Una semana larga

It has indeed been a long week, and I will try to update on only the most important things.


The weekend was quick and relatively uneventful, despite a night out with a great restaurant (and way too much food) and good Cuban music on Saturday and an early morning Sunday to watch New Zealand beat France in the Rugby World Cup Final with Kate. I chose coffee, but did have a good sip of the Breakfast of Champions:

Followed that up with my first TRUE Spanish breakfast: coffee and toast with chopped up tomato on it. Not terribly exciting, but quite typical.


The week has been a LONG one at school. It was the first week my schedule has really been true and it has hit me hard. The rainy Monday morning was tough on the morale, but I am glad to be getting into something more regular. Five hours of teaching Mondays, four hours on Tuesdays followed by two hours of private English lessons for a family of 3 kids (aged 7, 5, and 3) in the amazing suburb of Majadahonda, two hours on Wednesdays with more private lessons for the 7 year old, and then Thursdays normally consist of 2 hours. This week was also a great time to share the wonders of a fabulous piece of USA culture: HALLOWEEN! Here is how I make my own photocopies at home (yes, we have a free copy machine at school, but sometimes it makes more sense to get out of school in the afternoon and do it at home):

I skipped my normal Thursday to accompany the principal and a teacher to Toledo with a group of six Greek and five Norwegian teachers as part of a teacher exchange program the school participates in.

It was a stressful day of trying not to get involved in the scheduling complaints of the visiting teachers while also trying to remain neutral as someone who has seen how disorganized and tough the times are for our school. It was a nice free trip with a great lunch, a visit to the cathedral, and some wanderings while the Norwegian ladies shopped. Here are a few of the fotos I managed to snap... apologies for none of the cathedral, but I have the same building from 4 years ago and how much can a 500 year old building change in 4? Plus, I discovered that there is a reference to Ohio there!

 It's so pretty, above the River Tajo. It was a natural moat back when those things were important. If only it could keep some of the crazy tourists out...

I also have wonderful friend updates: My best friend got a job through the program here and is moving into the city to start at her primary school next week! She has been working in the outskirts for the past year and I am so so glad to have her closer and with a freer schedule! I also have spent more time with a lovely Canadian girl who works in my town (at the school where my co-auxiliar spends his other two days) and am excited to spend some good time with her and friends this weekend. I always wished I were Canadian...

Niños de cada edad

I have had a pretty full week of work, so I apologize for the silence. I think I put enough out last week that I was safe for a bit, but we're starting to push it.


This past weekend I spent most of my time resting, sleeping, reading, and sleeping some more to try to get over the sore throat that attacked me mid-week last week. That would be why you heard so much from me then! Saturday afternoon, when my friend got off of work with the kiddies, we met up for some girl time at my place, topped off with a trip to our chocolatería (where I went for the one I had my eyes on allll week - dark chocolate) for chocolate con porras (bigger than a churro - check out the foto!), but it wasn't much different from the normal chocolate. Next time? Maybe the one with coffee? How good does that sound? Imagine the chocolate right here with coffee in it too...

Sunday was another relaxed day, topped off by an evening with Spanish friends, watching TV - If there's one way to improve your understanding, that has to be it: sitting in a room of Spanish-speakers watching TV with them. And discussing Halloween costumes, of course...


This week I have worked a nearly-complete schedule of classes and am really enjoying my students. I have been with the juniors and seniors I spend half of my time with, but also had some good classes with students at the 8th grade age, 7th grade, and even classes of auto mechanics with people between 19 and 30 years old. The older ones are great because they're mature, but the young ones are so CUTE! I am really enjoying it!


Tomorrow is a strike for the teachers, so I have to contact the teacher I am with to make sure she is coming before I get on the bus in the morning. Thursdays are looking like they will be a fairly relaxed day of very little class, so that's a nice way to end the week. I am also busy scheduling meetings with parents who want a native-speaker to spend some afternoons with their young children to improve their English. I think it'll be a great way to make some traveling/shopping money (I'm always looking for ways to help their economy, it is la crisis after all...) and balance out the older kids that I will spend most of my time with. Should be yet another adventure, but a gainful one!


