Hi everyone,
I´ve been here in Spain just over a week now and am starting to settle into a decent routine. In the mornings I work looking after the child here (not sure the family would be ok with me using names so I´ll write new ones because saying ´the child´all the time doesn´t seem great - I´ll call her Isa). For anyone who´s interested here´s a rough outline of our schedule. If youre not interested just skip this next bit!
7.30 - get myself ready, breakfast etc and reading until Isa gets up.
9.30 - (approx) Isa gets up, breakfast, TV.
10.15 - drawing/ colouring/ anything else to keep her occupied for the morning.
12.30 - swimming lesson at home.
13.15 - Isa´s lunch usually with cartoons followed by play
14.30 - (approx) everyone else´s lunch
15.00 - Isa´s Chinese lessons (play)
18.00 - Isa´s mum returns, family time
20.00 - Making use of the gym equipment in the house and the pool.
21.00 - dinner
So normally I actually finish working by 15.00 because when the Chinese teacher is here she watches her and only talks to her in Chinese, so my English would just be a distraction.
On Monday´s and Wednesday´s I also have Spanish classes in the afternoon in the city centre so I get the train into Bilbao and back from the village - 15 minutes walk, 40 minute train.
Anyway, so for those who haven´t seen my facebook posts I´ve had a reasonably busy week. Thursday evening was spent with the older daughter (new name: Emma), her boyfriend (he can be Manuel) and one of her friends to take Isa to the park then we went out on their scooters to place out of town to eat nachos).
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Looking across the cliffs in Sopelana |
On friday I went with Emma and some of her friends to the fiestas in the village. I wanted to stay and have a good time but it takes a surprising amount of effort to try and follow conversation when it´s in a language you only understand a little, when people are all talking at teh same time, and when there´s loud music going too. In the finish I decided to get back but apparently I couldn´t go alone so Emma called her brother (new name: Adam) and he took us both home. It turns out Emma isn´t meant to walk home alone because it might be dangerous - although it doesn´t seem it - but she is only 17 and has bad knees so I guess it´s a good precaution.
Saturday started a little late as I only got up around 8.30 but after a quiet start to the day we went shopping for a birthday party Isa was invited to and I spent the afternoon enjoying the sun and catching up on some reading.
On Sunday I went with the parents (lets call them Marie and Jose) and Isa along with their friends from the South of Spain to explore a couple of places nearby. We went to check out the Puente Vizcaya (which looks a bit like the Transporter Bridge in Middlesbrough) the ate tapas in a couple of bars around the village. There was a football match on so there were quite a few folk out and about which I think made it a little more interesting. After that we drove through some of Bilboa, passing the Guggenheim, and a bridge that looked an awful lot like a minature version of the Millenium Bridge in Newcastle (can anyone spot a common theme here - take the two bridges and the industrial works all along the river and it´s like arriving into a strangley warm version of the North East)!
Anyway after that we went for lunch at the Sociedad Bilbaina. Now as far as I knew we were going to a men´s club which was only open to women on weekends so I figured it might be a little formal and opted for suitable attire - in other words a skirt instead of shorts or jeans. However I didn´t expect the ´grande foyer, the coat taking or the super fancy dining room - good thing my skirt hid my scruffy converse!! After a 3 course meal (which I would have photographed if the place weren´t so formal) we wandered around some of old Bilbao and got coffee at óne of the best places in town´.
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Puente Vizcaya |
It was back to work as usual on monday following the routine above and in the afternoon Emma took me to Bilbao. Since it was my first trip on the train and first class she showed me what to do and how to get there. Unfortunately we left the house a little late and even on the moto we had to get a slightly later train than planned making me about 10 minutes late for class. However due to a lucky coincidence the Spanish teacher was also late.
There are only two other girls in my spanish classes (both from Cyprus) and we´re all about the same age - even the teacher is only a couple of years older, so it´s pretty relaxed though we still learn a lot - probably more than if it were a whole class with a teacher just reciting from a book or something like that. So the class went well and on the way back Emma showed me the quickest way to walk to the train so I could go myself on Wednesday.
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New book ^_^ |
Tuesday was more of the same and pretty uneventful although in the evening I went for a walk myself to get some quiet time - who knew one 3 year old could make so much noise - and to explore a little. I wandered along the cliff and got a pretty decent view of the beach and sea below - surfers included. I haven´t actually gotten to the beach myself yet but it´s only cause it always looks too busy for me!
Yesterday we had a bit of a tantrum regarding the TV. It was pretty funny all things considered but the screaming was pretty crazy at the time. Isa had watched an episode of her favourite program - Princess Sofia - and once it had finished she put the same episode on again. Half way through it was decided that she could only have 5 more minutes of TV before she did something else - no problem so far. After the 5 minutes I turned the TV off and chaos ensued - apparently she was really mad at me because she wanted to know how the episode ended and no matter how many times I pointed out that she´d just seen how it ended she wouldn´t stop screaming and crying. Luckily her dad was home at the time so he gave her a good talking to and dealt with it while I kind of just sat there opting to wait until she calmed down, but for a full half hour after she´d stopped crying she just sat in the middle of the floor silently sulking. Now apparently this is perfectly normal especially at her age but I have had literally no experience with toddlers so it´s all new to me.
On another note, while watching the same TV show I did see something pretty funny. There was an episode with some knights entering a competion - it´s in Spanish but I got the basic idea. Now one of the knight was quite clearly Irish (and it´s funny enough hearing Spanish spoken with an Irish accent) but the Irish knight had the Guiness harp on his shield!! Not even something slightly similar - it was the exact image! I had a good little giggle about it anyway.
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After class - rainy view of the Teatro Arriaga
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After all that carry on I had my second Spanish class in the afternoon. I made it there and back with no problems and explored the area a little before it started. I thought about doing the same after but it started raining so I headed straight back instead.
Ok so today hasn´t been too bad I´m still not getting a lot of English out of Isa. The thing is at her school they only speak English and she understands the language perfectly but we´re trying to get her to speak it and unless you´re asking something simple like "what colour´s the pen" it´s no use. It also means that if she wants to do/play with/find anything instead of telling me she´ll run straight to the house keeper for it - which is a bit frustrating since I´m then left standing around like a spare part with no idea what´s going on. However I´ve not been here long and I´m sure it´ll get better.
Anyway - I´m off to go practice my Spanish some more while it´s quite.
Hasta luego! (see you later)