Sueños de Una Morena

Marbella At Night

2011-11-29T17:24:00.000-05:00

A couple of weekends ago (I know, I know, I'm still behind) I took a spontaneous trip to Marbella. Marbella is a city in the province of Malaga, and about 30 minutes away from Malaga capital (where I live). While Marbella is an immensely beautiful city with it's own sub-climate which actually makes it warmer than Malaga, it is more widely known as being a vacation spot for the super rich. There is an area of Marbella called Puerto Banus that literally looks like an episode of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous."

In this one area I counted at least six Bentley's, two Lamborghini's, two Ferrari's, and this new, all-white, four door Porsche Panamera that was to die for (I don't know if I ever mentioned it but I l-o-v-e cars so I definitely enjoyed this area). As if all of these luxury cars in about a three block radius wasn't enough, the tourists who didn't feel like getting the Bentley out of storage just pulled their multi-million dollar yachts directly up to Puerto Banus :)

Unfortunately, I did all my sightseeing in Marbella at night because we went to the pueblo during the day (more on that later), so here are a few shots.

This was probably one of the weirdest statues I've ever seen. All I kept thinking was "why can you see that horse's ribs?"

Me and my friend Christina. Please excuse my awkward poses but this fountain had so many different colors and they were all so brilliant!

When Was The Last Time You Wrote Something?

2011-11-25T14:41:00.000-05:00

During a break between my classes the other day, my bilingual coordinator asked me to write a short story about a restaurant. I immediately said sure and got to work, but it didn't take long for me to start thinking about the last time I actually wrote something. When I was younger, during elementary and middle school, I used to love to read and write. My mom often tells people how I used to love to read when I was younger..."and then high school happened." But, until the other day, I never realized, or even thought about why I stopped writing.

Well, it's not much, 200 words about a restaurant, but it's the first story, or any type of writing (college essays don't count), that I've written in years, so I decided to share:

     "Last Saturday, the 19th of November, my best friend Sarah and I decided to go to a restaurant called "El Mago". I previously heard the food there was delicious, and the atmosphere was entertaining because "El Mago" is a magic- themed restaurant.

Located in the middle of the downtown Málaga, "El Mago" is a small restaurant, tucked away on a quiet side street. The quaint dining room was dimly lit, with paintings of famous magicians, such as Houdini, lining the walls. I ordered a steak with rice pilaf, while Sarah ordered a seasonal, Mediterranean chicken dish.

     Everything seemed like a typical dinner when suddenly, a woman dressed in an elaborate costume appeared seemingly out of nowhere, and offered to read our fortunes. She was wearing a long, sunset orange dress, with an emerald green head-wrap, and the largest, most colorful earrings and necklaces I had ever seen. Yahira then settled in at our table ready to read our fortunes.

     Instead of the stereotypical crystal ball, or even tarot cards, Yahira wanted to "read" the lines in our hands to tell us our fortunes. After appearing out of nowhere, and not using the "typical fortune teller tools," I was more than a bit apprehensive to let Yahira read my palms. But, after telling Sarah that she would be a stay-at-home Mom with two adorable kids, I let Yahira tell me my fortune: I will be happily married and very successful in my career.

     In the end, I had a wonderful time at "El Mago." The food was great and the ambiance was even better. I would recommend this restaurant to everyone and advise you not be wary of the fortune teller because telling your dinner guests that you see negative experiences in their fortunes would be bad for business right?"

When was the last time you wrote something?

What I'm Listening To

2011-11-20T14:36:00.000-05:00

Ever wondered what type of music they listen to in Spain? Of course there are plenty of Spanish artists here who are very popular, like Los Delincuentes, and there are also some artists who are based out of the US, like Rihanna and Maroon 5, that "get a lot of shine."

But, if I had to pick the most popular song here in Malaga now I would have to say:

Michel Teló - "Ai Se Eu Te Pego"

This song is ALL over the place. They play it in all the discotecas, I personally played this song atleast 100 times last weekend, and I've counted atleast 5 times that my roommate has played this song today! One cool thing about this song is that the singer is from Brazil, and the song is in Portuguese. Even though myself and the majority of the people here in Spain can't understand it, everybody still loves this song!

I likes it so much that I looked for some more of his songs and found one that I l-o-v-e.

