Introducing Stan, and other tales from February

Well folks, let's see if we can sum up February, shall we?

I went to Carnaval in Cádiz on a bus from the University of Málaga.  We left for Cádiz at 3 pm on a Saturday and got back to Málaga at 11 am on Sunday.  It was great--like a giant, outdoor Halloween party.  The Spanish really go all out.  I saw one group dressed as bull fighters.  They even had a bull made out of a shopping cart that they were pitting against a fake horse brought by some guys dressed as Trojan soldiers.
 
A class of 14-year-old students came to visit from England; they've been doing a sort of exchange program with the 11-year-old bilingual class.  We did field trips to a couple of towns near the school, which consisted of going to a couple of monuments and then giving the kids "free time" while the teachers went to get coffee.  Mostly I just enjoyed watching the kids try to communicate with each other using a mixture of English, Spanish and French.  Of course, when Spanglish and wild gesturing didn't work they went to plan B: Ask a teacher.

"Anna, how do you say 'hermano' in English?" 
"Anna, how do you say 'qué has comprado' in English?"
"Anna, how do you say 'mi tio vive en un pueblo cerca de aquí, y tiene una piscina y vamos allí todos los veranos para nadar con mis amiga, María, y sus hermanos, Diego y Manuel.  También tienen un perrillo pero no puede nadar en la piscina porque una vez hace 2 años hizo caca en la piscina'?" 

We were pretty tired by the end of the week.

My mom and sister escaped the Minnesota weather last week to come visit me.  I was a ruthless taskmaster.  I stuck them in a hotel filled with bizarre abstract paintings that looked eerily like pages from an anatomy textbook, took them on forced marches the Alcazaba and the castle and made them try weird Spanish foods like croquetas and shrimp with the heads and feet still attached.  (In my defense, Laura liked the shrimp and who in their right mind doesn't like croquetas?)

My mom and sister got to see my apartment.  My mom got lost.  Not on the way to the apartment, mind--in the apartment, which consists of bedrooms, a hallway, a bathroom and a kitchen.  I don't know what to do with that.

I also had the pleasure of introducing them to Stan, the puddle of urine that's usually hanging around the entrance of my building.  Stan first appeared a few months ago when someone didn't shut the front door properly and a drunk guy thought the floor of our entryway looked a little parched.  Since that time Stan has been a fixture in our building.  He disappears every once in a while, but he always returns to grace us once again with his presence.  After the first month I realized he was going to be a permanent part of my life in Spain so I gave him a name.  I now greet him when I enter the building and say "hasta luego, Stan" when I leave.  Yep.  I'm the crazy lady who talks to puddles of urine.

We said goodbye to Stan and spent a few days in Marrakech, Morocco.  We stayed at a gorgeous Riad in the middle of the market.   Every morning they served us freshly baked breads with tea and coffee in a little patio filled with trees and birds.  We felt like movie stars.  We spent a fair amount of time in the markets (carefully avoiding the paprazzi, of course) and managed not to get lost. (Posthumus girls: 1, Morocco: 0)  We traded my sister for a camel and then traded the camel for a nice throw rug.  It was a good trade; they're hand-made, you know.

We did get hoodwinked once into taking pictures with some monkeys and snakes.  Normally we would have told them to get lost, but I guess we had our guard down in that moment.  We ended up having to give them some money for the photos.  (Posthumus girls: 1, Morocco: 1)

Aside from that, we ate delicious food, played "chicken" with the Moroccan cars and motorcycles (this actually made me a little nostalgic for Ecuador), stared creepily at the people going to temple from our hotel room window, made up stories about our chain-smoking hotel worker, Mehmed, saw some mosques, danced in a palace, and spent our evenings listening to Laura read aloud The Manny Files. (Posthumus girls: 100,000,000, Morocco: 1)

After Morocco we spent one day in Granada, where we saw the Alhambra.  If you ever get the chance to see the Alhambra, do.  It's like nothing I've ever seen.

Mom and Laura went back to the states after only 8 days.  I was sad to see them go.

I got accepted to the University of Minnesota to start an inital licensure/Masters in Education program this summer.  It's a 15-month intensive program that begins about 10 days after I get home.  I want to get a double K-12 licensure in ESL and Spanish.  When I'm done with that I think I'll start work on my plans for world conquest. 

If anybody wants in on the world conquest bit, let me know.  With these types of things, you really have to get in on the ground floor.

As always, thanks for reading and keep in touch!