Birthday celebration...

So even though my birthday was last weekend, I still have not gotten around to writing about that three day celebration.

Thursday night I went out with my au pair friends and ended up on a date with a couple of Spanish guy friends, but I was able to ring in my 22nd year at midnight in my favorite bar, Dama Juana, with my favorite friends all around me.

Friday, my actual birthday, I worked the whole day, but for the merienda, afternoon cafe and snack time, two of my friends made me a chocolate cake with Pineapple and strawberry sauce and I blew out all but one of my 22 candles as I made my birthday wish (which I of course cannot share!!!)

It was a nice little party and I received an angel shaped candle and chocolate from my host family, homemade bracelets from the neighbor children, a balloon from my four year old girl, and two homemade key chains from my closest friend here, Melanie.

Saturday night we made a plan to go to Cadiz and spend the whole night bar and club hopping, since the first train back Sunday morning was at 8:10. We saw a couple really interesting bars to begin the night, and ended at some cool clubs in the shipping docks in the old part of the city.

Here are some pictures of the progression of that night and just silly photos of me and my au pair friends. Enjoy!



I also received a cool camera necklace from another friend and I used some birthday money from my mom to buy some new Spanish clothes, which should not be a surprise to anyone! I even received a birthday card from my Grandma that arrived on my actual birthday, much to the shock of my host family.

All in all, though I was reluctant, and still have not wrapped my head around the idea of being 22, it was a good birthday celebration!

Futbol

http://www.elmundodeportivo.es/gen/20091129/53834487386/noticia/1-0-el-barsa-gana-al-madrid-en-el-clasico.html

So I feel it is fitting, to share a little bit more about myself through this blog about futbol (soccer).

I began to notice this past week with my Spanish family here that I am feeling more and more comfortable and at ease in the house as the routine becomes more normal and less of a constant battle to understand and do well in my job as an Au Pair here.

I am also beginning to share more of my life with my host family here, which has been really amazing in how that has opened up the communication between us in general.

However, I digress. My point in sharing these updates was also to share one thing I admitted to my host family during our large midday meal together, and that was that my love for sports begins with a tie for first place with tennis and futbol.

From there we began to discuss the upcoming game in Jerez between Jerez and Barcelona. The travesty and reason why I will not be attending the game is because the futbol club of Xerex has jacked up the prices astronomically so that even the season ticket holders have to pay half price, and the cheap bad seats cost a minimum of 75 euros!

Xerex has just entered the first division this season to join the hearty and practiced clubs like Madrid, Barcelona, Malaga, and quite a few others, but I have already been told that since it is Xerex's first year in this division they don't have a prayer to win and maintain their status in this division, but back to my story...

Well those terribly priced tickets, for a Xerex game, go on sale tomorrow morning at 10 am, but the father sadly reported to me that to get tickets I would have to get in line around 4 am and then of course pay more than I make in a week!

Apparently its a big and important game, but I have trouble believing that since I spent my evening tonight at a bar watching the highly anticipated match between Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Though it was cold, the t.v. was too small to really see the game, and my toes were wet and cold, I enjoyed myself greatly, sucombing to the futbol fever and discussing my team preferences and everyone looked into each others eyes with a serious expression and asked the essential question of the night, Madrid or Barcelona?

Of course, I have been a hopeless Madrid fan for a few years, as cliche as that may be. So it pains and saddens me to report that Madrid lost to Barcelona 0-1 tonight.

I shall be reporting more on the culture of futbol here in the coming future, as I am just now becoming more involved in its culture here in Spain, and I may even be joining a mixed team of English teachers here to further my immersion in the sport that has always held my heart and soul.

Happy Thanksgiving

As we sat around the table, the same as most days, preparing to eat the big meal of the day in true Spanish style at 2pm, I began to think about what I was most thankful for in that moment.

The father had gone out to buy a roasted chicken and the mother had made mashed potatoes from a box after running to the store to buy an apple tort, as similar to an apple pie as she could find.

