Las Canarias!

Reggie and me with the Dragon Tree in Icod de los Vinos

  It was a last minute decision; two days before we left Reggie and I decided to spend a week on a little island off the coast of Africa!
   The Canary Islands are so beautiful. They remind me so much of Hawaii, also being volcanic and totally badass. We spent the week with another couple hiking around Tenerife (the island) and Teide (the biggest volcano, and highest point in Spain). We hiked down and around the valleys that have been created from the lava flow, checked out the little cool towns around the island and spent a few days on the beach. Surprisingly it wasn't nearly as hot as we had originally planned. Which wasn't the best beach weather, but it was perfect for hiking and exploring.

view from our hotel

  I was hoping to learn more about the Canarian culture like I had the opportunity to do so in Hawaii, but it was harder to come by. The island is so overrun by the British (surprise surprise), so we spent the whole week speaking in English. I feel like I am slowly forgetting all that I have worked so hard to learn!

Volcano Teide on the left!

  Reggie and I wanted to rent surf boards one of the days, but my shoulder is still totally screwed up from climbing a few weeks ago. I keep forgetting I have the opportunity to take advantage of free health care here, so I plan on going to the doctor on Monday with a little help from my Spanish roommate, Fanny. I just realized I still don't have any pictures of my two roommates on my blog! They went away this weekend... but soon I'll have pictures up of them, don't fret.
  It's hard to put into words how amazing Tenerife really is. From Tenerife we could see the sunrise over Gran Canaria (island to the east) and the sun set behind Gomera (other island to west)! I feel so lucky to have been able to go. Next time I will bring all my climbing gear, there is a ton to explore and climb all around the island!

extra pictures from Tenerife, Canary Islands

I wish I could figure out a better way to interlace pictures through my blog... I'm terrible at this computer thing. So anyways, here are extra pictures from our adventure!

this photo is so spanish

Nancy and me on the beach!

sunset in Garachico

before we started the hike down to the beach

the sides of the mountains looks like they're melting!

Reggie, Nancy, Todd, and me on our hike!

Jurassic Park?

view from up at the volcano

Teide with the clouds rolling in

One last thing before thanksgiving...

                                                                                       I just couldn´t help but think of an email I sent my family the other day that said, ¨well wish me luck finding a turkey to roast up in this ocean of pig legs I live in.¨ I went to the store the next day and couldnt help but take a picture of exactly what I was talking about....

Almería y El Campo

slacklining in the park!

    It feels like a while since I have blogged! Maybe it´s because I have been having to much fun to sit down and write about it.... Two weekends ago I took a train ride through the desert to Almería for Keely´s 26th birthday! We all traveled from all over Andalucia to make it. Kate, Jessica, Keely and I raged Almería for the weekend, all we were missing was Kerry! It was so nice to be with the girls. To use all American slang, to talk so fast, even talk over eachother, and still be able to understand everything that is going on around me. I think this is something easy to take for granted. I also was happy to see the ocean. I have to travel a ways to get to an ocean, and I don´t think I can ever take for granted how pretty a sunset over the ocean is. I guess I am becoming accustomed to the sun setting over my sea of olive fields that surround Linares!

Jess, Me, Keely and Kate in a castle, no biggie

beach picnic

 

the house we rented in the countryside

 This past weekend I went out to the country and rented this amazing old spanish house in the mountains.         
   There was a pool and a tennis/soccer court. I went with 13 other people and we stayed for two days. Barbequing steaks, playing sockker, Reggie and I set up the slackline, etc. It was so much fun. On Sunday it was raining outside so we ended up all sitting around near the fire drinking, playing dice, and talking shit! It was nice to be surrounded by such beautiful mountains, and it felt so much like a Spanish movie or something. We ended up not being able to hike just becuase the hiking trails were all way too muddy from the rain, but this group is far from boring, so we just made our own fun inside! I wasn´t ready to leave when it was time to last night, but I think we are going to try to rent this same house again in a few weeks. It was such a good weekend away.
  So this weekend coming up is Thanksgiving! People actually know what that is here.... surprising :) I am going to Cabra (which means goat) to spend it with the ladies I met in Sevilla. I am sad because Reggie has decided to stay in Linares and spend it with the friends he has made here.. I just know I will have more fun if I go, and I know he will have more fun if he stays here with the friends we have made in Linares. It´ll be kind of sad, but we are spending Christmas together in Paris, so I´m not that bent out about it!

 Sending Happy Thanksgiving Wishes!

     Gobble Gobble...

