It's already been 2 months!?!

Yesterday marked 2 months in Spain for me! Hard to believe. My understanding of Spanish has improved by leaps and bounds! My speaking has also improved, but not as much...though Tomás told me yesterday that my Spanish is exagerao de mejor (wayyy better) than it was 2 months ago. It really has started to hit me, how cool it is that I can really hold my own in most conversations. I don't have to be talked to like an idiot anymore and I usually even feel confident enough to try to chime in when the roomies are debating something (though with Tomás, you can never win). Along with this, I've also developed quite the ability to completely shut off my brain and still look like I'm engaged in the conversation hahahah. Sometimes this gets the best of me and I end up looking like a huge dumbass since I look like I'm listening and then when someone asks me something I have no idea what they've been talking about. So far, I'm really liking it here and pretty much every day I think about how lucky I am not only to have this experience, but to have been placed in such a great city, with such great people, and with Jose, his family, and Paco & Maricruz (my host family from Málaga) so close. I'm still not sure what I did to deserve all this luck, but no complaints here!

This past week was a busy one for me! Halloween was Sunday, we had a holiday on Monday (Día de todos los santos--All Saints Day) so I didn't have to work, Wednesday I started teaching my private English classes with María del Mar's kids, Marina and Alberto, Thursday I went to the Unicaja Almería game, and for the weekend I went to Málaga!

Halloween was pretty uneventful. I went to Lourdes and Jose's house on Sunday night to watch a scary movie and have dinner. We watched REC, which is like a combination of a zombie movie and The Blair Witch Project, but in Spanish. It was hard to understand at first because of all the screaming and whatnot that was happening, but by the end, I pretty much got the gist of it. I'd say it was no better than ok. We ate a bunch of pizza and drank some calimocho, a concoction which, Endika proudly told me, is from País Vasco and is a mixture of red wine and coke (Audra, you should try this since I know how much you love red wine...it's surprisingly good).

After that, Jose kidnapped me and we came back to my apartment for botellón with the usual crew (Martín, Tomás, Endika, Juanmi, Fran, Cheti). I was feeling pretty tired, so I took it easy, went out with them for a little bit, and then when we ran into Lourdes, Luis, Alberto, and Juan again (they were all painted up scary and/or had masks on), I decided to leave with them instead of staying out.

To compare Halloweens, I'd say that here, everyone is more about dressing up scary rather than funny or skanky. Most people have blood painted somewhere on their bodies and are typically zombie-looking. They do have a holiday for dressing up in funny costumes which they call Carnaval (I'm assuming this is in the spring and is probably similar to Carnaval in Brazil?). As for trick-or-treating, that doesn't really happen here. The kids at school did some trick-or-treating around Rioja for their Halloween party, but I think that was just to simulate an American Halloween celebration. Here are a few Halloween pictures...

Typical Spanish Halloween--(L to R) Alberto, Alex, Lourdes (Lulu), Luis, Juan, Mari, and Pico (Luis' brother)

Me, Alberto, Lulu, and Luis

Me, Jose, and Sarda...he got white paint all over EVERYTHING that he touched

Juanmi stole some girl's bug costume long enough to pose for a picture hahahah

On Wednesday, I started my private English classes with Alberto (11) and Marina (9), the second grade teacher, María del Mar's kids. Judging from the first class with each of them, they're really bright kids. Their mom is from Spain and their dad from Italy (they were born in Italy), so they already speak fluent Spanish and Italian (not fair!). Alberto's been studying English for a while and he knows more than Marina who has been taking French up until now. I'll be working with Alberto 2 hours a week and with Marina only 1 hour a week.

Since starting these lessons, I have realized that lesson plans are a lot harder than I thought...especially having no background in teaching and not knowing what my students have and have not already learned. But anyway, I'm sure I'll get better at this as time goes on.

