Friday, March 28, 2014

La Bamba and the Yellow Submarine

Monday, March 24th

I had a great weekend in Aranda, so keep your eyes open for that blog. As for Monday, I had a really good day. I just hung out and relaxed. Did my weekly cleaning. Talked to my sister and boyfriend Applied for another teaching job. And went to my Spanish class at night. Other than that? Nothing. I hope you all had wonderful Mondays!

Tuesday, March 25th

On Tuesday, I had class where we practiced vocabulary that has to do with fruit, like smoothie, fruit salad, lemonade, juice, etc. There is a song that goes with those vocabulary words and it's actually to that one tune, ba da da da da bum bum, ba da da da da bum bum...ba da bum bum, etc. Can't think of the actual song though, so if you know it tell me because it's driving me crazy. *Thanks to my boyfriend, I found it! It's La Bamba. Here you go:
Anyway, hearing the students sing that song and the other ones is SO cute, especially when they have them completely down. So adorable! I will say though that they get in my head all of the time and I wake up in the morning singing "Fruit salad, jelly. I like juice, I like jelly, lemonade, too. I do. I do. I do. I do." It's pretty entertaining I guess, but it can also be enough sometime. Anyway, I had another restless science class. This class is so great in English, but lately they just have not been feeling science. Anyway, they are learning about the buildings in a town and that's about it. Also, in that particular class, there plants weren't doing so hot so we replanted them. Ha. In the afternoon, I had a kindergarten class, where I got to tell the students that Mafalda (the comic from Argentina) sent me an e-mail to tell me that she loved The Beatles and the song Yellow Submarine. Then, we listened to some Beatles' songs and then they colored a yellow submarine.

After school, I had the language exchange with Esther. Every week, it seems less and less like a language exchange and more just like friends talking. She is so great and I really hope that the friendship that we have formed lasts a lifetime. I love just sitting and talking with her. Anyway, once I got home, I watched How I Met Your Mother and, as you might know, I just started watching the series in January and watched all the way up until the recent episodes and it ends for good next week. Crazy. Anyway, I know that really doesn't matter, it's just a T.V. show. Anyway, what does matter is that I made a last minute decision to travel this weekend again, ha. Karin has a friend that is visiting and they are going to Cordoba this weekend and she asked if I wanted to come with and my first reaction was "no," but then I figure "Why the heck not?" I definitely will be traveling muchísimo in the next few months, but it should be fun and it's one more place that I am going in Spain that I wouldn't think I would get to. There are still SO many places that I would love to go, but it just can't happen, but instead of staying home this weekend, I figured that I might as well travel while I have someone to travel with. :) So it should be fun. We did some of that planning at night and we also bought tickets to a soccer game that will be happening next weekend. I am definitely spending quite a bit of money now, but I think I have come to the realization that my time is quickly dwindling down (which isn't a bad thing), but that I need to take advantage of the time I have left. :) Speaking of the time being almost up is it weird to be counting down by toilet paper and dish soap? Like, we just bought a bottle of dish soap and I know it will last for the rest of the time that I have hear. And I bought a package of toilet paper that should also last me the rest of my time here. Crazy! I only have five rolls left! I can't imagine how close it will be to coming home once I'm on the last roll! Ha, anyway, that's that.


Wednesday, March 27th

On Wednesday at school we once again learned about fruit salad through song. Ha. And in my science classes, we practiced the buildings in a town and we went over recycling. The students are learning/reviewing the products that go in each recycling bin. For example, glass goes in the green bin, plastic in the yellow, paper in the blue, and waste in the grey bin. I think our teachers find it strange that there is no national color system in the U.S. I feel like we either don't sort it, look at the pictures on the bins, or don't recycle at all. Anyway, after breakfast, I went to a kindergarten class where the students got to color a Beatles coloring page. Also, they listened to The Beatles as they worked so I obviously got to listen to the good music, too. Also, I'm an idiot and didn't know that The Beatles sung Twist and Shout! Love that song and this movie clip!
Also, since Mafalda is from Argentina, the kindergarten class is learning about everything Argentine, which includes the tango. I made the "mistake" of telling the teacher that I know the basic steps to the tango, so now I get to teaching the kindergartners them sometime. Ha. It actually should be really fun, but I also have to figure out how to teach it to a bunch of five year olds. Also, I realized that I technically know the American tango (or maybe it's the ballroom tango) (or maybe those two are synonymous). Bottom line, I don't know the Argentine tango, but hopefully that doesn't matter. :)

After lunch, I had another science class where we read an animal book, looked at our growing plants (mine is winning:) ), reviewed recycling with them, and I had to explain what miners, farmers, and fishermen are. It seems like a daunting task, but picture drawing is a miracle worker! And it's a good thing that I am a semi-decent drawer. :) I mean, I have mastered the stick person! For the last class of the afternoon, I was late because one of the teachers was gone from school and since there are no substitute teachers here, I had to stay with the class I had just had for longer until someone showed up to take over. The whole no substitute thing is pretty frustrating for the teachers, I can see. I mean, I know that in the U.S. sometimes other teachers have to stand in for a class, but almost never does that happen for a whole day's worth of classes. Also, one of the teachers recently got married and she is currently on her honeymoon right now and instead of hiring a leave-of-absence teacher, the kindergartners are just not having English. It's a pretty strange concept for me, but at least Julia and I pass through all of the kindergarten classes once a week so they are still getting some exposure. When I finally got to the last class of the day, we helped them make comecocos, also known as a cootie catcher or paper fortune teller, also comecocos in Spanish means Pacman and literally translates as "coconut-eater." Anyway, we helped them make those and that was that. :)
Our growing bean plants. :)
After school, I usually have private lessons, but I cancelled them in order to go to a cooking class with the Spanish class that I have been taking. So, after school, I went home, relaxed for a little bit, and then left for the cooking class. At the cooking class, we made fidueá, escalivada, and quesada. To be honest, the food was just okay, but the company was really fun. Karin and I met new people and practiced Spanish and we did learn to make some of the stuff, but to be honest, I would only ever actually make the dessert. It was good and the recipe was super easy. As for the entreé, it wasn't anything special and it had seafood in it, which I'm not a huge fan of. Plus seeing a bunch of shrimp head grinded up and put into it kind of makes you lose your appetite, too. Ha, anyway below are some pictures from the class. Enjoy!
Escalivada
Fidueá
Quesada

