October 20, 2011
These weeks, I have had the pleasure of teaching a class of the second of baccalaureate. In Huercal-Overa I never had this level of class because the bilingual program only lasted up until the penultimate year of studies (which is the first of baccalaureate). They are wonderful! My students crack me up. I think that these know that I speak Spanish, but sometimes they go off on rants in their language anyway. Today we were talking about the smoking laws that were passed January 2, 2011. So in this discussion of rights of tobacco consumption, Maica, the teacher alongside whom I am working, asked the students if they imbibe. Some hesitantly admitted to it, as most of them are around 17 and not yet of legal drinking age (which is 18 here in Spain) and only one did so readily. He is of legal age, but he somewhat surprised his classmates with his ready response. He said in his defense, in Spanish, “Well, I don’t like to pass out on the floor! But yes, I like to drink.” I have a private lesson with three of them from the class, Maria, Nuria, and Cristian, which is probably the best part of my Thursday afternoon.
Swim team continues to go well and as of this week I have officially joined. This Monday an exciting addition was made to my life with the purchase of an Orbea mountain bicycle second hand, now complete with helmet, lock, and night-time riding lights. What a joy the sensation of cruising down the streets of Valdemoro in the exhilarating pre-Matias Bravo morning air. Sometimes I get lost here and it takes me a bit to find my way back, but I hardly notice. What is that about a bike ride that is just the release, just the thrill that I need? I feel have become exponentially more mobile in the last three days, and my life is thus exponentially more awesome.
This week I have moved. It is not the first time I have had to move because of a roommate situation, but it is the first time the situation has been bad. I won’t tell you everything, but it was a situation from which I simply had to dismiss myself. I am quite happy here with Daniela and Ilie, my room is the cutest thing ever, and I feel at home at last.
I am on my way to sign up for Sevillanas. One of my students is a real Sevillanas dancer and she has given me a little application for the center. I’ll become a Spanish lady by the end of the year, you’ll see.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Friday, October 7, 2011
(What should have been posted in September)
2 October 2011
In four days I have found an apartment in Valdemoro, Spain. It is in the heart of the city and next to a park. I live with one other person, a Romanian girl who has been in Spain now for 5 years. She works in a Turkish kebap restaurant and is obsessively clean. This area is very green and it is evidently important to the locals that it be so, seeing how much of the natural growth is preserved in numerous parks throughout the district. On my afternoon stroll, the big park in town was full of people enjoying fine fall weather.
Valdemoro is a sweet but not so little town of 70,000 inhabitants to the south of Madrid 20 minutes in train. It has been a somewhat difficult to meet people, more than it was in Huercal-Overa, the curious reason being that there are more people here. Fortunately, I see that there are a lot of people around my age, many who are university students, and lots of athletic clubs so I don’t think it will be so hard to find like-minded people.
I begin school tomorrow! Unfortunately, my school I.E.S. Maestro Matias Bravo has experienced the painful effect of the economic crisis and has lost 12 teachers, 2 from the English department. I don’t have a fixed schedule yet because neither do any of the English teachers, so this week is just to meet the students.
Goals for the scholastic year 2011/12
Linguistic
1) Let my ½ my music-listening, all of my novel reading, and all of my TV and movie watching be in Spanish
2) Learn a Joaquin Sabina song with words on the guitar.
Social
3) Join groups and classes that are interesting to me (swimming, triathlon, hiking, cooking, dancing, etc. are just some ideas). I hope to meet like-minded people that way.
