Plaza Jacinto Olabe

Because I am lacking a daily life post, I thought I would update on what happens in our little town normally.

I am making up for my years of living in an all girls dorm at an all girls school by living in a shared apartment with 5 guys. Apart from my French Partner in Crime (FPIC) there are two men from Pakistan, one from Romania, and one from the southeast of Spain, as well as occasionally our retired fish-salesman landlord. We get along all pretty well and surprisingly there are rarely fights over the bathroom. We have no oven, the dryer and dishwasher are permanently broken and there are bars on the windows of our kitchen, but I have come to love this apartment more than I ever thought I could.

A day that really describes live in this part of Pais Vasco is the other weekend. It was a calm, sunny Sunday and my FPIC and I were eating breakfast when a parade went by our window. We dropped everything, excited, ran after it and followed it down into the little city center. In the center there was a giant tent set up. Inside there were 3 long tables set up with about 35 people along each table cooking fish in giant pans. It was a fish cooking competition. Each competitor had to use the same kind of fish and the same oil. We wandered around for awhile watching the people shaking their pans and standing around drinking wine. After awhile, my FPIC asked one competitor if there was going to be a time when the people watching could taste the fish. The man said that all the people belonged to different societies (like shriners except with women and children too) and that the fish was eaten in the different societies, but if we came back later we could try his. When we came back he said we were invited back to his society to hang out and have lunch, so after the judging (our guy came in 4th) we headed up the hill, with the 27 other people of this society, to eat. At a big long table with the women and children sitting at one half and the men on the other half , we sat and ate a ton. There was salad and rice and tomatoes with garlic, the competition fish (which was really good) a course of venison and then a course of beef, followed by dessert and accompanied with lots of wine and digestivos. Everyone was amazingly friendly and chatty. At about 6:30pm we finally left and made our way back to our apartment where we found our half eaten breakfast, just as we had left it, hours earlier.

Days like this happen a lot, where we stumble on festivities in town or people invite us and treat us like family. Although were we live is really not a nice looking town, it has in it some of the warmest and most welcoming people that I have ever met.

Also! I hosted my first Thanksgiving! The family of my FPIC and one of our roommates all joined in on my semi-authentic American Thanksgiving. I cooked a stuffed chicken and pie in a toaster oven, made my grandmother's stuffing recipe (enough meant for a 20lb turkey for a little 2kg chicken oops), and served the gravy in a coffee cup, but the evening was wonderful and I think I can call my first ever Thanksgiving a success.

Until next time folks!


PS. Another festival, of Saint Andres, where the women and children dress up and go out in tradition clothing and then I awkwardly try to take pictures of all of them. :D

When Everything Goes South...

Hello All!! The Spanish adventure continues! I recently had the opportunity to explore a little of the south. Here is a little rough map of my route.





I have been struggling with writing this post because there was so much fit into just 11 days. Rather than boring you with all the details, I decided that just a photo summary and some travel tips will do. So here goes...

As is with all normal jobs, after a month and a half of being in Spain, both my French Partner in Crime (FPIC) and I took advantage of some local holidays and time off from work to explore the south of Spain. On a Friday afternoon we packed up our little green Peugeot and headed first to Toledo by way of Madrid.

Stop 1: TOLEDO
Toledo is a beautiful old city. You have to pay to go in most of the churches, sites, etc...but it is just as nice to wonder around the streets or do as we did and go sword shopping.

Stop 2: GRANADA AND THE SIERRA NEVADAS
After having seen every sword in the city of Toledo, we continued our route south to Granada. (Note to my dad: I drove this part).

We didn't really do Granada justice. We got very lost. It was a rainy morning and the tickets to Granada's biggest attraction were sold out (the Alhambra - get your tickets early folks). We decided to forget Granada all together and drove into the mountains instead. We spent the afternoon hiking in the Sierra Nevada mountains. It was windy and freezing but beautiful and perfect. I am sure Granada is a lovely place, but once we left into the mountains instead, we didn't look back.

Hiking in the Sierra Nevadas

Stop 3: TABERNAS
We have a love/hate relationship with our GPS. It spends most of it's time trying to get us onto the most expensive highways and taking the longest routes possible. When we don't follow it's directions it looks like this.

