“in a cable car hanging above as the canyon comes between”

Listening to Menos El Oso, miss you

The work week went by smoothly as the first graders cracked me up with their witty statements, the kids I tutor after school melted my heart a little more, the fifth graders got that same heart racing in PE and the sixth graders continued to amaze me with their quick understanding of the English language. The cutest moment was Friday morning when 7 year old Diego turned to another teacher in the class and asked her in Spanish where the key was that she kept telling him to zip his mouth with… then he popped right back to attempting English with me in a much more polite tone. My week was topped off by a bus ride home from two students I tutor on Thursdays when the Spanish driver was singing along to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” in English and still saying goodbye to me in the typical long farewell, “hasta luego! Venga! Venga! Buen dia, vale? Hasta luego!”

Teaching is certainly rewarding and I COMMEND those who majored in it and are headfirst in this back home or the teachers who have been at this for over forty years with so many lives touched. This is because teaching English is enough experience to show me that every career path requires serious consideration and thoughtfulness.

It blows my mind that a year ago, I had NO idea what direction to put my life. It’s one thing to want something badly, but it’s another to think you’ve realized you have no control over it. That’s when faith and belief kicks in for me, because how can you not believe in something Greater when things fall into place just the way you really needed them to? As usual, these thoughts creeped into my mind this past weekend amidst a“Friendsgiving” (thank you Erica M. for such an endearing title to our late Thanksgiving dinner), literally being in a cable car, and another happily lazy Sunday. I’m not taking these great Sundays for granted either; usually I research all those things I promised I would all through college…today it’s been politics, a usually neutral topic for me but these candidates really have me intrigued. That’s enough of that.

the two small pumpkins shadowed by all the olive oil here haha

So Thanksgiving in a country that certainly does not observe it in the least bit (really Spain, you chose Halloween instead?!) turned out a success. More so because yours truly attempted to BAKE with an oven that only has a dial ranging from 1-10. As in, no degrees, just suggestions (2: warm up, 6: baking 9: meat - which in this town is mostly pork or “ternera” at the market). My pumpkin pie was made from scratch, down to the tiny pumpkins roasted in the oven at about an 8 haha. I even crushed up cloves when I couldn’t find them at the supermarket. Everyone got together in Cadiz in Friday night and we definitely enjoyed a feast so my first “away from home” holiday really did go well. It helps that Skype allowed me to talk with my family back in Harlingen and hear from my 4 year old niece (today’s her birthday!):

Niece, "EBET! Where are you?!" me, "umm...in Spain. I love you!" niece (over it. gets off the phone and tells my sister in a make-this-happen-because-i-believe-you-can-do-it-all kind of way), "Momma I want to go to Inspain. Ebet needs turkey. I need to go to Inspain...Inspain...mom where is that?" geeeez ♥

 This dream I’m getting to live really does go further than I imagined. On our bus ride home from Cadiz that night, after a great evening with great conversations and too much cheap Spanish wine, I was amazed by this thought: You have to get outside your comfort zone and pursue your dreams. If you can just make it to at least one, you’ll open to the doors to even more possibilities. I used to dream about Europe, but now I know about how to really live here and everything I could do if I wanted to reach for more. You'll stop striving for more [happiness] if you don’t let yourself see what’s out there.

Africa over the coast!

The next day, roommates and Joe (Jackie’s friend visiting from Philly) caught a two hour bus ride to Gibraltar, down along the coast towards the south of Spain. The landscape views were sprinkled with the famous Osborne Sherry bull (previous post), awareness of the country’s several sources of renewable energy, and Africa within sight.

