Off We Go!!

With two days down of Christmas celebrations over here and approximately three more to go (I think!) I find myself wishing that the days would go by much faster. I know I need to stop complaining about being homesick and all, but I can't help it! This country is beautiful, I know that, it's not as cold as Canada in any way, I'm learning a new language and I'm learning flamenco...but once again, I miss what's familiar to me! Having the girls that I take care of out of school and on Christmas vacation for 3 weeks or so is a little trying...plus they've been sick the whole time.

Tomorrow we leave for the family's country house, which is about a 2 or 3 hour drive north of Barcelona. The drive will be somewhat scenic, but I have a feeling I'll have my eyes closed and listening to my ipod the whole time! It really is a gorgeous house, from the 14th century I think and decorated just the way I like it, cute English country cottage, (the dad's half English) Also, I luckily get my own room and its on the opposite side of the house than the girls' room, so that means complete silence!
I took this picture the first time I visited the house in the summer and had been woken up by a rooster! Its the view from the balcony beside my bedroom. What I'm getting to with all this talk of leaving for a week is that I'll be miles away from the internet with only dried up cornfields in sight! My sole communication with my friends is via the internet, what am I going to do without a friend in sight and only 3 little girls?! I'll be reading, thinking up ideas for this here thing, and trying to get as much exercise as possible since I won't be able to go to the gym either! Hopefully all goes well, the days pass by quickly, and I get to relax without thinking too much about my internet-withdrawal. Since I'll be away for New Years I thought I'd share some amazing photos posted on The Boston Globes website, "The year 2008 in Photographs". There are 3 parts with some very gruesome photos and others you can't tear your eyes away from. Enjoy and ¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

love to hate, hate to love

If you're aware of it or not Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have come out recently with a new fashion line. I seem to have a love hate relationship with these girls, one day loving what they wear, the other hating even the sounds of their voices. Regardless I think they're pretty fantastic.

One of my favourite sites for fashion related information recently posted up a promotional video for The Row's holiday collection. It goes on for quite some time but with the model they used, not that painful to watch. And I know that I occasionally change my outfits frequently in the span of one day but unfortunately it never seems to happen at the side of a pool in the hills of sunny California. If only!

Consisting mainly of 3 colours in the video (black, white and grey) the collection seems pretty comfortable and wearable, and probably for my standards, super expensive. Overall I enjoyed the video and the clothes that I saw in it and hopefully, once I get back to North America and 'happen' upon their clothes I'll be able to afford something...? I'd like to think that the reason for my wanting to own an article from their collection isn't solely for the purpose of owning something that has their name on it, but also because the quality of the garment is impecable!

Merry effing Christmas

You'll have to excuse my lack of enthusiasm this holiday season due to the fact that not only am I miles and miles away from my friends and family but I'm also quite under the weather. Due to the job I have, I'm constantly enveloped in the germs of little kids, in this instance 3 little girls who all have some kind of a cold. This includes coughing (without covering their mouths), sneezing (with over-flowing boogers), and fevers (that have thankfully gone down in the past 3 days). But now that they're all getting better it's our turn, as in the parents and myself to feel like crap.

Here in Barcelona/Catalunya Christmas is celebrated later, the 6th of January to be exact. The specific reasons as to why, I'm not very sure, and if I looked it up I know I'd find the reason, but to be honest, I don't feel like it! The family I'm with will be celebrating this holiday quite a bit and I'm super confused as to where we'll be, who we'll be with and what we'll be doing.

I'm usually really excited about the holidays, making ornaments and decorations, baking like a madwoman, buying unnecessary presents for everyone and anyone I can think of, but this year it's the complete opposite. I have no interest in shopping, because everything is way too expensive, and I have no idea what to get anyone! My parents, I find, are the hardest people to buy for, mostly because I don't want to get them some shitty gift, send it over the Atlantic, and then have them not like it. So, I figure if I just start collecting gifts for them (and my brothers) now, by the time I get back home all the gifts I'll have for them will make up for not sending any throughout the year. Plus, that way I don't have to spend tons of euros on sending the package!

The Catalans seem to have a few strange traditions here, but more of that will come later, regarding Christmas, on pretty much every Nativity scene the inclusion of a character tucked away in a little corner is the Caganer, translated to mean 'the shitter' or 'the pooper'. Most of the little characters are dressed in typical Catalunyan garb consisting of a large black sash and red sock hat, but some that have become quite popular are Caganers that are made in the resemblance of celebreties or politicians.



Among some of the reasons why the Catalans include this man in the Nativity scene are tradition, humour, feces is considered like fertilizing the Earth, and that the caganer reinforces the idea that the baby Jesus is God in human form, which implies everything that a human is and does.

I mostly like him 'cause he's bent over, pants at his knees with a little pile of shit under his butt!

finally!

So this is the first post of a blog (of hopefully many) that I've wanted to start for a while now. Ever since I arrived in Spain I've been wanting to chronicle everything, or almost everything, that's happened here. Unfortunately due to the fact that I procrastinated a ton and couldn't seem to choose a name prevented me from doing so! But here it is...

Now regarding the name...'jam tomorrow, jam yesterday...' its a reference to one of my favourite childhood (made for television) movies, Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Made in two parts and first televised in 1985, my parents recorded the movie off the tv and the rest is history! I was hooked from the beginning and have been watching it ever since.

The exact name comes from a song sung by the brilliant and eccentric Carol Channing.



If you haven't seen this movie, or it's been a while, I highly recommend watch it and/ jog your memory.