We sat to eat and I explained that Thanksgiving for us is a day to remember when the pilgrims came to the new land, America, and the Indians gave them food. This whole story seemed to take on a new perspective for me, being in the old world and imagining this taking place all the way across the Atlantic, what a new and interesting feeling for me!

I then explained that we must all say one thing we are truly thankful for today.

The father started by being thankful for his family, as he named each member, including me at the end as the newest member of that family. Then the mother said thanks for me coming to live with them. Pacha, surprising us all, gave thanks for the mashed potatoes, as we all burst out laughing.

To conclude the thanks I told them, with a stirring in my heart for how true it was for me, how thankful I was to be with them this Thanksgiving. That I was so fortunate to share an experience of family and thanks with my new Spanish family and for receiving all the loving attention of preparing such a special meal for me today!

After eating twice as much as I thought I possibly could, in true thanksgiving fashion, I gladly forced down a slice of "apple pie" with a smile on my face and joy in my heart of how special a thanksgiving this year was for me.

Now you are all wondering what I am talking about eating a thanksgiving meal today, because of course it is Wednesday, and therefore now I must confess that I confused the days and told them Thanksgiving was today, so today we celebrated thanksgiving, which was another blessing as tomorrow I am not eating with the family, but going to a bodega to sample local sherry with the other au pairs here in Jerez, the land of sherry.

I think it shall be the perfect balance between an American tradition and holiday, that I was able to share with my family here, and a sample of the heart of Jerez de la Frontera and the region of Andalusia, the soul of Spain, my new home for this year.

Photoshoot in Chipiona

Last Sunday I went to Chipiona, a happening beach city in the summer, but very relaxing for me and my au pair friend Melanie in the middle of November. The sun was out most of the day, and though we had a few strange spanish men staring at us through binoculars for a couple of hours, the day was both relaxing and enjoyable overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.



Maybe the best part of the day was when two nuns came strolling onto the beach and then played in the shallow water for almost an hour, enjoying themselves so much that Melanie and I had to laugh at such an uncommon site.

We ended our time in Chipiona with a photoshoot, much of which you have seen above.

To see this album and all my others of my adventures in Spain, click on the colorful link in the bottom right hand corner of the slideshow made possible by Picasa web albums and my canon powershot!

Arcos de la Frontera

Today, Thursday, I took advantage of my free afternoon by escaping the city life of Jerez for a 35 minute bus ride through the unplanted fields set upon rolling hills on my way to Arcos de la Frontera.

The Amarillo bus, that cost 1.5 euros from the bus station in Jerez, dropped me off at the base of the city set upon a cliff and overlooking a fruitful valley.

I walked up the city streets to the Plaza de Calbido and ate my lunch on the steps of an ancient castle, now a private residential area, with a wonderful view of the vally, the church of Santa Maria, the old castle, and the parador.



After I finished my lunch I was anxious to look inside the Parador as I had read about them before I even came to Spain. They are old private, expensive, and exclusive rich houses turned by the Spanish government into hotels of sorts where the Spanish love to retreat to for a relaxing and lavish weekend away.

This was one such Parador and as I wandered the halls surrounding a tranquil courtyard with beautifully designed walls filled with classic Spanish paintings.

I ended upon a balcony with a tinto (red wine) made here in Arcos, chilled perfectly to counteract the untimely heat from the unobstructed sunlight as I looked over a view that quite literally took my breath away.

To the left was the ruins of St. Peter's Church and far below at the base of the cliff wound the River Guadalete out of the mountains to the East and South East. Even way off in the distance to the South West I could see the windmills that mark the way to the Atlantic Ocean.

The wine was subtle, yet lingered on my tongue in a pleasant kind of way that gave me the sense that the wine had been crafted over multiple centuries here in an ancient city on a cliff where many of the old buildings span back to the 1600's or so. The taste was not fruity, but also not bitter enough to pucker my lips from.

Of course I am no expert in the tastes of wine, but to describe it best I would call it a relaxing pleasant wine for 3 O'clock in the afternoon on the patio of the parador with the cooling breeze blowing playfully around my face as I soaked up, maybe, the last of the autumn heat here in Arcos de la Frontera.

