Changing and Staying the Same

Hey guys,

Finally I'm feeling a bit more like I'm in the real world.

A lot of things are going round my head, mainly:

• Going to Spain
• Coming home
• Going to Spain again
• Going to uni
• Seeing people I haven't seen in a while
• Speaking to people I haven't seen in a while
• Work!

I used bullet points because all these things are in no particular order. They're all taking up the same amount of room in my head and it's hard to navigate each day when I'm counting down to the next event.

That's how I know I'm burnt out.

https://bornfreeexpress.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/anigif_enhanced-buzz-17302-1386183703-41.gif

For some reason this is a surprise for me, even though it's probably the most inevitable thing in my little life. I've not given myself a proper break, real solitude or spent a day doing nothing, which is what I need to recover from being busy. I'd be bored if I wasn't doing what I was doing, but I need to get back into my self-management routine ASAP Rocky.

Instead I'm working because you know, real life, and trying to sort out the mountains of junk I own (7 black eyeliners... really?!)

Changes:

• Cut off all my hair (you'll have to go to Instagram to see). Good because all positive responses, no more broken hair and minimal fuss in the morning
• Bobbi is sooo antisocial omg half the time I don't even know where she is. Growing up I guess.
• I'm trying to get rid off my stuff so here's a link if you want to buy anything (good to excellent condition, I swear) buy stuff pls

Sames:

• Everything? It's kind of the best and worst thing about being home

I'll have another blog post for you soon. I've been eating some of the food I brought back from Spain which is getting me in the mood for a long-awaited food post and I just registered my brother to vote in the EU referendum so I might actually have to come up for some reasons for us staying in.

Anyway, hope you're all splendid! Until next time xxx

Amsterdam!

Mentions of sex and drugs, you've been warned.
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This is my second holiday this year, I finally made it to Amsterdam!

Time at home flew by and I actually feel bad because my mum's told me that my kitten is very confused with my whirlwind appearance. My family can cope without me though.

I'm a bit tired, or stoned, I dunno but before I left I was exhausted. I barely thought I'd make it to the bus stop, let alone the airport (thanks mum for carrying my stuff). But here I am, in the city of coffeeshops, sex workers and bikes.

I'm here for ten days with a good friend of mine from uni. We're staying in two different hostels, the one we're staying in now in the centre of the city and another outside of Amsterdam, in Noordwijk, by the beach. It's gonna be such a struggle getting there! The stairs in this hostel are a death trap, super slim and extremely steep. Walking up and down them is hard enough, let alone lugging massive suitcases with you. We're staying in a dorm with 18 other people, but as awful as it sounds (at least to a princess like me), getting a shower wasn't a big deal and if you bring earplugs and have a little spliff beforehand, you sleep like a baby through pre drinks, snoring and possible nasty hostel sex. Literally, I'm so scared of some of my roommates hooking up, everyone's told me to expect it but I just don't want to.

First Day

Anyway, the first day was a bit of a shambles, packing the morning before flying, my hair an absolute state *cringe* and doing my eyebrows on the train. After a short flight delay, we got to Amsterdam and found our way to the hostel. I'd printed out the map but my friend had to help me to actually read it because I'm sooooo bad at deciphering directions. Then we found a coffeeshop, smoked two different types of weed then crossed the road to a bar for dinner, expertly dodging the trams and bikes. I will never everrrrr go to a restaurant that stoned again, it was kind of embarrassing staring at each other and giggling! The atmosphere in the dessert shop was different though and I ended up speaking Spanish with the waitress (no idea why tbh) and after a huge slice of caramel apple cake it was time for bed.

The Northern girls having pre drinks were super sweet and asked me if I could sleep. I did hear their cringey Ja Rule renditions, but all in all it was fine.

Second Day

Another shambles. Mainly because of my friend (@x_lolitaa on Twitter). Was brave enough to ask the people in the beds next to our if they speak Catalan and showed off my amazing Catanish skills. They were impressed by 'jo no puc hablar catala' (my attempt at 'I can't speak Catalan in Catalan mixed with Spanish) and had even heard of Balaguer, but I dunno if we're gonna be friends.

I did make friends with a Peruvian woman though and she showed us where the supermarket was. We spoke Spanglish because why not? Also my friend gave up on Spanish after one year at uni (Que pena!)

So we found the Apple Store, my friend spent €280 on a replacement iPhone and I've bought some straighteners because of my birds' nest hair. 

We might go to a Sex Show later, the Northern girls went yesterday and all but one loved it so we're planning to make the most of Amsterdam's open culture.

Until next time,

Europe's Traveling Princess,

Antonia xxxxx 

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

*Update*

So, I definitely owe you guys an update by now and I do have a really exciting one coming, but first I need a bit of a rant. 

