Cuatro Semanas en Nerja - Four Weeks in Nerja

Hola Cada Uno (Everyone),

I trust you are all doing muy bien. Muchos gracias por all your beautiful, interesting & informative emails. I might add the odd española word in, can´t help it. I love hearing from each and everyone of you, but can´t seem to find the time to email you individually very often. So here is what I have been up to lately.

I find everything I do is a highlight as it is all still new to me. Last week a friend from school and I met up and walked along one of the beaches in Nerja, along the Med. Sea. It was a warm but very windy day and you girls would have laughed, as you all know I am having patience growing my hair out. Well with the breeze off the Med. Sea, I felt I must have looked like a crazy Canadian for sure. It was so funny, blowing every which way.

We ended up at an outdoor restaurante and I sampled my very first paella. My goodness it was fabulous. It looked and tasted exactly as it was described to me. It was authentic paella with squid (I actually squid), shrimp, mussels, chicken and tons of flavoured rice. So we spent the whole afternoon eating, laughing and discussing life.

Afterwards we strolled to the Refugia de Burro (the Donkey Sanctuary) and had a wonderful time petting all sorts of rescued animals: pigs, sheep, chickens, dogs, horses, mules and donkeys. I saw a real live Andalusian horse. It is run by volunteers and donations keep it going. I will definitely go back with some food in hand for my favourite dogs and then take one for a long walk along the beach. Oh gosh, how I miss my Lucy Lou.

Sunday, I turned my mobile off and buckled down with español for hours, napping, munching, and reading. I needed a "Leigh-Ann Day" with no one asking me to go out ahaah. Throughout the week I usually hit a tapas bar (or 2), or out with café con leches with my schoolmates. The Tim Horton´s crisis has passed folks ahaah.

So every afternoon I do my homework and study for up to 2 hours. I think it is paying off, my 2 teachers actually make sense now. I can practically understand what they are saying, but it´s nice when they go much slower (mas despacio). I just love being in school again and learning. Even though my brain feels so full right now, I seem to be able to grasp the language no problema. Talking is another story. I don´t know enough vocabulary to connect my sentences, but everyone says it is going to happen sooner than I think (I hope so). Grammar, I find is pretty easy, but I actually feel a bit shy having to talk in español in Conversation class, go figure. You all know how I can talk ahah.

THIS DOG IS SO UGLY
HE IS CUTE AHAH

The other night about 8 of us went on a tapas tour with Fran, one of our instructors. Had a good time and it was so much fun trying to speak the language. We are all in the same boat, so we would through as many español words as we could muster up. Great practice. Getting up for school the next day was hard, but trying about 10 different tapas was interesting. Half the time I didn´t know what I was eating, as you all know, very unlike me. I think I actually am starting to enjoy food. It helps that no one is in a hurry when they eat (meal takes 2 hours) and the portions are small (tapas I mean). Eating out you get big portions just like back in Canada.

I was out last weekend with Juliet, my new English friend, and we went to an English fish and chip place. Oh so good. The tinto (red) de veranos (wine and lemon juice) were excellent. Sangria, believe it or not, isn´t that popular. Here, sangria is very strong, mostly made of pure alcohol, not wine. So don´t believe everything you read in a Spanish guide book or on the Internet ahah.

Tomorrow I am hunting down the best Churro place in Nerja. Turns out it is close to where I live. My teachers know all the great places to go for the authentic stuff, so I pick their brains sometimes ahah. I wonder what the Churro will be like, suppose to be sweet, I´ll let you know if it sucks.

A few of us went to El Blanco y Negro Bar karaoke bar with Jose, our school secretary. And he got up and sang quite a few songs and one of them was Español. It was so beautiful. He is transferring to the same school but in Playa del Carmen, the first place that I had my sights on. So a bunch of us will likely take Jose out for a goodbye thing, probably more dancing and singing. The bars stay open late, like around 3 or4 I think. I´ve never been in one past 3 a.m. Nothing gets going here until around 11:00 pm, crazy huh! I am able to stay up later, and sleep in a bit. So I am slowly getting in the flow Nerja.

