A Tuesday here in Barcelona

Hello there my lovelies,

I would first like to say that I am in an internet shop typing this and the man on the computer next to me smells like a bum. For the love of gawd, man !! Please wash your ass and use a mint !!!!! Cuz, ya know that us humans all have to breathe the same air !

You all know that Halloween is coming up soon !! Well, I definitely will be scaring people that day if it is a work day. All I have to do is say¨" investment opportunity". I swear to God that the other person on the phone sounds like I am sticking a gun to his head when I mention those two words. Sometimes I just laugh when they reject me in a scared voice. And you probably think I am exaggerating. I am not. People really sound like I am trying to get them to use a Ouija board.

I went shopping at the Walmart of Spain : Carrefoure. There I bought enough food for a week or two. Thank God ! I was running low and now I am stocked up again. Doing a simple task such as going to the store to buy food is still an adventure for me because I am STILL getting used to the stores and way of living here. I still am fascinated by the similaries and differences of the products at the stores here vs. the US.

I loved this store a lot more than Walmart and Target because it was cleaner. The Walmarts back in CA are ghetto. Plus I could practice my vocabulary by reading all the signs in Spanish. I went with my roommate and his mom becuase it is best to go there by car. She is a nice lady and was telling me which food to buy.

I get a little jealous when his mom is around because it makes me miss my mom a little. He is a momma´s boy and gets his mom´s love on a daily basis. I miss getting hugs. And not just any hug. I want the hug that my mom gives me when she holds me tight and rubs my back in the process.  Yeah, THAT type of hug. I am sure y'all can relate. At least I hope that you can. There is really nothing that I can do to feel better because ya know, hugging myself really doesn´t make myself feel better. Haha !

What else ? Well, nothing really. Same old same old. Tommorow I will be going back to the phones to call strangers, using the same old boring pitch. And I can be sure that I will be scolded by my boss for not getting enough leads. Sometimes its hard not to laugh at him because he has a unibrow and wrinkles his forehead when he scolds us. Haha.

Okay, I am off for reals now. I am hungry and I am gonna go wreak some havoc in the kitchen. Remember: Give me a hug and DON´T invest all your savings over the phone with a stranger. If you really want to lose your money give it to me. Haha !

Ciao. :)

I am very Annoyed

Hello Everyone,

Last night was a cool night. My roommate and I went out for a drink at the big shopping center that I´ve never gotten a chance to visit because I don´t have a car. Veeeerrrry nice. Bigger and classier than a lot of the malls in the US. I discovered I can take the bus, and I will be hanging out there more often.

I also listened to my Jessica Simpson CD a lot yesterday. Lifted my spirits a little and reminded me a lot of the good times I had in college. Sometimes a little music can do the trick.

You ever have one of those days where just about anything can annoy you ? Well then today is my very lucky day. Today people could smile at me and I would STILL get annoyed.

I am hungry and gotta wait till I go home to eat. I am not home because I am supposed to meet someone for a language exchange today. But he didn´t show or call so I am still here at the bar/cafe. I figured that I might as well stay here a little longer and use the computer.

I got up and took the wrong metro for work today, and thus was late to work by a few minutes. I could have sworn that I was going in the right direction.  Oh well.

Work is also making me more irritable and I am gonna start looking for a new job. I still have to see my old roommate there and although I don´t flat out ignore him, I don´t exactly greet him either. I just pretend that I don´t see him. Just being in the same room as him makes my blood simmer. I really almost never feel that way about anyone, but he´s the lucky one.

I wonder if he even remembers what he said to me during my last week at his place, or if he even cares. He probably doesn´t. After all I don´t expect him to. Like most men he has too much pride and will never admit that he was wrong. And for that, I refuse to walk up and talk to him. But part of me wishes that we were still good buddies. Because it was fun while it lasted.

Ah well, Christmas will be here soon and I will have a couple weeks off work soon. I really have no idea what I will do over the holidays. If I am somehow able to pull enough money out of my ass then maybe I can go to Austria. At least I would be guaranteed some good food and family company. And how could I forget the famous Mozart chocolates ?

But if not, my roommate told me that I could spend it with his family. At least I wouldn´t be left alone in the apartment. How sad would that be ? He has a very nice family. I wish his parents would come over more often to talk. Sometimes his mother comes over to bring him clean sheets.

But my birthday is coming up soon, and I am kinda excited about that. My first birthday abroad. I really hope that I get some e-mails, letters or calls. If not then I guess that I will be the one on the phone chasing down my family and friends. For those of you that don´t quite remember, November 30th is the lucky day. Haha.

I also got a response from the girl whom I helped locate her dream barman. She was so thankful and told me to write her if I ever want to go to Italy. I just might have to take her up on that.

What else ? Nothing more to write about really............... Oh yeah ! I got a guy on the phone today whose first name was Balz (sounds like "balls"). He´s Swiss. Haha. Made me laugh a little.

Okay, gotta go for reals now.

Ciao.

 

What happened to my weekend ????

Hello Everyone,

I swear that the weekends really fly by here. It´s sad because I really enjoy NOT going to work.

I taught my students again today, and I taught them enough vocabulary words to last them the whole week. It was fun trying to help them pronounce the words properly. I came a little early, so the dad treated me to a cup of coffee at the cafe next door before I taught. I was really tired so I was happy that the coffee helped perk me right up.

