Moving on again

Hi everyone,
I know I´m late....again but things have been pretty busy here! For those of you who don´t already know I´m down near Pamplona for the third summer in a row visiting my favourite Spanish family! Since it´s the hight of summer we´ve been fairly run off our feet so I´ve only just had time to write.

Last week was actually fairly easy in terms of work for a change. After waking up to find a message saying I could definitely head to Pamplona at the weekend I waited around until Isa´s sister got her out of bed early then set about helping her get sorted to go out. Her friends who had visited at the weekend wanted her to come over so she was out of the house by just after 10.30am so I spent my morning reading, watching some old episodes of House MD on my computer and thinking up some new knitting ideas for when I got home.
In the afternoon Marie appeared home reasonably early and we went off to find the new shoes I so desperately needed. We had to take Isa along which meant I knew we´d never manage to get the shoes sorted - and I was right - but it was a reasonable trip out at least. In the end I couldn´t find what I needed and settled for buying the (to me) slightly expensive shoes I´d seen after class the following day.

Wednesday Isa didn´t want to get up out of bed since she wanted to watch her cartoons and when I finally decided enough was enough she sulked and wouldn´t talk to me for over an hour leaving me to sit around and colour in the ´difficult´ pictures she wasn´t going to do. By that point the grandparents had arrived and it was almost lunch time so I got myself some food, checked my Spanish homework and headed out around 3.30pm to go to class. It wasn´t too bad for my final lesson. My normal teacher was still on holiday but the new one was talking a bit slower and I wasn´t already in a grump which helped. We got through a fair amount of work and after getting my shoes and going for a final wander through my favourite part of Bilbao I caught the metro back to the house.

guggenheim

As promised by Marie we went to the Guggenheim museum after we´d both finished work on Thursday. Isa had been at a friend´s again so I´d had a fairly easy day and after getting a quick bite to eat we set off. We had Isa with us which I wasn´t entirely sure about but she seemed fairly excited to go and see the ´flower puppy´ outside the entrance so off we went.

There was a great video exhibit by Kimsooja &Shahzia Sikander which had some really impressive imagery and the music was like a mix of sounds I´d heard in both India and Peru. We only got to stay for 10 minutes cause someone got bored but I´m definitely going to check them out online soon! There was an impressive steal instalment which took up half the building with maze like structures but we got in trouble cause Isa decided out run back out of one of the mazes and if she´d gone off in a different direction we might not have seen where she´d gone. 

The two main art exhibits were by Jeff Koons and Jean-Michel Basquait. I think the first appealed more to Isa with his metal ballon animals and refashioned old toys but I think I preferred the Basquait exhibit with his graffiti art and messages about colonialism, racisms, class struggles and things like that - it was also pretty cool to see the collection he did alongside Andy Warhol - someone I remember studying in school!

Unfortunately Isa thought it would be fun to break free from her mum and touch an exhibition piece which almost got us chucked out and then spent the last half hour deliberately messing around, making too much noise knowing she had to be quiet and generally trying to make us leave.

Friday was a pretty busy day. The grandparents showed up for a bit in the morning, and everyone was sitting with Isa watching TV so I used that time to get my back packed and ready to go. The parents arrived in the afternoon but no one seemed interested in getting their own things packed until the evening after dinner. They were off to China early in the morning so they had to get themselves organised too. We had a final family meal and after I was given the money back that I´d paid for my new shoes - the family wanted them to be a present from them which was really sweet!

on the road again

On saturday morning the housekeeper came and took me to the bus station since she´d offered the day before. I got the bus from Bilbao to Pamplona which was a nice trip although there seemed to be a lot of holiday traffic on the road. I grabbed a coffee and a pintxo in the bus station then caught the next bus down to Olite - the closest I could get to San Martin de Unx on the bus as far as I knew. 

Knowing it was lunch time and it would be really busy I decided I would just start walking and hitch to my friends hostel/restaurant instead of waiting to see if they could come and collect me. A nice couple who were here on holiday picked me up in no time and dropped me right at the door.

The afternoon was spent doing little jobs around the hostel and settling back into life in San Martin. 

Sunday was the busiest I´ve ever seen it here with every table full of families and groups wanting lunch. We spent most of the late afternoon recovering from such a busy session and chatted about the other people who´d come to stay, how their English course summer camp had gone and how our families were getting on before having an early night. 

gorgeous new dog

Yesterday I spent the morning out shopping with Pedro and his grandson which was an interesting experience - had to laugh at the fact he decided he wanted ice cream near the start of the trip and was still asking for it two hours later! We had quite a few people for lunch and there was less of us working in the kitchen but between me and Linda I think we actually worked through the orders and the service faster than we had the day before with more people! I guess it was just easier with less people getting under each others feet. 

This morning I helped clean the pool and prep some things for dinner then I set about writing this. We´ve got a couple of hours until people start coming for lunch but we have rooms to make up so I´m off to help with the laundry. 

I should be in Barcelona by the time I write my next piece but I don´t know how easy it will be for me to post off my tablet (now it´s getting old and slow) when I don´t have a computer or laptop to borrow!

Chat to you all again soon either way,

Ciao!

Animal Rescue

Hi everyone,
I know I´m late in posting but I didn´t get chance to get on the computer over the weekend to write. Think this will just be a short one since it´s been a busy day but I can tell you that I´ll be writing from somewhere different next time because my job ends on Friday. I´m planning on heading down towards the Pyrenees where it´s quieter and where I can do some walking anyway from the noisey towns and cities around here.

So after I finished writing on Sunday Adam (the older son) took me gokarting with his cousin and some friends. It´s not something I´ve actually done before so I was a little nervous to begin with but it was a lot of fun - even if I did get beat by a 12 year old,

DIdn´t crash too often

It was back to the usual routine on Monday with nothing particularly exciting happening although I did get to learn a little about the German health insurance system from my classmates which is always a handy thing to know a little something about.