I went back yesterday for my second class with Alberto, and María del Mar had already found me another client...her sister. Her sister is starting an English class and knows basically nothing, so she too wants lessons. On Tuesday's when I only have 1 hour with Alberto, I'm just going to stay there an hour longer and work with María del Mar's sister too. And the best part is, after the class, she's going to give me a ride back to the piso so I don't have to spend 25-30 minutes walking back! I'll write more about my classes later as I have more sessions and get a better idea of what exactly is going on.

On Thursday, I heard back from David Smith, the American on the men’s professional volleyball team, Unicaja Almería! He sent me a message telling me that they had a home game and that if I wanted, he could get me a free ticket to sit with his wife, Kelli. Of course, I said yes, and at 8:15 that night, I met his wife outside of the Pavillion. She was with another American guy named Chris who had met David and Greg, another American who is in the process of signing with Unicaja, on the beach while they were throwing around a football. 

It was a funny situation because none of us knew each other but we were all sitting together at the volleyball game and I ended up finding out some cool stuff about them. Chris, who is from Minnesota, is also in Almería teaching English. He works in a little town on the coast called Aguadulce and he also teaches classes in an academy in Almería. When Kelli brought up the fact that I played volleyball and she ran cross country, I found out that Chris had played football and hockey in college at a D-3 school in Minnesota. When I asked him where, he told me St. Scholastica, which strangely enough, is a school that I remembered Ben’s team had played. Chris graduated in 2009, so he and Ben probably played against each other. I love small world stories like that!

Anyway, Unicaja ended up winning the match. They lost the first game and then came back to win the last 3, so the three of us had plenty of time to talk and whatnot. Kelli got both Chris and me VIP wristbands to sit with her and afterwards, we got to go upstairs and eat some food and meet some of the players. It was BADASS. I was so impressed and so excited that I got such a cool opportunity basically just for being American haha. The sad news is that I was in a rush to leave the house to meet Kelli at 8:15 and I ended up leaving my camera at home, so I didn’t get any pictures  :(  The next time I go, which hopefully will be this coming weekend, I’ll be sure to bring it so I can get some pictures for the blog. Kelli said they can pretty much get me a free ticket whenever I want, so hopefully I’ll be able to go to all or at least most of the home games.

As far as Kelli and David, as Ashley would say, they’re a super-couple. Kelli is a little-bitty, 5’3”, petite, blonde girl who ran cross country and track at UC-Irvine. I believe she said she’s 27. David, on the other hand, is 25 and stands at an impressive height of 6’7”. He played volleyball at UC-Irvine where he won a D-1 national championship and was named a 1^st team All-American. He currently plays for the US national team and according to Kelli, he’s considered to be one of the top 5 middle blockers in the US. He’ll be in contention for a spot on the next US Olympic team for sure.

Since graduating, David has played internationally in several different places including Germany, Puerto Rico, and now Spain. The funny thing is that before playing in Puerto Rico, neither of them knew a word of Spanish. Kelli took one Spanish class and I’m not sure about David, but from what I gathered from Kelli, they both still know next to nothing haha. I’d imagine It’s pretty hard playing on a team where you don’t speak the same language as the rest of the players, but somehow he’s managing to do quite well for himself. I know that one of the coaches speaks OK English and I think some of the players understand and speak a little English but for the most part, there seems to be a pretty big language barrier.

Another funny coincidence is that David is legally deaf and wears 2 hearing aids! YAYYY for hearing impaired people like me haha! It’s funny to watch him play because sometimes when there’s a crazy play and people are out of position, he’ll sometimes take the second ball because he’s  there and he can’t hear anyone calling him off. But I mean, he’s skilled enough that he can do pretty much whatever he wants with no problem.

Kelli and David live only about 10 minutes from me and Kelli goes to the same gym as me, so we’ve decided that we’re going to start going together so that we can get stared at TOGETHER for being the only 2 athletic girls in the gym hahaha. It doesn’t help that in addition to being athletic, which is a rare thing for girls here, we both look pretty darn American, so we definitely stick out like sore thumbs at the gym. Chris, who’s just about as white blonde as they come, said he pretty much gets stared at 24/7 because he very obviously isn’t from here.