Michel Teló - "Fugidinha"

And again, no idea what he is saying, but I'm loving this song right now :)

El Parque del Retiro

2011-11-20T13:53:00.001-05:00

I previously heard people talk about Parque del Retiro in Madrid, but on my first visit (when it was 30 degrees and snowing), I didn't even come close to seeing it. So on my second, and much better trip to Madrid, I made sure to stop by. I was expecting a large park, with a lot of trails and greenery, but what I got was this amazing mix of beautiful landscaping, elaborate statues, and the cutest little pond with dozens of rowboats full of people enjoying a beautiful, romantic afternoon.

Shots Around the Prado

2011-11-20T10:07:00.001-05:00

As I continued my walk from Puerta del Sol to El Parque Retiro, I passed the famous museum El Prado. The Prado is the main Spanish national art museum and features an immense collection of European, and specifically Spanish art. Unfortunately, we tried to go on a Monday, and were disappointed to find out that the Prado is closed on Mondays :( But, I still got some pretty cool pictures of the statues and architecture around the Prado.

Your First Impression Is Not Always the Right Impression

2011-11-18T16:20:00.000-05:00

The first time I was in Madrid, I was not impressed. It was the middle of January, about 30 degrees outside, snowing, AND I was sick. Needless to say, I was not in the best mood to sight-see, and deal with the millions of residents and tourists of Madrid. But, just like everything else in life, your first impression is not always the right impression.

This past Halloween, my second trip to Madrid, was a-m-a-z-i-n-g. The weather was nice, I had great company (heyyy Tina), and I was able to explore Madrid at my own pace. The first time I was there I didn't even notice how beautiful Madrid actually is; The architecture is extraordinary!

Here are a few pictures of my walk from Puerta del Sol, the center of Madrid, to El Parque del Retiro, kind of like Central Park in New York.

Me and my friend Tina.

Comida de Madrid

2011-11-17T20:06:00.000-05:00

Tour of Madrid

2011-11-17T17:33:00.000-05:00

The hostel where we stayed in Madrid offered a "free" walking tour so of course we decided to take advantage. I say "free" because although there was no fee, the guide was begging for tips before the tour even started. Nevertheless, it was a really nice tour and we got to see a lot of the major sites in the center of Madrid.

The osita (female bear), which according to our guide is like the "Statue of Liberty of Spain."

Opera House

Palacio Real, Royal Palace

Spiderman, lol

Plaza Mayor

Scenes from El Rastro

2011-11-14T17:12:00.000-05:00

El Rastro is a huge open air flea market that happens every Sunday morning in Madrid. There are hundreds of vendors selling anything and everything you can think of, and El Rastro literally occupies a few city blocks. This was my first time going and I was impressed by the size of the market, and the amount of people who came to shop.

This random apartment I saw on the way to El Rastro. Yes, that is a mannequin.

Look closely at the brand name.

The streets llena de gente.

Laugh Of The Day

2011-11-05T12:17:00.000-04:00

I meant to post this last week (please see the preface on the post below), but I didn't get a chance to. In the spirit of Halloween, I came across these pictures, from some sort of haunted attraction, and some of them literally made me laugh out loud. I know I can be goofy, but I hope you get a laugh out of these too :)

Really sir, you're hiding behind your girlfriend??

Look at the girl's face who is the second from the right.

Lmao, this guy's face is priceless.

Haha, that guy in the blue was out!

Source: Nightmares Fear Factory via dlisted.com

Danza Vertical

2011-11-05T06:17:00.000-04:00

(Sorry for the delay in posts. I meant to post this a week ago, but I was having problems with uploading the video. Then, I took my first trip since I've been in Spain!! I went to Madrid to celebrate Halloween (more on that later), and literally have been recovering all week. More posts to come very soon!)

In honor of what would have been Picasso's 130th birthday, there was a celebration in the Plaza de la Merced, which is where his childhood home is located. They offered free tours of his casa natal, art classes for kids in the plaza, and that night there was a free show of danza vertical at the casa natal.

Even though danza vertical, seemed pretty straight forward, vertical dancing, I was absolutely blown away by the performance I saw. There were four dancers who literally were hanging off of the side of the building, attached only by ropes from roof. It reminded me of repelling except the dancers had costumes, and were kind of telling stories, and oh....there was no mat, cushion, pillow, OR anything on the ground below them to protect them!

