Reflections

Since I've been back home it feels like my 5 weeks in Spain didn't even happen. I can adjust so easily back to my little old life in Sleaford.


My last week of au pairing was very much like the rest of the weeks except I got nearly 2 days off to myself because the family had to go back to Barcelona because Berta was having an operation. They said I could come but I thought it was a family matter and I'd probably just get in the way. It was weird being on my own but I liked it. I went to the pool and the beach, subsequently got a little burned, and generally just lazed around.

On Friday (my last day) I thought the girls would be extra good and do everything I asked them. They didn't. Homework is always the hardest thing to get them to do, I think it's because they have a big group of friends who spend their summers here every year and not all of them have to do homework. I'm 'torturing' them with 2 hours of homework while their friends are allowed to do as they please. As a result they try to tell me I'm wrong when I tell them they still have half an hour to go, they insist they've already done an hour and a half...I don't think so. I can tell the time. That said I'm sure it's something I would've done as a child too.

In the evening we had a nice meal, mussels, navajas and some fish. They even made me a cake which was nice. They gave me a present too, a necklace. However this managed to cause an argument too, Berta began to walk in with the bag which Elna clearly wanted to give me so she went off shouting and screaming. 5 minutes later after some telling off from the parents they came in each holding a handle each. It was a lovely thing for them to get me a present and I wasn't expecting it. The girls were so anxious to go and play with their friends after dinner, I don't think they were bothered about spending my last night together.

On Saturday morning I was all packed and ready, I gave them a card and we spoke about what I had gained from the experience. Well, I have learnt a lot about the Spanish. Food is everything, education is important, they don't like the English monarchy*, many conversations are passionate, in-depth and extremely in your face, oh and they don't like pale people. Their general demeanor is in your face, I feel. I don't necessarily mean it in a negative way, that is how they are, it's part of their character. It's just very different to English people who the Spanish often describe as cold.

*Now, in relation to the monarchy comment I have a lot to say. To begin, I was happily waiting for the news bulletin about the birth of the Royal baby. I first saw the headlines 'JORGE ALEJANDRO LUIS' (George Alexander Louis). It really annoyed me that they translated his name to Spanish. He is Prince George, not Jorge. Tara also felt this rage (we spoke deeply about the issue). Anyway, I was watching the news, somehow a conversation arose between me and Nuria. She said that with any luck, the British monarchy will have collapsed by the time the Prince is older. I think my face said it all as she said 'Oh, eres monarquista? (Oh, are you a monarchist?). I've never thought of myself like that before but yes, I do support the monarchy of my country. The Royal family is such a key part of British culture, although I respect that everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

In all seriousness I have learnt a lot during my time being an au pair in Spain. I've learnt loads of Spanish (and Catalan) phrases and random words. I now love fish and seafood!! And I've learnt that kids are hard work at times. It has genuinely been an experience that I'm glad I took, living with a Spanish family has given me an insight in to the Spanish way of life and the Spanish culture that I might not get from my year abroad living with girls my own age. Equally, it gave me the chance to spend 5 weeks in Spain (Catalonia) and visit 3 different areas which I all enjoyed. However, when asked if I would be an au pair again, my honest reply would have to be no.

All said and done, I'm happy to be home in sleepy Sleaford but I enjoyed the experience. I only have about 6 weeks left until I leave for Granada!

Dos estrellas, por favor

This phrase became all too familiar this weekend.

In my last blog post I mentioned the festival that Tara and I had been to invited to and how we probably weren’t going to go. Well, after some thought we decided to go for it and do it. The advice I have been given from post-year abroaders has been to say YES to every opportunity. Even though we aren’t technically on our year abroad yet – why not start early? I ended up spending about 100 euros which isn’t ideal. Ticket, trains, food and drink, and I bought a t shirt. It was worth it though; it was a new and different experience. It was also my first festival!

Tara arrived on Friday evening; it had been a bit hectic with more friends of Nuria visiting for the evening for dinner and a swim. Of course sods law the day that my contract ended on my phone was the day Tara was arriving which made things harder. Nonetheless I picked Tara up from the train station at half 10 (when I say pick up I mean walk 2 minutes across the road). Tara and I are genuinely great friends, but we’re just not particularly affectionate friends. We’re not huggers. However, after a rather long stint apart (we saw each other every day at uni) and various stressful, homesick and tiring weeks au pairing in Spain, we embraced one another with one big abrazo.

