Dar un Paseo en Lado de Salvaje

I feel as if I’m on the verge of getting sick so I have been OD-ing on Emergen-C and decongestants, etc. It’s always when the biggest plans are right around the corner that my body starts to crash. Never fails! Anyhu, I can’t get sick because my family gets here NEXT SUNDAY! I am so excited about their visit and can’t believe it’s already thisclose to happening. On another note, I went out almost every night last week…nights that ran into mornings…mornings that ran into nights… It was a crazy, fabulous, hilarious time. So perhaps I did it to myself? Nah, I’m just going to blame the change of weather. Anyhu, the more I think about what Anna and I encountered this past weekend, the more I realize that we are loco. In a positive way, of course. It’s funny because I’m in a place right now that is soooo different from a number of my friends. Majority of my friends are creating their nest whether it’s with a spouse (or to-be spouse), kids (or kiddies on the way!) or just by purchasing their own home or making a big career change/move. It’s really great – this time in our lives – to see which path everyone is going down, each one leading to something exciting and very special for that person. That being said… I think I got off of my path and ran backwards to a clearing in the woods where there was still a huge party going on – complete with bonfires, kegs and hormones a’racing! I don’t think anything is necessarily wrong with this – I’m just doing some things a bit more different than others. It’s what makes life interesting. Plus, I live in Spain. So I think that may be my best excuse for my behavior. At least, that’s what I’m sticking to.

In short - last weekend was a blast. It’s always the weekends where there are no expectations, where you go out and say “Well, let’s grab a glass of wine or a beer” and then the next thing you know, you are having a dance off with a guy that looks like Tim Curry circa Rocky Horror Picture Show in a club on top of speakers. It was one of those weekends. So Friday night Anna and I met up with a new group of Catalan boys that we recently befriended. They are all so precious – very nerdy engineers with fabulous senses of humor and a pretty darn good level of English. It just so happens that the one boy in the group that I think is pretty cute and whom I happened to hit it off with happens to have a twin… who hit it off with Anna. Hi! Double-date with twins? Check! Anyways, we bar-hopped around our neighborhood and ended up at this fabulous bar that was tucked away various dark alleys and ancient buildings – God, I love this city. This bar happened to have an amazing DJ as well (way to my heart) and was blasting fabulous 60s/70s R&B and Funk music, making me feel that I ended up at The Funky Butt in New Orleans more so than a bar in Barcelona (whose name I cannot pronounce/remember!). One thing led to another and we decided to create our own dance floor in the corner of the bar. We showed our new friends some sick moves: the sprinkler, the lawnmower, the shopping cart… And they showed us their “moves” as well (think Pee-Wee Herman’s bar dance mixed with Flamenco). While we are dancing away, we made more friends at this bar who invited us to come with them to a club nearby. So once they kicked us out of the bar (bars close at 3AM, clubs at 6AM) we ended up at this fabulous club, Magic, and continued our dancing marathon until the sun started to rise. Nights that consist of dancing, fabulous music, tasty adult beverages, cute Spanish/Catalan boys and tons of laughter are my absolute faves.


So come Saturday night, I was grateful to have chill dinner plans with a former boss/advice guru/friend of mine (who was in town for a big conference) so I could sober up from the evening/morning before. The next morning I took Claire around the city and got to show her some of my favorite parts, my neighborhood and everything that makes Barcelona delightful. Claire has been the first familiar face I have seen since I have been living here and let me just say, I loved it! It was so great to catch up in person, not email, and show someone your new hometown. I loved playing tour-guide and cannot wait to do the job full-time once my family gets here… Anyhu, if you have been toying around with an idea to come and visit me – do it! I want to see more familiar faces and, by the time you get here, my tour-guide skills are going to be amaaazing. Promise.


Anyhu, Sunday night rolls around and I planned on having a very chill, lesson-planning kind of evening. Right. Sunday night held the biggest match for football in this town – Real Madrid vs. Barcelona. It only took one phone call from a friend to convince Anna and me to go out and watch the game. After the game (we won) we decided to keep on celebrating… And this time, as bars and clubs were done at 2AM, we decided to create a dance party at our friend’s flat instead. I know his neighbors must have loved it. It was Friday night all over again – except this time – switch out the Catalan/Spanish boys with American ones. Still fun, still crazy and I’m still tired from it.


Anna and I recapped our weekend and decided that if someone was real smart, they would consider taking our life stories and creating a sitcom out of it. I had some incidences that occurred that it was as if they were taken directly from episodes of How I Met Your Mother, Sex in the City and The Hills (d-rama! HaHa…Not really, but the way Anna and I recap our evenings the morning after reminds me of how Kristen and that bartender hoe always recap their evenings).


Oh, by the by, we have a mascot! Yes. We have a mascot. So Claire brought me a goodie bag of Americana (Canadian) delights and one of these items happened to be a little stuffed animal of a squirrel/beaver/chipmunk Canadian creature. He happens to be one of the mascots for the upcoming Winter Olympics in Vancouver…But now, he also happens to be Anna and my mascot as well. His name is Muk-Muk (no, we didn’t make this up) and he’s so adorable but looks rather mischievous. Plus, it’s really fun to yell out “muk-muk” at random times in a bar. Try it.


Teaching has been going along fabulously. My teenage girls are pretty funny. They found out I’m on Facebook and wanted to befriend me – I told them at the very end of the year, I’ll go ahead and accept them but not now…Also, as a treat for doing so well these past classes, I’m letting them pick American songs that they like and help translate them. So get what song they really want translated: “She Wants It” – 50Cent/Justin Timberlake. I was like – “Yeah, no. We can’t do this song. I mean, do you know what they are referring to when they say ‘it’ – they aren’t talking about cookies.” So they started laughing and think it’s so cute that I’m really “shy” when it comes to talking about sex. I told them my job was to teach English and not sex-ed and that even though I can agree that Jacob looks hot without his shirt on in New Moon, that’s about where sex-related discussion end. Dear Lord - they start way too early in this town.


Last week, my students loved hearing all about Thanksgiving and Christmas and American traditions and I loved learning about the Spanish traditions for Christmas, NYE and Kings Day. For my little ones, I made them make turkey hands as one of their projects. Well, I attempted this but they didn’t understand why we were making turkeys so, instead, they made hands that said BARCA on it (the ones you see at the football matches) and ran around yelling the chant for Barcelona’s Football team. Mmmhmm. Making such a mark on these young ones.


As for Thanksgiving in Spain – it was delightful. Definitely not anything as good as being home in the States but Anna and I decided to go out for a traditional Catalan meal at a great little restaurant and gorge ourselves to death. I got the chance to talk with my family (via skype) as they were all at my parent’s house for Thanksgiving. It was sooo wonderful to hear my little cousins’ voices and to talk with my grandparents and feel the love coming all the way from home in Baton Rouge to my little flat in Barcelona.


I know I have mentioned that I may never leave this city. I actually said that to some friends I had dinner with the other night- that I don’t see myself leaving any time soon. I am working under 20 hours a week, I love my job, I love my flat and I love this city so much. But there is something that really tugs at my heart a bit stronger than this city which is full of culture and history and hot guys (hehe) … And that is missing my family and friends back home. I think with the holiday season, it really has made me reflect on how close I am with my family. How this is the time of year I get to spend with them. This realization really occurred when I started talking to my Granny on Thanksgiving. Even though I send family emails and letters to my granny, I forgot how important it is to hear your loved ones voices. She started off our conversation with “I miss you soo much and I’m happy you are having fun but we want you back.” It took every nerve in my body to not breakdown and buy the first ticket back to Louisiana then and there. I have such a special relationship with my grandparents – I talked to them about once a week on the phone and always made the best attempts to visit them numerous times during the year. I guess since I’ve been so busy going and going and partying and teaching and going I haven’t had the opportunity to sit and think and reflect on how much I miss everyone. If only I could have my cake and eat it too – I would ship everyone out to Barcelona so that I could continue enjoying this city, the life I’ve created here, while having all of these wonderful, familiar faces of loved ones enjoying it alongside me too. I still don’t know what I’m going to do come June… There is so much that can happen between now and then. More places to visit, more parties to attend, more classes to teach, more cute boys to meet and more friendships to form. I do know that the longer I stay, the more I miss my family and friends. This has been such a great experience for me and I hope that I continue to grow from it. As well as squeeze out a few more crazy, party nights.


