Settling in to Santiago

It's only been a few days since some pals kindly helped me lug suitcases up several sets of stairs to my new piso, and I am already liking Santiago de Compostela. Of course, moving to a new city no matter the size is always exciting. So much to discover! In Lugo I seemed to know all the shops, bars, and cafés by heart. It happens. But in Santiago I have been noticing a lot more signs for activities that might interst me. Concerts and classes galore! And perhaps one of my greatest discoveries: an authentic Galician bar, where the cuncas (bowl of wine) are only FIFTY CENTS!

I went to scope out my new school as well. They've never had a language assistant, so hopefully they are left with a good impression of the program by the time I'm done. It's also bigger than my last school, which thus reminds me more of an American school. It's still probably half as big as my high school though, so it's tiny by American standards.

I have also realized that similarly to Lugo, Santiago is really just a big town. Maybe this is Galicia in general. Two degrees of separation. But well, this is advantageous even for a newcomer. Because I have friendships in Lugo who have friends here, I've met a handful of folks here through these connections. Which is way easier than just walking up to strangers and saying, ¨Hi I'm new here, will you be my friend?¨ (FYI: I would not advise doing that haha) This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Calentando Motores

The cool air and clouds announce: summer has come and past. Today was the first day of school in high schools across Galicia, although auxiliares don't start until October 3rd. I should be moving into a new piso in a new city this weekend, but until then (and since I got here last week) I've been living out of my suitcase with  Fani and Pitiña. After first arriving, I didn't really want to switch cities since Lugo is my comfort zone. But after walking around my new city and seeing all the possibilities (eateries to discover, concerts and activities to attend!), I am looking forward to it. Plus, I'll always have places to stay in Lugo Luguiño.

And here are some images from my summer travels that I never got around to blogging. I was just too busy!

Tractor shot from Festival de Cans. It's a version of the Cannes film festival, with a Galician twist! Iberian shorts are projected in barns, garages, and other outdoor venues. I'd been wanting to check it out for the last few years, and was thus as excited as a kid at Disney World when my friends Elena and Neil were willing to go too!

Elena and Neil on the Cans' red carpet. Note the hórreo in the background

Weekend in Sevilla with the girls. Nathalia and I flew down to meet two of our amigas who at that time lived in Andalucía. Wonderful weather. Loved the Moorish palace (they really knew how to awe with tiles) and the Plaza de España which has a small mural dedicated to each and every Spanish province. 

Viaje de Chicas II--A roadtrip across Andalucía with my two bestest buds Fani and Lauren. We stopped in Málaga, Granada (finally saw el Alhambra!!), and los Pueblos blancos, Absolutely idyllic.

A horse walks into a bar...

One of the Pueblos Blancos BUILT UNDER A LEDGE

In the Alhambra 

Paris

Now that I'm home for summer, I guess it's time to write about my springtime trips and adventures, which took up many a-weekend in April and May. I shall begin with the first of my weekend adventure: Paris with my cousin!

From a sign in the teacher's lounge, I thought the last weekend of May was a long weekend at school. It wasn't. But since my school is so great, they let me make up the day later on. I took advantage of my cousin living in Paris to pay her a visit...and see the city for the first time. After living in Europe a few years, it was finally time to see the City of Lights. Of course there is a ton to see there, so for the weekend I gave up my characteristic afternoon siesta time, and started drinking coffee. Since so much happened I'm just going to bullet point the highlights.

• Notre Dame: Usually I'm of the belief that once you've seen one cathedral, you've seen them all. But Notre Dame was actually very interesting inside. The outside, iconic. 
• The Eiffel Tower: The Parisian landmark is actually way bigger than I imagined. I knew there was an elevator (thankfully!), but thought the tower was just big enough for one large elevator to go up the middle. In reality, there are four different elevators which climb up the legs. We went up just before sunset, so we were privileged with two views: twilight and late night. From up top it you realize just how enormous Paris really is. Seeing dolled-up couples getting off at the restaurant made me wonder how many marriage proposals they see there in a day.
• The Louvre: So much to see, so little time! I'm honestly not a huge fan of art museums, but of course this was a must-see. There are some great pieces there. My cousin was smart to get a museum membership so she could peruse the art on a daily basis. My favorite section was probably the ancient statues. The Mona Lisa that everyone fusses about was not worth it to me. Plenty of other nice paintings from the same time, with less people. 
• Versailles: As a fan of old-timey royals and wealth, this was another must-see. It's just a short trainride away from Paris. My only complaint is with the way it's set-up. You have to go through 3 different check-points to actually get into the palace. Which means waiting. Outside! Aside from that though, it was lovely. The gardens were swell--too bad it started hailing while we were out for a royal walk. 
• Montmartre neighborhood: Nice place for a stroll. There are still a lot of artists there who want to paint your portrait or sell Parisian landscapes. 



