Abroad in Spain: Travel Blog » Uncategorized

Am I a bad American for (almost) forgetting about Thanksgiving?

Chris — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:35:10 +0000

Let me start off this post by saying ‘Happy Thanksgiving’ to all of my fellow Americans. You should feel very proud and lucky that you’re hearing those words come out of my mouth (well, in a figurative sense — you’re actually reading those words) because, as much as I hate to admit it, I almost “forgot” that today was Thanksgiving Day.

You see, today started like any other day. I woke up, got a shower, got dressed, and went to the school to teach class. I went through most of the morning normally — the same way I would any other morning — completely oblivious to the fact that today was Thanksgiving. Later in the day, when I had a free moment, I decided to check my email and, lo and behold, I had a message from my mom in the States wishing me a “HAPPPYYYYYYY THANKSGIVINGGGG” (I write the phrase in capitals because that’s how she put it in the email).

It wasn’t until I received that email from my mother that I realized that today was Thanksgiving. It’s funny, really. Since I’m living in Spain and Thanksgiving isn’t celebrated here, the whole fact that today was the day just “slipped my mind,” so to speak. Still, my Thanksgiving story does not end there….

After I realized that today was Thanksgiving, I mentioned something about the holiday to my housemates. Of course, they explained to me that they already knew all about the holiday from watching American movies on TV. They then proceeded to elaborate further on how the “Americans” wake up very early on Thanksgiving morning to go outside and kill the turkey that they’re going to eat for dinner. This made me laugh a bit because, despite being an American who has celebrated Thanksgiving pretty much every year of his life, I have never “went outside to kill a turkey.” I then explained to my housemates that I preferred to buy my turkeys “already dead” from the supermarket and, although it may have been disappointing for them at first, they seemed to accept the new information rather well.

So, to end this post I’d like to remind everyone in the USA to be careful with those axes when they’re killing their turkeys. After all, we don’t want any accidents, do we? Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Hasta luego,
–Chris
http://abroadinspain.com

He stepped on my fruits!

Chris — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:23:26 +0000

As most of you probably already know, I’m an English teacher by trade. I work in a high school here in Burgos and I also teach a few private English classes on the side. I enjoy all my classes (both at the school and the private ones) and really like working with my students. Still, no matter how much I enjoy my job or like working with my students, there are always those days when things just don’t seem to go right.

Today was one of those days. You see, I just got home from a private class with a “very energetic” five year old student. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a great kid, but keeping his attention is a task. Let me give you an example….

The topic of today’s lesson was “fruits.” I went to my young student’s house with my colorful “fruit book” and I also brought along some plastic fruits to use as visual aids. I read him the fruit book a couple of times and everything went fine. After a while, my young student was starting to recognize the fruits in the book pretty well… so I decided it was time to whip out the plastic fruits and do some vocabulary practice — bad idea. My dear little student saw the plastic fruits and went totally “loco.” He began to grab the fruits from me, hit me over the head with them, and he even went as far as to step on my plastic apple leaving it totally squashed. Of course, he did all this while laughing uncontrollably and saying “frutas, frutas” in Spanish.

What have I learned from this ordeal? When using plastic fruits with five-year-olds, be careful that they don’t throw any at your head. You may also want to watch their feet just in case they get the urge to trample a plastic apple. And always carry a “back-up” supply of plastic fruit — something is bound to come up missing.

I suppose I can say that the class was a learning experience… for the teacher, at least.

Hasta luego,
–Chris
http://abroadinspain.com

In traveling mode

Chris — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 23:28:52 +0000

As some of you know already, I’m currently in the USA visiting my family. My time in the USA is coming to an end and over the next few days I will be packing and leaving again for Spain. As a result of my travels, the blog may be a little empty for a day or two. I’ll be sure to post something new next week once I’ve returned to Burgos. If you’d like something to read in the meantime, check out the category archives on the left hand sidebar or the tag archives on the right hand sidebar and be sure to leave me some comments!

Hasta luego,
–Chris
http://abroadinspain.com

“MTV Cribs” — Spanish style

Chris — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:39:55 +0000

Those of you who read my blog often know that I recently moved to a new apartment. After the move, I decided to make a short video (“MTV Cribs” style) to show everyone what my new, improved place is like. I’ll admit that my video might be a little bit “low budget” in comparison with a typical “MTV Cribs” episode; but still, I think it’s worth a view. You should especially pay attention to the hodgepodge of decorative items we have scattered through the house — Disney in the living room and half-naked girls and saints in the hallway. It’s quite interesting, if I do say so myself.

Let me know what you think of the new “pad” in the comments section below.

Hasta luego,
–Chris
http://abroadinspain.com

I hate moving

Chris — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 14:08:02 +0000

When I first arrived in Spain in September, I signed a lease that would last until June and, well, June is here and my lease is up. I’ve decided to move to a new apartment that is more centrally located rather than renewing this lease, which means that this week I am going to “make the big move” to my new place.

Right now, I’m in “packing mode” and am sitting in my room looking around me. I have boxes scattered all over the floor, a large garbage bag full of things I’m going to throw out, open suitcases, and lots and lots of dust (it seems like whenever you move you find dust in places you never thought possible). I guess to get through it all I just have to keep in mind my nice, new place waiting for me.

