The life of C-lemons.: and december is upon us...

Happy December everyone! Now that it's reached the great month of December, tomorrow will mark the 3-month point of my leaving for Spain. Exciting, huh? This past month has flown by, and these past few weeks have brought some adventures along with it. So now it's time to jump into my under-worked, KFC-eating, gym-going Spanish world.

Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to go on an overnight field trip with my school. So without hesitating on the chance for a free trip to the mountains, I hopped on a bus bright and early at 9 am (yes, that's early for me considering i normally don't start work until 11:30) with 31 sophomores (cuarto's are what they're called here) and 2 female professors bound for the land of Sierra de Gredos.
The trip was to an English-speaking outdoors centre (as the English spell it) in Sierra de Gredos, a national park outside of Ávila. Before actually reaching the center, our bus made a pit stop in Ávila where we took a tour of the old city with Bob, our amazingly English tour guide. So picture the typical English old man: bad teeth, a little overweight, thick thick accent. Yep, that's Bob. Anyways, he showed us around the city and talked to the kids about the change in the city as it became more modern. It was pretty cool to listen to, but I was mainly just interested in the awesome old walls the city had. It was a really nice, old Spanish city that I would like to go back to.

These are the old city walls. They were all around the city.

Bob explaining something to the kids while in the city.

After just a couple of hours in Ávila, we herded the kids back onto the bus bound for Gredos Centre. When we got there, it wasn't at all what I expected. I was thinking we would be staying in tents or cabins or something, but this place was like a modern log cabin complete with wireless Internet and a salon with a flat-screen TV. Luckily though, I didn't have to split a room with the hooligan kids but instead had the luxury of a room to myself.
We spent two nights at the Gredos Centre and came back the third morning. The long day we had was spent hiking all day. The place we hiked, while Bob said it wasn't the best place in Gredos (it was rainy so we couldn't hike to the best place), was still pretty cool. It was an old glacier valley that now has a river running through it and all kinds of granite rock. We did a lot of walking, which I think I enjoyed a little more than the students did. We also spent one afternoon doing river research (and by we, I mean the students. I just took pictures). All of this was in English with Bob and another guide, and I was surprised with how well the kids were able to understand everything.

One of the groups working with Bob in the river.

If you can't tell, this girl was not happy when the guide told her she had to stick her hand in the water and see what kind of dirt was there.

I felt like this picture was necessary, too. If you can't tell, she didn't volunteer for this role.

This is where we stopped for lunch along the hike.

The views along the way were amazing, even though the weather was kind of nasty.

Me along the trail.

Overall, it was a great time. The group that I went with is not one of the ages I normally work with, so it was nice getting to know a different group at my school. They taught me card games, Spanish words I probably shouldn't know, and the inappropriate nicknames they call their professors (i.e. Professor Negative Points). And it also helped me feel better about only working about 10 hours a week, as I spent all my waking time those 3 days with these crazy kids.

The whole group outside of the Gredos Centre.

The other major event from the past 2 weeks was Thanksgiving. To be tacky Americans and celebrate our beloved holiday, Miguel and I hosted a dinner at our house. Since all of us had to still work on Thanksgiving (apparently the Spanish don't celebrate when the Pilgrims ate with the Native Americans. weird, i know), we all met up for a potluck dinner. For the main course, what else could we eat? No, not turkey. Yes, KFC chicken. I felt like it was appropriate that if I couldn't be in Kentucky on Thanksgiving, I would bring a taste of KY to me. In all, there were 8 of us in our apartment, including Becca's dad who was visiting from New York. A good time was had by all.

Thanksgiving at my piso- Vicki, Becca, Becca's dad Dennis, and me. Yes Dennis is holding the paper turkey that my parents sent me.

The other part of the group, minus Lisa- Angie, Baird, and Miguel.

Our table full of food! It was all so good! cornbread, KFC, banana bread, corn, homemade mashed potatoes, salad, and great Thanksgiving plates from home.

My Thanksgiving celebrations then continued with a Thanksgiving lunch on Friday at my friend Lisa's piso. Her (a fellow Fulbrighter) and her Spanish roommate (in his first Thanksgiving meal) hosted about 12 of us with amazing turkey, stuffing, corn, and pie made by different people. It was all really good, and I definitely took to heart how you're supposed to eat until you want to sleep. After that, a long siesta was really nice. After the siesta, we had a great night celebrating Miguel's birthday with Becca, Vicki, and Becca's dad. Let's just say we celebrated well, complete with a noon wake-up the next morning.

The food at the second Thanksgiving meal with Lisa, the proud hostess.

Some of us eating at Lisa's piso.

A post-birthday celebration photo. Yes, this is as the bar is closing at 2 am and we'd clear them out of their tequila. Good night...

To finish off Thanksgiving weekend and make up that I didn't run in the Iroquois Park Thanksgiving Day run like normal, I ran in a 10K in Retiro Park on Sunday morning. So you know those days when you look out the window and think, "Nope, not running today"? Yeah, this was one of those morning. Rain? check. Wind? check. Cold? check. The combination of wind, rain, and cold were the worst that I've ever run in. Still, there were 5,200 people that run that race. I felt okay considering the weather, but again didn't know how I was doing throughout the race because 1. the course was marked in kilometers, not miles and 2. the kilometers were completely wrong. So when I crossed the finish line (drenched and freezing) in 38:59, I was happy. This was the first time I'd ran a 10K in under 39 minutes (albeit just by a second, but still), so I was super pumped! When I looked later, I found out that I came in 80th place overall. Not too shabby!

Well, that's pretty much all the exciting-ness of my life over the past few weeks. These last few weeks here in Madrid before I head home are bound to be full of adventure. Tomorrow, Jordan arrives! Then we're heading to Rome on Thursday, where we'll be for about a week. We're meeting up with Bethany and Dustin, 2 of my good friends from Gtown (Bethany is in Germany on a Fulbright, and Dustin is in Germany... tagging along), in Rome. It's going to be a great trip, even if it is supposed to rain most of the time. We're looking for a race to run around Rome, and I made sure to re-read Angels & Demons in preparation for the city. Once we get back, I'm sure we'll do all the touristy stuff I've yet to do here in Madrid. And in just a little over 2 weeks, I'll be back home in the states for 2 weeks! December's looking really promising!

And in conclusion, here's a picture of the package my parents sent me, complete with 3 Muskateers, Thanksgiving decorations, a Disney reusable grocery bag, magazines from home, and the ever-essential Mickey Mouse balloon ball: