Busy bee and vacation's break

This week has been very busy indeed as we're going on holidays on Friday.

My dad is doing a lovely job and my balcony now has loads of plants and flowers, even a small perfumed Jasmine, and even some tomatoes! Not a proper garden, but a bit of green is always nice. He and "the husband" were busy trying to figure out a device for watering the plants while we're out during our holiday. They did create a complicated looking system that, in theory, will keep the plants moist until we're back. Let's hope it'll work fine.
Also my dad is getting ready to go to France. He's going to stay with our french family there and I can only hope that he'll be careful not too eat too much cheese.

I was wrapping some classes and writing loads of reports and courses plans for next year classes. I've told my boss that want to work around 30 hs a week staring in September. I want to be able to save enough money next year to go to one of my dreams destination: Petra in Jordan, maybe a camel ride to reach the place? That takes at least 3 days of riding camels and sleeping in tents in the desert, so it's a sort of organewsed adventure, but it doesn't come cheap.
I'm also trying to keep our son amused and entertained in a more physical way because he's enjoying his holidays a lot but he spends far too much time watching TV or playing with his PlayStation. So I try to take him at least 3 times a week to the local swimming pool or the sea, where he does a lot of exercise. The local pool is really great,big enough for 3,000 people and with plenty of room to do whatever, swim, slide down on any of the big slides, play with inflatable toys, have a picnic, go to the cafe or just relax under s tree. That's what I do, I take my book, some nice and cool coca-cola and my very comfy beach mat (Ikea-designed, you can see it on the left here, and you can lay or sit confortably enought to read) and just read and relax, when is too hot I take a dip in the pool or a shower and go back to my book. That's the life.
On top of all that I'm organising a barbecue in England... this weekend... in the middle of one of the worst rainfall ever... I'm really worried. But as I bough my tickets, there's no way we're cancelling, so... think Glastonbury!! Fun in the mud! (wish me luck)
I order my Harry Potter book ages ago, and amazon said that they send it on Saturday but hasn't arrive yet. If this doesn't come until tomorrow, I'll buy one in Bristol anyway.

"The husband" also was busy trying to wrap up some projects he's been working on before the dead month of August.

So, starting tomorrow I'm going to take a break from this blog until we're back on the 11 of August. I'll try to write an entry about the weekend party and to include some pictures, before going to the camoping on the 1 of August, but I don't promise enything as I really need a rest away frommy desk.

See you soon and enjoy whatever the weather brings you!

bleeping fiesta!

I never thought that I'd hate a fiesta! This is truly a first for me.
This weekend people in my neighbourhood had their annual fiesta. As I told you before, everybody and everything has a fiesta here in Spain. And far I thought that it was very nice to keep the tradition, great that the community joins together to celebrate that we're alive yet another year, very quaint to keep the tradition going and all that "foreign" crap.
Now, a party is all very nice if you can leave it and go home at any time you wish, but when they force you attend the party like it or not... well... not that nice.
Now I understand while local people just leave the town in certain dates in order to avoid a party. For instance, a few weeks ago the city of Pamplona in the north of Spain has its famous San Fermín's encierros when people dressed in white with a red faja run in front of the bulls throughout the city. This year was particularly infamous as some idiot run with his 10 years-old son. While that party sounds great fun with plenty of folkloric and religious meaning, the actual party meant hundreds of very drunk people running amok. Not much fun if you happens to live there and have to see your doorstep pissed and vomited every night for a whole weekend.

Well... people on my neighbourhood had their annual fiesta during the weekend and that meant that I couldn't watch TV or even sleep until late at night when they finished the noise. And the main party was around the corner from us!
Really it wasn't that bad, just really tacky and noisy, not elegant and folkloric. And the worst part was that I needed to go to work very early the next day so i really needed my sleep and didn't fancy listened to loud pop music from the 70's.
The weather was also didn't help me as it was a hot night, so if I closed my window that cancelled the noise but it was too hot to bear.

I think I start to think as a local! This has to be good! hasn't it?

A very sad departure

In Argentina one of the most popular and talented artists died recently. His name is Roberto Fontanarrosa, and here you can see his portrait surrounded by a few of his many characters. he described our political reality and the Argentinean culture (if such thing does exist) as nobody else did, with amazing acuracy and great humour. He was also a gifted writer.

