Brrr, December. Here in Linares we're enduring this cold weather as best we can–shovelling snow daily, wearing giant winter coats, drinking hot chocolate by the fireplace...
Not! It may not be 30 degrees and sunny anymore, but winter here trumps Canada by a long shot: most days I can get by with only a trench coat and scarf.
Christmas is fast approaching, and despite the lack of snow (very strange), it's starting to feel like it with all the decorations and lights around town. I'm very excited to be going home for three weeks for the break–my flight is in exactly two weeks!
Things are going well here for the most part. Like any other job, there are days when mine gets on my nerves between students being noisy or staring at me blankly, but for the most part I really enjoy it. One important thing I've learned probably seems like common sense: if you need help, just ask! Last week I was feeling overwhelmed one day between my regular job, private lessons and work at a private academy and ended up talking to some colleagues about it. It was amazing how supportive and helpful they all were, and I'm now feeling much better about it all.
This past month wasn't overly exciting on the travelling front, but I did manage to make two day trips to Baños, a nearby town with a beautiful castle, and Úbeda, a small Renaissance city nearby. Tomorrow I will be going to Baeza, another Renaissance city, with some of my language-assistant friends. Úbeda and Baeza are both UNESCO sites and are only a half hour away. My parents also visited for a week, and it was great to see them! They had bad luck with the weather–it rained the whole week and was sunny the whole next week–but we made the most of it. They loved experiencing the tapas scene, meeting the family I'm staying with and some of my colleagues, and seeing Cástulo, an ancient Roman city discovered semi recently right outside of Linares.
As for the title of this entry, recently I've been feeling like I can't put a complete sentence together in a single language! At home, I speak to Elena and Andrés (the couple I'm living with) in sentences that often start in Spanish and end in English or vice-versa. There was also one memorable day where Andrés called me from the living room and I inexplicably answered "Oui?" Feeling tongue-tied like that can be a little frustrating, but I think it's just part of the deal when you're living between languages. One thing's for sure: my Spanish is at least better than when I came!
As for the weekend, not too many plans yet aside from Baeza tomorrow and, por supuesto, lots of tapas! It's currently La Ruta de la Tapa here in Linares, a type of tapas festival where each bar makes a special tapa. It's also a long weekend, so I'm looking forward to some solid rest and who knows, maybe another day trip.
'Ta luego!
Not! It may not be 30 degrees and sunny anymore, but winter here trumps Canada by a long shot: most days I can get by with only a trench coat and scarf.
Christmas is fast approaching, and despite the lack of snow (very strange), it's starting to feel like it with all the decorations and lights around town. I'm very excited to be going home for three weeks for the break–my flight is in exactly two weeks!
Things are going well here for the most part. Like any other job, there are days when mine gets on my nerves between students being noisy or staring at me blankly, but for the most part I really enjoy it. One important thing I've learned probably seems like common sense: if you need help, just ask! Last week I was feeling overwhelmed one day between my regular job, private lessons and work at a private academy and ended up talking to some colleagues about it. It was amazing how supportive and helpful they all were, and I'm now feeling much better about it all.
This past month wasn't overly exciting on the travelling front, but I did manage to make two day trips to Baños, a nearby town with a beautiful castle, and Úbeda, a small Renaissance city nearby. Tomorrow I will be going to Baeza, another Renaissance city, with some of my language-assistant friends. Úbeda and Baeza are both UNESCO sites and are only a half hour away. My parents also visited for a week, and it was great to see them! They had bad luck with the weather–it rained the whole week and was sunny the whole next week–but we made the most of it. They loved experiencing the tapas scene, meeting the family I'm staying with and some of my colleagues, and seeing Cástulo, an ancient Roman city discovered semi recently right outside of Linares.
As for the title of this entry, recently I've been feeling like I can't put a complete sentence together in a single language! At home, I speak to Elena and Andrés (the couple I'm living with) in sentences that often start in Spanish and end in English or vice-versa. There was also one memorable day where Andrés called me from the living room and I inexplicably answered "Oui?" Feeling tongue-tied like that can be a little frustrating, but I think it's just part of the deal when you're living between languages. One thing's for sure: my Spanish is at least better than when I came!
As for the weekend, not too many plans yet aside from Baeza tomorrow and, por supuesto, lots of tapas! It's currently La Ruta de la Tapa here in Linares, a type of tapas festival where each bar makes a special tapa. It's also a long weekend, so I'm looking forward to some solid rest and who knows, maybe another day trip.
'Ta luego!
