Breakdancing to Tchaikovsky

Today we popped over to Den Haag in The Netherlands, to watch Lily's and Daniel's cousin perform in The Nutcracker. It was a bit of a trip, three and a half hours with seven people in the car, but totally worth it. It's been a while since I listened to Tchaikovsky and it made me remember why I like his music so much and why I love watching ballet.

In the second act(?), they had some kids breakdancing to the music. There was this one kid who was apparently only 5 years old, spinning on his head and doing handless somersaults. Insane.

When I arrived on Thursday night, we had dinner and made plans to meet up with Lukas. Lily and Daniel were both tired from a week of non-stop eating, plus they'd visited their grandfather in hospital that day, so they didn't want to make a big night of it, but Lukas said he was up for it if I was. It was my only chance to go out in Cologne with him, because he was on call all day today and then working the rest of the days I'm here, so I said yes. I later regretted agreeing to it.

The four of us went for drinks in a cafe/bar in town, then Lily and Daniel dropped us off in the clubbing street. Unfortunately, the good clubs were closed so the one we went to was a bit dodgy and smelt like vomit. Still, it wasn't too bad (except for the vomit smell).

We'd arranged for me to crash at Lukas's because although Lily had told me she was happy to pick me up, it's not very nice to wake up at 3:30 am to drive in the freezing cold. I warned Lukas in advance that when I drink, I need to eat something. He assured me he had Polish sausages that he could cook. I'd forgotten that usually when guys say cook they mean microwave. But the sausages were insane, bursting with fat and tasty, tasty goodness.

He also opened a bottle of red that one of his patients had given him, which was also very good (apparently a rich patient) and we finished the bottle. This was after some tequila shots, beer, cocktails and red-bull-and-vodkas (which Lukas ordered- I NEVER drink them). And the next morning I remembered a) why I don't drink tequila or RB and vodka, b) why four years ago in Sydney I'd sworn never to go out drinking with Lukas again and c) that Polish people are crazy and Polish/German people are worse.

In Sydney, when Lukas was doing his prac, he used to go to the hospital for 12 hours, go back to his place to get changed, meet me in the city some time in the evening where we would proceed to dance and party, then at 5 or 6 am he would catch the train straight back to the hospital to start his next 12 hour shift. I think he did it three nights straight until I told him I was too exhausted and couldn't take it any more.

I was having lunch with the extended Nass family the next day, so was supposed to be back at their house by midday. Actually, I woke up feeling not too bad, because Lukas had offered me his bed while he took the couch, so I'd slept pretty well (though too little) but as the day progressed, I got worse and worse. The only blessing was that Romanian food is very fatty so I absolutely gulped it down. I might've freaked out the relatives by the way/amount I ate.

I felt SO rude because everyone was speaking Romanian/German and I was incapable of sustaining a conversation with the people who could speak English. The best I could manage was a forced smile when someone directed a comment at me. Five hours later, nearly passing out from exhaustion, I told them I had to leave. They were also going to some friends' house that evening for more food but I couldn't do it and went to bed at 9 pm.

Christmas in Germany

Arrived in Germany on the 23rd and the trip was a Pain In The Arse. Walked to the bus station at 7 am, caught the bus to Bilbao (2 hours 15 min), a bus from Bilbao to Santander (1 hour 30 min), plane to Frankfurt Hahn (2 hours), a bus to Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof (1 hour 45 min), train from Frankfurt to Giessen (45 min) and then when my uncle picked me up, it was another 20 minute drive to his house. The thought of the return trip gives me nightmares. (Photo: Great uncle, receiving Christmas gift of fish roe from my parents, which arrived on the 24th. He looks forward to it every year)

But otherwise, I had a fantastic Christmas. My great aunt cooked lovely food and lots of biscuits as usual, and we decorated the tree, went for walks in the woods and fields and watched the candles on the Christmas tree go out one by one on Christmas eve.

It was almost exactly the same as it was two years ago, except my cousin Jennifer replaced my sister Lisa and I only stayed two nights. We stayed in the house of my great uncle's neighbour, in her son's old room. It was a great room, with an electric guitar (which I had fun with), blue and green light bulbs, a plaster of his girlfriend's breasts, band posters, flags and bottles of tequila and whiskey. AND in the bathroom was an actual tanning bed that I wanted to try out for novelty's sake but I didn't get a chance.

It was nice to see both my cousins Jennifer again. And speak in Taiwanese with my great uncle. Speaking Taiwanese always makes me feel like I'm home because I only ever do it with my family.

Then in the afternoon of the 25th, I caught the train to Cologne, where Lily picked me up from the station. I don't get how the train prices work. It took me 2.5 hours and cost 28 euros, whereas if I'd caught one that took me 20 minutes less, I would have had to change trains twice and pay 73 euros. How is that intelligent?

NO MORE WORK this year

I am so happy I could cry. I've been paid for my private tutoring, I've been paid for the month of December and today was the LAST DAY of school this year.

Every grade put on a show for the rest of the students and then at 2 pm when the students went home, the teachers scoffed themselves on food in the teachers' lounge. Afterwards, there was heaps of food and wine left over and they pressed me to take boxes of leftovers. And a bottle of wine. I must look poor. They said whatever I didn't take they'd donate to a homeless kitchen. So actually I felt a bit guilty about taking the food because I'm sure the homeless need it more than I do, but I didn't feel guilty enough not to take any.

On Monday, Juan Carlos, Pablo and I had dinner in Calle Laurel as our Christmas dinner. We absolutely stuffed ourselves sick- normally five pinchos are more than plenty but we had nine each. The last one (in the photo) is foie, which was so incredibly tasty I could've eaten nine of those alone except they cost twice as much as the other pinchos.