And he was one of my favourite living artist in the whole world.
I still keep a caricature he draw for my in one of his many books presentation. He dedicated it to me and signed it and it is one of the very few things that I always carry with me wherever I happens to live. I treasured it for years and I will for years to come.
I keep his books in my home waiting for my son to be a bit older so he can appreciate and understand his sense of humour and thus understand and appreciate his Argentinean inheritance. As he's doing now while he discover and enjoy another great artist: Quino.

Roberto Fontanarrosa touched people in many ways and he always managed to make me smile and sometimes even to laugh out loud with his cartoons. Now this news managed to make me feel very sad, as I lost somebody near to my heart.

Here it goes my humble homage to a great artist. We will miss you dearly, maestro.

More visitors and reflexion on female friendship

To think that I ever worried thinking that nobody was going to visit us!

Another friend, this time from Bristol, arrived. She's in Barcelona interviewing people to fill the job of junior language assistant in the department of Spanish of one of the universities in Bristol, and she kindly stayed a few more days just to spend some time with us.
She arrived just a few days after the young French cousin left and, again, my son had to surrender his room to guests. He didn't mind as she's like an auntie to him and as family to us all.

We took her around to visit friends and to the lovely beach in Villanova i la Geltrú, one of the nice beaches a bit south of Barcelona. It was vey full as more and more people are arrivng for their holidays in the sun. The flow of people increases a lot here in summer, with more and more tourist arriving, luckily the prices are not followint that trend but are staying more or less the same. To eat in a chiringuito by the sea doesn't need to cost a fortune, but we need to buy a cooler so we can take our own cool drinks.
(A chiringuito is a place by the sea with some sort of shade, where drinks and some food are sold, usually they also have music, sometimes a DJ and are open very long hours. See picture)

We chat and chat and, by god, how much do I miss just talking to women!
We do talk in a different manner than boys. I believe that we women sort of think while talking... we just chat and the exchange of words help us make our mind when something trouble us. Men are more goal oriented ad take conversations more as the way to reach a goal. We women just go with the flow and analyze thing while we're at it.

Does this make sense to you? I'd appreciate comments on this.

One of the areas where I need to work, now that it looks as we're going to stay here for a long while, is friendships of mi own, specially female friends. I need to work on that.

Au revoir little cousin

My young cousin left yesterday and, yes, she was really nice and sweet and yes, it was a pleasure to have her as a guest. As much as I moan, I do love to have guests. I hope that she managed to improve her Spanish and English
Of course, this being my life, things never go smoothly and simply, there has to be some drama to everything and this was not the exception.

I did promise my dad that I'd take her to the airport despite my quite busy schedule and the summer heat that made a nightmare to drive for 2 hours on the motorway. I don't like driving on the motorway as the people here simply don't know the rules and do whatever they feel, it's very stressful. I used to hate driving on it but now experience and the GPS help a lot and now is bearable. But to drive to Barcelona airport and back in the middle of a working summer day, though, is not something I was looking forward to.

I went to my early class at 8am in a local industry park at around 20 minutes from home. I'm replacing the usual teacher in a multinational company's factory. Because this was my first class there I arrived a bit earlier and parked my car in one of the many places there. I went to reception but had to wait until the receptionist arrived.
Here when it says that the opening time is 8am it actually means that the employee arrives at more or less that time, but first goes to say hello to somebody, grab a coffee and only then actually goes to his/her desk. So I waited for the receptionist to arrive and tell me where my class was and so on.
Let's just mention that also my students are always late for classes, I know this but I'm very professional and I'm always on time, don't know why I bother. Even when I go to their own offices, they'll still find a way to keep me waiting. It's not rude but is just the way things are here.
Anyway, eventually my class started and then the phone run and the receptionist ask for me. She asked me where did I park the car and when I told her there was a long silence on the line and she said that there was a huge crane blocking my car and that she didn't know how long that was to stay there.
OK. I told her that I needed the car but that I'd finish the lesson and we'd worry about it latter.

