My Love-Hate Relationship with Ryanair

I have been much more productive then I actually planned to be during this break. So productive, in fact, that I haven’t even went on any day trips like I had planned to in the beginning. So far, I’ve spent most of my days working my butt off on my resume and personal statement, getting caught up on blog posts, running errands, and planning. I’ve also occasionally gone on some walks around town, cooked some dishes and watched a little TV with my roommate. Although I haven’t travelled like I planned to in the beginning, I am still excited about one thing that I managed to do: book my flight and plan my 5-day trip to Italy that I will be taking in a couple of weeks.

I am so excited that I am finally able to cross a few cities off of my list of places to travel in Europe, even though I haven’t travelled to nearly as many places as I would have liked to. Right after Paris, I knew that Italy was the next place that I had to go to; just because it’s ITALY. During the first week of May we happen to have a day off of school because of a national holiday, and then the schools in Jávea have the next two days off because of a local holiday, and Friday is my day off; so I knew that with 3 extra days this would be a great time to take a trip.  I plan to spend a little time in Milan and Florence and then spend the majority of my time in Rome. I am dying to see Venice but I don’t think that I will have enough time to travel to that part of the country.  Maybe I’ll save Venice for a future trip.

Anyway, as I talked about here, one of the reasons why I love Europe so much is because, compared to the U.S., it is relatively very cheap to travel between different European cities. One of the reasons why it is so cheap to travel is because there are different budget airlines available such as EasyJet, Vueling and the airline that I have a love-hate relationship with, Ryanair.

Ryanair is a low-cost Irish airline that was founded in 1985. In the last couple of years Ryanair has rapidly expanded and it has become one of the most popular airlines in Europe, especially among younger travelers. Ryanair started off as an airline going between Ireland and England and it is now an airline that operates in more than 25 European countries and over 100 cities.

The reason why I love Ryanair is because, if booked at the right time, you can get a one-way ticket for as low as 10 Euros (or 13 American dollars) which is amazingly cheap. My tickets from Spain to Italy ended up being less than 50 Euros. For this price, I couldn’t even buy a plane ticket to get anywhere in the United States. Of course every ticket isn’t that cheap; some can be as high as 300 Euros, but if you book a ticket to the right place at the right time, it can be very reasonable.

Although I love the prices of the tickets, that is about the only thing that I actually love about Ryanair. There are a handful of things, however, that I hate about this airline. The first thing that I hate is the waiting time. Ryanair prides itself on having the most on-time arrivals and departures of all the airlines in Europe. In my experience travelling with Ryanair, this has been true (expect on my flight back to Madrid from Paris) bus this is because passengers are told to be at the gate a whole 2 hours before each flight! I have never been a patient person and the idea of having to be at your gate for almost two hours before your flight just to sit there and wait annoys me. In addition to this, there aren’t any reserved seats on Ryanair (unless you pay an extra fee to reserve your seat online) so if you want to get a good seat, or if you want to sit with your friends or family members, you have to arrive early to get a spot in the front of the line. The seats are literally first come, first serve.

Another thing that I hate about Ryanair is the baggage allowance. On Ryanair you are only allowed one free carry-on item that has to coincide with the weight and size requirements that the airline states. If you have a purse or umbrella you have to place it inside of your one carry-on item. And, unlike most airlines where the flight attendants look at your baggage and are able to tell whether or not it will fit in the carry-on compartment at the top, Ryanair most of time has the passengers test their luggage by having them place their backpacks, or small suitcases, in a box that isn’t really even representative of the space in the overhead compartments. This is also done right before, and sometimes even during, the boarding.

There are other things that I hate about Ryanair, like the fact that you must print out your boarding passes before getting to the airport, the fact that most of the airports partnering with Ryanair are farther away from the center of the cites (you sometimes have to take an hour-long bus ride to get to the center) and the fact that you basically have to pay for everything while you are on the flight; but I suppose these are some of the things that come along with travelling on a low-budget airline.

Although the amount of things that I dislike about Ryanair far surpasses the one thing that I do like, I will continue to be a Ryanair customer for as long as the tickets are cheap. Ryanair and I will just continue to have a love-hate relationship with each other.

Semana Santa: Holy Week in Spain

The first time I realized that Easter was a pretty big holiday in Spain was in January when I talked to some of the teachers about my recent trip to the U.S. for Christmas break. One of the teachers asked if I was also going to go back to the states for Easter and I looked at her with a perplexed expression on my face. “Why would I go all the way back home for Easter?”  I thought to myself. I told her that I wasn’t planning to and she also looked at me with a puzzled face. This was before I realized that we had an almost two-week Easter break from school and it was also before I realized how big this time of the year is to Spaniards.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, I began to talk to one of the English teachers about Easter traditions in the states and those in Spain. Although I grew up in a Christian family, we never did anything spectacular to celebrate Easter. We did go to church on Easter Sundays, but we also went to church every Sunday and Wednesday; so this was no different. Whenever I think about Easter in the United States I think about how crowded the church became on Sunday, full of people who I hadn’t seen in a while. And everyone on Easter Sunday was always dressed to impress in their new “Easter outfits."  Perhaps after church we would go out to eat as a family or my mother would cook a big meal and invite people over; but that was it. Sadly, my biggest Easter memory was on the Sunday before my 13^th birthday, when I was so upset that all of the stores were closed  because of Easter and I couldn’t buy a new birthday outfit.



Valencia, Spain
(Alberto Saiz/AP Photo)

Although my family was never really big on buying Easter baskets and things, I did tell the teacher about some popular Easter traditions in the states for kids, like going out on an Easter egg scavenger hunt, receiving baskets and candy from the Easter bunny, painting eggs and eating Peeps and jelly beans.

The teacher then began to tell me about Semana Santa (Holy Week) and Pascua (Easter) in Spain and after hearing about all of the Semana Santa processions and Easter traditions performed by the Spaniards, I was blown away by the information she shared and eager to experience Semana Santa in this country.

Opening Procession in Alicante

During Holy week in Spain, street processions are organized in most city towns each evening from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday. In the processions, men called costaleros carry around statues of saints on floats or wooden platforms. These men are joined by musicians and surrounded or followed by men dressed as Nazareños, people from Nazareth. The statues represent the fall and rise again of Jesus Christ. The processions on the first days are dedicated to the mourning of the death of Christ. The last day, Easter Sunday, is a day of celebration, when the people rejoice in the resurrection of Christ.

According to the information that the English teacher shared and from what I found out on my own when I researched this topic, here is a summary of what happens each day of Semana Santa:

Domingo de Ramos (Palm Sunday): Domingo de Ramos is the first day of Semana Santa. It is when most people go to church to celebrate the day when Jesus went to Jerusalem and was welcomed by people laying palm leaves on the ground in front of him. When people go to church on this day they carry a palm branch (ramo means branch) with them and the palm branch is blessed by the priest. Boys carry a plain branch and girls carry decorated branches.

This is also the day in which the processions begin and the costaleros carry around the floats, or pasos, of Jesus and the Virgin Mary.

Fortunately, I was in Alicante during the first day of Holy Week, Palm Sunday. As my friend and I were walking along the explanada  we came across one of the first processions of the day. I was immediately drawn to the men wearing costumes reminiscent of the uniforms that the Ku Klux Klan members in America wore. I knew however, that these costumes were not derogatory by any means (I remembered a scene in the Da Vinci Code movie where Professor Robert Langdon talked about them). During this procession, a group of men walked around slowly carrying a float on their shoulders containing a statue of the Virgin Mary (Watch the video).

Lunes Santo-Jueves Santo (Holy Monday-Thursday): throughout the entire week processions are held in the evenings in the town centers. There is a different theme each day and the Nazareños wear different colors based on that theme. On Holy Thursday, all of the church bells are tied together so that they remain silent. They don’t ring again until Easter Sunday. This silence is done to remember the suffering and death of Jesus Christ.

Madrid, Spain
 (Dani Pozo/AFP/Getty Images)

La Madrugá: This is the series of processions that begin on Thursday night and run all through the night until the next morning. This is one of the most popular nights of Semana Santa. Most people aren’t able to watch all of the processions of this day because of its duration.

Viernes Santo (Good Friday): On Friday, the Nazareños are dressed in all black. Also, the people do not eat meat, so the dishes on this day are made with fish and vegetables.

Zamora, Spain
(Daniel Ochoa de Olza/AP Photo)

Domingo de la Resurrección (Sunday of the Resurrection/Easter Sunday): This is the happiest day of the week. On this day, Easter Sunday, the hoods that have been worn throughout the entire week are taken off to celebrate the resurrection of Christ and the costumes are white.  One of the processions this day is called “Cristo de la Fe y del Perdón” (Christ of faith and forgiveness). I was told by the English teacher that the city performs an act of forgiveness by selecting one incarcerated person who doesn’t have a long jail sentence left and releasing him or her early. The procession on this day begins in the morning and finishes at the church in the center of the town. After the procession is over, many Spaniards go out into the streets to celebrate with beer and wine.

Lunes de Pasqua (Easter Monday): This is also one of the biggest days of the week. On this day, families go to the beach, park or other open area and have picnics. This is when most of the families eat the mona de pascua (which I talk about here) and also indulge in other typical Easter foods, like hornazos (a pie filled with pork, eggs and ham), cordero (lamb), paella, pestiños and torrijas. All businesses on this day, as well as on Friday and Sunday, are closed.

Cordoba, Spain
(Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images)

Although all Spanish towns and cities have these processions during Semana Santa, the most popular Semana Santa celebrations take place in the region of Andalucía Spain, particularly in Seville, and people from all over Spain and the world go there to participate in the celebrations.  

