My exciting Life.....

Last week ...

I acted out the story of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" about 4 times.

I went bouldering in the cold.

I taught and learned about the Hoover dam as well as damns in general.

We hosted a Sunday morning American Breakfast at my house.

I played about 5 card games.

I learned how to download videos off of youtube.

This is Santi. He is one of my FAVORITE english students.......

Back to Business

When my roommate Isa returned from Torrevieja (on Friday), we finished off Christmas vacation with another christmas party, specifically a 'Christmas Barbeque,' better said a 'Christmas Spanish Barbeque.'

Anyways we had a bbq in the kitchen on a couple of griddles. That lasted 10 minutes until we blew a circuit. We had to downsize to one griddle, but it worked out well. I dont really know how to translate the menu...... lots of sausage and grease and fat?? Oh and cheeseburgers too. There werent any buns for anything, but of course there was lots of fresh bread, lambrusco, singstar, video games, and a card game called moose. It is most likely not spelled moose, but definately pronounced the same as the European Elk. (I think that is british for the word Moose)

Unfortuneately I now am back to real life again. Deep down I want to think that I like my job, but I have a 'hate work complex' that gets in the way. I laugh and time flies, I think I am also adjusting to having an afternoon schedule instead of a morning schedule. Things are coming along. :)

It's been snowy and rainy and cold. Waiting for spring, or summer or autumn, whatever is not winter.

Cabalgata = parade

This year I went to the Reyes parade again. I liked it better this year than last year. The theme was 'something cultural.'

This is a lady hanging on a trapeze from a bunch of helium balloons. She was doing flips and all that jazz. I am not exactly sure what culture it goes with, but it was really pretty and original.

I started out taking pictures of everything.

BELOW are some giraffes, I suppose from Africa?? Anyways, as you can see they are each controlled by two people on stilts. The front person holds strings that are connected to and control the head. THey were really funny and kept crashing into the butt of the person in front of them. I guess they couldnt see very well in the costume.

Yes, we were probably the biggest kids at the parade. And NO Javi did not let me sit on his shoulders.......

BELOW are some big, I mean HUGE, aztecish balloons that they kept crashing into the crowd. It was fun. AHHHHHH, I dont wanna here any feedback comments about the english that i am lacking. I am gonna start to read in English this week I promise.

Those were the parts of the parade in which they were NOT throwing candy. The rest of the parade I was on the ground and in the air catching all the candy that I could. Specifically the gummy candies, the good ones. (Within reason.... I didnt go to the extreme of stealing from the little ones). Then at the end of the parade we jumped the fence and colllected allllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll the candy that was in the middle of street where the parade was. I never wanna grow up.

Here is all the candy in the tire of one of the police vans that was in the parade.

New Year´s Eve at Javi´s

These are the promised pictures....

The Real New Years.

The Real New Years is a two part story that began in the HOUSE Of SANCHEZ. I say the house of Sanchez, but with the way that the last names are organized, it would more correctly be the house of sanchez, martin-palanco, and maybe two more last names. They have a lot of last names here- Its confusing, Ill explain it another day.

SO once again I am waiting on pictures..... but we had a nice dinner at Javi's with lots and lots and lots and lots of food. (Logical, right?) Present at the dinner was Javi's whole family (also very logical). IF someone would have given me the pictures, I would be able to just post them and you would seee it all.

Anyways Dinner was followed by grapes and champagne, well actually technically CAVA. CAVA is the spanish version of sparkling wine/champagne.

PART II:
We went out until breakfast with Danny and David. It was a lot of fun, a lot of dancing, and a lot of fun. There was about 30 people in the entire bar and so we had our own private section and private party. By the way, David and Danny are both young, wealthy, single, attractive, authentic Spaniards... Just thought I would throw that out there if any American Single Ladies would like to meet one of them- let me know. ;)

Another Check on the List of things to do in my life.

(Okay quick disclosure: In spain at midnight New Years Eve they end the year/begin the year by eating 12 grapes, one for each 'dong' of the clock. Puerta del Sol is where the big DONGING clock is. It would be the equivalent of Times Square.)

Last night I fulfilled a dream of mine in the best way possible. One of my life goals was to Eat grapes in Puerta del Sol on New Years Eve. You know.... like the Mecano song.

However, since I will be spending NYE with Javi's family and eating grapes with them this year I thought that SOL was not possible. WELL it was. We went to the practice round on the EVE of New Years Eve, aka Dec. 30th, aka last night.

It was rainy and cold and not really NYE, but I am completely satisfied with the event. Although we could not hear the gonging of the clock over the shouts of the crowd, we chowed down on approx. 12 grapes in approx 12 seconds and then we threw the remaining grapes at innocent bystanders in the crowd.

The plus side of going on the eve of new years eve is that there was probably 1/4 of the amount of stumbling drunks and 1/2 the amount of people that will show up there tonight. As Tania (my roommate) put it "It was like the very happy unbirthday, but for New Years." I feel like we beat the system. I get to celebrate NYE with the family of Javi and go to Sol, both in the same year. Magical.

So thats that story. As usual, I promise pictures will come. Javi ended up going home with my camera so I have to wait to see them as well.

Onto my next life dream: A mission trip to Africa.

This is the clock:

Feliz Christmas to Everyuno.

After saying that the concert was great, I would like to take the opportunity to inform everyone that I have a very Domestic side. In fact, I think I am going to make a chicken cassarole later this week.

Per the shouting and unyielding nagging of this domestic side of mine, I made lots of christmas cookies this year. As would be expected my number one favorite cookie was the peanut butter balls. The sugar cookies also turned out as expected every year... lots of hype, but honestly we know they will linger around longer than desired.

Umm so christmas. Well Christmas eve was wonderful! We had dinner at Javi's Aunts House and sang along to an ablum called something like 1oo golden classics or something. It included classics such as "what a wonderful world" "Stand By Me" "Say A Little Prayer" etc...

Christmas I woke up with a bug and have been on a strict diet of soup until now. Okay not sooooo strict, but everytime i eat something else it does a funny dance in my stomach that is not very fun.

Anyways here I am in "puerta del sol" With a giant christmas tree thing that was featured in an email Sweetie Pie sent out to all my family. (If you are not on Sweetie Pie's email list, don't worry and dont feel left out- Its not very important. )(Sweetie Pie, yes it is important- I just said that so the non-members would feel better)

So now I am on Christmas break. What is gonna happen.........?????????????????????????????