Spring Fever

I had a lovely weekend here in Spain. My weekend began, as usual, on Thursday night with a celebration of Ida’s 23rd birthday. A small crowd –Yadira, Ida, SK, Dani, and I— ate dinner at a cool restaurant in the center of town called Ginger. Ginger is a nicer establishment, complete with white linen tablecloths and fine china, which serves higher-end cuisine but at really low prices because the chefs are in-training (or something like that). After our delightful meal of delicious food and great conversations, we moved on to the next event on the schedule: dancing. Ida loves to dance, and of course, we were all eager to indulge her birthday wishes. After a disheartening and mildly frustrating attempt to go try a new and popular discoteca, we ended up at one of our favorite bar/club called Sol y Sombra. Being five North American girls (Ida’s Canadian, so I can't refer to us as solely "Americans" in the US sense), we naturally took over the dance floor and blew the competition out of the water. I pulled out my best moves that I’ve acquired from my Furman years, and apparently, they are so strange and unique that Yadira and Dani just didn’t know what to think. Thanks, Furman friends.

Yadira and Ida sharing some roommate-birthday love at Ginger

Sarah and I owned the dance floor at Sol y Sombra

We closed down Sol y Sombra around 3 a.m., but since that’s still early for Madrid standards and we don’t work on Fridays, we ducked into another sitio to dance. However, we soon realized we were all ready to head home and made our way to Plaza Cibeles to catch our night buses home. Instead of taking the 5 like I have in the past, I took a chance with the 3… and struck gold. The 3 drops me off one block from my apartment, while the 5 drops me off 3.5 blocks away. Thank you, Ida.

Friday afternoon, I hopped on the train to Alcalá de Henares to spend the night with Shenning. She met me at the train station and we walked to her house. I had been to Alcalá twice before in September when we first got here to help move her out there. I enjoyed spending the night with her, spending time with her Spanish roommates, meeting her good American co-teacher-friend (Kim), and having some delicious tapas out in town. Alcalá de Henares prides itself on two things: being the birthplace of Cervantes (the author of Don Quijote) and being a university town. I personally enjoyed the fact that Alcalá respects the tradition of giving free tapas with drinks… and they’re good tapas, too!

Shenning and I took the train back into Madrid on Saturday in order to meet a new friend, Cliff. Cliff is a friend of one of our Furman friends, and like us, he is teaching in the bilingual program. Unlike us, he is teaching in a very small village in the province of Toledo, not even the small city of Toledo itself. We wandered all over central Madrid Saturday afternoon with Cliff. By chance, we stumbled upon El Tigre, an infamous tapas bar that is always so full of people that I’ve never been able to fit inside the doors. Hunger has no limits, and we squeezed ourselves into the slender aisles, order three cañas, and received two plates full of tantalizing tapas: paella, croquettes, patatas bravas, y jamón y pan. Later on, we found ourselves sitting on the cobblestones in the middle of a packed Plaza Mayor, eating bocadillos de calamaris and watching two street performers draw in the crowds with their sassy jokes and balancing acts. Finally, Shenning and I said “hasta luego” to Cliff after walking through Retiro for the second time that day.

Shenning and I at Madrid's "Ground Zero," the very center of Madrid, which is reportedly the very center of Spain. All roads start from this 0 KM mark

These two goons had quite an act in Plaza Mayor, and although they really didn't do much more than balance things on their bodies, they drew quite the crowd. Please note the crazy hair.

With our dogs barking (and I am referring to our worn out feet), Shenning and I rested in wicker chairs on an outdoor terrace in my neighborhood, sipping on cañas con limón and watching the people go by. The people we saw were dressed funny, and it wasn’t just the normal absurd-European-fashion funny. Most children were wearing costumes, but so were some adults. This is because it was the weekend of Carnaval.

Carnaval is a big-time festival in many of the predominantly-Catholic countries, such as Spain and Latin American (although Venice is equally infamous for its Carnaval celebrations). Madrid isn’t the best place in Spain to get the true essence of what it means to celebrate this Halloween-like festival, but the city had a small parade on Saturday evening that Shenning and I witnessed. From the creepy and scary floats, such as Frankenstein, the devil with his ork-looking minions, and giant velociraptors that terrorized the crowd, to the comical, such as clowns or silly characters, to the traditional, such as Uruguayans or Bolivians decked out in their native festival outfits, this parade was one hodgepodge of stuff. Check out my video of the random stuff that was going on down Calle Alcala.