Thursday, March 27th

On Thursday, we did more fruit salad stuff and the students did some activities in their workbooks. We also played memory with all of the vocabulary words from this unit and we should be finishing the unit next week. In Science, we worked on the buildings that are in town and we did a pretty fun activity (well, I thought it was fun). I drew a town on the board and then drew little people that were saying stuff like "I like to read books." Then, the students had to decide where that person needed to go in town and give them directions to get there. See picture. :)
The funny thing, too, is that I had a student ask why only one person had clothes on. HA! He asked "Are all the rest naked?" Haha, no, I just got lazy. :) Anyway, in the afternoon, we had the drama workout and the group put on the play. It went well again and we only have two more weeks left of those, which also means two weeks left until Spring break! :) Then, after school, I had private lessons. I learned more about English in the lessons. One of the boys is learning about adjective order at school so like this order:
12345678
General
opinion
Specific
opinion
Size ShapeAge ColorNationalityMaterial
I guess I don't really think about that. It's so natural that I couldn't have even told you what the rule was. So we wouldn't say "We have a yellow big truck." We say: "We have a big yellow truck." Crazy. Anyway, after all my lessons, I came home, made dinner, and worked on Spring break stuff. I doubled checked all of my flight reservations and bought a few bus tickets that I needed to. I just got some more of my ducks in a row. Then, I packed a little bit for Cordoba. Then, bed, of course! :) How was your Thursday?!

Friday, March 28th

Hello all, it's Friday and I'm getting ready to leave for Cordoba in about 10-15 minutes. So this is going to be quick. I woke up early this morning and finished packing. Then, I went to school and had two classes. A kindergarten class, where we played, and an English class where we did what else then some fruit salad workbook pages. Ha. And once again, I must say it's adorable hearing them sing the songs. Then, I was supposed to have the teacher's class today, but once again most of the teachers had meetings (which I completely understand!), so I didn't have class, but I did stay and talked with Esther and Laura about teaching a foreign language and best practices and I answered all of their doubts that they have about English so far. So it was good and nice to talk to them about teaching in general. Then, I came home, made lunch, skyped my boyfriend and quickly finished up this blog. :) And now I am heading out the door to go catch the bus to Cordoba. :) It should be a great weekend and I'll have a lot to blog about on Monday. I still have to blog about Aranda. So stay tuned for an Aranda and Cordoba blog sometime next week. :) Have an amazing weekend! I will talk to you soon. :)




Friday, March 21, 2014

Primavera y fruta

Monday, March 17th

Monday was my day off and I woke up early with the sun, but decided to sleep in, well because I could. Ha. I ate breakfast and relaxed, did my Monday cleaning, applied for another job, and then sat at the park for a few hours soaking up the sun. :) It was a fantastic day. :) At night, I had class, which went well and then just came home and relaxed some more. :) No complaints here on my Monday. :)


Tuesday, March 18th

On Tuesday, it was back to school and I started the day off with an English class, finishing the farm animals unit and teaching/reviewing fruits with the students.  In the next English class, we finished up farm animal unit and then in Science we started working on the difference between a town and a city. Cities have big buildings, towns don't. Cities are noisy, towns aren't. Cities are bigger, towns are smaller, etc. Then, in the afternoon, I taught another kindergarten class about the United States and had them color the flag and Illinois. :) After school, I had my language exchange with Esther and it was really good! We talked about the quality of life and our futures and it was just really good conversation. :) Then, I came home, made dinner, and relaxed. This week has and will be filled with relaxation. :)


Wednesday, March 19th


Wednesday morning, we watched a story about a couple of pirates. The captain picks fruit, but the other pirates don't help him so when the captain goes to make/eat a fruit salad, he doesn't share because the others didn't contribute. Ha. So not only was it helping them practice their vocabulary, but it was a pretty good lesson, too, I guess. :) After that English class, I had a science class and the students started learning about the different places in cities and towns, like school, post office, museum, restaurant, cinema, etc. They actually already have a pretty good grasp on those things. :) It's exciting. After breakfast (that's right, I still get breakfast at school every morning), I went to a kindergarten class and they are starting a unit on Mafalda. Mafalda is a comic strip that was drawn by an Argentinian and she kind of reminds me of Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes just because the fact she is a 6-year-old girl and so cute. Here's a strip that has been translated into English.

Also, Mafalda's favorite song is apparently Yellow Submarine, so of course, the kindergartners learned the chorus to that song. Let me tell you, hearing 24ish students sing "We all live in a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine..." is adorable! :D In the afternoon, we did more city and town and fruit salad stuff and then the school day was over. Then, I had my lessons. I love my Wednesday lessons. They go so well and I get to see a dog that is in love with me. She goes crazy everytime I walk in the door. :) It's pretty fun. Also, I just love the girls that I tutor. One of the girls asked me what "timber" meant because of the Kesha song. Ha, that was an interesting explanation. After that, I went home and relaxed and went to bed.

