You'll be happy to hear I've been much, much better since my last post. It was a definitely low point of the trip, but this last week has been fantastic.
The girl I was telling you about, Lou, and I finally got a chance to hang out. Friday we went out to Ibiza and had dinner and a couple of drinks. We went to the strip I guess you would call it and watched a parade while eating dinner, then bar-hopped. All of the bars here have their employees outside of the bar trying to get you to come in. The boys love us! Lou is a cute little blonde thing, all tan and an english accent of course. The boys say I look spanish, but when I say I'm American they find that appealing for some reason. So together, we make a good team. And if we're uninterested, we say we have to go home to the kids and they dissappear quite quickly as you'd imagine.
Saturday Lou's host mum, Conchita, invited me out with her family and a couple other family friends that are here for the summer on "holiday". Conchita and her husband own a couple hotels in Formentera which is an even more exclusive island than Ibiza, about an hours boat ride away. They also own a couple of large barcos (ships) which they rent out to vacationers. But when the boat isn't rented, they have the pleasure of using it themselves. So off we went!
view of downtown eivissa as we were leaving el puerto
the boat was like one out of pirates of the carribean, except really nice and not haunted?
the water is insanely blue! almost as blue as galveston beaches
head first into the Mediterranean! it doesn't look high from the this angle...but the drop was about 10-15 ft from the top of the boat to the water. I psyched myself out a couple times, but realized I would probably never be anchored on a yacht in the middle of the mediterranean ocean again, and finally took the plunge.
we went snorkeling for a little bit, but i have to be honest... its kinda of scary! I kept getting panicky being in the open water. I could see the bottom of the ocean, but it was still 15 ft or so deep, and there were medusas (jellyfisy) and mantas (stingrays) all around me.
I loved sailing the most. When they put the sails up the ride changed completely. So relaxing.
The ocean looks like it never ends
There was about 20 people total on the boat, all long time family friends. The kids are really close and have grown up together even though some of them live in barcelona and mardrid now, so it was fun watching them all interact. On the way home, we all say on the cushions on the top of the boat and turned on the music super loud. All the kids got up and basically entertained us the entire ride home. It was one of those moments that are so surreal, I felt like i was in a dream. I really don't think I've ever been so happy in my life. The sun was setting, and the girls were singing and dancing to shakira, the grease soundtrack and michael jackson. I can't really explain why it made me so happy, guess you had to be there. Definitely a day I'll never forget.
I leave for Madrid in the morning. I'm staying two nights in Madrid and then taking a train to Barcelona, and staying 3 nights there. I've been dying to go to barcelona, and after the whole wallet getting stolen thing happened, I didn't really know if it would be possible.
Luckily, I have an amazing family who still supports me from thousands of miles away. Thanks you aunt T and grandmom for all the support, my dad who has been bending over backwards, making a million calls trying to make all of this possible, and my mom who lets me vent and sends me pictures of beezy to keep me going. I love you all so very much!!
I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and update when I get back to Ibiza tuesday evening. Lots of love to my austin homies...and all my buds in cali! Missing all of you tons.
this song makes me really happy
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Well,
I've been sick the last two weeks with a cough and achy feeling all the time, and then the past 3 days I've had food poisoning, but last night I got a really good nights sleep and I woke up this morning feeling refreshed.
Every Wednesday in Es Cana there is a hippie market with lots of cheap, eclectic clothes, jewelry bags and what not, plus live music and good food. So, feeling called, I decided I'd make a day of it. I had my last $250 that I exchanged this morning (~170 euros) and took the bus about 40 minutes to Es Cana hoping to find some cool stuff to get for my friends and family
I got there and it was great. Lots of people, lots of stuff going on, very Austin-esque I would say. I shopped around for about 30 minutes, picked out a few things and then realized my wallet was gone.
Just like that, everything ruined. All that money gone. Credit card gone. TX id gone. I feel violated more than anything else. That was my purse. What can you do though? Everyone warned me. I thought I was being careful. I had my purse zipped and in front of me at all times. I don't know how it happened.
I panicked for about 30 minutes, not knowing how I was going to get home, pennyless and too distraught to try and speak to anyone in spanish. Luckily, a woman saw me, obviously upset, and did her best to figure out was was wrong. She gave me the number to the police, 4eu to get home and a big hug. She must have been a mom because it felt like my mom was hugging me.
