Pío Baroja.

I am stealing somebody's Internet access. I don't know whose, but that person must obviously want to share or else they'd protect their wireless network!

So, I have moved in to my new apartment, and it is so much better than the old one. I finally feel settled. I hadn't fully unpacked at the old one because I didn't really feel at home there and, well, there wasn't any space to even un-pack. It's refreshing to live in a room and not have to step over your suitcases. I even have space to put away my suitcases! I'm also living in a much nicer part of El Palo. The streets are wider, there are nicer buildings and better businesses, and it doesn't smell like trash in the street. I live right above a restaurant--Gambrinus--that I think will be the cause of me getting fatter. I don't even know what they're making, but it always smells good. I'm on the first floor (technically the second floor, but in Spain they refer to the ground floor as floor zero), so the smell easily just wafts into our apartment. Mmm. It smells kind of like chorizo but much, much better.

What I love about this apartment is the terrace. It is huge. It's almost too big. God knows what we'll do with all that space. If you stand on the terrace and look to your left, this is what you'd see:



Turn to your right, and you'd see this:



You can see more pictures on flickr.

And, on a totally unrelated note, here is a video I took from the top of the Alcazaba in Málaga. I'm just posting it because I opened up a youtube account and wanted to try it out.



I really miss my nephew. I was hanging out with him nearly every day the last couple of weeks before I left. It was so fun to play with him because I'd say absurd things to him, and he'd laugh and do the same. I also liked asking him about his dreams. That's right, his dreams! The kid remembers his dreams, and it's insane to hear a three-year old talk about what he dreamt. Ah, I'll have to settle for the silly photos and videos I have of him on my computer.

New address!

So, I've moved to a new apartment. Movin' on up! Here is my new address:

Avenida de Pío Baroja, 12
Piso 1°A
El Palo
Málaga, Málaga
29017
Spain

Send me stuff! I'll return a postcard. I promise!

Corte de pelo.

Great news: this week, my roommate and I found a nicer apartment in a better area of El Palo and at a cheaper price, so we are moving! We signed the lease yesterday morning and are moving out today. We're going from a two-bedroom, one-bath apartment to a four-bedroom, two-bath apartment, so we're going to have two two more roommates. That should be fun because we wanted to live with some Spanish people. Anyway, I thought I'd mention it because that means I'll be going back to having Internet access only at cafes for a week or two while they transfer the service to our new place.

I have to start packing now, but I just thought I'd mention it in case it seems that I've disappeared for a few days.

P.S. Last night, the bar where I was--Village Green--randomly played "Devil's Haircut" by Beck! That was fun. We tried to translate the phrase got a devil's haircut in my mind to some Spanish people we were with, but couldn't. Tengo un corte de pelo del diablo en mi mente?

Sapos y ranas.

I can' t say that I haven't had time to update because, honestly, all I've had is time, really. I only work on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. And I'm out by 2:45 P.M. Or, as the locals might say, 14:45. I've just been too lazy. ¡Perdóname!

Work has had its ups and its downs. It is tough working with adolescents. Some of them are great students, ready to learn; others are know-it-alls; a handful don't give a fuck; and the others never stop talking. Working with a handful of different teachers with different styles is also tough, but I can't complain. I only work twelve hours a week. I am not allowed to complain... by law.

There is a group of students that I see four times a week. They are the group that I've come to know the most. They are a group of about twenty-five 12- to 14-year-olds. Yeah, that age. Think of yourself at your most awkward, and then add a foreign language on top of that. Still, I find myself laughing along with them a lot, so that makes it fun. I really enjoy hearing these kids speaking perfect Spanish with an andaluz accent. And it's fun to encourage them to speak in English because you can tell that most of the time they really are trying, but they get embarrassed with their pronunciation. If I correct them with a neutral tone, don't laugh, and praise them if they give it an honest effort, though, they seem to light up.

