Oh my word the time just flies by nowadays!

Hello people, I have been a very bad blogger! I have so much to write and so little time to do it in.

So people since my last blog I have been to many a place and met many a people in my exploits in Soria - the town that just keeps on giving!

Content-wise:
Zaragoza and Pilar
Madrid
Logroño
I can't quite remember what came afterwards.

Anyway I have been keeping busy these past few months just getting into the Spanish way of life for example going to market every Thursday (Strawberries are in season now!!!) mainly because it's cheaper.
Soria is a small town and you do get to know people and people start to recognise you after a while so when the butcher at the supermarket says my Spanish has improved you do realise A: you are improving and that's great and B: you really need to live somewhere bigger next time! By the way I have not seen lamb for love nor money in Soria. Lots of rabbit though namely skinned and still with the eyeballs: N.B. if you are squeamish buy your meat pre-packed as standing at the meat counter watching them butcher a rabbit (head included) is not a pretty site and I can handle stuff like poop and butchers!

In an effort expand my repertoire of food I have become a big fan of cooking websites: many thanks to my roommate Smadar for that new addcition. One in particular has just stuck out like a sore thumb: Ree Drummond the Pioneer Woman she's anything but boring and is food which is important. I can take her a lot more seriously than Delia and Jamie. For her it seems to be fun rather than a job.
http://thepioneerwoman.com/ check her out she's cool.

Anyway Zaragoza (Saragossa for you anglicised people tut tut). This is a very interesting city full of interesting architecture and beautiful little side streets and when the festivities are happening OH MY WORD!

So according to the stories the Virgin Mary appeared in Zaragoza because she finally got her passport issued you see and so she went to Zaragoza to see what was happening but she couldn't see anything so she climbed onto a pillar - seriously dangerous so don't try it. And the locals were so impressed they threw flowers at her in celebration. So in honour of this momentous death defying feat of death defiedness the Maños (people from Zaragoza) starting celebrating this every year. Unfortunately she could only make it the one year as each year she had problems with Easyjet and their hand luggage rules and she couldn't leave Jesus without a sitter as the Archangel Gabriel was at a rave so... what are ya gonna do?

So this is the Cathedral of the Pilar in Zaragoza: It's a UNESCO heritage site due to the unique architecture - the tiles on the roof are many different colours including white blue and green. Very Moorish in concept with its minarets etc.

So I went to Zaragoza with my roommates and my roommate Erin's sister Yessica (Spanish for Jessica because Spaniards can't say Jessica or John or Josie or Jim). Here they are looking pretty.

Now did you realise that the Maños still throw flowers at Mary? Well they do and it's a national thing! Now I've seen flower offering s at churches in Britain and they pale in comparison to the Spanish flora that is splurged for want of a better term on the honorable Virgin! 

For example:

Oh yes that is a pyramid of flowers: Carnations, Lilies, Roses, Gerberas, Chrysanthemums, Zinnias - from the offerings - the Ofrenda - I would say a good few thousand euros has been vented into creating a venerable compost heap of worship.

But there weren't just flowers: this is Spain if you are going to suck up to a Saint you do it in style!

You do it in CLOGS!!! No this isn't Holland! Those are real Spanish clogs!

So Zaragoza was a hoot! 

But Soria called us back to enjoy a freezing cold trip to La Laguna Negra - a natural glacial lake high in the mountains of the Estremadura in Soria province near to where the Duero begins. The rumour is that the Laguna has no bottom, mainly due to a long Zumba workout. But all the assistants went up there for a free trip to honour the poet and if I may say so paedophile (his wife was 16 or something ridiculous while he was a dirty old man of 30 something) Antonio Machado. It was the anniversary of his arrival in Soria and the beginning of his literary work on describing the beautiful landscape of said region. I did not understand a word of the tribute nor was I too fussed if truth be told but I was asked to read his poetry after having to rapidly translate it into English. 

Here's the Black Lagoon (sounds like a Scooby Doo episode)

Beautiful yes! Freezing ABSOLUTELY! The wind blew a mighty chill through the area that day.

I went to my first proper football match! Not one done by a school oh no! A REAL ONE! And it was really fun I absolutely loved it! So C.D. Numancia is the team and they WON! MY FIRST MATCH AND THEY WON! WHOOP!

Here they are:

Here's when they scored! (No not like that! filthy minded bugger!)

Smadar is happy at any rate!

Hallowe'en was eventful: Amy Winehouse turned up! Aphrodite came down from Olympus to join in the festivities and a Chilean miner dug his way out and ended up in Spain. All in all a good night. Smadar fell asleep on some stairs while squatting. Yes she was Sleepsquatting.

I had my first thanksgiving: delicious! Check out these fine birds!

I'm going to close here as I need to prepare more stuff for you but read and enjoy and more exploits arriving soon.

Take care Sorianos

Sy Soriano

One month on and life is quite good to a point.

