Friday Night Ritual

Since living in Jávea, I have developed some kind of a “Friday night in Boringtown” ritual. This is especially for wintertime here, when there is literally nothing to do and over half of the population is gone. My roommates are never here on the weekends. They usually leave the town right after work on Friday and don’t come back until early Monday morning. I guess they, as well as all of the teachers that I work with, feel that they have to get the heck out of this town and go back to where their friends and family are. But I actually live here… even on the weekends.



Jerk Chicken, Asparagus and Mashed Potatoes



Typical Weekday Meal



So when I’m not travelling on the weekends I love to take advantage of the time that I have alone and have fun in the kitchen. On Friday nights I like to put on my pajamas, pour myself a glass of red wine, play a really girly movie or girly music on my computer, and spend a lot of time in the kitchen cooking a delicious meal.



Chicken Fajitas



In reality, I don’t wait until Fridays to cook. I cook myself breakfast, lunch and dinner almost every day. But during the week my meals are usually boring and quick. I eat lots of salads, chicken, rice, turkey burgers, and other simple things; but Friday is usually my day to experiment with different foods and have fun while cooking.

Every Thursday in Jávea, we have a big outdoor market, full of vendors selling lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. So I try to go to the market during my lunch break on Thursdays to buy lots of fresh vegetables to cook with. Last weekend I made grilled jerk chicken with pan-seared asparagus and mashed potatoes. It was my first time making both asparagus and real mashed potatoes. This Friday I made grilled pork chops with caramelized onions, steamed broccoli, and more mashed potatoes. My favorite Friday night meal is Chicken fajitas and I also love to make pasta.  I wonder what I will make next week…

Back to Life, Back to Reality (Well, Not Really)

This week was the first week back to school after Christmas break. Monday was filled with a lot of Spanish kisses and questions about how everyone’s vacation was. When everyone asked me about my trip to America, I responded the same way each time, “No quería volver” (I didn’t want to come back), for which they all responded, “Nosotros tampoco” (Us neither).

 When I walked into my infantil (4 year old) class on Tuesday, I couldn’t help but to smile, the kids were so happy when they saw my face and realized that they were having English class. They ran up to me and the other teacher and hugged us very tightly. I didn’t realize how much I missed them until I saw them.  That definitely made my day.  Besides that, the rest of the week was the same as usual. I followed my normal routine.

This week, I’ve realized that my Valencian has come a long way. I didn’t really realize it until I was speaking Spanish to some people and I kept accidently saying Valencian words. It’s amazing to think about the amount of Valencian that I have already learned. There are some words that I know in Valencian that I don’t even know in Castilian (normal Spanish). When I went to class on Monday, the teacher asked each of us what we did over the break and we each responded in Valencian.  This week, my roommate told a story to us, in Valencian, and I understood everything. And to this day, whenever I’m telling time, counting and talking about things in my apartment, I can’t help but to say them in Valencian.  This is worse than Spanglish.

Jávea/Xàbia: My Little Paradise

Most people that aren’t very familiar with Spain get really confused when I tell them where I live, so I’ve decided to explain my town a little bit…

My town goes by two names: Jávea, its Castellano name, and Xàbia, its Valenciano name. People use the names interchangeably, but if you don’t speak Valenciano, then you would most likely say Jávea. Jávea is a small resort town that forms part of La Costa Blanca (which literally means “the white coast”) in Spain. The Costa Blanca is a region on the eastern coast of Spain (the Mediterranean coast) well-known for its blue waters and white sandy beaches. The entire region is located in the providence of Alicante. Other popular cities in the Costa Blanca are Dénia, Benidorm, Altea, Elche and Torrevieja.  The Costa Blanca is a very popular tourist destination for people wanting to bask in the sun and experience excellent weather.

Jávea is located in the providence of Alicante, in the region of Valencia. This may sound a little confusing at first; I know I was really confused when I first found out where I was going to be living. The Valencian community is made up of three different providences, Alicante to the south, Valencia in the center, and Castellon de la Plana to the north. Technically, I’m located in the providence of Alicante, but I am about the same distance away from both the cities of Alicante and Valencia. I’m about an hour’s drive and about a two-and-a-half hour bus ride away from both cities. I like the fact that I am right in the middle of the two cities because, when I am traveling, I can easily book a flight or a bus ride from either place.

