Cuanto tiempo! Tantas cosas que contar !

Hostiaaaaaaaa, I've just realised how long it has been since I updated this.
I'm back in Liverpool, missing Salamanca like crazy, but coming to terms with being back in Liverpool for at least the next few months.
I went to visit my Mum's family in Glasgow last week with María and it was so nice to see everyone, and luckily they all seemed to take to her especially my wee cousin Graeme, so I was mightly pleased, we also went to Edinburgh and it was so cold it was untrue!

I have just sorted a job for the festive period back at my old stomping ground, Marks n Sparks, which will be a lot of hours at the busiest time of the year but I dont mind at all as it is always nice to catch up with everyone and earn some moolah! I am also giving English lessons so I'm extremely busy and happy :)

Uni work is uncanny, this is the first year of my life where I have had to put doing work before everything else, I even missed going to watch the football on Sunday in order to do work, and I could have never said that in the past...

Right I'm going to make tea and use María's jamón and chorizo she brought to mine :D

Hasta luego.

Back into the Uni way of life

Uni starts on Monday, what a long time a year makes as this time last year classes were just starting in Salamanca. Anyway I have picked the following modules, for Spanish; Applied Spanish Language III, La Mujer, Translation, Applied Critique of Translation, and one more I forgot and for Tesol I have, the TESOL Special Project (kind of like a dissertation), Teaching English for Specific purposes and language and power.
Finally the dreaded oral dossier is over too! Thursday morning the day of doom arrived, I was elected to go first and was kind of glad I did as I didn't have time to worry about when other people were doing theres. but anyway it went really well. Only made one mistake but quickly corrected myself and It wasn't a Spanish mistake it was a mistake on one of ym facts but anyway, the observer also was laughing at various points so it could be looking rosey! Fingers crossed.

I have been doing nothing apart from the dossier since I got back but I feel glad now as I know I worked quite hard and now I can relax until Monday when lessons begin.
After the presentations a few of us went for a drink and then went to see a spanish film that the Uni put on to welcome all the Spanish students (considering the majority of foreign exchange students seem to be Spanish) afterwards there was a drinks reception in order for final year students to mix with the exchange students (will be good for the correction of other others work!) We got talking (Tom and I) to a massive group of Spaniards and arranged to go to the Cavern Club at night, (the famous place the Beatles always used to play at, I have never been in two years since being in Liverpool!) And it was awesome, there was a Beatles tribute band, and once everything finished at 2AM the Spanish had a botellón back at one of the flats, I think I met more Spaniards last night than what I did in a year in Salamanca....la vida erasmus continúa...

De vuelta a Liverpool...

Bordel de merde! I'm back in Liverpool after two amazing weeks with the amazing Emilieeee (t'as la chiasse chérie?) They passed too quickly which I guess doesn't require me to say how much of a good time I had, I will put some photos on when I get round to sorting them out.
7 days to go until my oral dossier, I've done it now and it's just a case of tying lose ends up and learning it, this time next week it will be all done! Praise the lord!
Charlie arrived on Monday and I now know I made the right choice in coming to live with her, (don't want to say too much as she'll read this and get a big head..) but we are finding out we have more and more things in common so all is good. her japanese boyfriend Yuji is staying at the moment and I feel a bit bad as I speak really fast and with a hard accent and sometimes I forgot he is not English and just rant and mumble, but hey, c'est la vie.
This is going to short and sweet as I need to get back to work...

American Pie

Noticed this was on ITV2 tonght and decided to watch it as it has been yonks since I've seen it. Ive seen this film so many times but it still makes me laugh and miss old times at school, an excellent film despite it being a bit daft.

I move to Liverpool weekend of the 6th of September and today got my Oral Dossier date, the 18th of September, a day to dread...

Erasmus. Done.

Reflections on my Erasmus year...

Parece mentira, pero ese año tan soñado y deseado, que nos daba tanto vértigo y a la vez tanto subidón solo de pensar en él, ha llegado a su fin… Si vuelvo atrás un año, a estas alturas ya estaba casi preparando las maletas, preparándome psicológicamente, despidiéndome de unos y otros… toda mi vida giraba en torno a Salamanca… y ahora, curiosamente y después de un año, también lo hace, aunque de una manera diferente. Han pasado tantas cosas entre aquel momento hace un año y ho. Año de ensueño, año de experiencias, año de ver toda España , de abrirse a nuevas opciones, a nuevas personas, a nuevas costumbres… El Erasmus no son solo unas breves vacaciones de las que nos traemos como recuerdo unas cuantas anécdotas; el Erasmus es un estilo de vida que marcará nuestra forma de actuar de ahora en adelante. Como resumir lo que es vivir con gente tan variopinta, afianzar día a día nuevos lazos empezando de cero, asentarse en un mundo completamente ajeno a lo que siempre hemos conocido, encariñarse con una ciudad y un país que no son los propios. Aún recuerdo mis primeros contactos con toda la gente que me llevo en mi memoria, aquellos encuentros que propiciaron el conocernos… encuentros más o menos accidentados, conversaciones más o menos estúpidas para romper el hielo (sheep shagger, flirting with Emilie etc)…y aún recuerdo las estúpidas conversaciones al final, estúpidas porque de tantas cosas que había que decir no se sabía por donde empezar. Aún recuerdo mi primera noche en mi segunda casa, el paniagua, rodeadas de completos desconocidos… y la última, rodeada de amigos después de que ganase España la Eurocopa. Aún recuerdo el calor veraniego de Salamanca, y el otoño colorido en las calles en las que paseábamos, y el invierno con muchísimo frio… y la primavera tardía, el deshielo y el renacer de una ciudad con un ambiente impresionante. Aún recuerdo viajar con Tom, Léa, Malargé and Em y volver con una familia...!Y vuelves, y tu mundo… ¿sigue siendo tu mundo? ¿Cuánto cuesta volverse a integrar? O mejor dicho, ¿cuánto nos cuesta volver a querer integrarnos? Los que habéis estado aquí tenéis que ayudarnos, sobre todo porque si nos deprimimos de estar aquí otra vez no es por vosotros. No es que no quisiera volver, es que no me quería ir de allí… no es que hayáis cambiado, es que yo he cambiado. Esto es lo de siempre, que no es malo, pero es lo que ya conocía… y añoro lo improvisado de mis días. Y sin embargo, aunque no ha habido cambios a grandes rasgos en mi vida de aquí, curiosamente si ha cambiado algo, ha sido algo que no quería que cambiara… lo cuál no puedo controlar. Y llegas, y tu acelerada vida se estabiliza, y te encuentras con cambios que no te gustan tanto, y te encuentras con que sigues estando en el mismo sitio en el que ya quizá no cabes porque en tu vida también han pasado cosas en este tiempo… y alguien te pregunta: “ Bueno, cuenta, ¿qué tal tu año Erasmus?” E injustamente lo tienes que resolver con un: “de puta madre, me lo he pasado genial”. Y es que estamos condenados a enterrar todas nuestras historias de nuestra vida de Erasmus para poder ponernos al día con las historias de esta, con el único consuelo de ir pudiendo desenterrarlas poco a poco, entre los que más nos quieren. Aún Salamanca parece un sueño.
Os quiero mucho y es más, siempre os querré.