 So here we are one month on from my last blog and you knwo all is good in the hood at this moment in time. So in my last blog I mentioned a green chicken we now have three. To explain we had a piso (flat/apartment) on our list to look at and it has this amazing modern green kitchen. However we had problems saying green kitchen in English and I don't know who said it first but green kitchen turned into green chicken. However the piso with the green chicken had already been snapped up. In our current piso we managed to find some chicken candles so we got some nail polish and painted them green so we have three green chickens on our cooker extractor hood. So I've been to Madrid in between last time and now and I'm going to Zaragoza this afternoon. Madrid was good and had an amazing bar that I won't shut up about: it's called El Son and is a salsa bar where the entire population inside dance salsa which I LOVE!!!!! It's near Puerta del Sol and was so cool. However for me Madrid was a bit too big and I was glad to get back to my own bed in Soria after a few days in hotel and hostal beds that only had thin sheets on them. I need me a duvet!! Which I have. It's massive! Anyhoo. So got back to the San Saturio festival with lights everywhere. San Saturio is the patron Saint of Soria who was well known for being a hermit living in a cave near the river Duero and beating himself with twigs and whips and stuff so he could feel the pain that Jesus went through. Basically sympathy one notch up! So below are the lights of San Saturio and the throng of people that turned up.

I also have started private tutoring an amazingly lovely family. The mum Ofe is in the language school and will be a tutee of mine. Elena the little girl of five is so cute and very cheeky and Juan is a boy of ten who if you don't listen straight away you've missed 2/3 of his conversation - he speaks at a 1000 miles an hour so muhc so his mum tells him to slow down. And Juanda the dad is a very nice man who plays the Spanish Mandolin and offers me and my flatmates lifts to the supermarket. Below is a picture I took of the Hermitage of San Saturio (Ermita de San Saturio) when Ofe and Juanda took me and Francesca to see it. It's a very nice little place and the iglesita (tiny church) inside is just adorned with flowers! They love that Saint.

 After the Ermita we then went to the San Duero which is a former Monastery and Church that has a very unique archictectural sight. There are columns that used to hold up a palisade or something but each column is individual more or less and no one is the same. There are 4 different styles moorish, celtic, visigoth and another which I forgot. Below is a sample of the artistry.

 So this weekend is the medieval market which is basically and Artisanal market with people dressed up in medieval garb. They had pipers and bands of very celtic sounding variety very reminiscent of Breton music and pipes. 

Anyway there were lots of jewellery and food stalls and all the vendors were smoking directly next to their products one guy was literally smoking his cheeses personally! Not cool! Anyway we spent some time walking well lets say battling our way through the market and found the Bar Herradores to sit and warm up while it siled it down outside. 

Anyway below from izqierda a la derecha (left to right) Smads, Yessica, Frankie, Erín and Steph - Yessica (Jessica really) is our adoptive roommate and is the sister of Erín and she makes some mean banana pancakes. Smadar (which means blossom in Hebrew) is our token canadian and is handy to have around if you get into bother as she hurls Moza balls of death at people! So cool! She hit one old lady square on the jaw - knocked that pushy bitch square out!!

 

Anyway I'm going to close my blog here and hope you are all well who are taking the time to read it even if I don't know you and you are just flicking through the blogs.
Take care people
Sy Soriano x

So you're Soria we've heard so much about you! Really? No.

Well followers I am in Soria with my two new roommates Erin and Smadar. Our first day was unbelievably weird but amazing nonetheless. So wake up in my hotel get ready and go to meet Smadar at the airport  for about 10 o'clock. All fine and dandy we talk, we laugh, we get stereotypes out of the way to clear up any risk of generalisations later on and then we wait, and wait some more while waiting. We wait for 4 hours yes 4 hours for our coach which arrives at 3.15 anyway but we are waiting for Erin. Heathrow being the wonderful airport that it is buggered up somewhere as Erins flight was delayed by well over an hour and we waited for her and looked for her at the gate. To no avail so myself and Smadar go to the coach station where there si absolutely NO information anywhere! Not one shread of info at all so we have no idea that we are even at the right place and who turns up 20 mins before the coach arrives. That's right ten points for guessing it's Erin who arrives out of breath and ever so slightly pissed off while carrying not one, no two but 3 suitcases! Would easyjet let me do that in future do you think? HMMM? ER NAH!
So the coaches arrives on time pretty much in a mini convoy. So we pile our suitcases on one coach and then we get put on another! Tis the point where I think I'm going to lose my stuff on the first day! Champion! They assured us they travel together which is bullshit as the one with our cases disappeared into the sunset. So we get to Soria after 2 hours and 45 minutos and is there the other coach there? ER NAH! So I'm livid so are about 6 Spaniards who clearly know how to get a face on. If you could personify thunder it's the faces of the Spanish women whose bags were also on the other coach. And the driver is all smiley smiley Carole Smiley about. Anyway it does turn up and I'm straight to the coach - OOOOOOOH in between all the arriving and second coach arriving Candy who has lived in Soria for 2+ years meets us at the bus station. How lovely. Never even met us and she met us.
Anyway got my stuff, got Erins and Smadars too and off we march to Soria town centre which when you are carrying a laptop and another bag and a 25kg suitcase is not, I repeat NOT fun! Soria does look amazing however as we got to our hostel and then sat in - el Tubo for the rest of the night. El tubo is one of the plazas in Soria which is actually named Plaza de Santa someone or other but apparently the streets and squares in Soria are not to compare to Britain: when we say Fleet Street in Britain we mean Fleet Street: but the Spanish would call it Newspaper alley because it used to have lots of newspaper offices. No idea why this square si called the tube though.
So we stayed up til 2 in the mañana talking to tons of Spanish people who Candy introduced us to. So our first day consisted of stress in Madrid and peace and relaxation in Soria. It was so funny too as you leave Madrid the countryside is every shade of beige imaginable but once you get into the Soria region there are tress everywhere!! Pine tress all over they are almost as endemic as the wind turbines that dominated the skyline from Madrid to Soria.
Anyway I'm going to leave it here for now as we are going to go piso hunting in bit. Bring on the green chicken! I'll explain later.
Ciao for now people
Sy 