After work on Tuesday I tried playing Paddleball with the dad but considering I´d only played tennis and badminton before and it was much hotter than I was used to I think I lost quite spectacularly.
After a quick shower I joined the mum in taking Isa and her visiting cousin to the fun fair in the next town. Luckily Isa managed to get her cousin to go on most rides with her cause she wouldn´t go herself and I certainly wasn´t going to get myself stuck in one of the kids rides - I did that years ago and have no intention of repeating it!

Animal rescue

On wednesday I got a bit of a surprise in the morning when I found a hedgehog in a box in the kitchen! It turned out the dogs had tried to get it in the night and Marie had rescued it so I could release it when Isa was awake. The release went well although Isa stayed inside cause it was raining.
 I got into Bilbao for class a little early and bumped into a fellow classmate but it turned out he was having to cut his trip short and the lesson that day would be his last.
It also turned out the other two girls who´d joined the class were finishing that day too so we spent half the class translating a song and got a couple of class photos at the end.

Thursday was just the standard - work followed by reading/studying/seista until dinner so nothing really exciting there.

On friday Marie´s sister arrived with her husband to spend some time here before taking her son (Isa´s visiting cousin) back home. We had a nice meal together before I headed off for an early night. As far as I´m aware there was no pintxos night so I stayed home.

Not a whole lot happened on saturday. I was supposed to go with Marie to get some new shoes sorted out after my ´prefect´email pair was the complete wrong size (supposed to be an 8, the shoes say they´re a 7 but they´re definitely no bigger than a 6). I´ve been stuck sewing up my old shoes in the meantime but now they have holes in the soles which I can´t really fix. Unfortunately we ended up not going to the shops - not too sure why - so as of this post I´m still stuck with holey boots.

Good as new....

Sunday was a gorgeous sunny day - if a bit windy - so I decided to get out and spend some time just sitting out in the sun with a good book. Working my way through Lord of the Rings so its some good reading.
Isa´s friends came round for lunch so we spent a good deal of time getting the kids to all eat their food and after such a tiring day (or  not) I spent most the the rest of the day holed up in my room out of the way.

On to today. It´s not been the best of days today with tantrums and violent outbursts from the niña all morning (broken up by periods of just refusing to talk/play with me), followed by a new teacher for my Spanish class. Now there´s nothign actually wrong with the new teacher and it´s always good to learn from different people however I can´t quite understand why you´d give a beginner class to someone who only speaks a little bit of English; all made more difficult because her accent (from SE Spain) was so strong I could hardly understand anything - even when I knew the words she was saying.
On top of all this I seem unable to find any HelpX projects for my free week between work and my holiday with Courtney. I know it´s late in the game to be asking but the stream of ´no´s´and no replies has been a bit disheartening.

Just before everyone left!

On that note I need to get on with planning something different for that week so I´d best finish and post this.
Talk to you all soon though,
Ciao!

The Rain in Spain...

Hi everyone,
I´m starting to think Sunday´s a good day for posting since I tend not to have too much else on so I´ll probably stick to this day to share my latest adventures with you - not that I´ve got that much longer left before I finish this job!

On Monday I had my normal work schedule followed by Spanish class. We had a couple of new students joining us including another German student and a lass from Japan - it´s great to get such a mix although it´s a little funny now hearing the Cypriats disscusing things in Greek on one side and the Germans on the other while the rest of us stick to English and Spanish.
After class I met up with the regular Friday night pintxos group for dinner since one of the girls was going back to the US. We had a nice evening and I had a good laugh watching most folk struggle through the giant burgers on offer at the bar we ate at - literally the burger was about the size of the dinner plate and stood a good five inches high! I kept to a plate of chips since there were no other veggies to share one of these giant sandwiches with but I was happy enough with that.

Waiting next to this guy outside the Guggenheim for the rest of our group

Not a whole lot happened on Tuesday as I spent the majority of my work time just trying to get Isa to speak/play with me but I got a good amount of studying done in the afternoon and spent some time getting a few more things organised for Uni this year. I also had to order a new pair of shoes since my 4 year old baseball boots decided to split right around the back of the heel - typical that they waited unitl I was away to do this,

It seems Isa decided she was happy playing on Wednesday and we spent a good part of the morning playing and blowing bubbles in the garden while the cats tried to catch them - it´s days like this when I really enjoy my summer job,
By early afternoon the weather had changed so it was a rather cool walk to the metro for class. It turned out the two Cypriat girls were finishing their lessons that day so we said our goodbyes at the end an extra interesting lesson where we got to look at some other Spanish speaking countries in South America.
In the evening I had a phone call from the other half which was great but as always left  me missing home a little more than usual.

Bubbles in the garden 

Rain and a cold wind on thursday meant swimming lessons weren´t an option but since it would have been the teacher´s last day before he went off to study in Chile he came by for a quick visit and to say goodbye which was pretty nice of him.
My afternoon was spent doing some online research and starting to plan things for getting work when I get back to the UK in just over a month.

Friday was still a bit cold and damp and it seemed Isa´s mood corresponded to the weather for most of the morning. My knees were also pretty stiff from the change in weather so it was pretty quiet on both sides.
I spent a fair bit of time in the afternoon trying to repair my shoes until the new ones arrive - sewing through the canvas was easy enough but stiching onto the rubber edging was something I´d want to do again anytime soon - stabbed by self with the needle far too many times - however it seems to be holding ok.
Later in the afternoon everyone piled in the car, Chinese teacher and her kid included, and went to get a meal out. As the teacher was heading off on holiday at the weekend it was sort of a ´have a nice summer´ meal which was a nice idea. Unfortunately the ´restaurant´ of choice was a rather well known American fast food chain which I won´t eat in so I sat and waited while the kids ate until it was time to go and meet my friends for pintxos.
We had a good night out and after spending some time with one of the new girls in my class and another new student from Norway I rejoined the usual group. Seeing a couple of lads who clearly weren´t Spanish standing nearby one of the lasses decided to bring them into the group and I had to laugh when we dicovered they were actually from Newcastle! They stuck with us for the rest of the evening but when everyone else decided to head off to a club in the same direction as my metro station myself and the two geordies were apparently walking too fast and ended up losing the rest of the group - oops. Instead I went home as planned and the two lads headed off for food.

