Update October - December

Hello all. I might want to start by saying ‘sorry that I haven’t written anything on my blog for over two months’. Am I allowed to use ‘I was quite busy, therefore didn’t have time to write anything’ as an excuse? If not? Too bad! Haha. I will now ‘briefly’ inform you how I have spent my last two months.

The apartment I live in still changes quite a bit when it comes to roommates. In these passing two months we had a couple from Latvia living with us for three weeks, a girl from Slovakia who would stay 6 months, however left after 1, a Spanish guy who I am still living with, and a new couple from Hungry, who will be staying for 3 months. I am sad to say Marcela (my roommate from Chile) left. In the three months we lived together we grew quite fond of each other. She was my older sister and I her younger. The last couple of weeks we tended to do a lot together, e.g. going for beach walks / jogs, visit small fairs in Marbella, going to church, cooking etc. One day we decided to go for a run on the beach. However, once outside we found it was quite hot and were bummed we didn’t bring our bikinis, so that after or during our run we could go for a swim. I hadn’t jogged it quite a while, so I must admit it was lovely running again. As the weather was perfect, and we didn’t have any running shoes, me at least, we ran barefoot in the water. When we had run for over more than 20 minutes we came to a part of the beach where there were hardly any people. As both of us had an extra shirt with us, Marcela decided we should go for a swim. So we change our clothes and went into the sea, which was actually quite superb! Swimming gave us a nice cool down. Before running back we changed our clothes again and try to make others as dry as possible. However our pants were still soaking wet! Luckily while running back, which surprisingly went better than the first 20 minutes, our paints dried fast enough, SCORE!

Marcela a friend of her and I, visited a sort of fair which had stands with either food, as in jamons, cheese, sweets and fruits, or products, such as shoes, bags, crèmes, etc. It was quite fun to walk around a get free food (little pieces to try) from the food stand, and than of course walking by as often as possible to get more ;) There was also a bar that served a type of cider / wine, which I found absolutely disgusting (luckily I didn’t pay for it)! However, the way they served the drink for me was quite unusual. The bottle is held up high, and the glass low, and with that distance they poor the drink in the glass. I do wonder how often that had to practice that, haha. This you can see in one of the pictures, not the missing though. After the fair Marcela and I went into the old town to take some pictures. We had a laugh climbing up walls in small allies and running around just to get somewhere sooner :P

Two weeks ago Marcela left for Cadiz where she would finish her master. She would stay here for two weeks more before leaving for Chile. It was really hard saying goodbye. However, luckily as she was still in the country I was able to visit here in Cadiz for a short weekend. We had quite a laugh! I will certainly miss her! However, when she will get married which is probably somewhere next year, I would be invited and I promised her I would come to Chile to attend her wedding, and visa versa. However that won’t be till over uhm.. somewhat years!

In church I met a German girl about my age, Jasmin. She is here to stay a little shorter than a year as an opair. Our ‘pastor’ and his family are missionaries from German, who have been living in Spain for over 12 years. However, due to some reason, they will have to go back to Germany for one year. After that year they will come back to Spain again. However, their children have been born and raised in Spain. They do speak a little German, but not well enough for them to be able to follow school subjects in German. Therefore, Jasmin, who is a teacher, is here to teach them German. She is a very nice girl and we often go for long walks and coffee. Once she took me to a churros bar. Churros are fried dough sticks, which can be ordered as breakfast. However, me only being used to having cereals in the morning, eating fried dough that early in the morning? It was nice, but once is enough! Haha! Let me just say it was very heavy on the stomach.

