Post full of Photos

Posted on October 30, 2012 by ldenslow12

Hola! What an end of a week! Friday is my busy day at work – 5 classes in a row. I spent those 5 hours speaking about Halloween traditions in the USA: costumes, trick-or-treating, candy, and jack-o-lanterns. Safe to say, the kids enjoyed it a ton! After explaining that I brought a costume to Spain from home, it was pretty clear to the students that Halloween is a big-freaking-deal! 🙂

Other than that, I don’t have much monumental news. I went out Friday and Saturday with my lovely new roommates, Johanna from Colombia and Ursula from Peru. Both nights we ended up at this swanky-ish place with much dancing. Saturday night we didn’t get home until 4! And yes, I was the one who suggested we head back… sleepy-head Lauren! We haven’t all moved into the new place yet (oh, SWEET! they’re replacing the elevator in our building!) but I’m planning to get my things there by tomorrow. 5 flights of stairs, whattup! Pics will come soon 🙂

To make this an actual post, I’m adding a good amount of pictures. Love you all tons!

View from Playa Club (definitely bringing my parents to eat here)

Morning sky in Plaza Pontevedra

Johanna y yo

JuanPi, Johanna, Ursula and I

Monday clouds at the beach

Tower of Hercules in the distance

Me, Ulrike and Anne (last weekend) !

Hola, ¿que tal?

Posted on October 22, 2012 by ldenslow12

First week: accomplished. Yes, there were some semi-severe bumps along the way – but I’m alive and well here in this lovely town of Coruña, figuring “it” out more everyday. I’ve come to find out that my school is excellent; the students, at least half the time, are charming. On Friday I received gifts from three classes, which were adorable hand drawn cards welcoming me to their school. Precious! Also, the other teachers are always willing to lend a hand, to help me find the classroom I’m looking for, and the music teacher Susi has invited me to come stay the weekend with her and her family in a pueblo nearby. Sweet! (I’ve posted a picture of the report on Seattle here, just look how damn cute it is.)

Let’s see what’s next… first real weekend here! Well, I participated in 9 holes of Pub Golf, wherein a group of 15 or so of us went to 9 different bars and had a drink at each, counting our total sips as golf strokes. On this night I met a ton of other american auxiliares teaching here, saw all the cool bars in town, had an amazing mojito, and… managed to get my iPhone stolen. Needless to say I’m a little bummed about that last part, but in the grand scheme of things I’d still say that life RULES. I live in Spain, my job is awesome, my roommate is the coolest, and I’ve got friends all around Europe that I plan to visit. Perspective: boom!

That last photo is me and my new pal Anne. We are currently roommates but longterm friends. 🙂 It’s been super nice to find somebody whom I click with, especially here in a faraway country. Anne was my compañera the first night I went out to the bars in A Coruña, and we spent the whole walk talking about Sex and the City (bottle of wine in hand). Woohoo! (She’s Carrie – I’m Charlotte.) Also Anne is from Germany so I’ll visit her when she finishes her semester here in February.

Another note: despite what everyone might say and think, being a vegetarian in Spain has been relatively easy for me. Normally I eat at home, which is the biggest help for both my dietary restrictions and my budget, but when I do go out I simply ask the waiter what on the menu is vegetariana. This is good! I am happy! I’ve only slipped once: on that first Friday I arrived in town I ordered a potato salad which happened to have tuna in it. Luckily, I was so tired and desperate that I just let it slide. But now, after a week with a kitchen, I’ve decided to try my hand at one (not necessarily beloved, but still good) Spanish dish. I whipped up some sofrito (kinda like a Spanish marinera sauce) today, and let me just say – IT’S SUPER GOOD. The recipe is here: Sofrito Recipe. Also, if you are interested in making sofrito, make sure to add like 10 large cloves of garlic. The recipe only calls for 2 but trust me on this one, more garlic = more better.

Work again tomorrow! I almost feel comfortable standing in front of a class… maybe by the end of this week it’ll be just about natural. 🙂 If not, I always have my new pink skinny jeans to give me confidence (photos to follow!).

First Day!

Posted on October 15, 2012 by ldenslow12

Yay! It’s pretty here. And I went to work today. First class – pretty bad, chatty, etc. Second class – perfect angels, all speaking in English, telling me all the facts about Seattle that they had researched the week before. Precious! One kid even gave me a 5 page report on Seattle, with an adorable title page w/a picture of the Space Needle. After class, the bilingual coordinator Pilar brought me to her apartment where we enjoyed a perfect lunch of pisto (vegetable sautée), couscous and huevo frito. Excellent meal! I was SO HUNGRY by that point, which was precisely 3:30pm, which means I definitely need to bring snacks to school. Lesson learned; game plan acquired.

Also, I found an apartment! Today I went out with Ivan and his gf (piso masters here in A Coruña) alongside 2 girls getting their masters at the university. After going around town for legitimately hours, we had seen enough of the crappy apartments this town has to offer. Then, when all hope was almost lost, Ivan brought us to the centro part of town. ‘Perfect!’ I thought, ‘I just want to be close to the beach!’ As we ascended the stairs, I was hella nervous that this one would be grody too, BUT NO! It was gorgeous. 3 bedrooms, 2 bath, super cute/old-ish place with tons of character. In other words: a home. 🙂 I’ll post pictures soon!

And check out that panoramic shot! 🙂

I made it!

Posted on October 13, 2012 by ldenslow12

Remember last time when I posted a Google image of this beach? NOW IT’S REAL – I TOOK THIS.

And guess what? My flights were AWESOME. All four of them. I woke up at 3:30am, and arrived to A Coruña at about 5pm the next day. But on my last flight from Madrid, I accidentally found myself in Business Elite! “Woo hoo” I was thinking, until the next thing I knew we were preparing for landing and I had drool on my neck pillow. Lauren: game over sleep.

I was greeted at the airport by Andrés, a math teacher at my high school. We took a turn throughout the city, and found out yes indeed my school is mere paces away from the beach. Score! After some food I went to my hostel (own room/bathroom, double score) and slept intermittently for 15 hours.

Today a truly lovely police car woke me up at 10:30am, which was handy since I was being picked up to go hiking at 11. Whew! Andrés brought me to meet a few of his friends and their kids, then we drove to las Fragas do Eume, a national park on the Eume river. It was seriously gorgeous. And, after 2 days of sitting on an airplane, and conversely sleeping for eternity, it was a perfect opportunity to walk outside and see la naturaleza. Plus, I was questioned, accosted, told many a story, and generally entertained by 4 boys between the ages of 7-10. Jorge, Carlos, Manuel, and Andrés menor taught me a lot. Most importantly, how to say slug: babosa! At the top of the trek was the Monasterio de Caaveiro, an old, old monastery. Here we feasted on a highly deserved meal of tortilla de patata sandwiches, mandarin oranges from Valencia, and brownies. Delicioso!

Needless to say I’m having a beyond excellent time. On Monday, work begins! I’m ready!

🙂

Ready, Set, WOAH.

Posted on October 10, 2012 by ldenslow12

Kisses from my Duke! He can’t afford to lose a warm lap to cuddle up on, hope he’ll be alright :)Tomorrow! Tomorrow! I leave and I can’t even stand how cool that is. I arrive into town about 5 pm, which means after my siesta-of-the-year I’ll bounce back and attempt to go out and see the world (city)!!