EVS in Santiago de Compostela

(Conversations from Flat No 32 1º - Episode 1) “You need to go to Portugal?” “Yeah I have to go to a small village called Vilhariño to pick up my camping things, sleeping bags, tent, stove and a few books.” ”You’ve got stuff in Portugal?  How come?” ”It’s a long story.” ”Can’t you give us a short version?” “Well, I left them there.” From the other side of the room the Brit quips, “That’s the shortest long story I’ve ever heard Ska!” Cheeky bugger.

Yeah, so I copied the name for this blogspot from a great website - compostelacultura.org - which has information about what's happening (culturally speaking) in Santiago.  But today I did have quite a cultural day lol. In the morning I joined the Lenas on an activity they had at the university.  It was half-Spanish half-Russian;  the Spanish part, which I could understand, I found very interesting.  Since I know basically nothing about Ukraine, I learned quite a lot.  I went along as photographer. A few hours later, at the end of ludoteca time, Nuria told me that there was a theatre production she was going to see and did I want to join.  It was free!  We went to the flat to eat and tell the others about the theatre and Lena came along.  Walking to the theatre, one of Nuria´s friends called to see where she was - we were obviously late.  Then we ran through the old city and got just in time. We had seats in the balcony and had an aeria...

Our flat’s oven is a damn busy thing.  Six of us are living on a communal philosophy; we put in €15 each per week and take turns cooking.  It’s working marvellously.  With just €15 a week we eat lunch and dinner daily.  Sweet.  And as we take it in turns to cook this means each cooks an average of twice a week. Having to cook only twice a week it’s easy to be motivated to cook well.  We’re all quite proficient cooks so our meals tend to be rich ones.  Pizza, fish pies, fish soup, lovely pasta, pasta bakes, yummy yum.  And very often the oven gets involved too.  As we love a good dessert every so often one of us prepares some sweeties; scones, cakes, flans, home-made biscuits, you name it.  Occasionally someone treats our small community to some traditional dish or dessert. Recently, as a combined treat to my flatmates and girlfriend (who came for a 3-day visit), I baked figolli.  I don’t expect many people to know what figolli are - they’re a traditional Maltese sweet that is available...

A good few kids at the ludoteca are good at chess; and there’s Antonio who’s a right little wizard.  Spurred by the kids’ chess-savviness we started playing chess at home.  There’s a nice wooden chess set and it’s cruel to leave it abandoned on a shelf in the kitchen/dining room accompanied by magazines and books that no-one reads. I love the game but I never had anyone to play with and I don’t like it enough to practice playing alone.  A good friend back home is too good for either of us to enjoy playing against each other: it’s daunting for me and boring for him.  Charlie’s at a similar level and that makes for enjoyable matches.  Each roughly wins half of the time.  It’s also good to improce Recently we had a running joke about Dobra’s speed at playing chess: she takes ages.  And patient though I am, it’s not enough to keep my concentration for 3 or 4 hours at a single game!  Eva and Dobra started a game one night and eventually they didn’t finish coz they got tired.  So they made a...

Marine Hi everybody! I´m M ar ine, I hail from France, study in Brittany. I sim ply love Spain and I lived for 6 months in Malaga, where I fell in love with Spain. This is the reason I came to this country where I love the Spanish lifestyle, tapas and of course the famous 'jamon serrano.' Ska I'm from a tiny island which we call Malta. My passions are travelling, reading, writing, outdoor activities and things on the 'net such as this blog. I love music, especially music with tribal and African percussions. Charlie I'm an Englishman. I love moving to the groo vy sounds of rap and hip hop. I was a DJ in my country and here I'm involved in a radio pr oject with the youths at the centre. My favourite movie is "La Haine" and I love Fela Kuti's music. David Hi everybody, my name is David; I'm from Normandy and I like rap and smiling. I'm a model for various brands of cheap perfume (such as Lynx and Lidl). I like partying and santiago...