Paella Paradise

Friday we all went to an amazing paella restaurant in Nerja called Chiringuito de Ayo. It is pretty famous and considered to be the best paella on the Costa del Sol. The paella bowl above is just ONE of TWO that we ordered for our group of 8. A serious food coma ensued but it was worth it.

Life Changing Chips

Emily and I discovered these life changing chips in Nerja in October and I had not had the pleasure of tasting them since until I brought Lily and Alice there this past weekend. Clearly the two had to be introduced. They are homemade potato chips and are SO DELICIOUS. For just €2.50 a bag, you are in for a serious treat. If I can't find a job when I get home I am thinking of opening up a franchise in Central Park. Stay tuned.

FML in Spanish

For those of you who have been living under a rock "FML" means F My Life. There is even a website where people can post embarrassing moments and stories from their day all terminating in, "FML." WELL, today Rachael informed me that in Spanish you can communicate "FML" by saying "PVDM" which stands for "Que Puta Vida de Mierda." Check it out.

P.D.A.

P.D.A., also known as "Public Display of Affection" is the physical demonstration of affection for another person in public, and depending on the context can be objectionable. Picture this scene: you are out at an intimate dinner with a group of your male and female friends. Although it is a friendly group dinner, your one girl friend will not stop making out with her boyfriend thereby making everyone feel uncomfortable. Something you might whisper to your other friends is, "God, they are soooo PDA" or "Can they quit it with the PDA??" usually followed or proceeded by, "Get a room!"

In Spain the notion of too much public affection does not exist. Two weeks ago I went to Madrid and on the bus ride there AND back there was couple directly across from me (different couples) displaying SEVERE PDA. A 6 hr bus ride to Madrid is long, crowded and hopefully quiet. These couples however had no regard for anyone else. There was kissing, laughing, heavy breathing, spooning (yes it is possible on a bus) and intertwining of legs. Give me a break.

Yesterday I was going for a walk on the beach and passed by a couple aggressively making out on a bench. 45 minutes later when I was walking back that way I passed by them and they were in the SAME position as 45 minuts before. EATING FACE.

Aside from the fact that it´s kind of funny/gross/innappropriate, this trend sheds light on to an interesting cultural aspect of Spain. In Spain it is the tradition for children to live with their parents until they get married. Therefore, most of the hanging out, hooking up, and dating takes place outside in the streets, or on public transportation. Spaniards are not encouraged to bring boyfriends/girlfriends over to their homes so all of the "D. A." has to be public.

I understand the culture, but I cant help blurting out "GET A ROOM" every time I see a couple like this.

Las Amigas

Last week I had two lovely visitors come to play with me in Malaga. It was an extremely indulgent week- we visited and purchased something at every good restaurant and clothing store in the city. We went to Nerja together and I saw the "Cuevas de Nerja" for the first time. Although the site was very touristy, the caves were huge and not what I was expecting at all. Some of the special memories from the week include: "paco," "raise the roof," "you need to tie your shoe," and "muffin man."

Above: Me, Alice and Lily on the Balcón de Europa in Nerja
Abive: Me and Lily at a tapas restaurant in Nerja
Above: Me and Alice at Clay and Emily´s flat

Spring Break: Morocco

After tossing around several ideas for what would be the perfect plan for Spring Break/Semana Santa, Rachael and I decided we should go to Morocco! We are SO excited. We found an excellent trip to Tangier, Rabat, the Sahara Desert and Fes through the program DiscoverSevilla. They organize affordable trips and excursions for study abroad students and language assistants. I am extremely excited for the authentic food, the camel excursion through the desert and to bargain with shopkeepers! This Thursday night we will meet in Sevilla and embark on our 6 day adventure. I will return back to Malaga March 31 just in time for the Semana Santa processions in the city center.

Inspirational Quote #11

"A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving" - Lao Tzu

Group Session

Love to CB for coming to play with RW and I in Madrid this weekend. Spontaneity to a new level. I'll never forget it!

Inspirational Quote #10

"When you travel, remember that a foriegn country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable." -Clifton Fadiman

"Z"

I never thought the letter "z" was capable of causing me such frustration until just now in my third grade English class. Even though the children have been in English classes for two years they are still rusty with their abecedario so today we were going over it and I was teaching them the "abc" song.

As I have said before British English is taught in the schools in Spain. Seeing that its March I feel pretty confident that I now know the major differences in vocabulary/grammar between American and British English. Such as "rubber" instead of "eraser, "have you got" instead of " do you have" etc.

HOWEVER today something VERY weird happened during the "abcs." I was getting down to the end when all the children started yelling that its "zed" not "zee." The teachers confirmed that they learn "zed" on the English CDs that accompany the textbooks. Um.... I didnt really know what to say. I had never heard "z" pronunced like this. At first I freaked out that I´m almost 23 years old and maybe never learned the alphabet properly, so I ran down to the teachers´s lounge and did a google search, but apparently it´s one of those things that makes our English different from "proper English." The teacher explained to the children that just how some words are pronunced differently in Latin America, some words are different in the US than they are in the UK.

Needless to say I think "zed" sounds dumb and as I was almost out the door a child asked me to repeat how I say "z" again and I said, "ZEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" and that if he ever expected to make it in the US he better remember that.

What's not next

I am a big fan of brainstorming, writing, and list making. That is pretty much how I think, make decisions, and live. Helloooo my name is Alex Schueler.

Senior year of college rolled around. I realized there were only two places in the world I would consider gracing my presence with next: New York or Spain. I was pretty split. So what did I do? I tried as hard as I could to get a job in both places and figured whatever option(s) came up I would make the best of.

