Blogs to follow

As you may have seen I have just updated the blogs listed on this page... some are good friends of mine and others are just blogs I like reading so you might too!  Blogging is such an odd concept to me and I am still getting my head round it, but nonetheless I love reading them!

Happy reading!

They don't do tables for one

Reading other blogs made me realise I should really update my own seeing as it has been a while.  I am now in France and am having a wonderful time discovering the world of working full time.  I am actually really enjoying it so am happy happy happy :D

I arrived after just a few hours in the UK and was welcomed by my granddad (papy).  I flew to Girona and was one of the 6 non-Barcelona supporters on the flight.  As it was the early morning flight from Luton the morning after the final with Manchester United, we were surrounded by blue and maroon shirts.  They even treated us to a song as we landed, which made a nice change from the normal Ryanair fanfair!

Work is really interesting and I have lovely colleagues so I haven't even seen the last 4 weeks fly by.  I start at 9 every day and then finish at 6 or 7 depending on the timetable.  It took a bit of getting used to after having had so much free time in Spain but I am loving it.  It is a little insight into what the future might be like.
 

So, the job itself.  I am working in a tourism office and spend most of my time at 'l'acceuil', so talking to tourists (in all four languages!!) and advising them what they can do in the town, department and region.  We get a whole range of questions so every day presents me with new challenges.  I also help out with sorting out the post and emails and of course answer the phone.  It is really interesting switching between my languages so much, sometimes having to go from one to the other within seconds.  Good brain training I think!

There are a couple of other stagiaires too and as Lena has the same lunch hours as me we spend our time discovering the different places to eat in the town centre and also visiting things when we can.  I will do another blog post soon explaining our visits and a bit more about the town and what I have been up to with la famille.

I hope this keeps you all going for now!  The title of this blog comes from one of my lunch dates in the first couple of weeks, when the waiter asked me how many people the table was for and I said 'For one!' and he jokingly replied  'Well we don't do tables for one.'  I was, as you can imagine, not terribly amused.  Ah well, it has been fun lunching alone and being able to observe the people and the world going by...

Adios

So I am now in France and it is time to reflect upon my time in Spain.  It was so so different to my 5 months in Austria and I have to say I hadn't prepared myself for the culture shock at all.  The shock is bad enough when going from your own country and culture to a new one and when you have enough time to prepare for it.  So the fact that I was moving from a culture other than my own to a new one made it more difficult and I also only spent 48 hours at home in between. 

My time in Spain was certainly more challenging than Austria, but was equally enriching and my Spanish improved hugely.

I think the main point to make is that I am less suited to a country like Spain.  Despite having Spanish blood in my veins I am not made for their laid back ways.  I am most certainly a morning person so the fact that they tend to stay up late and get up late morning is not really me.  I am also someone who is fairly ‘why wait if you can do it now’, so the ‘mañana mañana’ attitude also took some getting used to.

All this said I had a lovely time and have some very fond memories.  I met a whole range of people; from the business man I taught English to, to my wonderfully welcoming housemates and feel like I benefitted enormously from the experience.  The things I will miss most:

·      My weekly chats with the fabulous lady at the post office :D

·      The weather – seriously 4 months of sunshine!! I even have a pretty good tan going, which for me is very impressive!

·      The time to do things and appreciate what is going on around me.

·      Teaching lessons in the sunshine everyday on the plaza.

·      French lessons with Esther – the most wonderful French teacher at the university.

·      The city of Madrid itself.  I really like it as a capital and think people don’t give it enough credit.

·      Chinese Fridays with my friends.

·      Making Sangria with my housemates.

Spain, at times you were massively interesting, but I am glad I lived there.  4 months I will never forget…

The End.

A long weekend in Salzburg

Just before finishing in Spain I went to Salzburg for a long weekend to see everyone and attend the final party with all of the assistants.  Due to my flight being fairly early in the morning I stayed at Sarah's the night before and it was really lovely to see her.  Then it was an early start for me to get my flight to Munich.

I flew with Iberia, something I had never done before and they managed to annoy me very quickly.  When I booked the tickets they said remember to bring the card you paid with as verification, so when my purse was stolen I made sure to check with them (twice, in person and on the phone) that this would not be an issue as I no longer had the card.  Both times they said it would be fine, however when the time came it was not ok.  This resulted in a half hour of sorting it out at the Iberia desk.. not really that big an issue but annoying nonetheless.

The flight went by really quickly and before I knew it I was in the train crossing the bridge into the station where you get a beautiful view of the city.  Maija and Keri met me at the station and then we went for an ice cream in the Mirabell gardens.  In the evening the girls went out for a meal before heading to the Belgium bar for a drink.  It was really lovely to be back and it felt like Katie and I had just been gone for a long weekend.

The following morning Maija and I headed to Alchemie for their famous Schokomuffin, which entirely lived up to my expectations.  The other girls met us there and we enjoyed a leisurely coffee before heading to Keri's to get the BBQ (or grill as the American's say) for the afternoon.  We then headed to Volksgarten for an afternoon in the sun eating and drinking and generally being merry :)  Getting to the Volksgarten was hilarious.  Imagine Keri with a BBQ full of food,  Maija carrying bags of food and beer and then me with a rucksack containing a watermelon on my back and a bag of coal in each hand... then add us running for the bus! It was a perfect afternoon and the evening completed the day with a trip to Murphy's and then a late night/early morning wander of Salzburg's nightlife with Keri where we even met some of her students, who dragged us into a bar on our way home.

The following day we went for breakfast and met Maija, Dave and Matt before heading to the wine festival happening by Mirabell Gardens.  When I was in Austria we went there all the time for the mulled wine and now we went for wine tasting.. I see a pattern here :P  After having tasted some different wines from across Austria, including a very nice 'rosecco' we went for a casual sit by the river before going for ice cream :)  In the evening we went out for dinner before heading to Emily's for the party.  It was really lovely to see everyone again and I had a really good time :D  I don't know if I will ever again meet quite such a special group of people.

On the Sunday we had a very leisurely day which involved a lot of eating and sitting out in the sun by the river.  On Monday I was due to go to Bischofshofen but due to a change of plans I spent the day in Salzburg walking around and taking it all in before going out to dinner.  It was nice to see the town again in spring because all of the statues were uncovered and the atmosphere is different.

I am so glad I went back and got to make the most of seeing everyone again.  :)  Salzburg really is one of my favourite European cities and if you haven't been yet.. what are you waiting for!

 The famous Schokomuffin

 What would happen if we swapped hair... it amused me so thought I would share