The Spanish caballeros led the way, showing off for small children with fairy wings

Shenning and I ended our date-weekend at an Indian restaurant, where being two of the three patrons by the end of the night, we were offered more free cañas con limón than we wanted. I was very grateful to have a good solid weekend with my dear Furman friend. I see Shenning much more frequently than any other Furman friend (except Justin via Skype), but I don’t see her as often as I would like given the fact that she lives outside of Madrid. However, we’ve got some great weekend trips coming up and I will be seeing her a lot.

Speaking of weekend trips, things are about to get crazy. I’m pretty much booked for the next nine weeks. Here’s the brief overlook:
February 27-March 1: Lisbon, Portugal (with SK, Shenning, Yadira, Ida, & Kate)
March 7: Gillian and Erin (my two best friends from Dothan) arrive in Madrid!
March 13: Salamanca (with G, Erin, SK, Shenning)
March 19-22: Marseille, France (with SK and Shenning)
March 27-29: Mallorca (with Shenning, SK, and Ida)
April 2-13: Istanbul and Izmir, Turkey (with Justin and his parents)
April 14: My parents arrive in Madrid
April 16/7-19: Sevilla (with Mom and Dad)
April 23-26: Barcelona (with Mom and Dad)
May 1-3: Madrid…maybe?
May 8-10: Santiago de Compostela (northern Spain, Galicia)
May 15-17: Madrid…Budapest…?
May 22-24: London (with Shenning)

Yeah… call me crazy, but that’s my weekend forecast for the next three months. And I’m so excited! With so much running around ahead of me, I deliberately took Sunday as a day of rest and carefree-ness in Madrid. Although Pastora Cathy was sick with the flu and wasn’t at church, I still felt an incredible connection and happiness in seeing so many of my friends there. Of course, being a gorgeous sunny day, I delighted in spending several hours in the sun in Retiro, reading and writing and strolling through the throng of people also out enjoying the day. I spent the evening with Yadira and Ida (having dinner at Maoz, yay!) and met up with my long-lost friend Nikki at a cool coffee shop in the Malasaña neighborhood. All in all, it was a fantastic weekend, and I feel relaxed, refreshed, and almost ready to face my favorite class of twenty-three wild and crazy 2nd graders… I think.

Spring is in the air. It is so close that in anticipation I have started refusing to wear jackets. The cherry trees in Retiro are blooming, as if to say that things are looking up. I certainly was after resting under one on Sunday afternoon!

Fotos de amigos, excursiones, y vacas

Photographic highlights of the past month in Madrid:

Alejandra and I in our apartment... before going out to Pacha.

San Lorenzo de El Escorial in the beautiful, almost-spring sunshine.

SK and I in the gardens of El Escorial.

Valentine's Day dinner at La Tia Cebolla

Above: Yadira, Louise, SK, and Kate

Below: Shenning, yours truly, and Yadira (again)

My group of girlfriends has adopted Dani from Argentina. He's a great guitar player, as I witnessed in Retiro on Sunday, and he speaks English really well, which has made it easier to become friends!

All about Madrid right now, there are 105 different cow statues for the Cow Parade. They are wildly creative and very fun to spot around the sitting. My school was the only school to paint one, and this is their cow, Olympia.

Did you know that cows say "Muuuuuu" in Spanish?

La vida madrileña

To the few fans of this blog: I apologize for a lack of regular entries over the past month or so. While school and work has occupied a majority of my time, I have done some new things, and hence, I have neglected my blogging obligations to keep you informed. Here's my fairly thorough recap of the past month and today!

· Lots of thinking
One reason why I haven’t been up to blogging much recently is because my brain-power has been consumed with the ultimate question of, “What am I going to do after July?” This is neither the time nor place to go into that loaded question. However, your prayers for guidance would be greatly appreciated.

· Working update
I added some more private classes. I am now helping 18 year old Paula prepare for her college entrance exams and her 14 year old sister, Susana, with her English homework and conversation. Additionally, there’s a possibility for shoving in another extra class for some second graders in need. Long days of work are rewarded with 3 day weekends.

