Lots of love from Barcelona

Hola gentle readers! I have finished up my first year as an auxiliare de conversación in Andalucia, and moved to Barcelona to be an au pair for the summer. I was given a placement in Madrid as an auxiliare for 2013-2014, and I will be starting that in October.
I am in awe of Barcelona, the architecture reminds me of steampunk aesthetics with a touch of Dr. Seuss whimsy. I live two blocks from La Pedrera, and I can’t wait to visit Parque Guell again. How did I get so lucky?

Stay tuned for photos!

Postcards from Spain

Hola gentle readers! Guess what? I have been in Spain a whole four months! I am definitely loving it here, although it is far colder than I anticipated.

My travels
The most exciting thing about my time here is definitely traveling. Thus far I have visited Seville, Granada, Murcia, Cartagena, Huercal-Overa, and now Barcelona! I am slowly coming to love Spain, although I still feel like a bumbling foreigner.
For Halloween, I decided to visit Belgium, where I went to Brussels, Antwerp, and Brugge for the long weekend. I managed to catch the Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra concert in Antwerp where I met some great people, and got comically lost several times. In short, I had the time of my life. I paid for it by losing my voice for a week.
Then I went to Granada for my birthday weekend. Nothing better than turning 24 in a seedy hostel and rising with the sun to see the Alhambra, and then nights full of tapas. Here’s a picture of me eating a lox tostada!

And my friends and I
Next I visited Barcelona to see a friend for New Years! Traveling with a local was amazing. She showed me where to purchase a ukulele my first afternoon, and we celebrated the beginning of 2013 on Las Ramblas with thousands of other people. We ate twelve lychees each at midnight (although grapes are traditional) and got wet from burst champagne. I cannot describe my joy and excitement, so here is a picture!

Las Ramblas a Nuevo Año con Mercé y Esther.

Holidays
Spain loves Holidays! Generally there is a “Dia de Andalucia” or holiday spaced out so everybody gets a break every few weeks. Puentes (literally translated to “bridge”, 4-day weekends) are more vacation opportunities, and if you like to travel, it is a good idea to book your hostel far in advance because they fill up fast. In addition to the winter holidays that are celebrated in America, Three Kings Day is January 6th, where gifts are traditionally given. I am looking forward to celebrating Valentine’s Day here next!

Food and Drink, the Most Important Part of Spanish Culture
When I heard “café culture” I pictured Starbucks at 11pm on a schoolnight. Not so! Actual conversation, food and drink happen in a café. I have never seen a laptop in public. Eating is a social activity in Spain!
The infrastructure of Spain revolves around the meals. Schools and all shops close at 2 (sometimes 1:30) for lunch or “siesta” and do not reopen until after 4 or later. Banks do not reopen after 2. This causes frustration if you have to run errands.
Five meals a day are all named. La Desayuna (breakfast), El Almuerzo (basically 2nd breakfast, around 11:30 on the workday, generally a sandwich or bocadilla), lunch or La Comida (2pm, on the dot, a large family meal), La Merienda (snack around 5-6), and La Cena (dinner, around 9pm or later). There is a great deal of speculation about if this is a superior way to eat from a health standpoint.

The most amazing food practice is tapas. Tapas are pre-prepared food served in small portions, generally served with a beverage. In Granada, and certain other parts of Spain, a tapa comes free with every beverage. Getting something tasty (olives, a small sandwich, piece of manchengo cheese, Russian salad, Spanish tortilla, fried fish) with your beverage (bubbly drink, wine, beer, glass of water) encourages you to eat, and therefore order more. It is delicious, and it is very popular to spend a night bar-hopping for tapas and drinks. Tapas tend to cost 2-5 euros each, so it is a cheap way to sample many things.

Breakfast! A fancy one. Cafe con leche y pan is usual.

Dulces traditional

Tapas en Barcelona

Comida o Cena, a lovely pasta in Granada

How to Navigate in Spain: (Poorly!)
Google Maps will lie to you. Official maps may not reflect reality, for example in Almeria Ciudad, the street names change midway through and back again. The grid system (think NYC) is not applicable, the cities tend to be very organic.
Street names are written on the sides of buildings, but only sometimes. Usually at the corner, or a little ways down. Sometimes the plaque is the same color as the building, so it is hard to spot. Traffic lights are not popular, and if they exist, they are on the shoulder of the road.
Giant rotunda turnabouts are preferred, especially in rural areas. You see the sense of them immediately; no waiting for a light to change, fewer accidents, except maybe bumper bumps from people zooming around them. No speed limits.