Jávea is divided into three areas, el pueblo (the town), el puerto (the port), and el arenal (the beach area). Although each area is very close to the next, each has its own distinct ambience that really separates itself from the other.

El Pueblo is the most important area of Jávea. It’s also called el pueblo viejo (the old town). It is where the majority of the authentic Spanish families in Jávea live. El centro historico (the historic center), located in the pueblo is also where the most important town buildings are such as: the town hall, the museum, the banks in the town, the town market, the library and other governmental offices. Inside the historical part of Jávea, there are many small shops and quiet restaurants and cafés. There are also fascinating places to visit, like the Iglesia Sant Bertomeu, a gothic-style cathedral and national monument. I live in the pueblo of Jávea and I love living in this part of town because I feel like I’m in the more authentic and less touristy part. Also, almost every place that I go to is in this part of the town: the market, the bank, my valenciano class, and the school that I teach at. I love walking in the historic part of the town in the evening because I always see lots of people spending time with their families and sitting outside drinking and chatting. The historic part of Jávea is very quiet and relaxing.

El Puerto, or the port, is obviously the harbor area of Jávea. People go fishing here, store their boats here, and also swim at the rocky beach. Whenever I’m in the mood for a walk around town, I usually go to the port because I like to sit down and stare at the beautiful sea. Around the port area there are many clothing stores and boutiques, shoe stores, home good stores, and lots of restaurants. Some of my favorite restaurants are in this area and it’s also where I take my aerobics classes. You will also see a lot of British people here. They are very easy to spot because they are usually blond-haired, they speak English and they are eating at a restaurant at a time of day when most people are working. I’m about a 15 minute walk to the port.

In English, “arena” means “sand.” So El arenal is obviously the beach part of town. This is one of the liveliest parts of town and where most of the tourists hang out at. There are several really good restaurants and bars along the boardwalk of the beach. When I hang out with the other teachers, we usually go to the arenal because there is a great selection of places to choose from. Also, there are many shops in this area, especially touristy shops, and a couple of hotels. I don’t go to this area of town that often because it’s farther away from me, but when summertime comes around I will definitely go to the beach a lot.

The total population of Jávea is estimated to be around 30,000 people (which is very different from the 4/5 million population of Atlanta) and of these inhabitants there is a very decent number of British, German and Dutch families who have come to Jávea to escape the sometimes harsh climates of their own countries and are now a part of the active population of Jávea. I can say that some have blended in well; they have integrated into the society, their kids attend the public schools along with the Spanish children and some of them speak fluent Spanish and some Valencian. Unfortunately though, there are some people from those countries living in Jávea who expect the Spaniards to accommodate to them and so they don’t try to learn Spanish or integrate themselves into the Spanish society. Overall, I am very pleased with the population of Jávea because it is somewhat culturally diverse; I just wish that I saw more people of African descent.

Sometimes I am very frustrated with Jávea because it is such a small town and I am used to living in a bigger city. Jávea is so different from other cities: there isn’t a shopping center, a movie theater, clubs or chained stores or restaurants. And it’s sometimes hard to get around town because there isn’t a metro system or even a bus system. But as much as I talk about how boring this town is, the truth is that I actually enjoy it. Every night I sleep very well and I don’t have to be bothered by noise outside of my window. Every morning I wake up and drink my coffee while looking at the town and the beautiful sea from my balcony. And every time that I go somewhere, I see at least one familiar face. I feel very safe here and very at ease. Maybe living in this town will really teach me something about being patient and more relaxed. How can I complain about living in such a beautiful and tranquil place?

Home for the Holidays

My Sister's Way of Welcoming Me Home

For Christmas break I went home. Originally, I planned to stay in Europe during the break and travel to Belgium and some other cities within Spain; However, a couple of weeks before the break, I got really sick and I knew that it wasn’t best for me to do a lot of travelling. I really wanted to be home with my family for the holidays where I could get better physically and mentally; so I decided to book my plane ticket to the U.S.

