Au Pair Experience: Balaguer to London

Hey guys,

Everything's a bit of a mess right now. I wrote this when I was in England before I came to The Netherlands. Let's pretend I'm still there and my cat's not getting confused by my whirlwind appearances and frequent absences (poor baby). 

So, no one's as confused with my travel plans as I am, but I do manage to know where I am at any given time. Right now I'm in England and on Monday I'm going to Amsterdam with a super cool friend I have from uni. As much I'm looking forward to it I do admit it might've been better a bit later, once I'd settled in and unpacked my suitcase. That being said, I've done quite well considering the abundance of *things* I have and just need to sort out my hand luggage. 

Anyway, my last few days in Balaguer feel like a bit of a blur. They're not my last days ever so maybe I wasn't soaking up every moment, but some nice things did happen.

For example, me and my 3 girlfriends went out for drinks and drinks turned into cakes, or in NAP's case, a giant cookie with a teeny glass of hot milk (LOL). 

I felt a bit emotional by the end, I knew I was going to miss them a lot. But the time I'm spending at home is going really quickly.

I'm already missing my mini-me like crazy:

And my little wind-up merchant who I adore: 

Ah ;( I've sent them a postcard, and my German pen pal who I nearly forgot about ~~ but I hope we can speak on Skype soon. 

The girls sent me this:

and went on a mini break to Barcelona together (jel) and it's making me disappointed that I'll only go back to Balaguer for a month. I wasn't really ready for making close connections and bonding but it's been a really fun and important experience so I'm really glad it's happened. 

Au Pair Experience: Double Trouble!

Hi hi hi hi hi guys!

Ladies receive roses and gentlemen receive 

books on San Jordi. Picture from J. Á. M., El País Catalunya,

¿Dónde firma mi autor favorito el Día de Sant Jordi?, 21/04/2012, http://ccaa.elpais.com/ccaa/2012/04/
19/catalunya/1334866129_718542.html,accessed 6/03/2016

So this is your proper fun update because everything I´m going to talk about is good, except the fact that I´m leaving in a few days! However, I´m set to return before San Jordi. It´s a very big tradition in Cataluyna and as much as it pains me to say that I´d rather spend Saint George´s day in Cataluyna than England, it´s true. In England you just see English flags waving about and yobs shouting at PoC to go back to where they came from, because apparently it offends us to see the English flag. It´s a mess. Rather get some roses and a book! 

Life has included a lot of food (and beer) lately which has been delicious but I just about fit into any of the less loose clothes I have, so I may start having to skip the flan (so sad, so sad). So, last Friday night we had pintxos, like I´d had with my family in Barcelona, and they were seriously good. The restaurant was cute too with a really friendly waiter (who knew the family well) and a cool mosaic of Balaguer going across the whole wall. I stared at it for so long because it´s so detailed.

The next time I went I wasn´t so transfixed by what I saw, so I took a selfie with the two out of three friends I have here and tried not be disappointed that the fried fish tasted like...fried death.

Last week when I suggested to these two that we go to the
exact same restaurant I´d been to the night before, because the 
food was luuuush and then it turned out not to be quite as good

In addition to great food, there´s also an awesome new au pair in town! (We´ll call her NAP until she agrees that this post isn´t too embarrassing and is ready to declare her name to the world). She´s all the way from Australia and didn´t grow up in the Bush as far as I´m aware, but a farm, so she fits right in here! 

Anyway, she´s great, really bubbly and amazing with the kids, with a lot of good ideas about how to keep them occupied. Also braver than me because 

she´s only studied Spanish for one year. So all week 

we´ve been hanging out and I introduced her to the people I know here, including Irish Girl who is suuuuper funny.  I´ve shown her around town and we did a bit of the tourist thing, hence the picture on the left. On our afternoon off, we went to Lleida, the nearest city, and had a laugh there getting lost and treating ourselves to cute clothes that we weren´t sure that we needed. She´s living out of backpack and went for really specific things, ended up with about half of them, whereas I went for basically nothing and got some new boots and other things I´m just not going to talk about. The frozen yoghurt we shared was toootally worth it though, Oreo pieces, dulce de leche and strawberry omg, I´m gonna have to go again before I leave.