Here’s a postcard I sent to my friend, Anamica:

Sevilla a Vera

I have had a difficult time compartmentalizing my first week in Spain. London felt like a city, perhaps even an American city, something familiar and exciting. And because of my familiarity with Harry Potter and Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, I kept having moments of deja vu at certain locations and street names. Sevilla felt completely foreign, and I think the enormity of my task weighed down on me once I arrived. I also lacked a map (the airport didn’t have one) and after the shuttle to the city center, I was quite lost and reluctant to ask directions. Eventually I found my hostel (Picasso Backpackers Hostel) and my room, but not before walking an hour in the rain with my backpack and suitcase, and dragging some Russian tourists down to my level.
The following morning I played “Get Lost and Find your Way Back” and ate my first tapas meal with free beer. Such fun. On the whole, Sevilla is quite lovely, but I have trouble describing how. It felt aestetically simila to San Cristobal de las Casas, in Chiapas. The cathedral next door was roughly 17th century (Dominican?) and the marble was the same color. The narrow corridors were very Mexican, and the small houses were whitewashed, bougainvillea decorated wrought-iron front gates. It was like Mexico without the Maya, to be frank.
The Plazas stupefied me. Pedestrian-friendly places are few and far between in the U.S.A., and seeing someplace meant for people that’s not grassy caught me by surprise. Plaza Jerez, outside my hostel, is a grand fountain surrounded by shops, including two ice-cream shops (heladerias) and two Starbucks. Many long doublefacing benches with trees and pigeons. Horse-drawn carriages pass by. People just…hang out. Grandmothers scold. Ladies wear trendy fashions and high heels. Couples talk on the benches. No police presence whatsoever. I spent many hours there, licking my icecream and people-watching. It seemed like the perfect site for an ethnography.
One Sunday I did go exploring and found a multi-cultural festival. The American booth served chicken nuggets and hamburgers, and they smelled quite good—everything smelled good—but instead I ate shwarma at the Egyptian booth, and drank an icee.
Next I went to Almeria where I stayed in a completely boring hostel that was very expensive. It was more like a hotel. The next day I had my orientation, but my google map directions were quite wrong, and internet cafes were nowhere to be found. After running around trying to find it—soy perdita, soy perdita—I was two hours late for my orientation, and the remaining hour was lecturing by the thickest-accented man I have yet heard. By the end of the hour, I was starting to understand, but then it was time for lunch—tapas! I found out that everyone had already had two days of work since Monday. I was very surprised (I hadn’t heard from the Ministry since late July) but resolved to get there immediately.
The ride was indescribably lovely. Even with a ready-to-rupture bladder and mounting anxiety, the experience was amazing. The Spanish desert at sunset looked like a painting. Between Almeria and Vera, the hills become modest mountains cut with the zigzig of rivers. The area around Vera has orange groves everywhere—in December the best citrus in the world will be ready for picking. I’ve never seen a sky this blue, and completely clear of clouds. I was reminded me of traveling in Utah and Wyoming when I was young a la “Home on the Range”. I saw a cowboy on a horse, herding some sheep.
My host Diego is very sweet, and gave me the run of his house. The next morning he drove me to my school Reyes Catolicos. It turns out to have been for the best that I arrived late. Monday morning, a bridge collapsed under heavy rain, and several people died. On Thursday, when I arrived, the people were still reeling (as told to me by the director) but at least there was not a state of panic. Then I began to teach.

A lovely time was had in London

I spent a very pleasant day getting lost in London. I ate fish and chips, ran around the British Museum and the Science Museum, listened to people speaking other languages, took the underground (Mind the Gap), and admired the many parks and gardens. A nice thing about London was most of the buildings aren’t more than three stories high, so you can see the sky–it looks wonderfully close.
British youth are quite dapper. Not everyone can carry an umbrella well, but they can. All the British girls love scarves, and make use of patterned clothing, but their clothes look tailored and fits very well. Young men favor hoodies, but they also fit well.
The weirdest thing that happened was when I popped in to visit my uncle at the Science Museum, I left my name with reception and when I told them my name, the British girl said “Why do you say it like that?” meaning my Irish last name. I was aghast; that was roughly a thousand years of colonial oppression in one sentence. I mumbled something about That’s how it’s pronounced in America.
I love the names of British places, it’s the most random assortment of clashing syllables I could hope to find in such a small place. Battersea. Holburn. St. Pancras. St. John’s Wood. Piccadilly Circus. Cockfosters. Daganham Heathway. It’s almost poetry.
I had a hostel near King’s Cross station, and departed from it on my way to the airport. It was magical!
I arrived in Sevilla (forgot to eat, of course) and found my hostel after an hour of wandering around in the light rain. They gave me the garret dorm on the fourth floor (here the 3rd, it’s ground floor then they are numbered), so I had to drag my suitcase up the narrow stairs at midnight. It’s very comfortable, and tonight I will have guests. Perhaps one of them will want to have dinner with me.
That’s all for now! Ciao!

Preparations

Good morning gentle readers! One month before departure!