Making paella - that pan´s about 2 foot wide!

On Saturday there was a big paella festival in Getxo that Emma was going to with her friends and I was invited to come along with them. It looked pretty grey once again and was apparently only 22 degrees so I went out with jeans and a shirt. Typically the weather had totally changed by the time I got there and although I had a vest top under the shirt I could wear I was stuck with the jeans.
Now, I assumed the festival would be a bit like a mini local fair and while the main focus would be the paella competition there would also be the Spanish equivelant of best jam and cake bakes - I was totally wrong. Instead it seemed that groups of people had pitches spreading all over the field where they would cook their paellas on campfires while loud, drunk fiesta-goers roamed around to the sound or various stereos blasting out the latest and greatest tunes from Spain, the UK and the USA - not a single jam jar or potted plant in sight.
We had a good time and although I still find it a little odd to be hanging out with 17 year old Spanish kids we had a good laugh and we all got a bit of launguage practice in too.
We ended up eating out with Emma and Adam´s dad instead of at the fiesta since Emma´s boyfriend was doing the first proper meet-the-dad-day. The food was great with prawns and salad and such, and allow I proved I´m still hopeless at fish it was a really good meal and a nice break away from the heat of the afternoon sun.
My friends from class had planned on meeting me at the fiesta in the afternoon but ended up not coming so after a little more time hanging out with Emma and her friends they split off to find the fluorescent paint everyone seemed to be covered in while I walked back to Sopelana. By this point I´d gotten a bit burnt, not having expected the change of weather but it was a nice walk back along the coastal path.
That evening I had a good long chat with my friend Courtney back home - talked a little about what we´d do when she came out to meet me in Barcelona and after that I had an early night.

Today´s been pretty quiet so far since I´ve mostly been studying and reading.

Well that seems to be all for now anyway - I´m off to read a little more of my book.
I´ll be writing again soon but in the meantime just a little reminder to check out my Facebook page where I sell all the knitwear I make back home. There´s a load of items still for sale and available while I¨m away and I´m taking orders for new items for when I get back to the UK in September. The page is:
 https://www.facebook.com/driftinggipsyswoolcraft

Some of the items I make over on my Drifting Gipsy page

Thanks guys.
Ciao for now!

Fiestas and Fieldtrips

Hi everyone,
So I´m little later than planned with this latest blog post but the back end of this week has been pretty busy!

I went to the pintxos night I mentioned in my last post and luckily some of the people who went last week were there again along with a few new faces. This week the food provided for us was a really tasty looking paella however I´m keeping to the veggie (pescatarian) food over here so instead I got some really good battered fish pieces with salad. After everyone had eaten we split into different groups to do a bit of exploring. Casco Viejo is the old part of Bilbao and has a lot of interesting bars with music and such. We explored and found the street I bought my super cheap hippy clothes from. Unfortunately one student had had a few too many and we had to cut the night short but we all had a good time and I think I´ve now started making a few friends here - guess that´s what happens when you actually get out and socialise!

After a late start on Saturday I ended up spending the majority of the day studying and getting some work done online. Sunday was much of the same. The family were down in Pamplona for San Fermin (watching the running with the bulls) so I was supposed to stay at home with the older daughter and help look after Isa. Funnily enough though the grandparents who´d stayed overnight never left and before I knew it the parents were home so I guess I wasn´t really needed after all.

Pre-class selfie showing off my dreads

There always seems to be one day a week were tantrums and tears are pretty much now stop - this week it was Monday. After refusing to talk to me for most of the morning and pretending to sleep instead of doing something fun, the serious tantrums started. After swimming I got Isa dressed and tried to put her shoes on. I tried unfastening her shoes to put them on - nope she wanted to keep them fastened and spent 5 minutes trying to do it herself. I tried to get her to put them on the right feet - refusal, tears and the rest of the day was spent with them on the wrong feet. Then she wanted her hair plaited - the problem being she told me in Spanish and didn´t know the English word while I didn´t know the Spanish word - she also wouldn´t mime like she often does in these situations. The crying and shouting ("TRENZA") began so I suggested we go speak to the housekeeper since I couldn´t understand and she would. This made it worse and as I tried to leave the room to find help I ended up with the door slammed repeatedly - sometimes while I was in the way - and almost ended up with a tear in my trousers as she tried to stop me leaving. Eventually I got out and got the housekeeper who sorted it out but what a carry on! She normally understands when I don´t know a word but not that day - however after lunch and some TV she settle and the Chinese teacher arrived so I could rush off to class.

Moving on - there are now four of us in my Spanish class - myself, two girls from Cyprus who are the same age, have the same name and same future work plans (cool coincidence!) and now we have a young German lad in class too. It´s sometimes a little complicated because to go from Spanish to English to German isn´t easy and I have to explain things to him again in clear English after the teacher has done so - her English is great but not always exact when it comes to explaining some things - at least helping teach is reiterating the facts for myself as I do it.

Tuesday was a pretty easy day since Isa was happy colouring her pictures or things I´d drawn for her for most of the morning. I got some studying done in the afternoon and in the evening Marie and I took Isa in her pushchair for a walk to the next town. The walk was about 10km there and back and some of it was pretty rough when we had to go round the steps but the views were pretty awesome and with the heat to contend with it was good exercise.

Great view walking back from Getxo

On Wednesday the swimming teacher was sick and after I made a comment to Marie about maybe taking Isa swimming myself if it was warm enough the housekeeper passed on the comment to Isa and I got stuck in the pool with her. I wouldn´t have minded except it definitely wasn´t warm enough but after it was mentioned to the lass I couldn´t exactly turn round and refuse - never mind.
I had class in the afternoon followed by a wine tasting lesson at the school. It was meant to be a reasonably serious lesson but we all had a good bit of fun and I was pretty happy to find I understood most of what was said considering it was all in Spanish and the guy spoke pretty fast. After the class one of the students said his friend´s band was playing a gig so a bunch of us tagged along much to the surprise and amusement of his friends. They´re called Hotzen and play Indie-Basque music and I think if they only changed their soundman they´d be awesome! Regardless of that though they still sounded great.

