Christmas is less than one week away. I usually don´t like the holidays very much, and this year is no real exception. I am going to Wales though for about a week, and I´m pretty excited about that. You see when I was fourteen, I went on this exchange program to Great Britain. During that time for about three days I stayed with a Welsh family in Wales. They were super-nice, and we still keep in touch. Since I can´t afford to fly home for the holidays, I´ve invited myself over to their house. I think they are pretty excited about it, and so am I. Wales is kind of country-bumpkinville in Great Britain, so for them, having an American over is still exciting. Tengo ganas.
On Wednesday my roommates and I had a Christmas dinner. It was really nice. Paula made food for everyone, and I made ginger bread cookies, complete with the ginger that my mom had mailed to me, since you can´t get it over here. On a whim I had bought a burned copy of a ¨Navidad Flamenca¨ CD off one of the piratas on the street, not quite sure what I was going to get. Turns out the CD is AWESOME. The food was delicious. and after the third course I brought out the cookies. My mom had mailed me a cookie cutter shaped like a little gingerbread man, so I had written in icing everybody´s name on the belly of one of the cookies. I have to admit, they were pretty dang cute. There was an audible ¨aaaaaaaaawwww...¨ when I brought them out on their little tray of tin foil. Then after the dinner, augmented with the four bottles of white wine we had shared, we went out to Malasaña. I ended up staying up until three and getting some digets. Had to get up at seven the next morning for class, but it was worth it. I cannot even express to you how much cooler these people are than my lame-ass roommates of last year. Such a better situation. Now I have proof positive that the whole business last year wasn´t my fault after all, and that they really were just immature, stupid, racist boys.
Weekend before last I went to San Sebastian in the Basque country with my friend Andrea. It was pretty fun. THe town is on the water, so we walked around the beach and stuff. There were actually people SWIMMING, for crying out loud. I guess the Basque blood runs thick and deep. We stayed in a hostal in the old town center, and the other people staying there were actually pretty cool, and we went out with them a bit. There was this one very interesting guy we met from Nepal who had all sorts of interesting things to say about things I know nothing about. Really cool. Almost too cool... That´s why I don´t think I could survive very long doing the backpacking thing. You go from place to place, never really settling down, meet all these really cool, really interesting people that you then have to leave just as soon as you realize how well you could really get along. Ah well. I guess that´s part of the beauty of traveling too. You have all these amazing, tiny encounters with all these amazing people. You learn how to make every moment count double because it might be the only moment you have. You squeeze a lifetime´s worth of experience into only a day. I don´t know. Anyway this guy suggested this Tom Robbins book to me, Jitterbug Perfume, and as I already know that I love Tom Robbins, and as I usually take it very seriously when someone I respect suggests a book to me, I ran out and bought it as soon as I got back. I´ve already read it and, much like all of Tom Robbins books, it was absolutely hilarious and clever and carnal, stuffed with words of wisdom about life and the pursuit of happiness. Just the kind of thing I need to hear right now.
Yes indeedy doo. So I have applied to the Peace Corps. The whole process like takes for-ev-er and entails numerous and varied pain in the asses, but whatever. They liked my application, so they sent me another packet of info that I need to fill out and stuff, including supplying them with an official copy of my fingerprints, which I had to go to the Madrid police to get (an adventure in and of itself, let me tell you). In reality though, I´m going to go ahead and continue with the application process, but..I´m not sure if I really want to do it or not. Logically, they want me to be an English teacher, but the only places they have English teaching programs are: Eastern Europe (already done that, lived in Prague), Western Africa (I´m REALLY not sure if I want to deal with that), or Central Asia..which could potentially be cool. But..I really want to go somewhere where I can study Spanish more. That would be a main reason of my traveling longer. So..I´m trying to look into other options, going to South America to teach English. I don´t need to go with some fancy program..I could just go like I went to Spain. I don´t know..kind of stressed..not sure what I´m going to do. And about grad school. I´m still planning to go, I´m just not sure when. There´s a chance after the summer I might move to CA like I had planned originally, or I could move to Chile, or Costa Rica, or Uzbekestan. Who the hell knows. But I do want to go to grad school still..just not sure when...