Although I am not Catholic, I am extremely moved by the dedication that the Spaniards show during Semana Santa. The costaleros carry around heavy floats on their shoulders for hours at a time. In preparation for the Holy Week processions, they practice carrying the floats around months in advance so that their rhythm and speed is perfect for the processions. Although it’s more common for men to participate, many women and children also participate, which I’m sure is quite exhausting to them as well. The participants are very much devoted to their chores and the audience, for the most part, is very serious and reflective during the processions. To me, this is very admirable.

I must admit that it's also refreshing to see more of a religious side to Spaniards. Most of the Spaniards that I have come in contact with are religious; however they have openly admitted to me that they don’t practice their religion. I also believe that tradition plays a huge part in these Semana Santa celebrations. Although many Spaniards (that I've met) do not go to church often, or even pray often, they still prepare for Holy Week because it is a traditional and cultural norm; it’s something that they always did. Whether the reason is traditional or religious, one thing is for sure: Semana Santa is such a big part of Spanish culture and when I go back to the states, I will never look at Holy Week, or Easter, the same way.

Easter Break

As I mentioned before, I am now on Easter Break, which I suppose is Spain’s version of an American Spring Break. The only difference is that Spaniards celebrate Holy Week and Easter a lot bigger than we do in the states, so most people have more days off of work for the Easter holiday. The children and staff at my school don’t have to return until the 17^th of April!

Some of my friends are taking amazing trips across Europe for Easter, but because of a lack of planning, the need to get a lot of things done and the desire to stop spending so much money, I’m planning to fill this break with a lot of productive work as well as a couple of fun day trips.

I haven’t completely ruled out travelling in Europe, I might still join my friends on their trip to Munich, but I’m so tired of looking at flights online that I just completely gave up my search. There are still some places that I absolutely want to see in Europe before I return to the states (London, Rome, Berlin/Munich, Lisbon and Athens) but I still have some time to see these places. For me, the most important thing is to plan my trips to these places now, while I can still get good deals on flights and accommodations.

Anyway, there is a lot of work that I need to do that I have been saving especially for this break. The most important thing is revising my resume and applying for jobs/programs in the states. I return home in less than 3 months and I would really like to have a job already lined up for when I get back. I am very much an organized person and this is the first time in my life that I don’t know exactly what’s next in my life, which kind of frightens me. I do plan to study for the MCAT when I return and apply to medical school next year, but I would like to also be doing something productive (and making money) while I am doing this. I would love to find a job doing something medical-related, language-related or related to education.

Another important thing that I plan to do on my break is to plan my sister’s bridal shower and bachelorette party. She is getting married in less than 4 months and although her bridesmaids and I have a lot of ideas, I really need to start thoroughly planning everything. Hopefully this will be a more fun job to work on.

In addition, I still plan to find some Equatorial Guinean literature and do some research. This may be a little tricky because I’m not able to find a lot of literature on this African country in Jávea. Maybe I can take a short trip to Madrid or Valencia and find something. Even If I don’t carry out this research as I planned in the beginning, I would at least like to bring back some literature with me to the states, because it is very hard to find there.

If I don’t make an international or domestic trip (I really want to see Andalucía) during my break I plan to explore the Costa Blanca a bit. I may possibly take a few day trips to neighboring towns, like Dénia, Altea, Gandia, Benidorm, and Ondara. I also really want to visit the Zoo in Valencia, so I may do that.

If there is one thing to be sure of, it’s that through all of the productive work I plan to do and trips that I plan to make during my break, I definitely shouldn't be bored!

Festa de Pasqua

Today was a very lovely day in the colegio. It was the day that the school celebrated Easter (or Pasqua in valenciano) and it was also the last day of school until the 17^th of April. I have been looking forward to this day because I am in desperate need of a vacation. This week in school, we did a whole lot of nothing. As we do before most holidays, the children mostly colored Easter pictures and did word searches and things. I did, however, make a presentation about my trip to Paris and I presented it to my 5^th and 6^th graders this week. That was about the only productive thing that occurred.

Apparently, on the day before Easter break, most schools in Spain spend the day at a beach or park outside of school. I’ve heard that a lot of schools didn’t do it this year, because of the financial crisis in Spain, but fortunately our school did. At the beginning of the week the teachers and administrators were very nervous because it was supposed to be raining and thunder storming all week, and although it was cloudy this morning, it didn’t look like it was going to rain immediately so we decided to go to the park.

The park was a little far from our school so we took about 4 buses there. One by one, each grade level loaded onto the buses. Even infantil came along, wearing their hats and colored handkerchiefs so that they would be easy to identify.

