Breaking in those hiking boots

It seems like all of my posts are going to start with "It's a beautiful day in Andorra" because I  haven't had a bad yet {knock on wood}... So... it was a beautiful day in Andorra today :) and I went on a hike today to break in my hiking boots. During my trek I realized some things:

First I realized that I am out  of shape, haha. You didn't see that one coming :) I also began to understand why Andorrans are, consistently, among the top 3 longest live expectancies in the world. 

I also realized that hiking + horrible sense of direction = problem. So as I was hiking up (and in circles? how are those two things simultaneously possible??) I decided I have two options to avoid major dilemmas and search parties... 1. Buy chalk to mark my trail  OR  2. Get a dog.
I contemplated the decision on the way down the mountain and as soon as I got down to town I walked to the pet shop and bought a dog.

Just kidding. Haha, gotcha.
I'm not saying it's not in my future though :) It seems like everyone has a dog here in Andorra and they are acceptable in all locations--hotels, restaurants, cafes, bring 'em in! I even sat next to a bunny today at a coffee shop in La Massana. And as helpful as chalk will be, what will I do in the winter when there's snow and no clear rock to write on? Will chalk be able to keep me warm in the winter? Can chalk warn me of someone coming into my apartment? Nope. Just saying.
I hear my parents in my head and, yes, I do realize the obvious flip side-- chalk doesn't need to be given a tranquilizer and put on a plane to get back to the States, nor do I need to feed it or clean up after it. Pros and cons.

But back to my hiking epiphanies, about half way through my hike (and possibly why it was the reason it was half way and not a quarter of the way through) I realized that as much  as I want to love nature I am a city girl by birth and when I am left totally alone  with nature it scares the crap out of me. Anything that brushed me was a possible spider trying to spin me into a tangled web of beady eyes and disaster, a bush shaking was really a pack of the wolves that migrate through Andorra, let's just suffice it to say my imagination was ridiculous. But today I learned about how ignorance can lead to fear. I don't know these paths, these woods, these mountains, this country that I am in and that can either immobilize my ability to learn by stopping me in my path and forcing me to turn around, or it can entice me to climb a little farther to make the unknown known and the uncomfortable comfortable.
I saw this metaphor in action later this afternoon when I was at that coffee shop in La Massana next to the bunny. It's interesting what happens when you are an obvious foreigner in a country, I realized this more so when I was in the Dominican Republic and the only blonde for miles, but it kind of tends to make people uncomfortable because they don't exactly know what to expect from you. Tack onto that traveling alone and people are doubly uncomfortable because not only do they not know where you've come from, what languages you speak, and what you want, but they don't have a clue of why you are there because who goes on vacation to a Monte Plata or Andorra by themselves? It's that fear of the unknown and often times it's immbolizing. I have had a lot of thirty second conversations here in Andorra these last couple days becuase of this uncomfortableness...
stranger--Hola, que quiere? me--Un cafe con leche por favor. --Vale... --Gracias.Cuanto cuesta? --Dos. --Vale... --Gracias. 
Kind of boring. Did get coffee, but that's about all.
But today as I was paying for my coffee in La Massana the woman asked me, what are you (an American girl) doing here? I told her that I was going to be teaching in Ordino. And instead of a thirty second conversation with nothing but coffee we talked for 5 minutes about her kids (one of whom will probably be in one of my  classes), America (they roadtripped  from Boston to Florida last summer stopping in like 6 big cities along the way!), and the Catalan language. She told me not to worry about Catalan, that I would pick it up and be fine. And as I left she said she looked forward to seeing me again at parent-teacher conferences :)

Moral of the story of my day today is we all need to do more hiking in life. Instead of stopping at the first ridge, climb to the second. You never know, you might find the perfect picnic stop there :)

A perfect picnic spot :)

Hope you all are doing well! Thanks for reading!

Here's a little "Where's Waldo" for all y'all interested  :) But instead it's "Where's Caldea Spa" and unfortunately it's not painted in red and white stripes to make it easy. Sorry! 

Can you find this in the next two pictures? (Hint: The pictures are being taken from the mountains in the background)

Closer

Farther!