I got my first teacher present a few weeks ago. Irene Montáns (a 2nd grader) gave me a chocolate crêpe, wrapped in a paper napkin, which her mother had made for me. It was delicious.

Marcos got the chicken pox last weekend, and I couldn’t have class with the twins this past week. I miss them and all their car toys already.

Last Thursday, I stayed at Fernando and Belén’s apartment twenty minutes after class in order to play Guitar Hero with them. Fer rocked out to MJ’s “Beat It”; Belén blew it up with some “Eye of the Tiger”; and I played one for my country, “American Woman.” I love those two and the fact that I can play Guitar Hero with them.

My third grade teacher, Pilar, was absent from school last Thursday and Friday. Today she came to work, and I asked her in the morning if she had been ill. "I´m depressed Laura," she responded. Pilar proceeded to explain to me that she is very lonely and sad about her life, and my heart breaks for her. I´ve noticed a downward spiral in her attitude ever since returning from Christmas, and today she has been a wreck. Please pray that she will find comfort and joy in life and rejoice in her own.

Also, we had a huge episode in 2nd grade today. Mario, who was standing up talking to some other children (because of course, none of the kids were sitting down and listening to me teach them about tools and magnets), suddenly fell face first on the floor. He had passed out and his right eye hit the leg of a desk. Cristina and I rushed to him and he awoke, red in the face and shaken. Well, the rest of the class period was spent determining the situation. Apparently, these kids have a game where they "se pone rojo" or become red-faced by holding their breath for as long as they can. They have been playing this game they've invented for the past few months, and almost the entire class admitted to doing it at least once. Some of the parents already know about this game but have never advised their children about the dangers that come with it. Hence, that responsibility was given to us teachers to inform their kids about stupid things like that. It was a very frustrating morning, not only with the kids who were unruly today but also with their parents who obviously lack control of these semi-adorable hellions.

· One church just isn’t enough
Almost three weeks ago, I walked into the Malasaña apartment of Kelly and April Crull (and their daughter Alleke) to attend my first Oasis Madrid community group meeting. Oasis Madrid is another international, English-speaking church here in the central Madrid, but it’s quite different from my “home church,” The Community Church of Madrid.

I heard about OM back in November, but it took me a while to actually check it out (which you can do through the really cool website: http://www.oasismadrid.org/). The heart, or rather hearts, of this church are the small group meetings held in various members’ homes every night of the week in different areas of the city. Groups get together for a wonderful meal and then spend the last hour talking about selected Scripture readings or specific book series, such as Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. Services with the entire church are held every other Saturday evening, interspersed with weekends to simply gather for an activity, like watching a movie or ice skating. It’s a cool outlet to meet new people, and I enjoy getting some spiritual food in the middle of my week. And, to Pastora Cathy’s delight, I can still remain faithful to CCM on Sunday mornings for services and Cathy’s kitchen table on Sunday evenings for Preaching Partners Bible study.

· Las fiestas madrileñas
Like a true madrileña, I have spent many late nights out over the past month of staying in Madrid on the weekends. What is normal in Spain—and in particular, in Madrid— might seem quite crazy to Americans when it comes to how to spend a typical weekend night. The party doesn’t get started until well after midnight and it doesn’t end until 5 or 6 in the morning. One weekend, I went out with my roommate Alejandra and her friend from Colombia, Juan, to a big discoteca called Pachá, and I didn’t go to bed until after 6 am. My group of girls has befriended an Argentinean guy named Dani, whose connections has gotten us free entry into a posh club called Lolita for three weekends in a row. One night we closed down the place, dancing through the night until the lights came on. Really, the best part has been going out with my small group of girlfriends and dancing together in different bars and clubs until we’re just too tired to stand. However, after several consecutive weekends of this activity, I’ve grown weary of this Madrid-standard. I enjoy it every once in a while, but I think I prefer jet-setting!

· An Excursion to San Lorenzo de El Escorial
I started getting antsy by the third consecutive weekend in Madrid. This past weekend, I was able to get out of town, joined by 8 other friends, to take a train to San Lorenzo de El Escorial. El Escorial is a monastery-palace built in the 1500s by King Philip II. The giant complex sits at the base of a mountain, which was clothed in a patchwork of leftover snow, and is quite impressive. We took a tour of the monument, lounged in the gardens while soaking up the warm sunshine, and we snacked in a nearby plaza later in the afternoon. Getting out of the city for some fresh air and fresh perspective was delightfully refreshing and rejuvenating. Plus, I had great people to share it with.

