Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Preparación del Carnaval

Monday, Wednesday 26th

On Sunday night, I stayed up super duper late talking with my family and working on one of my job application for the a few teaching positions in the U.S. for next year. So, that means I woke up at noon on Monday. I didn't particularly like sleeping in so much, but it felt better than the alternative of not getting any sleep at all. I did a little grocery shopping to get me through the week and just hung out during the day. Then, I worked on my application more. Then, I went to my Spanish class, which was really pretty fun. Mostly because I learned of a Spanish singer who I didn't know before. The artist's name is Rozalén and below is the song we listened to in class. It's a pretty cool video because she has a sign language interpreter in it with her.
Anyway, after class, I just hung out and went to bed early. Also, I want to share a few photos from class. One is from the class that Tim was at when he visited me and the other picture is from Friday night when we went to the musical.
Class when Tim visited
At the musical :)

Tuesday, February 25th

Tuesday at school was pretty good. I was slightly worried when I first got to school because I didn't get the message that we were supposed to wear silly hats to celebrate Carnaval, but luckily, another teacher had two, so I borrowed some Minnie Mouse ears from her. :) Also, can I just add that I saw at least three Guinness hats. Ha. That would not be allowed in the U.S. Anyway, the students are were already getting pretty excited and non-productive because of Carnaval activities. We got almost nothing done in Science, because the students had recess right before class and they practiced their dances and songs for Carnaval and they just all were wound up. Anyway, in the kindergarten class, I got to explain an activity in English to the students and they understood everything and did the activity correctly, so that's an accomplishment! :) After school, I had my class with Esther. We always have really interesting conversations and I am always mentally tested when it comes to English, like trying to explain the difference between a job and a career. I can always come up with an answer, but I am never positive and I am always second guessing myself. Ha. I just want to make sure that the answers I give are correct, so I always go home with a list of things to double check. Once I got home, I ate dinner and then headed over to Karin's to hang out with her and her parents. Also, her mom was nice enough to cut my hair! I thought that was soo great of her and it was really nice just to see and talk to them again. And I liked hearing what they have seen in Spain and what their thoughts are about Spain. After hanging out at Karin's for quite awhile, I just came home and chilled and then went bed.

Wednesday, February 26th

For Carnaval today, the students came to school with their faces painted and jeez Louise, I don't know where the parents got their talent, but there were some amazingly painted faces! Spiderman, the Joker, flowers, dogs, wolves, cheetahs, etc. It was amazing! And me? I put a smiley face sticker on my face. :P A couple students called me out for not painting my face, but that's okay. At lunch time, I made my Peter Pan costume for tomorrow, which was fun. Don't worry. You will see pictures. Today, in classes we worked on some animal vocabulary, learned some Carnaval vocabulary, and learned the parts of the tree in English. I once again didn't know the name of something in English, and that is the crown of a tree a.k.a. the branches, the leaves, and flowers, nuts, fruit, etc. that makes up the top of a tree (aka that cloud that you draw around a tree trunk when drawing a tree..haha). Did you know that that had a name? I did not. Ha.

Anyway, after school, I had private lessons that went really well, minus the fact that the present perfect vs. past simple assignment that I helped one of the girls with last week was supposed to be all in present perfect, but she said it didn't matter and she only got a few wrong. Plus, she got 10s (A+) on two of her English tests last week so I was proud of her for that! After lessons, I came home and relaxed and now I'm going to bed. I had every intention of packing tonight because Stephanie and I leave tomorrow night for Cádiz, but I will have plenty of time tomorrow night to pack because we are taking the overnight bus again and it doesn't leave until around midnight. So I will have all evening to pack. I hope all of you are doing well and I hope you are having a fantastic week so far. :) If I don't get the chance to blog tomorrow night, then I will talk to you all on Monday! :) Have a great weekend!




