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Hola, soy guiri!

Thanks for visiting my blog! I’m Josh, a twenty-something (which clearly means 25 or over) English Teacher/freelance writer carving a living out of the economically floundering melting pot that is Spain. I adore travel, but I’m not one for skipping through countries just to tick them off my ‘been there’ list. Instead, I do my best to immerse myself within a culture in order to truly understand it. I am also, conveniently, obsessed with learning languages, though as things stand I can only speak one other: Spanish (duh!). I knew very little of the language before coming here in September 2010, and initially the process of settling in proved very difficult. Despite this, here I remain, and my fondness for this troubled country only grows with each passing day.

Hiking in the mountains near Jerez de la Frontera

A Brief Background

Learning another language had long since been a goal of mine before my coming here- though I could never really see the value of learning one while I lived in a country with a different native tongue. Then, following my graduation from The University of Sheffield in 2008, a 4-week intensive TEFL course, nine months in Canada, a brief back-packing stint in South America and another year in Sheffield, I finally had my ‘now or never’ moment. So, off I went and here I am, speaking Spanish on a daily basis, and beginning to feel that I am rather good at it to be honest. My first nine months here were spent in El Puerto de Santa María, near Cadiz, where understanding the locals was futile. A mid-year visit to Granada sparked a pungent interest and unyielding determination to live there, and six months later that’s exactly what I was doing. Since then, I simply haven’t looked back.

Standing in front of La Puerta del puente romano, Córdoba

The Blog

I had flirted with the idea of having my own blog for quite some time. Though It wasn’t until October of this year that I actually decided to give it a go. Glad I did; it’s great fun, and it has consumed me completely! I feel that Spain is a country misinterpreted by many, and I simply want to bring some of its quirks, charms and treasures to light, in a strictly light-hearted way. So I tend to ignore all that political spiel that you’re probably already sick of hearing about. I generally jabber on about travel, music, sport, language, culture and the general day-to-day life of what it’s like to be an ‘extranjero’, or, as has quite rightly been pointed out below, a ‘guiri’ in Spain. If you’re not already among us, have a nosey round and maybe, just maybe, I’ll convince you to come and see what all the fuss is about. 😉

Assuming the classic tourist pose with The Alhambra lurking in the background