Making progress daily

So i finally figured out magic eye. I will elaborate on this later. BUT WOW. I really have been missing out during the past 25 years.

We won the lottery. 6 of us bought a total of 3 tickets at 20/ticket. Winnings = 100. You do the math!

Yesterday I went to climb and it was soo hot that i thought i was going to get sunburnt. We all climbed shirtlessly. Maybe like 80 degrees? I dont know, but definately unexpected. The temperature dropped immediately once the sun went down.

3 more days till christmas and 4 more days till i go on a climbing trip to the south.

Last night i watched Cheaper by the Dozen with the kids. We laughed and I cried. I cried like 3 times! I cry every time i see that movie. It always reminds of a certain country and certain someones.... You know who you are.

Anyways, I miss everyone and America. Hopefully I will be on that side of the ocean this summer......

MMMM the weekends.

13 days till Christmas!

Okay did everyone in the world know that pointsettas are not really flowers, just a bunch of leaves. I feel like I must have at least known this sometime in my past, but forgotten it. Well, I thought I would refresh you all on that fact as well.

So here is one random thing that I found funny and have been meaning to share for some time now. Okay sooooooo have you ever driven with your foot out the window? You know like on a reallly loooooooooong drive. When its summer and the windows are down and you are tired and can't find the right position? Okay, I definately have done this numerous times driving between Texas and WI. Listening to the music... cruise control on..... its not that wierd is it? I would think that MANY of you have done this. I remember Cori Smith telling me she used to do it.


SO here's the kicker- Javi told me that a while back someone somewhere in Spain was driving like that and got a ticket for something or other. And it came out HUGE on the national news. Everyone was freaking out about it. Okay maybe not that big - everyone probably just noted it. My first thought was 'Wow that is noteworthy- I CANT BELIEVE they gave him a ticket for that! whats the big deal?'....... But then i stopped and a wave of dumbness came across me. I realized I am in Spain -everyone was more shocked by the fact that someone was driving like that. That was what merited the national attention.




Last weekend Javi and I went Donkey shopping in a little town outside of Madrid. The town is called Chinchon. The donkey is called Margharita. Now that Javi has a van we can bring a donkey along to carry our bags, equipment, and selves from the van to the mountain.

And this weekend????? well, despite the Unbearable COLD and my frailty as a creature of temperature, we are headed back to Albarracin. Santi (not the one i care for) will be heading to the states for one year and it is a farewell trip.

I know that all my family and friends will probably be distraught with concern for my well-being. Well don;t you worry yourselves. I learn; and so plan to climb wearing 3 pairs of pants, at least 4 shirts, a fleece, a hoody, a softshell jacket, a winter hat and scarf and a down sleeping bag.

Hooray for weekends.

Overdue and Uninspired

Once I give up writing for a while, it gets more and more difficult to write... the whole "Now where do I start" thing. So I am forcing this one:


I feel like i have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off for the past week. My room is a mess of clothes strewn about. My desk is decorated with everything from foot cream to orange peels so that i can not see its top. But what have I been up to? Not quite sure.......

Oh I finally did the interview with Mr. Greg Collins. It went well, but I have thinking to do. Teaching is really not my first choice. I am going to hold off on the decision for a little bit. He is going to see where I would fit in schedulewise and I do not want to start training or anything of the sort until I know more. The only appeal to teaching english is that it MIGHT be easy and it can be rather lucrative. The specific school which I applied to uses many new age techniques... such as opening classes with breathing exercises and listening to classical music in the background so that students are at an optimal mental state for learning.

Anyways here is a picture from one of my typical saturday nights..... I really do enjoy them. It is our special time together.

Lately it has been reallly reallly reallly cold. I am waiting for snow. It would be out of the ordinary here and i dont want it, but i feel it coming.

Also on my agenda: Renewing my student visa. PAIN in the BUTT.

Oh i started to drive some too. Sometimes i pick up the kids from school in the car, but not much other than that.....

Okay There. I did it. I'm sure i will be inspired again soon.

What Can i say people love me......

I TOLD YOU I WOULD GET AN INTERVIEW.... actually i was not expecting this response. I feel it is some sort of joke. Or maybe everyone just needs a break sometimes.

Kateri,

So, you’d like to break into the glamorous, highly-paid, English teaching industry……

I hear there’s one in Japan….


Okay, well, since we share a surname and you have big eyes and all, I guess I’ll grant you an interview.