It’s getting super cold here in Barcelona. It’s been in the 40s-50s and – I KNOW that is nothing compared to all of you who are getting snow back home but when you do not have a heater…it sucks! Anna and I walk around in triple layers of clothes and huddle around our portable three-foot heater.


So - I think this will be my last blog entry for 2009! As I mentioned, my family arrives next Sunday and I get to show them around the city for that week and then we jet off to Italy (Rome and Florence). They leave, New Years Eve occurs (can’t wait!) and then Anna and I take our crazy, jam-packed trip all around the south of Spain and Portugal. I plan to have many stories and pictures to share upon my return so if I don’t update this blogity-blog until mid-January 2009 – I want everyone to have a Merry Christmas (Bonnes Fetes! Feliz Navidad!) and a Happy New Year…


Continuing the Search for My Matador into the next year…


Lindsay


Song Suggestions:


The Perfect Crime #2 – The Decemberists
Show Me – John Legend
Old Friends/Bookends – Simon & Garfunkle


PS – Diana Krall’s Christmas CD is de-light-ful.


PPS – Loved this article. For various reasons: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/fashion/06love.html

Ooh Dear...

So I was so close to doing an update per week and I'm a little bit late for this week...And well, you're gonna have to wait for the full update (censored) to come at a later time as I need to go to bed.  I have not slept this weekend because I have been acting like a crazed college girl on her spring break.  I have so many stories and well, they are not all going on here.  Sooo - that being said, if you watch How I Met Your Mother you will appreciate some of the incidences that occured this weekend.  And if you know both me and Anna AND know HIMYM then you will really appreciate these crazy adventures of ours.  Okay, more to come later.  Hope everyone had a splendid Thanksgiving.  Miss and love everyone mucho.

On the search for my matador that can hold his liquour,
Linds

Counting My Blessings

Hola Chicos y Chicas!


Wow, updating the blog per week has been nice as it allows me to reflect on my week but not as easy as I thought it would be. I picked up more classes along with some additional ones for this week so I’ve been busy lesson planning this lovely Sunday but wanted to take a break and blog it up a bit.


Okay, quick recaps…


So this week was pretty crazy. Teaching was good – nothing too funny or radical. I did teach my beginner students “See you later, alligator!” “After while, crocodile!” – they think it’s absolutely hilarious and now when we are doing role-playing and one of the students says “See you later” the rest of the class chimes in “…alligator!” It’s cute. I’ve been using music in a lot of my classes- none of my “weird” indie music (well, except for my hot student as he appreciates it – which just makes him even hotter in my eyes!) but some really fun songs that I can somehow intertwine into my classes. My high-school girls love hip-hop and want to do a song by Akon or Neo which I’m having some issues with finding an appropriate song by these gentlemen.  Either way, using music has been a big hit and I LOVE having my students sing along. There is one student who sings her heart out every time we do a song and she reminds me of Colleen singing “Let Me Be Your Servant” – if you have ever witnessed this then a smile just crept to your face. So imagine when Berta bursts into “You’re So Vain” or a Norah Jones song- I just imagine Beans at church singing. Loves it.


So Anna and I lost it this past Friday and did it. By “did it” I mean we had a massive shopping spree. It was bound to happen. You have two girls that are obsessed with clothes, that have lived in Dallas (one BEING from there) that live 20 minutes from one of the biggest shopping districts in Europe and well – it was bound to happen. We pretty much would black out each time we went to the register with our plastic cards. Not looking forward to that bill… But OMG, got some SUPER cute clothes. I’m totally trying to embrace the whole European look. It’s so dramatic over here and yet casual. I love it. Obsessed with leggings. And cute boots. And fun accessories. Aaah…


Saturday night was a fun one. I went to my friend Casey’s art exhibit. Alas, no Javier Bardems lurking around but I did witness some great art. It’s so nice to see a friend’s work and be blown away by their talent. It’s a pleasant surprise. I stood by his painting and every time an older man would walk by and would check out the price and the painting, I would casually mention how the piece was “turning me on” in hopes that one of these dudes would just buy it. But then I realized that it would help if I said that in Spanish and how I didn’t know how to say “turning me on” in Spanish and how I REALLY need to improve my Spanish in order to learn these important phrases during these important times…Right? Anyhu, after being all artsy – I met up with Anna and we went to this bar that pays homage to the show LOST – Bharma. It was super campy and fun. We met up with some other friends there and proceeded to bar hop around this great neighborhood in Barcelona – Poble Nou. We met some more presh Spanish boys and possibly picked up a few students for this coming year, haha. Now, as cute as these Spanish boys are – and as charming as they are – and as super sweet as they are…Why do they have to be so darn short?! And then, when I meet a tall one, why does his teeth have to be so jacked?! I know – I’m so shallow. I already had this discussion with our friend Albert earlier this week – and I know – if I gave these boys a chance I could see past teeth and height (I’ve done it before… Jess, Burns & Fannin – you KNOW who I’m talking about re: height) but maybe I am just not in the mood to make compromises? Which leads me to…


www.colorquiz.com


Okay, so some of my students are at the “Personality Adjectives” lesson and I am trying to find a fun personality quiz for them to take to make the lesson more interesting and fun. So as I do my research I come across this link for the Color Quiz. So I decide to take it and wow… My results were hilariously accurate that it scared me. I made Anna take it and same for her – such results that were almost too harsh to hear. Pretty much it says that I’m very sensitive (duh) and that I’m afraid of rejection (double-duh) and that I always long for independence and the freedom to make my own choices and I use my charm to get what I want (mmm… okay, duh). It then went into detail regarding other characteristics of myself (some were too funny to mention here) but that pretty much – I’m never going to meet a guy that will meet my expectations and needs and I’ll constantly make excuses in order to not get too close to someone. Nice! There’s a dose of reassurance for me! Anyhu, if you are bored and have a spare 10 minutes – I suggest that you take it! It will be interesting to see if you received just as fitting results as I did…Or if not. Sometimes, actually MOST of the times, these tests are so vague and you pick up on what you want to hear about yourself but I liked how blunt this one was – it was actually more negative about who I am, a swift kick to keep me in check, perhaps? Maybe a sign that I SHOULD compromise?  Stop being so shallow… No se.


Anyhu, before I go – as I don’t have too many crazy, hilar updates for ya’ll – I do want to end on a positive note in lieu of Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday and I’m so sad that I will be missing mashed potatoes and turkey and green beans and stuffed melitons (South LA dish – one of my faves) and pecan pie…. Aaah – the agony. So Anna and I are going to one of our fave Catalan restaurants here and plan to stuff ourselves with local delicacies and give thanks… So this week all of my lesson plans revolve around Thanksgiving and teaching my students what the importance of this holiday is about: giving thanks for what you have! So, here I go…


(WARNING: skip ahead if you are not in the mood for my mushy-gushy-ness)


I am thankful to have this opportunity to explore an amazing city, become immersed in its culture and surround myself with such lovely, inviting people that teach me something new each and every day.


I am thankful to have a family that supported me 100% (with some natural hesitation from my mom) on my decision to come live here. I am thankful for their constant love and keeping me in check.  I am thankful that they will have the opportunity to come visit me in my new home-town!

I am thankful for my friends. The ones I’ve made here. The ones I have back home. I am so thankful for the ones that have kept in touch with me: making me feel loved and missed back home. I am thankful for their support and their hugs that I will receive upon my return. I am thankful for the friends that continue to challenge me in positive ways – by being role-models in how they live their lives. I really appreciate that. Oh, and I appreciate that I have some of the FUNNIEST people on this earth for friends.  Thank God for surrounding me with people that possess a sense of humor. 


I am thankful for my roomie. For constantly making me laugh. For making me not casually live my life but to embrace it each day and question it and make the most of it. And for her amazing Korean cooking skills. Especially when we come back from the bar wasted and she force feeds me kimchi fried rice.


I am thankful for being an American and everything that revolves around Americana.


I am thankful for my faith and how it has grown so much since I’ve been here. I am thankful for the need to continue to strengthen it and grow within it.