One of my favorite students is named Adrián. I guess you could say he's the runt of the class. I feel for you, Chiquitín. I'm still waiting for my second growth spurt, too. He tends to get picked on by the others, if only because he's the shortest. Aún, él es listo. He gives it back as good as he takes it. I think he took a quick liking to me, and so did I. He's always asking me to sit near his desk, trying to talk to me, but he struggles because he's at a really low English level. He's cool, though.

I've also got another group that I see twice a week. They are about a year older than the first group. A bit more mature but hardly so. This group is tough because there are about twenty kids in the bilingual program, yet at the same time, there are ten kids in the classroom who aren't bilingual by any means. So, those ten always feel left out when we work on English. It's a stupid setup, but I can't do anything about it. Oddly enough, it's one of the non-bilingual kids who I remember most--Iván. He knows a bit of English but not enough to hold a conversation. I think he's just amazed by the fact that I'm American. He's always trying to impress me. It's funny. "I get it, Iván--you're cool!" A bit of a troublemaker but harmless.

I have two other groups of older kids (fourteen- to sixteen-year-olds), but I only see each group once a week. The oldest ones are very well-behaved, but the younger ones--oh man, they are a handful. Today, I played the game two truths and a lie with them, and these are the sentences Raúl came up with: (a) I love marihuana (b) I love girls (c) I love school. Hmm... This is the same kid who, every time I have class with him, somehow manages to mention marihuana and asks me if I smoke. Este vato. I'm afraid to run into him while I'm at a botellón because he's mentioned to me that he goes on the weekends. Awkward!

Anyway, I guess I could talk a lot more about these kids, but I imagine it would bore you. I apologize for switching the blog, but now that some of the people I talk about in the blog are my friends on myspace, it feels awkward to keep posting there. I guess that's also the reason I haven't posted in a while. I've been trying to find a new place. But, now here I am. Oh, and I just posted new pictures, so check them out on flickr!

La francesa.

I thought I'd remind anyone who reads this that I've posted more pictures to my flickr account <http://www.flickr.com/photos/alongoria> and I plan to keep adding. I think I'll add my latest Sevilla pictures later today.

I realized I didn't talk about my birthday. It was fun. When I got to work, another auxiliar who works at my school started singing "Happy Birthday," but only one other person caught on--the English department head--because, hey, we're in Spain. They don't know that song! After work, I came home and didn't do much until the evening. I took a nap--excuse me, tomé siesta--and woke up about an hour and a half later. I called up some friends--Sarah (my roommate), Janica, Christina, Simone and Lily (the auxiliar who works at my school)--and we decided to meet at Christina and Simone's apartment downtown. On the way there, I bought a twelve-pack of San Miguel to help get that party started. Mike, another auxiliar who lives with Christina and Simone, was also there, but he was actually doing work, so he couldn't join in on the Monday night partying. We had a few beers and then decided to go find a place to eat.

All of the places we had found in the guide book were closed, so we ate at the first place we could find that was open and still serving food. It turned out to be one of the same restaurants at which my mom and my aunt and I had eaten. The food was good. Each of the six of us ordered a different tapa and then we shared between us. I got the callo, which is pretty much like menudo, because my mom got that when we went and I liked how it tasted.

We had a few more drinks and then decided to call it a night because we all had to get up early for work tomorrow. All in all, a nice birthday, I'd say.

So, the rest of the week went by pretty quickly. On Tuesday, I went to the comisaría de policía (police station) to start the long and very bureaucratic process to extend my visa. Since we auxiliares are here on very strange terms (we have student visas but are not students; we get paid but it's not real pay, it's called an 'ayuda'), the ladies at the comisaría were complete bitches because they thought we didn't have the correct documents. It was a huge pain and I left that place hating the Spanish government. God knows what's going to happen with that.

We didn't have school on Thursday (not that I ever work on Thursdays, but still), so a few of us had planned to go to Portugal for the weekend. We left it all to the last minute, though, so that dissolved quickly. So, we opted for Sevilla instead. It was supposed to have been Sarah, Janica, Christina, Simone and I going, but we all had a tough time finding a hostel with vacancies. In the end, only Christina, Simone and I went. We left on Thursday evening, got there late at night, and planned to stay until Sunday.

