This week has been phenomenal. Monday really started things off well. I am definitely more comfortable in my job now. Because I am realizing that it's not really about the job. It's about the people. Gardening, yeah, it's great. But what's even better is that I am able to talk to the students, and they show me how to do things and tell me what they know, and we have conversations about trivial things. It's awesome. In the comedor, it's not really about serving food, even though it is about serving food. But the awesome thing is that I am seeing the same people daily, and I am getting more comfortable talking to them. The jobs that I am doing here may not be the world's most important, but I am having a great time learning everything I can and holding conversations with the widest range of people about the widest range of topics. It's so good.
When I come home every day, I can't help but beam with excitement about my day. I always want to share everything with everybody. My trabajo is so good, I wish everyone could work there.
Today was a really good day. It was all about music. I would say that pretty much every day so far, I have had at least one conversation about music. I am not sure why. But one day, I was explaining to my companero de trabajo, Jose Luis, that I wanted to know more Spanish music. He told me to name the people I knew. I just listed everything on my ipod that was in Spanish---none of them were from Spain. :) He told me he'd make me a disc of mp3's. I have been anxiously awaiting it, and today I got it. It is full of music. 3.7gb or so. That is a lot of music. There is a huge range of stuff, from the 60's until now, and of all different genres. There's a lot to listen to, that's for sure. But I'll definitely pass along the good stuff! So far, my favorite is a band called "The Sunday Drivers". They sing in English, which is a little disappointing, but the music is so catchy. They are actually from Toledo, though, which is pretty awesome. So yeah.. it's definitely been fun listening to this cd this afternoon.
While we were talking about the cd and the million different types of music that he put on it, we got on the topic of Michael Jackson (which, I think we have also talked about every day), when my boss started singing "You Are Not Alone". I told her that I loved that song, and then she asked me to translate the words into Spanish. haha. This was awesome. I couldn't remember how the verse went, so I got my ipod so we could listen to it line by line. It was so funny. I was translating everything literally, and they were like, "You have to translate the words literally into Spanish, then we can tell you what they are actually saying in Spanish." haha. So we spent the morning descanso (about a half hour/hour break) listening to songs on my ipod. They went crazy for Jason Mraz and want me to burn them the cd. Piracy laws aside, I think this is awesome. :)
So, next week, when I teach some more English classes, I am going to choose a song or two to translate. The other day, one of the students asked me to translate an Akon song, which I could not do. Sorry, I do not know the Spanish translation for the words "winding and griding". But, I was able to translate "This is how we do it" into "eso es como lo hacemos". Maybe some songs are better left untranslated. :)
Needless to say, I am very much looking forward to next week.
Tonight, however, I am leaving for Pamplona and San Sebastian! I am so excited. The festival of San Fermin is currently taking place in Pamplona, which most people would know as the Running of the Bulls. Am I crazy for wanting to go? Possibly. But I feel that I cannot justify being in Spain for this and not going. Everybody is telling me to be careful of the bulls! And stay away from the horns! ...I am more concerned about the monton de borrachos in the streets. This is why we are only staying for a day. Our bus is leaving from Madrid at 1:00am, and we will get to Pamplona at 5:30. The encierros (when the bulls run) start at 8:00. We are hoping to get tickets to the Plaza, so that we will not actually be standing on the streets watching, but watching on a tv screen, and then seeing all of the people/bulls run into the plaza (the final destination). We have heard from some Spaniards that this is a good way to do it. We'll see. If not, we'll just be engulfed in the masses of people trying to squeeze in to catch a glimpse of the action.
Tomorrow night, after our crazy day in Pamplona, we are heading to San Sebastian, to relejarnos on the beach. I think that this is the best plan of all. I am not one for massive crowds of people, but I wanted so badly to go to Pamplona. When we realized that San Sebastian was so close, it was almost an obvious choice. I am really excited for a relaxing beach weekend (hopefully). I have heard only good, (very good) things about San Sebastian, and I'm really excited to see it.
For sure there are many good times awaiting us this weekend.
Ah, such is my life in Spain.
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