Wednesday, February 15, 2006

The French Riviera Journals - The final chapter!!! (Originally posted on 5 Aug 2005)

Hi All!

I am now nearing the end of my time at the school in Nice and I have had such a wonderful eight weeks! I’ve enjoyed my time here so much that I have decided that I am going to move back here at the end of summer in a couple of months…that should give me enough time to visit everyone back in England and get all the stuff I need to bring back here. My French has gotten to a pretty good level and I have some decent job prospects here which I am looking to explore…Maybe for now I’ll say I’ll be back in a year if it doesn’t work out for me in that respect!!!

Ok, psych! Don’t be worried, I am definitely not relocating to France (not anytime soon anyway). I just felt like being a bit naughty. My time here though definitely has come to an end and I will be back in London on Saturday! I am really excited to be coming back because I’ve missed England much more than I thought I would when I started this journey almost exactly six months ago now. I would not swap my experiences in Spain and France for anything though. I feel like I have learnt so much about life after this mini-gap year so forgive me if I sound over-philosophical in the coming weeks. It’s not been a six month holiday you know, I’ve had my ups and downs like each and every one of you but all in all God has seen me through in one piece, seen me through with a hope of a brighter tomorrow. I was very mono-lingual when I left British shores in February and now I am conversational in both Spanish and French. I thank God for helping me to achieve the goals I set out to achieve when I started. Growing up in Nigeria and learning that crooked French that we all learnt back in school made me think that I was just not meant to be a linguist, but now I’ve realized that anybody who is exposed to the right conditions is capable of learning a new language and quickly too. A couple of people have suggested to me to go and live in a village in Nigeria for a few months to go and finally learn Yoruba and I can tell you that it is not totally out of the question (watch this space, if the village get internet I go dey send you my diary from dia!)

I just want to say a big thanks to everyone who kept in touch with me during this time, it meant a whole lot to me in a time when I was more or less on my own, and also many thanks to those who visited (better late than never!) – I think you’ll now agree with me that the French Riviera is the zone! Where have I not been over here? Antibes, Villefranche, Eze Village, Beaulieu-sur-mer, Cannes a couple of times and Monaco three times and counting! If you know where to go and how to get around, Nice is the perfect holiday/honeymoon spot! I didn’t manage to make it to the famous Saint Tropez but I’ll think I’ll save that for another trip. The only thing I hate about Nice is “La crotte de chiens dans la rue!” What I mean to say is that absolutely nobody here cleans up after their dogs on the streets, and there are many dogs here! It’s absolutely disgusting! I have developed the habit of always looking down when I walk. Other students have not been so lucky and there has been many a tale of slips, falls and returning home to change one’s clothing….

So what have I learnt about life? That it’s not a box of chocolates…ok more seriously, I think I have a greater understanding of the European way of life which is very different from London. Life isn’t just about the hustle and bustle of your 12-hour city job, it isn’t about how much money you can make in as little time as possible nor is it about who drives the flashiest car. I guess I am stating the obvious but just take a moment to think about the finer things of life, the togetherness of family, happiness, love, friendship, Food (lol) and most importantly GOD. These are all things I’ve rediscovered in different ways while being abroad. My family here is a great example. While Sylvie is about 13yrs older than Daniel and has two kids from a previous marriage, you would never guess that he wasn’t the father of her kids. They have been together more than 12 years and they are truly happy together. Daniel’s claim to fame is having played youth football with the likes of Zinedine Zidane and Emmanuel Petit. He could have chosen that life of possible riches and fame but he didn’t and he is truly happy and has absolutely no regrets simply working in a department store almost 20 years on (Ok, he did mention feeling a slight tinge seeing them lifting the World Cup in 1998, but that was only for a second!).

I have met such a wide variety of people that has forced me to reflect on my outlook on life in general. Like this Argentinian guy I met in Barcelona who though never having finished school, was blessed with many skills such as jewelry crafting, deep-sea diving, paragliding and under-water video shooting. Oh, and fluent in English, Spanish, Italian and Japanese. At 33, I found this to be an impressive “CV” and even though he lived from one youth hostel to the next, and sometimes on the street, as he sold his hand made jewels to make a living, he was truly content with life. I used to be impressed by people who spoke two or three languages fluently, but not anymore! In Nice, I’ve consistently met people who speak four or five languages and just last week, I met a Polish girl at my school who can speak seven languages! (not all fluently, but when she can converse with me in Spanish, which is her weakest language, then that is more than impressive, especially at the tender age of 20!).

The church here (International Baptist Church) has really been great for me. I have met some really special people here who I’ll be keeping in touch with for a long time to come. Camille, Cornell, Katie, Rogelio, Anne. If you guys are reading this, it was a blessing meeting you guys and I hope are paths cross again in the future. Ricardo, even though you were in Nice for just a week, you touched my life in an amazing way! This guy is a Spanish and French teacher from the US who God-willing might be relocating to Paris for missionary work. Ricardo keep in touch cos I’ll definitely be in Paris next year and you know that London is only hours away! This guy plays the keyboard and sings like John Stoddart, simply inspired! Speaking of which, Inem, thanks for lending me those Stoddart CDs! I think without Stoddart, Deittrick Haddon and John Legend on constant repeat on my MP3 I think I may have gone mad here!

So there you have it folks, it’s finally over and I’m coming back home, where I belong. I feel like my real life has been on hold for six months and I hate to say it but I am almost excited to be returning to the hustle and bustle of the 9 to 5, or the 7 to 6, as the case may be. I guess I have reason to be optimistic about the future. Take care all, God bless and I look forward to re-integrating myself as a useful member of society. I’ve had enough emails asking me when I am going to start doing some work!

