Last Sunday.. .oops forgot to post this first

Sunday was a great day.

This was my first day to the the core of Madrid. In the morning however was a slow morning where we all woke a little a late. I prepared a canadian breakfast of pancakes with maple syrup. They all seemed to enjoy this and I think my next meal will be french toast, I just need to get the right bread.

For lunch we went to Celia's parents and had a big lunch. Lots of dishes. Not necessarily big dishes, but small amounts of lots of things. There were 3 kinds of ham sliced, 3 kinds of fish (salmon, a white fish, a small thin fish -haha my description is lacking here), also mushrooms, peppers, home made french fries, lettuce with a special dressing and spanish sausage. I tried everything except the small thin fish, seeing as I am still not a big fan of fish I was happy with trying the others already. The ham is really popular here but I dont' really like it. It tastes very fatty, almost as if they have smeared butter around the piece of meat. Maybe I will learn to like it but for now, not so much.

The evening was the best part of the day... I got to see Neeka and meet her friend Neguin who lives in Madrid. It was nice to see a familiar face and speak to someone with fluent English. We went to the centre of Madrid, Sol. Just walked around in the evening and watched the sunset. (hmm i need to figure out how to post things properly on here, but I can't seem to find how to turn the photo in the proper view, so I guess you can't see Neeka and I in a photo for now). Here at least is the beautiful sunset.


Miss you all,
Talk soon!

Jardines del Buen Retiro

This week has been full of exploring... on Tuesday I went to the gardens of Buen retiro, well actually I had not planned to go here at all, I was just walking down the busy streets and noticed it looked rather nice and decided to walk through. Saying this seems like the gardens are rather small but this is not true, I spent almost 2 hours there and didn't get to see the whole park. First through an array of book kiosks and then you reach the gardens main grounds. The park is entangled with many pathways, sculptures and fountains. Among all this I found an interesting area for the seniors to enjoy... well I am not sure if its for enjoyment or not really... hmm well I can't seem to upload the video but I will try another time its pretty funny.

The end of the afternoon at the gardens was spent walking around the Great Lake. Here people can rent a small paddle boat and row around and feed the many goldfish. This was a very popular attraction. Lots of tourists around here!


Off for another busy weekend and then hopefully Barcelona on Monday!

La primera semena

I have been here one week now and have experimented with food, learnt a few more words in spanish and all in all been having a good time.

During the week I have gotten to know the family a bit more. The parents both work at TeleMadrid a television station. The father is a director for a news show and the mother works for a travel program, but Im not sure what she does exactly. The father speaks english pretty well but the mother doesn´t speak english at all, however the kids are really good translators. They have similar music tastes, the other day Andres put in a Jack Johnson cd and I got all excited. The kids are really easy to hang out with, they manage really well on their own, which gives me lots of time to do my thing. Rebeca has a lesson every morning from 10-12:30 and then just does her homework for another few hours. During this time Diego is ussually reading or playing a game in his room. Lunch is often at 2:30 or 3 so by this time I am pretty hungry although I do snack a few times before then. In the afternoons we ussually bike over to the park nearby and play football (real football) or hide and go seek or something. Then I help Rebeca with her french. She is always doing homework because she has a few exams the first week of September.

This weekend I did my first bit of real exploring. Saturday I went to a fruit and vegetable market but I guess it wasn't as busy as usual. The weather was really gloomy so maybe less people wanted to go out. Everybody buys a lot of fruits and veggies its awesome, its all so colourful and the fruit is so fresh and sweet. MMmmmm. The peaches (los melocotons) are my favourite so far, but its all amazing, the honeydew, the apples, the plums mmmm.

In the afternoon I tried some fish and seafood in a paella for lunch. For me this was a huge thing not being a very big fish eater and not ussually trying foods that I'm not used to. I was so proud of myself for tasting everything and actually enjoying it!! I guess you never know until you try it. I will have to get the recipe. In the evening we went out for dinner to a very Americanized Texan restaurant called "Ribs". All the servers were in cowboy hats and plaid outfits, so I guess I didn't miss the stampede afterall.
Here is a picture of the family at the restaurant.

