_ Ok, a few music related things have happened in the past few weeks. For those of you who don’t know, I write songs. I sing, but I don’t play any instruments (I’m working on the piano).  During Thanksgiving I met another auxiliary named Shawn who said that he had some recording equipment and he sort of knew how to play the guitar. A few weeks ago I wrote a song and I really wanted to get some music behind it. So I sent a message to Shawn asking if he wanted to do something. He said he would and that he knew of other people who also played the guitar that would be interested. Enter Brian. Brian used to be in a band before he came to Spain and, after seeing my YouTube videos, sent me a message asking if I wanted to meet up. That weekend we got together and within the first hour, we had finished the song I had written. This guy is amazing. He also has recording equipment and we made plans to record once he got a new microphone. So that was pretty exciting within itself to find someone who gets as excited about music as I do. But wait, there’s more!

This past weekend I went to Madrid for the Kina Grannis concert. Kina is a YouTube star who is rising in fame. I’ve never been able to go to any of her concerts in the states and when I saw she was coming to Madrid, I knew I had to go. The tickets were pretty cheap as well, so I grabbed the opportunity. After inviting lots of friends (and strangers) to go to the concert with me, I ended up having to go alone. I honestly don’t mind doing things alone, but I was a little concerned about getting around Madrid by myself. My trip started at 10:00 a.m. here in Jumilla, where I caught the bus into Murcia. I then had a two hour layover in Murcia so I grabbed a chocolate donut and waited. After eating I looked down to find chocolate on my dress so I was then FORCED to go shopping. I lead a really rough life, I know. After finding an amazing coral dress at H&M, I was finally on my way to Madrid. We made it into town at 6:00 p.m.  and I immediately caught the metro into town. I made it to my hostel around 7:00, checked in and ran back out the door since doors for the concert opened at 8:00. When I got to the club, there was already a small line. We made it inside and I had a front row seat (or standing area I guess since Spaniards don’t like to sit down) of the stage. The concert was great! A guy who calls himself Imaginary Friend opened for Kina and he was awesome. Then Kina came out and sang for about an hour and a half. She’s really amazing and so beautiful. After the concert was the meet and greet, and here is where things get interesting. So like I said, I write songs and a few years ago I wrote a song called, “The YouTube Song”. It just so happens that I mention Kina in that song and so I knew I had to tell her about it. So once I got up to the front of the line I took my picture with Kina and then I told her about the song. She told me to be quick since the line was really long and her manager was herding us through like goats. So I sang the part that mentions her and I’ve got to admit, I thought I had made a terrible mistake. Kina was making those “Ohhh!” sounds like someone who just saw a cute puppy, you know? So I was feeling pretty patronized but I pushed through and as her manager cut me off Kina said, “Oh my gosh I love your voice! Send me the link to your song, I want to hear the whole thing!” AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!! That felt pretty good to hear! So then after I talked with her I was talking with her friend Keith Tutt II who played the cello for her tour. He was really fun to talk to and when I mentioned that I sang he asked me to send him my songs. And he then gave me his personal email address so that I could send him my songs!!

So needless to say, I was walking on a cloud all the way back to my hostel after the concert.  I don’t know if anything is going to come of any of these encounters I’ve had in the past few weeks, but it’s nice to know that other artists are interested in me. Maybe I do have a future in music!

Thanks for reading!

~Arisha~

P.S. If you want to see the YouTube song (or any of my other songs) you can check it out here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBf68HvTTu0&feature=plcp&context=C3feecb4UDOEgsToPDskJxC3JR8mWKmYyzkpjU2Lvh

You can learn more about Kina Grannis here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/kinagrannis

And Imaginary Friend here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/imaginaryfriendmusic

