Roaming Rome

Haha oh yes, what a clever title I thought of. I'm so creative... or something. Anyway, enough self flattery... as the heading suggests, I spent the last week in Rome with my friend Neile (another auxiliar in San Fernando, the town adjacent to Cádiz). We really lucked out because we were invited to stay at a friend of a friend's apartment for the entire week! We had to take a bus to get to the city center (the ride ranged between 35 and 90 minutes, depending on the time of day and intensity of last minute holiday shopping), but waiting through bumper to bumper traffic and enduring constant honking, sirens, and swerving motorcycles was a small price to pay for the generous offer of free lodging and overwhelmingly kind hospitality. Besides, we met many interesting people on buses including a Moroccan who complimented me on how good my English was (he may or may not have thought I was from Spain) as well as an older gentleman who worked as a journalist and had interviewed a variety of high profile figures including James Watson, of Watson and Crick (the two scientists who received credit for discovering the double helix structure of DNA). You never know who you'll meet! Anyway, the apartment itself was quite comfortable and nice, especially in comparison to a hostal, because we had the option to cook some of our own meals and some space just to cozy up and veg out after walking around the city all day.

We spent the first half of the week checking out the normal touristy sight seeing things: the Coliseum, The Roman Forum, The Trevi Fountain, The Pantheon, The Basilica de San Pietro, The Spanish Steps, etc etc. Overall, I generally dismiss large cities as too big, too loud, and too dirty for me, but I have to say I am highly impressed with Rome. I really liked how we could walk a few city blocks, turn the corner, and see ancient ruins pop up seemingly out of no where. It was cool to get to be in a place where the remains of an ancient civilization are so easily visible in a modern urban center. I also liked getting to compare the similarities/differences between Roman ruins and and ruins I have seen from other places like in South and Central America. Two of my favorite touristy places were San Pietro and the Spanish Steps. San Pietro is amazing just because everything about it is so elaborate and huge. I know that could describe the majority of all churches in Europe, but I feel like there's something different about this one. It's elaborate and huge in a tasteful way.... hmm... but that implies that I think all other European churches are untastefully decorated, which isn't true... maybe it's something to do with the colors and the lighting in the interior? We went during the late afternoon, so there were sunbeams shining through the upper windows which added to the overall effect. The statues lining the outside of it are pretty impressive too, make sure you look at the pictures! Anyway, I also liked the Spanish Steps, which we visited after San Pietro. Even though it was swarming with people, something I usually don't like, we got there late in the afternoon and got to watch the sunset from the very top of the steps. We stayed there and watched for a while, as it was quite pretty and there was a lot of people to watch and apartment buildings with cool terraces for us to pretend we were going to purchase someday.

Also, on one of the days, we somewhat spur of the moment took a train to Florence. Great decision. I love Florence. It's a lot smaller than Rome and still has a lot of great places to see... just a really pretty city. Although we didn't have enough time to see and do everything, my favorite place we went was the Duomo. From the outside, it's easily the most attention-drawing place in the city simply given its sheer size. I enjoyed getting to go inside and look around, but what I really liked was getting to climb up the stairs to the top and get to get a close viewing of the intense fresco of the Final Judgment on the ceiling as well as going outside (once you reach the top of the stairs) and get a 360 degree view of the entire city and outlying areas. My pictures of the fresco turned out pretty dark unfortunately so it doesn't look as cool as it really is, but hopefully it gets the idea across. The upper parts are of heaven, but the lower down parts depict some pretty intense images of life in Hell, including people getting poked and prodded with a red-hot tipped stakes in inappropriate places. Yikes!

On Christmas Day, Neile and I were a little disappointed that Santa Claus didn't seem to find us (I don't blame him, we were at some Italian person's apartment in Rome, not at home like we normally are!), but we got over our initial disappointment and got ourselves ready to go back to San Pietro because that is where the Pope was going to speak later on that day. After fueling ourselves with some delicious cappuccino, we made our way to the square where a mass of people was already gathering. We were just kind of being sheep and following the crowd when all of sudden, a woman with a microphone rapidly approached us, with her trusty cameraman closely behind. She asked us some interview question in rapidfire Italian... I think it was regarding something about "il Papa" (the Pope) and the "benedizione" (the blessing), which obviously made sense since that's the event that everyone was gathering in the piazza for... anyway, since I have no knowledge of Italian and I was taken off guard by the reporter's sneak attack, I panicked, made a weird little noise that was supposed to communicate "I know nothing" and pointed to Neile, who speaks just enough Italian to say little phrases like "We don't know Italian" (her response to the reporter's question). This however did nothing to deter the reporter and the she kept on asking poor Neile more questions in Italian as I slowly backed away and scooted out the scene. Eventually we both got away and somehow found ourselves right up near the entrance of the church where a rows of chairs were set up. The seats where only about a third occupied, so we strolled right on up and chose a front-ish and pretty close to center position.... right behind a whole bunch of little boys in matching school uniforms. It turns out that they were all part of a boarding school in Ireland, but came from all sorts of different places, but mostly Latin American countries. They had flags of their country that they waved in the air and displayed with patriotic pride (a group of Venezuelan boys were closest to us... I also saw flags from Mexico, Chile, Argentina, etc...). They were quite silly and rambunctious leading up to the benedizione and quite entertaining to watch. While they spoke English well, they still chatted amongst each other in Spanish. Interestingly, It was actually somewhat comforting to hear Spanish at this point in the trip -- hearing so much of it at once almost made things seem homey!