When the class finished I went back to the car park and, yes, there was a huge yellow crane there totally blocking my car, which was nicely parked behind it and with no way of getting out. I checked everywhere for signs to make sure that it wasn't my fault and then I headed to reception. The receptionist was truly apologetic and told me that it was really her fault as she supposed to warn everybody and she did... by email and in person the day before. She didn't even put a sign there.
As the situation was sinking in, I became more desperate. By then it was 10 o'clock and I was expected to pick my cousin and take her to the airport on time, then I there were 2 more classes on the afternoon.

I was aghast.

The receptionist apologised and told me that she had already called a taxi in. I was about to burst into tears thinking of the expenses. Then she added that as it was all her fault the company will put the taxi at my disposal to go to wherever I needed for the rest of the day if necessary and that she'll call me as soon as my car was freed so I can go back and collect it. In fact, the taxi was already waiting for me.

With great caution I told her that I needed to go to the airport, to El Pratt, and back and then to different places. I just wanted to make sure she knew that the bill was going to be huge. She said not to worry about distance or time, the taxi was mine for me to use it as I had planned to use my car.

All of a sudden the situation wasn't as bad as I thought.
It was actually pretty good.

So without much ado and before the very nice and, all of a sudden, very eficient receptionist had the chance of changing her mind, I jumped into the taxi. The driver was very pleased to hear the whole story as he was going to get a lot of money out of it. As he said: "some body's misfortune can be the good fortune of another", taxi drivers are usually very philosophical here.

Then I went home, the taxi waited until we were ready and my little cousin and I chat all the way to the airport in the comfort of the air conditioned taxi, I think there were some traffic jams on the way but I didn't care a bit. It was the most comfortable and relaxed ride to the airport ever!
After I boded farewell to the young cousin I bought a coke and went back home. Nice.

Then at noon, the receptionist called to tell me that the crane was gone and my car was free, and she offered to send me another taxi. I asked to send the taxi at 1:30 pm so I could be on time to my next appointment.

I finished the day extra relaxed as I didn't drive as much as I expected.

It's really great that what started as a disaster turned to be my lucky day. Great!
I choose to think that this was good karma.

"The husband" is a star!

Great news.
"The husband" got awarded a very prestigious fellowship called Ramon y Cajal. This means that he got money to establish his own laboratory here in the Universidad Autónoma, equipment and all, a 5 year contract to keep on working in the department where he's now, money for travel to conferences around the world and the promise of a fixed permanent contract at the end of those 5 years.

This is the more stable we've ever been. Amazing!

On top of that there's only a handful of scientist awarded with that here in Spain, plus "the husband" was chosen number 5 in the whole project. Thousands of people from all over the world apply for this and very few actually get it.

The fellowship is named after Santiago Ramon y Cajal, one of the few Spanish scientists to be awarded the Nobel prize for his discovering of the neurotransmitters.

So, first and foremost, this means that "the husband's" work is recognised and appreciated it, which is great. Second, and in a more practical level, means a new found stability for us all. Means that he's going to stay put for as long as he wants to, unless they cannot, for some reason, offer him a permanent contract at the end of the 5 years.

This is a fab news but after a while I find myself being totally in shock I still don't fully know what this means for me.
P (our son) wasn't particularly happy and couldn't even understand what all the fuss was about. In his heart of hearts he expected us to go back to Bristol, where he was born and lived happily.
So far I lived and worked within just 2 more years in Catalunya in my mind. To keep my sanity and my worries about the future under control I refused to think long term. So all my projects were confined to up to 3 years. My job, for instance... do I really want to teach EFL for the rest of my working life? What are we going to do with our son high school!

I'm going to spend this summer time thinking about what I do want for the next few years. It's a good time to think, because now I'm busy and there's no time. I need to re-set my priorities and goals. So far I'm more or less where I wanted to be in life, but is time to re-think.

As I took a few extra hours replacing teachers that started their holidays in July (wisely, as I know realising) , I still work around 20 hours a week and I need some extra leisure time to myself.

I'm thinking along the lines of this poem by William Henry James (a total character, as you can read if you click on his name):

"LEISURE"

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

By Wm. Henry Davies.

