Oh the possibilities here

Oh, the rush! This week has been a real hustling as first getting accustomed to the new environment and culture. The amount of kisses and food, haha! I have maybe three posts in progress but haven't had much time to finish them. Or then maybe I'm just too fusspot of creating blog post pleasing to me. I realized that I now I don't have so much time to create long, well-detailed posts. Pity.

  On Friday day I attended into my host mother's work day in primary school. This is the time of the year of Castanyada, a very traditional festival in Catalonia. Here this is kind of replaced with Halloween. I was invited to arrive for the lunch with teachers to their meeting room  to celebrate and get familiarized with teachers and the Catalan school.
   The best moment was maybe when I was introduced to the master chef on the balcony. My yawn dropped of amaze and amusement when I saw that they were grilling three-metre long sausage, but cut and wrapped in a a smaller circles. And those astonishing sized slices of bread! With that I could have covered my face to play hide and seek.

  The wide board was full of different kinds of food  related to this special day called Castanyada. Various kinds of traditional pizzas made of puff pastry, sweet pastries flavored with coconut, stone pine, citrus, etc...  This dish was called Panellets and was enjoyed with aromatic and fruity alcohol called Moscatell,  made by muscat grape.  Also sweet potato preserved in the folio wrap.

 However, the most recognizable character were Castanyas, chestnuts , witch are roasted and later wrapped in the newspaper. Commonly street vendors prepare them hot toasted and sell them on the streets. And this is very delicious.
All the children gathered on school's backyard, made a circle on the track and sang danced few songs, waving their their hands along the song. At the end, all we got wrap of chestnuts and a big piece of batter.cake and few pieces of chocolate. The idea is that parents wait children otside and when the food arrives, the family has their own moment for their kid's eating.
In Sunday evening it might be that I'll be eating one kilo as we are celebrating this festival.

Bona Castanyada!

I'm in Lleida, Spain - Living here

Hola! Que tal? My journey to Lleida, Spain, started only around one and half week ago. I have had a profile on AupairWorld which is a website for people to  inform themselves as an Au Pairs. I thougth to make a blog post about my leaving before I leave but the time was small-scaled. In reality, I got a positive request (for starting to exchange messages) on Friday. And one week later I was having my last overnight stay. On 22nd day was my flight to Barcelona.

 The same day I got the request, I also had a Skype conversation and for two hours! The conversation was with the oldest chid (10-year-old) and her mother, but she was doing something else in the background. At the end we both seemed very sure that I could come. Somehow we were kindred. On the next day we talked more and the decision was made. I would move to Lleida.

   I had finished my Upper secondary School in Finland and after that tried few kinds of jobs. In Spring, when the last application period was, I tried to enroll into University, but to be honest, I wasn't motivated to study for entrance exams. Also to get enrolled to some programs in Finland is hard. Or that's what I believe. Nevertheless, I still wasn't sure what to do with my future and what I would want to study.

Sooo... I had one week time to get all the things ready. From the start - when I was creating the profile - I wasn't even sure which country I was going to. As a criteria I put a few countries like France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain.... a vast range of opportunities existed. And then this family from Lleida appeared to be interested about my profile. Their profile were in Spanish. The mother wasn't speaking English. Three children and a city of 130.000 inhabitants. Nice.

1ª: I didn''t speak or read OR understand any Spanish (Castilian). Maybe some vague words you hear from songs by Enrique Iglesias, Shakira, Ricky Martin etc.
2ª: I'm a person who likes to talk and especially if with somebody I'm going to use a lot of time. And still 'No hablo Español'.
3ª: For someones 130.000 is much, enough or too few. For me this was unsure; do I get bored quickly because if I get to known with the city and all the people. Will I know the city like the back of your hand?
4ª : Three children. Hehe, do I even have to tell more?
5ª: This is a addition to last paragraph for a reason.  I attached a great importance to have a place where I could meet new people and get a lot of possibilities for a mass of experiences. To examine for these possibilities I opened the incredible world of Internet and started to search anything related to this certain city: Services, history, schools, communities, leisure time, people living there, living/working/study experience, Au pairs, groups....  Fairly almost nothing which made me scared about becoming to feel hermit there,

 What have I done?

Now when I'm writing this, it is the fourth day. And I have been authentically busy. And I couldn't be more happy. As a consequence, I will continue in the next post.

Benvinguda a Lleida!
Bienvenido a Lleida!