Y por fin trabajé.....

It's been a very long summer since coming back from sunny Spain (or so it has seemed) and it has been made even longer due to the lack of a job. Anyway come Thursday I was offered one for the day. It consisted of working at LJS (my old school) as Guisborough was putting on Yorkshire Day (where all the mayors from Yorkshire get together and eat nice food and be merry etc) which was presented to me by the lovely Charley. I hadn't seen her since I'd been back so I kinda killed two birds with one stone with earning some pennies and spending time with her as she is pretty busy and yes, I worked all day and come the end of it my feet were ready to fall off, but it was so nice getting out of the house and getting my head down and having a good laugh at the same time. It's a shame Charley and I never worked together before as we made such a good team...even if I do say so myself..... anyway this is brief as I have to crack on.

la FRANCE !

Well my time in Salamanca was up and it was time to go home, or should I say time to go to France. Now call it small mindedness or whatever but I've always been cautious about the French and France, however this was helped by the fact I lived with two French people in Salamanca who were absoloute legends, however despite my narrow mindedness I was excited to go. The catch? A 16 hour bus trip from Salamanca to Rennes which I was dreading, considering the longest I have ever been on was about 8 hours from Salamanca to Lisboa (Libson) and that seemed for ever, however luckily this one was overnight so at least some chance to sleep. Luckily it passed really quickly, and I managed to sleep quite a lot, however during the day in Rennes I was absoloutly knackered from when we got there until when we left and couldn't really appreciate the city for what it was as I just wanted to sleep. However we met up with Léa who is from a little village just outside Rennes therefore she knows Rennes really well and showed us around everywhere, we then had some lunch (an Indian- strange) and then we were pretty cream crackered so we headed back to Léa's where I watched a bit of Wimbledon as I had not seen any up to this time (the tuesday of the 2nd week, and summer is just not an English summer without the rain interruptions at Wimbledon) and then we stayed for a very French dinner of Frogs Legs which were lovely and yes, it is true what everyone says, they are just like Chicken. We then had to race to the station to get the train to Vannes where Emilie's Mum was coming to pick us up. That night I probably gave a really poor impression as I had slept for a few hours if that on a bus and spent all the day walking around after a weekend of constant going out and drinking as it was the last weekend so on this Tuesday if just all caught up with me and I was exhausted, luckily I went to bed soon after arriving, first day in France...DONE!

The rest of the week was spent doing a mix of things, from dodging the rain, bowling and coming last, kayaking, seeing a Creperie on every single street corner.... but overall France was very nice and I would very much like to go back one day.

The language problem? Yes, obviously I did GCSE French at school but that does not really teach you anything more than 'j'aime le foot', so that would not get me far and the Frenchies in Salamanca had only taught me words such as 'je veux te manger le minou', 'salope' and 'connasse' which are not really for parents, but I did my best, understood a fair bit when people were just speaking to me but when they were speaking in big groups it was pretty much impossible and so I just kept my head down and waited for Emilie to translate it into Spanish, luckily further help came towards the end of the week when her brother came and his German girlfriend who both spoke excellent English so that was good.

Other wierd foods I tried included oysters, moules frites, langoustines and winkels! All new things that were lovely!

Luckily towards the end of the week the weather improved and we also got to swim in the sea, went kayaking which is bloody hard work as was getting the dry suit on, was knackered afterwards! As Emilie lives in the south of Bretagne it was about 2 hours to the north were I was going home from Dinard to East Midlands, we went on the Saturday and stayed on the Saturday night there and come Sunday it was pouring down so we just headed to the airport and went home....aurevior France....

Funny advert feat Fernando Torres

Most people who read this have some interest in football or Spain so most of you will find this video very funny...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8cDvm26VYI&NR=1

PODEMOS Y PUDIMOS !!

Ballack cabrón saluda al campeón !!! España campeón!!