 As usual, there was a stop for café con leche beforehand, thank you great beans from www.delta-cafes.es – yes I’m that nerdy about it. Crossing the border brought back fun memories of Progreso, MX back home haha and it was a simple flash of your passport as well. Just like that, we were in an English speaking world. The cable car ride to the top was first on our agenda and we just so happened to be amongst the apes that inhabit this area FREELY. Fun facts about Gibraltar, through the owner of a local fish & chips place we had lunch at:

      -            you ride a cable car or touristy bus on the mountain to find these primates EVERYWHERE

-          there are about 270 apes roaming the city and they like breaking into tourist shops to steal bags of chips (smoky bacon being their favorite)

-          “he went ape” is a commonly…funny…phrase to use

-          Feeding the apes chocolate will stop their procreation abilities

-          The Trafalgar Cementary holds the bodies of those lost to the battle in 1805, but there is only a statue of their leader, Admiral Nelson, because his body was sent back in a bottle of good rum to France. The battle was the most decisive British naval victory of the war. The Franco-Spanish fleet lost twenty-two ships, without a single British vessel being lost.

the Meditteranean Sea!!!

Impressive lunch by the way, pretty excited for London in two weeks now! 

Christmas is looking down to be Brussels vs Germany vs Spain for the day, followed by a visit from my friends back home for New Years (Happy Birthday SHEA!) and Brussels –if I didn’t go for Christmas/need to reschedule it again vs. Italy because I still need to see Venice. I’m pretty grateful for my cheap rent here, cheaper Ryanair flights and tutoring jobs that allow for these adventures…not so much for the crappy shower that comes with said apartment. I’m this close to renting a hotel room for the weekend here in Chiclana just to have a great shower...

'Merican Donut joke :)

Music we're cooking to: Adele & The Postal Service <3

“Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quiestest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.” - Pat Conroy

Flowers from one of the 7 year old girls I tutor! She glued them so they would last....umm...well it was a very cute gesture!

Saturday night, I found myself at a bar around 4 am, explaining to another new friend from this program that my 62 year old dad (mind you, a tad bit younger at the time but nowhere near presumably capable of such feats) had climbed up into Indian caves when we visited a national park in New Mexico– this was a couple years back. So it’s in the loudest settings, or the quiet room in Chiclana where I experience bittersweet peacefulness, that this quote comes into play.

I am so happy. Where I am, what I’m doing, just makes so much sense right now in the midst of a loss for any certain direction.

This week on random nearby travels:

Jerez de la Frontera is another corner of this Sherry Bermuda Triangle thing that can only be found in Spain. The city itself, an 40 minute (?!) train ride away from my current hometown, is an entertaining attraction full of young people, scooters, more great tapas and orange trees. It’s framed by beautiful Tuscany-like fields of olive trees and said orange groves. We couldn’t escape the rain but it ended up showing us the smell of Jerez: accidentally fresh-squeezed orange juice. Somewhere between strange&delicious tapas like lasagna with goat’s cheek drenched with a sweet brown cream, potatoes drench in neon-orange Mojo Picon sauce, and finally discovering my favorite sherry of the 5 options (Oloroso, the one right before that liquid raisin juice flavored option)...or stuffing some of those oranges into my roommate’s bag because the look on her face when she discovered this thoughtful souvenir the next day was WORTH it…this run on sentence…the sight of a carnival and protest right next to each other…the view of a simple train station…I decided Jerez would require more than one visit. I want to travel around Europe, but my friends here and I constantly remind ourselves that we can’t leave Spain without traveling around there as well. So this would suggest that there’s no time for repeats because there’s only 6-7 months left (yes time flies)!

We were back in our second home of Cadiz by Saturday evening. We finally visited a TripAdvisor-approved restaurant called La Gorda Te Da De Comer, “the fat lady feeds you” haha. We stayed at our friends’ place in the new part of the city and their apartment literally steps out into the Atlantic Ocean view. That side has tall buildings, the soccer stadium, and a 2 story McDonald’s…no big deal. We met up with about 10 friends altogether and went to typical bars here: drinks allowed outside or in, techno music, party promoters offering coupons for 1 Euro shots, creative shots without said coupon, and no curfew. The weekend was fun but my own self is definitely past that, but I still stuck around with great new friends ‘til 6 am.

Next week is the big Thanksgiving dinner attempt with about 40 expats, a visit to Gibraltar, and London in a few weeks!

