Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Lisboa: Siempre Subiendo

As my astute readers may recall, I said that I was going to Lisbon the weekend of the 9th.  Well, I did, and what follows is my experience in that beautiful city.


Elevators were popular in Lisbon
I had the idea of going to Lisbon for about a month.  I knew that we had a puente, which literally means bridge, but can also be used for long weekends.  So, I knew we had this puente from the 6th to the 9th of December.  I decided that I needed to do something and Lisbon, being 2 hours away, seemed doable.  The first thing I had to plan was the way I was getting there.  I went to this website, Blablacar, which I had used before to get back from Cáceres.  I look at the list of travellers going for the same time span as me and I notice my roommates picture.  I quickly send him a text asking if he was going and would have space in his car for me and my friend Nick.  He said yes, and there we had our ride settled.
Lisbon at Night
Lisbon Christmas Tree

The next step was to look for a hostal, hostel.  The only two criteria I had were that it needed to be cheap and it had to include breakfast.  I looked at the locations of several different hostels and settled on the Good Night Lisbon Hostel.  Step two done.

So the puente came and my roommate, my other roommate (his girlfriend), Nick and I got in the car.  Less than two hours later, we were in Lisbon.  It's a very impressive sight because as you are driving into the city you see a giant Jesus statue.  It resembles the one that they have in Brazil, but the reason that they built it was a gift to god to keep Portugal out of the World War.  Guess what, it worked and now it stands on a hill looking down on the city.  I was in awe.

My favorite Plaza

Then we get to the city.  My too roommates were staying in a hotel, so they dropped us off at our hostel and we unpacked and started adventuring.  I have found that the first day should be dedicated to getting lost.  Nick just goes with the flow, so we walked to some places on the map and got lost.  It was perfect.

We did have one goal: to try the cazuelitas of Belem.  Belem is a neighborhood of Lisbon and it actually has really nice tourist attractions; however, their biggest attraction is the pastry called cazuelita.  Nick and I tried walking all the way there, but that turned out to be fruitless, so we caught a train and arrived there super quick.  The dessert is not much to look at.  It has a flaky cup holding this tan creamy substance.  Well, I ordered one and Nick ordered two.  After we ate them, we ordered some more.  I don't know how to describe it but delicious.  I don't have a sweet tooth, and I loved it.

After we left the "Factory of Pastries" we went for a walk and found this beautiful monastery just by chance.  We even crashed the misa, or mass that was going on inside.  The ceiling was the best ceiling I've seen in a church.  It was so intricate as if snakes were weaved into the ceiling.  I don't have a picture, because we weren't allowed to take any, but believe me when I say it was beautiful.

Nick and I also decided that we wouldn't go out that night because we were exhausted.  That plan changed quickly when we met some people in the hostel that tenían ganas de salir, wanted to go out.  We went to Barrio Alto, another neighborhood up a hill in the center of the city.  Yes, Lisbon is a very hilly city.  It feels like everything is uphill, and that you are always climbing not descending.  They also put all of the cool things on top.  This neighborhood is known for great bars and for people gathering in the streets and drinking.  It was a lot of fun and I'm glad we ended up going out.

Enter the next day.  Nick and I decided to do a walking tour at 10:30.  Well, we didn't wake up for that so we went to the 1:00 tour instead.  It was really interesting and the tour guide knew a lot about the city.  The most important thing that I learned was that there was an earthquake in 1755 that rocked Lisbon to the ground.  There is a church that lost its roof in the earthquake and still remains roofless. A lot of the beautiful buildings that are currently standing were built after the earthquake including this beautiful plaza called Plaza de los Comercios.
First Dinner We Bought (Cod)

After the tour, we met up with Mariel, the girl who studied abroad with me.  She arrived a day after we did and we decided to walk around the city with her.  On our walk, we actually ran into my roommates who were drinking beer in a plaza.  We talked there for a while and decided to go to the Castle of Saint George the following day.  This is a giant castle that sits on yet another hill overlooking the city.

