Feliz Navidad! Merry Christmas

Heeeeeeeey People!

So as of late this blog post is following the trend of being rather tardy! hahaha as much as it is over due i have plenty to write about! in fact i'm sure there is a lot more that i have forgotten about already! XD anyways stay tuned! got some great pics and vids to share with you all! :D

Let's start with something not so interesting and try work towards the more exciting things! a couple weeks ago i read a book series called the hunger games! was very good! am interested to know if anyone else has read these books? great concept and beginning but i'm afraid the last book was a bit of a flop! they are going to be making a movie out of the first book so i hope it will be good!

School has been very good! lot's of exciting things going on! a week or so ago a Scottish person came to school to tell a story in english to all the first year students about a red pearl! was very good and they all got to hear bag pipes etc! Maria is now back at school and it is nice to have her about! i was very sick at one point with a flu and spent half the week in bed but she brought around a heater and a douvet! what a lifesaver that was! now i have a toasted room in the freezing weather! i suppose we get worse weather in NZ but maybe i've just climatized! we had 2degrees last night and apparently (or so my flatmate tells me) we will have negative tonight! gona be chilly! have to say i miss the warm weather! then, last week was exams so i got to help out by assessing lots of kids in oral/talking exams! i think i am a far too harsh a marker lol so next time if they let me i will easen up a bit!

I have been to a mall called Thader a couple times now! to buy bits and pieces! mainly clothes! need to buy a few more i think, of all the things i loathe clothes shopping the most! it's beyond me how anyone can find it enjoyable!

to continue a little bit more with school n such a while ago we had 2 more national holidays which was fantastic! and they coincided nicely with me being sick so i got to stay home and rest up a bit more! firstly we had some saint day and then in the same week a day of the constitution! not too sure exactly what they were all about! hahaha this is my last week of school now and we finished thursday! thursday is going to be a kinda fun day at school cake competitions and Christmas Carol singing! soooooooo in all my classes we have gone to the music room and practiced Christmas Carols! we're learning rudolf the red-nosed reindeer, silent night and we wish you a merry christmas! lots of fun for everyone i'm sure! then the bilingual dept are supposedly learning a few more but it's more like a few dedicated ones! will be lots of fun this thursday! i will have to take some pics/vids!

Then in classes i'm also talking about the differences in how we celebrate Christmas between NZ and Spain! the main difference obviously being that it's winter here and summer there! so i think the kids find it a little odd we all go to the beach or have a bbq lunch/dinner haha here it seems like the main Christmas meal is a dinner on the 24th and traditionally presents are brought on the 6th Jan when the 3 wise men come! and that makes a lot more sense to me that wise men come with gifts than some random santa claus character! also i think chocolate is a big thing here at Christmas! which is fantastic cause i love chocolate but sooooooooo bad cause the supermarkets are crammed pack with all these new products i've never tried before so i'm like aaaaaah i'll take a little bit of this and a little bit of that! hahaha and end up buying far too much than i could ever hope to eat alone! luckily my flatties like it too! :D

Also more to do with Christmas! they really do go to town, quite literally, with all the Christmas decorating! i remember we have houses that like to decorate themselves with lights n such but here every street have these amazing decorations that all light up at night! so pretty and our local mall has a crazy opulent display going on! pictures a little further down!

 This is the Christmas Decoration at the entrance to our building!

 The big display outside of our local shopping centre

 Cortylandia because the shopping center is called corte ingle!

 Street lights! wait till they light up! :D

 Christmas Tree at Thader Mall

 Thader

 Water wheel at Thader

 Thader

 Shopping Centre! wish i could be in this shot but i went alone this time >.<

 Local Shopping Mall at Night!

 Same building with all the big characters from above

 Hhahahaha i love that they put a bicycle at the of a tree! XD

Feliz Navidad!