All of this is only leading up to the blessing, which finally took place at noon after a couple hours of waiting. Pope Benedict XVI appeared on a balcony above the piazza and talked for a bit about how solidarity and international dialogue are important to solving the global social and political issues of today, and then he said Merry Christmas in a whole bunch of different languages. In the end, it was kind of short, but actually pretty cool to go to -- when else in my life am I going to be in Rome on Christmas and get the chance to hear the Pope speak? The rest of Christmas we went back to the apartment and watched Christmas movies dubbed in Italian on the TV and made a dinner of pasta and pesto with cherry tomatoes and mozzarella, yum! It definitely wasn't a typical Christmas, and a little weird not being with the fam, but overall decently satisfying.

Well, I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of for right now, and probably enough for you all to read for right now too!

Oops, I thought I posted the link to the pictures, but I guess I forgot to save it or something... here it is:

New Album 11/24/08 7:44 AM

I love that I'm not a student and I still get a Christmas Break.

December? Really?
Sooo I’m definitely weirded out that it’s the middle of December… how did this happen? There’s only one more week left before until Christmas vacation starts for all the little kiddies (and therefore me too)! Honestly, I’m looking forward to having a break from everything – not that I’m feeling overworked, I think I’m just ready for a change of scene. Fortunately, I have a few weeks of solid vacation, so I have a few travels coming up that should be a lot of fun! I’ll be sure to keep you all posted!

I haven’t been up to too much the last couple of weeks (rain and wind make curling up with a blanket and a book my room too tempting to resist), but here are a couple of highlights:

1) Flamenco show:
The city of Cádiz is pretty good about putting on free entertainment in various fine art forms. Earlier this year there was a theater festival, another week I’m pretty sure there was one for music… anyway, last weekend I went to a low-key flamenco show performed by local groups of gaditanos (the name for people from Cádiz). It was well attended and both groups were quite good, performing a range of flamenco songs traditionally sung during the holiday season. The show-stealer for me though was the little old lady from the audience who simply couldn’t stay in her seat. About halfway through each of the two groups’ performance, she moved to the front of the audience (there was a small open area between the audience seating and the stage) and started dancing like there was no tomorrow. She was clearly enjoying the music and may or may not have been lost in her own little flamenco world. The part I liked best was that she wasn’t gently ushered off to the side and asked to go back to her seat, but instead got invited to come up to the stage and finish up the last number with the whole group!

2) La Granja Escuela:
I got to go on a field trip last Tuesday! WOOOO! We went to a place called La Granja Escuela, a farm dedicated to teaching kids about various outdoor/farm-y activities. The kids got to do many wonderful things such as plant beans in a greenhouse, pick oranges from trees, learn how to bake bread, and even milk a goat! It was really fun to get to spend the day “chaperoning” (aka following groups of 6 and 7 year olds around while a Granja worker taught them everything). Being outside there made me realize just how incredibly much I miss things like trees and grass and dirt and crisp smelling air! Where’s the PNW when I need it most?!? Oh well, as long as it’s still around come summertime, I think I’ll survive. Anyway, back to La Granja. It was really cool and I am very jealous that a Granja Escuela was not part of my elementary school education.

3) The Holidays in general
Tomorrow I’m going to a Christmas cookie baking party! This is a rather festive event for me to participate in (i.e. don’t think I’ve ever been to a party with this theme before), but I’m looking forward to it! It’s been fun/funny trying to round up the correct set of ingredients and supplies (we seriously haven’t found a normal cookie pan to bake them on… hmmm…) and should be a good reason for our group of auxiliares de Cádiz to get together and spend the afternoon together!
Another exciting event is that the city has finally turned on the montón de Christmas lights set up everywhere – on lampposts, buildings, in tree form in some of the plazas… it’s quite the show. They have had the decorations up since around Thanksgiving time, but decided not to turn them on until a couple days ago in order to save money due to the not-so-hot economy (note: electricity is insanely expensive here, so it probably was a smart move on the city’s part…).