And last night, some of the teachers from Cenicero and I went to a basketball match. It was supposed to start at 9 pm but the umpires didn't turn up so they had to call in new umpires and the game didn't start till 10 pm. The school board gave a gift of three bottles of wine to each teacher at Cenicero and Juan Carlos also gave me three bottles of wine from his family's vineyard. Plus I've bought a few bottles for Germany where I'm visiting my great-uncle and my friend for Christmas. I feel like I have wine coming out of my ears.

The other day, when I was at Cenicero, I had class with the infants after recess. I was walking towards the building when I heard this noise coming from the playground. As I got closer, I realised the kids were chanting something. And when I walked into the playground, I saw them all (about 30 in total, between 3 and 5 years old) lined up against the building hailing me, shouting 'CATH-RIN! CATH-RIN!' while bowing. And when they saw me, they all started cheering madly. It was the most hilarious thing I've seen in a long long time. I had no idea those tiny people could be so organised. I will admit I was very fond of them at that moment. Also because I knew I wouldn't see them again till mid-January.

Real Madrid vs Barca

It was the all-important Read Madrid vs. Barcelona soccer match last night as well as being Bola's birthday, so we went to his flat and had dinner while watching the match. Everyone had said the question wasn't who would win, but how much Barca would win by. So when the match started, I thought Madrid were doing really well until I realised they were the ones in white and the ones with all the goal opportunities were actually Barca.

Shows how much I know about the soccer here. Anyway, Madrid lost. I think this is the first full match I've watched here since arriving. My friends always get together when a match is on but I always decline. They put really random statistics on the screen every now and then (well, I think they're random). Like what percentage of time a player's spent walking/running/sprinting and how many km a team has covered.

Afterwards, we stayed in the flat till about 2 am, then headed to the bars. At about 5:30 am I decided if I wanted to be able to walk home, I should probably head off but I left Bola, Javi and Laura still dancing and drinking like there was no tomorrow.

On Friday, I went back to my new favourite shop (the 2nd hand clothing store) because they were having sales (UNBELIEVABLE) and bought 3 jumpers and a pair of jeans for 8 euros. Admittedly the jeans aren't the best, but they were only 2 euros. And yesterday I got a haircut for 9 euros. The hairdresser asked how I wanted it, so I said just a tiny bit shorter. She nodded and smiled and ten minutes later, had hacked half of it off. But none of my friends noticed anyway. About four hours into the night, one of them gave me a puzzled look and asked 'Did you get a haircut?'

Four days of partying

Because Monday was a public holiday, we went out every night from Thursday to Sunday and by Monday evening I was half dead.

I can't remember what time I got home on Sunday morning, but I woke up some time in the afternoon, looked at the clock and went 'Shit.' It was 5:30 pm. Nevertheless, I took a shower, had some food and then met my friends at midnight at a cocktail bar. I've decided the human body is probably not designed for so much continuous drinking. Before I went out though, Pablo and I watched The Exorcist at home with the lights out. There were a few moments when I thought I didn't want to watch any more, but on the whole it wasn't too bad.

Then on Monday, I think everyone else was dead/hungover/asleep, so Beza and I met up for pinchos at lunchtime. Which was just as well because I didn't really have food left, just cans of mushrooms and beans. Carlos had downloaded Gomorra so a whole group of us watched that at The Pad. It was a bit heavy for a Monday afternoon after a whole weekend of partying. (Photo: quail egg and chorizo pincho)

4 MORE DAYS OF WORK AND I'M DONE FOR THE YEAR. Plus both my flatmates will be out of the house by next Tuesday. We made ANZAC biscuits and chocolate slices in class this week. After watching the kids, I'm NEVER eating anything that a child has touched. One of the boys picked his nose (or rather, excavated) then casually continued to roll his dough. And the state of some of their hands... I had no idea skin could be so dirty.

Tomorrow is Thursday and I have a 5-day weekend ahead of me. I'm in love with my life.

All hail Mini Claud

My dad sent me a mini laptop from Taiwan, which I received on Thursday. When I got home from work, I saw the delivery sitting in the hallway and I got so excited I jumped up and down throughout the flat screaming with joy. My flatmates were sitting in the living room and Juan Carlos said he got really freaked when he heard me enter and start shrieking at the top of my voice.

I've called my mini laptop Mini Claud, after Claudius, my big laptop. It's so tiny and light, it fits in my handbag (which admittedly my friends say can fit a dead baby, it's so big).

I'm currently in a bar near my house where they let you use their wireless internet if you buy food or drink. It's going to be my new daily hangout. We've finally cancelled our contract with Orange (aka The Shit Internet Provider) and have signed up with Telefonica, the evil national phone company. But apparently it takes up to two weeks for the contract to be actually cancelled, and only after it's been cancelled will Telefonica sign us up officially and then that might take another two weeks, and then they'll need to send us a router, which can take up to another two weeks, so I'm guessing I won't have internet in my flat until mid-January. If we're lucky.

Had a great day yesterday. After work, Javi, Rubén, Beza and I went to the Drunken Duck for lunch, then Javi went to soundproof the place where he and his band practise and the rest of us went to The Pad and put Mulholland Drive on TV while we had a siesta. Well, I had a siesta, don't know about the others. Again, David Lynch is too weird. I kept waking up at various points in the movie and had no idea what was going on. The people all looked the same but the characters had changed. (Photo: Bottle of Havana Club with a Havana Club banner in the background, at The Pad, where else?)

Today is a public holiday, as is Monday, so I had to buy enough food yesterday to last me three or four days. It's a pain in the arse carrying my shopping home.

Hmmm, have just found one of the inconveniences of sitting in a bar using a mini laptop. This old drunk man entered and started talking to me, except he was so drunk he mumbled and I couldn't understand what he was saying. I think he was asking me questions about the computer. So I just smiled and nodded and after a while he turned away. But then he started talking to me again, but I didn't know he was directing his conversation at me so I ignored him, and he tapped me on the shoulder with his walking stick. And then after a while he did it again.