Finally my photos from my first trip to Cadiz, last weekend!!!

These are the photos I took on my first trip to Cadiz with another au pair named Sara. We walked around the old city first along the Atlantic Ocean and then to the Bay of Cadiz.



Cadiz has become my favorite city in Spain and that is mainly because of its breath-taking views with the perfect backdrop of the ocean and the bay.

More of Cordoba from my Nikon D90...

In case you were wondering, no I did not return to Cordoba. The reason why I am still posting pictures from that trip is that its takes me awhile to sift through the photos and put them together on a slideshow suitable for viewing on my blog.

I hope you enjoy these photos I took while wandering around Cordoba, and of the outside of the famous Mezquita turned into a Cathedral.




And if you click on the rainbow circle in the bottom right hand corner you can see these photos and more of my time in Spain in a larger size!

Par-tay in Spain

While this article that I have posted the link to here highlights the downfall of binge drinking in public places in Madrid, I can safely say that that is not the case here in Jerez!

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/spain/091106/spaniards-fight-their-rightto-par-tay

Here is my story of how I discovered public drinking in Jerez de la Frontera.

One night after coming home from going out at the normal Spanish time of around 5 in the morning, I was on the verge of passing out in my bed from exhaustion when I heard the faint sound of music coming from somewhere nearby.

The sound made me hopeful of finding a cool place to party near my house for the next weekend. I thought maybe it was a large club or some nearby concert, but as I passed into sleep I quickly forgot all about it.

The next Thursday I went out to a bar to meet up with another au pair and a Spanish girl she had met. The girl was called Blanca, a very very common name for girls here in Spain, and although she spoke some English, once she found out I can speak Spanish, she switched to the normal rapid and sometimes strange to hear Jerez Spanish.

While she was driving us home from the bar, we passed by the train tracks and she pointed out a very large group of young people hanging out by their cars in a giant empty parking lot.

Blanca explained to us that while drinking in public in Spain is illegal, at this particular location in Jerez the police allow the young people of the city to gather on the weekends to drink, listen to music, hang out and of course, drink some more without ever disturbing the social gatherers.

Naturally I realized this was a custom of Jerez that I would have to experience for myself, to write about here in my blog of course.

Well, anyways, a few more weeks passed and I tried to get the other au pairs to go there to drink, but they did not fully understand what I meant when I said it is a massive place for nothing but pre-gaming before heading to the discotechs around 2-3 in the morning.

Finally on Halloween I was able to convince the girls I was with to check it out, and so as we shared our 1 Euro bottle of pre-mixed sangria and peach alcohol (and no I don't want to comment on what we were drinking) as we walked between the rows of cars checking out the people(the boys' faces, and the girls' clothes).

So while the young people might be disbanning in Madrid from these giant public drinking parties, here in Jerez the custom is alive and well, and well thriving as 9 au pairs have joined the ranks of those flocking their every weekend for some drinking, socializing, and public fun!

Alcazar de los reyes cristianos

This slideshow runs through some photos I snapped upon my arrival to Cordoba last weekend as I visited an ancient palace in the city center.
The photos range from my view from the highest tower overlooking the famous Mezquita turned into a cathedral to the exposed ruins of an ancient Moorish bath.
Enjoy, and more photos of Cordoba and Cadiz are coming soon!

Conquering new seas

A side note before I begin this blog. I have recognized and wish to improve upon the fact that my blogs have been less frequent lately and seriously lacking in the interesting details I wish to define this blog with, so I am going to attempt over the next couple of weeks to rectify that. Please hold me accountable!

Now about today!

The original plan for today really changed almost hourly as my anticipation for me free day increased throughout the week, which was being fed by my left over excitement from Cadiz and Cordoba the weekend before. Finally we all agreed to go to the little village of Rota, where the American Air Force base is located and see some American boys in the American bar.

Naturally I was not super thrilled about this idea, but I was anxious to meet the new au pair who lives across the garden from me.