You DO have a visa, or residency or something that permits you to work here legally of course.

This week I’m as busy, but I can squeeze you in for a meeting on Thursday, November 27 at 5pm if it’s good for you.

Please confirm as soon as you can.

Cheers Kateri.

P.S. I’ve seen bigger eyes… If you can pop them out of your head or something cool like that I’ll be impressed though.

Greg Collins

So Im gonna be late for class, but i thought i would share this...

Dont wanna teach. Never really have. But figured maybe i would give it a shot. I just sent out the following cover letter to a english teaching school. They want candidates to have 2 years teaching experience. The above picture is also the picture that i sent......

I dont know why i did this. I just did. because I dont really know if i wanna teach and well I dont really care if i get an interview:


Subject line: Uncle Greg - Here is the CV that you requested

C/ Madreselva 4
28230 Las Rozas (Madrid)
693201284

November 2008
Attached is my resume along with my photo. You will find that I have NO teaching experience. However, I can tell you that I meet all the other requirements. I have been living in Madrid for about one year now as an Aupair and would like to break into the teaching industry. Honestly, the reason I have no professional teaching experience, is that I once made a vow that I would never teach. As stubborn as I can be, I finally realized that I have always had an interest in teaching and am constantly teaching people in capacities outside the classroom. Now I am asking you to consider meeting with me so that we can both find out if we would be good investments for eachother. I truely am a fun and exciting person with a strong educational background as well as experience working with different types of people. You will find on my Curriculum that I have experience in business, theater, writing, sailing, and sports. You may or may not find in my resume that I am passionate about what I do, I am a creative problem solver, I have relatively large eyes, I take pride in my work, I love to laugh, smile and meet new people.Thank you for your time and consideration. You can respond to me at 693201284 or by email. I am looking forward to meeting with you.Sincerely,Kateri Collins

The paragraphs are all messed up. but thats what i sent! the only thing i forgot to put was.... at least if you choose not to meet with me i hope that i made you smile. oh well. i dont wanna be self-righteous or anything.

I wonder if they will respond.........If they dont, it is because of my gramatical errors.

When was the last time you had a temporary tattoo.

I suppose that being with children in any capacity is fun to me because you get to relive your childhood 'for the sake of the kids.' Yeah deep down i wanted this tattoo, but would i have applied it to my arm in a clearly visible place, if it wasnt for the kids? (mine is the sweet alien, santi's got the ship) Okay, those of you that know me would probably think the answer to this question is yes.... but i can hoestly say that i never would have bought the temporary tattoes in the first place, if it wasnt for the kids.

FYI: i sprinted through the book to get to the end, and was not one bit disappointed.

On another note.
Do you know that one thing very typical of americans is to always have a big cheesey smile in pictures? Or at least some other huge - look at me i am doing X expression. This is normal and what you are supposed to do in pictures- right? CHEESE!

Well, in spain it is not the same. For example in the children's school pictures... about half the children are smiling and if they are smiling it is a half smile. I dont really know why. It is something that has been going back and forth through my head for a long time.

The only dots that i can connect are as follows: Not only are we having fun, but we need everyone to know it? In Spain all the houses have gates/walls/fences in front so that you can not really see them. In American we like to have a big beautiful house that everyone can see...to show off? I dont think that Americans intend to show off... but it is just built into our nature. We really are having a lot of fun and not afraid to show it. We are not constantly obssessed with image, but we are proud of our houses and our country and not afraid to hang a flag in our yard. Well, this is just my optimistic view of America. Maybe we are really unhappy but want people to think that we are happy and have lots of money and really cool things that make us happy..... Maybe no one that reads this will have any clue of what i am talking about......

What am I doing here (on earth)?

So I am reading this book. It is one that makes you think. It is called "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. Its a bit heavy, but I am reading it lightly. Anyone read it?? Its interesting and depressingish, and boringish, but I just can't put it down. I wanna skip to the last pages to see what happens... but who does that???

Anyways it addresses some deep issues from God to cannibalism....

This all got me thinking, of course I am past the issue of WHY DO I CLIMB? and why do i enjoy it and all that stuff. You can ask that about anything, but my next question is.... what would I do if I didnt climb?... I feel that I would be a little bit lost without climbing in my life. Maybe that is sad and a little embarrasing to say. How did i come to be so shallow? And why do I see hiking without a climb at the end of the hike as pointless? but now i come to the final conclusion, as always..... I am thinking to much. Oh how i love to climb....