Damn, Sevilla is beautiful. It is exactly what you imagine when you think of Spain. I took a ton of pictures, and I will post them later today. On Thursday, we were tired from being on the bus for 2.5 hours, so we decided to just grab a quick bite, a quick drink, and then head back. We walked a few blocks from the hostel and found the best falafel place ever. I ordered a shawarma de pollo. I think I had a few orgasms because of how good it was. Afterwards, we went to a bar called "Ñan Ñan" because we saw that they had drinks for 2euros. We took a paseo after that and then went back to the hostel.

That hostel was weird. It had a really weird smell, and the guy in charge was odd. It wasn't really like a hostel, more like a house with extra rooms that get rented out. There was an old, old lady sitting on the couch watching television in the living room all the time. It was hilarious because she was watching an American movie that was dubbed in Spanish, and that "I Like Big Butts" song was being played (or it might have been some other early '90s rap song), and the lyrics were being translated in Spanish in subtitles. God only knows what was going through her head. She also was eating fried fish, and here, they seem to just dip a complete fish--skin, bones, everything--in a frier. So, it smelled, and she just had this big fish on her plate. Weird atmosphere, I tell you.

Anyway, on Friday, we got up semi-early and went to the Alcazar, the old Moorish fortress of Sevilla. We had to wait in line for about forty-five minutes, but it was worth it. That place was great. You could see the centuries-old city wall and where it's been patched over the ages from what I assume are attacks on the city. There a bunch of rooms with these really pretty tiles and fountains and paintings. I stood in a room that was where the Spanish conquistadores laid out their maps of the New World and plotted their conquests. Crazy. There were paintings of the Virgin Mary blessing the conquistadores and their ships as they left Spain. Gold ceilings, huge archways, big doors. Then there is this huge garden with so many different plants. It is insane.

After the Alcazar, we ate at a restaurant nearby. I had gazpacho for the first time! I didn't think I would like it because, I mean, come on, cold tomato soup? But, really, I lapped that shit up. Maybe I was just really hungry. The three of us went a bit crazy and nearly got drunk at the restaurant (the wine was 1euro for each glass!) so we walked (stumbled?) back to the hostel and took a siesta for a couple of hours. At night, we met up with Christina and Simone's other roommate Rocío who was visiting her family in Sevilla for the weekend. She took us out to a few tapas bars and then recommended we go to Calle Betis to see if we could find a flamenco show. We weren't able to find dancers, only music, but that was good enough. It was insane how many English-speaking people were out, and it was embarrassing to see the drunk Americans in the bars because that's the image most Europeans have of American tourists. So, we decided to only speak Spanish. Haha, as if that were to make us not seem American.

On Saturday, we woke up a little later and went to the Catedral de Sevilla, the largest cathedral in the world! It was almost decadent. I saw the tomb that supposedly holds the bones of Christopher Columbus. You can also go to the "Tesoros" room where you'll find a bunch of golden calices, tiaras, and other church stuff. Everything pure gold. It's insane. Some of the artifacts (?) also had bones in them, which we assume were bones from saints. We assumed because we weren't rich enough to splurge on an audio guide. It was upsetting to see all that gold on display, though, because you know that a lot of it was stolen from the Incas/Aztecs, brought to Spain, melted, and reshaped into whatever they wanted. Like the altar--God, that altar was unbelievable. It's about thirty, maybe forty feet high, about twenty-five feet wide, and made of pure gold. It is scary how much gold there is in that place. I sacreligiously took a picture in front of the altar. Other people were doing it, so I thought, "When else?!" We then walked up to the top of the bell tower where you had the best views of Sevilla.

After that, we ate and then just walked around the tiny, winding streets. It was fun. We headed home after that, took another siesta, and then went out at night. We walked around the neighborhood for a bit, randomly joined a procession for some Virgin Mary, and then went to the botellón at the plaza near our hostel, then back to Calle Betis, and then back to the hostel. Fun night.

