Cadiz por el fin de semana

So this weekend, I decided that I need to get to the beach. My plans also lined up well with my good friend who I met in Seville and travelled to Morocco with, David. He had been travelling around southern Spain and decided that Cadiz was were he wanted to go next. So we got on a bus and made our way towards Cadiz on friday night. We arrived at a really nice little hostel called Casa Caracol (the Snail Hostel). The best way to describe the hostel is earthy. It was a real collective hostel with the people working in the hostel also living there as travellers themselves.
Once we woke up on Saturday morning, we decided that it would be great to walk around the city and get a feel for the city right on the ocean. The weather was great and the sun was out in full force. We wandered around the core of the city for a few hours, seeing the historic cathedral and walking the narrow winding streets of the old city. After a few hours of this we were ready for some water. In that case we grabbed our bathing suits and sprinted to the closest beach. What a relaxing time. The sun wasn't too hot and that sand was white and smooth. It couldn't get much better than this. Going into the water was a little colder than expected but laying in the sun for a few minutes really fixed the cold feeling.

Before the beach.

After the beach. 

 It was a very relaxing day all topped off by a platter of fried fish and seafood. The platter we indulged in had to have been some of the best and freshest seafood I have had thus far in my travels. The sentiment was echoed by David, as we must have destroyed the mountain of food in 30 minutes flat!

The next day we saw that there was a day trip heading to a beach about an hour away close to tarifa that is famous for the sand dunes and cristal clear water. So we said why not, and loaded into the van heading to Bolonia Beach. The entire day was filled with Sangria and beach sports/activities. I tried sand boarding for the first time as well. It is identical to snowboarding but just slower and on sand rather than snow.

Approaching a jump, which didn't work at all because it turns out a cooler lid isn't strong enough to be a jump launch!

 Along with the sand boarding, I managed to do some snorkelling right off the beach to see the schools of fish swimming around the rocks in the water. Even in all of this I managed to find some time to relax and take in the whole experience because Cadiz and Bolonia will always have a small place in my heart as one of the best beaches I have yet to visit. The ride back to the hostel was pretty stressful because on the way home we were caught in traffic due to an accident on the highway. Because of this, I almost missed my car pool ride back to Seville (and needless to say the students would not be happy if I missed class on monday morning). Luckily I was only 10 minutes late and thankfully so was my ride! So things worked out and I was able to reflect on the amazing beach time I spent with David in Cadiz. I also had the sand still stuck on me everywhere to help me remember these fond memories!!

Till next week!

Adios,

Mathieu

A scene from the beach, which some prick who got in the way of the nice art!

A picture from the perfect Bolonia Beach. Pristine!

Bem-vindo a Lisboa

In the spirit of trying to see as many places as I can while I am in Europe, I decided to take a trip to Lisbon when I had a long weekend in mid October. This allowed me three days in one of the most unique capitals that I have ever visited. It is very difficult to really encompass the true charm and character of this city, but hopefully through these stories and photos, you'll have an idea of how my trip went to Lisboa.

This trip started like all other ones I have taken to date, getting on a bus making my way towards my destination. Although, this time it was a little different because this bus trip would take 6 hours to reach the final destination. My anticipation, I must say, made the ride feel no longer than 3 hours in duration. Nevertheless, after leaving at 3pm from Seville, I arrived to downtown Lisbon at 9:30 pm. 

After finding a quick bite to eat and settling into my charming hostel I decided to get a good night sleep in order to be up and ready for the walking tour the next morning. With every new city that I have been visiting so far, I have found great success in networking and making new friends through taking the free walking tour offered by the hostel, and this time was no different. Right away I clicked with a wonderful woman from India who owned her own clothing company, and was visiting Lisbon on vacation. We toured around some of the main sights in Lisbon and wandered through Bario Alto and the old city core.

The most expensive chapel in the world.
Everything you see is solid gold!

The arc at the end of the main avenue downtown.
Made of solid marble

One of my favourite places in Lisbon. The first Ginja bar (cherry dessert liquor). 1euro a shot!!

