Pros.
- The mercado de Chamberí is about two blocks away from my house. I'm already making friends with one of the vendors, who told me the proper way to order a quarter kilogram of cheese. (I promptly realized that this was probably too much cheese for one person. Oops. But I bought some bread and ate it for dinner with a side of melon... all's well that ends well!) He also took his time explaining all the differences between the jamón options. I listened and nodded and then picked the one with the least amount of fat on it. The sure do love their fat on their jamón serrano...
- I'm right in between two great metro stations. They are each only connected to one line, but each is less than a five minute walk and the single line stations are less busy/less of a journey down under. (The grey line at Cuatro Caminos is about 8 escalator rides underground... every time I go there I am thankful I don't have to do that on a regular basis.)
- I can walk to school! It takes about 25 minutes. Let's just hope it doesn't rain.
- I unpacked all of my stuff! I found a few sweaters and shirts that I forgot I brought, which made it feel like Christmas. And if you are reading this then you are probably hung up on my wall in picture form. To cut down on the boring white walls I also hung up a map of PA that I currently have no use for. Maybe I'll study the geography of PA if I can't fall asleep some night.
- We share a lot of kitchen items so I don't have to worry about spices, pots, etc. Now I just have to get back into the habit of cooking for myself and accumulate all the random ingredients that I need to throw a meal together.
- I'm speaking Spanish at home! Two of my roommates are Spanish and the other is French. But the French girl has a Spanish boyfriend so she speaks Spanish very well. Right now I still don't have much to say to them but I'm sure over time I'll get used to chatting it up. I watched part of the Barcelona soccer game with one of the girls tonight and was delighted to tell her that I love watching soccer. I also managed to squeeze in a story about how my sister is on a National Championship soccer team, nbd.
- The Día (grocery store) next to my house is sub-par. They do not sell refrigerated milk. I knew it was rare but I thought I would be able to find at least one bottle in the store.
- My current furniture situation consists of a desk (basically a personal size rectangular table, no drawers or anything), a bed, and a large open shelf (aka four wooden posts with five pieces of wood). This means that in my excitement to unpack everything, I was sorely disappointed with the fact that I had no where to put anything. I had no hangers to hang things up in the closet and the shelves quickly became messy with clothing stacks, despite my attempt to organize them by type. I went to Tiger to buy a few baskets for my socks and underwear and lots of hangers in an attempt to free up my shelf space. Nonetheless, I have never been so excited to go to Ikea (ee-kay-uh) on Friday. A bedside table, a simple chair, and minor form of desk organization will make me an extremely happy girl. I might even go big and buy a small rug so that I don't wake up to putting my feet on the freezing tile floor.
- My apartment is cold. And it's only October. I went on an unsuccessful search for a blanket today since my current bedding situation is sheets that I borrowed from Carol and a broken-in quilt made by my lovely mother that I brought from the states. Nice, but not too warm. I know I will be in desperate need of a down comforter for the winter. Now where does one go to buy such item? To be determined...
- I don't know how to work the shower. I woke up this morning to take a shower before work and the water was frigid. I let it run for a minute and a half and there was no change in temperature. I tried again this afternoon and the same thing happened. I'm sure there is some trick to turning on the hot water or something but I haven't figured it out yet. I'm waiting for one of my roommates to come home so I can ask them. (Update within an update! There is a switch in the kitchen to turn on for the hot water. I'll shower after this.)
- The water thing reflects on how, in general, this is turning out to be more challenging (on a personal level) than expected. While I was staying with the DeWitts, Carol was careful to tell me anything and everything that I needed to know. I got used to updating the white board with where I was going and coming home to have dinner with some company. Then, last night I felt a sudden sense of detachment from the rest of the world. There were other people wandering around the apartment, but in their own lives, which I am not yet a part of. To be honest, it made me feel a bit lonely. I'm used to living with friends (or family friends) who want to know my work schedule and help me get situated with all of my things. It's an odd feeling living with strangers. I know it will be great as soon as I get to know them bu for now I am recognizing that there will be an adjustment period.
BEFORE photo.
AFTER photo will be posted at a later date... aka after the Ikea trip on Friday.
I have a (somewhat) finalized schedule at school. Then again, this is my 5th schedule and Manuel thought it was almost finalized after the 3rd. Luckily the previous Fulbrighter gave me a heads-up that this would be the case.
So far, I am really enjoying the classes. I am teaching my first English classes (not counting the introductions/hour-long Q&A sessions) to the 1°ESO students (7th graders) and 3°ESO (9th graders) about the differences between high school in the United States and in Spain. This gave me the opportunity to tell the 1°ESO students that, by my standards, they weren't in high school :)
I am also teaching my first Global Classrooms history classes to 3°ESO students about the Millenium Development Goals of the UN. After discussing the MDGs, the students were challenged to identify which goal they considered to be most important and to convince (using a moderated caucas and a few of our "Honorable chair, Pepe has a point of information..." catch phrases) their classmates of their perspective. The MDGs are very simple to understand and I think this intro activity gave the students a simple understanding of what they are getting into for the year.
UN Millennium Goals logo
BUT, of course, not every class has gone so smoothly. Today when I got my schedule change, I ended up in a class reading Beowulf (which I have never actually read) and discussing the ins and outs of the upcoming U.S. election. When the teachers announced to the classes that I would be leading these discussions, my heart dropped; I felt so helpless.
By the grace of God, however, I was able to skim through the (very) abridged version of the Beowulf poem and use context clues to understand enough to be of use to the students and teacher. I even learned a new word: garrulous. (If this is a word that you think everyone knows, don't tell me because I had no idea. Luckily, I guessed right.)