Anyway, I can't think of anything else to write about, so that means that’s it for now! Hope you’re all well and busy getting into the holiday spirit!

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Okay, so I’m a bit late, but this way I guess I can be sure that everyone has already got their fair share of turkey, mashed potatoes and pie by now. For my Thanksgiving, I went to a potluck dinner hosted by two other auxiliares who live in Cádiz. It was truly one of the most interesting Thanksgiving dinners I have had, as we packed nearly 20 people into a single apartment; 7-8 Americans and the rest a random collection of various European nationalities: Spanish, French, Czech, Swedish, Icelandic… I could very well be missing a couple. It was really great having so many first-time Thanksgiving-ers around to celebrate – I feel like this holiday is one of the few uniquely American celebrations that is still relatively unknown by people from other countries. We (the Americans) got to introduce some of the foods and explain for why it’s patriotic for Americans to stuff their faces every fourth Thursday in November. For those who are curious, yes we were able to find a turkey, stuffing and most traditional Thanksgiving cuisine, but came up a little bit short as we were missing cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie.

But before I get any further in my entry, I have a confession to make:
Up until now, Thanksgiving has never been a favorite of mine. It has always just seemed like another day where we fulfill the “country-of-gluttons” stereotype by consuming way too much of everything. Oddly enough, despite (or perhaps because of?) the untraditional nature of my Thanksgiving this year, I shed my Scrooge-iness and really enjoyed the beauty of this holiday. It was wonderful to be in a room full of so many people from so many places and different walks of life and still be able to share such a warm, pleasant evening with them. Not surprisingly, not being at home for the holiday made me feel like I was missing out by not being in Tualatin, but it also made me realize that the more grown up everyone becomes, the more often life will get in the way and prevent us from all being in the same place at the same time, making the rare occasions when we are together all the more special.

Also, another “growing-up” realization that has recently dawned on me is the genuine appreciation for the things that I have in my life that are easy to overlook. For example, I really do feel blessed to have a job that I enjoy, that I earn me enough money to pay for rent, food, and even have a little left over to have fun with, that I live with two wonderful Spanish friends who help me improve/laugh at my Spanish, that I have a group of American friends who help keep me sane when I need it most, and last but not least, a wonderful family and group of friends from home who I love and miss!!!

Now that I’ve successfully turned this into the sappiest posting ever, I think I’ll sign off! Besos a todos!

Barcelona... again

Like I said, I went to Barcelona last weekend. It was the first big trip I’ve went on (“big” being defined as “out of Andalucía”), and it definitely set the bar pretty high. As a city, Barcelona is completely different than Cadiz. For one thing, it’s enormous, located in Catalonia (think NE Spain), so both Spanish and Catalán is spoken, not to mention the its obvious cosmopolitan vibe. While I haven’t exactly traveled around Europe enough to feel qualified to make sweeping generalizations about it, I feel like it’s safe to say I got my first (small) taste of a typical big city in Europe. However, despite the appeal of being somewhere completely new and different, the best part about going to Barcelona is that I got to meet up with Lisa, my good friend from UPS! She flew in from Munich where she is currently living and I few in from Seville, so we met up in the airport and took the train to our extremely small and cute bed and breakfast-type place. After eating lunch and designing our itinerary of activities, we went out to explore the city.

Since we only had a few days in the city, we tried to pack in as much activity as possible without making sight seeing become a stressful task rather than an enjoyable experience. If I were to try and sum up the weekend’s events, I would say it was dedicated to appreciation of aesthetics… okay that kind of sounds like we just checked out Spanish guys all weekend. Not true. I mean aesthetics like the crazy architecture everywhere around the city, but especially places like La Familia Sagrada, La Pedrera, El Batlló… okay so maybe we did have a love affair… but don’t worry, it was with the buildings that renowned architect Antoni Gaudí designed and constructed. It’s incredible how perfectly planned everything is down to the smallest detail both in terms of architectural technique as well as building’s aesthetic design. With all of his work, Gaudí incorporates elements of nature – a classic example being the lack traditional straight walls with rigid 90 degree edges. Instead, any potential straight line or sharp angle morphs into a flowing, soft, rounded shape, whether it be a doorframe, stairwell, hallway, etc. This, along with his strategic use of windows and natural light in combination with all kinds of blues and purples make being inside his buildings like being under the sea or really just anywhere that is not inside a building in the middle of an extremely urban center. However, the part I liked best was being on the roofs of these buildings because that is where he went crazy with colorful tile mosaics and turned boring, ugly chimney tops into mysterious, abstract figures and statues. This, plus the fact that you can see all the surrounding Barcelona area makes it easy to spend a long time up on the patio rooftops soaking everything in. You can see examples of how he does this in the pictures that I already posted… I’m sure it would be easier for you just to look at them and see rather than to have me keep trying to explain things.