We then returned to our hostel and decided to take a nap and then walk around the city at night.  Well, we woke up and all of the people in the hostel were talking about a bar crawl.  I had never done one so the idea intrigued me and we went out for the second night in a row when we had planned not to.  The bar crawl was awesome and I'm so glad I went on it. We met a lot of American studying abroad in Spain who were in Lisbon on vacation as well.  It was a good time.

Flag on top of the castle
Our third day in Lisbon was dedicated to seeing the castle.  I really liked the castle because it let you see a lot of the city from a different angle.  We actually took two elevators and walked uphill to get to the castle.  It's that far up.  We met my roommates and we took pictures of the views and the different rooms of the castle.  Honestly, it wasn't that much to see except for the views.  There is another castle that I will describe that I loved and the Castle of Saint George does not compare to it.

Male peacock in the castle
In our hostel, they cooked us dinner for 2 €, a price that might look cheap because it is cheap!  We even helped make it.  It was bacalao: a cod, potato, and egg dish.  Did I just say cod?! But I hate seafood.  That's true, voice inside Jacob's head.  So what happened? Those of you who have dined with me know that I dislike fish.  I would never go out of my way to eat cod or swordfish or anything fishy.  Well, the best place to try seafood for those people that are anti-pescatarian is Lisbon.  Every meal that I paid for had cod in it and I loved it.  We even went to a restaurant famous for its seafood and I ate not only cod, but shrimp and octopus.  I've matured a lot and now my family will have to pay for it when I start ordering lobster when we go out. Just kidding, I'm taking baby steps with shrimp.  Not too eager to try lobster yet.

This night we didn't go out.  I physically couldn't! I was so exhausted.  Instead, I slept for 10 hours and woke up excited for our last day in Portugal in a town called Sintra.

We all decided that we would go to Sintra the last day.  My roommate drove us with all our luggage to Sintra, a small town 20 minutes outside of Lisbon.  It's a beautiful town, but what really interested us was the Palacio de Da Pena, or this palace that sits atop of a tall hill.  We tried driving up it, but we ended up turning around because there wasn't enough parking.  The second time, we went up about halfway before we parked and walked up the rest.


My other roommate, who didn't venture with us, recommended this castle because it is something out
of a Disney movie.  She was right because there were so many colors and interesting designs.  Overall, Portugal maintains their monuments extremely well and this was no exception.  I don't want to describe it in detail because I think the pictures speak for themselves.  I do want to say that it was built in the 1800's on top of a monastery because this wealthy family just wanted to do it so they could have a summer palace.  Now, it's owned by the country of Portugal and is one of the most visited palaces there.


So look at the pictures and tell me that this isn't one of the most beautiful places you've ever seen.  Well, after the palace we drove home and that concludes my time in Portugal.  Did I have a great time? Yes.  Would I go back? Yes.  Do I have plans to go back? No, but I'm telling everyone who hasn't been that I would totally go back.  If you, reader, haven't been to Portugal, I know a guy who would accompany you ;)

Finally, I want to say that my thoughts are with my family right now.  You don't know how much I wish I was with you guys this weekend.  I'm glad I got to skype and you all got to see my Sunday European hairstyle.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

La Temporada de Navidad Está Aquí

Another month has ended and I have to write this blog post before this weekend because I'm going to Lisbon.  Then I have to write that blog post before my family comes to visit me on the 21st.  December is turning out to be a busy month!

That's an empty stadium you're seeing

First I would like to talk about the soccer game I went to.  Or in English the football match.  I'm learning a lot of English English here.  Anyways, the two teams that were playing were Badajoz and Coria.  The game was interesting to say the least.  First, let me say that they are extremely level teams.  That being said, I'm in Spain, so I am biased and expect everyone to play like Messi.  Well, these teams played like our high schoolers play, but they are getting paid.  I mean to say that they kicked the ball to the middle of nowhere, they were so close together I could "put a blanket over them", and they missed shots that were right in front of an open net.  Crazy.

