I signed up to play field hockey here in Mataro with a bunch of teenagers. Last night it was my first day, I just loved it but now I hate it, I’m in pain, my body soars badly, can’t move a single part of it, I’m like a handicap . I would have preffered to be smashed by elephants.

We have a match on Saturday against an important club from Barcelona, but I’m afraid I won’t be able to go. It’s not that the team needs me though

Besides all the pain, I like the idea of playing Hockey again, plus I need to socialize. I’m a social gal!!!! But my body is not in a fit as it used to be.

The job I got has to advantages:

1) I speak English all day long, because the owners are British and German, and the teachers are from Australia, England, Poland, France, Germany and Finland.

2) Since it’s a school we are off for the holidays, from the 22nd of Dec to the 6th of Jan. Isn’t it great????!!! This is the only thing that makes me feel better when I wake up every morning at 6.45 am .

Last week I booked the tickets to go to Sweden for the holidays, I can’t explain how happy I am, most of my friends are from there and live kind of close from each other, so it’s gonna be fun.

I spent so much time with my Swedish gang in US, going to Swedish clubs, Swedish Church, eating meatbolls, drinking Vodka (until I got seriously sick or drunk if you like that better) and listening to ABBA. OH MAMA MIA I must have been Swedish in a past life, my whole year was more Swedish than American. You know… you can convert to Jewish, vegetarian, etc, well I was converted to Swedish haha. So the next step is getting to know the Country.

I’m lucky because every single Swedish speaks English, otherwise I would be fucked up, cause my Swedish…. is as good as a couple of numbers, introducing myself, and of course what you always learn first…. Cursing. Javla fitta!!!!!

Guys as you can see I’m fucking excited about it. You have no idea how much I miss you … It’s gonna be so much fun. I’m already counting down. I’m glad we are not spending new years in Times Square. “Aldrig mer”.

Can’t wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“Sverige, här kommer jag!”

Ok, I’m a terrible cook, I admit it, but the recipe seemed to be quite easy: just a cup of flour, a cup of “sugar”, 3 egs and heavy cream. 40 minutes in the oven and voila!!!  Easy, right???

After I made the though I happened to try it, and…… Oh man!!!! so fucking salty. I realized that instead of using sugar I used salt, A CUP OF SALT!!!!!! Ok ok I didn’t read the package, but it just looked like the Argentine sugar package. Crap!!!

It reminds me when I was in US and I meant to make chicken with cream sauce, except that the heavy cream was sour cream, ewww. Or when I made “empanadas” in the oven and the though was for frying. Remember Andersson?? I guess I never read the packages, and I seriously suck cooking.

Anyway… I cooked the salty cake just for fun, take a look here, hahaha.  Now I’m cooking the cake again, but with “sugar” this time   

I got 2 jobs. One is to work as a receptionist and later as a teacher in an English institute here in Mataro. They will teach me the method they use to teach English (Callan). It’s not a conventional method, you can see for yourself a video memo class.
The job is only from 8 am to 1.30 pm, Monday to Friday, and the payment is actually quite good.

The other job is to work for Iberia, the Spanish airline, at the airport, in the check in area. I have to take a 2 week course, which starts the 12th of November. I might start working in December or January.

On Monday and Tuesday I went to La Escala, Gerona, here in Spain, to visit Paula. Paula is a close friend of mine, from Spain, that I met in Montclair, USA, who I hadn’t seen for year and a half. Paula was an Au Pair as well. She is now a flight attendant and living in Scotland. She had a few days off so she came to visit her family.

While being in US we used to talk all the time about our families, our home towns, our friends, our houses, our cultures, etc. We sort of ended up knowing a lot about our lives back home. But still, there was something missing. It’s like you meet the person but out of context. I think my other au pair friends understand what I’m saying.

Ericka: Paula keeps mixing Spanish with Catalan. And her English … well… say… improved a bit . In her family everybody speaks Catalan all the time to each other, I could only pick up some words, but let’s say… I understand Catalan as much as Paula does English .

Paula: I missed you a lot, hope we can see each other again. Scotland would be nice!!!

The following video is about my visit to Paula’s. Sorry if you are a non-Spanish speaker. Don’t try to learn Spanish from this video though. It’s not a good idea to learn Spanish from an Argentine and a Catalan

As I said in the latest post when you leave home you convince yourself that you’ll be back.

When I was in 3rd year of high-school a bunch of students from Barcelona came to Rosario for a couple of weeks and I hosted one of them (Patricia). A year later me and other classmates from school came to Barcelona for a month or so, and I was hosted by Patricia and her parents in their home.