Greg, the other American who is going to sign with Unicaja, is from Buffalo, New York. He’s probably about 6’7” as well, plays right-side, and is sooo goofy. His Spanish is pretty brutal too, but he is not embarrassed to try speaking with the other guys in Spanish. He reminds me of Tomás in that pretty much everything that comes out of his mouth, I find hilarious haha. Right now he doesn’t have a place to stay so he’s been bumming at Kelli and David’s place and is about to start “couch-surfing” until he finds one hahahah! If you don’t know what that is, check out THESE LINKS. Very interesting idea and it looks like it works pretty well. I might try this out when I start doing some more traveling haha.

After the game on Thursday, I decided to stay in so I could get up early since I was planning to head to Málaga on Friday. I got some much-needed sleep (slept til 11) before getting up to run errands. I don’t think I remembered to write about the last time I went to the bank, so I’ll do a double update now…

I had finally picked up my debit card 2 Fridays ago and I was so excited to finally be able to withdraw money from a cajero automático, or ATM, whenever I needed to. However, when I went to pick it up, the guy activated it for me and I was all excited. Before I left, I asked him, so I can go take out money from the ATM now right? And he tells me, no you still don't have a PIN number. You'll have to come back in 2 weeks to get it. Whatttt is that about? Why would you ever issue anyone a debit card without a PIN? What can you use a debit card for if you don't have a PIN number? And why can I not choose my own? Just another thing to add to the list of things I don't get about the way things work in this country.

So anyway, I went back this past Friday to finally get my PIN and the dude tells me it's not there yet. He starts piddling around on the computer and eventually comes to the conclusion that my PIN won't come until they have my NIE! I know what my NIE is now, but I still have to wait 2 more weeks before I can pick up my actual residence card with the NIE printed on it. I gave them my number since I knew what it was, so we'll see what they end up doing. I'm willing to wager I won't have a PIN for another 2 weeks after I bring them my residence card.

But anyway, after the bank, I went to the gym, came back home, ate, and then left for Málaga by bus at 5:30. I didn't realize that the only direct (3 hour) route to Málaga was the bus that left at 3:30, so it ended up taking me nearly 5 hours to get there since we had to stop in probably at least 7 or 8 little towns along the way. Before it got dark (which it does really early now since the time change...6:30ish), I managed to get some sweet sunset pictures from the bus.

When I got there, I showered, we went to eat dinner, and then we went out. It was fun, but Málaga is definitely a more expensive place to go out than Almería...especially when you don't have a friend that owns his own bar (2 summers ago, our friend Edgar owned a bar in Málaga called Big Band, so we never had to pay much there). We stayed out til around 5ish--Jose wanted to moverse su eskeleto (literally: move his skeleton, actually: dance) while Juane (his roommate) and I didn't haha. The next day we just relaxed and did a whole lot of nothing. It was nice to get a break from all the crazies that inhabit my piso during the weekend! I definitely needed to recharge my batteries and Málaga was just the place to do it. We went to get milkshakes in the afternoon, then came back and watched an illegally downloaded version of Inception that night. I had not seen it before and I was VERY impressed...interesting idea and very well executed.

The next day, I packed my things and left Jose's around 12:30 to go to Paco and MªCruz's house. It was awesome to see them, as usual. We just sat around for a little while, talked about how things are going for me here in Almería, how they like their new students (2 American girls and 1 Danish girl), etc. Hana, you'll be saddened to know that Paco seemed almost as obsessed with these girls as he was with us :( Ok maybe not quite as much, but he did brag on them quite a bit. Lindsay, in particular, got a lot of praise. She is "una chica FANTASTICA" according to Paco. She got props for always having a smile on her face, loving to try new foods (minus point for you, Hana), never leaving "ni un lágrima de agua" (not even a drop of water) in the bathroom (didn't know that was an issue...ooops haha more minus points for us), and probably some more stuff that I forgot. But what they can't compete with is your CULO! You'll always have that edge on everyone hahahaha. Speaking of which, I have a surprise for you, Hana...miraaa

Hana y la luna! a masterpiece by Paco himself...BAHAHAH it now hangs on the wall in our room in your honor

New furniture in our old room! And a wall-mounted TV!