London Girl and Baldy are no longer going to feature on my blog. I know, so sad, but my advice to anyone who comes to a new country is to be nice to everyone, but don't be scared not to be friends with everyone. 

Why? Well sometimes, I really do look at myself and ask if I'm the problem in a lot of situations I've had. I think about my personality, what I could've done differently and if I should adapt myself to the way other people are. I try really hard to chill (kinda defeats the point, I know) and just go with it, but my personality is more of the type that likes to be in control. Sometimes, I do relinquish my control, but I might have to save that for people I actually know, not just blindly eager to make friends trust. 

One thing I try to stay away from is treating people differently when I don't know them very well. I don't really point out that we don't know each other, instead I highlight (usually with an elated screech) when we're clearly getting to know each other, like discovering you like the same music or think about things the same way. 

Anyway, I wish my blog was anonymous so I could go into more detail but alas, it isn't Girl Online (and I'm not 15). Though I was direct when confronting a strange situation, I advise you all to nip something in the bud as soon as it happens. Always be your authentic self and don't be afraid to question some people's behaviour, even if you are open and accepting (as you should be), don't accept being made to feel uncomfortable. Maybe you all knew this already but I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do from my sweet, treat everyone as you would like to be treated, Catholic upbringing. 

So, good luck to them. I'm hoping we don't come across each other again, but this is a small town and Sod's Law exists here too. 

Until I write about the fun part,

Antonia xx

Au Pair Experience: Holidays, Disasters and Settling Back In

Holiday:

The holiday was amazing! I had loads of people from here in Catalonia helping me to pick places to go which was so useful because there are so many great things to see. I'm still not going to go into too much detail because each post is taking me longer and longer to write, but we saw a lot of things and did as much as we could! I was pretty excited by everything and thought it pained me to plan so much, lead so much of the time and hear my mum thanking every shop assistant in English, it was wonderful. Seeing my family after a month was lovely and grounding, sometimes it's hard to remember that this is actually my life now. (This is the first year since I started school that I've not been in formal education, after all, it's a little hard to know what to do with myself.)

Disasters:

The disasters stemmed from actually needed to go home after a holiday. First, because something just had to go wrong, my mum had booked tickets back to England for her and my brother on the 22nd of MARCH. She'd been wondering why she wasn't able to check in but instead of double checking her booking she just thought it was RyainAir being its shit self. And it kind of was, it automatically changes the month of your return and it's an easy mistake to make. But, there are lots of chances to confirm that all your details are correct and it was so stressful changing it the day before that I probably did it the most expensive way. 

I also had my own disaster getting home. There's one coach in the morning to my city from Barcelona at 9am and the next one isn't until 4pm, so I couldn't afford to miss it. But of course I did. It was hell getting home. Honestly, I've never been so stuck in my life. What would've been a 2 and a half hour journey took *6 hours*. I'm not even gonna go into it, just the bus station in Lleida is the worst thing I've ever seen and I need to get back to London Victoria!

My third disaster ended up with homemade pizza so maybe it's not such a disaster but it was so embarrassing. Basically, I went out to meet our baldy beardy friend, then obviously afterwards, I went home. Well, because life is hard or bad things come in 3s or just because, when I went to open the door to the building, the key wouldn't turn. So, that doesn't mean I'm instantly banished to the streets for the night does it? Well, when its 2am, you panic and you don't want to wake up your host family, you kind of banish yourself to the streets. Orrrrr to a friend's house, after sending your host family a massive paragraph on WhatsApp explaining where you'll be and that you'll return at 8am to do your job. Guys, if this ever happens to you, just call your host family at 2am and sleep in your own bed. Even if there might be pizza, you might also look a bit silly

Settling in:

Anyway, I was actually excited to be back with the Trillas. I'd missed them in 5 short days and most of the information I'd been spouting about Barcelona had come from them. Perhaps this excitement dampened a little when I found out the kids hadn't done anything at all in English, let alone the homework I set them. 

However, it was probably a welcome break for us all. I haven't really been tracking our progress, but it's not like at the beginning where learning a new word or phrase is a big accomplishment. It kind of gets added to the list now and there's always so much more to learn. I'm still proud of everyone of course, but it's become routine now and learning languages is tiring!

Still, Roger and I ended the week playing card games which was really fun so I'm going to focus more on playing games and less on teaching. I think because I'm more confident with academic stuff, I fall into this pattern of teaching and instructing when really we should be playing. We can play verbal games at mealtimes and more physical games during free time. Yeah, I'm thinking out loud here.

Other stuff: 

I've been reading so I'm going to do another book review soon and read some more to see what else I can write about. Things are a bit different now because I have a few friends and spend less time by myself thinking about the differences between here and home, but I miss making posts every day! I'm also going home in mid-March so I'm trying to make the best of everything while I'm here. Still, I might not have much of a job when I get home as there are new staff and less hours that need filling so you might hear more from me!

