"...we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating."

My most exciting experiences this past week revolved around food, so I decided to relive them with you here :)

Napala and I made our own calamares! Of course there is room for improvement, but it was a pretty good first attempt!

The next morning, Napala and I decided to go hardcore U.S.A breakfast with these cinnamon roll pancakes. Yeah, they were pretty awesome, though I didn't take any photographic evidence. It's probably better that way though since they didn't look exactly like this.

Then Wednesday afternoon, I was invited to lunch at one of my co-teacher's houses. She wasn't sure what I would like so she made un montón de comida deliciosa, with which I happily stuffed myself to the brim. I had seriously considered taking my camera along but then I figured that would be on the fine line of creepy that I shouldn't cross when I'm first invited to someone's house for la comida. But I spent some time googling the foods and finding appropriate pictures so you can imagine it! So here we go...

Aperetivo: Huevos rellenos de atún

These hard boiled eggs are stuffed with a tuna mixture that is wonderfully delicious!

La comida: Ensalada rusa

 

Ana told me that every recipe for ensalada rusa is different, but it's very typical in Madrid. It is a potato salad, but it is extremely flavorful because of the strength of flavor in the ingredients. Ana's recipe included: potatoes, red peppers (that she roasts herself), anchovies, olives, a bit of mayonese, and peas. Loved it.

La comida: Bonito con tomate y cebolla

 

 Next, we ate bonito (a fish... they love fish here) cooked with a tomato and onion sauce. We ate it at room temperature, and it was great. Bonito is a very white fish and is pretty dense. I think it is vaguely related to tuna, but don't tell that to Spaniards or they will shake their heads repeatedly at your ignorance. (This last statement also applies to calling setas mushrooms. We're still arguing that one with Juan!)

After finishing the food, I had a Nespresso for the first time! I had seen these things advertised repeatedly when I was in Sevilla and even gone into a store, but it isn't exactly what you would get in a local café. Check out this George Clooney commerical:

The coffee was great but what was even more exciting was the chance to read about all of the pearly, colorful capsules organized in a dark black shiny box. This fancy coffee accompanied by Lindt dark chocolate with orange and almond slivers was the perfect end to a delicious meal, which I gladly told Ana! She had been a little nervous because earlier that day in our 7th grade class I had explained that the word "dessert" in U.S. English refers to something quite different than the fruit you are offered at the end of a meal here. (We were practicing homonyms/homophones: The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.) I recounted a few comical stories about receiving an orange instead of cake or cookies when I was first studying abroad, but ended with my reflection that it was much healthier and I quite enjoyed the fruit at the end of the meal now! All's well that ends well... I hope I get invited back soon! Next week? Same time same place? ;)

Tomorrow Napala and I will be baking again; this time for Juan's birthday! He requested a chocolate cake so we must go on a hunt for the proper ingredients. We'll have to pay close attention since when we made the pancakes we bought brown sugar (as in sugar that is brown, unrefined sugar), rather than the brown sugar that we are used to in the U.S. Wish us luck and if you have any simple but stellar recipes, send them our way!

One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating. -Luciano Pavarotti 

Much love,
Amber

A break from the routine

As I've settled in, it has become increasingly more difficult to think of interesting blog topics. This week, however, was a break from the routine and I have quite a few exciting events to recount...

I made pisto from scratch! Okay, excitement over. I've definitely had better. I think I need to try another recipe. Also, I had a bit of a mix-up with translating ingredients and buying produce at the grocery store... I ended up buying 2 kilograms of cucumber instead of zucchini. After some research, I found out that you can in fact cook cucumber like zucchini so I just switched out the ingredients. Not bad, but I will be eager to try it again with a different recipe and the correct ingredients. That is, when I ever finish eating this batch. I've eaten it 3 times, given some to Napala, and I still have two containers frozen in the freezer...

Pisto for dinner on Sunday night

Monday was Napala's birthday! So I got my arts and crafts game on and made her card a little more interesting. Even more interesting was watching the waiter at the restaurant stare at her as she put together a puzzle.

