Naitonal Gallery Exhibit

Really cool exhibit recreating the red light district in Amsterdam!!!

http://media.theage.com.au/world/world-news/red-light-district-art-exhibit-902035.html

Such a Tourist

I am such a tourist in London. I made Ricardo take my picture in the red phone booth on my first night, and was so excited to ride the double decker bus. I bought an I heart London shirt. I have a million pictures of me in front of things like-buckingham palace, royal guards, big ben, the eye of London, the tower bridge, ect, ect. I think its a little how Europeans feel going to New York.  

Everything is backwards!

It is not true that they drive on "the other side of the road" in Europe-most countries don't. It is true that they drive on "the other side of the road" in the UK. I know this, but it is really difficult to remember. London knows this, and looks out for their tourists by painting "Look Right" or "Look Left" in large letters in front of every crosswalk. Thank you London!

The backwards thing also caused me to take an hour to boil water. This is because I didn't realise (its amazing how quickly you pick up the brittish s) that the knobs were opposite, and I had the burner on low instead of high. 

Oh My God-Shoes

The youtube video is inappropriate to post on my blog-but Oh My God Shoes! Going out in London, the girls seriously wear all sorts of crazy platform shoes out that I thought only the Spice Girls wore. I think it is humanely impossible to walk in these things, so they go barefoot in the tube-ewww.



Laia (Ricardo's girlfriend) came from Barcelona for the weekend!It is so cool to see both Ricardo and Laia together in London!

 

We went out on Saturday to a club which looked pretty cool from the outside, which turned out to be an Asian club. We were seriously like 3 of 10 non-Asian people in the entire place. hahha. We still had a good time (and hey I probably blended in right?)

I was super touristy excited to ride the double decker bus home, and taught Ricardo the correct word's to Van Morrison's "Sittin on the Dock of the Bay" which he thought was "Sittin on the side of a hill, watching the birds fly away." haha

Ouch Charlie Ouch!

I felt the need to show Ricardo all of the funny British youtube clilps I know. We have been putting random little british "charlies" into phrases like "we're going to picadilly circus, Charlie....ouch"

My other fav

Buckingham Palace is Pretty Cool

I wanted to go to the Royal Mews where you can see all the carriages and the horses and stuff, but apparently 55 degrees is too cold for the horses or the workers to be outside and it is closed until March. So I decided to visit the Queen’s Galary, which was decently interesting.

There were a lot of Victorian and religious paintings of people, where I usually found myself looking at the frame instead of the picture. What I really liked was the ornate furniture like chairs, sofas, cabinets, clocks, and desks. Also the queen’s jewelry and crowns and snuff boxes are so cool. However, there was almost never a number on the audio tour for these things, but there was a number for like every other boring painting.

Fun things I learned:

B uckingham Palace has 600 rooms with 52 bedrooms and 78 bathrooms. More than 400 people work there.-thank you national geographic londres.

Queen Charlotte used to make her servants dress as Indians when they served her tea and as Turks when they served her coffee. Queen Isabella was barren and to make up for this had several dwarves that she cared for as her children-not sure but maybe she was a little off because of the incest that went on during those times.

In London-Brillant

Ricardo was so great and picked me up from the airport and made me dinner the first two nights I was here. It’s so funny, he has picked up a bit of a British accent even though he’s only been here about a month. He doesn’t like it because he doesn’t want to lose his American accent-haha.

Ricardo’s apartment is so great. It is really, really tiny. I am not exaggerating to say that if the shampoo bottle is on the floor of the shower, I can not bend down to get it without my back against the shower wall and my knees sticking out of the shower curtain and getting water everywhere. I was laughing at myself so hard the first day! However, it is in an awesome area-so central to everything!

Here's a map I edited in Paint to point out the Baker St tube stop which is a 5 minute walk, and some of the famous areas around it including Picadilly Circus, Hyde Park, Westminstr, and London Bridge on the Thames River.

Things to Adapt to

-Two kisses in Spain. Working at EF for so long, I think I’ve lost the awkward-American stiffness when people kiss you on the cheek as a greeting. However, I had to remember 2 in Spain.

-Leaving a little bit of beer in the cup and walking out the door. This was very difficult for me. Everyone always leaves a little beer in the bottom of their cup, even when they order the half caraf, which is almost nothing.

-Eating dinner at 10:00 pm. The metabolism doesn’t really like this.

-Going to (not leaving) the club at 2:00am.

