact that I’d only had a couple of hours sleep on the Saturday and a busy day coupled with some paracetamol made for a decent sleep.  The hostal was quiet and as it was a Sunday night there weren’t too many noisy people on the streets outside.  My check-out was at 12 o’clock and my train at 3.30.  There was the option of leaving your stuff with the staff so I did that and went out to enjoy a few hours in the scorching sun of Madrid. 

          I was in need of a breakfast and after wandering about for a bit found an empty café where I tried churros, essentially Spanish doughnuts which they eat with chocolate.  I’ve had churros before and the ones at this place were not great.  But I persevered.  And after that I was all set for some walking.

          I went back to el Puerto del Sol and as I was walking around looking for the damn statue of the bear I stumbled into a tourist and found Kilometre Zero – a single slab on the pavement marking the dead centre of Spain.  I sat down at one of the fountains and sat in the sun for a while.  The weather here is still absolutely amazing, so hot and not humid.  I do love it.  Then in the corner of my eye I noticed a large group of people congregating – aha!  The bear.

          After I got another tourist to take my picture here I set off once more, just wandering aimlessly down the calles.  Two men in business suits were in front of me and I followed them, seeing where they were going.  I was not disappointed.  They walked through an archway and into La Plaza Mayor.  It was so overwhelming.  Its absolutely huge, with a statue of King Phillips 3^rd in the centre and lots of bars and shops.  I went over to the tourist office to see if they had anything quick that I could do before I had to go to the station.  There was a Lion King exhibition but as it was a Monday it was shut. 

          Back to the hostal and then to the station.  I got a little lost when I reached Atocha because my train was leaving from Atocha Cercianas which is the local station attached to Atocha.  I had to go ask directions from the information centre because it wasn’t really signposted.  I was also really worried about my baggage because my ticket said you could only take two pieces of hand luggage on a RENFE train and these could only weigh 20kg in conjunction.  Well I had 3 pieces weighing close to 40kg.  But it didn’t matter to them.  They just waived me through.  I know that for some trains leaving the main Atocha train station there is a baggage check-in, so be careful not to flaunt the rules too much.  I gathered my suitcases and attempted to get down the escalators.  This feel apart when myself and my rucksack and laptop set off but my suitcase stayed where it was…luckily a Spanish man was just behind me and he brought it down…oops!  I had one more set of escalators to contend with before getting on the train but I managed that time. 

          Getting onto the train was a tad difficult because there was a gap in between the platform and the train, but once again a young Spanish man lifted my giant suitcase with ease and another man helped me to shove it into the luggage rack.  The train was nice.  Lots of legroom and big windows from which I could look out and see Castilla Leon pass me by and then we entered Andalucia.  Spain is so big, and so empty.  It’s the vastness of its plains which amazed me.  Just nothingness.  I was on edge a lot of the journey, even though I knew what time we were due to arrive.  I just wanted to be there. 

          Once I got off of the train I started to look for my landlord Antonio who was due to pick me up.  He and his wife were a little late but they made up for it in kindness.  Neither of them spoke any English, and my head was so frazzled and their accent so different that I barely managed to understand any Spanish.  So they called their son’s fiancée Lupe who translated.  We had a tour of the town and then went for some tapas.  Ochio bread – made with olive oil, tomatoes (I think) and salt is a local delicacy and is one of my new favourites.  We also had pork done in some sort of pesto and picante cucumbers.  Yummy.

          I got to go into the school and see the ancient library, but more of that in a separate post me thinks.

          I skyped home and then settled in for the night.  I was so tired.  And so relieved to finally be here. 

    

Year Abroad - Where I leave home and arrive in Madrid...

Hola bloggerinos…those who watch Supernatural should get this reference and those who don’t should watch it so that you know. 

That’s me in Spain now.  As I type I am on board a rather spacious Talgo class RENFE train to Linares-Baeza where my new landlord shall be waiting to pick me up and take me to my new home.  This post is going to focus mainly on my trip from oh so Sunny Scotland to somewhere where it’s hard to use that ironically. 

I left my house yesterday, gosh that feels so long ago, at half past five in the morning…!  I forgot that such a thing existed.  We were all emotional.  Sometimes this year abroad thing seems like a cruel and unusual punishment as I am separated from friends and family.  But of course it is a once in a lifetime experience and I am going to look back on all my misadventures with a sense of nostalgia and as Xavier says in L’auberge espagnole “It’s the bad experiences which make the best stories and over time you come to love telling them”.  The airport was hard, having to leave my family at the security check-in.  Luckily I had a lot of things to worry about.

