Chao Chao OU

Well its hard to believe but here I am, on the last week of my crazy crazy adventure. As the days went by, sometimes it felt like I was here forever, that August seemed so far away, but now, looking back, in retrospect it went by in just a blink. I could write every single thing that made me so unbelievably happy but then I would be writing a novel. So many things happened on this trip, so many things shaped me into a more independent and more responsible (sometimes) person. This trip helped me find myself before I go off to uni. I feel like the things I saw, the things I did, the people I met had such a huge part in this adventure. I am forever grateful for the friendships I have made, some of the people I have met have made me realize that we all need to soak in every moment that we can and have no regrets, meeting new people, sharing stories, making memories, nothing beats it. Traveling has helped me so much, and believe it or not, I even think my Spanish has improved (somewhat)

I am actually back in England right now, with my family again, which feels so great and so nice, I will also not lie when it truly does feel amazing to be able to go into a shop or coffee place and know that they will understand everything I am saying, although it has been a week since I departed Spain and I am having major withdrawals, I miss the culture, the people, the food, the partying ;) and of course, the weather. This typical English summer is taking my tan away...

It will be hard coming back to Calgary, but I know I will adjust soon enough, and once I stop saying "hola" and "gracias" to everyone I meet, I should be good to go and back to my Canadian self in no time. With university starting in only 30 DAYS (I cannot even emphasize the mixture of emotions I am feeling about that now) I have lots to look forward too, and I know I will be back in Spain in no time at all ;)

Thank you to everyone who helped this trip happen, who are now a part of my most treasured moments and memories, and thank you to the people who were there for me throughout the entire trip, beginning to end, it may not seem like you did much, but you did, the support is very appreciated.

Chao Chao for now Ourense, gracias por todo <3  

Hola 😃

Barcelona...need I say more?

After being in this beautiful country for almost 6 months I finally made my way to one of my most desired places to visit with my wonderful godmother (who most certainly deserves a shoutout) in just one weekend we were able to be the ultimate cliche tourists. From visiting the beach, to eating amazing tapas, to walking the Ramblas it was an unforgettable and well needed city break. I even managed to survive the 12 hour train ride journey there and back!

So it seems as though I haven't really blogged in a while, you see the thing is, is that it doesn't feel like THAT much has happened but when I look at it in retrospect SO much has! Since my last update I have had the chance to travel a lot more. I made my way to Vigo and A Coruña which are such beautiful cities a long the coast and for those who know me, (despite living in a city surrounded by mountains) know that I am very much a beach and sea person, so it was amazing to go. I also was able to travel to braga, Which means I can now cross Portugal off my list of countries to visit. Que mola! :)

What else has happened? Well, one of my closest friends that I made here in Spain, who has been there since the very beginning, from scrounging our bags and pockets for pennies to afford our 1€ coffees to rocking the streets of ourense on Saturday nights has left this small city to continue her adventure in Spain, but with a different scenery. It feels so strange and surreal saying goodbye to someone that you have grown so close and comfortable with. But the thing is, that is what travelling does to you, the people you meet, in just weeks become your family. Even though it's only been 6 months that I've known the amazing 3 chicas, who quite frequently pop up all over my social media (Alison, Nicole and Veronika, if you needed help reminding ;)) I know that the friendship we share and have will last for an extremely long long time.

Well, here I am with only a month and a half remaining, it feels so stange that 1 day soon it will be my turn to say goodbye to a place that has become so familiar to me. So here is to the next 6 weeks of making as any memories as I can!

HABLAMOS PRONTO AMIGOS! :)

1/2 way point.

I am not going to lie, sugar coat nor sweeten the life of being an Au Pair. Leaving my friends and family and coming to live in a foreign country at 18 has been one of the most tiring, frustrating, scariest but most rewarding, amazing, breath taking and most unbeatable things I have ever done. Like I said I will not lie nor sugar coat the life of an Au Pair, for example, since I began living in such proximity with a 6 year old and 8 year old, I have pretty much said "adios" to my privacy, I have to accept that there is no "one moment" or "wait one second!" it is all "now, now and now." If I ever want to go to my room for some quiet time to recuperate and indulge myself in the happenings of social media it will take approximately 1.20381 seconds before one of them notices my absence. I am on the go about 4-6 hours a day, 6 days a week and I am completely and utterly exhausted. No one told me it was going to be this hard, but no one told me it was going to be easy, no one told me it would be tiring,  BUT.. no one told me how rewarding it would be. Since moving here I have made an unbreakable bond with these children in which is going to make so incredibly difficult to say goodbye in August. The improvement in English in these kids since I have arrived is really quite amazing, if you look at it in retrospect, some days I wonder if I really am getting anywhere with them and other days I am so incredibly proud of them and sometimes taken aback when they say words I never realized they had picked up from me. For example Mario said he was "extremely exhausted" yesterday, for English speaking people that seems like nothing, but for a little guy who really never speaks English, those words are pretty complex and I am not going to lie, I took a good 5 minutes to let it sink in. ;) Every day I play with them, their laughs, and even their voices remind me exactly why I am here and do nothing but highlight my day.