Nice and the French Riviera (Originally posted on 30 June 2005)

Bonjour tout le monde! Je suis a Nice! Je suis depuis deux semaines et Je reste encore six semaines! La ville est tres tres belle et magnifique mais c'est trop chaut! J'ai appris beaucoup francais en deux semaines mais je pense que le francais est plus dificil que l'espagnol!!!

Wow, okay did I just write 4 sentences in french? That is definitely more than I have written in the two weeks I've been here, but it gives me encouragement for the remaining six weeks I've got! Well, where do I start? There is so much to say about the past two weeks, but yet so little time. Before I really get into things, I must give a shout out to Sele and Lanre - your joint 25th "Ice Party" was just off the chain! Dang, I had so much fun ohh, chei. It was definitely worth the plane ticket to London! Kai, I heard that things are only just dying down now. Us "youngins" have a tough act to follow, but don't worry, for my 25th we are going to Paris! Better believe it guys, start saving your dosh now, is all I can say.

Before I continue, let me give you all permission to call me and find out how I am doing because I fully admit that this journal is unreasonably long! What can I say, enjoy it while it lasts! When ever again in life am I going to have such time on my hands to write like this? My french mobile number is 0033 678108545 - use it ohh!

Okay, down to business. I've finally left the shores of Spain, and after my weekend trip to London. I arrived in Nice on sunday night. Everything since I got here has seemed so surreal. Is Nice really on the same continent as London? Could such a thing really be possible? Even landing in Nice was a breath-taking experience, the plane seemed to approach the coast directly and then swiftly turn in a parallel line to the beach and until literally the last second before landing, you could see the blue of the sea right under you. The scenery was magnificient - Nice is like a hidden tropical paradise and simply landing there reminded me of a scene of out The Incredibles - funny how real life seemed to imitate art in this case. In non-poetic words, I had good feelings about Nice even before I got off the plane.

For the first time in my relatively long history of living with host families, I was greeted in the arrival lounge with a big sign with my name on it - The couple seemed very nice and the guy could speak english, so they warmly welcomed me, took me to their car and gave me a tour of the town even before we got home. After kindly showing me where to get all the buses I needed, they even asked me what I liked to eat for breakfast, dinner, etc and I was very impressed by this. When I got home, I thought they had extracted a central london flat and placed it in the centre of Nice! Very spacious, very modern, the shower has like 8 different kinds of power shower, even the glasses and plates are all shaped very artistically. I could already tell that the food was going to be great and the following night dinner did not disappoint! In one day, Daniel and Sylvie managed to put to shame the Spanish idea of the "host family". I mean if it wasn't one woman terrorising her kids and all her students (Carmen Vidal), it was a crazy lonely single mid-life crisis woman whose food was good but manners were terrible (Pilar), and if the single woman was the epitomy of all things nice and sweet, she was a 77 year old widow whose food wasn't exactly appetising (Concha). Finally, I had met a family who were not only very nice but everything was perfect, their home, the food - I mean when even the sugar "cubes" are not cubes but are shaped as hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades - that is what I call picture perfect. I know, what you're thinking, pointless details right? Well, one or two of you guys had suggested that I was complaining too much about stuff, I guess I am glad for once that I have nothing to complain about, and that indeed there is nothing wrong with me. After two weeks there is no trouble in paradise, and I have learnt how much little things can go a long way, just going down to the street to help Daniel with his 15 bags of shopping scored me megapoints! Sylvie says I can live here for 1 year if I want, and I told her I'd be happy to live here for a year (Daniel still half-translates our conversations). That is true, except that I miss London and I can't wait to get back!

So the food is good sha. I might need to steal some recipes from Sylvie so I can show off my southern french culinary skills when I get back. Indeed, these guys know how to eat well. Even the drinks are served in 3 courses - whisky and coke for starters, red wine for the main, and coffee with dessert! Admittedly this is more often when the family comes round, and they have really re-defined the meaning of family for me. I've met Sylvie's two daughters, and their husbands, and their kids, and their friends, and their friend's kids, and even Sylvie's Italian parents. Every other night, someone comes round for dinner and they are all so nice and loving and together. It's really a sight to behold, sitting round the dinner table with these people and just watching them.......(still don't understand a word of what they say.........unless they speak to me really really slowwwwly.......and Daniel translates!).

Okay, enough about the family. I bet y'all wanna hear more about Nice right? Well, what can I say, it is a perfect holiday destination, right in the middle of the beautiful Cote d'Azur (the French Riviera), it is within touching distance of Monaco, Cannes, Antibes and even Italy. I have only yet been to one place called Eze Village so far (not pronounced the Ibo way pls, only one sylable) which was very beautiful, I can't wait to visit all those other towns on my list! This is a very romantic area, guys, surprise your girl and take her to the South of France. But please do your homework so that you can sound very cultured, like you know your stuff - not like you want to start pronouncing Eze the Ibo way! Our you could even save it for your honeymoon, you won't be disappointed!