We got back to the flat, said hello to everyone and had some dinner. We decided to go out for some drinks; we didn’t leave til gone 12 (in Canterbury I’d sometimes be coming home at this time!). We went to Tennis, the bar I’d gone to a few days before. Instead of the extortionate 8 euro cocktail I previously had we decided to drink beer. Una caña de estrella (hence the title). At 2 euros it was definitely the best thing to drink. We chatted, caught up and exchanged funny au pairing stories. We also went to a bar opposite tennis, it wasn’t quite as luxurious but the beers were 1.30 - amazing. It was full of locals who stared at us (me – paley, tara is so brown she could be a Spaniard). Anyway, we decided to buy two more beers but take them to drink on the beach. This is of course after Tara gave her number to the guy behind the bar.

We sat on the beach and enjoyed the moonlight shining onto the sea. It was very tranquil until two boys came over and decided to try and talk to us. A great opportunity for us to speak Spanish, but even without sunlight we were pretty sure they were feos. Eventually they left us, after the obligatory besos. Gross. We waited for them to walk further ahead then we made our way back, unfortunately they were slow walkers and we ended up over taking them. Incredibly awkward, we decided to ignore them and walk faster. Somehow by the time we got home it was half 3, needless to say we got about 5 hours sleep that night.

Saturday meant only one thing for me and Tara...PLAYA! We headed down and pitched our towels, sunbathed a bit and had a dip in the sea. Oh and maybe a cheeky peek at the beautiful Spanish lifeguards who happened to be right by us. After about two hours it was back to the flat to shower and get ready for Bona Nit (the festival). We got fed to the brim before we left with a lovely paella, some jamón and melon. 

We got the train to Barcelona fairly easily although it was delayed 40 minutes in the 30 degree heat with no shade. Luckily, we managed to get seats on the train and it was air conditioned. In the train station we met Erica, Paula and her boyfriend Alberto. We got the metro to somewhere I can’t remember, and walked up a hill to get to Poble Espanyol where the festival was being held. It was an incredible venue but unfortunately we couldn’t really look around because most of it was closed off. Poble Espanyol is a mini town surrounded by an old wall. It’s full of shops, bars and restaurants. Each street represents a different part of Spain, for example there is an Andalucían area, a restaurant with food typical of Asturias or a shop with traditional handcrafting from Valencia. That might not actually be true because we didn’t get to see a lot, but you get the idea. The festival was quite hippy and eco friendly. When you arrive everyone gets given a plastic cup to use for the whole night rather than loads of plastic ones which would create a lot of rubbish. The cup is red and says Bona Nit on it, we kept ours. It also had a clip round it so you could hang it off your bag or trousers if you wanted to dance or you just didn’t want to carry it. Rather cool, no? Despite not knowing any of the bands playing, Tara and I embraced it and went along. The first band was Inspira, a catalan band. They were pretty good considering I only recognised 1 in every 10 words. After them was a band called Fanfarlo, they were English. They were definitely the band I enjoyed the most, I got my boogie on. Sometime after we went to the toilet, we came back and couldn’t find the others. At this point the plaza was pretty much full and we figured we’d waste time trying to find them so we found a good spot on some stairs and watched from up there. We took it in turns to do the beer run (5 euros for two beers). The music was good and mostly in English. There was one Catalan band and the rest were either English or Norwegian, I’m not quite sure why Norwegians’ write, sing and speak in English but that’s a mystery. The last band was called Kakkmaddafukka. Strange, I know. They were a bit crazy but the atmosphere was great and their music was catchy.

When the festival ended we found the others. There were after parties in the city which was originally the idea however we were all pretty much dead. We ended up walking through Plaza Cataluña and Paseo de Gracia and sat on a bench somewhere where I kept falling asleep. It was about 3am and our train wasn’t until 6:30. Anyone who knows me well should know I am a terrible person when I’m tired, safe to say I was incredibly grumpy until we got into bed at half 7.  We slept on the train home. As soon as we got back we got straight into bed and slept until about half 11. We went down the pool for an hour to sunbathe then came back up for lunch. Before Tara got her train home we went for a walk along the beach for a drink (non alcoholic of course). It was sad to say goodbye again but we’ll see each other before we both start our new adventures studying in different cities in September. We had a great weekend and it was nice to have a friend.

Tomorrow marks the beginning of my last week au pairing in Spain!

ONE DAY (WEEK) MORE

Only people who have seen Les Miserables will understand the title, it’s just me being my hilarious self as usual.

Saturday marks one week until I fly home. I thought I’d be really upset to leave and although I will miss aspects of it, I am looking forward to going home. Especially because I still have a week off work before I head back to the golden arches.

The past week has been so-so.

