La clase de holandes

Holaa

Last wednesday Aique and Andrea had their first Dutch lesson. Marieke and Roos thought it would be nice to join them and see how they learn their language. 

First we met the teacher, who was the brother-in-law of a music teacher, Klaas van Leeuwen.

He came from the western part of Holland so there was immediately some differences in the use of language between him and Roos and Marieke. 

So Andrea and Aique started with the pronunciation of the different consonants and vowels. 

Aique says: "The first time was difficult, but when hear you it more often you are getting used to the pronunciation. Then we started to learn some words that I can't pronounce, but with the help of Marieke, Roos and Klaas i learned how to pronounce these words, like 'tuin' which means jardin. later i  learned some very usefull sentences, like 'hoe heet jij?' (como te llamas) and 'waar woon jij?' (donde vives). After all i thought dutch is a very difficult language for spanish people, because we have a different way of pronouncing words." 

Marieke thought it was a lot of fun to help Aique and Andrea. She also liked to see how her native language is taught to people who dont know anything of Dutch. 

So everyone liked the Dutch lesson very much and already learned a lot of new things. We are looking forward to the next lesson!

~

El miercoles pasado Aique y Andrea tuvieron su primera clase de holandes. Marieke y Roos creyeron que seria divertido participar en la clase y observar como ellos aprenden su idioma.

Primero nosotros conocimos al profesor, que era el cuñado de la profesora de musica, Klaas Van Leeuwen.

Él procede del oeste de Holanda, por lo que hubo inmediatamente algunas diferencias entre el uso de la lengua de Roos y Marieke y Klaas.

Asi que Andrea y Aique empezaron con la pronunciacion de las diferentes consonantes y vocales.

Aique dijo: "La primera vez fue dificil, pero cuando lo oyes mas a menudo coges mejor la pronunciacion. Despues nosotros empezamos a aprender algunas palabras que no se pueden pronunciar, pero con la ayuda de Marieke,Roos y Klaas yo aprendi como pronunciar estas palabras, como 'tuin' que significa jardin. Despues yo aprendi algunas oraciones muy utiles, como 'hoe heet jij?' (como te llamas) y 'waar woon jij?' (donde vives). Despues de todo esto llegue a la conclusion de que el holandes es un idioma muy dificil para los españoles, porque tenemos otra forma de pronunciar las palabras.

Marieke creyo que fue muy divertido ayudar a Aique y Andrea. Les gusto mirar tambien, como su idioma es aprendido por otras personas, quienes no saben nada de holandes. 

Entonces a nosotros nos gusto mucho la clase de holandes y aprendimos muchas cosas nuevas. Esperamos la proxima clase de holandes.

Aique and Marieke

Aquí estamos después de casi dos meses de convivencia, viendo que en realidad los jóvenes de otros países no se diferencian mucho de nuestros hijos, tienen las mismas inquietudes, los gustos mas o menos iguales, una forma de vida similar a la nuestra, pueden cambiar los horarios, las comidas, etc. pero en el fondo son como cualquier joven español. Al principio pensé que al entrar en tu casa una persona que no conoces de nada y con la que no compartimos ni el idioma ni las costumbres, sería difícil el día a día, pero no fue así, pues con imaginación y poniendo un poco cada uno en la relación, se puede llegar a convivir perfectamente sin ningún problema, mas allá de lo habitual en cualquier hogar que tenga hijos en edad adolescente. A partir de ahora todavía sera más fácil pues Marieke ha aprendido bastante el español y normalmente nos entiende perfectamente en las cosas cotidianas.

So here we are! After about two months living together, we can just confirm that young people from other countries are not that different from our own children. They have more or less the same worries, likes, similar way of life... Perhaps their timetables, meals, etc... are different, but deep inside they are like any Spanish teenager. At first, I thought that everyday life was going to be difficult with a person at home you don’t know and who doesn’t speak your language or doesn’t have the same customs, but it wasn’t like that at all. With imagination and some effort on both sides, you can live happily, just with the normal problems you can find in a house with teenagers. From now on, it’s going to be even easier, as Marieke has learned a lot of Spanish and she can normally understand us perfectly.

Durante este tiempo hemos visitado varios lugares como por ejemplo fuimos a ver los Bufones de Pría, que os recomiendo si aun no los conocéis, y Ribadesella, os adjunto una foto nuestra con Roos y Marieke.

We have visited some places, such as the Bufones de Pría (it is worth a visit if you haven’t been there yet) and Ribadesella (see picture with Roos and Marieke).

También hicimos la ruta de las Xanas, visitamos también la zona de Turón, recorriendo su patrimonio industrial, etc.