But where was I? Oh yes, the appreciation of aesthetics. In addition to drooling over Gaudí’s genius, we enjoyed walking along the Rambla del Mar (the sidewalk along the water), winding around the paths of Parc Guell, gawking at art in the Museu Picasso, exploring the Barri Gotic (the Gothic neighborhood), and wandering up and down another main largely pedestrian thoroughfare known just as “La Rambla”. Here we saw many interesting things: an outdoor market, people in costumes acting like statues (I got yelled at by the green goblin-esque man I tried to take a picture of… I was terrified of all costumed/facepainted individuals from that point on), stands that sold magazines and candy, some that sold houseplants and flowers, and others that sold animals (the pet variety, not for consumption) like fish, birds and hamsters. Needless to say, there was a lot to take in and we certainly didn’t do it all in one weekend, but I’m not opposed to a return visit…

Barcelona

Just thought I'd post some pics from my weekend in Barcelona -- I'll write some about it soon, but for now I'm still playing catch up from being gone all weekend, so in-depth storytelling will have to wait. A really brief summary of the weekend: it was beyond wonderful getting to see my good friend Lisa (10 months is way too long), and even more amazing that we got to take ourselves on a whirlwind tour of one Spain's most well-known cities. We got to see lots of cool architecture, eat some good food and walk all over the city soaking in all the sights and sounds around us ... in short, it was great and I can't believe I'm already back home in Cádiz! Enjoy the photos!

New Album 11/24/08 4:17 PM

Escape from Cadiz!

A mixture of writer’s block and laziness have kept me from writing anything new for a while, but I feel obligated to post something, since it’s been a while…

Yesterday was a great adventure day – I temporarily left behind the concrete, sand and salt water of Cádiz and escaped to a much greener and mountainous region of Cádiz province for a day of hiking. To give the briefest of summaries, the day started at 8:30 when I got in a stranger’s car, drove to the southern tip of Spain, saw Africa from across the Strait of Gibraltar, and then hiked about through some small mountains/extremely large hills for 10 miles, out of which at least 2 had absolutely no defined trail. It sounds sketchy, but I promise it wasn’t, just lots of fun to be out in nature and seeing more of the surrounding area.

I got to go on this adventure pretty much out of luck – one of the teachers at my friend Lauren’s school invited her to go hiking this weekend and I was asked if I wanted to go too, so of course I said yes and tagged along! We got a ride with the teacher and her friend, and after much a few minor delays, eventually met up with 6-7 other Spaniards who were all going on the hiking trip with us. Lauren, Cat (another auxiliar friend who was also on the trip with us), and I had no idea where we were going until we were already in the car on our way. To our surprise/delight, we discovered our destination was just outside of Tarifa (southernmost city Europe)… great!!!

After driving for an hour or two, we got to the starting point of the hike… no official signs or anything, just a dirt road climbing up to the mountains. A few people in the group knew a fair amount about some of the plants and things in the area, so it was interesting to learn about that. The area where we were (still don’t know its exact name… haha) is part of a microclimate, which is so the flora there is different than in other parts of Andalucía. Some of the plants I saw were cork trees, frutas de bosque, and these weird wooden spheres that could be potentially be mistaken for enlarged acorns. It turns out they weren’t actually any type of food, but rather temporary worm houses. Oh, and a quick did you know fact about cork: that since it is essentially the tree’s bark that is stripped off, any given tree can only be harvested every 9 years or so... since a lot of wine is produced here, I’m assuming the demand for cork is also quite high. Other noteworthy things about the hike include the presence of pine trees (okay, not that exciting except for the fact that I hadn’t seen one in a while and I miss them), crossing paths with random cows and sheep, and almost being blown away from intense, ever present wind that the area near the Strait is known for. Anyway, further details about the hike can be much better described by pictures, so I’ll post the ones from my camera now and add some more from Cat and Lauren’s cameras when I get them!

Day Trips

Córdoba

A little debriefing on this weekend’s trip to Cordoba is in order. Overall, the trip was pretty fun, and getting to see the city’s Mezquita was a definite highlight. I do have to register some complaints, not about the city itself, but with the following unfortunate events:

1. Uncooperative weather. It was rainy and stormy for the majority of the time I was there, frequently making exploratory city wandering more of a head-down power walk to the next destination... at least I did remember to pack my rain jacket!

2. Holidays. Again, Spain and its holidays. November 1 is Todos Santos (okay, legit holiday), but the day’s special bus schedule foiled our plans to go see the Medina Azahara, a cool palace built a little ways outside of the city. A disappointment to not get to see it, but maybe some other time it’ll happen.