The school here is cool. I have met a lot of cool people and I am usually hanging out with two sets of people - the Spanish speaking group and the anglophones. Believe it or not, most of the students here are from Germany and Switzerland so you tend to hear more German being spoken than anything. While I am making good progress with the french (in part thanks to its similarity with Spanish), I can't help but feel it is actually much harder to learn than Spanish. With Spanish, you more or less pronounce what you see written. With french however, pronounciation is everything and what you see is nothing, I have found the french accent particularly difficult....my frustration also stems from the fact that I did not take into account the fact that I'd have to go through the "struggle stage" of learning a language again - you know, when you hardly understand anything spoken, where you have great difficulty in expressing yourself. My only consolation is that I won't have to do it again to learn French or Spanish - and I won't be learning any more languages in the near future. The truth is I need to perfect my Spanish anyway. Speaking with the students here from all over the world, I have realised I am not anywhere close to fluent in Spanish. I'll just have to keep working on it when I get back so that my 4 months in Spain don't turn out to be a waste. Same for french, I think I will be satisfied for now if I am conversational after two months here and I can understand most things as I can with Spanish! Needless to say, I slightly under-estimated the task of learning two languages in just six months!

So what else have I been doing in Nice? Well, Fola did warn me that I could get bored here and that they spent most of their days on the beach when he was here. Well the second part is true, I have been to the beach almost every day after school just to chill and take a dip and I must say I am getting quite accustomed to it for someone who has never been a beach person. The night life in Nice seems to be pretty cool, though I haven't really stayed out past 1 am because I prefer to take the last"night-bus" home instead of walking for an hour or paying 15 euros for a cab each time I go out. So I guess I can't say much about the "late night life" as I really haven't been to any clubs. The are lots of tourist bars and restaurants and a crazy amount of tourists. They say that although Nice is a town of only half a million inhabitants, they can get more than 2 million tourists passing through each summer - how crazy is that?

I also managed to find a nice church to go while I am here, International Baptist Church. Looked up the address on the internet and just went on my first sunday I got here. Very different from the pentecostal Nigerian churches I visited in Valencia - more international with people from all over the world and translations into Spanish and French. Obviously I was never going to be held hostage there for 5 hours on a sunday afternooon, so I guess that is a plus. Interestingly, one of the American girls I met at the church remembers Fola from when he was here (I think it was 4 years ago?) and she kept saying how I reminded her of him. I said that we are brothers (well that at least people seem to think we are). Anyway it seems really nice and I've really enjoyed the messages so far, the testimonials and the performances - it's been pretty cool.

Well, I think I have pretty much covered everything so I won't bore you further with minor details. I will leave you with a little interesting anecdote - the difference in culture of the black people I've met here and in Spain is quite amusing...In Valencia and Sevilla, I became very accustomed to nodding at any black person that walked past me. You know, the kind of nod that encapsulates a montage of messages, or perhaps a different message for each person, like "yeah, I know how hard it was for you to get here and how hard it is to do what you do - whatever that is - Respect!" or maybe just simply expressing your excitement that someone else is like you....it kind of reminded me of being back at Uni. In Nice, the total opposite, it kind of reminds me of being back in London. If I so much as smile at another black person, they just look away wondering what I am smiling at! Everybody here just dey mind there own business and hustle their own hustle. It's all good sha, that is not to say the French are less friendly, but hey, I will let you know in like 6 weeks when I can actually have a convo with them and see what the score is.

Well, on that note, I will leave you and say well done for getting this far cos you know I had to write this journal in 3 parts!!! Hope you enjoyed it, enjoy your summer y'all and CONGRATULATIONS to all my people who don finish their exams, especially those who dey graduate - if you're looking for one final summer blast, you know where it's at! I look forward to seeing you all again very soon and having my very own last summer blast back in London!

Bienvenido a Sevilla - Part II (Originally posted 30 May 2005)

Hi all, I hope you had a good weekend all. As I write, I am just realising that today is a public holiday in the UK and that´s why I haven´t got many responses from Friday yet. For my GS peeps who are always repping (by actually reading my journals), surely some of you are working today? Hahaha...ok, so where was I? Before I go on I must apologise in arrears and in advance for all the arrows I´ve blown in my journals (grammatical errors, typos etc) - I´ve been advised (by none less than my mum!) to proof read my journals before sending them out! Given that I expect you all to read it, that shouldn´t be too hard right? Well, I blame my short attention span on the fact that I´m a guy - probably the same reason why more girls read and reply to these journals than the guys - a statistic I kinda regret now, considering the fact that when a friend went to Costa Rica last year to learn Spanish just for 3 weeks, I couldn´t keep up with her journals!

Anyway I digress (as always!). The night life is Sevilla seems ok. Surprisingly, they seem to like their fair share of R´n´B and they´re also current enough. The best I had seen in three months in Valencia was a very poorly attended Erasmus party, then again in all fairness I didn´t get out much in Valencia. Here, I´ve been to one club called BOSS twice and another called The Empire once. I´m a bit tired of that now, so I think I will just stick to meeting up with the locals to practice my Spanish for my remaining two weeks here. I was going to do a business spanish exam also at the end of my stay here (for the Spanish chamber of commerce) but this weekend I realised that I´ve been giving myself stress that I don´t need for a qualification that I don´t need, when in reality, I need to be spending time preparing for my job when I get back - that extra piece of paper won´t pay the bills!

