In the plaza...

A lot of encounters in Spain begins with crazy old drunk people asking for money. These are the only ones that want to talk to me. At least up here in the north, sitting in the plaza , having a drink with my frenchies and we are approached by a guy off his face, swaying about. But of course he becomes our friend as we are all so eager to practise our Spanish. To avoid listening to drunk broken english (because as you probably imagined everyone can tell im a foreigner), i begun to tell my story, the usual, Russian bride, been sold to an american who then moved to spain...... loving practising the spanish, even if it is all lies. We headed off to another bar, running a little, but another successful spanish experience eventually, once the message got accross!

Red Rocho

Another case of Red Rocho, this refers to my short fuse. As im starting to realise, claire, i know weve argued about this, but i am willing to admit that i can strop up quite easily. Especially in Spain, when i cant get my frieken message across. I think its that feeling of knowing that you are being treated differently because you are a foreigner, one things for sure in spain they never want to bend the rules for guirris! Short version- as the version I reccounted to my flatmates today in spanish was difficult, long winded and tiring!
Went to go to the movies, literally running late, arrived 3 minutes late, bought ticket, the guy at the door tells me that i can only enter upstairs. so i walk up the stairs and after 5 minutes of going into offices, the toilets and the projector room i eventually find the entrance to the cinema. Cant find my friends though, calling out to them, with lots of spanish people shhhing me, so i assume they must be downstairs. I beg and plee with guy, debate with him, ask him whether he would watch the movie upstairs if his friends were downstairs. He is indignant, rude, patronising, and i decide to walk out in huff, saying something rude in spanish and english, screw up my ticket and throw it on the floor! Get a msg a minute later.... we are upstairs... nice one em! so needless to say missed out on the latest flick with jude law-which I heard later wasnt that great anyway.

Sunny, used to be my life was filled with grey..

Sunshine is finally here in Santander, after 2 months of non stop rain! Its amazing all these young people have come out of the woodowork and the streets are no longer packed with only old people! They still walk around in their fur coats though, ive never seen so much fake fur in my life. Im starting to feel settled here and looking forward to the summer months. I have a feeling this city will completley change and that there will be a new atmosphere. I am just about to start my second round of Spanish lessons and am looking forward to learning some more grammar to help me get by. The Spanish is coming along quite well.... but still have a long way to go.

Semana Santa

Semana Santa is the week before Easter Sunday and here in Spain is a big deal. We had tried to head to another city to see the parades but after missing an 8am bus to burgos on a Friday morning we decided to stick around in Santander for the parades. There not as big here, but I was able to see them from my window (as everything happens in the centre of the city- which just happens to be right outside my window.)So i got to experience every parade, all of which were very similar. There was a strange contrast of the very serious religious parades where all the older people were watching intently, with the bars on the side of the road packed with young people drinking (because of the public holidays). It was an interesting insight into religion in Spain...

The first photo was one of the first parades (without hats) and the second later in the week with hats. Im being very culturally aware here..