I'm back at the house now My card is cancelled and I've come to terms with the fact that the money is gone along with my damn cute wallet, those assholes. UHG!
My spirits are so broken. I was really looking forward to Barcelona next weekend, but now that feels so out of reach. Maria feels bad for me so she said to take the day off. And now all I have is $250 in non-refundable travelers checks that no one even accepts here to last me until I leave. I still have my debit card, which my parents said they would put money on but that's not the point. I don't want them to have to put money on it. I wanted to be responsible with my money. I wanted to be able to do this but at this point I feel like giving up. Traveling by yourself sucks.
This post is making me feel worse, and probably bumming you out too, which I dont want so I'll leave you with some pictures I got of the beach front in Es Cana. The view was unbelievable, the pictures do no justice. I wish I could have enjoyed my time there more because it was really an awesome spot.
I got off the bus and didn't know where to go..literally followed these stinky love birds all the way there.
Hippy Markey snapshot. This is probably when my wallet got stolen dammit. I just wanted a picture for my blog! Too soon for jokes? Never too soon.
Eating at a McDonalds in Spain and getting food poisoning.
Needless to say these last two days have been SO enjoyable.
Never ever never ever ever ever ever...NEVER...again. EVER!
Friday, July 8, 2011
pisto^^ so delicious. maria made it 2 nights in a row because she could tell i liked it. took me a while to figure it out but its green and red peppers, squash and eggplant sauteed in this really good oil she gets from her brother, who sells a sort of high end cooking oil. Maria says Americans went wrong when they started using butter, I told her my mom uses oil :)
Well, I didn't want to bribe the girls with candy but, a girls gotta do what a girls got to do. They listen for about 30 minutes more when they know candy's involved, so it's been for the best. My biggest struggle has been the alphabet. I started out doing easy words (ex. cat, dog, pan) but quickly realized I can't even help them because everytime I make an "e" sound, they hear "ee" which is "i" in spanish...follow me? the vowels have been the biggest struggle, and seeeing as how you can't spell an english word without one, I found it necessary to bite that one in the but. So for the last few days we've been working on vowels only. Today went really well. We have spelling tests on Fridays, usually focused around the letters we've been working on all week. Today went really well, which I was happy about because this week has been really frustrating for me. Here's a picture of on of their tests!
Any suggestions are definitely welcome...activites, ways to teach, how to be more patient... anything.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Ah the last few days have flown by. I've been doing a lot of wandering around, a lot of reading, a lot of studying, a lot of teaching and yes of course, a lot of sun bathing. I've lost my patience a bit with the little girls because their attention span lasts about 20 minutes with the whole English thing, and then they start jumping on the table and singing in spanish. So just a heads up Kels, i'll be skyping you soon to get some tips. I finally met the girl that's staying with the family friends, Lou. She's from england and is really sweet. We've only hung out once because we've both been really bust with the family, but hopefully we'll get a weekend soon to venture. My spanish is getting better. I've picked up a lot of first-time meeting conversational phrases so i'm not as awkward when I meet new people.
I saw Keira Knightly the other day! Who knew she lived here?? So crazy. Her nanny is good friends with Maria because their kids go to the same school. Apparently Ibiza is some private get away for a lot of celebrities, and the natives here are pretty hush-hush about it which i thought was cool.
The private-school systems here are awesome. I've never really looked into it but I really want to check out the International schools in America and see what they're like comparatively. All of these 6 year olds speaking three languages fluently really blows my mind. America is missing out on so much. Every time I get on a bus I play a game where I try and guess where people are from based on what they look like and what language they're speaking. English people are easy because they either have really bad teeth or are incredibly sunburned. Spanish people are hard because they all look so different and speak so fast. Carla came with me to town the other day and could pick out all the different dialects of spanish. There were some columbians, Portuguese and spanish people. She said portuguese people speak faster, which I don't understand because everyone here already speaks a mile a minute.
Yesterday I went to Eivissa and checked out this really eclectic jewlery spot Maria suggested I got to. Needless to say, I bought some special peeps jewlery I hope they cherish forever because this place was amazing. I'm not really sure what we're doing tomorrow. Don't really care either. Part of me misses being busy and having things to do.. and then I get to the beach and I'm like...wait no I don't.
Anyways here's a couple pictures from when me and Carla went to Eivissa. We walked around forever, went to a museum, ate some helado and enjoyed each others company. Enjoy!