We then decided to take the next day and try to catch some waves. This proved to be a fairly fruitless endeavour as we really only got in the ocean for 15 minutes until the instructor called off the surfing because of the storm that was starting. The waves were nice and big, but unfortunately the massive winds were carrying the waves down the beach, and not towards it (a very dangerous combination apparently). However, this didn't dampen my spirit because I was the only person in my group of 8 who was able to properly catch a wave (I think I have my years of snow and wakeboard experience to thank for that). 

Full body wetsuits really aren't as fun as they look!

Unfortunately, after the storm that came in to ruin my surfing, it decided to stay for the rest of my weekend. Even with this unwanted development I was convinced to not let this news disappoint me. I did whatever a good tourist would do if it is to wet to be outside, and that is EAT! I must say that being in Lisbon for four days really has converted me towards the joys and diverse tastes of good fresh seafood. I started out easy with some fired squid and then worked my way through clams, cod, and then to my favourite meal of all, BBQ octopus! The way it is prepared in Lisbon is to die for. I am not sure if it is because of the freshness, or the way it is cooked, but either way I could eat it three meals a day!

One of the true highlights of my entire trip to Lisbon had to be the dinner and Fado club I had on my last night in town. Shefali, and I decided to invite another friend from the hostel to the best Fado club in Lisbon for dinner and a Fado show. Now Fado is the traditional Portuguese music style that is very simple but elegant. It is comparable to the blues in New Orleans. It is a very sad genre that was ment to outline the hardships of the totalitarian state that rules Portugal for so many years. In a nutshell, the emotion and talent that went into this music made it a feast to the ears. The steak and braised octopus, paired with a fabulous portuguese red made it also a feast for the taste buds. After the fabulous show we were informed that the artists singing at the club that night were professional singers in Portugal and actually quite famous. Therefore, on our way back to the hostel we decided to get  picture with the singer and the band. What a treat! If you press the play button on the image above, you will be able to listen and watch to one of my favourite songs that Rodrigo Costa Felix sang at Club de Fado that night. 

The gang posing with the band outside the club.

Shefali, Tom, and I waiting for our meals over some fine wine.

Overall, Lisbon was truly a city to remember. If I could, I would stay for a whole week or more to really immerse myself in the laid back an beautiful culture present in the Portuguese capital. From the UNESCO world heritage site to the food, and music I felt that I had really visited one of the best cities in Europe. Although, all good things must come to an end, and rather quickly I must add. Now back to Seville to continue the teaching, studying, and the planning for my next great trip.

Hasta Luego amigos!

The beautiful Lisbon skyline (to bad it was such a grey weekend). 

The best way to get around the city! The yellow tram cars that Lisbon
is famous for. 

A panoramic of the beach in Caiscais, where I tried surfing for the first time. (caiscais is 20 minutes from downtown Lisbon).

Your truly at the UNESCO world heritage site of the Jeronimos Monastery, 

Corrida de Toros

So I really have to stop putting this post off because my mother will have my head if I don't give an in depth description of her visit to Seville and my visit to Fuengirola for the weekend. To put it into context, my mother's visit took place at the beginning of the month, and it has taken me this long to post about it. This is not due to the lack of memories, or stories, unfortunately it's purely due to my pervasive procrastination with these types of things.

Taking things from the top then. So for a vacation my mother had planned to fly into Barcelona and then drive down to a resort that she, and a very close family friend had reserved for a week in the town of Fuengirola, just outside of Malaga. In this case I decided that I would go and meet her, spend some time in the coastal city and then make my way back in order to show my new home city around. Once I sat through the two different buses to get to the resort, I finally arrived and boy was it nice to be able to lounge around until my family showed up. Since my mother and Rose were flying in and had to drive from Barcelona, they were forced to endure a gruelling 9 hour drive down the Spanish coast. Now in actuality there are worse places to be stuck in a car, but 9 hours anywhere doesn't sound like an ideal situation to me.