_  When my friends and family have asked me about Spain recently, they’ve all received the same answer, “Umm…It’s ok. I’m ready to come back home.” It’s been an unfortunate thing to tell people and I feel like I should be more thankful for this opportunity. But everyone has assured me that it’s ok if I’m not having the time of my life and that it’s an experience all the same. Today I think I had a moment of enlightenment. I was walking to one of my classes and on the way I saw a couple of my students. One of the girls was so excited that she ran up and gave me a hug. Later after my class I passed even more of my students and each of them greeted me by shouting my name and giving me a huge smile. It was in that moment that I realized their smiles are the reason that I am here. It’s not about me learning more Spanish or making lots of friends or about me traveling around Europe. I am here first and foremost to help these children learn English. It took me five months to realize that life is not always about me! So when I get frustrated living in a small town, or when I have troubles with my roommates or when the children don’t sit in silence during the entire class period, I’m going to think of those smiles. I’m going to think of the way the children shout my name when I walk in the door. That is why I’m here; not for myself but for them.

_  This weekend I met up with the Model UN for some salsa dancing. Julie couldn’t make it because she was sick but Laura’s roommate, Jessica, came along and added a second representation for England. We made an amazing cheesy pasta and garlic bread for dinner and got ready to go to Bora Bora. I had an amazing night as always.  I had a few dances with my latest salsa crush, a guy who has prematurely graying hair that we nicknamed Silver Fox. Plus Laura got out on the dance floor and showed off her moves. Jessica is a natural and although she didn’t dance with anyone, she knew all the footwork and could recognize the type of dance by the song that was playing.  Around 3:00 we said our goodbyes to Katie and went back to Rebecca’s house to sleep. The next day Rebecca had plans with a teacher so Jessica, Laura and I went to have breakfast before catching our buses back to our respective towns. We still had a little bit of time left so we decided to do some shopping to kill some time.  While walking I noticed this guy staring at us as we passed by.  As I said before, people stare at me a lot here in Spain and I’ve gotten to a point where I’ve just started saying hello to startle them a bit. So this guy is staring and I didn’t think he looked very Spanish so I just said, “Hello.” He looked a bit surprised but then said, “Hello! Are you from the states?” We struck up a conversation and met our new best friends Randy from Oregon and Cristian from Romania. They were from another small town called Garrucha and were in Murcia with one of their Spanish roommates.  We took them around Murcia and had some tea and coffee before heading to the bus station where they were meeting their roommate.  I didn’t really feel like heading back to Jumilla and the boys invited me to tag along with them to the mall. So we spent some time at the mall and went to a football game between Real Murcia and Cordoba (Murcia won!). And I still had time to catch the last bus back to Jumilla that night. So now I’ve got some new cities to visit! We made plans with the boys to go to Granada in a few weeks. The Model UN continues to grow!

In other news I finished my first book in Spanish last night! It's a book based on this Spanish series I've been watching called Los Protegidos.

_ Since it’s been a few weeks since I posted, I’m going to sum up a few different things today.

First let’s talk about Thanksgiving. During Thanksgiving I was invited to a small dinner with a few fellow auxiliaries. We had it potluck style, but legit, with a huge Turkey, stuffing, macaroni and cheese, candied yams, green beans, etc. etc. Needless to say, it was a great Thanksgiving. The best part was going around the table and saying what we were thankful for. Here is a list of things that I’m thankful for this year:

1.       Having great new friends here in Spain. Every weekend I get to go into the city for a party or a concert or just to go shopping. It has definitely made the experience that much more fun having friends to share things with.

2.       A job. In a time when the world is in crisis, I have a job. Plus I only work four days out of the week and I’m able to travel to other cities and countries.

3.       Diversity. I’m so thankful that the United States is such a diverse country. Every day when I walk to work, someone stares at me. And they don’t stare and then look away, no they GAWK at me. It’s nice to know that at home we have all types of skin colors and cultures. I love that about the States.

4.       My mother.  She is an amazing mother, my best friend, ‘nuff said.

5.       My friends from home. They are so great. They love me despite my awkwardness and insecurities. This trip would be perfect if I could have them here with me.

