What next?

Today is a ponder-the-future day. Really I think every day is becoming that kind of day as I realize that I have no idea what I'm doing after Spain. I have ideas, of course, but they are ALL over the place. All are possibilities, and for that I should be grateful... and I am. But still, I can't help but wish that some heavenly light would shine down on one in particular... like, aHA! That's what I should do/where I should go/how I should proceed with my life.

I know, I know... this process is not that easy for anyone... even those people whom I (only kind of) envy that have always known what they wanted to be they grew up. Everyone has to find their way... but oh, how much easier it would be if I knew which way I was going.

Anyway, right now the ideas bouncing around inside my head are:

• teacher (always been on the radar... but is something I'd like to become once I retire from some other mystery job)
• economic development (MEDEG program I mentioned in a previous post)
• international spy á la Alias or Covert Affairs ... because that's realistic... but hey, I'd learn how to kick some butt, pick up some more languages, and travel the world... but then again, I want to "settle down" someday... hmm...
• artist... my job is to create!!! (in spurts anyway)
• professional student... of the world...

Yeah... like I said, working on it. :)

Post to come: my most recent weekend in Santander!

Bilbao and the Puente

Bilbao! Frank Gehry's architectural masterpiece, The Guggenheim Museum and El Puente de la Salve

I have decided to ride the wave of my freshly asserted motivation (see last entry) and tell you all about my trip to Bilbao over the puente two weeks ago. But first, let me answer the question that some of you may have: what in the world is a puente? Yes, I am a mind-reader ;) Actually... funny story...

A lovely girl named E.* who is also an auxiliar here as well as a palm-reading enthusiast told me that I have "the mystic's cross." In other words, I kind of am a mind-reader. Or at least, I'm intuitive enough to be... according to my right hand. But I digress...

This is puente in the traditional sense.

Puente means 'bridge.' This can be a literal bridge (as in build one and get over it :P), but it is also what Spaniards call a 4(or more)-day weekend. For example, the most recent puente was due to All Saints' Day (November 1st and a National Holiday in Spain). It fell on a Tuesday this year, so the schools and a lot of businesses go ahead and give everyone the Monday before off as well, thus they bridge the weekend to the holiday. Get it? This is a Spainism (yes, I made that up) that I wish the U.S. could adopt... but alas, they have manipulated our federal holidays (MLK, Memorial, Labor... do we get off for Columbus?) to all fall on Mondays.MLK's birthday's on the 15th? Let's put his day on the third Monday of the month. Columbus landed in America on the 12th of October? The second Monday of the month for him (regardless of the fact that the rest of the world celebrates it ON the day). Sheesh.

A resolution.

So it's a Monday, a day off and a day to get myself together before I have work again tomorrow. In an attempt to be "productive," I got on my computer to do "research." On what, you may ask? Oh, it could be anything, but usually it starts with Google and ends with me falling down a rabbit hole of web surfing and not really accomplishing much of anything.

I wonder if Alice was simply procrastinating? Source.

Today, I started with googling "getting a haircut in Spain" because goodness knows, I am very much in need of a haircut. I was soon directed to some girl's travel blog that was actually pretty helpful in that it included useful, haircut-specific phrases like "Quiero un recorte" (I want a trim) and "Me gustaría escalado" (I like it layered). Now I just have to look up how to say "Stop! Too short, TOO SHORT!" and I will be good to go.

Anyway, this travel blog in this instance could also be called the entrance into

Word of the Day... or the Early Morning

Hello world! 

Hopefully you've already read about this in my previous post, but for those of you just now visiting and not in the know, I am in Spain participating in a program put on by the Ministry of Education. I am a language assistant in a high school in Calahorra, and am living in Logroño, a good 45 minute bus-ride away. While I'm here to teach English, I'm finding (as expected) that I have quite a bit to learn...

What am I learning, you may ask? Well, I could write about everything, but honestly, I'd probably never finish (it is an ongoing process, you know) and even if I could, the post would be so long that no one would want or have the time to read it. Instead, I will write about the things I am learning little by little, one post at a time. That way, you can learn with me. Today, our lesson is a word: La madrugada.

And so it begins...

Exactly 4 weeks ago today, I left my friends, family and the comfort of 'home' to embark on this adventure in España. And now, here I sit in my very first "I'm a big girl and living on my own" apartment. It has been a whirlwind of a month, and since I haven't posted in, oh, a while (procrastination much?), I think it would be best to begin with a recap... with pictures...

First of all, within the week before I left, I received a very special visit from a very special someone. This was perhaps the most jam-packed, memorable 3 days I could ever have imagined. Tennis, soccer, coffee, movies, napping, risotto, picnicking, dinner with awesome people... basically in-person quality time.
The only downside was that it was also the shortest 3 days imaginable.

Sadness in the car at the airport when he had to leave.

Luckily, we have a long flight across the Atlantic to which to look forward. :)

A few days later, the parents and I headed to the airport for a second time, and this time, I was the one who'd be getting on the plane.

Madre y yo, before the send off.

And then, around 12:30, I was off. After a pitstop in Washington D.C. where I was

Not quite butterflies... but something similar

It's finally starting. My nerves/excitement/oh my god, I'm going to Spain in 12 days feelings are starting to become more pronounced. I've been excited, of course, (I mean, how could I not be), but in between reading some early blog entries of auxiliars who have already gone through what I am about to experience, looking around at the mess packing going on in my room, and realizing it's been a good year and a half since I've spoken some solid español... well, I'm just kind of freaking out.

And another 6 Random Ramblings...

1. Perhaps I should make these random ramblings a weekly occurrence so that several months don't pass between posts.

2. I am currently on Amelia Island, staring out at the Atlantic Ocean. Mom and I have been here for about a week... and I'm afraid it's not been long enough to make me okay with going back to work. The good news is that the rest of my working days are broken up by visits to friends, a wedding, and a visit from Alex (he's my boyfriend!). Then, it's off to Spain!!!

3. SPAIN!!! Oh my goodness. I am leaving for Spain on September 18th and will get to Madrid on the morning of September 19th. Orientation isn't until the 29th so that gives me 10 days to get to Logroño, La Rioja to find an apartment... which could be difficult since the festival of San Mateo will be going on pretty much that whole time. I'm thinking Couch Surfing and a lot of luck will be my main allies in this endeavor. SOOOOOOOOO excited though :)

4. I just downloaded an unhealthy number of ebooks onto my Kindle... and paid nothing for them (yay public domain). Now, I am excited but also a little daunted (by the sheer volume of literature to get through). One (electronic) page at a time...

5. I've been reading this book from the library called Decoding the Universe. It's a history lesson of sorts leading up to the development of information theory and the science behind it. I'm in the middle of a chapter discussing the gentlemen that honed the laws of the behavior of gases and the relationship between work, temperature and energy... Boyle, Charles, Joule. My high school chemistry classes came rushing back to me and I very soon was missing all that knowledge I once possessed. Then he started talking about entropy and the second law of thermodynamics... how entropy (or equilibriumness) is always either constant or increasing. I'm going to stop myself now, but let's just say I was nerding out big time. And REALLY missing math, stat, and science. Maybe I should go back to school...

6. Speaking of school, I've been investigating possible post-Spain adventures and endeavors, including the Erasmus Mundus scholarship for graduate studies in Europe. The program I've fallen for (seriously, my heart speeds up when I read its description) is a Masters in Economic Development and Economic Growth (MEDEG for short)... Just read it again while I was searching for the link. Just got excited again.

Ayayay... :)