Hotzen playing on Wednesday

Thursday was fairly quiet with no swimming this time and after the Chinese teacher showed up in the afternoon I hung out in my room reading and studying before Marie, Isa and I went for another walk - to Sopelana centre this time. When we got back we woke Isa up for dinner but she wasn´t happy about getting up - the sulking and crying returned but after we left her to it I think she realised it wasn´t getting her anywhere so she settled, ate her dinner and went to bed properly.

The swimming teacher was well again by Friday so Isa had her normal lesson then and after lunch got a decent bit of studying done before heading out to the weekly Pintxos evening. This time it was tortilla on the menu (basically a thick omelete with either potato, meat or other ingrediants in it). once everyone had finished our group decided to head out of town to the fiestas in the nearby town of Santurtzi. Seemed like a good idea except it was on the opposite side of the river to where I stay and on a different metro line, however I was assured I could get across the transporter bridge at any time and walk to a station that joined with my metro line so off we went. There were a few complaints about how long it took but once we got there we met a couple of lasses who´d finished studying at the school and headed into the fiesta. There was some decent music in the beginning but then it changed to a young boyband who seemed very much like a rather annoying British one who´s name I´m sre will instantly spring to mind for a few of you and mostly as a band to avoid! A couple of other ones in the group had the same thoughts as me so I spent a good bit of time standing a little way off talking to them while the others danced and sung along when they knew the words. It´s how I got talking to a pretty cool Canadian guy called Sheldon who lived on the other side of the river too.
After a lot of partying from the majority and more spectating for a couple of us Sheldon and I finally gave up and headed home but after all the fuss with some of the group getting lost with another´s bag and people falling over and other people getting lost again I only got home around 6am - not something I have any intention of doing again any time soon. Since I´d really only had a couple of drinks I was pretty much dead on my feet while the others were fueled by drink and once I got home I only had about an hour to sleep.

Impressive old church tucked away in the corner

Saturday was the day I´d got bus tickets to go to San Sebastian! After a sleepy hour and a half on the bus I wandered around for a while trying to remember the sites I´d seen on my last brief visit. By 12.30 I was really hungry and found a great sandwhich shop in the old part of town so I could sit outside and eat looking out on the beach. In the afternoon I spent a little time with everyone else on the sand basking in the sun but it was pretty hot by this point and I decided to leave and find some shade instead. There was a pretty cool (apparently) Irish bar I found along the way and after a quick talk to the guy behind the bar - me in Spanish, him in English as is normal - I got some mint tea and a glass of ice so I could make iced tea. I chilled out there for a good part of the afternoon before wandering a little more and heading for the bus. I did think about walking up to either the viewing point on one side of the bay with the large Jesus statue or the one on the opposite side with the old fairground but at 32 degrees it was left for another time.  After helping a young Lithuanian lass get her ticket sorted and find her bus I caught my own and slept most of the way back.
In the evening I had a nap, then headed up for dinner before going back to sleep properly.

Hanging out at the beach

Today we´ve been out walking again. My normal shoes are almost completely dead so I was offered a pair of the older sisters trainers - unfortunately they were a bit too small and within 20 minutes on regular pavement I got the first blister I´ve had in I don´t know how many years! I finished the walk in flip flops in the finish even more determined to fix my converse!!

This afternoon I´ve mostly been reading and napping a little - think I´m still a little worn out from Friday´s galavanting!

Well that´s all I´ve got for you for now, time to add some pictures and get back to my book!
Ciao for now.

Pintxos

Hi everyone,
so I´m going to make sure I post every week but the day might vary depending on what´s going on - means I can´t be late too if I don´t have a specific writing day haha!

Well this week´s been reasonably busy with exploring and classes and working of course.
On Friday it was so hot most of the locals were suffering from the heat - meanwhile I was loving and spent a good amount of time after work in the morning chilling out and reading by the pool - it´s a hard life I know!
In the evening I went out to a Pintxos (similar to Tapas) night organised by the language school I go to. Couldn´t help but laugh when I got on the metro and ended up talking to a lass from Edinburgh who would be starting classes at the school the following week - what are the odds?? It was definitely an interesting night - there were almost 30 people present and I only knew 2 people, neither of whom could actually stay for the activity. After almost an hour we got a bit of food although since they didn´t expect so many people- well I think I´ll grab a quick snack before heading out to the one tonight! We sat and ate and drank for a while getting to know the other students and after a while everyone decided to move onto somewhere different. Myself and a girl I´d been talking to got swept up in the group but when we arrived and got drinks in a new place the rest of the group decided not to stay due to lack of atmosphere. Instead of rushing we stuck around and told them we´d catch up. Instead we had a good laugh and talked about things back in the UK (she was the only other person from the UK) and once we´d finished I had to get back since it takes me 40 minutes to get home on the metro and she left to find the others in the hope of convincing some of them to abandon kareoke and check out an indie-rock night in a different bar.

Good view from saturday´s hike

Saturday got off to a bit of a slow start with Marie and Jose tired from a long week at work but one of their friends arrived mid-morning and the four of us plus Isa sent off on a walk to the next town. We´d planned on arriving in the town and having something t eat and drink their before heading back, however we got a little lost on the way. Having been assured that they knew the way we took the cut through the forest and ended doing an extra 2km and got savaged by brambles and nettles in the process. By the time we got to the other side it was decided that we would just carry on with the circuit and head back home via the clifftop path. Isa slept in the buggy for that whole section while the rest of us admired the view and talked travel. We covered 16km in the end.
By the time we got back to the house we´d all earned a drink and we spent the afternoon sipping martini´s and eating shellfish by the pool - I´m concerned this is sounding a little like bragging but you guys are reading this to find out what I´m up to so I´m not going to lie.
I spent the evening enjoying my seista reading/napping before a small dinner and bed.