However, just like a high school team, the fans had a lot of hometown pride.  They brought drums and banners and made signs that said: "One team. One city."  One man, who I'm going to guess was pretty drunk, was going around yelling screaming Es nuestra ciudad! It's our city!  The aficionados, the fans, made the experience.  They all came together on a Sunday afternoon and yelled obscenities at the árbitros, referees.  During the half, they let all of the kids in the stadium run on the field and kick soccer balls around.  It was very cool to see the people of city come together in the same way Needhamites watch Wellesley lose in the Thanksgiving Day Parade (even though I heard this year that they actually won :( ).

Me winning in Risk
My best Spanish Tortilla (so far)
I have also been learning Spanish through the culture and through games.  Some of my Spanish friends are really into games and they taught me how to play Risk.  I learned words like: ¡Toma! ¡Chupate dos! ¡Fuera! and they got to learn how competitive I actually am, which turns out to be really competitive.





Town Hall
Cortes Inglés
Otherwise, I haven't been up to anything significantly different, so for the rest of the blog I want to show you some pictures that are making me really nostalgic.  Christmas in Spain is huge.  Well, not Christmas day itself, but the holiday season from Noche Buena, Christmas Eve, until Epifanía, Epiphany (the day of the three wise men).  The latter is actually when kids open all of their gifts.  They have to wait all the way until January 6th.

Plaza de Conquistadores
Plaza de España

Ever since the start of December, Badajoz has been abuzz with lights and, get this, carnival rides.  The night life here is so crazy that even at 10 PM on a school night, kids will be playing in the different plazas, or town squares.  It's a great way to bring family and friends together as well as a great way to promote shopping.  So sprinkled through this blog post are some of decorations! Enjoy!



Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Después de Dos Meses

Thanks family for the bday gift!
In the past two weeks not much has happened.  Actually, my birthday passed on November 12th.  It wasn't on the scale of the birthdays I had in the past, but it was still nice to celebrate with people that I didn't even know 2 months prior.  We went to our favorite restaurant El Tronco, the tree rulo de cabra or goat cheese.
trunk, for a birthday dinner.  I got my new favorite meal: Goat Cheese and Caramelized Onions.  I had told people that my favorite cheese was Brie, but it has since changed to

If you need anymore proof that my life hasn't changed too much since I've gotten here, I watched the complete Breaking Bad series...in English.  My friends here had all watched it and told me that it was incredible, so I finally gave in and watched in a week and a half.  It was totally worth it.  It's an incredible story that they express flawlessly. Vale la pena, it's worth it to watch.

Something out of the ordinary, is that because I am living with a French roommate, we have started making crepes...a lot. In one week period we probably had three days of crepes.  That's how I'm expanding my international horizons: through eating international food. I furthermore got a haircut where I only told the stylist that I wanted to look more European.  The outcome definitely is European and it is a style I would never have had in the states.  See it there on the left? And yes, I do need to use hair gel everyday now.

The friends I celebrated my birthday with
Also, Badajoz is having a Fería de Tapas, or a festival of tapas.  If you remember my trip to Granada at all, you will remember that I talked incessantly about tapas.  There, they were included in the already cheap drink price.  Here, and in almost all other places, they are not.  They cost a few Euros on top of the price of the beer.  For this special festival, local bars cowe vote for the best one.  There is even a chance to win 500 €! It's great.  So far, my favorite one was at Taberna Bigote.  It was like a briscuit with a black raspberry sauce on top.  Surprisingly delicious!
mpete to make the best tapa.  The tapa is also cheaper than usual being only 2€!

Finally, Christmas comes early in Spain.  They have no holidays between Halloween and Christmas (Halloween excluded), so they prepared for Christmas in the beginning of November.  Right now there are lights strewn around the city and the teachers want me to prepare a powerpoint on Christmas for the class.  I'm definitely showing them this picture of Finley's XMas gift from last year:

But overall, things are going fine.  I'm trying to go to Lisbon next month, but I haven't found people to go with yet.  I'll let you know if I end up going!

Fountain that changes colors in the center of Badajoz

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Mérida: Roma Existe en España

Temple of Diana
This past weekend, I went to Mérida.  Now, I doubt that many of you have heard of this little city, but it used to be a key location in the Roman Empire.  Yes, the ROMAN empire.  Badajoz has some Islamic roots, Cáceres, where I went last week, has some medieval roots, and Mérida, has Roman roots.  This is all in one autonomia, very similar to state in the US.  Well, Mérida also is the capital of Extremadura.  This is weird because the two provinces that make up that autonomia are Badajoz and Cáceres.  In Andalucia, the capital is Sevilla, but Sevilla is also a province.  It is very uncommon for that to happen in Spain, and here is one of the exceptions.