4) Organize dinners/outings with the teachers
5) Make at least one good friend in Valdemoro
6) Hostess often (I’ve discovered this is something that’s very important to me)
7) Avoid long hours on social networks
Academic
8) Expand my knowledge of Spanish history
Spiritual
9) Pray for my students
10) Become involved and invested in a local church
11) Study teaching as a concept in the Bible
Athletic
12) Find a race in Spain, train for, and do it
13) Find good training buddies and train with them weekly
Financial
14) Save 15% of my earnings
15) Follow my budget
16) Spend boldly on important things
In four days I have found an apartment in Valdemoro, Spain. It is in the heart of the city and next to a park. I live with one other person, a Romanian girl who has been in Spain now for 5 years. She works in a Turkish kebap restaurant and is obsessively clean. This area is very green and it is evidently important to the locals that it be so, seeing how much of the natural growth is preserved in numerous parks throughout the district. On my afternoon stroll, the big park in town was full of people enjoying fine fall weather.
Valdemoro is a sweet but not so little town of 70,000 inhabitants to the south of Madrid 20 minutes in train. It has been a somewhat difficult to meet people, more than it was in Huercal-Overa, the curious reason being that there are more people here. Fortunately, I see that there are a lot of people around my age, many who are university students, and lots of athletic clubs so I don’t think it will be so hard to find like-minded people.
I begin school tomorrow! Unfortunately, my school I.E.S. Maestro Matias Bravo has experienced the painful effect of the economic crisis and has lost 12 teachers, 2 from the English department. I don’t have a fixed schedule yet because neither do any of the English teachers, so this week is just to meet the students.
Goals for the scholastic year 2011/12
Linguistic
1) Let my ½ my music-listening, all of my novel reading, and all of my TV and movie watching be in Spanish
2) Learn a Joaquin Sabina song with words on the guitar.
Social
3) Join groups and classes that are interesting to me (swimming, triathlon, hiking, cooking, dancing, etc. are just some ideas). I hope to meet like-minded people that way.
4) Organize dinners/outings with the teachers
5) Make at least one good friend in Valdemoro
6) Hostess often (I’ve discovered this is something that’s very important to me)
7) Avoid long hours on social networks
Academic
8) Expand my knowledge of Spanish history
Spiritual
9) Pray for my students
10) Become involved and invested in a local church
11) Study teaching as a concept in the Bible
Athletic
12) Find a race in Spain, train for, and do it
13) Find good training buddies and train with them weekly
Financial
14) Save 15% of my earnings
15) Follow my budget
16) Spend boldly on important things
El pueblo de Valdemoro (The town/the people of Valdemoro)
6 October 2011
My stay in Valdemoro began with Hotel Infantas. It was the prettiest looking one with the best reviews I could find on the internet (booking.com). It was not disappointing in the least. I have now been here a week and a half and have found an apartment with a girl my age, but am ever so thankful that I stayed there for the sole reason of having made a friend or two.
Pablo, who works the desk during the morning hours, is from Argentina. When I met him, I somehow felt immediately he had a daughter my age (and he does – I asked). I think it was how he made me give him my suitcase to carry it upstairs and how he made sure I knew where I was going before I left the hotel. It was very fatherly of him. It seems like he had an okay life in Argentina, and he’s only here because he wanted a change and he thinks it’s incredibly important to travel. Isn’t that curious? He must be in his mid-sixties or so, not old at all, but certainly mature (as our dear friend Dr. Terry Reynolds has said) enough to be thinking he’s all done with the tiresome adventures of putting himself outside of his culture and comfort zone. But no, his refreshingly different point of view is that he’ll never stop learning about the world as long as he is traveling and having new experiences, which will probably last as long as he is physically capable. He hopes his daughter will also move to Spain and learn alongside him.
Catalin, my little Romanian man, works the desk in the evenings. He came to Spain 8 years ago at 18 years of age to work and to experience life differently with long-awaited permission to leave his country. In dictator-ruled Romania, the residents were not allowed to leave the confines of the borders and the only person allowed to conduct trade relations was the dictator himself. Now under new leadership, nationals are allowed to come and go as they please and Spain has experienced this change with a late influx of Romanian immigrants. In fact, three quarters of the apartments I saw when house-shopping were inhabited by immigrants from the cold-weathered country. So here I am living with Alina.