What an amazing last night in Salamanca, Spain wins Euro 2008 and an emotinal goodbye after an amazing night...after a night like that I almost felt I could say... Yo soy español, español, español!!! On the Friday night my Mum and Dad, Gran and Aunty arrived in Salamanca for a short weekend break and to help bring some of my stuff home as I had accumalated a lot of crap over the year! They had a really awesome time but it was topped of for them, Emily and myself (Who were leaving the next day for France) by Fernando Torres' strike to give Spain a 1-0 win over Germany. We watched the game in the main square in the center of Salamanca as the local ayuntamiento put up a big screen and the Plaza was absoloutly rammed, it was an awesome night and as the final whistle blew people went crazy, drinks were flying around, everyone getting a cerveza and calimocho bath, people were hugging and kissing random strangers, dancing, singing and living it up. Then everyone headed to the fountain at the Plaza de España where people were literally going to get drenched, by the end all the water had gone out the fountain it was that wild. After saying goodbye to the parents we headed out to the bars we have visited so often during the year, Bar Segundo, Paniagua to name a few, everyone who I had been hanging around with the final moments was out apart from Léa and Julien who had unfortunatly already left it was one of those nights that was so perfect that you never wanted it to end, but as all good things must come to an end it did.... not before Tom, John, Simon and I had time to throw Emilie fully clothed into a fountain, luckily she took it in good spirits and it was so hot that by the time we got to the next bar she was pretty much dry anyway, in a word... a perfect end.

The day of my actual departure if was a quite affair, saying goodbye to my parents and then having a quick lunch before getting on the bus for a 16 hour trip á Rennes... which was not half as bad as I thought it would be, anyway I will update on my trip to France in the next few days.

La Adrada, the end and bitchyness

It's been quite in Salamanca lately with people having exams and such and everyone studying (sometimes I feel I'm here with the biggest bunch of geeks ever) so this weekend I decided to go to Yedras village, La Adrada. What an awesome time I had, I didn't realise how much I missed it all, her dad slagging off English food, her Mum's wonderful cooking, Diego acting a prat, and Yedras Gran stuck in the olden days, and of course Yedra herself, I was so glad I went and would love to go back if at all possible.

This is really ending, I don't think it has hit home yet.... as there is still 2 weeks left but everyone is leaving starting from Julien tomorrow, so when one flatmate leaves I guess that is when you realise it is ending, it has been an incredible year and one I will never forget, I've changed for the better I feel and I know Liverpool next year is going to be shit compared to what I have lived here, but hey, c'est la vie.

Finally, people have been so bitchy lately and sly, talking behind peoples backs, sly conversations which has kind of taken the gloss off the final weeks here, but I don't think that will stop anyone making the most of it as we only have one Erasmus in our lives...

salir, beber, el rollo de siempre, meterme mil raya (or maybe not) llegar a la cama.....

What an amazing weekend.

The concert we went to see was brilliant, to give it a mark out of 10, well it would be a 10. Extremoduro played for well over two hours, and they sounded fucking brilliant. What a treck it was from my house up to the Poli Deportivo and what a queue there was! Seemed like we were never going to get in, but in the end we did and intime for Extremoduro. After getting the standard litres of beer in (€18 for a litre of Cuba Libre WTF!?) and headed down to the stage, got in a really good position near the front when all of a sudden my phone starts vibrating like mad, and I was thinking who the hell is this as the majority of the people who would ring me were stood right next to me! But it was Yedra, as she got seperated from us and from the group that she was with, and I had to fight fight fight through the crowd to go and get her, when she saw me her little face lit up like a lightbulb, she seemed like she was pretty scared.

After that hurdle the rest of the night was immense, they played some absoloute classics such as; So Payaso, JesuCristo García and Puta and played for a good two hours! The only negative thing was the heat in the whole place, I had to take my top off after about 5 minutes as it was soaking, the sweat was rising, condensing and coming back down as if it was rain, as you can imagine not a very nice thought, but after the concert the gang headed back into town but as Yedra thinks she is a princesita she had to go back home and get a shower which resulted in us getting lost and asking people the way home and them being drunk giving us some strange directions, but they, más vale tarde que nunca.

Then we went out around Salamanca, first grabbing a sandwich as he had not had any dinner due to leaving for the concert around 9, then standard trips to la chupiteria and to paniagua (and Yedra falling over in the street) before hitting a few more bars and then hitting the sack as we were both cream crackered. Unfortunatly she had to go on Saturday as it was the only day her Dad could come and get her in Avila but I think she had an awesome time and would like to come back.

and las empanidillas de su tia Pilar.....DE PUTA MADRE !!

Valéncia and Extremoduro

<- Valencias bull-ring

Last weekend I took the long bus journey from Salamanca to Valéncia (Via Madrid) which took nearly 6/7 hours, which was totally shit but it was certainly worth the effort once that I arrived.

Unfortunatly the first few days were spoiled by the weather but of course that meant a good excuse to go and watch the FA Cup Final in an English bar with English food, which was lovely.

I did many things in Valéncia, but being a massive footy fan the best thing for me was easily the trip to the Mestalla to see Valéncia V Atlético de Madrid which was the main reason I agreeded to go that weekend. Unfortunatly the crowd was poor as Atlético had nothing to play for (you could tell, they were simply shocking until el Kun came on, Valencia won the game 3-1 with a comical Own goal for the first and 2 from explosive striker David Villa. Other highlights included going to the beach, which cannot happen in Salamanca as I am totally landlocked, also a trip to the Zoo, going to see the arts and Science museum which is pretty breathtaking to be honest, also random wanders into the city center, if anyone is thinking of going to Valéncia, I would certainly recommend it.