I am thankful for having a job that I whole-heartedly enjoy. I am thankful that I have 2 bosses that are so wonderful, fun and supportive. I am thankful that I have students that I am learning just as much from (if not more) as they are from me.


I am thankful for having a roof over my head, legs that carry me down the cobblestone streets of the city, big eyes to take in the beauty and graffiti and ears that let me listen to the mixture of Spanish, Catalan and music on my beloved iPod.


I am thankful that I have the freedom to write and express my thoughts and views.


I am thankful for my life and all of the wonders and surprises and challenges it brings.


So thanks for letting me get a bit sappy. I’m sure ½ of ya’ll skipped through that part so I’ll end with my one song suggestion and a big wish that all of you have a HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Eat some Turkey for me. I’ll drink some Sangria for you!


On the Search for a Matador that will meet all of my expectations...
Linds



Song Suggestion:
“The Long Way Around” – Dixie Chicks
(my anthem since I’ve been living in Barcelona)



Movie Suggestions:
Sunshine Cleaning – If you ever need something to make you appreciate what you have…Watch this movie. So lovely in so many ways.

Soy Mio

Alright – even though it’s technically the 3rd week here in Barcelona – it’s still in the 2nd week in the US so I am keeping my promise: writing a blog entry per week for the month of November! So, as for excitement, not too much going on…I do have more funny stories to share so I hope you enjoy them…



Wait, I do have one exciting thing to announce! Anna and I just booked our “Winter Break” trip! We are hitting up Granada and Seville (south of Spain) followed by a quick rendezvous to Lisbon, Portugal! I’m super excited to see the culture of Southern Spain – flamenco, the birth place of tapas, Moroccan influence, more gorgeous cathedrals and architecture. I’m also thrilled to go to Portugal! Lisbon is supposed to be a very charming city and the food should be amazing as well. So hooray! I’m also counting down the days until my mom, dad and Chris arrive in Barcelona! I get to show them my new hometown and then we head to Italy to celebrate Christmas. I can’t wait. If you have any suggestions of places to see and experience while in Rome or Florence – please let me know! Especially any restaurant suggestions – always welcomed. Okay, so enough with the exclamation points (!!!) for this paragraph…Onto the funnies:


I know I keep saying that Anna and I have reverted back to our college days but we REALLY have. Just with a twist. So I wake up this morning…Okay, more so this afternoon… and creep down the hall towards our living room. I see someone on my couch. I get closer to see Anna passed out. I wake her up and inquire why she is passed out on our couch to hear her simple explanation that she was too tired to walk to her bedroom and the couch was closer to our front door (it’s not). So we start to recap our evenings. Everything seems very normal-day-after-partying, right? Well, here is where the TWIST comes in: I have writing on my arm. Okay, nothing too crazy from an evening out that involved consuming many Jack & Cokes. BUT – the writing – it’s all in Swedish. That’s right. I have dirty expressions (and some helpful ones, I’m sure) written down my arm in Swedish. After we have a good laugh, Anna goes to the kitchen to get us some food to start helping with the hangover hell. TWIST: She grabs a baguette. I mean, who the hell eats baguettes to help them with their hangover? Europeans. And because we are the newly, sophisticated Europeans that we are – we decide to reenact our favorite Flights of the Conchord video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuXdhow3uqQ) with the baguette. Moving on – after the baguette couldn’t help us we decided that we needed grease. We get dressed and make our trip to the nearest McDonalds. TWIST: Versus doing it drive-thru style still in our PJs with makeup and hair from last night ½ in tacked, we have to actually dress nice, clean up our faces, wash off Swedish words on our arms and WALK 5 blocks to the Mickie Dees that faces Sagrada Familia and wait in line with all of the other tourists for our greasy-goodness (although the difference between us and the tourists – we are possibly still drunk). So still living as if we are in college – just with a European twist.


This past Friday we had the best of intentions to hit up the Modern Museum of Art here in Barcelona. As we decided to do a menu of the day for lunch (best concept of ALL time) we ended up finishing our lunch too late to make it worth the trip to check out the museum. So we trekked it to one of my top three spots in Barcelona: Park Guell. On the way there we got the genius idea to take our Christmas picture while in the park. How Barcelona of us, right? In the Gaudi ginger-bread setting – what doesn’t say Christmas greetings from Barcelona? Well, just to make sure that people would know we are keeping with the Christmas spirit, we stopped at a Chinese Gift Shop (the same one as the mean lighter man) and bought two of the most obnoxious reindeer antlers to wear for our photo shoot. So we get to the park and, after surveying who we could ask to take our picture that wouldn’t judge us TOO much, we pick this nice mom and ask her to play photographer for us. As she gets ready to click the shutter – we bust out these red and green foot-long reindeer antlers and pose. Not only does she burst out laughing but we get other people around the park staring and laughing at us – some even came over and started taking pictures of us! It was hilariously embarrassing. After three tries, we ended up not getting even close to a decent picture. Anna and I look so freaking awkward in these photos as – due to how huge the antlers are – we are sitting so far apart from each other, you would be surprised to know that we are sisters/friends/roommates. We plan to attempt another Christmas photo shoot in the near future.  I’ll keep you posted...


So after the photo shoot failure, we decided that all we could do now was start our Friday night early. We walked around our neighborhood (Gracia) and barhopped. Come 11ish we realized we were starving and stopped by a local tapas restaurant near our apartment. As the bill came, Anna and I realized the most embarrassing thing ever… We didn’t have enough money to pay the bill!!!! We both assumed the other one had enough money to cover the other one and yeah…too bad we didn’t communicate this earlier before we stuffed our faces with patatas bravas and grilled peppers. So, after we explain that we are 3euros short of our bill, we tell our waitress that they could keep me at the restaurant while Anna went running back to our flat to get more money. Yes, I was kept hostage at the local tapas restaurant. Anna returned back with more money and we went along our way. Luckily I was “valuable” enough that the restaurant knew Anna would come back to rescue me with money for the bill – and lucky enough for me – she didn’t just peace out. Although that would have been hilarious. I could just see myself sitting at the bar until they start closing down the restaurant. And then having to go in the back and wash all the dishes and take out the trash because, that’s what happens to people who can’t pay the bill, right? They do the dishes in the back. At least that's what Hollywood says. Either way, I have never had this happen to me before (nor has Anna) and it made for a hilarious night… I know you must be thinking that our good luck from the bird poop is running out. But we decided, as it was FRIDAY the 13th – all good luck from the birds was null and void on this day.

Last night (which led to the funny hangover story this morning/day) we went out to celebrate our dear friend Casey’s birthday. We went to one of my top three bars in Barcelona – Alfa – and danced the night away. Casey is in the art school here so we got to meet a bunch of his fellow art student friends from, literally, all over the world. One of the boys who is from Sweden had a bunch of his friends visiting as well (yes, this all results to the Swedish writing on my arm) and let me just say – what a precious, fun bunch they were. And a bit confusing. So at first glance, one would assume these boys liked only other boys. And at first chat, you would assume the same. They liked my whole 1930s look I was rocking (gay-vibe) but then they would dance with me in a very hmm…non-gay way (hetero-vibe) then they would talk in explicit detail about their designer glasses (gay-vibe) but then buy me a drink in a very “I’m kind of hitting on you” way (hetero-vibe). Come to find out – they were all bi-sexual. Can I just say that bisexuals have got to be the most CONFUSING people on this planet! I mean, it’s one thing to say that you are curious regarding sexuality or that you perhaps have dated both sexes before…But in the same night – you hit on everyone that moves? Is this fair? Is this just being horny? I still don’t have an opinion on the matter and I’m all for freedom of sexual expression and choice but in conclusion: bi-sexuals are confusing. Anyhu, the night ended with a dance party at one of the art boy’s flats and, of course, this led to my impromptu Swedish lesson where the translations were recorded on my arm.