Well, history aside, Mérida is an incredible city.  Not only do they have sites fenced off so you have to pay to enter, which I didn't do, but they have Roman structures throughout the city.  There is a bar that has part of an arc as part of it's foundation.  They have el Templo de Diana in the middle of the street.  Honestly, it was just as cool as Rome.

The only problem with Mérida when comparing it to Badajoz is that it is much smaller.  It also doesn't have the exciting night life that we have here.  The friend we visited actually comes to Badajoz every weekend because there isn't as much to do there.  I'm sure if I was actually living there, I would find more faults with Badajoz, but since I'm not, I'm going to complain about Mérida.  Actually though, I don't need to return to Cáceres, but I need to go back to Mérida.  It was that cool and I feel like I didn't see it all...because I didn't.

So that was the historical part of my weekend, now on to my favorite holiday: Halloween.  If you know me then you know I love dressing up.  Last year I painted myself blue, last summer I dressed up as a gorilla and made it on the front page of the paper.  I put tons of effort into making the perfect costume.  This year, it was a little different.  Halloween isn't nearly as big in Spain.  They think that it is only about dressing up as something scary and that's it.  To show how much they love me, my school in the pueblo had festivities for Halloween.  There was a Halloween costume contest at recess.  In the spirit of dressing up, I cut two holes in a sheet and immediately became a ghost.  The rules were that you could not buy anything and that it had to be from things around the house.  The winners were a spider, two mad nurses, and an epic scarecrow.  It was a lot of fun.

¡Los Ganadores! The winners!
Otherwise, Halloween passed pretty nonchalantly.  I saw one kid dressed up on Halloween.  That's it.  After not seeing much on Halloween itself, you can imagine my surprise when I got invited to a Halloween party at someone's casa de campo, which is a summer house in the countryside.  My friend Tom and I went to get costumes in the little window we left for ourselves in between getting back from Mérida and getting picked up for the party.  I found a crown and decided to be a king.  Tom found a mask and decided to be an alien.  Not our best effort, but it was something.

When we got to the car, the Scottish girl who had invited us greeted us and told us about this party and how many people were going to be there.  We told her we had just bought costumes for the party.  Erin burst out laughing.  Although in Scotland they celebrate it like they do in the US, she knows that in Spain costumes are not a thing.  Tom and I look at each other and are kind of embarrassed; however, we don't have to wear the costumes if we don't want to.
Picture from the summer house

So we get to the party and for the longest time the only thing that related to Halloween were two pumpkins.  Then Erin decorated the rest of the room with some homemade decorations and it had more of a Halloween vibe.  After a couple of hours, Tom and I wore our costumes for all the Spainards to see.  At first they laughed, but then they tried wearing our costumes.

The reason why dressing up for Halloween is not big here is because they dress up for Carneval in March.  That's their biggest holiday to wear their disfraz, costume.

As you may have noticed, I have been writing more than I promised.  We'll see how things go and if I have an interesting week, I'll be sure to fill you in on it!

Can you guess what this is supposed to be?

Monday, October 28, 2013

Cáceres: La Edad Media


Saint Jorge, patron saint of Cáceres, and DRAGONSLAYER




The academy
Last week I started doing private lessons.  This means tutoring outside of school. I joined an academia or academy which is like after school lessons that are run by this Irish guy.  I also picked up 3 hours of clases particulares, which are essentially one on one or one on two tutoring sessions.  The hardest part was just starting.  All the kids want to improve their English, but they don't know what they need to improve on, so I would play around with some things that I found difficult when learning Spanish.  This one family is worried that the younger daughter will speak English better than the older daughter, therefore they scheduled two hours for the older daughter.  To avoid having the younger feel left out, they still scheduled one hour with her.  The other family is really nice, the only bad thing is that they live a 40 minute walk away from me.  As of right now, thankfully, I work at the academy right before I go to their place saving me some time.
Me kissing some guys toes for good luck