I got back to Salamanca on Tuesday after getting my dates mixed up, and after another extremely long bus journey but could have been worse as I did manage to sleep for some of the way. Since then I have done nothing but go out and get drunk which is now getting extremely boring, but Yedra is coming to see me the next weekend and we're going to see Extremoduro (a old Spanish rockband from the 90's) think the Spanish equivilant version of Oasis (not in terms of music but in terms of the time they have spent touring, making new music etc).
Hopefully she's staying the whole weekend so we will have plenty of time to catch up and go out for dinner, I also want to show her Salamanca, the place I love so much, I know she'll love it.
I'm trying to think if there's anything else I need to report, but I can't think of anything at all, so I guess that will have to do for now, I will update soon.

Lisboa, Portugal.

As many of you know I spent the weekend in the beatiful Portugese city of Lisboa (Lisbon). It was a bitch to get there (9 hours) leaving Salamanca at midday and not arriving till half 8 (GMT) so to say it was a bitch would be an under-statement, however on arriving within a few seconds of just looking around me I realised it was going to be worth the long journey.
The city itself is pretty much brand new, there is such an amazing contrast between where the European Union money has been spent and how Lisboa probably was say 20 years ago, going into random streets even pretty close to the city center it was pretty amazing to see how under-developed some of the streets were, houses looking like they were about to fall down, glass broken, but everyone in these 'favelas' seemed so happy and kids were running about playing football, chasing one another, life for them seemed pretty perfect, also there was an abundance of Portugese flags everywhere you turned, they certainly seem a very proud bunch, especially seeing as their country has grown so much in recent times, but socially and economically.
Come Saturday night my feet were ready to fall off, I think I must have walked around 10km which is a lot for me considering I am the worlds laziest man, however it was certainly worth it.
After exploring the center, we headed up to the Castelo de São Jorge (god knows how many stairs they were to get there) and after that headed to Belém, went to see the Estadio da Luz (Benfica's ground) and passed by Sporting Club de Portugals stadium which looked mightly impressive. I bought a ulimited day pass for Saturday which included tram, tube, bus and I think I must have saved an absoloute fortune as I seemed to be on some form of public transport every hour ! I also found an excellent place to eat on the Saturday for only €6.50 which included ribs, chips, rice, salad, dessert, 1/2 bottle of wine, bread, coffee for about £4 which was beatiful and criminally cheap considering you are in the capital of Portugal.
Come night time I had an Indian, which is about as Portugese as Marmite but as soon as I was handed a leaflet in the street I got excited to have one especially after eating them so often back in Guisborough.... Right I will update about Sunday and post some photos tomorrow as I am cream-crackered, Goodnight.

Lisboa/Lisbon

I am going to Lisboa (Lisbon in English) this weekend and I'm very excited. Long bus journey! 9 hours WTF!? But my flatmate Léa went a few weeks ago and said it was very much worth the effort and her photos look really nice so it's all good. We found a cheap hostel in a good location and it seems fine, but anyway, we will only be sleeping there as I'm sure the weather will be fine with it being in the south of Portugal.
I will update when I get back, with photos and such.

What a shit week !

Here is an update as people have been complaining that I don't update often enough *cough cough yedra* so esto es para tí nena!

Terrible week, totally wiped off the calender due to illness. It all started on Monday night when I started to get a sore throat and then when I woke up Tuesday I felt like death warmed up! Could hardly move or anything, managed to eat about 10 bits of pasta and felt a lot better after, however come the night I made the mistake of thinking I was over it and headed out to watch Man USA V Barca which was a HUGE mistake! As afterwards I felt terrible! And I kept feeling terrible until Saturday which was when I could eat my first proper meal since Monday! No idea what was wrong with me, I was shivering one second, sweating the next, being sick of cups of tea, headache, massive sore throat. The only thing I can think of is due to the weather, at the minute during the day it is extremely hot, however with Salamanca being quite high up at night it can get quite cold and this is easy to forget and I think I made the mistake of going out on a night with only a top and no jacket and the cold got to me, esp come like 12 midnight it can be quite chilly and I think that is what happened to me, however on the plus side being out of action for a week let me crack on with y oral presentaton which is coming along and so it wasn't all bad.

The week before? Well it was quiet up until Thursday (my Bday) when Florent and Benoit (Léa's two friends who are on a work placement in Leiria (Portugal) came to stay and my god, are they obsessed with sex, Benoit is about 25 and was going around drawing cocks on Léa's bedroom door with shaving foam, which was funny at the time to be fair. On Thursday Malargey, Léa, Em and I went for a few sherberts but em went home so we went on to meet Tom, Kirsty, Matthieu etc and got quite wasted, I am shit with Tequilla and Mathieu kept insisting on me drinking it, however I was in no state compared to Tom, who after a while we had to take him home and nearly carry him up the stairs and put him to bed, the next day he phoned me wondering how he got home? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
More followed on the weekend, with Saturday being a big one, with everyone totally gone and a good night was had by all, until supporting Malargey she decided to fall over and I went with her and thats when everyone decided well we gotta call it a night, or it was going to get messy....
Sunday morning was hilarious as when everyone got up we were just sat in the living room without anyone saying anything at all, just looking terrible and trying to piece together the night... Thats enough about that as I'm starting to sound like an alcoholic.....
Anyway, that will do, me voy a duchar.

lack of updates - ya lo sé, soy vago

I have not updated this for so long, and now is not the time as it's late and I need sleeeeeeeeeeeeep.

I will update more tomorrow, including birthday nights out, trips to Valencia, Malargey and glindog being sick in our corridor, the usual really...

Quién eres?

This message will mean nothing to almost everyone but I'm hoping someone will tell me who they are !

