QOTD: nunca te acostarás sin saber una cosa más. MF taught me this on Friday and I forgot to add it. It's the Spanish equivalent of 'you learn something new every day' and it's completely true. Every day I learn words, stuff about my host family, stuff about Spain and about myself too. This experience has gone so well so far that I've decided to come back in April, after working a bit and my holiday to Amsterdam (eeee so excited!)
Monday was haaaard because of the crazy weekend but back to business as usual with the kids and classes. Apparently booking a £500 hotel for your family isn't a good idea because they're just gonna make you refund it. Jacuzzis aren't necessary when visiting Barcelona because you're just gonna be roaming the streets all day eating tapas and taking pictures. Hmph. My mum and brother visit in 2 weeks and I can´t wait to see them! I might end up roaming Nou Camp with my brother for a few hours but I guess that´s the price to pay when you´ll be in the same city as the best football club in the world (Catalonians, love me please.)
Gina and I made a Victoria Sponge cake and Roger helped add the jam once it was time to eat it. Jordi and Susana helped me with using the oven and finding a cake tin, and also taking it out at the end because I had class. I was 10 minutes late but class hadn´t even started and we finished early so I know not to worry about it next time. Anyway, the cake was a great success and it got me and Gina talking together in English without her having to feel pressured or shy. She was great at mixing everything, very careful and even managed to crack an egg into a bowl! It was so sweet.
We´ll have to cook some more because I think it´s the best way I can share British culture (because who wants to talk about colonialism and elitism all day ahahahaha). We´ll probably end up making curry, seeing as I don´t like mash or gravy and that´s the staple of so many British dishes. Maybe I´ll start playing some British music too, but they already know about that. Jordi´s a big Dire Straits fan (yes they´re a British band, apparently, if you´re reading this and under 40) and Ed Sheeran´s on their summer car playlist so other than endless Spice Girls karaoke sessions I´m not sure what else I can do!
Gina and I made a Victoria Sponge cake and Roger helped add the jam once it was time to eat it. Jordi and Susana helped me with using the oven and finding a cake tin, and also taking it out at the end because I had class. I was 10 minutes late but class hadn´t even started and we finished early so I know not to worry about it next time. Anyway, the cake was a great success and it got me and Gina talking together in English without her having to feel pressured or shy. She was great at mixing everything, very careful and even managed to crack an egg into a bowl! It was so sweet.
We´ll have to cook some more because I think it´s the best way I can share British culture (because who wants to talk about colonialism and elitism all day ahahahaha). We´ll probably end up making curry, seeing as I don´t like mash or gravy and that´s the staple of so many British dishes. Maybe I´ll start playing some British music too, but they already know about that. Jordi´s a big Dire Straits fan (yes they´re a British band, apparently, if you´re reading this and under 40) and Ed Sheeran´s on their summer car playlist so other than endless Spice Girls karaoke sessions I´m not sure what else I can do!
Tuesday:
I was early for something! I'd arranged an intercambio (language exchange) with one of the members of staff at my school and she refuses to send me a message on my mobile even though she has my number. Maybe she thinks it's unprofessional but it's worse having to go through someone else to confirm that we were meant to meet at 11, not 10.
Anyway, I went home and put some washing on and then ventured out again to meet at 11. We went to the café where Susana and Jordi's friend works and I felt super cool knowing someone else in town and recommending somewhere to have coffee (theirs is the best). We spoke Spanish quite well, I felt quite competent for once at expressing myself and making a couple of awful jokes. She also taught me some useful words and was just generally nice to be around. Then we switched to English and she was a bit shy like a lot of people seem to be here and I think she understood most things but there was a permanent look of confusion on her face. When MF arrived to join us, she ended up translating some things into Catalan which made me feel like I was talking gibberish or something.
But no, in the end she noticed that there was a lot of confusion as well with some simple things so it wasn´t anything to do with me, just a case of needing to practise more. Like when I tried to explain that my friend from the Chino works at the front of the shop, she thought I meant outside at the front (on the pavement? in the road?) and nothing I could say made it any clearer for her, so MF translated and eventually it made sense. I liked the whole thing though. I don´t normally hang out with people older than me, especially if their older than my mum like this particular member of staff, but she was just really nice and enthusiastic and I guess being bombarded with English just tired her out.
But no, in the end she noticed that there was a lot of confusion as well with some simple things so it wasn´t anything to do with me, just a case of needing to practise more. Like when I tried to explain that my friend from the Chino works at the front of the shop, she thought I meant outside at the front (on the pavement? in the road?) and nothing I could say made it any clearer for her, so MF translated and eventually it made sense. I liked the whole thing though. I don´t normally hang out with people older than me, especially if their older than my mum like this particular member of staff, but she was just really nice and enthusiastic and I guess being bombarded with English just tired her out.
This was also the day when Susana got mixed up and said, "Are you welcome?" instead of, "You´re welcome!" It was so funny, she caught herself but we´ve been laughing about it all week. Like I dunno if I´m welcome, that´s for you to decide! Languages are so funny sometimes.
It was a normal evening, we chilled on the sofa and did some practise for Gina´s English test, played some games and talked. Dinner was nice and then my worst nightmare happened (though it turned out not to be that bad) - Jordi mentioned that they´d read about me having CFS. Now, I call this my worst nightmare because I hadn´t told them about it. I think I was a bit scared of being rejected because I get tired a lot and maybe I wouldn´t have been the active member of the family that they wanted. Seemingly I have been, they´ve liked my attitude like I´ve said before and I haven´t had any complaints (touchwood!). I just didn´t want to be defined by my illness in the slightest. I´ve changed so much from last year that I just didn´t want to think about it anymore.I´m managing things by myself and with the support of close people around me. But anyway, they didn´t mind, didn´t ask many questions and I explained a bit but I don´t think it changes anything. We just spoke a lot in Spanish about some other stuff and I put myself to bed.
Theeeeen I checked my phone and realised I was meant to be walking with MF instead of freaking out for no reason. So we decided to have a late walk and stayed out for a couple of hours chatting and laughing (she has some amazing stories). One thing we couldn´t do, apparently, was link arms (even though it was freezing) because if you do that, not only does every guy in every car stare at you in a really obvious and intense way but you´re also in danger of harming her prestigous position in the community. Linking arms is basically like telling everyone you´re gay and unfortunately, people here can be really closed-minded to that. Still, when no one was around, we managed to sneak a link like we were in super modern, everything goes, London.
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