 

On the bus back to Jumilla after Thanksgiving, I got hit on by this Moroccan guy.  I had noticed him before we got on the bus, he was well dressed and had good hair (I always fall for the curls). So I got on the bus first and he sat in the seat behind me and struck up a conversation.  He asked me if he could sit with me during the trip and I let him. Before we even left the bus station, he asked me, “Do you have a boyfriend?” Ugh, get out of my face. So I lied and told him that I had a boyfriend back home lol. But did that stop him from flirting with me? Nope, not at all. He even tried to hold my hand at one point, the jerk. So he asks for my phone number so that "we can go have a coffee or something" and after giving him the wrong number TWICE (Obviously Moroccans can’t take a hint), I finally gave in and gave him my real number.  So somewhere in Yecla (the next town over) there is a guy named Rachid with my phone number. But he thinks my name is Ashley so I guess that’s good.  Btw Ashley seems to be a very difficult name for people over here so if you have some creepy guy asking for your name, just tell him that it’s Ashley. It’s fun to watch the bewilderment on their faces.

This weekend I went to Valencia to visit my friend Margo. She and I went to college together and we both dance salsa. So of course we made plans to dance. On the way to Valencia I was worried that I would want to dance more than she would, but lucky for me Margo had planned places for us to go all three nights that I was in town! We definitely made a name for ourselves this weekend. One night we went to a club that only had salsa for an hour before they started playing pop and techno.  In Spain, people go to dance clubs to shuffle their feet.  They get a drink, stand in a circle with their group and shuffle their feet. It is so frustrating for me. So when Margo and I got together, we caused some commotion.  At one point we had our whole group jumping around.  They looked really uncomfortable at first but they got into it. On my last night in town we went to a place called Noches de Salsa.  When we got there (at about 12:30) it was pretty quiet with mostly an older crowd. But as the night went on, it turned into a great party.  I was actually picked up off the floor at one point haha.  And there was this beautiful Ecuadorian boy. Oh my gosh I’m still drooling. Anyways, it was a great way to end my time in Valencia. For those of you who don’t dance…firstly, you should start dancing…..secondly, Valencia is a beautiful city even without the dancing. Margo was a great tour guide and she showed me all the major landmarks and all the good food. It’s definitely a must see place if you are in Spain.

Thanks for reading!

~Arisha~

 Firstly, I apologize for the hiatus. Life has been getting pretty crazy around here. Since my last post I have started my extra English classes. For most people in this program that means they have a few private conversation classes with one or two people after work. For me, that means I now have actual classes. When I first arrived, two schools asked me if I could teach a class for five year olds to prepare them for next year when they start English classes in school. I agreed to do it and the teachers told me they would help me with the curriculum.  After a long period of waiting for the teachers to figure out what my schedule would be, I finally received an email one night with a finalized schedule. As I opened the document I was surprised to find that I not only had classes with five year olds, I also had two primary classes and a group of sixth graders. Ok, not what we talked about but I figured I could handle it considering it was only a few hours per week. On my first day of teaching I had a kindergarten class and a primary class. I prepared a few games and songs to play and I felt ready. The kindergarteners were great. They all listened and were very responsive with what I was teaching. I was setting up for my primary class when my first student walked in, Vicente*. Vicente seemed quite large for a primary student, but I just attributed it to him being big for his age. As a few more students trickled in, I started to realize that someone was mistaken. At the beginning of class we went around the room and introduced ourselves, saying our names and how old we were. These are the responses that I got, “My name is Vicente and I am 12 years old,” “My name is Juanita and I am 15 years old”, “My name is Carla and I am 15 years old,” and “My name is Yolanda and I am 15 years old,”.

Awesome.

So what I thought was the primary group was actually secondary and they ranged from 12 years old to 15 years old. It’s extremely difficult to keep both of those age groups entertained at the same time. But anyways, let’s recap:

    1. I was asked to teach a group of five year olds

    2. I now teach children ranging from age 5-15 plus I have a private lesson with a guy who is 28

As far as teaching the classes, some days are better than others. Let’s talk about my primary class. This class has students ranging from Third grade to Fifth grade and they are EXTREMELY talkative. The first day with them was insanity. Something I’ve noticed in all of my classrooms is that Spanish children love to talk and they talk the entire class period, no matter how much the teacher tells them to shut up (And yes, they actually say “shut up”. I had to talk to some of the teachers about that haha). So on the first day with the primary group, I had no control; but I had planned for the worst with all of my classes so I wasn’t too stressed about it. My mom had given me a great idea about what to do with an unruly class.

