Something special

I read "Eat, Pray, Love" (by Liz Gilbert) almost two years ago, and I really liked the book! It became a hit among my friends, and we discussed it and loved it. Some friends had already been to India, and others wanted to go. I had the same relationship to the book as is described in this image:

(Picture taken from a blog I follow)

We were surprised when we heard Julia Roberts was going to play Liz Gilbert, and pleased to hear that Javier Bardém was cast as Felipe. I watched the film tonight, and enjoyed it! Well, sometimes it was like when you watch the Harry Potter films, you wait for certain things to happen, because you remember reading about these things. (For instance Richard from Texas who wanted an open heart, and got it ... in the literal sense...) But all in all, an entertaining experience.

Sometimes it was a bit challenging when they spoke Italian and it was translated to Spanish, but I got most of it. It is also interesting that they sometimes have a 5 minutes long break. Ha ha! And after the break, the film started in Spanish (dubbed version), before they switched to English. There are always exciting things happening in Puerto Banús!! That's for sure.

Golf

Ulempen med å jobbe på en skole som ligger rett ved siden av en gedigen golfbane er at det en sjelden gang kommer golfballer SUSENDE inn i klasserommet... (!) Eller hvis du tar med klassen ut og sitter på gresset i ring og bedriver høytlesning av Dracula (herlig!), så kan det komme golfballer dalende ned fra golfhøyden. Dette fenomenet er nytt av året. Nå har det skjedd to ganger på en uke. Er det fordi golfspillerne er mer ustabile, eller ... ?!

La Luna Mora

Went to a fantastic festival last night, Festival de la Luna Mora, in a village called Guaro, somewhere up in the mountains. The whole village was full of candle lights, and after dark, it was absolutely fantastic!

The village and some of its inhabitants before dark. Look at all the candlelights!

There were lots of stalls there as well, where you could buy jewellery, candles, clothes, "nips", and lots of nice food. Look at the cakes, saucages, and sweets they sold!!

These are massive cakes!!

Spanish saucages etc. (not my cup of tea)

Sweets! Yummy! Definitely my cup of tea!! :)

I tried to take some pictures in the dark as well, just go give you an idea of how it looked. It was absolutely amazing. But my camera isn't realy good enough to capture the atmosphere, so I've kept the nice memories in my head!

This is the same spot as the second picture!

So we were really we went up there, it ended up as a spur-of-the-moment trip, but it was fantastic!

Cheese --- part 2.

Last night I visited Euro Market in Fuengirola for the very first time. The Cheesy Cheese Hunt was on, and we found what we were looking for kind of straight away: the very famous Norwegian brown cheese, aka Gudbrandsdalsost.

Thank you (and sorry) to friends and family who have visited me and who have had to bring several kilos of brown cheese in their suitcases. No need for that anymore. And to my friends down here in Spain who I've managed to get addicted on the brown cheese: It's there! At Euro Market. Only 8 Euros 20 for half a kilo. Run, run, run!!

The cinema

Going to the cinema in Puerto Banús can be fun!! (And a challenge.) There are two options; either you watch the dubbed version of the film, or the original version. The latter is of course most easy at the time being, although my Spanish is getting better every day! (Positive thinking!) However, I would claim that you certainly need to know some Spanish even if you chose the original version!! The story below is true, and it is not the first time it has happened. 


The very cute Jaden Smith (picture: www.filmogkino.no)

I watched "The Karate Kid" at the local cinema yesterday, and we chose the original version. Once the film started, it turned out that they had put on the dubbed version where Will Smith's son and the other actors actually speak Spanish! (Or ... some Spanish actors dub them.) Crisis! Trauma! The audience, which of course consisted mostly of ex-pats and non-Spanish people, started shouting and talking, and panicking, "oh, did we go to the wrong film?!?"" and "I don't speak Spanish..."-- but after five minutes there was silence again, because they put on the original version. However, they couldn't be bothered to start the film from the beginning again. Oh no... Luckily both me and my friends understand some Spanish, so we weren't completely lost. (And for those of you who have seen the film: How much would we actually lose if we didn't understand  the first five minutes?)

Then, when the actors in the film spoke Chinese, subtitles appeared on the screen. Which language do you think these subtitles were in??

Things you learn in life

Breaking news from Nueva Andalucía! 

It turns out that there is a very well functioning air-condition system in my car!! (Pity it wasn't discovered a year ago... )

Cheese -- Ost -- Queso

I'm soon off to a lunch with colleagues. And for some reason, the Norwegian Gudbrandsdalsost (or "brown cheese" as we tend to call it), is extremely popular amongst people down here. How come? Take a look at the Norwegian-style sandwiches I will bring to the lunch!

Back to work

Life is good!

It is eaxactly two weeks since I came back home to Spain after a nice summer in Norway. I really enjoyed coming back to Spain again; catching up with friends, enjoying the weather, taking a very intensive course in Spanish (I'm supposed to be an expert on the past tenses now....) and basically just being back where I live my life now.

I want to tell you a bit about life at Aloha College. Monday was the first day back at work, and I really enjoyed not being the new one anymore. Now I know my way around, I know which books I'm supposed to use, I know where the staff room is, where the coffee machine is, I know what Key Stage 3 and all other British National Curriculum terms mean, - basically I am not panicking as much as I did just a year ago when everything was new to me. I am more confident in my job now.

The first day I also got a nice surprise: I was told I have to teach an IB subject called Theory of Knowledge (TOK). This subject is a kind of philosophical subject where the aim is to encourage the students to think outside the box. Develop them into critical thinkers. It is divided into two main areas: ways of knowing and areas of knowing. I am sharing the course with another teacher. I will be teaching the following ways of knowing: language and emotion, and these areas of knowing: the Arts, Ethics and History. It is going to be a cool subject to teach, I think, and I'm looking forward to the challenge! I can draw on a lot of the things I read for my Master studies, and also from teaching Religion og Etikk and IB History at Berg.

So ... the first week at work has been a good week! It was made even better by the fact that my friend Marit visited from Oslo! We had lots of fun. (I will tell you about that in another blog entry.)

I have just been half asleep up by the pool for two hours now (I love Spain!), and will soon head for Fuengirola to enjoy some food and drinks with my best friend in Spain.

Wishing everybody a lovely weekend!!