But on the route from Granada to Tabernas it decided to play nice and took us on the most beautiful road. The road took about 2 hours longer than the GPS predicted, but it was so gorgeous that we really didnt care. Much of it looked like this

Sleeping in Tabernas for the night was an interesting experience. The whole time the people in this liitle town were giving off a very staring uncomfortable vibe. It was as though they had never seen anyone from outside their city before, but when they looked at us they seemed to be more secretly cannibalistic than curious. I didn't sleep very much that night.

The next day we went out to find these old towns where Hollywood used to film westerns (and some of Indiana Jones). My FPIC had been dreaming to visit this place ever since he was a little French boy. It took us a bit longer to find one of these old western town than we thought because they happen to be owned by some of the most unfriendly men I have have ever seen. We had to search around but we finally found one. Once there, we were able to recreate all of my FPIC's western fantasies of having gun fights and pushing the doors of the old saloon. I recommend visiting here if you have younger children or an overly enthusiastic French man with you...the road to Tabernas is beautiful and makes the trip worth it, even if the final destination is a little lacking.

Stop 4: NERJA
I dont have a good picture for this place but it is well worth a visit. There is beach, sea, and caves. Also we slept not in the car for the first time of the trip. And showered which is good

Stop 5: GIBRALTAR
The rock of Gibraltar!! This was a fun sight to see enroute. You have to cross a border into Britain to get there, but we were happy just to take photos from Spain. You can also see Africa from here!!

Stop 6: RONDA
The route to Ronda from Gibraltar ran through the mountains and had lots of little white villages throughout like this one...

The thing that Ronda is known for is the birth of bull fighting. Although I am not pro-bull fighting, I did enjoy going into the Plaza de Torros. If you stand in the middle and stomp your feet around there is a really cool echo.

Also to see in Nerja is this huge bridge. You can actually get under it into the gorge on this little path if you jump over a fence and...

















Stop 7: SEVILLA

















There is really only one way that I can sum up Sevilla. It is beautiful and wonderful and we had planned to stay only one night and ended up staying 4. Also we will be moving there next.

Stop 8: TRUJILLO




This a cool little village to visit. We stop enroute from Sevilla to Madrid. There are huge nests from storks on the old church. Also we bought the worst wine of our life here...but they have really good cheese.









Stop 9: MADRID

Happened upon Madrid on Halloween night and they were for sure celebrating it there. We didn't really stay long as we planned to pull an all nighter back to Eibar (but ended up sleeping somewhere in the car) but this short visit was busy and very eventful.

Stop 10: back to EIBAR

Were welcomed back to Pais Vasco by being serenaded on the radio in Euskara. :D It's good to be back

Until next time all!

The Road to Huesca

So last weekend, my french partner in crime (FPIC) and I, decided that we had slept too many nights in a row in the same place. We scanned the areas around us for an exciting, beautiful, and within driving distance, place to go to. In northern Spain there is not a shortage of exciting and beautiful places so in the end we decided to point our car east and drive to Huesca.

Driving east from where we live in Pais Vasco into Navarra is funny. Pais Vasco is mountainous, very rainy,and very very green but just drive an hour east and the landscape turns to desert. It's just as beautiful but like a whole different world.


After a couple hours of driving, we happened upon this landscape (foto below). It looked cool so we slowed down and checked out the area. There were a couple of business advertising rafting and mountain sports. There seemed to be no one around, but my FPIC called some of the phone numbers on the signs and for one there was an answer. A woman answered, she was in the office and told us to come right up.

She was an older woman with two eyebrow rings who was half French, half Spanish. She and my FPIC happily blabbed away in French and pretty soon she was giving us advice on what to do and visit in all the region. We decided to stay in the area for a bit before going on to Huesca and signed up to go kayaking and rock climbing.
When we told her we were looking for a place to camp she said, no no no, you will freeze. We assured her we would be fine but she insisted that we go stay in the hostel in town. When she told us it was 30euros a night a person, my FPIC and I shared a look that said, no way in hell are we paying that. She saw this look and said, "Ok, you will come stay at my house. I have a giant house and I live along and I am lonely, so come stay with me".

