Nunca más vino tinto - No more vino tinto :(

It´s been more than a week since my last ´confession´ hmmm.... so much I could say but so little time.
This is my last day in Spain. For now anyways, I want to come back as soon as possible. I have to wake up at 5 AM to catch the train to Valladolid at 7:10. From there I will fly to Stansted airport, then I have to take a bus to Heathrow. What a drag! I should be home at midnight. Thad verdur móttökunefnd á flugvellinum og saetaferdir hafa verid auglýstar frá BSÍ....ahahhohoh....
I´ve said goodbye to everybody. Conchi I´m going to miss you so much!!! You are the best and I´ve learned so much Spanish talking to you, and we will continue to learn, right? You English y yo Español. ¡Todo es posible, de acuerdo! Frida and Glenn I will also miss. We went out last night, and Paul came to. I heard that the boys went for the tequila after I left, I´m so glad I didn´t ´cause I had my last class today and I had to do the packing. I just got my test results today (had 4 tests on Tuesday) and I passed all of them! Party, party; fiesta, fiesta. I got 90% for the Cultura part (would have received a better mark if I had said that Columbus discovered America. It was of course Leifur Eiríksson hijo de Erico rojo), only got 1 wrong for the Comunicación Oral and when I was answering that question I was thinking that the other option was probably right. It´s the grammar (the verbs more than anything) that I have to work on (been too lazy), but I did pass. Class participation is 60% so I will probably get a better final mark.
Christina (oral com. teacher) said that I had made incredible progress ´cause I hardly new anything when I arrived. She also said that I would be greatly missed, and I think she´s right :) When I first came here I couldn´t even remember the days of the week! Now I can bullshit about pretty much anything :))Christina is so great. So are all the people in my class. They all hugged me. It´s so amazing... I feel like I´ve been able to be myself 100% and here I am accepted for who I am. ¡¡¡Gracias a España!!! To begin with some things really affected my self-confidence, but I´ve been growing stronger ever since and I feel great!
Well.... my time in Spain is up, and now I have to go home. To my Spanish home that is, Obispo Almarcha nº 27. María Jesús and Angelica are making me a tortilla de patata :)) Tomorrow it´s home in Iceland, Grettisgata 27.
Wish me a good journey and luck with my luggage. I have to look for somebody who has now luggage to check in with me. If not, my plan is to win the Loteria de Navidad.
Feliz Navidad everybody!
Ásta Sólita spanjóli

¡Más vino tinto!

This is amazing... I haven´t been online for some days now. Usually I can check my email at home about twice a week, but since Angelica´caught´me on her computer the other day she has somehow disconnected the Internet. It´s not a big deal that I can´t use it, it just pisses me off when people can´t be direct. How about telling me that she doesn´t want me using her computer. I´m sorry, but she´s the one who told me I could use her computer at ANY time. Whatever...
Maybe she´s the smart one... I still have enemies from being direct and telling the truth when nobody else dared to. I guess that people lack maturity and understanding as well (me too of course as well). I still prefer being direct and honest, without hurting people (intentionally anywys) of course.
That´s wasn´t the amazing part, the amazing part is that I have been here for more than three hours and I thought it was about time to get back home to study, but then the jefe of the Internet place poured me one more vino tinto and brought me some tapas. Isn´t life sweet!? Do I ever love this place or what. These guys know how to make business. I can use the Internet for free at school. This is just so much better. You can see pictures of these guys under new pictures here on the left. I have some Brennivín that I haven´t opened yet and I was wondering who I´d give it to. Now I know... :)
This has been a good day, and yesterday too actually. I didn´t even need a siesta. For a while I´ve felt like I wasn´t making progress with my Spanish, but today I felt so confident. I started understanding all the Pilates excercises and afterwards I used Presente de subjuntivo (vth.nt á ísl.) when talking to the instructor. It felt great. I didn´t know grammar could make me so happy.....hehe.... Then I had to call my phone company´s service desk and I understood everything. I have made progress after all :) And to celebrate I bought myself a really cool coat (well... I need some kind of an excuse for shopping don´t I).
I have 4 final exams on Tuesday, please pray for me! On Saturday I have a trip to Lagunas something and Saturday night I´m having dinner at Conchi´s house. Gosh, do I love that girl or what, and she´s just as crazy as I am... and really smart too!
Anyways... I have to go home. Promised María Jesús I´d make some pechuga de pollo con ajo. Then I have to finish those Christmas cards. Jeeees... if you are reading this and get one of those cards you really know that you mean a lot to me ´cause it´s taking me forever to make the cards and every card is unique (especially since it has a picture of beautiful me on each and every one). If you don´t get one, it means you´re too close to me... you don´t need it ´cause I´ll be there to hug you (and give you some vino tinto real soon :)
Love,
The tinto one (and my story: http://www.julli.is/jol/dagur8.htm)

ETA bombings in León!!!

