La lingüística, Tarifa...y Granada (otra vez)

Hola a todos! As of today, I am scrambling to update this blog to the present, as I am still blogging about things that happened well over a month ago (hehe).

Which brings me to a very off-the-topic segway: as a linguistics enthusiast, I find it so fascinating the amount of words that have been added to our lexicon in the last 10 or even 5 years due to the internet. For example, the word "blog" has become part of common speech (for my generation, at least) and now we even have incorporated new verbs like "google it" or "I am blogging right now". Imagine if you went back in time to 1997 and said: "Check his myspace to see if you can find the link to her blog post and if you can't find it on his profile, just google it".... no one would have a clue what you were talking about!! Jeanie Mackers! (as my Irish friend Natasha would say).
Another segway: not only am I improving my level of Spanish, but I am also learning a new dialect of English from my friend Natasha, who is from Donegal in northern Ireland. She also works at my school and is an absolute joy to be around. By the end of this year, I will have incorporated a new dialect into my language inventory, which will then consist of (Spanish, very weak Italian, French (equivalency of a five-year-old) and Northern Irish English. Here's a few key phrases you should know when going to northern Ireland:

"What's the crack"= How's it going?
"Wheres the good crack?" = Where can you have a good time around here?
"That was some good crack" = I had a great time
(you could see how this might cause some confusion for an American in Ireland, hehe)

Ok, Back to Spain :)

About a week after the Feria, Aaron and I decided to take a weekend trip to Tarifa, a beautiful city at the southern tip of Spain. From Fuengirola, Tarifa is about 3 hours away on a bus (although you could arrive in half the time in a car). One of the most amazing things about Tarifa is that you can see Africa from the beach. It is an amazing sight: beautiful mountainous land, so large, you can't miss it! A large ferry leaves from the port in Tarifa every couple hours and arrives in Tanger (Morocco) in 35 minutes. We decided not to go to Morocco on that trip because it is much better to spend a long period of time there in order to see the sights further South, such as Marrakech and Fez, which can be reached by train in about 8 hours. Since we did not have the time, we spent a very relaxing time in Tarifa, which is small enough to explore in one day. The "casco antiguo" (the old part of town) is extremely charming with Arab arches that enclose and ancient walled city. After a while, you begin to wonder....how does this tiny place survive?

Well, Tarifa is very famous for one thing: kite surfing. In fact, supposedly it is one of the best kite surfing destinations in all of Europe. Because of this, in the new town, you will find a surf/kite surf shop on about every block. Each surf shop also has its own school, which provides classes with a private instructor and equipment, neither of which are cheap. Why kite surfing? Well, it would be an understatement to say that Tarifa is windy. It has powerful winds most of the day, almost every day of the year. On a good day, you might be able to lie on the beach without getting sand in your mouth and ears. But this is exactly why it is a kite surfing paradise. Now, I know what you're thinking and no, we did not try it. It was pretty expensive, I think I would kill myself, and Aaron wasn't super excited about it. So, we lived vicariously through people we met in the hostel, one of which had come for 2 weeks, just to learn kite surfing. Funny enough, his name was Aaron, and he was from Australia (they are always travelling, those Australians). He told us some crazy stories and how much it was costing, and we didn't feel so bad about not doing it. Although, he absolutely loved it...and he loved his instructor even more, a blonde and beautiful Norwegian girl who happened to be a pro kite surfer, hehe.

Overall, we enjoyed the scenery and really enjoyed meeting new people at the hostel. We befriended some girls from Zaragoza who are now living in Malaga, and they offered to take us back in their car....sí! Malaga is not far from us and since then we have gone to Malaga to see them and to explore the town. We went to the Picasso Museum, which is quite wonderful, and explored the old town where we found some amazing seafood, many dishes typical to Malaga (as you can see in the pictures, Aaron was very happy about this.)







Halloween is not really celebrated in Spain, although commercialism is introducing the idea little by little, but nothing like the states. So, of course I was encouraged to do something fun for my kids on Halloween. Because I only had one class that day, I dressed up a bit (I was the ONLY person) and brought some candy, which almost caused a small riot in the hallway. Not surprising. As I will explain some other time, the kids at my school are, how should I say it, mmmm, a bit hyperactive. I love them to death, but they are in an school environment where chaos is quite the norm, so you can't blame them. Before I knew it, I was being swarmed and pushed by kids asking for candy, including older kids who were not even in my class and who tried to fool me by sticking their hands in the bag. A little flustered, I decided to retreat to the faculty lounge until the coast was clear, and was able to find some of my students in a classroom. They were very pleased and I'm sure the teacher who had them next was surely not pleased (sugar high for everyone!).

The Spanish do, however, celebrate "El dia de los santos" (All Saints Day) which is on November 1st, which means, yes, another vacation! So, on that Halloween night, Aaron and I hopped on a bus back to Granada, to see our friends once more and to greet Vanessa, a good friend from my program at the University of Granada who until recently was living in France and had come to Spain to visit. It was so good to see her, and she and I had a great time exploring all of our old favorite bars, tapas places and teterias (tea houses).






After a great (but very cold) weekend, we headed back to the warmer coast with Vanessa as our first house guest.....yeay! We LOVE having visitors (hint hint).

But, don't pack your bags just yet, cause you might miss Aaron, who left for Morocco on November 15th. He is spending 2 weeks in Marrakech. I wish so much that I could go, but I have to work (I get to work, hehe...the truth is, my job is very enjoyable). Aaron is extending his visa time here by spending some time in Morocco so he can be here for Christmas and New Year's when our families are coming to visit as well as some of our friends. After the first week of January, Aaron is planning on spending some more time outside of the Schengen states in order to stay here until June. Croatia, Turkey, Switzerland...Thailand? He's open to suggestions. Aaron will be back home (his home in Spain, that is) around December 1st. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the states....I'm so jealous! I might just have "pollo con patatas" to try to make up for the turkey.


So, I think we have arrived to the present...it's amazing. Thank you again to everyone who has written us...it'a a joy to hear from people back home. Hope you enjoy the pictures! Aaron is taking my (much more portable) camera to Morocco so you can all look forward to his very spectacular adventure in the weeks to come. He is enjoying Marrakech and would love to hear from you all. Peace and Love!!


¡Salud!