Thankfully he's left, but before he left he said 'You'll be coming here a lot with your laptop won't you? I'll see you soon then.'

Ugh. I hope not.

Snew!

1. It snowed this afternoon. In fact it could still be snowing, but I wouldn't know because I've got my blinds down to keep in the heat.

2. I had a series of unfortunate events on Saturday morning at about 4 am. First, I filled up my hot water bottle and put it in my bed while I brushed my teeth. Then when I got into bed, I felt this burning sensation up my leg. Apparently my hot water bottle had exploded and soaked my blankets (and no, that is not a euphemism for peeing in my bed). So I had to change all my blankets and sheets. And sleep without a hot water bottle.

That's OK, I thought. I still have a heat pack. So I put my heat pack in the microwave for two minutes while I changed my sheets and when I went to pull it out, all this dense, black smoke billowed into my face. It had burnt through. So I stood in the freezing kitchen, airing it out with the window open, cursing the world.

And minus hot water bottle, minus heat pack and minus warm blanket, I spent a VERY VERY uncomfortable night. Plus I smelt like burnt heat pack beads.

3. Notwithstanding, I had a good weekend, as always.

4. My next mission is to find a laundromat here. My wet sheets from Saturday are still hanging outside and with all the rain/snow, I suspect they'll never dry.

5. Friday was a public holiday for teachers, the Day of the Teacher (sort of like the Day of the Triffids). Not that it made any difference to me because I wasn't working anyway, but because Ana didn't have to work, she came out for 2 euro pints with us on Thursday night. Very fun.

I am a slave to my work

On Monday night, I decided I wanted to tell the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears to the kids at school. But then there was the hassle of making the characters, so I procrastinated until after midnight, and then I thought, 'Oh well, it won't take me too long.'

Four hours later, I was just a little exhausted and grumpy. I drew Goldilocks, the three bears, the three bowls of porridge, the three chairs and the three beds, went over the lines with a thick black texta, coloured them in, cut them out and wrote my script for the story. I was going to draw an empty bowl of porridge and a broken chair but by that time I was like, bugger this.

And the next day I told the story five times. I'd also made a theatre out of a cardboard box, so I stuck blu-tack to the back of the characters, stuck them to pencils and had them prancing around my theatre. Don't know if the kids liked my storytelling skills but I had fun.

Next time I'm just going to google images from the internet.

Free sofa!

Had a great weekend. On Friday night, there was dinner at the flat. I love watching guys cook while I stand there drinking beer or wine. Carlos was halfway through making the salad when he went 'Ostia! There's no vinegar. And the supermarket's closed.' There was a horrified silence until someone bravely said 'That's all right. We don't need it.' (Photo: My hamburger)

Spanish salad dressing consists of vinegar, olive oil and salt. Not having vinegar is like eating a meat pie without tomato sauce. Or a vegemite sandwich without vegemite. Personally, I hardly ever use vinegar so I didn't miss it.

Afterwards we went to Bassanova and drank mojitos, which for some reason were cheaper than beer, which meant we had a few. And finished the night with kebabs.

On Saturday evening, Beza, Andrés and I went to watch one of our friends, Millán, play ice hockey against Pamplona. He plays for the Logroño team. I went ice skating with him a few weeks ago, and he told me they actually weren't very good. But they won, hurray! In the photo, Millán is the second from the left.

It was the first live ice hockey game I've seen. I expected a bit more bashing and blood (there was no blood at all) but they played really well and the third part was great. It made me miss playing team sports in high school.

I'd like to learn how to play but I don't skate well enough. And I get very competitive. The other day, in my gym class, the instructor split us into two teams to play a ball game and I started getting a bit aggressive. And this is against elderly folk (well, people between 35 and 70). I snatched the ball from a gentleman of about 65 years and accidentally bonked him on the head. And I whacked this woman when I tried to keep her from getting the ball. (Photo: Rubén's shirt. He has a collection of insane t-shirts that always crack me up)

Anyway, after the game, had pinchos in Laurel with Beza and met up with the others for more drinking.

Going home at about 5 am, we spotted a sofa one of my neighbours had thrown out. So Rubén helped me carry it up to my room and we took turns sitting on it. It'd been raining so it was a bit wet, but I spent a nice cosy Sunday afternoon armed with my hair dryer, drying it off (and hopefully blasting away germs). It's a kind of mossy/pea green colour, very reminiscent of the '70s, very comfortable and so ugly it's adorable.

Lola has had a facelift

The internet connection in my flat lasted only a day and a half. I (naively) thought it would be there for good, so took a siesta and when I woke up two hours later, it was gone.

Am currently at The Pad (as I've come to call Javi's and Beza's flat), using their free/pirated internet. It seems so unjust that they have internet without even paying for it, while I, after two months, have had perhaps cumulatively 14 days of internet.

Anyway, last week, I discovered my school here in Logroño has a laminating machine. I've gone insane laminating all the crafty things I've made- all in the name of education of course. Lola has had a facelift. In fact, the only original thing that remains is her mouth. I've remade her nose, ears, eyebrows, eyes, even face. I've given her a new haircut and laminated her. I'd laminate my hand if I could. I love that machine.

Had dinner at The Pad with the flatmates. I made a carrot cake because I had an overabundance of carrots in my fridge. They seemed to like it. We'll see tomorrow, ha! (Photo: Carlos and Beza making dinner. Note the broken window pane patched up with cardboard. It's little things like this that make me love this place)

When I finished work today at 1:30 pm, I nearly cheered. Roberto, the teacher I assist with 1st and 2nd graders, had a meeting, so this teacher-in-training at the school took the class for the 1st graders. MAN, SHE DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO CONTROL THE STUDENTS. The 1st graders are the easiest of all the grades to control, but under her, they turned into wild beasts.

