Bath time

Teresa gave Turco a bath!

We discovered he was actually a skinny little dog under all that hair.

And he has big big eyes.

He & Rum the cat are so well behaved...Olive & Watney would love Turco.

Then Teresa blow dried him & it took almost an hour to get him even close to dry!

Spanish Colloquialism

Teresa told me 'hostia' - the word for communion wafer - is a Spanish expression they use to express surprise or excitement. And now I hear it being used everywhere! I think it's strange, and she doesn't know why they use it, so I looked it up & I found this:

"The reason it is considered so bad is that in a deeply religious Catholic society like Spain - or at least like Spain used to be - invoking the host - which Catholics believe to be the body of Christ - is blasphemy. Blasphemy is considered far, far worse in Spain than simple dirty language, which is not thought of as badly in Spanish as in English."

Apparently it used to be a really bad word...now it's just a little bad. I still probably shouldn't use it around my elders but it's ok to use casually, out & about with friends without being offensive, for example:

"Me voy a vivir in Espana."

"HOSTIA!"

"Mi pelicula favorita es Mary Poppins."

"HOSTIA!!"

"Pague $450 para una falda."

"HOSTIA!!!"

My Bata de Cola

It's red underneath!

And, at Tariq's request, I'm going to try and post more flamenco stuff. So this sunday while I practice I'm going to try and make a video of me dancing in my new skirt.

We'll see...I'll try.

Mis nuevos amigos

From left to right: Maria, Dani, Alberto, Teresa, Me, Lola & Elena

Doesn't Alberto look like Wolverine?

YEAH!

I'm picking up my bata de cola today!!!!!!! In just a few hours - YEAH!

free booze!

Mi, mi roommates y 6 amigos learned how to make cocktails in our living room from a representative of Cacique rum.

Then he gave us 4 bottles of rum and left us to enjoy our drinks.

Who came up with this promotion?

>

We didn't pay for anything

(i.e. glasses, oranges, lemons, limes, ice, coke, tonic OR RUM!)

It was like an alcohol tupperware party.

Wednesdays at the Monastery

The place was beautiful, the stage was beautiful & the music was beautiful but the dancing wasn't...I think it was purposely that way so it wasn't bad, I just didn't like it.

The dancer was really modern and not a flamenco dancer at all. A lot of people flat out hated it but I think that's just because they're Flamenco nazis. There were some admirable things about the performance...she was fit, it was creative and she pushed the flamenco boundaries - I'm all for that! And I thought it was brave of her to do it. Flamenco people hate change - some people still bitch about the cajon ruining the purity of the art form - so imagine the resistance she's probably up against. Well I commend her despite not liking it. As my cousin Roland says, "You go girl!"

Here's a video. I actually caught a beautiful moment, maybe it wasn't that bad...or maybe I did like it.

Also, here's a video of just the musicians - THE MUSIC WAS SO GOOD! But tell me if you think the cajon player looks like the dad from Tim Burton's Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Noah Taylor - I totally thought so. I loved him in 'He Died with a Falafel in his Hand'.

Thanks guys.

Thanks for all the comments! It's so great to hear from everyone.

Sue, I didn't know you spoke spanish - muy bien y buena idea que hablamos en espanol porque me gustaria molestar Robert - yo vivo para encandelar a el!!! HAHAHA!

Jason, tell Julie and River I said hi too. His harmonica is kicking booty (baby talk for 'ASS' - I'm trying to be clean.)

Gil, you comment on everything - I LOVE IT! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! Now come visit. : )

Aunty Renata - I'm so glad you read my blog. Your phone call before I left at the airport STILL warms my heart when I think about it. I love you - AND MY UNCLE JOHN!

Javier - we will get together very soon, I promise. My friend is coming in April and we are going to drive everywhere and I we will make it to San Sebastian for sure...and I hope you're having an artists showing/reception when I'm there! I will let you know when I go to Madrid next, in case you too can make it.

Sophie, YEAH! As you've asked I have begun taking photos of EVERYTHING! The insides and the outs and I will post them soon. XOXOXOXOX

Aurorita, mi amiga, me encanta mi nueva hogar...pero no tengo espacio para mis amigos cuando vienen a visitar. : ( Good travels to you and hurry home to your baby (that was too hard to write in spanish) and send my love to Olive too.

Sara is my cousin living in Tajikistan with her husband and two babies - she has a blog too and it's really interesting. Thank you for using your time on the internet to look at my blog Sara - all my love and well wishes.

And Ben (who is really Renee) & Verity, when I'm writing I'm almost always writing to you guys (and mom). Thanks for wanting to know what I'm up to - I miss you both.

To everyone, I promise to keep up, like with my myspace photo of the day, I PROMISE.

Estoy cansada

I'm really tired. All the dancing, walking, having to think in spanish and waking up at 7 am has caught up with me...can't type...any....mor...zzzzz

Keys & Kiss

There are all sorts of words that sound really similar in English that I never noticed because I say them so often & so effortlessly. My roommates Dani & Alberto, and another friend Kurty, pointed these out to me. They asked me to say the difference between 'keys' & 'kiss' so they could hear the difference - AND THEN THEY SANG THEM THE WAY I SAID THEM FOR LIKE 10 MINUTES - they're funny. But really those words sound a lot alike actually.