Also, this past weekend I finally got to return to Cáceres.  Cáceres was where we had my orientation and I was there for about 20 hours.  They boasted about the old part and how we should take advantage of the 4 waking hours that we had and visit the parte antigua.  Well, we obviously didn't get a chance to do that, but this time we did!  I went with my friend Tom and we met up with my study abroad friend, Mariel, who is doing the same program but in Cáceres.  We actually went to eat at an all you can eat buffet that compares to Golden Corral with a slightly more Asian theme.  Then she and her roommate took me out on the town on Friday night to some of the more popular spots of Cáceres.  To be honest, Badajoz has a better night life.  On Saturday, we met up with my roommate's boyfriend, Pedro (remember him?) who took us on a full out tour of the ancient part of the city.

Can you see the water?
This place is incredible.  It is as if you were catapulted or trebuchetted in the Middle Ages.  It was so well maintained that it felt like you were there.  We saw a lot of churches and museums.  In one of them, they had an aljibe, the word for an Arab bath.  This would store rain water that would eventually go to the town's people.  This one actually still stored water and there was water when we went down, underground, to see it.


After the aljibe, we went to find some food.  We went to this really nice, artsy place in the middle of the middle aged part of the city.  The food, yet again, was spectacular.  We had solomillo, a meat with cheese.  I even had felafel, and loved it.  Food is just sooo good here. Yes, it deserved that many o's in that sentence.  Afterwards, we drove up this mountain to see Cáceres from a bird's eye view.  That was amazing also.  Then Pedro had to go as the Real Madrid v. Barcelona game was on and we were about to head back to Badajoz.

Cáceres from atop a mountain
The way we got back to Badajoz was interesting.  There is this website called Blablacar.  People post if they are headed from one place to another and if they have room to carry others.  The three of us (because Mariel wanted to see Badajoz) got a ride from this man for almost half the cost of the bus and for half the time it would've taken.  It worked out really well.  He was a rugby player who grew up in Badajoz, had a girlfriend in Cáceres and works in Madrid.  I felt really bad that all three of us fell asleep in his car.  Not too bad because he was getting paid, but still, he was a nice guy.

Tom and I watched part of the game
On Sunday, Tom and I showed Mariel all of our favorite places of Badajoz with the pretense that it was not nearly as pretty as Cáceres.  Then she left and I went on a run and took this picture of the sunset. I don't know why I don't run with my actual camera.

P.S. I know I have not been fulfilling my promise of writing once a week...which is evident from the two posts I posted today when I haven't posted in three weeks.  I think it feels like my life here is just like my life at home, so writing about it would be as if I wrote about my life in the States except that every time that I said, "I went to get coffee in the USA," I would replace 'the USA' with Spain."  So, I can't promise a new post every week...but you can check every week just in case!

Yo Te Tengo que Bigote una Pregunta



October 20th, 2013

A caracol I found
So, where did we leave off?  I have been teaching for 3 weeks now and it's going great.  Last week I taught photosynthesis by explaining that plants need ingredients to make their own food...and the example food was a cheeseburger.  If they lost their focus in class, I would just say hamburguesa and they would look right back to the board. (Interesting plant fact, all of the Carbon that plant uses to for everything including leaves, stems, and roots, comes from the air.  Plants literally appear out of thin air).  I also saw kids spell the number 1 as "juan" which made me laugh.

I started running through the town with my roommates and going to the gym. Kilos are really killing me though.  The conversion is 2.2 lbs = 1 kilo, but man it's still difficult to do at the gym.  It was funny because I would stop at times just to take a picture.  This is a really nice city.

This past weekend I was going to go to Cáceres, the city with the medieval structures.  However, we were celebrating my roommate's birthday on Saturday.  So I had to throw away my plans and had a blast with a group of 15 Spaniards.

