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