Juan was convinced this was the coolest thing he had ever seen.

I GOT A PACKAGE! Yes, my mother is AWESOME.  She sent my down comforter, which has made the nights infinitely more cozy. I've stopped sleeping in my robe (I'm good in my short sleeve shirt) and using my Ikea blanket. Now I have something to build up to when winter comes.

Thank goodness for space bags. And yes, York Peppermint Patties made it in the box.

My mother would sew a heart into my comforter. Love you Mom!

Tuesday night was the Spain vs. France soccer game, which I had the joy of watching with my French roommate and her Spanish boyfriend. We took guesses on the score and chatted about the use of words such as "corner" and "penalty" in Spanish. As the game continued, my other roommates made it home and joined in on the gathering. After being here for two and a half weeks and seeing everyone in passing, it was wonderful to spend some time hanging out with them. When the game finished we chatted about languages, foods (Elody was explaining corn dogs to Luis... I'm so proud of our American culinary inventions), and whether or not being a fan of the Barcelona team was the same as supporting the Catalan movement to secede from Spain. (Carol is a Barcelona fan instead of Real Madrid, which Luis does not approve of. Apparently most of the girls in Spain like the Barcelona because the players are attractive, but all of the guys are die-hard supporters of Real Madrid. The conversation ended with Carol threatening to hang a Catalan flag in the living room and Luis planning to build a wall separating her room from the rest of the apartment. LOVE IT.)

I took the opportunity of us all being together to introduce my roommates to Hershey's chocolate as well. For those of you who know me, it is a pretty big deal that I shared my limited supply of York Peppermint patties (freshly arrived from Hershey!) with anyone. But I did, and they loved it! I guess I know what I'm bringing back after Christmas...

Wednesday night, Spanish class became real life in a whole new way. For anyone who has gone through a high school Spanish class, you know who Juanes is. He's a favorite for teachers from schools all over. His songs are perfect for those "fill in the blank" listening activities because they are catchy but quite varied in verb tense and grammatical structure. Okay, enough about the pedagogy of using songs as listening activities. The important thing is: I saw Juanes live in concert!

When Napala and I got there, we were surprised, however, to find that many of the people who were at the concert were older than us (or other U.S. students). Then we realized that it was about 7-8 years ago that we were listening to Juanes for the first time. Wow.  Nevertheless, it was super fun and we enjoyed the group of 30 year old women in front of us having the equivalent of Bieber Fever over every song that they played.

Fulfilling every Spanish student's dream...

Below is a link to one of my favorite Juanes songs, though of course they are all wonderful. I have a whole new appreciation for the songs after seeing the number of people that are in the band! Besides Juanes himself, there were 2 back-up singers, 3 guitarists, 3 drum players, a piano player, a trumpet player, a trombone player, and a saxophone player. Quite the group!

The work week (for me) finished off with a trip to see a fellow Fulbrighter play at an open mic night at an Irish pub. Everyone there spoke English. Napala and I lasted about an hour before we jetted out, wondering how many of the study abroad students spend way too much time there. 

But it was all good because we had made it into an event by going to El Cisne Azul, a restaurant that specializes in setas (mushrooms), beforehand. Though we obviously didn't fit in at this bity local joint, Napala and I squeezed our way up against the bar (the woman gave us quite the glare when we tried to sit down at a table that was opening up) and we ate the best mushrooms and greatest chorizo I've ever had. Thank you to Napala's professor's chef friend (this is pretty much the way I connect with people now) for the suggestion!

Now before I go (and before you all think Spain is paradise), I must recount my trip to the Oficina de los Extranjeros (Foreigner's office) yesterday.

After gathering all of the documents for my NIE and taking an hour long metro ride, I headed off to the office that had no address. Awesome. I found another Fulbrighter and began the walk in the direction of the massive Carrefour, feeling hopeful that we would also find the office. Five minutes into the walk, we weren't so confident and decided to ask the next people we saw. Shortly after, two young people started walking toward us. Then, as we began to ask them, the guy said "Oh hey!" and we realized they were also Fulbrighters. Go figure. He had talked to his friends and found out it was the opposite direction; it was a big yellow and blue circus-like building that could be seen in the distance.