My trip to the U.S. took about 16 hours. I had to take a bus from Jávea to the Valencian airport and then from Valencia I went to Paris and from Paris to Atlanta. Words cannot describe how I felt once I got on the Delta plane in Paris. Although I was still far away from home, once I got on the plane I heard people speaking English with such warm faces and genuine smiles, and I also saw several African Americans. I saw a southern man wearing a sports jersey and talking about how he hoped he got back in time to watch the game and I couldn’t help but smile. It was such a beautiful feeling knowing that I was going to mi pais… my country.

Oh Atlanta, How I've Missed Thee

The flight from Paris to Atlanta was over 9 hours. To make matters worse, I could not sleep at all during the flight; I’m sure it was a combination of nerves, of being sick, and of the sleeping that I’d done on the flight before. Once the plane landed in Atlanta, I was so anxious to get out and see my city. When I got off of the plane, I was surrounded by Atlanta airport workers welcoming me and telling me Merry Christmas. I had never been so happy to hear a country accent. I wanted to run up to each one of them and give them a hug and a kiss. As soon as I landed, I turned on my iPhone to call my mom and see if she was there. I wasn’t sure if my phone would work, but it did. As soon as I heard my mom’s sweet voice I became even more anxious. I tried as quickly as I could to go through customs and pick up my luggage, which isn’t so easy to do at the world’s busiest airport.



This is Called "Soul Food"



When I finally walked out of the doors of the airport, I saw my mom waiting for me, in my car. I ran up to her and gave her a big hug and lots of kisses. I also kissed my car, I missed it. I put my luggage in the car and we headed home. As soon as I got home, I took the longest, hottest, most wasteful American shower.



Mom's Sweet Potato Pie



My entire Christmas break was wonderful, I only stayed in Atlanta for a week, but I wish I had been there longer. I ate a lot of my favorite Southern American foods. I told my mom I wanted some macaroni and cheese, collard greens and roast and rice, and she cooked it all, along with corn bread and a sweet potato pie. And I had some sweet tea, grits, fried chicken, and everything else that’s really Southern.

I also got a lot accomplished when I went home. I finally went to see my doctor, who gave me the strongest antibiotics that he had and I got my hair done by someone who knows how to do African American hair!  

While at home, I spent a lot of time with my closest friends and family members. That was the most important part of the trip.

A trip to Atlanta was definitely what I needed to lift my spirits up; not that I was sad, but I did miss my love ones. I am so happy that I was able to reunite with my friends, my family, my city and my country.

Bon Nadal, Feliz Navidad, Merry Christmas!

Christmas Decorations

Today was the busiest and also most awesome day in the colegio. Not only was it the last day of the fall semester, but it was also the day that we celebrated Christmas in the school. The Christmas celebration started with a visit from los reyes magos, the three kings, or the three wise men as my family would call them. In America, we refer to the three wise men as the kings who brought gifts to baby Jesus, but in Spain they are like the staple of Christmas and they're even bigger than Santa Claus. They also have a day devoted to them (January 6^th) when kids receive even more gifts for Christmas, not from Santa Claus but from los reyes magos. This makes more sense if you ask me.

The three kings came to visit the smaller kids in the colegio, those of infantil and 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd grades. The kids went up to the kings, gave them their Christmas list and the kings gave each of them small toys. The kids were so excited to see the kings and get the toys.

While the three kings were spending time with the younger kids, the older kids were having a basketball tournament. At the end of the tournament, it was almuerzo time, so everyone got together and had hot chocolate and fresh bread. The hot chocolate was sweet and thick and the hot bread was delicious. Spain is going to make me so fat. During the 30 minute break, I talked to the teachers about a typical American Christmas and how beautiful it is in my country during this time of year. Sorry Spain, but you just don’t compare.

When the break was over, all of the children gathered for an assembly and each grade level (including infantil) sang a Christmas song or presented a Christmas play. My roommate, who is the music teacher at the school, organized everything and provided the music and choreography for most of the songs. I was so proud of her. The presentations were entertaining. Afterwards, the teachers thought that it would be fun to present a song and dance for the students and their parents, so we put on Santa hats and sang and danced to Feliz Navidad. It was really fun and the students really enjoyed it.

Right after the assembly, the parents were allowed to take their children home. Most of the parents were there for the assembly so they left with their children. School ended early that day because of the holiday. Afterwards, all of the teachers gathered together to exchange amic invisible gifts. After one teacher carefully distributed each of the gifts to us, we all simultaneously opened our gifts up. Although the amic invisible that I had was on maternity leave, she came to school to celebrate the last day with us and she loved the handbag that I bought her (thanks to my roommate for basically picking it out for me). My amic invisible bought me a really nice umbrella, which is actually something that I needed.

