Galicia, Spain

With another Puente (three-day weekend) on my hands and with a travelling-bug getting under my skin, I jumped at the opportunity to take a road trip with some of my colleagues. Talking to Stef and Isabel, we decided that the northern part of Spain was a bit of uncharted territory for us. Speaking specifically of Galicia region—I heard of its terrific cuisine and breathtaking scenery. The typical cities of Galicia including Santiago de Computense and la Coruna are must sees for tourists but having only a few days and no desire to mingle with tourists, we decided on the little-big city of Vigo.

Stef said she had some other friends interested in going as well.  I had heard stories of Lena, the crazy New Yorker that could put Courtney Love to shame with her antics and Sonia, the sweet litte Spanish girl that makes you wonder how she got involved with such insane Americans.  So with a decent sized group of ladies, we realized the cheapest option of transport was just to rent a car.  Between the 5 of us, we got a nice 4 door- BMW.  Sounds fancy but Beamers here are actually quite affordable.  Stef found us a really nice hotel for relatively cheap, especially since it wasn´t anywhere near tourist season. 

 

So early Saturday morning, we all met on the subway to pick up our car.  5 hours later we arrived in Vigo.  The city itself doesn´t have the majesty of Toledo or the vastness of Madrid but the countryside driving into the city itself was absolutely awe-inspiring.  Rolling green hills with scattered boulders and hidden towns was something out of Don Quixote.  (though Don Quixote was placed nowhere near Galicia)

We checked into our rooms and after deciding where we were all sleeping, we took a little siesta and got ready for the night.  Isabel´s sister and friends gave her some recommednations of bars and resturants we had to try.  First we stopped and this nautical/ astrology themed bar with amazing drink specials and yummy tapas.  We sat around the 5 of us talking about life, culture, our futures and whatnot while we steadily drank beer, wine and the bar specials.  I could already tell that I was going to get along great with Lena and Sonia.  Though we all had completely different personalities and backgrounds, we had many more important things in common: laughing, drinking and just having fun!  This was also one of the first big experiences I'd had with Stef.  After this trip, we were new partners in crime and gossip.  When we had our fill, we headed off the find this amazing resturant Isabel´s sister said was a must: EL CURUXA

Well, the ancient part of the city is a maze of winding streets and hidden entrances.  So everyother person we stopped to ask for directions sent us in the opposite direction of where we wanted to go.  Eventually, we came across it and got our table.  At first, I was a little disappointed and crabby.  The place didn´t look like anything special, especially having walked around for like 45 minutes trying to find it.  But as soon as food arrived, all my doubts disppeared.  Never have I had such delicious seafood in my life.  People always told me that Galicia had incredible pulpo (octopus) and mariscos (shellfish) but MADRE MÍA! Adding a few bottles of wine, it was one incredible dinner. 

Finishing our last glasses of wine, we ventured to meet one of Sonía´s old roommates from la universidad that lived in Vigo.  She agreed to bring us to some of the hottest clubs in Vigo. And man, she wasn´t joking.  As we arrived to the main street, we were surrounded by groups and groups of attractive men.  Almost as if Vigo puts attractiveness in the water! We went bar hopping, talking up the guapos as we went.  Then we arrived to 20th Century... the most amazing bar I have been to to date.  Completely decked in Americana and full of single men, we spent the majority of the night in a complete haze.  We finished the night at another club but I couldn´t remember much of it if you´d paid me.  Around 6am the group of us came stumbling in, in amazement of Vigo´s nightlife.

We got up relatively early, considering our late night.  We decided to take advatage of the rented car and drive to a nearby little town called Baiona that has one of the most spectacular Fortresses in Spain.  When we first arrived to this little piece of heaven, we parked and walked around the beach at the 'ria' that led to the Atlantic Ocean.  We strolled along the shores and into this old missionary turned church.  After exploring and taking our fill of fotos, we got back in the car and headed closer to the fortress.  We stopped and looked in a few shops, ate some icecream, explored an exact replica of the Pinta, one of Christopher Columbus's ships.  Finally, we made it to the Parador de Baiona (The Fortress). 

                                     

Have you ever had one of those moments when you first walk into a place and know that you will remember this for the rest of your life? This is how I felt when I walked into the walls of the Parador.  Words cannot even explain the beauty of this place.  I really felt that I had time travelled from 2010 into the 17th Century.  Everything seemed so untouched by the outside world. Everything grew wild and I could feel the history seeping through the cobble stones.  I had transported myself into my own little fairy tale of Kings and Noble Knights.  I imagined myself even getting married in the lush gardens overlooking the water.  I think all of us were in awe of this breathtaking place.  We took advantage of the photo-ops but for the most part, we walked in a sublime silence.  Like we all knew that this was something special. 