The weekends since I got here have been pretty interesting. The first one, we took a trip to the Rock of Gibraltar, which as you may know is a British colony on the south tip of Spain which is the closest point to Africa (Morocco to be precise). Apparently the history between Spain and Britain fighting for this territory goes way back, for any details more in-depth than that, you´re asking the wrong person. The Rock of Gibraltar is massive, we went most of the way up it in tour buses from where we had a beautiful view overlooking the town below. I was surprised by how much this town had it´s own unique cutlture, everything (roadsigns, shops etc) turns to English the moment you enter Gibraltar but they still drive on the right side of the road like in Spain. You pay for everything in Pounds too, you could pay in Euros too but you would get screwed over on the exchange rate. The kids we met on the way to the beach there effortlessly switched from Spanish to English to give us directions and back again afterwards. I guess because it´s Gibraltar, house prices are comparable to Central London, though one wonders why you would buy a house there unless you were actually from there - it is so secluded from the rest of Great Britain that you´d be forgiven for being ignorant of it´s existence. We even joked that someone needed to go to 10 Downing Street to remind Tony Blair he had people in Gibraltar. By far the coolest thing about this place were the monkeys! Yes, on the Rock, there were hundreds of monkeys. We took lots of pictures up close and personal with them being very careful not too touch them so as not to get bitten. We went on a tour inside the Rock too, learning about different myths such as how the monkeys were said to have come to Gibraltar from Morocco through underground caves through the Rock (Typical, isn´t it, that the monkeys must have come from AFRICA).

Did I mention that I almost didn´t make it into Gibraltar? Yes, green passport holders need to take good care when travelling anywhere. I mean, a whole UK resident like myself was being denied entry into "my own country"! The Spaniards didn´t really care if I entered Gibraltar, what they really wanted to know was if I could return to Spain from Gibraltar; in any case I had to prove that I had the right to do both. I´m sure you can imagine the scene, the other 30 people from my school being let pass, meanwhile I was immediately pulled aside the moment they saw the colour of my passport. On our way out of Gibraltar at the end of the day, I made a quick stop at the airport (which is the smallest I had ever seen), to see which flight I would have had to take out of Gibraltar in case I didn´t make it back to España. Interestingly, they only operate flights to Heathrow and Gatwick. Even more interestingly, they operate a level crossing for the plane because the single runway they have intersects the road on entry into Gibraltar. You can imagine our utter surprise when a British Airways jet zoomed right accross the road in front of us when we arrived in Gibraltar. Anyway, on leaving the town through customs, I just flashed my passport at the guy like everyone else in front of me and I didn´t wait for him to check if it was okay. Funnily enough, you could see his hesitation in letting me go, but I guess on that occasion he just couldn´t be bothered to call me back (I guess you now know how so many illegal immigrants make it into Europe from Africa, help me tell Daddy Chuks that he is all clear to begin his pilgrimage from Naija accross the Sahara desert!lol).

This weekend just past, there was a 3-day trip to Morocco.....you can guess that I sat my ass down in Sevilla! Apart from having to remember that I can´t afford to pretend I am just on one long holiday, I didn´t even want to start finding out what kind of visa I needed to get into Morocco with my Nigerian passport, let alone where to go get it from! I had a quiet weekend, I did go to see The Star Wars movie solo, it was cool. What I really wanted to know going into the movie was why Darth Vader always subjected himself to such poor fashion sense when Anakin Skywalker was such a strapping young handsome lad - I got my answer in emphatic fashion! That was my favourite part of the movie, apart from that it wasn´t so great, it only served to tie up the loose ends and bring us to where Episode IV (the original Star Wars began). And what has that got to do with my Spanish diaries I here you ask? Absolutely nothing, well except that I watched the movie in Spanish...Next weekend we´re meant to be going for a day trip to Cadiz which is also by the coast and has some nice beaches too. I hear that that´s actually still in Spain so I just might go on that trip.

The last thing, and certainly not the least that I´ll leave with, is that I went to see a Bull fight here in Sevilla last Sunday. I certainly have never seen anything like it before. Has anyone been to see one in Mexico or Spain? It really is a spectacle but also it is very cruel. If you are totally against cruelty to animals (which ofcourse I am), I suggest that you stop reading here (if you actually managed to get this far!). Now, most of us have seen the fairy-tale versions of bull fights in cartoons growing up, you know, where the matador waves around the "muleta" (the red cloth on a stick) with much artistry for the bull to charge at. It wasn´t until I was firmly in my seat that I realised that we were going to watch the animals die a slow, cruel and painful death. At the beginning, the bull rages out into the arena attacking all the torreros (matadors) in every direction who run behind the wall of the arena to get away from it. The main guy enters the arena taunts the bull with his evasive manouvres using a "capote" (a larger rug which is purple and yellow). Suddenly a trumpet blows and two men on horses (both man and horse are fully amoured) called "picadores" come in and the men proceed to stab the bull with long spears or lances. After this, the matador taunts it some more and then 3 men (banderilleros) with 2 hooks each (banderillas), come in, run towards the bull, jump and stab it in the back with the banderillas, at the same time avoiding the onrushing bull and running for safety before it gets them. By this time, the bull has become very weak, and after the matador taunts it´s some more this time with the muleta to show his masterity and dominance over the bull, and takes applause from the crowd, he gets a sharp spear and runs it through the bull, like the final nail in it´s coffin. Once the bull falls to it´s knees, another guy takes a knife and stabs it in the neck to ensure it´s death. Finally a chariot comes in, they attach the bull to the end of the chariot and they drag it away "in disgrace", it appears.