We arrived at the office, went through security, and got in a winding line of people for our "appointments." Yes, they give you an appointment to go wait in line (which was being monitored by police) for 2 hours. So fun. And when I finally arrived at the first desk (there is then a series of desks that you have to wait in line for to get your fingerprints taken, etc.), I was told that my number was messed up and my appointment was not yesterday. Whaaaaaaaaat?

This happened to about 10 Fulbrighters, so Victoria came rushing over and made sure the woman got my phone number so she could call me about when my appointment actually was. (No, there was never any hope of just moving my appointment so the 4 hour excursion was worth it.) The woman (unwillingly) took my phone number and repeatedly told Victoria that she wasn't going to call me. 

So I have no idea when my appointment is, but Victoria told me to go back in 10 days if they didn't call me. I will probably have to have Fulbright call over and verify that before I waste another 4 hours standing outside a building that looks like a bizarre mix of a jail and a circus.

Moral of the story? Don't complain about waiting in lines or scheduling for appointments in the U.S.A. It is, in fact, quite efficient.

But for now, I'm forgetting about it. I'm enjoying my cozy sweater, slippers, and new Cinnamon and Mandarin candle. Now onto a few e-mails before rejoining life outside my bedroom!

Much love,

Amber

El Puente

Puente = long weekend = all of the Spaniards get super excited and travel around the country. But since every weekend is a long weekend for me, I hung around Madrid. With absolutely no plans and an excessive head start on my lesson plans for the next week, I had no idea what I was going to do with my weekend. Luckily, I didn't need plans because once it got rolling, one thing lead to another and I entertained myself quite well.

Friday morning I went to the Columbus Day parade with my French roommate and her boyfriend. It was quite scaled down because of the crisis but it was pretty interesting to see all of the different branches of the military all dressed up.

The branch that hangs out in the mountains, with their skis and all!

During lunch later that day (after a wonderful nap), I found out that all of the museums were free for the day. So I met up with Napala and Eugene (a Russian who was visiting her... long story, but the result is us dragging him along for 2 days) and we went to El Prado (classic art) and La Reina Sofia (modern art). Everyone I've talked to is baffled that I went to both in one day since they are ginormous. I then have to explain that we were in each for less than two hours because we went at the end of the day.

After the museums, we met up with Dan and Juanaco to see a basketball game between Real Madrid and Panathinaikos Athens.

Yes, we were in the nose bleed section. But it was only 8€...

Saturday morning I met up with Carol and Clara for breakfast at VIPS. It was wonderful to see them both and I got to check out the Spanish attempt at an American breakfast. I decided to go big and order the desayuno americano: eggs, home fries, and two pancakes. The eggs and home fries were good, but lets just say I'm better off making my own pancakes from scratch.

Then Napala, Eugene, Dan, Juan (different from Juanaco), and I went hiking in Manzanares el Real, located about 35 minutes outside of the city. Great fun!

A wonderful day away from the city

 Eugene, taking a picture of the mountain goat...

 

The whole gang

 

  

Coming back down. You might've guessed that we didn't follow the paths. We just went straight up the mountain.

 Checking out the exterior of the castle in the city.

The rest of the weekend consisted of watching Juan make the tortilla española (he's a pro... I still haven't attempted it myself), going grocery shopping (by the way, a very nice madrileño opened the metro door for me when my arms were loaded down with my purchases), running in Retiro with Napala, and eating gelato (pear and lemon: DELICOUS). I couldn't have planned a better puente if I had actually made plans.

Now, before I leave, I must make a comment on using subtleties in another language. They do not work. Apparently yesterday my roommate and her boyfriend were talking about how someone was using her olive oil while I was standing in the kitchen right next to them. And by right next to them I mean we were probably touching because there's hardly room for two people in our kitchen, let alone three. They were trying to figure out who it was and assumed that since I didn't say anything, it wasn't me. False. It was me. The olive oil is kept among all the spices, which we do share. However, the olive oil is apparently only kept there because it doesn't fit in the cupboard. So for the past two weeks I've been stealing from my roommate without knowing it. Lo siento...