· Lots of time with friends
I have spent a lot of my free time with my closest friends. Sarah Kolb (SK), of course, is a constant in my life, and I can’t imagine Spain without her now. I am pretty obsessed with my friend Yadira, whose looks, personality, and charm defy her age. Ida is a precious gem whose enthusiasm for dancing surprisingly contrasts with her quiet nature. Kate is a vibrant, beautiful girl who now lives 7 minutes away from me! Sarah Henning (Shenning) still lives outside the city, but keeps in touch with me well enough to offer support and care. I love all these women and am so grateful for their friendship. I’ve made new friends too! Namely, Dani from Argentina and Louise from Ireland, but also all the people I am meeting through Oasis Madrid.

· A word on the weather
As is Carmichael standard, I have to make a comment on the weather. From mid-January to early February, it was absolutely miserable here in Madrid. With the exception of two days, it was overcast, cold, rainy, and/or snowy for three solid weeks. I have been told that this is the worst winter Madrid has had in a decade, and the city has seen more snow this year than it has in something like half a century. Just my luck.

Thankfully, we have been given a well earned reprieve from such dismal conditions. The past week has been simply gorgeous, clear blue skies, and while temperatures still dip into the upper 30s, they have gotten as high as low 60s and mainly stayed in the 50s this week. It’s been a glorious change that I greatly appreciate!

In fact, many of these words were first written from a sun-soaked pen and a content author who was lying on a towel on a grassy hill in her favorite place in Madrid. Can you guess where?

"One, two, three... look at me!"

I have stickers on my hands and the catchy, yet tragically annoying, melody of the ABC’s song is incessantly playing in my head. I have just come home from a long day at work.

Coming back to Madrid after Christmas vacation has been surprisingly good. I had such a fantastic and unforgettable holiday – spent with family, friends, and boyfriend in Barcelona, Atlanta, Alabama, Paris, and Granada, each trip distinct & perfectly special in its own way – and one would think it would be hard to get back into work after such a sweet break. Of course, it was a little tough to start back with a five-day work week as opposed to the usual four (yes, I realize that I am completely spoiled with this part-time work schedule). However, I was excited to return to Ciudad de Roma, to see my kids that I know and love but sometimes want to strangle, to see my co-workers who have become my friends, and to know my role and my duties of my job. My expectations haven’t let me down.

Over the past few weeks, I have done a lot of teaching solo. Let me remind you that I am a teaching assistant in a bilingual school, and I follow the lead of the “real” teacher of the class, speaking up when called upon to help out with irregular English pronunciations and vocabulary. However, that job description was thrown out the window with the year 2008. Many days I am given complete control over the course of the class and leading the lesson. I rolled into 3rd grade class at 9:00 AM one Thursday morning only to discover at 9:05 that Pilar was sick and would not be coming to school. I conducted third grade English and science classes on both Thursday and Friday in her absence.

My 3rd graders are ballers. Most of them have a very high competency of English and are able to use it well enough to make good comments on our English readings, in our conversations, and in our science lessons. Of course, there are a few who lagged behind the rest, but overall I am very happy with them and their progress. Also, I really appreciate how much they listen to me and respect me enough to allow me to teach class when Pilar isn’t there. In science, we just had a test on plants. Did you know that there four main parts of the flower—the petals, the sepals, the pistil, and the stamens— and that fruits grows from the pistil in order to perform the vital function of reproduction? Maybe? Well, they do. Or at least, I hope so! Seriously, these kids are learning about the difference between woody and herbaceous stems and about photosynthesis. Impressed? You should be, because these kids know a lot of crazy English vocabulary. But they don’t know everything. While reading a book today in English class, I had to explain the word “bully” because there’s not really a word for that in Spanish. Luckily, I don’t really have to deal with any bullies in my 3rd grade class. They’re not angels, but they seem like saints in comparison to my 2nd grade rugrats.

