Posted by Chris Showers on November 26th, 2009.
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? Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on August 8th, 2009.
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! Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on July 24th, 2009.
I was just surfing the internet today and came across a really good resource for people traveling throughout Spain and the world. The site is called Wikitravel and is set up somewhat like Wikipedia in that it can be edited by anyone; however, instead of providing encyclopedia entries, Wikitravel provides travel guides. I typed a few Spanish cities into the search engine on the site and was able to get some pretty good information on tourist attractions in the cities that I had searched for. You may want to check it out — perhaps the site can help you plan your next trip to Spain (or anywhere else in the world for that matter). Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on May 17th, 2009.
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. Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on April 15th, 2009.
It’s been a few days since I’ve posted. That’s because I teach English at a local high school here in Burgos and am one of the teachers in charge of an upcoming trip to Barcelona for the students in 4° ESO (tenth grade for all you people from the US out there). The trip is next week and I’ve been so busy getting things ready for it that I haven’t had a lot of time to write a post.
You know, when I signed up to help lead this trip it sounded like fun to me; however, as the departure date approaches, I’m suddenly beginning to realize the magnitude of what I’ve gotten myself into. Imagine this: four “fun-filled” days in Barcelona (a six-hour bus ride away) with about sixty adolescent Spaniards and only myself and one other teacher to bring “law and order” to the group. Continue reading this post…
Posted by Chris Showers on April 9th, 2009.
Writing a blog, for me, is pretty beneficial in terms of keeping me sane. Especially given the fact that I’m living in Spain instead of my home country of the USA. Why do I say this? It’s simple, really: this blog is my “lifeline” to the English language and the USA. It’s the way I keep in contact with my native language and my native culture.
Although I love Spain and am very happy living here, I think I’d probably go a little nuts if I couldn’t express my thoughts somewhere in English and generally interact with people from my own culture from time to time. This blog lets me do that on a large scale from within the tiny city of Burgos where the total “American” population is probably about five. This blog also lets me meet a lot of interesting people from around the world — another pretty beneficial thing if I do say so myself. Continue reading this post…
|
|
Recent Comments