Networking, networking, networking. I must have spoken to over 60 people, friends and strangers about what they liked about their job, if there were opportunities in the field, what they recommended during such a grim job market and what steps I could take next. So what happened? I was in the library frantically making my final edits to my 40page senior thesis, something I had worked on all semester that would determine my entire grade and was my last assignment in college. I finally felt it was as ready as it would ever be (and please God let me graduate on time) and clicked "print" when I simultaneously heard my blackberry vibrate and the email icon lit up. It was an email I had been waiting three months for. I had been accepted to teach in Spain for 2009-2010. It was frightening how symbolic it all seemed. There I was in the library about to submit a document that represented the culmination of my entire college career, and not a moment later was an email outlining what the next chapter of my life could be. Nothing substantial in NY surfaced so I made some pro and cons lists and made a decision. Spain.

I came to a similar thought process the other day when it came time to decide if I was going to re-apply to teach here for another year. My initial reaction was of course I will apply just to have an option. Then I thought well I might as well have more than one so I will apply to teach in Madrid also, or maybe I could be an aupair and take Portuguese or French classes, or even go to graduate school here or get an internship in London or...and then my mind was racing to all possible ways, my mouse was clicking on all possible links for how I could stay in Europe doing something productive for another year.

Then I came back to reality. The reality is that I made an amazing, unregrettable, genius decision for my first year out of college. Kudos to Schu. However, after making some mental lists about what I like about living here, what I've learned and what I want out of the future I came to the epiphany that I don't even want to give myself the option to live in Europe after this year. I want to focus all of my energy and time into finding a job in New York. I will not be applying to teach in Málaga, Madrid or any foreign land of the sort, para nada.

I love Europe. I love speaking Spanish. I love being on my own. I love being immersed in a different culture. I love(/hate) being challenged by everything around me every day. It makes me feel alive.

The main, simple reason I can make this decision is because I do not want a career in Education, and what has been reconfirmed to me since I've been here is the only legal way I can work in Europe at this point in my life ( primarily, since I don't have a European passport), is by teaching English. I would love to eventually seek out global work opportunities once I am established in a company, but one step at a time.

So Schu what is next? Well I am not sure what's next, but what's not next is another year in Europe.

Lo siento España, Nueva York me llama.

Día Internacional de la Mujer

When one of the teachers walked into class today a girl said, "felicidades!" so I thought that probably meant it was her birthday. However I was wrong, as I have been so many times in the past 5 months, today is " El Día Internacional de la Mujer Trabajadora," felicidades a mi! A fellow teacher told me that the holiday originated in the United States, but I am pretty sure we don't celebrate it... Maybe I've never heard of it because I went to an all girl school and pretty much every day was "el día internacional de la mujer trabajadora." Either way, I can't object to a Spanish holiday ( which is every other day of the week) because of course someone brought in a wonderful homemade nut/lemon/cinnamon cake and even though I am on a mean work out routine I decided to aprovechar and probar. No shots this time though... I wonder what we'll be celebrating tomorrow!!

Inspirational Quote #9

"Dream as if you´ll live forever, live as if you´ll die today" - James Dean

JINX

OK I completely jinxed myself when I said that I had a good feeling about March. The rain is back and with a vengeance. It's been POURING with VIOLENT WIND since Monday. Just today I was on my way back from my new clase particular (50minute walk away) and got DRENCHED. I am STILL without rain boots. Feel MORE than free to fed-ex me some or get in contact with Mother Nature and tell her to chill out.

Parque Retiro

Retiro Park in Madrid is one of my favorite parks in the world (obv Central Park comes first). It is has beautiful trees, flowers, statues, fountains and a lake where you can rent a boat and paddle around. Here are some of Greg's pictures (with his new camera) from this weekend:
Above: Me and Greg on the way to the park

Above: Me, Rachael and Clay trying to be artsyAbove: Me and Rachael

Above: Me and RachaelAbove: Me and Clay being blown away by the wind
Above: Greg on lion leading Clay into the unknown

Raining on our parade

Don't judge but this is what I wore at school today:
Hot I know...We all dressed up to celebrate the "Día de Andlaucía." Obviously it had to rain and ruin our celebration. The children had prepared dances and poems to present to the entire school in the playground. Many of them forgot their costumes, but the ones who didn't looked so cute!

Inspirational Quote #8

"A person needs at intervals to separate from family and companions and go to new places. One must go without familiars in order to be open to influences, to change" - Katharine Butler Hathaway

Portugal Pics

Above: Inside the Palace of the Dukes of Braganca in Guimaraes
Above: View from our window in Porto
Above: Chrystin, Jacqui, Alina, Me at Casa do Livro in Porto
Above: the river Douro and Ponte Dom Luis I bridge in Porto
Above: Chrystin, Jacqui, Me at the Quinta Regaleira in Sintra.
Above: crossing the grotto inside the Quinta de Regaleira in Sintra
Above: Inside "Cave of the Orient" in the Quinta de Regaleira
Above: view of Rossio square in Lisbon
Above: Chrystin, Jacqui, Alina, Me at the Castelo de Sao Jorge in Lisbon
Above: standing in Rossio square in Lisbon

I've got a feeling

...that March is going to be a good month. Today was the first sunny day in... I can't even remember how long. It was so nice that I actually put on a bikini (one month before my body wanted me to), grabbed a towel and went to the beach with my friends. The bikini and towel were slightly over eager moves, given that it was only 55degrees, but the man doing laps in the ocean made me feel less radical.

Hopefully there will be plenty of more beach days to come in the near future. This month I will be super busy with new clases particulares, traveling and entertaining visitors (hopefully on the beach). So excited!