When we arrived at the bus station we were, well they were, disappointed to find out that the afternoon bus to Rota on Sundays has been canceled. It had literally been whited out from the schedule.

I quickly and enthusiastically suggested we cross the road to the train station and check the time for the next train to Cadiz. We all agreed to create a new adventure today and wing it without a guide book or map.

We bought all seven tickets to El Puerto de Santa Maria together as the train was leaving two minutes after we decided to take it, and then ran onto the train just as it began to pull out of the station. Afterwards I became aware that the conductor was kindly waiting for us to buy our tickets and board the train before he left, truly demonstrating the relaxed Spanish mentality that I am coming to hate/love here.

I am starting to see how deeply the idea of siesta penetrates the Spanish culture and life in everything here in Spain.

From the train station in El Puerto we walked 10 minutes in the general direction of the dock where a ferry will take you across the Bay of Cadiz in just 40 minutes to the city for just 4 Euros round trip (Ida y Vuelta). We had to wait 50 minutes for the next ferry so we sat at a nearby cerveceria and had a coke lite while we waited.

Meanwhile I began to get to know the new au pair, who is really short, but so nice, she reminds me of one of my really good friends from school in Texas:). She is Austrian along with the majority of the other Au Pairs, the other two being German, but her English is surprisingly good and that surprised me as I spend much of my time with the other au pairs discussing what words to use in English, how to use them and oh so often how to pronounce the slang words in a Californian way. lol.

The man selling the tickets for the ferry warned me in Spanish that the water crossing the open part of the bay would be a little rough today for maybe 10-15 minutes, which I assumed would be true, as the clouds loomed in and the wind began to build.

I stood with one other brave au pair for the majority of the journey on the second level of the boat in the front as we rocked and bounced sideways from one giant swell to another for the most exciting and scary fifteen minutes of my time here in Spain so far.

As one particularly large swell hit our boat at the precise moment that we were recovering from the previous wave the splash that resulted from the collision was so enormous both the other au pair and I caught a face full of fresh ocean mist that put an enormous smile on my face and sent me screaming with laughter and pleasure for being at sea once again in my life.

When we finally approached the city harbor and the waves began to lessen a little, I had a wonderful sensation of feeling like I was another invading nation, just having bested the seas attempts to bar me from the ancient city, and ready to make my conquest upon Cadiz and its many treasures.

Just one other au pair and I, who we both had discovered Cadiz through an afternoon of wandering its cobblestone narrow streets while breathing the fresh ocean air the Sunday before, led the group through the beautiful city to my now favorite Cathedral in Spain and to our merienda (afternoon meal time) of cafe con leche in the plaza overlooking the bright and wonderful Cathedral.

I shall not write more about this Cathedral here, but save my love writing for its own blog that shall be coming soon. I therefore end this blog by declaring my raptures for the city of Cadiz and staking my claim on its ancient soil as my favorite city in Spain and one that shall be, in the coming months, thoroughly explored and captured with my weapons of the drawing pencil and camera lens!

The setting sun over Cordoba

After driving the A-40 from Jerez de la Frontera, around Sevilla, and to Cordoba for two hours, I was dropped off, in the city by my Spanish family, for an afternoon of exploring by myself as they visited family there.

At first, and like I always do, I wanted to orient myself. So I picked up a map from the tourist center next to the Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos, and impulsively I paid 2 Euros to enter into the old palace and I climbed the tower to have my first view of the uber famous Moorish Mosque turned Christian Cathedral.

Sadly I was not drawn in by the magic of the place, or at least not at first. I even brought my Nikon D-90 for its first trip in Spain and could not get inspired even in my pictures of Cordoba.

I wandered the compact winding streets and still I could not understand the "magic" of Cordoba.

So I did what I do best, I went shopping. I found a cute purple blouse/dress for 10 Euros from H&M and I tried on many more crazy and super cute dresses to pass the time.

After buying some wheat bread for .70 cents and having a cafe con leche a little later I felt much better and ready to give Cordoba another chance to inspire and enchant me.