I know its stupid to feel bad about it (the liter of oil probably costs 2€), but I do. Its embarrassing that if I'm not tuned in, I completely miss what someone is saying. I nod and smile when I don't know what people are saying because I'm too embarrassed to keep asking for them to repeat themselves. There's a constant struggle of wanting to seem competent and being humble enough to ask the questions required to actually become competent. 

My experiences at home are teaching me the grace that I need to show to the teachers at my school. They studied English just like I studied Spanish and they often misunderstand my plans or my questions. I am learning that is most helpful to be direct with them and explain my perspective thoroughly when situations get confusing. Down with subtleties! There's no reason to be overly polite when there's a language barrier. As John Mayer says in a song that I highly dislike but can't help thinking of right now:

Take out of your wasted honor  

Every little past frustration  

Take all your so called problems  

Better put them in quotations  

Say what you need to say  

(This phrase is then repeated an excessive number of times. You get the point.)

I hope that I can stick to this. I honestly believe languages are meant to teach humility and grace. In a part of life so critical to understanding one another, we must be patient with one another. We owe it to the people around us to say what we are thinking instead of letting our untold thoughts dictate our relationships. Yes, this is going beyond stealing olive oil. But it's some food for thought. Or better yet, discussion.

Much love,

Amber

Teaching Tales: Edition 1

The Mystery of the Missing Class

Today I went to class to find a completely empty room. Okay, there were backpacks and books... but no students. No teacher either. Odd.

Confused, I found the hall monitor (yes, there are multiple people who are pai to sit in the hallway all day) and we both triple checked my schedule to confirm that I was, in fact, in the right place at the right time. Then we began to wander the hallway, thinking that maybe my teacher had moved across the hall since the room we are normally in doesn't have a working computer or projector.

Finally, after peering through the windows of the classrooms and talking to a few wandering students, the hall monitor turned to me and said, "Well maybe they are on strike. There is a student strike today."
Whaaaaaaat? I looked at him and inquired, "An entire class just decided to go on strike? Is this normal?"
"Well... no. A whole class normally doesn't go on strike. And they were here this morning."
"Okay, so did they all just decide to go on strike after the break time?"
"Hmmm, well there is no teacher either. This is strange. Stay here and I'll go look for them."
Vale...

 Surely if they went on strike they would have taken their backpacks...

20 minutes after class had started, he came back with news that they had switched to a room in the other building. I made my way over and when I walked in, the teacher showered apologies upon me. She told me that she completely forgot that I came to that class twice weekly and so she had switched the room without telling me. No big deal... but suddenly I was confused. AGAIN. I hadn't been to that class yet that week. After another 5 minutes of looking at my schedule and whispering with a nearby student, I finally interrupted the teacher to let her know that I had yet to give my lesson to the class.

Soooooooo, I ended up with 25 minutes to teach a 60 minute lesson. And I thought Upward Bound was the learn-to-be-flexible experience of my life.

However, it's amazing to see how the general calmness and flexibility of the culture here has rubbed off on me. I'm sure many of you can attest to my normal desires to have control and to get things done efficiently. Yet today as I was sitting in a classroom alone, I was not anxious in the slightest. Que será, será, right?

Also this episode had a nice fringe benefit: she promised me coffee next week :)

The Land of Happy

In my 1°ESO (7th grade) English classes this week, we read "The Land of Happy" by Shel Silverstein.

Have you been to The Land of Happy,

Where everyone’s happy all day,

Where they joke and they sing

Of the happiest things,

And everything’s jolly and gay?

There’s no one unhappy in Happy,

There’s laughter and smiles galore.

I have been to The Land of Happy –

What a bore!