We went to school daily and had classes in Catalan, which was kinda confusing and boring at the same time , but attendance was mandatory. We also got to travel around which was interesting, except that we were 17 years old and not really into museums. Imagine how much we cared when we went to the museum of Prado. We didn’t give a …. and ended up in Planet Hollywood that was located right in-front of El Prado. A few years later I realized how big deal El Prado was, and I regretted so much about it. Last year I had the opportunity of going to Madrid for 1 day and the first thing I did was going back to El Prado, and let me tell you it was just amazing. I think it’s a matter of age, no doubt about it.

I arrived to Barcelona last Monday, It took me like 4 days to adjust to the timezone. On Wednesday I went to Patricia’s and I felt very welcome. It’s been 8 years but I felt like home. It was so great to see them again after 8 years! We’ve stayed in touch all these years.
I’m staying at my uncle’s home (my dad’s brother). I live in a city called Mataro which is about 30 minutes from Barcelona. Mataro is pretty nice. The apartment is quite big and it has a huge balcony all around, and I can see the ocean from here, which makes it more special.

Hugs from las europas

Vani

My host mom’s parents from Texas are visiting this weekend, and so is Uncle David (my host dad’s brother from Trenton, NJ). Yesterday we went for a get-together dinner to this new Argentine restaurant “Gaucho Grill” in town. Although It was very good, I hadn’t tried some of the food they served before. And my host dad insisted that I wasn’t a real Argentine and that I probably grew up in the Bronx

On Thursday I went to a big mall in New Jersey with the new au pair because she wanted me to show her how to get there. Walking around I found the Apple Store in the mall and I couldn’t help buying the Macbook . Now I’m trying to figure out how it works, haha. I’m running out of budget but I have a Macbook

All I can say about these 12 days I spent here is that I had an amazing time, and never felt so happy in the past year, DAMN HAPPY!!! It was just great to see Oscar, my host parents, my friends, Montclair, NYC, every single thing was special to me.

It would have been even more special if all my au pair friends were here too.

As I said in another post, no matter how many times you get to say good bye to people you love, you just never get used to it. There are no words to express what you feel inside when you leave home, you just heal it by convincing yourself that you’ll be back.

A friend once wrote on this blog… “I think I read somewhere that home is not a place, home is a feeling. To you, home is being with your friends, I guess. If you have many friends and they live all around the world, then, my friend, the world is your home”.

Since my trip is all about visiting friends I guess that by the end of it I will be simply shattered, but convinced that I will be back.

She was one of those students that simply wouldn’t relax at all, even knowing she had all the skills to go well on the exam.

The deadline to apply for the scholarship was getting closer, so she decided to take the exam as soon as possible. She became obsessed about the exam and would do all the exercises from the book. You know… the kind of person that is very committed and determined!!!

She drove all her Toefl classmates and even the teacher crazy with her obsession.

When she finally took the exam, everybody thought the torture was getting to and end, but no, that wasn’t the end. She stated several times she did very badly and had the feeling she would fail and not get the score she needed. For which everybody said… You better get a low score (yes a very looow score), because if you drive us crazy just for the hell of it, we will just kill you.

2 weeks afterwards this student girl got the score. She got 97 out of 120 which is a great score.

Guys I’m not there to help you punch Luciana but please do it for me! I so feel like doing so.

Luciana CONGRATULATIONS!!! you are a very talented person and have all the skills to succeed on your field. We love you but please now don’t start driving people crazy about whether you’ll get the scholarship or not.

Missing you…

Hugs from Vainiya desde las norteamericas

My host family went to Pennsylvania for the weekend so I decided to spend the weekend in NYC with Mariano and friends. First on Friday I had dinner with my host parents and friends of theirs from Texas in a fancy Italian Trattoria in the City.

After dinner I went to Brooklyn Heights to Mariano’s. I called my friend Nina from Colombia (ex au pair) who is currently living in Brooklyn with her Canadian boyfriend and taking English courses in nyc. Mariano and his friend from Venezuela (Fatima) joined me in the adventure of going to Nina’s home. We had to take many different subways lines to finally get to her neighborhood, which wasn’t a place where is pleasant to be that late. When we got off the subway we took the opposite direction and ended up in an even worse area, for that reason we decided to get back to Brooklyn Heights.