In 2nd grade, my co-teacher Cristina has gone MIA much more frequently over the past few weeks, consequently leaving me the reins to a sleigh full of 22 rowdy seven-year-olds. My 2nd graders would be way ahead of the game if they would just sit down in their chairs and remain quiet for ten minutes… or even just two minutes. I don’t exaggerate when I say that I’ve never seen a classroom resemble a zoo like this unruly wilderness. I will refrain from getting into the many problems I see with the Spanish education system (I’ll save that for another entry), but I will mention here that I’ve never seen so much disrespect from a student group –at any age– as I see from my 2nd grade kids. Amazingly, I still love them and hope that I can knock a little more English into their brains over the remaining five months.

With the 2nd graders, I’ve been working on teaching them time. This is difficult for several reasons. First of all, they are learning how to tell time the British way, where 3:15 is “a quarter past three,” 3:30 is “half past three,” and 3:50 is “ten to four.” Secondly, they don’t really understand how to tell time in Spanish yet. And of course, it’s almost impossible to teach properly when at least two or three kids are wandering around the classroom or are turning their pencil cases and notebooks into computers, disrupting class while "typing" messages. Needless to say, it’s been somewhat of a challenge when left alone with them and it's often quite exasperating. In 2nd grade science, we’ve moved on from learning that “water is odorless, colorless, and tasteless,” and we have moved on to learning about tools. Explaining the difference between a nail and a screw is more confusing than you would think. Daily, we work on vocabulary about clothing, the weather, the date, foods, and family trees. We have to prepare for the Trinity Exam that is coming up in a few months.

All in all, I’ve really enjoyed branching out from my assistant roll and taking charge of my classes. Yet, the additional power and responsibility is exhausting, and it would be so rewarding to return home once the 4:00 bell rings, but my days never end at 4:00. I still have my private classes to go to in the evenings.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised to truly be enjoying my private classes. I’ve been able to keep the stress level low and even plan lessons the day-of during my down time throughout the day. I spend an hour and a half on Mondays helping a third grade girl with our science lessons. It’s a long time to work with a child who should be diagnosed with ADD (I wish I were exaggerating). Yet, it’s a bearable and easy job… and at least Maria Teresa likes me, even if I drill her on the same material over and over again. My Monday and Wednesday class with Lucia (age 5) and Paloma (age 4) has been going well, and they are responding well to the activities I’m bringing and to just me in general. Little girls will be little girls. They can always be convinced to color some work sheets; they love stickers (“las pegatinas”); and they like bickering back and forth.

Seeing the twins, Marcos and Aitor, on Tuesdays and Thursdays always warms my heart. Whether we’re playing with toy cars, superheroes, reading a book, or coloring farm animals, the boys are so used to me by now that they know exactly what I mean when I talk to them in English, and they respond in Spanish. I can get them to say individual words of colors, numbers, and animals, and I’m slowly breaking ground to get them to speak more English.

Last week, as I was singing the ABC’s to the boys and pointing to the letters in a nice picture book I stole from school (temporarily, of course), Aitor fell asleep on my arm. It was the most adorable thing ever. The poor little guy was so tuckered out from a fiesta celebration at school, which hadn’t allowed time for a proper nap, that my chanting the ABC’s caused his eyes to flutter and his breathing to slow and eventually lulled him to sleep while resting against my left side. When I lose Marcos’ and Aitor’s attention (or consciousness), I often spend the last few minutes of class talking with their mother, Marissa, a beautiful woman with a tender heart who has become a friend and confidant of mine over the past few months. We share stories of traveling; she gives me tips and advice on life in Spain; and we discuss life issues… like how to know which path to follow, etc.

I almost always leave the house of the twins happy, uplifted, and reenergized for my last and latest class at the Álavarez home with Fernando and Belen. It’s getting easier to come up with lesson plans for them, even though now their parents want me to leave homework with them to do in the days I’m not with them, and that makes it less stressful. We read stories or write our own, learn about the parts of speech and play Mad Libs, play card games like Go Fish or Memory, and write letters to our pen-pals (my college friends Anna Beth and Quinton). I have fun with them, and I think they do too.

I’ve realized that I have written well into detail and well into the night. After attesting to the long days, I should get some much deserved rest. I’ll close by saying that I am really content with the way work is going, and I’m also super happy with how my days and weeks have been filled with my great group of friends. More on those thoughts some other time, because I’ve got to go to bed!