On Wednesday my roommates and I had a Christmas dinner. It was really nice. Paula made food for everyone, and I made ginger bread cookies, complete with the ginger that my mom had mailed to me, since you can´t get it over here. On a whim I had bought a burned copy of a ¨Navidad Flamenca¨ CD off one of the piratas on the street, not quite sure what I was going to get. Turns out the CD is AWESOME. The food was delicious. and after the third course I brought out the cookies. My mom had mailed me a cookie cutter shaped like a little gingerbread man, so I had written in icing everybody´s name on the belly of one of the cookies. I have to admit, they were pretty dang cute. There was an audible ¨aaaaaaaaawwww...¨ when I brought them out on their little tray of tin foil. Then after the dinner, augmented with the four bottles of white wine we had shared, we went out to Malasaña. I ended up staying up until three and getting some digets. Had to get up at seven the next morning for class, but it was worth it. I cannot even express to you how much cooler these people are than my lame-ass roommates of last year. Such a better situation. Now I have proof positive that the whole business last year wasn´t my fault after all, and that they really were just immature, stupid, racist boys.
Weekend before last I went to San Sebastian in the Basque country with my friend Andrea. It was pretty fun. THe town is on the water, so we walked around the beach and stuff. There were actually people SWIMMING, for crying out loud. I guess the Basque blood runs thick and deep. We stayed in a hostal in the old town center, and the other people staying there were actually pretty cool, and we went out with them a bit. There was this one very interesting guy we met from Nepal who had all sorts of interesting things to say about things I know nothing about. Really cool. Almost too cool... That´s why I don´t think I could survive very long doing the backpacking thing. You go from place to place, never really settling down, meet all these really cool, really interesting people that you then have to leave just as soon as you realize how well you could really get along. Ah well. I guess that´s part of the beauty of traveling too. You have all these amazing, tiny encounters with all these amazing people. You learn how to make every moment count double because it might be the only moment you have. You squeeze a lifetime´s worth of experience into only a day. I don´t know. Anyway this guy suggested this Tom Robbins book to me, Jitterbug Perfume, and as I already know that I love Tom Robbins, and as I usually take it very seriously when someone I respect suggests a book to me, I ran out and bought it as soon as I got back. I´ve already read it and, much like all of Tom Robbins books, it was absolutely hilarious and clever and carnal, stuffed with words of wisdom about life and the pursuit of happiness. Just the kind of thing I need to hear right now.
Yes indeedy doo. So I have applied to the Peace Corps. The whole process like takes for-ev-er and entails numerous and varied pain in the asses, but whatever. They liked my application, so they sent me another packet of info that I need to fill out and stuff, including supplying them with an official copy of my fingerprints, which I had to go to the Madrid police to get (an adventure in and of itself, let me tell you). In reality though, I´m going to go ahead and continue with the application process, but..I´m not sure if I really want to do it or not. Logically, they want me to be an English teacher, but the only places they have English teaching programs are: Eastern Europe (already done that, lived in Prague), Western Africa (I´m REALLY not sure if I want to deal with that), or Central Asia..which could potentially be cool. But..I really want to go somewhere where I can study Spanish more. That would be a main reason of my traveling longer. So..I´m trying to look into other options, going to South America to teach English. I don´t need to go with some fancy program..I could just go like I went to Spain. I don´t know..kind of stressed..not sure what I´m going to do. And about grad school. I´m still planning to go, I´m just not sure when. There´s a chance after the summer I might move to CA like I had planned originally, or I could move to Chile, or Costa Rica, or Uzbekestan. Who the hell knows. But I do want to go to grad school still..just not sure when...
posted by Chloe at 4:36 AM
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