Photos from California in May

The new Cook baby!

Fanning Street

Sarah

My 'thank you' to Bj!

She's so big.

Spain in Orange

Wish I was there.

The Sweeneys have Beiber Fever.

Saying 'hi' to Steenie

(after singing justin beiber of course)

Betis Longstocking?

I took some videos from the Betis game & they are so funny. They're super short & you can still feel how exciting it was.

I think they sing the Pippi Longstocking's song as a game song. I caught the end of it but I think it's still recognizable.

(Josh is cute in this one too.)

Waving the scarves in the air.

The "OOOSH" sound they make when they almost make a goal.

The madness after the 1st goal.

This one is just pretty. Someone cheers and it looks so cool.

And for the last one, the 1st one; the singing and

excitement before the game.

Gatos Españoles

So cats here have 7 lives - not 9!

I think only in the United States 9 exist. Did we decide we needed more than the rest of the world? Because my friend from Holland also thinks there are only 7.

Los gatos aquí tienen siete vidas - no nueve! Creo que sólo en Los Estados Unidos hay nueve. Hemos decidido necesitábamos mas que de las otras personas en el mundo? Porque mi amiga de Holanda crea que hay siete también.

"Te quiero Betis"

He visto mi primer partido de fútbol ayer! Fui con personas que encantan Betis así que fue muy divertido. / I saw my 1st soccer game yesterday! I went with people who love Betis so it was really fun.

Spanish times

Sometimes I feel so spanish.

There are moments when I feel the quintessential spanish experience. Like when I'm walking down a cobblestone street hand-in-hand with Josh, watching all the charming old buildings go by, and listening to him & our friend talking in their beautiful spanish about fútbol. Or after school when a girlfriend and I go to a terraza, have some tapas & a tinto de verano, and we speak in spanish about our dances, our classes & our boyfriends...people & bicycles passing us by.

Hay momentitos perfectos.

America, the beautiful

Now my teacher only calls me "America" - I'm just happy he calls me something. There are other students who's names & countries he doesn't know, and he just points to them...so I'm happy. The other students in class think it's funny too so today, after I danced a pataita por bulerias (I did so well!), one of my classmates sang, "AMEEEERICA, AMEEEERICA!" - like in O' Beautiful! Later the same classmate told me I asked too many questions. HA! I asked her sarcastically, "Does 'America' bother you?!" JAJAJA! We both laughed.

hunger strike

Yesterday I went to bed hungry...I was wishing I had a mom or dad, sister or friend to eat with last night. I could have eaten alone but I didn't feel like being the foreign girl sitting by herself reading while she ate again...so I just went to bed.

I fell asleep thinking of California.

I'm America

My teacher Ruben addressed me today as "America".

He said, "America, there are things you have to clean up."

I like being 'America'...and I do have things to clean up.

EL agua es FRÍA, no FRÍO!

Hay muchas palabras feminina que empieza y termina con una 'a' PERO las usan el articulo 'el', no 'la' como pensarias - como 'EL AguA'. Entiendes? 'Agua' es feminina y la debería usar el articulo 'la' pero no hace. La usando 'el'. Pero cuando esta en una frasa, con un adjectivo, el adjectivo todavia será feminina. En este caso la tiene ambos - una parte masculino y una parte feminina - por ejemplo 'El agua fría'. Interesante, de acuerdo? No se porque pero es como se hace.

Y hay muchas como estas:

There are many feminine words in spanish that start and end with an 'a' but still use the article 'el' instead of 'la' like you would think - like the word for water 'EL AguA'. Does that makes sense? 'Agua' is a feminine word and should use 'la' but it doesn't. It uses 'el'. But when it's in a sentence with an adjective, the adjective is still feminine. In this case, it uses both - a masculine part & a feminine part - for example 'El agua fría'. Interesting, right? I don't know why but that's how it's done.