I guess that most of you know what ETA is. For those of you who don´t know, ETA stands for Euskadi ta Askatasuna, which means Basque Homeland and Freedom in Euskara, the Basque language. It is a terrorist group.
Anyway... they just bombed a bar/café here in León. Probably because today is the day of the Spanish constitution. I was there just a few weeks ago drinking vino tinto with Frida, Glenn and Paul. I remember buying some CD´s of a toothless Asian woman. Kind of scary I must admit, but call me crazy, I find it a little bit exciting. Maybe it´s because I haven´t been out of the house for two days. I´ve been pretending to be studying and making my very famous Christmas cards.
Addi called me just after two and asked me really loud: "are you ok?" I had no idea what was going on. My sweetie pie was worried about me ´cause he heard about the bombings even before I did. I turned on the TV right away and saw where the bombs had exploded and that it was that bar close to Frida´s place. So... about 2 hours later I walked down there. I took my camera with me just in case, but there was not much to see. Only some of the windows were cracked, but there were people trying to look inside to see if there was anything there. So here I am at my Internet place, and the city of León is full of people right now, just as if nothing has happened.

Frá mbl.is:
http://www.mbl.is/mm/frettir/erlent/frett.html?nid=1115293
CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/12/06/spain.madrid/index.html

Christmas Shopping - donationes desperately needed!

I just finished all my Christmas shopping and now I´m having tapas and drinking vino tinto. I can´t believe I´ve finished everything. Now it´s just the Christmas cards (and worrying about the overweight). I´m making really fun cards this year with a picture of myself. About 40 fortunate individuals will be getting one of those. Christ...Is it ever fun to shop in León. I don´t know what it is, maybe it is the ´Thorláksmessu stemmning´ :) i.e. it feels like home the day before Christmas. The stores are open from about 10-14 and 17-20, and shopping at night is the best. I want to buy everything! So... if you have any extra cash email me for my account number...hehe.... and everyone who´s getting a gift from me must pay tax on it... sounds fair, eh!?
It´s a long weekend in Spain now and I intend to relax, do some more shopping(...hehe...) and study for once.
By the way, is anyone reading this... just wondering... don´t get a lot of comments :´´´´´(

Just found this page. Looks like more students are blogging in León than me. It´s in Spanish, but there are some pictures from León, and I know some of the people...
http://meinspain.blogspot.com/

Adios...

Gleðilegan fullveldisdag!

Til hamingju med afmaeli fullveldisins kaeru vinir og aðrir Íslendingar. Leidinlegt ad thetta skuli ekki vera frídagur lengur. Á Spáni er 12. október frídagur thví thá er verid ad fagna thví ad Kólumbus hafi fundid Ameríku. Ég er búin ad leidrétta 3 af mínum kennurum hérna en thad vill enginn vidurkenna thetta. Svörin sem ég fae er ad uppi séu ýmsar kenningar. Spánverjar eru s.s. mjög stoltir af Ítalanum sem ekki fann Ameríku :)

Cuevas de Valporquero

The trip to the caves was great just like all the other trips. I can´t get over how wonderful it is just to enjoy. The priviledge of enjoying is greatly underestimated in my opinion.
We had to drive to the mountains to get to the caves. The landcscape is really different from the surroundings of León; steep cliffs, mountains and snow! We started off by going to a café up there. It was pretty cold and the staff was wearing winter jackets, scarfs and todo. I couldn´t even buy coffee ´cause they were out of water.
The caves are awesome, but very similar to the ones I visited in South Africa. Can´t remember what they are called, but they are one of the seven wonders of the world. Actually, the caves here are cooler I would say so I don´t understand why the South African caves are so ´wonderful.´We went about 2,5 km below the surface. Kolbrún will post the pictures here next week if she has time :) Apparently, the movie Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Vernes (or Julio as they call him in Spanish, which I find stupid...but anyway) was filmed in the caves. I thought it was pretty neat since the center of the earth is Snaefellsjökull glacier in the story. Now I know the glacier looks like on the inside...
After the caves we went to a really neat village to have lunch (we finished at 5 so I guess it would be called early dinner at home). I just love those places. It feels like being back to the 1930s. The food was so good, and I love how they take their time here. Two hours for lunch is a great idea, and free wine with the meal is even better. The bean soup with chorizo and carrots...mmm... (I think I made a few people faint on the bus afterwards...hehe...but it was worth it). Then there was chicken with fried potatoes. I don´t like the flan though (the desert). The funny thing about Spanish food is that it´s not spicy, but still good (and normally I love spicy). I wish I could take my time like that at home. The people back home are way too stressed and too serious. Unfortunately, I´m usually like that as well, but I think I´ve managed to relax a lot during my time here. After lunch we looked at one waterfall before returning to the city.
Frida, Glenn and I cooked together in the evening (well... Glenn brought the wine). Then we just sat and chatted before going out to a karaoke bar. In Spain they sit and sing...hehe... pretty weird, and for some reason they mostly have Spanish songs...hehe... We all sang, but I topped it by singing True Colours with Cindy Lauper. I couldn´t belive it, but it was 5:40 when I finally got my ass home. The next day wasn´t too fun....