On Wednesday we had basketball together which was as knackering as it was fun and maybe a little embarrassing, judging by the fact that Carme saw my face while I was throwing the ball and is gonna tell the coach not to push me so hard, and the fact I didn´t get up until 12:15 on Thursday afternoon. Many baskets were missed and Carme translated everything for us English speakers (myself, Irish Girl and now NAP), which we really needed! If she´s not there one day then we´re gonna be screwed. I understand bits, sure, but I still end up the one confused about how much running we actually have to do and who to pass the ball to.

On Thursday I had a Spanish test at my school and I may or may not share the result, depending on how awful it is.

Skip to Friday night where we had a whole ton of fun and way too much pizza. Like I´ve said before, our host families are pratcially clones of each other so when the ten of us went out for dinner, we all paired up and chatted with our doppleganger, but there was a distinctly relaxed and excited family atmosphere and we all shared laughs and conversation. Everything about it was really lovely.

The restaurant itself was super cute with shelves of random things and a lot more space than I expected. From the outside it looks like a small shopfront but inside it´s Narnia.



Eventually it got pretty late and I politely asked Carme if we could leave because we´d planned to have a drink with our friends. It was no problem at all and as much as we wanted to go, we would´ve been fine spending the rest of the evenings with our host families, communicating in 3 languages (with an Italian menu), although I tried to stop the kids from teaching her things in Catalan instead of Spanish. It was so funny, the kids got a bit interested with my hair so with a few plaits as a moustache, I transformed into Antonio who works on a farm and has 13 girlfriends, including both the girls and the host mums. God, it was such a mess but it was so fun, a great end to a good week.

I´m sure while were having a drink NAP said something about how she loves me and how happy she was to have met me because I´m amazing which was so lovely of her! Haha, it was more like we both have amazing families and everything has just been incredible so far, and as negative as I can be sometimes, it´s true.

Picture by Carme, prize for best pose goes to Roger!

Until next time,
Antonia xx

Here vs There

So, if you don´t know already, this post is going to be one about the differences about things here and back home in sunny England. I really haven´t decided where I prefer, and seeing as I really haven´t explored that much of England, let alone the UK as a whole (London, Essex, Brighton and Hove, Cardiff, Loughborough, Leicester... Devon as a child, not sure I´ve actually been anywhere else!), and it does actually rain here, it wouldn´t be fair to make that kind of judgement yet.

Let´s start with stuff I prefer here:

1. Pace of life
2. Prices (in Balaguer things are actually cheap, in bigger cities this is mostly due to the exchange rate)
3. Less fear of having your stuff stolen (this definitely only applies to Balaguer and the villages I've been to. In the cities I am so careful of my stuff that drives me slightly insane)

And stuff I prefer in the UK... (might only apply to London)

1. Personal space (and the fact that people will move out of your way in the street instead of doing their best to walk into you or force you to swerve. I'm not even being dramatic!)
2. Ability to buy hair extensions!! (Check the post before this one to see the struggle of buying hair extensions)
3. Walking pace (Sometimes you actually want to go somewhere and need to walk at more than 0.0001 mph)

And here´s some stuff that´s just different:

1. People don´t have passwords on their phones! (I have struggled not to take advantage of this)
2. Please and thank you aren´t that important (if you want to be polite to someone you know, just make sure you speak nicely. Passing someone the salt isn't going to win you a plaque in your honour)
3. There´s dog shit everywhere (it's as if most people actually consider the pavement a toilet for their dogs. Thankfully, this wasn't the case in Barcelona)

Here are somethings I wanted to talk about in a tiny bit more detail. This post is a lot to write easier having been to Barcelona and spent time with my own family, as I've noticed what they've found hard to adjust to and they've picked up on some differences to!

Weather:

Of course I prefer the weather here than in London! It does rain (shock horror) but it's not the incessant, depressing mess of English weather that I'm used to. The sun shines. It's also cold and sometimes windy, so I'm not sitting on the beach tanning like I was in Valencia, but it makes getting out of bed in the morning much easier.

Buying drugs:

Well, that escalated quickly! Okay, so I don't know anything about where you can get your coke fix, but if you want some hardcore paracetamol, don't go to the supermarket. You have to buy drugs in the pharmacy and you can get more in one go than you'd get in England. They're bigger too, so you don't have to take two to feel like your headache might've got better. I prefer Barcelona for this, buying basic medication along with your bread and milk is all well and good, but if you're like me it's worth it to stock up and that's hard to do when you're limited to 16 tablets.

