Orgivita

Hi there...

Well, just a quick update on life in Órgiva...I am really starting to like this little town (about time!)...I am finding more and more the Spanish flavor of it after feeling for so long that it is overrun by expatriates...Shiloh and I found a perfect tapas bar, which I think I´ve mentioned, and it has become a regular haunt for us...the eggplant tapa is the best! And 1€ for a beer suits me fine too...Shiloh and I have also made a very Spanish friend in the form of a 50-year old man who was at one point going to be our landlord...we did find a better deal for rent...but Juan is great..he speaks no English, yet we can have the best conversations and understand each other...I´ve noticed that one on one, language barriers here haven´t been hard to deal with and actually can be a lot of fun and a great learning experience..this man, Juan, seems grandfatherly but we ran into him the other day, a bit drunk, (him not us this time ...and it´s been one of the highlights of my time in Orgiva...lots of laughing as he was trying to explain to us his morals on kissing women...and no, it wasn´t creepy, just fun...

Our Spanish lessons are finally coming along...we have found the perfect teacher, this time in the form of an English woman who has been here for 25 years...a pioneer expatriate...I finally feel with her help and tips that I can have a basic conversation with someone...she obviously remembers what it felt like to be in our shoes...

I´m very excited to have some Canadian friends coming out to visit us! We are tentatively planning to go to Granada, Nerja (on the coast), then to Morocco, then to Sevilla and Ronda and then to Malaga...after this Portugal and then my dream is to somehow make my way thru Spain and then to Berlin! Ha, we´ll see if the money gods allow this, but I am willing to do the whole eat-bread-sleep-in-doorways thing to accomplish this goal...I know that eventually work will figure into this plan too...

Nothing to do with my trip, but just to have it logged for future when I decide to read this again, my favorite song right now is James Blunt´s "You´re Beautiful"...does anyone else love it??

One major accomplishment for me this week has been that i think i can finally say goodbye to the worst of homesickness...i really hope so, because Spain is much more alive to me now, or maybe it´s the other way around...but i won´t kid myself, leaving a comfortable life and having no real plans in place for the new country OR home when I go back is a tad scary at 28...but starting to love it, and recommend it to anyone regardless of their place in life..it´s a good shake-up...

Today is a lazy day..in fact that could be the title of this series of writing...lazy days are a staple in my life right now (for good or for bad)...I wrote in a mass email to the girls at work one time that i had found the perfect falafel...I take it back, I lied..it´s in Orgiva, not Granada...Tessa, I wish I could wrap it up and send it to you! For the rest of the day I plan to read the Guardian, which is the best newspaper, and follow up with my Spanish homework..and um, that´s about it I think...

So, will keep this more up to date..thanks for the kick in the butt Lindsay..

Until then..