Happy Halloween!!!

Ok I love my Aunt Lisa for sending me American candy. Warning, eating a bucket full of candy in 1 sitting is not advisable.

So its been a long time since I blogged and I think I´m going to get kicked off the computer soon because its 9PM. I had a great weekend with Ana and Deanna is giong to be here in 45 minutes for the 4 day weekend. Spain is amazing and really knows how to make the most out of holidays.

One thing I forgot about my last real blog. After the missing juice incident Monday. Tuesday morning when I came home from my run, my roommates were eating breakfast and I started to too. Then I noticed that my new juice had been opened and half emptied. So I took it out, poured me a glass in front of them and didn´t say anything. There haven´t been any missing food complaints since. We´ll see how this all goes!!

Ok so Wednesday October 24th I went to work, came home ate, and got ready for some private English classes. I have 2 hours, 1 to Valentina, Victor´s 10 year old cousin, who I met when I was here before, and then to her mom, Conchi, who doesn´t know any English. I just helped Valentina study for an exam she had the next day, but with Conchi it was difficult. I had no books, no plan, nothing. We decided we would get a book and continue from there. Then after that, I went and had a conversation with one of the teachers from my school María Angeles. She wanted to do and English-Spanish Exchange, and I said I could only do an English-€uro Exchange. She agreed. I actually had a really nice time talking to her, and getting to know her. She has a fabulous house and is really nice. Even though she paid me for an hour I was there an hour and a half. When I left it was POURING DOWN RAIN and she let me borrow and umbrella, but I still got home soaking wet. Then I talked with Zore a bit, ate dinner and watched Kyle XY with my roommates. They are addicted.

Thrusday Oct 25th, I went to work and in the after noon, probably did some shopping and cleaned my room because my friend Ana was coming to visit. She arrived around 7, I went to meet her at the bus station, we came home, made dinner and then got ready to go out with my roommates. We went with Rosa and Zore and their friend Rocío who picked us up in her car. We went to this really cool bar in the Plaza de Toros, the bullfighting ring. They had good tapas and the girls know the owners and a lot of the people who work there. We tried to leave several times, but everytime we did, somebody they knew stopped us, invited us to a round of something and we stayed a little longer. There is something to say about having flirty, hott friends who dress to kill. Then we were finally able to leave and went closer to the city center, and finally went home. I wanted to go home before we changed locations but I was the minorty. It was really the first time I´ve been out since I´ve been here, so it was fun.

Ok now I have to go pick up Deanna, so, till next time, a bit is better than nothing. Oh PS, I tried to upload the video of Pepa dancing twice and it didn´t work. Sorry. I don´t know what the deal is. It´ll give you and excuse to come visit!

Fotos de Personas

Here are some pictures of the main character´s in my story. A face to put to the name´s I´ve written before. If there is anyone else I´ve mentioned that you would like to see, please let me know, and I´ll be glad to put them up.

My guitar teacher, Antonio Fernández Galvez de Moya:

Old roommates, L-R, Aurora, who now lives in Bilbao, northern Spain, Magdalena, who now lives in the Canary Islands, and Alicia, who lives in Madrid:

Patricia, Raul´s wife and Adriana: Emilio, Victor´s dad, sitting on his throne in his castle:
María Josefa, or Pepa, Victor´s mom, dancing Sevillanas, video soon to follow:
Víctor Manuel:

Nachete, Victor´s nephew: Marina and Alicia, Victor´s niece and sister-in-law:
Nacho, (middle) Victor´s older brother at his Master´s graduation ceremony:
Raúl, Victor´s oldest brother and Victor, in Pepa´s house in La Herradura:
Adriana and me, Victor´s other niece, Raul´s daughter:

Fotos de la Vista

So here are some photos of the view from my balcony.

Fotos del Trabajo

These are photos of the teachers room where I work and the view from it.

Fotos de la Casa

Kitchen and terrace thing. So uploading these takes a long, long time and I´ve been here 1.5 hrs and only done these so far. I wanted to do a lot more interesting things but hope you enjoy this for now. If you would like to see some by email, let me know. I will try to get up picture of the view and people tomorrow!

Zore´s room:

Adri´s room:

Bathroom, now it looks different too:

This is the room I didn´t want, now Rosa´s room, which now looks a lot better and I am a little jealous. But as you will see the views cannot compare. Also, these are uploading bottom to top, so I dont know how to change that....

This is my room:

Le Week-end

So Friday October 19th, I didn´t have to go to my first scheduled period of work so I was able to wake up on my own, shower, make a big breakfast of scrambled eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, cheese, and go to work. I ran into Emilio on the way out the door, chatted and ran to catch the bus.

School is going pretty well. Actually I don´t even know what to say, the kids are terrible. But I think I am doing a good job of pretending to know what I am doing. I had 3 periods on Friday, one with the typical noisy kids, trying to yell over them. Also it seems that the only English they know is drug related or contains the F-word, while highly offensive to me, the teacher says they are just being kids. For 2nd period the teacher told me they were quiter and more serious. I was thankful untill I had to start asking them questions. This by far was the best behaved class, silent, respectful, but they didn´t speak anything, no English, no Spanish, nothing. I guess there is no happy medium. Then I had my last period with a new teacher for the first time. She was being kinda wierd with me, not really giving me a lot of help or telling me what she wanted me to do, but I just decided to go for it, I´m pretty good and winging things. At the end of the day she said I did a very good job and will make a very good teacher. It was great to have some positive feedback.

We got done at 2:30 and I rode down with her and another teacher, and then took a bus home. I made it back in record time, 3:30, ate and chilled with Adri, watching TV. Rosa and Zore decided to go home for the weekend, again, so when Adri went to work, I think I went grocery shopping, I don´t even remember what I did untill 9 or so when Victor arrived from Málaga. Oh wait, I used the internet for a bit at the Centro, and on my way back, ran into some girls from my program that I had met. They were meeting people to get churros and chocolate and even though I was going home to get ready, I decided to hang out with people and chat. It was fun and good to hang out with people! So then at 9, Victor arrived and we went to a party/ thing that one of his friends was having. It was a discussion of a new master´s program they were participating in/starting with drinks and appetizers afterward. We, in typical Rachel and Victor style, arrived just in time for the food, missing the talk. We visited there for a while and his 2 friends were sooo happy to seem me back in Spain. I also talked with this English guy Steve, who once worked as a clown in a ghetto area of Granada. Some of the little kids told him, "Hey clown, give me your wig or I´ll kill you." At least my kid´s haven´t threatened my life yet....

Afterwards we drove around and visited the Alhambra, came back home, ate some more and went to bed.