Everyone wants to sell you something:

This got pretty jarring pretty quickly. Cries of "selfie" "cheap price" will interrupt your conversations, meals and strolls along the beach. Some of them will push it, try to convince you to buy it by staying near you which is uncomfortable but I've never felt an urge to pay them just so they'll go away. The guys selling flowers are the most likely to interrupt your meal so if you're on a date, sit inside for a better chance of being left alone. Definitely prefer London in this case. No one's gonna try to get you to buy their stuff unless you're on a market or passing a promotional stall in a shopping centre.

Begging:

Homelessness looks absolutely pitiful in Barcelona, as it is in too many big cities. I found myself giving people a bit of change or food if I had it, but not to the people that actively begged. I don't know if this is bad, that people will come up to you and ask for money or sit on the street and wail "ayudame por favor" but something in me wanted to avoid those people. In London people beg too, but you occasionally get someone discreetly asking you for change rather than wailing on the street. In this case I prefer London because it's convenient that you can walk by and pretend you haven't noticed someone in need. But both cities need to do more to help people with nowhere to live. These are global capitals. There's no excuse. 

Museums:

Make the most of the free museums in London! And join any campaigns to keep admission free because it's really worth it. That being said, the museums in Barcelona were beautiful and I didn't feel too bad paying an entrance fee. Getting into the Picasso Museum was free because I'm at university but I was blown away by it, so paying wouldn't have been so bad. Anyway, the reason I prefer London in this case is because you can see as much or as little of as many or as little museums as you want, without feeling like it wasn't worth it because you couldn't see asmuch as you wanted. Basically, there are a lot of museums in the city and its hard to fit them all in.

Transport:

The underground system is definitely better in Barcelona. You can use your mobile, there's more space and the trains  come at least every 3 minutes (if there's not a strike!). Of course, London's system is the oldest I the world, but you would've thought they'd have modernised by now for the the price of it. However, I don't know if Barcelona's Metro stretches as far and wide as London's and the buses are apparently better there too. 

*If you have any questions or are curious about other things then feel free to comment or message me privately and I'll talk about it in the next post!*

Thanks for reading!

Until next time,

Antonia xx

Au Pair Experience is BACK Part 2

Silly me deleted the stuff I said about Saturday which is super annoying because I was just starting to enjoy myself and now this seems like hard work.

Saturday

I woke up a little late but still in time for family lunch in the village. It was nice being with the abuelos again. Honestly, I can barely understand what abuelo is saying but it´s so sweet that he´s always so eager to share things with me about life as he knows it and things about the region. He also offered me the tablet while I was reading a magazine (which I was quite content with), but it shows you how concerned he was for my comfort. So I read a bit of the newspaper the family buys La Vanguardia in Spanish and then went back to ¡Hola! which was trash but Penelope Cruz is so nice to look at.

Abuela also won´t let me lift a finger and reminds everyone to speak Spanish because I have no idea what´s going on half the time. But I don´t mind it, like I´ve said (and so has everyone here) it´s really hard to speak to your freinds and family in anything but your native tongue. She also always makes sure I´ve eaten enough, and with the meal consisiting of soup, delicious barbequed lamb and sausages and bananas, two helpings of the flan she´d made and chocolate croissants, I couldn´t physically miss out on that good eating. 

After lunch I got roped into coffee at this hotel bar with primo, Susana´s niece and their friends instead of being allowed to become one with the sofa. He drove us there which was fine because it was only a three minute drive. I say this because he´d actually said he´s a bad driver and this country roads aren´t a joke. For the first time ever, I opted for Diet Coke because I was so tired and didn´t want to force myself to be awake with more sugar. It ended up being Coke Zero, but it tasted just as nasty. We spoke and two of the girls brought their arts and craft stuff to make their masks for later. I was tempted to ask for one seeing as my glittery one wasn´t really appropriate for the robber theme, but I turned myself into a princess robber instead. 

I got picked up before I´d finished my drink 45 mins later, and then we got ready for the children´s parade. Roger and Gina had done a parade on Friday with school, but I didn´t see it because I was sleeping. They were dressed as a pirate and Pocahontas and all of the children in the class had almost the exact same outfit which I saw picking the kids up from school. I don´t know if they bulk buy it through the school or something, but I wasn´t expecting that because I'd seen Susana sewing some things. I painted a beard on Roger for his pirate look and Susana put some red lipstick on Gina as she was a cowgirl. I only stayed for half of the parade, then went to buy make up and get my stuff ready for later in the night. 

