I don't want to teach anymore. Not like this. Not in public schools. Not where the students don't want to learn, but there's tons of pressure on the teacher to make them learn. Not where I work SO LONG AND HARD to plan lessons and carry them out, and it's all for NOTHING. I don't want to teach anymore. I feel envious of people who have other jobs. Why don't I change careers? Because as a teacher, I get loads of time off and then I can travel. Most other careers in the United States give ten vacation days per year. [View Full Entry]

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What a beautiful city! Sitges is brighter than Barcelona, cuter, and younger. I don't feel like sightseeing here; I just want to wander around by the ocean and pop in and out of shops. One of my favorite things when I travel is to go in local shops and look at the clothes, jewelry, and shoes. I like to buy unique souveniers: barret, shoulder bag, shoes, accessories. I walk towards the ocean, following the sound of the waves. An elderly man jogs down the beach, wearing nothing but a little speedo. I crack up and look around to see if anyone [View Full Entry]

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My hostel in Barcelona is completely booked, so now I have to stay at a different one. In terms of the residents staying here, it's quieter than the first hostel. One of my roommates, Leo, is a hippie-dude from New York. He's been living in Greece for the last six months, working at a restaurant, getting paid under the table. He's fluent in Spanish, and the Iranian lady who works at the front desk of the hostel is obviously quite taken with him. Leo breaks out his guitar and sings some Johnny Cash and Beatles, occasionally passing the guitar to a [View Full Entry]

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I decide to venture out of Barcelona for a couple of days. Sitges, a small city just south of Barcelona along the coast, has been highly recommended. The entire trip from my hostel in Barcelona to my hostel in Sitges, luggage in tow, is conducted in the freezing, pouring rain! I'm wearing my rain coat, holding my scant little umbrella against the biting wind, and walking as fast as I can, my suitcase splashing water onto me as I drag it along behind. Note to self: invest in a backpacker's backpack and PACK MORE LIGHTLY! Only one pair of jeans, not [View Full Entry]

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You cannot go to southern Spain and NOT see a flamenco show! I reserve a seat for a dinner-and-show venue on La Rambla. The upstairs restaurant looks really high-end (or "posh" as the British call it), and the buffet overflows with some of the most delicious-smelling food I've ever encountered. TONS of seafood paella, cassaroles with fish, pepper steak, flan, cheesecake, breads, Spanish rice, a variety of baked fish, oysters, soups, stuffed mushrooms... I want to try EVERYTHING! I sit at a table for one, next to two elderly gentlemen. When I hear them talking, my ears perk up. They're A [View Full Entry]

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Last night, the temperature dropped twenty degrees, so today, it's cold and rainy. Nevertheless, I put on my tourista hat and go to see the famous Sagrada Familia with the twenty-one-year-old Catalonian guy who is staying in the bunk beneath mine. I honestly can't remember his name, and we've been walking around and talking for two hours now, so I'm too embarrassed to ask. Unfortunately, he remembers my name. Since my Spanish is better than his English, all of our communications are in Spanish (Castillano). We get off the metro at the Sagrada Familia stop. "Where is it?" I ask as [View Full Entry]

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My hostel is cute, with walls painted orange, green, hot pink, and purple. The common room has two couches, a flat screen TV, a DVD player (and you can borrow movies from the front desk), and a computer. I get to stay here for three nights for fifty pounds! I walk to the pastry shop next door and ask, in Spanish, how much the chocolate one costs. He answers, in Spanish 1.30. Cheap! I say I'd like one. I like practicing my Spanish. I like that people here assume I speak Spanish and just start talking to me in Spanish. Technically, [View Full Entry]

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Thanks to my ignorance of the fact that daylight savings time ended last night, I'm on my way to the airport early, instead of late. On the tube to Heathrow Airport, I see a Japanese couple texting. I sit next to the lady who is significantly older than the boy. The boy looks to be about my age. As I glance at the woman's phone, I see that she's texting in Japanese, which fascinates me because I've never seen a Japanese cell phone. The keys have Japanses figures on them, and when the woman presses a key, she has to go [View Full Entry]

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After lying around all day today, I finally take a shower and go to an Irish pub without putting on any make-up or fixing my hair. I don't look frumpy or anything; I look fine, but not my best. Now I'm wishing I'd fixed myself up. I can't compete with the girls who've straightened their hair and put on lipstick and high heels. I pull out my little notepad and start writing. The guys all wear nice jeans and dress shoes with button-down shirts. They stand in clusters of three or four, talking, with one hand in their pocket and the [View Full Entry]

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At the pub down the road from school WARNING: What follows is a fun evening of beer, sampler appetizers, and harsh workplace gossip. Of course, I don't know any gossip. Not only do I not care, but I've also been working at the school for only a month. I don't even know everyone's names yet, let alone their personalities. Still, it's interesting to hear my co-worker's opinions and get advice on how to handle certain people. "So-n-so quit today," Julie announces. Julie is an attractive middle-aged mom with blond streaks in her long, straight hair and a low-cut shirt that I [View Full Entry]

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