Until next time,
Antonia xx

Kitty Special!

Depression is a funny thing. It´s really hit me this week, making everything seem extra annoying or negative. I can be happy for a while, but I can´t shake the feeling of some impending doom or generally wishing I was curled up in bed, away from the world.

This is why I´m making a special kitty blog post. As you may or may not know, I have a beautiful kitten called Bobbi. She´s really made me happy since I got her and given me a reason to get up on mornings when I don´t want to. I mean, she climbs into my bed and when she´s had enough of cuddles she annoys me until I get up and feed her or play with her or basically do whatever she commands.

Because who doesn´t want to wake up next to a
grumpy cat-monster sharing your pillow?!

I have less than three weeks until I go back home and I cannot wait to see my little fluff ball! I´ve probably shown pictures of her to everyone I´ve ever met, which thinking about it may make me a little obsessed. But she´s cute (and also my pet) so it´s okay!So if you´ve missed Snapchats of her, here´s something to make up for it:

Artsy photoshoot

Eventually I convinced her to let go

Apparently watching my mum sleep

That time we left her at my dad´s and her eyes changed colour

Totally appreciates the ball I bought her in Spain

Maybe I should´ve saved this for Tumblr?

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

London ting (Au Pair Experience Día 22)

Met this girl from London fiiiiinnnaaalllyyy and it was totally worth the wait. We'll call her LG, I'm not sure if she wants to be baited out on my blog. I didn't realise how much I missed the familiarity of London until I heard her voice. I've spoken to people from home of course, but to have someone standing in front of me speaking London was just amazing.

We went to a cute bar that wasn't far from home and both of us were a bit late because we'd eaten with our families (can't really say no to Spanish dinner, if you're there when they're eating YOU'RE EATING). She knew the barmaid which was cute, especially as her Spanish isn't great, and we got drinks (I opted for hard liquor... Malibu and Coke) and the conversation flowed. 

Here are some things we bonded over:

Spanish people eat so much pork. Pork errday. Pork for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Ham, cured ham, Parma ham, sausages, in the soup, just everywhere. I'm trying not to go off it seeing as I still have a lot of time here but when I'm out I'm gonna opt for chicken, lamb, beef, anything. That's not to say we never eat anything else - we have fish often and chicken occasionally, it's just you can't get away from pork.

Personal space issues. This is physical space like walking down the street and people don't mind brushing past you or really even make an effort to move out the way. Outside school is just ridiculous (might be the same back home and I've just forgotten) but children will step on my feet and run straight into me and it's not really a thing to tell them off, just tell them to be careful. 

Also, there doesn't seem to be much time to just be by yourself. People don't sleep much here (I couldn't adapt to this even if I tried) and people seem to think of you have free time then it's just time to spend with other people if you're not at work. My family's pretty chill in every sense - if I take time for myself they don't ask questions about it, maybe suggest a place to walk or eat, and only ask if I slept well or had a good time while I was out. LG's family seem to find it weird if she takes time for herself and that would be so irritating to be constantly questioned about it, especially as a grown woman.

Intercambios. Yes we speak English, no we are not going to practise with every person we come across. I do a lot of language exchange with my host family and it's kind of exhausting for all involved.  I don't even have the energy for strangers and commenting on my not so great Spanish all the time is a bit jarring. I dunno what I expected, maybe I'm just in a bad mood and think I'm hot stuff cos I've made some friends now. 

Transport is shit. Going anywhere outside of this town without a car is so long. The bus timetable makes me want to cry: during the morning, I could spend an hour in the nearest city before having to catch the bus back home because there's one every 2 hours or something stupid and there are 4 trains per day. The train also takes the same amount of time to get to the city as the bus. And try getting to a surrounding village... Better pack your hiking boots!

Still, these are just cultural differences, new experiences and the reality of being anywhere outside London, let alone a small town. We wouldn't still be here if we weren't enjoying ourselves and London gets on my tits anyway. It's nice to be away from it to escape and appreciate it. 

So we had one of her friends join us and he was nice, if a bit problematic. Race kept coming up and up to now I haven't mentioned it much, if at all, but being black in Spain isn't without its problems. The curiosity about my hair is bearable, even enjoyable but that's about where it stops. I'm not gonna detail everything he said, even though a lot of it made me uncomfortable (and we called him out so many times) but it's not his fault, this ignorance is the prevailing attitude in Europe and has been for so many years. Just kind of burst the bubble. 

Anyway he was nice, funny and has his own flat which I was invited back to (LG practically lives there). We listened to music, made pizza and chilled with some cartoons. Then it was time to go home and sleeeeep. Being sociable is exhausting. 

Until next time (probably tomorrow),

Antonia xx