Some of the floats were super impressive, like the Gaudi one above. I don't remember seeing Native American costumes but I do recall seeing a caveman in black face and an afro wig, and also two women who might have been trying to look African in printed dresses, black face and Afro wigs. It's so alienating seeing that, I don't know how the black families who live here feel, their children are part of the parade too, but I really don't see how that's not obviously offensive. There were so many better costumes and concepts, superheroes, animals, an FCBarcelona float with two guys resembling paragliders, Gaudi, Vikings, Ancient Egyptians (there was no black face), even Ludo boards and of course, a truck load of Minions. Europe has a long way to go with cultural appropriation, but it's not surprising considering its colonial history, just frustrating and sad.

I spent the evening with the abuelos, asleep on the sofa and then eating bread dipped in hot chocolate (which was meant to be drunk but Spanish hot chocolate is super thick so I opted out) and doing my make up. I felt comfortable in their house and was really grateful to them for having me. Maria picked me up, then primo and she was in a hurry but I was so confused by the whole situation that I probably slowed her down a little. She's actually famous now because of her work (see her picture in the local paper) and sings in a choir. We swapped some idioms like "beauty is pain" (the same for women everywhere, no matter what language you speak) and they say that it rains if you sing badly here (which maybe someone should've done during the dry season that all the farmers have been worried about). 

Dinner was in someone's massive garage and I was really shy at first because Susana's niece wasn't there and I feel like me and primo only got properly friendly after Saturday night. The girls from earlier were there too but they obviously speak Catalan so I felt a bit overwhelmed by the situation. Luckily there was a massive friendly dog who came up to sniff me and grabbed some firewood so I attempted to take it out of his mouth for a bit. More people arrived, including Susana's niece and snacks and beer were passed around. Eventually I needed the bathroom and was introduced to the owners of the house which was awkward for a reason I'm not sure of, but I made sure I was very polite. 

Dinner began and it was a typical meal of ham, bread with tomato and cheese which was perfect tbh. You pass everything round and talk loads and it was really good. Eventually I needed the bathroom again and went by myself (so brave, someone did help me find the light for the stairs though). I spoke to the parents for a little while (wasn't easy because accents) and asked where the cat I'd  seen was. The mum retrieved him for me and omg he was the fattest friendliest kitty in the whole world. Things were no longer awkward. I sat with him for a good 15 mins while the dog got jealous and wouldn't come over for a stroke. Finally my "omg I miss my cat" wishes came true and eventually I wandered back downstairs.

After a while we left for Balaguer which was an experience in itself. I went with some of the girls and we sang and made jokes, it was really cool. Then I really needed the bathroom so we stopped and I fell into someone's farm in the dark praying that they didn't abandon me there :)))) It was very embarrassing and everyone saw me fall :)))) When we eventually made it to the fiesta there was a ton of mud to trek through in my brand new trainers and I would've loved to have avoided that but it's apparently tradition.

I cleaned that tradition off on Monday with a spare toothbrush.

The fiesta was pretty good, there was a live band, 3 beers for 5€ (maybe I have a slight beer obsession now), lots of people and some amazing costumes (sacred Indian gods not included).

Honestly had a lot of fun and everyone was so lovely and funny! I even saw London Girl and I did the happy drunk screaming thing in the toilets. She wasn't impressed but it was fun. Eventually I did get tired and three of us did the fun walk home. It'll be really good to hang out with the village lot again.

Sunday

Sunday was a teeny bit hard. I'd written a note on my door for the family saying I'd be sleepimg until 3pm but if they needed me urgently they could just come in and wake me up. Luckily they didn't and were out most of the time because some hands might've got bitten off, ya know? 

Susana and Jordi got ready for their concert in Barcelona which wasn't really in celebration of Valentine's day but I wished them a happy one anyway. Then it was time for babysitting which was fine apart from having to repeat myself five times to get Roger's attention! He's very much away with the fairies but both of them were a bit ill so I was as patient as possible. I tried calling my mum while I was making dinner but she was busy so I fried the frankfurters (assuming they're good so long as they're hot all the way through) and did myself some onions. I laid the table as I've become accustomed to here - pepenios (pickled gherkins, onions and red peppers) and bread sticks, all the sauces, water and napkins - and it turned out Gina didn't want dinner. So I made her some milk with Colacao and asked her to finish it all, which she did and she ate some bread sticks too. I wasn't worried about it because their parents had said they're not well and if they don't want to eat then milk's fine.