                Step 1: The bribe. I got some fun toys from the dollar store (they’re called Chinos here) and put them in my                 “treasure bag” aka a shiny green gift bag.

                Step 2: Motivation. Each kid gets ten tickets per week. When they speak in English, they get a ticket into the                 raffle for something out of the treasure bag. When they speak in Spanish, their ticket goes into the trash                     can.

                Step 3: The Payoff. Hold a raffle at the end of each week. Two students win per week and they can’t win                         again until the next month.

                Step 4: Praise God for having such an amazing Mom.

On the second day of class I walked in with my treat bag and explained the rules to the kids. Suddenly I heard this wonderful sound, possibly the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard in my life. It was the sound of Silence. Yeah, just let that soak in.

Of course there is still some talking, but it has definitely helped to calm them down. And now, they are much more motivated to speak in English, which is the whole point of the class.

I will leave you with some food for thought. After years of saying I don’t want to be a teacher, I am now not only a teacher, but I am a kindergarten, elementary, middle school and high school…..TEACHER. Ironic isn’t it?

Thanks for reading!

~Arisha~

*All names have been changed, of course.*

I just got back from a salsa club here in Murcia called Bora Bora and it was amazing!!! I don’t know if it was just because I was craving a dance, but the dances I had tonight were some of the best I’ve had in a long time. Wow, I can’t even find the words to express how happy I was tonight. It’s amazing that I am halfway around the world and I can still find people who express themselves in the same way. I love that about dance and especially about salsa. It’s worldwide and even though we may not be able to communicate with words, we can definitely communicate with our feet. This was by far the best night I’ve had in Spain so far. I’m off to dream about my next dance!

Thanks for reading!

~Arisha~

On Monday I received a Facebook message from Julie inviting a group of Auxiliares to the beach. We decided we were going to try La Manga. After talking to my roommates I decided I would just take a bus to Murcia and then a connecting bus to La Manga. I was told that it would be really easy and that I shouldn’t have any problems getting to the beach. I planned to take a bus at nine the next morning, in case I ran into any speed bumps along the way. Here’s an itinerary of my beach adventure:

8:45- Walk the two minute distance to the bus stop, leaving plenty of time to buy my ticket and get comfortable on the bus.

8:47- Arrive at bus station only to see that it is closed. Upon further perusal, I see that due to the holiday (Columbus Day comes a little later over here) I have to pay for my bus ticket in cash. Ok, no big deal, I sit on a bench and read while I wait for the bus.

9:08- Start to wonder why the bus station is still dead and walk back to the door where a few papers are posted. Read a sign that says buses don’t start running until 10:00 on holidays. Ok, also no big deal. This gives me time to go back to my apartment, grab my iPod and eat some cereal.

9:40- Walk back to the bus station.

10:05-Board the bus

11:00- Arrive in Murcia. I find the bus line that goes to La Manga and ask the girl for a ticket. She shakes her head and tells me that the only bus that goes to La Manga leaves at 5:00. Awesome. It was at this point that I was starting to feel a little discouraged. But I figured I could walk around Murcia and get to know the city a bit.

As I started to walk away from the bus stop, I made sure I knew what street the station was on, in case I got a little lost. I started moving in one direction, but there didn’t really seem to be much on that side, so I tried the other direction; still not much to look at. I approached a taxi driver. I had seen an Ikea and other stores on the way out of Murcia on that first night with Toni and Pepe, so I figured I could spend some time over there. I asked the taxi driver how much it would cost to go to Ikea. He mumbled something in Spanish to the effect of “I don’t know” so I decided not to go with him. At this point I was frustrated and a little out of sorts. I sat down on a bench and thought about my options. I could just go back on the next bus to Jumilla, defeated. I could take a taxi to Ikea. That idea brought up a lot of doubts; what if I can’t get back to the station; what if the taxi driver takes advantage of me and charges me a ridiculous amount, etc. But I decided that I had come too far to just go back home so I decided to go with option two. I figured it would be good to buy my bus ticket first, just so I would have it. There was a piece of paper next to the ticket booth that appeared to be a schedule and it said that there was a bus to Jumilla at 3:00. I got back up to the booth and asked the girl for a ticket on the 3:00 bus. She gave me a look as if to say, “stupid foreigner” and told me that there was a bus at 1:30 or 6:30. Where was she getting this information from?!?  I couldn’t find a schedule anywhere!! Anyways, I didn’t want to stay in Murcia until 6:30 so I opted for the 1:30 ticket; which meant I didn’t feel that I had enough time for the Ikea trip. So I sat in the bus station from 11:30 to 1:30. And so, here we are, back on the couch in my apartment.