So we finally went bouldering.... Albarracin!

(right to left: javi, me, pablo, carlos)

Carlos has something between a mullet and a rat tail. a really long rat tail.....

So I went bouldering outside for the first time in my life and i was not one bit disappointed. At first I was scared, but I soon learned that I was not going to die and it was sooo fun.


I suppose it is one of those things were I dont really know where to start explaining it and all i have done is think about it for the past two days, leaving me with nothing to say..... There were girls climbing, which was super exciting for me to be around..... Um I am just gonna leave it at that for now... here are some pictures:

There was about 5 of us together but then we met a loooooot of people.

Notice: a girl........Oh here's something that is really wierd... to get to this place we basically had to drive in giant circles on the expressways because there is no expressway that goes to the city..... The government won't build one for some reason? I think its probably just a wierd political spanish thing....... I can't really imagine anywhere like that in the US?

The answer to the question of Jack O'Lantern according to wikipedia....

As the story goes, several centuries ago amongst the myriad of towns and villages in Ireland there lived a drunkard known as "Jack the Smith". [1] Jack was known throughout the land as a deceiver, manipulator, and otherwise dreg of society. On a fateful night the Devil overheard the tale of Jack's evil deeds and silver-tongue. Unconvinced (and envious) of the rumors, the Devil went to find out for himself whether or not Jack lived up to his vile reputation. [2]

Typical of Jack, he was drunk and wandering through the countryside at night when he came upon a body on his cobblestone path; the body with an eerie grimace on its face turned out to be the Devil. Jack in a somber mood realized this was his end, the Devil had finally come to collect his malevolent soul. Jack made a last request: he asked the Devil to let him drink ale before he departed to hell. The Devil finding no reason not to acquiesce the request took Jack to the local pub and supplied him with many drinks of alcoholic beverages. Upon quenching his thirst Jack asked the Devil to pay the tab on the ale, this to the Devils surprise. Jack convinced the Devil to metamorphose into a silver coin with which to pay the bartender (impressed upon by Jack's unyielding nefarious tactics). Shrewdly, Jack stuck the now transmogrified devil (coin) into his pocket, which also contained a crucifix. The Devil, unable to escape his form (bound by the crucifix) agreed to a demand of Jack that his soul be spared for ten years (in exchange for the Devil's freedom).[3]

Exactly ten years senior to the date upon which Jack originally struck his deal, he found himself once again in the presence of the Devil. Same as the setting before, Jack happened upon the Devil and seemingly accepted it was his time to go to Hell for good. As the Devil prepared to take him to the underworld, Jack asked if he could have one apple, with which to feed his starving belly.[2] Foolishly the Devil once again agreed to this last request. As the Devil climbed up the branches of a nearby apple tree, Jack surrounded its base with crucifixes. The Devil, frustrated at the fact that he been entrapped again, demanded his release. As Jack did before, he demanded that his soul never be taken by the Devil into Hell, the Devil agreed and was set free.[1]
Eventually the drinking and unstable lifestyle took its toll on Jack, he died the way he had lived. As Jack's soul prepared to enter Heaven through the gates of St. Peter he was stopped. He was told that due to the lifestyle he had led, the life full of deceit, drinking, and sinful behavior, he was not permitted entrance into Heaven. Jack in a dreary state now went and stood before the Gates of Hades and begged for commission into underworld. The Devil, fulfilling his obligation to Jack, could not take his soul; however, out of pity he gave Jack an ember. From that day on till eternity's end, Jack is doomed to roam the world between the planes of good and evil, with only an ember inside a hollowed Turnip (Jack's second favorite food, after rutabagas) to light his way.[4]

Life in Spain gets better and better the more spanish you know.

Hmmmm. So I could start this by saying I have been busy. But since i feel like i start like that everytime I write I will say something else......

I have finally got my resume together and am ABOUT to get it out. Still procrastinating, nervous etc. But really... its just a job.

Onto the more important things in life. Javi finally bought a van, completing one of his greatest life goals. Reminds me of my father's strange love for the astrovan. But you can't deny that it is the perfect vehicle for a rock climber in spain. There is no doubt that he is a rock climber.

Friday night I went to his house for dinner with his parent's and a few friends. Then everyone took turns driving 'la bicha' (that is its name). And went out for a drink together.

