disconnect

I think that some people have this horribly misconceived notion of my life in Spain.

That I lead some fanciful existence...

some cross between the adventure and grandeur of Bourne's identity, supremacy, and ultimatum all rolled into one...

amalgamated with the passion and enchantment that can only compare to what happens below the sun in Tuscany.

LIE.

Now to rectify.





Truth. I have to clean a wicked messy apartment (note the untouched adornments left from the holidays.)
Truth. I have to take out the recycling (its currently chillin' in the hall.)
Truth. I have to wash dishes (we have no dishwasher.)
Truth. I have to go to the grocery store (none of the highly appetizing food in that fridge is mine.)





The difference is I just do it in Spain.
Life is normal here, too.
I don't brag.






True scenario (ie it happened tonight, but in Spanish.)






Me: This piso is miserably messy.*

Miriam (just out of the shower): I can't find my cell phone.

Mari (walking out of her room): I can't find my pen with the little chickens and eggs on it. It's yellow.

Sylvia (trying to run out the door): I can't find my calender, it's says 2007 on it.

Me (collapsing to floor in not unwarranted melodramatic fashion): We haaaaave to clean.

Sylvia (nonchalantly stepping over supine Julie Ann to leave): Ciao.

Mari: My tummy hurts. I have gas. I feel like pooting.


This is normal life.
(It's not a movie.)









*The Spanish word used here is fatal, which knowing what it means in English, I think gives an appropriate conception to the state of the piso.

Home for the Holidays... a look back at December

Being home for the holidays, I am both shocked and excited to hear that people actually do look at this blog occasionally... enough to have asked me why I stopped writing. Gah.

So I wanted to update.

Then, I didn't realize how much really happened over the last few months of my life until I looked at the pictures.

And as I look at the pictures... it doesn't really seem like my life.

From travels to Prague and Vienna with my Aunt Debbie and my Mom (I had trouble pulling their noses out of the guide books)...



to crazy, busy Thanksgiving (Italica, football, dinner and salsa dancing at a Cuban restaurant)...





to the most wonderfully bizarre road trip through Extremadura (Roman ruins, medieval pueblos, and eccentric religious processions) ...




it's far too much to put into one blog without losing interest.

So instead...
after having been in the US for a month...
this blog is a holiday summary of how I celebrated Christmas in Spain before I came home...
(also used to psyche me up for returning on January 12.)

Here we go:

Christmas at home:
My lovely roommates Marian and Sylvia (both soon to be married in 2008!) and I decorated our piso for the second year in a row. Although it might look a little ghetto... I think the correct word to describe it would be charming. If this year is anything like the past one... our tree might be up until March. Mari will take it down when I'm at work, and then I will mourn its disappearance.


For further entertainment, I've added this video we took while decorating to Christmas tunes. For those of you who don't have the pleasure of actually having met my roommates... you can witness the craziness first hand. In this video we are saying "Merry Christmas... we're in Spain" and then Sylvia and Mari send a message to my future children, telling them that they are to refer to them as "Aunt Sylvia and Aunt Mari."

Christmas at work:

There are two convents where students volunteer. One that acts similarly to an orphanage and another as an assisted living home.



At both convents, we entertained with Christmas carols (in both Spanish and English... go ahead... ask me to sing "White Christmas" in Spanish).


In the children's home, we also delivered gifts to the kids... and in the old folks' home, we were honored as one of the residents sang flamenco to us.





Although of course there is more... this is at least a flavor of my navidad española... I will be better of posting short interesting things as they happen...

Oh... and another thing... there is a standing invitation for whomever would like to come and visit... I know after that video, you're all lining up. :)