First, she did an exercise with stickers, and told them to all peel off the stickers they'd need and stick them on the table. As soon as she said that, I thought, this is going to end badly. Stickers stuck to table plus six year olds = nightmare. And indeed, within two minutes, we had twenty kids wailing 'Profe, I can't get the stickers off.' Then she ran around like a mad chook trying to peel a hundred stickers of twenty desks while the kids ran rampant. She finally decided to photocopy the stickers and cut them out by hand and stick them with glue.

While she was doing that, I played a game with the kids, to teach them colours. They loved the game, got fully into it and stopped being monsters. But then she decided it was her class, and tried to restart the exercise but the kids didn't want to, and the kids who hadn't had a go at the game yet got pissed off, and naturally it all ended in nightmare again.

I tried to suggest to her that we leave the exercise and stay with the game, because it doesn't matter what they learn as long as they learn, but she was like 'No! This is the exercise we have to do, so we're doing it.' I shrugged and did what she said but the kids ran around whacking each other, throwing things and crying.

At the end of the class she said to me 'Phew! See how well they behave with Roberto, and with us, they're uncontrolable.'

I was like 'Ha, woman! With you they're uncontrolable because you have not bleeding idea how to run a bleeding class. Don't you try pin the blame on us. They behaved perfectly fine with me.' Of course I didn't say that but it's so incredibly frustrating when you see someone doing something that's so obviously wrong and not being able to do anything about it.

Offal day

It has been a crap day. Just one of those days when everything annoys me and everything aches. I thought I was coming down with a cold, but I had a four hour siesta and felt slightly better.

I had this massive headache that wouldn't go away and being around children made it worse. And there was this monster of a child in 4th grade that I would gladly have throttled. Whenever he wanted the teacher's attention, he would bang on the table, shouting 'Profe! Profe!' and you tell him that is not the way to get attention, that he has to put up his hand like everyone else but as soon as you turn around, he's banging on the table again.

We were watching a video and he started clapping in the middle of it, going 'AUGHGUAHG HAHGHAUGHAUGHA' tunelessly. So I turned to him, glared and said 'Shhhh.' But as soon as I turned away, he started up again. So I turned around, banged my fist on his table and went 'Oi! Be quiet!'.

The little shit just glared at me and when I turned back to the screen, he started banging the table again softly. I ignored him and he got louder and louder. Finally I got really pissed off, whammed his desk and hissed 'Shut up, you fucking moron.' He tried to stare me down but I gave him the biggest greasy and he shut up for the rest of the video.

Honestly. Not even a mother could love it.

Normally I'm so nice to the kids. The problem is he's a remedial child, but for some reason, they put the remedials with the normal children in the English class, though they separate them for the rest of the classes. And I think the English teacher feels sorry for him so she's too lenient. But really, why should I and everyone else have to suffer because he's moronic?

And my flatmate has taken to being passive agressive. Maybe I've got PMS and I'm reading too much into things, but he's really starting to give me the shits. The other day, when I came home, he was cleaning the flat. I started making dinner and he just stood there in the kitchen looking at me. So I tried to make conversation until he suddenly asked 'Are you going to take long?'

'What?' I asked.

'I'm cleaning the flat and I've got the kitchen left to mop. And obviously I can't do it till you're finished.'

'Oh- well, maybe give me five minutes,' I said. And then he said 'No, no, I'm just being a jerk, I'm joking. Take your time.' But then, he just STOOD THERE AND WATCHED ME, SILENTLY, with his arms crossed. In front of the plate cupboard, so I had to ask him to move, and then he shifted to the front of the cutlery draw so I had to ask him to move again, and then in front of the fridge, so I had to ask him to please get his bleeding arse out of the way so I could get my tomato sauce out of the fridge.

He also asked me if he could see the soles of my slippers. So I showed him and he said 'You see all that crap stuck to the bottom of your slippers? Can you please clean it off every day so it doesn't get distributed through the flat?' I was like, MAN, do you have nothing better to do than be so anal retentive? I clean them when they get dirty. But I have to admit, if I swept and mopped the flat twice a day, I would probably get pissed off if someone came through and dirtied the gleaming floors. He's like some frustrated house frau.

And then he makes all these comments which I think are supposed to be funny but aren't. I was sketching in the living room because the light was better and he asked me 'You like drawing don't you? Pity you're not good at it.' And he always says sarcastically 'You're life is so hard isn't it? You party the weekend away and work 12 hour weeks.' This coming from the guy who doesn't work, has two hours of uni a week and has to decide which of the two hours he's going to attend because attending both is just too much hassle. And when Juan Carlos asked if we could turn on the heating because he was cold, he starting mocking him and saying 'You're just like a little kid, crying because you're cold. Whining that your feet are cold, your hands are cold. It's not even Winter yet.' I was like, that is not cool. If he's cold and needs to turn on the heating, who are you to be the heating nazi?

The other day, Alexis came over for lunch and asked him 'So how are things going generally?' and he said 'Good, good, except things with Cath are going through the arse.' I think it was meant to be a joke.

But I was like BLOODY HELL! I'm not even in the flat most of the time, I clean up after myself in the communal living areas, I barely go into the living room because he's always there watching TV and I don't watch much TV anyway, I don't take up two thirds of the fridge and cupboard space like he does, I don't walk around humming tunelessly, I don't make much noise at all.

