Más vale tarde que nunca

One of the bays in Baiona

Outdoor gym in Baiona

Estimados Lectores,

Been really busy last week so haven't had a chance to update for a while, so will keep this short and sweet. :)

Firstly, the other Sunday we went to a little fishing town called Baiona, which is about 45 mins away from Vigo. To get there we had to take the bus, but - being a Sunday - the information desk at the bus station was closed, so we were a bit confused what to do. This cleaning lady came up to us and asked us what was wrong so we explained we wanted to go to Baiona and she told us when the bus was, which was more than a bit useful. Right...I don't know if this a European thing or bus drivers just like to rip me off but the bus driver told me that it's only possible to get a 1 way ticket (Una Ida) and that returns aren't possible. The bus driver when I was in Lourdes also told me this, so I dunno if they think I've got dos dedos al frente (am a bit thick) or if they're genuinely telling the truth, but they always get two one ways out of me. Hmmm. Anyway Baiona is only a small place, with a lot of bays around the coast and one promenade. There's also a lovely fort, which I didn't go in but did a walk around it and it gave fantastic views of Vigo and of las Islas Cíes. So after the walk around the fort there wasn't much to do, so we chilled on the beach for a while, standard, and had some dinner. For something like 6EUR we had a main course, bread, wine and pudding. Ridiculously cheap and really nice too. But the waiter, qué maleducado! He asked us what we wanted and we were like well we don't really know what's on offer and he was like "chunter chunter chunter menus." Always helpful when you want to order food... And I saw him moaning at some woman who gave him a load of change. Bit unusual really because everyone else seems really helpful and nice, like when I need to a
sk directions or something but he deffo got up con el pie izquierdo (on the wrong side of the bed). Still Baiona, as you can see in the pictures is really really nice. We also found this outdoor gym, such fun!

I started the new module of Legal/Administrative Translation, which seemed interesting until our teacher (who reminds me so much of my old Business Studies teacher) started getting us to work out how properly to tax our clients if we were self-employed. Seems a bit odd, but it is a fourth year module so I suppose they're thinking more about their careers now. I feel sorry for the girl I was sat by cus I had to keep stopping her and being like "is this right?" But she didn't seem to know either so all good! Felt pretty clever when he asked me for an answer and I was like, well he should be taxed 21% but as a Portuguese company I believe he is tax exempt. Check me out Mr Spanish Tax Advisor. haha. The lectures are becoming easier and easier to understand, still quite challenging but enjoying them. My Spanish for foreigners course started this week, I was put in the B2 class, which is higher than I thought I was to be honest, but I think it's alright. It's really interesting because in the grammar section we've been discussing uses for tenses I didn't know existed, so it'll hopefully make me speak more idiomatically. And then in the conversation bit we talk about Spain and things, like this week we talked about stereotypes and some expressions (hence the two used earlier), which I really like.

I learnt a few Spanish customs from that class that I hadn't realised/known before. For example, Spanish people don't take their shoes off at home, and if they do always wear slippers. I hadn't realised but it's true. Apparently as well Spanish people don't take compliments, and if someone compliments you have to tell them that it's not true. Which I didn't know before: apparently they'll think you're big headed. So I feel bad now cus the same morning Roberto (the night watchman) said I had a lot of vocab, and I said thanks! :/ But then when someone said my computer was nice I remembered to say how old and slow it was. And when someone said my Spanish has improved I said oh well, I don't think it has. Pocito a poco I'm learning how to act like them. We also discussed how often the Spanish touch other people which is true, but used to all the kisses in France so am not as overwhelmed as I was in France at first. But with kisses you only kiss when you meet here, so it's a bit less full on that France but then they touch your arm or whatever all the time.

Last Thursday was a bit of an experience...we went for drinks by the port as normal and then went to our normal club...but Miguel is only 17 so he couldn't get in. (So are Natalia and Aída, but girls getting in clubs and boys not seems a common feature of all clubs.) But me and Miguel were miles away from the group and Miguel didn't have his phone so they'd all already gone in, so we decided to go someone else, but you have to be twenty to go there and so eventually we went to somewhere else. But it took us ages to go to Loft, the last place, because Miguel was telling everyone how unfair it was he didn't get in, to everyone he met in the street haha. But we got there eventually. Not as tired this time, think I'm getting used to Spanish night outs now. Also the Spanish cheese if growing on me; I've had this song in my head for two weeks now:

Feel sorry for anyone I give a lift to over Christmas ;)

Cathedral

Last Sunday we caught the train to Santiago de Compostela, which is the end of the pilgrimage route St James' Way. It was raining all day so it wasn't like we could chill in the park or anything so I might have a biased view on it, but I didn't think there was much to do to be honest. The Cathedral is really nice, but personally I think it needs cleaning up a bit and it'd look really really nice. The inside is magnificent and we saw St James' body, which was surprising small, it was in a silver box about the size of my laptop, so I dunno if it's just his relics, if not St James was a midget. Apart from that we had another ridiculously cheap lunch, this time with good service. I bought an umbrella which lasted 3 hours, that sums the weather up. But still, I'm glad I went to see it, even though there wasn't much there. It's a lot more classy than Lourdes, as there weren't all the religious tat shops that Lourdes has.

Tomorrow I'm going the zoo, so will tell you all about that and another week in Spain soon!

Santiago de Compostela