Saturday morning, I woke up, got ready and went out with Victor for a walk. It was a beautiful day in Granada. Even though the last time I was here in October it was freezing, this time you never know what the weather is going to be like. Its cold in the morning and evenings, and freezing at night, who knows... Well this weekend it was pretty much warm all around, so it was so beautiful to just be out, walking around, enjoying Granada and the sunshine. We went shopping to buy Victor some nicer work clothes and then went home for a really delicious lunch with Victor´s parents and then took the mandatory siesta. Then in the afternoon we went out again and spent way too long in El Corte Inglés, shopping for jeans for Victor. It took forever because all the people in Spain are shorter than Victor, and there wern´t any pants long enough, or if they did fit, they looked like girls´ jeans. Or if they were a good American brand like Levi´s they cost at least 80€, or 100 dollars. I don´t know how long it took us, but we finally found some and went home. We rested, dropped off the stuff, and Emilio played the song "Granada" for me, which apparently I should know. Then Pepa showed me how well she can dance "Sevillanas." I took a video, and plan to post it as soon as possible. Then we went out again at 9 to watch the rugby world cup final England vs. South Africa. All the Irish pubs were packed but we finally found a space in one. Near the end, some of my friends from the program came and met up with us. South Africa won, who I was rooting for, and then we went to meet Michelle and her friend at a differnt tapas place. It was also packed, because by now it was 11 or so, but we managed to get 1 round for 8 or so people, chatted and then hit the road. The girls were going to a botellón at Hipercor, which means, buy alcohol at a store and drink it in a designated place, Hipercor. Unfortunately, that happens to be really far away, and since Victor and I knew what we would be missing, unlike them, we passed and went and met up with the friends who we were supposed to watch the game with but could never find. We stayed at Estrella, the bar till about 2 or so and then went home, made sandwiches and went to bed.

Sunday I woke up at 9 for some reason, and got ready and went to church. It had been about a month since I´ve been to church and over 2 years since I went to this church. I was nervous because, I was,,, new people, small talk, being alone, etc,,, but I went anyway. When I walked in some of the first people I saw were 2 old friends Miguel and Courtney. I haven´t kept in touch with them since I left so it was a shock for us all to see eachother. We chatted a bit before the service, and then it started. Chruch was ok. It was good to sing. They sing the older contemporary songs, that I hadn´t sang in a long time and the message was ok. I tried to small talk for as long as I could before leaving afterwards as Courtney and Miguel are pretty popular and then left. I called Victor, went home, changed clothes, and met him and some friends at a bar for tapas. More and more friends showed up, and in the end we had a pretty good group there. I was getting hungry for lunch, the tapas were not doing it for me, and even though all his friends are really nice, I sometimes get left out of the conversation, so I was getting in a bad mood. We were there for a while, then Victor and I left to go get some real lunch. We ate at Il Gondoliere and I had Spaghetti Negro, a seafood pasta dish, with black pasta because it is dyed with octopus ink. It was delicious. Then we walked home, took naps and then Victor had to get ready to go back to Malaga. On his way out, we stopped by Nacho and Alicia´s house to visit and drop off some of the clothes Alicia had bought for the kids from Victor´s company. We visited for a while and Nachete gave me an art creation he had made. Then Victor dropped me back off at home and left. No one was in my house so I went out for a walk. I just walked around for about an hour and stopped in some of the touristy shops, called my sister, got pooped on by a bird and walked home. I made a little salad and watched Camera Café, a funny tv show that is Emilio´s favorite and he told me I should watch. It was pretty funny, and I went to bed around 11.

Monday I slept in till 10:30, a miracle! Then I laid in bed, reading this English magazine, that Alicia had picked up at the beach, looking for articles I could use for English classes. I leisurely got up, went for a run and left my keys with Emilio. When I got back Pepa´s mom, Victor´s grandmother was there, and since I hadn´t seen her since I´ve been back, I stopped by to visit. When I went home Adri, had the day off and was watching tv. We watched it together, the 2 girls came home, I showered and then made lunch. Rosa was really upset because she came home to find her milk and juice carton empty in the trash and some dirty dishes. She was telling all this to me, when I hadn´t even eaten at home the whole weekend. So apparently it was Adri. Later we talked and I said it wasn´t me, so at least she knows, but it seems as though a conflict-free year of cohabitation is just a pipe dream. Later that afternoon I talked with my dad, used the internet, came home and cleaned the house. Mondays are my day to clean, and although I choose Monday at first because it is my day off, and I will actually have time to clean, I also realized that the last day anyone else cleans is Thursday. So I´m a sucker, as usual, but it only took me like an hour so we´ll see as the year progresses. I picked out the article for my English class with Nacho and Alicia that night, made photocopies and visited Emilio and Pepa and took the pictures from my camera onto my hard drive. So those of you who want pictures, I am one step closer to having them up. I showed them some pictures of my house and family and then left for my first private English lesson with Nacho and Alicia. I was nervous and kinda got lost walking over because Granada has changed somewhat since I left, but got there and it all seemed to go well. We spoke in English and I found out that they have been holding out on me since I met them, they speak really well, and I never knew it, had dinner, and talked for an hour and a half. Then Nacho took me home, I watched tv with Rosa and Zore and went to bed.

This morning, I woke up kinda early, went running, ate breakfast and got a package from my family! I love new pants and mail. Then I got ready and came to the CLM to update you all, now I am going to go home, eat, give Zore an English lesson, then a teacher from my school, then I dunno. This week I´m just going to be working, and on Thrusday, my friend Ana is coming and hopefully Deanna too! Love and miss you all! Love, Rachel

Back to Work

So even though I didn´t sleep well Tuesday night, I woke up Wednesday morning feeling pretty good and got going. After getting ready for about an hour I was ready to go back to bed. But I had to get on the bus, and I did. Its hard coming back after 4 days off and 2 in the hospital. I made it to school and through my first 2 hours of class with teachers. They went well but here I would like to report an "Important Cultural Difference." During the 2nd hour of teaching, I was a little distracted because one of the teachers had a t-shirt on that had a cartoon girl on the front wearing a thong and butt-less chaps. I mentioned that he was wearing and intersting t-shirt and he proceeded to tell me about the artist and such. I tried to explain, why that shirt would be inappropiate for a student, especially a teacher to wear to school, and that´s why I thought it was intersting, but he didnt really understand. That led our discussion into areas that made me wish I hadn´t said anything at all, but all in all we learned 2 things. There are important cultural differences between Spain and the United States, and I shouldn´t have spent any money on cute, professional teacher clothes before leaving the States, because here the only thing that differentiates students for teachers visually, is age.