Little adventurer

No one really did anything on Sunday except chill out and enjoy the free day. I did consider going exploring for a bit but the weather wasn´t looking great so I stayed in.

It was back to work the following day following the usual routine followed by Spanish in the afternoon. After class I went and had a nosey about a new part of Bilbao and found an awesome street full of shops selling everything from band T-s and baggy hippy trousers to incense and Indian wall hangings. I ended up buying a new pair of baggy patterned trousers and a little printed skirt with elephants on it for a grand total of €6!! Pretty hapy with that!
After about an hour I decided to head back and got the metro back to the village and read through some of next years coursework before dinner.

Nothing particulary intresting to say about Tuesday - I had planned on spending the whole afternoon doing coursework but I ended up sleeping through half the afternoon so didn´t get a lot done.

On wednesday it was back to class except I was the only student there (normally there are three of us). It was pretty great really cause we got loads of work done and I managed a decent amount of conversational Spanish too which we don´t always get to work on.

wandering after class on Wednesday

On Thursday we had a bit of a blip when we couldn´t get the electrical cover off the pool so Isa couldn´t have her swimming she was seriously unimpressed by that one and spent a fair amount of time letting us know it. There was also a pretty long tantrum after I stopped her painted her dress by taking away the paintbrush - apparently she wasn´t happy with my decision and after a fair bit of scratching (followed by a 'you shouldn´t scratch´ talk) she decided not to talk to me for most of the rest of the day.

And finally today: well it´s been pretty unevenful really - the usual work in the morning, and Isa was whisked off to a birthday party around 2pm so I´ve had the afternoon to myself. I did thihnk about going to the beach but the gate for the house is one of those electronic ones and since I didn´t have a key and no one else was in I´ve been kind of stuck here. Least I got a good bit more studying done.

But now I´m off to grab a bit off food before getting sorted to go out to this pintxos night - see if I know anyone this time!
Ciao!!

North East Spain or North East England???

Hi everyone,
I´ve been here in Spain just over a week now and am starting to settle into a decent routine. In the mornings I work looking after the child here (not sure the family would be ok with me using names so I´ll write new ones because saying ´the child´all the time doesn´t seem great - I´ll call her Isa). For anyone who´s interested here´s a rough outline of our schedule. If youre not interested just skip this next bit!

7.30 - get myself ready, breakfast etc and reading until Isa gets up.
9.30 - (approx) Isa gets up, breakfast, TV.
10.15 - drawing/ colouring/ anything else to keep her occupied for the morning.
12.30 - swimming lesson at home.
13.15 - Isa´s lunch usually with cartoons followed by play
14.30 - (approx) everyone else´s lunch
15.00 - Isa´s Chinese lessons (play)
18.00 - Isa´s mum returns, family time
20.00 - Making use of the gym equipment in the house and the pool.
21.00 - dinner

So normally I actually finish working by 15.00 because when the Chinese teacher is here she watches her and only talks to her in Chinese, so my English would just be a distraction.
On Monday´s and Wednesday´s I also have Spanish classes in the afternoon in the city centre so I get the train into Bilbao and back from the village - 15 minutes walk, 40 minute train.

Anyway, so for those who haven´t seen my facebook posts I´ve had a reasonably busy week. Thursday evening was spent with the older daughter (new name: Emma), her boyfriend (he can be Manuel) and one of her friends to take Isa to the park then we went out on their scooters to place out of town to eat nachos).

Looking across the cliffs in Sopelana

On friday I went with Emma and some of her friends to the fiestas in the village. I wanted to stay and have a good time but it takes a surprising amount of effort to try and follow conversation when it´s in a language you only understand a little, when people are all talking at teh same time, and when there´s loud music going too. In the finish I decided to get back but apparently I couldn´t go alone so Emma called her brother (new name: Adam) and he took us both home. It turns out Emma isn´t meant to walk home alone because it might be dangerous - although it doesn´t seem it - but she is only 17 and has bad knees so I guess it´s a good precaution.

Saturday started a little late as I only got up around 8.30 but after a quiet start to the day we went shopping for a birthday party Isa was invited to and I spent the afternoon enjoying the sun and catching up on some reading.

On Sunday I went with the parents (lets call them Marie and Jose) and Isa along with their friends from the South of Spain to explore a couple of places nearby. We went to check out the Puente Vizcaya (which looks a bit like the Transporter Bridge in Middlesbrough) the ate tapas in a couple of bars around the village. There was a football match on so there were quite a few folk out and about which I think made it a little more interesting. After that we drove through some of Bilboa, passing the Guggenheim, and a bridge that looked an awful lot like a minature version of the Millenium Bridge in Newcastle (can anyone spot a common theme here - take the two bridges and the industrial works all along the river and it´s like arriving into a strangley warm version of the North East)!
Anyway after that we went for lunch at the Sociedad Bilbaina. Now as far as I knew we were going to a men´s club which was only open to women on weekends so I figured it might be a little formal and opted for suitable attire - in other words a skirt instead of shorts or jeans. However I didn´t expect the ´grande foyer, the coat taking or the super fancy dining room - good thing my skirt hid my scruffy converse!! After a 3 course meal (which I would have photographed if the place weren´t so formal) we wandered around some of old Bilbao and got coffee at óne of the best places in town´.

Puente Vizcaya

It was back to work as usual on monday following the routine above and in the afternoon Emma took me to Bilbao. Since it was my first trip on the train and first class she showed me what to do and how to get there. Unfortunately we left the house a little late and even on the moto we had to get a slightly later train than planned making me about 10 minutes late for class. However due to a lucky coincidence the Spanish teacher was also late.
There are only two other girls in my spanish classes (both from Cyprus) and we´re all about the same age - even the teacher is only a couple of years older, so it´s pretty relaxed though we  still learn a lot - probably more than if it were a whole class with a teacher just reciting from a book or something like that. So the class went well and on the way back Emma showed me the quickest way to walk to the train so I could go myself on Wednesday.