The sign in the bathroom written in the very, very, very broken English of Paco & Maricruz haha

 And finally, the sign in our bedroom which we forgot to take a picture of. The bottom one has 4 rules. They read something like this...

1. PLEASE SHOWER SHORT (5 TO 10 M) BECAUSE WATER IS A SCARCE
2. FROM LAS 22:00 NO HOT WATER
3. 14:30 LUNCH HOURS
    21:00 DINNER HOURS
4. INTERNET HOURS 9AM TO 12 MIDNIGHT. DOWNLOAD THE MOVIES AND FORBIDDEN BY INTERNET (I am virtually certain than Hana and I inspired this rule because it definitely wasn't on the list when we were there HAHAHAH)
5. THANK YOU AND HOPE YOU FIND YOUR HOME IN AS.

After, I chatted with them, as usual, they fed me lunch! Paco made a delicious salad with shrimp and some other sort of worm-like fish with a vinaigrette type dressing, and Maricruz fried some fish and an egg for me. For dessert, we had delicious brownie-like cakes with warm chocolate syrup...it was like a mini version of the molten or whatever it's called at Chili's. You'd think I'd know what it's called after how many times we went to Chili's on volleyball trips hahaha--I guess it's because I never looked at the menu since I had it memorized...or maybe because we always got Chili's To-Go bahahah!

After lunch, Paco generously offered to take me to the bus station on his moto so I wouldn't have to walk carrying all my things! I LOVE my padres españoles (Spanish parents)! They treat me like I'm one of their own kids!

Once again, I didn't sleep a wink on the bus ride back since it's such a pretty ride. I got some really good pictures this time! Here are a FEW. Sorry you can't really see all the detail since the pictures are so small, but I'll put them in my album on facebook soon, which you can access via this LINK.

This either is or is near Velez-Málaga

Gorgeous...not sure what they're growing though

The girl sitting in front of me was eating a tomato like it was an apple. SICK.

Castle like building (probably an Alcazaba or fort) up on a hill

preciosaaa

To conclude this entry, I'm just going to include a section of RANDOM THOUGHTS because I've been working on this entry for wayyy too long and I don't feel like trying to tie all these scatterbrained ideas together nicely...

• There were 2 earthquakes here in Almería last week. One was at 6something in the morning (I was sleeping) and the other at 1something in the afternoon (I was in Rioja at school). I didn't feel either one even though they registered at 3.6 and 4.1 on the Richter scale (according to wikipedia, these usually cause "noticeable shaking of indoor items, rattling noises. Significant damage unlikely").
• I see the people from the Oficina de Extrajería EVERYWHERE! It's like they're following me and mocking the fact that 1. I still don't have my TIE and 2. I have had to spend so much time in that horrible place
• Whenever I write a word on the board in capital letters, no one recognizes my G's...not even the teachers. They literally have no idea what letter it's supposed to be even though the only difference is that I extend the the line from inside the G back down to the bottom of the letter.
  
• Ricky, when I was going with Paco by motorcyle to the bus station, we both had to put on helmets. As he was putting his on, I noticed a familiar word written across the side of the helmet...CONDOR! Needless to say, with that helmet, it didn't take us long to get to the station. GO TEAM CONDOR! (if I'm still allowed to claim it that is...)
  
• If anyone has easy Thanksgiving recipes for me, PLEASE share! They don't celebrate Thanksgiving here (obviously), but my roommates want to have and American Thanksgiving dinner. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...send them to alizeineldin@gmail.com (Mom, I need that recipe for the cheesy cornbread casserole! My faveee!)
  
• Since there is no Thanksgiving here, they start decorating for Christmas even earlier than in the US. Literally the day after Halloween, they were putting up X-mas stuff. Ridiculous. The decorations aren't quite as extensive...or at least not yet. 

Finally, I'm done with this entry. Sorry it's so long! I promise the next update will come sooner!