One day last week (can’t remember which one) we went to the library because the girls have to read over summer. I ended up getting a library card too, I got evils from the woman working - yes my details say I was born in Germany, have an English passport and I now supposedly live in Torredembarra...who cares - give me my library card! Núria chose a book for me she said was easy and a good read, it’s about a haunted crypt or something like that. I’ve read the same page about 5 times, not my type of book really.

On Sunday I went for a walk to the lighthouse with Berta, and when I say walk, I really mean hike. It wasn’t a particularly hard walk but the 30-odd degree heat certainly made it more challenging. The thing I found (this goes for the mountains too) is that although there are hard bits; the views are so stunning it’s worth it. Berta hijacked my camera and got photo happy. Some of them are really good photos though so I don’t mind. On the way back we took a more leisurely approach, got a bottle of water and stopped to sit on a bench every now and then.

I don’t particularly remember week days; they all merge in to one. They’ve been ok this week. On Wednesday the girls had the doctors in Barcelona so I had a free day. I went to the beach, came back to eat, and went back to the beach. It was nice, it’s probably quite sad that I enjoy being on my own but I don’t really care.

I bought a book from the supermarket. It’s called ‘El mundo amarillo’. It’s about a Spanish director/screenwriter who had cancer from the age of 7 to 24 (I think). His book is about things he has learnt from having cancer that makes life better and happier and how anyone with or without the illness can adapt these things to their life. It’s really interesting but also sad. Some of the things are like how we should see a loss as a positive thing (he had his leg amputated and he sees the loss of his leg as positive). I understand it quite easily too which is good. Unfortunately I’m already half way through, when I like a book I have to read it at any spare minute I have. There’s a programme which is based on this book. It’s called ‘Pulseras Rojas’. That’s the Castillian name; it’s actually in Catalan but we watched it dubbed in Castillian. Apparently it’s been translated into loads of other languages too, I wonder if it’ll come to England. We watched 2 episodes the other day. It was fantastic but heartbreaking too. It’s about a group of young adults and teenagers who have different types of cancer or serious illnesses. It made me quite sad actually.  

Following on from dubbing, I need to express my hatred for it. There’s so many English/American programmes that they watch over here, but the dubbed voices are just horrendous. They don’t even sound like real people. Rant over.

Yesterday I got invited out for drinks with some girls from the pool. They’re both around my age and the girls love them to bits. So much so that they were heartbroken/incredibly pissed off that they invited me out. To the extent that Berta pulled her chair away from me at dinner and refused to sit next to me. I considered not going because they really were annoyed, but they are 8 and 12, I don’t think they’re gonna be allowed in a bar. I went and it was so nice to talk to people my age again. We talked about uni, boys, Erasmus, drinks, music – all sorts. They also invited me and Tara to Barcelona this weekend to a music festival called Bona Nit. At first I was really up for it, then I thought about logistics and it’s probably not the best idea. Tara’s coming from Zaragoza, to Barcelona, to Torredembarra on Friday. If we went we’d go to Barcelona on Saturday, back to Torredembarra early Sunday and then she’d have to go back to Barcelona Sunday afternoon to go back to Zaragoza. The tickets are about 40euros too. I’d like to do something different but equally I don’t mind staying and having some drinks. We went to a bar called Tennis last night. Years ago it was a house with a tennis court which the owners offered to the public for free, it was really popular and people were always there. After a game they’d have a drink or two (or three) and in the end the drinks became more popular than the tennis so they scrapped the court and made it all into a bar. It’s really cool; it has a cocktail bar and a swimming pool. When I got back I was just getting to sleep when I heard a roar of thunder, it felt like the storm lasted for hours but I’m not really sure. Anyway, as a result the girls didn’t sleep very well so I’ve been told to let them sleep and wake naturally. So here I am, blogging and I skyped my family which was nice. The weather is pretty crap today, cloudy and slightly rainy. Hopefully it perks up for the weekend.

Tara comes tomorrow; I told her I might cry cos I’m going to be so happy to see her. Only joking, but it’ll be nice to chat about our experiences and finally have someone to put sun cream on my back!

Eres muy blanca

I think I need a sign above my head saying ‘Soy inglesa, mi hermano tiene pelo rojo y yo sé que soy blanca’ (I’m English, my brother is ginger and I know I’m pale). I’ve been thinking about how many people have told me how pale I am and I genuinely think every adult I have met has made reference to my pale skin (on more than one occasion sometimes). There is no solution for me, I am this way. However, I can only hope I marry a hunky Spaniard and have lovely tanned children who don’t have to go through the annual summer depression of their ‘milk bottle skin’.