A nice awkward pic of me at the art gallery, courtesy of Carla.
Pretty amazing painting
The port. The picture doesn't do the water justice. It really blueish/green and crystal clear.
My favorite spot, the roof. It's always shaded and cool up here. Perfect for reading and what not.
maria and carlo went to valencia today for work, and the girls were at a friends so i spent the whole day by myself. no cellphone,no internet...i only brought 50 euros and my passport to the city. spent the day wondering around and ended up at the beach. i'm a little homesick, missing my friends, family and beezy of course.
Mum you would be so proud. I was once a little girl who ate only chicken tenders, and now I am a seasoned eater.
I have tried many new new things in the few days I´ve been here, and looking forward to trying many more. We typically have some combination of eggs (juevos) and jamon (ham) for desayuno (breakfast), and usually bocadillos for lunch, which is bascically a sandwhich but on french bread. Maria goes to the supermarket everyday and buys just enough fresh meat or pescado (fish) for dinner. She always buys fresh french bread and veggies, so good! Today for lunch we had soup. In it was some sort of fish, oysters and potatos, Sounds gross but it was delicious. It makes me laugh because in Spain, it is typical that you eat some sort of sweet with every meal. I remember my dad getting frustrated with me trying to get me to eat all of my dinner. Here Maria is getting frustrated with the girls trying to get them to eat their ice cream. Connor would be in heaven.
This evening we went to Eivissa to go shopping and to check out the city. Maria asked me what I eat in Texas, and of course i told her BBQ and Mexican food. Yesterday we had BBQ, I should say spains version of BBQ, so Maria wanted to have to Mexican food. A new place by her work just opened up called Taco Paco and she wanted to try it, so off we went.
I try to be polite and just suck down whatever´s given to me, but good god this was the worst thing I´ve ever eaten. The girls got hamburgers and they were fine. I got chicken quesadillas thinking I was playing it safe, but inside was half melted shredded cheese, cold chicken and some weird version of hot sauce. Maria got a burrito and I would try and explain it to you but I honestly can´t tell you what the hell they put in it. We laughed it off though, got some good desert and went back to the house. On the way home Elena out of no where goes, taco paco es muy malo. This might be funnier if you picture a 5 year old half asleep little girl with the softest, cutest voice saying it, or maybe I´m just a cheap laugh when it comes to little kids. Anyways, I´m excited for tomorrow because we´re going to a secluded beach where the family says there are no tourists.
One of the parents from the school said that on Wednesday, an exchange student from London that is my age is coming to stay at her house for the summer. The girls have a performance at school that day, so I´m supposed to meet her there. I´m sure she´ll be cool, and I´ll just be thankful to have someone to talk fluently with. It´s so weird, only being here a few days and already my brain is starting to think differently. Everyone speaks spanish all the time, of course, so I´m always thinking in simpliest terms so that I can translate easily. I have to think about everything I´m going to say for a couple minutes before I acutally say it, so that kind of sucks. But it´s been motivation to become more fluent. I´ve been studying at night and now I carry around a little book and pen because Maria tells me words all the time.
My body´s still on a weird schedule. It´s 1:30am here and everyones asleep, meanwhile I´m ready to rumble. I guess I´ll read a little, maybe watch some spanish television. Until next time, all my love and more! Chao-chao.
Friday, June 24, 2011
this is the stairway from the main part of the house to my room. it´s in the open air, all natural light, amazing to wake up to in the morning.
this is the view from the roof.
this is also the roof, they use it as a laundromat, but maria said it´s supposed to be a guest bedroom.
this is the stairway from the street to the front of the house. muy bonita eh?
the front porch from the bottom of the stairway
the rest of the front porch
when i went to the birthday party with the niñas, this was the pool. the view was amazing. you can see the ocean from their backyard and a couple small formenteras (islands). This is the second party I went to with the girls. The parties are so awesome because the girls go to a school called Morna International College, where they learn at least 3 different languages: spanish (cataclan) english and german. All of these 5 year olds from different countries are hanging out playing together. There are little blonde boys from England speaking fluent spanish to the natives. It´s so funny because even the natives, like the girls i´m staying with, speak english with an accent like they´re from england.
lavender is the typical plant native to eivissa (ibiza). This is the aroma i couldn´t find the word for. Just imagine an entire island smelling of fresh lavender. I´m telling you, it´s amazing here.