On another school note, you know how I got one of those bracelets last week, well they have since completely exploded! Girls and boys are wearing like six or more on their arms at once. :) They are starting to become a problem and my friends and I are waiting for them to be banned from our schools. Haha. I mean, it's a pretty entertaining discussion between Karin, Stephanie, and I at night. Yesterday, Stephanie got two or three bracelets AND a ring from her students! Ha. We are pretty popular. Also, last note, our plants are growing pretty well in Science class. I will show you a picture when I get the chance.

P.S. Happy Father's Day in Spain!


Thursday, March 20th

First day of Spring, but not really, I guess. I thought yesterday was the first day of Spring and even the Google doodle told me that it was the first day of Spring, but we did not celebrate it or change the season because apparently it began in the afternoon? What?! I'm still confused by this, but whatever. It's been Spring in my head for at least a week now and in honor of that, here is a song that ALWAYS makes me think of warm weather!
Other than that, school was good, we did the same things and we're on the same units still, then in the afternoon, we had the workshops. We switched to a different group, so we had to act out the play again and then they picked characters and we read through the play once. Luckily we are recycling the costumes from last week, so it wasn't as hectic and we didn't have to run around trying to do all the costumes in one day. :) After school, I had my lessons. Since Monday was St. Patrick's Day, I decided to teach the two boys that I tutor about that. That was pretty fun because they thought it was the strangest thing and they thought it was so weird that Chicago dyes the river green. However, when I asked them if they wanted to celebrate it, they said yes. Their reasoning? No school. Ha. And I was like....actually... and then the older boy said that he would go to Ireland and celebrate because they probably don't have school there. Students always trying to get out of school. Can I tell you a secret? Teachers like days off, too! :)

After school and lessons, I went home, ate dinner, packed, and watched El Hormiguero. On the Hormiguero, the guest was a singer named, Romeo Santos. I have heard this song before, but since it was on my mind last night, I decided that I would post it here. Enjoy.


Friday, March 21st

Why did I pack last night, do you ask? Because today, I am leaving with Esther and Javi (two teachers from my school) to go to Esther's hometown. :) It should be really fun; however, it is supposed to snow! What???!!! I was already in love with this Spring/Summer weather! That's okay, though, I'll get over it! But yea, after school, we are leaving. But I guess I should tell you about my morning. This morning, I taught the 1st graders how to play capture the flag. It was a little too advanced for them though. Some of them knew what was going on, others did not. Esther is going to teach it to a different class and see how it goes. After that, I had a English lesson where the students learned a few more words associated with fruit, like lemonade, smoothie, juice, and jelly (did you know jelly is jello in British English?). Then, I played with some kindergartners and now, I am just waiting for school to get over so that we can head out. I hope you all enjoy the first weekend of Spring! I will talk to you when I return! :)

Also, happy birthday to my amazing boyfriend and his mom! :)

Monday, March 17, 2014

El finde con Tonisha y Ross

Saturday, March 15th

On Saturday, Tonisha, Ross, and I slept in a little bit and then we made breakfast at my place. Then, we took off on a big adventure around Madrid. I am actually really surprised at home much we did in one day! Go us! I took them to Puerta del Sol (Madrid's city center), Plaza Mayor, showed them the oldest restaurant in the world, the cathedral, the royal palace, Plaza de España, and Templo de Debod. Those are all pretty standard places to go in Madrid and even though I have been to all of these places before I decided to take more pictures.
Inside of Madrid's Cathedral
The Royal Palace (where the King and Queen don't live)
Plaza de España
 After seeing all of that stuff, we actually did something that I haven't done yet, which was ride the teleférico, which is a cable car that travels from Madrid to Casa de Campo, which is a huge park and according to Wikipedia, an old royal hunting estate. It is now a big park with trails and the Madrid Zoo and an amusement park. So, we rode the cable car to casa de campo and then walked to the nearest metro and took the metro to the other side of town.
On the teleférico
View of the Royal Palace and Cathedral from the teleférico
Once on the other side of town, we stopped for a much needed lunch at VIPS, which is a chain restaurant here in Spain. It was delicious and, after lunch, we continued our walk to see Plaza Cibeles, the city hall, and Retiro Park.
Beautiful tree in Casa de Campo
City hall
Parque de Retiro
Inside the Palacio de Cristal
Palacio de Cristal
Turtles bathing in the sun. They have the right idea.
After hanging out in the park, we went to Museo del Prado and Reina Sofía, both are art museums. If you can remember all of my travels, I went to Museo del Prado a few weeks ago and I went to Reina Sofía at the beginning of the year. I don't know how we did it, but we were able to go to both. I mean, it was definitely a very quick breeze through, but Tonisha got to see the masterpieces that were in both museums, which is great (Ross saw them too, but he had seen them before). :) After the museums, we were planning to take the bus back to my place, but we decided just to walk the whole thing, which isn't too bad of a walk, but I think we were all excited to be sitting once we got back. Once we got back, we got the chance to skype Mark and his fiancée, Leah! Again, if you haven't been following my blog since the beginning, then you don't know who Mark is! Mark was also in Peru with Tonisha and I and he did a lot of traveling with us! :) So, it was great seeing him and talking to him and meeting Leah! :) After skyping them, we made some dinner and then it was off to bed. It was a day packed full of fun, sun, and walking. :)

P.S. Sorry I have no photos of us all yet, they are on Tonisha's camera. When I get them, I will share them.