We stayed up until 12 watching Kung Fu Panda and Disney Channel and they were pretty good about going to bed which was a nice way to end a cute night.

Okay the pic is from earlier in the week but look how sweet these kids are!

So that's my week, I hope you enjoyed hearing about it and are as excited as I am for what's to come!

xx

Au Pair Experience is BACK

After my one week hiatus, I thought it might be time to update you all on what´s going on. I´m no longer counting each day because it´s been a month now and before I know it I´ll be back home. Still, blogging is not longer coming naturally to me right now, so forgive me if this post is substandard in any way. My energy is pretty spent lately because I have a social life now (and not just with MF). I saw a lot of this over the summer when I was doing my placement with the Business School analysing expatriate blogs -once you settle in to a new place the normal thing to happen is that you blog less. It might also have helped that I spent most of my free time during the week braiding my hair, but that's not the point!

So, we'll run through the week then I have a kind of "Things at Home vs Things Here" post in mind.

Saturday

This was a big night out in the city with MF and a couple of her friends. Couldn't understand one of them at alllll. Imagine someone speaking a different language with a different accent and eating every word he's saying while mumbling. It was that. The bars were fun, especially the free sweets in one and the cute girl I had the typical drunk conversation with outside the toilets. In one bar they played a darts game but I was too anxious to join in (a dart flying through the air and stabbing someone seemed an all too likely reality). Then we went to a club until 6am which was quite fun, especially as everyone was dressed up for carnival, but while MF was wooed by the Italian Stallion of her dreams, short cowboy hat guy didn't impress me so much. It was a fun night, drinks were included in the €10 entrance fee which is pretty good considering the prices in the city.

Sunday

On Sunday I was completely dead. Somehow I managed to shower and change but other than that I was toast. There was family lunch but at home and just with Maria and Pol (tía y primo) and I skipped coffee and went to bed. The paella was good, it was different, more like soup which they eat a lot of here but good. The prawns were a bit scary for me though, absolutely massive with everything still attached, I didn't realise I was squeamish but their huge shrimpy body parts freaked me out a bit. I ate them though (well done me).

I felt a bit bad about going to sleep and I was not expecting a full house when I woke up! I'd heard a few voices but i didnt know another 6 people had been visiting and waking up just as everyone was leaving was so embarrassing.

Monday

Went to the library with MF which was needed because I'd not been study my classes as much as I needed to. Well, the library is actually closed Monday mornings but there was another place open, the cultural centre, where there are study spaces and WiFi. MF was reading a classic and helped me with some stuff I wasn't sure about, then I picked up the kids and their friends from school and as far as I remember, nothing too eventful happened that day. Class is still going too fast for me but I can catch up with some studying.

Tuesday

Made the most of my afternoon off by going to Lleida, though I was so shattered I thought about leaving it. I went with Jan and Abril´s dad, also Jordi (it´s the Catalan equivalent of George and San Jordi (St George) is the region´s patron saint, did I say that?), who works in the city and kindly offered me and lift there and back, any time. We spoke Spanish on the journey there and English on the way back which was all very nice, he told helped me navigate my way around the city and said I could call him if I needed anything (n´aww).

So, I'd had the same problem as when I was trying to find a black hair shop in Valencia - searching for them on Google is useless because you end up at your destination but the shop doesn't exist whether you type in ´black hair shop´, ´afro hair shop´,´tienda africana´or anything basically. After having this happen twice, I got desperate and walked along the main shopping street. Then I spotted a black woman with gorgeous brown twists and begged her, "Por favor, señora, sabe usted donde queda una tienda un que puedo comprar extensiones para mi pelo?!?!?!?!" (If it was in English I would´ve said "Please, Aunty, do you know where I can buy hair extensions?") Turns out her Spanish isn´t that great but her husband explained what I was bothering them for and she called her Aunty who directed me to her shop. We spoke in English for a bit, then they went about their business and I tried to follow the directions I´d been given. Eventually I called Aunty with the shop back and asked her to send me the location so I could use Google Maps. That took a little while, but lucky I´d only gone 5 minutes past the shop.