The dances were choreographed with music and lights, and while the first couple of dances were beautiful, similar to the works of the Picasso, the dances got weirder and weirder as the night went on.

Care Package

2011-10-28T09:31:00.000-04:00

I now feel like a true expat...this week I received my first care package! When I was packing to move to Malaga, I was weary of bringing two large rolling suitcases because I was going to be in a new city, and I was going to be by myself; so to make things easier, I only brought one bag. For most people, this would have been plenty of room for clothes. But for me, a perpetual "over-packer," I barely made it a month wearing those clothes ;)

After ~~days~~ about an hour of agonizing over what to bring, and what could wait, I packed a suitcase of clothes to bring with me, a suitcase of heavy winter clothes for my family to bring when they come visit me, and a box of clothes for my Mom to mail to me when I got settled into my apartment.

I knew that my Mom was mailing me some clothes, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that she had secretly packed some goodies into my box.

Please note that hair products definitely count as goodies :)

Thanks Mom!!!

Vote, Vote, Vote!!!

2011-10-23T09:33:00.001-04:00

For all of you readers out there who have Facebook, I need your help! One of my Spanish friends (because now I'm cool enough to have Spanish friends), is in a contest to win a 1,000 euro scholarship to study abroad in the UK, and he needs more votes!

My friend Álvaro will be traveling to the UK in the spring through Erasmus, a European-wide study abroad program, and if he wins this contest, he'll receive an 1,000 euro scholarship, that's almost $1,400 for all of my state-side friends!!

The contest is pretty simple, whoever gets the most votes wins, so I would really appreciate it if everyone could stop by and vote for him. You can only vote once, and the contest ends October 31st, so lets show him some love and try to help him out!!

I'll let him tell you how to vote in his own words:

"I need your help!

I'm participating in a contest and I need your vote.

Just follow these steps:

Click on this link:

http://www.facebook.com/Erasmoos?sk=app_139993846076185

-Click on Like

-Click on "Aceder a Becas Erasmoos-blue"

-"Allow" the request for permission.

-Click on the green button "Votar" under Álvaro de la F.

Please tell everyone to vote for me!

Thank you very much!!"

Erasmoos | Erasmoos-blue

The community for international students. Can we help you ?

Page: ‎8,458 like this

"Real" Food

2011-10-23T08:17:00.000-04:00

I haven't talked much about my apartment since I moved in (maybe a photo tour in the future?), but even though it's old, it's in a great location, and it's huge! The only drawback for me is the stove; It's not electric, we use butano, or butane, and it's not automatic so we have to light it every time we want to cook. While I have a gas stove at home, it turns on automatically, but here, I have literally been terrified to light this stove because I'm afraid I'm going to blow up the whole butano tank like a bomb.

The first couple of weeks we lived here I was too scared to even try to light it. While I didn't blow anything up, this also meant that any "cooking" I did involved the microwave. By the way, if you ever want to get looked at like you're completely crazy, cook some pasta in the microwave in front of some native Italians. But, after a trip to one of the largest grocery stores in town, I bought sooo much fresh food that I had to "conquer my fears" and light the stove (is that bad that my worst problem in life is lighting a stove?).

So here we are, my first "real" meal that I cooked in Spain....Chinese noodles with shrimp and broccoli!

Here's what you'll need: spaghetti noodles, water, broccoli, shrimp (I used langostinos, pretty much shrimp with the heads still on them), soy sauce, and olive oil.

First you boil the water, and place the spaghetti in the boiling water for about 7-10 minutes.

While you're waiting for the water to boil, cut the broccoli into smaller pieces, and shell the shrimp.

Sautee the shrimp and broccoli in equal parts olive oil and soy sauce (can't begin to describe how happy I was to find soy sauce in Spain). But, be careful with the soy sauce, especially if you're not using the low sodium kind because it can be very salty.

This picture is from when I made a similar tomato based pasta so just pretend like you don't see the bacon, thankyouverymuch.

Lastly, when the noodles are done, drain them and add them to the shrimp and broccoli stir-fry. Add more olive oil and soy sauce to the noodles, but just enough soy sauce to turn the noodles brown.

Sautee the noodles in the stir-fry for about five minutes and then voila! You have Chinese noodles with shrimp and broccoli!