Bristol's weekend party

Every year, since 2002, at around this time of the year, I organise a weekend party for friends in a lovely friend's farm near Tauton. (both the friend and the farm are lovely, although I suspect that my friend will find it terribly funny being described as "lovely", I think he'll prefer a more macho word).
A "fancy " farm as I described it once, to my former colleague Glinnys' amussement, amusement, because it's not a working farm in the traditional sense. My dear friend Martin, the owner, works a lot and he does it there in the farm, in fact he's the one and only workaholic I personally know, but he work in computers and cannot be described as a farmer by any stretch of the imagination even when sometimes he looks like one.

Anyway.... Last year I promised that I would try and organise the party from here and that we'd all go back and, hopefully, will gloat about living in the sun.
We arranged the date well in advance and the time has come to do the do. (oh, I love the English language but really most of my puns are unintentional).
The date is the last weekend of July. As usual, we're going to have a buffet meal on Saturday evening, followed by a ball (mainly Latin American music) until we're all tired, there's usually a nice bonfire in one corner of the farm, where people sit, chat and drink mate until even later. Then on Sunday we have a great barbecue, South American style (you have to see and try this to believe it). At the end of the day we all share the cost, so it's not a big expensive deal for anybody and a great time for all.
We take our tents so we can go stright to sleep after all the dancing and nobody needs to worry about driving.
There's usually plenty of children playing together somewhere, the place is big and pretty safe so they can go amok and nobody notices it. And it's great to be able to catch up with old friends and meet new ones, because every year there's some new people.
We always have a few marquees, just in case, although we only really needed them twice, once because it rained (but we keep on dancing, so nobody really noticed it) and the other time to cover us from the sun, believe it or not.

We already bought our (easyjet) tickets and will be in Bristol from Saturday 28th to Tuesday 31th.

This is a sort of invitation, you can go the whole weekend (highly recommended) or just one day. Thinik about it, contact me and I'll send you more details, such as a map.

I'd love to meet with the ladies at the library now that I'm droping in Bristol, so maybe we could organise to go for lunch on Monday 30th to the pub near the library in Filton? I'll ask them.
At least I'm going to drop by to see who's there on Monday. How nice to see the old place!
mmm... maybe I can even convince them to let me borrow some books as I'm starving for new stuff, specially on CDs.

Girlie shopping

I haven't realised that I live in a very male house. Well.. my dad is staying with us, then I have "the husband" and my boy who's starting to grow into a young man.
This just struck me when I planned to take my little cousin out and the guys ideas were totally daft, so after the usual visits to sight see Barcelona and to see Gaudi's houses I took her to the biggest shopping area in town and she totally loved it. In fact, I loved it too. So, while the guys (my dad and my son) stayed in a shady part drinking something and dying of boredom, my lovely little French cousin and I went happily skipping around, comparing prices and stuff. Even the part of shopping that I truly dislike, trying on the clothes, was fun as we compared things and laugh at trying some obviously stupid fashion faux pas.
(as you can see I even managed to improve my French)

The last time I went shopping here was with my friend Esmeralda, but this time was even better as this is sale season. I don't know why, but they're selling all the summer stuff as if we're heading into winter. And the summer just started and it does last until September!!! So, plenty of time yet to wear the stuff that I bough a half price.
So, ladies, if you like shopping, this is the perfect time to visit Barcelona. You can shop 'till you drop and then drop in a lovely sandy beach where you can get a 20 minute massage for €10 (aprox. 7 pounds). I'm not joking, as well as having people on the beach selling cold drinks and cheap jewelry you have people going around crying "masages". The people selling stuff are usually black young men and the masseuses are oriental looking women. I heard that they're illegal immigrants, of which, apparently, there are many.

Of course the truly lovely stuff is still expensive even with a 50% discount. A 50% discount of a €1,000 pair of shoes is still €450 too expensive for me. But I love cheap stuff anyway, so I bough a nice summer dress in H&M (of all places!) for €12 (less than a tenner), shower gels at half price, 2 blouses for working and trousers and underwear for my guys. I'm still trying to find a nice pair of comfortable sandals that I can use to go and teach. There's many to choose from as one of the few industries in Spain, apart from tourism, is making shoes, but I'm very picky.