New book ^_^

Tuesday was more of the same and pretty uneventful although in the evening I went for a walk myself to get some quiet time - who knew one 3 year old could make so much noise - and to explore a little. I wandered along the cliff and got a pretty decent view of the beach and sea below - surfers included. I haven´t actually gotten to the beach myself yet but it´s only cause it always looks too busy for me!

Yesterday we had a bit of a tantrum regarding the TV. It was pretty funny all things considered but the screaming was pretty crazy at the time. Isa had watched an episode of her favourite program - Princess Sofia - and once it had finished she put the same episode on again. Half way through it was decided that she could only have 5 more minutes of TV before she did something else - no problem so far. After the 5 minutes I turned the TV off and chaos ensued - apparently she was really mad at me because she wanted to know how the episode ended and no matter how many times I pointed out that she´d just seen how it ended she wouldn´t stop screaming and crying. Luckily her dad was home at the time so he gave her a good talking to and dealt with it while I kind of just sat there opting to wait until she calmed down, but for a full half hour after she´d stopped crying she just sat in the middle of the floor silently sulking. Now apparently this is perfectly normal especially at her age but I have had literally no experience with toddlers so it´s all new to me.
On another note, while watching the same TV show I did see something pretty funny. There was an episode with some knights entering a competion - it´s in Spanish but I got the basic idea. Now one of the knight was quite clearly Irish (and it´s funny enough hearing Spanish spoken with an Irish accent) but the Irish knight had the Guiness harp on his shield!! Not even something slightly similar - it was the exact image! I had a good little giggle about it anyway.

After class - rainy view of the Teatro Arriaga

After all that carry on I had my second Spanish class in the afternoon. I made it there and back with no problems and explored the area a little before it started. I thought about doing the same after but it started raining so I headed straight back instead.


Ok so today hasn´t been too bad I´m still not getting a lot of English out of Isa. The thing is at her school they only speak English and she understands the language perfectly but we´re trying to get her to speak it and unless you´re asking something simple like "what colour´s the pen" it´s no use. It also means that if she wants to do/play with/find anything instead of telling me she´ll run straight to the house keeper for it - which is a bit frustrating since I´m then left standing around like a spare part with no idea what´s going on. However I´ve not been here long and I´m sure it´ll get better.

Anyway - I´m off to go practice my Spanish some more while it´s quite.
Hasta luego! (see you later)

OOOPS!!

Hi everyone,

Firstly, sorry the text has a weird white highlight, I've spent about an hour trying to fix it but it won't go away! 

I know I'm late in posting again but the weather has made it pretty difficult to maintain power/internet around here all week. I'll be lucky if this even posts!

So Monday was just an ordinary day, went to collect a water sample from the River Pilcopata, worked on updating the VC bird species list and checking that all the latin names were correct, and started working on a VC notice board so everyone could be kept up to date with the going's on here. 

We also had a new volunteer show up from Australia (originally South Africa). 

Tuesday was a little less ordinary. Everything was going fine at the beginning of the morning, until it came to sampling. I was trying to transfer some Formal (formaldehyde solution) into a smaller container to use that day, but because it had one of those caps with only a tiny hole it was taking forever to get any into the other bottle. I had a bit of an impatient moment and tried squeezing the bottle harder, while holding it up to see how full the small bottle was getting. Next thing I know the cap bursts off, formal is spilling everywhere and I can't see. I manage to shout to Heather before the fumes start effecting my throat and in no time at all we piled into the truck and made a hasty dash to the hospital - luckily only a couple of minutes away and fairly quiet. After a lot of cleaning out, a shower and change (cause the stuff was so strong the doctor was starting to feel bad), an IV drip (anti-inflammatory since I got some in my throat) and a whole lot of water I finally got to go back to VC, with a cream thing to put on three time a day. So all in all no lasting damage but I'll definitely be being more careful next time I decided to play with the chemistry set!

Couldn't help but laugh at myself for managing to throw chemicals in my own face

Wednesday was mostly spent recovering quietly in my room and pointedly avoiding all chemicals/things I could fall over/ anything else I could injure myself with. One thing we did do was organise our VC secret santa game. I was meant to go out sampling to make up for missing it the day before but someone had taken the truck elsewhere and we couldn't find it until it was too late.

By the time thursday came around it was absolutely chucking it down but we finally managed to get the truck, and I was in super-careful mode so we finally got out to collect our water sample from the other river for the week. Normally it takes about 15-20 minutes because we're testing part of the sample on site but the weather was so bad we grabbed what we needed then dashed back to VC so I could do my titration experiment there instead. I got a fair bit of studying done in the afternoon and on the evening a small group of us went to the high school graduation party in Pilcopata, since we've done so much work with the community and kids there. It did mean we had to go formal but luckily I managed to borrow a dress and apparently didn't scrub up too badly. The celebration was pretty fun although it didn't finish until around 3am! I also got to try guinea pig there for the first time - I don't know what I expected but it didn't taste all that different to rabbit, just a lot stronger. 

One of the rivers where we go sampling

Friday morning was mostly spent studying/sleeping but on the afternoon we went down to town to buy our secret santa presents. I was given the name of one of the older locals here who works in agriculture. I don't know him that well but I think I got a useful - yet general - enough present that he should like it - we'll find out tomorrow when he gets it. 

I was also 'dragged' out for my first proper night out in the discos in Pilcopata. It actually wasn't really all that bad, we mostly all stuck together and danced in a group although the last hour or so was mostly spent with me trying not to step on any toes while being taught some proper latin dancing, including the cumbia. 

After yet another late night I pretty much did nothing on Saturday, but then again I think everyone else was equally as tired so we all had a rather quiet, sleepy day. Our newest volunteer also left today to go back to Cusco. It's a shame cause she had been planning on staying longer but things just didn't quite work out here. 