Teaching is going along fabulously. My trouble-maker student of the little girls can no longer take English classes so it was a tremendous change teaching the girls this week. They were so ridiculously good that they got three stickers each and the promise to do a Hannah Montana song for next class. Amazing how one bad apple can sour the bunch. My high-school girls continue to be one of my favorite classes to teach – it brings out my old SJA self- gossiping about cute boys and fashion. My hot student is well, still ridiculously hot. And then Domingo is still full of wonderful insight and precious anecdotes. I totally have the teaching bug and wonder what will happen next year regarding my career path – will I want to continue teaching or go back to event planning and fundraising…

Speaking of next year – I’m starting to realize that I may not be ready to return to the States in a year’s time. I decided to not fret over it yet. A good friend of mine reminded me that I have over six months in an AMAZING city and to enjoy each day as it comes. I really don’t need to make any decisions until March-ish so again, I’ll keep you posted…

This week is going to be a busy one with classes and trying to get back into a working out routine. Perhaps I won’t have anything fun or funny to write about come next week. But then – it’s me. And even on my most routine days – something bizarre that results into something rather funny is bound to happen. So, I’ll keep you posted…

On the search for my matador (that possesses a fabulous sense of humor),

Linds

Song Suggestions:

(nothing new but just some songs that make me smile)

“Eyes” – Rogue Wave

“Recovering the Satellites” – Counting Crows

“Body and Soul” – Tori Amos

“Closer to You” – The Wallflowers

Taking the Good with the Bad

So it’s getting a tad-bit cold here in Barcelona. As we don’t have central-air or heat in our flat we are bundled up like Eskimos and huddled around our portable heater. Ah! To be college-poor again and live in an old building with horrid utilities…Brings me back to Loyno. Okay, updates, updates and more updates for ya’ll! Where o where to begin…?

Let’s go over the “bad” news first. Nothing horrible and actually – they end up being a bit hilarious so I’ll share. So I finally got sick enough where I had to go to the doctor. The medicine I needed for this sinus infection wasn’t available over the counter so I had to go and get a check-up just to make sure all was okay and get the prescription. So I go to the Hospital/Clinic and once we go thru the language barrier fun, I go and sit in the waiting room. As I’m waiting, every time a person would walk into the room – they would greet the entire room: “Buenos Dias!!!!” And, I kid you not, everyone would respond back: “Buenoooo!!!” - I was like, Que?! Actually, I just stared. Nobody called me out for not chiming in but I was just amazed at how friendly all of these sick people were and wondered if this was waiting room etiquette over here in Espana…Next time I’ll be more prepared. Anyhu, all went well and I’m on the path of recovery…

2nd “bad” story: Spanish classes = FAIL! So Anna and I found a great deal for a month long intensive Spanish course as we felt we needed to brush up and become a bit more fluent. So we go to our first meeting with the school and take our placement tests. The next day I get to class and meet my other two class-mates: a girl from the UK and another girl from Japan. And then I meet my teacher…Oh. My. How one can make their skin color and hair color match to a tee is beyond me. Especially when it’s a nice shade of orange.  So I take my seat and she asks my name (yes, this is all in Spanish) and I say “Lindsay.” “Lindsay Lohan?!” “Um, no.” “Me gusta Lindsay Lohan! Te gusta Lindsay Lohan?! Te gusta Paris Hilton?!?! Me gusta Paris Hilton!!!” So for the REST of class she insisted on calling me Lindsay Lohan. And then she would giggle afterwards. Riiight. So we were discussing how to say if you like something, really like it or hate it, etc. and she made us write about our favorite celebrity and what they would and would not like… So, just to go along with the entire Lohan/Hilton theme- guess who my celebrity was? Well. You can’t have Paris and Lindsay without Brit-Brit! Yes, I wrote a report on Britney Spears – how we are from the same place in the USA (you should have seen my teacher freak) and how she likes to sing but she likes to party even more so! Okay, so this is when it gets a bit worse… She makes us write what we like and dislike and then read it aloud to the class. So it’s the Japanese girl’s turn to go and she mentions how she likes shopping and reading but doesn’t like cleaning her house. Great job…Moving on, right? Um, no. Our lovely teacher decides to ask her why didn’t she say that she likes sushi…Or karaoke? I mean – can we please be a bit more stereotypical and ask her where she keeps her Kimono? So, besides being called Lohan and how ridiculous this teacher was with her views on outside cultures – she just sucked at teaching Spanish. She gave us worksheets and kept texting her lovah while in mid-sentence explaining some pretty basic, simple Espanol. Yeah – I didn’t return. So I continue my search for an affordable Spanish class and, in the meantime, allow my teenage girls to teach me some Spanish slang.

3rd “bad” story(s): Okay, there is one thing to be lost in translation when discussing various topics in Spanish. But to be so confused that you constantly make stupid purchasing decisions…Oh yes, I have become a pro regarding this. It all started when I thought I bought an orange…And it turned out to be some mutant grape-fruit sourness thing. Then I bought grapes…All with seeds. Have you ever tried to pop a grape in your mouth and almost break your teeth because of seeds?! Eck. Okay, then, in honor of Castanyada (I will discuss this later) I thought I was buying the castanyadas that all of my students have been talking about – some type of sweet dessert. Instead I bought yams. Yeah – I don’t know either. And then, to compliment the apple pie that I baked the other day, I went and bought vanilla ice-cream…Um, no – I bought some nasty-ass cinnamon ice-cream instead. Yes – I am a PRO. So the best one yet is the other day. All around the city are these Big Lots-esque stores aka as "Chinese Gift Shops."  You can find all ends and odds stuff there. So I went to buy one of those fire lighters for our stove along with a few other items. I get home and am trying to light the stove but the lighter will not work. I show Anna that I bought this defect lighter and storm back out the apartment to get a new one. I walk into the store and tell the guy – I just bought this and it doesn’t work. He looks at me, takes the lighter, TAKES THE CAP OFF, and fires it up. Again. And Again. Each time he lights it he goes “HaHAHAHA” and then gets quiet. Then lights it up again. And the laughter begins again. After the 5th time, I grab the lighter from him and storm back out… So maybe this isn’t just a lost in translation moment but more so a blonde one? Claro que si.

Okay, so onto fun and good stories!

So three Friday nights ago we decided to venture out to our very first Spanish concert. We discovered a band, The New Raemon, when we were researching Jose Gonzalez. We downloaded some of their music and decided to check them out live. Well, again, my Spanish is nowhere near fluent so I wasn’t quite sure what they were singing about but I knew I liked their sound and the lead singer’s voice. So, Friday night Anna and I decided to pregame before the concert- perhaps a bit too much. So we walk over to the venue which happens to be a double-auditorium for the arts. In one section is where the Barcelona Symphony performs and the other was a sit-down formal concert hall where The New Raemon was playing.  Hmm… Totally not the venue we were expecting. So, we go in, rather giggly and such, to find out that we are some of the youngest people there. The more we survey the crowd, we also notice that we are more so dressed for a concert at say, The House of Blues, than what these people were wearing (very conservative church clothes). Okay, no big deal. Well, the music starts and we are chatting away and signing along and then get real quiet when we notice – NOBODY else is singing along. These two Spanish girls to our right look like they want to kill us and the guy to my left looks like he is praying… So as the music keeps going – people would randomly shout, in perfect unison, Hallelujah… Um yes – The New Raemon is a Christian-Rock band! We went F-ed up to a Spanish Christian Concert!!! Aaaaaaaahhaha! So when we realized it – oh – I mean, I had to stick my head in my purse to somewhat muffle my laughter. We had to leave early as we were going to be kicked-out if we stayed any longer. I mean, still a good band but not what we were expecting… So we head to the bar across the street and continue the night with more drinking.

Okay, so this is where luck comes in: As we walk in we notice that a bunch of guys in tuxedos are sitting around the bar. One comes up to us and bluntly states: “You girls are American, right?” – So we end up sitting down with these guys in tuxes to find out … They all play for Barcelona’s Symphony! As the night progressed, our new friend (the blunt one) Matt offered Anna and I two free tickets to the Saturday showing! Of course, we gladly took him up on the offer and went home excited to have the opportunity to dress up for an evening at the symphony. So Saturday rolls around, we get our tickets and head on into the gorgeous music hall. So, again – our Spanish is not at a fluent level – hand our tickets over to the usher who beings leading us down the center of the hall…to the front row!!! It was crazy! Again, we were the youngest people in the hall by a good twenty or so years but this time, we knew we didn’t have to figure out what was being said and just enjoy the wonderful music. Such a great experience! The best part was when the solo pianist came in and performed a few Beethoven pieces which were amazing…Especially since it was RIGHT in front of my very eyes.