So we did. We went for it and it was amazing. She had a huge 4 story house (plus and attic, plus basement) in a little town called, Ayerbe. The house had about 10 bedrooms and one working bathroom. It has been in her family for generations where they lived and harveseted almonds and got them ready to sell in the attic. Attached to the house is an old empty general store that was run by her family as well. My FPIC and I made her pasta with homemade sauce and we ate it in the old dining room that has pictures painted on all the walls, and I got to brush up on my French.

The next day we visited a nearby old and beautiful castle and went river kayaking. (Only flipped it once...when I decided to be the one to steer). The second night we stayed with her again. She had picked up another vagabond girl our age along the way who was rafting and had planned to sleep in her van. She taught us how to make donuts out of pasta and made us pomegranate salad and gazpacho. Laughed our heads off about the kayak guide who had thought I was french and had spend the day speaking to me in a really fast spanish-french mix (much to my confusion) until the end of the day when he found out that in fact I am American. At about 1am when the three of us younger folk decided to go to bed, the women put on her high heels and went to the bars to dance and play foozeball.

We never got to Huesca, but it turned out to be a better weekend trip than we could have hoped for. :D

Breakfasting in front of Castillo Loarre

Rock climbing

Until next time, folks. :D

The Stairs of Eibar

My French Partner in Crime and I have relocated: this time to Pais Vasco!

We are living in the north of spain about a half an hour from the French border. At the end of Auguest, we packed up the little green car with everything we could fit, and headed south with not much planned. Thanks to our new handy GPS, we arrived in Spain and found a camp site near the beach called Saturaan where we lived while looking for an apartment.

Upon arriving in Spain, the most daunting and amusing thing we found was the language. We are living in the Basque Country (Pais Vasco, or Euskadi), where although there is Spanish, the more often found language is Euskara or Basque. We both speak Spanish so we can get by perfectly fine, but it does get a little ridiculous when you are driving down the highway and the sign says: Atsedenleku (rest area), irteera (exit) or Legebiltzarrerako hauteskundeak departamenuarekin (who knows what that means :P).

It is really beautiful here. We found an apartment in a little town called Eibar. It takes only about 3 minutes to get out of the town and to be completely surrounded by nothing but mountains.

With only a 3 minute drive to the mountains, a 20 minutes drive to the beach, a five minute walk to the grocery store, and a 30 second walk to the bar there is never a lack of things to do.

Being located in the middle of the mountains, our little town of Eibar is small but high. In order to get to the city center from our apartment, you go down the stairs. To get back you can take an escalator back up. They are everywhere. You can take an escalator or the stairs to basically any part of town that you want.

These are the stairs/escators closest to our apartment. :)

That is all for now, but there is sure to be more news soon from Pais Vasco.

Paris and a biking adventure

Hola amigos.
Here again trying to catch up news on my blog. At this moment I am moving faster than I can blog so although I am currently living in spain, news for that will have to wait.

Recently, My parents and my aunt were able to visit me in France. My-French-Partner-in-Crime (FPIC) and I were excited to be able to take them around for awhile and in 10 days we attempted to fit in a months worth of things.

In addition to taking them around the Alps and the areas where I had been living, we of course had to go to Paris. My FPIC, being French, hates Paris...but for me it was my first time. It was just like in the movies. Everywhere we turned there was a monument or a famous building or a traffic jam. In 3 days, we fit in The Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triumph, Notre Dame, the Lourve, Versailles, Montmartre, and a million other things.

The Eiffel Tower of course. We did not go up it but we did go under it! Someone dropped a baseball hat off of it and a man caught it out of the air and put it on his kid's head.

Back in the mountains, my FPIC brought my dad and I mountain biking in the Alps. You can buy a ski lift ticket and then take your bike up the lift and ride down all day. It is beautiful and fun but also rather on the difficult side for a person who likes to go fast but has so technical experience like me. The first day I suffered from only a few spills, but on my second day out I got a little cocky and tried to take a jump. I am sure it ws quite impressive when the bike flipped and I flew landed face first and was dragged through the mud. In the end, I was able to stand up, collect my dented bike and broken helmet and we found a bar on the mountain where the waitress took one look at my face and led me behind the bar to use the sink.

