Life in Vejer

It's still cold when you're not standing in the sun over here, and it's about 15 degrees at night. Not quite flip flop weather, but I'm soldiering on, because I'm in Spain and I have to wear flip flops. We went to a friend's house for a barbaquoa last night, their terrace overlooks the valley and the sunset from it was phenomenal. If you stand up, you can see Africa from their terrace. How cool is that? I could swim to Africa. (And lots of migrants from Africa attempt the crossing in all manner of floating devices, poor bastards.)

The church bells toll every hour here, so if you're like me, you know when you're late for class (9 o'clock. Bugger!) I am woken in my room at 730am by the girls running around outside and the noise of the traffic accelerating up the slope by the house. The noise seems to bounce off the really narrow roads.

Get up, shower etc. in the toilet cupboard (as it henceforth shall be known), grab a actimel shake and run out the door. There are exactly 4 vertical slopes to the school, but if you persevere, you can be there in 5 minutes. We have classes with Lola this week and we're learning about kitchens (cocina) and food (i've forgotten the word already) in Espana. Yesterday was a really hard lesson and we were all exhausted by the end of it. We have 2 hours and then a break, wherein everyone (teachers y students) head to the cafe at the top of the hill to have cafe, tea and my personal favourite, tostada with tomatoes - mushed up tomatoes with peppers and garlic. like gazpacho on toast. You pour the olive oil all over the toast, then liberally smear the bread with the tomatoes. break and eat. Gorgeous. Today, I attempted to order tea with milk, as opposed to my ordering tea, then asking for some milk. Something went horribly wrong, and I landed up with hot milk with a tea bag in it. Apparently, he wasn't taking the piss out of the stupid foreigner (who was very embarassed, much too embarassed to ask him what the hell it was) and this is a normal way of drinking tea here. It wasn't too bad I have to say, but very rich. It taste almost like tariked tea. I shall attempt again tomorrow, but will ask Lola what to say first.

We get out at 1pm, then go and have lunch. So far, we've then gone shopping for food or come to the school to use the computers. Yesterday, we took taxis to El Palmar, the nearest beach - 15 minutes taxi ride down the hill and across the country side, COVERED in sunflowers (amazing fantastic etc etc). The beach is beautiful, the water is 4 different shades of blue, it's more or less empty for miles, we're going to learn to surf there as the waves are good. The only downsides are that it's still a little too cold to sunbathe and the wind blows a fine layer of sand over you while you're lying down, which then insidiously finds its way into your bag, to cover your room in a fine layer of sand as well. I'll take pictures the next time round.

Today, I've come to the computers and also attempted to study on the patio. It's the nicest study area I've ever had, sitting under the orange trees and bounganvilla trellis, overlooking the valley. It meant that my ADD-that-only-flares-up-when-I'm-studying is limited to every 30 mins instead of 10.

So there you have it. I was shown where the market and shops were today, so I'll write about the next time I´m here. I'll try to upload pictures then as well. We are watching a spanish movie tonight and I need to feed myself before that. Pink processed meat and cup noodles, here I come!