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

El Camino: The Way

“But the beauty is in the walking; we are betrayed by destinations.” - Gwyn Thomas

I did something exciting!

This weekend I took a bus to Logroño to hike two days of El Camino with Annette, Mark, and Lisa (friends I met at church). The Camino is something I wanted to do ever since seeing the movie The Way and reading about it online.

The Camino is organized in 30 etapas, or stages. We did two of the etapas and the details of each one are included for your reference. I hope you enjoy this brief photographic walk (no pun intended! except I did intend it...) through my short journey :)

Etapa 8

 

The first day we went from Logroño to Nájera, which is a total of 29.6 km, or 18.4 miles. We left Madrid at 8 AM (the 1 AM bus was full), which means I left my apartment at 7:15 AM. It doesn't normally take me that long to get there but I had to account for the strikes... again.

We arrived in Logroño at 12:30, which is the time that most peregrinos (pilgrims) are finishing. Nobody wants to walk in the afternoon heat. Except for us...

The tile arrow pointing the way through the city in Logroño. These are more trustworthy than the spray painted yellow arrows. Anyone could buy a can of spray paint and take the peregrinos 5 km out of the way...

 Nevertheless, we followed the spray painted arrows through the city.

The area we walked through was La Rioja, which is a region known for its red wine. We walked through vineyards both days.

 

You can always find an arrow leading the way... 

 

 

Sometimes the journey would take us along the road; luckily the cars know to avoid peregrinos. 

We walked alongside these crosses for about 30 minutes. Most consisted of sticks or flowers which were woven into the fence.

Then the camino would take you through tiny cities (like really tiny... one of the towns we wanted to stay in had a population of 220 people) where the locals would try to convince you to check out their historical land marks. I loved looking at the quaint buildings and if we had had more time, I would have loved to check out a church or two during the journey. Unfortunately, when you have so many hours of walking ahead of you, you're not too keen or reading every historical plaque.

 The cobbled streets of Navarette

After about 11 km, we arrived in Navarette. This took about 2 and a half hours and since we had to get our peregrino booklets to legitimize ourselves (many albergues will only allow peregrinos to stay there), we didn't leave Logroño until about 1:30 PM. During lunch, we tried to decide what to do with the rest of the day. 

 My first plate from lunch, a typical salad.

The etapa called for us to walk another 18 km, but since it was so late in the day, we thought we would stay in a smaller town and walk a little extra the next day. Unfortunately, when we called the albergues in Sotés and Ventosa, we found out that there was no room in the inn. Thus a little before 6 PM (we were delayed by some rain), we set out again on the Camino to walk another 4 hours. We played a lot of "Zap", a word game that I learned at Jackie's grad party and played on family vacation to kill downtime. I didn't know it was possible to play for 3 straight hours....

On a positive note, since we were walking at such an abnormal time, we saw the sun set over Nájera. It made walking with the sun in our eyes for hours on end worth it.

 Sunset over Nájera

When we finally got to our albergue, the girl sighed, "Finally! You guys took it nice and slow!" She totally thought it took us 16 hours to walk the 29 km. When we told her that we started at 1:30, she could hardly believe us. It seems they all thought the sun would melt us.

Etapa 9

On Saturday, we got up at 7:15 AM and left with a bunch of other peregrinos. 7:15 is actually kind of late though; the earlier the better since it is more comfortable to walk in the cool mornings. This walk was pretty flat and only consisted of 21 km, or 13 miles.

It was more fun to walk with the other peregrinos since we would run into the same groups multiple times throughout the day. We saw them in Azofra (where we stopped for breakfast) and then again at the watering hole at the top of a rather steep hill. (The hill wasn't too bad, except for the fact that it kept winding so that every time you thought you had reached the top you were sorely disappointed.) Then, lastly we saw them when we were sitting outside, eating our menú del peregrinos. The menú de peregrinos is the pilgrim's menu; it is a typical 3 course Spanish lunch but it has earlier hours to account for the early hours of the pilgrims. Needless to say, everyone had bigger smiles when they were out of their backpacks and eating, than when they were trekking up the hill.