Fun Phrases and Words

-Todo esta crema-everything is good/smooth (like cream)

-Loco como una cabra-Crazy as a goat

-Todo la vida de Dios-All the life of god (All the life of God Marge Simpson has had blue hair)

-Tengo mas hambre que el perro de un cieglo-I’m hungrier than a blind man’s dog

-gua gua-bus (pronounced wa-wa)
  in Latin America this means baby because it is the noise a baby makes

Best Food and Drink of the Canaries

-Tortillas made by Lara’s mom

-Paella

-Potatoes con mojo (kind of spicy sauce)

-Crochetes-with platano and bacon

-Fried Cheese with mango sauce

-Pollo baracho (battered chicken)

-Bocadillos

-Coffee with condensed milk

-Tropical beer

-Rum with Clipper (Canary version of strawberry Fanta-but it was first)

-Gofio ice cream (kinda rice milk flavor)

Music to keep your IPod Fresh

Alicia Keys and Alejando Sans- Looking for Paradise

Mana-Estoy clavado en un bar

-Calle 13-No hay Nadie Como tu

-Nellie Fertado-Manos

-Orquesta Sublime-Eres la Chica Ideal

-Odyessy-Moving

-Rosana (canary singer-lara’s favorite)

Speaking Spanish

In Las Palamas it was amazing that when I spoke to someone in Spanish, they answered me in Spanish! There is no question that I spoke more Spanish in these 2 weeks in Las Palams than I did in probably a month in Costa Rica. Tamarindo was so touristy that I would speak to someone in Spanish, and they would answer me in English. Sometimes I felt really proud of my Spanish-like that I could spend an entire day at the museums with Marta speaking only in Spanish.

However, there were definitely times that I had no idea what was going on, like when we went out for dinner with 37 (yes 37) people for Nichel’s birthday and everyone was speaking quickly on top of each other. If I was in a big group of people I didn’t know, I was hesitant to pipe in- maybe they won’t understand my accent, maybe I’m not even understanding the conversation correctly. I think this is a very humbling experience to have right before I start teaching English in January
Jesi, Hector, and I spoke a very weird mix of Spanish and English the whole time. Here’s a conversation we had one of my first days:

“Could you get in the apartment after work today while I was in the shower?”-me

“Si, claro”-Hecor

“Good, because I put a flip flip in the door so it wouldn’t lock.”

“Que?”

“I put a flip flop in the door when I took a shower”

“por que?”

“I wanted you to be able to get into the house when I was in the shower, so I put a flip flop in the door so it wouldn’t lock.”

“No entiendo-explicame en Ingles”

“Hecotr, I am speaking English, you’re speaking Spanish!”

“Oh, explain it to me again.”
.

I have Internet Again

The internet was down in Ricardo's apartment in London for a while, I have been blogging to myself in MS Word, so here it is!

What a Productive day

Today I took the bus in the wrong direction making what could have been a 15 minute walk an hour and a half journey, bought a dress I did not need, read a trashy celebrity magazine at a coffee shop, and went to the movies.

What a productive day (no sarcasm intended).

Simply being in another country makes doing ordinary things feel like you are really accomplishing something. I took the bus in the wrong direction-but I got to see a part of the city I had not seen before and had a conversation with the bus driver in Spanish about how to get where I wanted. Maybe I didn’t need the dress, but it is so unique and “European” no one at home will have it. So I’m really none the more intelligent to know that Shiloh was batman for Halloween or that Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart are not actually a couple-but this tabloid trash entered my head in Spanish. The movie actually was pretty good-Julie and Julia-but sitting in the movie theatre in a Spanish-speaking country was not only enjoyable but an accomplishment.

Wow I’m tired from all I’ve managed to do today.

I gave the virus to all of Las Palmas

My stomach is still faithful to foreign food. Apparently I was not sick due to something I ate, but I had some sort of virus-which I passed to Jesi’s boyfriend, who passed it to Jesi, who passed it to her friend Marta who came to be with Jesi so I could go to the beach, whom I sure will pass it to someone very soon. I feel terrible! Someone in the apartment has been throwing their brains up for the past 5 days. Mine was the “best” case so far, only one day. I think it is because I took the flu shot at Stop and Shop before I left-thanks mom.

las canteras

This is the beach that is basically in Lara's front yard. It is cool because as you can see the waves break in two spots. The waves naturally break due to rocks about 100 meters from the shore, which creates a kind of natural swimming pool in front where the water is smooth and free of rocks or seaweed. That is not me swimming in the water-jeje.