Fuengirola was a very quant little city. Just like most other Andalusian cities I have visited thus far, it was full of its own little character, and possessed its own charm that would make me want to stay just a little longer if I had the time. Even though the weather didn't cooperate in the typical blistering heat and omnipotent sun, I can't tell you how relieving it was to spend time with family. Even though I had only been overseas for a month, I couldn't help but feel a little homesick and having the opportunity to spend some quality time with family kind of brings a piece of home to me.

Why I both love and hate having family come visit is summed up perfectly in this picture. 

 After Fuengirola, Rose, Mom, and I packed up the compact rental car (probably spacious in European terms) and made our way towards Seville. There must be something about driving in a car rather than a bus that really shows you how beautiful the Spanish countryside is. The terrain was never constant although, the only constant were the infinite olive plantations. Everywhere I looked I was able to see a massive expanse of olive trees that just had my mouth in a permanent state of salivation.

A small snapshot of the countryside with the olive fields everywhere.

Once in Seville, it was actually quite nice to be both at home, and feel like a tourist again while showing Mom and Rose around. We went and visited some of the main sights while enjoying excellent company together. Although, our first real experience together in Seville is one I will not soon forget. In Seville it is a way of life, and tradition that is steeped in culture. The Bull Fight was a veritable spectacle, but one I only need to see once to truly understand.

At this bull fight, everyone was dressed in the typical Andalusian attire, a light coloured dress shirt with pale khakis with brown shoes, and an unnecessary amount of leather bracelets and hair gel. I'll have to try this look out at some point, probably when my spanish gets better so that I feel that I will be able to back up the attire. Once seated the carnage began to ensue. One by one there were six different matadors who proceeded to display their prowess and tight glutes while slowly killing a bull. I guess the description I just gave really doesn't give the sport justice, but at no point did I ever feel that there was a possibility that the bull might turn things around and win. The whole process of it, I have to admit was quite fascinating, but it is something that truly shows man's power over animals. All critique aside, it was another opportunity to spend some quality time with Mom, and Rose because the next morning it was back to school for me and off to Malaga for Mom and Rose. 

I think a matador interview consists of seeing how long he can clinch his butt.  

Goodbye is always tough, and sometimes it feels nice that I will have my own space again, but there will always be a part of me that will miss having the comforts of home and the warm presence of my close family around. No matter what people say, family is truly where the heart is.    

El fin de semana con mi tía Catalina (Catherine)

Salut tout le monde!

Désole pour le temps entre les posts de blog mais cette fois ci je vous écris en Français parce que j'ai passé une fin de semaine incroyable avec ma tante Catherine. C'était vraiment une drôle d'histoire parce que je savais même pas si c'était possible de me rendre a Chichlana la Fronterra pour visiter Catherine. Mais, finalement j'ai décidé que je prendrais mes chances et j'ai embarqué sur un autobus pour Chichlana et je trouverais l'hotel des que je me rends là.

J'ai débarqué l'autobus après un trajet de deux heures et j'avais aucune idée ou j'étais! Mais quelle chance quand j'étais assis sur un banc j'ai entendu un accent Québecois a côté de mois. Quelle chance! J'ai demandé la couple si ils savaient l'hotel Iberostar et des que j'ai mentinner ce nom ils m'ont dits, "t'est le neveu de Catherine!" Et après ca j'ai donner une bonne surprise a ma tante.

Le reste du week-end était remplis par le soleil, la plage, et la bonne compagnie avec ma tante. Nous avons marché toute la plage de Chiclana et malgré la crème solaire que j'ai mis j'étais complément brulé. Le regret que j'ai, c'est que j'étais seulement capable de passer deux jours de profiter de la plage, et la compagnie de ma tante!

Mais juste comme ça c'étais dimanche soir. Retour a Seville pour une autre semaine de classes avec les élèves Espagnole!

À la prochaine. adiós!