One way of Life!! El Chorro :)

I think this dragon creature is playing a violin... in the moonlight

We just came back from the best climbing trip!! We went to a place called El Chorro, just outside of Malaga. The climbing spot in about 3 hours from where we live in Linares. We took a bus to Granada and rented a car from there, only 9 euro a day. We picked up Reggie's buddy, Luke, in Malaga and headed into the mountains. We got in at night and had no idea what was around us. We drove around like a bunch of tourists for waaay too long looking for our hostal, but it's all good, when we got there all the other people were still awake and told us where all the climbing could be found. We didn't do any real prep for the trip, didn't know the climbs, where to find them, and figured a guide for the area was too expensive for just a weekend trip. I can say now that I am buying this guide book for the area because I will be spending a lot more time in El Chorro!

Luke on the last climb of the day

    First day out of the rock was amazing. It was our day to get our bearings and explore the hundreds and hundreds of routes all over the area. Our second day was even better! We met up with a good buddy of mine that I met when I was living in Sevilla, Pepillo. He brought his friend, Carlos, and they took us to an area called La Mumia. Really good climbing. A little more crowded because it was Saturday, but the climbs were beautiful. Long routes, smooth limestone, tons of sunshine, and really great to see Pepillo!

Bits of the path fallen out

    On our third morning we were climbing in a spot in the canyon. To get there you can take one of two ways; el Camino del Rey, or the train tracks. El Camino del Rey (the path of the King) is located about 100 meters above the river below, and its this super super old walking path that has completely fallen apart. There is still a cable running along the side of the wall that you can clip yourself into so you don't fall to your death!  Mostly everyone walking the camino are climbers, wearing their harnesses and carrying all their gear, there are some other people who do walk this camino, but harnesses and a way to clip yourself into the cable are absolutely mandatory. The camino has actually been officially closed since 1992 and is now falling aapppaart. There are actually climbs that you can do right off the path of the camino, with not very much space, but with epic views all around and a little frightening too.

A bit of the Camino and river at sunset

The gang that walked the Camino del Rey!

    Walking the path took about an hour and a half. We finally reached our climbing destination and met up with our other friends who walked the railroad tracks. This can also be sketchy because trains are still continuously running along these tracks. There is space to get over and plug your ears, but still! The climbing on this last day was my FAVORITE for the whole trip. The routes were looonnnggg, and we were all kind of perched on the side of this rock in a smallish area before there was another drop off down to the river. I loved the group I was with! Reggie, Luke, a bunch of Spaniards that I met through Pepillo and myself. I know I will climb with these guys in the future. I think Sunday was the most fun day I have had since I have been in Spain. I am continuously blown away with how beautiful this country is and how nice and welcoming the Spanish people are.

extra pictures from el Chorro :)

Our little euro car

One of the crag spots

La Mumia

Pepillo Tomates!

sunset from camp spot

the beginning of the Camino

the path couldn't handle me

Up on the bridge, you can see the path behind us

Reggie crossing one of the bridges, the path right in front completely gone!

Carlos, Pepillo, and Reg

Camino with bridge and river

Feria!!



Gypsy Spanish dress :)



   I love Feria!! Feria is a Fair that happens in every city in Spain. The Feria starts in Sevilla in i think April or March, and then travels around to all the cities for the rest of the year. The Linares Feria was right before we arrived, so we hopped the bus to the Feria in Jaen this weekend (45 minutes away). Just picture this: carnival rides mixed with drinking tents, game playing zones, discotechs, kebab and sandwich joints all created in an open lot for SEVEN days right outside the city center. This is a romping good time for the little niños up to the grannies. All the people are dressed so nice, going on these carnival rides in their discotech-ing clothes. It is so much fun! So many of the women are wearing these traditional gypsy style dresses that are so beautiful.  

   Reggie and I met up with a teacher from his school, Vicente around 4pm. He introduced us to all of his friends and their wives, and the party began! We started at a sherry tent where they serve chocolates and cookies with the sherry. By this time it was proabbly 4:30pm, maybe 5pm, and we made our way to a tent that was blasting Shakira music. The dancing commenced mixed with some super old Spanish songs that everyone knew the dances to.



Reggie and I with the gang!



   I am dying to have my roommates teach me this style of dancing. Fun to watch, but you know I would much rather be participating. Dancing and drinking, dancing and drinking, dancing and drink, etc etc etc, at midnight, Reggie and I almost had it. We found a heavenly kebab shop, the best kebab I have ever eaten. After this we were ready for round two. Damn, its hard to keep up with these Spaniards!