Then, in the 2° Bachillerato (12th grade), I was overwhelmed to hear students spouting off the population of the United States and the foreign policy of Mitt Romney and Barack Obama like it was their phone number (which I, in fact, still don't know). Having been outside of the U.S. for almost four weeks, I was terrified that they would end up correcting my comments. Thankfully, all of my NPR listening paid off and I could speak intelligently about the two parties and why different people from the U.S. support each one.
All in all, these classes were a great reminder that where I falter, God fills. In house church last night we talked about our weaknesses as Christians. I consider one of my greatest weaknesses to be my desire to be independent. I want to think that I can do things on my own and that I don't need help from others or God. Go figure, I am in a situation right now that forces me to recognize how dependent I am. Without God granting me clarity of mind, I surely would have made gross generalizations about the elections and misinterpreted a difficult piece of literature. Without God preparing a place before me, I might never have learned how to turn on the shower ;)
I signed up for a dance class! The first class was tonight, but I hadn't signed up yet so I will start Thursday. It's twice a week for an hour and a half each class. I'm super excited!
Here's a brief video showing off Bárbara Fritsche's style:
I have checked off another city on my "to visit" list. This weekend Napala and I went to Santander to visit some other Fulbrighters living there. Santander is a 4 hour train ride but since the train hours weren't ideal, Napala and I decided to take the bus. Bad idea? NO! Great idea! We didn't take just any bus; we took the Asla Supra bus. It was probably one of the best travel decisions I've ever made. Though it was an hour longer each way, we traveled in style. The Asla Supra bus had leather seats and a bus attendent. We were fed with candies, two drinks, pastries, and a sandwich and were entertained with two movies per ride. Plus our seats had reclining feet rests. PLUS there were only 3 seats in each row instead of 4, making it quite spacious. PLUS PLUS they put luggage tags on our backpacks (slightly pointless but official looking). Did I mention we payed a euro less than the train for these fine accommodations?
This picture is stolen off the internet but check it out!
On Saturday morning in Santander, we headed off to take a walk along the beach. It was suprisingly warm as we sat and enjoyed our cafes con leche at a cafe along the beach.
The beach just wasn't the same on Sepetember 29th without my newly non-teenage little sister, lil A-Rog!
The beach knew that it was Ali's birthday though and began to cry that she wasn't there... it rained all afternoon. But despite the rain, we ventured off to Puente Viesgo (35 min. outside of the city) to see some caves. No photos were allowed inside but I snagged a few off of the internet for you. These caves in particular are very well known because they include a broad range of techniques used in the artwork/messages.
General view of the inside, plus or minus a few stalactites and/or stalagmites.
A prehistoric bull in the top right corner.
In order to get to the caves, we had to walk almost a mile uphill. I felt like I was on the Camino again...
View of Puente Viesgo from halfway up
We had some time to kill before catching our bus back, so we decided to check out the church. Unfortunately, it was closed. Fortunately, the doors were pretty.
Cathedral in Puente Viesgo
The rain wasn't ideal, but the fog was beautiful. Check out the cross on top of the mountain.
Puente Viesgo was a fun afternoon trip, but problems arose when the bus arrived early on a one-lane each way winding street. Napala, Tim (an Aussie we befriended in the caves), and I were at the bus stop, but Eddie and Mike were still inside the restaurant across the street using the restroom. The bus driver denied my pleas to wait for them, drawing my attention to the massive line of cars that had backed up the hill behind him (all in a time span of 1 minute).
Hoping he was going to be a little more forgiving than he was letting on, I jumped off the bus and ran across the street (totally forgetting to look both ways, I realized later) to go get them. Thankfully, they had just come out and we all ran back onto the bus, attempting to ignore the glare of this unpleasant bus driver. It was the last bus of the night, what did he expect us to do?
Apparently we pushed him over the edge though when we took too long to get off the bus. Mike stalled for 30 seconds in an attempt to tell Tim his address so that he could meet up with us later... I I almost suffered dearly for it. Why? Because the bus driver shut the door on me. Yes, shut it. This was no Metro door, where you put your shoulder in and it pops back open. I squeezed my arm out right before it shut and pulled my bag out of the door right before the bus drove off. I couldn't decide if it was a good thing or a bad thing that the solidness of my camera kept my bag from really getting stuck but since my camera is okay, I think it's better that my shoulder bag didn't keep me attached to a moving bus.
So yep, just another last bus of the night story to add to my list. In case you forgot, you can read about the scare in Gibralatar or ask me about the time when Mom and I thought that there were no seats on the bus home from Ronda the night before her flight left to go back to the U.S.
Okay, enough for the drama. Back to the accounts of calm, leisurely walks along the beach, like the one that Napala and I took on Sunday.
Ferry heading out from Santander
Since everything is closed on Sunday and there was more rain, we spent the afternoon reading, talking, and relaxing. Then, before we got on our bus, Napala and I treated ourselves to a great seafood restaurant on the water. El Machi had some of the best croquetas I've ever had!
Croquetas filled with a mix of fish and some bits of red pepper
The food at El Machi was seriously good enough to negate the weekend of rain. If you're in Santander, I highly recommend it.
Alright, the end of the story is we took the bus back, took the metro home, and I moved into my apartment the next day. EL FIN. Now I'm off to take a much needed shower! I don't want my roommates to think I smell...
Love from Spain,
Amber
P.S. I read An Open Letter to Pumpkin Flavored Seaonal Treats today and thought it was hilarious. Worth 3 minutes of your time for sure.
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