Sunday, March 16th

On Sunday, Ross had to go and pick up a friend from the airport early, so Tonisha and I slept in a little bit and then we got up, ate breakfast, and waited for the two boys to come back. Then, we met up with Stephanie and Karin to go to the Rastro, that street flea market that happens every Sunday. My mission was to find an Atlético soccer (or rather, fútbol) jersey, because Karin and I are planning to go to a game in early April. I did not find an Atlético jersey that I liked; however, I found a jersey from Spain's national team that I really like. So even though it's not specifically Atlético, it represents all of Spain, which is fine by me...and it looks pretty sharp on, if I do say so myself. :P

After the Rastro,  we walked to Madrid Río and sat by the river for a little bit just soaking up the sun and talking. Then, we went to the Peruvian restaurant that is right down the street from my house. It was SO delicious! I think Tonisha and I were in heaven! YUM! Also, I think everyone else enjoyed the food, too! :) After eating lunch, Tonisha, Ross, and Ross's friend, Ben, left to go back to the south of Spain. It was sad to see them go, but it was great seeing them and I'm hoping to make it down there sometime in May. After they left, I hung out at home for a bit and then went to the park with Karin just to hang out some more, then we went for a short run, and went our separate ways. I went home and made dinner and watched the movie A Case of You, it was a cute movie and I was glad to just relax after the weekend. I went to bed pretty early for me, too, which was great!

Side note: I bought a whole case of strawberries the other day and they are delicious! To my family members who see this, they will understand. I love strawberries!
These are all for me!

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Tengo que aprovecharlo

Tuesday, March 11th

This week was a pretty good school week. On Tuesday, the students were learning a few instruments, because since they were learning about farm animals, the story Peter and the Wolf was in their book, but actually it wasn't... Their book usually has videos and stuff that go along with the workbook pages, but this time it just mentioned Peter and the Wolf and had a workbook page, but there was no video or anything. It was strange, because if a student didn't know about that story, then they would have been out of the loop. Even though there's not a story, there are songs and it's so awesome to hear them sing them! It's so cute!

After school, I had the exchange with Esther, which went really well. We talked about 11-M (pronounced own-say em-ay) which is what they call the day of the terrorist attack on the trains in Madrid, just like we call the Twin Towers attack, 9-11. Tuesday was the 10 year anniversary of it so I read part of a newspaper article and Esther let me keep the paper and she lent me a book, too, which I've already read quite a bit of. It's called Martes con mi viejo profesor...maybe you've heard of it. You most likely have. In English, it's called Tuesdays with Morrie, written by Mitch Albom, the author of The Five People You Meet In Heaven. It's a good book so far and I'm happy to be reading it in Spanish. :) After the exchange, I went home, made dinner, watched some T.V., and started four more job applications for teaching positions for next year. And that was my Tuesday. :)


Wednesday, March 12th

My Wednesday consisted of going over the parts of a tree and plant with the first graders and reviewing types of trees with them. :) They call the willow tree a Pocahontas tree and I absolutely love that! Pocahontas was probably, no definitely, my favorite Disney movie when I was younger so it just put a big smile on my face to hear them call it a Pocahontas tree. :D After that I taught a kindergarten class. I did a short Powerpoint about the U.S. and then I had them color the US American flag. :)
After the kindergarten class, one of my English classes started on the next unit, which is learning the places in town, so like cinema, post office, library, etc. Then, I had one of my favorite classes (I know you're not supposed to have favorites, but I really do enjoy this class), but they were a bunch of crazies on Wednesday! I don't know if the spring weather is already getting to them or something, but they have been off the wall lately. However, we did get them to pay attention long enough to learn the "ch" pronunciation, which was good. But, when we asked them to name some words with "ch" they were naming a lot of words with "t" so fourteen became fourcheen. Whoops.

After school, I had my lessons where one of the girls made/gave me a bracelet that are pretty popular right now. They are made out of rubber bands and they are pretty cool. See picture below. It was so sweet and I felt pretty special for getting one.

Once home, I watched some T.V. and just relaxed and then it was off to bed.


Thursday, March 13th

Who would have known that the bracelet that I got on Wednesday would have caused a ruckus on Thursday. Well, I mean, it didn't really cause a huge ruckus, but it was a ruckus nonetheless. I can't change anything without the students noticing. I mean I wore one rubber band bracelet (even with a long sleeve jacket) and still I had a TON of students ask where I got it and if I made it myself. They were pretty excited about it because of course they had one, had made one, etc. I told you they were popular. Anyway, once we got into the class time, we taught one of the other classes about the "country" fair. This time I didn't have as many students color the tractor red, but it was still probably the majority. But, I also saw green tractors, blue ones, and an orange one in this particular class. Ha. In another class, we started a new unit in English, which is fruit, which the students already know from Science, so we should breeze through this unit, just like the last.

In the afternoon, once again we had the drama workshop. It went pretty well. It actually wasn't as hectic as last week. This week in the workshop, we finished the students' costumes and then they "acted" out the play. They didn't have their lines memorized and we only went through the short play twice, but I think it was still fun for them. Also, the prince was adorable! He was really the only student that had his part memorized so when he came on and rattled off his lines, it was so cute!
The Three Little Pigs
After school, I had my private lessons, they went pretty well, but sometimes I feel bad not knowing more about soccer, technology, or video games. I try my best to keep up with the conversation though. Walking back to the train station from my lessons, I think I got hit with the first real "Omg, I am going to miss my students next year" moment. When I was walking, one of my students was walking with her mom, little brother, and her dog. And she started smiling and running at me and calling my name. And I heard her mom say something along the lines of "With that smile, it's obviously Andrea," saying that of course it was me walking because her daughter got a huge smile across her face. And by the way, her dog was adorable and just like the one in the proposal. :) And can I add how frustrating it is to not be able to communicate with the parents... The students can't know that I speak Spanish, so the jist of my conversation with this girl's mom, was "Hola" and "Hasta luego." That is not a good parent-teacher relationship and it kind of drives me crazy sometimes. And I'm sure it's weird for the mom to have her daughter running up to me with a huge smile and then not being able to talk to me, but yeaa... Anyway, what I really wanted to get at with this story is that I am really going to miss my students next year. I feel like I am abandoning them and I feel guilty for it. I realize that as a teacher I will have lots of students that come and go, but when that happens it will be the students leaving. They will be leaving and moving on to bigger and better things and I would have taught them all that I could, but in this sense, I am leaving them. I almost feel like I am letting them down. :/ I mean, they are fully capable of moving on and learning without me, but I still feel bad and I really am going to miss them, but that's okay. It's not that time yet. I still have a few more months to aprovechar.

