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.