Sav´s travels

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..

Well, I have finally decided that Órgiva is a very interesting little village...I am glad that I snapped to this realization before leaving here in two weeks from now! Shiloh and I have discovered a wonderful little tapa bar, a true tapa bar on a side street...I have also discovered that if you´re looking for any real experience for tapas and interesting conversation (even if you can´t understand it) then, head to the side streets even if they are out of the sun..this is in Granada too! This place that we found is largely male dominated and mostly older gentlemen...but if you can pretend you´re not listening and just eavesdrop, it´s a lot of fun...and the best tapas!! We have had fried eggplant, potatoes and garlic mayonnaise, calamari and tasty salads....and a quirky bartender who delivers it all with that sly Kevin Spacey style smile...and 2.5 hours later, it only cost me 3€ to be full and well, full of beer too! Well worth the $750 plane ticket! hint, hint...

It´s been sunny and we attended to our harem of dogs, feeding them the blood sausage, the only tapa I wasn´t prepared to eat today...I am going to search out the possibility of sending one of these dogs home...crazy I know, but I am in love with him...

We also had a lesson today with a British woman, en español of course! It was our second today and really helpful...I feel like there´s a chance yet!!

Other than this, it will be more reading, I have to take this chance while I have it and 8 days from now, I have a friend coming to visit, so that will be a trip to Malaga...from here, a trip to Granada which I couldn´t recommend more to anyone reading this...after this, it will be Morocco and then Portugal...my only thing left to wish for is a trip to Berlin...I could actually fly home at that point, content to possibly leave some sightseeing of Europe for another time...although, it´s getting harder to think that way...

Adios!
Savannah

Monday November 14th at 5:45 pm...it feels like it´s been a long last week, but quiet too...not a ton to report, but I am excited to say that I have finished 5 books! Not what you tune in to read about that, but still excited that I have done something that I´ve wanted to do for a loooong time....

Shiloh and I finally made our way to the Mediterranean this past Saturday...we went to a small town called Nerja which I am sure is beautiful...but we beelined it down the street with a bit of direction, past the churros and chocolate to spend the large majority of time on the beach soaking up the view of the water...it was everything that I had imagined and wanted...I just wish I could wake up and see it everyday...but that´s not worth complaining about! We took a lot of pictures of the colourful wooden boats and the colonies of fat happy cats that lie in, on and around them...it was a bit of a paradise actually!

We have two weeks left in Órgiva and then we´re off to...??? Some friends from Canada are coming to visit, which will be great and I can´t wait...during December, the rough plan is to visit someone from Global TESOL College´s Portugal office, in Portugal...I am allowed to stay there for 4 days on one condition and that is that I help with the dishes..I might have to think twice about this...

At the beginning of December too, a few of us will be heading to Morocco...hopefully down to Marrakech...I have heard so much about travelling there especially as a woman and I will take the precautions that I should, but it really hasn´t deterred me from wanting to head down there at all...I´ll keep you posted, and especially you GTC so that you can pass on all kinds of info to the curious.

Also, for all of you that know from Krisna, a former Global girl too, I will be heading up to Barcelona next month to see her and her hubby Oscar...I will be so happy to see them in such a "happening" city!

Um, what else...well, laugh at us now! It is actually cold here...not -15 cold, but cold enough to snow in the mountains just up from us and to wear a scarf...apparently we were lucky to have the fine weather that we did until now...

So far, it hasn´t been a lot of crazy antics to report, however, with December approaching, I have a feeling with all the travelling planned, I´ll be spilling a bit more...

So take care, and if anyone is reading this, feel free to write back..you do have to get a password, but it´s easy and free...

Savannah

Hóla everyone!

Well, it´s 3 hours after I started my first Tuesday blog and I have to admit I am a little bit drunk, more tipsy actually...Shiloh and I had a few hours to pass (this always seems to be the case) and we went to a somewhat hidden away little restaurant and ordered what was supposed to be one glass of wine....which became 3, which became a bottle, which became as well, a glass of beer...yoiks...so, here I am, quite happy to be writing, quite happy to be anything! Today wasn´t too exciting as far as stories go...just hanging out with our dogs, and drinking Spanish wine...the last few days though have been some of the best...I don´t know if a lot of people know, but Shiloh and I came to Spain to meet a half-sister that we have not met before...it´s a long story, but it´s been a great one...too much to write here...but from all of this, we have met a lot of people through Pam (our sister) and spent a lot of fun times in Granada...we are now in Órgiva...pronounced Or-hee-ba...a small village about 45 minutes south of Granada (which is a perfect city in some ways...), we´re about 30 minutes away from the coast of the Mediterranean and the weather has been amazing..sun and swimming! Sorry Edmontonians, I´ve heard about it there!!!We have rented a casa (house) in the hills just outside of Orgiva for one month...it´s beautiful...I only want to stay for a month though because there is so much to see...I even feel a bit antsy being in a place that is so secluded...which to me is stupid...in Edmonton, I was craving quiet...time to read and write...and now that it´s here, I feel antsy...so I am doing my best to get into the rhythm of Spanish life and just accept that the whole world doesn´t behave like North America...and it still works out just fine...everyone lives life to the fullest without rushing around thinking how much they have to do, how many people they have to see, how much they personally have to accomplish that day...it will be hard to re-adjust I am sure...

Over the past few days I have visited Pampaneira which is a small village about 15 kms (.5 hour drive) up the mountain from Órgiva...it´s amazing..if you have the chance to look it up on the Internet, it´s worth it...we meant to spend an hour or two there and spent the whole day there...it´s one of those dreamt about white villages in the mountains with orange and olive tree groves...the streets actually look like something that 2 people can pass by comfortably (walking that is) and that´s about it...we were fascinated! So we drank some wine, fed the local pups and then had a "Speed" like experience taking the bus back home to Órgiva...made short, a woman, not all there, in the end tried to take the bus from the driver...it´s always a good story in the end when the "bad guy" doesn´t win...

We also spent some time in Granada this weekend with another Edmontonian...a very independent 18 year old who happened to be friends with one of my ex-workmates from Global TESOL...she came with us to Granada and I could see myself, her and Shiloh all fall in love with Granada that weekend, although Shiloh and I have spent nearly 3 weeks there...I think honestly, that I could live in Granada for a long time to come...but that´s for another time...

It´s been almost a month and I am finally coming to terms with culture shock...I thought this was something you experience for a week maybe 2 and then you´re automatically in love with wherever you are...not that easy...which makes me happy, realizing how much I love Edmonton and home...but, I am getting over the whole comparison thing and I now find myself wanting to stay here for longer than I had originally wanted to...there is so much to learn about a new culture! I see old people and I want to be able to converse with them so much...the stories they could tell! It´s alienating...but it´s a good kick too, to want to start to really learn the language...

Anyway, enough rambling today...I have to get home..for what I don´t know, but I just do...goodnight!

xoxox
Savannah

Today is Tuesday and today will be quiet...just checking email and grocery shopping and feeding "our" dogs...we´ve adopted a colony of them here in Orgiva and it seems even set up a friend matching making system among the dogs...tommorrow, Shiloh and I are heading to Nerja, a town on the Mediterranean...we´re mucho excited about this as it will be the first time we´ve seen the Med...unless you count when our flight flew off course for reasons unknown and I glimpsed it between the mountains...probably just for the day as money is getting tight...we´ll see...I feel like that´s been my motto, the whole trip! I have no idea what we´ll do day in and day out...it takes a bit to get used to this very Spanish way of life...

I´ll add more later today, but right now, it´s wine time, banking and the feeding..

Adios!
Savannah