How is the fall shaping up for y'all? The temperature has just started dropping here, with all our high afternoon temps in the 70s, perfect for an after-school run (which I am about to set out on right now!).

Halloween!

We're in the midst of making some big Halloween costume decisions around here, so I'd love some creativity from my readers! We need to dress up, since it's not a big holiday here but it is starting to grow and as the USA representatives among our friends, we need to do something great! But it has to be something the Spaniards will understand, ideally will not make us look awful, we don't want to scare people, and we'd like to not spend too much money.... Bring on your creativity! Prizes for the winner!

Trabajo

I have had a tough tough week. I started work and, get ready for it, have worked all of 4 hours. I've been keeping myself plenty busy with other things, so I'll share all of it, but it's nice to have a little work finally!


Monday I still had no plans to work and was waiting to hear from the school, but I did have a meeting with the Real Federación Española de Natación (Royal Spanish Swimming Federation)'s coach, in which he told me they have no positions right now, but that they will keep my information and in the meantime I should consider taking coaching classes. I met the head of all the courses and he gave me the required information, which apparently costs 550 euros to become the lowest level of coach!! I don't think I can get myself to pay that when I don't know that they would ever help me with a visa upgrade. I will keep in touch with them and go see some of their events to show my dedication.


I also said goodbye to my host family on Monday with a box of cookies to send them on their 3-month trip to Argentina. I will miss them, but know that I will be back in touch in January and will try to see my host sister in the interim (she's still in the city).

I'll miss this house at the end of the street, hidden in the trees.


Tuesday I started work with two classes of the level I will have half of my working time. It is called ampliación and is for students at the junior/senior year level. It is all conversation and has the same teacher that I will work with for this term and the next. The third term she will be out on maternity leave, so I will be able to bring some continuity to the class. They're pretty fun, 16-17 years old and pretty good at English. Getting the energy levels down will be the interesting task... The good news is I get 7 hours of these classes and the other auxiliar in my school won't get any because he has to be at another school half of his time. I say I win that one! Depends what you like... I'd rather have the 16-18 year olds than the 12 year olds...


Tuesday evening I had exciting plans get cancelled, so I met up with a friend who also had a rough day and met some of her friends. It was a tranquil night for us, but not for the rest of the city! Wednesday was a national holiday and no one had school or work, so all the young people were out in full-force on Tuesday night! I went to bed early-ish to try to sleep off a sore throat and prepare for a museum visit on Wednesday.


Anne and I visited the Thyssen-Bournemisza Museum for FREE on Wednesday, the only day of the entire year it's free! We waited in line a half hour and at the beginning didn't have to deal with too many people, but they eventually caught up with us! I feel like I did a good visit and don't need to go back for a while, though I did love it and recommend it highly! The rest of that afternoon I got a montón of churros con chocolate (and wish I had a picture of them all - I will definitely be going back) with Kiki and Santi and we're excited to try all the flavors we discovered just a minute too late on their menu - dark chocolate, white chocolate, hazelnut chocolate, cinnamon chocolate, other-nut-chocolate, mint chocolate, fruits and chocolate, you name it, they have it! I'll snap some pictures next time...


Thursday was back at school and then to a wonderful free exhibit at the Fundación Mapfre on Yves Saint Laurent and his work. SO AMAZING. I will definitely be bringing my little sister there when she comes, as the fashion expert in the family! It made me want to go shopping, but I would need to have some money for that...


Some shots of la ciudad...

Madrid... te quiero. But really... I really do love you.