I was so mad at myself because I felt like fear got the best of me this time around. But at the same time, I was completely alone and Murcia is a lot bigger than Jumilla. I kept wishing that someone was with me to explore the town. So what I’ve learned from this little trip is that adventures are more fun with others. Even the most annoying problems don’t seem as bad when you have friends around (i.e. dragging heavy suitcases around the metro). Anyone up for a trip to Spain?

Thanks for reading!

~Arisha~

So as I’m typing this I’m sitting on what I hope will be my couch for the next eight months. Finding an apartment here in Jumilla has been more difficult than I thought it would be. I decided not to go with the guy; he was making me nervous with his impatience. So now I’m at the apartment with the two girls. I felt pretty good about my decision as I started moving in, BUT THEN (I know, what now?) I smelled cigarette smoke. Oh my gosh, no! I have lived with a lot of things. I’ve lived with cockroaches falling out of my cabinets, I’ve lived with dirty dishes in the sink for weeks, I’ve lived with suitemates who have strange smells coming from their rooms, but I CANNOT live with cigarette smoke.  Awesome, I had to start looking for yet another place to live. I felt bad calling Toni to complain about the smoke, but she was very understanding and immediately started looking for other pisos. Later the next day I gathered up my courage to talk to Ani. I walked into the kitchen and gave her the bad news. After I told Ani I couldn’t live with her because of the smoke she said, “Ok, I’ll stop smoking.”

Oh.

Well that was easy. Now, I know what you’re thinking, “How is she going to just stop smoking?” But Ani only started smoking a few months ago. She had mentioned that she wanted to stop smoking and so, I was her reason to stop. So we’re going to try it. Which means, I HAVE AN APARTMENT IN SPAIN!!! Whoo! I slept for eleven hours after I unpacked everything. I was super stressed out  haha.

Today I went to the grocery store and did pretty well, except I bought cabbage instead of lettuce. Don’t judge me, they look the same! I also went to a football game (soccer for you people from North America) and after the game was over, two other teams came out onto the court (it was indoor soccer). So I assumed another game was starting and I stayed to watch. While they were warming up they were using their hands a lot with the ball and the ball was a lot smaller than a soccer ball. But I’ve never seen a Spanish team warm up before so I assumed it was for practice. But then the goalie got into the goal to warm up. Instead of kicking the ball at the goalie, they threw it at him! And they were throwing really hard! It was then I realized that this was not football. No these men were playing Balon Mano. As I watched I started to see that this was a mixture between Basketball and Football (soccer). They bounce these little balls and throw them at the goal where the goalie has to block the shot. It was very interesting. Although fouls exist in this game, I couldn’t tell what a foul was because there was a lot of holding that appeared to be legal.  So I learned about a new sport today. And I did it all by myself! I’m such a big girl, haha.

For all of you who told me I was going to find my Spanish boyfriend here, you may be a little disappointed.  So far, I’ve been hit on by an old man and a group of middle school boys.  The boys were really funny. They thought I was French at first and then they guessed every country under the sun except for the United States. Guess my accent isn’t too bad.  Anyways so when they found out I was from the States they started asking me how to say all these different words and phrases in English.  One of them asked me to sing a song, so I sang happy birthday and they all thought I was a great singer. They were fun but a little young for me. So no boyfriend yet, sorry.

Right now I don’t have internet so I’m writing this on Saturday. Hopefully we’ll figure out the internet situation soon.

Thanks for reading!

~Arisha~