In each Corrida (bull fight), three toreros or matadors kill six bulls like this in just over two hours. The American girls with us left after the first bull was killed, the rest of us left after three bulls had been killed. I really did think it was inhumane but by the third one I had gotten quite desensitised and could have watched the whole thing (call it the male hunter/killer genes in me). What was most interesting was the first matador actually got lifted by the horns of the first bull, and seemingly to salvage his honour, he still got up limping to continue the fight. Crazy, cause me I for just pick race comot. All of us there actually felt strangely glad that the matador got a taste of his own medicine....have you seen anything like this? And killing chickens in your backyard for easter or your Christmas goat in Naija doesn´t count....I´ll leave you with an little urban legend from my school here in Sevilla. They once had a Japanese student who came to study Spanish here and he decided to become a torero. It would have sounded like a money spinner at the time, after all, those guys can make upwards of 50,000 euros each corrida, and there would probably have been a big market to see the first ever Japanese torero. Sadly, the story doesn´t end nicely, the poor guy ended up getting paralysed from the neck down or something like that! And it´s not a myth either, apparently it really happened, and not too long ago either...I guess the lesson learnt here was way too costly for him - in his twenties he tried to become a torero when those guys actually start from the age of 10 and actually hit their prime at 20.

Okay, this was a pretty long one, but I really hope it was worth it, I think I´ve been here way over a couple of hours, just got carried away typing! Oh, and I´ve proof read the whole thing and it´s safe to read, I promise! Well, if you´ve come this far, you would know that already! All the best people, and hopefully the next time you hear from me, it will be from the South of France!

Bienvenido a Sevilla! (Welcome to Seville) Part I (Originally posted 27 May 2005)

Hi Guys and Gals, I am Sevilla right now, I´ve been here for 2 weeks (with 2 weeks left) and wow has it been eventful. I´m really going to have to try and keep it short cos the last time some guys complained that it was too long.

When I landed in Sevilla, I kept wondering why I had chosen to come here cos I wasn´t at all excited about it - in fact I wasn´t looking forward to going. One my way to my new home in the taxi from the airport, I kept thinking that I shld have gone to Barcelona instead. On arrival, it didn´t help that after dinner the first thing I saw when I switched on the tv was the scenes of celebrations all over Barcelona - their football team had just won the La Liga. That night (and I think the night after too), I dreamt of Barcelona.

So obviously, w/o doubt, I had to make do with Sevilla, and get used to being here. A friend had highly recommended the school here and the city so it couldn´t be that bad right? Well, I have to say that Sevilla has pleasantly surprised me so far. I have run out of things to do after 2 weeks, but if I was a sight-seer by nature, I would still have a lot to see in the next 2 weeks. Since I´m not, I can concentrate more on my Spanish, in theory at least.

So I got placed with another single woman, and I was a bit wary and worried, judging from my experience with Pilar in Valencia (where some of u suggested that she fancied me and Barbara suggested that I fancied her - the first idea, being highly possible, the latter, well, simply laughable, not a suggestion that I am willing to even entertain. But I digress, I won´t bore u with the details of that!). But Concepcion (Concha), was a very elderly lady, very nice, infact the nicest person I´ve had the pleasure of staying with. Unfortunately, my stay in her home was very short-lived. The very first night I got there, I couldn´t eat her food! The next morning at breakfast, I was still trying to get comfortable with my surroundings and the food until I opened the jam and.....there was a film of mould covering the whole surface of the jam, it had to have been like that for weeks! She apologised ever so sincerely, but the damage was already done. For that whole week, I couldn´t eat her food, a combination of not liking and an psychologically not trusting it. She tried everything she could to accomodate my taste, and she also kept saying "Si no comes, te va a morir!" (if u don´t eat you´re going to die, and then she would add a story about the civil war in Spain in 1936 and how meals are really big in Spain now cos they didn´t wanted the kids to starve). Given the fact that I wanted to (needed to) hang out more with other students than I did in Valencia, I decided to go change to a self-catering residence.

It was really hard leaving Concha´s house, because she was too nice. She was never offended that I didn´t finish my food (Maria Carmen & Pilar would both go into fits if I didn´t use my bread to scrape my plate clean - in Spain a sign that you liked the food), she wanted to do everything for me (make my bed, wash and iron my clothes etc) and she would tell me stories that would literally bring a tear to my eyes. She was showed me pictures from her wedding day (....in 1948!), and told me how her husband died some 2 decades ago, and also how all her six siblings have passed away except one. It helped me put into perspective my self-imposed loneliness - for someone her age (I worked out that she was about 77) life & loneliness go hand in hand, when everyone you know and love are gone. Hmm, I have to make sure I go to Nigeria this xmas so visit my own grandma I haven´t seen in a good few years now.....Concha´s son also had a room in the house and at the age of 50 or more, the dude still doesn´t know how to iron his own clothes! What will he do when she´s gone? My other problem was I that I wasn´t confortable with the idea of a lady as old and meek as her tending to my every need. She was almost horrified when I explained that from the age of ten in boarding school, I was washing my clothes by hand, ironing them and even cutting grass with cutlasses. When I told her on the wednesday that I´d be moving that weekend she was almost devastated. She was so worried that the school would think that she maltreated me and that they wouldn´t send her anymore students, which for her is a much needed form of income (and I guess company too). For the last couple of days she kept saying "No te vayas" (don´t go), "No me dejes" (don´t leave me) and "Voy a llorar" (I´m going to cry). She even told me that I reminded her of this black Spanish Saint (can´t remember his name now) and that she was me as him because we had the same skin colour. It was really tough leaving, but I had to do it.....since then, I´ve been able to hang with other students, go and come home whenever I like. It means I´m spending a lot more on food and I ´ve had to do my own grocery shopping, but hey, I figured it´s just for three weeks right! Wow, one week down and still one to go! And I haven´t even told you yet about the great night life in Sevilla (lots of current r´n´b & hip hop if u know where to go), our trip to the Rock of Gibraltar, which is a British colony that I almost wasn´t let into (or out of) with my green passport and the legendary Bull-fighting (which however inhumane it is, is quite a unique spectacle) that I went to see this week! But because I promised to keep it short (well, relatively!), I´ll stop here and pick things up from here next week! I could write more cos what you´ve read is so far is merely a prologue of my experiences in Sevilla, the boring part. Have a good weekend yáll, and I´ll see you next week with hopefully more interesting tales!