My Mona de Pasqua

Once we got to the park the children were free to run around and play. There were, however, designated areas to play in for each grade level and the infantil classes played inside of a fenced area of the park.  I watched along with some of the other teachers as the 4^th and 5^th graders attempted to climb the monkey bars. Eventually, some of the children persuaded a couple of the teachers to give it a try. So some of the teachers tried it, and they weren’t very successful. For about an hour and a half the children played. Then, a couple of the parents came to bring the Easter monas for everyone to eat.

An Easter mona (or mona de Pasqua) is a traditional Easter treat mostly eaten in the Catalonia and Valencia regions of Spain symbolizing the end of Lent. The typical mona is a round or doughnut-shaped treat made with eggs, flour and sugar with one or more hardboiled eggs embedded in the surface. The egg in the mona symbolizes the resurrection of Christ. Traditionally godparents (padrinos) make or buy the monas and give them to their godchildren (ahijados) on Easter Monday and they eat them during family picnics. Also, according to old tradition, people normally crack the boiled eggs of the mona over someone else’s forehead. Although the traditional monas still exist, nowadays, many monas come with chocolate eggs to eat instead of the real hard boiled eggs and sometimes there is a small treat in the middle of the chocolate eggs.

After we gave the children their monas, we then set the table for the teachers to have their “breakfast.” This was basically a small traditional Spanish feast that we have had many times before at the school. We set the table with potato chips, nuts, chorizo (Spanish sausage), mussels, olives, mini pizzas and other stuffed pastries and we also had different carbonated beverages, water and beer. Normally when I am at a Spanish table setting like this, I am usually trying to figure out what the heck is in each item so that I can avoid the seafood. Spanish people really love anchovies and tuna and these things are always in a lot of the items that they cook. There were two types of pizzas, one had different vegetables on it, and the other one was decorated with anchovies. There were also different types of pastries, one was stuffed with spinach, one had tuna and some other stuff in it, and I didn’t bother to ask what was in the last kind.  The teachers ate, drank, and socialized at a table in the middle of the park while watching the children. I mostly ate a lot of nuts and chips and had a vegetable pizza and a spinach pastry and I was very full at the end.

After eating, there were plenty of monas left so we each had one. It was my first time having a mona and to me it tasted like a donut. The funny thing about the monas that we had was that they were decorated with Disney’s High School Musical theme and when you opened up the chocolate egg, there were High School Musical stickers inside. Apparently that movie is still very popular in Spain.

When it was 12:00pm (we stayed at the park for 3 hours) we packed up all of the things, lined up the kids, got on the buses and headed back to school. We got back to school just in time for lunch so I went home, as well as some of the other children and teachers, and returned to school at 3:00pm.

The teachers originally planned to spend the afternoon having game sessions outside with the kids, but because it had just started to sprinkle, the games were cancelled. Therefore, most of the children just watched movies in their classrooms or played board games for the hour and a half that we were at school. The infantil English teacher and I had been planning an Easter egg hunt for the 4 and 5-year-olds to do that afternoon with their homemade Easter baskets that they made in class. We decided that we were still going to do it since it was only sprinkling.

I would barely call this an Easter egg hunt; it was more of a “Pick up the chocolate” game. The teacher had a small bag of chocolate and we just dropped the chocolate on the ground. We didn’t want the “hunt” to take too long because of the rain so we didn’t bother hiding the chocolates. We took each class outside one by one and told them to pick up only two chocolates. We also said that once everyone had two chocolates then they could go back and pick up more.  Because we are their English teachers we gave them the instructions in English. The classroom teacher then asked one of the 4-year-olds what we said to them and the student repeated everything in valenciano. The teacher was amazed at how easily the 4-year-old understood what we said in English. She didn’t even understand it.

Because the children are so competitive, they immediately ran to pick up the chocolates and placed them in their Easter baskets. They were so excited about it and I must admit that it was the cutest sight ever! Although there wasn’t much chocolate, both classes got their candies and happily went back to their rooms. Later the English teacher told me that she would have bought more chocolate but she wasn’t sure how much she could buy because of the tight school budget.

Eventually, 4:30pm came around and as soon as the music started playing I gave everyone a Spanish kiss and said goodbye. Everyone asked me if I was going back to the United States for Easter break. I told them that I wasn’t going back to the states but that I also wasn’t yet sure what I was going to do. I then went home and studied a little for my valenciano class. As soon as my roommate came home from school she cleaned her room, packed her bags, and told me that she would see me on the 17^thof April.

Later that day, I went to my valenciano class, came home and had a glass of wine to celebrate.

My Easter Break has finally begun!

¿Vas A Viajar Sola? Oh Noooooooo!: Travelling Alone

Last week I was having a conversation with a couple of the teachers at my school. I was telling them about all of the places that I still planned to visit in Europe before I return to the states. One of those places was London.

