Au Pair Experience Días 20 and 21

I'm gonna do a quick recap of Wednesday and Thursday then get on to Friday 😍.

Basketball was cancelled on Wednesday so that gave me some time to rest. Susana and I didn't really feel like going anyway so we all stayed in and watched the Barcelona match with pizza and salad. 

Thursday was still a big tired day. The kids played up a bit and I saw them properly get told off for the first time. Kids will be kids but it was pretty testing. Still, mummy was there so I didn't really have to do anything except keep trying to get them to engage in English. 

In the evening I was quite busy. I had an intercambio with a friend of the member of staff at my school and I'd rather not do it again. She was nice and everything, an English teacher herself and bought me a croissant and a coffee for my time. It's just that I struggled to get a word in edge ways. She was so over enthusiastic and I just don't think we were compatible even for something so simple because I just didn't have a good time with her. I learnt a lot and she did too but then she was determined to do it again, for longer, have me at her house and going for walks with her friend as well. Like, no? There's being nice and exchanging cultures and information and then there's pouncing on every au pair that comes to the area to practise your language skills with them. (She said she does this all the time). I might go next week just to speak English for a little while and then start saying no. The charm of being one of the only native English speakers for miles is beginning to wear off

I also had class which was the worst one yet, we just rushed through it and it was so confusing, I might actually have to study for more than an hour beforehand. (That hour has mainly consisted of photocopying anyway). After class I went to help another teacher in the school with their English class. It was quite fun, but not without controversy. For example, there was the guy who'd asked about my age and martial status beforehand and then asked me how much free time I had and whether I was interested in being paid to speak English with him *every day*. No words. Then there was the woman who asked me my political opinion on Catalonian independence, and Scottish independence and stupid controversial things which I answered very carefully but she'll take from it whatever she likes. Nothing else was that bad, I tried to make sure I got questions from everyone and everyone spoke to me  roughly the same amount. The confusion on people's faces when I spoke was a bit off-putting but it actually went well and everyone thanked me at the end and stuff. Then I got din dins with the teacher which was the best pizza *ever*. 

So I was in a bar when I checked my emails and found out I'm going to Santiago de Compostela for my year abroad (which starts in September!?) 

Most of you will know this already of course, but after the stress of the application I can hardly believe I actually got my first choice in the first round of applications. If it was that easy whyyyyy did I have to spend time on two more choices I didn't care about!? I guess it's easy to say when I got what I wanted but with the fact my degree is so weird and getting decent grades in first year, I was probably a high priority all along. I'm happy anyway, just have to start doing research and stuff to make it feel real. 

So, Friday is coming up next xxx

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 Four)

SUNDAY!!! We finally made it!!! This is where the whole wilderness thing is finally going to make sense if it hasn't already. 

Sunday was a special trip to Mont Sonis and Mont Clar with MF and her mum. Susana had kindly called the organisers and booked me a place on this historical walk (seeing as I would've struggled to understand, give them my passport number, pay into their bank account) and I paid her back out of my weekly allowance (it was €10)

The trip included walking through a canal, visiting a castle and then trekking maybe 7km back to civilisation .-. It was special because you can only walk through the canal for 4 weeks per year, otherwise you have to swim through it and that's kind of not at all recommended by anyone ever. Jordi kindly loaned me this headlamp (I've still gotta give that back) but it was broken so it kept falling down and bashing my forehead so I just held it in my hand the whole time. Mont Clar was about a 30 min drive and we were greeted with a beautiful castle that some rich French guy lives in:

We took pictures after eventually parking the car (there were loads in this tiny village) and picking up our tickets from the gift shop. The assistant saw Jordi's name on my confirmation and asked if I was staying with Jordi. I nearly said no but then I remembered that Jordi knows so many people and this guy probably isn't trying to stalk him. It turns out he was one of his students a couple of years ago and he still has a special place in his heart for his ex teacher. Naww 

Anyway, eventually we drove to the start of the canal. There was a group of maybe  40 - 60 of us (I was too sleepy to count) and we had a pep talk in Català (of which I understood nada) then it was off to explore. MF translated some joke about the light at the end of the tunnel but I don't remember enough of it for it to be funny now. 

Inside was daaaark (obviously) and sometimes the water got a bit deep and the edges of the tunnel were a bit slippery. The edges were also tilted inwards so you had to find a suitably shallow place to cross to the other side every once in a while but at least you had somewhere dry to walk. I thought we might have to crawl (worst fear basically, I can't do actual tunnelling, did it once when I was 17 and couldn't bear the tiny space) but we stayed upright the whole time. Overtaking people was a bit hard but I did it anyway because this wasn't the time for a stroll. I'm sure the end of the tunnel kept getting further away!

Eventually we got out and had to wade through some very clean-looking water to get to the middle of nowhere. MF had lent me some wellies which was great for me but her feet got so wet I almost felt bad for not just taking the ones Jordi and Susana offered me, just in case. (Pro-tip: snow boots are not wellies.) 

MF said I was splashing her while I was walking so I skulked off by myself and let my inner child take over. 

After a long time wading we made it to land and changed back into our trainers. Next was a 5km walk to Mont Sonis which I could've skipped actually, the castle was interesting but it wasn't worth the uphill climb on a small ham and avocado sandwich. The tour was also really long and I understood bits of it but for the most part I switched off. It was really beautiful inside though with these cool medieval spy holes in the walls and a pink ladies' room where oppressed women would sit and stare at themselves in gold mirrors, hoping that someone would visit seeing as it was improper for them to leave the castle. If someone did visit then yay, gossip time! We weren't allowed to take pictures upstairs because some people actually live in a 5 floor castle and some parts of it are completely private for that reason too. 

Once the castle tour was over, we were left to fend for ourselves. Seriously, the guides had left (in cars!) and all we had were some stupid bamboo sticks in the road to guide us back to the car! I only had chewing gum and a mandarin on me for the walk so I became a zombie, shuffling along praying that there were no vultures around. OK so I also shoved some biscuits in my mouth outside the castle but what I should've done was bought the 1,65€ beer and done the walk off my tits. 

Just miles and miles of, "where the hell are we!?"  "Where's the car?" "Is this the right way?" "Wish I could just walk through the farms" "civilisation pls?" "Oh no phone signal? That's okay seeing as we know exactly where we are OH WAIT NO" in three languages :)

Obviously we made it home, with aching feet and bones. I slept on the journey home (so was no use for directions) and once we got there I only had the energy to scoff half a protein bar and sleeeeep. Then I woke up hungry enough to get up and make dinner. Within 10 minutes of this, my host family came back from their day in the village - this week it was friend lunch and I think a family visit. I was filling up the pot to make pasta and kind of had to explain that I was starving and had been asleep for the past 5 hours so I'd be making the pasta and a hotdog would not be sufficient for dinner tonight. (Sunday dinners are usually sandwiches or hotdogs because we eat gurd during the day). Susana gave me a great tip for spicy pasta and it was so good! But my mum still wasn't impressed when I sent her a picture of pasta, meat and salad which is basically all I cook for myself at home 😅

So finally my weekend in the blogging and actual wilderness is over! I'll update you all on this week and write some other interesting stuff very soon!

Until next time,

Antonia xx