Finally, a little entertainment: This is our apartment after the washing machine broke halfway through and flooded our floors...the door was slightly cracked open when we saw this :( yes, the window's open because that's the clothing line where it hangs to dry.

 “Travel is not reward for working, it’s education for living.” – Anonymous, funny…someone should jump up to claim these wise words :)

The Last Year

“Bad Fish” – Sublime

I saved an excerpt from this article about a year ago…

“How to Work: Under every circumstance, work in poise. Work with all the energy you have, but apply that energy in poise; and never permit yourself to violate this rule. Avoid nervous rush, regardless of conditions or demands; and also avoid the habit of doing less than you can do; for remember that we always lose what energy we do not use. Use all the energy you have; use it constructively; use it in poise; and use it in the full conviction that you will immediately receive more. Again, we should consider the great law of expectation. Expect more; expect much; expect everything you want; then live in the absolute faith that all your expectations will be realized.”

This job has really put all this in perspective and is molding my work ethic into something I want to be proud of.

This is a castle in El Puerto de Santa Maria which is along the coast here in Southern Spain where we had the option of taking a bus, train or ferry - also a combination of said transportation - to get there. Haha I still don’t know what to expect in Spain. My everyday motions seems normal with a kind reminder of “no…you’re in a foreign country and yes everything really is making your senses feel heightened to a level you never appreciated before.” Something like that!

A few fun facts about Spain so far:

-I spend my free time researching the latest news (I honestly didn't keep up with the headlines as much as I think we should before I got here) and looking for info on my realistic travel destinations such as the Thankgiving weekend plan for Gibraltar or the London trip we booked for December

-I teach 1^st-6^thgrade Tuesdays-Fridays with 3 day weekends and several private English language tutoring gigs during the week.

-Last Friday, one of my third graders in science class whipped out her giant perfume bottle. It was just the most amusing thing to see how this affected her...and the room's smell.

-In my first grade class, the teacher asked for some examples of "fizzy drink" (teaching the food pyramid, where yes I'd like to draw the world's biggest olive oil container at the top because it sums up their consumption of it here at breakfast alone. In fact, my roomies & I are now proud owners of a 6 liter!) and they screamed Coca Cola while one little girl said CHAMPAGNE in her most eloquent attempt at English.

-We got internet at home last week after waiting since the day we got here. Bittersweet: the night before it was installed, we'd had one of those "how do we entertain each other" nights where everything under the kitchen sink went into our homemade batch of cookies: Jackie's hot chocolate powder mix, some  pecans I'd bought, cinnamon when in doubt, and more: the result was a wonderful smell of Christmas and too many laughs.

-I am about an hour away from the only certified sherry-producing region of Jerez. We toured a bodega last Saturday and the oxidation process/barrels/humidity factors that result in liquid raisin flavored wine is fascinating.

-The sunset view upstairs on our roof is now at 18:30.

-I've realized that Scotland needs to get added to my list: how could I forget about my chance to see Nessie!?

-I sleep about 10 hours a day and it's enough reason to never want to go back to my American lifestyle. Just kidding.

-The Ethnic Food section at the CostCo of Spain is creative:

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive. Then go and do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” ~Howard Thurman

Life’s too short to dwell and not appreciate what you have in front of you. That’s a surprisingly tough lesson to grasp sometimes, but just like learning patience, any new experience allows you to really make the most of your blessings. I am alive. This past weekend I realized how incredible this past year really has been. The people in my life can't even begin to realize what 2011 really meant for me. I'm just really grateful.
Last November I was seriously willing Spain to happen. Honestly by December, I felt like I was drowning in how much I'd settled. So I was giving myself a year or two to make sure I got here. Not there – but HERE because it’s real. I just can’t let myself forget that.

 I still have similar dreams to realize as I did a year ago as well, such as work for a great business and really see it from the top, pursue higher education such as my master’s degree (anyone know in what anymore?!), and most unexpectedly: embrace the foodie in me. I cook so much now with really fresh market ingredients and I love it! So maybe it’s still culinary school like I thought when I was a kid.

