Author: alyssaleigh

Gone for Good
Spain

Gone for Good

Still here! Finally I have my own little weekly routine. Monday through Thursday I arrive at my school bright and early, and I am consistently shocked to watch the parents chain smoking as they stand over their baby carriages waving goodbye to their children. I work with 3rd and 4th graders, and while they are little demons, they are somehow at the same time very endearing, even on days when I want to light myself on fire. We teach British English in school,  and I nearly peed my pants the first time an 8 year old asked me if they could borrow a rubber (turns out in England this is a very normal way to say eraser).

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Help, I’m Alive
Spain

Help, I’m Alive

I’m alive! I’ve had a cold/bronchitis that left me basically bedridden this past week, so most of my time has been spent either laying in my bed watching online tv, laying in my bed chatting on facebook or laying in Retiro Park soaking up the sun like a giant mucus filled reptile, and needless to say, I was about ready to light myself on fire out of boredom. I finally made it back to school today, and it was great. I thought at first I didn’t like this job, but really it’s just that I don’t like getting up before the sun rises to get there. Actually I more or less enjoy teaching, the kids are great, they make me laugh everyday, and they are always so eager and happy to see me, like a bunch of little puppies.

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Elephant Gun
Spain

Elephant Gun

I have a home! A real room with a door that I can close that is mine! After living out of a hostel for two weeks, you have no idea just how thrilling having my own little space is. And I have INTERNET. Hello, pointless Youtube videos. Welcome back into my life. Goodbye McDonalds, I will miss your free wifi, your gilded ceilings complete with chandeliers, and your McFlurrys.

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Spain

Transatlantique

Madrid! It’s my fifth day here as an ‘auxiliare de conversacion’, and so far, Spain has been difficult. Adjusting to the 9 hour time change, trying to understand the rapidfire Spanish being thrown at me, looking for a place to live, navigating my way around a new city… I’m very lost pretty much all the time. The benefit to being lost is that I accidentally stumble upon cool sites without meaning to. Por ejemplo (see that? pretty good, huh), the other day while I was on an apartment hunt I turned down the wrong street and ended up in front of an ancient brick basilica. Not bad.

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Scenic World
Ecuador, Spain

Scenic World

I guess after not updating for nearly three months after my last half-assed entry I am forced to admit that I am a terrible blogger. Especially because there were so many amazing things I could have written about during my time in Ecuador, or even in the five weeks that I’ve been back in good old California.

I’ve been busy? Life has been moving too fast? I had other things to occupy my time? Let’s start over. No more excuses. This time, baby, I promise to be better. To treat you right. Please, forgive me.

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Ecuador

Chutes Too Narrow

One of my best friends Cristella arrived in Quito about a week and a half ago, and it has been beyond amazing to have the company. It’s really nice to be around someone who already knows and loves you. And someone with whom you can speak English. After a few days to allow her to get her bearings, we started working hard to get all of the clinics set up for the group of 8 volunteers from Santa Barbara arriving June 27th, and so far we have been really lucky with how well everything has been falling into place.

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Deep Blue Sea
Ecuador

Deep Blue Sea

Deep blue sea, darlin’ on the deep, deep blue sea. I could not get that Grizzly Bear song out of my head pretty much the entire time I was on my eight day cruise around the Galapagos Islands. Cruising around on a luxury yacht is definitely several steps up from the grimy dorm room hostels I am used to traveling in, but lucky I have a Grandfather who made my voyage aboard ‘The Millenium’ possible. For this I am so grateful, because it really was life changing. Every single day felt like being in a National Geographic documentary, with each day somehow managing to get better than the last.

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Ecuador

Automatic Stop

I just finished my last day of Spanish classes, maybe ever. It feels great, this last week stopped being fun and just felt hard. I sort of miss making the silly mistakes I used to when I first started studying, it always gave me something to laugh about at the end of the day. Thinking that someone was saying ‘I love you, stupid’ instead of ‘I love you a lot,’ telling people I was pregnant instead of embarrassed, saying I wanted to ride a ‘cowboy’ instead of a ‘horse’… those were the good old days. Luckily, I’ll be staying with Tatiana and her family for another three weeks, so I will still have an opportunity to practice, which is what I need the most at this point. Still, when people speak Spanish quickly, to me it sounds like they’re speaking in tongues, need to work on that…

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