   Eventually we called our friend that we have met climbing named Karol, he´s a hilarious Polish man. We asked him if we could crash at his place since the Feria was 45 minutes away from our town. He said of course, and when we showed up at his house he had made a bed for us and bought us toothbrushses! what? yes.... toothbrushes! When we awoke in the morning, breakfast was sitting out waiting for us because Karol had already left climbing. The Polish now have a special place in my heart forever. Along with the spirit of the Spaniards to party. This is definately one of my favorite weekends in Spain so far!

hiking, feria, beach season :)

Reg and I hiking on Dia de España

    I am now into my third week of teaching. I love my school! I still don´t understand... I figured by now my spanish would be killing it.  No... but today I DID understand something a teacher told me. He told me he loves to see me at school because I am always smiling and so happy. Hell yes! I got something going for me... but still not speaking the language. with time.. with time...

   I am in the process of recieving my work card so I can pay taxes, wahoo! Reggie and I met up with other people in our program at the foreigners office. Wow, people were telling some horror stories. Complaining about every little thing. When we left the office to get our cards I just hugged Reggie and said thank you. We have just been trying to stay so positive the whole time, and I think it has really paid off. Our town isn´t the coolest town ever, but now it´s starting to feel like home.   

sunset from my balcony

 Reggie and I met up with two of our friends this weekend in Malaga. Malaga is sweet! The beach is beautiful. It took us 4 hours to get there, yikes, but it was so nice to get out of the sea of olive trees and to spend some time looking at the Mediterranean. No big deal, spending some time in the Med as we like to say here...

starting young

would you want to put your mail in here?

  Malaga is extremely touristy. Every shop is a postcard store, trinkets store, or something along these lines. You never know if you are paying what you should for something. This is another reason why I am happy in Linares. It´s so nice to not worry if I´m paying tourist prices or regular prices. Also if I meet someone in my town, I know I will probably see them again. But the people I did meet in Malaga were from other places, studying and traveling( just like me).

I am starting to be given real work for my classes. It feels good to know I am contributing to my classes now. I am trying much harder to stick around my roommates this week and practice my Spanish. All is so good here... the sun is still super hot, so we have some time before the winter comes. I will make the most of these climbing months while I still can!

Reg and I teaching some kids in the park to slackline!

Our new friends Marion and Steph on a hike in Cazorla

  

life in Linares

  The weeks here are great, my life is now full of so much activity. But my WEEKENDS are even better! Reggie and I went climbing again yesterday. Back to the same place we went last weekend, climbing under the castle walls. We explored this area fully and are now curious to see what else this region has to offer before the weather turns coooolllddd. I can already feel the coldness creeping in in the morning and once the sun goes down. Sundays are something to get used to. Everything is closed, all stores and restaurants. What the heck is one supposed to do on days like this? I am enjoying the late, late, late wake up, the long breakfast, the afternoon walks and preparing a great big lunch around 5. Watching movies in Spanish in the house after lunch and playing cards. I don’t know if this town would bore me to death if I didn’t have Reggie, but so far I am so happy here. I want to make a point to go out with friends the way I would in the states. But, because this town is small and kind of sleepy, many of our new friends like to ‘bottelon’ in the park. Buy bottles of wine and beers and drink in the park and talk. Moments like this make me miss the Hostel Sopris, where we had great dance parties and could be as loud as we wanted. I have not yet joined the gang to ‘botellon’ in the park, who knows if I ever will.

   I think my roommates leave on the weekend. I know I wasn’t at the apartment a bunch this weekend. But I haven’t seen then or seen life in that place since Friday morning. I guess they must either stay with their boyfriends or go back to their towns outside of Linares.  They might have told me they were leaving…. It might have been one of the moments I smiled and nodded because I still only understand half of what is going on around me….

moving in

   First day in my new piso! I can’t believe how lucky I was to find it. All the apartments here are SO granny, with pictures of the crying Virgen or Jesus on a Cross. This apartment has been all redone and I have my own balcony! Reggie was such a big help. We brought my bags over together and he helped me move into my space…. And then he said good bye… and left me.. all alone… with my Spanish roommates… to speak Spanish! I was so scared. I was more nervous for this moment than I was walking into school on the first day. Why? I don’t know, maybe because these girls are actually my age and I was just being so weird. So I stayed up and talked with my two new roommates Maria del Mar (Mary of the Sea) and Fanny. They are so nice. When I told them I was fried and I needed to sleep they kept me talking. They somehow managed to bring the conversation into the family room and feed me pizza even though I told them I wasn’t hungry. I was hungry, but my nerves were on overload and I thought that I couldn’t hang. That was two and a half hours ago, and I am now finally getting ready for bed. I feel so blessed to meet these two ladies. They have both lived with Germans and Italians before, so they are used to speaking slow and helping me feel included. I don’t even know how to shout out my gratefulness. They would be so scared of me if I did that. Already I understand more. I know some days and for big moments during other days we won’t understand anything that’s going on. But at this moment I feel on top of the world. I am thankful Reg and I want to live independently and together. I am thankful for this great apartment with these beautiful roommates. And I am so thankful I still have 9 months to get better at Spanish!

