Christmas Plans

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Some photos of the (exact) cabins I´ll be staying in as I spend my Christmas in Lapland, Finland. Yes, that´s right, I´m spending Christmas Eve snuggling up in one of these beauties, in freaking freezing Finland. Nice and warm huh? Looking forward to it!!!! And then there´s the meeting bestest friends, drinking patxaran, ice hole swimming, dog sledding, snow mobiling....... Then I´m off backpacking for 10 days around the Baltic(Estonia & Latvia)/Poland/Berlin. So stoked. Can´t wait. Yahoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo




Cold toes and fingers

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Maybe I have a similar syndromme to that of my sister, not blog laziness, but being really busy??

Since 2.5 months ago things have been okish, however now that for the past month and a half i´ve had a stable job (teaching english however...) and stable place of residence i can be quite thankful for that! especially given that the crisis here has hit jobs and the unemployment level (12%) quite hard. So teaching in the same two places as last year, a private academy in Sopelana (15mins away in metro) 3 days a week, a private academy in Leioa on saturday mornings, and a handfull of private classes spread out around the district.

August would have to have been one of the best months (if not best) month of my life, it was so much fun being back in a classroom, learning spanish, flatting again (after a year at home), discovering a fantastic mojito bar, living in Santiago de Compostela where the remains of the apostle James are said to be burried, going on organised trips around the province of Galicia which was so beautiful - i´d say its what fiordland is to new zealand. wild beauty. and the city itself was spectacular. made some great friends from all over the world - slovakia, italy, poland, england, portugal, japan, greece, germany, holland........... great people and great experience!! lets just hope i get my diploma in the mail from the international spanish exam i did while on this course!!! (its equivilant to the advanced level in the English Cambridge exams.......)

as for the moment i´m just biding time until christmas comes along and then in january we´ll see if i am able to obtain a "business" job or if i´ll keep on teaching english until at least june. teaching english pays better than a beginner accountant for example in some companies. (not that im´going to be an accountant hahahaha).

celebrations: i got my degree in the mail last week! i am officially Janine O·$%& BMS. the rest of my name GradDip IntMnt will come in decembers graduation council seeing as waikato mucked up my graduation a little bit. but never mind. now the problem is that its not officially recognized in spain, so i have to convert it to a spanish one which could even require taking extra classes here at university. Susi got her first job as a bus driver which she´s all happy about so i´m glad for that, the only sucky thing is that we´re still long-distance (she lives 300km away) but as i said, in january we are reevaluating where to live, either Bilbao, Oviedo, or Madrid. depends on many things!!

its raining a lot here now, you can definately tell its nearing winter! snow all around spain but not here onthe coast. can´t wait for my winter clothes to arrive from nz! (i hope it's sent dad!)

i now have internet in my room, however its a stolen signal from the building across the road hehehehe, hence no photos uploaded so far as (murphy´s law) when i go to upload them i have no signal. anyway. i hope to keep in contact more, especially as i now have a routine to go by of work work work eat sleep!!! thankgod for coffee.

muxus, kisses, and splodges.
me

I´m Getting On To It....

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or as in the photo, getting off it..........
Yes yes, the blog will be up and running very shortly in un ratito.
Just let me do my Instituto de Cervantes DELE exam which is on Friday first!! It cost enough to sit so I gotta try!!!
Yes I have photos up on my flickr and facebook, I´m relatively up to date with fbook messages and emails, and the only thing that has lacked has been here!
It will survive! It will go on! It will be soon!

I´m here but very busy!

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I´m here!!! Living in Bilbao, about to start work tomorrow at the academy, catching up with friends, missing the internet terribly (hence no action recently), and going out!
Appologies for no photos or contact, as I said, it´s been hectic! But I had my last ever exam on Friday here and it went ok, so yay! I´m all done university wise!!!!!!!
Spain is playing the eurosoccer 2008 final against Germany tonight which should be a good game to watch!! Viva EspaƱa!
This is just a quick note, will write more soon!!!

Hong Kong!

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I know I´m getting ahead of myself, not having commented on all the wonderful people back in NZ, but I´m nearing low battery on my laptop in the Hong Kong airport. Just thought I´d put this up as I wait for my Aeroflot flight at 1am!!!
It's really hot. And I have cankles. (where your calves and ankles merge as one!!)
Yes I got a little burnt.....

Manneken Pis!!!

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Look what I have waiting for me in Europe!!!! Nelle is showing me what she bought for me today on skype. Coolness!!!

Was doing all my packing today..... bag has hit the 20kg limit and I´m still going...... will have about $300 worth of baggage to send over by post. Its been quite a long day so I´m off to bed now.

I finish my 499 tomorrow so there´ll be a celebration!!! Yay!!

Bye Bye Dana

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Well thats me setting up a self timer for my final scooter ride (my scooter was called Dana). The shots I took were too cheesy to put up, so here´s my muffed attempt.