Sadly, after a few hours and countless pictures, we left this magical place.  We decided for enerygy and money sake, that we'd buy a few things at the local supermarket and eat dinner inside our hotel room that night.  Isabel went and had dinner and drinks with a few of her friends while the girls and I ate, drank, danced and gossiped for hours.  Once we got to the point where we could go to sleep or head out for night 2 on the town, we opted to quickly get ready and down the rest of our drinks.  We knew that we wanted to make one more appearance at 20th Century and a few other bars/ clubs before we left.  We danced the night away, filled with the bubbling joy of todays excursion.  Still exhausted from the previous late night and knowing our long journey home, we came back to the hotel at a modest 3am. 

The morning came ever so quickly as we all slowly climbed out of our beds to get back in the car for our long journey back to Madrid.  As we individually said goodbye to each person as we got dropped off, I knew that we had done more than just bond on this super-puente.  We built memories that would last a lifetime :)

Working Girl (April/ May/ June)

These last few months seemed to fly by at times and others, drag on for an eternity. There were many different reasons that could explain this. First of all my academy has been in the middle of a big move. For the past 30 odd years we have been in the same building expanding over time. However, we’ve been expanding not only to different rooms but to different floors. So our main office has been on the 6th floor while majority of our classrooms were on the 2nd and 3rd floors. This made it frustrating especially trying to cart around the portable TVs up and down the crowded elevators and during the hot summer months when air circulation was a rare commodity in some corner rooms. But during this trimester, my academy administrators announced that we were moving to a brand new facility just down the block. All classrooms are located on one floor with WiFi and air conditioning in every room. But as rumors spread to the students, every other day we were cornered with questions about the timeline and how come other classes were chosen to start in the new place before theirs.  In the 3 month time span, only one of my classes, my one-session Friday night class, was moved into the new building.

Another reason for the apparent stunt in pace was the fact that I was going home to Chicago in July.  So towards the latter of the trimester, all I could think about was my friends and family back home.  However bad my desire to finish at the academy, my classes were quite enjoyable.

I had my morning intensive class as usual with a few new faces.  One that particularly stood out was a student named Borja.  He came into my class the first day with baggy shorts, a ripped tee 6 earrings in each ear and covered in tattoos.  It was big change from my gelled-hair, polo and loafer wearing Spanish students.  So I took a special interest in watching him develop his language skills over the month of June.  I asked my students on the first day of every class, ¨Why are you learning English?¨  I get the usual responses: to get a promotion, to travel, to find a better job... but Borja´s answer was the most unique and heart-felt response I have heard.  He said he was learning English so he could write music and poetry that everyone could understand.  For the next few weeks, Borja would stay after class a few minutes and show me some of the things he was writing so I could correct any mistakes and make sure everything made sense  Definitely one of the most intriguing experiences I´ve had here in Spain.   

I continued with my business classes in Tecnicas Reunidas as usual.  But as June passed, I knew that I would have to say goodbye to most of them.  The had been my students for the entire academic year and I had grown quite fond of the majority.  Unfortunately, teachers can only have 1 on 1 students for a maximum of 1 year.  I try not to dwell....

I continued with my 2 trimester classes and they went relatively smoothly.  I had the same group with Mer and Lorena from before which went relatively quickly as we added some new faces to the mix.  My other trimester class was also decent. No one with much personality but luckily, classes didn´t drag too much.  I had problems with 2 girls at the beginning.  They were best friends who sat in the corner talking only with eachother and at times, not paying attention to my class.  Then one day I caught one of the girls putting her fingers to her head shaped as a gun (the same gesture we use in the US to say, ¨Dear Lord I´m bored; someone please shoot me!¨)  Well I was less than thrilled about that so I called her out and said that if she didn´t like my class, she was free to leave at any time.  We didn´t have any more problems after that.

My last class was, as I mentioned before, a 2 1/2 hour Friday night class.  At first I was dreading this class.  2 1/2 HOURS!!!! But in the end, it turned out to be one of my favorite classes from the entire year.  It was all due to the wonderful students I had.  Each one had such a unique personality and they were all quite talkative.  That is, in my opinion, the best thing any teacher could ask for.  Majority of the time, I had to stop them from talking so we could actually learn some grammar.  They loved to debate which was great because the dynamic of the class.  We had one older lady while the other were mid 20s to early 30s; a good mixture of men and women; different cultures; and different professions.  Every class with them was a piece of tortilla española!

So overall, I finished my first academic year on a high note.  I just returned from my vacation back home which will be in another blog shortly! Thanks to all my amazing students and colleagues that made this past year, unforgetable!