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.