I then challenged the students to write a paragraph describing what they think The Land of Happy would be like. After hearing students describe streets lined with lollipops, islands that rained chocolate, schools where you only learned about sports, and excessive amounts of trampolines and swimming pools, I found myself extremely impressed by the students who understood the final line: "What a bore!" It was fun to see 11 and 12 year olds write that The Land of Happy was a trap; they told me that changes in emotion was necessary to understand happiness. Later, when asked whether people were happy in Spain despite the crisis, many argued yes, saying that people could find happiness by the simple experience of being with friends and family. What smart kids!

Death and Dying

 I used these Story Cubes (thanks, Mom!) for the first time this week. By the time I got to the last class, they all started chatting eagerly when I mentioned the story. Apparently word had gotten out that I had really cool dice and they were way more excited about them than I expected. Simple pleasures...

My 3°ESO (9th grade) English students were a little less positive than the 1°ESO students. When writing a story using the Story Cubes to practice using parallel students, many students revealed rather dark creative souls. Here are just a few excerpts (w/o corrections) from all different stories:

• "But instead of living a rich life he died."
•  "One day Marta get angry and she set fire over all the village. All the people was killed and Marta has a bigger garden now."
• "And he slipped on the banana peel and died." Note: He was standing next to an open elevator shaft.

And that doesn't even include the story about the friends who went into the forest looking for a magical mushroom that they could commit suicide with. That story didn't actually include death because they misidentified the mushroom and instead of getting out of a world that was filled with horrible things, they were doomed to see it as happy.

I guess they are in what you would call an "emo" stage?

The Self-sufficient Teacher

Fulbright had warned us that teacher strikes are possible and the previous Fulbrighter at my school had advised me not to listen to the teachers' sob stories. But as an educator myself, I can't help but take note of the trying conditions of the education system here.

First off, students have to buy their own books. This isn't the end of the world, though I'm sure it is not something parents look forward to spending their money on. But for the teachers, it puts an extra challenge on getting the school year started. They are almost five weeks into the school year and there are still students who do not have their books. Yet because Spain is in crisis and the families are responsible for buying them, there is not much the teachers can do.

Also, as I mentioned in my story about the Mystery of the Missing Class, the classrooms are very low on technology. In fact, I have only used handouts and chalkboards in my three weeks of lessons. (I remember the days when I thought a projector was out of date. It would be AWESOME to have projectors in every class.) There are working computers/computer projectors in a few rooms but since every section is in a different room, I can't plan a lesson around technology that I will only have a third(ish) of the time.

But my history teacher has taken it upon herself to remedy the situation. Every day she brings her own laptop, computer projector, and iPhone (which she uses to hotspot the internet to the laptop). Oh wait, and she has 0 minutes in between classes to take it all down, pack it up, switch classrooms (sometimes buildings), and set it up in the next class. I am not jealous in the least.

The Shot Heard 'Round the World

No, I'm not referring to the battle of Lexington and Concord. I'm referring to the $2,500 electrical stapler that I had to use to staple 31 copies of a two-page article together. I'm pretty sure this thing was meant to bind books, not staple two pages together.

It doesn't look that big, but this sucker is only slightly smaller than a shoebox.

(Most) every time I stuck in my mere two sheets of paper, it sensed the presence and emitted a boom that echoed throughout the entire marble first floor of offices. AWESOME. But since I was putting only two papers in, it didn't always go off immediately. So it took at least twice as long and made 80 billion times the noise. Oh well, it was around siesta time so maybe I helped keep one of the secretaries from dozing off at his/her desk.

Alright, that's all folks! Stay tuned for the Flat Who Saw a Cockroach But Then Cleaned the Floor with Ammonium, Plugged Every Tiny Hole in the Wall, and Bought a Cockroach Trap So That It Never Saw A Cockroach Again (long title, I know) and stories from my puente! (Yes, since Columbus was funded by a Spanish king and queen, we celebrate Columbus Day too!)

Much love,
Amber

P.S. I have my first bruise from a dance class in a long time. So happy.
P.P.S. I'm in love with the view from my window.

 Then King David went in and sat before the Lord, and he said: "Who am I, O Sovereign Lord, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?"

2 Samuel 7:18

Making a house a home.

