Halfsies

Tomorrow marks one month in Madrid for me! Wooo only one month until I can speak Italiano all the time (in Italia of course).

Due to some previous requests (coughALLIEcough) here are some pictures of exactly where I am and things I've been discussing in my previous bloggyposts:

Here is the "calle" where we go out and play with all the other neighborhood kiddies.

Here is my house. That front stoop is generally where I sit while Iván and friends are playing some type of sword-fighting game or shooting each other with lots of plastic guns. Stick 'em up.

This is the gate that surrounds the "neighborhood".

This is the view directly on the opposite side of the gate. Looks like the middle of nowhere...Now do you believe me?!?!

That's Madrid way yonder over the river and through the woods. Well there's no river. and you know what I think about the "woods". Lion King-esque.

This is the path that I run down. It is right next to the Polideportivo (community rec center) that I go to and about 3 minutes away from the house. ps: i don't know why this is underlined. i can't find the button to un-underline it.

Here's the Polideportivo (the gym)- oh look, now the underlining is blue. joy

The pool. Spain has this ridiculous rule that there has to be a horrendously ugly fence around the perimeter of every single pool in the country. Very aesthetically pleasing.

Other side of the pool. There's my friend Andrea the lifeguard!

Now inside the house: the kitchen. brings back burnage memories.

Other side of the kitchen and the laundry room.

Living room.

Back yard/garden/deck thing.

My room.

Well there ya have it folks. My Spanish life in pictures. Leave me some comments, questions, or just an emoticon ----@ (rose?) to let me know more than just mi madre reads this thang.

LURVE.

-G

ps. pretty sure I conquered the baby tonight. victory is mine muahahahaha

Day Camp = Recipe for Disaster

This week Iván had day camp at the little community recreation center that I mentioned in my last post as the gym I found. This meant that everyday we had to wake up two hours earlier than we normally do so that I could walk him to camp before 9am. I decided it would be good use of my time to start working out right after I drop him off since I'm already there (and since it's moderately less hot at that hour).

So Tuesday morning I used the gym. It's nothing compared to the grandeur of an LA Fitness or even a YMCA but it does the job for sure. I used the elliptical and some of the weight machines. Wednesday morning I went running through the hill type thing behind the chalets (because I don't want to pay to go to the gym everyday) with one of the other moms from the neighborhood. The scenery is hard to describe... it's not the woods because when I say woods I usually mean tall trees. There aren't tall trees, but there are like randomly dispersed short little bush-esque trees and lots of wheat looking stuff and it sort of looks like the plains of Africa? ok I don't know I guess I'll just have to take some pictures for you all. It's kind of nice though. Thursday I swam laps at the pool at the rec center and made friends with a really nice old lady who was swimming next to me...I think her name was Berta.

So day camp brought me a nice little boost of energy throughout the week. It felt good to be active on a consistent basis (because chasing around a toddler does not count).

BUT... day camp also led me to most terrible moments in the afternoon. I thought that teaching him lessons in the morning was rough. The afternoon has NO comparison. Since Iván was at camp during our usual lesson time, the mom moved it to the afternoon around 5pm. The first day- he didn't take a nap after lunch so then when lessons came around he was unbearable. Whiney, tired, throwing things (pencils, his workbooks, erasers, etc), saying that I didn't know anything and that I was inventing math problems, and just plain ridiculous stuff. I was surprisingly extremely patient but of course had a talk with his mom after. Day two- Takes a nap after lunch (mom's orders). Still is in the worst mood ever and throws things and snaps at me and talks back to me like I have a mental disability (everyone know that voice? the slow words with big eyes one). It also didn't help that his dad was sitting in the same room playing FIFA on the Playstation at the exact same time. Oh dear. Day three- Someone had the brilliant idea that I had to wake Iván up from his nap and then do our lessons. Because most people really like 1) being woken up, and 2) being woken up by their English teacher that they despise. MOST EXCELLENT PLAN. So that lesson included the previous day's occurrences but also a full-blown tantrum with crying and flailing of limbs. Let's just say I'm glad it's Friday (although in 15 minutes I have to go give the last lesson of the week. painful. hopefully i don't get a concussion. some of those books are pretty heavy).