Un domingo magnífico

I really had a wonderful Sunday. Among the things that made it so great, and such a perfect day after being out pretty late on Saturday with my friend from high school, was the spontaneity of the adventures I had with Kiki, Santi, and Roberto. The plan had been to make cookies or cake and lay low with some girl-time. My wake-up call from Kiki made the plans to go to Ikea for the food and fun of it. I luckily dressed for something fresco, because when I got into the car, we picked up Roberto and skipped off to the mountains!! We were right next to the town where I work and had an amaaazing lunch at La Raclette - jamón, carne, queso, y patatas. With lots of sauce, a stove to cook on, and great friends. From there we drove up to El Escorial, the former summer palace of the royal family. We wandered the gardens, taking dozens of pictures, and when we couldn't find the right type of restaurant, headed back to the city.


It was a beautiful day! Adventures, new towns, great food, and lots of laughs with friends. Here are just a few of the pictures:

 First we did some deportes in the park.

 The road dead-ends here, at a lake, in Navacerrada, the town of La Raclette, in the sierra.

 The jardines around El Escorial. Imagine being a princess here...

Here we are "pretending to be friends" while Santi takes the picture.

Muesos y paseos

I have had a long and unemployed week, but it has been a good one for seeing some of the sights I might be too tired (lazy) to see when classes are in full-swing. First, though, I want to say that I am very nervous about whether or not we will be paid on time, and also whether or not we will be paid in full for the month of October. I have a contract to work starting October 1, so I hope that having not started until  at least the 11th will not be something they will penalize us for.


After being inspired by my evening trip to the Prado on Wednesday during the free hours to see my favorites (Velázquez, Ribera, El Greco, Goya), I decided to take advantage of as many free exhibitions as I could. On Thursday I went to the CaixaForum, a wonderful public building and exhibit center started by the Caixa bank. Right now their exhibit is "Teotihuacan," one showing off artifacts from the Mayan capital in Mexico. Beautiful objects, really good blurbs about the history and what happened, and a great public there to see it with - all very respectful, interested, and Spanish. The CaixaForum has events throughout the year associated with the current exhibit, but also an expo series that relates to its own topic and brings in speakers on a variety of subjects. I have my eye on the series entitled "The Splendor of the Cities" which has individual talks about Mediterranean port cities and the role they play in the region with changing political and social atmospheres. The first one on Istanbul is next week, I'll let you know if I make it.


After the CaixaForum, I hopped across the street to the Real Observatorio (Royal Observatory) for an architectural tour of the building. It is Architecture Week in Madrid, so there have been several tours each day of various buildings, and I hit this one in the middle of the hot hot afternoon, but it was very cool. It's up on this great hill just south of the big Retiro park, with a big dome and interesting architectural aspects.

THEN, immediately from there, because I was already on the right train line, I went to the "ghost station" of Chamberí. When I studied here one of my favorite experiences was taking the Line 1 train from Bilbao to Iglesia because in between the two modern stations there is an old station that they closed when the tracks had to be extended for the modern trains in the 60s. I would press my face up against the grimy windows to catch a glimpse of the secret underground world as we zipped through, but in the past four years they've turned the station into a museum! They have a neat 10 minute video about the history of the Metro (which is one of my most favorite things about this city, so I loved it) and then the ghost station, with old ticket counters and everything! I could feel the ghosts in there, and when the trains go through periodically, it feels even weirder... Here are some pictures:

Portland cement!? What is this!? It is a Spanish company, but I'm not sure where they got the Portland name. More research to come...

Friday was tamer, I just picked up tickets for an Egyptian hip-hop group from the Arab cultural center here and went out to visit my wonderful cook-of-a-friend, Kiki, in Pozuelo at her house. We ate delicious mac and cheese that she made just for me (complete with these nice trays, nametags, and leaves!) and caught up on some shows from home.

Friday night I wandered the city with some younger Carleton kids to celebrate our own Alumni Weekend (going on as we speak in Northfield!), and just enjoyed FINALLY having other people not in class or working so I could have some friends to do things with!