One of the teachers had studied in London before so she began to talk about all of the things to see and do there. I told her that I believed London to be one of those European cities that you just had to visit just because. After talking about the city for a while, one of the teachers then asked, “¿pero si vas a Londres, con quien vas? (If you go to London, who will you go with?). That’s when I shamefully admitted that I would go “sola” (alone). I then told the teachers that although I had friends to travel with, most of my friends are in Europe for the second time now, and that they have either already been to London and wanted to spend their time exploring other European destinations or that they just didn’t have the desire to go there. Besides, London would be one of those cities that I wouldn’t mind going to by myself, because I speak and understand the language (almost) perfectly.

After telling them that I would probably go “sola” they immediately gave me a look of shame. ¿Pero, por qué ir sola? They asked. (But why go alone?). That’s when I told them that I was not going to not go to London just because I didn’t have anyone to go with. One of the teachers told me that she would never want to travel alone, and the other one agreed. That’s when both of the teachers told me that if I found some cheap tickets and went to London for a weekend then they would join me. They said that they would both love to go. At first I was thrilled at this idea; I thought that a trip to London between us three would be very fun. Then, as I was about to leave school that day one of the teachers reminded me to look at tickets when I got home. I said that I definitely would. She then said that if I find tickets she will definitely go, and so will her boyfriend. “What a minute,” I said, “And if the other teacher goes, will her fiancé come as well?” She said, “Yes, I’m sure he will.” That’s when I looked at her with a “seriously?” expression on my face. Then she said, “Who would you rather go with, the four of us, or alone?” Well... The first thing that came to my mind was that I would much rather go alone instead of being the fifth wheel, but I just smiled instead.

The truth is, it really isn’t that uncommon for people like me to travel alone. And now that I have made so many trips since I’ve been to Spain, I not only feel comfortable enough to travel alone, but I have also realized that when you do travel alone you can have such a wonderful experience and meet so many cool people from all over the world.

Hostel in Madrid

In my opinion, one of the best things about Europe, besides all of the wonderful cities you can visit, is that it is fairly cheap to travel and there are so many great types of accommodations available, like hostels for example. A hostel is an establishment that provides cheap accommodations for young travelers. The typical hostel has shared living quarters. There are normally a bunch of rooms with several bunk beds, and a traveler can choose between whether they would like to stay in a mixed or same-sex room and they can also choose between the numbers of beds they want in each room. Of course the price of staying in each room varies; a person staying in a 14-bed room would be paying a lot less than someone staying in a 4-bed room or a private room. In the hostels there are normally community bathrooms, a kitchen area, a living-room area, sometimes a computer lounge, and lockers for you to store your things in. A one-night’s stay at a typical hostel normally costs between 10-20 Euros, of course this price varies depending on the country you are in and the room that you choose.  Nevertheless, this definitely beats hotel prices, which are ridiculously high in Europe.

I would lie if I said that I absolutely loved hostels, because I am a bit germaphobic and I don’t necessarily love sharing living quarters with people that I don’t know. However, I have had great experiences staying at hostels in Europe. I have stayed at hostels during my stays in Madrid, Barcelona and Granada and I have nothing negative to say about them.



Hostel in Barcelona

I stayed at a hostel alone in Madrid for about 5 days during my first week in Spain and I had a great time. The hostel that I stayed in was very clean, tranquil, and I met a lot of really cool people that I went out with during the day and at night. Actually, going out in Madrid with people that I had met in the hostel was one of the best nights out that I’ve had since living in Spain! When I stayed in Barcelona, I was with friends, and we were normally only at the hostel at night but that hostel was also clean, the staff was very friendly, and we met a few people. One of the best times that I had staying in a hostel was in Granada, because the hostel that we stayed at was really neat and it had a family-like environment. The first night that my friend and I stayed there, we had a huge paella dinner cooked by one of the staff members and we sat around a big table in a “tree-house” and talked with different people from England, Australia, Italy, Brazil, Germany and other places around the world. We also played games and we hung out outside of the hostel with two of the girls that entire weekend.

I would definitely encourage any young person travelling to Europe to stay at hostels. Hostels are designed to make people feel comfortable and introduce them to the city. For example, most hostels provide free-guided tours and many also provide discounted tickets to shows, museums and bars and clubs. In Madrid, I went on a great tour of the city that was conducted by one of the hostel workers, and I also did a pub-crawl at night. In Granada, we also went on a tour of the city and we got discounted tickets (and our own reserved table) to a Flamenco show. These events were a great part of my trips to these places.



Hostel in Granada

Europe is a place for travelers, both young and old. And almost every big city that you stay in has a great number of different types of hostels. Some great websites to use to find hostels throughout Europe is www.hostelbookers.com and www.hostelworld.com. On these sites, you can see the overall rating of the hostel, check out reviews from people that have stayed at these places, look at pictures of the hostel and look at their location in relation to other places in the city. Also, you can see whether or not the hostel provides other services, like a free continental breakfast (most of them do), WIFI, or guided tours. I have used these sites to book every hostel that I’ve stayed in.

