Fresca como una lechuga bien frotada

The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plane…?

Let’s start with the fact that IT IS A LIE that it doesn’t rain in Spain! Having expected to come to Spain to enjoy glorious amounts of sunshine and nothing else, I am almost pleasantly surprised that is rains here too (DUH). However, what I did not expect was the AMOUNT of rain and how UNPREPARED everything here seems to be… (This is such a typical British topic I am sorry..)

(I wrote this on Tuesday when there was torrential rain nearly all day. It is now Friday and I have since been told that it hasn’t rained like it did for nearly 25 years…! And I have never seen so much rain fall in such a short space of time!)

Let’s start with the fact that I did not have enough space for an umbrella or for any waterproof shoes (thank goodness I am going home next weekend to bring out my winter wardrobe, including some boots that will keep my feet dry) in my suitcases. This was a rookie error as twice now my feet have got absolutely soaked (I love having wet feet all day YAY). Luckily, I have learnt over the years from my mum to always take a raincoat (thanks Mum) no matter what country you are going to, so at least I came prepared in that respect! I did end up buying an umbrella because even though it doesn’t rain often here, when it does, it rains A LOT and umbrellas actually work (no sideways rain)!

However, although umbrellas are useful, they don’t keep your feet dry, especially when the roads have very few drains, so the water just forms literal rivers on the roads. The pavements are also treacherous when wet, being made either out of patterned tiles with a very smooth, slippery surface, or out of smooth concrete (accident waiting to happen…!) so you end up slipping over very easily (trust me, I nearly stacked it at the bus station in front of everybody the other day…). Also, due to the lack of drains (literally one per kilometre it seems), huge puddles form, and where some of the tiles are loose, water pools underneath them and when you step on them your feet and legs are splattered with dirty water (GREAT).

Anyway, I hope that we don’t have as many rainy days here in winter as we have in England! And really, I can’t complain, because this week I was also walking around in a skirt and sandals, in October!

More to come soon!!

Puddle on slippery concrete in the bus station I slipped on

The Ebro Delta and Catalonian Protests (Week 3 in Spain)

Let me start by apologising for the radio silence over the last two weeks, I have been so busy! Especially last week, where my attention was mainly drawn to the protests that have been taking place Catalonia-wide. These were sparked following the sentencing of the Catalonian politicians who organised the independence referendum in 2017, which was seen by the Spanish government as illegal. Charged with between 9 and 13 years for sedition, many people here have taken to the streets to protest their sentencing. The majority have been peaceful, but there have also been bouts of violent protesting in the form of lighting bins on fire. However, there has also been a reasonable amount of violence by both the Spanish national police and the mossos which has been highly contested by all Catalans, with some even joining protests against violence despite not being independentist. It is certainly an interesting time to be in Catalonia so if you are interested I would definitely recommend you to read up on it! It is an issue I cannot explain fully as I do not have enough information and it is very complicated, but I leave here just a few images of protests and of their aftermath in Tarragona…

Last Saturday I joined the Erasmus excursion to the Ebro Delta, which is about an hour away from Tarragona. Although the meeting time was 8:20 am, in true Spanish/Italian mañana mañana style we did not leave until 9am! Also, the bus driver was more precious about us eating on the bus than worrying whether we wore our seatbelts and we had to put our rucksacks under the bus!! We had a guided bike tour with a local guide, which was great and really informative. The Ebro Delta is known for its rice cultivation used to make the traditional Spanish paella and it is the perfect location for it as it is a flat wetland. The only downside is that it is full of mosquitos! It was a long day but it was definitely worth it as it was beautiful!

Weekend 2 – Barcelona and a Beach Hike!

On my second weekend I had already planned to join the AEGEE excursion on a hike along all the beaches from Tarragona to Torredembarra, but on Friday evening my flatmate asked me if I’d like to go on a spontaneous trip to Barcelona with her and her coursemate and a couple of others. Of course I said yes!!!

Our train was €8.05 each way (BARGAIN if you’ve experienced the rip off of Great Western trains in the UK..! We started in the Parc de la Ciutadella, where there is the Pan de Oro monument. From there we headed to the neighbourhood of Born which is ‘the place to be’ at the moment in Barcelona. We also saw the cathedral in the gothic quarter, followed by a stroll along Passeig de Gràcia to Casa Batllò and then down the Rambla to the famous Boqueria market. After that we went to the port and then caught the metro to the Sagrada Familia. It was a lovely day but we were all pretty tired by the end I think!!

On Sunday we also had a busy day on the beach hike. In total we walked 20km in 10 hours under the sun but it was so worth it for the incredible views! AMongst the beaches we saw were Cala Waikiki, Tamarit, Arrabassada and La Mora. We got to watch the sunset from the promenade in Altafulla as Valentina, Gianluca and I managed to lose the rest of the group because we were too preoccupied with taking photos! We just couldn’t resist!