Une spectacle de Flamenco à l'hotel

La plage à Chichlana la Fronterra

Primera semana de trabajo

So I have just completed my first official week as a Language Teacher at Colegio Santa Ana. It was a very interesting week meeting all the students and getting a good idea of the students' grasp of the English and French languages. I am teaching students from 12 years old to 16 years old and their grasp of the languages span a wide spectrum.

In all the classes I started out with a short introduction about myself, where I am from, what I like to do in Canada, etc... Basic stuff to really get an idea of what the students understand, and how they can adjust to my accent (weird to think of this being such a major factor during conversation). After this I opened the floor to the students to ask me questions. Can you guess what the first two questions that were asked to me in every class. Alright, it may have been a little foolish of me to allow to ask the students to ask me "whatever they would like."

1. How old are you?
2. Are you single? - this question was actually asked to me mostly by boys who were put up to it by the girls sitting beside them....


So after I brush the second question off in all 22 of my classes I was able to move on to explain to the students my goals for the year and my desire for the students to try their best to converse in the language I am instructing them in.

I have a feeling that this will be interesting but I won't really get a good feeling into how the students will act until the coming weeks. I will most definitely posting updates so that you don't miss out on anything!!

Other than classes, last weekend I actually visited an authentic Arabic bathhouse. This has to be one of my top experiences in Spain so far. The arabic baths were similar to a nordic spa that we have in Canada, but the setting for these baths are all indoors in very old stone buildings with extremely ornate wood carvings. It had to be one of the most relaxing experiences I have had, and  definite must for anyone visiting Seville. My favourite part of the whole experience was the bath of 100 jets where I had to anchor myself into my chair to stay in place from all the jacuzzi jets coming from all directions. It was a full body jacuzzi that was absolutely serene.

A shot of the salt bath where you just float and little to subtle arabic music being played into the water. 

The relaxing room where I was able to enjoy some amazing fruit tea. 

Thanks again for reading and I hope everything in Canada is going well. Send me an update when you are able to.

I miss you all!

Vamos mi Sevilla!

Hi there!

Just thought I would check in to let you know how my week was.

So right now I must admit that I am quite anxious to start teaching in the classroom. Last week was mainly meeting with the teachers I will be working with to discuss how things will be working once I introduce myself into the French and English language classes. My contract states that I will be teaching for 22 hours a week. This works out quite well because there are 12 English classes and 9 French classes that I will be working with. Therefore I will be seeing each of these classes (that go from ages 13-16) once a week and preparing activities and exercises that will challenge them and allow them to practice the languages they are learning.

Now yesterday I went to my La Liga game. It was between Sevilla FC and Getafe FC. Sevilla won the game 2-0, but what an experience. I feel that the best way to immerse oneself into the local culture is to do what the locals do for fun, and that is going to see the red and white play. It seemed like the entire city was at the game! The stadium is massive and it is designed to have all the noise be focused into the stadium. This made for an atmosphere that I had never experienced before. I felt that I was able to catch some of the words in the chants from the crowd, but it was still difficult. In this case it seems like I will have to go to as many futboll games in order to really get comfortable with my Spanish! Good strategy, no?

Here are some photos of the game and a video of the penalty shot that happened. The fans in the stands went absolutely mental when Bacca scored on the penalty shot!

The front of the stadium, completely put together in tiles.

The stands 30 min before the game

Just as the game was starting!

The start of the second half!

Well that's it for this post. I will do my best to keep all of you updated! Once again I miss all of you dearly. If you have any questions or want me to speak about something in particular don't hesitate to contact me or add your comment in the box below!

Cheers,

Mathieu

Bienvenue au Maroc

Apologies for this post being out of order. It shows up at the top now because I found a few mistakes and had to edit it slightly, but it wouldn't let me repost it in the same place I originally posted it. 

So this past weekend (from September 4th to September 8th) I decided with a few days off that I should visit a different continent. This is why I packed up my big red backpack and made made my way to Morocco.

