A Travellerspoint blog

March 31st 2010

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sunny 21 °C

Sunday 31st January 2010

Hello everyone, how are you all diddling then?

Today some friends and I went for a walk to the centre of Malaga in the sunshine and very enjoyable it was too. We had 21 C but it felt cooler because there was a strong wind, but every now and then we'd find our way to a gust free patch and it was really lovely. I've been working on my tan and now have really brown arms, face and shoulders. That reminds me, I need to add another coat before I go to bed tonight.

Yesterday my mate Jenny and I went to the local palace and castle and was it ever great, I really loved it, especially the palace Al Alcazaba which is one of my favourite places that I have ever been to. It was in superb condition given that it is really old.(don't know when it was built but the information leaflet said something about it being renovated in 1040 or something like that). It is Arabic in design so I am now very excited about getting to Morocco to see if their buildings are as nice.

I'm still scoffing with wild abandon but bizarely I seem to have lost some weight, it must be the Medeteranian diet because everyone here seems to be slim. Also everyone seems to own a dog, there were tonnes of them trotting along the beach front today. I don't have a dog yet so guess I must stand out as a tourist.

The Spanish is going well, I can understand the grammer fine, just need to try to practise the simple past and future tense some more 'cos it comes out all higgledy piggledy when I try to speak!! Why do these languages need to have such unecessary verb conjugations and genders? English is so much easier, perhaps that's why it's such a global language. There are three Korean students here and a Japanese guy who left yesterday. I can only admire them for progressing so fast with a language that bears no resemblance to their own languages. At least for me quite a few words are similar to English or French so I have a head start.

So a bit more about where I am. Well my house is right next door to the school which is perfect given that we are expecting rain from the middle of next week. The school is fine, our teacher is really nice and makes the lessons fun as well as cramming a mass of information into us. And she even had us playing Spanish Scrabble on Friday.

The house is not the best, the rooms are freezing cold and we can't heat them because they are so big with very high ceilings so last week we were sat in the living room in jumpers and coats but it's ok now. The biggest problem is that the hot water only lasts for about three minutes and then you only have cold which is horrible. I can only bear to shave one leg each day which means I am constantly attending to one leg or the other, a bit like painting that bridge, the moment you finish, you have to start again! Also there doesn't seem to be any concern on the part of the school despite us complaining a couple of times and this is very annoying.

When I booked the course it was advertised as coming with a free activity every day but so far nothing has materialised so I will be writing an email to the company that I booked with. None the less, the accommodation is very cheap at £85 a week and we are all getting used to life without the basic necessities of warmth, a usable shower and security (no locks on the bedroom doors). However I was very pleased to find a washing line in the kitchen draw the other day and it even has pegs! We are enjoying the veritable luxury of a washing machine (which is very handy as I have only seen one laundrette and it's about five miles away!).

I feel very lucky because the people that live in the house are all really nice and everyone cleans up after themselves so we have not had any problems at all. We all just settle down in the lounge and chat or more often study. We spend a lot of time together and look out for each other and end up sharing food and drinks (Ye-ung and I are just finishing of a bottle of vino so apologies if my typing suffers!). I realise that we could have had some total git living here so I am really gratefull that everyone is so nice and friendly.

I am really thinking about staying on for a few extra weeks and continuing with the Spanish lessons, I'd really like to improve but I will see how I get on over the next two weeks, I might have learnt enough by then but I really love it here so will probably use the Spanish as an excuse to stay a bit longer! The whole atmosphere of the place is so very relaxed, no-one seems to be in a hurry and yet the bus is always on time, impressive!

Another good thing is how cheap everything is. Food is very buyable indeed as is wine and beer. Ooh, speaking of beers, I went out with Jenny and Ye-ung on Friday and we did some bar hopping. In future I won't bother to have dinner before I go out because you get fed for free! Bread, breadsticks, nuts, seeds and popcorn and as soon as your bowl is empty you are provided with a top up, even if you haven't ordered a new drink. Fab! Anyway, the really exciting bit is the Baileys. I need to buy a really big brandy glass when I come home because the way we were served it was brilliant. You get this huge glass half full of ice and then the waitress pours the Baileys in and you think "Ooh, that's a generous measure"", and she carries on pouring and doesn't stop until you have several measures in your clutches. And then this bar dwelling angel advises us that we can have more if we want! Just fabulous and all for the measly sum of six Euros. Now you understand why I am so enchanted with the place, yes?

Tonight I spent my evening trying to get this accursed computer to connect to the internet via wifi. I was going mad trying to get it to work. I don't know anything about Linux, Firefox or this Bon Echo business so I don't know what settings are required. I'm was working my way through changing them but there are so many permutations that I thought it was a fruitless as trying to get my legs shaved in comfort. But now I am online, yipeeeee!! Also, my ipod has been wiped of all (yes ALL) of it's music. This is a pain because I had a load of Spanish lessons stored on it too. But strangely, when I connect it to the netbook, the files are visible to the pc but remain unavailable on the ipod. Any ideas?

How do you know when wine has gone off? I'm sure it was nicer the other night and its only been open two days, even milk can cope with that... think it will be going down the sink rather than my neck.

Um, what else? Well I had a quick search for flights from London to Gaborone in Botswana today, the prices are very variable but can be had for less than £500 it would seem. I even found one for £319 the other week so will have to check and see if it is still available. Just need to wait for Gideon to get sorted and then we can book flights and I cant wait!!

I think that's about all for now so take care and have a happy February!!

Love Sarnia xxx

Posted by Sarnia 10:20 Archived in Spain Tagged educational

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