First week in Linares, Andalucia, Spain!

After the most fun month ever I have made my way to Linares.  So nice to have Reggie pick my haggard ass up from the train station on Saturday afternoon. I wanted to make the most of my last night in Sevilla, therefore sleeping was not an option. A week of rest and navigating Linares I know my way around some of the town. I spent a whole month learning the ins and outs, the side streets, the weird shanty bars in Sevilla, and I am having a hard time building the motivation to start over. I know with some time I will be psyched again, but for the time being I am content to find that stuff in time.

Ruins above the town of Cazorla

            I am so happy to be here with Reggie. We have been super motivated this last week to go out and se what is surrounding Linares. We made our way to a town called Cazorla for hiking. The town was gorgeous… sitting right in a mountain side. The flora is so similar to Colorado. I still remember a bunch of the latin names from pingree park, and I’m curious if they are all the same? Cazorla was such a breath of fresh air. Going straight from Sevilla (a big city) to Linares (a smaller city) was hard for me. I like sunsets, I like to look out over viewscapes, etc. That just isn’t super feasible in Linares. There is hardly anywhere to go to get above the buildings.

In front some famous arch, Baeza

            We have also been to Ubeda and Baeza, two sister cities know for their historic and awesome architecture, to visit some friends. The towns are gorgeous, much smaller than Linares and a bit more touristy. This is one of the reasons I am happy to be in Linares. This is a city of local people, no tourists. I feel like I can make this city my own, make it feel like my home without that feeling of trying to stand apart from the tourists that come to visit. Baeza was so cool though. The streets are old and cobblestone, the old city walls are still there in remnants, and it feels so… Spanish!

Skyline view of Baeza

Reggie climbing below the castle (not shown), Jaen

            I am happy to say Reg and I have also made it to Jaen to go climbing!!  Jaen is where it’s at. It’s a city surrounded by mountains, and this city is huge! I don’t know how to begin to describe it, but I love Jaen. Siestas have been throwing me off the whole time I have been here. On Sunday things are even worse! We tried to catch the 10oclock bus to Jaen. The last one left at 9am and there wasn’t another one until 3pm! We wanted to make the most of our Sunday, so we decided we would just go at 3pm… this worked out great, but when we got to Jaen, there was no buses up to the castle (where all the climbing is located) because it was Sunday and there isn’t anything going on on Sundays! We walked part of the way, but because we didn’t know where we were going, we decided to take a taxi. A 4 euro taxi dropped us off so close to the crag. After a 15 minute walk, Reggie and I were standing underneath a castle (!!!!!) putting on our harnesses and flaking out the rope. It was so so beautiful. From the rock we had a view of all of Jaen and all the surrounding mountains. The rock was SHARP, but so much fun and such good classic climbing. We were climbing on the south face, needless to say, the sun was beating on us something awful. I know this will be one of our favorite spots through the winter months! I love it there. Now we know the way and we won’t need to take a taxi in the future. It’s probably only a 20/25 minute walk from the bus station through the city up to the rock climbing area!

Spreading the love, Jaen

Climbing at la Cara Sur, Jaen

            I started my first day of school today. I was so thrown off last week when I met my bilingual coordinator… she didn’t speak English! This was confusing to say the least, since she is in charge of all English/Spanish communication between the company I was hired through and her school. Well, it’s a little more sink or swim than I thought, but I know it’s going to be awesome. I understand ENOUGH of what she says to make it through, and I know with time it’s hopefully, only going to get easier. I am still living with Reggie. This has been a bittersweet stay. I am happy for the comfort because I was so sad to leave my friends and life in Sevilla, but I am also speaking much more English than I had hoped for. Reg speaks to me in Spanish, but it’s so hard for me to turn my Spanish on and off. He is teaching me a lot more Spanish and I am happy to be here, but today I am going to look at another apartment with 3 Spanish girls who are studying at the University in town. Wish me luck I hope its awesome!

            The school year really starts tomorrow for me. I have my first full day of classes and I am nervous! Who would of thought… well I am working in a primary school, which means ages 6-12 years old. These kids don’t speak English who am I kidding? Most of our communication will need to be in Spanish, so I guess this is where I pull through, while sometimes looking like the biggest fool ever. I will be helping in English class, Phys. Ed, and Science classes. Science class? This should be entertaining.  I have also hung up a few papers in town to see if anyone would like to do an intercambio. This will give me even more opportunity to sit and practice Spanish and help someone as well with their English. I was trying to find a Spanish class somewhere in Linares, funny though, there are none!

            So this is my life in Linares so far. I appreciate the structure and the opportunity to make a bunch of new friends. I know I just have to be so patient with my Spanish. 9 months is a long time to practice. I love you all at home and I will write again soon. Besitos!