Other than spending time running after little kids and making sure they are happy 24:7 I also have time off to explore this amazing country. A few weeks ago (cannot believe its been a few weeks, time is going by so quickly!) 3 other girls and I went to Madrid for Easter. It was amazing, I really cannot tell you in writing how breath taking the trip was. The food was incredible, the site seeing was unbeatable and the night life was crazy. I was originally supposed to be going to Madrid, and as much as it would have been great to live there, the city was also crazy overwhelming and a lot to take in, there was just so much happening every where.

             I believe Ourense is a great place for me to begin, a small town where I will find it easier to improve my Spanish (literally everyone in Madrid could speak English to us) Ourense is also more calmer, and I find it much easier to feel at home here. I know I made the right choice by coming here, and I recommend "Au Pairing" to any young traveler who wants to travel to a foreign country and gain experience, I am not guaranteeing that you will enjoy it and I am not guaranteeing that it will be suitable for everyone as I said, it is hard and it is not all glamorous but it has helped me change my outlook and perspective on SO many things and it is a challenge that I will accomplish and it is a challenge I will be accepting again.

Sorry for the extreme lack of updates lately, time is flying 531841905 miles per hour and I find it so hard to believe that 1. It is May next week and 2. I have been gone for 4 months, which OFFICIALLY means I am at the HALF WAY point in my amazing adventure! I have made so many new friends and memories here it is unreal! How did come about so quickly?! But i want to thank everyone who's been reading and interested in my experiences and happenings!

Ciao! 

 

yo todavía no se como pedir un helado en español :)

I am not going to lie, being with two young children six out of seven days a week constantly, can drain every single last drop of energy that I have inside of me, so for that, I would like to give a shout out to the espresso machine in my kitchen because without that I would be full blown zombie.

As some of you, many of you or in fact none of you may know, "el clasico" is THIS sunday, and being a Barcelona fan in a house full of Real Madrid fans has proven to be quite interesting. The 6 year old (Mario) has this belief that he is the "future Ronaldo" so I decided to take this little belief as a challenge... You could say I am not used to playing football/soccer against a 4ft. tall boy who only weighs about 60 pounds so I may have forgotten to be less competitive. I took one shot and it landed right on his face. First thought: guilt..so much guilt-I just knocked out a 6 year old! About 30 seconds later he staggered to get up (and may have been a little cross eyed) and started to laugh, and would not stop, second thought: the hit to the head made him crazy. After about 10 minutes of me laughing at him laughing that's when it finally "hit me in the face" (see what I did there ;)) that being with this kid for so long all the time has made me realize that there is no point on dwelling on the small things, I mean this kid is always happy, he just laughs at everything that happens and yes, I have had a few rough days, but these 'rough' days will always be better if I just have a more positive outlook.

It's been tough coming to a new country, all by myself but it has been even more tough being in a new country with a completely different language and I have managed to survive the first month here but there are still a few little mess ups (you think I would have learnt after the 'estoy muy embarazada' incident).. anyways, last week someone asked me "Katie: te gusta pulpo" thinking that Spanish is obviously just any English word with an added 'o' or 'a' on the end and I translated that to "Katie: do you like pulp" (you know like pulp in my orange juice) I mean sure, pulp is pretty good? So I sat down at the dinner table expecting some orange juice when I was served a huge plate of octopus..it was a peculiar taste and I don't think there will be a second encounter.

The weather here is slowly improving, we have had quite a few sunny days and if you compare me to an extremely white wall you could say I have a tan..but the wall has to be very very white.