Although it has healed now, I do have a nice scar on my nose and forehead from the day I thought I was an expert mountain-biker and flung myself facefirst down a mountain.

The view is amazing from the biking trails.

And thank you to all who were with me in person and in spirit on my special day.


Love to all,


Laura

The Land Where Opera Singers Serve Pizza

My apologies in advance because there is a whole lot to fit in one little blog and no time to do it.

As promised, a little bit of Italy.

My French-Partner-in-Crime and I decided that it was time to visit Italy. We jumped in the car, went past this old abandoned building in the middle of the mountains that used to be the French-Italian border, and made our way down to Florence, Italy.

All of Italy was beautiful but I dont think we were quite ready for what Florence had to offer. Every street and every turn led to a place more beautiful than the next. For two days we just wandered around the city with our tongues hanging out. Our first night we paced by a pizza place where the servers stopped serving to serenade their patrons with opera music. It was amazing, like being in a movie.

Florence by day. Close to where we were camping (within walking distance of the city).

Also in Italy we...

-battled in the famous coloseum.

-played cards on the roof of the vatican

-And of course tried to keep the tower of Pisa from falling.

In the end, I recomend visiting Florence, Italy 100%. For those who take this very wise advice and do go to Florence, here is a good tip. When visiting the giant basillica in the city (it's huge, you will know which one i am talking about when you see it) dont wait in line to go to the top of the dome. The line is about 5 hours too long. Instead, go into the close-by tower attached to the basillica, pay 6euro and climb to the top. You get the same amazing view from the top as the dome but with about 1/16th of the wait.

Until next time. :D

-Laura

A French Kiss

Hello All!

It's time to share my first big faux pas in France. After a couple of weeks of hiking and eating cheese and wine, my French Partner in Crime (FPIC) brought me to visit with some of his friends. I was a bit nervous to meet them with my still limited French-speaking abilities but decided to wing it nonetheless.

We got there and everyone started to greet eachother in the French style with a kiss on each cheek. In Chile, I had no troubles with this because you greet with only one kiss, but in the moment with one kiss on each cheek I wasn't sure which side went first. In the end I ended up planting a kiss right on the lips of my FPIC's best friend's girlfriend. Oops. I am not sure who was more surprised, me or her but it definately is one way to make a first impression!

Until next time!! Coming up next time is news shared from the previous blog preview...Pizza in Pisa!!!

A Preview of the next Post...

Look! It's a Piece of Pisa Pizza!!

A Little Bit of Haute Savoie

I have to be honest, until recently France was not a country that I ever really paid any attention to or planned to visit. In my efforts to learn Spanish, I didn't even really have Europe on my radar...but I am learning quickly what beautiful and amazing country France really is. My first two weeks here have been a surprise and unpremeditated vacation as my French-partner-in-crime has been playing tourguide for me in his home region. I have now really and truely fallen in love with the French Alps...and here are some of the reasons why...

Not uncommon in the Alps to see ski poles used as fence posts! They are everywhere. The poles are always laying around so people pick them up and use them.

Une bonne photo of Grenoble...the city where I am currently living...from above. :D From this site you can see my french-partner-in-crime's house and the city's most expensive rotary. haha

I had a day on my own to explore Albertville...a nearby city that felt every bit as European as an old time movie. I even gained the confidence to finally order an iced tea in french...(although mostly all I did was point).

Took a day to explore Mont Joux near Megeve. It was beautiful with the Mont Blanc in the background, small mountain villages, and really loud goats roaming around. This is one of those places where you would want to spend your life as maybe a sheep herder who gets around by motorbike and passes their time playing cards with elderly french farmers.

