San Isidro y pensar en empleo

Sunday, May 11th

On Sunday, I came home from Sevilla (still waiting to write that blog) and I got home around 2 p.m. I relaxed for a little bit, made lunch, and unpacked, then I went to the park because it was beautiful outside. Also, they had a carnival set up in the park, but you can read more about that when you get to Thursday's post. Anyway, I chilled there for about an hour and then came home and had a long conversation with my mom since it was Mother's Day. After that, I think I went to bed. It was a pretty chill day and I didn't get much done.

Monday, May 12th

I have Mondays off so I slept in a little bit and then got up and actually had a super productive day. I went grocery shopping, blogged, did my Spanish homework, prepared for an interview, etc. At night, I had my two Spanish classes and once I got home, I made dinner and anxiously waited for an online interview that I had. It was pretty nerve-wracking, but I thought it went really well. :) Later this week, I did receive word that they are moving forward with two people that have more teaching experience, but that's okay. It was nice to just have an interview, it was good practice, and I learned some things from it so I can use that knowledge for future interviews. :)


Tuesday, May 13th

On Tuesday, I went to school and in two English classes we worked on the action verbs that they have been learning (jump, skip, skate, etc.). I love it when they get further into each unit because they get the unit songs down and it is adorable to hear them sing them. :) Then, I had a Science class. In all of the Science classes, they are starting a project on one of the last four units. Each class got to choose a topic to research: jobs, transportation, communication, and tools/equipment. The class I had on Tuesday chose transportation and we started talking about what they know about transportation. After lunch, I had a kindergarten class and we played shape bingo. :) Then, I had the class with Esther after school. It was really good, we talked for a long time about the school system in Spain and in the U.S. It was really interesting. Then, I helped her finish editing her speech that she has to give for her English teaching license. Once I got home, I made dinner and Karin and Stephanie came over to hang out. It was fun, but unfortunately, that means that I didn't get anything done. :/ After they left, I went to bed to prepare myself for the next day.


Wednesday, May 14th

On Wednesday, I had another class choose transportation as their research topic for science, then they had to pair off and each group had to choose a means of transport to research. A lot of the students were interested in the same things, so we had to start naming different types so that each group had something different. One of the groups chose to do the Segway, ha..that should be fun and different. :) The first class was pretty stressful with trying to get students to agree on a topic and when I walked into the second class, I had 4 students asking to go to the bathroom, 2 students talking about how so and so hit/stab someone with a pencil, etc. and I kept telling them to sit down and they weren't haven't it, so I may have raised my voice for the first time since being here. I think I freaked the students for a second with my loud "Sit down!," but it still didn't really work. Especially since Esther walked in one second later and so they just went to her to say the same things they had just told me. Oh, kids. My day was just kind of frustrating, but it got better in the afternoon, I watched the kindergartners get excited about coloring a big Malfalda picture and other photos. I also read them The Hungry Catepillar. Then, in the afternoon, after another science class, I went around with one of the classes as they visited the pre-K classes. This week was cultural week in school, by the way, so the classes were exchanging things with other classes, so the pre-school classes sang songs to the first grade and the first grade sang and taught them a dance. So, we did that, then they went around to other classes so that the first graders could visit their little siblings. It was so cute and crazy to see how many of the first graders I have have siblings in the younger grades. It was adorable to see them together. After school, I had my private lessons and they all went super well. It's crazy, I don't think I am continuing the lessons in June because my schedule changes, so I only have two weeks left of lessons...ahh! That's nuts! I am really going to miss all of my students and I know they will miss me. One of the girls was already saying that they will need to get my address from me. The conversation was all just really good and it was really cute, too, because I started talked about languages with one of the girls and she decided that there were 7 languages in the world. :) I probably thought that when I was young, too. I informed her though that there are a bunch more than that, but really, I didn't know a number either, so I couldn't even tell her for sure.  So, of course, I came home and tried to Google it and let me tell you, there's no clear cut answer. I found 6,909 distinct languages and you can read a whole article about it here. And then, I got to thinking, too, well how many countries are there in the world and I didn't know that either. And what do you know? That's not a cookie cutter answer either, but you could say 196, according to this article. Pretty much, I thought it was cute that she thought there were only 7, but then when I stepped back and thought about it, my guess was pretty short of 6,909 also. Anyway, once I got home, I relaxed and went to bed.


Thursday, May 15th

La pradera de San Isidro, painted by Goya

Thursday was a holiday in Madrid. It was their Patron Saint's Day, but I'll talk more about that in a little bit, but I mentioned it at the beginning of this post because the streets and metro were super empty. All the stores were closed and next to no one was on the street (canary yellow: "next to" in this sentence is weird, I bet it super confuses English language learners). Anyway, today at school, to go along with cultural week, several parents came in to read books to the students. And that is what I did all day. I sat and listened to parents tell stories. You would think that since Julia and I are from a different country that they would have asked us to do something, but no. And Julia and I definitely could have taken initiative and done something, but it seems like that's not okay most of the time. For example, Julia brought in U.S. dollars to at least show the students something and she got told by one of the teachers that there wasn't time for it. To be honest, I didn't actual see a lot of "cultural" things going on during the week, but that's just my opinion. I was able to read a book in English to Esther's class, so that was nice, but that's about all I did on Thursday. Also, I will say that the school did have an awesome English theatre group come and perform. They put on a play that was like a modern day Alice in Wonderland. I thought it was so good and it wasn't even for me. Actually, I heard some students say they didn't like it because it was in English and they couldn't understand it, but that's pretty normal, I think. And it was still good though, because some of the students did get to participate in the play.