In other news, I officially have a friend! The lifeguard, Andrea, and I went to the movies last night to see Knight and Day with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. It was dubbed (which I hateeee) and I'm not a huge Cruise fan either but it was nice to just get out of the house and talk to someone who's not 7 or 37. Andrea talks A LOT and more than 50% of the time I am lost when she's telling stories because she switches from subject to subject without any pauses or notifications but I don't mind at all because again, I just really wanted to have someone to hang out with on a consistent basis! I think we're going to a free concert at midnight tonight at the town summer fiestas the next town over (that is if my mom and dad come back from their dinner and a movie outing in time... gahhh more babysitting with a toddler who doesn't want me to touch him and with a 7-year-old who doesn't want me to talk to him YAY!!!!)

Here is the link to my Facebook album of photos from Spain-

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2033856&id=1120590434&l=27f0eda026

Miss everyone!!!!!!

You know you love me, XOXO,

G

Burns...and not due to a lack of SPF

Boy do I have a lot to update about... Ready,Set, Go:

So the day after my last post was going well until the mom and I were preparing lunch in the kitchen (which rarely happens because she usually prepares it while I'm feeding the baby and making sure he stays out of trouble) and she dropped an entire pot of boiling water all over. Let me start by explaining that the kitchen is very small. But not small enough to "run into each other" (that's what she said happened when she was later retelling the story... as far as I was concerned, I was perfectly stationary the whole time...) So luckily only my elbow and forearm got drenched and by the time it got to my feet it had already cooled enough so that there wasn't any damage. My arm though has a rather large burn that is doing much better now that it's been a few days. But geeeez. Pretty traumatizing experience. Oh, here's the kicker... At the time it happened I was holding a very large knife. Could have been a lot worse!

The rest of the week went by ok and on Friday morning we left around 10am to go to Segovia. Picture this: a car that seats 5. Perfect for 5 people. Now picture this: a car that seats 5 but two of the seats have HUGE car seats. Perfect for 4 people and maybe a rabbit sized human being in the middle seat. Oh wait. That was my seat. Consider that and the fact that the same movie (I do believe it's the Spanish version of Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron HAH) has to be on for the baby not to cry every single time we're in the car and you've got yourself a grand ole car ride. Luckily it was only about an hour drive.

Segovia is a really cute small town with the huge ancient Roman aqueduct running through it. We walked all around the town and even got to visit a castle (link to facebook album of photos to come later!) We finished up pretty quickly (that's what happens when you're with a fussy baby and a complaining 7 year old :( and we decided to drive over to Avila which was only about another 45 minutes. Avila is another small town surrounded by the original walls of the town. It was also really pretty and we ate lunch at a place with traditional food. Visiting these small towns made me really excited for my study abroad in Siena, Italy! I really do prefer that type of setting to a large city (coughMadridcough).

Saturday I was kind of sad and homesick but after lunch I had to get ready to go into the city so I started feeling a little better. I took the train and metro to get to where my friend from high school Christina was staying and we went out to dinner around there. Later we got ready to go out and headed into Sol (the heart of Madrid center). We went to a bar and got some drinks (this beer that has half beer and half lemon in it is my favorite...since i don't like beer barely at all) and then met up with some of her friends from her homestay and took a bus around 2am to a discoteca that we didn't really know how to get to.

After a long bus ride and some walking we got to Kapital around 3:15am. Turned out to be perfect timing because the madness was just beginning. Kapital is a 7 story club. SEVEN. Talk about a good time! Floors 1, 3, and 5 have big dance floors that each play a different type of music. 1 was techno/electronica, 3 was hip/hop and r&b, and 5 was spanish pop type music. The rest of the floors were more chill and were kind of like lounge areas where you could sit and talk and not be mobbed with crazy dancing people (aka lameee). We spent the most time on the first floor because that's where the biggest dance floor was and the most people. Every once in a while they would BLAST this weird vapor/steam/white business really hard into the crowd and you couldn't see anything at all so at first it was almost scary but after a while it felt good because it was cold. They would also do it really randomly like trying to go with the music at some parts so it was fun trying to guess when it would happen. I'm pretty sure I didn't stop dancing once... not even on the staircases changing floors. There was also a good mix of people both foreigners and Spaniards. Basically, an AMAZING time!