Just outside the Prado museum at the Goya statue doors, looking to the San Jerónimo church.

 

The Palace Hotel, situated across the street from the Prado and the Ritz Madrid. Someday...

My city. Mi ciudad.

El súpermercado

I have always loved grocery stores, we all know this. I used to go on dates to Hannaford in high school and college. Part of it has to do with my love of food and trying new things and making new and exciting recipes. The other part of it is has everything to do with being one of the cheapest people anyone has met. They tell me it's because I'm Scottish (which is a good correction to make when people throw me into the stereotype of "Jewish"), and I'm proud of it! If I ever become a millionaire it will be a result of the saving and bargain-hunting I've spent my whole life on.

A fun game I've created for myself emerged from this trait this week, one that may lose it's excitement soon, but by then I will already have all the skills under my belt. I go into every grocery store there is, because there are a lot of them - Carrefour, Carrefour Express, OpenCor, AhorraMás, Eroski, El corte inglés, Día, and a few others - and I scope out what their deals are. Carrefour Express (and presumably the big Carrefour, too) has great prices on lentils and rice. Eroski and Corte inglés have great cereal prices, AhorraMás has good yogurt prices (though I did get 8 little cups at Eroski yesterday for 75 cents!), Corte inglés has the best milk prices I've seen, etc. It's pretty fun, and I buy whatever I find there that seems to be the best deal! It keeps me on the lookout for things when I'm wandering aimlessly around this week without a job and it means I bring something home every day that's a little different. I bought 5 onions (1 kilo) for 60 cents yesterday, too.

I am also scoping out Nutella prices (the generic brand, of course) and have found that Eroski has the best deal. Since this an unnecessary expenditure and I'm not sure when the first paycheck will come through, I am waiting for the money to come in to spend those 2 euros.

And here is why I love Spain... I love cereal and they have cereals like this, granola with two kinds of chocolate in it!! 2 KINDS OF CHOCOLATE! IN GRANOLA!! Their SpecialK-type cereal with chocolate is also wonderful.

Correciones

I have to make a confession: I got the jobs and studies of my roommates wrong. AKA I am the worst roommate ever.

The guy is not studying, he works in a laboratory that researches genetically modified foods. The girl from Alicante studies tourism. The girl from Granada studies microbiology, E.Coli, that sort of fun thing, and is working on her masters and working in a lab the rest of the time.

To make it up to you all, I will post a few pictures of my room, before I got the comforter and pillow from Ikea, but good enough for now.

Ikea + Biblioteca = una Kelsey feliz.

If I can only have two things in life, it might be dreaming of a house with a beautiful kitchen and wonderful bedsheets and couches plus ice cream plus libraries. That is an exaggeration, to be sure (it would really be cereal and ice cream), but since this was my day, after being told to leave my school, and I loved it so much, these things could suffice.

Getting to Ikea here takes an hour, no matter which of the three you choose. I chose one way south and east of the city, the second to last stop of the Line 1 Metro. It's attached to a beautiful mall, which I mostly used for it's aseos (restrooms) and to drool over Zara clothes, shoes, and bags that I can't afford yet (remember: we don't know when I will be paid...). What I'm saying is I passed through the mall relatively quickly once I caught the scent of the Ikea (read: Swedish meatballs and 25 cent ice cream cones).

I obviously went to the "last stop" in the big Ikea circle first, the cafetería, to buy a 25 cent ice cream (I mean, they are on sale right now... can't miss a special like that!) and a 1 Euro soda cup that I was allowed to refill as much as I wanted. I had about 3 before I took off into the beautiful fake homes they've created to make me feel bad about my mediocre income and lack of geographic stability. I pretended they all were my kitchen, bathroom, living room, or bedroom, though all I actually needed were bedroom things. I bought a comforter for 3 Euros (probably won't be warm, but I am thinking winter can't be that bad in Madrid for a Mainer trained in Minnesota, right?), a pillow, a comforter cover, and some really cheap hangers to get my dresses off of the belt they are currently wrapped around in my closet.