I think he's a bit disappointed that I'm not as friendly as I could be. He and Juan Carlos usually have lunch and dinner together in front of the TV and I sometimes join them but when I come back from work, and I'm buggered, all I want to do is scoff down some food and have a nap. Or I'll come back briefly and head straight out again. He's always telling me about his flatmate from last year who became great friends with him, who invited him to his place for Christmas, who hung out with him heaps. I tried to invite him out with me and my friends a few times but he doesn't drink and he told me he doesn't like being out after 9 pm, preferring to sit at home in front of the tele. So I've given up inviting him along, but when I come home at 7 am on Sunday morning and he's already up for his morning jog, I swear he looks at me disapprovingly.

One of my friends jokingly said that he probably likes me. I laughed so hard I nearly peed my pants.

Four days with Josh

My first visitor has come and gone. Josh was doing some filming in Barcelona for two weeks and decided to pay me a visit when it wrapped up.

He arrived on Saturday, which was Javier's birthday party so we picked him up from the bus station at 3 pm and by 5 pm he was eating and drinking with the rest of us. (Photo: Some of the boys playing poker)

It's been an insane four days. We started eating at 5 pm on Saturday afternoon, didn't stop till 1 am Sunday morning, then headed out to the bars and stayed out till 5 am.

Sunday was a cruisey day, seeing that we didn't get up till (very) late. In the evening, we went for some pinchos. (Photo: Josh and I drinking sorbete de limon)

We also found a fantastic second hand clothing store where I got two jumpers for 3 euros each. I'm a bit dubious about the cleanliness of the clothing, but as long as I don't break out in a rash I'm happy. On Monday, Ruben started his new job and shouted us to some beers and calamari and on Tuesday, we climbed the Logrono mound.

The mound is a hill with vineyards on the slopes and a nice view of the city when you get up the top. However, Josh decided it would be fun to take the unmarked trail back down, which involved slipping down the hill face and ending up at the fence with a five metre drop to the road.

I have to admit it was fun, but I was a bit concerned about how we were going to get out because there was no way we could climb back up. We eventually found a hole in the fence and jumped. Then went and had pinchos for lunch.

There was also a free photo exhibition we went to in the old part of town. Afterwards, we went by Javi's and Beza's flat to say goodbye to the guys and drink kalimotxo because Josh hadn't tried it yet. Beza said (with a note of horror in his voice) "It's only Tuesday, you know." I'm pretty sure Josh had fun. He was going to leave on Tuesday, but decided to stay an extra day. I had a great time, but got up at 5:45 am this morning to walk to the station with him and then had to work at 9 am. Some of the kids today were absolute shits. Have a headache now.

This divine hamburger was my dinner last Thursday night after we went out for 2 euro pints. I've realised hamburgers are featuring quite prominently in my diet here.

P.S. Update on the internet situation- the internet stopped working again for a week, and then my computer also decided to throw in the towel. Since last night I've had connection but I'm going to start taking bets on how long it will last. Gah! Gah!

The Matthew Herbert Big Band

On Tuesday night, Ruben, Galo and I went to San Sebastian for the Matthew Herbert Big Band concert. (Photo: Ruben and Galo, with the San Sebastian skyline behind them.)

I know I said my hot water bottle was the best 10 euros I ever spent, well this was the best 20 euros I ever spent.

It was the kind of music that squeezes the air out of your lungs and makes you feel like you're dissolving.

I noticed that they're heading to Sydney and playing at the Opera House on the 24th January next year, so I'm going to make sure my family and music-appreciative friends who are there GO. (Or I might buy them tickets as Christmas presents if they're nice to me.) No matter how pricey the Opera House is, it's completely worth it.

Afterwards we went for a walk by the sea in the rain and ate bocatas and drank a bottle of cider at a bar. San Sebastian is supposed to be ridiculously over-expensive for food (and everything else) but this place was great.

Long live cheap food!

Dinner, masks and Roman bridges

On Wednesday, I decided to make dinner for my flatmates and a few friends. I invited Beza, Javi and Ruben over. It was fun- we finished off a bottle of wine before we'd even started eating.

I made some masks for the Infant classes, to teach them the names of family members, and got the guys to put them on. There's also a Grandpa and Grandma (not shown). And actually, the 3rd and 4th graders really liked my masks too. I wasn't intending on using them for their classes but they spotted them when I got to class and clamoured to put them on.

My 'teaching' has been going quite well (except for Thursday, when I woke up with a slight hangover and missed a class by accident). Sometimes I feel like a glorified babysitter. I just arrive, amuse them for a few hours while their parents are at work, and leave. The 2nd graders in Logrono are little shits and the 6th graders are rowdy and incorrigible and the 3 year olds still don't really speak, but the rest are great.

On Friday, visited the Frank Gehry-designed bodega in Elciego. Well, looked at it from the outside. You need to pay a hefty fee to go in. Apparently, it's supposed to look like a bunch of grapes, and depending on where you're standing, the colours change. I think they do beauty treatments there as well, all from grapes (probably the waste products from the harvest and wine production- and why not, if people will pay lots of money to have crap slopped on them and be told it will make them look more youthful). There is a stench in the town, of squashed rotten grapes.

Also visited a Roman bridge from the 2nd Century AD. It's amazing that it's still standing, although obviously you can't walk on it. And it's pretty big as well. I find anything over a few hundred years old fascinating because Australia doesn't have anything.

On Saturday night, went over to Javi's and Beza's flat, brought them a gift of toilet paper (because they'd run out for the last week or so and I don't like peeing with no toilet paper), watched TV, ate pizza without cheese (the topping stays on surprisingly well), drank beer and then met up with the rest of the guys who'd been out watching the soccer. Life is sweet.

The fight is over! (Maybe)

This is Avenida de la Paz, the street that leads me home at 6 am every Sunday morning. Although the photo was taken a few weeks ago, when it hadn't started raining yet. I spent a very happy Sunday glued to my laptop, jealously checking every so often to see if my precious wireless signal was still alive and kicking.

I kissed it goodnight and when I woke up on Monday morning, I sprang back to my computer to use it and it was gone.

