November in Spain

Hello!

As promised, this blog will be about my exchange life during November!

First of all, I need to update you regarding my football team: we won for the first time! Next to that, we played an international tournament with other university teams in Valencia, which was a great experience. It was a combination of several things I like: football, fun, a lot of international people and a lot of Spanish to practice. Since the days lasted really long (they started early to play football and ended late since we went out) I practiced my Spanish approximately 18 hours a day. The bad thing is that I got injured the day after the tournament…

November was also great in terms of visitors: I got visitors two times this month! First, one of my best friends came with her dad to see the match Real Madrid – Osasuna. They stayed for a few days and we had a lot of fun. Two weeks later, two other friends came to see me, which was great too.

Now I will to tell you two anecdotes to illustrate how I perceive Spain now and then. I often hear myself saying “that’s typical Spanish” after which I always have to laugh, because I enjoy the unexpectedness of some events here. First, I went to a football training (before I got injured) to find out that the door was locked. I was the only one there, and started to doubt whether there was a training. Fortunately, my trainer and a team mate came too. We decided to wait, since it is quite normal in Spain that someone comes half an hour after the time you had a meeting, so it could be that the “man with the keys” would come late. Then, while waiting there, another girls football team arrived. They told us they had to play against Comillas (us!). We said that match was planned for two days later, but they did not believe us. The man with the keys came, and the other team just got into the building ready to play a match. Our trainer did not pay attention to this, and started the training with us as usual. After many phone calls, the trainer said we had to play a match! Without proper clothing or referees, we played the match eventually… Typical Spanish! Another Spanish experience was going to the hairdresser. Here in Spain, it is very normal to put a price list and promotions outside the shop. One day I saw a nice promotional action: cutting, a special shampoo treatment and a special conditioner treatment for only 10 Euros! So I was dreaming the whole day of a nice hair massage, but when I finally sat in the chair ready to receive this nice treatments, it was horrible! It was so quick and it even hurt me! Typical Spanish? ;)

I think you are pretty much updated now, although I have to mention some other nice things I did to conclude: I found two lounge bars which have become my favorites (“Olé Lola” and “Areia”), I went shopping two times in one week, I cooked “hutspot” for some international friends and I had a drink with a girl I knew from my trip to Morocco.

In short, I enjoyed November a lot! Adios!