Anyway, once I got home from lessons, I made dinner, did some job application stuff, and then watched La Voz Kids. I have been watching it in the background for the past couple weeks, but I wanted to watch this week specifically because one of the girls that was on it passed away on Monday. Her name was Iralia la Torre and she was 11 years old and she died after battling cancer for four years. Click on the link to read a brief article about her and to watch her blind audition that she had. Anyway, on Thursday, they aired a previously taped episode of the battle that she with two others. It was pretty cool to see her get chosen to go on, but very sad knowing that she has passed. I'm sure her family would welcome prayers.

Friday, March 14th

On Friday, I went to school and had a 1st grade Science class first. Since the students are finishing up their unit on plants, we planted a few beans in two small jars, so we are going to see how those progress through the rest of the year. It should be fun. :) After that, I had a kindergarten class where again I did the lesson on the U.S. The students are so cute with that. They like coloring the flag. See below. :)
After those lessons, I had the teacher's class and I taught them about connectors, which are words like therefore, however, nevertheless, though, etc. It went pretty well, but it was grammar heavy and we didn't have time to do the activity that I wanted to do, but we will do it next time.

Once I got home, I hung out, submitted applications for two jobs, cleaned, and then picked up Tonisha and her boyfriend, Ross, from the bus station! If you haven't been following this blog since the beginning than you won't know who Tonisha is, but don't worry, I will tell you! Tonisha was in the same program as me when I studied in Peru! We became great friends there and we traveled a lot together and she and her boyfriend are currently in the south of Spain doing exactly what I do! So they came to Madrid to visit me/pick up a friend from the airport and it was so great seeing them! On Friday night we just hung out and talked and went to bed, but stay tuned to hear about the rest of our weekend! :)

Monday, March 10, 2014

El sol

Sunday, March 9th

Yesterday, I went to church in the morning and it was pretty good. Once again, I loved the music! Yesterday was dubbed the Day of the Bible so the offering was going to help a project in Spain that helps pass out Bibles all throughout Spain and the message was on following the Word of God. After the service, I went to the Women's Bible study and went home. On my way home, I had the worst encounter with an elderly man at the bus stop that I would rather not recall because it's one of those moments where it just makes you hate the whole country, even though it's not really Spain's fault and there are people like that in the United States, too, but yea, anyway...

After I got home from church, I made lunch and then relaxed, wrote some blogs, talked to my boyfriend, etc. Then, I joined Stephanie at Madrid Río to sit in the sun and read/study. The sun went behind the buildings pretty quickly once I arrived, but it was still nice being outside. Then, we headed on over to Karin's house to just relax and hang out for awhile. Then, we went our separate ways. I came home and blogged some more, watched the movie Diana, which was pretty good, watched part of The Blindside with Rocío and then we watched part of a segment on the 2004 Madrid train bombings because tomorrow (the 11th) is the 10 year anniversary since then. It was interesting to watch people talking about it. People that were either there or had family members die in the bombing. It was really sad. On a happy note, my Sunday went pretty well and my weekend wasn't over yet. I love having Mondays off.

Monday, March 10th

Today, I didn't set an alarm and I let my body wake up to the sun shining through the window. It was awesome. In the morning, I made an typical eggs and toast breakfast (typical to the U.S.) and blogged a little. I worked on some homework for class, wrote a few cover letters, and then I went to the park for about an hour and a half and just laid in the sun and studied. It was amazing! After the park, I came home for a little bit, but then went to Spanish class with Karin. It was a really good class and packed full of grammar. Then, I came home, ate dinner, and worked on a few more job applications for next year. I submitted one and tried submitting the other one, but the site stopped working, so I'm gonna let that one be for now. Anyway, it's off to bed, gotta get a good night's sleep for the week. Have a good day! :)

Ávila

Saturday, March 8th

This past Saturday, Karin's roommate and his girlfriend took us (Stephanie, Karin, and I) on a day trip to Ávila. Ávila is a town that is a little over an hour northwest of Madrid. The main attraction in Ávila are the city defense walls that were built in the 11th century, making Ávila and its walls an UNESCO World Heritage Site. We left mid-morning and once arriving in town, we walked around for a little bit and then Karin and I went on a journey to the top of the wall. You can climb/walk on probably about half of the defense wall and it's really cool. It gives you both a good view of the city within the walls as well as the surrounding city and landscape. There's really not much else to say about the walls and city so here are pictures. :)

Ávila Cathedral
View of the Cathedral from the wall

There were a lot of storks in Ávila

Basílica de San Vicente


After taking a tour of the wall and its towers, Karin and I were all cute and couple-y and we shared a lunch and we met up with the rest of the group. Then, we went on our next stop which was to try Yemas de Ávila, which are pastries that are popular from Ávila. Yema is egg yolk, so you won't be surprised to here that they are made out of egg yolks along with syrup, lemon juice, and cinnamon. Then they are splashed with a little bit of powdered sugar and voilà‎, you have yemas de Ávila. I just tried one and they weren't so bad, it tasted like pure sugar. I wouldn't crave them though and I wouldn't buy a box of them. Lisbon's pastries beat out the yemas, for me anyway.
After looking at some souvenir shops and hanging out in the sun for a little bit, we headed home. It was a nice little day trip and I'm glad that Karin's roommate took us with. Once home, I ate dinner at 6 p.m.! I know that is unheard of here in Spain! But that's when I ate and I didn't eat the rest of the night. Ha. I'm just glad my roommates didn't see or they would've thought it was despicable. Ha. :) Anyway, I ate dinner and then watched the movie About Time, because my mom said it was good, so I wanted to watch it. It was indeed good and it really has a good message about how you should try and live your life. Anyway, my night pretty much ended there and it was a great day. By the way, it's so nice and sunny here that my cheeks got rosy from the sun. :) Yay! Hope your spring comes soon and I hope our spring stays until summer. :)