Saturday, I slept until 1pm. And Sunday I went out to eat with the family. LAMB. mmmmmmm. So goes my life.

I have been going to class lately and trying to focus on continuing to learn spanish. Now that I am at a level where I can speak and understand without difficulty, it is difficult to push myself to keep learning more new things. How often do I need to know the word eyelid? Or 5 different ways to say one sentence? Okay fine, there are many basic things i dont know either.... but i can say what i need to get by everyday. so it is. In May I want to take an official test that will reflect my spanish level and is a valid certificate throughtout the WORLD. someday it might come in handy......

Not climbing.

So it was a fairly busy weekend/week so far.

Last Friday I taught the family the joys of a jack-o-lantern. We made two. Now i have to go and research where exactly the name jack-o-lantern came from.... I've never questioned this- but of course I have been asked more than once- Who is jack?

The weekend was ridden with really ugly and unusually cold weather. Instead I went to Segovia and did the tourist thing. Segovia Highlights---- an aqueduct, a sweeeeeeeeeet castle and of course, food.

This is the aqueduct. I have been told that it was built at the end of 1st to early 2nd century BC by the Romans. It is made by large Granite stones WITHOUT cement, mortar or clamps or anything. Those Romans were pretty good at what they did....

Things that are new:

-I am finishing up putting together my resume in english and spanish to search for a job in a hotel or something. That is my latest plan. I plan to continue living with the family, but need to find a job during some of my free time or during the night.

- I hurt my leg climbing. something with my muscle- Yeah, sounds kinda unlikely, who hurts thier leg while climbing? MEEEEE. This means another weekend without climbing, which is good because I feel like i have been absolutely busy and running around these days. I also used it as an excuse to skip class today.

Cooking tip: You should use a plastic knife to cut lettuce.

Reminder: You probably only live once.

A note to write.

(This is my home)

After another absolutely gorgeous weekend, today is rainy rainy rainy. I could hear the rain on the roof all night long and it continues today. I wore myself out over the weekend taking advantage of the final days before it turns cold. Cold being in the neighborhood of 40-50 degrees farenheit.

Friday I finally made it to the museum of Sorolla. It is the first class fieldtrip that I have gone on since I have been here. It was pretty fun. Notice in the painting below- he is most known for his use of light. AMAZING. I do love his paintings, but actually the highlight of the trip was the asian girls reading my palm. One girl took my hand and shouted "oh my God" Then they were all freaking out in their native tongue. Some highlights of the reading: I will have a very grave accident in my life when I am about 45 years old. They were disputing- I am either going to have normal money or very little. I have no intelligence, but my husband will be REALLY intelligent.

On friday night Javi and I went to a new place that has the best CHOCOLATE of my life. Basically a nice cup of chocolate is like drinking a mug of chocolate syrup. I know it sounds gross, but they do it, and it is really good and warm. I have a mad sweet tooth for chocolate. It has only gotten worse since I have lived in spain. And i am not talking any of that milk chocolate stuff. I gotta have deep rich dark chocolate. Anyways, my chocolate from friday had chunks of fruit in it and Javi had one that had little pieces of orange in it. So good and sooooo good. It was funny because his sister was with us and I was telling them stories about my life and childhood in the states. It was really funny for them because to them 'my life is like a movie.' She was asking me about the little girls that go door to door selling cookies, the thing that we say when we are trick-or-treating, and teenagers egging houses. They only see those things in movies. Yeah, we live it. I felt really cool.

This week my focus, and very unsuccessful thus far, is to force myself to make some decisions about the future. The future being the next year. I printed out my resume and hate it. Have no clue what I want to do and my previous hopes of spending the summer in the states are diminishing. Struggling.........

The Rain in Spain falls mostly in the Plains

Normally when it rains I am one to skip class, but not today. I have attended three days now without skipping. I walked to class with my new umbrella from the United States. Being on time made all the difference because I actually really enjoyed the walk. I listened to Blink 182, a soundtrack inspired by my recent trip to Kentucky and sang out loud because there were few others walking today. I wore a skirt and chuck taylors so I did not have to worry about my sox or pants slurping up the puddles. But geeez its cold! like 50 degrees!

Now I am off to the post office to mail my absentee ballot, I hope that it reaches the city of Brookfield by the time everyone is voting, whenever that is.

Here is the joy of my evenings......

They have a perfect hallway for playing cars. Santi and I could play this for hours. We just pass little matchbox cars back and forth. If one gets stuck in the middle we have to rescue it by hitting it out of the middle with another car. When they are all stuck, we lose.