Hopefully, by this time next week I will be all moved into my new place. I’m going to take the move a little slow because here I do not have a car and thus have to move things by foot and rely on friends with cars. In any event, if the blog is a little “neglected” over the next couple of days, it’s due to the move. I’ll be “back on track” next week!

Hasta luego,
–Chris
http://abroadinspain.com

Excursion to the “Cañón del Ebro”

Chris — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 12:45:29 +0000

Here I am at a lookout point over the canyon. You can see the Ebro River behind me... I'm squinting from the sun, but that's ok.

I wanted to share with everyone some pictures and stories from a recent trip that I took to the Ebro River Canyon located near Burgos. I took the trip with some other teachers from the school where I work and, honestly, before going I wasn’t really expecting a lot. You see, before we went, the other teachers told me that this would very much be a “rural” trip — we would be visiting small “pueblos” in the countryside and walking along rural routes. Since I consider myself a “city boy,” I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this trip very much… but I went anyway.

After going on the trip, I have to say that I was quite impressed. The villages that we visited were all very pretty, the landscape was very green (I didn’t even know things got that green here in Castilla y León), and I had the opportunity to see something that is a little less “touristy” and a little more “Spanishy,” if you know what I mean. Plus, it was nice to leave the city behind for an afternoon and get a breath of fresh, country air.

Really, I think the pictures from this trip speak for themselves. Below, I’ll leave a few more pictures for you to take a look at. If you still want to see more, you can check out my “Pueblos of Burgos” album on Picasa. Also, if you would like more information about the “Cañón del Ebro” you can check out this site. Enjoy!

A waterfall on the outskirts of one of the villages we visited.

A view of a small village street.

Hasta luego,
–Chris
http://abroadinspain.com

PS: On an unrelated note, let me apologize to everyone for not updating in such a long time. Since it’s the end of the school year here, I’ve been busy tying up loose ends and making preparations for next year. All of that takes time, which means that the blog has been a little dead over the last couple of weeks.

The Spain apartment search is on

Chris — Thu, 21 May 2009 22:10:30 +0000

Anybody have a cheap apartment in Burgos that they want to rent to me? My lease is up in the place that I’m currently living at and it’s time for me to start looking for a new place to live.

You know, the whole “apartment search” thing for me is a little stressful. After all, I can only be in the place that I’m currently at until the end of June and, because of the looming deadline, I can’t help but wonder what might happen if I don’t find a new apartment to move into by the time my current lease expires. Will I become a member of the Burgos homeless population? Will I have to rename this blog to “Abroad in the streets of Spain?” I hope not.

In any event, if you’re currently looking for a Spanish “piso,” you might want to check out a post I wrote on searching for a place to live in Spain. Ah… and don’t forget to leave me some comments below.

Hasta luego,
–Chris
http://abroadinspain.com

Stress in Spain

Chris — Sun, 17 May 2009 19:40:51 +0000

AHHHHHHHHH! All of a sudden, I have had EVERYTHING happen to me at once and I am now just a little STRESSED OUT. My nice, simple life in Spain has turned into a chaotic, stressful one… but the stress will not be permanent (I hope).

You see, I’ve been procrastinating a bit over the last few months and, now that June is approaching, I’m suddenly realizing that I have a lot of things to get done. In fact, before the end of June I have the following goals: renew my residency card, look for a new apartment, get a new insurance policy, and look into a course that I want to do at the university. All this is quite a bit on top of my regular schedule at the school and giving private classes.

I have a June 30th deadline for all these things because in July I’m going home to the USA for a visit. Of course, I want to leave these things done so that they don’t “linger on” until after I return to Spain in August. I hope I can get it all done in time. Once again, just let me say AHHHHHHHHH.

Wish me luck!!

Hasta luego,
–Chris
http://abroadinspain.com

Taking a trip to Barcelona

Chris — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:52:35 +0000

Hello all! I just wanted to write a quick post to let you know that tomorrow morning I am going on a school trip to Barcelona with my students and, thus, won’t be updating the blog for a few days. I will be returning around the beginning of next week so stay tuned for updates (and Barcelona pictures) at that time!

Hasta luego,
–Chris
http://abroadinspain.com

The Americans are coming!

Chris — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 13:19:22 +0000

I have been SUPER busy during the last two or three days. Why? It’s easy: today I have a couple American friends coming to stay the night and I’ve used the last day or so to get my apartment clean, make sure I have food in the refrigerator (since I’m a single guy, sometimes my fridge is a little bare), and generally “prepare” for their visit. In fact, I’ve done so much preparing that you would think Zapatero himself was going to show up at my door.

I usually try pretty hard to integrate myself into the “Spanish” lifestyle and really make an effort to not be one of those expats who lives in Spain but only associates with other people from his home country. In fact, I’d say that here in Spain about 99.9% of my contact is with Spaniards and I almost never talk to anyone from the USA. Soooo, this visit from the Americans will be sort of a “nice change.” It will give me the chance to socialize with some of “my people” and will kinda “remind” me a little of where I came from. After all, no matter how long I live in Spain I’ll always still be American and it doesn’t hurt every once in a while to have a little contact with that culture.

At least that’s what I think. Do any of you other expats have an opinion?

Hasta luego,
–Chris
http://abroadinspain.com