3. Camera Battery. Beloved camera failed to inform me of its nearly exhausted battery until I had already reached my destination. Note to self: always bring charger, JUST IN CASE.

Despite these complications, I still had a good time getting to see a new part of Spain. I arrived Thursday night, so the first noteworthy events didn’t happen until the next day, Halloween. I got to visit another auxiliar’s school and attend the Halloween party. It was interesting to get to see another primary school and observe how it was similar/different than my school. The party itself was essentially utter chaos, but still decently entertaining. I got to express my artistic side by painting vampires on the faces 7 year old children, so that was pretty great.

Next, we headed off to the La Mezquita, the primary tourist attraction in Córdoba. For those who are unfamiliar with it, it is an incredible cathedral/mosque (historically, it has been used as both so I don't know which I'm supposed to call it). As you can see from the photos, the dual heritage is clearly displayed through its architectural design. The contrast between the distinct Arabic archways/curvy imagery and the traditional Christian crosses and artwork were interesting to see within the same religious space. One constant element though was the intense detail that went into all of the painting/carving/building. That, along with the cavernous size (we spent at least a couple hours in there, I could’ve spent even more I think…) made it an amazing place to visit.

After that we went to the nearby Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos, a Castillo that used to be a palace for Fernando and Isabel (i.e. the Reyes Cristianos… shocker I know). Later on, it was used during the Inquisition and eventually converted into a prison, which didn’t close until 1951. It wasn’t as impressive as La Mezquita (how could it be?), but still pretty interesting to explore.

We got a late start on Saturday, probably something to do with the fact that we were out til 4 or so Friday night… still kind of early to turn in by Spanish standards, especially on Halloween. Anyway, we were able to walk around the oldest part of town called La Judería, or, literally translated, The Jew-ery. Like all of the other descriptions of old town from the other cities, it had narrow cobblestone streets, tall old buildings, etc. One unique plaza that I really enjoyed seeing was called Plaza de la Corredera, a quite large and open Plaza that used to be where bullfights took place. Actually I need to correct myself: the plaza’s perimeter is defined by tallish orange painted buildings with uniform archways going all the way around, so strictly speaking, the plaza itself isn’t truly open, but the space within is so large that it feels very open. There are lots of restaurants and families hanging out, so it has a fun, relaxed, typically Spanish vibe about it. I would definitely have pictures to show you, but unfortunately, my camera’s battery had already died by this point.

The last touristy place we went were the city’s botanical gardens. They were nice and somewhat interesting, but not the cool Medina Azahara (see disappointment #2) that was the planned destination, so I’m not going to write much about them, as I am still bitter.

I came back on the train today and have been cleaning up and planning some activities for school tomorrow – I better go finish up!

Link for photos:

cordoba

I speak American.

29 de octubre
Well it’s about that time again… not a whole bunch of new news, but I’ll do my best to give a few minor updates.

At work:
Still having lots of fun with the kids… the seeming randomness with which CEIP La Inmaculada operates never fails to amuse/confuse me on a day to day basis.
Example:
Today when I walked into one of the 3rd grade classes I help out with, I was met with overwhelming, raucous applause… I’m absolutely not worthy of that kind of greeting, but it was definitely funny to be received in a classroom as though I were being announced for the starting line-up of a basketball game. Anyway, that same class period, we were playing a bingo-like game with pictures and descriptive phrases where I had to read sentences aloud such as “The mouse is in the bath”, “The mouse is behind the cooker” and “The mouse is on the basin”. The game itself was simple enough, but my nasally American accent threw these kids for a loop – the English that is taught in schools here is purely British English (as you can also tell from the vocab – I have definitely never heard anyone from home refer to an oven as a cooker). The word “bath” is a prime example about how confusing my accent can be for the students: whenever I pronounced “bath” with the short-a vowel sound, I was met with a myriad of puzzled 8 year old faces staring blankly at me. Eventually, after repeating the word two or three times, one of the students would inevitably have an epiphany (“OOOOH! Baahth, she said baahth”) and enlighten their classmates about what I had "actually" said. The part that amused me most was that this happened not just once or twice, but EVERY time I pronounced a word in a way that distinguishes American English from the British variety. Part-way through the game, we actually stopped playing so I could explain why the way I talk sounds so silly to them.

