A combination of things have prevented me from updating this for a couple of months: my classes haven’t gotten increasing more demanding and time consuming and I had to flee my old apartment mid-November which left me living with friends for two weeks and now in an internet-less apartment. Despite this flaw (which is significant in my life), the new apartment is SO much better. I feel as though I have been snatched from the fiery pit below and placed in a clean, tranquil, modern heaven. I reduced my daily commute by two hours and my quality of life has improved dramatically (goodbye creepy public transportation companions who have major issues with staring!).
December flew by and I took several trips with great friends. We spent a four-day weekend in the South of Spain in Granada and Cordoba and it was amazing although much colder than I had been prepared for. The next weekend I went with 10 program-mates to Lisbon, Portugal. It was incredible! I loved the people, sites, my travel-mates, and the food!!! I could talk about all those things for ages but I won’t since I got to catch up with most of you over the break.
It was fun to experience Christmas festivities in another country. There were lots of similarities and plenty of differences as well. My students performed in Christmas programs that were adorable. I participated in an invisible friend gift exchange with my teachers (which I thought was more like secret Santa but in the end I discovered that you never reveal who you gave the gift too…something I totally blew since I thought we would tell the person when they opened it…oops, haha). I participated in the Christmas lottery which according to every Spanish person you ask is a national past time and an absolute must. After several teachers spent 30 minutes telling me why I needed to buy a ticket and even showing me examples of YouTube videos I caved and decided to fork over 20 Euros for my chance at the BIG one! All the teachers in my school had the same number so if we won, we would win big and cancel school the next day. We didn’t win. But the excitement and cultural experience was fun. For several weeks it was a conversation topic. I received many great gifts from my students including a super sparkly scarf and lots of candy. One of the most special gifts I received was from my high-school juniors. They mad me a huge card that was the Spanish flag that said “Spanish is Fun!” since they always laugh at the sign I have that says “English is Fun!” They all signed it and put a picture of themselves inside. As if that wasn’t sweet enough they then gave me two beautiful and very nice Tous bracelets. They had collected money from everyone in the class and went and bought them. It was so cute! I almost cried. And all the other teachers in the school were expressive of their amazement and jealousy since it is very unusual for kids of their age to do such a thing and they have never done that for any of them.
On December 23rd the moment I had been waiting for since November arrived! I flew home for Christmas!! I do know if you could have ever seen two more excited people in the Madrid than Jordan and me. When an airline worker approached us the tell us the flight was overbooked and offer us $1000 to fly the next day we said “NO” so quickly she could barely finish the offer. It was a good thing we didn’t take the offer as a pretty intense blizzard arrived mere hours after our flight and we wouldn’t have made it one day later. I felt so smug to be wrapped up at home in Kingfisher when all of the snow was falling and closing roads and airports. The next 2 weeks at home flew by as two of the most enjoyable and delicious weeks ever! It felt so good to be home with all of the people and things and food that I appreciate and miss so much. I spent lots of quality time with family and friends and got my American heart refilled, refueled and ready to take on Spain once again.