Another thing I have noticed is I think there is something wrong with my wallet.. every time I get paid and put money in there it seems to disappear? Maybe there's a hole in it. Also the amount of clothes in my closet may have tripled... does anyone else have this problem? I do find a lot of my free time is spent in shops..oops

There hasn't been too much going on in the last couple of weeks but in just 2 weeks three other girls and I are off to Madrid for easter and I couldn't be more excited! I cannot wait to see one of the world's famous cities! There is no way we can do all of it in just 3 days but I am looking forward to everything else we will see and I am interested to see how well we will handle the metro ;)

That's all for now mi amigos! Voy a hablar todos vosotros pronto! :)
Ciaoooo :D


(this is a picture of one of the many bridges here, this city truly is sooo beautiful when the sun comes out)

Fluent in Spanglish.

So three weeks later and it seems as though I am still alive! Despite being in a full arm cast resulted from my terrible lack of being able to dance I am still able to keep up with and take care of the two little rascals with whom I have become very attached too.

The last week has included a lot of playing with dolls, cars and paints, I have taken a trip back in time and become a kid again! It is crazy how spending so much time with a six year old can remind you to make the best of every scenario, to be happy and to just not take anything to seriously. Spending too much time with the eight year old however, has reminded me how sassy you can be at that age, if there is one thing Blanca has taught me it is how to pull the ultimate "you can't tell me what to do" face. Nonetheless she has a brilliant imagination, and after 2 weeks of struggling to get closer to her, I think we are now best friends...score! I believe with the recent years of me getting caught up in school, work, the constant pressuring question of "what the heck am I gonna do with my life" I have lost sense of creativity and wanderlust, but I also believe that with more time spent here I can finally find it again.

It is still blowing my mind that Calgary has in fact been warmer about 90% of the time I have been away. Though it is freeeeezing in the mornings here, and extremely rainy, the afternoons usually get up to about 12 degrees, which is absolutely unbearably cold for the average spanish person but pretty darn warm for myself, so I usually strut it round town with sunglasses + a t-shirt trying to ignore all the "is she out of her mind?" stares from all the locals.

This week has been a little harder for me, as I am a little homesick. I think the realization that I am here for more than a little vacation away from my family has finally sunk in. However, yesterday, I was indeed re-united with an old friend of mine. Yes. I caved, and I bought myself some MAPLE SYRUP! Totally feel at home now.

That's all for now! I'll try not to break anymore bones before my next update :)

Adios amigos!

"No entiendo, lo siento mucho"

Hola amigos!

Two important things I have learnt so far on this trip,

1. Just because you took Spanish class for three years in high school DOES NOT make you some spanish speaking guru. I will admit, I thought I could get by with just knowing, "hola, como estas" and "una cervesa, por favor" but no, ideally it would have been good to know just a little more. For example, I knew the day would come-that one day someone would talk to me on the bus and it happened! Yesterday, (I think) someone was asking me for directions, after giving him a blank stare for 2 minutes all I could simply say was "No entiendo, lo siento mucho, mi espanol es muy malo" (my most used line the last 3 days)

2. "Estoy muy embarazada" does not mean "I am very embarrassed" but in fact it does mean "I am very pregnant" Nonetheless I did make a few Spanish ladies laugh. I am bringing my comedy act abroad everyone!

I was able to meet up with some other au pairs today who spoke english, you do not know how thankful I was to be able to actually talk to someone in english other than over facebook or text message, as one of the girls mentioned it really was "healthy for the soul." I am so thankful for how welcoming the other au pairs have been and it has made me feel less out of place and less like "the elephant in the room"

And as you will all be please to hear, I was able to order food for the first time- at a burger king! Yes, I have come all the way to one of the best countries in the world for great food and I found myself a burger king! Though I will say that the coffee here is more than amazing! So my other most used line "caffe con leche, por favor" my addiction can continue internationally!

I will not lie, it has been very hard with the language barrier and the family I am with does not speak much english at all, but I can say I have picked up a few more words like lentejuela meaning sequin! hahaha, I am beginning to understand a bit more and with that my vocabulary will expand.

Yesterday, I got off the wrong bus stop (they don't really label many of the bus stops which makes for a very confused chica!) and got myself completely lost, in the moment I was thinking of every possible worst scenario, and I was freaking out quite a bit but after about ten minutes, I took a deep breath and then realized I was standing on a hill, in which gave me an amazing view of Orense. I am in such a beautiful place and now, maybe getting lost isn't such a bad thing. (as long as I don't do it with the children ;))

Well that's all for now! Speak soon!