This week, I also started teaching clases particulares, which are essentially private classes/tutoring for English. This past Monday I went to a family’s nearby apartment and talked with their three children ages 7, 9 and 10 about different kinds of fruit and how to ask questions regarding the color, shape and size that different kinds of fruit has. The subject matter was pretty arbitrary – I happened to bring along some food flashcards and made up a game to play with them on my walk over. Generally what the parents want their kids to get out of these classes is an hour of individualized attention specializing in English conversation with a native speaker. It’s pretty fun, earns me a few extra euros a week, and gives me something else to do, so I can’t complain with the whole situation. The process of finding families interested in clases particulares is essentially based on word of mouth – the father of the family I’m working with is a teacher that one of my friends works with in her school, which is located in San Fernando, a city adjacent to Cádiz. Oh the joys of networking.


In life:
This past weekend, my apartment-mate Rosa had five of her best friends from home (aka Granada, where, according to them, everything from the scenery to the bus system to the food is clearly far superior) come visit. It was a really great chance to hang out with a big group of people and I definitely heard my fair share of girl gossip en español. There were times where I felt a little awkward since I was the random blond American girl amongst a group of extremely Spanish-y Spaniards who knew each other really well. However, I really appreciated that they were all very generous, friendly and invited me to tag along on their weekend activities. I’m not going to lie though, while hanging out with them was quite entertaining, it made me miss hanging out with my friends from home!!! I miss you all oh so much, so start looking for cheap plane tickets and come visit me already!

Speaking of weekend happenings, this next one I’m finally taking my first trip out of Cádiz! I’m going to visit some other auxiliares who I met during the Seville orientation and teach in the city of Córdoba. I’m excited to a) take the train, b) visit a place where there are some hills, heck even mountains! and c) get to see a new part of Spain. If you’re lucky maybe I’ll write about it later…

So, from all of the pictures of Cádiz that I’ve posted make it look like the land of eternal summer/bathing suit weather. While it is like that some of the time, as of late we’ve been having random, intense thunderstorms at night, strong sea breezes and at least a partial amount of cloud cover at most times. The last two days I’ve even worn my (light) jacket around the whole day… shocker, I know. I really can’t complain though because even when there are clouds or rain or something other than sunshine, it’s pretty much guaranteed to change into something else before too long… and I did go to the beach this weekend and managed fall asleep in the sun for a few hours… oops.

Well, since I've resorted to talking about the weather, I would say I'm out of material for now. I guess it’s off to bed for me, buenas noches!

Settling In

Yay, I’m writing again!
So I have a few random little anecdotes along with some actually more substantial events that need recounting, so hopefully I’ll achieve a nice balance of both here.

This week at work I got to spend significantly more time interacting with students, rather than sitting in classrooms observing and meeting with teachers. In each of the classes, I have 30-45 minutes to do some sort of lesson, preferably one that relates to the current curriculum that they are doing for that particular class. For example, one of the classes I will be helping out with is actually a math class, so part of the time I taught the how to say math terms like “10 to the fourth” and “4 cubed”. It was pretty fun and went pretty well, but it was definitely spur of the moment since I didn’t know what was going to be taught until right when I got there! Next time, I hope I can coordinate a little better with the teacher beforehand, so I feel a little more prepared when I go into the classroom.

Since it was my first time in many of the classes, I spent my alloted time doing some basic introduction activities. I introduced myself, told the students where I am from, what my family is like, what I like to do for fun, my favorite food, etc. I did all of this in English, so it took some effort to speak more slowly than usual and enunciate extra clearly. Hand gestures were also very useful. After I finished talking, each student took turns saying “Hello, my name is ____. I am from ____” and say whatever else they knew how to say in English. I was pretty impressed with some of these kids (8-9 years old) who could tell me which sports they liked to play, their preferred foods, and how many siblings they have. At the end, I let them ask me any questions that they had (in Spanish) and I answered them (in English).

Some of my favorite questions included:
Do you like hamsters?
What is your boyfriend’s name?
What is your favorite NBA team?
Is England beautiful?
Obama or McCain?


While I’m thinking about humorous student interactions, here’s a (translated) conversation I had with one of my youngest students Isabela, age seven.

Isabela: Colleen, guess what? Elizabeth (the other English Auxiliar at my school) taught me how to say my name in English!
Me: Oh, that’s great! What is it?
Isabela: It is Isabel
Me: Wow, good job! Hey, I was wondering, how do you say my name in Spanish?
Isabela: *short, contemplative pause* ... I’m pretty sure that it is some sort of vegetable.

And then she left with her friend to go to recess.

After telling my coordinator the story, we came to the conclusion that Isabela had resourcefully conjured up the word for cabbage, or “coles”, as a translation for my name.

I love the things that come out of these kids' mouths.

***

Another exciting new thing I got to do at work (this time at the secondary school) is help teach a PE class. The current section is basketball, so I got to learn bball terminology in Spanish so that I could teach the kids words in English. For those interested, my Spanish vocabulary now includes “bote” (dribble), “hacer pasos” (traveling), and “hacer dobles” (double dribble). I’m excited to keep working with both schools, as the teachers seem friendly and supportive, and the kids are fun to work with.