 Hearty breakfast for a peregrino

We made friends with two Canadian ladies who were doing the entire Camino over about 40 days. There are 30 etapas (so normally it takes 30 days), but they were planning on breaking up the larger etapas (some etapas are 38 km!) into smaller chunks. Since they are retired and the one woman is 70 (awesome!!!), we approve of their methods.

They had discovered in their first 7 days that they had different walking paces, so we ended up splitting up and walking with them. Lisa was happy to have someone to walk with at a slower pace and gloated at breakfast about how she had found "her match". The fact that her match was 70 years old didn't bother her if she could claim that it was the wisdom of her elder that let her try the grapes, which we had discouraged her from doing the day before :)

Another great part of Saturday was the sheep! Right after we passed them, the shepherd brought them onto the Camino and they completely filled it. Although Lisa was convinced it would be fun to walk among them, I was happy to have avoided the excess of flies that accompanied them.

That would have been a lot of sheep to walk through!

Up closer and even more personal than the PA farm show.

Wahoo! Another awkward photo of me :) But here's some proof that I didn't just download all of these pictures from the internet. Also Jackie, please note that I am repping my t-shirt with Dutch on the back. Too bad he was covered up by my backpack.

Second plate of my lunch. The reward for arriving!

We finished in Santo Domingo, which is a city known for the legend about "El gallo y la gallina." In this story, a peregrino is wrongly accused of making advances on a local girl, and is hung. But wait! He is saved by Santo Domingo! His parents hear his voice and then go to the town to tell the judge that their son is as as alive as the chicken that he was about to eat. And obviously, the chicken on the judge's plate then began to sing. There you have it.

If you know Spanish (or want to pretend you do) here's a YouTube video recounting the story with a bit more detail:

Or if you could care less about the milagro, just know that it gave me reason to eat this cute little chocolate chicken.

Each chicken was a different kind of chocolate (milk, white, dark), filled with a truffle-ish chocolate inside of a different variety.

Well, that's all folks! I hope you enjoyed my brief experience with the Camino as much as I did! I can't wait to do more :)

Until next time,

Amber

Disclaimer: This blog records my personal thoughts and reflections; it is not reflective of the positions held by the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.

First day(s) of school!

Waiiiiiiiiiit, I came here to work?!?! Oh yeah! With all this hanging about and trying to get settled, I almost forgot that I had work responsibilities! Here's a brief recount of my first day(s) of school...

Monday

According to Fulbright, Monday was my first day of work. But when I e-mailed my coordinator, he decided it would be better for me to just come in for a tour. So while many of my peers were fighting the even heavier than usual morning commuter traffic (the Metro workers were striking during commute hours by only running half of the trains), I went for a run and lollygagged over to school to be there at 11:00. After a brief tour and a café, I was sent home and told not to come in the next day on account of my coordinator not having time to make me a schedule.

Tuesday

My job was a walk in the park. But literally... since I didn't have to go to work I took a very long walk in Parque de Buen Retiro (Park of the Pleasant Retreat). This park was once a private green space for the Royal Family, but is now one of the biggest and most popular parks in Madrid. I didn't know much about the history or features of the park until I googled it; here's the Madrid website where you can read a brief historical account if you like! Or you can just check out a few of my pictures...

 

 "The Galápagos fountain was created to honour the birth of Isabel II, and is also one of the more notable artistic works in the park. Built in 1832 by José de Mariategui, it consists of three different tiers decorated with water plants and equipped with water spouts that jet from Galapagos tortoises and frogs. Four small angels, with dolphins and a snail surmount the ensemble and adorn the top of the fountain. The structure has symbolic meaning which all sought to emphasise well-wishing on the occasion of the birth of the queen, so there are allegories of long life, fertility, and the upholding of traditional values such as wisdom and rectitude." (Source: www.esmadrid.com)

 Monument to King Alfonso XII, surrounded by a large artificial pond.

 One of the many statues in El Paseo de la Argentina (or as some call it, "El Paseo de las Estatuas"). This one in particular honors Alfonso I; I'm not sure who the head belongs to.

The site of the following akward conversation...

Enter Amber, sitting on a park bench reading The Poisonwood Bible. After a few moments, she looks up to see a guy on a bike (dressed in exercise clothing) stopped right in front of her, looking around. As soon as she looks up, he looks down at her as if he hadn't noticed he was 2 feet away from her. They make eye contact and the conversation begins... (English translation has been provided for your convenience).