More importantly, it was to see unconditional love in many aspects of my life, just like my mom taught me with her own actions. With that said, God was holding me up a year ago and now He’s constantly by my side. I really believe this.

“I could have. What does this phrase mean? At any given moment in our lives, there are certain things that could have happened but didn’t. The magic moments go unrecognized, and then suddenly, the hand of destiny changes everything. But love is much like a dam: if you allow a tiny crack to form through which only a trickle of water can pass, that trickle will quickly bring down the whole structure, and soon no one will be able to control the force of the current. Love is a trap. When it appears, we see only its light, not its shadows.” ~Paulo Coelho

Italia, tu sei bella

“Always” – Switchfoot

Gelato flavors I had within 4 days: vanilla bean, melon (those two were tied for the best), strawberry (duh!), chocolate, mascarpone cheese, bilberry, pistachio, raspberry, cream, coffee…Jac & I have given up on recalling the list as this point.

"Cherish your solitude. Take trains by yourself to places you have never been. Sleep out alone under the stars. Learn how to drive a stick shift. Go so far away that you stop being afraid of not coming back. Say no when you don't want to do something. Say yes if your instincts are strong, even if everyone around you disagrees. Decide whether you want to be liked or admired. Decide if fitting in is more important than finding out what you're doing here."
--Eve Ensler

This self imposed bucket list is slowly but surely getting checked off. For instance, if I had a euro for everytime I whispered “Attraversiamo” at every street in Italy – Eat, Pray, Love reference :-)

On Friday, October 28^th, I was in Seville speaking Spanish with the waiter at Las Golondrinas as we ordered rebojitos (white wine spritzer…popular alternative to sangria, which is better in Northern Spain so I’m waiting!) and had pork cutlets, marinated radishes and garlic stuffed mushrooms (typical tapas, didn’t bother with the names of the dishes because half the words in SPANISH are still unfamiliar to me). Jaclyn and I were staying with some great friends we met at orientation that night and boarding a flight to Milan the next morning. Little did we know that flight would be one of the most random introductions to a country! One day later, after a bus ride from our “hometown” of Chiclana to Seville, a new take on boarding a plane… and SHEER EXCITEMENT & ANTICIPATION we landed in Italy after flying over stunning scenery and were greeted with the crispest green apple I’ve ever had.

It was like, “Oh you don’t have a chauffer waiting for you with your name on a white paper? You’re not missing out. Here’s an apple in a box to hold you over. Welcome to italy.” At this point I have to mention how giddy I was about being in a true foreign country for once. Honestly, Spain is in its own category because I do not feel like a visitor anymore and hardly strive to take pictures of everything anymore (although I do wish I would carry my camera around more often because this weekend we went for a hike to a salt mountain of sorts…and it was a petting zoo along the way with random cows and donkeys - another blog post)

So italy was finally a place where I lost some control. Incidentally, the language barrier was quickly broken down when Spanglish saved the day yet again. It was FASCINATING listening to people talk to me in what they thought was Spanish even though it with sprinkled with Italian 75% of the time or the same situation with English. I now know what we must sound like to Spaniards – ultimately it’s heartwarming :-) Anyways, here we were just one day later, exploring Milan for an amazing first meal (SUCCESS) and finding the Duomo just a quick metro ride from the train station. After a few hours, there I was on Saturday, October 29^th, feeling like I was taking a train by myself to a place I’d never been. Jackie and I were in and out of sleep on those 2 hours after the initial awe of our first Italian sunset disappeared with our view. Once we arrived in Florence, my trip felt like it has begun all over again. Our friends from Cadiz had already checked into the hotel, which was across a beautiful local park with trees that had ACTUAL changing colors of the leaves.