After the long school day, the celebration really began. All of the teachers went to have lunch together at a really nice restaurant outside of the town. The restaurant was owned by one of the student’s fathers, so although it was normally expensive, we got a good discount. The food was great. It started off with a lot of beverages and tapas of course and we each picked a main dish. You would think that when you look at a menu and have at least 6 options to choose from one of them would at least be something with chicken, right? Wrong! Half of the options on the menu were fish dishes, one was of lamb, one was duck, and one was cerdo iberico, the cheek of a pig. I tried the cerdo before and it was way too chewy; obviously. So I decided to be very adventurous and order something that I would usually frown upon, lamb. I am very proud of the fact that, since I’ve been in Spain, I have become adventurous as it pertains to food. I’ve never tried lamb before, and it certainly had a very unique and very strong taste to it, but it wasn’t bad. Along with the lamb were French fries and vegetables so I ate a lot of that also.  For dessert, I had some kind of cake and of course I had some café con leche. The dinner lasted for approximately 3 hours and it was full of laughter and conversation. Fortunately, the people that I was sitting next to spoke Castellano to me. After my roommate told them that I can speak some Valenciano, they were very surprised and entertained when I described my Valenciano teacher, in Valenciano.

As the dinner progressed, I couldn’t help but notice the very pregnant teacher, who went out to smoke with some of the other teachers. One of the other teachers noticed too; and when she asked another teacher if she was smoking, the other teacher tried to justify it by saying that smoking is actually not bad for pregnant people because it helps with the stress. Um, ok… (Look out for that blog)

After lots of hugs and kisses and wishing each other a Bon Nadal (Merry Christmas in Valencian), everyone went their separate ways. My roommate and about 3 of the other teachers; however, decided that it was too early to go home, so instead we all went to the beach area of town to have drinks and do karaoke. Unfortunately, though, when we got to the karaoke place it was closed, so we ended up going to a bar instead for drinks. We had drinks and chatted and told a lot of jokes, and at this point I was frustrated because the joke-telling was in Valenciano and I barely understood anything. So basically, there were two people telling jokes, and when everyone laughed I just smiled to keep from looking very uncomfortable. Even when they explained the jokes to me I still couldn’t really understand much of the humor in it so I occasionally pretended to laugh.

When we got up to pay for the drinks (by the way, my cosmopolitan was delicious), the bartender told us that some guys that we had been talking to earlier had already paid for our drinks. “Bon Nadal,” they said!

Some of the girls really wanted to do something else, but my roommate told them that she was tired and that I was tired. I thought that it was funny because I had never said that I was tired. I was pretty sure that my roommate was using me as her scapegoat to go home, but I didn’t object because I was very anxious to go home also.

Before we each departed, we decided to do one more fun thing, so instead of going somewhere, we had a small party in the parking lot of the bar. One of the teachers played a CD really loud in her car, and my roommate took her drums out of the car and started playing it. The teachers danced, while I videotaped them, and one of the teachers really gave us some Michael Jackson moves. It was so hilarious. A couple of people walking by stopped and smiled.

Finally, we went home after the longest day ever. I’m not sure how other people spent the last day of fall semester, but I couldn’t have asked for a better day.

For Christmas break, I’m going back to America and I’m so excited!!!

Bon Nadal a tots!

Cookies!!!

Today, in preparation for Christmas time and to show the staff how much I appreciate them, I baked some cookies for the teachers and took them to school.

Everyone that knows me knows that I love to bake sweets. So I decided to bake something “American” to share with my co-workers.  I didn’t feel like making a pie or cake, so I decided to make some chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies, which I’ve made so many times that I have the recipes stored in my head.

I spent the entire Sunday night baking cookies, It took a lot longer than it would normally take in my home in the U.S. because I did not have a fancy pastry blender to blend the ingredients so I had to stir everything with my hands and also because I could not find any measuring cups or anything with the U.S. metric system, so I had to do a lot of mathematical calculations. Also, the oven in my piso is very small, so I could only put a few cookies in the oven at a time.

