Luceee :) blogging from Spain!

3weeks6days

It’s only 3 weeks and 6 days until I leave mainland Spain to go to Mallorca for the summer. Time is flying past and it’s going to go even quicker from now as on Friday I go to Marbella for a week with my host family. They have a holiday house right on the beach so I’m extremely excited. I plan to come back with a gleaming tan.

The weekend before last was when Sara and I went to Barcelona for the weekend and it was incredible. I had such a good two days and didn’t want to come home at all. After getting up at ridiculous o’clock and enduring an 8 hour bus ride we finally arrived navigated our way to the hostel where we met Bethany and headed out straight away. First we went to look at the port and the statue of Christopher Columbus which was cool. Then we went up Montjuic which had the most amazing views of all over Barcelona. Friday evening we also watched the Magic Fountain show which was amazing we got a photo infront of some of the fountains.

We went out for dinner typical spanish paella and sangria (lots of sangria was consumed over the weekend). The hostel we stayed in was really nice and so comfortable. They buy alcohol every night and everyone chips in so they make big buckets of sangria and everyone plays drinking games together. Friday night Sara and Bethany decided they didn’t want to go out but I did so went out with people from the Hostel to a club called Factory which was small but played really good music.

Saturday morning I got home at 7.30am and was up at 9.30am to go on a 3 hour walking tour of the old city. The woman who was showing us around was slightly annoying and I was so tired by the end but powered through as we were there for such a little time it was just wrong to waste it! After the tour finished we joined forces with some Americans that are studying in Rome at the moment and had come to Barcelona for Spring Break. So Sara, Bethany, Hannah, Meghan, Joe and I went to the market off Les Rambles bought some yummy food (goats cheese, fresh bread and sun-dried tomato stuff olives) before heading to Guell Park which was designed by the architect Gaudi. It really was incredible!

This is a picture of the entrance. We walked right up to the top and ate our scumptious picnic. Whilst we were sat a man came over and started to draw us. It took a while to figure out what he was drawing as we were looking from upside down! Joe was saying something when he was drawing me -I think it was something bird related- so the artist drew me with a HUGE smile on my face and it was awesome. I wish I’d asked him for it but I was on a budget and didn’t want to pay for it. As soon as he’d finished he showed us got up and went to draw something else.

After Guell Park we went to see the Sagrada Familia, a cathedral designed by Gaudi.

This is a good picture of the Cathedral as Gaudi died whilst it was still being built. It carried on being built but all of his drawings/ideas had been lost so they spent years trying to collect as much information from friends and family so it could carry on being built as he planned but it wasn’t enough. You can see the difference between the building on the right to the left. That night we pre-drank with the hostel again and went out, first we went to a bar that only sold shots and they had over 200 different types! Unfortunately they were closing as we got there and I didn’t pick quick enough so had to settle for tequila. After leaving the bar we went to a club called RazzMatazz or something silly like that which was really really big and played all different types of music.

Sunday morning we only had a few hours to spare before getting the bus home so we went to a cafe where Picasso used to hang out which was cool. I was tired and hungover though so I didn’t get anything to eat, I also threw up in their bathrooms -oops. We had such a long bus ride back but Sara and I both slept for alot of it so it wasn’t too bad.

That’s all I have time to write unfortunately as I’m still a week behind on writing about Spanish life! Doubt I’ll write when I’m in Marbella either so when I write again there’ll be about 3 weeks to catch up on! xoxo

Snakes on a hike!

I’m writing this post extremely quickly because I have to get up at 6.15am tomorrow as I’m going to Barcelona for the weekend, how exciting and totally worth getting up early for. Although I can’t remember the last time I got up that early.

So, last weekend when I was supposed to be staying in because the girls and I were on a cleanse ovbiosuly ended up with me going out (no self-control), even Danielle and Sara caved when they went out on Saturday night which made me feel alot better. On Friday afternoon I started to feel really ill and blamed it on living on just fruit and vegetables for the past three days so I gave in had a homemade banana milkshake then took the kids to burger king as usual. Sam told me she wanted to go out for a few drinks and we invited our friend (he’s not my friend anymore but was at the time) JJ. We went round to his for pre-drinks and headed to a bar called something like Chinaski, or Chernobil. There was these really creepy moroccan guys in there so left pretty sharpish after one beer then headed to our usual bar La Criolla.

 Infact the weirdest thing happened last week, I was picking up one of the kids from school late and I couldn’t find her as she was off playing with her friends. So I was looking round this sports centre thats attachted to the school and this young guy with glasses came up to me and started chatting away in spanish like he knew me, my thoughts were ‘Oh no this is a guy I’ve met on a night out and have completely forgotten about, I’m an idiot’ but it didn’t make sense as he can only speak spanish and all I understood from what he was saying was ‘La Criolla’ so I left and continued my search for the kid. Then on Friday night as we were just walking through the doors of La Criolla and the bouncer tapped me on the shoulder and I looked and it was the guy from the sports center! Totally freaked me out and I felt abit bad because he’s the only bouncer I wouldn’t have recognised.

