MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I’m off to Norway until January 7th! I am so excited to see Anna & Oistein! (+ family and friends of Anna's too!)
I am feeling so thankful for my parents, family and friends who continue to inspire and support me. I miss and love you all so much!
Merry Christmas! And Happy New Year!

me & two of my favorite students: Carmen y Paula

im dreaming of a white christmas...

The past few weeks have been both emotional and exciting. I experienced my first Hanukkah which was educational and delicious. I have learned about Christmas traditions in Spain; for example, they generally do not receive gifts until the Three Wise Men come on January 6th. Kime and Zack came back to visit, which was lovely as usual despite their sick state (food poisoning at their previous farm). Oh, and the Christmas lights in the streets were finally turned on which makes Motril look somewhere in between tacky and beautiful.


(homemade manora, Latkes & applesauce! yum!)

However, what I have not had the past week is snow. Or skiing on the stuart trail. Or stollen made by my wonderful mother. Christmas carols playing while I eat breakfast. Or opening up a decoration to put on our advent-calendar-tree every day. Cafe Del Mundo coffee. Or snuggling with Tuuli in my warm bed while looking out into a winter wonderland. This is called: my 1st experience of being homesick in a long time.

^ Just to show a few images to express how much i miss home....

To distract me from this feeling of seriously missing my family and Alaska, I have my adorable students who are excited to do and make Christmas activities. I was remembering all of the things we did at Bowman and I was wishing I had the energy and materials to do these things; Gingerbread houses, ornaments for our parents, making snow men, etc. However, apparently next week the Three Wise Men come to the school to hand out candy to the kids...that should be fun to see. I arrived to the preschool classes with a Santa hat and said "Who am i??" and they answered confidently, "...Heidi..." No, sillys, "SANTA CLAUS!" It was too cute. I attempted at having my 1st graders send letters to Aunt Janet's class but it was a much more difficult task than I had anticipated. I have been playing Christmas Bingo with my private lesson -- that is a whole other story I have not elaborated on yet:

So, my new private lesson: three sisters, ages 5,6,8 named Reyes, Mar & Lola. They are a lot of work, but they make me happy. I teach them for an hour Monday - Thursday and I do my best to help them learn English despite their young age and different levels. They are SO adorable but they are still little girls -- SISTERS -- who compete with each other and whine a lot. I started teaching them because my friend Bernardo decided it was too much for him... however, I assume I am going to be paid as much as he was and it is not enough but I am okay with that because lets face it, I have the time and it is quite rewarding. Plus, they are just so cute!! take a look for yourself:



Kime is back again just 2 days after she left (after her last gig fell through in Cadiz) and it is great to have her. Last night we snuggled, made homemade Spanish hot chocolate, and watched Love Actually. It was a wonderful!

Me, Bernardo & Kime!

So although I am missing home, I have so much to be thankful for here in Motril and ALSO so much to look forward to: NORWAY!!! I am so excited to see Anna (of course) and Oistein -- who I havent seen in over a year and 1/2!! And of course Oisteins family, the Tronsleins, and Anna's friends! Only 5 more days.

In case you forgot how cute the Barnwell girls are: (this is hilarious, thanks for the idea jessi)
click below
http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/KGknL7de3Ek31uHx

scotland!

I cannot believe how fortunate I have been to have the chance to visit such beautiful places in the world...

I had an amazing trip to Scotland. My friend Jessi and I headed to Glasgow on a Thursday and we only had 3 full days there – so it was definitely too short but so worth it. We arrived in Glasgow and although it was much bigger than we had expected (who would have known, the biggest city in Scotland is BIG!), we immediately fell in love. It is a beautiful city full of character, great shopping, magical Christmas lights, and incredibly friendly people. While we were in Glasgow we spent our time exploring the streets, shopping, eating delicious food (sushi, German market food, burgers!) drinking coffee and hot chocolate, and of course seeing the pubs.

Jessi & me. The Christmas lights were so beautiful!

Our favorite street: Buchanan street.

One of the days we spent the entire day in the highlands. Or I should say, on a bus. We took a 10 hour bus tour through the highlands to see Loch Lomond, Glencoe, Loch Ness, Inverness, and more.

The map to show our tour, Tom our bus driver (notice the side of the road) and Jessi and me at Loch Lomond.

We were so lucky and had wonderful weather on our tour. It was definitely not the “green” Scotland that you might normally imagine but I loved the frost on the trees and the snow in the mountains. Our driver, Tom, was a funny character. His accent definitely made him more enjoyable to listen to. He had many good stories and historical facts to share with us through out the many hours we spent together. Tom was from a small island and Gaelic is his 1st language so he shared many words with us. Our 1st stop was Loch Lomond which was beautiful. Then we stopped in Glencoe which is famous for the massacre of the MacDonald clan but more recently has been a spot for filming scenes from Harry Potter. We stopped in Fort William for lunch, we passed through the largest mountains in the UK, and then up to see Urquart Castle. At this point we had the "option" to do a boat tour on Loch Ness. Although it was more than we had wanted to spend, it was really fun and amazing to see the sun set on the famous Loch Ness. We also would like to believe we saw Nessie...



sunset over Loch Ness, Urquart Castle, Jessi and me on Loch Ness.

We were surprised to find that the sun sets almost as early as in Alaska so almost a third of the tour was in the dark. However, we saw so many beautiful places in the light that we were not too disappointed. We passed through Inverness before the sun completely set and we enjoyed one last cute town. After seeing all of these small towns Jessi and I plan to return to Scotland and spend some time in little villages.

I kept thinking of our ancestors and family from Scotland... I loved the people in Scotland so much and I would like to think that is why we are good people!

After our tour we returned to Glasgow, walked around the square with Christmas festivities and then went out on the town with our new Australian friends.

out on the town with our aussie friends.

Our last day in Glasgow we went back to our favorite parts of the city, enjoyed some delicious meals and stayed out of the rain! We spent a uncomfortable and very chilly night in the Prestwick Airport and made our way back to Malaga.



We still had two more days of our long weekend so I spent a few nights in Granada with Jessi. As usual it was a wonderful stay in my favorite city -- although significantly colder. I was happy to be back in warmer Motril and start planning Christmas lessons and see my Motrileños again!