My next period I spent teaching the really terrible kids. Today was the day I was actually going to bring a lesson. They were actually ok, and fairly quiet. They just have no clue about anythying i say, no matter how slowly I say it or how many times I repeat. I was actually pretty proud of my self and thought it went pretty well. But, by now I was really tired, feverish and needed to go home. I took the bus, finally made it back. Made some soup out of vegetable broth, carrots, onions, garlic, noodles and an egg, ate, and took a nap. Then in the afternoon, I came out, blogged, went back and passed by Emilio and Pepa´s to tell them that I was alive, ( they had called earlier, worried because I hadn´t already stopped by) and quickly went back upstairs. I made a little sandwich for dinner, and was going to eat the leftover soup but didn´t really want it because it wasn´t that good. I almost forced myself to eat it, but in a great advance for me, I threw it away. I usually force myslef to eat stuff, even if I don´t like it because I paid for it, or in an effort not to waste, but not then. yay for Rachel. More tv with my roommies , cleaning the appartment discussion as all 4 of us were home for probably the first time, tv, and bed. I had a hard time falling asleep again, but oh well...

This morning, more class. I think the kids were actually worse, even though last week it was the reverse. Bad on Wednesday, Better on Thursday, this week the opposite. Its going well but the kids have no idea what I´m saying. And they also blatenly ignore authority. After school Michelle and I walked back to a cafe for a snack since it was alreay 3 o´clock and we just talk about how ridiculous these kids are and bad, and disrespectful, and what the heck we are doing here. It´s amazing. I´m not going to go into detail now, I should go, but I´m sure there will be much more to tell as this year passes. So I finally made it home about 4, made a gross pizza, watched a really intersting documentary about hippos and finally forced myself to get out of the house again. I need to hang out with more people. Especially ones that are my age. This week was an exception with being sick and all, but next week for sure I am going to force myself to do some more hanging out with young people.

Before going out this evening I stopped by Pepa´s house as she had called me but my cell phone decided not to work. She told me they now had internet, and I could come by to use it whenever I wanted. She asked what I was going out to do and instead of telling her I was going to use the internet, I told her I was going to buy groceries and she told me that I shouldn´t because she had tons of food there to give me. Sometimes its really frustrating to talk with her because everything I tell her she wants to buy for me. I escaped, I´m not sure how, and on the street ran into Emilio and another friend who had me there, talking for a while. They are so nice, but this week I have definitly had my fill of Emilio and Pepa and it seems they are around every corner! Now its after 9PM on a Thursday night in Granada and I´m at school updating my blog. oh well, things don´t have to be jam-packed socially right now. I have time and I know that without a doubt this is going to be an intersting year.

The Hospital

So I went to bed hopping to get better. I was drinking a lot and hoping that sleep and liquids would do the trick. I proceeded to wake up every 2 hours, sore throat and fever running high. By the time morning rolled around, I kept trying to get up, and get going with my day, even though I didn´t have any plans, but I just couldn´t and kept going back to bed. Somebody rang the doorbell but there was no way I was getting up. I heard my other roommates come home around 1 or so and when they started making lunch. I heard someone call at the front door and I knew what was going on. I heard someone say they didn´t think I was here, and then they came and knocked at my door. I somehow mumbled that I was sick and to tell Pepa that, and that I wasn´t coming to her house. My roommies were shocked to see me there in bed, all along, and gave me some medicine. I don´t really like to take medicine, let alone stuff that I don´t even know what it was but by now I knew I needed something. Then I heard the doorbell again and Pepa calling my name. She came into my room and turned on the lights and felt my forehead to see what was wrong with me. She said, you do have a fever, come to my house. I said why?, but she didn´t really hear me as she pulled me out of bed, told me I shouldn´t wear so many layers, have eaten a banana for breakfast and called her sooner. My roommies were making me soup, but stopped when they saw that Pepa had other plans of kidnapping me. So I stumbled in my PJs out of the house and down stairs. A thermometer was stuck in my mouth and Emilio thought I looked so funny and miserable with a thermometer in my mouth that he got up and proceeded to clap my face in his hands as only granparents in a movie do. This was very tramatic as I had a fever, and a glass thermometer in my mouth and did not want to get stitches in there too. They seemed to think it was hilariously endearing how miserable I was. I still don´t understand. I was forced to eat some broth while Emilio told me about this other person I could call for a job, who was a friend of Rafa, a friend of ..... buzzzzzzzzzzzzz... I had no idea what he was saying. I tried to eat my soup as fast as I could even though I was not hungry at all, and asked if I could go to bed. They seemed suprised at my request but said yes. They woke me up a while later and said it was time to get up and take my temperature again. It was 38º before and now it was closer to 40º. I had no idea what that meant and they didn´t seem overly concerned. I don´t know how long I was up untill I asked if I could go back to bed. They seemed to think the way to beat a fever is to sit at a table and talk with them while Pepa smokes. So that´s the way the rest of the day and Tuesday went. Sleep, get woken up, told to come to the table, be forced fed, more unknown medicine, thermometer, repeat. Apparently Victor was sick as well, not with a fever, but with stomach issues which Pepa deduced came from the meatballs we ate. Obviously it was nothing served at her table because her and Emilio were perfectly fine. I was told to sleep there that night and asked to go upstairs to my house to brush my teeth. I left my roommates a note, so they wouldn´t be worried. I was told they later came to visit me, but I was already asleep.

Pepa woke me up at 6 AM Tuesday morning, more thermometer, sleep, and then later at 9, more thermometer. By 9 baby Marina had been dropped off for babysitting, and although I didn´t think it was a good idea for me to be around children, Pepa had me watch/hold her while she showered. My fever had finally broken for reals, but I still felt and looked terrible. I also had the idea of looking on my cell phone to see if my converter had Fº to Cº conversion and it did. Turns out, 40º C is 104ºF. wow When Pepa left a while later, I sneaked a shower and went back to bed. I was woken up for lunch, back to bed. Woken up when the electrician came to install more lights in the bathroom at 4 and said I thought I would go back to my house. I thought wrong. Emilio said I could go back after dinner. I was nervous because it was 4 in the afternoon and Spainards don´t eat dinner till at least 8 o´clock... So I was forced to call so-in-so who had a job for me, and thankfully the lady who I was supposed to meet for English that evening called and cancelled. I asked if Pepa had any pictures of Emilio when he was younger and then I looked at all the family picture albums untill 7 pm, when I was finally released from the Spanish version of Hotel California. I went upstairs and found my worried roommates, who were wondering if I had died. I brushed my teeth again, which I really like to do, folded the laundry I had started Sunday, and started my other load. Then I went back downstairs for dinner, even though I wasn´t hungry. I finally got away after that and was so glad to be back in my house. I am very thankful that they were there to take care of me because I would have just laid in my bed untill I was better, which I might not have gotten so quickly. On the other hand, they were calling their sister-in-law who is a doctor, going to the pharmacy and giving me homemade soup. I was well taken care of, but being sick in somebody else´s home, no matter how homey and welcoming and caring and loving your hosts are, is no fun. Bottom line, I would have given anything to be in my bed, in my country, with my mommy and daddy and grandma taking care of me.

So then I went home, watched TV for a bit and went to bed because I had real work the next day. Unfortunately, after you sleep for 2 days, its hard to fall asleep at night...