This is a classic "Daniela" expression:

y

Its mushroom season in Spain!

So everyone is going around collecting baskets and baskets full of mushrooms wherever they see em. Then we cook em up and eat them. Soo good. This weekend the family went to pick mushrooms out in the country. And when they werent traipsing around the countryside they went back to the house to jam on the guitars. Tio filipe has an acoustic with 12 strings.

Anyways i passed all that up to go out to Alquezar again in hopes of getting in some canyoneering and world-class climbing. Well it rained saturday so that took canyoneering out of my plans. We hung out mostly inside all day. Some, of course went out in search of mushrooms. We went out to eat and to a bar in the evening. I finally got some rest that I have been missing for a while.

Sunday I headed out to Rodellar to get in some climbing. We were limited to overhung climbing as things were still drying from the rain. Dani Andrada, one of the world's bests, was there. Not much else. Headed back home on Sunday night.

Today I finally started school again. I have not missed out on anything in class. But i have come to the realization of what i was missing. I now have a great sense of accomplishment. I am a funtioning member of society and I actually do something. When the kids go to school and the parents to work.... I have something to do as well. It feels good. There are a lot of new kids. Some have only been in Spain for a couple of weeks now. Stress and homesickness. I dont think i was that bad, or was I?

Anyways. I am in a different place now and I like it. Love it. I still haven't taken any pictures.

I'm by no means political, but I'm gonna slip this in.

So this is what i read and bought into--------------------

TAX CUTS EXPLAINED
Because it's the election season, let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand.

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement until one day the owner threw them a curved ball (or is that a curved beer!). 'Because you are all such good customers,' he said, 'I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20.'

Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?'

They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.

So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. And so:

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings).
The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant the men began to compare their savings.

'I only got a dollar out of the $20,' declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, 'but he got $10!'

'Yeah, that's right,' exclaimed the fifth man. 'I only saved a dollar too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than me!'

'That's true!!' shouted the seventh man. 'Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!'

'Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison. 'We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!'

The nine men surrounded the tenth man and beat him up. The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our Tax System works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

----------------------------I have to back this up by saying that it is definately friendly drinking overseas.

And back, one more time.

Me and broski number 4:

Flippity Flop, now I'm back in Spain and actually have time to write again. I will be here until June, only 8 short months.

It is great to be back, but it seems that things are already back into the normal hum-drum of children crying and pulling on my strings like puppeteers. I truely did miss them and truely do love and care for them.

School started at the beginning of October, which means I should've been in the classroom today. However, as would be expected, I am already playing hookey and probably will do that a lot this semester. Unless of course something besides the renewal of my visa lures me in, like a good-looking young and wealthy man with a great sense of humor, a passion for climbing and an aptitude for buying me diamonds. So I'm getting sidetracked. The bottom line is that class is boring and I dread getting myself out the door for the 30 minute walk. I'm sure soon I will make that resolution I do every semester: a sharp pencil, perfect attendence without tardiness, completed homework, and 100% participation.

Today my worthy excuse for skipping was to unpack my suitcases and deal with banks. While in the United States I decided to generously give away ALL of my personal information. I am now a suffering victim of FRAUD. I can't really say that I have considered myself to be a "victim" before. It's an interesting feeling. It's not what I expected, especially since I am the one who GAVE away all my information to the wrong people. How the Heck am I a victim? See.... there I go, textbook response, blaming myself. Well, the good that comes out of this story is that I can use my words, from experience, as an inspiration to help others.... "Be careful out there. Ya know, I once was like everyone else, thought I was immune to fraud. But the truth is we are not. If someone asks for all your information over the internet, do not give it to them. Even if it is someone you think you can trust like John Paul Washington from Cambodia who will pay you $25,000 to help him get a kidney transplant for his sick two-year old child in the United States."

Now i am in milwaukee.

So i am doing a crappy job with this whole blog thing. I have been in Milwaukee/Chicago for a while now. These are pictures from my first days back. My dad put a huge banner and balloons up on the house.

I will put up more pictures etc later. and maybe even write...

FOr now i am going to KY to climb climb climb. nothing new.

Well Here is My Blog

I'm still in Spain and things are great. Summer has just ended and, of course, school is starting. The kids began September 10th and I would begin October 1st, but I will be in the states for Adam's wedding.