I nearly wept. But I didn't. I went to the gym instead and ran and hit things.

Still wasn't working this morning, but at about lunchtime, They called Pablo and told them the problem should be fixed and we shouldn't have any more problems. I did notice it's running quite slowly, but maybe the internet breakdown was a deliberate ploy by Orange to make us so happy we've got internet at all that we don't notice how crap it is.

I am (aside from internet debacle) having the time of my life here. I draw things, I write things, I run around and drink and eat with my friends. Javi and Beza have rented a flat with four other guys. It's just for hanging out in rather than sleeping- I don't think it would be very comfortable sleeping there. The building has no lift and is full of hookers, junkies and illegal immigrants probably, and a flat with six guys and lots of beer isn't the cleanest place in the world.

Anyway, on Friday, I went over and Beza, Ruben and I ate chinese takeaway and watched a few crapulous movies. Well, Blue Velvet wasn't crapulous but it was too weird for me and I was sick, so I fell asleep for five minutes and when I woke up, the plotline had gone haywire.

Then last night, Javi and his band were going to practise, so he invited me along but they decided to hang out at the flat instead, playing video games. So I went by with a box of recently made (by me) Anzac bickies and watched them play Street Fighter. It's hilarious how devastated people get by little 2-D characters on screen.

On Sunday night, I went for a walk/jog by the river. It was raining a bit, there were puddles everywhere and around me there were just street lights, darkness and the sound of the river. I have discovered that pure happiness can be found by dancing in the rain (as long as no one sees you).

Armed with fried rice

Last night, Ruben came over and told me 'You know, if you reset the modem, it might work?' So I did, and the internet functions!!! I'm a bit overwhelmed. Skype, voipbuster, emails... All these things I lived without for three weeks. I'm not sure whether to check my email, call my family/friends or do school work first. So I decided the best thing would be to cook a huge (think half a kilo) bowl of fried rice at 6 am in the morning and eat it at my laptop.

School so far as been fantastic. In Cenicero, the fact that I have to get up at 7:15 am is offset by the fact that the teachers there are fantabulous and young and vivacious (and we have lunch/dinner once a week together). Last week was Halloween, so we went through some Halloween vocab in class, such as pumpkin, ghost, vampire and played Bob for Apples and Whack the Witch (my invention, where you blindfold a child and give him a stick so he runs around and tries to whack the other kids- potentially dangerous but very entertaining).

I also went on an excursion with the 5th and 6th graders to Vitoria. We visited the cathedral and the Modern Art Museum. I prefered the museum, if only because it wasn't 1 degree celsius inside, but being with 25 10 and 11 year olds is quite draining and I thought I'd die before arriving home. During lunch time, I played skipping rope games with the girls.

The parents have some privacy issues with their kids being photographed, so I've put up a photo instead of Andres peeing in the women's bathroom. Which is just as amusing, if not so visually attractive. Tonight I went out with Ana, one of the English teachers in Cenicero and my friends. As usual, too much beer and too much kalimotxo but also a lot of fun. It's been practically two years since I played drinking games.

Also, the 1st of November is a public holiday for some saint (or many saints) so the supermarket wasn't open which means I only have 3 kg of apples left in the flat. They were on sale.

Update on bleeding internet

The situation is apparently that every time Pablo calls, they tell him it's not their responsibility, some other department has to deal with it. The problem is they can't contact the other department directly, they have to leave notes for them. And we can't contact the other department directly either because actually THE DEPARTMENT DOESN'T EXIST.

IT'S A FICTIONAL DEPARTMENT CREATED BY THE EVIL DISENCHANTED PEOPLE WHO WORK AT THE ORANGE HELP DESK. I can just see the door where they stick their post-it notes saying 'Please call these people to fix their internet'. And the door leads to the basement or their nuclear missiles stash, and every time they stick up a new post-it note, they snigger to themselves.

AUGH!!!! HATE!!! HATE!!! And we can't even change our company because we've apparently signed a contract and sold our telecommunication souls to this EVIL EVIL SAAJKFJAAFBEIOAEUADJDKLFAH HJA.

On a pleasanter note, tomorrow I'm going to Vitoria again with the kids for an excursion. They'd made kites that they were going to fly but it's raining so that probably won't happen. Shame. I was hoping the kites might act as a conductor and one of the kids would get struck by lightning. Just for the amusement factor.

Burgos, Vitoria and internet (lack of)

Last Sunday, my flatmate Pablo and I went to Burgos. It was very scenic.

It felt a bit weird because it was a Sunday afternoon and there were hardly any people on the streets in Burgos. There were quite a few tourists though. The top photo is of the famous archway. There's also a famous cathedral, which the pilgrims visit, I guess, when they do the Camino de Santiago which goes through Burgos.

The night before, I'd semi-crashed a wedding function that Javi and Ruben had been invited to and stayed out till about 6 am. Four hours later, Pablo and I caught the bus to Burgos and walked around for six hours. (Photos: with the statue of a pilgrim in Burgos; nice avenue with chestnut trees and lots of chestnuts on the ground.)

By the end of the day I was buggered. Pablo also took photos non-stop. He took more photos in 24 hours than I did in a fortnight of travelling. And the only reason he stopped was because his camera ran out of battery, but then he started taking photos with my camera so now cumulatively we have about 450 photos of one and a half days.

I think my smile started looking a bit frozen. We had morcilla and fried eggs as one of our tapas dishes for dinner. Morcilla is a Burgos specialty- it's like blood sausage with rice and onions and stuff. Very tasty. I love food.

On Monday morning, we visited the cathedral then decided there was nothing else to do in Burgos and caught the bus to Vitoria, which is the capital of the Basque region. I liked Vitoria so much better. It was much more vibrant. And we ordered a Menu del Dia at a Chinese restaurant for lunch, which gave you 3 dishes, plus drink plus dessert for only 6.95 euros. Bargain!