Summer's here

You don't have an idea how lovely the weather is here at this time of the year, my son said that he likes it here "because everyday feels like summer holidays" and it's totally true. It's a bit uncomfortable if you, like me, have to drive everywhere and work in different places because the car feels like a sauna. But it's lovely to be able to have tapas down the road from home after the work is done and when the nice breeze starts to cool everything down.
We're also able to drive to the sea if we feel like it. We have to check the time as not to be in the middle of the motorway in rush hour, but I feel is such a luxury to be able to drive 40 minutes and be in a lovely sandy beach in the Med!!

The little cousin is totally adorable and really beautiful. I mean model-like beautiful and she doesn't even know it with only adds to her very Gallic charm. She looks like one of Asterix and Obelix's lovely young beauties.
Of course, I'm more busy than usual as I have to cook and take care of more people, plus take her places and help her with Spanish and English, but P, my son, has been really helpful and he helps her with the languages and also helps a bit more around the flat (although he does need to be remained it a bit).
It's nice to have another girl in the flat as I'm living with 3 guys and I'm totally used to it by now. But she appreciate girlie things like movies such as "Sleepless in Seattle" or Mika singing "Grace Kelly".
I think I'll love to take her shopping to the big discount place called La Roca. Is a big outlet village where all the big labels sell their pass seasons goods with discounts up to 50%. Of course, 50% off €1,000 is still far too expensive for me to even think of buying, but it'll be nice to go and look around, and there's no way any of my guys will go with me.

More visitors

My dad invited a very young French cousin to stay with us. She's 17 and just finishing her Bac (the French equivalent of English GCSEs) and want to improve her Spanish and English and my dad though that it'll be good for her to stay with us a few days.
Nice idea in principle, and I'm all in favour to keep the ties with the French branch of my (very) extended family, but now I'm all tied up, busy and trying to get some rest, the flat is too small and well... I'll have more work added to my already busy life.
She's arriving today and I cannot pick her up from the airport because my car is in the garage, a problem with the brakes. So my dad have to go all by himself (by bus), collect her and bring her home.
At least I hope she'll be as nice as her sister, who visit us a couple of times in Bristol and was lovely.

Maya Angelou. I love this one

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...

enough money within her control to move out
and rent a place of her own,
even if she never wants to or needs to...



A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...

something perfect to wear if the employer,
or date of her dreams wants to see her in an hour...



A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ..

a youth she's content to leave behind....



A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...

a past juicy enough that she's looking forward to
retelling it in her old age....



A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE .....

a set of screwdrivers, a cordless drill, and a black lace bra...



A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....

one friend who always makes her laugh... and one who lets her cry...



A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....

a good piece of furniture not previously owned by anyone else in her family...



A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...

eight matching plates, wine glasses with stems,
and a recipe for a meal,
that will make her guests feel honored...



A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...

a feeling of control over her destiny...



EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...

how to fall in love without losing herself.



EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...

how to quit a job,
break up with a lover,
and confront a friend without;
ruining the friendship. ..


EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...

when to try harder... and WHEN TO WALK AWAY....



EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...

that she can't change the length of her calves,
the width of her hips, or the nature of her parents.



EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...

that her childhood may not have been perfect..but it's over...



EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...

what she would and wouldn't do for love or more...



EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
how to live alone... even if she doesn't like it...



EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW..

whom she can trust,
whom she can't,
and why she shouldn't take it personally. .



EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...

where to go...
be it to her best friend's kitchen table...
or a charming inn in the woods...
when her soul needs soothing....



EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...

what she can and can't accomplish in a day...
a month...and a year....

Writting plans for next year

As soon as I finished my reports I've been told that I have to write somehow detailed plans for next year classes. It feels like the job will never ends. One of the good thinks of my job was not having to mark home work and exams, but now I've got to do this and I don't even know where to start!
I'm going to try and Google this. I hope that other teachers did publish their plans so I can take some inspiration or downright and shamelessly copy theirs. Students do this, why not teachers!!

See you when I finish that. Wish me luck.