Bonjour !
Petit message à toi mon mystérieux visiteur d’Hennebont,Je connais trois bretonnes fort sympathiques ici à Salamanque, mais de Breton de Hennebont point il n’y a dans mon cercle de connaissance. Grâce à toi je sais où se situe cette petite ville bretonne, mais ton identité reste une énigme. J’aimerais ainsi en connaître un peu plus sur toi… et savoir pourquoi viens-tu chaque jour sur mon blog, fort intéressant je te l’accorde…À bientôt peut-être
Gracias !!

Paella

The other night I had a go at making my first paella and I have to say it was fucking beatiful.

Here's how I did it incase anyone reading fancies giving it a go.

Ingredients

Chorizo Sausage

2 Chicken breasts (Rabbit is better)

Prawns (bigger the better)

Fresh Mussels (you can use clams) - with the seafood add as much as you like

Squid - depending on how fussy people are.

Saffron (1.4 teaspoon)

Chicken/Fish Stock

One whole onion (diced)

1 green/1 red pepper

Garlic (3 cloves)

Tomatoes (2-3)

Thyme/Cumin/Piment ón/ Salt and pepper

500g of Paella rice (tip - however much rice you put in, double the stock.

Cómo se cocina una paella?

Fry the Chorizo in a little bit of Olive Oil (it has plenty of fat so you only need a little oil) then after a while add the onion and the garlic until brown, however keep the heat quite low and keep stirring as if ther garlic burns the dish is already ruined. Then add the peppers, tomatoes and the chicken (you can also add panceta - if you wish to do so, add it with the pepers) Then cook slowly on a slow heat adding pimentón and pepper (I don't like adding salt when cooking with Chorizo but you can) Then add the seafood, prawns, mussles and squid, you can also add other seafood as you wish (monkfish, crab etc). At this point I added coriander but it's not really necessary (I just love the taste of it and we can't get it in Salamanca so I wanted to add it for that reason. Then add the rice, the saffron and the stock and cook on quite a high heat until the stock has gone and the rice is cooked (AVOID STIRRING)

This is how my paella looked about 5 mintues before it was ready, as you can see the rice has turned a lovely yellow colour and the stock has almost gone.

Serve with Salad and big chunks of bread with a nice glass of Spanish wine.

Perfect.

Trip to Portugal/ Galicia II

After that Lunes de Aguas rant back to the serious business of the second half of my trip to Portugal.

Day 4 - Oporto

After an early rise (Even earlier for Malargey as the clown forgot that Portugal has one hour less than Spain) we went downstairs to have breakfast which was all included in the price of the hostel. Credit really has to go to Léa for finding this hostel, it kind of reminded me of the Big Brother house, without the arseholes. With a big garden, a big open kitchen, living room etc, the only downside was that it was on a massive hill, but didn't really stop everyone thinking the hotel was excellent value for money and very well equipped. After Breakfast we headed down to the city for a morning stroll along the harbour, looking at all the boats. We then took the cliff lift (Reminded me of Saltburn....) up to where the Cathedral was, and as Tom, Em, and Léa went in Malargey and I sat outside in the sunshine thinking, 'once you've seen one, you've seen them all...', after that we went for another wander along a nice bridge where you could see the whole of the city from.

After all the wandering around the streets (with plentys of ups and downs) we were all pretty hungry and went to find somewhere to eat, which was pretty unevenftul. After lunch we went on a boat trip down the River which was really nice and some of the views were really nice, we basically had the boat to ourselves which made us enjoy it even more.

The girls then wanted to visit a Port factory, Port as in being the strong wine everyone seems to drink at Xmas (or we seemed to sell a mountain of it when I worked at Marks & Spencers over Xmas time. The factory was quite a treck away up a lot of windy roads where we nearly got hit by cars a few times but it was well worth the effort to get there. There was the poshest English guy I've ever met in my life as our tour guide but he was an absoloute machine when it came to Languages, speaking fluent English, Spanish, French and obviously Portuguese, however I spotted some mistakes in his Spanish, but who am I to say when he switches so quickly between them all. We went on a tour of the factory showing us where all the wine is stored, explaining to us all the different types of port that they have, they also showed us information on where the grapes come from and how they are turned from grapes into Port wine. He also showed us around and explained about vintage years and when some are worth more than others, they also had some bottles from around 1930's which are obviously not drinkable now a days but it was wierd to think for how long they've been there. Of course the best part of the trip was the desgustación (the trying of the wines), the dude poured us some excellent and extremely expensive port which to be honest I couldn't really appreciate as it just tasted so strong, and I felt a big tispy, the best part of this was that it was all free and we didn't have to pay a single euro. The walk back down the hill certainly did us the world of good in order to clear our heads....

After the Port Tom and I thought lets sack the walking around off and lets chill out at the hostel, talking to random Americans meanwhile the girls went out to find some random place that I cant even remember. The night was pretty uneventful as everyone was pretty tired due to the excessive amount of walking we had done so it was pretty much dinner and bed.

Day 5 - Oporto/Vigo/Random Galician villages/Santiago

As the drive from Oporto to Santiago was quite far we decided to spend most of the Day in the city of Vigo, home of the mighty Celta Vigo. This was the first time I'd ever been to Galicia and it reminded me of the North York Moors (Malargey was puzzled why we kept saying...this reminds me of England...) but everything was just so green, as it rains so much.... so you can imagine my suprise when I came across an Orange tree in the middle of the city center, truly strange, considering all Spaniards who dont live in Galicia speak of is a horrible accent, cold, and lots and lots of rain. However we managed to find a day when the sun was shining, which was the only day of good weather that we had in Galicia (how English do I sound keep talking about the weather) and having a wander down to the harbour and seeing some VERY nice boats (kind of reminded me of being in Mahon) and we then went for a drive along the coast road which was absoloutly lovely, some amazing beaches and some exceptional views, some of the best I've ever seen, made me think Vigo would be an excellent place to live if it wasn't for the crap weather.