 

Chao amigos! <3

 

Cliche Tourist

There is no way anyone could go to London and not blog about it. This place is one of my favourite cities in the world and I got the amazing chance to visit it once again! There is no way you can do this place in 1 day but I was still super lucky to be able to see some of it.

First stop: Camden Market

For anyone who knows me, knows that this place is my kind of place! If you're looking for ANYTHING and I mean ANYTHING, Camden will have it. It was absolutely huge and so easy to get yourself lost in all the different stalls. & even better, if it starts chucking it down with rain (like it did) you can get an umbrella for just 99 p! So have no fear, Camden has your back ;)

Second Stop: Avoiding the rain (excuse for getting coffee of course)

I can now positively say Caffe Nero beats starbucks - I know what you're thinking- that's not possible, Katie's life is Starbucks - but no, i'm being completely honest!

 

Third Stop: Platform 9 3/4

Couldn't possibly miss the 11 o'clock train to Hogwarts could I?! This has honestly been on my bucket list for however many years but I finally got to check it off. So being one of the biggest harry potter fans out there I can honestly say this was a pretty happy moment.

I was also able to visit the Tate Modern Art Museum which was really amazing to see! Also I can truthfully say that the London Underground is only about 10000000 times more confusing than Calgary Transit.





















BUT, as this is now my last day, pip pip cheerio for now, and I will update y'all when i'm in Spain!!

England, it's been a jolly good time

Hasta Lluego :)

england in 30 days

From Birmingham to Newcastle to London, I am coming to the last couple days of my trip in the UK. In just three days I will be soaking in the wonderful culture of Spain!  
Newcastle was great, even though it was cold and snowy it was still great to get out and do some sightseeing!

It was so great to be able to visit family whom I haven't seen in what feels like forever! Loved being here and 2 weeks was definitely not enough.

& how could I forget the most important souvenir, English chocolate. My life is complete with some white chocolate buttons in my hands.  

rain is the new snow.

My time in Birmingham is sadly coming to a close tomorrow and i'm off to Newcastle! It has been such a great week which has gone by SO fast not a day went by where I wasn't doing something and it so great to see everyone!

I was so thankful and grateful to spend an amazing week here, I was able to reconnect with relatives and close friends who I had not seen in ages. It was so great to be able to pick up from where we left off!

Biggest accomplishment of the week: I took the train in to the city centre FOUR times and didn't get lost or take the wrong train once- it was a very proud moment.

Also happy to say that even though I am away from the bitter and cold winter in Calgary, I have brought some of the snow (mainly rain) and cold here too! ;)

I am excited to travel up North tomorrow and experience the same greatness as this week!!

Tired is an understatement

 After what felt like the longest day in my life I have finally arrived in rainy and windy England! Flights were super bumpy and noisy but nonetheless im here and alive, despite trying not to fall asleep every 5 minutes.  Highlight so far: finally saw my home soccer team win at a live match!

 oh and  of course seeing my great family of course too;) but it was nice to see us finally win especially for the one game im here for.

It's still weird being back here, might take a couple more days to adjust to the time difference and the fact that they drive on the other side of the road!

Looking forward to a jam packed week of seeing everyone and hopefully ill even start to enjoy the rain more than the snow;)

Departure: Tomorrow.

It seems as though my trip to Europe has come up a lot faster than I was expecting, and of course I have left just about everything to the LAST minute. I thought though with the few minutes I have left I would decide to make a blog for those who would like to be updated on my trip or just take a ponder for a few minutes, everything will be posted on here! (if i can figure out how to use this thing) 

 For some of you who don't know, I have been planning this trip for a long long time and after saving every penny (well most pennies) from working all summer and getting a second job in the fall I finally have been able to make this dream adventure a complete reality! I will be spending almost a month in the UK to visit family and friends before I depart to the city of Ourense, Galicia in Northern Spain for a grand total of 7 months! 

I am going to experience the amazing culture, food, life and language of the Spanish. I have always loved the culture and Spain so it is an amazing thing to be able to live there for so long! I will be working as an Au Pair, which is like a nanny, for a family where I will be teaching English to the kids and spending time with them during the week and exploring the amazing country and region for myself on the weekends!

I would love to share this journey with everyone so I hope you enjoy this blog and thank you to everyone who supported me and helped me make this happen!