Fairytale Andorra

It is a beautiful day here in Andorra. There’s a light breeze and the perfect amount of cloud coverage to see the sun but not be baked by it. Today is also a beautiful day because I finally saw the side of Andorra that I expected to find in the beginning...
With a population of roughly 85,000 in seven different parishes I expected the towns of Andorra to be quaint, quiet, small towns where people are slower because they’re just enjoying the beauty around them. I was shocked to find that I was very wrong and that Andorra la Vella (the capital where I am currently staying-ish) is a pretty loud, congested city filled to the brink with shopping malls, restaurants, and tons of people. Now I will admit that the hotel I’m staying at is right near the center of all the action and there are places in Andorra la Vella and the neighboring town Escaldes-Engordany that are more peaceful and less congested. But overall I would describe the city as bustling.
And I must admit, it’s not my favorite. This is most likely a personal problem :) frustration at the city as a result of my horrible sense of directions (thanks Mom), gluten intolerance (which makes eating at the many many restaurants quite complicated), or maybe I’ve been away from the Chicago big city too much and gotten used to Texas small towns more…whatever it is I was feeling a bit disappointed that my vision of Andorra was so wrong.

But then I went to Ordino. As I road the bus this morning up through the mountains to Ordino  it was like the fairytale land of Andorra I imagined was crystallizing right before my eyes. From what I experienced Ordino is a beautiful, quiet, small town with gorgeous views and hiking. I walked around for hours and it was so peaceful. It seemed like every balcony had wind chimes that created this sort of serene feeling that you were walking through a sacred place.

The historic district of Ordino

There's downtown Ordino :)

One of the small backroads I walked along for a while. This is the first time I felt the altitude a bit, nothing drastic. Ordino's elevation is 4,259 ft

A tobacco field...interesting things I've learned since arriving: tobacco is the only cash crop grown in Andorra. Tobacco has also been, historically, very important to Andorra. Currently smoking is allowed everywhere, but a law has been passed that will ban smoking inside restaurants starting in December (or so I was told, I haven't double checked those facts so don't quote me on it)

Isn’t it beautiful? I even found the school where I’ll be teaching! I didn’t take a great picture of it, so if you want to see what it looks like check out the lip-dub the school made. It takes you on a tour of the whole building (choreographed to the song “I will survive”! How can you not love that?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNH7ja4aHjw

I am so excited to teach in Ordino, I also am joining the Tennis Club via the International Club of Andorra and we play in Ordino once a week. So I can’t wait to spend a lot of time in this beauitul town. I’m actually even thinking of looking for an apartment there and getting to know the quieter side of Andorra. We shall see! I’ll keep you updated :)

¡Hasta pronto!

Living in a crown of mountains

Today after I checked into the hotel and got settled I decided to walk around the city for a bit and find a place to eat. The wonderful concierges at Ahotel Princep gave me two maps and recommended a restaurant for me to try--Pecats (which is "pecados" in Spanish haha, directly translated into English as sins but in this context more playful like food so good it must be bad, you know). Anyway moral of the story is this post is not  to give you a review of Pecats because I never made it there.
I got lost. I was the most lost I have ever been in my life. After a few turns and windy roads I had no idea where I was or where I was headed for the last hour of my two hour excursion...which ended up being a bad combination for not having eaten or slept in the last 24 hours.
But thankfully my fashion sense was able to lead me. I had maps but no streets have name signs on them so they were useless so I turned to the one thing that never fails. Good shoes. At the end I was picking left or right by remembering what clothes/shoes had sparked my attention haha. But actually it really is just a miracle I found the hotel in the end.
This journey was definitely worth it though because I got to see some beautiful views of Andorra and found a great running route for tomorrow along the river! So here's some pictures to help you fall in love with Andorra! And come visit :) 

Couldn't have asked for better weather on my first day

A good running/walking/biking path I stumbled upon

Need architectural creativity to try and make the building look like it fits into the mountain behind it

Happy in Andorra!

Made it!

Made it to Andorra! Hooray! Safe, sound, and sleepy haha, I slept zero on the plane because there were just so many good movie choices! Now I´m off to explore the town (after first trying to explore this keyboard to find all the right symbols haha). I´m sure there will be pictures posted soon because Andorra la Vella is surrounded by beautiful mountains. Hope you all are doing well!

Two week countdown!

Two weeks from today I will be landing in Barcelona on my way to a year-long adventure teaching English in the small country of Andorra! 

I've had people ask how to best keep up with me while I'm gone and since plane tickets are expensive and the mail system in Andorra seems complicated I decided a blog would be the best, easiest, cheapest way! So enjoy!