Buen provecho!

2,000

2011-10-18T16:16:00.001-04:00

*****2,000*****

I know I haven't done one of these posts in awhile but between getting settled in and starting work, I didn't even realize that I had passed 2,000 views!!! I remember the first day I started my blog, and how I was so happy to reach 100 views, now I have over 2,000!

Thanks to everybody for reading my blog and keeping up with my adventures in Spain :)

Scenes From Malaga

2011-10-15T10:42:00.000-04:00

Not a cloud in the sky...

You have to love a city where you can still spend every afternoon at the beach in mid-October :)

A Processional...At Midnight???

2011-10-13T15:39:00.000-04:00

The other day when we were walking home from la feria, we happened upon a religious processional...at midnight. The police had blocked off certain roads for people to view the processional, and there were people lining the streets for blocks. I still don't know what they were celebrating, and I'm still shocked that they were having a processional at midnight outside of Semana Santa ( the Holy Week around Easter), but the processional was beautiful, and ornate, just like all other Spanish processionals.

Before the large float above came through, this woman sang this incredible opera type song from this little balcony above the street. You can kind of see her in the upper right of the picture below.

School

2011-10-11T11:55:00.000-04:00

As I reach the end of my second week of work, (tomorrow is a national holiday here in Spain, Fiesta Nacional--celebrating when Columbus arrived in North America), I wanted to share a few experiences from my first two weeks as a "teacher." I teach in a colegio, which is similar to an elementary school in that the school has children from ages 3-12.

I requested to be in a colegio because I feel more comfortable around younger kids, and I haven't regretted that decision once. Every day when I walk into the younger classes, from the four year olds up to the second graders, the kids jump up and come running to give me a hug. On the first day, when I came to the school just to visit and introduce myself to the teachers, the kids reacted the same way. It reminded me of that talking dog in the movie "Up" that goes "I have just met you, and I love you."

Source

A couple of differences that I have noticed between the school I work in here, and the school's I've attended in the US are:

In the US the students change classes every period, but here in Spain, the teachers change classrooms. The students stay in the same room, except for recreo or recess, and the different teachers, such as the English teacher, come to them.

Lunch is not served during the school day. The hours for the colegios here are from 9am-2pm, so instead of having lunch, the children bring a snack, like a small sandwich and drink, to eat while the whole school gets a period of recreo from 12-12:30. Lunch is served after school for those students who want it.

Spanish Word Of The Day

2011-10-10T16:33:00.000-04:00

"Feria"

Feria (fair-e-ya): Fair

On Saturday, I made my first trip outside of Malaga, and I went ~~all the way~~ about 40 minutes, outside of the city by train to a town called Fuengirola. I have a few Auxiliares friends who live in "Fuengi" and they were all really excited about the Feria in Fuengirola. Even though I knew Feria meant "fair," I guess I was expecting some arts and crafts booths, and some food. But when we got there I was shocked to see an all-out "state fair" type carnival, with actual roller coasters, every type of food you can think of, and straight up bars in the middle of the fair.

Legit coconut water.

There were women and girls dressed in these beautiful, traditional (I'm guessing) gowns.

When I said there were bars at the feria, there were full service bars with music and everything!

This girl was definitely enjoying the bar in her beautiful dress :)

Here are some of the rides and lights they had:

I had never seen this before, and I thought it was pretty cool. These were "bubble balls" (like you see at sporting events where people race across the field/court in them), but this time, they were in water!

Best.Orientation.Ever

2011-10-09T08:55:00.000-04:00

Last Thursday (three days after we started work) we had our orientation as Auxiliares de Conversacion in Malaga. There was a meeting where we went over the basics like our salary, how to get your NIE (foreign identification number), work expectations, and health insurance. I heard that afterwards there was some type of lunch, so I was thinking that we were going to have sandwiches, maybe some tortilla, and a few bottles of water.

WRONG! As we headed to the lunch room, we were greeted by this beautifully dressed woman pouring glasses of wine before we even got into the door.

After entering the room, there was a wide array of tapas spread over the whole room. The event was catered and there were waiters who came around with freshly sliced ham--Spaniards love their ham--, hot tapas, and of course...more drinks!

Just when I thought this orientation couldn't get any better, we found out that they had hired a live band! The band opened with Bob Marley and I instantly was in love.