Andres, Rebeca, Diego and Celia

Sunday was an exciting day.. but its late and I have another busy day a head of me. Talk soon!

Mi Casa

This is the front entrance to the house in Pozuelo. They live right beside their Aunt and Uncles, connected to the house actually but you can´t see it in the picture.

My room is in the basement which is nice as it doesn´t get too hot during the evening, and it is close to the computer so I can email you all often.
My favorite part of the whole house is of course the swimming pool!! I haven´t gone swimming just yet, it has been windy lately and the water is really cold. Of course its not glacier water, but the kids say its ussually warmer so we are going to wait until its really hot outside so that we don´t think of the temperature.

More updates to come,

Adios!

Airports, planes and spanish

Hola,


I have made it to my travel destination of the suburb of Madrid, Pozuelo de Alarcon (pronouced like Po-th-uelo..). My first flight, Calgary to Frankfurt went well. I was sitting beside a photo journalist from Whistler, I was lucky to be sitting beside someone who spoke english instead of german. She had some great stories of her travels, and we got along really well, this made the flight more entertaining especially because there were two crying babies near by. The boarding of this flight seemed really unorganized, everyone seemed so anxious to get on the flight. Nobody formed a distinct line to get our boarding passes checked and everyone seemed to crowd the flight attendants booth, Im not sure what the big rush was seeing as we were going to have to sit on the plane for 9 hours. I guess this is a difference from fligths I am used to where everyone forms a single line. Once we arrived at the Frankfurt airport I just wandered around aimlessly in a few shops and things and stayed close to my gate. I had by accident taken the juice from the first flight in my bag and got stopped at the security check for having liquid larger than 100ml, oops.

My second flight to Madrid went well until the lunch arrived. I was really hungry so didn´t really question eating. We were given a sadnwich half was ham (or at least I think it was)and butter and the other half cheese and butter. This sandwich reminded me of a kids sandwich on white bread and a very bland taste. The ham(?) sandwich was ok and I was still hungry so I made myself finish the cheese one. I managed to order some apple juice, my first sentance in spanish actually (simon a manzana, por favor - pronounced thimon a manthana = juice of apple). The rest of the flight the food did not seem to sit well and right before landing I had a quick search for a one of those sickness bags. My whole row of seats didn´t have a bag but luckily the lady beside me realized what was going on and grabbed one from behind us. Once I had landed I felt much better but pretty tired. It took almost an hour to get my bags and then through the gates I went.

This was a strange moment walking through the gates not really sure who I was looking for but it was actually pretty easy and I spotted the father, Andres and daughter, Rebeca right away. We drove to their home, in about 40 minutes. Well I guess I can say my "home" for now at least. The language barrier is very obvious upon immediate introductions but hopefully I can get by.

Well it is late, I will update you all on my last few days tomorrow when I have more time.

Buenos Nochos,

Shereen

Last day

Today is my last day in Calgary, these last few days have been busy busy busy. I am really not very good at packing ahead of time, however it always seems to get done somehow. Things were a bit tricky as I kept changing my mind on whether or not I would bring my road bike or not and in the end I have decided to not bring it. Who knows really if this is the best decision, but it will just be easier to travel and I won't have to worry about it. I am now just going to have to rent a bike down there if I plan to do any rides. But enough of bike details...

In case some of you don't know, I will be going to Madrid to be an aupair (nanny) for a family with two kids, Diego, 10 and Rebeca 13. The parents are Andres and Celia. They live in a suburb of Madrid called Pozuela de Alarcon. I will be staying with them for a little under 3 months. I am planning to do a few trips around spain, and hope to reach France and maybe Italy (just maybe).

I am very excited about the whole thing, however slightly nervous as well, seeing as I will be living with a completly new family and in a new world.

Wish me luck,
Adios

Getting ready... well trying to at least

I have two days remaining before I leave on my big trip. There is still a large list of things I have to get done and time is really going by quickly.

My room is a big disaster and I have to do so many errands but I can't even leave the house until the painters leave. I am pretty much stuck here until about 3pm, but thats ok I guess I can get some good cleaning and organizing done.

I am hoping I will be able to update this often while I am in Madrid and area, so give it a glance every so often.