My walls are bare, no more postcards which makes my room kinda depressing. But 5 more days and I leave for Europe!!! That is if I survive 19 hours in Hong Kong, Aeroflot flights, the Moscow airport, and studying for my final exam. Looking forward to another adventure!!

Crap... I´m getting up in 4 hours to finish off my 499 report of an investigation........ see you! And yes, now I have to bike instead of (motor)bike in.... and in the rain at that...... oh well. At least I´ll have Coldplays new album Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends to keep me company!!

6 days to go.....

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6 days!! OMGGGGGGGGGGG still so much to do....... and then I can jump up and down like I did in Cuenca in 2005.....

Hopefully my scooter will sell ok tonight.... hopefully I can get a bit more packing done..... hopefully I can stop procrastinating and finish my 499 already...................................

Ciao!

The Last of Many

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Well its been the start of many ´lasts´.
Friday was my last day at NZ Post where I was a mail officer. Yes, I got up early every morning for 9 months to put letters into peoples p.o. boxes. Isn´t that interesting. Yes. Name a chartwell business and I can tell you its p.o. box. Seriously, I can.

Anyway. I´ve been cleaning out my boxes in the attic at dads house, and man did I store a lot of crap. Some Jar Jar Binks stuff is up on trademe if anyone is interested...... hahaha.

20 days left......... its June already. Wow. I need to get my arse moving to get stuff done.......

Neighbourhood Bombings.....

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Just checking out my new neighbourhood online, and it turns out its been bombed twice in the past 6 months by the Basque terrorist organisation ETA. The last blast was a month ago against a political party's (PSE) headquarters - 5 kilos of explosives + a timer, and 7 Basque police hurt......

What am I going back to?!?!?!?!?!?

Photogenic

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Well, here I am counting down the days until I land in Spain.... 37 days......
Here in the photo (and the new blog header) are my favourite photos that I took the last time I was in Spain. They are (left to right, top first) Cuenca, Tarifa, Cadaques, Tarifa, Estepona, Valencia (during Las Fallas), Cadaques, and Barcelona.
I'm quite stoked because the two Cadaques photos (and another two of mine, the London Eye and a pipi shell in Raglan) were selected from 4,000 photos in a FlickrYahoo! competition, and made the top 100, so were put in the Auckland Art Gallery. Quite chuffed about that!
I have a place to stay in July now, flatting with an Aussie near the heart of Bilbao (as opposed to living near the sea in Getxo like last time). I'm starting to prepare my English classes too! Actually, if you go to that link, and have a look around, you'll even find a photo of me teaching there in 06/07!!
I've decided on where I'm going to do my 1 month intensive Spanish course, the University of Santiago de Compostela will be the place. I've never been there so am definately looking forward to that!!! Santiago de Compostela is famous for being the destination of the Camino de Santiago, or in English, the Pilgrims Trail, which starts in France, and ends up in the corner of Spain (about 800km).
After August however, who knows where I'll end up!!!!
~~
Quote from the photo: When you travel, curiosity is never-ending; everything is new and you want to get to know it.

Lemons

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Right. A long time since last post...... I´m still in NZ, but I´m coming back.... June 21, note that down everyone! Am I excited? Yes. Am I nervous? Definately.

Teaching a summer camp type course in Leioa (between Getxo and Bilbao) in July, and after that I´ll still be doing my university Spanish course, but as of yet I don´t know where that will be, it could be any city in Spain at this stage!!! Then after August I´ll either pack up and move to the big smoke to find a job (not teaching English, hopefully something with my business degree), or stay put in the city I did the course in and find a job there. By big smoke I mean Barcelona or Madrid. Possibly even back to Bilbao seeing as its such an awesome place! (and where most of my friends are...)

Have been finishing off my Bachelor of Management Studies degree at Waikato University here in my hometown of Hamilton. Currently finishing off my final project at AgResearch, a crown research institute. I´m looking into thier carbon footprint and cost effective ways of reducing thier impact on the environment. I´ve been working many jobs, which include (but are not limited to) sorting mail for NZ post, security guard at Farmers department store, research interviewer for ConsumerLink, helping my dad audit schools at his accountancy firm, being an EF (*sigh* its like AFS) representative (organising meetings and interviewing high school students to study for a year overseas), babysitting occasionally, and being a summer intern at AgResearch writing literature reviews and an annotated bibliography.

Definately a busy year, though I did manage to relax a little travelling down to Christchurch and Wellington during April this year (photo above in Banks Peninsula), and in February I had an unforgettable trip to attend an EF conference in Brisbane, Australia. The family camping trip to the tip of New Zealand / Northland was also an awesome experience, possibly the last family camping trip! And even with a broken toe, the few days spent mucking around Ruapehu/Tongariro National Park were great with Renelle, Hamish and Ben. New Years at the beach was also a highlight.

So thats me in a nutshell at the moment. A bit overwhelmed, a bit lost, a bit busy, and still quite a bit heart broken.

As always you can find my photos here, or look me up on Facebook, I´m always around.
Besos for everyone! Kisses para todos!