Pearls in España: No Pasa Nada...

It is crazy to think that I have been here since September and that I have done so much already! I really already feels like a year ago that I packed 4 luggage carriers and hopped on the plane. I have been really lucky to meet some great friends in my town to just enjoy life with. It is like I have a little Spanish family here, including all my students who I see all around town!

I hope your Christmas was nothing short of being merry and bright, and I cannot express how excited I am about a New Year! I completely understand that the world is not pretty and lovely right now, but I think improving your life starts with how you look at it. Be positive about 2012, this could be your year of new, great things! So welcome 2012 with your biggest smile that you know I miss, and embrace life to the fullestJ

During my Christmas break, I have been pretty busy! I had a great last week of school with my babies with singing at the Community Center, the School Christmas Show, festivities around town, field trips, and lots of love everywhere. We were welcomed into our Spanish mom and dad’s house (aka our landlords) for Christmas Eve Dinner, and we ate great food and laughed a ton!

Primer Plato

The Table

Our Spanish Mama and her girls!

Trying new foods!

Segundo Plato

Postres

After time with the family, we went home to change and enjoyed the night with some friends! We had a blast and a half! Christmas day was what I had been dreading, but God-willing it went so great! I thought for sure I would be moody that day, but I was in great spirits. Haley and I enjoyed a nice Texas Style Breakfast for Christmas Dinner, which we made in our kitchen together. We are super precious sometimes haha! Then, we watched “Life as we know it” to end our Christmas day! The next day, we traveled to Sevilla with Patrice, Haley’s coworker. It was really nice to road trip it to my favorite city in Spain with the funnest teacher! It really worked out perfectly, because she was flying to Barcelona the same day that we needed to pick Haley’s mom up from the airport. So, we helped Patrice check in and waited with her until she went passed Security, then Haley’s mom arrived!!

We spent the night in Sevilla. We stayed in “barrio de santa cruz” at Hotel Murillo. They were very nice, and helpful from extra sheets to taxi calls. It was a very nice area, and the hotel was lovely and quiet. Also, it was very close to the center of the city. We were at the Cathedral in about 10- 15 minutes. And if you know Sevilla, you know it was a gorgeous walk.

Our second day in Sevilla, we had a shopping day! It was so nice to have some girlie time, especially after our long, busy work week. After shopping, we took a taxi to the train station for our train to Cadiz. The train ride was about 2 hours, and then we had a layover at the Cadiz bus station for about an hour. So, we spent some time in the café in the bus station. Haley and I ate a tortilla and drank some “zumo natural” (homemade orange juice) and Mrs. Debby showed me all of her fun pictures of Haley before we left for Spain. It was some great to chat it up in PERSON!!! Finally, our bus came and we rode it for about 2.5 hours to our beach town!!

During the first few days, we have showed Mrs. Debby every detail of our daily life from daily routines, Spanish schedule, grocery shopping, etc. Also, we took her to Vejer de la Frontera and Gibraltar the first week. In a previous blog I traveled to precious Vejer, so I will not bore you with its elaborations again. But I will tell you all about my time in the British colony called Gibraltar!!

So, to be honest, going into this day trip I did not know much about this place. I only knew about it due to our friend from England, who told me it was English territory. I did not know about the monkeys or that is would so interesting! I always get really excited when I can get a new stamp in my passport, and I didn’t realize that would happen either!

For the some of you who were like me and don’t know much about this place, I will give you a quick summary. First off, it’s not Spanish land…like I said its English territory. So, that means English and Spanish are spoken there and diverse currency is accepted there as well. It’s known for the “Gibraltar Rock”, which is where the apes live!! This is a place with a lot of history for military as well. I truly enjoy traveling, cultures, history, and diversity...soo this was a pretty neat place to visit!

I did get to see a few monkeys on the Gibraltar Rock today, and to do that I needed to take a Cable Car to the TOP of the mountain. Yes, I was a little nervous, but I did it!!

We also walked the streets and ate a few patio restaurants to simply enjoy the day. I learned that lots of Spaniards go to Gibraltar to buy clothes, alcohol, cigarettes, toys etc. since its a little cheaper. So, we checked out some stores and just really soaked in Gibraltar! It was a nice, calm day for us and I’m not gonna lie it was lovely hearing English aroundJ

Here are some pictures of our day in Gibraltar…