We left early Sunday morning, full of food and fun. I've got to say, I would have loved to live in Sevilla. I want to go back.

I think I've written too much for one entry, so I'll leave it at that. I'll post some more pictures today.

Fotos y recuerdos.

Okay, I want to post about my birthday, but I need to go to bed already. I did upload a lot of pictures this evening, though, so I wanted to post the website so you can take a look:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alongoria

Let me post a quick preview, though. Click on any picture to go to the website and see the rest! I haven't added any captions to these, but I did on flickr.

Siesta time.

I cannot believe it. I now have Internet access at my apartment. I thought this day would never come--and on my birthday, even! Anyway, now I can use Skype, so if you'd like to call me to a local 956 number, here it is:

(956) 242-6845

If you want to live on the edge and call me to my apartment:

011-34-951-303-250

or to my cell phone:

011-34-663-701-003

And, just for kicks, here's my address:

c/ Carlos Fontaura, n°3, 1°C
El Palo
Málaga, Málaga
29018
Spain

The address doesn't have to be in any exact order. I think as long as you get all that info up there it should be set. My roommate got a letter today from the U.S., and it took exactly one week. You can use regular postage. The "n°3, 1°C" mean "número tres, primero C," the street number and apartment number. In other words--in case you don't get the hint--send me mail.

La Virgen del Rosario.

OMG. I just spent like forty-five minutes typing up the longest blog entry ever, but the lady in charge of the Internet locutorio accidentally re-started my computer, so I lost it all. Fuck. I don't have the patience to re-type it all, so let me try to re-create it in short bursts:

Thursday: My roommate Sarah and I had dinner with a German girl named Jessica who speaks perfect English. It turns out she lived in Austin as an au pair last year. Small world.

Friday: Sarah, Jessica, some more auxiliares and I went to a cool bar called Bodega El Pimpi. Don't let the name fool you. Great atmosphere, great conversation, lots of fun. Bar hopping afterwards. A lot of free shots when you travel with a pack of about twelve American girls.

Saturday: Sarah, Jessica, Janica, some more auxiliares, and I traveled to Fuengirola, a beach resort town west of Málaga. We met up and stayed with some other auxiliares we had met last week. It was La Feria de la Virgen del Rosario, which was insane. So many ladies walking down the street nonchalantly in their traditional flamenco dresses. I took tons of pictures. Tried to go to a variety show hosted by Popeye el Payazo and his midget sailors (seriously.), but it was too expensive. Opted to pre-party hardcore instead. We went to the feria, which is pretty much like a county fair or a carnival. Ate a lot, drank a lot, got on a few rides, peed in the street with some girls, took too many pictures, went to a few bars, then called it a night. Highlight: churros con chocolate. The best.

Sunday: Didn't make it to the bullfight because the tickets were too expensive. Ate at a nice cafe, then came home at about 2pm. Went to the beach with my roommate and another auxiliar. It was the first time I actually go to the beach to just lay out. Fun.

Damn it. I had written so much more. Pinche Internet.

I didn't realize they celebrate Columbus Day in Spain, too. We're getting a four-day weekend this coming week, so a few of us are planning to travel to Portugal. We're a bit nervous about our visas, though, because they only allow us to enter Spain once until we get them extended, which takes a few weeks. We've been told that traveling within the European Union shouldn't be a problem because they don't check your passport, though. We'll see. I hope it's not a problem.

All in all, it was a great weekend with great people. I feel bad for my liver, but he's just going to have to suck it up during my time in Spain. I should be getting the Internet at my apartment tomorrow, so pictures should be coming soon. I have my fingers crossed.

Some guy who keeps snorting and smells funny just sat next to me, so I will be leaving now. Sorry for the choppy sentences, but damn it, I had a long entry already written, ready to be posted. Hasta pronto!

Mi primer día.