I went to get my NIE (Numero de Identidad de Extranjeros) yesterday in Madrid. Sometimes I am lonely here and just wish I had somebody to live some of my life with. Some of the teachers at school are around my age, and very few live in Valdemoro, but I am hoping to get some people together for weekly things, as was the tradition in dear old Huercal-Overa. It’s my opinion that we all benefit from a little outing together, a little bonding outside of the work-place, a little saliendo de juerga (partying). Anyhow, I so wished I had been walking along this street in Madrid with a friend as I was looking for the address of the Foreign Affairs office. I was not at all watching where I was going when all of a sudden I received a full-body hit which sent my phone flying out of my hand and left me momentarily discombobulated. I looked first at where my phone had landed on the ground and then at what had hit me - a tree. Realizing what had happened, right there in front of a sidewalk cafe, my head throbbing, I picked up my phone and started to laugh at myself. Oh, it must have looked hysterical! It was too bad that only strangers got to see it.
I have been cooking quite a lot lately and find it rather unfortunate that my roommate has been sick and depressed and refuses to try anything that I make. I have resorted to utilizing our neighbor Antonio as a taste-tester. Antonio really thinks I can cook after trying my bag-baked lemon chicken, so I’ve got to keep that going. Yesterday, having encountered fresh basil after a three day hunt, I attempted pesto. On the flight from Chicago to Madrid, I sat next to this woman from Wisconsin who let me in on her recipe. “It’s super easy,” she said. “The secret is pine nuts.” Now that I did not know. “Oh yes: basil, pine nuts, olive oil, a little diced garlic, and there’s that, all in the food processor.” So I tried it yesterday and it did not taste like pesto. Today I looked it up online and found the ingredient that Miss Wisconsin forgot – pesto absolutely includes cheese, strong and finely grated. Who knew? Now it tastes like pesto for sure, potent and heavenly, and thank the Lord for that.
Monday was my first day teaching and these kids are amazing. The English teachers are also great and I am looking forward to a good year with them. Because the Spanish government has been steadily cutting funding for public education, I.E.S. Maestro Matias Bravo has unfortunately lost twelve teachers as of late, two from the English department. The last week (and month, as I have understood) has consisted of confused schedules for students and teachers and numerous strikes on both parts. I myself have not yet received a schedule, but am supposed to have one set by Monday. Meanwhile, I’ve been popping in and out of the high school, shopping for a bike, and hitting up the local swimming pool.
For the first time in my twenties, I am part of a swim team! Being less than 26 years of age I am considered an “adolescente” in Spain, and so am actually allowed to compete! Now, doesn’t that make sense? After all, in many ways I still feel 18. So I went to practice yesterday and positively died. It was wonderful because last night I slept as if I were dead. The neat thing is that I’m swimming with kids my age and younger, including some of my students. I believe training together to be one of the best ways of building community so I am looking forward to getting to know them as part of the team. My coach Sergio also does triathlons, so it is good to train under him. I’d say I’ve gotten off to an agreeable start here in Greater Madrid
My stay in Valdemoro began with Hotel Infantas. It was the prettiest looking one with the best reviews I could find on the internet (booking.com). It was not disappointing in the least. I have now been here a week and a half and have found an apartment with a girl my age, but am ever so thankful that I stayed there for the sole reason of having made a friend or two.
Pablo, who works the desk during the morning hours, is from Argentina. When I met him, I somehow felt immediately he had a daughter my age (and he does – I asked). I think it was how he made me give him my suitcase to carry it upstairs and how he made sure I knew where I was going before I left the hotel. It was very fatherly of him. It seems like he had an okay life in Argentina, and he’s only here because he wanted a change and he thinks it’s incredibly important to travel. Isn’t that curious? He must be in his mid-sixties or so, not old at all, but certainly mature (as our dear friend Dr. Terry Reynolds has said) enough to be thinking he’s all done with the tiresome adventures of putting himself outside of his culture and comfort zone. But no, his refreshingly different point of view is that he’ll never stop learning about the world as long as he is traveling and having new experiences, which will probably last as long as he is physically capable. He hopes his daughter will also move to Spain and learn alongside him.