Christina and I before going out

So after dancing the night away, the club closed at 6am and that's when the Metro opens so everyone floods out of the club and goes to the Metro. It's a really funny experience going home when the sun is rising. We reached Christina's place around 7am and got ready for bed... when it was light out... awesome!

Since then I've been trying to catch up on sleep and stay out of the unbearable heat. Today it was 99 degrees all day. I got a little dehydrated and felt pretty sickly and weak all day.

I'm pumped because I found a small gym type place that I can pay a fee and go to and its only about a 7 minute walk from the house. The spud look just isn't doing it for me.

I've been reading a lot since I've been here which is nice because I haven't read a book for pleasure in a long time (college's fault.). I read Chocolat and then watched the movie again which I LOVEEEE and now I'm almost done with The Catcher in the Rye which for some reason I was never forced to read previously (high school's fault.) and I like it a lot.

Below is a video I took at home when Spain won the World Cup. Probably 15 minutes after the actual win hahaha. After that is a link to my favorite song right now that they play all around Spain and at the club!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-Z3YrHJ1sU

More to come another day :)

Miss everyone a lot!

Besos,

G

Daily Lights.

Highlights: GRILLED VEGETABLES. arteries rejoice. Meeting another Au Pair from New Mexico (although she is leaving in a couple weeks) and talking to the lifeguard who is a really nice girl who is studying to become and English teacher.

Lowlights: THE REST OF THE DAY :(

Don't Hate, Appreciate

I'm sitting here watching on tv the huge festivities going on in Madrid, with the arrival of the Spanish team back into the country, and their giant open-air bus trip through the city and I just can't help but admit that I've slightly fallen in love with them. The whole team! They're just so happy and fun and friendly and great and they're dancing all over the place (I mean who wouldn't be after winning the WORLD CUPPP?!?!?). Being that I am living in Spain at this time, I had to adopt them as my team after Argentina and USA got out of course. Not a bad decision after all...champs for the first time and I saw it happen!

I watched the game at the house with the family and some neighbors. It was so fun and then when Spain finally won we popped champagne and celebrated and there were fireworks going off everywhere and cars honking and it was just crazy!

That was definitely the highlight of the weekend. The rest of the weekend went a little like this: saturday: breakfast, pool, lunch, siesta, pool, dinner. sunday: breakfast, mall, pool, lunch, siesta, pool, the big game, dinner.

As above mentioned, since the opening of the pool on Friday (finallyyyy) Iván has wanted to take a dip at every possible moment...even when his friends aren't there to play with him...which brings me to a segment I like to call "Really?!?!?!" (SNL anyone?).

1:30 pm: "Iván, really, I know you get bored easily and that after 3.5 minutes of swimming alone you want to go get a toy or a friend, but can't you just play a game with me or have me count how long you can hold your breath underwater (one of his favs.)? No? Really? Ok fine, go get a toy from home real quick. Oh you want to grab a raft? Ok that'll be fun for you. (5 minutes later). Oh... a nicely folded in a plastic bag new raft? Really? (Raft is shoved in my face insinuating its inflation) Blow it up?! Um, REALLY?!!?! In 99 degree weather? In the blazing sun?! REALLY?!?! (30 minutes and many Iván sighs later) Here (gasp) you (gasp) go. A fully inflated raft. (Iván runs away into the pool area with the raft). YOU'RE WELCOMEEEEEE! really. really?

So this little moment was brought to you by the letters P and T.

Please and thank you. A very basic set of words that most children learn to use to get their way. This little pipsqueak (is that actually a word?) gets what he wants sans the application of these words. Oh my my. He also has the eye roll attitude act down to an art. And only at the age of 7? Someone get this kid an agent! No, but really, now I understand why my mom would get so mad at me for rolling my eyes (sorry maaammm). It probably is one of the most disrespectful and obnoxious faces I have ever seen. And lucky for me, I get to see it everyday when me and the mom try to get him to practice his English words and phrases. Stubborn, stubborn, stubborn. But not only that, he's feisty and just sometimes plain rude. I know he's only a child, but if I'm supposed to be the "big sister" of the family, there are certain things that will not fly. Of course sometimes his mom is around and she sees or hears him so luckily I don't have to be the bad guy, but if this continues on a constant basis there could be major problems. Just this morning, we had finished breakfast and it was time for our daily spanish, math, and english lesson. I found Iván in the hallway and asked him if he was ready. Ready to go upstairs and get down to business. His response? (Please insert your own bad attitude where necessary, aka everywhere) "Of course I'm ready, if I weren't ready then what would be the purpose of you even being here in this house."