We then headed to Santiago which I have to say was pretty disappointing, I'd heard some fgood things about it but I didn't think it was all that great, the weather didn't help and the fact the hotel was so cold and I never got warm for about two days but besides that even if there had been amazing weather I still wouldn't have been to keen on it, too many foreigners, not a lot to see, however, one thing that was great was without a shadow of a doubt the food, the first time I've ever eaten mussles and prawns properly which were both absoloutly georgous (thanks to Emilie for peeling my prawns) and I really enjoyed them. However I was thinking that I probably wont want to eat them back home as they wont be cooked in the same way or be as fresh as what they are in Spain....we shall see.

Unfortunatly we had to go home after visiting Santiago due to the fact that some friends of Malargeys who we were going to stay with in Asturias had to go home due to the poor weather (snow was forecast in the North of Spain) so come Saturday we packed up and came home, with everyone absoloutly cream crackered and me feeling as sick as a dog, then I was sick after Malargeys pasta dish which believe it or not, was top draw.

My hand is hurting from typing so much so I will update later on another trip we made last week to Toledo (Castilla La Mancha)

Lunes de Aguas

The following would only happen in Spain......

the Easter holidays are over, and people go back to work/uni or whatever they may be doing...
However in Spain they decide that people should just go back to work/Uni on the Monday morning and then have the afternoon off, WHY!? Why just not have the whole day off? So strange, but after living in Spain nothing suprises me....

Ps - The local court has now been closed due to strikers for 51 days.....

Trip to Portugal and Galicia (NW Spain)

It seems absoloutly ages ago since I updated this, which it probably is, but I have had good reason, as I have been to Portugal and up to North Western Spain (Galicia) for the first week of the Easter holidays.

To begin with we went to a place called Leiria where my flatmate Léa has two friends who are doing a work placement there so to begin with we went there on the Sunday (Léa and Malargey had already gone on the Friday) so we had to bus it, which seemed to be the longest journey ever, and we nearly missed our connecting bus, but hey, we made it in the end.

After arriving and finding the hostel we went out for a wander around Leiria, which was nice but really small and nothing to write home about to be honest, it was more or less the same size as Guisborough, we then headed out for dinner for some very typically Portguese Spaghetti Bolognase...... and then off to bed as I was absoloutly cream crackered.

Day 2 - Leiria/Random beach

After a nice sleep in we went to a village next to Leiria which I cant remember the name of to see it, but it was pretty shit, plus it was absoloutly pouring down and we were all like drowned rats. So we headed back to Florent and Benoits flat to make dinner (lunch) nd then chilled out until the storm passed....as in many foreign countries a few hours later you could hardly tell that it had been raining so we headed off to the beach for a play in the sand but unfortunatly it was too cold to get in the water, but we still had fun anyway.

After going back to Leiria to have a few jars and then Tom and I made a curry for the Frenchies, cue many comments like, 'I never knew English people ate vegetables', but the way they wolfed down the curry you could see it was a great success.

Day 3 Leiria/Figueira da Foz/Oportoa

Another late start before we headed for Oporto, but first we spent the day in Figueira da Foz, to have lunch and to have a wander around, which was pretty nice, again a small town but once again spoilt by the weather, so far we had no luck with weather, we then headed up the coast towards Oporto stopping of in some random place for a coffee and some snacks. Obviously we got lost looking for the hostel in Oporto, with it being such a big city and us only having some instructions scribbled down on paper, but to be fair Malargey is just like a tomTom so we got their in the end. We were all pretty tired so we headed out for dinner before having a midnight stroll around Oporto before going to bed ready for an early start.

I will update more later

John's visit to Salamanca

Today was a very good day, one of the best since I got here.
About a week ago I got an email from an old teacher (my A level Spanish teacher) telling me that had organized an exchange in Valladolid and that they were planning to come to Salamanca for the day and we had to meet up as we always got on really well despite the obvious age gap and me being a student and him being my teacher.
I have always had lots of respect for him and I have loads to think him for, as if it wasn't for him, Cristina, Kiko and Chino I would have never took Spanish that seriously but thanks to them four I have got to where I am now.
We met up on the morning and went for a breakfast coffee (tea for me) then wandering around Salamanca before going for pinchos and wine before going for lunch (you can see the Spanish life is built around eating) where John paid for everthing and despite me offering he would not take anything, so I ate like a King for free.

I also met some of the students who were doing As/A2 and I thought, 2/3 years ago that was me, and look how far I had come. John spoke to me in Spanish throughout the whole day (which I thought he might) and one of his bilingual students also commented I had a better Spanish accent than him, which I'm sure hurt his pride a little bit haha
some of his students also knew mysister which was a bit wierd, and someone of their names rang a bell with him from LJS.
Anyway I'm going for a little siesta as I am so full before going to pay the rent.

Warning - long post - Emilie n Stephen, the spring and the trip to Portugal among other things

Buenas tardes.

For anyone who has been not aware, I am now kind of seeing a French girl called Emilie. It's quite a long story which I wont bore you all with, but we first kissed on a drunken night out back in November or December (can't remember when) but we were both very intoxicated and not a lot was thought of it at the time. However, the same thing kept happening everytime we went out, with anything only happening when we were drunk or after we'd 'had a few', Emilie had also just split up with her boyfriend so she needed time bla bla bla. Anyway, after Xmas we both admitted we liked one another and that was that, since then we've spent quite a lot of time together (alone and with everyone as our group of friends are pretty much the same due to the fact my flatmates Léa's best friend here is Emilie so that is how I met her.