Catalin, my little Romanian man, works the desk in the evenings. He came to Spain 8 years ago at 18 years of age to work and to experience life differently with long-awaited permission to leave his country. In dictator-ruled Romania, the residents were not allowed to leave the confines of the borders and the only person allowed to conduct trade relations was the dictator himself. Now under new leadership, nationals are allowed to come and go as they please and Spain has experienced this change with a late influx of Romanian immigrants. In fact, three quarters of the apartments I saw when house-shopping were inhabited by immigrants from the cold-weathered country. So here I am living with Alina.
I went to get my NIE (Numero de Identidad de Extranjeros) yesterday in Madrid. Sometimes I am lonely here and just wish I had somebody to live some of my life with. Some of the teachers at school are around my age, and very few live in Valdemoro, but I am hoping to get some people together for weekly things, as was the tradition in dear old Huercal-Overa. It’s my opinion that we all benefit from a little outing together, a little bonding outside of the work-place, a little saliendo de juerga (partying). Anyhow, I so wished I had been walking along this street in Madrid with a friend as I was looking for the address of the Foreign Affairs office. I was not at all watching where I was going when all of a sudden I received a full-body hit which sent my phone flying out of my hand and left me momentarily discombobulated. I looked first at where my phone had landed on the ground and then at what had hit me - a tree. Realizing what had happened, right there in front of a sidewalk cafe, my head throbbing, I picked up my phone and started to laugh at myself. Oh, it must have looked hysterical! It was too bad that only strangers got to see it.
I have been cooking quite a lot lately and find it rather unfortunate that my roommate has been sick and depressed and refuses to try anything that I make. I have resorted to utilizing our neighbor Antonio as a taste-tester. Antonio really thinks I can cook after trying my bag-baked lemon chicken, so I’ve got to keep that going. Yesterday, having encountered fresh basil after a three day hunt, I attempted pesto. On the flight from Chicago to Madrid, I sat next to this woman from Wisconsin who let me in on her recipe. “It’s super easy,” she said. “The secret is pine nuts.” Now that I did not know. “Oh yes: basil, pine nuts, olive oil, a little diced garlic, and there’s that, all in the food processor.” So I tried it yesterday and it did not taste like pesto. Today I looked it up online and found the ingredient that Miss Wisconsin forgot – pesto absolutely includes cheese, strong and finely grated. Who knew? Now it tastes like pesto for sure, potent and heavenly, and thank the Lord for that.
Monday was my first day teaching and these kids are amazing. The English teachers are also great and I am looking forward to a good year with them. Because the Spanish government has been steadily cutting funding for public education, I.E.S. Maestro Matias Bravo has unfortunately lost twelve teachers as of late, two from the English department. The last week (and month, as I have understood) has consisted of confused schedules for students and teachers and numerous strikes on both parts. I myself have not yet received a schedule, but am supposed to have one set by Monday. Meanwhile, I’ve been popping in and out of the high school, shopping for a bike, and hitting up the local swimming pool.
For the first time in my twenties, I am part of a swim team! Being less than 26 years of age I am considered an “adolescente” in Spain, and so am actually allowed to compete! Now, doesn’t that make sense? After all, in many ways I still feel 18. So I went to practice yesterday and positively died. It was wonderful because last night I slept as if I were dead. The neat thing is that I’m swimming with kids my age and younger, including some of my students. I believe training together to be one of the best ways of building community so I am looking forward to getting to know them as part of the team. My coach Sergio also does triathlons, so it is good to train under him. I’d say I’ve gotten off to an agreeable start here in Greater Madrid
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