The day after (Saturday) Mariano had a soccer appointment somewhere in Brooklyn called green point or something like that. He stubbornly decided to play even though he got seriously injured his leg the week before pretending he was from the American National soccer team. The good thing about touring the subway the night before without any success was that we learned how to get to the green line (G) which was the one we were supposed to take to go to Green point. We finally got there, Mariano started the match, but I was starving badly, I was craving for a bagel so I went for a walk looking for a Deli to get my bagel. I found this very nice and clean shop, I bought the bagel… “with a lot of cream cheese” I said… and then I got back to the park to watch the match. I sat down, took out the bagel and tried it. Ewww the cream cheese just didn’t taste like cream cheese, it was a mix of ricotta and sour cream (totally disgusting). I went back to the shop and talked to the Polish girl, I said…

me – excuse me…. this cream cheese doesn’t taste like it should

Polish girl - well It’s the kind of cream cheese we have in Poland

me- :O (totally shocked) but you didn’t tell me it was a polish shop, and it doesn’t say anything outside either 

Polish girl – well It’s a Polish area

I got a free sandwich instead which was good except that I’m allergic to fish and it had salmon :S

The match finished and the stubborn boy was complaining about his leg, for what I answered “I TOLD YOU”

After a late lunch we went to Soho to do some shopping. We took the subway and we walked, by that point our feet were hurting like crazy. We also passed by Times Square to take the tourist picture. We got seriously tired and didn’t buy anything. HEY …. $3=us$1 . Remember???

I finally got to see Nina at night at a Italian restaurant where we had dinner with her boyfriend and Mariano. Afterwards we went to dance. Gypsy music was the rhythm for the night.

On the way back to Mariano’s we had to commute and switch subways, in one point we took the right line but in the wrong direction, getting back to the same station we took the first subway, for which it took us more than an hour to get home. NO COMMENTS!!!

Sunday was Brooklyn Br. day!!! god I love walking through the bridge. After you cross the bridge, on the Brooklyn side, there is this special park where you can see Manhattan. There was a wedding going on with the bridge on the background. SWEET!!! 

Tonight I was invited to have dinner with my friend Ericka’ s host family in their house. Ericka went back to Costa Rica the same day I went back to Argentina last year, so she wasn’t tonight. I was sooo happy to see them again. They were so nice to us through the whole year that we built a great relationship. We had such a wonderful night, too bad Ericka wasn’t there though.

Tomorrow is Colombus day, I think I will just take it easy to recharge batteries for more action for the week.

Tuesday morning I have breakfast with 2 friends here in Montclair. They are my kids’ friends’ moms. It sounds weird but being an au pair makes you have some kind of mother’s life.

That was all falks!!!!

I’m alive!!! After 27 hours of traveling I finally got here (Montclair). It was such a hazard but I made it!!!

Yesterday as soon as I got here I went to pick up the kid from school and then we went home and played some new games he got, and later at night we had dinner all together. I felt I have never been gone.

It feels very good to see everybody again, I’m waaay too happy!!! I’ve been catching up with everybody today, like I went to the bank and the manager saw me and said “hey you are back”, and I was like…. do you remember me?? and he said…”yes you are from Argentina, of course I remember you” . And later at 3pm I went to my kid’s school to pick him up and his classmates’ moms were very happy to see me, they gave me biiig hugs and lots of kisses, so I felt very welcome. Even his old teacher saw me and greeted me.

Earlier this morning I went with a friend from Guatemala to the Latin supermarket and got the though for empanadas (pastries). So this afternoon Oscar (the kid), the new Au Pair from Germany (Susanne) and I made empanadas filled with ham and cheese and for dessert we made pancakes with “dulce de leche” I brought from Argentina (you can also get it at the Latin supermarket here).

Tomorrow morning I think I’m going to New York to a Symposium on Internation Law and the Constitution held by Fordham University where my host mom will be speaking. It’ll be the first of the four Symposiums in Human rights in The United States. I think it’ll be interesting.

On Friday night I’m having dinner with my host family in New York (from now on “the City”) and friends of theirs from Texas and then I might be staying the whole weekend in the City at some friend’s house until Monday. I’m planing to have dinner with some friends on Saturday and then to go out to dance or something. Whatever the City feels like

So that’s pretty much it!!! All I can say is that I’m very happy!

Hugs… xoxox

Just wanted to say that you guys cheered my year up. It was such a pleasure to have you as classmates and got to know you! As I might have mentioned, after I got back from US It was very difficult for me to settle in. Even though I´ve always been a very social person with many friends around, I went through a depressing and unsocial time. In the Toefl course I found people with similar expectations and lots of projects alike. It became a nice environment to share our goals and speak our minds in English mode. Thanks to you I could move on and bring back the old Vani. I will always be thankful for that.