Other important things accomplished this week:
1) I opened my extranjero bank account, so I have somewhere to deposit my paycheck when I get it at the beginning of next month. :) This was a relatively simple process. I had to bring my passport along with a few letters from la Junta (the regional government), saying that I was a legitimate employee and would be earning money and that they should let me have an account. After about 25-30 minutes of sitting in a chair watching the nice banker lady type information and verify my identity a few times, everything was good to go.
2) I went to the oficina de extranjeros to apply for my foreign resident identfication card. This seemed to go just fine… more letters from the Junta, some photocopies and other paperwork, patient line-waiting, and a return trip to the office should get me my Spanish ID… we’ll see for sure when I go back!

Well, that should give everyone a little taste of the kind of thing I’ve been up doing as of late. I haven’t gone out or done any day trips or anything yet, but I’ve really just been enjoying settling in to my apartment, hanging out with Rosa and Vicky, and walking around Cádiz. I’m sure I’ll explore the surrounding area in time, but until then, I’m just enjoying what’s right here in front of me!

If you click on the picture below, you'll get to see some more of Cádiz :)

From Más de Cádiz

Más Fotos

As per request by a certain Tía, I'm adding a few pics of my apartment and apartment-mates. Lucky for you all we just so happened to do an apartment tour/photo shoot last night, so you get to see both my new roomies and accommodations at the SAME TIME. So efficient. However, what isn't efficient is the blog website's ability to upload photos. I've spent way too long trying to make pictures load directly to the blog that it just isn't worth it to try anymore. Instead, I'm posting a link that you can click on to get to where there are some pictures that you all can check out if you're interested. If I figured out how this silly technology business works, you should just be able to click on the picture you see below and it will take you to my entire album...

Colleen-in-Cádiz

I should probably also write another update soon, but I don't think it's going to happen today... soon though!

Update!

I was looking at a calendar yesterday and to my honest surprise, I realized that I have only been in Spain for 12 (okay now when I’m writing this 13) days… not even two weeks yet! I’m not going to lie, I had to double check this fact two or three times before I even started to try and wrap my mind around it. So many events have been crammed into this tiny timeframe that it seems like much longer! Two major events that occurred this week include me moving into an apartment and starting my job!

I’ll start with a little bit about my piso. First of all, it is located in the newer part of town rather than the old casco historico. While I initially wanted to live in this older section because it is so charming, I am actually glad things worked out the way they did. My apartment is on the long straightaway of land that connects the casco historico with the mainland. It is about a 15 minute walk from my school, a 5 minute walk to the beach, and a 3-5 minute walk to the football (read: soccer) stadium (sidenote: Cadiz has its own team, but I haven’t heard much about them or seen any games yet). I am sharing the apartment with two Spanish girls who are studying at the University of Cadiz. Their names are Vicky and Rosa, and seem like a lot of fun so far. They have invited me to hang out with them on a couple different occasions and also taught me important skills such as lighting the bon-bona (the gas water heaters that everyone has here that must be lit if one wants to do such things as take a hot shower or wash dishes properly). I hate lighting the bon bona with a deep, indescribable passion... I swear I am going to end up making our apartment burst into a massive sea of flames or something equally horrendous.

The apartment itself is small-ish, especially my room, but quite adequate. Upon entering the piso, there is an open front room that has a couple of couches, the tv, a coffee table and small dining room table. To the left is a short hall that leads to the bathroom, kitchen/washing machine nook, and our three bedrooms. I have a window looking out onto the street, so I get to look down 4 floors and get to see what’s going on down there at any given point in the day. It’s actually quite a good indicator to look at what everyone else is wearing to determine whether or not I need to bring a jacket with me before going out.

The other big thing that happened this week is that I started working! Well, sort of. Two of the days were orientation – getting to know the school building, some of the teachers we (Libby, the school’s other auxiliar and I) will be working with, and introducing ourselves to the adorable, terrifyingly hyperactive hordes of children that tended to swarm around us if we stay in one place on the play patio too long. Then of course, one of the days was a holiday celebrating the city of Cadiz’s protector, the Virgen de Rosario, so no school, and then as an auxiliar (whose hours don’t even come close to the equivalent of a full time job), I have Fridays off. The first week has already gone by and I feel like I’ve done nothing! I want to work!!! I think part of the problem has been also that my work schedule wasn’t finalized until yesterday afternoon. The problem was that the Junta de Andalucia informed our school that while one auxiliar could teach full time at La Inmaculada (primary school), the other auxiliar would have to split time between there and the Instituto, the secondary school that is literally right next door. Long story short, I will be working at both schools part of the time. Since each school has distinct daily school schedules, it was very challenging to arrange time periods that would allow me to work at both schools equally. Hopefully when I start work next week on Tuesday (Monday is ANOTHER holiday, I don’t even know what they're celebrating this time), I’ll feel a little more useful…

Cádiz, Cádiz!

