Lisbon, Portugal

Another country has just been added to the list. Last weekend we had a long weekend here in Spain in celebration of Spain's constitution so I went to Lisbon for 4 days with my three Auxiliary friends here in Cordoba: Laurel, Angelica and Kimzey. Along with another Auxiliary who I did some traveling last year, Dana, who now lives in the north of Spain in Santender. We left Thursday afternoon after school and took a 4 hour bus ride to Madrid. Followed by an overnight train ride from ride from Madrid to Lisbon which we almost missed but fortunately the train was running late and we made it in time! It was kind of a cool experience getting to sleep in the small cabins on the train beds however, I am sure it would get old after a while.

Day 1: Friday, December 3

We arrived to Lisbon around 7:30 AM Portugal time; Portugal is one hour behind Spain so were able to gain an hour which was nice. Fortunately, we got there early enough on our first day for us to experience one non-rainy, weather perfect day in Lisbon. We spent the morning walking around the city center a little bit and experiencing our first pasteleria (Pastry and coffee shop) in Portugal which has an amazing assortment of sweets and almost just as good cafe con leches as the ones in Spain.

One of the plazas with Kimzey, Me, Dana, Laurel and Angelica.

The Plaza that leads to the ocean

We then met up with another guy, Mario, from Lisbon who agreed to show us and a few other visitors around the city. There is a group called Coach Surfers where its' original sole purpose was for locals to host visitors in their homes but it can also be used for visitors to the cities to meet up with locals and have them show you around. It is a great way to meet lots of different people when you are traveling.

Mario took us to our first typical Portuguese Restaurant where we got to try several typical plates along with Sangria for a very cheap price compared to what you would pay in Spain. Portuguese food definitely has a little more flavor, spice and variety than Spanish food and it was nice to try something new. I had a shrimp curry dish which was very delicious.

After we ventured up into the northern part of the city consisting of lots of hilly roads and beautiful look out points. We eventually made it up to a castle called Castelo de S. Jorge. Thankfully, we had chosen the one nice day to see this site. It provided some great views of the city.

The whole group from our first look out point

Pretty view before the castle

Me, Kimzey and Angelica in the Castle

On our way back down to the center of the city we visited the Cathedral.

Once we made it back to the center it was close to dark but there was still more to do so we took a metro to a little further outside of the city to see some other sites. We first, stopped at a famous Pasteleria in Lisbon where we tried a typical Pastry Lisbon is known for called Pastel de Nata ( a pastry filled with cream) and absolutely delicious.

We then walked around the area a little bit and saw the outside of the Monastery with all of the lights lit up. By this point all of the major sites were closed so we would have to come back and see them during the day.

Once we got to back to the city center. We spent some time walking around and checking out all of the Christmas lights before calling it a day.

Day 2: Saturday December 3

We woke up to the start of rain so we decide to spend our day shopping since the weather wasn't the best and we were a little burnt our from all of our site seeing the previous day.

That evening we met up with another local from Lisbon also named Mario who brought us to a Fado concert. Fado is a typical type of Portuguese music similar to Flammenco music in Spain. Fado consists of two guitar players and a singer. It is very relaxing and calm type of music. Typically as a tourist it is hard to find the non-touristy places to go to see this type of music. So fortunately we were able to meet a fan of fado who could bring us to the right atmosphere. The bar was packed and we were probably the only foreigners but it was a great experience.

Day 3: Sunday December 4

It was another rainy but there was really nothing we could do about it. We took a metro to the same area of the city we went Friday night where we tried the delicious pastries. There we visited a famous tower that is practically in the ocean (well at least when the tide is high enough and the water is rough enough). Due to the extreme amount of wind and the roughness of the water it was a little bit of a challenge getting from the bridge to the entrance of the tunnel without getting splashed by a wave. Once inside we had to climb a few story high spiral staircase to get to the top. Due to the weather the view wasn't the best but it was still neat to be up there and see other parts of the city.

A Little Windy....

The midway point with the whole group

From the top

The Monastery in the day light

Day 4: Monday December 5

Laurel and Angelica caught an early plane back to Spain so it was just Kimzey, Dana and I left for the last day. Despite the weather we made sure to explore the areas of the city that we hadn't gotten a chance to see yet.

First, we took a trolley to one of the more elevated areas of the city; in the same vicinity we went on our first day to see the castle. It was a rather pretty ride up. From there we discovered another looking point of the city giving us a great view of the castle and bridge . We also saw the outside of a Covenant and Monastery which were both closed.

The View from where we got off the trolley

The Covenant The Monastery

Our walk back down

After lunch we continued exploring the central part of the city. We discovered a back route to climb to the top of the outdoor elevator type tower structure; kind of like a mini version of the empire state building.

The Climb up

Kimzey and I from the top

The Look Down

The Outside of the Elevator at night

And thats the end of the trip. We left early the next morning to catch a plane back to Madrid. I loved Portugal even though it rained for most of the trip!

Thanksgiving Festivities in Cordoba

Its hard to believe that this was my second Thanksgiving out of the country away from home. Its so much easier the second time around and I almost feel completely accustomed to life here in Spain. As much as I missed not being able to celebrate this day with my family at home it was great to be able to celebrate with my friends here in Cordoba who I have surprisingly only known for a few months.

Since we all had to work on Thursday we weren't able to have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner that night. So instead we went out to a Chinese restaurant for an open buffet to satisfy our homesickness with some good food.