Spanish Diaries Part III - The Honeymoon is Over! (Originally posted on 27 April 2005)

Well, it´s coming up to 2 months that I´ve been in Spain and I would say the honeymoon is well and truly over, the novelty has worn thin and the bubble has well and truly burst! I had to summon up much effort to fill my journal entry for this month, cos as you might has guessed the initial novelty of being over here has reduced to the mundane routine of everyday life. But since I´m coming to the end of my time in Valencia, I´ve decided to sum up the strength to recount my experiences in the last month or so.....

Easter was so crazy! 3 days in Roma and then 3 days in Barcelona were pretty amazing, but pretty expensive too! I don´t think I´ve every travelled like that before. To get to Rome, I had to travel 3 hours by train to Barcelona, catch a cab in Barca to the bus stop cos I had only half an hour to catch the last bus that would take me to Girona airport that day which was one hour away! Let´s just say that I was very lucky. There was ten of us in Rome staying in 2 different youth hostels - a certain lady arrived without realising she was staying in a "mixed dormitory"! Boy did we have fun though. Seeing the coloseum and the other sights, being led around by lying, money hungry tour guides called "Stefan". Unfortunately we were unable to see the late Pope before he died (RIP). We went to the colloseum on Good Friday so u can imagine how long the queue was. I even managed to catch up with an old high school friend from Nigeria who lives in Rome now. Boy can that girl cook! Saturday, my bro and I flew back to Barcelona while everyone else returned to London. Barcelona has got to be my favourite city right now. Beautifully arranged exotic trees, the beach, Park Guell, La Sagrada Familia, all the Gaudi architecture...it´s a must see. The clubs weren´t bad either! Jamboree in particular (in Placa Reial) played the best r´n´b´& hip hop music light years ahead of London too. They have some crazy live Jazz and Hip Hop bands too. I think I´ll have to buy a retirement home in Barcelona....Needless to say, more money was spent that week than the whole two months I´ve been in Spain!

Anyway, enough about my easter holidays! I know, this is meant to be about my time in Valencia, not my holidays. Well, in the month since Easter, not very much has happened over here. In the past month, I´ve studied really hard, I´ve moved up in class another level to intermediate Spanish, played some football with friends, enjoyed Chelsea reaching the CL semi-finals and all but winning the Premiership in my abscence.....you know routine everyday stuff that you guys are all doing too. What´s more, I´ve had to exercise mad crazy maturity and patience with my hostess, who if u recall I told you was very nice and sweet, but unfortunately is a roller-coaster of emotions. No, more like and earthquake of emotions. She´s been very grumpy about everything lately, she can be impatient, rude, sarcastic and so on. Always trying to blame me for anything that happens in her house and quite frankly isn´t grateful enough that she has such a tranquil and mild-mannered guest as myself! I´m only tolerating her cos her food is great (LOL). Okay, enough of the rant about that.

I think I´ve been to church twice here in the past month, though the last couple of times I decided to have church in my room after the experience I had at the Redeemed (RCCG) church here. I had been back to the other church I visited (Four Squares) which was perfectly fine, but I decided I must try Redeemed since that´s my church in London (Jesus House) and I love that one so much. Let´s just say, the trip reminded me of all the reasons why so many young peeps don't like to go to church in Nigeria. Even though the sermon was only 30 minutes long, they kept me there for like 5 hours! It was 6pm b4 I left that place! It started with like an hour and a half of praise and worship, but when I thought it would be over after the sermon at 3.30pm they proceeded to announcements, church building fund offerings, baby dedications for the next like 2 hours.

Indeed the baby dedication (only 1 oh!) took like one hour, you know how Naijas know how to extend church. The worst was yet to come - when they asked first-timers to stand up, like 30 people came to shake my hand within seconds. However, when I went for the new members reception, no one came to talk to us. Only one pastor came to preach to us for like 10 minutes (I really hate it when peeps start preaching to you without even asking you anything about urself to see whether it's in context or not). So there I was, hungry, tired and having many other things to do. The guy offered us a can of coke each and biscuits as if it was a banquet - meanwhile the guy who dedicated his baby had provided jollof rice for the whole church. The guy preaching to us had time to stop and ask someone passing where his own rice was, and put it one the table in front of us, b4 continuing his mini-sermon. Dude did not even have the courtesy to offer us some rice also. As I was leaving, (which I probably should have done 2 hours b4), I said no thanks to the biscuits, and that I needed to get a proper meal. Even then, he didn't have the courtesy to offer! I ended up having to walk half the way home and had "lunch" at 7pm, after in my opinion, kinda wasting my whole day...