Otro Olvido

A long time ago, when Victor and I went in search of a haircut, we stopped by the cathedral and the little arabic market next to it to to try and find my old friend Sufian. We finally did with the help of some guy I asked, and it was really cool to see him. I like seeing old friends and I should do it more often. Being here makes me really miss my old group of Granada girls. Its just not the same without you ladies.

Paradise, 2 Shirts, 20 €

So, before I could take off for the 4 day weekend. I had to go to work last Thursday, October 11th. I was terrified to say the least, because of what had happend the day before. But it was better. As the children got older, they acted better. Still nothing compared to what they should have, but ok. I had 3 classes, just watching and doing the introduction at the end. Mostly the kids don´t give a rip, but after talking with my father, neither do I. haha, in the sense that, if they want to take advantage of what I can offer....good for them, if not, bad for them. Its my job to do my best, to help them, and to try. So I got off work at 2:30ish, walked home (1hour ish) made lunch and Pepa came up to tell me that they were about already to do. I was not, as I was about to eat lunch, but quickly ate and got ready.

We left for the beach, me in the backseat of my newly adoptive parents´ car and Emilio said how great it was to be going to the beach again with me. He also mentioned that they wished I would stay in Granada forever. Victor later assured me that his father is like that, prone to spouting out very random statements of affection. It´s all still pretty ridiculous to me though. So we made it down there and stopped in Almuñécar before to say hi to Patricia and Adriana (Victor´s other sister-in-law and niece. I had never met Adriana as she was born when Victor spent Christmas in California and she´s adorable, but kind of a brat/spoiled. It was good to see Patricia, she is really nice and sweet and although I don´t know her as well as Alicia (other sister-in-law) she has always been really, really nice to me. I gave her my presents and helped Adriana with her magic washcloth and then we left to go to La Herradura, and waited for Victor to come from Málaga for dinner. He came, we ate, and went to bed. It had been raining all afternoon, so I wasn´t sure what kind of a weekend at the beach it would be.

Friday morning it was nice and sunny and we ate churros and chocolate milk for breakfast, ( a beach speciality,) lounged around and finally Victor and I left to go visit Nerja, another tiny beach town that Pepa reccommened we visit. It is really awesome that Victor has a car. There is a whole ´nother Spain to discover in your own car. We walked around Nerja, and visited "Europe´s Balcony" a thing with a pretty view and bought a magnet. I love doing touristy things and buying magnets so it was pretty exciting. Then we went back, and I tried to get Victor to walk around the beach, or go swimming or something since we still had a while before lunch. He is a lazybones on the weekends and just wants to lay around (he does work a lot) but dang.... How often am I in paradise, in a beachfront appartment, on the Medeterrainian, (I have no idea what is going on with my spelling) in the middle of October¿?¿?¿ So Pepa says to me, there is a little market that I was at this morning and I almost bought you a green shirt, but I didn´t know if it would fit, do you want to come see? Umm,, trick question, but I said ok, and left lazy bones to read the paper. So we went down, and the green shirt didn´t fit, but the long sleeved red one did, and the red and navy blue striped hoodie shirt did as well. She asked me which one I liked, and me being indecisive made the mistake of saying "both" outloud as i processed. So she grabbed them from my hands and proceeded to barter and pay for them both before I could say no, or here, let me pay. Back home, mini fashion show for Victor and Emilio, Emilio said one made me look too young. You gotta love how honest that man is.... Then, paella for lunch. I´m kinda learning, but not all the way. Since Pepa pretty much cooks all day, she just tells me what she´s done and then I help with the finishing touches. Then Victor wanted to have another siesta. I said, no this siesta we were going to have on the beach. I tried on my new swimsuit and hit the beach! Its lovely! I didn´t swim, the weekend before I came to Spain there was some seriuos flooding all over southern Spain so there is a lot of debris in the water and on the beach, but it was nice none the less. Then we came back, and got ready to go to Málaga, where Victor works. Its not too far away, I saw his appartment, his roommates, and we bought tickets for the movies that night. His mom had given us some money for the movies and dinner, because moms like to give away money, but Victor paid for everything with his card. We drove to the theatre, which is so big, its outside the main city and drove through serious ghetto at night to get there. I don´t think I´ve ever seen real prostitutes before but now I have. So we finally arrived to a giant mall in the middle of nowhere, and ate some tapas for dinner. Then we went to see El Orfanato, the latest scary Spanish film. It was amazing, and if you have ever seen a scary movie with me, you can guess how I reacted through the whole thing. Its a good movie when you scream outloud even though you are in a huge theatre surrounded by 100s of Spanish moviegoers, who then proceed to laugh at you. On our way home Victor showed me where he worked. Then bed.

Saturday, wake up, breakfast, and back to La Herradura. Malaga is a great city, lots of sights and stuff, and although Victor´s appartment is new, he lives far away from cool stuff and its nothing compared to the amazing house his parents have. So we went back for some home cooking, and family time. Raul, Victor´s oldest brother, Patricia and Adriana (2yrs) came over again for lunch. We had garbanzo soup stuff, not my favorite as I don´t like garbanzos, and it also has stomach in it, I had never eaten that before. The Spanish (at least the ones I know) are so sneaky about wierd foods, "here have some garbanzos, (and stomach), big smile." Anway, lunch, more siesta, Adriana wakes up crying and wakes me up with her, and a while later we all go down to the beach and sit and chillax for a while. I like building little stone towers on the beach and Adriana likes to push them over. I like Raul, but he´s more serious and introverted than Nacho, and pretty much scares me to death. Victor swears that he likes me, but I can´t tell at all. He likes to ask me about the morgatge crisis, the stock market, politics, September 11th (on which he has very controversial opinions) light stuff like that, so basically, I don´t know what he´s talking about, what to say, or how to escape. So Raul and I have some getting to know eachothering still to do before we start telling jokes.... So they leave and later Victor and I go out for dinner. His mom again gave us 10€, we went to a bar and had some tapas, ham and meatballs, and a rosca, a big round sandwich, Victor paid again with his card, then we walked up and down the beach, and stopped in another bar to drink some more (I had a chocolate milkshake immitation thing) and to watch the end of the world cup rugby game. It was a good one, we walked home and went to bed.