I just got back from my first day of work. I guess I should say "work," though, because I didn't do much. I was pretty nervous when I first got there because I wasn't sure where the entrance is, so I just guessed. And, when I had called the school, they seemed pretty abrupt and rude, so I was expecting the same. But, everyone was super helpful. They were all like, "We've been waiting for you!"

First, the department head of the English department introduced me to a bunch of profesores. For my own sake, let me see if I can remember their names: Juan, Manolo, Felipe, Sebastián, Carmen (x4), Mai, Marta, Antonio (?), Damián, Irene. Everyone asked me where I am from, and as soon as I'd say, "Texas," they'd say, "Oh, Bush!" That sucked. It was weird because at first I was talking to everyone with 'usted' instead of 'tú,' but they'd get offended! They were like, "You make me feel old by calling me by usted. Tutéame." But, I'm not used to talking like that to people older than me, so that will take some getting used to.

Sebastián, the director of the school, gave me a tour, treated me to a coffee, then invited me to a luncheon they were having later that day. It's so weird because there's a bar in the school. They don't have a cafeteria. They call it a 'comedor' or 'el bar.' The profesores have beer or wine there during lunch. Crazy. And the kids smoke! You'll go outside and see students taking a smoke break on campus. Eso loco español.

(Sidenote: they just started playing the song 'Down' in this locutorio! I feel like I'm home watching mun2. Ju make me feel so down, Rakim and Ken-Y.)

Anyway, I just got back from the luncheon, where the only thing they offered us to drink was beer. I got there, and one of the school administrators is like, "We drink a beer while everyone else gets here?" You don't need to ask me twice, girl. All of the people are so nice that it's almost a little unbelievable. They were so excited to meet me and the other auxiliar, and they were willing to help out with anything and everything. And the food was awesome. We had a Spanish salad as a starter, then what seemed like all-you-can-eat paella, then dessert and coffee. All of this at a ritzy Spanish country club overlooking the city. Que culto. Dessert was weird, though, because it was watermelon, but we ate it with a fork and knife. When my mom and aunt were visiting last week, we were served melon with a fork and knife, but we didn't even bother and just used our hands. We are vulgar.

It also looks like my schedule will be very, very accomodating. The department head mentioned that I'd probably only be scheduled to work three days of the week--Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. That would be too awesome. I was expecting to work four days of the week (we are only legally allowed to work twelve hours per week), but damn. She was like, "I know you'll need the weekends for travel and to explore. We'll see what we can do."

I didn't get to meet too many students, though. They didn't seem too bad, though. They told me I'll be working more with the advanced students who actually want to learn and practice English, so that'll be nice. Some of the kids are even going to be reading The Catcher in the Rye. That should be fun.

I'd say today has been a good day. We'll see what the weekend brings!

La chupeterría.

I just got back to Málaga from orientation in Granada. It was exhausting! Me and three other auxiliares (that's what we're called--auxiliares de conversación de inglés) took the trip together on Wednesday at noon. We got to Granada, checked in to our hotel, then went to go eat. I had seen a lot of pizzerias around here, but it was my first time trying pizza in Spain. Mmm, it was good. God knows what the toppings were, but it was good. All I remember is that it had chorizo and ham. When we got there, we met up with three other auxiliares that I had hung out with before. One of them looks like Fiona Apple.

So, on Wednesday, we decided to go out drinking even though we had to wake up early for orientation the next day. We went to this 'tapas bar' first. Spain is big on tapas. They're small dishes or appetizers that you order instead of meals. I like it. It's like a small portion of food, and people usually go from one tapas bar to the next. Anyway, they didn't have San Miguel beer, so we got Alhambra beer. Mmm, also a good beer. We got free tapas, too! That place was cool. It was totally beat by the next place we went, a 'chupeterría'. That place does not kid around. Just so you know, a chupito is a shot. That's all they serve--shots. You walk in, and there's this huge menu of like 120 different shots. Each time you get a shot, you get a point. You can redeem your points for sombreros, caps, shirts and even a thong! We aimed for the thong, but were 40 shots short. We only had like 40 points. Only. I was pretty tipsy by that point, but we kept on. We drunkenly walked to the city center, had another beer, then decided it was too late to be out since we had to wake up early the next day. It was a pain having to wake up at 8am.

