What's a Visa Anyway?

Well I am Back! (we are backkkk, we are getting Doug Backkkkk...any Hangover fans in the bunch?)

Whew, so a lot has happened in my little Spanish life since I last left you. March 8th is apparently an "international" holiday to celebrate working women everywhere. Haven't heard of it? Yeah, me neither, until I went to the elementary school to volunteer and they had assemblies all day devoted to it. They were surprised I had never heard of it, and I kept getting it confused with Mother's Day, but no, it is indeed different. How different, you may ask? Let's just give you a sneak-peek into what the assembly I attended looked like.

Ahem--- so. The teachers stood at the front of the gym and wrote on the board things their moms all do..nice, right? Yes. Until this came up..."The mom always cleans the house and does the cooking...with a smile on her face." Or how about this one... "The mom is supposed to stay home with the children and wash all of their clothes." As a pretty independent woman (thank you, Destiny's Child, for getting that song stuck in my head now), my mouth dropped open that it's 2010 and they're "celebrating" the Day of the Working Woman and basically it was an assembly to reinforce negative stereotypes.

To distract myself during the assembly from the verbal crap being thrown at me, and the children who were climbing all over me (Rubia! Rubia!), I glanced around the gym. To encourage the kids to learn English, the whole school is plastered with English phrases...in classrooms, labeling things, and also in the gym. I found normal English phrases (though tough for 4th graders I think) such as "flexibility", "balance" and "strength". Right next to them, I also spotted "Help" and "Security". What they are teaching these kids during their gym hour, I have no idea....

That same day when I was outside with the first graders, one little girl's tooth fell out when they were playing what I can only assume is the Spanish version of "Steal the Bacon". They just wrapped it up in little fluffs of Kleenex and put it in her pocket, no big deal. Maybe the Tooth Fairy doesn't exist here.. Either way, it reminded me of my dear friend Jen, who tragically had her front tooth knocked out of her face after she tumbled off a bus. Oh, how I miss my friends in the 'paign. (Champaign)

All in all, springtime has slowly made its way to the South of Spain. According to weather.com Granada is supposed to have 300 sunny days out of the year. Well, I don't know who fact-checks that site, but it's rained probably 45 of the 70 days I have been here. BUT, I can virtually guarantee it will not rain if I do one thing: remember to bring my Moses' Stick of an umbrella with me when I leave. Seriously, the thing is colossal. And everytime I do remember to bring the damn thing to school, it magically gets sunny. And when it's sunny, I am pleasantly reminded just how beautiful Granada is. Seriously, they are going to have to deport me to get me outta here. My visa is good for 90 more days after I am "supposed" to leave, but who actually checks things like that? I think the airport people are so concerned about my 1.8 ounces of liquid that might be an explosive that they don't really notice if you're allowed to be in that country or not. But maybe not. Maybe that was what the gypsies did...and now ....they're gypsies. I'll sleep on it.

Actually, in my culture of Spain class, we had an entire section devoted to gitanos, or gypsies. They aren't just the crazy googley-eyes women who chase you with rosemary...they are actually an entire race of people! Who. Knew. see Mom & Dad? I am learning things over here.

In other news, last week I successfully tore into my ankle because I twisted it on a rock and fell. Clearly, you can't outrun your lack of grace, Kel, it will follow you across oceans. When I got home, Lina dipped it into a hot tub of salt water and rubbed it...I'm not complaining about the free ankle massage, but I think some ice would have fixed it just fine. too bad we don't have ice in the house...just frozen ham and fish heads. I'll pass on slappin' that on my ankle, thank you.

Last weekend, Kaye, Katherine, MaryPat and I ventured north to Barcelona, which always reminds me of that song "My Sharona", but that's neither here nor there. We saw a Picasso Museum, and a lot of Antoni Gaudi (famous Spanish architect/sculptor)'s houses and parks, and rode the gondola around. For those of you who don't know, a gondola is not only a skinny boat you use in lieu of taxis in Venice, it is also a little cage that carries groups of people through the air. (I was ignorant of this fact, previously. I also was under the impression Barcelonians rode the gondola to get around town. False. Only tourists actually take the gondola.)

At the end of our day of touring, we came back to our 10 by 13 foot room (I didn't actually measure, I am estimating, duh) and I looked forward to nothing more than a hot, hot shower. Well, leave it to me to manage to rip the attachable shower head clear off the hose. So all I was left with was scalding-hot water squirting out of the skinny hose and flying in all directions. Literally, it was the big-kid version of a CrAzY DaIsY sprinkler, and the other girls must have thought I found a corpse in the shower I was screaming and laughing so much. I guess I wouldn't laugh at a corpse.. I don't know what else you'd both scream and laugh at though, if it wasn't this giant fireman's hose on crack that somebody couldn't hold on to..

And now, Justine, Katherine, me and some of our friends studying in Sevilla are off for Semana Santa (Holy Week) to go travel. We'll be in Amsterdam, Prague, and Krakow, which is in Poland. I find it very hard to say the word "Krakow" with the right inflections...I always end up saying it like my dad...("Could be a crackhead!") If you don't get it, Youtube "Leprechaun in Mobile, Alabama". Worth it, I promise.

Alright, amigos y amigas, that's all for now. We'll be good and safe on our travels, and don't worry Dad, I won't try and bring "any plants on the plane" (why would I do that anyways??) except for my little avocado plant I am growing here in Spain...we'll see if they let me into the States with that lil' guy.