Our internet is still not working in the flat. Almost two weeks now. Pablo's been calling Orange (our internet provider) every day since last Tuesday when it broke down, to get them to fix it but they've decided they want to take their sweet time. And since they don't work on the weekends, it means at the earliest it'll be fixed tomorrow which I highly doubt. I am Very Bitter. (Photo: some slogan about the Basque country. I don't know what it means because I can't read it but I'm sure it's something like 'Freedom to the Basque region').

My room

This is my room in Logroño. It's about a third of the size of my room in Sydney, which means it gets messy very fast but, as my flatmate pointed out when he was showing me around, it'll be warmer in Winter. And it takes no time to clean.

The only thing I don't like about it is the purple and white floral curtain. Ugh. No wonder the boys chose the other rooms.

I might get a rug.

I put 'WRITE' up on my wall to remind me of what I'm supposed to do. So far it hasn't worked. Also bought a hot water bottle and cover. It was the best 10 euros I've ever spent.

Statues, crazy kids and concert

After the nightmare first day on Wednesday, Thursday was a breeze. I had two half hour classes with 4 and 5 year olds and one and a half hours of music class (which involved playing the recorder, hopping around to music and playing a bit of keyboard). Thursday is going to be my favourite day.

It was 2 euro pint night again, so went out with some of the guys and had pinchos afterwards. In the Espolon, there were these weird bronze statues that had sprung up out of nowhere. They were pretty cool.

And then on Friday, when I got to school, the English teacher was sick again. There was a teaching student training to be an English teacher, who was supposed to be going along to the classes to see how they were run. So she said to me 'I'm not trained to be an English teacher yet, just a language teacher, so you'll have to lead the class.'

Again, I was like 'WHAT???' My teaching experience consists of one-on-one tutoring of Maths and English and babysitting my nephew.

I had actually prepared something (thanks to the principal's suggestion on Thursday) so I did a slideshow presentation on Australia and got them to ask me questions. One of the first things they asked was 'Do you have a boyfriend?' I also taught them how to sing 'I Still Call Australia Home' from the Qantas ad. It was that or 'I Come From A Land Down Under', which has flowing beer and chundering men.

The sixth grade class was even worse. Another teacher was there supervising and she said 'I don't speak a word of English so you'll have to teach the class.' So I did what I did with the fifth grade class, but because these kids were older, I got through it in half an hour. And then I stood there going 'Ok... I'm done. What do you guys want to do now?'

HONESTLY. I had no idea of their level of English, I hadn't been told I was supposed to teach them for an hour, I don't know how to interact with children. Bah! Bah!

The first grade kids are nice though. Very, very obedient. Very easy to deal with.

On Friday night, I went to a Spanish rock concert, of a band called Extremoduro, with Javi and some friends. It was great but I think I have permanent hearing damage now. Stayed home on Saturday night for the first time since arriving. Was fantastic to sit at home in my pyjamas reading a book.

Yesterday, I finally met up with Quique. He'd been in Mexico when I arrived and then I was away. I think the last time I saw him was at Pancakes On The Rocks (yummm... pancakes...) a year ago. He came back to Spain in February after his exchange year at UTS. We went for pinchos and he explained the difference between pinchos and tapas.

Tapas are from the south and pinchos are from the north. Pinchos are better.

My new friend, Lola

Had my first day at work today. It was slightly traumatising.

Let me just say that I've never had to do much with big groups of kids before. So to meet five different classes with about 20 kids each was extremely daunting. And the Infantil class, with three year olds... The teacher asked me to sit at the front of the class, so I did, expecting her to sit down next to me and do something that I could imitate.

She said to me 'Why don't you teach them something? You've got something prepared, haven't you?' I was like 'What? What?'

Then she handed me a stuffed toy elephant who's their mascot (called Ellie) and told me to teach them something about Ellie. Scrounging around desperately to come up with something, I said 'Ok... This is Ellie the Elephant. She has a BIIIIIIG nose! A BIIIIIIG nose.'

The children stared at me blankly. I continued on, trying to keep a huge smile on my face. 'And she has BIIIG ears! BIIIIG ears!'

I had no idea three year olds could be so silent. The teacher took pity on me. She said to the kids (in Spanish) 'Can you repeat please, "BIIIIG ears!"'

Silence.

She gestured for me to continue.

'Ellie has a small tail,' I said. 'A Small Tail. Can you say "small tail"?'

Apparently not. They were looking at me like I was some crazy lady come out of nowhere and gabbling in some foreign language. One of the boys was snivelling and had snot dribbling from his nose. The teacher told me to take Ellie around to each of them and say 'This is Ellie' and make her give them a kiss (extremely unhygienic I thought). At least they smiled and kissed her when I did that. Until I got to this one boy, who turned away and started crying.

I was terrified he'd start an orchestra of weeping but the teacher put on some music and got them to clap along, and then she gave them a picture of Ellie to colour in. But honestly, what are you supposed to do with three year olds? They can barely say their own names. I can tell I'm going to dislike Ellie a lot before the month is out.

Anyway, fearing a debacle like today, I've actually prepared something for tomorrow. I've cut out body parts from coloured paper (photo is of assembled body) so we can play a semi pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey kind of game tomorrow, except with arms and legs and eyes and ears. But I'm a bit worried about the fact that she's naked- is it too obscene? And I wasn't too keen on her skin tone because normal people don't have that shade of pink.

I quite like her. I've decided to call her Lola.

And the first thing I did after class was buy a hand disinfectant gel.

No ginger?

I bought this pair of boots on Saturday. They are beautiful and I love them (although not the price...)

Went to my school on Friday to meet the teachers and students. It was great- I have a fantastic timetable that results in me getting a 5 day weekend every two weeks. Plus the teachers were nice.

