Back... after almost a year!

Hello everyone! I'm writing to inform everyone about all the details of my upcoming trip through Europe.. Again!

If you don't already know, I'm leaving on Tuesday the 2nd for a backpacking trip through parts of western Europe! More or less, I picked these places because I either missed them the first time around and really wanted to visit them, or because I'm going back somewhere that I really liked!

As of now, this is my trip itinerary:

• Munich, Germany - Oktoberfest w/ Supy & Leanne
• Santander, Spain - Visit my old life.. ;)
• Jaen, Spain - Visit Jenna and her crazy, Andalucian life!
• Athens & Santorini, Greece - Never made it there, but really want to. Here, I'll meet up with Dr. Hoch!
• Edinburgh, Scotland - Visit my favorite Irish friend, Claire in her new country!
• Dublin & Galway, Ireland - Never made it to the lovely isle of Ire (sp?)!!
• Paris, France - Visit a friend studying abroad in Paris to experience it from someone who lives there!
  
• Western Germany (Near Dusseldorf) - Visit with Mathias, Esther and Eva!

Thanks to my thorough understanding of the low-fares airline system in Europe, I will be flying between most cities at prices way below bus and train fares. My cheapest flight was $20 for the flight from Germany to Spain!

I like sending postcards, so if you'd like to get one from somewhere, let me know!

I'm so excited about this trip, and can't wait to tell everyone about it! I will be trying hard to keep this blog up-to-date (like last September's backpacking trip) so check back frequently!

I miss everyone already, but am so excited knowing I'm about to embark on another amazing trip!

My mess I've made while packing!

Talk with you all soon.

Matt

Going, going, gone...

Yes, sadly, the amazingly warm (and supposedly unusual) weather that we were experiencing here in Santander appears to be gone for good. :(

Today, instead of being able to run around in shorts, or go lie on the beach, I had to stay bundled up in a sweater.. It was down around 13 degrees Celsius (hang on, let me convert that...) which is a chilly 55 degrees fahrenheit! I don't remember what it normally is back in CT right now, but it was nice to finally feel winter on its way!

Tonight, I went on an "intercambio" with a professor named Maria. An intercambio is basically where two people practice speaking with one another. For one hour, we spoke in English, and for the second we spoke in Spanish. Needless to say, her English was much better than my Spanish, but I learned a whole lot more. And then tonight during dinner, Teresa and I started talking about casinos, and I somehow got to explaining that casinos are not allowed in CT, except on Indian territories. Now try to imagine explaining what a sovereign nation is without using complex words, and without knowing how to say sovereign! After about 5 minutes, I think I had gotten the point across, but it only took 10 seconds after dinner for me to type it into wordreference.com and find out that I should have just said "nacion soberana"! Oh the joys of learning a language by submersion.. ;) Hasta pronto!

Ultimate Frisbee - - What! What!

Okay, so we figured we needed to find something to fill our free time. So when a few of the other conversation teachers went walking through the university here in Santander, one of them found a notice asking for more players for Ultimate Frisbee!!

Needless to say, ultimate frisbee is an awesome game, but I never realized how hardcore it is until now!

We showed up the first day, thinking we'd be okay. All of us can throw and catch a frisbee. And all of us understand the basic rules of ultimate frisbee.. Boy were we surprised!

First thing we learned at the first practice was that there are only two correct ways to throw a frisbee. Lucky for me, I am very good at throwing one of the methods. However, I had never even tried throwing this other method (and it's complicated, so I'm not even gonna try and explain!) and it was, and still is very hard!

After about an hour of practicing throwing and catching and some defense/offense drills, they decide to start up a scrimmage. Here is where the real fun began..

Imagine going to your first ultimate frisbee scrimmage, and your teammates trying to teach you all the offense and defense strategies really quick before the first kick-off. Now, imagine that you barely understand their language!!! That, my friends, was the exact position I was in.. They were telling me about vertical and horizontal lines down the field, blocks towards certain sides at certain times, and who knows what else, and ALL IN SPANISH!