Sunday, February 23, 2014

Sigue a tu corazón

Saturday, February 22nd

Yesterday, I didn't do much in the morning that is worth talking about, so I will just talk about the highlight of my day. The highlight of my day was taking a 3-hour master dance class with Matt Luck. You may not know who he is, but he is a choreographer from L.A. and I have known about him for a little over a year from YouTube. There are a few choreographers that I love that post stuff on YouTube and I found him through one of the girls that I really like. About a month ago I saw that he was going to be coming to Madrid to teach a class so I signed up right away and I'm glad I did. It was awesome. We learned two dances to two really great songs that I had never heard before yesterday and he dances/choreographs in what I would consider my favorite style. It's contemporary, but because of the musicality of the dances, they have a hip hop feel as well. Below I have posted one of Matt Luck's dances that is on YouTube along with the two songs that we danced to yesterday. And just for fun, I have included one of my favorite YouTube dances choreographed by Erica Sobol (I found Matt Luck through her). :)



Oh, also I got a picture with him.

Sunday, February 23rd

This morning I went to church again. The service was good and the scripture used was John 1:29-34. After church, I went to the women's bible study and we talked about faith. The scripture from the chapter was "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." Hebrew 11:6 We learned that in time of crisis, you have to abandon yourself and have faith in the Lord to see it through.
After church, I came home and ate lunch and relaxed. I am currently continuing to relax and I will be relaxing for the rest of the night. Also, in honor of the Olympics ending today. I found the intro video thing that I tried looking for when they first started. I really like the music. Was this clip playing in the U.S., too? Anyway, to watch you have to click on the link and watch the first 27 seconds of the video.

And that's that. I had a great weekend and I am looking forward to my day off tomorrow as well! :)

Madrid Enverbenado

Wednesday, February 19th

This week was a pretty good week! On Wednesday, I had school and the students were learning the words firefighter, ambulance driver, and police officer and they had to say what they were wearing, since they are also learning clothing vocabulary in English. And in Science, they are learning weather, seasons (which are both very easy because they already know it), and now the planets. Also, they are learning the water cycle, which is pretty interesting, I guess. I think it's so cool that they have Science in English. They get twice as much vocabulary as they would if they only have English class. Anyway, I usually have a kindergarten class right before lunch, but the class was on a field trip so I went to a different class instead and they are ahead of all the other classes and are learning more about food. The teacher asked them to name some fruits and vegetables and boy were they naming weird ones that I did not know the translation for in English or Spanish and some of them (once I knew the name in English) I still didn't know what they were. For example, a Saturn peach (paraguayo), it's a type of peach, but it is flatter. They also names leeks, which I didn't even know what those were until a few years ago, and they started naming types of things that I could not help translate, but some I could, like purple cabbage, cherry tomatoes, etc. Ha, the other auxiliar and I were joking and saying that the students were asked to name veggies and it turned into this...iceberg, romaine, escarole, chicory, etc. Haha, it's lettuce! All of it is lettuce! Really though, that's what happened. :)

Anyway, we had more Carnaval workshops in the afternoon where the students finished making their costumes. They made a belt buckle and taped white tissue paper to their costume to make it look like Captain Hook's shirt, and then they colored masks to hang up in the hallway and classroom. Also, you remember how I was happy that all the students in my group finished their hat and hook the day before..yea, this workshop I found out that one of the boys didn't even start making his hat. Whoops, not sure what he did the whole time, but yea. At least he definitely got it finished this time.