So anyway, since then, I´ve been having church solo! Using some messages on CD which I hadn´t listened to yet. Fola, you need to hook me up with some more Jesus HOuse messages and also that John Stoddard CD! Never mind, I´ll sort myself out when next I get back to London. Other than that, there isn´t very much more to say! I´ll be moving unto Seville in a couple of weeks, leaving Valencia, the fond memories I´ve had here and some really cool people behind. It´s a shame I have to be moving on just when I feel I´m making serious progress in the Spanish thing. Yeah, I´m really enjoying watching lots of movies and cartoons in Spanish. I saw "Tienes un email" (you´ve got mail) in Spanish and enjoyed it very much and even got most of the jokes even though I had never seen it in English (and probably never would have). Yeah, getting jokes in Spanish is hilarious even if it´s dry cos half your delirium is that you actually understood the joke! I even bought the box set of "Alias" the other day and started watching it in Spanish (anyone who watches that show will know that they almost talk too fast in English!).

Ohh, look at the time! I must be off, cos Chelsea is about to give Liverpool another ass-whopping in the Champion´s League and I gotta see that! What´s more, I´m about to be very late for dinner and me thinks Pilar won´t be too pleased! Take care, God bless and if anybody wants to call my lonely soul while I´m out here in Spain, my number is 0034-677-044-759. If you call, I know you´ve made it to the end of the amazingly long journal!

Spanish Diaries Part II (Originally posted on 16th March 2005)

¡Ola chicos y chicas! ¿Como estais? ¿muy bien, mas o menos? Ahora, el clima en Valencia es muy bien, no como Londres! Ademas, he aprendido mucho español en una semana!

I will stop the Spanish there, since I know most of you don´t know any Spanish (yet). Due to popular demand, my Spanish journal for my return to Valencia is back! I´ve decided to drop the Spanish books for a while and take a few minutes out of my very busy schedule to let you guys know how I am doing. Okay, I know y'all are probably much busier than me so I´d be glad if you did read it.

Those of you who read my last entry will know that I was back in London for 2 weeks at the back end of February. I must say that I was in for a real shocker because of the weather and I was ill pretty much the whole time I was back. I know few of you saw me around that time and wondered why you had to send me off with a party if I was still in London. Don´t worry, I haven´t been deported (yet), but I did come back to get a long term visa. As it happens, I actually need two visas (one for Spain and one for France) so unfortunately you may be seeing my face again soon. If there is anything that this experience has taught me after spending mucho dinero (including all the flights back and forth) trying to get my visas is that I NEED TO HAVE A RED PASSPORT! Or at least marry someone that has one.....my treatment at the Spanish embassy was shocking to say the least - but that is a whole other story entirely.

So I returned to Valencia on sunday the 6th of March, having finally decided after many changes, that I will be here for 10 weeks. From the 14th of May, I will be in Seville for a month doing a business spanish course (if I can reach a high intermediate level by then) and on the 12th of June, I am going to Nice to learn French for 8 weeks. Those who have known me for a long time will know that this would be the realisation of a life long dream, given that I was born in Paris (ok but Paris is too expensive!). This is all given ofcourse that my second visa comes through soon.

As you may recall, I had muchos problemas with my last host family, so having asked the school for a change, I arrived at my new home that sunday at about 5pm. Enter Pilar Crespo Sales. I was greeted by a very grumpy youngish lady who had been expecting me the day before (the school told her I was arriving on saturday not sunday). Let´s just say she wasn´t very pleased to see me. Luckily for me, she could actually speak English as well as Spanish, so those initial moments were made a bit less difficult by the fact that I could actually understand what she was saying. By dinnertime, my initial concerns had evaporated as I quickly found that Pilar is a very nice and fun-loving woman. She lives alone and at the moment, she has myself and Florence, a 24yr old french student living here for the next three months or so. And, so far it´s been a lot of fun!

Mealtimes are flexible, Pilar is very cool about everything - ofcourse she does have her rules too but I´m making sure that I adhere to them. The other day, when we got home Pilar was playing some nice Bilboan music and the three of us were dancing round the dinner table. I did however learn very quickly that asking a woman her age, is considered rude in whichever country you are in, and whichever language you ask the question in! That said, if you were to ask me, I´d guess she´s in her later thirties/early forties. Why she isn´t married or doesn´t have any kids is anybody´s guess, I don´t think I´ll be asking her anytime soon. Actually, come to think of it, I don´t even know what her day job is. Then again, I think I´ve asked enough intrusive questions for one week, I´ll save that one for later.

Did I mention that the food in Spain is very good? In Valencia especially it is probably any black man´s dream? You can eat chicken and rice everyday if you want to....okay so their food isn´t as hot as say Nigerian or Mexican food, and when I say rice, I actually mean "Paella", which is a dish which is very typical of this region in Spain. It´s really like gold at the end of a rainbow over here - at the school´s restaurante, for 5 euros, I have 2 courses, a canned drink, desert and bread every day for lunch. Most days, I have one plate of chicken and chips and one plate of "Paella Valenciana". You should have seen my excitement when I realised how much I could eat for 5 euros. The food at home isn´t bad either - Pilar "feeds" us very well and whenever I don´t like her food she doesn´t take it personally (unlike Maria Carmen Vidal who would literally make me scrape my plate and ask me questions like "didn´t your mother make you vegetables, potatoes etc when you were young" - in Spanish ofcourse). I haven´t eaten this well since I left my mother´s house! (love you mum! can I come back and live with you when I get back?) Kai, I think I really need to learn how to cook so I can start eating right when I move back to London....