Ooooook now for something extra special! a video for you all from me and my 2bachillerato class who all agreed to me being able to share this with you! In case you don't quite catch it, we say "Desde España Feliz Navidad...From Spain Merry Christmas"

P.S

I know  this post is a little before Christmas but i do not know when i will next be able to write anything! i am planning on traveling to a city called Bilbao for Christmas on the 24th! unfortunately my bus leaves super early in the morning =( but i will miss you all incredibly over these holidays! wish i could spend it with you all!

P.P.S

All my students couldn't believe i was related to my brother when i showed them a picture of him today in class! hahaha

Final Days of School

Heeeeeeeey people!

So sooo much has happened in the last couple weeks i couldn't hope to fit it all into one post so expect a couple! thought i'd start at with at the last week of school! On wednesday we had our school goodbye lunch thingy for teachers at the tennis club! was very fancy and i felt fully underdressed, not knowing what i was heading to ahaha but the food was so good! and waaaaaaaaay too much of it! if i've learnt anything it's that spanish people like to eat a lot hahaha we started around 2 30 and were still going 2 hours later! XD but was super good! enjoyed it alot!

Theeeeeeeeen wednesday night! so because we never did anything the previous week for my Birthday, my flatmates made a special dinner for us to eat that night! i was gutted because i was so full from the crazy lunch we had eaten that day, but the dinner was super tasty! i don't remember the names of anything >.< there was tortilla de patata (potato fritter) and tortillas with chicken and salsa! Check out the pics below!

Anyways that night was the last night we would all be together because 2 of my flatties left the following day for holidays! Mariavi (the girl) has now left our flat for good to go do work practice in Portugal! should be super awesome but we will miss her! Anyways for my birthday my flatties gave me a very cool sonic t-shirt in Japanese! should probly take a picture some time! then i gave my flatties chocolate for Christmas (terribly unoriginal, but i failed to think about getting anything else sooner hahaha) aaaaaaaaaand as a farewell present we gave Mariavi a picture of the 3 of of guys! not sure if she liked it but i thought i was pretty cool! It is similar to the one just below but not, i don't have the actual photo! this was one i took on my camera!

Me and 2 flatties, taking a picture for Mariavi, standing in a gardin in the middle of Plaza Santa Domingo

Alfredo, Mariavi, Juan

Hahahhahaha Janita pose! XD

And now for some animated pics! enjoy these!

Moving Right along! Thursday was the last day of school and the kids only really had to come to pick up their final grades for the semester, then most of them hightailed it out of there, but there were some pretty cool activities - firstly there was cake decorating competition! some crazy amazing cakes! i was like how the heck did these kids make these! then someone told me it's not the kids, it's their mothers! hahaha which makes more sense! XD

They had free buns and hot chocolate for everyone but i soooo wasn't in the mood for eating after the previous day hahaha but everyone kept asking me to try their cakes! super yummy! finally the main event! Christmas Carols!!! hahaha so as you may already know (if you've been following my blog) we've been rehearsing Christmas Carols in English and on thursday we all sung them while i played piano! was a little hard because hardly anyone turned up (everyone had gone home hahaha) and then the sustaining people wasn't woroking on the keyboard i was played so it sounded rather disconnected, but hey! it's not important! was super cool! waaaaaaaaaaay better than the french carols they sung! hahaha enjoy these vids of my students!

Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer

Silent Night

We Wish you a Merry Christmas

Ok final thing i want to show you is some pictures of all the festive decorations going on! here they go all out decorating the city with displays in streets, malls and incredible public Nativity Scenes! you don't know what a nativity scene is until you've seen a spanish Belén. My flatmate Juan and i went out thursday night and i snapped these pics! Sorry they are not great quality! took them with my phone XD

 I'm not too sure what the whole Egypt scene has to do with Christmas but hey! it's cool! XD

 Ayuntamiento de Murcia! Town Hall

Bonus Picture!!!! How could i resist not taking a picture of this? hahaha Bob Esponja el Musical! Spongebob the Musical! XD

That's all for now! it's taken me over an hour just to get this blog post up! but look forward to more soon!