OUCH. That's all I'm sayin'.

And it's not just me he's rude to. This evening his mom told him to go set the table and he comes into the kitchen (where she's cooking and trying to control the baby who refuses to let me feed him, more on that later) and says "No. Why don't you do it?!"

Psh. Kiddies.

In other non 7-year-old news, the baby Hector has been on a 3-day hate Gabi streak. I thought we had gotten past all the "you're a stranger get away from me" but alas, it has returned. Any time i get near him he's all screamy screamy "No No NOOOOO". That's particularly helpful when I'm trying to feed him while the mom is cooking. Let's just say that the consistency of baby food is very prime for being flung around when a baby decides to bat the spoon or your arm out of the way. Mmm creamed peas.

Ok so I know this sounds like a lot of bad things (or just me complaining?) but it really isn't that that bad. The parents are really nice and we talk a lot so that's good. On Sunday the mom took me to the mall and some outlets and although I didn't buy anything (I wanted to...Mom we're going to need to discuss this suitcase situation once again haha) it was cool seeing the Spanish stores and different styles and just getting out of the house was a relief. This Friday they said they would take me to visit Segovia and I'm VERY excited about that.

That's all I've got for right now. I always seem to blog really late at night when I should be sleeping and gaining strength to combat the little monsters (HAH joke.) 'Til next time :)

-G

PS. Today, officially, I have been in Europe for ONE month! Crazy talk in my opinion. 5 more to go!

Top Kiddie Quotes of the Day

ivan and hector

During an intense game of cops and robbers, Iván says this to his 5-year-old neighborhood bud Marcos when it's his turn to count while the others run:

"Ok so just count to 10 slow or to 100 fast. It's the same thing, you can pick."

Later in the day the neighborhood boys had a pickup game of soccer. During the post-game rehydration session (Madrid = hundreds of degrees, not kidding) there was talk about the World Cup. Naturally I was eagerly listening:

Ignacio (another 7 year old): "I think Spain had a game last night."

Iván: "Yeah I'm pretty sure they won."

Ignacio: "Oh yeah, that's what my Dad said. Who did they play against again?"

Iván: "It was Spain against some team called Villa."

I almost died. laughing, that is.

Here is the link to my facebook album of pictures from Paris, Vienna and Budapest for those of you who haven't already seen them...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2033570&id=1120590434&l=55065dfe90

Fire-breathing dragons are bigger than whales and I should be married.

I've been an Au Pair in Madrid for a week now. Despite this short time span, it seems like I've been here much longer, considering the fact that I feel like I know everything about this family I'm living with already. I won't start from day one but let me just give you some quick recaps and general background information:

Who: The De Frutos family: Dad, Mom, Ivàn (7 years old), Hector (1.5 years old)

What: Me, nannying/teaching the older boy English while living with the family 24/7.

Where: About 25 minutes (by train) outside of the center of Madrid in an area called Las Rozas and even more specifically called Las Matas. They live in this little townhome (they call them chalets...) that is attached to 5 or 6 other ones and then surrounded by 2 other little strips like that and then surrounded by a gate. There are no cars inside the gate because everyone parks their car in their respective garage underground in the parking deck type thing. This way the kiddies can run around freely without worrying about getting you-know-what by vehicles and the spanish armada (jk), etc.

When: I'll be here until I fly to Rome (and specifically Siena) for my study abroad on September 5th.

Why: Cool experience, I would say. More on that business later, though.