Anyway at La Criolla I saw some friends and spent most of the night with them but then once it all goes abit fuzzy and I stop remembering everything JJ and I got in to a huge argument. Apparently I said he was ‘only a teacher’ which could be taken as an insult if the person saying it had a better job than a teacher. I however, don’t. I’m a nanny and run around after spoilt children like a slave 5 days a week. Then I also called him an ‘ugly stupid man who does nothing’ or so he says. Sounds harsh but unfortunately for him, its true. Some people just don’t get along in life and JJ and I are clearly some of those people. I never really liked him before but it was just easier for the group for me to be nice to him. Then I started crying and one of the bouncers saw what was going on said something in to his walkie talkie and the other two turned up and kicked JJ out! oops.

After that I went back to my other friends did lots of shots of tequila went to a club and danced the night away. It was alot of fun and I didn’t get in until 8am so I had two hours sleep before having to get up and go and teach english for an hour.

I’m really tired now but need to finish writing about the weekend because otherwise my post that will be about Barcelona will be waaaaayyyyy too long.

On Saturday we went for a ‘hike’. It wasn’t exactly a hike as we just walked over someones land until we realised that we were on private land and turned around then walked back! We also encountered a wild snake on the way which was very entertaining/scary. That pretty much sums up the weekend, oh and JJ has now tried to ban me from his apartment which would be fine except he lives with Sara who I spend most of my free time with. I went round on Tuesday to pick up a cake tin so I could make a cake for Mairi’s 21st and he kicked off big time shouting about how I should have apologised to him before going round. Though, to be honest, why should I apologise to someone that I don’t like and will never be friends with, especially as when we argued I was really drunk and what I said was the truth and or shouldn’t be taken as an insult because he has a better job than me! anyway it’s no skin off my nose. Rant over, time to sleep because…

I’M GOING TO BARCELONA SOOOOOONNNNNNNN XOXO

This is what my life has become,

Writing blog posts while waiting for a Grey’s Anatomy episode to load. I’m 19 for crying out loud, what is wrong with me?! Oh I know what’s wrong, I’ve been roped in to doing a stupid cleanse with my friends which means I can’t drink any alcohol for a week, and today was the day where I only eat fruit so I’m feeling sick, irritable and tired.

The kids were so unbelievably naughty today that Sam and I actually had to hold the little girl down and force her shoes on because otherwise we would have missed to the bus to their English class. It’s like these kids feed off each other, once one of them does something naughty the rest follow like little lambs with devil horns on them and all hell breaks loose! On the bright side we could just dump them off at their English class and I got a break for an hour as usual before she came running back in the house at 19.50 looking like a little angel prepared to act all sweet and innocent infront of her mum.

Last weekend I was going to stay in because the girls all went on a mini holiday to Portugal but of course that never happened, turns out one of my other friends had people visiting from Madrid so we all went out and I ended up getting in around 6.30am. I managed to make it to my class and wasn’t sick either which was a bonus as I usually am. After my class I spent the rest of the day eating junk (the cleanse started on Tuesday), watching the Chronicles of Narnia (in spanish) and tidying/doing washing, oh what an exciting life I lead…

Today I watched the video for the ‘Kony 2012’ campaign. I’m not sure what the official name is but I thought it was absolutely amazing, Sam and I were both crying like babies at it and we’re all planning on going to Madrid on April 20th for the ‘cover the night’ event. It works out pretty well to be honest because I leave for Mallorca on the 22nd and was planning on going to Madrid to meet Becki on the 21st so now I’ll just leave a day early and do something productive for Uganda before I leave! Hopefully it won’t get out of hand and people will be sensible about it. Last time I participated in something like this was at the student protests in London where people broke in to Tory Headquarters and loads of people ended up arrested.

I’m really excited about this weekend, as we’re not allowed to drink alcohol for this cleanse the girls and I are planning on all relaxing together, hiking and playing volleyball. I LOVE volleyball, it’s so much fun. It was probably the team sport I enjoyed the most at school. So I’m sure I’ll be writing about it in my next post! xoxo

Losing my memory

I could have sworn that I’d written a blog post about the last week but didn’t think to check until now, turns out I didn’t!

The weather in Spain is amaxing at the minute, I’ve been outside in the sun almost everyday. Lying on a sun lounger on the balcony :) It’s just like being on holiday except at around 17.00 I have to go the the park and do the tedious job of watching the kids as they play…my life is really hard isn’t it?

