Valentine’s Day is all about love, and not just the romantic kind, so I want to wish all of you wonderful people a very happy Valentine’s Day! My life is so full of love, largely thanks to you guys.

From what I’ve seen, Spain doesn’t go quite as crazy over Valentine’s Day as we Americans do. Just as we call it a Hallmark Holiday, Spaniards refer to it as a “Día de El Corte Inglés” (El Corte Inglés being Spain’s major department store), but perhaps El Corte Inglés hasn’t succeeded at taking over everyone’s lives quite as much as Hallmark has. Some stores in Spain have Valentine’s Day decorations, but far fewer than in the U.S. Kids celebrate the holiday in school, but full-blown Valentine’s Day parties, complete with tons of cards, cookies, candies, and crafts, are replaced by a few educational activities. The Spanish fast-food pizza chain Telepizza does sell heart-shaped pizzas today, at least. If only Telepizza’s pizza were edible.

You'd think it would be hard to go wrong with pizza, but you'd be wrong. Meet Telepizza.

Even still, I’ve done my best to bring my 3rd favorite holiday (after Christmas and my birthday — what? My birthday isn’t a holiday?) to life. I kicked off continue reading..

Today, I present to you a video of my first graders singing about the five senses (in English!) a few months ago. You know, in case you forgot what those five senses are. Or just want to watch some adorable Spanish kids sing in English.

I’m pretty impressed, really. Wish I could take all the credit.

Though I still have 4.5 months left of this stint in Spain, the ever-present question, of course, is what comes next? And the answer is most likely another year of teaching English in Spain!

The North American Language and Culture Assistants/Auxiliares de Conversación program allows, and even encourages, participants to renew their positions for a second year. As renewals, we get priority placement and a much simpler application process. Considering how much I’m loving life right now, why not continue, right?

My travel group in Granada, on my first visit to Spain in 2006. Who knew I'd end up spending so much time in Spain? I guess I kind of had a feeling. It was love at first sight.

When I finished my year abroad in Madrid, I knew that I had the option to return to Spain after college, but when I finish this program, I likely will only be back in Spain for short vacations, and, right now, I can’t imagine having to say goodbye to Spain for good in June. I haven’t had enough! I miss the people back home, of course, as well as continue reading..

Right before Thanksgiving, I was thrilled to have my dad pay me a visit in Spain. Though he only had three days here (days that I had work), we managed to squeeze in quite the tour of the southeastern Iberian Peninsula, and it was fantastic.

Monday afternoon, I hurried home from work to greet him at his hotel, just a minute away from my house. After running to the oficina de extranjeros to pick up my foreigners’ card before the office closed (because, surprise surprise, my bank had decided to cause more trouble),  it was time to show off Sevilla! The tour began with a meal at a kebab restaurant, as eating a kebab is a quintessential Alameda experience, I’d say. From there, we strolled from La Alameda through the center, passing by the nativity scene vendors, and eventually arriving in the tourist district, where I showed him the exteriors of the Catedral and Alcázar and we wandered through the old Barrio Santa Cruz before wowing him with the majestic Plaza de España. We crossed over the bridge and into Triana, where I took him to one of my favorite spots in Sevilla, Paseo Nuestra Señora de La O along the river. I may have seen these places dozens of times by now, but they never fail to amaze me.

Spain loves its nativity scenes.

On day two, continue reading..

All right, so maybe it’s a little passé to do a 2011 in review post when we’re almost two weeks into 2012, but who said I was hip anyway? 2011 was a fantastic year, perhaps my best year yet (though I kind of say that every year, don’t I?), and it was full of lots of wonderful trips. Therefore, I present you with a review of my trips of 2011!

January and February
No trips outside Southern California in these months, but that’s not to say they weren’t utterly fantastic in lots of other ways!

March
In late March, my friends Julian, Sélim, and I embarked on a spring break road trip from L.A. to Vancouver and back, with nights spent in Santa Cruz, Seattle, and Folsom, not to mention luxurious nights sleeping in the car in Redding, California and Bellingham, Washington. Everything that could have gone wrong seemed to go wrong on this trip (Car stuck in the snow? Check. Not being able to pass through the Canadian border because of forgotten residency papers? Check. Dead car battery? Check. Arrests? No comment.), and that’s what made it so completely amazing. I was surrounded by great company, got to see my beloved 8th grade Spanish teacher, Doña Kim, and two of her daughters in Seattle, and made more friends along the way. I don’t think I could have dreamed of a better road trip.

Trying to fit in with the Canadians in Vancouver

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So, let me just say, Christmas break in California was amazing. I celebrated my favorite holiday with loved ones, got to soak in ridiculously glorious 86°F weather, caught up with lots of friends (and realized that, with true friends, no matter how long it’s been since you’ve seen them, your relationship is just as wonderful as it once was), ate tons of fatty American food, slept way more than I needed to, and, overall, had a basically perfect time.

Grandparents, siblings, and cousins on my dad's side of the family on Christmas (note my brother's "I ♥ Sevilla" shirt!)

As much as I loved it, I am glad to be back in Spain for another 5 months. I’ll admit that the last time I was in Spain, this time of year, the post-Christmas-break-in-California-now-back-to-Spain period, was one continue reading..

• Weaving your way through seemingly millions of people getting their Christmas shopping on in El Centro
• Shelves and shelves in every grocery store full of turrones, mazapanes, mantecados, and other Christmas sweets
• Endless belén (nativity scene) items for sale by the Catedral
• The thrill of seeing new lights put up by the city on a street you haven’t been down yet
• Chestnuts roasting on every street corner
• Cozying up American style on a warm couch in Estarbooks (er, Starbucks), drinking chai tea and admiring the sparkling Christmas lights on Avenida de la Constitución

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It’s hard to believe that in 10 days, I will be on my way home to California for the holidays. This first part of the year flew by.

I’m incredibly excited to go home, believe me. But it’s an entirely different kind of excitement from when I came home from Spain for Christmas two years ago. See, back then, I had an intense longing to go home. As much fun as I was having the first few months in Madrid, I carried with me always at least some sense of homesickness. I was loving Spain, but part of my heart remained in California. I needed to go home.

Psyched to see my sister on Christmas Eve in 2009 after four months in Madrid

But this time around? Yes, it’s definitely true I’m overjoyed to be returning to California for the holidays. And, sure, there are things I miss about the U.S., and, of course, I wish I weren’t so far away from so many of the people I love, but I completely feel like I’m continue reading..