Needless to say, that was a workout both mentally and physically. I was able to make one awesome catch (dove for it, then summersaulted and somehow ended back on my feet), almost dove and caught one in the endzone, and made a few good passes. Afterwards, I was exhausted, couldn't breath from all the running, new a heck of a lot more about ultimate frisbee strategy, and had learned a couple new Spanish words relating to the game!

Tonight was our second practice.. Needless to say, I'm really enjoying it! I'll take some pictures at one of these practices.. Oh, and that's one more thing.. They practice 4 days a week! Mon,Wed,Fri 4 - 7 and Saturdays 12 till who knows when!! I think I'm gonna be in pretty good shape soon!

Okay, it's bedtime for me. :)

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! :)

Essen -- Essen What?

Just a heads up... This is a photo-intensive blog-post! :)

So we took the train yesterday from Munich to Essen, and it might have been the nicest train I've ever been on! The seats were comfortable, there were little displays over your seats telling the conductor where you got on and where you were getting off, and last but by far not least, there was a power plug at each seat!

This meant that during our 5 1/2 hour train ride, we got to watch a movie on my laptop. That was of course, after we got it to work again. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that my laptop broke. Something is wrong with it, and on the train, the only way I could get it to work was by smashing it on the floor. Needless to say, the couple sitting opposite us on the train stared at us a lot as I continually dropped my laptop from about a 1/2 foot from the ground! ö

So Jenna and I enjoyed V for Vendetta during the train, which was fun. Neither of us had time to watch any tv, let alone movies up until this part of the trip.

Once we got to Essen, we found Matt Schröeder waiting for us at the platform. We jumped in his car (it looks like a little German taxi!) and headed to the Schröeder home.

When we got there, we met Mrs. Schroder, and saw his house, and even met his dad who came home from work just to meet us.. They all thought it was funny to "arrest" the American.. ;)

Matt started telling us all about what he had planned for our stay. It was quite elaborate! We started by going to a German club the first night, which was a lot of fun. It was an abandoned factory.

We got back to his house around 2am and headed to bed, as he had another big day planned for us the next day.

When we woke up, we went and visited this gas tower which people can go inside (www.gasometer.de) and went to the biggest shopping mall in all of Europe. It was fun. We found the Jagermeister store, and met up with one of Matias' friends too!

(The Gasometer from the inside looking up!)

We returned to his house for lunch where we ate some of the codfish that his dad caught during his yearly fishing trip to Denmark! We also finally got to meet his brother, Martin. Although he barely spoke at all, it was nice finally meeting him.

After lunch, we continued by going to an abandoned coal mine that had been turned into this huge public park / art gallery.. I didn't think it would be that cool... Boy was I wrong.. We walked around the coal mine for a good couple hours, took lots of cool pictures, and even found a break in the fence where we could go into this building!


After all this, as we walked back to the entrance, Matt mentioned that there was a Dunkin Donuts in his town... Immediately, we were all craving iced coffees and iced lattes! So this became our new destination.. When we finally got them, Matias wanted me to get a McDonald's hamburger.. I don't know why.. But I think it was to complete my image as a "fat american who eats only McDonalds".. So I did, and we got a picture of me; in an "American's" glory.. with my Dunkin Donuts in one hand, and my McDonalds in the other!!

After all this, we headed back to Matt's house to get ready to go out that night. Matias had us going to this strip of bars outside the mall we had been to earlier. All I can say about them is that they were AWESOME!! I had this drink called the Oriental Dream which was absolutely amazing! It tasted like some Hawaiian fruit cocktail, but supposedly had a lot of alcohol too! After a long while at that bar, we moved down a few bars to this bar where Matias wanted me to try a Mai Tai. I did, and wow. There was sooo much alcohol in that drink!

It wasn't long before Matias and I were both trying to sing the United States National Anthem.. Oh man.. Needless to say, we had a great time out that night!