So I guess
I’m not supposed to eat French fries with my hands here. I guess they’re not
technically French Fries… My family tells me their Papas Fritas, which are
Spanish fried potatoes. I don’t really understand because they taste and look
exactly like French fries. Anyways, I always eat them with my hands and then
finally I realized that everyone else ate them with a fork. I asked and they
told me that it was bad manners to eat them with your hands. I wish they had
told me sooner, all the Spanish people probably think I’m a barbarian.
Well I
haven’t blogged in a while. I don’t really know why. I mean I can’t exactly say
I have been busy. I guess it’s more that I haven’t had the motivation. These
past few weeks have had a lot of ups and downs with mostly downs. Be prepared
this following post is pretty long…
Lets see I
haven’t posted in about a week and a half! Since then we have traveled, had
family come, and of course had many beach days(I’m looking quite tan). We
traveled to a city called Marbella. It is one of the wealthiest cities in
Spain. Rumor has it George Clooney has a house there. Pretty much every other car
in the city was a Porch, Lamborghini or Ferrari. When we got out and walked
around we were stopping constantly so the kids could take pictures with the
cars. Not only that, the city is a huge yacht port. We got to walk around and
check out the beautiful yachts. There were tons of streets full of clothing
stores. Apparently it is one of the best places to buy shoes in all of Spain. Unfortunately
I was unable to enjoy the city to its full extent because I was in a horrible
mood (so much so I only said a few words the whole day). That day the kids were
being exceptionally mean to me. They wouldn’t talk to me and when I tried to
talk to them they would give me a dirty look or snap at me. I felt like such an
outcast as we walked up and down the streets of Marbella, the kids clung to
their parents, gave me the cold shoulder and I walked alone. I guess it just
set me off. I had been putting up with the rudeness and disrespect of the kids
for over a month. And well I was just over it. Frustrated and ready to go home
I held back tears the whole day. Fortunately I was able to get some alone time,
I bought myself some chocolate Ice cream and pulled myself together.
 |
| I wish I took this..... |
I feel like
I have a lot of those days…. The kids are good sometimes, but other days they
are just awful. I didn’t even know kids could be so mean, especially because I
am so nice to them. They also always try to tell me what to do. I respond horribly
to authority in the first place (I was never a favorite of my teachers in high
school. ), so when a twelve year old and a 6 year old try to boss me around, it
takes all the patience within me to not yell and throw things at them. Don’t
get me wrong, the kids have their good moments too, sometimes they are really
sweet. For example this morning the boys wanted to wake up early to go on my
morning jog with me (unfortunately we only ran 10 minutes before the boys were
too tired to continue).
My friend
from Poland and I have been running everyday, lately she hasn’t asked me to go,
but I still run anyways. I hate running. But then again I like to be in shape.
So everyday I run 5 kilometers and do ab workouts for around 15 minutes! I feel
proud of my self but the carb-loaded food here balances it out a little too
much.
I have come to the conclusion that there is no magic diet
that makes you loose weight. My parents are pretty set on the Paleo diet. But
in Spain everyone eats so many carbs it is ridiculous. In fact for breakfast sometimes
they have COOKIES AND MILK!! But some how everyone here is really skinny, and
they are not even as workout obsessed as American’s are! I don’t really
understand it, maybe Spanish bodies have just learned to process the food
differently? May says its because food in Spain isn’t processed and full of
extra ingredients like American food is.
In Spain it
is important you like your in-laws, because once you are married you will most
likely never get away from you family or your husband’s/ wife’s family. You
almost always live in the same city your whole life. For example, May’s three
brothers and parents all live in Cadiz, where they were born. Ignacio’s family
all lives in Cadiz as well with only one sister living 20 minutes away from the
main city. Family is very important in the Spanish culture. The other day all
of May’s family came over for lunch. All three brothers are married and each
couple has a kid. It was quite the event and I loved the family! They were so
sweet and helped me work on my Spanish a lot. Later that night they got to
talking about politics. I have seen people talk passionately about politics,
but the Spanish take it to a whole ‘notha level. Half of them were standing up
waving their hands about, and the others were yelling trying to get a word in.
All the while I was just sitting there nodding my head trying to figure out
what on earth they were talking about (every once in a while I would here
Americano and Estados Unidos). Politics
and Spanish people do not mix well.
Last Sunday
I spent my free day with the other Polish Au Pair. We went to the beach and
shopping and to a bar later that night. It was pretty fun. But it made me miss
my friends a lot. This past Sunday I went to the beach by myself all day and
later that night traveled to a nearby city with Kate (the polish girl) and had
dinner and went to some bars. It was fun, but unfortunately Kate is having a
harder time than me. She really misses her friends and family because even
though she is the same age as me, the Polish High School goes one year longer,
so she has not gone to the university yet. This is the longest she has been
away from her parents! I totally understand her, but I know I have to keep a
positive attitude to make the best of my last month here.
Talk about
a small world. I heard word of two American boys around my age living in the
same residential as me. When I finally ran into them I was shocked that one of
them was from San Luis Obispo! The other boy was Spanish and had studied for a
year at Mission High School in San Luis Obispo, which is where he met Trevor (
the American Boy) and they became best friends! Trevor was visiting David
(Spanish Boy) for a couple weeks before returning to England where some of his
extended family lives. He is a year younger than me but plans on going to the
community college (Cuesta) that is in SLO and later on Cal Poly. It was great
having two people around that were fluent in English, even though they didn’t
seem interested in taking our friendly relations past small talk by the pool.
When I finally had a night off (my first free Saturday night in a while ) I was
stoked to go to a disco, so I invited Trevor (David was working), and this is
where I had my second breaking point of the summer… It had been a hard week
with the kids and I was so excited to finally put on make up and get ready and
hangout with people my own age. I went to Trevor’s house to pick him up only to
find him sleeping because he had gotten a migraine. Not only did he fail to tell
me, but also I had gotten ready for nothing. I was feeling hopeless once again
and wishing more than anything one of my friends could be here with me.
A new
family has been here these past couple weeks. They have a teenaged daughter who
is 13 who has an Irish Exchange Student for the summer! The Irish girl(14) took
a liking to me because her host family is quiet and she doesn’t speak any
Spanish and apparently isn’t interested in learning. So on top of learning
about Polish culture and Spanish culture, I get to learn about Irish culture! I
love to hear Jessica’s impressions of America, “America is like a movie!” she
told me the other day.
Some days
are bad and some days are good. Some days I have to hold back the tears because
I am so home sick and so frustrated and I can’t call anyone because California
is sleeping. But other times I’m laughing and I’m happy. It’s a different
experience for me because generally I am always having fun. But here I just sit
and think a lot. On my bad days I don’t have friends or family to cheer me up
and vent to like I am used to. I have had to learn to cheer my self up by
finding some type of inspiration. What has my inspiration been? Making everyone
back in Cali proud, and making my self proud. On the bad days I just envision
myself stepping out of the airport and seeing my parents. And realizing how
proud of my self I will be because I did it. In a month from now I will have
become fluent in another language, developed myself as a person, hopefully have
gotten my dream body. I call this the
1 ½ month slump. I am
almost out of it, and when I am I know I will be able to greatly enjoy my last
month here!
It’s been hard lately, but I am going to try to keep having
a positive attitude because I know I am so blessed to be able to have this
oppurtunity! Keep me in your prayers please!
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