Sunday, March 9, 2014

La gran cabalgata (Day 3 in Cádiz)

Sunday, March 2nd

Okay, this was our last day in Cádiz and again the whole household slept in and we again ate churros and toast for breakfast at around 12 p.m. or even 1 p.m. We hung out in Chiclana and then, as a group, we headed to Cádiz for the last time before leaving. I think we got to town around 5 p.m. and we spent the first part of our time in Cádiz searching for a place to eat. The first couple places we went to were out of bread/food. It's hard to make a sandwich without bread and it's hard to feed so many people in Cádiz. Somehow, there was enough beer for everyone, but not enough bread. Ha. Anyway, as we waited for our food/ate, a famous guy walked past us. I didn't know him, but our host pointed him out and kind of looked starstruck. To be honest, I don't remember his name, but I know he worked a lot with Camarón de la Isla, who I do know (from class) and who was a famous flamenco singer in Spain back in the day.

Sidenote: I just looked up Camarón de la Isla to see who he worked closely with to see if I could recognize who we saw. Well, one of the guy's he worked closely with was Paco de Lucía and he just died on February 26, 2014, so I sure hope it wasn't him....may he rest in peace.

Anyway, we spent the rest of the afternoon standing in a plaza just hanging out. There were chirigota groups singing, but we weren't really paying attention to them. This was definitely a setting were you just want to be hanging out with a group of friends. We stayed with our host and his friends for quite awhile, but then we went our separate ways. After stopping to get empanadas, we worked our way towards the big parade. We are lucky we did because we just caught the end of it. It was really too bad, I wish we could have seen more of it and hung out by the parade route more, but it's all good. I am happy with what we saw, plus thanks to YouTube, I can see the parts of the parade that I missed.

After watching the end of the parade and watching the confetti in the streets drift like it was the middle of winter in Illinois, Stephanie and I bought some candy and then went to a café for about an hour and a half waiting for our overnight bus to leave. It was an okay bus ride, but for some reason a group of older women decided that it wasn't an overnight bus and that they could laugh and talk (loudly) all they want. It was okay though, I made it through the weekend and the evening. I still don't know a lot about Cádiz as a city, but I know they throw one crazy Carnaval. If you don't mind crowds and partying than it is the place to be.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about Cádiz and I hope you had a great weekend. :)

El Pregón de Carnaval (Day 2 in Cádiz)

Saturday, March 1st

On Saturday the whole household slept in. We ate breakfast at around 12:30 p.m. I think. We had some delicious churros and toast and I think us five girls surprised our host with how much we ate. We just used the excuse that we are used to big breakfasts in the U.S. and Australia, but really we just love churros! Haha, just kidding. Anyway, we walked around Chiclana for a bit, bought some stuff for our Carnaval costumes, then went home. We spent the evening eating linner, hanging out, and getting ready to go to Cádiz for the real party. Don't ask me what I was, because I don't know, but my costume involved wearing all black, some black wings, and a bright pink wig, courtesy of my roommate, Lucia. Maybe, I was this critically endangered pink-headed duck. I can see the resemblance. Ha.

Unfortunately, Stephanie isn't looking, but we were both
some sort of birds, I think.
Anyway, we finally made it into Cádiz and we just hung out in this plaza for a long time waiting for the pregón to start. The Pregón is the official start of Carnaval and the pregonero (the person/group that does the Pregón) was a chirigota group called el Love. They are a pretty popular group and it was really cool to see the whole start of Carnaval, at that point in time, I was enjoying myself and I liked listening to the music and getting to know our host's friends. However, I will say again that I wish I would have understood more and knew the lyrics to their songs, but it was still fun and I liked being a part of it. I have videos of the pregón, however I found the whole televised version on YouTube so that is a lot better quality. Enjoy! I would advice starting the video at 21:00 and then skip forward and watch a few bits here and there, just so you understand what the Pregón consists of and so you can listen to the style of chirigotas.

Waiting for the sun to go down and for the party to start
I think I am going to get my hair cut and dyed like this permanently :P
Watching the Pregón
After the Pregón finished is when I think I got tired of being in that environment. It was crowded in the square, but it was okay because everyone was staying in one spot watching the show, but as soon as the show finished is when I realized that I am not a party-er. There were WAYYY too many people for my taste, drunk people for that matter. And there were a few guys that I wanted to give a talking to or a knee to, but that's just how Cádiz is at Carnaval and I did expect it. And although I got pretty frustrated with the environment very quickly, I was still glad to have experienced it. I was in the city that has supposedly the best Carnaval in Spain and I got to experience a true botellón, which before then, I had only heard about in class. A botellón is an "open-air drinking session" and truly it was. Everyone buys bottles of beer and cups and shares, they throw their trash on the ground, the guys do their business in public, and the girls wish they could do the say. That was Carnaval and honestly, I don't know if I would return. If I did though, I would got with a bigger group of friends because I really think that's what it's all about, just being with friends and socializing. And like I said, the entertainment was good! :D Well, day two in Cádiz down, one to go!