By 4:00 in the afternoon yesterday (10 AM your time!) I had: gone to two banks (one to get the money, the other to deposit) to pay my rent, tried out a new pastelería for a napolitana chocolate (half of it was really good... the half that actually got the chocolate filling), explored IKEA, bought organization items galore for my room, put said items together, reorganized all of my belongings, gone shopping for fruits/vegetables for lunch, cooked lunch, and started writing this blog post. Then I took a break for a skype date with the bestie! But I'm back and here to continue updating you on my life...

Here are the promised photos of my room!

It feels so good to have decorated and picked up a few things to make it homier. The desk without a chair (¡9,99 €!) was rather problematic for using the desk, but the bedside table (¡7,99 €!) is just a homey touch made me excited to put my book down before bed last night.

From the doorway

Check out the PA map... don't worry Michiganders, I'm not that in love with PA. But since it was laying around I figured it could spice up my white box. Also note the beautiful quilt made by Brenda Sue herself!

My desk, complete with a Hope College water bottle, which luckily I have not lost yet. They don't use reusable water bottles here so I don't want to have to replace it. Also note all of my "presents" from the super awesome UB coaches on my bulletin board. UBelong here with me!

Hot pink boxes helped to organize my clothing better and make the room a bit brighter. My closet is also rather large considering not a single other apartment I looked at even had a closet built in to the room. (Yes, my hamper is full. No, I haven't done laundry in my new apartment yet.)

So yeah, basically Ikea is awesome. I got everything in one place and had quite the afternoon putting it all together. When I finally finished and started eating lunch at 3:15, my flatmate looked at me and said, "Comes muy tarde, ¿no? " (You eat really late, no?). Whooooooa, I'm eating late by a Spaniard's standards! I then had to explain that I would have eaten earlier, but I had gotten distracted by my Ikea purchases. Who wouldn't?


Now in regards to my job: this week's classes finished off well and I am really enjoying having the other auxiliares at school. I finally have friends to sit with during the break and swap stories about the funny questions kids ask. They also experienced the overwhelming questions of favorite color, number, band, etc. :)

However, I have also discovered a challenging situation in two of my classes. In both an English class and a history class, I have a student who is hearing impaired. The student has a hearing aid and a device that I wear around my neck in order for her to hear me. However, the focus of my classes with these students is to prepare them for a Model UN debate at the end of February/beginning of March. Thus we will be doing a great deal of debating in addition to the normal class discussion, group work, etc. My problem is what to do with the device that enables the student to hear. It seems it would be best for us to pass it around, but that could slow the process and might prohibit students from having fluid discussions or chiming in with questions/counter arguments. I'm not sure how the special education system works here, but none of the teachers here seem to recognize that the student is unable to fully participate because she can't hear; instead they've commented to me that she seems to be absent minded. My first priority is to educate the student, but this may be a tricky subject when I bring it up with teachers who I will be working with all year and who have more experience with the student than I. If anyone has any suggestions on this subject, I'd love to hear them!

Another challenge I had on Thursday was a teacher just not showing up to class. Teachers are often late since they are the ones to switch classrooms (instead of the students) and there is 0 minutes for passing time. Thus one class ends at the exact time that another class starts. Also, because I'm not recognized as a teacher here, I am not allowed to be in a room by myself with the students. Therefore, I am supposed to wait until the teacher gets there to start my lesson. For the beginning, I think this is helpful for the teacher too because they can see how my lessons flow. But on Thursday, after waiting for 15 minutes, I decided I would just start without the teacher and hope she came soon. After I got the students started in their discussion, I went up to one of the girls in the front row and asked, "Do you know when your teacher is coming?" to which she responded, "I don't know... she left class yesterday and didn't come back." Perfect.

I then sent the girl for a guardia, which is a teacher who is signed up to act as a substitute teacher for that given hour. The guardias will sometimes have a worksheet given to them by the teacher, but most times they just sit in the room with the students and make sure it doesn't get too rowdy. After about 10 minutes of the guardias running around trying to figure out where my teacher was and who was going to sit in my class, a teacher finally came in. She was a little confused when I told her that she just had to sit there because legally I couldn't be alone with the students, but by the end I think she was enjoying my discussion of prom, high school lunch, and reunions. Maybe she learned something new too! After class I talked with my coordinator and found out that apparently the teacher had a meeting with the Bachillerato students (11th and 12th grade) and didn't bother to tell anyone or account for her class. When in Spain....