I finally received my city placement! Vera, on the Almeria coast! It is a small desert town on the water. It’s nearby attractions include the set locations of several spaghetti Westerns, which you can visit so you can pretend it is high noon aaaaand… Draw! I’ll let you know about the tumbleweeds. There’s also a famous church and a waterpark, but the most famous attraction is the nude resort.
Go, google it. I’ll wait.

Back? Good. I am somewhat disappointed not to be given a big city like Sevilla or Granada, but I suppose it is better to plan to visit exciting places on the weekends, rather than spend most of my time studying, feeling like I am missing out. The irony has not escaped me that I am going from one sunny tropical paradise on the beach to another.

Becky Ryan (http://heybecky.moonfruit.com/), the other auxiliare, will be in Cartagena, which is very close to me. I suppose we shall go a-venturing together!

New College did quite a lovely press release for Becky and I! Look here: http://newcollegeofflorida.wordpress.com/2012/07/31/two-recent-new-college-grads-awarded-spanish-government-teaching-assistantships-2/ The picture is quite wonderful, usually I don’t photograph so well. The writer used the personal statement from my application, and I must admit some surprise at re-reading my words almost a year later. I sound like a pretty awesome teacher if I do say so myself! I got several hard copies from the admissions office, and sent them to all my relatives (quick! There are refrigerators in this world that are bare of my accomplishments!) and family friends.

When I tell people that I am going to Spain, people never fail to mention that the men are beautiful. Spain is apparently a single lady’s paradise. I only care that Penelope Cruz lives there.

Of perhaps greater concern is that Spain is experiencing a great deal of political unrest at the moment (25% unemployment does civil resentment make) and I have been encouraged to bring my marching shoes and protest pants. Experiencing the political underbelly is not only hanging out in Revolution Bars and discussing socialism, it requires participation and raising your voice. Even though I will be an employee of the Ministry of Education, I can still participate in civil disobedience. Do I feel excited about exploring a country that is going the same way as Greece? Certainly not, but I am not going to let that stop me.

To prepare I am working on paperwork and internety things in Spanish. Let me add to the general cacophony of Visa diligence. Don’t leave it until the last minute or (singsong) You’ll be sorry. I started 9 weeks early and I am still scrambling to get it done in time. Of course my background check got delayed. Of course there is no way to expedite the process. Of course it costs an arm and a leg AND I need to apply for another one the hot second I get to Spain. I spilled coffee all over the application materials two days before the appointment.

Packing has been hard. I have no idea what I would need to bring! Less than I want, more that nothing. It goes hand in hand with giving away a lot of my possessions: a grocery bag of books and all of my CDs went to the library, my roommates get my cooking tools, furniture and unloved clothing to the free table, my bike to a trusted individual, jewelry tools and a few odds and ends into my grandmother’s storage unit. Surprisingly “Will I want this when I get back from Spain?” has been a surprisingly effective litmus test for save/discard decisions. It should be easy, but it helps to imagine that when I unpack it all, perhaps it will be for the last time (fat chance).

Relevant quote: Wish for what you want. Work for what you need.

Help me get to Spain!

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

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Here’s a picture of me and my brand new visa:

Would you like to help me get to Spain?

Dear friends and family,

As you may have heard, I recently graduated from New College of Florida, with a degree in Anthropology. Even greater joy is that I have been accepted by the Ministry of Education to teach English in Andalucia, Spain, for one year, starting in September.

Like many graduates, I am low in funds. While the program does pay me, this is only after I begin work, and airfare is not covered. I am reaching out to friends and relatives for support to make this trip a reality. This is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I want very badly to be able to go.

My goal is $2500, setting aside $800 for plane fare from kayak.com, and obtaining an apartment when I arrive. If you donate even $20, you can help me make this a trip a reality. I am asking the alumnai association at my school, which funds academic travel, but as I am no longer a student, they may decline to assist me.

Andalucia is rich in culture, and has a unique flamenco and bellydance tradition. I have been dancing on-and-off for almost five years, and will be able to learn more while I am there. I am excited about the total immersion into the Spanish language, which I have been studying since middle school. Being able to speak Spanish fluently will help my career in so many ways, as will my job as a teacher in the Spanish school system.

If you would please consider donating, this would have a very real impact on my future. You will be able to follow my travels on my blog https://adventuresinandalucia.wordpress.com/, which will allow you to see the impact of your gift on my travels, via pictures and writing. Or, if you would prefer, I can add you to an email list.

with love,

Kristen Michelle Leahy

Hello beautiful world!

This blog is intended as a record of my creative outlets. I am currently heavily invested in jewelry-making and crafting, but I dabble in costume-creating and book-binding as well.
This blog will also chronicle my adventures if I go abroad–I plan to travel to Mexico, Ireland and China in the next two years. This is way more fun than emails and picture attachments for people who wish to keep track of me!

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