My simple dinner of ravioli with Bolognese sauce and birra a la spina (beer on tap) was the perfect ending to my initial travels towards one of my dream destinations. We wandered the streets of Florence that night, were tempted by a scoop of Nutella gelato on a waffle from a few street vendors, and crawled into bed as we all looked up and realized even the cheap room has beautiful (and slightly creepy cherubs) Italian decorations on the ceiling. Sidenote, yes I missed out on the waffle dessert because I was probably on my 4^th gelato by then on day 1 1/2…it was all research… oh yeah and we had a late dinner of dessert actually – panna cotta with fresh strawberries which is sadly the first time I’ve had some since I got to Europe but I’m holding out for the fields I’ve heard of in Huelva, Spain.

After that nighttime adventure, the city felt so familiar by daylight. At this point in my European adventure, I’ve decided every city has a smell that defines it, with a few exceptions on the sense description. As I mentioned earlier, Seville smells like olives and Chiclana smells like moscato. Florence smelled like leather, tempting Italian leather. We immediately distracted ourselves and looked for breakfast: canolis and cappuccinos.

It was now Sunday and we decided to split up and pursue our to-do list. Half of the group took a tour bus and I joined the other half that signed up for a wine tour in the countryside. We didn’t have to be there until 1400 so we walked over to the main bridge over the river and then Megan led us to another one nearby where couples have been leaving locks with their names on them to promise each other their hearts forever. Barf. Cute though, cute…

We climbed up the Rocky stairs - I mean the path to Michaelangelo Plaza - for an epic view of the city.

Then we found pizza to go (artichokes, mozzarella and tomato chunks), and more gelato/Nutella treats and ran over back to the train station to meet our tour bus. I was officially in “Under the Tuscan Sun”! The tour guide was this beautiful older blonde woman with a great Italian accent to her perfect English and told us interesting stories as we left the gates of the city (literally giant wood& iron gates they used to have in practice) and past a monastery where she proceeded to call the happy 211 monks in there “fatty fattys” because they make their own food all day long. The country side was breathe-taking, which is an adjective I don’t just throw around. This literally took my breathe away as the perfect rows of trees amidst the colorful acres of land framed the grapes harvest, olive bushes (trees?) and quaint little red roof homes.

We arrived at a Chianti winery and sampled about ten wines that truly set the bar. As an added bonus, the tour stopped at the local village of Castellina as well. It was such a relief to be in a secluded area without a single salesperson on the street and just the huge moon casting shadows on these old buildings while I continued my coffee research. I mean look at that foam!!

The trip ended around 1900 and the whole group met at the hotel before heading out to dinner. The place we found was slightly touristy but the famous Bistecca Florentina has a lemon-thyme-something flavor I couldn’t put my finger on (and plan to replicate!) and the simple pizza was unbelievably good. There’s just no describing it…you have to go to Italy. You have to go because Florence quickly becomes familiar to you with it’s small neighborhoods and the feeling of safety it gives off, all while knowing an escape to those hills is just minutes away like the best of both worlds.

The next morning was Halloween (irrelevant, because we didn’t see much of the holiday there but I was good without it this year. It’s not exactly my favorite and in Spain, it was introduced to the culture about 10 years ago so they’re still out to scare you with costumes – pass.), so we tried to go see David’s statue. There are plenty of replicas around the city and those made enough of an impression…regardless, the museum was closed for the “holiday”. Figures. Luckily, Erica suggested dropping in to the market and we were floored by the spread. Immediately, we were drawn to the dried fruit stand. Italy stole my heart strategically with fragole because I got strawberries, bananas, and mangoes (Mendiii!) that were sugar coated but not….they weren’t freeze dried but moist and with a hint of their own sweetness. I don’t know.

Then we sampled cheeses at the next stations and everyone got a chunk for the train. At this point we’d spread out and realized the picnic we’d created once we were on our train to Rome: sundried tomatoes, Tuscan bread, Chianti wine, grapes, Nutella packets we took from the hotel breakfast, etc. Our initial impression of our last city was endless graffiti from the arrival station of course we were astounded the minute we actually walked out into Roma. This is the exception: there is no certain scent, there is just art. The city oozes of talent from the streets to the walls, buildings, the ristorante’s way of presenting their food, the street musicians, the museums. One of the nights, we stumbled upon a "first friday" of sorts on a street down an alley and it was one of my favorite things! I can't wait to order prints from some of these artists.

