More Spring stuff

Hurray! Spring has sprung! The weather is super awesome and there hasn't been even the hint of rain in days. It's so sunny, I've been wearing face sunscreen and sunglasses just in case! (you can never be too prepared to start prevent obvious aging). Things have kind of settled down, one of my most difficult private classes had to cancel for the month of April because she got a job (unemployment here is super crazy, in my classes it is almost depressing seeing how many of them are jobless [I know it is a skewed statistics because if they are unemployed they are more likely to be enrolled in classes and attend them-either wanting to get an advantage for new jobs or simply because they have more time], it is really looking at all the scary statistics they talk about in the face), so she is hoping to restart private classes again in May. Meanwhile, I still get random calls asking about private lessons. I usually get them while I'm sleeping.

The school is getting kind of old. Because I switched levels at semester, February, I am repeating some of the same lessons but going slower since these are intermediate instead of advanced classes. This means I did the lesson about me again. That means I talked about me for 24 hours first semester, and something like 48 hours the second semester. On the bright side, I love talking about myself, haha, and I got really good at delivering jokes. It is like practice for being a stand-up comic! Except the subject matter isn't really universally appealing, I guess. Also we are talking about food, traveling, and now FINALLY something new: planning events. I chose weddings because then they can talk about the reception menu, the honeymoon (things relating to what we talked about in the previous classes) AND bachelor/bachelorette parties! There is nothing like talking about something borderline scandalous to get their creativity and enthusiasm going. I'm still hoping that we can watch some tv for the last weeks, but I have low expectations with the level of the students. In fun news, one guy gave a presentation about Houston! I was all like, been there! My sister goes to that school! NASA! Anyway, it was kind of difficult to understand (did I mention the level is lower?) but that is why powerpoint is such a useful tool.

Aside from school and private classes, I've still been going to the gym pretty consistently - minus things in the mornings and a few days where I fell a little under the weather and when I all of a sudden can feel that I have random muscles and they are sore and then I don't want to move any more than I have to. I'm getting all buddy-buddy with some people there, so it's nice to be able to meet new people. Speaking of people, I went to an Erasmus party a few weeks ago and it was kind of lame. I never really felt old here, but not being a University student - for awhile, even - made me feel a little out of place at a college study-abroad party. Not because we didn't have things in common, but because I would never seem them on campus, in classes, at UVIGO meetings, etc. Also, there were some weird people who must not have gotten the social awareness gene. Then the teachers and I have been having a good time! We went to one of the two mexican restaurants in the city. Disappointment. The enchilada was like swimming in salt. The quesadilla was like cheesy, but the cheese was salty. And the margaritas cost 9.90Euros!!! Also, there was a paella party. It was delish and fun and tiiiipical espaniiish.

In Vigo, after Carnaval, they did a reenactment about a battle with the French from like 1809 or something. It was packed. And they had French soldiers and old-timey costumes and people dancing and horses and allegedly some battle but we missed it because the crowds were all crazy. Then soon after, Manu and I took a brief trip to Gijon. Gijon is a city in Asturias, also the north of Spain, which is kind of isolated except for the capital city sort of nearby. Well, Asturias is kind of isolated. It is super mountainous and lakey/rivery, so that wasn't especially conducive to connective infrastructures. Anyway, there are lots of little villages on the sides and valleys of mountains and Gijon is one of the two large cities in the province. Anyway, it's a pretty cute town with a really nice boardwalk. The most famous thing about Asturias is the cider (and cheese but people always say cider first). The thing is that the bartender pouring it does so from over his head. I don't think I liked the cider that much, I thought it was kind of bitter. But then I found out it isn't for sipping but to drink all at once, so maybe I just tasted it wrong. We were only there for like two and a half days, a lot of the time was traveling on a bus, but that's ok because there isn't really a ton of stuff to do in the actual city.

Now we are coming up on Semana Santa. This is essentially Spring Break part 2. Only this year, it isn't planned out as well as it was last year. I have a few ideas of what to do, but with random schedules it makes it a little challenging. There's always the beaches!!

Well that about sums up what has been up the last few weeks. After semana santa I will fill you in on the crazy hijinks I get myself into - you know there's always something! haha. PS-if we are facebook friends, you can see the album from Carnaval, the Reconquista and when Manu and I went to Gijon. Blast in a glass!

xoxo