On Friday evening we prepared a traditional Thanksgiving dinner at Laurel's house for her birthday. There were us 4 Americans and then we all invited friends, coworkers and roommates who we wanted to take part in this special American holiday. Everyone brought a dish to share. We had almost all of the traditional Thanksgiving dishes minus the turkey which was substituted with chicken along with some typical dishes from other countries. I made a green bean casserole and stuffing. The stuffing was a big hit and it seemed as if no one had seen or tasted anything like this before. Needless to say there was plenty of food and it was definitely a success.

Below are some pictures from the night.

The Presentation

The other American Auxiliaries

Me and my Co-worker, Henry

So many Desserts

What I've been up to in my school

Hola Todos!

Everything is going really well in my school. I'm finding the longer I work here as a Language Assistant the easier it is becoming for me to prepare and teach my weekly lessons. The hardest part is probably remembering all of my students names. I have already been working at Grupo Cantico for almost two months and I can finally say that I almost know all of their names, however there a few that I still don't know. It makes it hard only having each class once or twice a week plus the fact that they aren't typical American names makes it a little harder.

About two weeks ago the history teacher, Rafael, who I have been working with since the start of the school year had his last day. He was only a temporary substitute teacher taking the place of another teacher who had been sick. His departure from Cordoba was very sudden. He told me the day of that it was his last day at Grupo Cantico. (I think because it wasn't definite when the other teacher, Maria, would be starting). It was a little sad to see him leave since I had gotten used to working with him and he probably is one of the few younger teachers at my school. However, I have enjoyed working with his replacement. She has quite a few years of experience teaching and has a good level of English so we have worked well together as well. The day before Rafael left I went out with him in the city which was nice. I'm sure I'll see him again if I go back to Malaga; the city where he is from.

Around the same time we had a big lunch at my school to welcome all of the new teachers. It was at the end of the school day for only the teachers and we were all expected to bring one dish or drink to share. It consisted of many different typical Spanish dishes. The amount of food supplied was incredible. I felt like a special guest. Everyone was serving Henry (the other Language Assistant) and I each of their prepared dishes. As you can imagine I had more than enough to eat. I brought brownies for dessert that I had made from a mix. To say the least everyone was in love with them and was asking me for the recipe. The plate of brownies went very fast and next time I will know to bake more. It was great to meet and get to talk to some of the teachers who I hadn't really known before. They are all so welcoming and accommodating to my needs. One of the teacher's has offered to take me to a soccer game next time there is a home game and a few of them want to play tennis with me.

Along with my obligations of preparing and teaching classes every week, I am also responsible for updating the school website with a personal blog about myself and where I am from. It took a little a while for me to learn how to use the site. Last week I was finally able to post my first blog and I hope to stay up to date with them as important events, holidays and traditions take place in the United States. Below I have included the site for my first blog entry. Compliments of Rick Katzenburg I have used his photos to show Amherst in the fall because they were just so beautiful and capture New England in the fall so perfectly.

http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/averroes/centros-tic/14700730/helvia/bitacora/administracion/admin_pubs.cgi?wAccion=modifica_data&wIdPub=132

On a side not, last night I was able to meet up with two of my sorority sisters, Christina Tierney and Leah Puening, who are studying in Salamanca for the semester and are on a big group trip to the South of Spain. Their group stopped in Cordoba for the night. So it was great and so crazy to be able to see some fellow Thetas who I haven't seen for so long. Its always nice to have people from home to meet up with especially when your in a foreign country.

There is a taste of what I have been up to at my school as a Language and Culture Assistant so far.

Malaga

Two weekends ago I went to Malaga for Halloween weekend with the three other Auxiliares from Cordoba: Angelica, Laurel and Kimzey. Malaga is on the southern Coast of Spain in the Andalusian Region about a 2 in a half hour bus ride South East of Cordoba. It was great to get away from Cordoba for the weekend and see something new. However, I got a little sick once I got there which kind of put a damper on things but I still enjoyed myself.

We arrived to Malaga late Friday morning and spent the afternoon walking around and exploring the city. We were so excited to be on the coast that we made it one of our first priorities to find the beach even though it wasn't exactly bathing suit weather. We definitely made the right choice of going to the beach our first day because it only got colder and more windy has the weekend went on. The beach was so nice and peaceful. There were little patches of grass with pine tree for us to sit on which worked out perfectly since we didn't bring our beach towels. We sat there for a while admiring the water which we touched with our toes but was too cold to go much further. We then continued to walk along the beach; there were few people on the beach this time of the year which allowed us to really enjoy it.

The Castle and RomanTheatre

Angelica and I in front of the Alcazaba

The Beach

Me, Angelica and Kimzey

That evening we had an Argentinian Barbecue which was put on by the cooks of our hostel upstairs on the terrace. It consisted of a salad, platter after platter of different types of grilled meat along with grilled zucchini and egg plant all accompanied by a delicious sauce. It made me want to go to Argentina and experience this type of food. It was a great opportunity to meet many of the people at our hostel from different parts of the world.

Unfortunately I woke up Saturday feeling quite sick and I couldn't participate in a free walking tour of the city with my other friends. I was able to venture out into the city later in the day and see more.

Pablo Picasso grew up in Malaga so on Sunday we visited his house which is situated in the same plaza that we were staying in, Plaza Merced. It wasn't anything too impressing; it definitely had been re-renovated quite a bit but was still cool to see. We then visited the Picasso Museum

which had a lot more to offer than Picasso's house.

The Cathedral

Sunday night was Halloween so we all dressed up like people from the 1960's. We went over to an Auxillary's house in Malaga for a little party and then went out to some of the bars around the plaza we were staying in.

All in all it was a good weekend. I think I would like to go back in the Spring or Summer when the weather is nicer and we can go to the beach.