Oh man, I should write about what’s going on… but before I do, everyone please note that when I added my previous entry (the one with all the pictures) the internet I was using to load the pictures was pretty cantankerous and then I didn’t have time to write anything about what the pics actually were. Most of it is pretty self explanatory: the flamenco show, Sevilla's cathedral/streets, and the weird one of the woman statue is actually a part of the mall I went to when I bought my cell phone.

From Sevilla, we (there are 4 others who will be teaching in the same city as me) took a train to Cádiz on Friday morning. We found our temporary lodging, the Hotel Francia y Paris, got settled, and spent the rest of the day orienting ourselves with our surroundings. For me, this included visits to two different apartment sites, neither of which had too many redeeming qualities. However, going to both places were good adventures because it meant that I got to take the bus a couple of times and get a brief just-passing-by taste of various areas in the city.

My initial impression of Cádiz is quite simple: it’s gorgeous and I love it. If you look it from a bird’s eye view, the city looks like a spoon sticking out into the water, with the food-holding part sticking out into the Atlantic Ocean. The old part of town, or the casco historico, is where we are currently staying and hopefully where I will be living as it is quite charming – lots of beach, lots of stores, restaurants, little parques/plazas and most everything is connected by, *surprise*, narrow cobblestone streets. It isn’t a very large area altogether; as you can guess from the spoon analogy, el casco historico is pretty circular and has no more of a diameter than 1 mile (I’m guessing from my Lonely Planet guide’s map…) This neighborhood is also where the Universidad de Cadiz is located, so there is a fair number of college student-type apartments around the area. Where I will actually end up finding a place though is quite up in the air.

Today (Saturday) has been almost entirely dedicated to apartment hunting. After finding that free “borrowed” wi-fi is available in the plaza right next to our hotel, a good amount of time was spent searching websites like loquo.com, Spain’s version of Craigs List. Lots of phone calls were made using my new telefono movil of course! I took a deep breath to calm my nerves and interesting conversations ensued (“Repitelo una vez más, por favor” and “Cómo se escribe el nombre de la calle?” were two commonly repeated phrases). Most of the people I spoke with were quite friendly and patient enough to repeat themselves as many times as this poor silly girl needed. I will be meeting with a few more people to see some pisos compartidos in the next few days, so hopefully I’ll find somewhere that works!

Beyond dealing with housing issues, I have gotten to walk around the city some getting to know some of the different neighborhood areas. Today we explored one of the beaches, walked around some of the old fortress-like buildings, and enjoyed the lovely sun that has been around all day every day besides when I landed in Sevilla. Well, off go eat some tapas!

Unas Fotos

Here are some pictures from my first few days in Sevilla.

I'M IN SPAIN!!!!

Hola a todos! I’ve only been in Spain for a few days now, but I thought I should write a little bit about what’s been going on so far. For those of you who aren’t exactly sure what I’m doing over here, my official title is an “auxiliar de conversación” – an English language and culture assistant – at a primary school in Cádiz, Spain. Basically, I will be working with children from the ages of 3 to 13 helping them to increase their knowledge of English as a foreign language as well as help the school establish/refine its coursework for next year when it makes the full transition to bilingual curriculum. It’s going to be a huge challenge, but I can’t wait!

Right now I’m writing from La Hespería Sevilla, the hotel where we are staying for our orientation. The first few days have been great. We have had lecture/activity sessions for about 4 hours each day and learn things like how Spain’s education system is set up and suggestions for designing and implementing class plans. They (CIEE, the organization that helped set up this whole opportunity for me and 200 of my peers) also have taught us the basics of how to open a bank account, find an apartment, and find medical services when/if we need them at all throughout the year.

Once business time is over, we get to have fun time. So far, I have gotten to enjoy various types of vino y tapas, a flamenco show, a tour of Seville’s ENORMOUS cathedral, as well as spend time wandering through the city’s incredibly narrow, windy, and confusing cobblestone streets. I love admiring all of the beautiful architecture and observing the street life in general – not going to lie, people-watching in the city center is an excellent pastime what with the crazy (“fashionable”) clothing compilations, loud/random bursts of noise, not to mention just the sheer number of people who are out and about at any given time throughout the day.

Well that’s all for right now (sorry, I’m trying really hard not to write way too much and end up boring everyone!), but I’ll try and keep this blog thinger up to date with the more interesting happenings of things over here where I am.