Spices and Confetti

Hola! Did not mean to go so long between posts, but here we are! It has been a busy few weeks, including settling in, exploring the city, figuring out my job, making friends, looking for a school and trying lots of new things. So far so good!

PS Sorry for the layout, I figured y'all would want to see the pictures rather than leave them out!

So, I am enjoying working with the family. The parents are understanding and generous, while the kids are eager to learn and have so much energy. My favorite moments are when one of the kids very obviously remembers something in English I taught them and beams with pride. We are still getting used to each other, but we are starting to have a great relationship. I cannot wait to see how much English they are speaking in a couple months!

Normal weekday routine: I explore some part of the city and run errands in the morning if it is not raining. I pick up the kids at their school at 2pm and we eat lunch at 2:30pm with the parents. In the afternoons the kids do their homework, play games and learn English with me, watch tv etc. We eat supper at 8:30pm and then watch Hannah Montana in English :) Then it’s English story-time and off to bed at 10pm. In the evenings the parents eat supper later and I have been practicing my Spanish through conversation with them (and friends) and movies in Spanish.

The food has been interesting to explore…my favorite so far is tortilla de patata, a specialty that is a kind of egg-potato casserole with lots of different kinds of vegetables cooked in a pan. I have never been a fan of fish, seafood, or beans but I have tried all three here! I actually liked some fish dishes, the seafood was alright, and I am definitely feeling more charitable towards beans. Yay new things!

I tried tapas with a friend and it turns out it is a type of dish, like appetizers or main course. You get a couple or a whole array of tapas, all of only a few bites of different dishes of which you can order a full dish. It is a fun way to try lots of different foods! I went with my family to a Sunday lunch in a tiny town outside of Malaga on the beach. We had paella, a famous dish of southern Spain. It has rice and a couple vegetables with some kind of seafood—ours had crawdads, octopus, and clams! The spices were delicious…I am looking forward to trying more typical Spanish dishes.

There were too many people who applied to the school I tried to get in and I had bad luck. So we are looking for another school I can take classes at in the mornings. Cross your fingers we find a good one soon!

I have the mornings and weekends to myself so I have been walking around the city a lot. I went salsa dancing at some Latin American clubs the first weekend with some friends I met in a store. Last weekend we went to an American hip-hop “discotheque” (club), which was lots of fun. However, the dancing schedule here is 1am-6am! Very different.

Malaga is an interesting city of Spain. It is very old and has some elements of its history, but it also has a lot of new developments and investments. I love wandering the streets and discovering little stores and back alleys. I have yet to visit the Alcazaba or the Cathedral, the two major sights to see in Malaga. I am planning to take a hop-on hop-off bus visit of the landmarks some weekend I have free when it is not raining. I can’t wait until the weather gets warmer and I can spend some time on the beach!

My favorite trivia so far: Picasso and Antonio Banderas are from here! I went to the Picasso museum, which is apparently not the most important but was still fun. The boardwalk beside the beach is beautiful…I love the ocean. I have been running along the beach and it is very inspiring. I might have to find a coastal town in the US where I could live!

I have also been to a couple Carnaval parades. There were bucket-loads of confetti and huge floats that were designed as glittery costume extensions around a person. So much fun!

I have made a few friends and enjoy trying out my Spanish with them. We had a relatively coherent discussion about Spanish politics the other day and I was very impressed with myself! I went to Cadiz this weekend with a French au pair whose family is friends with my family. Apparently it is the most important Carnaval celebration in Spain--it was so much fun!

A large part of Carnaval here is singing musical groups that dress up in crazy costumes (like these kings) and sing satires. We had costumes in Cadiz and I met a lot of people with random ideas--Avatar costumes were popular!

Well if you made it this far, congratulations! Hopefully it will not be as long until I update this thing but I also hope you enjoyed it. Love to all!