Yesterday got off to a pretty slow start but we did all take a trip out to Patria to visit a friend's restaurant which was fun, and the food was amazing. On the off chance any of you ever end up in that busy little village you have to eat at La Rustica! 

The team enjoying a great meal at La Rustica

 Well I guess I should get back to work now, went sampling (successfully) today and after a lot of time not doing much proper work the samples are starting to build up. 

Also next time I speak to you all it will probably be from Cusco, as I'm leaving VC on boxing day. Hopefully I'll have something different to talk about by then! 

Chat soon everyone!!

Festival Fun

Hi everyone,
A bit late once again I know but I just managed to get the next textbooks for my course and got a little distracted with that yesterday!

So in case any of you wondered about last weeks festival it was pretty cool, there was a lot of traditional dances all done in really elaborate costumes, plenty of music and, as you would expect at any festival, the alcohol was certainly flowing. Although I only stuck around for a little while it was really cool to see plus it gave us all an opportunity to snack on some great  Picarones (kind of like sweet potato doughnuts)!

Local dancing

On Tuesday our numbers were once again whittled down when Jimena, Rachel and Dan left. Jimena is coming back to continue her research in January but the others are either going back home or getting back on the road. So that brings our number (minus admin/management/'workers') down to 3. There is a new volunteer supposed to be showing up today but it's so quite around here now!

Rachel, Ricardo and Heather enjoying the festival

Unfortunately there's still very little to do around here. We were given a list of jobs we could work on but a lot of the things listed are just filler jobs which don't really have us jumping with excitment.

One thing we did do this week was go out to help clear a new trail on the other side of the river. We got the boat across early in the morning and a couple of us were quite looking forward to the expected slow pace that comes with hacking routes through the rainforest. However the route was actually pretty heavy going and the machete-ers weren't exactly hanging around. Although I thought it would be fine my knee started to protest pretty early on and, for once, i decided to do the sensible thing and turn back. This did leave me with the predicament of being stuck back on the river bank until they returned - 4 hours later - with no book/journal/other interesting thing to do but eventually, after gaining a good few dozen bug bites plus a burnt face, and losing an earring and


my water bottle (which decided to disappear down the river) the rest of the team finally showed up.

The little friend I made down by the river - got within 3 feet of me

The next mission was to actually get back over the river. The boat wasn't showing up and after about an hour and a half it was decided that we would have to use a different, less powerful boat, which meant getting further upriver so it could reach us and get back without struggling to get back upstream. So after a good half an hour of fast, difficult, trail-less scrambling we finally made it to where the boat could get us and we managed to get back to VC. Unfortunately my knee's still not great so I've been having to take it easy this last few days.

For the rest of my time in VC I'm going to be totally taking over with collecting and processing the water samples needed for the larvae project which is kinda cool, especially using a couple of little chemistry techniques I haven't used since high school. It's going well so far although it's only a couple of times a week.

In other news I got to work planning the rest of my time in Peru since I'll be leaving VC in under 20 days and leaving Peru in just over 40. So far I'm making sure to visit quite a few important sites between Cusco and Lima though I have a few days extra to either plan out or leave free to see what happens. I'm kind of disappointed as I was hoping to make the trip with a friend on his motorbike but with my knee being a cause for concern it wouldn't be a good idea - but maybe next time!

Well that's all I have for you guys this time, probably should get working on some of these water samples now!

Ciao 

Nature walk

Hi everyone,
so I know I'm late...again, but there hasn't been that much to write about lately.

I spent Monday/Tuesday helping process more water samples and looking for eggs and larvae.

On Wednesday the SFS students left. They've been here for an entire semester studying biodiversity and conservation in the Amazon but term finished so we all said our goodbyes and they left to go to Cusco before returning home. The rest of that day was pretty quiet -understandable with only about 6 people only at VC now.

Saying goodbye: Jimena, Rachel, Rachel (the SFS intern), me, Heather

This last few days it's been pretty hot here so we've been spending our afternoons hanging out down by the river trying to stay cool.

On Friday Rachel and I went out for a hike along the trails. We didn't see much but we did spot a few cool birds, and an interesting looking snake. 

This weekend there's an election going on in town, alongside a big festival for the town's patron saint. It was pretty interesting going down there yesterday to see the entire town out on the streets, people dancing, a parade and everyone out enjoying themselves. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures since I forgot to bring my camera along but if this sudden rainstorm moves on I'll go get some pictures later today.

yellow rumped cacique

Well since that's my weekly roundup all ready over here's a brief round up of some of the birds we've seen around here for those of you who are interested: 

- Yellow rumped cacique

- Black vulture

- Scarlet macaw

- Blue and yellow macaw

- Turkey Vulture

- White banded swallow

- Red capped cardinal

- Purple gallinule

- Cocoi heron

- Smooth billed ani

- Barn owl

- Haotzin

- Blue tailed emerald 

- Common poto

- Sunbittern

- Spix's guan

- Blue grey tangier

- Caped heron

- Black tailed trogon

- Cobalt winged parakeet

- Black faced Dacnis

and many, many more - some of which I haven't been able to identify yet. 

Blue grey tangier

So it sounds like the rain's stopped - think I'll go head down to the festival. 

Speak to you all again soon!

Happy Thanksgiving

Hi everyone,
so I know I'm late in posting once again but we had a busy day yesterday. Maybe you should all just start expecting to see my posts on Mondays instead.

The main part of the week was once again fairly quiet. I spent a lot of time studying, looking at academic plans for the future such as Masters course (because it can't hurt to be prepared), and various other not so interesting things.

On Wednesday however we had a nice change when Mike, a reasearcher who'd returned briefly to continue his research on frogs, gave a presentation on his specialised topic to a class from the local high school. He bought some speciemens with him to show the kids which, as expected, led to a bit of craziness when one of them escaped and started hopping around the classroom!

Just before it escaped!

Thursday saw most of the students working in the kitchen and preparing for Thanksgiving dinner. Since it was my first Thanksgiving I wasn't entirely sure what to expect but we made handturkey place settings in the morning and a small lunch of soup and deviled eggs - didn't taste as weird as I expected. After a fairly quiet afternooon studying we finally got our Thanksgiving dinner. 