Writing reports

I was very naive because I though that this week was to be more relaxed already, I didn't know that I have to write my students' reports. Teacher's work feel like the proverbial icebergs as there's much more to it than it looks for afar.
I hate to write reports. I don't know what's worst, to write them in English or in Spanish. In the first is stressful and time consuming, in the latter is just plain boring.
The expected reports are not long or complicated, but there's a set of EU rules and standards that they have to match and to read it all took me at least one whole afternoon. At least I don't have to mark exams!!!
One of the agencies also asked me to write a plan for next year's classes, one for each group.
The deadline is Friday but I started on Monday and it looks like this is going to take some time.
Wish me luck.

Finishing my classes

Most of my classes are about to finish for this academic year.
(This is one more reason as why the party the other day felt like New Year's eve, most people take January off in Argentina as people here take August).
I'm still going to work and teach few special classes during July, but it's down to 15 hours a week so it'll be more relaxed. Good enough to get some money and quiet enough so I can start to relax and have time to think. I need to take stock of this year, check where I am and what do I need to do from here.
(another reason why it feels like New Year's eve in Argentina, as that is usual the time when one thinks about the past year and what the future will be like. Not to mention New Year's resolutions).
For most of my students I prepared the same kind of lesson, something related as how to learn for themselves, because if you don't practice an acquired language you soon enough start to forget it. The easiest thing to do is read articles using the Internet, but I also mentioned other resources such as listening to podcast, watching movies in English with English subtitles to help them, and so on.
I hope they do it. However, the demand for English teachers is such that I know I'm going to keep on working on this area for a as long as I want to.

BANG!

A day latter and my ears are still ringing.
They told us that it was going to be noisy and it was.
What amused me the most was that all the plans made a week in advance were changed at the last minute. This is so Latino!!
Remember that the main food was to be a giant paella? Well, the paellero said that he doesn't bother to cook a paella for less than 150, so the main course was changed to a barbecue. And, of course, Spanish people know that the best barbecue are made by Argentineans, so they called us and another few of my people to organise a barbecue for 80 on the same day.
Of course, we Argentineans are at our best when under pressure, and they managed to produce a fantastic barbecue, on time and without much of a fuss. Barbecues in Argentina are a men thing, so "the husband" and my dad were very involved but I did nothing, just socialised and got to know other parents.
The club is a great place for this sort of parties as it's in the middle of nowhere and the kids had plenty of room to play with their rockets and bombs. The older kids (teenagers) were mainly at the front with their big rockets and very noisy stuff, the younger kids (and the girls) were at the back, closer to where the parents were.
The lack of health & safety issues is liberating on one hand, but a bit disturbing on the other as the kids run amok and there was at least two instances that I saw myself that were really worrying and it was close to a miracle that nobody was hurt. The first one was a flying think that came directly to us (the parents) and a piece of something actually hit a dad on his head, even though he ducked most of it. The second was when the kids were trying to use a glass bottle as a support for a rocket and the thing fell into the bottle by accident after they lighted it. After a second of hesitation somebody shout run and they did... just in time as the bottle exploded and there were pieces of glasses flying everywhere. Again, the fact that nobody was hurt was incredible.
After a delicious barbecue, the adults danced to 80's music while the kids burnt all their things.
The club is in the countryside (well, as countryside as you can have in over-built Catalunya) and you could see a lot of the fireworks in the Vallés.
Despite, or maybe because all that, the kids and the adults alike enjoyed the evening and we return home well after midnight. At the entry of Sabadell, as usual on this occasion, the police were stopping people to check the alcohol levels. My dad and "the husband" drank sangria and cava, but I was driving so we were ok.

For us the night felt and even smelled like New Year's Eve. Let me explain. In Argentina the New Year's Eve is when summer just started, so it's usually a hot day followed by a bit colder nigh. We usually eat dinner outside with friends and family and then, at 12:00 o'clock the sky gets alight with fireworks and you can hear the bombs well into the night. The balmy air carries the smell of barbecues and gun-powder. Just like Sant Joan's night in Catalonia.
This feels like home, maybe for the wrong reasons, but is like returning home in a parallel universe, one where the economy went well and Argentina is still a rich country. Weird.

Thank God it'is Friday!