For someone who would like to have a more authentic experience staying in a foreign city, they should check out the website www.couchsurfing.org  and register.  Couchsurfing is where people agree to lend their couch (or extra bed) to someone travelling to their city. When I first got to Spain, I wasn’t too keen to this idea. To think that someone would feel comfortable staying at a stranger’s house really scared me. But the people on Couchsurfing have to be certified, and they also each have profiles and reviews from people who have stayed with them or from people who they have stayed with. And a person wishing to stay on their couch should not only check their reviews, but they have to also have good reviews as well.  I know a lot of Fulbrighters who use couch surfing and really love it. One guy in particular has said so many great things about all of the people he has met through Couchsurfing, and he’s talked about the great experiences he has had.

If you are still not comfortable with staying with someone you don’t know, as am I, you can still use Couchsurfing for a variety of other things. For example, if you see that someone is coming to or lives in your city you can meet with them to chat or have a cup of coffee. You can also use Couchsurfing to organize language exchanges. I think that it’s a great website and I would definitely use it to meet up with people.

So the point that I am trying to make through this conversation about hostels and Couchsurfing is that travelling alone doesn’t have to be as scary as it sounds. Whenever I mention the idea of travelling alone to my dad he immediately thinks about the movie Taken, which he has seen more times than I can count with twenty fingers. In this movie, in case you aren’t familiar with it, a young girl (about 16 years old, maybe younger) travels to Paris with one of her friends, with the intent on backpacking throughout Europe and following a band around. When the girls finally arrive to Paris, they are greeted in the parking lot by a “hot” French guy talks to them and invites them to a party. They tell the guy where they are living and also mention that they will be alone. Later that day, the guy, along with other men, abduct the girls, drug them and traffic them. The girl’s father, a former CIA operative, then travels to Europe to find his daughter.

As much as I try to convince my dad that this will most likely not happen to me because I actually have a brain and I am very conscious of the things that goes on around me and the things that I say to people, the idea of me travelling (even with other people) absolutely scares him. He didn’t want me to go to Costa Rica (I went), he didn’t want me to go to the Dominican Republic (I went) and he really didn’t want me to come to Spain (and here I am). The truth is, I totally understand his thinking. Today the world is more dangerous than ever and things are happening to people every day, and every second of the day. But whatever I do, I always keep my family in mind and I would never do anything so reckless like walking around by myself at night in a foreign city, tell everyone that I meet that I am travelling alone or even travel without having some type of weapon on me. This might seem a bit dramatic but I always carry either pepper spray or anything that I can use as a weapon around with me in Spain and I am always conscious of my surroundings. I would never travel to a city without doing extensive research about the place and the area that I will be staying in and without looking at any recent news stories.

As far as the Spanish teachers are concerned, I think that it is a cultural norm for Spaniards to be so dependent on people, and I don’t mean this in a bad way at all. One thing about the United States is that people are a lot more independent. Americans are always travelling and moving away from their families, and that is just a normal thing to do in the States. In Spain and many Latin American countries; however, a lot of people don’t move out of their parents’ houses until they are married, and people typically live in the cities that they are from for all of their lives. Even most of the students attend universities in their home cities. In my opinion, this idea is kind of depressing, but to Spaniards and people from other cultures, this is what makes them happy. Take my roommates and other teachers at my school for example; they go back to their towns EVERY SINGLE WEEKEND. At first I thought that this was just because Jávea is such a boring place to live in, but I’ve soon realized that after four days of being here during the week, they really miss their families and friends.

Every week I get teachers at my school asking me if I miss my family. I normally say “yes” just because I don’t want to sound like a selfish American, and I really do miss my family, but I’m not ready to pack my bags and go home just yet. They sometimes look at me like they don’t understand how I can be here for so long, and some people have even said it to me. One of the teachers told me that when she had studied in London she missed her family so much, and she couldn’t have imagined being there any longer than she was. I asked her how long she was there and she told me "one month."

Because of this dependence that most Spaniards have I wouldn’t expect them to want to travel alone or understand why I’m more okay with it. But I am American. I have a more independent mindset and, because I am so far away from home, I am more inclined to want to meet and socialize with people from many other different cultures. And because of this, I feel more comfortable doing things by myself.

To cut a long story short, travelling alone has a bad rep because of movies, different cultural norms and naive people making bad decisions, but I think that travelling alone can be such a great experience. The five days that I spent alone in Madrid was wonderful for me. I went to different museums, cinemas, explored the city, and I could wake up whenever I wanted to or I could spend as much time as I wanted to spend doing things. I also met such cool people from different places throughout the world who were young, adventurous and intelligent like me. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love travelling with other people, but I don’t believe in missing out on such great opportunities to travel within Europe just because I have to go “sola.”