This is where I went today and will probably go tomorrow trying to get a little tan before I leave. Today I read my "Reading Power" book to plan my English lessons. I am teaching Reading and TOEFL in January, and I am very excited!

Called in Sick From Travelling Today

Laying on a hospital bed hooked up to an IV in a country where they don't speak your native language-check. Last night, out of no where, I got so sick I could not stop throwing up. I've travelled in India, lived in Central and South America for 7 months, I've eaten food from the street in Asia, I eat fruit and vegetables that I don't peal myself-and I have never so much as taken a tum. I go to Spain, and eat in the house of my friend and get sicker than I have been in years.

Jesi and Hector had to take me to the medical clinic across the streeet. I was reluctant to go because I thought we would have to wait a long time-I was thinking of all the times I brought EF students to St. Elizabeth's emergency room and waited forever. However, there was a little bit of discussion from a very unfriendly receptionitst about me having private insurance and there being a lot of paper work, but they saw me within 10 minutes.

I was hooked up to an IV with medicine to stop the vomiting and water to hydrate me for maybe 20 minutes, and they let Jesi sit with me because we said I don't speak Spanish-this is one of those moments you pretend you don't speak the language, along with anytime they are trying to make tourists pay some sort of wierd made up fee. Then they gave me some orange stuff to put in a liter of water and drink until noon today.

I'm fine now, just playing hooky from travelling, sitting on the couch reading and uploading my pictures.

Primera Semana

I’ve been in Las Canarias for about a week now, and I have a lot to write about. I have been very busy thanks to all of Lara’s plans for me! She wants me to meet all of her friends and do all of the things that are “so typical canary.” Last night we played volleyball on the beach until about 11. Lots of people are playing soccer, volleyball, and running on the beach until 10 or 11 at night.

I really like to see all of the runners at all times of the day. The first night we were driving back from bocadillos and a cervicita around 11-all very typical the late time for eating dinner, small sandwiches, and a half carafe of beer- and I saw lots of people running along the waterfront. I smiled, reached my hand out the window and said “amigos!” That’s how I feel, that all runners are my friends.

This past weekend we went to the South of the island, which is only about half an hour away, but this is far on such a small island. We rented a little apartment with lots of Jesi and Lara’s friends-so many that we were 7 people in 2 beds! One of the highlights is that our refrigerator talked-“la temperature es…”

The girls friends don’t really speak English, equal to what anyone who took a language in high school speaks. However, because I am here they like to say random phrases in English like “girlfriend” and point at their girlfriend, or “party, party,” “rain.” They remind me of Kerri when I was leaving for Ecuador and she was shouting random words at me like “amarillo” “bombero” “zapato.”

All of the girls’ friends are super nice. Their friend Marta took me around to some of the museums and sights in the old part of the city-casa de Colon (Columbus), CAAM (modern art), museo canario (histoy), catedral de santa ana.

The first day I was here I slept until noon and did not hear lara calling me at the house! que mala! Hector, Jesi's boyfriend started to call me the marmota, which is marmot, which in Spain I quess means you sleep a lot. It proved true on the weekend when I slept fine in a bed with 3 other girls, and took a nap with 7 other people in the room :-)

Surfing!!

I went surfing today! It was so great to be in the water again. I had to wear a wet suit because the water is pretty cold, which was very wierd because the water is so warm in Costa Rica that I always surfed in just my bikini-and I get cold very easily. My friends Marta and Marcos were my photographers, and they also took some videos :-)

El Principe de Bel Air

I am currently eating a chocolate croisont and watching the Fresh Prince of Bel Air in Spanish. Will's voice is super high pitched-jeje!

Fresh Prince of Bel Air Theme Song in Spanish

Gran Canaria

I am here in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria-which is the northwest tip of the island Gran Canaria. We are really close to Morocco and the Lonely Planet website even lists the Canary Islands under Africa. However, the islands are a part of Spain. A few times I have said something like“in Spain are the outlets the same?” and the people here tell me “this is Spain!” I am staying with my friend Yesi from EF Boston and her boyfriend Hector on the futon of their cute apartment, which overlooks a busy street with everything you could need-the Hiper Dino super market, fruit stand, bakery-todo. It is also about two streets parallel to the waterfront. Que lindo! 

I'm here!