There was this ad on one of the websites here in Barcelona where a girl from Italy was looking for one of the bartenders at the Hard Rock Cafe that she met over the summer. She didn´t remember his name, but she remembered his smile and how he looked and she just HAD to find him again. I decided to help her out since I have been there before to pick up take out for my old roommate.

So after my lesson I went to the Hard Rock Cafe and found him right away. When I told him why I was there he kinda looked a little wierded out by it all and told me that he had a girlfriend. He gave me one of those "What the hell ?" Expressions. But he did say that he remembered talking to her and said that they could be friends.

Oh well, at least now the gal knows, right ??? I would have been nice if he felt the same way about her, but then again we can´t have everything we want.

Anywho, gotta go now. Ciao.

AOL Fu$&ing Suuuuuucks.............

Hello there Everyone :)

I would first like to just say that AOL stinks !!!! They stink more than old moldy ass !! I just came home and typed up a beautiful, tear-jerking entry. And AOL ate it up. Gaaah !

Anyways, moving along....................

I gave my first English lesson today and it went pretty well. They are beginners. I taught them " Hello ! My name is ..........", countries/nationalities, numbers and how to conjugate the verb ¨"to be". Tommorow I will teach the alphabet, "How are you ?", moods, family structure and some vocab words. I have assigned them homework due next week.

I teach a mother and her 2 teenaged boys. They are Dominican and I am learning a lot about their culture. This is good for me because I need to be exposed to different types of the spoken Spanish language and Latin cultures so that I am not ignorant. A huge mistake that a lot of people make is lumping all the different cultures of the Latin world into one group. For example in California there are a lot of Mexicans as well as people from Central and South America. But people usually just assume that they are all Mexican because they don´t know better and take the time to learn.

After giving my lesson, I usually stick around for lunch and the mother made some very good Spanish as well as Dominican food. It was so good: Spanish steak, Dominican marinated beef, rice and beans, peas and potatoes, tomatoes and bell peppers in a sauce, a sauce consisting of garlic and olive oil and a salad. Yeah, she made all that just for lunch today. And I piled up my plate pretty high. And afterwards I had a desert consiting of coffee and Bailey´s and creme. Aren´t you jealous ? ;)

I am just here in my apt chilling right now and enjoying being alone. My roommate is off at a wedding. I am a little jealous because I really really want to see a Spanish wedding.

But tonight I am gonna go and chill out with a fellow American from Chicago. Like me, he got his TEFL Certificate over the summer and he teaches English here.

Not a bad day

Hello there my lovelies :)

Sometimes I have days where I feel like nothing is working out and I wanna go home. Sometimes I see a glimpse of sunshine and feel that everything will work out in the end for me. Today I really was relaxed and felt like everything will work out here. I also looked back on the time I spent here and realized that I did a lot of really cool things here and met a lot of people. I don´t know how long this feeling will last, but I thoroughly enjoy it when it comes.

Each time I walk to work in the mornings I see the most magnificent sunrise. And the sunset here is incredible. The days really do go by fast here for me. And I know that my time is limited here. Sooner or later I will go back home and the life that I have lived here in Barcelona will all fade into a distant memory. Bittersweet I say.

My friend, Sandra (yup, there are 2 of us) wrote me a nice big fat letter. It came as surprise because I didn´t know that she was gonna send me anything. I absolutely love long, profound letters and that was exactly what she sent me. I will be sending her one back. 

You really never know who your true friends are. The people that you think are your close friends can easily lose contact with you or find other friends. Then there are the people that you never expect to stay in contact with that continue to stay in your life.

I met Sandra when I was working at Red Lobster. For a long time we really didn´t say anything to each other. Then one day she invited me to go out with her and I decided to go. Since then we have stayed in contact even when she stopped working there and EVEN when she moved away from me and EVEN while I am all the way in Spain. I think that is really nice, don´t you ?

I also have my old roommate Christina that pops in and out of my life as well. We were roommates for 3 years back in college. I remember how we first met back in the dorms of Washburn Hall. She invited me over to watch American Pie with her and her buddies. And the rest is history. I really thought that we would lose contact after she moved out because our lives are so different now. But I am happy that she still writes me sometimes.

What else ? Oh yes, I have been very bad lately. Sometimes I teach my roommate how to say certain things in English and explain the grammar rules and I usually keep it clean. Well yesterday I taught him a lot of swear/dirty words. I swear to Gawd I wanted to die laughing. He has a very very thick Spanish accent and can barely pronounce anything in English properly. Listening to him trying to pronounce those words was just too much. And he really was making a huge effort to say them right. God Bless him.

Tonight I tried to teach him the phrase "Good night ! Sleep tight ! Don´t let the bedbugs bite !"  Listening to him trying to pronounce the word "bedbugs" was friggin´hilarious. I broke down laughing and he laughed with me. After a few tries and writing it down, he said it perfectly.

Luckily he knows that I am not laughing at him. Because lemme tell you that I may be able to pronounce words in Spanish. But Catalan is the first language here. And I can NOT pronounce a damn word in Catalan properly. My mouth just can not make the proper sounds. Sometimes he tries to teach me some words in Catalan and he has a good laugh. Hell, it is impossible for me NOT to laugh either.

Anyways, I better get to bed. I am a little tired and I wanna be awake and alert for my first English lesson that I am giving tommorow.

Ciao.