Sunday, we woke up, and had churros again for breakfast, I took a walk with Pepa, and then later Victor and I went for a drive to Almuñécar, walked around there, looked for a magnet but didn´t find any, drove back to La Herradura, stopped by Marina del Este, a really expensive port, and back home. For lunch we had migas, which are also delicious, but even after all that walking, I wasn´t very hungry. I did my best but I couldn´t eat very much. Then we had our siesta´s, then left. I tried to give Victor back his mom´s money I had been holding for us, as I become Victor´s purse when we´re together, but he wouldn´t accept it. Victor went to Malaga, and we stopped by El Rancho, Patricia´s parent´s country place just outside the city. We were there for a while, I shared some more intimidating conversation with Raul, and then we left after the grandparents had chatted enough and gotten all the grandkidness they could get. Then all the way back to Granada. Pepa and Emilio had me translating songs from Casablanca and the Beatles for them almost all the way home. They have very ecclectic tastes in music, and Victor had made them a mix cd, that kept me busy interpreting and learning abount 60 year old Spanish music. When we got back to Granada, it was all wet and rainy. I never thought I wouldn´t be happy to return to Granada, but after you spend the 3 day weekend in paradise,,,, even if you come back with more clothes and money than when you left....

I came home, glad to be in my own home, tried to eat something, do a load of laundry, unpack and got to talk to both my parents. I then went to bed tired, and sore and a little feverish. I sent a message to Victor and he said he didn´t feel great either, but not to worry we had just eaten too much all weekend. So I went to bed.

I have to stop here, because they are closing the CLM, and I´ve been here way too long. I´ll try to continue tomorrow.

El Coviran es para los Olvidos...

That´s what Victor´s mom told me anyway... That the grocery store below our house is just for the things you forget. I still do most of my shopping there anyway. I don´t like carrying big bags through the street. Anyway, the point of this blog is for things I forgot.

Last Tuesday, after submitting my residency paperwork and internetting, I stopped by the bank to see about opening an account. I went the bank where Victor goes because there are about 1 billion different banks in Spain and I had to start somewhere. Well before I knew it, I had opened an youth account that doesn´t charge me anything and when I get my residency number, I can change that for my passport number. So that was amazing and a real blessing. Hopefully, its all its cracked up to be.....

Also one day, I don´t know when, I was sending messages to people to see how much they charged for private classes. Well one guy from Dublin, Ireland, called me back instead of sending me a message. He got really upset when he found out I already spoke English, (because it is physilocially impossible for me to lie) and told me I should be more polite. He also told me that I had been in Granada too long because I was starting to act like granadinos and their mallafollá. If you don´t know what that is, that´t ok, in a nutshell, he was not very nice to me and told me so. I was suprised, and shocked and thought it was a little funny. If you are too serious over here, it just works to your disadvantage. I wanted to go a rip his ad off the telephone booth, but I didn´t. What goes around comes around. :)

Spanish Children Are The Devil

Yesterday on my way home from the CLM, I called my guitar teacher Antonio and set up to meet him at 1:30, then I went home and ate something before going over to say hello. He was so happy to see me and got to guitar buissness right away. I had told him that I would like to take classes, but didn´t think I could bring my guitar with me. So he took matters into his own hands and bought me a guitar and case for me to use in my house while I´m here!!! I was shocked, I thought he might have an old crappy one I could use, but buy a new one??? Its not for me to keep, and I´ll pay him the 50 € for it and then he´ll buy it back from me when I leave. He also said its like a 300€ guitar, and he got a really good deal for it. I told him I couldn´t pay him for the guitar or classes yet, but he made me take it anyway so I could start practicing and getting ready. He also invited me to be a part of this guitar/chorus he´s directing. He must not remember how I really play the guitar.... All in all it was nice to see him again. People are way too nice to me....

Then I came home, ate lunch with my 2 roommies Rosa and Zore. They are really nice. Rosa is wild and crazy, but super sweet. Zore is more resreved and we have more in common, but they are both just sweeties. After lunch, I helped Rosa fix her computer (my first time ever to know more about computers that somebody else), and showed them some or my pictures. We were talking and Rosa painted my nails and we just talked the whole afternoon till I had to get ready to go to Nacho´s graduation. They helped me pick out what to wear and what jewelry too. They are girly girls, which is good for me because I´m not really... So then I got ready to go and went with Emilio and Pepa to the graduation.

The graduation was fun, because I knew a bunch of people there. Victor went to the same school where Nacho got the Masters from, so I saw a lot of people I hadn´t seen or talked to in 2 years. The ceremony was pretty long and borring, but interesting at the same time. Afterwards, they had a ton of delicious appetizers and tapas and drinks and tons of food. We were there till about 12, then I came home, sleepy and tried to prepare my lesson for the next day, which I hadn´t done when I planned earlier that afternoon when girl time happened. So I did my best and went to bed.

Got up early for work, got there and had an hour of class with a teacher, Socorroc, who really doesn´t know very much English at all so I used all my Kindergarten phonics skills and it went really well. They they had a coffee break teachers meeting, and I had class again with 3 more teachers, Javi, Rafa and Jose Antonio, I´m not sure about the last one. It was great, they were so excited to learn, patient, it was a lot of fun. Then I went to teacher´s hell. 2º de la ESO, this is the equivilant of 8th grade more or less, but the kids seem sooooo young. They were talking, throwing pens, drawing on the tables, singing, chewing gum, everything except listening, learning, paying attention or doing what they were supposed to. I worked for a year in Kindergarten and those kids behaved better than these. I was shocked and sat in the back of the class as the teacher tried her best to teach, yelling over them with a microphone. Yes a microphone, a real one she has, partly because she is kinda loosing her smokers voice, but otherwise.... it would be impossible... I´m still in shock about the whole thing. Then at the last 10-15 minutes she has me come up front and introduce myself and open it up for the kids to ask me questions. I waited for it to get quiet, and said, "Hello, my name is Rachel Gardner, I´m from Cali...·=%(Y $T=·(/· 4" and the rest of the 10 minutes was lost in the raging clamor of the terrible Spanish youth. There was nothing the teacher could do, nothing I could do. I tried, I busted out my best, "Hey when I´m talking its silent.." It didn´t matter, as soon as I stopped saying something, they started talking again. I grabbed students arms, walked around, nothing. They just don´t care... I couldn´t belive it and I have no idea what is going to happen when I¨m alone with them. Such a shock coming from the Army regimen teaching of my father... All of you who are teachers have no idea what this was like. You should come here to see, and I think you will appreciate your jobs so much the more. I walked the almost hour home in shock, and I´m still in shock. I can´t wait to see what tomorrow is like...

At home the 3 of us made lunch again, and sat on the balcony and talked for a long time. I think things with them are going to be really good. Adri, our other roommate is always busy and working, and things with him are going to be good too, but he´s just never tehre. Then I came out to internet and phone home since I´ll go to work tomorrow and then to Malaga and the beach for the 4 day weekend. I love and miss you all and hope all is well.

¡AY AMOR QUE SE FUE Y NO VINO!

Oooookkkk!! So its been awhile since I blogged, but here we go...