Anyway, Wednesday it was beautiful outside and that means that all of the kids were outside playing instead of at home and I saw seven of my students out and about while I was walking to private lessons. At one point I had five girls running at me screaming my name. It was both terrifying and the best feeling ever! :) The lessons were all good, however I did come across some more interesting English facts: read, ride, and write are very simple and hard to say if you can't distinguish the vowel sounds and the "d" and "t." Also, don't even get me started on present perfect vs. past simple verbs. This issue was brought to my attention last week and it is still bothering me! It's the difference between "I have ate" vs. "I ate." Did you know there are rules for which one to use? Did you know that I do not know them for the life of me! I had to help a girl with her homework and I had to ask her to get out her notes because I honestly didn't know which one to use. For the majority of the questions, both sounded right, but I always leaned towards the past simple, but yea..I have NO clue if I helped her or if I was even right. One of the hardest ones was. "Look! I _______ a window" Naturally, I would say "broke," but I believe (again, still not sure) that grammatically it should be "have broken" because it is recent news! GAHH! Anyway, that was my Wednesday. It was good.

Thursday, February 20th

On Thursday, I accompanied the 1st graders on a field trip to see a musical called Martina at the zoo. It was pretty good, but slightly annoying and I think the students were done with it after about 15 minutes or so. We sang The Wheels on the Bus though and that was pretty fun. Also, I think some of it was a little advanced for the students, but I also think the actress did a pretty good job in the majority of parts explaining things. Oh, it was in English, by the way. I guess I should have mentioned that first.

Once back at school, I played with the kindergartners and then helped Esther teach the water cycle to her class. :) Then, I had a few private lessons where again I had to deal with present perfect vs. past simple. We'll see this week if we got them all right or all wrong on the homework. Ha. The girls were seriously like..."Look! I have broken a window?" And I would be like "I have no idea." Whoops, some English teacher I am. After the lessons, I just went home and relaxed for the night.

Friday, February 21st

On Fridays, I usually go to school late, but now once in awhile I will be going to school at the normal time to go to Esther's P.E. class that she teaches. So that's what I did last Friday. I went to a first grade P.E. class and helped Esther out. She wants to know the name of all of the equipment in English and she wanted to write down all the mistakes she made while instructing the class. I think this is great for her and it's awesome that she wants to improve, even though her English is already really good! Anyway, after a few other classes, I didn't have the teacher class again because we practiced the dance for Carnaval this coming week.

After school, I went home and skyped my boyfriend and then went to Spanish class. We obviously usually don't have class on a Friday night, but since we didn't have it a few weeks ago we were making it up. After class, we went to a musical called Madrid Enverbenado. Enverbenado refers to verbena, which is like street music and a party. These parties are pretty popular in Madrid in the traditional neighborhoods and also copla, which is a type of music is traditional to Spain, so the musical had mostly copla music, I guess..I'm not really sure how copla is identified, but yea. I have included a song below that was sang in the musical called Rosa de Madrid and then there is a video of the two main people that were actually in the musical singing a song that they sang during the musical. As you can see from the second video, the female role is played by a man, so you can probably guess that the musical was a comedy and it was! Also, I understood pretty much everything and laughed at all the jokes and such! So I'm pretty proud of myself for that one and it really was funny, but also kind of dark. It was about an artist that was struggling and depressed and he had no inspiration to continue creating art. However, his crazy cousin, Rosa de Madrid, provided comedic relief! Anyway, here are the videos:

After the musical, we went out for a free drink (a typical Madrid drink..can't remember the name) and then I went home. I watched most of Pearl Harbor with Rocío and then I was exhausted and went to bed.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

El transporte público

I have a love hate relationship with public transportation. I love it because it is super convenient and you can go practically anywhere you need to/want to. I hate it because when it's not working, it is extremely frustrating! For example, this morning. I got to the metro station and the metro was one minute away. I always like seeing that not because I was running late, but because I just hate standing and waiting. Well, the screen that said "1 min" went black and that is never a good sign. It's like getting the blue screen of death on your computer and sure enough a few minutes later a voice came over the speaker and said that the train would be delayed due to technical difficulties. So yea, I have played that game before when you stand and wait and you just never know how long it is going to take. So, I decide to commit to taking the bus, which also takes awhile and involves waiting, but at least it's usually a guarantee that it is coming. So, I took the bus to the train station and ultimately arrived a half hour late to school...boooo. I wasn't too happy about that, but luckily since I don't work full days, I can make up the time in other classes, but still..not happy. I won't be able to make up time like that in the future.

