As it turns out, Italy and I are not friends. It took me just over a month of courting this country to reach this conclusion. I tasted Italian promised delicacies and visited its architectural delights. All of which have been shamelessly plugged through amazing images in glossy travel magazines and of course the internet. And […]
Last week we had a long weekend in Spain (or maybe just Madrid?) known as the puente – which literally means ‘bridge’. It poetically bridges the gap from one week to the next. True to form, my overly organised engineer husband ensured that we had great plans. Great romantic plans. This was destined to be […]
I have literally travelled to the other side of the world and back since my last blog post. Australia is a long, long way from Spain. Seriously. Let’s look at this in numbers: 30 – the number of hours to travel one way from Spain to Australia. Don’t forget to double it for the return […]
Well, it’s been business as usual in España for me. I am slowly falling into a rhythm and weekly pattern that entails 4 days a week of teaching English and Physical Education in a public Spanish high school, 1 day a week attending a group Spanish class and about 3 hours per week of intense […]
It became apparent pretty quickly that people in Spain have a very different perception of ‘personal space’ compared to what I’m used to in Australia. Undoubtedly, the land down under is blessed with a large mass of land with a disproportionately small population allowing everyone (as my nana would say) enough room to swing a […]
Most Spanish cities I have visited so far (to be fair only about 5) have been absolutely spectacular at night time. When the sun sets and sky gradually darkens the Spanish lights turn on and boy is it worth hanging around for. The lighting in Spain is incredible. Wherever and whenever I walk around Spanish […]
Well, I originally intended to write a post about some of the amazing food I’ve been eating in Madrid lately – creamy goat cheese pinchos (queso de cabra) with caramelised onion, squid with aioli (pulpo con alioli) and the trusty patatas bravas hot crunchy potatoes with a mild spicy sauce…. Unfortunately a tummy bug has rendered […]
With our dirty clothes piled in a corner outside of our bathroom (yes we are normal people), hubs and I thought it would be timely to buy a washing basket, aka a laundry hamper. A quick Google search and advice from our fellow Aussie expats lead us to Zara Home. The Aussie equivalent is probably […]
So it turns out, you can’t buy self raising flour in Spain. Many trips to various different grocery stores, broken Spanish, google tranlsater and even bilingual English/Spanish speaking customers who took pity on my poor attempts to explain what I was looking for in sign language – ultimately failed to rustle up self raising flour. […]
We have officially been in Madrid for 2 weeks now and I have just finished my first week of work! That’s right. I am back in the employment saddle and legally so! I have returned to my chalky roots and re-engaged with teenage angst. I am back in front of a classroom as an Auxiliary […]
a year abroad in Spain... 