I was really worried about the suitcase.  I was flying BA and then a connecting flight with Iberia and the weight limit was quite a generous, if you just going on holiday, 23 kg.  I had to fit the majority of my clothes and other things that I was taking into this and let’s just say it didn’t go to well.  I think in the end I re-packed three or four times.  And it was still over…at least BA aren’t Easyjet or Ryanair and they didn’t charge for the .8kg over.  It was also checked-in all the way to Madrid which meant that when I got to Heathrow I could just transfer without having to collect and re-check it in.  I had hours to wait in Heathrow which was very tedious.  Because of the weight of my hand luggage, around 16 kg, I couldn’t carry it around the terminal so I just had to sit there and wait. 

The flights themselves were nice.  On the shuttle from Glasgow to Heathrow I had seat 17F and spent most of the hour looking out of the window and at the pictures in the newspaper.  I wasn’t really in the frame of mind needed for reading or listening to stuff.  There was a spare seat next to me and myself and the wee Glasgae man shared the space putting our stuff there.  On the second flight I had seat 27F and had an entire row to myself.  Since Iberia don’t have very much legroom I just sat with my feet up!  My neck is sore from looking out the window. 

I arrived in Madrid around half 4/5 o’clock local time.  Got my bags and got my taxi.  Ended up being 40 euros…the website said it should be around 30.  But I was there.  Over half my journey was done.  I lugged my bags up to my hostal, the hostal Tijcal 2, on calle de la cruz.  It was a decent room and the location was really good.  Right in the centre of Madrid, very close to la Plaza Mayor and La Puerta del Sol.  Off for a walk I went.           

I had to go buy my ticket from Atocha train station, a place about 10 minutes walk from where I was staying.  But since I had decided to explore a little bit, it took me over an hour to get there.  In the meantime I had seen nearly every tourist attraction in the city, and now know what I want to see and do the next time I'm in Madrid...in 11 days.  Atocha train station is like a jungle, literally.  I had to wait quite a while until my number was called and I bought my ticket to Linares-Baeza.

The rest of this night was spent walking around, and then watching some TV in the hostal.  I was too exhausted to do much else.  And I still had to get to Baeza...

To be continued... 

Year Abroad: 5 - Update...One month to go

I now have less than a month before I embark on what I hope shall be the best year of my young life.
So status update:

I bought my flights a little while ago for the week before I start work to give me time to settle in and explore my new home.  As I type there has been ABSOLUTELY NO WORD from the Andalucian government about our induction training.  So it better be after I arrive, so that I have a clue about what I'm supposed to actually be doing.

I have almost sorted out a flat for myself.  I just have to send one more email saying "Si, senor.  I shall have this flat" but you know, all in Spanish.  Its a one bedroom flat which the previous assistant stayed in and recommended.  The landlord seems like such a lovely man and the rent is reasonable.  It is also right next to the supermarket, so no lugging bags miles around town....yay!
I'm so glad that I should have this sorted before I arrive so that on my first day I can just get into my home, have a shower and cry my eyes out.  Then I can go for a walk and start mi ano en el extranjero :)

We just celebrated my month-previous-to-my-actual-birthday birthday.  It was so nice of my mum to give in to my craziness, but hey.  We had a cake with a singing candle and everything.  To give me something to open on my birthday the parents got me this lovely bag to take with me.  They also got me the brand-spanking new laptop which I am currently using.  My sister got me the first two series of Horrible Histories on DVD so I shall be using them to teach my Spaniards all about the songs and how much I love it.  My saltire flag has also been ordered.  It will adorn my bedroom wall making sure everyone knows where I'm from.  Soy escocesa y me pone orgullosa.

I have also had the first proper night of hysterics where I just broke down and cried at my mum about how scared I am.  I think that has helped me a lot.  I am terrified, for no good reason other than the being a long way away from everyone I know.  But I am more excited than scared.  I can't wait to get going.  Sure it'll be hard the first wee while but soon I shall be too busy to care.  And thank goodness we live in this technological age of Skype.  My family and friends are but a mouse click away.

I think that is all for now.  

Adios for a little while.