January has been a fun month. It pretty much consisted of lots of little experiencitos, as well as gathering some new students. I am now only giving private classes, but for the most part they are all very specific types of professional English (Lawers and doctors and bankers, oh my!). This results in me giving classes on English that I am not familiar with (I used all of my legal knowledge, gained from ‘My Cousin Vinny’ in the first class) so I end up studying a lot in preparation. And occasionally making answers up to difficult questions. So far, so good.
My favorite student is a woman that is always very well put together- hair up-dos, makeup, designer clothing, bags and shoes, and full length fur coats. She is my only beginning level student and we have been doing classes together since September. Last week I made up a cute little lesson to practice listening and speaking with causal restaurant and dessert vocabulary. I named the restaurant “Heavenly Pies”. Unfortunately, The way that this student pronounces ‘pies’ is exactly the same as the Spanish word for pee (pis). This resulted in some really awkward phrases, and we both ended up laughing hysterically every time she would realize what she had said. Our class went over time a few minutes and she ended up leaving my house right as Angel came to pick me up for a date to see Avatar3D (in Spanish!). Well, I had told her about him a few times but they had never met. When they passed eachother in the hall she guessed who he was and shouted “An Angel!!! Have you brought me some ‘pies’ (pis) from heaven’???” It was hilarious, and poor thing, he had no idea what was going on. I have since retired that lesson because it would be impossible to reuse with such amazing results.
Some other highlights of the month include:
1. The never-ending hike. A few days every week Melinda and I try to go for a long walk or hike up in the mountains. On this occasion, however, we got so lost, and although we could see Granada in the distance for some of the day, we could not for the lives of us figure out how to get back to it. We found some gorgeous views, a few accidental mudslides and several interesting rock formations before finally making it home 6 hours later. Good fun.
2. Rock concerts. My Italian friend, Jessica, is in a band called the Replicants, who play covers of classic rock songs. We always have quite a wild and interesting time whenever we go to her shows. This particular Wednesday ended with Melinda and I crawling home way past our bedtimes, armed with schwarmas. (Jessica and I also went to see a band called Apache, who also covers classic rock songs another day, and they were amazing as well!)
3. New Skill: Breaking and Entering. One night I arrived at my house only to discover that I had locked my keys inside and the only spare was with my roommate in England for the week. When I called Angel, instead of coming to help me, he looked up and walked me through me how to break in to my own apartment using only a credit card. (Melinda had to help.) I have mixed feelings about how easy it was.
4. The same night as the breaking-and-entering was another first for me: I ate a CARACOL!!! (tiny snail). They are a very popular delicacy all over Spain, Portugal and France, but I have not been able to bring myself to eat one. (You have to suck the little guys out of their shells—yuck!) Anyway, I had gone out for tapas with Jessica and I was feeling adventurous and just grabbed one out of the bowl and went for it! Honestly, the taste and texture wasn’t half bad, it even had a little zing to it, but man, I can NOT get over the idea of it. I don’t think there will be a repeat performance. (For those of you who don't know me, it should be noted that I am not usually an adventurous eater. Questionable things (for example, all seafood) are usually not included in my diet. This is a huge deal.)
5. A night of karaoke with some Spaniards. There may or may not have been renditions of country songs and hits from the musical ‘Grease’ involved.
6. Brunch Party!! Last Saturday, I had some of my girlfriends over for a Texas-style brunch. The menu included pecan praline pancakes, Seguin-style breakfast tacos, a killer fruit salad topped with cream, cinnamon rolls, guacamole, hot cocolate/coffee and bellinis! As a group we had representatives from Spain, Texas, the USA, Italy and France. A fun moment was when we started talking about French toast and Anais (French) asked us what the heck that was, and had never heard of it. Oh, Americans. (I guess it’s like the Spanish making American hamburgers but using pork instead of beef. NOT the same food by any means).
7. Angel’s birthday, more hikes, dancing, a moto excursion, tapas and flamenco with the girls, a house-warming party for my other Texan friends, etc. Fun month.
SABES QUE…
Granada has an average of 250 sunny days a year.
Source: (INE (National Institution of Statistics) and the Spanish Tourist Board)
According to tales and legends, the beginning of Chinese New Year started with the fight against a mythical beast called the Nien (Chinese: 年; pinyin: nián). Nien would come on the first day of New Year to devour livestock, crops, and even villagers, especially children. To protect themselves, the villagers would put food in front of their doors at the beginning of every year. It was believed that after the Nien ate the food they prepared, it wouldn’t attack any more people. One time, people saw that the Nien was scared away by a little child wearing red. The villagers then understood that the Nien was afraid of the colour red. Hence, every time when the New Year was about to come, the villagers would hang red lanterns and red spring scrolls on windows and doors. People also used firecrackers to frighten away the Nien. From then on, Nien never came to the village again. The Nien was eventually captured by hong jun lao zu, an ancient Taoist monk. The Nien became hong jun lao zu's mount.