Carmen la Nerviosa (Day 1 in Cádiz)

Okay, so here it is. Part of my blog about my weekend in Cádiz with Stephanie for Carnaval.

Friday, February 28th

Stephanie and I took an overnight bus to Cádiz so we arrived around 8 a.m. on Friday and then hopped on another bus to go to Chiclana, where our host lived, which is actually like a half hour outside of Cádiz. Once we arrived to Chiclana, our host and his friend picked us up. I kind of felt bad, because they had only slept for like an hour before picking us up, ha rough night they had. Anyway, they took us to breakfast and then we went to back to our hosts place and met some of the other girls he was hosting. They were two Australian girls and actually a third one joined us later that night. They were all pretty cool and after getting settled in all us girls boarded the bus back to Cádiz so that we could check out the town and to let our host get some sleep. I had found a free walking tour online to do, but once in town, we realized that Carnaval and El Día de Andalucía were well underway, so it was going to be impossible to find where the tour started/if it was even happening because of the holiday.

So we decided to go ahead and just walk around the city on our own. We got an empanada and pastry for lunch and then we split up with the Australian girls to walk around. Just to clarify, they had friends that were studying in Cádiz so they went to hang out with them. We didn't ditch them. Anyway, it was nice walking around. We walked along the coast and then went to the Castillo de Santa Catalina, which is one of two fortifications that are on the coast. After the fort, we sat in a park for quite awhile and just relaxed in the sun because the weather was amazing. It was awesome!
King Momo, the king of Carnival and an important
ship that was in the Cádiz port
(not sure why it's important though, sorry)
Cathedral of Cádiz
Coast of Cádiz
The cathdral from afar
Castillo de Santa Catalina
After chilling out in the park for a little bit, we walked around a little more and took in the city and the celebration that was happening. Carnaval was definitely happening all around us. Children were dressed up, adults were drinking, and the streets were dirty. So here is a picture of that.
Friday night was pretty good. Stephanie and I went back to Chiclana and then went to dinner. We had to order food like three times each though because they were out of almost everything because since it was Carnaval and a holiday, everyone and their dogs were out and about and eating food at this one bar. What I ended up having to order wasn't fantastic, but at least I got food and then we went back to our hosts house. He went out with the Australian girls and partied, but Stephanie and I stayed in and watched the finals for the singing competition that happens every Carnaval. These are probably the most popular things about Carnaval in Cádiz. Groups work all year round to practice and perfect their acts and then there is a competition with quarterfinals, semifinals, etc. leading up to Carnaval and then the finals happen at the start of Carnaval. The finals are broadcasted on television so Stephanie and I watched them. There are five different categories:
  • Chirigotas - These are humorous groups that perform satirical pieces about everything from politics to current events. (These are the most well known and popular)
  • Choirs - These groups of singers may be funny at times, serious at others. They tend to be out and about, entertaining people in the streets accompanied by stringed instruments.
  • Comparsas - These are the most serious singers at the festival. They are known for their more classic musical talents and the more serious content of their songs.
  • Quartets - They don't have to stick to the traditional four - but then, this is the carnival, after all. Time to break the rules! And they are most often accompanied by none other than a kazoo and the beating of sticks.
  • Romanceros - These are the solo acts at that roam the streets to entertain visitors and locals alike. (andalucia.com)
Like I said these songs and this competition is quite popular and it was cool to see them; however, I wish that I could understand more. Even if I did literally understand every word of every song, I think I would still be confused because of all the satirical content in the songs of the chirigotas. For example, there is a song that we heard that was about Teófila Martínez, who is Cádiz' mayor (which we didn't know) and it was making fun of her looks (we didn't know what she looked like). Anyway, the one act that seemed to get the most attention this Carnaval was from the quartet category from a group named Los pepegim. I have posted it below so you can get a feel for what it is. If you skip to 18:08, you will see the most popular part of the bit. The little chant "Carmennnn, Carmen la nerviosaaaa" became the motto for the weekend. I heard people singing it here and there for the rest of the weekend.
And that was the end of day one in Cádiz. I was going to put the whole weekend in one blog, but I think it's best that I split it up. Keep your eye out for Day 2 and 3. :)




Saturday, March 8, 2014

Es primavera

Monday, March 3rd

On Monday, I arrived home from Cádiz early in the morning and went to bed at 8 a.m. (I will blog about Cádiz soon..sorry) and I slept for a few hours. Once I got up, I did some laundry, went grocery shopping because I was out of everything. The rest of the day I pretty much just relaxed. I did some cleaning and homework and then at night, I went to my Spanish class and Karin joined me! It was a lot of fun and I liked having a friend in the class that I could joke around with. :) I think she is going to continue going, too, which will be fun!


Tuesday, March 4th

Tuesday was a school day and the 1st graders are learning about plants and animals still. I may have already mentioned this, but it's pretty easy for them right now, because they already learned animals in Science and now they are learning them in English. Anyway, one of the teachers was sick on Tuesday and I was so happy with how the students were. They did really well with a different teacher, so yay! By the way, here in Spain, there are no substitute teachers. Teachers from within the school sub for classes, so that can get pretty frustrating, but the students did great! :) Also, in the kindergarten class, the students made me put on a Queen of Hearts costume that their teacher wore for Carnaval the previous week and they got a huge kick out of that! Ha. After school, I had the language exchange with Esther, which went great and then I went home and relaxed for the night. Then, it was off to bed and ready for the next day.