Este último fin de semana hemos estado en las Cuevas de Valporquero,  y el fin de semana pasado Aique y Marieke se fueron a Madrid a pasar el fin de semana largo, con la hermana de Aique que vive allí.
We have also been hiking to “La ruta de las Xanas” or visited the industrial area of Turón.
Last weekend we visited “Las cuevas de Valporquero” and the previous one Marieke and Aique spent the “puente” in Madrid, visiting Aique’s sister.

Para despedirme de todos, hoy domingo Marieke nos ha hecho unos creps para comer, os adjunto otra foto.
Today Marieke has prepared some “pannekoeken”. Have a look at the picture!

Publicado por Aurora Martin en 22:54

Madrid

"Fai un cutu que escarabaya el pelleyu"

Aida, the sister of Aique teached me this asturian sentence, since I will use it a lot here, because it’s becoming colder and colder. But not last weekend, because i lived in a house where it was always 25 degrees. It was a warm welcome to Madrid!

We left on wednesdayevening, immediately after dinner, because our plain was leaving at 11 o’ clock. After an hour or so, we landed safely in Madrid. Aida was waiting for us here. I already liked her when I saw her, and the rest of the weekend we had lots of fun together.

After meeting each other we drove to her and her boyfriends apartment in a neighborhood in Madrid. There I met her boyfriend Javi(er) and Fu her cat, whom we had a lot of fun with. He was still very young, so full of energy and I had a great time watching him playing with all kinds of stuff.

The next day we woke up around 11 o’clock and had a typical Spanish breakfast with tostadas and some kind of tomatomixture which you could put on your tostadas. It was very nice so I’m definitely going to make that in Holland as well.

After breakfast we took the bus to the centre of Madrid and stopped at Parque del Retiro. We almost were blown away by a herd of runners which love to do there parcours there. The parque has a surface of 1,4 km2 so it’s big enough for everybody.

We saw Palacio de Cristal, which was very beautiful and I saw the first statue of the ‘devil’ ever. Actually it is a fallen angel which becomes later the devil, but the statue is so remarkable because in Spain, especially in Madrid, de people are very catholic, so why put a statue of the devil there?

The rest of the day we continued our route through Madrid and saw several things:

- Museo del Prado, one of the greatest artmuseums in the world with artists like Velazquez, Goya but also Rembrandt and Rubens.

- A square with two luxe hotels; Palace Hotel and of course the Ritz Hotel.

- Nice statues, like the fountain of  Cibeles (roman goddes), which is the symbol for Madrid and ofcouse famous for the victory of Real Madrid, and Don Quijote on Plaza de Espana, who was the main character in a Spanish novel, written by the famous Miguel de Cervantes.

- Nice Buildings, like the opera building (in the shape of a coffin), the townhall, the bank, Palacio Real and The Cathedral Almudena
- The temple of Debod, an Egyptian monument as a gift from Egypt to Madrid

- Puerta del sol; The central square in Madrid where we ate delicious tapas, the centre of Spain; point ‘zero’ (looking at the highways) and on that square is newyear celebrated guided by the clock Casa de Correos, who tells you when to eat 12 grapes.

I also saw her some strange figures like Hello Kitty en Spongebob, who earlier that week had a fight about there territory. Watch and enjoy:P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IbHDYWeEuY



That night we walked over the Gran Via and saw lots of theaters and cinemas. Then we ate churros con chocolate in San Gines, the first Chocolateria in Madrid.

Finally we walked through the gay neighbourhod Chueca and then took the underground to Aida’ s home.

The next day we went to Parque the Europa, so I got so see al the important monuments of Europe from Spain. The park was new and very big, so we had a nice time there. That evening we went out in Madrid and I had an awesome time in the Club Cats;)

The next day we went to an unique village called Alcala de Hernares. This village posseses the oldest university of Spain and is the birth place of the famous writer Miguel de Cervantes. We visited his old house and an archeological museum. That day was very cold and rainy but we still had a nice time.
In the evening we went home to pack our things and go to the airport.

Around 12 oclock in the evening we arrived again in Asturias. If I look back on it now I had an incredible weekend, where is saw lots of new things, walked a lot and had a lot of fun with Aida, Javi, Aique and Fu.

I enjoyed everything very much.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed my story!

Besos Marieke

Un mes después... /After a month...

... y parece que llegaron ayer. Cuando aún no nos conocíamos de nada más que un par de comentarios por alguna red social y cruzábamos los dedos porque encajásemos tan bien como para convivir seis meses - tres aquí, tres allí -. Aunque sean ellas las primeras en llegar y, por tanto, yo esté jugando en mi propio país, también para mí está siendo una experiencia totalmente nueva.