Biker: Good afternoon.

Amber: Hello. Looks back down at book.

Biker: How are you doing?

Amber: Good. Again, looks down at book.

Biker: Good. Are you having a nice day at the park?

Amber: Yep, it's a really nice day. Wonders what the heck this guy is doing.

Biker: Yes, it is. Soooo, you are not from here, are you?

Amber: No (duh).

Biker: You are living here though?

Amber: Yep... Back to the book...

Biker: Where do you come from?

Amber: I'm from the U.S.

Biker: Ohhhh, good. So you speak English. Tries to impress her by saying a few things in English and telling her about his degree in languages.

Amber: Cool. Okay, buddy. Goodbye...

Biker: So you are working here?

Amber: Yes. I am a Conversation Assistant at a high school. Is reminding herself not to mention her school or neighborhood... and back to the book. Isn't he getting the hint?

Biker: Oh, great! Soooo... do you want to go get something to eat or drink?

Amber: Ummm, sorry. I'm waiting for some friends. This is actually true.

Biker: Oh, bummer. Well maybe some other day.

Amber: Smiles, saying nothing that could infer that she has any plans of ever going out with this man.

Biker: When we run into each other.

Amber: Okayyyyyyy. Bye! Thinks to herself, "As if I'm ever going to run into this guy/recognize him again..."
Biker: Okay, bye... Bikes away.
Amber returns to her book, wishing somebody else had been there to witness this bizarre interaction. END SCENE.

 Palacio de Cristal, which showcases exhibitions of modern art.

Picture in from the huge rose garden which was constructed in honor of one of the Chief Gardeners.

Looking out onto the pathway that leads to El Prado.

This monument, Puerta de la Álcala, was constructed in 1764 because King Carlos didn't think the previous gate was big enough to mark the Eastern boarder of the city. The national monument was moved to its current location, outside of Retiro Park, in the 19th century.

And last but not least, I visited El Campo del Moro with some friends from church. This is the park right outside of the Palace and it's filled with peacocks!

Wednesday & Thursday

After my late start, the past two days consisted of getting myself integrated into the classes. I won't bore you with the details but here are a few highlights:

My lovely powerpoint introduction was useless since none of the classes had computers or projects. Oh wait, two did... but the one computer was locked and the other wasn't even plugged in. I was happy I had with me a map of the U.S. (Thanks Dad and Jen!) and, since I hadn't moved in to my apartment yet, a few pictures of Hershey, Holland, and family!

One English class teacher decided that some of the kids were losing interest in my self-introduction, so he decided I would impersonate a famous singer from the U.S. Thus, I spent about 15 minutes answering (incorrectly) questions as if I were Lady Gaga. Some favorites included: How many times have you dyed your hair? Who is Alejandro? What do your parents think about your clothes? I said ridiculous things and got some laughs, but I was totally wishing I had Molly Rivera's knowledge about Lady Gaga.

On the way to the technology class, my cooperating teacher told me I would be introducing myself. After I explained that I had already introduced myself to the class during their English period (the classes don't change here... the students are together all day and the teachers travel to the students' rooms), he stopped me and asked, "What should we do then?" Ummmmm, not sure. I sure don't know Spain's technology curriculcum. After deciding that we would have a discussion about what life would be like without technology, we entered the classroom about 10 minutes late. He introduced me, the topic, and then motioned for me to take over and said he would be my scribe. Awesome.

Another technology class got out of an entire class by asking me questions. Every time they seemed to be finished the teacher would say, "Well if that is it, we will start boring technology...", to which the students responded by raising their hands with an obscure question about a city in the U.S. or my opinions about Spain.

My Global Classrooms teacher (who I spend most of my time with) is awesome! She has high expectations for the students and is very engaging. She also does this awesome spin thing when she decides she needs to change attitudes or start over... what a character! I'll explain more about the Global Classrooms bit later, but if you are too excited to wait, you can read a little bit about it here.

Okay, that's it! Tomorrow I leave to do part of El Camino de Santiago, from Logroño to Santo Domingo, with some friends from church! We are just going for two days, but it should be a fun introduction to the Camino!

Much love, as always.
Amber

Disclaimer: This blog records my personal thoughts and reflections; it is not reflective of the positions held by the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.