I wandered and wandered and dreamed of what I might do if I actually were to live somewhere, coming to the conclusion that that is such an indefinite goal and possibility that I should give it up. I had stashed my cup in my shopping bag, so I went back to the cafeteria and filled the cup with two espressos (one caffeinated, the other not, as I tend to do) to enjoy while I played Solitaire on my phone. That game pretty much sums up life when you first move to a city, so I used it to pretend to look busy for a while before paying 15 euros for all my things. They don't take cash, which was weird, but luckily my USA card went through, thank you TD Bank!

I returned to the city and found the closest public library, one that falls outside of the "municipal" system to which I already have a card. I got to get a new card! I checked out 3 books, brought all my finds home, and left the house again for what I'm realizing is a vital plan for daily success here. If I stay home between 6pm and 9pm I will inevitably eat earlier than I should. If I go out for a walk I will stay busy and be unable to eat until I return. It works great! I met up with Anne and Sofia from Carleton and we walked into the center before I slogged my way home to eat with my roommates.

Dinner conversation: strikes in Spain, pronouncing movie names like Shrek, how my famous crush is Fernando Torres and my secondary is the rest of the Spanish national team (Manuel's is the woman who does the weather on the news and some other girl I don't know, he brought this up), and how my dinner of carrots/bread/cheese really isn't that weird, but the middle of the USA where there is only corn and no mountains or ocean is pretty lame.

Empieza el curso... casi...

The weekend has come and gone, and with it has come and gone my freedom to sleep when I want, run errands when I want, and generally have my unemployed freedom... Kind of.

The weekend included a wonderful mix of spending time with my host family, moving to my new apartment, going to a German festival in a German-speaking church here in the city, and making a delicious dinner with friends for a lazy Saturday night. Sunday was full of visiting the school where I will be working to make sure I knew how to get there and then meeting up with old professors who are on sabbatical here this fall and old friends who have been working here a while. I went to bed on Sunday night full of nerves for what was coming Monday morning... the first day of work!

The schools have been in session for a few weeks now, but they have their auxiliares come a bit later so they will be more settled into the routine by the time we arrive. My co-auxiliar and I met at 7:15am to catch the 7:20 bus out to the town this morning. We took the walking route from the bus station to school, 20 minutes, and introduced ourselves to the woman at the front desk. She had us sit and we waited about 45 minutes for the principal to arrive and meet with us. Very nice, he introduced us to other vice principals and heads-of-department before we met the English department in their office. All very very nice and so excited to have Americans (many of them have worked with British-English-speakers and are happy to have another accent and language to work on). The one with a free period at this time, Jaime, gave us a tour of the school and introduced us to some other important people before he and another English teacher decided it would be best for them to take down our information and call us when they're ready for us... as in tomorrow and Wednesday the teachers are striking, Thursday the students are striking, and Friday the English teachers will meet to start talking about the best schedule for us this year... and they will call us next Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday... meaning I have all this week off and probably some of next week... Certainly not what I was expecting, but we're always ready for an adventure over here!

Here are some pictures of my town, up in the mountains, about 10 degrees colder than in the city, and really quite pretty!

This means that this afternoon is full of adventures for me! Ikea, library, and whatever else I can come up with! Tomorrow I will probably go out to see my friend at her nanny-family's house to bake a cake or something. Any other ideas are certainly welcome! I will definitely spend some time in a park, go for some runs, maybe go the Prado museum when it's free in the afternoon... so many options! I hope you all had beautiful weekends! I know Maine was brutally rainy, so I'm sorry about that! You must be getting all the rain that Madrid never gets. Here's the precipitation amounts I found on Wikipedia:

Average yearly precipitation - 17.17"

Average precipitation days - 63

Dad tells me Maine got 17" this summer or something? This is the perfect place for me! I am NOT a rain person.