First, we went to this bar called Taberna Bigote, which means mustache bar.  There was a private room for us downstairs that had different types of mustaches all over the wall.  Most were in English so they were asking me what they all meant.  They got a little carried away though and asked me a word that was actually a Spanish word!  The food was also exquisite.  We had goat cheese with caramelized onions, bacalao dorado (thin potatoes with egg and fish...yes fish.  You can't even taste it though), croquetas (a fried mashed potato), and meat.  The meat is so good here!

After lunch, we went back to my place where I got some real one on one time with my roommates friends.  Really, each one of them wanted to talk to me.  Some highlights were: this Spanish girl who had read all 5 books of A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones), Pedro, my roommates boyfriend, who promised to show me Cáceres when I go, and this guy who wanted to learn all of the dirty English words.  Obviously, I'm a teacher so I had to oblige.
Sunset over the River

Y ya está.  And that's that.  A great weekend to practice my Spanish.  I've

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Primera Semana de Clases

Tower Espantaperros in Badajoz
As you all hopefully remember, last week I had my first week of classes.  I work 3 hours a day, 4 days a week, at two different schools.  Honestly, I was a little nervous at first.  I don't know what Spanish classes are like, I don't know how the children act, or more specifically, I don't know how they act around a foreigner.  Now, I would say I have a really good grasp of the Spanish language.  It has improved significantly since I arrived here in Spain.  That being said, when people, or worse, children, start speaking at 1.6 kilometers per minute, I can't seguir el ritmo, or keep up.  That's my fear.  If kids say something, in Spanish, about me and I don't understand, I don't want them to think they can get away with anything.  And of course my professor can help, but they can't hear everything.

I can't say that after a week of teaching that I still don't fear that, but I don't worry as much.  I don't worry because this past week has been AMAZING.  Teaching is something that I've always felt natural doing.  I love standing in the center of the room.  I love explaining things in different ways for different people.  I especially love boards (of the chalk or white variety).  This job has given me just that.

"Always by your side" - Anonymous
I work at two schools.  One is in Publa de Obando, a pueblo 35 minutes away from Badajoz.  Compared to my city school, this one does not have nearly as many commodities.  The English teacher who I work with the most is incredible. She speaks English nearly perfectly and is a great teacher.  The other one at the school isn't so great.  Her accent is off and it doesn't appear that she knows a lot of vocab.  One of my first classes was with the latter and I kind of took over because a.) it was science and b.) it didn't seem like she knew what she was talking about.  As I stated above, I love teaching, so this did not really bother me.

The other thing about this school is that I teach kids in 2nd grade up until 6th grade.  The 2nd graders are terrible.  They talk all the time in Spanish.  A couple of them just laugh at me when I talk.  I imagine this is the same as when kids in the United States laugh at someone speaking a foreign language because it seems funny to them.  They do know their stuff though: we did flashcards of numbers and colors and I would say 90% got theirs right.

Me, out with my roommates (the three on the left)
Otherwise, the other grades are fine.  3rd grade has 4 kids in it with disabilities ranging from ADHD to Aspergers to extreme Autism.  Once the kids get settled, they are fine.  The older kids are just great though.  You can tell they want to learn English because they try really hard in class.  Today, they told me the date entirely in English without any prompts.  My teacher said that they have never done that before.

The other school is just the opposite.  Most of the teachers speak English really well.  I only teach 5th and 6th grade and they are extremely eager to learn English.  I don't teach as much as I do in the smaller school, but I do get to read stories or pronounce things.  The funniest thing is when I encounter a British word and I don't know what it is at first.  Fancy Dress is a costume.  Who knew?  I told them that it was cooler just to say costume.
Courtyard of the school in the pueblo

Overall, teaching has been a blast and the days go by so quickly.  The worst is when I have a free period because I don't know what to do with myself.  Preparing for class is easy and I don't mind going off the cuff.  Or I'll work with the teacher to see what they have prepared.  Now, I'm looking for another job to supplement this one.  I called an Academy today and I'm also offering one on one English classes to anyone that asks.  Vamos a ver if anything comes of it.  You will be the first ones to know.



Enjoy the pictures that have nothing to do with the blog!

¡Hasta luego!

Spanish Words of the Week:
colchón - mattress
murciélago - bat
carnet - license