My mission of no carbonated drinks for lent is going quite well, no bread isn’t too bad either although I had a sandwhich today because I was hungover. I have no will power whatsoever although next week the girls and I are going on this week long cleanse thing and we’re all doing it together so I’ll be able to do it. I’ve also started running with Sara, this evening we went for the second time and I noticed a difference, I had the motivation and ability to run for longer. I’m still really un-fit of course but I’ve made the first step and feel good about it after. Tomorrow I have to go to the post office so I think I might go up to the swimming pool aswell to see how much it is for a swim. My little sister is an amazing swimmer, she swims for 6.5 hours a week and shes only 11! I’m hoping that she’ll go in to the Olympics.

The past few days the kids have been really cute, well behaved and very angelic. Minus a little episode on our way home last night when I wouldn’t carry the little girls coat and she was really tired so she had a strop in the street. I’m feeling good about Au Pairing at the moment, in the last week my host-mum has told me  she’s really happy because she’s noticed a real improvement with the childrens english and one of my friends said she thinks I’ve done a really good job with them and that I’n probably the only one that has taught them life lessons. It’s definetly something I’ll consider again.

Last weekend I was really productive, we went to a University party on Friday night which was really fun, there was a good DJ outside and a live band playing in a marquee. I didn’t stay out too late as I was teaching english for two and a half hours on Saturday morning. It was JJ’s birthday on Saturday and we went out for a meal to this amazing Chinese buffet which had sushi aswell so I was really happy. I could eat sushi forever!! Then Sunday Sara and I went running, I made an Elizabeth David chocolate cake, and we practised Spanish so I felt really good about myself.  I can’t think of anything else to write so I’ll write something again next week xoxo

And the start of lent begins!

So it’s now Ash Wednesday and I have a few days to write about, last week the kids were REALLY REALLY naughty. A couple of weeks ago I bought some new boots and the day after wearing them my legs were in so much pain I could barely walk and I blamed it on the boots. Now I blame it on the children as the same thing happened last week and I’d been wearing converse. My friend said the pain could have been from stress, so yeah thanks a lot kids! I’m fine now though and still managed to go out over the weekend.

Anyway back to naughty children, usually when I go to the cousins house I only take the 5 year old girl I look after but this time the 9 year old boy wanted to come aswell. I was abit reluctant at first because he really is horrible, he just has no respect for anyone, but I agreed anyway. It ended up with tears from the little girl and both of them refusing to put their shoes and coats on to go home. I had no idea what to do because I can’t exactly pin them down and force them to put their shoes on can I? So I rang their mum in the end and she shouted at them over the phone, even after they were still reluctant. Then the day after the little boy decided to join us at burger king which was even worse as we took them to the big burger king in the shopping centre which has a huge play area and it was extremely hard trying to get them out of there. Sam told his Aunty on Monday about how horrible he is, and she said something to his mum who now wants me to tell her everytime he does something because she knows how he is but if shes not there and nobody tells her she cant discipline him for it. I should have mentioned something to her before but I wasn’t sure how to word it, it’s hard to tell someone they have a horrible child whoes rude and disrespectful to everyone! Especially if they then take it personally and think you just said they’ve brought up their child wrong. Fingers crossed that won’t happen when I say something next time he’s naughty.

On to a more fun subject…today is the first day of lent, I have given up bread and carbonated drinks and have done well so far but we’re only fourteen hourse in.  Spain is known for partying so when it was Carnaval on Saturday I went out and watched the parade with friends. There was a costume competition and some of them were the best costumes I have ever seen in my life, someone dressed up as Cruella De Vil and even got about 6 other adults to dress up as the dalmations and crawl along the floor infront of her it was brilliant. There was also the Cairo Museum, Barbie and Ken, Lego. All sorts in was brilliant. We all went out in the evening in fancy dress…as the Spice Girls. I was baby spice and rocked the pigtails and a sparkly sequin blue dress! It was very fun.

I haven’t done much cooking recently, last week I made homemade tomato soup which was really nice and for pre-drinks on saturday I made homemade strawberry daiquiris (not sure if that’s the right spelling) which were so so nice! Although I only got about 4 from a whole kilo of strawberrys! Next time I’ll have to get more. Got to get ready now, I think I might try and start writing more than one blog post a week. I always feel that these are too long…xoxo

Weekends are always full of alcohol

I’m writing this in my notepad on the way to Madrid, Sara is napping so thought I should use the time productively! We probably shouldn’t be having a second night out in a row as we’re both ill, but we’ve been planning to come to Madrid for ages so nevermind. Last night we were only going to go out for ‘one drink’ (it’s never only one drink is it!) and Sara ended up drinking a whole bottle of gin, I helped drink a little of it…the gin was supposed to last a month!

