Bonjour from Paris!!!

Well as the title suggests, i am writing this blog from Paris!!! Who would have ever thought little Nikki would be living in Europe and making weekend trips to Paris, not me for sure! While I am in Paris now, I have much much more to blog about...so let the distant memories start flooding into my head....NOW!

Wednesday, November 25th
So two weeks ago Gonzalo decided he wanted to take some vacation time, not to go anywhere, just to have some time off work. So since he wasn't working crazy hours, we were able to actually see eachother during the week which was really nice. As some of you may know I legally only work 16 hours a week (believe me, i work much more than that), so my work schedule for the school only has me work 2 hours in the morning on Wednesday so I am done working at 11:30 in the morning. Well Gonzalo knows what a history/political geek I am and decided he was going to take me valle de los caidos, which is where Franco's tomb is. So he came and picked me at the school, in hand with a packed lunch complete with a Gonzalo special sandwich, tangerines, and a diet coke (all of my favorites!) Talk about a sweety!! So we first met up with his sister and had coffee, and then went on to see Franco's tomb but....bad news bears....it was closed for maintence! We even checked the website and there was no mention of it being closed, so we didn't actually get to go inside the tomb but it was a stunning view! I was more than happy just being out of the city. I would never consider myself a "rural" person, but i do find some enjoyment getting out of the city and being surrounded by natural beauty. So not only were the views amazing, but the tomb is absolutely huge and the walls were filled with propoganda, per usual.
So since the tomb was closed, we went over to the montesary which was everything but a dissapoint. While neither me nor Gonzalo are religious, we still really liked it. While I may not agree with these huge churches, and the messages they are flaunting, i can still appreciate the sacrifice that have been made for these churches to be built, the architecture, the art, and the faith that so many people have complete trust in and/or have lost their lives for their religious beliefs. The history geek in me always reverts to the Crusades when i go in these churches. Not necessarily in the sense of "these horrible people killed lots of believe to spread their religion", but instead I always wonder, what is so powerful in these churches, in these words, in these beliefs that make people willing to go above and beyond to ensure the longevity of their religion.....

Thursday, November 26th: "I had to slap the bitch, but she said okay"
So while all my American counterparts in the States were celebrating Thanksgiving, I was jetsetting to Barcelona with Alissa, Natalie, Jasmine, Luis, and Jared. I did get a small part of thanksgiving because I skyped into my kitchen at home and watched my mom cook, listened to rick complain, just like i was at home. It's things like that, that make missing holidays bareable. I'm not exactly sure how I am going to take Christmas, but lets not talk about that right now...

Soo overall, Barcelona is a good city but I was really shocked by the amount of english I heard. It was my first time out of Madrid since September and i've been living in a city where very few people understand me if i'm speaking english and me and my friends can fairly freely say whatever is on our mind with little chance of anyone completely understanding...at best they would get the jist. So we get to Barcelona and it is FULL of english speaking tourists..full of it! I remember me and Alissa were walking down the street and I heard American english behind me and I turned around thinking I would know the person, but I didn't and it was really a strange feeling. Not that I know every single person in Madrid that speaks english, but usually when I hear someone talking around me in english, i know them becasue we are together. Its just a strange feeling that I don't think i'm describing accurately....

As for the siteseeing, we did this double decker bus that took you all around the city. While it was overly touristy, it is really the only way you could see the entire city and know what things are in 2 days. Especially since none of us really did any research on what there was to do in Barcelona....So the bus took us to all of the major Gaudi places like La Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, and a couple other places. While I think his buildings are ...unique, I really wonder if we get the word gaudy from his pieces, because that is how his name is pronounced, and gaudy could definately describe it. It also took us by where the Olympics were, which happens to be by this mountain called Montjuic, which was historically a jewish burial ground and can be translated as the montain of jews.... i'm not going to offer my commentary on that, i still need to think it over a little bit more...... I think my favorite part was going to the Royal Palace. It was gorgeous, gothic looking, and just amazing. It is also really close to the Christopher Columbus monument so my imagination took me away and I was thinking about Columbus going to the Palace asking Spain to sponsor his voyage to the Americas......and my geekiness has genuinely just shown through to a new level!I totally understand though why people are so taken by Barcelona because the ports are beautiful, it is a mix of Spanish and French architecture, and you could get by in Barcelona without knowing a word of Spanish, but my heart is still in Madrid...

My Week, November 30-December 3 "Oye, no pelotas!"
So after a fun packed yet exhausting weekend in Barcelona, I muster up enough energy to go to work and my private lesson on Monday. I hadn't seen Gonzalo all weekend so he picked me up from my private lesson, with umbrella in hand (that will be a blog at a later point, I just wanted to mention it here for my own memories). So I get home and Maria Luisa, one of the teachers I work with, calls me and asks me if I could teach the class solo because her mom had a stroke down in the southern part of Spain and was leaving immediately. Even though our contracts say we are not to be left alone with the kids, it happens all the time. To say I was intimidated would be an understatement. I only speak english, they only speak spanish, joder! So I went in with coffee in hand, and it went wonderfully!! I think the other teachers really respected me after that because they realized that i'm not just this walking translator, and that I can actually handle things myself. And while I wouldn't have thought this before, I think i actually prefer being solo because I was able to do things at my own pace, focus more on what I wanted to focus on, and in the end I earned more respect from the kids and the other teachers because they saw that Daniella plays no games!

I think the funniest part of my work week though was when I came in to class and the kids realized that Maria Luisa wasn't just late, that she offically wasn't coming. So one of my favorites raised her hand and asked where Maria Luisa, and I said in english, that her mom was sick and Maria Luisa wasn't going to be here for the next few days. They looked at me overly confused so I repeated "her mom...is sick" and I coughed like I was sick. And a kid yelled "esta muerto?" (is she dead?) I said nooooooo, her mom (the class translator says "su madre" and i shake my head) is sick, and I cough again...another kids yells out "gripe A?!?!" (Swine flu?!?!) NOOOO........finally a kid says "enferma" and I shook my head and moved on to the next subject...

Weekend in Paris, December 3-7 "Danielle, you have the attention span of an insect!" "why is the toilet in the hall closet? and where is the rest of your bathroom?"

STILL TO BE WRITTEN!

Disclaimer: So as the title suggests, this post WAS written in Paris but I noticed as I started writing that I had wwwaayyy much to write and couldn't even get to describing Paris---failed I know! So do not be fooled by this title because it doesn't include Paris nor is this post even even being published in Paris---double failed!