I finished baking late and the result was a lot of cookies! I made so many cookies that I had plenty to take to school, plenty to leave at home for my roommates, and I even froze some cookie dough to use later.

Chocolate Chip and Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

On Monday, as soon as the teachers saw the cookies on the table in the teacher workroom, they dove right into them. They loved the cookies; especially the chocolate chip-cookies (Spaniards love anything chocolate) and they begged me to give them the recipe in Spanish.

Later that night when I got home, my roommates couldn’t stop talking about how good the cookies were and my other roommate actually took some to her job for her co-workers to try.

So I guess the cookies were a success, everyone loved them. The funny thing is: I baked them, but I only ate one myself. To me, they were normal, but I guess Spaniards aren’t exposed to freshly baked cookies too often.

When I say “Barce,” you say “lona”. Barce-lona, Barcelona!



View of the City



I was super excited this weekend to go to Barcelona. Anyone that knows anything about the world knows that Barcelona is not only one of the most popular Spanish cities, but it is also one of the most popular cities of all of Europe. I was so happy to finally go there.

I left Jávea early Friday morning and took a bus to Valencia. Living in Jávea, it is very difficult to get anywhere in Spain because Jávea doesn’t have any trains, metros, or airports. It only has one bus stop. So whenever I travel, I usually have to go to Alicante or Valencia first. Anyway, after my two hour trip to Valencia, I waited for a little while and then took another bus to Barcelona. The bus ride was about 5 hours and It was packed. I mostly slept the whole time. I arrived in Barcelona at around 2:00pm that day. When I arrived, I immediately took a taxi to the hostel that I was going to stay at with my American friends from Alicante.

Exploring the City

The hostel was very nice. It was very clean and nicely decorated. While at the hostel I met up with my friends and we talked a little about what we were going to do that day. First, we went to a nice restaurant to get something to eat. We all ordered from the menú del dia. My first plate was vegetable paella, my second plate was steak and fries and I had red wine for my beverage and coffee for dessert. The food was very delicious and exactly what I needed after that trip.



Barcelona at Night



After eating we walked around the city for a little bit. It is obvious that Barcelona is a “city” city because it is huge, and on top of that there is something to see everywhere you go. There were always a lot of noise, lights, and tons of people. After looking at some monuments and taking a little tour around a city, we went to Park Güell, which is a very beautiful park created by Guadi. After the park we walked around the city  and went to a shopping center. At the very top of the shopping center there was a round balcony where you could see some of the city. We stayed there for a while and then, to warm ourselves up, we stopped at a café for some café con leche and a pastry.

Later that night, we went out with some Americans who were friends of one of the Americans living in Alicante. After walking around for a while searching for a place to eat, we went to a bar where we socialized and had lots of tapas and wine. After that bar, we went to another place that had a very large selection of cocktails and we had more drinks there. I bravely ordered a peach margarita, and, for the first time since being in Spain, it was actually very good!  Lastly we stopped at another bar. At the last bar the bartender was really nice and chatted with us about some drinks. He got me to try this holiday beer, which tasted very interesting. By the time we got back to the hostel, I was so tired that I didn’t even put my pajamas on.



La Sagrada Familia



On Saturday morning we had breakfast at the hostel and headed to La Sagrada Familia. La Sagrada Familia is a very large cathedral that is still in construction and it contains more Gaudi arquictecture. We were at the Sagrada Familia for more than 2 hours. There was so much to see. Everything that I looked at had so many different depths to it. I especially loved looking at the sculptures on the outside of the cathedral. After the cathedral we went and had a very tasty lunch and we continued the night exploring the city.

On Sunday morning, we woke up early, ate breakfast and tried to explore more of the city before we left later that day. Before we left, we stopped at a wonderful coffee shop where I ordered café amb llet i xocolata, or coffee with milk and a chocolate cake. It was so delicious. As we were walking, we came across a small street parade of people playing instruments and singing Christmas songs. Later that day, I got on the bus back to Valencia, and then back to Jávea.



A Delightful Treat



Barcelona was a great trip I had so much fun and saw so much. I was also surprised at the amount of Catalán that I understood. Catalán is very similar to Valenciano and it is the official language of Catalonia, the providence of Barcelona. I would definitely like to go back to Barcelona before I return to America, Maybe in the summer.