Had dinner at Javi's grandfather's place with some of his friends on Saturday night. This is the cool house with the boar head hanging above the fireplace. Javi cooked ribs, bacon and chorizo for us in the fireplace- so so very tasty.

I have discovered a horrifying thing. There is no ginger to be found in Logroño. I went to two supermarkets and about six greengrocers. And the greengrocers all said they didn't know where I could even find ginger. Terrible.

Back from Madrid

So- I'm back.

I was telling one of my friends how it feels like since about the 10th of September, I've been non-stop packing and unpacking, and repacking and unpacking again. Completely bloody sick of it. I don't understand how I managed to do it for 3 1/2 months in 2006. Although I guess I was travelling non-stop then, so I never completely unpacked.

The orientation was good. I got to meet some of the people going to Logrono, as well as other places, and they told us what to do with the children (although apparently we're supposed to get in touch with the schools to find out when we start, they don't tell us...)

We didn't have anything on this morning, so this Canadian guy I met and I went in search of a Chinese supermarket to stock up on Asian groceries, since most small cities don't have them. After a few hours, I finally found one. He had to leave before we found it. And I bought 40 euros worth of stuff...

SO overpriced. It also added an extra 6 kg I had to lug home. But I'm happy.

My other flatmate has moved in ie. he's added a duffel bag to the blanket in his room. I still haven't seen him yet. It could be that from now till when I leave, I never meet this phantom guy. He'll just keep coming when I'm not around to add stuff to his room, and then a month before the end of semester, he'll start emptying his room again.

To Madrid! And beyond!

My other flatmate, the one I haven't met yet, still hasn't turned up. I'm beginning to wonder if he actually exists...

Pablo (the one I have met) said he was supposed to move in on either Sunday or Monday. So every time I come home, I step warily into the flat in case there's some foreign presence but so far NOPE.

Had a very alcohol-fuelled Saturday night. It was the last night of San Mateo so everyone was out partying and drinking. My new mantra is: stick to beer. Ugh. I'm sure the whole town was suffering from a collective hangover on Sunday morning.

It was fun though. I've never seen people so crazy. Well, I've never seen people so crazy in other countries. Ruben claims we got home at about 8 am.

My sister taught me how to make a 5 minute chocolate cake, so I did that today. It was delicious. Off to Madrid tomorrow, for an orientation thing where hopefully they'll tell me when I start working. I would like to get paid.

I have internet!

My flatmate is great! I got home to Logrono at about 2 am this morning, to find a note on my pillow from Pablo saying he'd gone back to the Canary Islands to visit his family but he'd call me in the morning when I was awake. And he'd got the internet and telephone installed while I was gone and left me instructions on how to use them.

The other flatmate still hasn't moved in yet, but he's supposed to be doing that either tomorrow or Monday. And I'll be off to Madrid again for my orientation on Tuesday. So I've got the flat to myself for two days, yay!

I went searching for the Muffin Man in Drury Lane. I thought he might look a bit like the Gingerbread Man from Shrek but more muffiny. London was so relaxing. I think it makes a huge difference if you're staying with friends as opposed to paying for accommodation. With friends, it's so much more casual, you don't feel the need to cram in as many cultural things and tourist sights as possible. And my brain had a fantastic rest from Spanish. (Photos: Do you know the Muffin Man, the Muffin Man, the Muffin Man?; Globe Theatre)

Went to see Avenue Q with Laura on Wednesday night, then went to see a matinee performance of Stomp on Thursday. Avenue Q was hilarious. It's about these puppets and people who live on a street in New York.

There was a sex scene that was almost as graphic as the one in Team America. Stomp was crazy. There's no speaking at all, the 8 performers just tap dance and make sounds with random items like toothpick boxes, garbage bins, basketballs, brooms... It makes you realise how inventive people are, and how you can make a musical instrument out of anything. Although if I had a child who insisted on playing percussion on every available item/surface, I would throttle it and chop off its arms.

Vanessa insisted on paying for almost everything, even though I was already staying with her for free, so I cooked dinner on Thursday night for her and her flatmates. Ness is my friend from primary school. Laura's a friend from high school, who I went to Nepal with. It's strange how there are some people you just stay friends with no matter what, and others who come and go in your life. I love my friends.

Yesterday, I caught a bus from Finchley Road to London Stansted Airport. The buses were supposed to come every 20 minutes but I was waiting there for 50 minutes before one turned up. Apparently they'd cancelled two buses. Luckily I got there early, so I managed to get to my flight on time, but there was a guy beside me who was going apoplectic with stress and rage.

And then when I had to catch the bus from Zaragoza airport to the train station, to catch the train back, I missed the bus stop. It's normally the last one, so I wasn't paying attention and then suddenly everyone was getting off. So I asked the bus driver and he said 'It was back there. I didn't drive in, but didn't you hear me calling out "Get off here for the station"?' They have a weird system. There are STOP buttons on the bus, but the driver decides whether to stop or not by shouting out 'Does anyone need to get off?' and if no one answers, he drives on.

He was really nice though. Once everyone had got off, he drove back to the train station and dropped me off by the entrance.

On the train, in the food carriage, these two old men started having a fight. It was absolutely hysterical. They were both old, fat and drunk. One of them worked for the train I think, and he was talking to his colleagues really loudly and suddenly the other man got up and lurched to his table and shouted 'You have no shame! You are shameless!' over and over. Then the first guy stood up and started shouting 'How dare you say I'm shameless?' and the second guy shrieked 'Let's get off at Logrono and we'll settle this! We'll sort this out then!'

I was really hoping they would actually get off at Logrono so I could watch them fighting, but they didn't. Everyone else was pretending not to be interested, but I was fully enjoying the free entertainment.