Last Thursday night when I came out to wander around the town, I shopped around for winter coats, which are way too expensive for me, espceially when the dollar to €uro exchange is 1.4..... I also asked about getting a European battery charger, which is also way too expensive... One amazing thing that happened was as I was walking up the street I saw this guy sitting on a moto (a scooter/motorcycle) at a stoplight. I stopped, I knew he looked familiar, I knew I knew him, I knew his name was Wali, and as I sat there thinking about all of this.... he looked at me and goes, "Rachel!! What are you doing here¿?¿?" Wali is one of Victor´s friends and it was so awesome to run into somebody I knew in my old town. I shopped around a bit more, looking in the Arabic, touristy shops and then went home, ate dinner and went to bed, really tired.

Friday morning, I got up early again for work, went, met Michelle on the bus and we sat there while they refigured out our schedules. Then we looked at them, and said they they were pretty uneven for us to choose between, they rearranged again, and we finally setteled. Right now we only have 10 hrs/week and they are going to be giving us 2 more hrs. Then Michelle and I were walking back and a lady from the school offerend to give us a ride back to the city center. What she meant by that was drive for an hour in the ridiculous city traffic and take us to the Parking structure in front of my house where she picked up her kids from school, instead of to the city center where we actually wanted to run errands. Driving in Granada is not the best mode of transportation. But I invited Michelle to my house, gave her some Arroz con Leche, and then we walked back to the Police Station where I was too late to get anything done. Its great how even though you have been standing in line for 30 minutes, the Spanish are still capable of shutting the window right in your face at 2:00. Truly it is a boldness that is to be admired. We ran into a bunch of Americans and a guy, Francisco, from El Salvador, who all suffered the same fate so we went to get some tapas. I had a nice time getting to know some of the people, who were Michelle´s friends, but some of the other people were lame. It was definitely nice to be doing something instead of being bored and lonely. Then I went to the CLM to use the internet again, made some photocopies, and went back home. I cleaned up my room, which is so small it gets messy really easily, showered and got some groceries and a new shower curtain liner for when the other girls came. Then I watched some TV and Victor came from Malaga. We went to get some dinner, and ran into Francisco from earlier that day. He was lost and trying to find the other people, but decided to tag along with us. He is actually a pretty nice guy. Victor and I were so tired though that we went home sooner than later and went to bed, me on the 8th floor and him on the 7th.

Saturday morning, I woke up at 9 still exhausted because I have been tired since I got here, and I dinked around because I knew Victor would still be sleeping. Then around 10, I heard all this noise in the hall and I knew my roommates would be coming. I rushed around getting the laundry I had hung out to dry on their balconies and tried to act natural when they came in. They came in with their moms and dads and aunts and uncles and I don´t know who and truckloads of stuff. The 2 girls are really nice but it was just too wierd, so I got dressed and got out of Dodge, so they could clean and do whatever it was they had brought all those people to do! I went to Victor´s house and hung out with his mom and Marina untill he woke up. We ate breakfast and went out to for Victor to get his haircut. That was a difficult task as apparently everyone wants their hair cut on Saturday morning, but we finally got it taken care of and came back to his house for lunch. Pepa made arroz (paella) and a yummy salad. During the lunchtime conversation she told me about this seminar she went to where this Jesuit priest had studied the arecheilogical facts that proved the Bible to be true. His conclusion was that not all the Bible can be proved through arcielogical ruins (I know spelling is wrong.) Well then Emilio starting talking about his views on religion and I had a chance to share with them what mine were. A very intersting and frustrating lunchtime conversation. Then Victor and I went to Nacho and Alicia´s house to watch the rugby world cup, which meant taking a nap while the game was on. Then later we chatted with the rest of the family when they woke up from their siestas and we came back home, changed, went for a run, showered and went back for another game and dinner. Alicia asked me if I had a winter coat, I said no, and she said oh do you want my old ones, I just bought new ones. I said YES! and she gave me two amazing, and expensive coats. So at least I wont freeze until I can get some more money. I swear, it never ceases to amaze me how God has provided ABSOULUTELY EVERYTHING for me here in Granada. I am spoiled to death. After the game ended Victor and I went to a friend´s birthday party really close to where we live. It was fun to see the whole gang again, and talk with everybody. His friends are really nice. Then we went home and to bed again.

Sunday morning, I woke up at 9 again, and tried to sleep through the noise of the army of people who were still there from Project Move In. They all finally went to breakfast and I got ready and looked around the house. The army of people did an amazing job. I had cleaned, but I knew I was only taking off the first layer of grime. Now everything sparkled, and they had brought new dishes, towels, rugs everything and reorganized and threw away a ton of stuff, including the new shower curtain I had just bought for their arrival. I guess that´s what I get for cleaning and trying to be a nice roommate. After I got ready and looked around, I went to Victor´s house. We watched TV, read the paper, ate lunch, took a siesta, etc, and were really lazy until the afternoon when he went to go swimming and I went to find the old church I went to, to see what time they had services. I walked there and back and around the mall for about and hour. Then I came back and talked a bit with my roommates, and went back to Victor´s house, visited with his parents and then Victor had to go back to Malaga. Then more visiting with my roommates whose names are Rosa and Zoraida or Zore, and are really nice. They are really pretty, and skinny and 20 yrs old but I think its going to be good. Then I was still exhausted and I went to bed.

Monday morning, yesterday, I woke up early again to go to school to meet with the teachers, get the books and start planning lessons. It was beneficial, borring, and intimidating. Apparently these teachers didn´t get the memo that we actually have no teaching experience, studied Spanish in college, and have no idea what we are doing or how to teach English. So they decided to cut their large classes in half, and give us 15 Spanish degenerate, adolescents, in a separate room all alone. We suggested that maybe for the first week or so we could be in the class with the teachers to see how this all goes, and thankfully they agreed, but still told me to bring the lesson. I´m really nervous. On the way home I made the final photocopies and got pictures taken for my residency papers, tried to use the internet a little, bought a phonecard, and went home to make lunch. I was really hungry, made a Spanish Rachel Pasta Salad, and ate with my roommies on the balcony. The night before I told them that I was protestant, and today they wanted to know more about it. So I had another chance to share. Then I watched TV with Adri, and called Alicia (Victor´s sister in law) because she was going to take me to Nachete´s school to turn in my resume I had printed on Saturday and left at her house. She had completely forgotten, and left the resume at home so I went to Victor´s house to see if they had a printer. They didn´t, and didn´t have glue, so I was rushing around like a crazy person trying to find this stuff when most of the stores are closed. I finally got everything together, and we went to his school. Nachete is 3.5 yrs, and his English school is called, Inglés es Divertido, or Engilish is Fun. It seems really amazing, working with all sorts of little kids and I really hope I can get a job there. They lady said she would call me, because she was really busy then. Hopefully she does. Then I came back and went to the post office to mail my old roommies Aurora, some pants I had brought her from Ross! At the Roman Monkey brigde, I ran into Victor´s dad, talking to a friend. He stopped me, introduced me and we continued to have a conversation about fashion, Granada, religion, and how he wants to be my father-in-law. He also made usread a poem written by Federico Garcia Lorca that is inscribed on the bridge, hence the title of this blog entry. He then told me to come by later for dinner. I have a hard time in Spanish because people use imperative commands very freely. Instead of saying, you should, or your can, or why don´t you come by for dinner, they just say come for dinner. Being the polite and obedient girl that I am, I don´t know how to respond to so many orders. So I finally made it to the post office, tried to internet again, but one of the rooms here just doesn´t work for myspace or blogging, and went over for dinner. We had delicious ham sandwiches, cheese and mangos. We talked and I finally had to leave against their will. When I got home nobody was home, and I sent them a message asking where they were. Victor called me and we talked on the phone for a while, and then I went out to meet my roommies. They were with some friends and some random people, and we had a good time. It was nice to be out till 1AM on a Monday night. Then we came home and went to bed.