Most recently spent a day hiking to Lac Blanc near Chamonix. All the tour books highly recommend this as a must-see. It was amazingly beautiful with a different side view of the Mont Blanc. We took Les oeufs (the ski lift thing) up halfway and hiked the rest. The top was crowded but by scaling some rocks to the other side of the lake, we were able to have a nice, tourist-free, picnic of bread, cheese, sausages, and of course, wine. We walked all the way down, which we dont recommend because the lower half of the mountain is a loose dirt road that is just a pain. Our decision to RUN down resulted in me loosing my camera (from where i stupidly left it in my pocket). It wasn't until later that night that I realized it was missing and too late to go look. Instead, the next day we got up at 6am, like crazy people, to reclimb the bottom half of the mountain to search for it. Miraculously after an hour of climb, we found it!!! It must have had an exciting night in the mountains. Unfortunately, it took no pictures on it's own. :D Glad to have the camera back, but now I can double-ly recommend that if you go to Lac Blanc, take the lift up and down for the first half of the mountain.

I end today with an amazing foto from Lac Blanc that would have been lost forever with the camera, but thanks to our borderline insane efforts, I can share with you. Bonne Nuit!

Taken from - no lie - about 3ft away, no zoom...National Geographic anyone?

England in the Morning, a Switzerland Afternoon, and a French evening...and lots of Jetlag...

Hello all,

Here begins the "Laura Leaves NH" adventures in France. I got here via London into Geneva Switzerland. The flight was fairly uneventful except that I almost never sleep enroute so I was very very tired and I got this funny piece of cheese as a part of my dinner in the plane.

For the moment I am staying in Megeve...in the middle of the French Alps...although I was told it would be beautiful, nothing could prepare me for what I was about to see. Beautiful does not quite cut it in the way of adjectives. Though it does not quite do it justice, here is the view from my bedroom.


I feel like I belong in the sound of music. The first morning I woke up to see hot air balloons floating over these mountains and my first hike was filled with the sounds of cow bells from the many cows grazing throughout the Alps.

More news when I have time!!!

<3

Packing Procrastination

The next "Laura Leaves NH" are taking me in a new direction. Instead of going south I am heading across the Atlantic and going to Europe!


That's right. In two days I am moving to France and I have not yet begun to pack.


It is funny that I am moving to france since I spent my high school and college focusing on spanish, lived in Chile for a semester, and worked as a spanish translator in Nicaragua. The reason that it is funny is because now I am attempting to learn french. French is hard. It is especially hard when you are still learning Spanish. When I am in the shower I like to think to myself in Spanish so I don't forget, but all of my french learning is getting in the way.



My french partner in crime has taught me a few key phrases that will be very useful in getting me into trouble in bars. For normal everyday conversation, I have resorted to listening to french lessons on my Ipod that i downloaded from the cheap version of rosetta stone (the $49 dollar version). It insists on continuously teaching me how to talk about a girl names stephanie (Stephanie habite a Paris...Stephanie est blonde...stephanie a trois frere...Stephanie voyage souvant...La famille de stephanie habitent a bordeau) and about how to find my hotel or the bank (Ou est le banque?...dans quelle rue est l'hotel?...ou se trouve le banque?)


All in all, I am going to make good conversation in France. Hah.


Despite my worries about mastering French and my lack of packing, I am extremely excited about this new move. I feel a little insane about moving to france without having even been to Europe before, but life needs a little adventure right? If you are interested to know, why the sudden move to France?, you will have to inquire in person. :D


So the next time you hear from me, it will be from France (which is a feminine country...referred to using la as opposed to le according to my fake rosetta stone).


Bye All!

Montreal is Ugly in March

In my efforts to update more of my "Laura Leaves NH" adventures, I am describing Montreal in March even though it is June.

In a trip that had nothing to do with renewing expiring visas in the middle of the night across the Canadian border, my French partner in crime (FPIC) and I, spent two nights total going back and forth in bus and a weekend in Montreal.

Although Montreal, to our surprise, was one of the lesser attractive cities we have ever seen (ie: ugly) it didn't stop us from enjoying it immensely in our fashion.


We got off the (sleepless) overnight bus from Boston, checked into our hostel, and immediately began wandering around the city. We came across this gian hill overlooking the skyline were we spent a good hour sledding down on various bits of plywood and old shovels. The best way to enjoy a skyline if there is one.