Orientation was... eh. I don't like big crowds of people, and there were about 375 auxiliares there. I get really quiet around that many people, so I didn't get to meet too many new people. It didn't seem worth it, either, because we were all going to be spread out around Spain, and I had already met a bunch of people who will be working in Málaga. It's frustrating to see everyone quickly make friends, though, because, for me, socializing with that many new people is a chore.

I think that I'll be attending a bullfight this coming weekend! A couple of girls who I've hung out with a few times invited everyone to their place in Fuengirola because there's going to be a big feria that starts on Friday and goes on for a week. I think the bullfights are on Sunday, and Spanish ferias are notorious for going on until the sun comes up the next day, so it should be a fun way to ring in year twenty-four. Ay, ni quiero pensar de eso. I'll stay twenty-three for.ev.er.

Today is my dad's birthday! Feliz cumpleaños, Eme!

Pictures are coming soon. I swear. I'm just waiting to have Internet access at home because I don't think I can download them onto these computers at the Internet cafe. I don't even know why I call them Internet cafes since they're technically called locutorios. I think it's because the first one I went to was actually a cafe, so it stuck.

Oh yeah, I also start my job tomorrow. I'm pretty nervous because I don't really know what I'll be doing, but I guess I'll see.

Anyway, good night.

El corte inglés.

You've got to watch out for purse thieves up in here! I went out to eat today with a couple of girls who are in the same program I am, and one of them put her purse down on the floor while she ate. The next thing she knew, she realized that her bag was missing. We searched everywhere, but nothing. This random Spanish guy who was also at the restaurant took us all over the place, trying to help us find the stolen purse, but nope. She had money, her mobile, her apartment keys, her credit cards and a bunch of other stuff in there. That sucks.

They told us that thieves usually leave the purse and the non-valuable stuff in a trash can, so we went around the mall (I mean, the 'centro comercial') looking into trash cans. That felt a little silly, but it felt even sillier when Í'd check in the men's bathrooms to see if the purse was left in there. You can't imagine the looks you get when you walk into a bathroom with men peeing and you're just looking around. What am I saying? Of course you can--you're all perverts.

Anyway, we didn't find anything. But, damn, now everytime I go out with my beautiful man-purse, I am going to clutch onto it like it's nobody's business.

Moral of the story: if you're ever in a Pan and Co. restaurant in Centro Comercial Larios, order the Rembrandt bocadillo with the patatas bravas because that shit was good. I could've done without the mayonesa on the fries, though. Yuck. I damn well ate it, though.

Also, I just bought a 12-pack of really good beer (San Miguel) for like four bucks! There were even two free beers (total of 14), but the two free ones were alcohol-free. What's that about, Spain?

chicken nuggets!

Woo. Finally, more Internet access. I had been going through withdrawal. "I need e-mail real bad," is all I could think for the past few days. Anyhow, I thought I'd post a quick update. I found an apartment. I'll be living with another girl from the US who is doing the same program. Here is my address so that you can send me Whataburger:

Arturo H. Longoria

c/ Carlos Fontaura, nº3, 1ºC

El Palo

Málaga, Málaga

29018

España

It is so weird to be in these Internet cafes because the music they play has beats from American hip-hop or pop, but with way different lyrics, and not necessarily in Spanish. I recently heard a really slow version of Li'l Kim singing, "Imagine I was a dude, hitting cats from the back, yeah nigga, no strings attached," and it didn't seem like anyone had a clue what the Queen Bee was saying! I miss my iPod. I haven't had time for music.

Okay, I have to go to the bus station because I need to buy a ticket for Granada tomorrow (I have orientation over there). Thanks for all the comments everyone--I was cracking up! I wish I had time to reply to all of them, but dude, do you got some euros I could borrow for more Internet time?

I'll have Internet access at the apartment soon. They said "15 to 20 days." Ay, que dolor.