I went to Torrox with Juliet and Basal for Indian food the other night. It was just as good as the Shandar Hut in Chilliwack. Then we hunted for a book store so Basal could buy his German - Spanish dictionary. If you can imagine, Basal is the guy that speaks 4 languages, German being one of them so he had heard Torrox has many German folks living in that town. He was able to get one no problema.

WALKING ALONG THE RIVERBED
TO FRIGILIANA

Everyone has the coolest accents here. I walk down the street and hear all sorts of gobbliy-goop going on. I can understand the English people from the UK now, at first it was "can´t you speak English" ahahah. I am finding their expressions are very different from ours. Example, they say "sleeping policemen" for speed bumps. When and if I come home, I am sure I´ll be saying a few good ones myself.

I went to a Buddist meeting a few weeks back at someone´s home. It was kind of cool. They do a lot of chanting beforehand while I gazed about and read one of their booklets. Then the meeting took place and a lady translated everything for Juliet and I. I felt very comfortable, very nice people with great values. But it was just so nice to hear all these Spanish people talking. They are loud, fast and sure open their mouths when they speak. By the way, us Canadians talk practically with our mouths closes ahahh, I was told that once. Anyways the meeting was interesting and I might go to another one sometime.

The Spanish and all the UK people are totally into the kissing ritual on the both cheeks to say hello and goodbye. I asked all about it the other day and I was told how, when, for how long etc... Now I feel that is all I do when I meet up with friends ..... kiss, kiss (left and then right) ahahah.

I met a Venazuelan/Scotish women in a clothing store 2 blocks from my school and we got talking. Her name is Janet and we totally got on together. She has invited me to come to her store anytime in the evening to practice my español, and ask any questions I want. Boy, how lucky am I!!! I saw her the other day with her 2 daughters and she asked when am I coming in. ahah. I will have to now ahah. It´ll be great practice for me if I want to learn quickly.

I am hoping to go to one of the plazas tomorrow evening to listen to a guitar/singer and then who know, maybe some more dancing. Sunday is going to be a long walk on a few beaches, they say they connect, but I haven´t tried that yet. See how that goes.

I move into my apartamento in 6 or 7 days and I can´t wait to set up house again. The place I´m in now is really nice, but has a cold feeling to it, not one plant, blastemy ahah. I already have offers to help me move. But I´ve done this already, I pack my suitcases and stroll down the street, it´s just so funny. I might take two trips or accept some help.

I finally figured out the Spanish washing machine, quite different from back home, but at least now I don´t have to hock my stuff down to the laundry service place. No one here has dryers, so I will have lots of practice hanging clothes out on the line.

Guess what! I saw my first cockroach the other night. Thank goodness I had company over and they disposed of it for me. Everyone says I will get use to them, but I´m creeped out about them. They are about honking huge, 1-2 inches long. Okay, no fleas in Spain, but cockroaches, ugh, what a trade-off.

I have heard some excellent Spanish music and got the names of some bands so on Tuesday I will go to the big town market and buy a few. All I will need then is a CD player ahah, that might be my housewarming gift to myself ahah, that and a ton of plants ahahah.

The things I love about Nerja:
-stores are open until 10 pm every night but Sunday
-the beaches, everywhere I explore there is a beach. I hope to learn all their names.
-the moist sea air is great for the skin.
-the water is soft, takes forever to warm up, but when it does, whoaza it´s hot.
-the streets are still so interesting, not confusing anymore. I can even go out without a map now.
-the people are super friendly. I think being a Canadian has something to do with it ahah.
-going out with my new friends in the cutest, out of the way places. Hope I can remember some of them when I get visitors.

There are only 2 things that kind of bug me so far. #1 - There is a darn jack hammer going for hours on end, just 2 streets away from my apartment I am in now. So I have to time my phone calls around sieta hours and when they are finished. Six days and it´ll be better. # 2 thing - I miss my Lucy Lou and it´s not getting any easier without her. I am going tonight to a travel agent to see if I can change my return flight for her. Two things, not bad hey. The people I hang out with are quite positive, no wonder, we are in Nerja, Spain ahh.

I miss you all and I usually only cry now because I am so happy here. I feel so at home. I can´t explain it, it´s weird, but Nerja seems to agree with me.

Must run and make a couple calls, the lovely jack hammer just stopped hammering. I can hear myself think / type now ahahah. Take care.
Hasta Luego mis amigos !