After school, I helped Esther with skipping vocabulary (aka jump rope vocabulary), because she is starting a jumproping unit in P.E. so I taught her what I knew (which isn't a lot) and I also told her a few jumproping songs, like "Cinderella dressed in yellow..." Then I had one of my lessons and we worked on irregular verbs because she has a test next week on them. After that lesson, I went home and talked to my mom, ate dinner, and bought bull fighting tickets because Esther and I are going on Sunday to a bullfight. Apparently, the bullfights are the most popular during the San Isidro celebrations because the best bullfighters come to Madrid, so Esther and I will experience that. She has never been either and we asked a few other teachers if they wanted to go and they said they were anti-bullfighting. That seems to be the general consensus (from what I can tell) here in Spain. It seems like a lot of people are anti-bullfights and are kind of embarrassed that it is consider to be a part of their culture. To be honest, I already know that I'm not going to like it and I can pretty much tell you right now that I am going to have an anti-bullfighting stance as well, but I am going for the experience. I am going because I will be a teacher and I want to be able to talk about bullfighting from firsthand experience..well I mean not completely firsthand..I WILL NOT be participating in the running of the bulls, ha. Anyway, I am pretty "excited" to go, just to see what it's like. And now, since I have come full circle, I will continue talking about San Isidro. San Isidro is the Patron Saint of Madrid (and of farmers) and he is celebrated on May 15th. Legend has it that "once when he was building a well [and] his son fell in; but through his mediation he was miraculously brought back to the [top] when the water level rose causing the child to float" (Source). He also made a spring start while he was plowing and now there is a little church that sits on that spring. So, since I do not work in Madrid, I did not have the day off and could not participate in all of the festivities, but I will still tell you what goes on, according to what I found online. At noon on the 15th, a mass is held at the Royal Collegiate Church of San Isidro and after mass, the Archbishop of Madrid goes to San Isidro Meadow (La pradera de San Isidro, which is like a big park--that I actually live kinda close to) and he blesses the water from the spring. In the afternoon, there is a parade and also somewhat of a pilgrimage and people gather all day long to drink some of the holy water.

Pilgrimage to the Church of San Isidro, painted by Goya

By night, there are carnival rides, fireworks, concerts, etc. and Karin and I went to that on Thursday night. There are food stands up everywhere and the main things to eat are some kind of pork intestine things and rosquillas. There are different kinds of rosquillas, but I tried the rosquillas de viento. We also just walked around, they had a lot of markets up, like the Rastro and we walked around the carnival and games area, where Karin photobombed a group of people and we saw people playing a lottery game for a pata negra. Also, some people dress up in the typical madrileña dress, but it wasn't super common, like not everyone was wearing it.

Traditional madrileña dress

Markets in San Isidro Meadow

Lottery for a pig leg

Friday, May 16th

Yesterday, I went to school and had a science class and kindergarten class, both were simple and went really well. Then, I had the teacher class. Once again, I only had two people there, but I went ahead and had the class anyway and it was really successful, I think. I showed them the video Look Up that went viral on the internet and then had a debate about social media. If you haven't seen the video, I really would suggest watching it. It's good. :)

I am definitely guilty of the things that are mentioned in this, but I also am extremely grateful for technology and social media. I would not be writing this blog/journal without it and I would not be in contact with my friends and family like I am right now. I definitely think it's a good and bad thing, you just have to be responsible with it. Also, to counter the Look Up video, there is of course a satirical parody response called Look Down....

After school, I came home and relaxed for a little bit and talked to my sister on the phone because her and her husband just made a big move. Then, I applied for two more jobs and started searching for more. I started getting super stressed looking at my list of things to do. It's a list full of little annoying things, but also time consuming things. For example, blogging. My sister keeps telling me "I'm behind on your blog" and I keep having to tell her, "No, I'm behind on my blog!" It has officially been over a month since the start of spring break and I still have to post those blogs, plus Munich and Feria de Sevilla. Pretty much, I am wayyy behind on those and I would take the time to write them, but every time I get on my computer, I can't help but look for jobs in the U.S. It pretty much consumes my life. I am looking a lot, researching jobs and schools, and applying. So I think I just got worked up with everything, but I did get a chance to take a break at night because I went to see fireworks in Retiro. It was really nice. It was a super short show with only two songs, but I liked both of the songs and the fireworks were so pretty. Plus, I don't think I've ever stood that close to a display. It was awesome!

Waiting for the fireworks to start

And they have started..

Saturday, May 17th

Today, I was kind of productive and a little less stressed. I got up early-ish, got ready, and went to the grocery store to buy stuff for tonight's dinner. I applied for two more jobs and still avoided a few other ones, because I have to answer lengthy questions for them. I think my goal for the weekend is to knock out some blogs, like this one, so then I can stop thinking about how far behind I am one them. I have two more days, so let's see where I get with those. Anyway, tonight I cooked dinner for Karin, Stephanie, and I. And I made Spicy Roasted Vegetable Macaroni and Cheese and it was pretty good. Well, I thought it was and it was definitely spicy. There were some nice zesty bites while eating it. :) Anyway, we just hung out for a little bit and then they went home and I finished this blog. Go me. :) I hope you all had wonderful weeks and I will talk to you next week. :)