 Later that week we had a farewell party for our friend Jake that was heading back to Cali. He wanted to do everything very Barcelona-esque so we went out in the Barri Gottic area (where we used to live) and bar-hopped around. As it was a Wednesday night – most of the bars were pretty dead so we decided to continue the party down Las Ramblas (the main street in Barcelona) and buy some cervezas off of the Euro/Beer Men and walk around. As we were some of the only people on the street we ended up having cartwheel contests and wheel-barrel races down the main drag. It was rather hilar and I think everyone that passed us just rolled their eyes and muttered “immature Americans.” Either way, I think it was a good send-off.

So last weekend was Halloween which is not a big deal over here. They celebrate Castanyada which literally means The Chestnut that they eat on All Saint’s Day. It’s the only time the bakeries make these sweet, chestnut little treats so of course Anna and I jumped on that bandwagon and bought a dozen of them… Can you see how healthy we are being here? (Beans – we can discuss my food journal later). Anyhu, there are a few clubs that celebrate Halloween mainly to make some $$ off the American expats. We decided to go but wanted to dress up a little bit – not be THOSE obnoxious Americans but still continue on the Halloween tradition over here. So we opted for head-devil and pocket-devil (or fallen angel). Guess who was who. So we got dolled-up for the night and again, here is where the pre-gaming becomes disastrous- we drink and drink and do not leave our place for the clubs until 2AM. Good thing this is a late-night city. Well, as the club we wanted to go to is 208098 stops from our metro station we ended up creating the party on the way to the club. We danced with other fellow Americans in costumes, we took pictures with random passengers on the metro, we had a debate on why Halloween is not hurting Spanish culture and why mullets are gross (okay – that was just me with this one punk Catalan boy) and pretty much – had a huge photo-shoot the entire time. So I guess, in the end, we were THOSE Americans... It was a pretty tame Halloween night but still loads of fun. And carrying around a pitch-fork in a club is a GREAT way to flirt with boys… I highly recommend it.

Okay, a quick cultural digression (as some of you think I JUST party. Pshaw!):

Jake and I visited Tibidabo the day before he left. Soo fun! It’s the other highest point in Barcelona and is considered Barcelona’s other mountain. There are a lot of hiking opportunities and the Temple of the Sacred Heart (Temple del Sagrat Cor) sits right on top. There is also a small amusement park that is the oldest one in Spain- been around since the 1800s!  Also, a  few key scenes of Vicky Christina Barcelona were filmed there. So we visited the Basilica and decided to hike around the area. Some of the BEST views of the Spanish countryside ever. I would look down and see just hills upon hills with these adorable little farm homes tucked in between...

This past Friday we went to the MNAC (The Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya) and explored around. Barcelona has such an amazing art scene – so many great museums and so many areas to help cultivate and preserve the arts. You have to appreciate that. By living in Barcelona post Dallas and being from New Orleans I just know I must live in a city that is culturally alive and aware. To have the access to museums and art galleries and to promote the creative… It’s a great environment.


Teaching is still going great. I have created some great relationships with various students and classes – it’s fun to have the varied ages as I can act differently depending on the class. I can be goofy with my teenage girls, have heart-felt conversations with my eldest student and bond over music and movies with students that are closer in my age. This past week, I had my class with Domingo, my older student, and was teaching him various adjectives used to describe someone’s personality. I gave him a worksheet where I asked him to use the adjectives he learned to describe his wife, kids, grand-kids, former boss, his teacher (me!) and various other people in his life. I have to say – I was rather touched at his kind words regarding his wife. I feel that if I was to give this lesson to a married person back in the States – male or female – that majority would use negative adjectives to describe their mate – perhaps nagging, lazy, unappreciative, etc. Perhaps these would be said jokingly but I just don’t think that we are promoted to be as honest and upfront with our feelings as many of my European friends were raised.  Okay, so the words he used to describe his wife: hard-working (she raised four kids and always had supper ready for them – it’s the hardest job in the book! – and yes, I’m quoting him), sensible (hmm – don’t know many men back home that would call a woman this word…) and affectionate. So of course, cue the “awww” from me. He then follows with:


“This isn’t one of the adjectives we learned today – but I think of my wife as my treasure. I hold her dear to my heart.”


Yes, I just melted and no, I cannot make this up. I just really appreciated Domingo’s honesty and heart-felt description of his wife and how important she is to him. I did ask if he had any single, Matador sons but alas, no.


I could go on with more teaching stories or random excursions and encounters Anna and I embark in on a daily basis. This city is full of characters and they love to interact with us. No complaints. Just funny stories. Anyhu, as Nicole just informed me that it is National Blog Month – I vow to post a blog each week for the month of November! So be on the look-out and hopefully I’ll have some good stories to fill this blank space with.


For those of you that just booked a trip to come see me (Babbsy!) or getting on it (Eri/Meesh/Fanny/Burnsy) – I just can’t wait! There is so much to show ya’ll… So please, come visit!  I’d love to have you.


Still on the search for a romantic matador,
Linds


Song Suggestions (just for you Suze):
Freeway – Aimee Man
Hot Stuff vs. World Hold On – Craig David vs. Bob Sinclair (um yes, I just put a club mix on the list)
Two Weeks – Grizzly Bear


Movie Suggestion:
{500} Days of Summer/ {500} Dias de Junto
I think majority of ya’ll have seen it but oh- I finally got to and loved it. Love, love, love it.

Hugs and Besos

Sooo I guess the bird situation is a good-luck thing for me. HaHa. I say this and knock on wood at the same time but life has been really good and I don’t know if it’s the cooler weather making everyone more frisky and fun or just that I have this new sense of good luck thanks to the birds. Nothing fabulous – but some fun stories for ya’ll…

Okay, so I met my latest student this past Wednesday. And um, he is really hot. Like...So hot that I turned bright red when I answered the door to greet him for his first class. My boss did not warn me about this…And they don’t teach you what to do when your student is hot- it wasn’t one of those “What to do in case of…hot student. And go!” Anyhu, he is 32, Catalan and has the most dreamy face to stare at. So I am showing him back into the classroom and totally pull a number while tripping over this chair – yep, way to be. Moral of the story is that I think this may be the ONLY time in my life I will say this but I am GLAD he has a girl-friend! Really!!! Because, I don’t know if I could be just teacher to this guy if I didn’t have other reasons holding me back. Of course we had a lot in common and he’s sarcastic (this made me soo happy as sarcasm is easily lost in translation here – you should hear me constantly covering my ass by saying: Esta una broma! (It’s a joke)) and wow, he's just wonderful to look at but I have never been the girl to hit on a guy that is taken and I don’t plan on starting that now. So (hot) student/teacher works for me!

Some other funny teaching stories… I have been totally bribing my bratty little girls with stickers so that they will behave…And at least they know what the word “sticker” means now in English. I’m trying to work Hannah Montana into a lesson plan soon so that they will continue being good…I don’t know how long stickers can hold them! Oh, and you have to love the honesty that my high-school girls possess. They walk into the classroom the other day and look at me, kind of studying me. So one turns to the group and says something fast and cryptic (or in Spanish – yeah, nowhere near fluent) and they all start shaking their heads in agreement. So I’m like: “This is not fair, what did you say about me?!?” So they all start laughing and go: “Do you really want to know? We think your hair looks so much better down than in a pony-tail.” HaHa. Does this happen to high-school teachers back home – the honest critiques of their students? They already pegged me as a girly-girl and like to copy my accent – so if you are in Barcelona and you hear some teenage girls walking around going, “OMG ya’ll… I think Edward Cullen is like the hottest thing ev-er!” – You can bet those are MY students. And yes, I did teach them “OMG” and “XOXO”. Oh, I also taught my hot student the importance of the words “classy” and “trashy” (Ex: Classy = Kate Winslet. Trashy = Amy Winehouse. Classy/Trashy Nights = Bachlorette parties with my friends – haha, joking…Didn’t want to confuse him with the “contradiction.”) They want to speak the language in a comfortable, natural form so I’m teaching them your everyday needed words, right?