That was where I stopped writing on Saturday because Sara woke up.

WELL what an eventful weekend. It’s currently 12.04pm in Spain and I’m still in bed with an awful cough. So Sara and I ventured to Madrid on Saturday, it started off really nice, we got a Starbucks (I had a hazelnut hot chocolate) and walked to Retiro Park which is absolutely beautiful. There’s this lake that when its nice you can hire rowing boats to go out on! After this we got slightly lost trying to walk from Sol to Atocha so we could go to the Reina Sofia, I don’t know why we chose to go there as there is plenty of museums in Madrid and we’ve already been there before. I guess it’s because we knew it’s free on a Saturday evening. So by this point it was about 8pm and starting to get REALLY cold. Sara’s coat got stolen on Friday night so she only had a thin leather jacket on, I was wearing a leather jacket aswell but she gets a lot colder than me.

After the Reina Sofia we went to meet some of Sara’s friends at a tapas bar called ‘El Oliba’ which was really nice, we all ordered what we wanted but they were huge so everyone could try abit of everything. I had smoked salmon and cream cheese on toast, and Jamon Iberico with a sauce which I think was called ‘Salmorejo’ I could be wrong but it was very nice, it was a tomato sauce with herbs and spices, and it came on toast aswell. They were both very good. By the time we finished it must have been around 10.30 or 11 so we went straight to a bar called ‘Dubliners’ it’s an irish style pub/bar where you if you get given a flyer outside you can get two drinks for 10 euros! I had a Strawberry Daiquri and a Bloody Mary, the Bloody Mary wasn’t so great as they’d run out of Tobasco :( by this time I was starting to feel really tired as I’d only had three hours of sleep the night before! We stayed in Dubliners until around half 12 then decided to go somewhere else, a PR man offered us free entry and a free drink in some bar that I forgot the name of if we gotthere before 1 so we were practically running across Sol (bit hard for Nayra and Ana the girls we were with as they were in heels, luckily I was practical and in converse) to get there, we arrived at 1 on the dot and got told we couldn’t have the free drink because on their clock it was 1 minute past!! The cheek of it…we went in anyway only to find it filled with smoke from a smoke machine, blinding flashing lights and lots of young scantily clad girls that looked around 14. We left after about 5 minutes.

Sara and I both had limited funds and didn’t really want to pay to get in anywhere so we headed back to Dubliners and got more flyers on the way, this time for with every pint you buy you get a free shot! I chose to get Tia Maria, I would usually get tequila but was feeling very hungover and tired by this point and probably owuld have vomited on the floor. When I did eventually vomit I managed to get it in the toilet (this happens quite a lot). The night was dragging along and all I wanted was to get some pizza and go home but the first train isn’t until around 6.30am so we still had 4 hours to kill! After Dubliners we went to another Irish themed pub/bar that was open until 7am. I didn’t bother buying anymore drinks because I didn’t have enough money to get drunk and one drink wouldn’t make me feel any better. Sara bought a gin tonic and it was about 8 euros! What a rip off!!

This is where the night took a turn for the worst, two english guys came over and started talking to us. One of them turned out to be an absolutely awful creature, I have never met anyone so arrogant and pretentious in my life. He was just insulting us over and over again telling us how ‘men rule the world’ and that we were ‘peasants’ (who uses the word peasants anymore?!) then Sara completely ripped his life to shreds, he worked for some company which is apparently really bad and Sara knew all about it so just made him look like a complete fool, then he spit in her face!!!! What a low blow, she slapped him, personally I think he deserved more and all these Spanish men stuck up for us by pushing this guy a way and shaking their heads at him with a solemn look on the face. I was exhausted and after having insults thrown at me for abou 30minutes, spitting in my friends face was just the cherry on top of the cake so I ended up crying. Slightly embarrasing but I just couldn’t hold it in! On the bright side this argument used up a lot of our time that was going so slowly and by the time it was over we could go and get pizza and get the metro from Sol to Atocha and warm up in the waiting room while waiting for the train!

We both slept on the train and when we got off it was -8 degrees!!! absolutely awful after sleeping next to a heater for an hour. We ran over to a cafe to hide in while waiting for a taxi to come pick us up as it was far too cold to caatch the bus and walk from the bus stop to our houses. It was so nice to crawl in to bed and just pass out until about 3.30 yesterday afternoon, then I went round to Sara’s and we pigged out on the sofa eating far too much food and watching Grey’s Anatomy, after lack of sleep and lots of hungoverness we were feeling very emotional and cried quite abit.

This is an extremely long post about my weekend which not many people will read but I just HAD to write about it.

Next time I write I will have cooked something new, and will write about the kids abit more. Hopefully I won’t be ill either! xoxo