Just to recap, we had an open bar, unlimited tapas, paella, and dessert, and a live band....for FREE!

Have I ever told you how much I love Spain??

First Day Of School! First Day Of School!

2011-10-05T19:37:00.000-04:00

While I live in Malaga capital, I actually work in a school in Cartama, a pueblo outside of Malaga. By car, Cartama is about a 20-25 minute drive, but by bus it takes an hour, and the buses only leave once an hour to make the trips between the two cities. Even though I went to visit my school last week and caught the 8am bus, and made it there right when school was starting with no problems, of course on my first day of work I missed my bus.

I was supposed to be there at 10am, so I gingerly walked to the bus station to catch the 9am bus. Well, I guess I didn't walk gingerly enough because the bus was pulling away as soon as I got there, and to my surprise the next bus didn't leave until 10:15! So for my first day of work I was an hour and fifteen minutes late, but I live in Spain, so the only response I got from my school was no pasa nada, it's ok.

I haven't taken any pictures of my actual school, but the views are amazing. Here are a few pics I snapped while doing what else...waiting for the bus :)

Anybody know what movie the title of this post came from???

First Run

2011-10-05T18:06:00.000-04:00

I've mentioned that one of my goals while I'm here in Spain is to run a half marathon; I've run a few 5k's before, but nothing as substantial as a half marathon. A couple of days ago I went for my first run here in Spain...and it was along the beach :) I'm really out of shape so I just did intervals-- 3 minutes running, 3 minutes walking, and even though I was huffing and puffing like the big bad wolf, during my run I couldn't help but think of how lucky I am to be here. Here are a few pictures I took during my run so you can see why I felt such happiness.

Have you ever had a moment that reminded you that you were truly blessed?

A Few Things I Like About Spain

2011-10-02T16:13:00.000-04:00

Cathedrals. Every city has one, and whenever you visit a new city in Spain, you have to go see the catedral. When we used to travel around Spain with my study abroad group, I can't tell you how many times I heard that "x" city has the best catedral in Spain.

Cathedral in Malaga

Fruit is genuinely considered a dessert, and is consistently offered as a dessert in many restaurants. One restaurant offered pina natural--pineapple...

There is history everywhere! I'm sure they have these in many other countries also but one restaurant I visited had a cool display of the evolution of the coke bottle.

Menu del Dia, Tapas, and Kebaps

2011-09-29T10:08:00.000-04:00

As if all of these food post's today haven't made you hungry enough already, here's one more just to make sure :)

I had another menu del dia the other day, this time for the first course I had something that I think was called caldo, fried calamari for the second course, and an incredible chocolate cake drizzled in raspberry sauce for dessert.

"Caldo" or maybe the broth is called Caldo. This was a meat dish that tasted similar to BBQ, spread on a piece of toast. The broth that was with it was kind of like a french dip, and it was very good when you dipped the toast in it.

Later on, I went and had two of my favorite tapas, Paella, and Tortilla Espanola.

And finally......a kebap!!!!! The kebaps that people eat here in Spain, are not the same type of kebaps that people in the States typically think of (meat or vegetables on a stick). Kebaps are a type of fast food in Spain, and it's kind of like a pita sandwich with either chicken or steak, lettuce, tomato, onion, and some type of white sauce, and red sauce. The meat is rotated on a pit kind of like BBQ, and shaved off when you order your meal.

This is a picture of the meat being shaved off. I'm not really sure how they get chicken/steak to look like that but it tastes too good to ask too many questions ;)

Un Kebap!

Excuse the weird smile, but I was sooo excited to have a kebap again.

Best Pasta Ever???

2011-09-29T09:08:00.000-04:00

On my second day at the hostel, I met Pierrick aka el loco. While Pierrick left us all with many fun memories, I don't think any of us will ever forget the pasta he made us. One day while we were at the beach, he casually goes "so I'm going to make yall dinner tonight." We were all like ok...sure (don't forget his nickname was el loco). We went to the grocery store and he wandered around for a bit, not really sure of what he wanted to make, and I'll admit that I was more than a bit skeptical about what he was going to cook. However, when I say he cooked one of the best pasta dishes I've ever had....

Dinner

Shrimp, clams, and chorizo

I had never eaten a clam a day in my life until he made this dish.

The chef, Pierrick

The aftermath...