Anyway, if you think that story is good, I have better one for you. It is from the other auxiliar at my school. She was on the train today and went to stand up to get off of the train and her bookbag strap was caught in the seat. Long story short she had to tug hard to get it free, but unfortunately the doors had shut and they were moving again. The next stop after we get off is in a different zone, so she had to pay extra to go back one stop to get to school. She said she made it with just enough time to spare. We can't make these stories up!

Anyway, school was pretty good today. My students are learning about clothing still in English and today in Science we covered the water cycle. I think it's pretty cool that they have Science in English. They learn sooo many more words than they would if they only had English in English. Anyway, in the afternoon, we had workshops for Carnaval. Carnaval is coming up next week so the students are getting their costumes ready for that. I think it's interesting that the students make the costumes at school and that they are practically the same. I think I mentioned this in my blog about last week, but yea. The theme is Peter Pan and I feel like in the U.S. the parents would get a note that said "Dress your child up like a character from Peter Pan," so the student would get to choose who they wanted to be and they will have somewhat different costumes than other students. However, here, the 1st graders got to choose between Tinkerbell, Peter Pan, and Captain Hook. Naturally, all the girls chose Tinkerbell (they should have at least thrown Wendy in there to give the girls another choice, in my opinion). But yea, all the costumes are the same and they take a lot of class time away to prepare for Carnaval, but it's still fun for the students either way, so I guess I shouldn't critique it. Plus, I am quite impressed in what the teachers come up with for the students to make. I will give the teachers that, they are quite creative. :) Anyway, I was helping in the Peter Pan and Captain Hook classroom, specifically with Captain Hook and man, I cannot imagine being one teacher in a classroom with a bunch of 1st graders asking questions. Haha. I was helping about 10 students and that was more than enough for me, so yea..if I had 20 (I will someday), it would be crazy! On another note, all the students in my group got the part of their costume done that they were supposed to finish today! :) And, if I were the only teacher in the classroom, I would spend extra time explaining every step so there would be less questions.

After school, I started up my intercambio with Esther (from my school) again. She had been taking a class for the past several weeks, so we just now got back in the swing of things. We discussed some interesting cultural differences, for example, the difference between a major and minor at college. That was kind of tough to explain, but I got there and she understood. Also, we talked about English pronunciation that is difficult. For example, the difference between "it" and "eat." The "i" in Spanish sounds like the letter "e" in English, so if you pronounce "it" in Spanish and "eat" in English they are the exact same. Interesting...

After the intercambio, my night was good, besides the fact that I was reading and not paying attention on the train and I, too, missed my stop on the way back home. Whoops. Oh well, it wasn't too big of a deal because I stayed in the same zone and I was able to take the train two more stops to catch a different metro line. Ha. My day started and ended with interesting public transportation stories and I'm sure they won't be the last. Hope you all had great Tuesdays and that public transit didn't hassle you too much. :P

Monday, February 17, 2014

El Museo del Prado

On Saturday morning, I got up in the morning and cleaned, watched How I Met Your Mother, cross-stitched for the first time in awhile, and watched some of the U.S.A. vs. Russia hockey game. Then, once Lucia was up and moving we went to the Prado museum. Prado is the most well-known art museum in Madrid and possibly in all of Spain. It has the best collection of Spanish art and is filled with many masterpieces, which got me thinking...what makes a masterpiece? After going to the museum, I didn't figure it out. I really wonder why the masterpieces are considered masterpieces, which is a pretty good thing for me to look into, but I'm just not going to do that right now. Anyway, I wasn't allowed to take pictures, but I have included some images of the "masterpieces" that are in the Prado Museum.
El 3 de mayo de 1808 en Madrid
Francisco Goya

