Hello, bonjour, hallo, hola!
That, in a nutshell, describes my Linares-Madrid-Munich-Toronto-Hamilton and Hamilton-Toronto-Frankfurt-Madrid-Linares trips. Spain may appear to be one of the closest European countries to Canada, but that's a lie. Well... at least in terms of flights. Believe it or not, there are no direct flights from Madrid to Toronto, so my trip home involved illogical stops in Germany both ways. (I may or may not have said "gracias" to a German customs officer. Oops.)
Long trips aside, I feel very lucky that I was able to spend over three weeks in Canada for Christmas. Goodbyes were tough on both ends, and I shudder to think about how difficult it will be to leave Spain for good this summer! But it was well worth it. For me, there's nothing like spending Christmas at home: being with family, watching Christmas movies, decorating the Christmas tree, eating bacon and eggs on Christmas morning... We had surprisingly mild weather until the last week, when I was very happy to see the snow I'd been bragging about to all my Spanish friends and then leave just in time to avoid the shovelling season. It was a shock to leave -20 temperatures in Canada and return to +20 here, but I'm not complaining!
My first week back at work went well. It was nice to see everyone again and get back into my routine. Even the dogs seemed to have noticed I was away! This weekend I had planned to take it easy, but it actually turned out quite busy. I went out for tapas on Friday, then on Saturday morning I saw Domenico's (Elena and Andrés's 5-year-old nephew) soccer game. It was too funny seeing the tiny players whizzing around the field as we yelled, "¡Vamos, tira!" (Let's go, shoot!). Then last night a group of us went out in a small town called Bailén—until 4:30 a.m.! I was grateful to have a very lazy day today. Some of Andrés and Elena's friends came over for lunch, and we lazed around talking for hours afterwards. We had arroz negro (rice with a black sauce made from squid ink), ¡qué rico!
I also realized I forgot to write about my trip to Málaga during the December long weekend. It was a great trip! We stayed in a touristy beach town near Málaga called Fuengirola, which took me a good two days to say properly ("Fwen-hri-rol-la"), and spent time in Málaga with two of Andrés and Elena's friends. Málaga is a beautiful city, and we were lucky to have sunny 25-degree weather all weekend. We ate delicious seafood, including my favourite pulpo a la gallega (Galician octopus) and sardines cooked in a typical Málagan style: it's hard to describe, but the sardines are put on wooden sticks stuck in a little sand-filled boat over a fire. Another highlight was seeing Málaga's beautiful Christmas lights, some of which on a main street were set up to look like a giant cathedral! Overall it was a very good weekend, and I plan on going back to Málaga to see more of the city and its historical sites.
'Ta luego!
That, in a nutshell, describes my Linares-Madrid-Munich-Toronto-Hamilton and Hamilton-Toronto-Frankfurt-Madrid-Linares trips. Spain may appear to be one of the closest European countries to Canada, but that's a lie. Well... at least in terms of flights. Believe it or not, there are no direct flights from Madrid to Toronto, so my trip home involved illogical stops in Germany both ways. (I may or may not have said "gracias" to a German customs officer. Oops.)
Long trips aside, I feel very lucky that I was able to spend over three weeks in Canada for Christmas. Goodbyes were tough on both ends, and I shudder to think about how difficult it will be to leave Spain for good this summer! But it was well worth it. For me, there's nothing like spending Christmas at home: being with family, watching Christmas movies, decorating the Christmas tree, eating bacon and eggs on Christmas morning... We had surprisingly mild weather until the last week, when I was very happy to see the snow I'd been bragging about to all my Spanish friends and then leave just in time to avoid the shovelling season. It was a shock to leave -20 temperatures in Canada and return to +20 here, but I'm not complaining!
My first week back at work went well. It was nice to see everyone again and get back into my routine. Even the dogs seemed to have noticed I was away! This weekend I had planned to take it easy, but it actually turned out quite busy. I went out for tapas on Friday, then on Saturday morning I saw Domenico's (Elena and Andrés's 5-year-old nephew) soccer game. It was too funny seeing the tiny players whizzing around the field as we yelled, "¡Vamos, tira!" (Let's go, shoot!). Then last night a group of us went out in a small town called Bailén—until 4:30 a.m.! I was grateful to have a very lazy day today. Some of Andrés and Elena's friends came over for lunch, and we lazed around talking for hours afterwards. We had arroz negro (rice with a black sauce made from squid ink), ¡qué rico!
I also realized I forgot to write about my trip to Málaga during the December long weekend. It was a great trip! We stayed in a touristy beach town near Málaga called Fuengirola, which took me a good two days to say properly ("Fwen-hri-rol-la"), and spent time in Málaga with two of Andrés and Elena's friends. Málaga is a beautiful city, and we were lucky to have sunny 25-degree weather all weekend. We ate delicious seafood, including my favourite pulpo a la gallega (Galician octopus) and sardines cooked in a typical Málagan style: it's hard to describe, but the sardines are put on wooden sticks stuck in a little sand-filled boat over a fire. Another highlight was seeing Málaga's beautiful Christmas lights, some of which on a main street were set up to look like a giant cathedral! Overall it was a very good weekend, and I plan on going back to Málaga to see more of the city and its historical sites.
'Ta luego!
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