Wednesday, March 5th

At school on Wednesday the students learned more about farm animals and baby animal names and then in Science they were reviewing the difference between deciduous and evergreen trees. Esther had me look up types of trees to teach them in English, so I gave them the good old typical trees off the top of my head: oak, maple, elm, evergreen, apple, and willow. Ha, then Esther had me add cypress because apparently there are a lot of those here in Spain. I wouldn't know, I don't pay attention to the types of trees too much. Then she asked me to teach them some types of forests. Like what would a forest with a bunch of pine trees be called? I had to look it up: Pine forest or Pinewood forest, but the other ones I really didn't know. Do we just put the type of tree name and then say forest? Oak forest? Maple forest? Ha, no clue. I do know that there is such a thing as a Redwood forest though, haha. Also, I think in general you can call them Hardwood forests, but I'm not positive. I decided that I call them woods. That's it, just woods. Woods are woods, right? And they are filled with a bunch of different types of trees, I think.

Anyway, the rest of the day was went really well. I read Beauty and the Beast to the kindergartners, started some more job applications at lunch, and went to my lessons after school. A few of them were cancelled so I only had to go to a few and they were a success. I taught the older sister how to use "though" and she understood and it was awesome! I told her to use it and impress her teacher, ha. I was honestly pretty proud of myself, too, for figuring out the proper usage of it and the rules..thank you, Google. :) After the lessons, I went home, did a little bit more application stuff, and then got the desire to watch It Takes Two on YouTube, because for some reason, it's there. Ha. If you don't know what movie that is, it's an old Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen movie. Anyway, after watching that wonderful movie. It was off to bed.


Thursday, March 6th

On Thursday, it was again farm animals and plants, then in the afternoon we had talleres, which are workshops. These workshops will be going on for the next several weeks every Thursday. What they are are just different workshops that the students get to do. I think there are three rotations total: drama, art, and science. Julia and I are helping with the drama workshop with the 2nd and 3rd graders because the play is in English. This first workshop was pretty fun because we haven't worked with the older students yet. The only thing is that it is a locura (crazyness, frenzy). We only have two workshops with each group before they rotate. So in this first one, we had to act out the play for them, make their costumes, and give them their scripts. Then, this coming week, they have to perform the play and we have to tape it. Only problem is that we didn't finish all of the costumes last week, so we have to finish them first and then perform the play. Should be interesting. We will see what happens. :) I'll let you know.

Anyway, after school, I had two lessons that both went pretty quickly. Also, I think I told you that one of the girls has two love birds that had two eggs hatch and that they were ugly two weeks ago, but this past week they actually had a lot of feathers. They grew a lot quickly. Haha, I'm sure you could careless though. Sorry. Anyway, once I was home I added Cádiz pictures on my Facebook and then I planned for the teacher's class on Friday. Also, since I mentioned Cádiz, I should tell you that I will be blogging about it soon. Hopefully, tomorrow or Monday. :)


Friday, March 7th

On the last day of the week, I went to Esther's P.E. class again and she wanted me to teach the whole class so that she could listen to everything I said. It put a little pressure on me, because I was trying to talk naturally, but also, I know that I don't speak perfect English, so I was worried about saying something that wasn't really grammatically correct, but oh well, the point is that I taught the class Red light, green light and duck, duck, goose and I think they loved them both! :) Esther wants me to keep teaching typical games that we play in the U.S. so anymore games that you can think of are welcome. I thought of Red Rover, but the class that I would be teaching it to is already pretty rough, so I don't want to encourage them to break through other students' arms. Ha.

Anyway, in English they did a quick workbook page on a country fair, what I would call a county fair, ha. And they learned the word tractor among others. If only they knew where I really came from. I have a lot of experience at county fairs. Ha. Anyway, I also just thought it was funny that the majority of the students colored their tractors red. I'm not sure if this is because of media or what, but I just thought it was funny. I didn't see any green tractors out there. Sorry, John Deere. You haven't reached Spain yet. Ha.

After classes with the students, I had a class with the teachers, which went pretty well, but I think I might have made it a little too difficult, but you live and you learn. In the spirit of it being Carnaval the past weekend, I decided to teach them about something cultural in the U.S. that is exactly along those lines: Mardi Gras. It went pretty well, but I did run into some problems. Like the word one when used in a sentence like this: Which one is blue? I have since figured out that it is a pronoun in this sentence, but when someone asks me what it means and why it is used and why it is "is" and not "are" and how is it different from the Dolce and Gabbana commercial that says "The One"..it really throws me for a loop. I just looked up the uses of "one" in English..there are like four uses..gah. Anyway, long story short, I used to want to get ESL certified and now I just don't know. I don't actually enjoy teaching English. lol I mean, I know that is why I am here, but my real passion is Spanish, now that's a language I can get behind. And honestly, I don't think I would ever actually turn down getting ESL certified, but yea, it's definitely not on my list of top things to do right now. Also, I don't mind teaching the students English, because a lot of the time it's just vocabulary and I love teaching them Science, but it's the grammar that I despise.

Anyway, after school, I went home and ate lunch and then went on a short run with Karin! I guess I should mention that it has been absolutely beautiful this week! It has been in the upper 50s or lower 60s and it's definitely starting to be Spring and I am LOVING every second of it! After the run, Karin and I hung out and ordered pizza, which was pretty good and completely cancelled out our run and then Stephanie joined us to discuss our trip to Germany in May. We bought our plane tickets so that's another thing out of the way. Yay. :) And I am pretty pumped to go to Germany and I am excited that Karin will be showing us around where she studied for five months. After the girls left, I had every intention of going to bed, but one thing led to another and I stayed up super late Skyping my boyfriend and our mutual friends. And although, the exhaustion is starting to get to me right now, I wouldn't take it back, it was great talking to and seeing them all. I hope you all had fantastic weeks and I hope your weather is starting to warm up for you!

Also, don't forget to spring forward tonight. My clock doesn't change for another few weeks though.