That evening we looked for the Colisseum because it was near our hotel on the way to dinner. The shades of yellow light over that building made for a memorable view. We went on to the Travistere neighborhood, which boasts great local family owned restaurants and it definitely surpassed our expectations. For how thoughtfully slow their service was, the food was honestly just as good. The next morning, we went to Vatican City on the metro and tried to find a mass service for the group to attend. Megan and I wandered….and fortunately half the group found their service in a garden at the Vatican…while Megan and I jumped on the free (?) bus to the Pantheon nearby, made friends with 2 Norwegian mothers who were in Italy for a 3 week language school (Eat, Pray, Love!) and just so happened to stumble into a small mass service for the Holy Day at the Pantheon. Nbd. Halfway through my respectfully confused state, I glanced back towards the entrance and saw a large crowd trying to get a peek in. I did appreciate the moment when an English speaking priest read from the book of Matthew 5:3, ""Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

We went back to the hotel because Matthew was leaving earlier than the girls back to Spain and luckily, we timed it just right. At this point it was still an early afternoon so we stopped for pizza again (rosemary potatoes and roasted red pepper with tomato sauce) and headed to a museum with a free entrance. We saw memorabilia from World War 1 and even learned about Cavour, the man our hotel’s street was named after, and how he influenced Italy’s freedom. The best part was that the girls and I just sat on a bench halfway through the display and discussed history, leading up to the second war. Megan was a history teacher and the conversation that this tour sparked was just incredible. Next we went to the gardens, after picking up a few pastries along the way…and I was in my sugar coma when I realized we were climbing up a hill, looked around from the dramatic angle I stood at, and asked “why are we doing this?!” haha I quickly took it back when I realized the picture I got, with mini croissant in hand:

At this point, Erica and Megan decided to go to the Opera while Julia, Jac and I looked for the Trevi Fountain. Cue the classic moment of asking for directions, as a father and daughter believe they’re telling me in Spanish “ve al derecho…so…::enter Italian words here:::” but it worked and we heard the fountain before we even turned the corner. At this point I have to point out that Rome would be better with less street vendors, and while you want to support their jobs, it just really takes away from the moment when you’re getting nagged to purchase a plastic toy that sings a random song. That’s my take on this city, it’s not as warm as Florence but it’s full of surprises and you can not get bored. They’re tied!

Next we went to dinner at the best restaurant I’ve been to: Trattoria Giola Mia. Our dessert was a pear soaked in red wine overnight over a homemade spongecake and covered in dark chocolate…ridiculously good. This of course was canceled out by the incredible vegetable appetizer the owner insisted we try first. Somewhere in there we each had a pasta dish that probably can’t be replicated. I had one of the best cappuccinos there of course, and got the owner to reveal where the best coffee beans were from (volcanic area, Napoli and Southern Spain in Europe). All along this trip, I consumed quite an amount of caffeine and tasted great espresso, but I can happily say that there is still a barista back home that makes some of the best I’ve ever had.

On our last morning, we set out to see the Sistine Chapel and had to work out way through many pushy and attractive Australian tour guides who tried to sell us on a 45 euro package to cut the line at the Vatican and blah blah blah. Lesson: check the original website. The place opened at 9 so we were in a short line anyway by getting there at 8 am and using our student cards to only pay 8 euro! It’s kind of like touring the Lexington museum back in Corpus where you have to walk through the whole thing to reach your end goal (I’m sorry but mine is getting back out on the beach for the aforementioned) and in this case, the Sistine Chapel. We saw Raphael’s “The School of Athens”, Matisse’s work, Diego Rivera, and more. At the Chapel, there were too many guards yelling about not taking pictures but we did get to stand there as long as we wanted. We had time for one last lunch before finding out bus to the airport and before we knew it, the slightly scary plane ride back (thank you Ryanair) was over and I was back to work like it was any other day. Next goal: Ireland, London, France, and Greece. Turns out these trips are expensive haha so the list might shorten but you still have time to book a flight over here!