Las meninas
Diego Velázquez
The most popular painting in Prado
El caballero de la mano en el pecho
El Greco
El perro
Francisco Goya
The previous painting is from Francisco Goya's Black Paintings. The Black Paintings are paintings that "portray intense, haunting themes, reflective of both his fear of insanity and his bleak outlook on humanity" (Wikipedia). The 14 paintings in this collection were actually murals that were on the walls of Goya's house and in 1874 they were transferred to canvas, which I think is just amazing.
El quitasol
Francisco Goya
I think she looks like Snow White.
El jardín de las delicias
El Bosco
The art at the Prado really isn't the style I like. I definitely like the contemporary art more, but what I really liked about going to the Prado is that I saw the actual pieces of ones that I had seen in Bilbao when I went to the Guggenheim. Let me explain. When I went to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, there were paintings there painted by José Manuel Ballester. His technique of painting was to take masterpieces and omit all of the people. I really liked seeing them in Bilbao, so it was cool to see the masterpieces that he copied from. You can scroll back up to see their counterparts again.
El Palacio Real
José Manuel Ballester
El 3 de mayo
José Manuel Ballester
After visiting the museum, Lucia and I walked back to the bus stop and we ate sandwiches that Lucia had prepared for us. These sandwiches were Nutella sandwiches, which isn't a big deal, but it was because it was my first time ever trying Nutella. I know, I know...a lot of people LOVE Nutella and it's a pretty popular thing, but I just never got around to trying it. My opinion? It's good, but I don't know what the huge fuss is about. But I liked it. Once at home, I spent the rest of my night relaxing, watching more episodes of How I Met Your Mother, cross-stitching, and watching a little bit of ski jumping for the Olympics.

On Sunday, I went to church again. The message was on "Returning to God" and used the scripture Joel 2:12-14. With lent coming up soon, the pastor discussed what people will choose to "give up." He asked "What is holding you back in life? What are you attached to? What is distracting you and leading you off the path?" He advised that you answer those questions and then let that go for lent. Overall it was a great service and once again, I love the music! Also, we sang part of a song in Spanish, which was awesome!

After church, I came home and finished watching How I Met Your Mother. I'm all caught up so now I can finish out watching the last 6 or so episodes in the last season with the rest of the world. I also cross-stitched, relaxed, and skyped my parents. And that's that. It was a good day.

Today (Monday) was my day off so I relaxed some more, wrote this blog, did my Spanish homework, and went to Spanish class. And that's about it. It was a good day. Hope you all have a great week!













Friday, February 14, 2014

Día de San Valentín

So school this week was pretty good. The students are working on clothing and weather in English. It rained/snowed at the beginning of this week, which the students were excited about, but I wouldn't consider what we got in Madrid center snow, it was more like sleet. However, it did snow in the mountains, which is cool. I keep wanting actual snow, but then we also are still have really warm days, which gets me excited for summer. For example, this morning was really nice and it made me want to sing and dance to what I would consider a summer anthem, the song "Unwritten," on my way to school.
I know it doesn't even feel close to warm weather for you guys yet. I'm sorry. I'll try not to make you too jealous when I start blogging about how warm it is. :)

Anyway, classes with the kindergartens were pretty fun this week. They are preparing for carnival and their theme is Alice in Wonderland so every class has a different costume related to the story. It's fun for the students, but it's also kind of boring because they all have the same costume. It's nothing like Halloween in the sense that every student picks his/her own costume, but the costumes are still pretty cool and the students are having a blast making them.
Oh, by the way, there was A LOT glitter again
Also this week, I once again was reminded how gross falling out teeth are, but this time it was not natural. A boy in one of my classes told me that he broke his tooth at recess. In my head, I was thinking "Okay, it's just chipped." WRONG! His tooth was literally broken and yet still attached. I can't even describe it, but it was disgusting and he's getting it pulled this weekend. Gah. I can tell you right now, I am NOT looking forward to the day when my wisdom teeth have to come out. :(

Anyway, all of my lessons went well this week and I was reminded again how hard English pronunciation is. I wish I could remember specifically what words were difficult for my lessons, but there were two that were extremely close where even I could understand why it was hard to tell the difference. Anyway, on Tuesday, I went to a lesson of my own, also known as the intercambio--where you go and talk to people in Spanish and English, so you can practice and they can practice. I haven't been back since before Christmas, so it was good.