And there are lots of examples like this:

el agua - the water
el águila - the eagle
el ala - the wing

el artista - the artist

el alma - the soul

el ancla - the anchor

Alguien sabe una otra? Anyone know another one?

Already broken / Ya se rompe

Mis zapatos nuevos...los compré en Marzo y uno ya tiene un agujero!

Pero todavía me encantan.

My new shoes...I bought them in March and already one has a hole!

But I still love them.

June ends Part I

I've been thinking about next month - a lot is happening (a lot of changes):

• My show is at the end of June so I have to work really hard from now til then. My mantra for the month will be "sleep, practice, eat, practice, sleep." I want to feel good about my performances so I need to be extremely focused for the next few weeks - no excuses & no distractions.
• June ends the school year so all of my beautiful friends will by leaving. I'm going to loose all my girls. And it will leave me without a purpose each morning...other than coffee.
• Also I decided to move so I can sleep better and wake up easier, since this month is so important to me, so I will be living in a new neighborhood. Although in July I'm moving again to the Macarena - June's habitación is just temporary - just for the month.
• And lastly even my 5 english students will be finished. All their exams will be done in the next few days so, come June, I won't be seeing them regularly anymore either.

June is sort of the conclusion to Part I of 'My life in Spain'.

July 1st Part II begins.

Sam ha visto flamenco / Sam has seen flamenco

Sam ví mucho flamenco cuando estaba aquí - tres noches seguidas.

Sam saw a lot of flamenco while she was here, 3 nights in a row.

Miércoles / Wednesday

Mi amiga Sofia a Cartuja / My friend Sofia at Cartuja

Jueves / Thursday

Mi amiga Sharon a Bar Puerta del Sol / My friend Sharon at Bar Puerta del Sol

Viernes / Friday

Un espectáculo en un barrio en el norte del Macarena; la bailaora empiezó con una poema, como Aida podría hacer, y entonces el baile empieza con bueno baile moderna. / A show in the northern part of the Macarena neighborhood; the dancer started with a poem, like Aida would do, and then the dancer starts with really good modern dancing.

Sam es una escaladora

Sam, Josh y yo fuimos escalando ayer a puente Triana. Es tan dificil hacer y Sam hecho muy bien.

Sam, Josh & I went climbing yesterday a the Triana bridge. It's so hard to do & Sam did really well.

Make new cousins, but keep the old

Este fin de semana yo conocí primos que yo no sabía antes! Y mi prima, que mas joven de todos mis primeros primos, ha llegado!!!

This weekend I met cousins I didn't know before! And the youngest cousin of all my first cousins has arrived!

12 de may

Estimado Diario,

!Hoy fue muy divertido! Hoy era el cumpleaños de me buena amiga Einat. Tambien hoy era la primera vez que he usado una bicicleta (un bisi). Y aquí son fotos de ambos.

Today was so fun! Today was the birthday of my good friend Einat. And also today I rode a bike for the 1st time. And here are photos of both.

Nosotros antes de que nos fuimos / Us before we left

La chica con el compleaño en su bisi /

The birthday girl on her bike

Nosotros en el camino / Us in the street

El sitio de nuestro amigo / Our friend's place

Lo hemos escrito para tomar tequila de los vecinos /

We wrote this to get tequila from the neighbors

!Éxito! Tenemos tequila / Success! We got tequila

Jose Luis haciendo copas / Jose Luis making drinks

Nosotros con el pastel / Us with the cake

En mi camino a casa, en mi bisi / on my way home, on the bike

á é í ó ú ñ

I have finally figured out how to make accent marks with my computer so let the spanish language blog entries begin!

Voy a escribir un diario aquí para practicar mi español. No voy a escribir nada muy importante pero estaré practicando...como ahora. Si tu sabes que he dicho algo incorrecto, por favor, me corrija. Tambien, si tu no hablas español, va a google translate - es muy facil y muy bien (that's for you mom!) Vale, es muy temprano aquí y me voy a la escuela. Hasta pronto!!