Some of the food included turkey, lentil loaf, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, roast vegetables, stuffing, broccoli salad gravy. For desert there was spiced peaches, apple crisp and bannana empinadas. So much good food!!!

YUM!!!

Over the weekend I got a bit of studying done but saturday afternoon was mostly spent at this great swimming hole Jimena found for us. 

On Sunday a couple of us set off to hike to Quacaria (the local indiginous community village). We made it about half way when a truck drove up and we managed to scrounge a lift the rest of the way - standing in the back of a pickup truck, speeding along the country roads is a perfect way to cool down from a long walk. We spent a couple of hours out there in the river enjoying the Sun and the beautiful little swimming hole before deciding to head back. Although we didn't get a lift this time we were mostly walking downhill so the walk wasn't too bad despite the heat. It was after 2pm by the time we made it back to Pilcopata which meant nowhere was serving food so instead we sat in our favourite ice cream place with some fruit from the market and got some nice cold drinks which finished up the day nicely. 

One big difference around here as of Friday is that Zeidy - one of our volunteers - is no longer here Her and her girlfriend left for Cusco before heading home later in the month. It was great to spend time which such a lovely lass and we're already missing her here but a few people have already made vsiting promises so it's good to see such great friendships lasting beyond our stays here at VC. 

Saying goodbye - L to R: me, Jimena, Zeidy, Rachel (back) Maike, Mauricio (back) and Claudia

Well I can't think of anything else to share this time so I guess it's back to work - today I've been giving Rachel lessons in the Scottish langue, culture and history, since her father bought some land there. Definitely a fun exercise!

Ciao!

Comiendo en Cusco

Hi everyone,
I know I'm late once again but there have been problems with the internet....again.

Last week was pretty quiet and I spent practically all my time working through samples for the larvae project. The only other really funny thing was playing clips of peoples accents in Orkney and in the North East of England (since that's where my family's from) - the best clips where from Radio Orkney and some old clips of Auf Weidersehen, Pet. However the end of the week was much more exciting - Jimena and I headed to Cusco for a few days off.

On thursday we got the bus around 10.30am and after a pretty speedy journey (only 7 hours) we arrived in Cusco and our hostel - Estrellita. It was a nice enough little place and the people there were lovely but it was really noisy on a night with cars coming past beeping their horns all night.
For dinner we met up with a couple of the guys from Villa Carmen who where also down in Cusco. We went to a great pizza place called La Bodega and the food was amazing - unfotunately the rich cheesy pizza disagreed with my altitude-effected stomach so I only got a couple of slices but it was so worth it!

The following day we headed over to San Pedro market for a little shopping - Jimena to stock up on chocolates and I needed to get an extra jumper to combat the Cusco climate. The trip was a success and I managed to get a lovely alpaca-mix jumper for only 33 soles (£7.20). After the market we chilled out in a nice juice bar near the main plaza and used their wifi for a bit before splitting up.

Incan part of Qurikancha

I headed to Qurikancha - the Temple of the Sun. In Incan history it is the most important temple of the Empire, dedicated solely to the Sun God - Inti. It was an interesting place to visit and to see the variations in architecture between the Incan building and the more recent Spanish alterations, although the set up made it a little difficult to navigate.

The Spanish part of Qurikancha

Next we regrouped and headed across town for a real un-Peruvian afternoon. We went to the cinema. We'd heard about the latest Hunger Games movie coming out so we grabbed some popcorn and fizzy drinks then found our seats. Now the movie in general was pretty awesome visually, unfortunately it turned out to be dubbed in Spanish with no subtitles so I didn't understand a fair portion of the film - though I did get to keep working on my language skills I guess.
After the movie we had to head over to the ACCA office so Jimena could pick up so things for her project then we went back to the project to chill out for a bit.
Eventually our stomachs had just about settled after the mass amount of popcorn but we decided to keep it simple for dinner. We found a chinese restraunt off the plaza behind the main one and settled for wanton soup and spring rolls for dinner.

popcorn anyone?

Saturday got off to a slow start as we actually both managed to ignore the traffic long enough to get a lie in. After a late breakfast (fried egg sandwich) we walked up to San Blas where they have a craft market on Saturdays. We had a good look around and I now have some great ideas for what to get for a few luckily people back home. After that we found this amazing place in the same little Plaza called The Meeting Place where they have delicious Belgian waffles and an extensive coffee selection (including a very yummy hazelnut latte).
We headed back to the hostel very much satisfied with our morning's adventure and spent a good part of the afternoon making the most of the reasonable internet connection by skyping home.
By mid evening it was good time and we opted for Indian (trying to cover yet another foody base). There's a place on the main street with an unlimited Indian buffet for only 15 soles (about £3.80). The food was great, even if we did try our best to avoid eating the rice - our main ingredient back at Villa Carmen). After food we decided that we should grab a couple of drinks as we were heading back to the project the following day. There's a great bar on the corner of the main plaza (Plaza de Armas) called Norton Rats which is run by a motorbike enthusiast. It looked like it could have been a regular pub back in the UK with its dark wood decor, flags and bike raly shirts everywhere, plus dart boards and a pool table. Although we stuck to the local beer (four times cheaper than anything recognisable back home at £2.20) we still had a good time. Jimena made friends with the bar staff - including one little guy who set us up with an almost impossible game of darts - while I got chatting to a group of Dutch expats who now live in Cusco.
By around 11pm we called it a night and went back to the hostel.

Norton Rats bar!

On Sunday morning we got all our stuff together then waited for a new member of the VC team to meet us at the hostel. The girlfriend of one of the current volunteers was coming to visit her and we'd been charged with the mission of getting her there safely.
The bus left at around 11.30 - only an hour later than scheduled - and despite making some strange detour which we had no idea about we finally made it back to Villa Carmen just in time for dinner, followed by an early night.