I owe you all a blog! The past few months have been busy with activities that don’t make for super interesting blog posts. After studying daily for months, at the end of January I finally took the LSAT, a week before which I got sick. I proceeded to be sick for the next month. No time is a good time to be sick, but I was particularly disappointed with being sick for both my test, our mid-year conference, and then the week leading up to a big trip to a couple of the islands I’d planned with Kristin, my friend from home. Nearly two years ago when I found out I’d been selected to be a Fulbright TA in Spain, I instantly began reading all of the blogs and materials I could find about people’s experiences. I remember reading one that talked about how she considered November to be her “lost month” because she’d essentially been sick for the whole thing. I remember hoping that wouldn’t happen to me, being happy that it didn’t last year, and now knowing exactly what that feels like. February feels a bit like my lost month in Spain.
You don’t want to hear about all of my woes, so I’ll tell you a little bit about my trip to Fuerteventura and Lanzarote with Kristin. Kristin visited me last year and we were freezing the entire time, so when she heard I might get the opportunity to live an island life for a year, she jumped on board and planned a trip to see me. We planned to spend the beginning of the week on Gran Canaria and then when I was done working for the week, we’d go to Fuerteventura and Lanzarote (plus Lanzarote’s baby sister island, La Graciosa). When the week leading up to Kristin’s visit, I could barely get out of bed let alone take a plane somewhere, I was so worried I wouldn’t be able to make our trip happen. Not only was I feeling physically unwell, but emotionally too. I didn’t want to be on this island anymore. Luckily, by the day of Kristin’s arrival I was feeling physically well enough to be awake most of the day and she brought with her some goodies my mom had sent her, including stuff for my now-dwindling cold. Plus I got to vent to someone who has known me since elementary school. Kristin was a good sport about me not feeling well enough to do much and instead got me hooked on watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine while she snacked on doner kabab. Three days into Kristin’s visit, we packed up and headed to do some island hopping for the weekend. Though I carried three rolls of toilet paper with me to use as tissues (all of which I had to use by the way), I was feeling much more like a human and ready to be outside. From the very get-go, our trip didn’t go exactly as planned. I wouldn’t call it a “disastre” but it was definitely a “rollo” – that is to say, with anyone else, I might have given up halfway through when everything was going wrong, but with Kristin I could be angry or sad for a minute and then we’d do our best to laugh it off. Fuerteventura (or at least the part we saw) just feels barren and empty, but there’s a vegan coffee shop in El Cotillo that has the best fresh squeezed juice (nearly smoothies) that I’ve ever had in my life. Also, the Fulbrighters that live there were lovely hosts and gave us tons of good tips for both their island and Lanzarote. After a day in Fuerteventura, we took a ferry to Lanzarote and I got more of the feeling of wonder and amazement that I could be in this crazy, unbelievable place on that ferry ride. That is a feeling I felt nearly constantly last year and hadn’t felt much since coming to the Canaries, which lifted my mood considerably. We rented a car in Lanzarote (A+ decision if you ask me) and spent the day driving around the island – desperately stopping for lunch at a place that didn’t have a menu and after ordering in our food-depraved state we began to panic about whether we’d accidentally spent hundreds of euros on one lunch (don’t worry, we hadn’t). We visited Timanfaya National Park, full of volcanoes, including one active one. It’s a huge space that looks like Mars and where steam blows up so hot from the ground you can cook food in it. We drove through town after town, marveling at the distinctive contrast between of the black rocky landscape and the white buildings with green trim (nearly every building in Lanzarote is white due to the vision of an artist born on the island) all while blasting music and singing at the top of our lungs. Our trip got better each day, culminating in the perfect beach day we’d dreamed of in La Graciosa. It was Saturday, our last full day together and the sun was out, Calima (see forthcoming blog) was less bad, I could breathe through my nose again, Kristin found the tastiest two apples, and we found the perfect beach. Did we get sunburned trying to ride rented bikes through 1 ft deep sand? Yes. Was it worth it? No, I don’t recommend renting bikes on La Graciosa to get to the beach. But did we have a blast? Absolutely. As our final day came to an end, we went to a section of the capital of Lanzarote where we’d heard there were good food options. Walking by place after place of great looking menus, unable to decide, we finally stopped at the last one and were too hungry to do any research, so we sat down. It was the worst meal of my life. I cannot impart in words how terrible this food was. See photos. I literally had to hide the tuna I’d ordered in my purse because not only did it not look like tuna, THE COOKED TUNA WAS COLD and I was too terrified to eat it and felt bad leaving it on my plate. We’re not totally sure what type of meat Kristin’s cheeseburger was and the fries were almost as bad as the ones I ate at the French Fry Museum in Bruges. We were cracking up the whole time and I think in that respect, it was a good representation of our trip. It wasn’t want we expected, it was a little disappointing, but we did our best to laugh it off and enjoy our adventure. Kristin’s visit, while a bit of a mess travel-wise, perked up my spirits significantly, I felt ready to enjoy my last four (now three) months on this island and to remember that special feeling about this once-in-a-lifetime experience. Delving back into regular life ended up being much smoother than I anticipated and March, while still a whirlwind, is a much happier one. I escaped the crazy partying of Gran Canaria’s Carnaval and exchanged it for a chill week in La Rioja with Gonzalo. After that break I had one week of teaching and now I’m on a plane headed to Germany where I will be attending a Fulbright Conference which invites grantees placed all over Europe to join. I’d really wanted to go last year, but there was a bit of a snafu with the number of grantees who wanted to go from Spain and I wasn’t able to. This made me extra thrilled to be able to go this year. On top of that, being under the weather at Spain’s mid year conference was a big disappointment for me, considering how much I loved soaking everything up at last year’s. The Berlin Conference ends on Wednesday and on Thursday I will fly to Budapest to explore a new city in a new country for the weekend. Perhaps conference and Budapest adventures will warrant their own blogs, but for now, I hope this little update has satiated the approximately three people who asked me where my new blogs were :)
6 Comments
Sally
3/16/2019 02:03:18 pm
So glad you’re feeling better. Looking forward to the next one.
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Jordan Jenkins
3/25/2019 07:48:31 am
Thanks Grammy! I’m glad to be feeling better too
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November 2018
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