Gibraltar

A four hour bus ride south of Sevilla brings you to one of the southern most parts of the Iberian Peninsula. One short walk from the bus station in  La Línea de la Concepción, Spain and you're across the border, in another territory, a British territory to be exact. As long as you have a passport with you, you can be in and out of two different countries. Although Gibraltar geographically appears to be a part of Spain, it is not. And it is easy to see the difference once you cross the border.

Besides the British flag waving, a red double decker bus bringing tourists from the entrance of the territory to the rock itself and a few red telephone booths like the ones you can only find in London that you see as soon as you cross the border, there is much more evidence to show that you're in British territory.

As soon as you cross the runway of the Gibraltar airport, (Yes, there is a runway. Yes, you cross it. So much for all those safety regulations at every other airport in every other part of the world) you enter the main square where almost every restaurant is serving fish and chips and know exactly what the tourists want as soon as they sit down. You hear a mix of English and Spanish and you will be spoken to in whichever language you prefer.

Then there are the tours. If you ever consider going to Gibraltar, A. You should. B. take the taxi tour. It's about 25 euros but it's so worth it! Our tour guide was awesome and answered all of the questions we had. Supposedly 80% of the people who are born and raised in Gibraltar stay on the rock. Also, when it comes time for the kids to go to college many of them go off to study in English universities. It seemed like such a bizarre city to me, but as the taxi wound higher and higher up, the rock got more and more bizarre. Not only was there a concert hall that was built into a cave in the middle of the rock, but there were monkeys!

The monkeys are typical of Gibraltar and everyone knows about them, but I don't think you realize how human-like and smart they are until you get there. They certainly cater to the tourists. You can feed them if you are with a tour guide but make sure you keep everything away from them. They will steal whatever they can get their hands on.

Whether it be walking through Gibraltar's World War II tunnels, eating fish and chips, being climbed on by a few monkeys, Gibraltar is worth the visit!

What do you get when you send three Villa girls to Paris...

A great time...but let's just say Paris will never be the same again. As I said previously in the blog, my friend Scarlett and I met up with our friend Maggie in Paris during Sevilla's Dίa de Andalucίa long weekend at the end of February.

One of the best and worst parts about living far from home is meeting new people but not having anyone who knows your life, your past and your family. So spending the weekend with my best girlfriends is what I needed and it was so nice hearing stories from home because half of the girls were missing from our group that has been together since the Villa Maria Academy days.

Luckily Maggie has studied abroad in Paris so we didn't have to spend time reading maps and getting lost and losing precious time in such a big city. We had a great first night after we arrived in Paris on Friday. We went straight to the Luxembourg Gardens, the Arche de Triomphe and Champs-Élysées where we saw the Louis Vuitton and all that jazz. Then we saw the Eiffel Tour light up every hour in the dark and ate at the cutest cafe by the tower. The waiters we so nice and everything you would think of when you think of a Parisienne man calling us "mademoiselle" and serving us with such class. We really had a great time and spoke about everything under the sun...literally. Thanks Maggie. Haha. A little later that night, I think we all made some memories we'll never forget...but I guess what happens in Pari stays in Pari. Never deleting that audio...just SAYING.

The next day we went to the Montmartre art district and saw the Sacré Cœur which was beautiful! I liked it better than Notre Dame although one is a cathedral and one is a basilica but still. We strolled through the streets with our cheese baguette and sat on the steps of Sacré Cœur and joined in singing songs with a ton of people who were listening to an Italian singer. After that part of town, we headed to the Louvre which was HUGE! I did not expect for it to be so big. And there were Starbucks and Apple stores underneath the museum. We could have spent the whole day there. I chilled with Mona Lisa and saw some art. Looking back, it was all such a whirlwind and there was so much to see that I wish I would have been in a better state of mind to see it all. But if you're not tired while you're travelling, you're not seeing enough! 

That night we went to the best Tibetan restaurant ever! It was one of Maggie's favorites so we had to go. And after we went to a bar called Wide Open Spaces. Shout out to WOS Paris! Maggie's friend Pierre from study abroad owns it and we met so many people from all over the world! It was great!


The next day was the Palaces of Versailles. My favorite place in Paris! I loved the area, the gardens, the palace in general and the Hall of Mirrors. I love palaces so wherever I go I try to get to them. 


The trip overall was great! I was so happy I finally got to see Paris. And best of all, I got to see it with my best friends!

They're Eating Hot Dogs...FOR BREAKFAST?!

One awesome part about teaching in Spain is getting to go on trips for free! Since I teach in a professional formation "ciclo" for students who are studying the transport industry, I was able to go to Rota, Spain to check out the base. The naval base is actually part American and part Spanish but it is the "American" presence in Spain.