Now onto food: I bought my first liter of fresh milk! Super exciting! I went to a bigger grocery store 20 minutes away and had great success. I even found chocolate syrup to make some chocolate milk :)

No, it's not Hershey's. But it will do.

And this afternoon, I went on a picnic in Retiro Park with Napala.  The weather was gorgeous (75°F), so we couldn't resist being outside!

 Queso, jamón, pan, and to make things slightly more balanced, fruits an vegetables!

After lunch we took a walk around the park and we saw...

 GIANT bubbles! Fun!

 And finally, we headed back to Napala's apartment to drop off the leftover food (aka leftover jamón... we ate everything else) and to check out an Italian gelato place by her apartment.

Hazelnut and coffee. AMAZING.

Houston, we have a problem. This gelatería is located right between Napala's apartment and my apartment (we are only a 15-20 minute walk from each other!). And this place is open every day. We spent forever trying to decide what flavors to get... we had to remind ourselves that we would (definitely) be coming back (regularly). Mmmmmmmmm... 

Go figure this is also located three stores down from the pandería that has the best napolitana chocolate (chocolate croissant) that I've had in the city so far. If I walk to Napala's flat, it's healthier than taking the metro. But if I walk to Napala's flat, I will probably consume something deliciously bad for me. Such is life.

Okay, one last story before I leave. Today on my way to Retiro park, I was on the Metro with a man who is blind. I noticed him because of the way he was stroking papers against his body, reading braille; the seeing eye dog was completely out of my range of vision with the craziness of the metro. While being jostled around by the people and turns of the metro ride, I began to consider all the challenges of being blind and trying to ride the metro, a seemingly simple task.

First off, it's a maze in there. It would take so much practice and guidance from others to learn which platform to even get on. Then, one would have to figure out where the doors opened up, not even taking into account which door was least crowded. And then I consider how I am constantly watching my purse and shifting myself around to take into account all of the other people on the train. I can't even imagine having to do that all without the sense of sight. So today, I just wanted to say that I am thankful for my sight. I'm thankful that I am able to see my friends and family via Skype this weekend. I am thankful I could see the flowers lining the fountains in Retiro park. I am thankful I can see my computer screen to upload my pictures and write to all of you. I take my sight for granted every single day. But at least for the rest of today, I will not. And now I challenge you, what have you seen today that you can be thankful for?

Much love,

Amber

Settling in.

I moved into my apartment. Wahooooooo! It feels good to have keys to an apartment and to be able to tell people where I live. Of course, it's not all rainbows and butterflies. Here are a few pros and cons of the current situation.

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.

Cons.

• 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:

conTemporary class*clase de conTemporáneo (2012) from barbara on Vimeo.

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.

"Did you bring chocolate with you?"

Is this where you go to read a book in between errands and house church?

 This polideportivo (outdoor public sports center) has a golf course in the middle.

Okay, not all of my life is that good. On Tuesday, I had to go to more orientation. Which means I heard the obscure story about the girl waking up with her finger cut off and the drunk guy who walked into the river and drowned himself twice each. Awesome.

 Aka, more doodles.

Wednesday afternoon I went to get my empadronamiento form filled out. This is basically like registering in a census and it's required to get your NIE (Número de Identificación Extranjeros) card. I made my appointment according to my class schedule, which of course got changed again. So I ended up with an awkward 3 hour gap between my last class and the appointment. After doing my devotions at our school café, I decided I would go find the building and go to another café and read my book until the appointment.

Is the coffee addiction finally coming to claim me? 
Gotta love that my school has their own sugar packets.