I am enjoying church more, as I am now able to understand more of the service. I can remember the first couple of weeks, where I could only understand half of what was being preached. However now, I can almost understand all. I am so proud of me haha. A couple of weeks ago I was invited by a German couple (yes I know there are a lot of German people in my church) to have dinner with them, which was very nice. They also have a baby, who is just a few months old. I was allowed to hold her. Such a cute little thing, immediately thinking ‘I want one too!’ But don’t worry, I will wait a little longer with having one of my own ;P

My parents and brother came to Spain to visit me and do some sightseeing for a short two weeks. For this time period they lived in my apartment where we had a spare room. However, I shared my room with my brother. It was a little tight, but quite doable. I must say it was very nice seeing them again. I did still have to work during the week. However, there were several free days which gave me a long weekend, and was also allowed to take 2 days off. These two long weekends gave me the possibility to go sightseeing with my parents, which I had not been able / willing to do on my own yet, as that would include very long bus drives. The first weekend I took my family to Puerto Banus, by boat. The next day we visited Gibraltar, and went up the rock. That gave us quite an impressive view. We were able to see Morocco, therefore Africa. That was quite amazing. We also saw two monkeys in action (no not in a dirty way). On the way up the rock they warned the people to pay close attention to their bags and belongings, not making it an easy target to grab. One lady didn’t follow this advise thus got robbed by two monkeys! Those animals were fast! When she wanted the bag back, the monkey just stuck his tong out to her haha! After Gibraltar we went to Cadiz, which is a very nice city. On our way back from Cadiz, we went to Jerez, however, as it was a free day, the things we wanted to see were closed. The following weekend we went to Seville and on the way back to Rhonda. Both cities are very nice. I am now considering of maybe studying in Seville next year for the study exchange. However, not a 100% sure yet. It is a very lively, nice and cultural city! Rhonda was great too, with a lovely view, and a nice bullring.

Marlous (my best friend) also came to visit me. Unfortunately only for three days, which is very short, but we did make good use of the short time we had! We went to Puerto Banus (yes I do take everybody there) and to Malaga. The bus ride to Malaga was great as we had a bus with first class chairs. That was superb! In Malaga we visited Picasso’s house and museum, which was quite nice and interesting. We also had nice lunches and dinners and a fun photo shoot in a small ally climbing up the walls ;P

I have already mentioned I had a lunch buddy, Douglas. However, we do not only stick to lunches anymore. We also tend to go out and see things, which is quite nice and handy, as he has a car and bike, SCORE! Doug has a Suzuki sport and a little while ago he took me for a ride! I had never been on the back of a bike before, at least not one like that. I was quite nervous. I was actually not allowed to go (my mom would kill me if I did) but I did (sorry about that mom). I did tell him that he should get me home in one piece, and if he would make us fall by doing something irresponsible and the fall didn’t kill us, I would sure would! Haha. Well I must say it was quite a ride. It was so cool! Hope I’d be able to do it again before I leave.

I have also been invited my one of my colleagues from the office to have lunch with him and his wife and daughter. He has a nice little house near Mijas. After lunch we then went to Mijas Pueblo to walk around there which was very nice, and also had a lovely view!

Work I am still enjoying very much. I did have a period in which I was not quite able to perform anything, as I had to wait for either responses or permissions. But luckily that period is over. I am also now allowed and able to do actual sales! That is so much fun, contacting shippers, arranging the transport, contacting the clients, etc. I conducted a local move and also a car transport from Holland. I am really enjoying the job and learning a lot. However, the time I have left is only short, and in that sense not quite looking forward to it.. Who knows, I might stay!

Tennis is still going fine as well. My private classes ended, but for the last month, January, I will take groups classes, which I actually already have been taking, just not two days a week. I btw checked my KNLTB site, and it scared the @#$%^ out of me! For the Double I am now a 7, which I knew, however for the Single, I am now a 6! I will have a tough season next year! Darn..

Well, I think I did enough writing for today, and you guys probably enough reading as well. I will try to write some more when I am back in Marbella again, after the holidays. SO as you then now might understand, ‘I’ll be home for Christmas…’. I do am looking forward to that! So if someone would like to come over for Christmas or new years eve, you are welcome to!