The base was super cool and I felt like I was at home for a few hours. We got to see the area where the American families live and there are even schools within the base for American children of the officers. They gave us a tour of the school and my students could not get over how cool the high school was. They were amazed by the gym and the classrooms. And they almost fell over when they saw the lockers. LOCKERS! Of all things! They just kept saying, "I feel like I am in an American movie!" High school musical high school musical!!! El baile de Prom!!! I thought it was so funny how amazed they were by everything. I guess I never really think about how a school like that would seem to someone from another country.

In Rota, the American students keep their same daily schedule so of course they eat lunch at 12 pm. Well, the Spaniards eat at 2-3 pm ish. So one of my students, Samantha, looked at the students eating hot dogs around noon and she became so concerned. She said, "Bridget, what are they doing? Aren't they going to get sick?" And for the longest time I could not figure out what she was talking about. Then she finally said, "They're eating hot dogs...FOR BREAKFAST!" And I just started laughing and said they are eating them for lunch! That's the American eating schedule.

We got to see so many cool places within the base. It was literally like its own American city within Spain. We went and saw the ships, the fire department, the planes and of course, an authentic American pizza place for lunch. Everyone was super nice and it was so funny to speak to people and hear that they were from all over the United States and living at the base for a few years.

When we were at the fire department, all of the girls were drooling over the American firemen. I think that gave them a little bit of an inventive to try harder in English class. Everyone thought it was so cool that I could talk to everyone there and I spoke "so fast" when I was around people from the States. But they loved hearing me speak. I was like "Who me?" I speak English...that's not too impressive.

I also thought it was so interesting that they had American grocery stores in Rota as well as American restaurants. It was great and the students got a kick out of the fact that they would receive American change when they put euros into the vending machines at the fire department. I was more amazed at the fact that there were a few different types of Cheez-Its chilling in there waiting for me to eat them. But to each his own...

Overall it was a great experience and contrary to popular belief, you cannot just enter the base just to go grocery shopping. I was lucky to get the pass through my school and join my class. I also became a lot closer with my students and got to know them better. We spoke Spanish most of the time since it was an outside of school excursion and the tour was in Spanish. They saw that I am also learning another language and I struggle as well. Now, more of them are volunteering their answers in class and speaking to me more than before. They know they shouldn't be embarrassed because we are all learning!

A Spanish Winter

Well my friends it has been quite a while. I never intended to go so long without writing but the time has been flying.

So here is a review of the past few months or a "repaso" as we say in Spanish. January passed with the usual happenings. The middle of January to the middle of February was probably the worst part of the experience so far. I don't care how warm it is here in comparison to other parts of the world, the winter is winter. And it's a fact that nothing great happens during the winter in any parts of the world BUT some of the highlights were:

-Watching my school...yes my friends, The Pennsylvania State University, raise $10.6 million to help children fight pediatric cancer. As I watched live from all the way across the Atlantic, I remembered my past involvement in THON. I remembered the children, the families, the students who made it happen, my Public Relations Student Society of America group, our kids, Emily and Colleen, and everything that is THON. It was nice to have a piece of home for a little while.

-Living through one of the most deadliest cold fronts to sweep through Europe. Luckily I was in one of the most southern parts of the continent, but that doesn't mean I got away with freezing for a week. Spanish apartments in Sevilla are built for the intense 100+ degree heat that arrives each summer. They have tile floors, ceramic and cement walls and many windows. And they have no heat. So when 28 degrees hit Sevilla without heat in the apartment, it was anything but fun. But when I saw what happened to Switzerland and other countries north of us, I was grateful for what we got.

-Right after the week of intense cold, the temperatures spiked up to 70 degress, my high school friend Scarlett arrived in Sevilla from home and life started looking up again.

From Scarlett's visit, I started looking at this city and culture for what it is. Every part of it truly is beautiful and I realized for a month and a half before her visit, I was failing to appreciate the beauty that surrounded me. Like any place, once work and responsibilities are involved, things become more complicated and you forget to take time to stop, look around and enjoy life.

I had to show Scarlett everything that Sevilla had to offer and although I was tired from running from work to tutoring and everything, when I arrived in the center of the city to enjoy a tapa on the street or a glass of wine on the river, I was reminded that this is an experience that will never come again.

I saw how Scarlett's eyes would light up when she walked past the Cathedral or spent hours walking through Real Alcázar. And I began to wonder why I ever thought it would be acceptable to see these things as normal parts of my everyday life. Because they're not normal...they're amazing. I also began to once again let myself see this city for something more than just a place where I am living and working. I watched a Flamenco show and I felt like I was watching it for the first time when I was here in 2010 and thinking how amazing it was for a country to have such a wonderful culture and how hard they work to preserve their traditions against the all of the challenges of the changing world.