How: My friend Marieta au paired for a family in this neighborhood last summer and she hooked me up with this family! Shout out to herrrr :)

Now for the nitty gritty... I work Monday through Friday from about 10:00 AM to 11:00 PM with random off time sometimes during the day. For example, a typical day starts off with breakfast in the morning--I help feed the baby and try to get the 7 year old excited for his English lesson that day (his usual morning response? a rolling of the eyes while watching Spider Man cartoons or the ever so famous Bob Esponja...Spongebob for those of you non-spanish folk). From about 10:30 to Noon I give Ivàn English lessons and we also do some work in his summer don't-forget-what-you've-learned-during-the-year-even-though-you-most-likely-will packet. He is pretty good at English, he is simply very stubborn and likes to pretend like he doesn't know anything at all when if he would just stop and think for one second he would remember that we've gone over his likes and dislikes and how to say them about one trillion times. For the record, he LOVES lasagna but HATES tomatoes. Phew, good thing we got that one out in the open. Next, there's usually this period of time where I don't know if I should be taking care of the baby or Ivàn or doing whatever I want, because the Mom doesn't work, so usually she's with the baby. And sometimes Ivàn goes out into the "calle" (well actually it's not the street because there aren't cars... but whatever) to play with his friends. So the past couple days during this time I've gotten to sunbathe on the back deck while kind of playing with the baby and talking with the mom. You would think it would lunchtime by now, but little did you know that the Spanish have the most insane bizarre eating habits of anyone you've ever met in your life (even weirder than the Baetti family, gasp!). Lunch doesn't go down until approximately 3:45pm. Let me spell that out for you: THREE FORTY FIVE. Talk about an adjustment to my normal summer east cobb noonish salad type lunch...(OH- and don't even get me started on vegetables... they basically don't exist in the entire country of Spain. Except potatoes. Potatoes at every meal. It's only been a week and I might be turning into a spud.) One of the reasons we eat this late (I presume at least) is because we wait for the Dad to get home from work. Lucky duck gets home from work at around 3:30 everyday! So finally it's around 4:30 and it's siesta time. Since I'm not much of a napper (shout out to nap expert Miss Stephanie Phelps!) I usually just retreat to my room (the only room in the "basement" of the house---no windows, i'm not a fan, but it's big and has a tv and my own bathroom so that's good!) and read or get on the computer. When I feel like I've had an appropriate amount of ME time, I head back upstairs for the long haul of playtime until dinner. During these hours I'm usually in charge of Ivàn but sometimes if the mom and dad need to go grocery shopping or run other errands, I'm on my own with both. The past couple of days have been SO hot here that we've usually played outside with water guns and the hose since the pool that's in the neighborhood has been closed due to some leak (luckily it's supposed to open by this weekend). There have been the occasional cowboy and indian games that I've had to participate in (gunshot noises included) with Ivàn and that definitely reminded me how different it is to take care of little boys than little girls. Snacktime is around 7pm (whaaaa???) and then around 8 is baths and waiting time until dinner. Luckily there have been some world cup games on to keep me sane and I watch them with the dad because no one else really cares (why would they? a 7 year old, baby, and mom... SuperMarioGalaxy on the Wii is to Ivàn what the World Cup is to me haha). Dinner time is around 10:30. Sometimes later. That's even late for our Argentine Baetti standards. I also just don't like going to sleep with a full stomach. Cannot be good for you. So usually I stay up and skype with friends (shout out to Miss Kathleen Gates, volleyball starrrr). That's basically an average day. Longest paragraph ever. Perdoname por favor.

I get Saturdays and Sundays off. This past Saturday I woke up late and hung around with the family because I had yet to figure out how to get to Madrid on my own with the public transportation. Sunday I got my act together and went into the city by train (which takes about 30 minutes) and then around with the Metro. I went to the Prado Museum and later met up with some high school friends who are studying in France but came to Spain for the weekend. We walked around Plaza Mayor and checked out the huge Retiro Park. It was fun to do some sight seeing but the heat is unrealllll and very tiring. My legs hurt real bad after such a long day.

Ok well there's a start to what's going on here in MAD... there's more I should explain but I need to get ready to go! I'm heading into Madrid (on a WEDNESDAY woooooo i'm so crazy...and by this day of the week I already need a break from kiddie land) to meet up with my friend Christina who is also living here this summer working. We're going to a bar to watch the Spain vs Germany match! It's going to be packed everywhere because the Spanish have never gotten this far into the Cup. Can't wait! Vamos España!!

Hasta luego,

G

Ps. The title of this post are things that Iván has said to me. Children are hilarious!

Europe has a lot of smells.

So I'm finally blogging... I've been in Europe since June 12th and I've just not been able to make myself sit down and do it (although I've wanted to). Because of this procrastination problem, there is obviously a lot to be caught up on. Read what you want :) Here goes nothing:

The first part of my trip consisted of ten days in Paris staying at my sister's place in Sèvres (which is on the outskirts of the city). I had a super great time finally seeing all the things and people Melina had been telling me about for so long on Gchat. I basically got to live her life for a week, go to her step class, meet her friends, check out where she works and grab lunch together, etc. I also got to take every possible mode of transportation one trillion times a day. Well of course I like to exaggerate, but I'm not kidding, the public transportation is ridiculous and uber convenient. I put on my big girl pants and took the bus, metro, tram, and train all by myself in order to do some touristy Paris things alone while Meli was still at work during the week. But sometimes the weather was crappy (or maybe I just wanted to be back at the apartment to watch 3 world cup matches a day...guilty) and I would come back to Sèvres to chill with Romain (Meli's pro-wrestler boyfriend...get well soon mr. cripple) and maybe sneak in a walk to the little pastry shop in town for some mmm goodness.

HIGHLIGHTS: Trocadéro view of the Eiffel Tower (never gets old), crazy (literally) teenie boppers harassing jetlagged Gabi on the Champs Elysée, automatic trash can in the apartment that makes you jump everytime you walk by, weirdo business woman who wanted to share a two person table with me and meli in Suresnes, eating lunch with my old French exchange student Floriane, and of course World Cup feverrrrr.

Moving on...Next I flew to Vienna to visit Maria and attend her graduation (Hats off amazingly brilliant Diplomatische Akademie Wiener Master!) I got to see where she's been living for the past two years and see some of the sights of Wien, Austria. The whole family met up a day or two later and we celebrated the graduation and visited cool places although everyone had already been to Vienna except me.

HIGHLIGHTS: smelly smelly smells in the Uban (Vienna's metro system---most likely the smelliest place on earth), eating schnitzel, staying in a Hostel with the whole family and seeing my dad on his baby laptop in the lobby with all the teenage backpackers, giant ferris wheel view of the city, watching Donovan score an amazing last minute goal on a bigscreen on a beautiful blue sky sunshiney day in the grass, seeing the bluelipped crazies, labryinth of bushes (yes just like hp triwizard tourny!), and not understanding anything AT ALL in German (one of my least favorite languages to date... sorry schwoester, ich liebe dich anyways).

The next two days were spent in Budapest, Hungary with the family! Wooooo Hungarians that's all I'm sayin'. We took a train from Vienna and immediately began being really huge tourists upon arrival. I mean two days does not leave you time to try and blend in. The weather was not so nice either so that was kinda a bummer. We got an apartment type thing in the nice Jewish quarter (shoutout to miss whitney seltman what what!?!?!) and had a great time exploring the city on a Hop On, Hop Off double decker bus (ultimate tourist hotspot---you could choose from over 16 languages for the tour headset thang).

HIGHLIGHTS: Goulash soup (YUM), trumpet players outside our apartment at midnight on a Sunday night, learning about the separation of Buda and Pest (Buda is the old part of the city up on hills and Pest is the more modern, business type area on flat land across the bridges of the Danube River), watching Argentina win on a huge bigscreen and someone wiping out because of the excitement (you know who you are bahaha), getting to do some archery which i loveeee, walking into a giant summer concert in a plaza with thousands, and Hungarian men speaking in broken English calling us "lady".

After Buda the sisters took a train back to Vienna and Meli went back to Paris from there. Mom and Dad flew to Paris as well and then Dad went home to the US while Mom is staying with Meli for a few days. I stayed one more night with Maria and then flew to Madrid after a celebratory birthday breakfast for Ria :)

So now I'm in Madrid and the Au Pair/Nanny position has begun full force. But that must be left for another day because I must be getting to bed. The 7-year-old and 17-month-old I'm looking after are quite the energizer bunnies, to say the least.

Buenas noches lovelies.

-G