Feb 15:

Friday was my first day teaching English and it went pretty well. I had quite an adventure trying to get to the h house – it’s very far away from my house and I was running a little late so instead of taking the bus halfway, I decided to ride my bike. Well I was pretty sore already from riding a bike so much lately and all of the construction made it very difficult to maneuver. So I dropped off my bike at one of the stops and started to walk when I realized it was much further still than I had thought. I see another bike stop so I grab the only bike there and start riding – it was making kind of a funny noise but I didn’t think anything of it (a lot of the sevici bikes kind of suck) until a few blocks later when I look down and realize my back tire is completely, hanging on the rim, riding on metal flat. I can’t find another sevici stop so I have to ride back 3 blocks to the one where I originally had picked this bike…all while having only one usable tire. By this time I’m quite let and call Jose to let him know what happened (I had to look up how to say both tire and flat haha).

Eventually I get to his house, which is very nice, and he lets me in – and I’m attacked by 4 children and a tiny dog. Pedro and Maria, the two oldest, just come running down to say hello and start asking me questions, Marta is jabbering away in Spanish that I can’t understand and Claudia, the youngest at 4, leaps onto me and attaches herself to my legs. And all this time I’m trying to meet Jose’s wife, apologize for being late, and understand the instructions they are giving me. It was very overwhelming - I had almost forgotten just how loud children can be and it’s even harder when you can’t understand a word they’re saying! So I sat with Pedro and Maria in one of their bedrooms and talked to them in English for a little while, just basic questions like how old are you, what’s your favorite color or sport or animal. They did pretty well but sometimes they had trouble understanding. Then we played go fish! It was very funny because they would speak in Spanish to each other but then in the game they would say “Peter, do you have any sixes?” “No I do not, Mary, go fish.” It seemed to go pretty well and I have another session this Wednesday – I’m hoping to have time to make a memory match game, maybe with animals, because it’s hard to just have a conversation for an hour with a 10 and 7 year old, especially when they have very limited English vocabulary.

It was very hard on my brain switching back and forth from English to Spanish the whole time I was there – The parents only speak Spanish so I have to speak Spanish to them, but they don’t want me speaking any Spanish to the kids, only English so they get used to hearing it, even if they don’t understand everything. This part was very hard because when they speak Spanish to me, my mind is in Spanish mode and I kept starting to respond in Spanish, only to go back and correct myself to English. I hope it will get easier as I get more used to it, and I’m hoping Pedro will speak a little more English while I’m there.

Saturday was the trip to Gibraltar, which was very fun. It was about a 2 and a half hour bus ride, and the scenery was beautiful – lots of cows and animals, rolling green hills, tons of wind turbines – I really enjoyed looking out the bus window, especially on the way back when the sun was setting. So we get to Gibraltar and get off the buses to walk through the border patrol with our passports – Gibraltar has been a British territory since the early 1700’s. IT has a very interesting history, with all the fighting and disputes over its ownership, as well as the military history. The island all together is less than 3 square miles in area! Although they have added some space where there used to be water. We drove up the rock, getting really beautiful views of the harbor and the town. In order to cross onto Gibraltar, you literally have to drive/walk across the landing strip for the airport! That’s how small the island is, haha. We drove through the tiniest little tunnels that didn’t even look like a bus would fit through. Some of them were made of limestone and they were very wet and dripping – our tour guide (very British, fun accent) told us the water is from when it rained two weeks earlier because the limestone absorbs the water! We stopped at a lookout point where you could see Africa (Morocco) and Spain out in the ocean. There was also a very pretty mosque and a lighthouse. In the past, people thought that the world ended after the Mediterranean Sea so Gibraltar was known as one of the two Pillars of Hercules. It was very windy and a little cold, but definitely cool to see.

We then drove up to St. Michael’s caves, and when we got off of the bus the Barbary apes (cute little monkeys with no tails) are everywhere! Just walking around the road, on the walls, in the trees, jumping onto the buses – they were so cute! Then we went into the cave, which was beautiful. It is all made out of limestone and has made really cool formations after millions of years. They once used the caves as a military shelter and a hospital, and today it is used as a theater where you can see plays, concerts, recitals, etc. After exiting the cave, we went to see more monkeys and take some pictures with/of them. At first they seem very cute and everyone wanted to touch them or hold one – then some of them started being a little scary! We were told to leave our food on the bus because they’ll smell it in your bag and like attack you to get at it. One girl had a food wrapped in her shirt pocket and one of the monkeys heard it crinkle and leaped on her and was pulling and digging at her shirt and jacket to try to find it and it bit her when she tried to push it away! Another one leaped onto this kid Jon, from API, and started unzipping all of the zippers on his backpack – and then zipping them back up when it didn’t find anything! And if you tried to get it off, it would hiss and scratch at you. It was scary! After that, I didn’t want one on me! I just took pictures of the cute baby ones – the huge ones were a little frightening.

After the monkeys, we had free time down in the town square to wander around and eat lunch. I had brought a lunch but Julia got fish and chips – very British! We then walked around and went into some of the cute little shops, the combination of the Spanish and British culture is very interesting. Most of the residents speak both languages and you definitely heard both throughout the day, but the education and official language is English. I think it’s very strange that people actually live there – when I was younger I didn’t realize there was like a town there, I just thought it was a big rock out in the ocean! It was a lot of fun though and I’m glad I got the chance to go. Enjoy the pictures! There will be more coming soon from my stroll around Sevilla the other day but I haven’t uploaded the pictures yet. Thanks for reading! <3

Gibraltar