Another exciting thing that happened this week was last night (Thursday). Karin's parents just got here yesterday, so Stephanie and I joined them for dinner. Actually, I had already eaten dinner so I just had dessert, but it was delicious. After dessert, I came home and worked on the teachers' lesson for today, which was based around Valentine's Day. It was a pretty fun lesson, but then, I didn't end up giving it today. :( Instead of having English class, we learned two dances for Carnaval. So, it stinks that I planned a lesson that I didn't give, but we had fun learning the dance. Also, I think the students will really enjoy that we will be dancing with them for Carnaval. On another note, I kept being told that Valentine's Day isn't really a big deal here, but I saw several guys walking around with flowers and they talked about it on the news, so I'm pretty sure it's a thing. Plus, I wasn't told that we would be talking about it in school and I got to school only to find out that my co-teacher wanted me to tell the students what we do in the U.S. It was just a little frustrating because if I had known ahead of time, I would have created a presentation and made a fun lesson for the students, but instead, I gave a 10 second blurb of what we did. Andrea fail. :( Oh well.

My plans for the weekend include doing some finishing touches on my job applications, watching How I Met Your Mother and the Olympics, and doing absolutely nothing, but maybe some plans will come together. I hope you all have relaxing weekends and Happy Valentine's Day!

Monday, February 10, 2014

La iglesia

Okay, so I know that I haven't blogged in awhile and I'm just warning you that it might be like that for the next few months. Things haven't been too exciting and I don't want to bore you constantly with the same old stuff that happens at school, but I promise I will still let you in on all of the fun details. So, starting with last Friday, I went to school and had a short day and had the teachers class where I again got to work with the Promethean Board. After school, I just hung out all afternoon and then I went to a small group with Karin and Stephanie. We met a girl named Katelyn at the beginning of the year through the free fitness group and we found out that her and some friends started a small group. They get together once a week and talk about what God is doing in their lives. They usually get together on Thursday nights so I don't know if I can go every week, but I really enjoyed going on Friday. There was a group of 7 of us and we met at a Christian café/bookstore. All the girls were so nice and it was great to just talk with them. After the small group, Stephanie and Karin came over to my place for a little bit and just hung out.

On Saturday, I did not leave the house and it was fantastic. I finished up some more application stuff for the job search that I am currently doing and I watch How I Met Your Mother for a long time and I watched a little bit of the Olympics (slopestyle and cross-country skiing). I decided that I love the patchwork for the games. It's so cool. It's below if you don't know what I'm talking about.
Also, I love the commercial that plays here right before they start showing the events again. It's not your typical NBC dunnnn dunnnn, dundun dun dun dun song, although I do miss hearing that, so let's pause and listen to that...
So, I had no idea that song was so long. Anyway, I really like the song/intro that has been playing here. I mean maybe it's playing in the U.S. right now, too, but I have no idea. Anyway, it's a cool intro with all the sports being represented and the patchwork is incorporated and the song is AWESOME, but I just spent a lot of time trying to look for a video and I couldn't find it. :( So, I'll either look again later or I might just have to record the T.V., ha. Anyway, that's what I spent my Saturday doing.