So, she was waiting outside the shop which was the only reason I knew I was going to the right place. From the outside, all you can see are freezers (full of fish) and rows of seasoning (I was tempted). Once inside, she bent down to a box of a variety of extensions and tried to convince me to take the purple ones but that was a big NOPE. I also bought some Vaseline which worked overnight on my cracked lips (Carmex, Lidl lipbalm, coconut oil, you can all shove it!) but it pained me that a small tub was 5€. Oil sheen spray was also 6€ but she gave me the flat, expired since July 2015 ginger beer for free (lucky me.)

After all that, I decided to get back to my tourist roots and do some sightseeing:

Then I made the most of the shopping district and hit Tiger for some hair tools, slippers and fudge and saved my last 10€ so that I´d be able to buy something in the cafe where I had to wait for Jordi. On my way there I spotted the library and figured this was the perfect place to have a break from wandering around. After informing the attendant (who honestly didn´t give a shit) that I can´t read Catalan and need some basic Spanish books pls, I found the language section she´d directed me to and picked up the first book I saw. It was a bit strange, an old man that looks a bit younger falling in love with a 19 year old and the town gossiping about it, even though she wasn´t interested. I also had to define every other word, despite the glossary so it wasn´t as relaxing as I thought it would be. The library was pretty lovely anyway and was actually silent, not like the ones we have in London. True, there were at least 3 floors and the children´s section was seperate, but there were no kids running around screaming either, so it was a nice change.

Once I got home I started my hair and realised that I really didn´t want to explain the ´here´s my afro, now here´s my braids´ thing to everyone in town, so I took out a section of braids, then redid them with the new extensions. Think what you will!

Wednesday

Went to Jan and Abril´s for lunch and still have their mum´s cardigan because it was a bit chilly inside and I was trying to give it back all week but it´s still here. Basketball was cancelled which was a shame but also good because I was tired and needed to do more of my hair. Am I obsessed with my hair? No. But it takes ages trying to live life and do it yourself. I think this was the day when Natalia helped me with it, which was sweet and I was surprised she knew how to do it, but she´d had braids in her crazy 20s too.

Thursday

Finished my hair just in time for school. Went to school and got asked on a playdate which may or may not happen on Tuesday but it´d be cool if it did. The guy who always tells me it´s alright if I want to go into class now (the door is always shut) made a joke with me. I think I have fans now.

Friday

I think the kids and I continued our amazingly silly story on Thursday and started it on Tuesday when they were bored and being fussy at lunch. Susana´s idea, but who knew it was going to get so dark. I won´t reveal it all until it´s finished, but an elephant steps on a kid playing football and a dog eats a cat and they both die so it´s all about wow kids, some active imaginations you got there! In the evening, Roger was very good at drawing it on the story boards I´d printed out but Gina was having none of it (or anything, tbh.) Eventually she got interested in drawing and was also very good at it, but I had to sit at the dining table and do my make up ready to go out because we hadn´t finished when I´d planned and she needed help with the English subheadings.

Then it was time for coffee-not-date which I´d got a bit overexcited about seeing as there was actually not even a hint of it being a date and it was not a date in any form. Still, I put on a pretty grey skirt and borrowed a necklace from Susana (I picked one I was unlikely to break while I was paralytic off beer and that matched my simple outfit) and went to the same bar as last week. We chatted for a bit, my hair was mentioned in a wow you changed your hair, do you do it often? kind of way and eventually race came up. I did say that I didn´t wanna talk about it at all, then I heard him out and his pleas to be educated seeing as he´s more aware and concious of his own unintentional racism now, so I simply said that I was sure we´d learn a lot from each other. Honestly I´d rather just avoid the topic completely, but this is what comes with being a WoC (woman of colour) in this day and age.

Eventually London Girl joined us, then his mate from Barcelona and eventually MF joined us too (but she spent most of the time speaking to her favourite admirer which I will not forgive her for ever, this might even be worse than the olive thing). After a while they all left except for MF and after an hour of talking to her friend and his friend, I convinced her that midnight was a good time to get pizza, not go home. So we ate pizza and had a pretty fun time in Sulk Bar, especially because the bar staff also push this one boy to talk to me in English and it´s terrible, he ended up telling me ´good morning!´as I left. I also wouldn´t let him take my plate away for ages because I was undecided on the crusts and put half the pizza in my bag, in some tissue (LOL pls desperation) and apparently this was very embarrassing for MF (dunno why) but luckily I was extremely subtle and no one in that bar will ever know.