I don't actullay remember anything about Emilie at all until we kissed, like we always had friends in common and such but I never actullay asking her anything other than the occasional 'Bonjour ca'va?, but Tom can recall me passing comment on one of the first times she came to our flat back in September that she was really pretty, but I can't even remember having a proper convo with her, but we probably never did anyway till after Xmas as before hand we were always flirting or messing about over stupid things. I guess you could say maybe we're spending too much time together (the last 3 nights for example) but to be honest I aint really worried about that as at the time we're just enjoying each other company despite the obvious language barrier, as her English isn't the best and my French is even worse (except from connasse, salope etc etc, gracias a Léa) and obviously we both speak excellent Spanish but at the same time we don't share each others mother tounge but it can be frustrating but at the same time it is also incredibly funny and some of the things we have got mixed up have been astounding.

Moving onto other things, spring has officially arrived! Yesterday walking home from Em's around 2 in the afternoon I went past a pharmacy which had the temperature at 22c, not bad for the end of Feb/beginning of March. With the weather being so nice Em and I decided to go to the park where I was teaching and correcting her subjunctive (anyone who has ever done Spansih will know how hard that is) which was good. We then went for Ice Cream in the Plaza Mayor which was absoloutly packed with people soaking up some rays and after that went home to phone my Mum for Mothers Day (Happy Mother's day Mum) and headed up to the Puerta de Zamora where we had arranged to meet the usual gang (Malargey, Julien, Em, John, Javi) etc for some Sunday night pinchos and vinos.

Yanks taking over Salamanca and introducing Emilie

Hello all.

The last few days it feels like I am an American college as there are so many Americans here! They seem to have arrived within the last few weeks and you now cannot go anywhere without hearing Americans and their loud voices. I guess William did warn us about this so can't complain too much.

Was also going to write about a girl I am kind of seeing but I've just been called to make one of my famous salads so I will do that later on today

c'est le weekend !

The weekend is here, well it arrived for me last night as this semester I have the bulk of my classes on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesday.

For Semester 2 I choose, Lengua Espanola (Linguistics), Metodologia de la ensenanza del espanol (a TESOL module) and estudios culturales de los EEUU (American Studies) I need to pick one more but I'm not sure which one to do yet. Also my marks are out from Semester 1 so I need to go and get them and see how I did.

Emilie finishes her exams tomorrow, So I'm looking forward to spending more time with her as she's been busy busy busy as her exams actullay count towards her degree. A big night out tomorrow will be in order as everyone will have officially finished and they'll want to let of steam.
So yes, bring on le weekend.....

Castilla y León es vida

What a lovely day. Night out for Tom's birthday and wake up to find the sun shining brightly and not a cloud in the sky. So I ventured down the Plaza Mayor with some friends to have dinner which consisted of paella whilst sitting back and enjoying the warm Spanish sunshine.

Esto sí que es vida !!

Dean and Katy's wedding

What a simply amazing day. I came home on Thursday and Jon picked me up from Edinburgh airport and took me through to Glasgow just in time for Deans stag-do.

As the girls went to the Shanghai Shuffle and the boys went to Di Maggio's just off George Square. It was really nice to see everyone who I had not seen for AGES (Steven Butler, big Jon Harrison etc) and we quickly ordered plenty of red wine and ordered our food, I also got to meet the best man who was an absoloute scream and it was a lovely meal. After that we headed onto different bars/pubs in Glasgow where the red wine continued to flow and other antics. (The hardcore gang went back to dean and katy's where the police came at 6AM to get them to basically shut the fuck up and get the music turned off (I think Katy thought it was a stripper...)

On the Friday I spent the morning with my Gran and Davey, went to a Market just near the Forge in Glasgow, and when she went off to get her hair done for the Wedding I went to Pat and John's and went for a run with them and Vicky to where we were staying for the wedding to make sure we didn't get lost on the day. However, this proved to be a disaster as we got a bit lost and someone gave us some crap directions but we got there, better late than never.

On the Friday night not a lot was done, had dinner with the family and Uncle Les too before going to pick up Graeme from his lovely girlfriends who I met for the first time and she is very pretty indeed. My parents then arrived on the Friday night and it was really nice to see them.

Come the morning of the wedding....

Putain, joder....its snowing! But luckily it cleared!

Then for the wedding itself, it was absoloutly great, so nice to see everyone together and it was typically Scottish, ie everyone in kilts, plenty of 'halfs' knocking around (that is whiskey not half pints) champagne and generally all sorts of banter.

Special mention has to go out to the best man's speech as he came out with this cracker....'Dean, where you going on the honeymoon again mate? 'Thailand why...?'..... 'Oh I thought you were going to Wales for a week?... 'Wales?'... 'Yeah I thought you were going to Bangor for a week...' (if you're reading this and English is not your native tongue you wont get the joke so sorry)

The night do was followed by a buffet and lots of dancing, drinking, bantering and catching up with people and also meeting Katy's side of the family and also Jackies side (Deans Mum - who is married to my Uncle, obviously....)

So overall it was perfect, certainly the best wedding I've ever been to.

Here are a few more photos...

Myself with the groom Dean (my cousin) and with Dean's Dad (Big Jon Harrison) Shame you can't see their kilts.

And below, Dean with my sister and Vik.

Home sweet home

So nice to be home and back in my own bed, among friends and family, at the minute don't want to come back to Salamanca, but I'm sure that will all change once I get in the mood again to go back (when I start packing I imagine).
Dean and Katy's wedding was absoloutly amazing and I felt privildged to be there, I will update tomorrow with pics and fill you in on their big day.
Peace.

Tropical like weather in the Manca

Long time since I've updated, soon I'm going to do a post about Spanish exams, when I have more time.