I do need a rest! The work and the heat is killing me, summer is definitely here and although I work in very comfortable offices, my car is usually parked under the sun and it feels like a sauna this time of year
Although it looks like there's a big party this weekend as it's la fiesta de San Juan, one of the biggest in the country. Basically, it's about celebrating the summer solstice although they have a catholic explanation for the fiesta, as usual, and we're expecting big and very noisy fireworks, bonfires and, of course, a special cake. We're even invited to a paella party on Saturday's evening at the rugby's club with all the kids. The club hired a special paellero, one of those guys specialised in preparing those huge paellas like the one in the picture.
A paella is a traditional Spanish dish, basically rice with seafood and sometime chicken and saffron (thus the golden colour). Really delicious.
A full meal here is a serious affair with at least three separate courses. So the club told the parents to bring some food and drinks to be shared as a buffet and they provide the main course, a mighty paella, and all the cutlery, tables, and so forth. They also asked everybody to bring in their fireworks so we'll have a good San Juan.
I still remember the spark inside my sandal from the the local dragon and my ear ringing from the trabucaires a couple of weekends ago, so this time I'll make sure I'm as far away from the kids as I can possibly be.
Of course, there's no way of stopping my son. Two days ago he came from school and told me that as he was walking home he saw a bunch of (slightly older) kids making a hell of a noise in the local square, he just stop to stare and they kindly invited him to give it a go and through some himself! He was very pleased as how friendly Spanish children are and how noisy the bombs were. There and then I started to miss the health and safety regulations from over-cautious England. Well... almost.
So, we're going today to buy some fireworks and bombs in a nearby shop. they just left their catalogues in our mailbox and it looks fantastic. I'm sure that some of this stuff is totally illegal back in England!!

During the whole week we've been hearing bangs and booms all over the place, as people cannot wait until tomorrow to use their stuff. Judging by the very long queues today in one shop near our house that sells all sort of this things... we expect something really big, very loud and maybe even some colour too.
I'll try to take pictures and post it here tomorrow.

Thinking of taking a holiday?

This is a bit of an advertising.
Our friends Gavin and Francesca are British expats living in Alghero, a town in the beautiful island of Sadinia in the middle of the Mediterranean sea.
They now bought a small flat next door to where they live and they want to rent it out to holidaymakers.
Now you can flight to Alghero from Bristol using Ryanair. It's not expensive.
My friends have a webpage advertising it in English, so please check it out (just click on the link):

http://algheroflat.ning.com/#scrollTo

Everything important, such as availability, prize (very affordable) and so on, can be checked directly with them by e-mail, which youĺl find on the webpage.

Nice weekend!

Friday was crazy. I arranged all my classes to finish before midday so we could leave to the Costa Brava as soon as possible, because we book a mobile home for the weekend in the lovely L'Amphora camping.
But things are never easy, not matter how well you plan things, so the day before I've got a text message in my phone saying that we needed to sign my son in his new school at 13:30 on Friday. It took us a whole hour to fill the form and give the school all the papers they need, things such as copies of parent's ID, all his vaccinations (we've lost P's red health record book so we have to go and ask his local GP for a certificate saying that he seems to be as a healthy as he looks), pictures of the kid, previous schools reports, etc etc.

Whatever!! After that we did manage to be at the campsite by 4pm and after downloading the car we all went straight into the sea. We stayed there until 9pm. Lovely!!
The caravan was small but comfortable, with one double bedroom and another with two small single beds, a nice loo, shower (cold and hot water), small but well equipped kitchen (we only used the fridge) a sort of small living room area and a patio surrounded by hedges and cover by trees where they have a table and chairs. Very nice and cozy.
We didn't do much and it was so nice!
We ate mostly sandwiches at a nice table outside the caravan and we once we went outside the camp to a lovely restaurant just opposite us.
Just a short walk from the caravan (5 minutes?) we had the see, warm and with a nice, long, sandy beach. Also we had a big swimming pool.
We played pool, swam, talked and walked, and I read almost half a book, something unheard off since we're in this flat as I'm always busy.
My dad was deeply impressed as he said he's never seen such an organised and clean camping. I think he expected us to take him to the wilderness, as one does when camping in South America, and was pleasantly surprised by the 'civilization' of it all.

This was like a pre-view because we booked a place for us all to go, this time with our tent, for the first 10 days of August. Now we can plan our trip better and we're all looking forward to that!!
And we all came back really relaxed, half tanned and ready to go the final few days until the holidays.