This morning I got up early again, to turn in my residency application. Even though I got to the police station20 minutes before it opened at 9, there was a huge line. Thankfully there wern´t that many student applicants, and I was done by 9:30. I guess in Salamanca where Deanna is and in Madrid, people have been camping out for days. I´m so relieved to have that giant chunk out of the way and got the process started. Then I came to the Centro, and have been here interneting since. Today I have to prepare my English classes for tomorrow, and tonight we are going to a ceremony for Nacho who is getting a master´s degree. I might try to visit my old guitar teacher, and my roommate Rosa brought a computer, so soon I should be able to have pictures up here. Well, now there are more students at the CLM, last week I think everyone was on vacation, so there is a line and I feel bad stealing their internet so I´m going to go. I love and miss you all. -- Rachel

Suffering for the Greater Good

Ok, so not much has happened in the 24hrs since I last blogged, but I will tell you what did because I am bored.

Yesterday I came home and ate, and finished putting phone numbers in my cell phone. Then later in the afternoon, I went and made an appointment to get my legs waxed. It started to rain a bit as I was on my way there. Then as I was leaving, it started to rain more so I headed for the good ole CLM again, to see what else I could do on the internet and update my Spanish resumé. Thankfully, after I was inside it started to DOWNPOUR in a way I have NEVER seen it rain in Granada. It kept that up for the next long time but thankfully had stopped by the time I finished interneting and my resumé. Then I went home, started to make dinner, watched almost all of Envy, before the DVD player decided to not work again. (I really hate it when DVD players decide not to work.) Went through some more things in Magdalena´s room, finished unpacking and took pictures of the whole appartment. But I haven´t taken them off my camera yet, or figured out how to upload them here... Don´t worry I will someday, or it will give you a good excuse to come visit and see for yourself, or come see me and my pictures when I´m back. Then I went to bed.

I woke up tired again the next day and showered to go to my waxing appointment. If you have never waxed your legs or other parts of your body, I reccommend you try it. It is a painful experience, but well worth it. Sometimes you have to suffer painful experiences before the good ones come. I kinda of feel that that´s what is going on now. Today I have been more bored and lonely, but I know that soon, I´ll start to have plans...

After waxing, I came home, cleaned the pantry, kitchen, bathroom and my room. I´m amazing and it was disgusting. Then I ate lunch, watched TV, worked on my forgien resident application and came out to wander around the town.

First Day of Work

So I woke up at like 7:45 after my first night of good sleep in a week and wanted to keep sleeping. But I had to get, up and get ready to go to work. I was so nervous, but I took the bus there and it was so easy. Easier than the other American girl from New Hampshire, Michelle, had it. We met with the director and he told us that we are going to be giving classes to students, classes to teachers, and later helping the bilingual teachers to prepare thier history and music (i think) classes in English. It sounds pretty good, and everyone is really nice. We met all the English teachers and they are all so excited, but needed to have a meeting tomorrow to figure out what to do with us, and told us to come back Friday and start next week. Michelle later told me that she had written emails and tried to call and done all these things ahead of time but got nowhere. So I was glad that I was more Spanish-styled, did nothing and got to the same place as she had, just before, even though I had an American panic attack the night before. Michelle seems pretty nice and we chatted back to the bus stop, where she got on but I wanted to walk. I walked back down to the bank and my old school, El Centro de Lenguas Modernas, where I used the bathroom and have been using the internet for the past long time I´ve been here. Sometimes its good to be a guiri. (forgien tourist)

Now I´m going home to eat, i´m starving :) love and miss you all!!! Love, Rachel

How to Get Over Jet Lag

Monday morning October 1st, I tried to sleep in, but only did so till about 9:30. Showered, and left to pick up my phone my friend Melissa had left for me and visit with my friend Maria, who Melissa had left the phone with. Then I talked to my parents for about an hour, tried to find my school and walked back home. Magdalena was making tortilla española for lunch and Pepa came up to see if I wanted some habas con jamón, these green bean things, she had made. So we had a nice lunch and then Magdalena got ready to go. She is moving to the Canary Islands October 17th and was going to her home in Murcia that afternoon. She started going through her stuff and gave me towels, a backpack, 2 blankets, a beanie a really warm jacket, an umbrella, and a bunh of other stuff that she left in her room that I went through after she left. I played with my new cellphone, cleaned up the kitchen and then helped her load up the car and leave. It was sad just to be together just for a bit...

That afternoon, I kept cleaning and tried to unpack, and got almost done. My old friend Jose came by to say hello and we chatted for a while. He was really excited to see me and I was too. Then I got ready to go to my welcome dinner for the orientation and left about 8 for the dinner at 10. It was about 40 min away and I checked into the hotel, the lobby was FULL of the 500 grant recipeints for Andalucia and I didnt feel like being outgoing so I went to my room till about 9:30. Then I came down, forcing my self to be outgoing, and the lobby was totally empty, and everybody was sitting down, eating what looked like the 2nd course. Now I was really confused because it was 9:30 and supposed to start at 10 and this other girl told me that it actually was almost 11. Apparently my watch is slow and I have no idea for how long its been like that. I´m pretty upset because that watch has been in the shop all summer and now the battery is jacked or soemthing....

So after barely getting dinner, I made a friend who also came late, and tried to go to bed. The hotel was really nice, 150€ a night, so I had fun playing with all the luxuries. It also had one of those crazy toilets that is an automatic bidet, with a shower and dryer. If you have never played with one of those I highly reccommend it. By now it was 1:30 and I still hadn´t fallen alseep when someone knocked at the door and came in, and said loudly "hello??" So it was my hotel-roommate´s best firend who wanted to get soemhtign out of her bag, (which wasn´t in there) and a big long stupid story and the girl finally left and says, "sorry if i woke you up." I told her not to worry I was just lying in bed with all the light off for fun...