So it has officially begun.

So followers, I have arrived. I am in my hotel in the barajas centro commercial and it's quite nice I must say. Muy muy muy moderno with a bathroom that I want to hide in my suitcase and sneak out with. Photos in a minuto. The flight was good and it was fully booked no seats spare whatsoever. I managed to push some eastern europeans out fo the way so I could get a window view. AND I saw a tornado from the plane! It was level with us on the plane but MILES away so we weren't affected or anything but it was there twisting away til it disappeared. My second funnel cloud ever.
So got a bit lost in the airport eventually got a taxi to the hotel because the buses were very confusing. So here I am writing my first blog in Spain on my first ever trip to Spain.
Anyway I had a very nice relax in the bath and am now getting ready for some lunch. I'm very tempted to take the Mars bar out of the mini bar but it wil cost 65 euros or something! Well I shall leave you all with some pictures of my hotel room.

I chose to use the blue bottle by the way!

5 days encounting

Well followers I am quite excited now. Everyone is being so nice about everything and the generosity of Candy who will also be living in Soria this year is very much appreciated and has actually calmed my nerves. I have to say I am starting to think this is going to be a fun and exciting part of my life. I am so thrilled that I am going to be living with two very nice girls Smadar and Erin and that Candy is givning us so much advice and help. I never would have expected it to turn out so well. I just hope the excitement continues. I'm getting excited over kitchen cabinets for christ sake! So must be a good sign.
I'll leave it here I think otherwise I amy have a stroke from the excitement!
Besitos
Sy

One week to go

Well followers. Just one week to go as of tomorrow. It's exceptionally nerve racking the thought of this move. It's much bigger than my time in Germany as there isn't someone to meet me at the other end when I arrive and I haven't got somewhere to live as of yet. That's something to look forward to upon arrival with my soon to be roommates one of whom is a canadian and the other is an american. So this should prove to be a most interesting escapade.

This weekend however I have been helping my mum gut the back garden as it had gotten a bit out of hand. Lots of plants getting too big for their boots. Hopefully I can have a say before I go of what goes where or what's going to go where!

Anyway this is a sample of the delights that have grown in my garden something I will sorely miss when I end up residing in a flat. Hopefully there'll be a terrace and I can grow some plants and herbs.

Anyway must dash so ... besitos people!

Almost there

Well Followers, I think for those of you who know me I welcome you and you may not need to read the rest, for those of you who do not a very hearty welcome to this, my blog for the next 9 months or so. My name is Simon and I will be documenting my time and experiences as I live the life of a Soriano in the city of Soria in Spain. At this moment in time I am not yet in Soria I am actually at home in gods own county of Yorkshire in the United Kingdom. I am 23 and I am currently in teacher training to be a German, French and Spanish teacher. I'm going to Spain for a few reasons: numero uno - I'm a bit sick of Britain at the mo and I need to just leave the country especially as I had to give up my last holiday in Greece because I was being paid by the very wise British government to learn French at the time (I know tragic! get the violins ready). Second reason: I want to be a Spanish teacher and my Spanish has been out of use for about 2 years and is in serious need of dusting off and putting into action, saying this I did book the hostel I'll be staying at over the phone in Spanish and had to repeat everything back in simple Spanish to the poor man on the other end just to make sure I understood everything meaning the phone call lasted 3 times as long as it should have. AND 3rd reason: I completely bombed my PGCE, so in order to recover from the trauma of failing I'm running away to another country to drink sanghria and corona beer and have a siesta everyday. I will however be resitting certain aspects of the PGCE next year in September in the hopes of becoming the language teacher I've always wanted to be because languages are bloody brilliant! And don't let anyone tell you otherwise! So I suppose I should leave it here for now as I see off my penultimate weekend in Blighty and prepare for an almighty adventure in Spain. Besitos! Simon