Moving on…

I don’t think I’ve mentioned this before but we live below elephants. Or Noah’s Arc carpenters. Dear Lord these people are nuts. It will be 4AM and all of a sudden I hear someone hammering stuff above me. We’ll be sitting in the living room working on lesson plans at 11PM and there is someone having a fung-shei party above us. It’s nuts and it’s so constant that we are almost becoming immune to it. This Saturday morning was the WORST as I was really hung-over (surprise!) and I wake up to a freaking drill going to town. Who drills stuff at 10AM on Saturday?!?!

Speaking of hangovers and such… We had the most sketchy liquor buying experience this past Saturday night. So Friday night we ended up having an impromptu party at our casa (side note: I forgot how much fun the drinking game Kings is…And yes, I am back in college). So something that was really supposed to be pre-gaming before heading to the club ends up with me crawling to my bed at 5AM. So Anna and I decided to be chill Saturday night and grab dinner and then some wine and watch bootleg versions of whatever television show we wanted to slowly become addicted to… So we go to the convenience store at around midnight and they tell us that we can’t buy alcohol past 11 (which blows my mind as how party city this place is). So the guy tells us to go to this convenience store down the street as they can sell it there… So Anna and I are discussing why can’t this one sell it to us but this other one can and this is so confusing, yadda yadda… Well, we get to this store and as Anna goes to grab the bottle of wine this little, old man pops out of nowhere – grabs my purse – and is yelling at us in Spanish to hurry it up and throw the bottle of wine in my bag. So, in shock, we follow his orders and then just stand there. He runs up to the front where the register is and motions us to come over and charges us for the wine (still hiding out in my purse) and then basically pushes us out of the store. Um, still not sure what happened or if this was right or wrong but I kind of think it was illegal – and pretty hilarious.

So this past Sunday we went to go watch the Saints/Giants game at our fave sports pub and invited a bunch of our American friends to come cheer on the amazing Drew Brees and Co. So we ALSO invited our Catalan friends – but only one took us up on this offer as they really could care less about American football. But SO happy he came as he added to the entertainment of the night with his questions and observations and all of us trying to teach him about the art of American football. So we are watching the game and he leans over to my friend Adam and goes – “So number 42, did he just tickle the guy with the ball?” We lost it. Adam then had to explain the massive difference between “tickle” and “tackle” and that there is no tickling in football (say it like: there is no crying in baseball). Another great question was about the "two teams per team": the offense and then the attack team, right? Love it! Attack. Defense. Same difference! But the best was when we scored an amazing touchdown towards the end of the game and we are all yelling and cheering along and above all of the hootin and holllerin I can hear: “Bien! Bien! Bien” and proper golf clapping to go with it. Aaah!!! Too damn presh for words. Definitely a bonus for such a wonderful game. Oh – and as planned – I DID karaoke afterwards… Even though we won, I still sang My Humps. The video has been destroyed and it may be almost as bad as my Baby Got Back performance right before I left Dallas. Either way, I need to stop karaoking songs regarding how large my butt is because all I end up doing is my stupid butt shake for ½ the song. The madness needs to end.

This week I’m super excited as we are going to our first Spanish concert. This band, The New Raemon is rather folk-rock … Don’t even remember how we discovered them but really enjoy their music and thought – why not?! I did get to see Jose Gonzalez this past Monday at this AWESOME venue and now have my concert kick going. PS – if you ever get the opportunity to see Jose Gonzalez in a small venue – you must. What an amazing show. What an amazingly talented guy. Wow. Okay, so even MORE exciting than Spanish concerts…Guess what Saturday is reserved for? 500 Days of Summer!!! If you know me, you know I have bitched and bitched about not getting to see this film as it was released right before I moved to Spain where – I found out- was (supposedly) going to be one of the only European cities to not receive it. My obsession with this film stems back from Sundance because if my mom and I went the 2nd weekend of the festival, that was one of the films we were going to see… And buhleave me – I wanted to see it so much more over this one we saw on this nomadic tribe of Indian grandmothers… So anyhu, I’m walking in the metro last week and I pass a poster… I literally back it up, do a double-take and see the advertisement for the movie! I start clapping. Yes, clapping AT the poster IN the metro and proceed to call Anna to start shrieking. So – for those that have seen the film – I can’t wait to discuss it with ya’ll after I get to FINALLY see it. Hooray!

I think that’s it for now. So much happens and Anna and I will say how I need to blog about it…hence the reason I am trying to be better about posting these more often. I’m glad ya’ll read about our redic life and I hope you get some laughs into your day from these stories. I do miss everyone very much so. Especially this week – I received such big news from 4 different friends – some great news and some really sad news - and it made me upset that I couldn’t just drive over to their house and give them a needed hug and a red velvet cupcake or squeal in delight with the good news that makes you smile from ear to ear. It’s hard to be at a long distance in communication. I appreciate all of you that email me – really…It means a lot as I want you to know what’s going on with me, but even more so – I want to know what is going on with you. So thank you so much for taking the time out and typing me the sweet notes that ya’ll do. I have some more potential visitors coming so that makes me super excited about this coming year – I will be delighted to see such pretty, familiar faces in my new home!

XOXO!

Still searching for a matador that appreciates AMERICAN football,
Linds

Song Suggestions:

Down the Line – Jose Gonzalez

Relator – Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johannson

Hands Clean – Alanis Morsette (old school but forgot how much I looove this song)

El Saben Aquel Que Diu – The New Raemon

Movie Suggestions:

Broken English

Such a good, little indie jewel that I somewhat related with. Parker Posey is fabulous and the French guy…I mean, this is why I keep gravitating towards them! Loved it.

Under the Spanish Sun

It’s as if I found some magic time-warp and have found myself back in college. Okay, imagine this: You wake up around 2PM on Sunday with a bit of a throbbing pain in your head and feeling super dehydrated. You stumble out of bed and trip over your clothes, shoes, purse, etc. lying on the floor. While you bend down to move the items to the side you notice mysterious bruises on your legs. Standing up, the pain gets a bit more intense as you stumble down the hallway into the kitchen. Big mistake. There was a war in the kitchen. About ten or twelve empty glasses are strewn across the counter, some still with bits of stale alcohol left in them. There are empty large handles of cheap vodka and tequila sitting near the trash (but not in the trash – that would make too much sense). And then you have the dried Raman noodles sticking to the stove. As you slowly back out of the kitchen you notice something hanging on the wall…Wait, is that a poster? For a musical? It’s in Spanish? Que?! Now into the living room you notice more empty glasses in random places, weird marks on the wall and a random airline blanket lying on the couch. So this is when you think to yourself: I am 25 years old. WTF.

Okay, so this was the scene I experienced two weekends ago. So worth it – every bit of that headache – the evening that led to that next morning was a great one that made me realize I may never get too old for nights that resemble a typical night back at Loyola. But in all seriousness, this city brings out your inner-party girl that you thought went buh-bye once you left your college town. The festivals, the cheap booze, the ability to walk from bar to apartment at ease and then you have the people – it’s just a great equation for a good time. I’m also working as many hours as I took in classes so perhaps that could be a bit of the reason for my digress in actions but whatevs – you only live once. And I’m going to have a good time while doing it.

So new updates! I have more students! One of my new students is a sixty-two year old man who is just a doll. He is learning English as he wants to be able to better communicate with his grandkids. So cute! I love going to teach him and have discussions on the young versus the old and how great of a cook his wife is. I teach a few young ‘ens – my rambunctious, little girls (side story: one didn’t like that she couldn’t be the “last monkey jumping on the bed” for the activity we were doing and seriously went over to the window shades and pulled them down from the wall. Um, yeah.) to my little 11 year old boy to my sixteen-year-old girls (totally bonded over Twilight with them. I’m officially cool in their eyes now. Phew). And then the other ½ of my classes are for adults – ranging from those that are just learning how to say: “Hi! How are you?” to my advanced classes. The adults are so much fun – one of my classes consists of five women that are all in their 30s and 40s and so we go off on shopping and men. Good times. I really enjoy this constant human interaction. I have found a true love in teaching – of course it’s a bit different than teaching back home in the states with a full class of 20 students but it’s definitely giving me the taste for it and I truly enjoy it!

