Rock Climbing in Spain-A Perfect Sat

At UNT every first Wednesday of the month the rec center offered free rock climbing on a huge fake indoor mountain with nicely colored coordinated hand and foot holds.  I tried my best to make it every wednesday and succeeded at finding something I really enjoyed at the rec center other than swimming and yoga.  I guess I liked it because not only is rock climbing a physical challange  but it's mental one as well.   I think that's why I hate other forms of exercising, the treadmill or lifting waights, that type of exercise is so repetitive and boring to me.  Of course at the rec center being able to see clearly the brightly marked hand and foot holes makes fake rock climbing a cinch.   Real rock climbing is not so easy.

Today me and Tad woke up early and met our new friends Ruben and Pablo for some real rock climbing in the foothills outside of Motril.  I was very excited and ready for the challenge of climbing a real rock instead of the fake colorful one I was used to climbing back in college.   Once we got there we started our journey across the road down a steep embankment (which climbing down it scared me more than what I was about to do) and across a cold stream.   Yes, miss city girl was looking for a bridge to cross the stream while the boys were taking off there shoes and crossing it barefoot.  It was such a small steam I'm a little embarrassed.  The water wasn't as cold as I thought it would be so I slowly made my way across hoping not to slip on the algea covered stones.   Finally we were at the base of a huge rock ledge off the side of a mountain and it was my turn to face my fear of heights.  Afraid of heights yes, but not afraid of the rock that was right in front of me.

Slowly I made my way up and every time I looked down I had butterflies in my stomach, it was a great adrenaline rush to say the least.   Sadly I didn't make it to the top, my arms were hurting and I couldn't find any more holds for my feet or fingers.  I was definitely high enough for my first go around.  The boys were so helpful, they lent s some rock clibing shoes and taught us everything we needed to know including how to say carabiners in Spanish, "mosquetones."  After a small break and a PBJ  I made my way up a second time on an easier part of the rock.  I was able to climb a little higher this time, it was great!  I had so much fun and I'm looking forward to going again hopefully soon.

Pictures below of course!

Culture shock and a Field Trip

It will get easier they told me.  I’m not really sure it has.  Or maybe I’m missing it.  The language is just not sticking like I want it to.  Granted I haven’t really been studying like I should.  I feel like I learn new vocabulary everyday, but I lose it as soon as I learn it.  I might remember it for the first 5 minutes then all of a sudden it’s gone, kind of like scenery outside a car window on a long drive.  Oh Spanish why can’t you come easy for me?

The language is kicking my ass and I’m teetering on the first two stages of culture shock, the honeymoon stage and the resistance stage.  There are days that I’m amazed by what I find here in my small town of Motril and then there are days when I think it would just be easier if I were back in the states.  But I’m not in the states, so I have my small fit of frustration and then go on about my day.

A few weeks have past since my last blog so I’ll do my best to catch yall up on what’s been happening.   I went to the small Halloween party with my roommates, which was fun and interesting.  We even threw a small party in our piso and had fun teaching our new friends how to play beer pong.  Getting to know the locals has been fun but I still haven’t found anyone I can really connect with.

Work has been great!  I’ve been getting to know my teachers better and teaching the kids has been getting easier every day.  One of my teachers has even helped me set up private English classes to teach on the side for extra money.  She even helped out with tons of resources including a room at the high school to teach and tons of materials she sent me home with.  The extra money is going to help a lot, especially since when I get bored my favorite thing to do is shop and I need to save up for a Christmas vacation to the Austrian Alps to go skiing.  Hopefully that didn’t jinx anything, I still have to find a vacation package for it and everything. 

Lastly today I went with one of my favorite classes on a field trip to the Parque de las Ciencias in Granada.  I had so much fun and the best part about it was that it was all free!  The kids were so well behaved and they had thought it was great to have Miss Mikey come along.  Some of the exhibits we saw included the body exhibit, which included some of Gunther von Hagens famous plastination bodies.  We also visited an exhibit about electricity and one about space.  I tried my hardest to explain that NASA was in Houston where I’m from but the kids didn’t know what NASA was other than it had something to do with astronauts.  Truthfully I’m not sure I know that much about it either.  Horrible I know.  My favorite parts of the day were the observation tower, the butterfly atrium and the bird show.  Pictures below.

Good news is I finally have Internet in my piso so I can update my blog more often, hopefully with more interesting things that happen from day to day.  Now I got to go out and get ready for some tapas with the locals, like always every weekend.