After all, I moved to Spain “sola,” I had to get settled in Spain “sola” and I practically live in Jávea “sola,” so travelling “sola” is basically what I’ve already been doing.

Game Night

First let me say that the title of this post is a little misleading since it was more like a game hour than it was a game night; but nonetheless a game was involved.

Wednesday was my roommate’s birthday (just two days after mine).  For her birthday, we didn’t really do much as a whole, but her mother and boyfriend did come to Jávea to celebrate with her. Apparently her mom came to take her out to lunch and her boyfriend came to take her out to dinner. It was my first time meeting her mom, but I had seen her boyfriend several times.

When I got home from my valenciano class I met her mom and I sat down and talked and watched TV with them for a while. My other roommate was in the room also working on her computer. After talking for a while, her boyfriend showed up (he surprised her) and my roommate thought that it would be fun for us to play a game called Callejeros Viajeros. I actually forgot that we had the game here. It has been sitting on a shelf in the living room collecting dust ever since my roommate bought it.  My roommate and I did play the game once, but about an hour after playing, both of us realized that we weren’t going to win anytime soon so we just stopped and went to bed.

Anyway, although it is a little difficult, I really like Callejeros Viajeros. This game is based solely on your knowledge of the world. Each person has a card with 5 different cities on it from all around the world. When it’s a person’s turn, he or she rolls the dice and moves his or her game piece to that number of spaces on the board. Then another player picks up a game card with 3 questions on it about a city and reads the questions for that player. If the player lands on one of the cities on their cards then they have to answer the 3 questions (correctly) about their city, and if they answer the questions correctly then they get to “take” that city. If the person lands on another space, they have to answer the questions about any other city, and if they answer correctly then they can go again. The objective of the game is to conquer each of the cities on your list, which means that you have to be able to answer all 3 questions correctly about each of your cities.

In theory, this game sounds feasible, but the truth is, you have to have a good knowledge of geography and history to play the game. Some of the questions are easy, such as “Qué colores tiene la bandera de Francia?” (What are the colors of France’s flag?) Whereas other questions are a bit more difficult like, “Cómo se llama la torre más alta del mundo construida en Dubai?” (What is the name of the tallest tower in the constructed world in Dubai?) I believe that this game would be a lot easier to someone who has travelled the world a bit more. I was actually impressed by the number of Paris questions that I could answer, and this is largely due to the fact that I just visited Paris and learned so much about the different places there. When my roommate and I first played this game, we had to Google search some of the cities just to see where in the world they were located. One thing about this game that’s for sure is that you are definitely learning a lot while you are playing it.

Another reason why I like this game is because, even though everything is in Spanish, I can still understand it and I feel like everyone has an equal chance of winning. I couldn’t imagine playing a game like Taboo (my favorite game) with my roommates. I’m not sure that my Spanish vocabulary is profound enough or that I can think quickly enough in Spanish for me to be very successful at that game.  

I played Callejeros Viajeros with my roommate and her mom and boyfriend (my other roommate went swimming) and they were having side conversations in valenciano almost the whole time (and I could understand everything!) We played for about an hour and a half and then finally we stopped playing because we realized that no one was going to win anytime soon (no one had even conquered one city!). But I still had a very good time playing and talking with them.

Earlier that day one of my roommates mentioned something that was so true. She said that the whole atmosphere in the piso had changed because we never do anything exciting. She mentioned that all we ever do in the piso is sleep, eat and watch TV. I could definitely agree with this statement. Although I mostly do a lot of writing and other work inside of my room, when I am in the living room with my roommates that is all we ever do. Although we enjoy each other’s company it is still nice to have guests once in a while. Hopefully, we will have more guests and more game nights in the future.

Someone, Anyone… Please come visit me in Jávea!

The Big 23

This weekend I celebrated my birthday...the first birthday that I’ve ever celebrated away from my family and certainly the first birthday that I’ve celebrated in a foreign country. For about a month now, I’ve been thinking about what I wanted to do for my birthday. I considered travelling to another country like Malta or Portugal (the tickets were really cheap) and then I thought about the fact that it would be just as great if I celebrated my birthday in Spain, or even better.

At the beginning of last week I spoke to my friends in Alicante and asked them what they were doing on the weekend. I told them that it was my birthday weekend and that I really didn’t want to be alone or in Jávea and they told me that they would love for me to come there. One of my friends even asked me what I wanted her to cook me for my birthday dinner. I definitely wasn't expecting that but I was so excited!