My sweaty shirt*

*I made this shirt for Renee when she was living in Australia YEARS AGO (!) and then last week I got it in the mail. Renee said she was passing on the torch! So I danced my kulo off in it...gracias hermanita.

Hay caracoles!

There is a popular letra in flamenco that sings about caracoles (SNAILS!) The lines I love to sing along to is "HAY CARACOLES!" - which is basically saying "We have snails!" And now, walking around the city, every restaurant is announcing they have snails. So the words were taken directly from real life - I love that.

I suppose this one would sing "NO HAY CARACOLES!"

I see people eating them all the time with their beers like peanuts. So I woke up yesterday and decided, for my adventure of the day, that I would try the caracoles. I thought I didn't like them because of a bad experience with them in Greece 10 years ago - BUT I WAS WRONG! They're delicious!

But still really gross looking.

Here's me singing, "Hay caracoles!" with the caracoles.

Here's Einat scared shitless to try her 1st one.

I finally made friends with the snails...although I

think I'll still fear stepping on them barefoot.

Here is a video of the our first encounter with the snails.

And here is a proper demonstration of eating them.

WARNING: It's very graphic (Josh can't watch it!)

The End - our empty little shells.

Then we went for ice-cream and sat by the 1,000 year old trees.

I love when art is made directly out of the simplest of life's pleasures, and this song is a perfect example of that. The song I will write will sing,

"HAY DIAS BUENOS!"

Photos from California in April

Mexi-pride!

Easter basket?

The Quinones Family

Nona had a visitor

Easter family portrait

Heading to Coachella

Mike Patton at Coachella

Evidence of Coachella

Dylan with Watney

Charlie with Olive

I wish I were in this photo!

Welcome baby Sasheen!

Charlie

Dylan

Jace

My real language test

A whole pijo family (mother, father, child & grandmother) attacked me & Josh like a swarm of bees for not picking up Turco's dog poo. Here's what I screamed in spanish at them in the heat of the moment:

"¡VA!" - I was trying to say "LEAVE!" because they wouldn't go - they wouldn't stop being totally mental. And since they charged at us from 15 meters aways, they were the ones who needed to leave. Josh says I could have used, "¡Vete!"

"¡ESTAS LOCOS!" - I think I needed to say, "¡Estais locos!" because I can't say 'you' (a single person) are many crazies. Besides, I was talking to all of them.

"¡ME PEGAS!" - at this point I was trying to alert them that things had gone too far by telling the man he had actually hit me while trying to take a swing at my beautiful Joshua - who had done nothing to provoke him - but a more accurate thing to yell would have been, "¡Me pegaste!"

"¡Y TU HIJO!" - this one I got right. While they were all yelling & swinging at us (EVEN THE 90 YEAR OLD GRANDMOTHER HIT JOSH WITH HER HANDBAG!) they abandoned their child. While they all made a semicircle around us, their 2 or 3 year old stared at their backs and cried. So I was trying to remind them they'd forgotten about their kid so they could riot with us, and that he or she was really scared (idiots).

"¡NO TIENES EDUCACIONES!" - I meant it towards all of them, not one of them, so I wish I had said, "¡Todos! No teneis educaciones!" (Educaciones means manners.)

Later I tried to tell the policeman that what they

did is probably nothing to them but for us, our

night was ruined. Here's how I said it: "Para ellos,

creo que este situacion es nada. Pero, para

nosotros, nuestra noche ha terminado - ha roto."

Does that make sense? I hope so.

So I think I passed my real-life language exam

because I think I got my point across, but barely.

Maybe I earned a B- or C+.

Meanwhile, the poo still sits on the promenade.

7 continents? or 6...or 5?

In the United States we have 7 continents; we separate North & South America and also included Antartica. In Spain they only count 5 or 6. Most people were taught 5 because Antartica, until fairly recently, was left out. For instance in the the 5 rings of the Olympic logo, each ring represents a continent - the Americas count as one and Antartica is not included. Did anyone know this?