The view from the back of my ferry from Tarifa to Tanger

On thursday morning David and made out way to Tarifa and then got onto a ferry that took us from Tarifa to Tanger. These ferries were extremely fast and it only took us 45minutes to cross the straight of Gibraltar. Once we landed in Tanger, we were almost immediately introduced to Moroccan culture.

Once we got off the ferry we were greeted by an older man who claimed that he was an official tour guide by flashing his Moroccan ID at us (which should have been the first key to say that this guy was slightly shady). He then proceeded to walk us to our hostel through the old medina (market). Once we completed this 15 minute walk through a very tight and confusing maze we gave this man 5 euros for his services.

This is a view of the Tanger Skyline from the old city at the Hostel I stayed at. 

 After we got settled in David and I met two other guys, one from Essex and the other from Australia as well. This made the four of us who travelled around the entire time I was in Morocco. It made for some excellent adventures indeed.

An example of the markets in Tanger. 

He is a little example of what the streets looked like.
I'm amazed locals don't even get lost!

After only a day in Tanger I was quite tired of the pressure tactics of the souk keepers (shop owners). Their goods were quite nice and looked very interesting but if you stopped even for s second to look at them they would push the good into your face and follow you right down the street to continually try and sell it to you. 

The next morning the four of us packed into a cab and made our way towards the bus station to catch a bus to Chefchaouen (the blue city of Morocco). The bus was only 45MAD (about 6$ Canadian). This was one of the most unique bus rides I have ever had. The terrain was alot more mountainous than I thought and I had absolutely no idea that Morocco had such a beautiful landscape.

Here is what a big taxi looks like! The driver said that 6 people could definitely fit into a "Grand" taxi!!

Once arriving into Chefchaouen, we decided to try and find our hostel in the old city on our own. BAD idea!! We were walking around the old medina for close to an hour trying to find where we were staying. There was finally a nice man, who showed us how to get there and amazingly wasn't after any of our money! Once arriving we were greeted by the humble owner of the hostel Casa Amina.

A picture of what our hostel looked like. 

This hostel turned out to be my home for three nights until I was forced to bus back to Sevilla in order make a meeting with the teachers I will be working with once classes start on the 15th of September. 

Now after settling in to Chefchaouen (it is said Chaouen by the locals) we decided to hire a guide through the hostel and take a hike up the Rif mountains. It is said that the Rif mountains are some of the most beautiful hiking that can be done in Africa. 

The next morning at 7am we dragged ourselves out of bed and began to head up the mountains. We left so early because we wanted to avoid the deadly heat of the afternoon sun. The hike was absolutely amazing. The views were simply breathtaking. The hike wasn't very easy either, the 4 foreigners were gasping for the breath the entire way up as the guide was walking along in old flip flops!

The view of Chaouen from the mountains. 

After coming down from the 4 hour hike we decided to take a well deserved ciesta before lunch. After this we decided to explore a little more of the city by getting lost in the medina. This actually proved to be quite fun as the blue throughout the winding and narrow streets made for some great pictures!

 

 

Now on the second day we decided to take another hike to the akchur waterfall. This time,  we decided to try this trek on our own with a little bit of guidance from our hostel owner. We took a taxi up even higher into the mountains and were let off at a very congested parking lot. As the summer was ending, there were hundreds of locals who had decided to take this hike as well! It was quite refreshing to be the only tourists around and that local Moroccans were also enjoying the hike along with us. This highest point of this hike was supposed to have an amazing natural waterfall, although we were still extremely tired from the trek the day before so we decided to stop half way and enjoy the water from this point.

What our hiking trail looked like. 

Once we decided to settle in I seemed to be the only one excited to get into the water. We stopped at a basin where there were a group of Moroccan men doing acrobatic dives into this small crevice of deep water. After watching several death defying jumps by the Moroccan men, they told me that they weren't jumping anymore until I tried it. So I did, and the water was extremely refreshing! It was cold enough to have to get out after a few minutes but after a few minutes I found myself jumping off these rocks a lot. I found it to be quite a bit of fun! 

After this amazing hike we once again went back to our hostel for some well deserved rest. 