By then it was 17:30 and the lighting was beginning to greatly improve for my photos, which of course made me instantly like the city more. I guess you could say I began to see it in a new light! (Sorry I set that up for a perfect pun and had to throw it in there, I dedicate my first pun in this blog to Jessica Davis)

Finally, as the sun was setting and I crossed the Guadalquivir River on an ancient Roman Bridge, I began to fall in love with the city.

I had read that much of the interest in Cordoba today is knowing the significant history the city holds, but that the best time to see the city is at nightfall. And so it captured my heart too as the sun set over the river and I looked back into the city once again.

Also of interest in the shopping in Cordoba, I made a couple of touristic purchases. I bought small silver hoops from a typical silver jewelry shop for 3 Euros and a hand crafted and painted ceramic bowl to decorate my room in Jerez that was actually made in Cordoba for 5 Euros at an Andalucian ceramics exposition across from the Cathedral.

So even though I did not instantly fall in love with Cordoba like I did with Sevilla last weekend and Cadiz yesterday(more blogs on that soon), I am glad I gave the city a second chance and that I was able, in the end, to capture some of its magic and bring a little bit of it home with me too!

Puerto Real and Halloween...

Yesterday was Halloween, and even though it is not a Spanish holiday, it is becoming quite popular with witches and devils running the streets of Jerez all night long. But my Halloween adventure really started much earlier than the night.

I worked, as was normal, until 13:30 and then ran up to my room to change into my purple bathing suit and head to the beach, since the weather was scorching and even though it was practically November, people in Spain are still flocking to the beaches, amazed themselves at how late the heat has stayed this year.

I met another au pair in the city center and we walked to the train station. Now I now I have said this a million times already, but on the weekends in Spain, you really just never know when the public transportation will be going, or how long you will be waiting at the different stops along the way to your destination.

A great example of this was my trip to the beach yesterday where it took me, through a couple of mishaps, three hours to get to a beach that is normally 10-15 minutes by car away from Jerez.

Instead of taking a cercania (close) train that stops at the beach we wanted we accidentally took a mediadistancia (mid-distance) train headed for Cadiz, not knowing it did not stop where we wanted to go. By the time we passed our stop and asked the attendant where to get off we were two stops passed where we wanted to be, in Puerto Real.

Now I have never been through Puerto Real before so I cannot vouch for its attraction as a nice place to visit that is close to Jerez, but I must confess that after spending over an hour in the unseasonal Spanish sun at the tiny train station waiting for a train to take as back to where we wanted to go, I am not partial to the city!

The good news is that on Saturdays everything is more relaxed in Spain, so no one checked our tickets and we hopped on and off the train without having to pay more for our little detour.

We made it to the beach an hour before sunset and were able to kiss the cheeks of our friends we were meeting just before they had to head back to Jerez to work, and then we witnessed a beautiful enormous Spanish sunset over the Bay of Cadiz with the city itself set against the vibrant colors.

The sky here in Spain just seems larger than most of the other places I have visited in the world, although I really cannot explain why, and being right at sea level it stretched even a little further than normal as the almost full moon rose on the darkening east and of course the sun to the west.

So after a stressful and frustrating day of running and waiting, I, without intending to, was able to relax and take in the sounds of the beach and fully appreciate that I am living in Spain and that I am so blessed as to be able to enjoy so much beauty so often here.

Well after a small dinner of a ham and cheese sandwich and cafe con leche at a local bar, we headed home and prepared for a long and interesting night of Halloween in Jerez with the promise of all the young people coming home from the university for the weekend.

Though I could probably write another blog altogether about our adventures that night, I will summarize it by saying I wore my zebra print dress and painted part of my face to match it and headed out with a bottle of spiked sangria to enjoy the town and with a vow to not pay for another drink that night.

We succeeded with our promise and I made it home just before the sun rose, completely my odd day that started in the play room with the baby, passed through Puerto Real, and ended with me using a baby wipe, or two, to wipe a zebra design off my face.

I might just have to call it my strangest and best Halloween yet!