Sunday night, as we were trying to sleep we were woken up by a terrible racket, fireworks, bombs and people driving around blowing their horns very loudly. All after midnight! Today we learnt that all that was the celebrations of the Real Madrid's fan because they won some cup or other. I couldn't care less but it surprise me that people celebrated it here and so loudly because the Real Madrid is the eternal rival of the local team, the Barcelona, and most people here are Barza fans.
Of course, you may have heard of this and seen the pictures because it was the farewell game of David Beckham, who's going to L.A. after this. And because Victoria, the former Posh Spice girl, is now blonder than David.

Desisions, desisions

This week I'm working a lot and my stress levels are quite high.
Because I started working almost at the end of the year, I've got just a couple of groups were I started and I sort of inherited most groups in the middle of their classes. To change teachers in the middle of the year is never easy, not for the students nor the teacher, and I've tried to make the best of a not-so-good situation. I'm taking this as paying my dues. you know, being the new kid on the block. I also took most classes that I've been offered in order to achieve my financial goal of earning €1,000.
Luckily for me, most of the classes finish at the end on June, so there's only two weeks to go and then I can relax, take stock, analyse the situation and establish new goals for the next year. Plus sleep until late, take time to go to the swimming pool and the sea with my dad and my son, read, and wear crappy t-shirts and shorts. Just holidays.
The only downside was the lack of income for 2 months.

As you may know by now, I'm working with 2 agencies. One belongs to local people, the other to a couple of British ex-pats.
I'm happy with the local one. They're very professional but very flexible as well, and they've been very understanding with me during the couple of times where I wasn't able to teach (because my son had a tummy ache or when I needed to take time off to pick my dad up from the airport).
The British were very professional as well but communication was never as easy as with the Spaniards (they're always busy and don't always took time to answer my queries on e-mails) and I feel a bit on my own with them. They also expected me to keep their website going and up-to-date for free and I've just don't have the time to do a lot of extra work ad honorem. Plus I've got more cancellations with them without payment for me than with the Spanish agency. Now I've just been told that one of the owners, Steve, is going to be P's rugby coach starting anytime now. And I'm not completely comfortable with the idea of working for the guy who's P's coach.
As for now, I'm working 6 hours a week for the Brits and 22 for the Spanish. The Brits pay a bit more but not much.

I'm thinking of staying with just one agency for the next year (starting September) but don't know how to tell Steve. Any ideas will be very welcome.

My friends are back

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After spending some time in the south of Spain visiting their cousin, my friends are back here until Friday.
It's very nice to have them around, specially their little toddler. Isn't it amazing how much space this little people fill in any home? They're the centre and the heart of any home and little baby Esmeralda was not exception. We've all took turns to play with her, talk to her and teach her little silly performances to amuse us. P's did the best one as he tough her to dance as the dog in a funny little video we found on youtube. So when the music sounds she puts her hand on top of her head, then on front of her and so on, as does the doggy. She's so funny and cute!

As usual, having friends here is great but also a bit sad as it does highlight the fact that I still don't have friends here. What I miss the most is the chance to share my thoughts and everyday life with, to just talk and laugh. Of course, I'm talking all day long as part of my job, and I do write mails and share my life here as well, but, of course, it's not the same as to do so in real time and face to face.

In many senses we've moved to Barcelona to be downshifters. Downshifters are those people who voluntarily made a long-term change in their lifestyle (other than retirement) which result in earning less money, reducing their work hours or quit work to study or stay at home. People who decided to quit the rat race in order to have better quality of life.
In our case, my work was just right and I loved it, but "the husband" wasn't happy, life for him in England was too much work and not enough "life". So, we thought that things would be different here.
In a way they are, or better say: they have the potential to be. We knew that to achieve the way of life that we wanted was not just a matter of moving countries and I knew that in order to achieve what we wanted we needed to work a lot at the beginning. I'm under no illusions and I'm totally conscious that the first few years are going to be tough and that we need to make sacrifices and make things work for us.
So, I miss my friends and right now I'm working far more than I did in Bristol and God knows I need a holiday, but we seems to be on the right track. Only time will tell.