After a nice long nap we decided that we should go all out and visit the nicest restaurant in town, because the next morning I would have to spend the day travelling back to Sevilla. We did out research and went to a very nice restaurant with a beautiful rooftop patio that gave us an exceptional view of the city. We all order complete meals. I started out with a Moroccan salad with goat cheese. Beef tagine and coucous for the main meal and a chocolate crepe with almonds for desert, all tied together with a fresh fruit smoothie to drink. At any restaurant in Canada this would be a very pricy meal, but in Morocco this luxurious meal came out to 100MAD (or 14$ Canadian)! 

After a full belly of couscous am olives we went back to the Hostel to get some sleep as I had to be up early to catch my bus back to Tanger to get on the ferry and eventually make my way to Sevilla. It was a long trip back, but it was completely worth it because I have some amazing memories of being in Morocco with my Commonwealth friends! 

Keep checking back shortly and I will put up a post of how this week has gone! I miss you all and hope to hear how things are going back in the Great White North!!!    

First Week in Sevilla!

So now that I am landed here in Sevilla, my first task was to find an apartment to live in (una habitación). For the first three days I stayed in a Hostel (Triana Backpackers) and did my research out of this small hostel.

This is a view of the river, my hostel was just behind this first row of buildings. 

The hostel was nice, but I felt that they were trying to fit 6 people in a room meant for only 2-3 people max. Regardless, after only one night I was ready to be in my own apartment.

After viewing a number of apartments I found an apartment in Plaza Jerónimo de Cordoba (6) that I instantly felt good about. The landlord Miguel was amazing, and his english was a little rusty so he had his daughter present to help translate to ensure that we were both on the same page. After viewing the apartment I decided to sleep on it. The next morning in order to try and discover the city a little more, I took the hostel's free walking tour of the old city. After this walking tour I went and met Miguel again to sign my lease until the end of June 2015!

This a small photo of the room I living in for the year. Great view from the patio!

During this walk of Sevilla I saw some of the main sights in Sevilla and learned some of the history of the city. As a history nerd I found it very interesting to learn about how Sevilla hosted the world expo in 1929 and how the the iconic Plaza España was designed and what it represents today.

The historic Plaza España. Also the warmest place in Sevilla due to all the tiles in the square!

During this walking tour I met an Australian named David and we began talking about our respective situations. David had been travelling around Europe for the past few months and had just come to Spain from spending a month in Portugal. After the tour we decided to hit a pub for some lunch and began talking about our desires to visit Morocco. Funny enough, after lunch we decided to go ahead with the plan we formulated and head to Morocco the next morning for the weekend. I only had a meeting to show up for on tuesday so I was able to spend close to 4 days in Morocco. Therefore, after signing my lease I invited David over and we began planning how we will get to Tarifa to take the ferry over and where we will spend our first night in Tanger!

The next post will tell you all about my adventures in Morocco! Leave a comment below if you have any questions or comments about this post. I miss you all!

Cliquez le "select language" button si vous voulez lire cet article en Français.  

Bienvenido a mi blog!

So yes, I know this blog is a little behind schedule but I will now do my best to catch everyone up.

Right from the start I would like to say how sorry I am for not creating this blog earlier. My goal with this blog is to make sure that all the people I care for a kept up to date, and so that everyone knows how much I miss all of you!

Basic details:

Living in Sevilla, Spain from August 31, 2014 until I return to Canada July 22, 2015.
Teaching students from age 13-16 as a Conversational Instructor of French and English. I will be planning and implementing conversational activities with 22 different language classes of one hour in length each. You guessed it! I will be teaching 22 hours a week.

The rest of my week will be taken up through studying International Business at the IMF Business School, that is part of Universidad School, that is part of Universidad Camilo Jose Cela. 


On my spare time, I will be doing my best to pick up as much spanish as possible and do a small weekend trip once a month to make the most of my experience overseas!

If you would like to see this text in either french or Spanish just click the select language button below. I will put this link on every page.