If you ever come to Valencia, you must visit this Mediterranean buffet called Neco - all you can eat for 12 euros or so. When I went there with my ex-housemate Rachel, let´s just say that the art of buffet eating nearly overwhelmed us totally. Definitely better than most Chinese buffets I´ve been to....Anyway enough about the food over here. In fact that´s the last you´ll here from me on that subject. I´ve not done much in the past week and a half except study. When I´m not in class (5 hours a day) I´m in the library (3 hours a day) studying or doing homework so by the time I get home they day is practically over and I usually go to bed straight after dinner. This week is a big festival in Valencia called "Las Fallas" but such is my lack of interest in partying that I still don´t know it´s significance. I´m beginning to leave other students in my class behind and it looks like I will be changing class next week so that I can take a class to move unto the next level. Even on saturday and sunday I mostly stayed in to study.

Whoa, this seems to be quite long now so I should wrap up, well done for getting this far - I know I wouldn´t have! Such is the length of this journal that you shouldn´t really expect another one for at least a month (except by popular demand ofcourse!). I look forward to seeing few of you in Rome (& Barcelona) for Easter! To the rest of you, you´re free to visit whenever you want, cos I hate to say it, but I´m already missing you guys! I guess that´s obvious, otherwise I probably wouldn´t have spent the past hour and a half typing this! I feel like I´ve been gone for an eternity after only a week and a half more in Spain. I wonder how I will feel after 4 months?

Take Care all, God be with you, and I look forward to updating you on my progress at some other time in the future. ¡Adios! ¡Hasta Luego!

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Spanish Leaving Party! (originally posted 14th February 2005)

Hey guys!

I just wanted to say a big big thank you to everyone who made it for my party aweek ago on saturday! It was really the best way to say goodbye to London for 6months! It was really cool seeing you all there, my only regret was that therejust wasn´t enough time to catch up with everyone like there should have been. I didn´t get to bed till 6am and I still had to drive to the airport that morning! Anyway, for those in the know (now you all are), I´ll be back in London this saturday for two weeks to get my student visa for my remaining 5 months inSpain/France. If you want to know exactly where I´ll be when just let me know!For now I will leave you with a brief(ish) one week update of my time inValencia so far!

So far, I´ve found Valencia a bit less exciting than Barcelona but I think also reality sank in after a few days when I realised that I am actually going to have to make a serious effort to achieve my goals in Spanish. Anyway, I haven´t been out much, simply because I don´t think I have been feeling so excited about it. Also very unfortunately, I picked up Football Manager 2005 on thursday night and couldn´t put it down till sunday morning. Let´s just say that I´m going to have to get rid of that game when I get back if I want to progress in Spanish like I want to (unless I play it in Spanish? hmm that´s an idea). My housemate called Rachel is there for 2 months and then going to Bolivia for 4 months to look after little kids. She wants to do nursing at Manchester Uni. She´s pretty cool and we hung out on saturday, going on the bus turistic among other things.We´re staying with a Spanish host family which is a cool experience. It´s better if you want to learn quicker because if you stay with other int´l students you´ll only be speaking Spanish for the 4 hours you´re in class, english the rest of the time, plus I get fed 2ce a day and my laundry is done for me - you can´t ask for much more really. The family is ok, although I keep getting told off by the mother - if it´s not leaving my heating on all night, it´s leaving my computer on all day, or not tidying my room, or not closing the fridge door 2 seconds after I open it. And she is a bit impatient when I don´t understand what she´s saying. Can you believe the first night 4 AS level kids from Hertfordshire had dinner with us (they´re here for 1week) one of them actually asked me if I get bullied here! But it´s all good, I actually had a 10 minute conversation with her in Spanish last night so at least I´m making some progress. And as Rachel alluded to Maria Carmen Vidal is running a nice little money making scheme for herself (she always has students in and out of there that´s why she must ! be making some nice cash out of it). She has 3 kids too who I can´t really say much too and I only ever see the husband at the dinner table.

Y´day I went to one Naija church like that in Valencia called 4 Squares. I´d say just over 50 Africans/Ecuadorians go there. Can you believe I was there for 4 hours from 11am?! It was like being back in Naija sha, all the mamas blastingyoruba & igbo etc. What I quickly discovered is that they have bible study first and the service doesn´t actually start till like 1pm, and that´s when most people start arriving. And I thought the delivery of the message in the bible study was rather "interesting" - it was about the evil sin of covetousness. By the time the actual service had started I had swtiched off, but I did enjoy the praise and worship sha (except for the igbo & yoruba songs I didn´t understand). Anyway you can guess what time I´ll be going next week (oops, I mean in amonth´s time when I return to Valencia). Meanwhile I need to find out if Redeemed has a branch in Valencia as one of the three Naijas (Nigerians) I met on campus studying at MUST (Mediterranean University! of Science & Technology) - Henry - says that he heard that there is. I also met one Kola Babaniyi who went to KC (99 set I think) and Jideobi who went toFGC Enugu.

The only other thing of interest I´ve been doing is my Spanish Audio diary every night, which I felt could get a bit boring after a while, although I must say friday night´s was a classic! If you want to hear it when I get back just ask and I might send some of the files to you! ;) When I return here in 3 weeks time from London I will have to maybe start a video diary. I do have my camcorder here but somehow managed to leave the mains plug at home after the party. Fola, please secure that thing for me ohh! Muntaqa, I hope you still have my camera cos I dey come find am ohh! (plus that film). Femi and Tolu, I hope you don find my address book wey get 200 phone numbers (naija & uk - spanning the last 12months) for inside am - I´m getting desperate ohh! Anyway, that´s it for now. See you guys when I get back on Saturday (19th ofFebruary). My plane is landing in Stansted at 9pm sharp. Anyone fancy a trip down (or up) to Stanted? (pls I´m only talking to those that have a ride). What´s going on Saturday night? Any parties? How about Zen or Touch? Holla!