Carla, I think your work as a teacher is great, you are a very passionate person and it seems you love what you do. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and give your best every class. I´m not a person who usually compliments others, I don´t like raising anybody´s egos, so when I do it, I really mean it!

I promise I´ll take the exam next year, I need to practise my reading more. “Mrs Dalloway” will be a great beginning. Thanks a lot!!! I´ve been given 2 books in my life, the first one was when I was 13, I got it from my dad. And this would be the 2nd one.

You have no idea how much I´m going to miss you all. The course wasn´t just an English course, it was the moment of the week where I enjoyed myself, it was more like a hobby. In the last 2 years I had to say good bye too many times to people I love, but I guess you never get used to it.

I wish you the best on the exam, you have great potential!!!

Keep in touch… and as Superman says… see you around!!!

Love,

Vani

Thanks guys for these marvelous moments and for those are not on pictures but certainly are pictured in my memories. 

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This song is all I want to say to you…

The Pick for the night was Mortal Kombat. I still wonder why my friend laught at me when I asked to play Mario Bross. Hmm! Anyway… even though It was my first time playing with PS2 I have to say I kicked my friend’s ass. The question is…. Am I too good or he is too bad???

Who hasn’t been hooked on by Mario Bross?? Do you remember the catchy song played when Mario was under ground? God I feel like taking the Family game out of the closet and hit the briks to get coins, jump on the turtules to kill the enemies and try to get the highest score in the flag!

I invite you to watch a video to remember the great Mario Bross 1.

I remember when I was in USA and my parents were about to come to visit me. I asked one of my closest friends to burn a CD with some cumbia and send it thorough my dad, so I could share with my gang the cumbia spirit (note: I’m not a Cumbia girl). When I made my friends listen to this Cumbia Oh my…. One song worse than the other one (Cumbia villera). The embarrassing moment was when Stine, from Denmark, asked what the lyrics were about… I  was blushed by the words I was translating. Her face was like…. What kind of music do you hear??!!!! Is this allowed to play on radios???!!!

Anyway… the following video is Los Sultanes’ tour in Sweden. Yeah yeah you heard correct…. Los Sultanes In Sweden!!! Never felt sooo embarrassed.  

Listening: I did well! 9 out of 11 

Speaking:????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! haha Well there were 3. The first one was pretty easy for me, I had 45 seconds to say If I think it is better to live with a host family or live in a apartment when you live and study abroad. The hard task was the second one called integrated speaking task. One passage and 1 lecture. I had less than a minute to read the passage, then after listening to the lecture I had to answer a question. 30 seconds to think and 60 seconds to speak giving examples and facts comparing both the passage and lecture, you may not read or listen twice. Hahaha I hadn’t even finished reading the passage when the time was up; so I gave up and didn’t answer anything!!! And the 3rd one was about a conversation between 2 students. I had 60 seconds (I think) to explain what the conversation was about and then give my opinion.

Writing: …. hm. Well can’t really say if I did well or not. I would say regular.

When I got home from USA first I got into a hard culture shock and I felt seriously home sick…. you may wonder how you can get a culture shock with your culture and get home sick being home? It´s funny… I remember when I arrived to US and went to “The Orientation” for 4 days in Connecticut, this lady was talking about how our lives in US would be through out the whole year. She said something that I thought was the most stupid thing I had ever heard … She said … we would feel home sick the first moths in US (OK, I thought, I agree) Then we would start to get used to it, then we would be used to it and then we would like it (all that happened, she was right). But then she came up with this strange idea of us being home sick when we would get back home (I thought she was totally crazy). And I still remember her words cause she couldn´t be sooo right. It does happen!  Even if I try to explain it is something you have to live and experience to believe it and feel it.

I came home with so many expectations. The thing I was craving the most was hanging out with my friends as we used to, and it turned out I got so disappointed. Every body kept on going after I left and when I got back I couldn´t fit my self in any spot. People couldn´t get what I was going through. My body was home but my mind was in my recent home (16 Wilde Place, Montclair) and the only ones could understand me were miles away spread out in the world. 

Since I got back home all I´ve been doing besides working and studying was planning my trip to Europe and NYC. This week I got my Italian passport which I need to go to USA and Europe and I booked my flights. Everything is done now. So …as my friend said …. now I just have to trick my self into enjoyable experiences while being here otherwise I just wait on my time to live. (He couldn´t be so right)  

I will post my stories and I wanna read your stories as well. So let’s start bridging our cultural barriers!!!