More to come soon…!

Welcome to Tarragona!

As I said in my previous blog post, we had a city tour of tarragona on my first weekend. Valentina and I arrived late because plumbers had to come and fix our shower as it was leaking (at 8:30 on a SATURDAY MORNING) cri, but we found the rest of the group just after they had started. We saw the ancient roman walls of the city, the roman circus and the cathedral, as well as some of the best views of the city from La Torre del Pretorio. Unfortunately, the Roman amphitheatre is closed at the moment for some reason but I’m sure I’ll go and visit it at some point throughout my year here if it reopens!

The following day we hiked to the Puente del Diablo, the aqueduct of Tarragona which is surprisingly well-preserved with a remaining length of 227m. You can even walk on the top of it!

New posts coming soon so stay tuned!!

A little update…

I moved to Spain…!

Hello readers! Sorry for my lack of posting! Since arriving in Tarragona I feel like I haven’t stopped so I’ll give you a quick run-down of what I’ve been up to!

I landed in Barcelona and managed to catch the bus from the right place, and on time (good start) from the airport direct to Tarragona bus station which took about an hour. I then walked the 15 minutes to Plaza de la Font, where I would be living (I found my flat through a facebook group for students in Tarragona) and my lovely flatmate Valentina helped me carry my luggage up the 3 flights of stairs (thank you!!!). She had made me a welcome jam tart thing which was delicious (not to mention a great start to a friendship…!) and was very welcoming!

The following day I had my appointment to get my NIE (more on this in another blog post) and I had arranged with my tutor at the school to go in and see what it was like, so I also sorted out my bus pass (€32 for 50 journeys in 30 days – so only just over €1 a day!) to get to and from Reus. In the afternoon I had to go to Primark (English home comforts) to buy some more towels as I only had space for one in my suitcase.

On my first weekend I went with Valentina to the AEGEE-Tarragona organised tour of the city where I got to meet lots of other Erasmus students. Tarragona is a very beautiful city so expect to see lots of pictures throughout this year! In the evening we went out for a couple of drinks (at midnight – something I definitely need to get used to as most of my friends know I’m normally nearly on my way home by then!) but it was nice to do some socialising. The following day we hiked with AEGEE to the aqueduct (Puente del Diablo) which is just outside of Tarragona and was really pretty! (post to follow)

Monday saw an extremely dull but important meeting (IN CATALAN) about all the formalities like setting up a bank account etc. (of what I could understand) followed by a couple of more interesting presentations about other auxiliares’ experiences. It wasn’t so bad but somehow they managed to tell the auxiliars one time and the tutors a different time (GREAT) so I arrived half an hour late whoops…!

On Tuesday I started at the school and I had 3 really great days! I made soap, helped with a project on body language and helped students start a statistical project in their maths lesson, all with the students in English!!

This weekend we had a lovely day out in Barcelona (post here) and another day was spent hiking along all the beaches from Tarragona to Torredembarra!

The story behind the name

Hello friends! Just a short blog post today! It is now just 3 days until I fly to Tarragona to kick-start my year abroad and I am super excited! But before I go, I thought I should explain the origin of my blog name. When I sent the link of my blog to my friends (hello anybody reading) I think I got about 6 requests asking me about the name of my blog. The answer, friends, is that we had a translation exercise this year at uni which involved us translating “fresh as a well scrubbed lettuce” into Spanish, hence the name “fresca como una lechuga bien frotada”.

If I am not mistaken (please correct me if I am wrong Spanish friends) it equates to the English “fresh as a daisy”, although a couple of my Spanish friends have also questioned it so I don’t think it is as common a phrase as “fresh as a daisy”. I think one of my favourite things about learning other languages is their idioms and expressions which make absolutely no sense when translated into English! Perhaps I will continue to update this post with a list of Spanish idioms throughout the year…

Welcome!

The preparations begin…

Never say ‘no’ to a life changing opportunity. You will regret it.

With just over 3 weeks to go until my flight out to Spain, I thought it would be appropriate timing to set up a blog which will serve the purpose of keeping my friends and family (mainly my mum) up to date with what I am doing with my life over the next year.

For those of you who don’t know, I am a student at the University of Kent and as part of my degree I have to complete a year abroad. I will be taking up a position at a school in Reus as a British Council Language Assistant and I am really looking forward to it.

As well as teaching English, I am hoping that my Spanish will significantly improve and that my Catalan lessons in second year might come in handy, particularly as the school’s main language of instruction will be Catalan. Also, needless to say that I am very much looking forward to savouring all the Spanish food and drinking plenty of sangria!

I can’t report about too much just yet as I am still spending the majority of my time sitting in a chair at the pool making sure people don’t drown, but I hope you will stay tuned to find out more about life in Spain!