tuenTi

Spain, like every other country in the world, takes the best parts of America and tries to make it their own. (It's like when Canada just slaps a maple leaf onto something and pretends to be a separate country. Yeah, okay. That makes you real people.) In this case, I'm referring to facebook.

Someone in Spain said, "hey! facebook! cool!" or maybe "oye! el libro de caras! que guay!" and then put their minds to work and presented these poor españoles with Tuenti.

I've had Tuenti since October, but whenever the niños asked, I'd play dumb. No, I don't use it very often, but I really didn't want to get stalked out all year. So finally, on their respective last days of classes, I took a photo with them, wrote my name on the board and said "Add me on Tuenti, if you want."  And of course, because I gave them an inch, they tried to take a whole kilometer: "Do you have facebook!?!!??!?!?!"  Facebook? No. There are incriminating photos there. Mom, Dad, don't bother looking. Privacy settings.

Anyways, after uploading their class photos to tuenti, my friend requests came flooding in. Seriously I think my number of tuenti friends was multiplied by 10. And we know that the number of social network friends shows how popular a person is in real life. (ie, myself = extremely popular).

One of my 1S1 kids took their class picture and photoshopped it (or "el photoshopped," as I'm sure it translates).

These kids are just killing me today. Excuse me, I have to go accept 400 tuenti friend requests.

hasta nunca, 4S3

Here is 4S3, a non-bilingual class, but one of my favorites. The teacher drives me to school every Wednesday and Friday, speaks nearly perfect English after being a Spanish language assistant in Ireland for a few years and attending university in England. This is BY FAR my most enthusiastic class, the class that is most excited to see me in the halls, when I enter the room, and I always leave to a round of applause. Flattering? Certainly.

BUT... Today they gave me a good-bye card... and that is when I realized that while we have had a lot of fun, they have learned approximately nothing.

Phonetic spelling of my name... Well, Americans can't do much better.

It sounds like a command almost, "WE NEVER FORGET YOU."

Or maybe robots.

We're human beens. Mistakes happen.

But how can I be upset? Look at what a good time they are, hanging with their profe, Jose Antonio.

Sad day.

1S1Niños

Here are my precious kids from 1S1 bilingual on our last day of clase. As you can see, they pay close attention to current economic conditions and particularly concerned about the unemployment rate- but not for John, who works in a bank.

sometimes in life you need to make sacrifices...

This weekend, my grand and valiant sacrifice was to trade hygiene for a couple more pounds in my savings account. London is not a cheap city and hostels for three nights ranged from 200 to 500 pounds... um, no gracias.

We had a specific neighborhood in mind, that of Earl´s Court near Kensington, because our friend already had a reservation at a hotel in that area. Because of the hideous price tags, we postponed booking a hostel until Friday morning around 11am. Did I mention we had to be at the airport by 4pm?

Finally, we found the beautiful Barkston Garden hostel. You would think that a place with the name "Garden" in the title, wouldn´t be as terrible as it was...

I won´t go into all the detail, but I leave you with a simple "Would You Rather?" question:

Would you rather stay at a hostel where there are bed bugs or a hostel where the toilets don´t flush?

Some of us didn´t have the luxury of choosing.

vooooooolcaaaaaanooooo (like how they say it at the rainforest cafe)

So in my 22 (almost 23, sadface) years of existence, I have never once thought of volcanoes. Of course, as I type this, I realize that for the very first time I accidentally lied to my faithful followers. There was that time, freshman year of college, when I took The Ocean Planet, thinking that it was all about the ocean and sharks and scary fish that I never want to think about while swimming. Unfortunately, 97% of the Earth is covered in water, thus giving it the nickname "the Ocean Planet". So that was a class filled with tectonic plates and natural disasters and overall boredom.

If we can move past my accidental white lie, I suppose I can rephrase to say that volcanoes have never before affected my life. And while I haven't had a Pompeii-like experience, I am flying to London on Friday and getting a bit nervous about this damn nube de ceniza over Europe preventing me from my vacation from my vacation.

Luckily, I try to keep up with world news when I'm not at the beach (spectacular weather, by the by). And this morning, I read that they will be lowering the safety restrictions because otherwise flights will be horrifically backlogged. I forwarded it along with my flight information to my mom, because I like for her to know at what time I will be departing and arriving in a country, especially if I'm flying on a less-safe airplane. It's for her peace of mind.

So, cross your fingers that this ash cloud drifts back to Iceland or Norway, or somewhere that no one cares to fly to.

Gardens/Death Trap

Last week I went to check out the botanical gardens a little bit north of Málaga. One thing I want you to remember while looking through my beautiful pictures and thinking to yourself, "Wow, this looks so bonita and tranquil, I want to live there": I got some kind of atrocious rash from this deceptively pretty place. Sure, its gone now, but it will probably resurface in 3-5 years and kill me.

So enjoy these fotos, but I'm holding a grudge, los jardines botanicos, alias, "La Concepcion."

Hint: If you hold your mouse over one of the images, it will enlarge said image. Mágico.

the spanish classroom: helping spread urban legends

So, I was helping out in physics class with Antonio Lechuga (think we've gone over this, but that translates to "Anthony Lettuce," or best Spanish name ever) and we're talking chemical reactions.

Clearly my role in the classroom is more to mispronounce "heterogenous" and "homogenous," but sometimes while trying not to fall asleep, I learn some interesting new facts. Today was not one of those days.