On my walk there, I thought about using my Spanish as a second language to pretend like I thought the appointment was at doce (12) instead of dos (2). But instead I figured I would just be honest, check-in, and see if they could get me in sooner. When I arrived, I clearly explained (in Spanish) to the receptionist that "Yes, I have an appointment but it isn't until 2:40. But I was already in the neighborhood and it doesn't make sense to go home and come back so I will just wait." To which he responded, "Do you (e)speak English?" To which I responded, "Sí...." This continued into a banter of him telling me multiple times in English that it wasn't time for my appointment and me explaining multiple times in Spanish that I knew and I would just wait, no pasa nada. Buuuuuut, I ended up being seen 15 minutes later. I think he felt like he did his good service of the day by helping the girl who messed up doce and dos. Little does he know...

On Wednesday night, I transferred by stein night tradition to a tapas tradition and went out to a fabulous tapas restaurant with Napala and Erica. Everyone there already knows Erica... Napala and I are determined to join the regular list.

 Papas bravas and ali oli, wild mushrooms with jamón, and calamari. Mmmmmmmm. (Excuse the quality... in an effort to blend in I use my phone camera instead of my SLR.)

That is the extent of my non-school related activities, but I do have a bit to tell you about what it is like to give a lesson about yourself (approximately) 16 different times. Mind you, each introduction includes about 35 minutes of questioning. I've never had so many people so interested (or at least pretending to be interested) in my life before. (Why would I? Life in Hershey or Holland doesn't exactly scream attention.) But it seems that once the teachers decide to diverge from their lesson plan, they have no plans of returning to it. Instead they walk around and single kids out to ask yet another question. Here are some of my favorite exchanges...

• Does everyone in the United States have a gun? Noooooo. In the United States we have what's called "the right to bear arms," which has nothing to do with wearing a short sleeve t-shirt, but does allow people in the U.S. to have a gun. However, there are a lot of people who don't like this and wish that people weren't allowed to have guns. As with anything, there are multiple perspectives. And there are plenty of people who do not have guns.
• How did you get a job in (e)Spain? Because it's REALLY hard to get a job here right now. Well I was very blessed to get a job here. But actually, part of the reason I got a job here is because of the economic crisis that you are in. The government realized that it can be hard for people to get a job so they want to make people better prepared. Thus, they decided to hire people like me so that you guys can develop really good English skills and get good jobs when you enter the work force.
• What's your favorite number? Well, I don't think I have one but when I did it was 16. I think that's because I thought 16 was cool because I could drive when I am 16.
• Do you like Justin Bieber? Only if I'm with other people who like Justin Bieber.
• What is your favorite NBA team? I can't say that I have one; I don't really watch basketball (cough cough I NEVER watch basketball cough cough).
• Who's your favorite Spanish football (soccer) team? I didn't have an allegiance before but now that I am in Madrid don't I have to say Real Madrid? (Smiles come across every student's face... right answer, Amber.)
• How old are you? I don't know if I should tell you that!    
• Okay, when were you born? Fine, I was born in 1990. (They all freak out: What?!? You are too young!) I am not too young. I graduated from college and have been living independently (kind of) from my parents for about four years. It's different from Spain, where people live with their parents until they are in their late 20s and don't graduate until they are 24-25. One way is not better than the other; there is a strong sense of family that is developed from spending so much time together. But since I lived 10.5 hours a way from my parents, I had to take care of my laundry, cook for myself, take care of myself when I got sick, etc. So now I think I'm old enough to be here!
• What would you do if you were rich? I would travel all around South and Central America. I have been to Spain 3 times now and if I had the money I would use it to see some other Spanish-speaking cultures first hand. 
• Did you bring any chocolate with you? Not this time... after Christmas I will!

This is only a small sampling of the questions that I got asked. I guess when you have the characteristic of being from another country, everything and anything becomes interesting. But at this point I'm ready for people to stop asking me what my favorite __________ is!

And there you have it. I am still getting over a cold, but I am pushing through to head up to Santander this weekend. A bunch of other Fulbrighters are working up there so Napala and I are going to visit a few and see the city before it gets too cold! I'll update with pictures when I come back!

Much love,
Amber