Después de aquellos nervios mientras esperábamos en el aeropuerto, la primera imagen que tengo es de la sonrisa de las chicas mientras asomaban la cabeza y nos reconocían y nos daban dos besos tímidamente, empezando ya con las costumbres españolas. Más tarde nos recordarían que allí se dan la mano, y lo raro que se les hacía que aquí se besase a desconocidos en las mejillas para presentarse. 

Ese primer día lo dedicamos a pasear por Mieres y a intentar guiarlas un poco por los lugares que visitarían más frecuentemente. Hablamos mucho, en inglés, por supuesto. No sabían español y, por descontado, nosotros tampoco holandés. Apenas nos costó arrancar a hablar de las diferencias que se veían a simple vista, como las montañas, el sol, el calor, les llamaban la atención los bloques de pisos por todas partes y que aquí casi no se ven ciclistas por la calle, solo los que están haciendo deporte.

Después llegó la hora de ir a casa, cada una con su familia. A aquellas horas ya estaban muertas de hambre, porque allí cenan en torno a las seis-siete. Durante la cena llegó la hora de comunicarse con la familia entera más en profundidad, lo que conllevó una considerable dosis de traducción (con mis padres y su español puro y duro y mi hermana apoyando con su inglés de vez en cuando) y mi consiguiente dolor de cabeza. Aunque me considero afortunada; Roos aprende deprisa.

El domingo ya fue más tranquilo, con paseos por la playa, descanso y relax, lo justo para preparar el siguiente primer día... el de clase.

---

...  it seems they have arrived yesterday.When we still hadn't exchanged more than a few words in some social network and crossed our fingers hoping we got along well enough to live together for six months - three here and three there. Eventhough they were the first that arrived and I'm playing in my own country, it's also for me a new experience. 

After feeling so nervous while we were waiting at the airport, the first image that comes to my mind is the one of their smiley faces while they recognised us and gave us two shy kisses, already starting with our Spanish habits. Later, they would remind us that there they shake hands, and they would tell us how weird it was for them to kiss unknown people in the cheeks when they met. 

On that first day, we went for a walk through Mieres. We showed them the places they would need to visit frequently. We spoke a lot, in English of course. They didn't know Spanish, and neither we knew Dutch. We soon started talking about some differencies they saw at first sight, such as our mountains, sun, hot weather, blocks everywhere and, of course, that here there aren't many bikes on the streets, if they are not for sport. 

After that, we returned home, each one with her host family. By that time they were starving, because there they have dinner at six or seven in the afternoon. During dinner, we spoke a lot more, so I had to translate a lot, which ended up as a little headache. But I feel lucky, because Roos learns fast.

Sunday was calmer, with some walks on the beach, rest and relax, just what we needed to get ready for another first day... this time at school.

xxxx

Andrea

the flight

Hola amigos!

a lot of luggage haha

Before we’re going to write about all our experiences in Spain, we want to tell you something about how the travelling to Spain was. It’s already been more than a month ago, but still we would like to share this adventure with you.

The day before the big journey began we were sooo nervous! I think I slept for about 3 hours that night. Such a shame the alarm clock already rang at 5 in the morning. Since we live in the east of the Netherlands, we still had to travel for about 2 hours to get to Schiphol airport in Amsterdam.

goodbye mom

Once we came there, everything got on fine. We were there on time and there was luckily not a long queue for the check-in counter. But then there suddenly was a problem with the suitcases. The travelling agency said to us we could bring a total of 56 kilo, but then the lady from the counter suddenly said we could only bring 30 kilo, very weird. First she said we had to lose all the luggage above the 30 kilo, but that was definitely not possible since I was already struggling with the 56 kilo the night before. But thank God, after some phone calls she was prepared to make an exception for us. So luckily we could just bring all our belongings to Spain! After this suitcase disaster it was finally time to say goodbye to our parents, not a nice moment of course, but we just had to go.

up in the air!

After that the real adventure finally began! Our first flight was to Barcelona and the second one from Barcelona to Oviedo. All the flights were fine and in Barcelona we decided to immediately act like real Spaniards, so we ate 2 very big lunches ;)

The arrival was so much fun, I immediately saw everyone standing there with very cute signs saying: ‘Welcome Roos!’ and ‘Welcome Marieke!’. Everyone was very welcoming and so nice to us! The first time I was sitting in the car with my host family felt a bit weird of course, since I never met them before that day. But that awkward feeling disappeared so fast, since they were so nice to me. The ride to Oviedo was very good and I fell in love with all the mountains. The landscape is so different from the Netherlands!

So this is how our big adventure began, continue reading our blog to read about our experiences and differences between Spain and Holland :)

Hasta Luego, 

Roos

arrival :)