Also, once Chusman pointed out an 'alive' tree to me and what he meant was 'olive'...also very similar.

I'm going to try and notice more of them, spanish ones too.

Skype please.

Mom!

Verity & Renee!

Amanda & Hali!

Syna!

I know you all have it, now we need to use it more!!! (3 exclamation points!!!)

And of course any one else who wants to is also welcome to find me.

Now I'm on my way to an old monastery that hosts flamenco shows. I'll post photos - I think it's going to be beautiful.

Besos.

I bought myself an early birthday present today.

Look how beautiful all the Bata de Colas are hanging in our changing room.

I bought one today - I HAD TO MOM!!!

It will be my birthday present. Dancing with a bata de cola is one of my teacher's specialties and we do a whole technique class in them every Friday, in preparation for the dance that we're going to learn next trimester. So I HAD to buy one. I'll post a photo of me in it as soon as I get it - it's being tailored to fit me. It's black with red underneath and it was made by the best bata de cola maker in Sevilla, Esperanza Romero (I did my research).

Here's Esperanza's website: http://www.esromeroflamenco.com/

And here's a link to my teacher Luisa dancing with a bata de cola:

SHE'S SO GOOD! When I watch Luisa I realize how much I have to learn. Luckily for me she's a great teacher too.

Happy Birthday to me!

Good news before school

I just got word that my dad shaved today so he must be feeling better...someone take him for Ethiopian food!!! (Healhealhealhealhealhealheal...) Here's us at Christmas - HI DAD!!!

Justine is living in Spain!

Welcome all, thanks for visiting me.

While I'm living in Spain I decided I am going to blog. This way I can document my classes, my adventures & my thoughts, and the people who are curious about how I'm doing, or what I'm up to, can read it.

So far I have been here for two weeks, more or less, and to quickly catch up I will post the top 10 things - good & bad - important so far...

1. 6 days after I arrived my dad was put in intensive care because he passed out from internal bleeding (sigh.) But after his surgery, blood transfusion and my devoted mother by his side he's going to live...thankfully. (You better Dad!)

2. My Kings' Day present to myself (Dec. 6th) was a ticket to see the new Joaquin Cortes show in Madrid. It was great! In the middle of the show he picked a fight with a person in the audience...and the dancing was good too! Jajaja!

3. #3 is for my 3 best Spanish friends. Chusman showed me Toledo (his city IS a museum), Teresa celebrated Kings' Day with me & Borja introduced me to Las Grecas. Then they all drove me to Andalucia AGAIN and helped me find a place to live.

4. My new home is a tiny room that I share in an apartment with 3 other people, a dog & a cat. I'm super close to the main train station Santa Justa, 5 minutes from the old central part of the city where La Giralda is, and around the corner from me is a kebab place and Indian food - yeah!

5. Teresa is a journalist/broadcaster. She writes stories about Chernobyl orphans, she has a radio show every friday about bloggers, and she does live news reports from locations. She's super proud of me for starting a blog and said once my spanish is better she will interview me on her show - SHE DEDICATED A SONG TO ME ON FRIDAY! She and her boyfriend Albert are from Badajoz and I hope I get to visit it with them oneday.

6. Elena is Chusman's cousin. She's a student, she doesn't speak any English & she cooks a great pasta!!!

7. Dani is a musician. He's traveled around all over Spain, with his dog in his backpack, recording people. He's mostly a percussionist but he's lead guitar in our band. He and his girlfriend Maria are super cute and there are always musicians over at our place...like today I met someone name Paulo who was playing guitar & singing for us in our living room. Dani would love Show Me Your Hits.

8. My classes: an hour and a half class with Milagros Mengibar, she's old school sensuality. Then an hour and a half with Rafael Campallo, he's the reason I came to this school - modern & strong. And lastly another hour and a half of technique with Luisa Palicio whose specialty is the bata de cola (which I now need to buy.) Youtube all of them!!! My feet haven't stopped hurting & the more I learn the more I realize I need to learn. I'm keeping up well enough but my style is far behind the other students in my class - I missed a lot in the first 3 months. Anyways I love my classes. It's what I've always wanted to do: dance all day long, sleep and start again.

9. Every day after my 4 and a half hours of dancing I go to meet with my spanish tutor. She's a girl from my class and she's been helping me a lot. I thought about writing everything in spanish after english but this is already a lot of work. Pero, estoy practicando cada dia. Todos mis profesores hablan espanol solo asi estoy practicando todo el tiempo.

10. I did my first load of laundry today. I think it's a milestone. It signifies my new lifestyle that is fully in effect...don't you think. I'm staring at my wet clothes, while they hang to dry in my room, feeling very accomplished.

That's it - my first real blog. Hopefully they won't be so long next time and I'll add photos or videos and links and things.