did you get lost in amsterdam?

Just came back from a sunny weekend in Holland! We couldn't have asked for better weather. The weekend was nice. The city is beautiful, and the people are diverse and very friendly! there are literally more bikes than cars and people combined. i saw people eating or talking on their phone while riding and carting aroudn children, musical instruments, multiple friends, and other bikes with their bikes...literally steering a second bike while riding. it was incredible. and the traffic lights are all for bikes.
so we obviously rented some...and rode around. that was definitely the highlight, along with the beautiful canals and flowers. the city was super interesting to wander around and the culture very different from other places in europe. they all speak english, and they have very high immigration.
anyway the other highlight was the van gogh museum. it was really amazing to see so much of his work up close like that!
in other news, kaitlyn was here last week. the weekend was madrid's saints day, San Isidro, so there was a huge party for that! glad she got to see that! we had nice weather and i took her to all the usual sights and we ate lots of tapas...

MALAGA!

Amy and I spent a weekend on the beach in Malaga!! It is a 6 hour bus ride from Madrid, on the costa del sol. To me, the bus is the obvious choice. Its like spending 20 euro for someone to drive you all through the Spanish countryside. Not painful, Fun!

So we arrived via bus, and headed straight for the beach. It was extremely windy our first day, and unpleasant to be out, but the second day was beautiful! We spent the whole day, picnicing, swimming, and enjoying the beach. We didnt go in til about 8pm, and the sun still hadnt set! Our hostel was directly on the beach, so all in all a very relaxing experience! Malaga also has a castle and a huge Andalucian cathedral, but we didnt see much of the city except in passing. It is very typically Southern Spain...mountains, palm trees, huge cathedrals, and tiny streets surrounding the plazas.

lately...

havent put up any pictures for awhile.
here is our hike in casa de campo and then from la pedriza. casa de campo is just some acres in madrid, la pedriza is a national park...you can see the difference! there is also a picture from my bday! i just came home from malaga today, will blog about that soon!

you know you're an English teacher when...

you have dreams about the big problem of explaining the difference between "might" and "may" to a class of students