As for fun… Well, there has been much of it – I need to get better at updating this blog as I can’t remember all of the details from each event but here is my attempt. Three weekends ago was a big festival (what’s new?) called La Merce. It celebrates the coming of Fall and The Lady of Mercy/Mary. Pretty much the town shuts down to have tons of free concerts and parades and fireworks galore! Anna and I went to see a very famous tradition in one of the main squares (actually, the square where we used to live!) during the festival. In English terms – it is known as The Human Tower. Think cheerleading-esque pyramids but quite more dangerous and taller with men, women and children dressed in traditional Catalan costumes making up the pyramids. We got some great pictures and videos which I will post on my shutterfly account soon. It was amazing to see them build these statues with no safety nets or harnesses… I was pretty amazed. The towers are actually a little controversial with people here as – although it’s a great tradition and very impressive to witness – the danger that occurs when one tower goes down is unbearable as the top of the pyramid is a five-year-old boy or girl. Of course, we did not see this happen and I have been asking around as this is usually more of a freak accident if a tower were to fall… It’s rather hard to put into words so hopefully my pictures will paint a better picture…

As for other festival fun – we enjoyed a lot of the free concerts. There was jazz in the main park which was really great. A perfect opportunity for people watching as there were tons of hippies near where we were sitting doing some weird interpretive dances – Anna and I ended up capturing some of it on video – if you haven’t seen our infamous Rolling Hippies video on facebook, you must take a look now. I know some of ya’ll have reported back and said it wasn’t that hilarious but I think you were just jealous that some dirty hippies didn’t roll into you. Anyways, this is typical of Anna and me – to think something is so damn hilarious and well, we are the only ones laughing. On Friday night we went and saw The Go! Team perform in one of the plazas – good fun and then Saturday night was The Hives concert which was literally three blocks from our apartment. Such an amazing live show – one of those concerts where you leave and go, wow – I really like that band.

So last weekend, as I don’t work Fridays, Anna and I decided we would take the opportunity to do a day trip outside of Barcelona to Montserrat. Montserrat is an hour outside of Barcelona and holds the Santa Maria de Montserrat monastery upon some rather strange but beautiful jagged mountains. To actually get to the city you have to take a cable car or a special train known as a funicular to get to the top. The monastery holds a rather famous statue of the Virgin Mary holding Baby Jesus – the statue is carved out of a black wood so most refer to this statue as the Black Madonna or La Morenta. Legend has it that the Benedictine monks could not move the statue to construct their monastery, choosing to instead build around it. The statue's sanctuary is located at the rear of the Cathedral, where an altar of gold surrounds it making it a very popular site of pilgrimage.

The cathedral is one of the most gorgeous, gothic ones I have seen. The parameter is surrounded by hanging candles giving it a very luminous feel and the walls are decorated in these beautiful blue and gold colors. Outside, carved into the mountain side, is one of the largest candle offerings I have ever seen. Hundreds upon hundreds of candles were lit – and to think that this was just from the past two days – made me realize the need for prayer and the peace it gives to those who come here looking for that. It was a very special moment for me.

While living in Spain, I haven’t been as good about going to mass. Mainly because the times I have attempted, I have been super lost as the services have been in Catalan or the only mass time was at 10AM and I was not in the right state of mind to go (see first paragraph). This being said, I feel as if I had more spiritual moments while here than I did when I was going to mass every Sunday back in Dallas. I owe a lot of this to exploring and traveling and visiting these amazing, beautiful sanctuaries. Also, I owe a lot of that to living with Anna and our constant conversations regarding religion and spirituality. Some of you know that Anna is Korean and has had a Christianity and Buddhist background when it comes to faith. She is one of the most open-minded people I know when it comes to discussions on religion – never trying to push a belief down your throat – but just asking the right questions that makes me stop and really reflect. So while visiting these Cathedrals and churches, I try to take those moments to pray. After I finished praying at the Cathedral in Montserrat, Anna and I left for our hiking adventure up the mountains. As we were hiking she said: “I was really in awe when you went to go pray. I just watched you kneel down in the middle of this huge church and pray and I thought to myself – how cool is it that Lindsay can go to any cathedral in the world and feel comfortable to pray there." - Of course, her telling me this made me really reflect on how blessed I am that I have always had the opportunity to freely express my religious views and actions. Maybe I didn’t realize how special it is that I CAN go into these historic churches/cathedrals and, while majority of the patrons come to marvel at the beauty of the architecture and the rich history that built this monument, I see it in a completely other form as well – a chance to allow myself a moment of peace and reflection.

Okay, sorry to digress and I hope that nobody takes this as me pushing my faith on them or me boasting about faith or whatnot – I just wanted to share what made this day so special to me and I hope that we can all find people in our lives to help us reflect and ask those hard questions that makes us grow.

As for the hiking, that was another great part of my day! I always say this but when you are on top of a mountain, I don’t know how you can doubt there is a God. Wow. What breathtaking views of the Spanish countryside. We ended up taking some trail where we were the only people around for a while so we had a fun photo shoot of us jumping around on top of the mountain – I hope you enjoy the silliness of these pictures. All in all – my trip to Montserrat was great and I wish I could take you there! I would love to go back as we missed the boys’ choir performance and we didn’t make it to the top of another peak where an old chapel remains.
As for other happenings – we went to a Catalan BBQ this past Saturday. It was tons of fun and a great chance for me to practice my Spanish as only two people there spoke English! It’s kind of interesting to see how friendships can grow even though you really don’t have a language in common. We all have so many things in common – love for music, traveling, food – I mean, they even busted out some Texas Hold ‘Em (which I did a disappointing job at proving my poker skills. Sorry America.) – but in short, if you only have a small vocabulary to work with – it’s hard to go into more in-depth conversations. Still, new friends are friends and when mixed with good food and beer – it works.
Oh! And good news – we found an aaaamazing sports bar that shows NFL on Sundays. They also do karaoke right afterwards so I decided I really like this combination of football and karaoke. We plan to go next week to watch the Saints kick the Giant’s ass – and then I plan to karaoke some “Saints Go Marching In” after that win. If a loss – maybe “My Humps”? I don’t know…I still have time to make this important decision.

What else…Oh yes, we finished all 5 seasons of Weeds. What a frickin great show. Found a site that shows The Office and yes, I cried for Pam and Jim’s wedding. Do they make guys like Jim out there? Seriously.

No more deaf men. British bartender is a no-go for various reasons – let’s go with one wanky eye as the main reason. I still like to dance on elevated surfaces and with chairs. Still a lover of live music and jealous of all the great shows going into Dallas now that I left (Wilco!!! Phoenix!!!) I am obsessed with Shakira’s SheWolf song as I can howl just like her. Yes, I think that sums up my life! I am still working on all of you fabulous people to come visit me – I really can’t put into words how much fun Barcelona is – how amazing this city is: the food and sangria – the Gaudi – the beautiful people… No complaints over here.

Oh wait! No – there is ONE complaint. The birds. Okay, I can’t believe I am writing about this but it’s so redic and hilar that I just must. Alright so we were walking back from the beach – this was about 3 weeks ago – and Anna and I are just chit-chatting away and she all of a sudden yells: OhmiGawd! – So I’m staring at her and that’s when I notice…bird poop. All down her hair. So we both start screaming and take her beach towel and wipe it away. So remembering Under the Tuscan Sun – I tell her this is a sign of good luck – a good omen – when a bird well, shits on you. So let’s fast forward to Montserrat and me standing in the middle of the courtyard snapping pictures. And then feeling something land on my shoulder. Anna looks at me – I look at her. And then the freak out beings. Yes, I was shatted on by a bird as well.

So what are the odds that BOTH of us – not even a week apart – get shitted on by birds?! I have been doing so much research on it to find out if it really is good luck (according to most Italians – it is) or bad (Korean culture – it is) or just something people say to make you feel better because, wow, you got shitted on by a bird. We decided to take the good-luck approach with a mix of a good sense of humor.

Till next time…
Searching for a God-loving Matador,
Lin-Say (just as my students pronounce my name…and as past coworkers did minus the “what”)

Music Suggestions:
“Keepsake” – State Radio
“Your Rocky Spine” – Great Lake Swimmers

“Lay There and Hate Me” – Ben Harper and Relentless7

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be. - Douglas Adams

Work Hard, Play Harder

Hey Ya’ll!