Cousins in red outside Le Moulin Rouge

• Dining: Definitely took advantage of the wide selection of restaurants and food not available in little old Lugo. Most importantly, I ate a Nutella and banana crêpe everyday. Yummo! Aside from that we also savored French cuisine from Bretagne and Southern France. 

Here Comes the Summer

For us language assistants in Spain, the last day of May marks our last day of school. Meanwhile, our poor students and full-time co-workers are stuck toiling in hot classrooms until late June. Pobriños! But while most of my fellow language assitants enthusiastically celebrated the sense of freedom that summer brings, for me it was a bittersweet day. It was the last of my days at the insti máis molón de toda Galicia, where I've spent the past 3 years making friends with coworkers, going on Galician fieldtrips, participating in English bookclub, and every once in a while, actually teaching English to my delightful teenage students. As much as I truly loved going to work and interacting with all the special people in that school, I decided to try something new for the next year. Still Galicia (home!), but somewhere new. And boy did they give me a sendoff to remember.

I imagined there would be some sort of farewell activity, and the ¨surprise¨ was ruined, but I still wasn't sure what to expect Tuesday morning when we went to school in time for morning recess. Nothing was afoot as I greeted people in the teachers' lounge: ¨Kerry! It's your last day! You're leaving us!¨ And as I organized myself for the upcoming TREASURE HUNTS, the teachers disappeared and I was suddenly alone. What a mystery! Haha. Enter Yolanda, my co-teacher and good friend. ¨Let's go for a walk¨ she said with a coy smile. In the auditorium, were seated all of my students (+/-90) along with other teachers, and the director at the front ready to give a little speech. He said 10 years from now, if someone asks where I was May 31, 2016 I'll remember. And I'm sure I will. The lights went off for a presentation to the tune of ¨American Pie.¨ It started with ¨From Ohio to Galicia¨ and went on to include a slew of photos of me with students and teachers: eating, dressed up for Carnival, on fieldtrips, dancing. Basically the school highlights of this blog. And at the end it said ¨Stay gold, Kerry, stay gold,¨ a phrase which I had recently discussed with the director (whose book club is reading The Outsiders). Try not to cry!

Then they presented me with some gifts to remind me of my time there, although frankly, the presentation was memory enough. But they got me a ceramic palloza (traditional, circular thatch-roofed housing in the Ancares) and a t-shirt of the school saying ¨I was there 2013-16.¨ So cool! Especially since as many students have already noted, (band) t-shirts are one of my hallmarks.  After this little ceremony, I was asked to say a few words. I started by asking if they understood me if I spoke in English, which was answered with a rotund yes. Which describes quite well my job and joy: three years after hearing me babble on in English, they understand (not saying I'm the only one to thank, but it did feel like a nice payoff)! I told them thanks and blablabla and finished with a Galician, ¨vou vós botar de menos¨ meaning I will miss them. Nothing but the truth. It was met with cheers, as in most classes I refused to speak Galician or Spanish.

Afterwards, I had four gym classes. I planned two different treasure hunts around school for them as a special surprise, and actually had a little treasure chest of cheap Americana trinkets waiting for them. By now I was already overwhelmed, but on top of that in all of my classes we had pop and snacks! In most classes it was because my two co-teachers thought of celebrating, but in my favorite, oldest class it was the students' idea. Aw! And besides, one of the gym teachers gave me a mug of the town. And the other teacher gave toasts in both classes that made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. ;) Why on Earth did I choose to leave!?

Even at lunchtime, the specialness continued! I had class with my oldest students right before, and some who eat in the school cafeteria asked if I could eat with them. About half of the students eat in the cafeteria because their houses are too far away to go home. Teachers never eat there, so I was honored when the lunch ladies allowed it! They must've thought it was an odd request haha. Lunch was spent chatting with my students, and they even started chanting my name and banging on the table. Yikes! At the post-lunch recess we had our last meeting of English bookclub. The girls brought in cupcakes and even wrote me a letter detailing their past three years with me and apologizing if sometimes their class got out of hand. Oh, that's right, in my biggest and most ¨problematic¨ class, the class orator gave a speech also apologizing and saying that in fact they loved me. Aw! Then they proceeded to give a group hug with me in the center and toss me in the air. So by the end of the day, I was swimming in emotions, but certainly feeling the love! I feel bad for my future school...the bar has been set high.

Feira do Viño de Chantada

I am going to have to find more Galician traditions if I plan to stick around, because in March I checked another thing off my list of Galician things to do: a wine festival! Surely they have such traditions in other parts of Spain, but since Galicia is known for it's gastronomy and wine regions, this is an essential Galician activity.