Next day, yummy hotel breakfast, and walk to orientation with new friend, Chad. Long, monotone, interesting, and way too much information morning of lectures, lunch and chitchatting with other teachers. Basically it only served to seriously stress me out, because I really have no idea about how to teach English, or teach anything, and I hadn´t contacted my school at all, which apparently is somehting you are supposed to do, that everyone else had done. Feeling really, really stressed, I came home and talked with my roommate Adrian, a guy from the Dominican Republic, who is really nice. We co-vented for awhile as he as work problems and high cell phone bills and then he told me that Pepa had stopped by that morning and wanted me to go see her.

I brought her her plate back and tried to call the school, which by now (6pm) no one answered. Pepa gave me different sheets because the ones she gave me the day before were too small and we put them on my bed. I was going to go find my school and Victor´s parents decided they would come with me. I didn´t have much say in that or when Pepa bought a 10 trip bus pass and gave it to me. We finally found my school which is way the heck far away and I had a little meeting with the principal or director as they say here and he told me to come tomorrow at 10. I felt better after finding that out and then the 3 of us walked home. Emilio goes out and walks all over the city every morning and knows every thing about Granada. For those of you who have felt a little overwhelmed if I have given you a tour with too much info, Emilio will put you in a coma. He knows EVERYTHING. We left the house around 6:30 and didnt get back till 10. There was always one more thing, he wanted to show me or another story. the crazy thing is, is that almost everything he showed or told me, I didn´t know, even after my knowledgeable year in Granada. I have so much more to see. I loved it, but I was so tired, and so brain dead, and a little wierded out by the whole thing. We stopped for tapas/dinner on the way home, and by 10:30 I was zonked out in bed completely exhausted.

So, to get over jet lag, stress yourself out at an orientation, then go on a walk with Emilio.

Granada is Magical

So I woke up early Sunday to get ready to be on my bus at 9:30. The first leg to Madrid is 2hrs 15 mins and they show a video. Which i love movies, and don´t sleep well so that is the best was to pass the time. The movie they were showing was called like Avalanche or soemthing and was totally lame. But it was better than the blank screen I watched for the rest of the 2hrs and 14 minutes of the trip after it stopped working. We also were late because the Emergency Exit windows on the top of the bus kept flying open and the driver finally had to stop and try to fix them...

Then I was met in Madrid by Jorge, Alicia´s boyfriend and my new favortie person in the world, who lugged my giant suitcase to me that I had left at his house. We sat and ate and talked till my next bus left at 1:30. Then there was the long 5.5 hr bus ride to Granada, where they show at least 2 movies!! I saw the first 10 minutes of Wild Hogs, Laura Croft Tomb Raider and another one I don´t remeber because so little of it played before the DVD player decided not to work again. I was already really anxious to get to Granada and pretty much spent the next 6 hours in misery.

But as usual, we finally got there and I grabbed all my junk off the bus and waited for Victor who was supposed to pick me up. I was so nervous to be seeing people again that right now while I write I´m really, really nervious remembering it. We finally found eachother and it was great to see him again. He now has a really nice car and we loaded up the luggage, which was amaing after all the public transport. Then on our way home we stopped by to see his brother Nacho, sister in law Alicia, and new niece who I had not met, Marina. I was introduced to her as Auntie Rachel, almost died, visited for a while, and then left. Alicia also told me to bring her my resume because somebody at Nachete´s school needed an English teacher.

Then we came back to Granada, saw Pepa, Victor´s mom, and Nachete his nephew, when they let us in. Then we went to my new appartment and saw my old roommate Magdalena, who was waiting for me with her mom Maria. We screamed and said hello, came in and ate some Arroz con Leche which she had made special just for me.

Then a little bit later, I went up to say hello to Victor´s parents. His dad, Emilio, came rushing over to give me los besos and says, "Rachel!!! You´re fatter!" But I guess that´s the sign of a true friend to tell it to you like it is, because later his mom said that if i needed anything at all (and gave a long list of examples) I just had to ask and Emilio said that I should feel just as if they were my parents. Pepa also told me of some people who she knew that needed English lessons. They were so excited to see me and that I was back that I was just overwhelmed. They also told me that they had bought a Pata Negra Jamon (the best kind of ham in honor of my return.) Even after all that, Victor then brings me this huge, enormous flower arrangement of lillies and orange dasies, which he says his parents also bought for me, but the florist had forgotten the card. I couldn´t believe it but he assured me he was serious. Emilio also gave me a guide book of Andalucia, that he had bought that morning with the paper. After visiting a while longer, Victor and I were going to go out for a bit and come back later for jamon, and I suggested we take the flowers. He asked me if I really wanted them, because he was just joking before. Well then I really almost died, hit him and left running out of the appartment.....

Then Victor drove me by the hotel where I was going to have my orientation the next day and up to a mirador that overlooks the city. It was truly beautiful and I was so excited to be back it took my breath away. I know that only God could have worked out the circumstances for me to return to Granada, the same appartment, everything and I am excited and anxious and terrified to see what the rest of His plan is.

Then back to the appartment building, a delicious dinner of ham, tomatoes, bread and melon (all my favorites) and Victor had to go back to Malaga, where he lives and worked a little over 1 hr away. I spent the rest of the night talking with Magdalena and her mom, catching up on the past 2 years and getting to know my new appartment. I had been promised her room (the master with a big bed) but they had decorated and arranged another for me. I guess one of the girls who came to see it liked the big one and wanted it for if her boyfreind or friends came to visit. I went through both rooms and decided that the furniture, and view from my room were better than the big room with no view or furniture. So, although its a little screwy, (because I later found out that the girl´s boyfriend is Magdalena´s brother ....) I think I´m ok with it because I don´t have that much stuff, and now people who visit me just get to snuggle in the tiny bed. :) But it was amazing to be with Magdalena again and we talked till we went to bed at 12:30 and I then laid in bed till about 3 am again, too excited too sleep...

Barf + Short Hair = Bad

Ok, so Saturday in Valladolid, after my post I went with Jesus, Inma and Carlos on what I thought was going to be a little walk so the dog could pee. Well, we drove to the middle of nowhere and tromped around in the wilderness in my new shoes and a really cute outfit I had picked out for walking around town. I love not truly knowing what´s going on....

Then we stopped and had a snack at a bar on our way home and had delicious, authentic, homemade paella complete with mussells, clams, squid, fish, and baby lobsters or giant crawdads, whatever you want to call "cigalas" in English. Their friend Alicia came over for lunch and then we watched a movie called "Juana la Loca" which I had seen before, but I fell asleep for a little siesta in the beginning and its so confusing about old time Spanish kings and queens that yeah......

Then I got things situated for my trip to Granada the next day and after 10 we went out again. I don´t really like going out in Valladolid some times but I went anyway to say hi to some people that didnt show up yesterday. I started to not feel very good and tired so I went home around 1:30, showered and went to bed. Then I laid in bed till like 3 or so, jet lagged and sick, and finally for some reason threw up, which as I discovered is messier with short hair. I don´t know what time but I finally fell asleep, only to wake up early the next morning.