Que Pasa? Okay, I need to get better at updating these blog posts as I feel that so much happens that I forget about ½ of it when I start writing. Life has slowed down a lil bit since the traveling has stopped…But I still have good stories. No worries there. Boring blog – this will not be! Or at least I’ll try by darn bestest on that promise.

So good news… I got a job! It’s only part-time for now and I have some other opportunities with other schools so we will see, we will see. I teach for a company that specializes in personalized classes – so I do some of my classes in homes and some at businesses. Currently, I am teaching English to the faculty at Barcelona’s University, one ten year-old boy and then a group of four girls – two are six and two are eight and OMG are they freaking hyper or what! It’s really fun – I enjoy the varied ages and levels so it doesn’t make a day dull. I will keep you posted on whatever other job comes my way and/or if I end up making the 2nd job into one for a bakery…I think it would be so great to learn some Spanish desserts so when I return back to the US I just may have to open up my own bakery. Hmm…

Alright, now onto story time…

I have another deaf admirer.

I don’t really know why deaf men are attracted to me – I have never encountered this situation before so maybe it’s because they can’t hear my voice and obnoxious, loud laugh?! I don’t know. Anyways, he was rather older and his friend (who was a MATADOR!!! But, um…gay. No dice for me.) had to keep translating what he was saying. He kept offering me champagne and told me I had a pretty American face because it was long (idkwtf that means)… I decided that if I ever need to boost my self-esteem, I should perhaps walk on the campus of a hearing-impaired school and see what would occur. At least I can sign “Happy Birthday” and “Full of Baloney” – what more would I need to learn?

Anna and I have been exploring our neighborhood a bit – we have already found a few bars that we are starting to frequent and have began the start of the long-lasting bond between a regular and their bartender. My fave bar right now (besides Alfa- that really nifty one that plays 70s/60s R&B, Funk) is this one called Republic. Simple reason why I like it – the bartender is British with glasses. Um, hi! I’m making Anna go back with me this weekend. TBC. We also plan to hit up this absolutely sketchy looking bar that is in crawling distance of our apartment – it’s always blasting music and its dark with black lights everywhere. I sense a good time.

This past weekend Anna’s best friend Lillie and her husband Brad stayed with us and explored the city. I posted pics up on facebook and shutterfly so you can see all of the fun touristy things we did (Montjuic, Park Guell, etc.). We went out Saturday to this bar called Chupitos which means “shot” in Spanish. Basically, it’s a shot bar with a bazillion fun shots you can order for only 2 EUROS! And, for those of you who like to make fun of my shot taking skills (ahem, Loyno gals) I did a GREAT job as these shots were really tasty. The kinds that you think aren’t very strong until you walk out of the bar and realize that you are prettttty trashed. Anyways, the shots we did were the Harry Potter, some kind of green absinthe-minty one that you had to do thru a straw and then breath in fire after (something like that), cherry bomb w/gummy bears, Pop Rocks shot and then we made the guys do the Monica Lewinsky shot. I can’t even post ½ of the pictures regarding that one… But it was quite hilar. Of course we went to Alfa to dance the night away post chupitos. While there, Anna and I made friends with these Catalan boys…

SIDE LESSON: Catalan is actually the “main language” of Barcelona. The Catalans are different than a Spaniard – and they will let you know this fact. Basically, the Catalan people were the ones that formed Barcelona and throughout history – starting with the Roman Empire to Franco’s rule – they have had their rights stripped from them time and time again. These rights included not being able to speak their own language (which is a mix of Spanish, French and Portuguese). Anyways, since freedom of speech was given back to the Catalans just about 30 years ago – they, rightfully so, have a lot of pride and like to differentiate themselves from those that are Spanish. BECAUSE of this (and why I’m pulling an Erin and going off on a history tangent) whenever Anna and I talk to someone who is Spanish, they warn us of the Catalan boys – that these boys will say anything just to get us into bed, that they are mama’s boys, they are rude, etc. And then you have these Catalan boys that just simply sum it up and say that the Spanish are jealous of them. Interesting relations between the two. Okay, so back to meeting these Catalan boys…

So we befriend them, of course (despite Spaniards warnings!) and decide – as the bar shuts down – that we are not done partying – so we head to one of the boy’s terrace. So by this point – Lindsay is pretty smashed. The voice has gone up like 10 octaves, I’m getting all mushy and lovey with everyone I know and I’m trying to do all of this while speaking Spanish. So as we are going along our walk – one of the guys who I was talking with earlier – decided to head off home since the sun was coming up (minor detail). So, to be super impressive – I decide to tell him in Spanish that we need to get together to cook – as he is ½ Italian and was bragging to me that he is a fabulous cook.

But wait- I don’t really say this.

Instead of saying “Yo necesito tu vas cocina en mi casa con mi” (I need you to come COOK at my house with me) I say – “Yo necesito tu vas cachondo en mi casa con mi”… Okay, this translates into “I need you to come HORNY with me at my house.” Okay – so all of the guys burst out laughing and I’m like – “Oh dear…No. I said something…OMG, what did I SAY?!” Seriously – I just need to practice my Spanish when sober. I mean, how does one mix up cooking and horny?!

I do.

Besides the job search, partying and exploring I have been busy with one other thing: True Blood. OmiGod! Am I obsessed or what? I was very doubtful that I would enjoy a TV show set in Louisiana with vampires and lots of sex but who am I kidding – what about this formula doesn’t make for great TV? I have not been so into a show like this since Sex in the City – and YOU KNOW how I feel about Carrie Bradshaw and friends. So Anna (who is the reason for my addiction) and I killed the two seasons of True Blood in less than 2 weeks. We weren’t set out to beat any world records; we were just in it for the sport. Please, if you have not seen this show, consider watching it… It’s sooo good and I can’t stress that enough. So now that we have finished True Blood and I can only take so much of Dawson’s Creek in Spanish (um, yes – that is a huge hit over here) Anna decided to get me obsessed with another show…Weeds. Oh so good! We just started Season I but I’m sure we’ll kill all seasons by next month. I have faith in us.

Now I haven’t been rotting my brain out with HBO/Showtime fabulousness this entire time we have been cultured chicas as well! I’m purchasing this special art pass that allows you to go to majority of the museums in Barcelona for 6 months for as many times as you want – just 20 Euros. Pretty nice. Also, there are so many musicals, ballets and other shows going on here so we have been trying to do a show once a month. This month we went to see Rock the Ballet. LOVED it! Rasta Thomas is a ridiculously talented young dancer who created this troupe – The Bad Boys of Dance. So what they do is mix modern, hip-hop and classical ballet into fun dances (think CENTER STAGE!) and use Michael Jackson, Prince, U2 and Coldplay songs to dance to. It’s fabulous. Plus, all of the guys, I don’t care if they are more flaming than a bonfire, are so freakin hot! Aaah! Anna and I were screaming and dancing in our seats (something we have perfected on our long road trips) the entire show. Thank GOD that we weren’t the only ones going nuts. It’s great watching a live show in Spain as the audience is so attentive, respectful and they LOVE to clap along to whatever music is playing. It makes the entire experience that more enjoyable. So here are two links I found showing some of what we saw. Rock the Ballet – this one shows clips of some of the dances we saw – really poor quality but you get the idea. Man in the Mirror – this is Mr. Rasta himself doing his thing. So freaking talented. And hot.
So I think that’s it for now… Anna and I plan to practice some of our new moves we have copied from Rock the Ballet tonight at the club. It will be fabulous. Maybe a little interpretative solo from me… I’m sure I’ll find my inner-ballerina.

Missss you allllll sooooo muuuuch!

Searching for a Matador that likes to dance,
Linds

Song Suggestions:
- With or Without You – U2 (best performance of RTB)
- Too Young – Phoenix (best part of Lost in Translation – see below)
- While You Wait for the Others – Grizzly Bear
- Bad Things – Jace Everette (in tribute to my obsession with True Blood)

Movie Suggestion:
- Lost in Translation – I forgot how great this movie is. Just watched it and fell back in love with Bill Murray and Scarlett’s relationship.

Book Suggestion:
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – if you like mystery thrillers – read it. Good twist. Pretty intense.