Cena Mat

I just wanted everyone to see how awesome my host mother is. Every night, when I come home, and she is either not home, or has already gone to bed, she leaves out my dinner.. Usually, with a nice note on it. (And yes, she thinks my name is spelled "Mat")

I love her. 

Mañana, yo marcharé..

or... for all you English speaking folk, Tomorrow, I hike..

Tomorrow morning, I'm going with my host mother (Teresa) on a hike in some mountains in a nearby town called Liérganes. You can actually read all about the hike at this site that Teresa showed me.. It shows all about the mountains, and the route, etc. Check it out..

As for the pictures, they don't look too promising, but I promise to take some while I am on the mountain! I'm sure it will be amazing!

A weekend of adventures...

(Dazed? Confused? Never!)This weekend, a family friend came to visit me here in Santander!! Many of you may know of her, Dr. Hoch. She is my first official visitor here in Spain from the U.S.!

So in an attempt to show her a little about our small part of Spain, myself and a few others attempted to show her around. We planned a busy weekend of museum hopping, city touring, and even squeezed in some local meals!

I started the weekend off by having her come with me to school on Friday morning. I only had one class to teach, and it was my best class yet! There were about 20 twelve-year-old kids in the class, all eager to try to speak and understand some English! After some time at school, we headed back to Santander. A little while after arriving, my host mother, Teresa, called to say that she could give us a driving tour of the area if we wanted. Of course we were more than happy to accept, and headed over to meet up with her.

She started the tour off by bringing us to an AMAZING beach... (Shown below)

(Click on any photo to enlarge)

After that, we headed on to "El Sardinero", which is the main beach in Santander. Oh, and by the way, even though it's late October, it's still beach weather here!! After El Sardinero, we headed on to "el faro" (the lighthouse). The lighthouse is perched on the cliff that separates the Atlantic Ocean and the bay of Santander. All of these pictures are views from the lighthouse.

(Click on any photo to enlarge)

After the lighthouse, we continued with a driving tour of Santander, and sadly, I forgot to take pictures.. :( But I promise I will eventually document my beautiful city for all of you! :)

Overall, this awesome driving tour lasted over 3 hours! Teresa was an awesome tour guide!! During the tour, Teresa invited us over for a Spanish "Cena" or dinner on Sunday night. Of course we were both excited and eagerly accepted... I accepted mainly because I know how great of a cook Teresa is!

Saturday, Dr. Hoch, myself and 4 other English assistants went for the day to Bilbao, mainly to visit the Guggenheim.

(Look closely, and you'll see Dr. Hoch in the bottom center of that photo, climbing the stairs)

We happened to visit Bilbao on a weekend when the Guggenheim was free (something about their anniversary). So not only did we get to see an amazing museum, we didn't have to pay! (Which is very important for poor, roaming, recent college grads.. like myself!)

Here is a picture of the whole crew on the escalator leaving the metro..

(From left to right: Dr. Hoch, Lauren, Kate, Supy and Leanne)

And yet another photo of the outside of the Guggenheim.. Possibly one of the most interesting buildings I've ever seen! (Sorry about no photos inside, but they weren't allowed..)

(Yet again, click on the photo to enlarge..)

On Sunday, Dr. Hoch and I mustered up enough energy (don't forget that she was fighting an unyielding battle against jetlag!) to make a really short afternoon trip to Santillana del Mar.

It is a very beautiful town located about 45 minutes from Santander by bus. Here are pictures of Dr. Hoch and I in the center of town.

(Click on any photo to enlarge)

After walking around the town for about an hour and a half, we found a small bar and both had a well needed drink, and chocolate con churros which is a hot chocolate pudding with fried dough sticks. Only one word, amazing, can describe it.

Que sed nosotros tuvimos y Que rico!

We then took the bus back to Santander, as we had to get to Teresa's for dinner. There, we had a Spanish omelette along with bacon and some ice cream (helado) for dessert.

After dinner, we headed back to Santander as Dr Hoch needed to get a good nights rest for her long return trip back to the states on Monday.

Overall, her visit here was great in my opinion. Although short, we made the best of it. She really started to get to know Santander by the end of the weekend!!

Thanks for the visit Dr Hoch!

Teresa y yo..

So I just wanted to let everyone see the lady I am staying with (my host mother). Her name is Teresa, and she is a geography/history teacher at the school I work at. She has a very nice house outside of Santander in a small town called Muriedas. When I first got here a few days ago, her eldest son Miguel took me out to a local bar, "La Huerdas", for drinks with a few of his friends. They all introduced me to my new favorite drink here in Spain, Calimocho, or wine with Coke in English!! (It doesn't sound that good, but with the right wine, it tastes amazing!!)

Tonight I'm going back out to Santander to a tapas bar for dinner.. Tapas are simply appetizers, but are usually very cheap, and very good!

But on the topic of Santander... I GOT AN APARTMENT!!

Hello Mr. Neilson...

So I just had my first class! Wow... I never thought I would be so nervous! But the students were good, spoke decent English, asked plenty of relevant questions, and even taught me a little about local culture!

Now I have three more classes spread out over the next three hours...

School here is awesome. They are out by two, and the longest I ever have to be here is 4 hours! The head of the English department was able to arrange my schedule so that I have Mondays and Tuesdays off most weeks, giving me four day weekends!! Europe, here I come!

The school I work at (I.E.S. La Marina) is very nice. It's only six years old, and all the teachers here are very friendly. Chema, the head of the English department is a great guy. One thing I really like about coming to school here is that while I am here my job is to speak ENGLISH!!!! So it is a nice refuge from the constant immersion in Spanish.

Ok, the bell is about to ring, so I must prepare... Oh, there it is.. Time for another class!

Hasta luego!

Mi piso.. (My apartment)

That's right.. I have an official apartment here in Santander.. It's really nice. It is a centrally located, three-bedroom apartment with a newly renovated bathroom. So far, the only thing we can really complain about is the size of our T.V., but then again, we're not in Spain to watch television! I'll give you a quick tour..

This first picture is of my bedroom. Granted, it is extremely bare as I haven't even moved in yet! I've got plans to help cover the walls...eventually.

This picture is of our kitchen, which is also newly renovated with appliances. Many of the apartments here in Spain have gas water heaters that you have to light before you can get hot water.. Luckily, we have an automatic water heater! Our landlady said that this apartment was renovated a year ago for her late mother who passed away a few months ago.

This last picture is of our "salon" or living room. It's the perfect size for the three of us, and we have a very nice small balcony! We overlook a beautiful garden at a school across the street.

I'm really excited to eventually move in there! I'll let you all know what that happens! If you want my address, just drop me an email.. I'd love to get a letter! :)