Apart from being pale, I feel like I’m finally adapting to the Spanish life. The truth is, it’s really hard to adapt to a change of lifestyle however large or small the change is. Maybe some people reading this think ‘it’s no different than being on holiday for a month’, well let me tell you, yes it is. Admittedly my blog creates the idea that I’m taking my cute Spanish children to the beach and pool every day and in the hot sun with smiles all around. It’s not quite that way. I have to get them up, make them breakfast, beg them to make their beds and turn the television off when they say no and simply ignore my request. I then have to go through the television ordeal once again when I tell them it’s time for 2 hours of homework. I have to ask them to please just eat the lunch that has been in front of them for about half an hour (why do children eat SO slow?!), I have to make sure they have put sun cream on, brush their hair, deal with countless sibling tantrums (which side do I take without the other hating me?) and even arguments between children and parents. The latter being the thing I have found horribly awkward. That said, I do love these kids because when we all get on I feel very content with the decision I made to au pair. We have fun, we mess about, and we’ve even made a music video! As well the children, the parents really are great. They have achieved something incredible; they have made me try (and actually enjoy) fish and seafood.

Doing their homework like good children

Since my last blog I’m trying to think what I’ve done. On Saturday I went to the beach on my own, they had some friends visiting for the day (2 single parents who also have adopted children from Guatemala) and all went to the pool before lunch but I fancied the sea. Well, what a mistake. I came back looking diseased. I’ve suffered from heat rashes before but this was something else. The photo I’m adding to the blog doesn’t do it justice. It was disgusting, all over my arms and chest. After lunch I went to the pharmacy and bought some disgustingly expensive antihistamines which only had 7 tablets in a pack!! I took one and skyped my parents feeling sorry for myself and my patchy skin.

On Sunday I stayed out of the sun to give my skin some rest, we had an amazing lunch. I’m not sure what the fish was but it was delicious. We had it with potatoes and onion and a little cava, and also some form of mussels, I actually preferred these little ones to the normal big mussels. I don’t even know what else I did; I bought some Spanish magazines and a Sudoku book on Saturday so I read those. Unfortunately I didn’t pay much attention when buying my Sudoku book, I picked up the hardest one, level 8-9! I’m just cheating at the moment, using the answers to add in a few extra numbers to make it easier.

yummy

The weekdays like I have said are similar and then we usually go to the beach when Núria gets back from work at about 5. On Tuesday evening, Berta and I went for a run along the beach, it was lovely we went to the port and looked at all the boats. Yesterday the sun went in very early and became quite overcast and cloudy; we were having (another fishy and delicious) dinner outside when we saw the sky light up. TORMENTA! Thunder followed, and then once we were back inside the rain came. It seems quite overcast today too but it might burn out.

This weekend there are more friends visiting, this time it is Núria’s Portuguese teacher from Brazil, and her son. This should be a good opportunity for me to practice a bit of Portuguese as I started my beginners course at university this year, I feel like I’ve forgotten everything though! We’ll see. I also plan on beaching/pooling. Need to top up my tan...

I’d like to go up to the lighthouse too.

A week Saturday Tara will be here spending the weekend with us at the beach (YIPPEE), and 2 weeks Saturday I’ll be flying home. Where is the time going?!

Besitos. 

Vamos a la playa..

Aquí estamos!

On Monday afternoon we left Barcelona and made our way to Torredembarra, Tarragona. It wasn’t a particularly long drive but the scenery was beautiful. We arrived around 4 or 5, once the car was unloaded and I was shown around, the girls wanted to go the pool. It’s a nice pool and it was still really hot the whole time we were out there. The next day Nuria and Antonio left for work early. I wake up between 8 and 9 then wake the girls up around half 10 and our day begins. I quite enjoy having an hour or two to myself in the morning. I have breakfast and read or watch some telly. After breakfast we do an hour of English homework, then half an hour of maths. We go down to the pool, come back up around 2 for lunch then usually head down again around half 3. We stay there until 6 or 7 sometimes. It’s always really warm and the water isn’t cold either.

On Wednesday when Nuria got home we went to the beach. It’s just across the road. It’s a huge beach and we were there until about 8! It’s shocked me how warm and sunny it stays. No wonder Spanish people are so tanned, they can finish work then go to the beach for a few hours. That night we had mussels for tea. Antonio is making me try every fish going. Surprisingly, I quite liked them!

Yesterday was the same, all days are very similar here, fairly relaxing and quite tranquil (apart from having dominoes thrown at me during a tantrum - that was nice). I wish I brought more books with me though.

I imagine this weekend will be filled with trips to the beach to top up my nonexistent tan (I actually am getting a bit of colour) and maybe a walk round town.

Besos