Part two to come and then you´ll get your Here vs There post! xx

Au Pair Experience Días 18 and 19

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: 

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!

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.

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.

Weekends in the Wilderness (Au Pair Experience Días 15, 16 and 17, Part Three)

Finally we´re on Saturday! And big thank you and well done to all of you for putting up with me thus far :)

So Saturday was the amazing Barcelona trip and it did not disappoint. I had to wake up slightly early with a slight hangover (or maybe my normal early-morning state - I can´t even tell anymore) and then we all bundled into the car and headed off. Jordi, Susana and Roger pointed out lots of interesting things on the way (like Roger´s favourite turning which was the kind of turning where you can´t sit up straight) while Gina was encouraged to sleep. After about half an hour I encouraged myself to sleep and magically, when I was woken up by a *poke* from Roger, we´d arrived. Here are some photos from the car:

I decided my hat was appropriate but it got annoying
carrying it around when visiting churches, restuarants
and I nearly left it in the shop when I bought stamps :)

This was there

This was there too

Our first stop was La Sagrada Familia, Gaudi´s famous church in Barcelona. This meant parking somewhere and getting out of the car to walk (</3).

On the way there were probably some interesting things but by this point I only remember what I took pictures of:



Once we arrived there was a long queue of tourists hungry for some modernist church vibes so we bought the tickets on the internet whilst in the queue, promptly escaped the queue (suckers) and got a coffee for half an hour before entering.

(They´re not real)

     

(Sorry my pciture formatting skills are kind of awful and they´re only filtered when I upload them directly from my phone for some reason.)

From the outside it´s grand enough, if a little grey for the most part, but there are so many intricate details that my camera couldn´t capture and you can´t see from the ground. IT´s truly beautiful. So naturally the inside, which Susana told me is based on a forest, the place took my breath away (and I nearly cried hahaha). It´s mainly the stained glass windows, they´re gorgeous and really make you feel like you´re in a really special place and that fairies might come and grant your every last wish.

After that was a general walk around the massive city (definitely exceeded my 10,000 steps per day goal) and we vistied La Plaza Catalunya, the port, Las Ramblas (great for souvenirs and postcards, art, didn´t try the food), the famous market and loads of other places, the names of which went completely over my head. Susana and Jordi were really clear explaining everything, I just don´t have a geography brain.

Gaudi´s Art School at La Sagrada Familia

Roger was so impressed by the
interactive geometry room

 

Gaudi´s Casa Mila

Spanish Military Government headquarters, I think

 

Either the Council building or... not

Obviously the port (we had lunch at the huge shopping centre here
and for once I wasn´t sucked into buying more clothes yay)

Barcelona Cathedral. We didn´t go inside because
the entrance fee was bit steep but I´m happy to note
that unlike in Milan where if you´re not covered from
your shoulders to your knees they won´t let you in
(even if you´re a 14 year old girl), ripped jeans and a
scoop neck top were not offensive. Unfortunately
short skirts were,
but so were short shorts so it wasn´t a sexist policy
 (like the one in Milan which was making me 

so anxious about all these church visits), just reserved.

                      

Barcelona at night from the steps of the National Museum of Art.

Lots of people were there and a guy played music on a keyboard.

Such a good atmosphere.

I have a few more pictures that you might see, if you´re lucky enough, but the layout thing is stressing me out right now. By this point, Gina was asleep in the car with Susana (she´d been so tired by the end of the day, her poor little legs). I´d taken off my shoes for the journey home, but then had to shove them back on to see this:

It was so beautiful. London from Alexandra Palace is pretty good, but here there are mountains in the distance, the old bull fighting arena and the general allure of being somewhere that´s not home. I love this city and I´m quite disappointed that I won´t be able to study there because I study castellano not catala, but I´m super excited to visit again with my mum and brother. I did get put off at some point by the policemen with massive machine guns on the edge of one of the plazas, apparently due to the heightened terrorist threat in Europe but wow, I never wanna see that again. 

Once we got home it was sleep for another early wake up the next day for a special trip through an around 150 year old canal in Montsonis (aka The Sticks)...