Chantada is a big village in Lugo, smack dab in middle of the Ribeira Sacra, a wine region cultivated since Roman times. Buses from Lugo are scarce (public transportation is my biggest solvable complaint about Lugo/Galicia), so my friend and I were set to spend over 8 hours there; arriving before noon and leaving at 7. At first this was daunting, because if we got bored of the town there was no way home early. I brought cards just in case, but in the end that wasn't necessary. For March it was a surprisingly sunny and warm day. Qué suerte! Obviously since we got there in the morning it was too early for wine so we stopped in a café. Afterward, it still felt too early so we strolled the little market stands selling food, clothes, accessories, and typical Galician products. It was bigger than we had imagined, I thought it was just going to be the wine stands and little else. But of course I had to know that the market salespeople would bring their wares to such an occasion!

At the ¨appropriate¨ time for wine (when is that, exactly?) we started by purchasing a wineglass complete with neck strap. At first we looked pretty geeky, but later realized how handy they were! Then with a standing lunch, we started sampling. You could get a glass of red (Mencía) or white (Ribeiro) for 2-3€. About 10 wineries had their stands under the main tent. They weren't normal stands, but giant, hollowed-out barrels. Nice touch! Over the course of the afternoon I have no idea how many wines we sampled. We started with some reds, but then I remembered I don't even really like red, and Galician whites are so delicious. The community band entertained with movie soundtracks and my new friend and I bonded over our first wine fest experience, among other things. We didn't feel the need to befriend other festivalgoers, although everyone was friendly and merry. There was even a free wine judging, where you sampled 20 different brands and voted on them. This started later in the afternoon, and neither of us actually finished. Too many reds. But never too much wine.

Bestie Time (Uviéu)

The last Friday of February, I was talking with my best friend, who I hadn't seen in the flesh since December. That was last year! She perhaps jokingly suggested we meet up that same weekend in the middle: Asturias. I took her up on that offer, a spur-of-the-moment trip to Oviedo/Uviéu. The back story is we had been there a year and a half ago, except since it was rainy and things were closed, we didn't see much. We didn't even see the cathedral! Or go to the sidra street! Since then, I've been to Oviedo a few times with my friend as a tourguide, so this time I felt prepared to give my own tour. But for those who have had me as a tourguide, they know it's not really my calling. Whether it's oversimplifying the translation to English, or just forgetting the importance of certain buildings, tours just aren't my forte. But I tried.

Saturday morning we arrived on separate buses to Oviedo. By this time I had a good idea of how to get us to the real center. We caught up while having breakfast at a confitería were the señoras of Oviedo go, apparently. We are the future señoras of Spain! Then we headed to the center area with the old and new markets and city hall. I recognized the area from a visit with my parents last year, but could only remember two measly facts about the place. Funnily enough, we ran into my only friend from Oviedo who was able to tell Lauren some fun facts (and remind me of them, of course). Then Lauren and I strolled some more, enjoying the lovely architecture. Lunch included fabada (Asturian bean stew).

Hola, cachopo!

Feeling content with the fact that we had already seen more in a few hours than on our last visit, we went to our snazzy hotel to have a nap. It was raining, anyways. The receptionist thought I was Galician. Toma acento! Afterwards, it was getting dark, so we decided to visit the Asturian Museum before it closed. Nice, but we rushed through it. And then: sidra time. Luckily we went to have dinner before 10, so there was a table for two without reservations. Score! We knew we wanted cachopo, a big piece of meat, topped with cheese and then breaded. By big I mean for two people. I'm seeing a theme here with Asturian cooking--solitary dining is not an option. After dinner, we rolled ourselves out to another sidrería. Lots of sidra and lots of girl talk. The best part was getting to have a night out with Lauren and talk about every little thing, just like when we lived in the same city. After ingesting about 50 apples worth of sidra each, we were ready for a night on the town. And then rocked out til 5AM. Ah, España.

Lovely Avilés street

Sunday we set off on a little trip to Avilés at a surprisingly decent hour. That city is precious, I would definitely live there for a bit. It seems very calm since it's even smaller than Lugo. But the architecture in the center is charming. Maybe I would get bored, but who knows. Anyways, thanks to our handy-dandy personalized Avilés map we saw all the top sites. Trying to make up for all the money we had spent the night before, we had lunch at Burger King haha. Back in Oviedo we played the waiting game. We were exhausted, but had to wait for Lauren's ride back to Santander. So we sat for two hours in a bar like a couple of loons: drinking fresh-squeezed orange juice and practically falling asleep at 5pm. But bestie time was so worth it.