Anyway the last few days the weather has been absolutly fantastic, after leaving Amelies house due to the lack of nice food/or lack of anything that wasn't French, I went to meet Tom for a beer and lunch in the Plaza Mayor, just sitting in the sunshine and the sun was so warm, I have gone a bit red from it, but hey. Then Tom's flatmate phoned us saying her and some friends were going for a Chinese so we went along too, I am totally bloated and I hope you're jealous of the lovely weather

What is Spanish drink/food like????

Well as most of us all think Spanish people always stink of garlic, eat paella and drink sangria I decided to do a post about some of the things I have been eating since I got here.

Start with drinking

Mosto - A kind of grape juice that is very sweet, absoloutly lovely with plenty of ice and a slice of lemon, very popular in bars with people of all ages.

Vino tinto - One thing I have never heard anyone complain is the quality of the wine, if its from La Rioja or locally produced here in Castilla y León (mostly from Valladolid).

Kalimotxo (Calimocho) - Student drink consisting of lots of ice, red wine and coke, sounds horrible but it's not.

Eating

Sortido de Ibéricos - Surely one of the best things ever invented?? Plate filled with Spanish ham, 'lomo' which I dont know how to describe in English, but its like pork but not thick pork or pork chops, chorizo - a bit like spanish pepporoni and salchichón a bit like salami, usually eaten in bars with lots of bread and people just dig in, perfect party food.

Morcilla - Think of black pudding/haggis with rice and there you go.

Well all this talk of food is making me hungry so I will finish it off another time

1*14*08

Havn't really updated that much since I got back to Salamanca, but that doesn't mean a lot has not happened, but nothing exceptional has occured that makes me think that many people would be that interested.
What's new? Well...I've joined a gym and find myself with a lot of motivation to attend almost every day, never thought I would find myself typing this...
At the minute we're on study leave so the days are long and quite boring at times as I don't really have to do that much, so I've taken advantage of this time to research into Chávez and the whole political situation in Venezuela, which is really grabbing my interest the more I dig my heels in,
Last week not a lot happened, hung out with Flip and Tom a lot as Flip's girlfriend had broken up with him and he needed cheering up, what could cheer you up more than some pinchos and unos vinos de la rioja from our favourite wine bar. Kirsty came round to see me and we caught up on the post xmas gossip and apart from that not a lot.
Friday night was Anne's birthday, and a few people had put some money together to get her a few things, a toy sheep, socks, tops etc etc and on the night she had a botellón at hers and after that we headed out to the chupi and then to el potemkim.
SaturdayI watched Boro V Liverpool as it was on live over here, and after that went to Nath's piso for her flamates birthday where he had made loads of polish food, I only stayed about 45 mins as I had already arranged to go and watch a film with Emilie so I went to meet her and explained I felt bad as I had eaten/drunk quite a lot so she said no problem we will go back for abit (probably the fact there were about 10 frenchies there convinced her, plus nath is always a good host) and we had some polish vodka with some fruit thing and tobasco which I have to say was horrible but it seemed to go down a treat with everyone. Kryziek also made sourkraut which I thought looked terrible but I have to say it was lovely.
After we had given him the card from everyone me and Em went to watch a movie, which was quite hard to understand as it was set in Andalucia but a good film.
We then just listened to some music and both feel asleep and slept all the way through untl the next morning.

So yea, not a lot has happened. Oh and i'm home on the 31st for Dean's wedding.

Mi piso/My flat

Welcome to chez Stephen/JuJu/Martin and Glinny.
My untidy room.
View from my bedroom window

Hall (Notice Juliens sexy coat)
From kitchen balcony (una favela)
Julien's favourite room and Léa's least favourite
Living room/passae
Once again, Léa's least favourite room in the house.

Well quite a lot of people have been asking how my house is, so there you go.

Sorry for the crap layout, Im crap at these things.

Time spent being home

I am now back in Salamanca. Got the plane from Edinburgh Saturday afternoon and got to Salamanca in the early hours of the morning.

I really enjoyed being home and seeing everyone, from having endless amounts of tea with Thea to hammering Rowney at Kay’s party to drinking wine of reminiscing of old times with Charley. Was so nice to see that I still do feel at home with all these people despite not seeing them for so long, and that after 5 minutes or so after telling them about Salamanca it was like I’d never been away from Guisborough.

Christmas was also very good, as many of you know I spent it up in Carmyle (just outside Glasgow) at my Grans house but maybe that should be rephrased and say that I spent it with Graeme playing on his new Xbox and beating him at PES.
We also went to the Rangers game on Boxing day V Motherwell and it was totally freezing, I was quite impressed with Motherwell and thought they passed the ball around nicely as I was expecting long punts up field, but they went down fighting to clinical finishing from Rangers and the game ended 3-1 with Rangers killing the game in the last few minutes from Kris Boyd. On the night we went to my Auntys for a final few drinks and a buffet before heading down the road back to England as my Mum was up for work the next morning so unfortunately we couldn’t stay Boxing day night aswell but overall I had a brilliant time and it has made me more excited to go to Dean and Katy’s wedding on the 2nd of February.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and a very happy new year to everyone.

le jour de gloire est arrivé !!

Last few days back home are going to be hectic, I've been frantically trying to fit everyone in before going back to Spain aswell as sorting stuff out to go back.
Tomorrow I have so much to do it is untrue, gym, pack, wash clothes, make beef bourguignon, then at night I'm really excited to see Charley, as I have not seen her properly for ages, so we're gonna catch a film (maybe volver if I can persuade her and she loves Almodóvar ) and share some wine and generally find out whats new.
Friday, meeting with Thea for coffee at a new Café that has opened in Guisborough then going for a few jars with Cook before going up to Scotland and going back to La Manca on Saturday.