Recently, the class did an experiment involving Mentos and Diet Coke. Sort of like this Mythbusters clip, but explained in unintelligible English.

In class, we were discussing physical versus chemical reactions (physical means that the molecules aren't actually changed; it's like the difference between steam from a really hot shower or electrocuting the bathtub with a hair dryer. Or something.) and a student asked again about the experiment. Basically, she wanted to know if you would die from eating Mentos and Diet Coke together.  And Antonio Lechuga's response? Maybe you won't die, but it's very dangerous. 

How serious was he? Antonio Lechuga (can't. stop. saying. his. name.) switched from English to Spanish to get his point across. He said something along the lines of DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME and LIFE IS ALREADY DANGEROUS ENOUGH, WHY TAKE CHANCES?

Yeah right, after telling them that they would be having a test on their ability to memorize the periodic table of elements - been there, done that - I'm predicting that SuperSol sells out of mint Mentos and Diet Coke in the next week. Go ahead and try to live on the edge mis niños preciosos... I think you're safe.

what a great day to try to read the paper

Every morning on calle Larios (and by street, I mean ice skating rink because it rained this morning), there are people that pass out free fake newspapers with about one important story and 6 pages of H&M bathing suit ads. This morning I accepted the reputable and esteemed 20 Minutos (I don´t speak Spanish and could have finished it in 5).

So I cracked it open on my commute along the Mediterranean, while listening to Rodney Atkins, which is really just a huge mishmash of informacion for me to process. So when I saw the article about the 16 year old trapped in the body of an infant, well I had to take a minute. My exact response was to close the paper, then re-open all 6 sheets of newsprint, just to see if I processed it correctly. This story alone could have made my morning or the local circus freak show...

But no, I forged ahead, and made it to the sports section. And there, my morning was made, with a photo of "el bateador Kevin Youkilis". That´s right, the Medias Rojas, or the Red Sox, as their uniforms state (but maybe they will pull a "Los Suns" soon?) made an appearance in the Spanish newspaper.

The best part was the caption. Paraphrasing, the point of the story was to comment on the fact that the Sox were using pink bats to honor the madres. However, the photo was in black and white. Go figure.

dunks, 'bucks, java, brewed, perfecto's, bagelz....

Did I forget anyone?

Summer is approaching and that means one thing: Iced coffee. Of course, I like my cafe con hielo (seriously, ice is one of the hardest words for me to say in the Spanish language. Add in the fact that iced coffee is a foreign concept here... well, I'll continue, but let's just say LOST IN TRANSLATION.) all year round, but I am really craving it right now.

There's something about iced coffee that reminds me of driving to Newfound Lake with the windows down and the country music up... or maybe getting an iced to go, to make it through an atrocious day of work, hungover... Whatever the reason, its the food group that I am most missing right now- no matter how much "better" this European cafe is supposed to be.

Anyways, I will be catching a flight home on June 11. I am flying from Málaga to Dublin to JFK, and from there the trusty Corolla will be taking me home. I negotiated flying into JFK rather than Logan in exchange for the difference in ticket price to be paid in french vanilla iced.

SOLD.

mystery: solved.

Some friends recently relocated to my less-than-desirable neighborhood. On their street, there is woman who lives in a first floor apartment always, always at her window. Typically there are people outside of said window and there is an exchange of money.

Some theories included drug dealing or money laundering. Both of these are fully plausible in my neck of the woods, but we've solved the mystery. 

Friends are visiting from Australia/England and were insistent upon purchasing some "holiday fags". (I was surprised by what that meant as well.) They went to a store around the corner and asked, but it was apparently too late to buy them at the time. Strange, because I didn't think there were rules in Spain. Anyways, the always helpful proprietor told them to leave the store and buy them from the woman in the window. 

So it was just cigarettes. Kind of a let down.


EDIT:
I forced my friend to read this, against his will. He lives on the street with the old lady and was the first to point her presence out to me. While agreeing that perhaps she does sell cigs as a side hustle, there have also been envelopes passed through her window, along with sketchy looks back and forth.

Unfortunately, I'm no Sherlock Holmes, so this case remains open. But we'll label it as, "at LEAST Marlboro Lights and probably other more interesting things." Cool.

more school pictures

It's certainly no drive along I-93S or even Route 108 in Rhody... 

and due to like, nature or or science or whatever, 

there are no more sunrises to watch for my daily commute... 

But still, it's not so bad.

Edificio 1 of I.E.S. Bezmiliana. 

Some sort of science-y perception exhibition in Edificio 2 with my 1ESO class. 

Inside of Edificio 2.

Sort of like vocational school for ciclos formaticos (technology, etc.)

Scariest building for me, because most of the students are my age or older. 

Intimidating.

Basically, comparing the perception of this chica from an adult to a teen.

Teen: "¡Que guay!" - How cool.

Adult: "¡Que verguenza!" - How shameful. 

Same perception as in America, I would imagine.

There are mirrors in front of her eyes, so she can't see her classmate flipping her off.

Yes, it means the same thing in Spanish.

Loving them some optical illusions.

la playa

So I've decided that in order to transport a little bit of the Mediterranean lifestyle into your lives, I will start taking pictures at the beach. Not just any fotos... la crema de  [insert word for crop in Spanish].

Just as a reference for how nice his hair was, 

it took me a LONG time to believe that this was not a topless woman from the back.

THAT nice.