Someone Really Likes Gelato

Early Saturday afternoon I took a bus to Alicante and got in at around 3:30pm. After arriving I immediately went to my friend’s piso and chatted with her for a while. She told me that she had baked a chocolate cake for my dinner that night and that they were also going to make me fried chicken, mashed potatoes, salad, and garlic bread. They had also invited some of their friends to partake in the festivities. Since we still had a lot of time until dinner, we then decided to walk around outside. So we met my other friend and then decided to get some gelato. I absolutely love the gelato shop in Alicante, the gelato is so good! While eating our gelato we went to a small garden outside of a cathedral that was so beautiful and smelled of fresh jasmine flowers and so we sat and ate our gelato there. After that, we went to the beach and walked around the sand for a while and then we went to a coffee shop that had great international coffee. We had a cup of coffee and enjoyed the weather that day.

Dinner

Later, we went to my other friend’s piso and they began to cook.  They wanted me to be involved in the cooking as little as possible, but I did chop up some carrots for the salad because I wanted to do something. Eventually, my other friend came to help cook and the four of us in the kitchen reminded me of the Thanksgiving that we had there, when we had no idea how to work most of the stuff in the kitchen but we still had a lot of fun. While the dinner was cooking, we sipped on some wine. One of my friend’s French roommates and her boyfriend were staying for the dinner so I talked to them while they kept pouring me more wine while saying, “es tu cumpleaños” (It’s your birthday)!

When the dinner was ready (it didn’t take long at all) we all dove in. there were about 8 of us in all, my three American friends, one of the girl’s Italian friends, another one of the girls German and French roommates, and the French roommate’s Peruvian boyfriend. It was such a great mix of people and we all had a really good time. The food was so delicious and all that I could have asked for.  After eating, drinking and chatting for a while, my friends brought out a chocolate cake topped with strawberries and mandarins and filled with lit candles. Everyone sang happy birthday to me (I can’t remember whether it was in English or Spanish) and I made my wish and blew out the candles… or at least I thought that I did. It turns out that my friend had bought trick candles, so I needed a lot of help blowing them out.  I cut the cake and it was so moist, chocolaty and delicious! I am now a huge fan of my friend’s chocolate cake.

Birthday Cake

After hours of eating, drinking, chatting and attempting to tidy up, some of us then began to get ready to go out. I normally have mixed feelings about going out. I’ve never been much of a going out person but since I’ve been to Spain (and because I’ve been living in boring Jávea) I have had much more of a desire to go out at night. I was especially anxious to go out on Saturday night because I was celebrating my birthday. Unfortunately, some of my good friends didn’t go, one was very tired and the other had an allergic reaction to the wine. But I did go out with one of my friends, her Italian friend and we met up with one of the American guys living in Alicante.

We went out close to 2:00 that night (which is a normal Spanish going out time) and we returned at almost 7:00am. We bar hopped, met different people, danced and I had the time of my life.  I am also very happy to say that I can now check off  #32 on my Bucket List, “Party like a Spainard.”

On Sunday morning I woke up a little late (but surprisingly early considering the night I had), got dressed, and walked around the beach area with my friend.  The weather was also beautiful that day so we sat down and enjoyed the ambience. We had planned to meet my other friends for lunch at an Indian restaurant that they wouldn’t stop talking about so we met up at about 3:00pm and began to eat. I love Indian food so I was so excited to try it out and the food was great. I had some kind of rice and onion dish for my first plate, curry chicken and rice for my second plate, and also some Indian bread. At the end of the meal, the waitress brought us out some homemade mango ice-cream that was so good, and I also had coffee. I definitely understood all of the fuss that my friends were making,

Alicante Beach

I had to hurry up and grab my bags from my friend’s piso when we finished because I had a bus to catch and I was running late. After grabbing my bags they walked with me to the bus station and once we got there I realized that It was too late to buy my ticket and so I missed that bus(my second time missing a bus in Alicante). Afterwards I went back to my other friend’s piso because I then had time to get the rest of the chocolate cake from the night before, and we chatted for a while until it was time for me to head back.

I wanted to catch the earlier bus back to Jávea because I had planned to bake some brownies to take to school the next day (Apparently in Spain, everyone bakes their own dessert for their birthday and brings it to their job to share with their co-workers) and I also had to prepare a presentation for the niños. However, once I got back to Jávea it was around 9:30pm and I was tired. I talked to my family members (they wished me a happy birthday), took a shower, ate dinner and finished about half of my presentation.

My birthday in Spain was everything I hoped for and more. I never imagined that I would have such a good time and feel as special as I did. I am so grateful to have such great friends in Spain to share my experiences with (even though they live kind of far). And I am especially grateful to be able to see another year (thank you God). This was honestly one of the best birthdays that I’ve ever had, not only because I celebrated it well, but because celebrating my birthday in Spain has really made me realize how far I have come and how much I have grown as a person. Just imagining where I was ten years ago (a young girl so shy and not so confident but with big dreams) and comparing it to where I am now (a young confident women so eager to explore the world, meet new people and accomplish my goals) really puts things in perspective for me. Living abroad is not easy to do, but I am doing and I am loving it and I am so grateful for this opportunity.

Cheers…. To me turning 23!