Our hostel (Hostel Montreal Central - highly recommended) turned out to be amazing with breakfast, it's own bar, and free dinner and live music on our first night. These guys in the band ended their concert that evening by serenading me on the front step of the hostel.


The winter Olympics were held in Montreal in 1988 bringing this interesting (though still not particularly attractive) building to the skyline. We rented bikes and made our way out to see it and continue the yoga posing in cool places tradition. :D


After a spell of underground shopping, we walked out to discover a full blown pillow fight going on right in the street. There were feathers and people flying everywhere. We watched for awhile but the battle showed no signs of stopping. We have no idea how this all began but it seemed like a fun enough thing to be doing in the streets of Montreal.


And of course, no trip to Montreal is complete without a good healthy plate of poutine!! (Although I cheated and got the vegetarian kind...)

All the apartments did have these cool outside stairs.

And as a final note, the difference between Quebecois and Parisian French is slight, but amusing. In Montreal this sign means, "Danger! Ice" but to my FPIC it meant

"Danger! Ice Cubes!"
Oh Canada.

Until next time folks! :D

The Long Past Due Nicaragua Post

Sorry all for the long belated Nicaragua Post!! Between having to work the day after I returned from sunny San Juan del Sur and starting up the new semester two days after...I was really limited on time to update.

Upon arriving in Nicaragua (after a surprisingly short flight) I went through the customs line which was only made interesting by the crowd of French Canadians around me and the frequent turning off of all the power in the room leaving me and the French speakers in the dark.

I was a creeper on my flight in and took fotos of little Nicaraguan girls in matching pink jumpsuits sleeping on each other. Very Cute. :D


Landing in Managua meant a long van ride to San Juan where I spent the afternoon ogling the beautiful country. San Juan itself is particularly gorgeous with the beach on the end of the street of my home-stay. For the short time I was there I lived in an orange, green and blue hostel with Mama Sara, who was the Nicaraguan version of a Jewish mother. I swear, every time that I entered into her house she handed me a plate of food. The first morning I sat down in front of a spread that I thought was meant for every one staying in the hostel (two oranges, two bananas, a large chunk of pineapple, and half a watermelon) but actually she had made it only for me!! I saved some of the fruit to eat at lunch but was given so much for lunch that I couldn't even think about eating the fruit. I quickly learned that the best way to escape the table without having eaten enough food to last the week was to help make the meal and to serve myself. This method worked out quick well as I learned some pretty amazing recipes and was told hours worth of amazing stories by Mama Sara, who had her first son right on the kitchen table we were eating at.

Days were spent between the beach and the eye clinic. On days were I was not working I went with my house mates and host brother to swim and explore the city.
To get around we walked or thumbed rides in the back of pickup trucks. I played soccer and chalk with the neighbors, stumbled upon a free ukelele lesson in one of the local bars, and convinced my host-brother to take me on a hike to the top of a cliff that overlooks the city and the ocean.





On other days I spent up to 12 hours at a time working at an eye clinic. The clinic, which was run by eye doctors from Connecticut, was held in the the local school. Everyday people from San Juan and the surrounding areas came on foot and by bus to get a free eye exam and pair of sunglasses or prescription glasses. Each day over 800 people came through. I worked as a translator simultaneously for an eye doctor and a Berkley optometry student as they performed exams. It was amazing to witness these exams with such limited technology and space and time constraints. Sometimes translating was rewarding when explaining where the patient could go to receive their new pair of bifocals. Sometimes it was heartbreaking when explaining that the clinic had run out of a certain prescription, or that a person had cataracts and there was nothing we could do.

I have to say that I have a new found interest in optometry and a deep love for Nicaragua. The ten days that I was there felt like months and it was really sad to leave my host family. Now I have a few new aspirations for my pending public health degree. Optometry school? Nicaragua? Who knows? :D


Moms and their kids waiting
in line for their eye check-up.




People wait in line, sometimes all day, for their eye exam.

Me and my lovely assistant Roberto, the
sweetest kid ever who volunteered in the
clinic and sometimes brought us ice cream and our store of glasses!