On Sunday, I went to church with Karin for the first time since being here, even though my body tried to make me miss it..I woke up 10 minutes before I was supposed to leave. Anyway, we went to church at an international church called Immanuel Baptist Church and it was so great! The whole church was so international. Their congregation represents 44 different countries. Also, there were so many kids, which surprised me for some reason. Anyway, the service was in English and I really liked it because of the music. I love the traditional hymns that we sing at my home church, but I also enjoy a good contemporary song and the service had a mixture of both! It was awesome! The service was on forgiveness and it was really nice. After the service, they have a fellowship time a.k.a. time for tea and crumpets and then we attended a women's bible study that is titled "Experiencing God" and we discussed prayer. It was a really good morning and I definitely plan on going back. It was just a good atmosphere to be in and it helped me clear my head, since I have had a lot going on lately.

After church, I went to Karin's house for lunch and to spend the afternoon watching the Olympics. We watched some downhill skiing, a biathlon, luge, figure skating, and ice dancing. It was so great, but we started to reminisce about that NBC Olympic song that I posted above and just the overall games in the states. It seems like nobody cares about the winter Olympics here. We also were nerds and looked up certain sports and some statistics. Spain has only 20 athletes in the Games, as opposed to the 230 U.S. athletes. We even did the math on the ratio of athletes to population and the U.S. has about .0000003% more athletes for population, than Spain does. So there's some nerdy trivia for you. After that, I went back home and watched a movie with Lucia. It was called In Burges. I wouldn't suggest it. It was weird. Anyway, I spent the night just hanging out and that's it.

Today, Monday, I woke up pretty early for my day off and made breakfast and did some application stuff. Then, I watched several episodes of How I Met Your Mother and then did some laundry and cleaned. Today was a pretty relaxed day after that and I just had my Spanish class at night and then came home and watched El Hormiguero. It was a good night and now it's time for bed. I hope all of you had great weekends and I will keep you posted. ;)

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

My first real post

I started this blog two and a half years ago and have written 296 posts and this is my first real blog post. This blog was created as a journal so that I could remember events in my life and so that my family and friends could keep up with my life/travels. I have written posts filled with travels that were pretty indifferent talking about tours, things I've seen, people I've met, things I've learned, etc. My blogs tend to be pretty boring if you're an outsider looking in, although I do get the occasional views from random places. Long story short, I do not write blogs that go viral. I write blogs for myself and for my family and friends, but I have been inspired to write what I would consider a "real" post in hopes that many people see and read it. Even though I have been provoked to write this, I am also still hesitate to write it because of the comfort I get in writing boring and non-controversial posts. Nevertheless, I feel that the topic must be addressed, even if it has already been addressed on a thousand other social media websites.

What is this topic, you ask? Well it's that Superbowl 2014 Coca-Cola commercial that many have been opinionated about. If you don't know what I am talking about, then stop right now and check out the commercial and the negative comments that it received on Twitter. I can't even bring myself to read all of the negative comments. They make my blood boil and my skin crawl. And if you come from my family, you may even say that it "tightens my jaw." The concept of "This is America and we speak English" has gotten to me for the past several years, but I think this was the tipping point for me.

I have been to six countries (and counting), I am currently living and working in Spain, and I am truly embarrassed by the reaction of some of the U.S. citizens to the Coca-Cola ad. Every country that I have been to has accepted me for where I come from and the language that I speak and, to be honest, I don't know if they should. Why should they respect and welcome me when I come from a country where some people are so arrogant and ignorant? "Ignorance is bliss." I don't believe that for a second. This type of ignorance is not blissful in any way. Do you want to know what is blissful? Closing your eyes and listening to a captivating song such as "America the Beautiful" sung in nine different languages. Better yet, open your eyes and watch the video. See the people from all different cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds dancing, swimming, camping, road-tripping, eating, etc. That is what the United States of America is. That is what is beautiful.

I hope that while I continue my travels I do not get treated in such a negative way that those reactions portray. I pray that I continue to be accepted by the open minds of world citizens and I pray that I can continue to open my mind to the diversity that the U.S. and the world has to offer. I pray that future generations have the same attitudes that the young girls who sang the song for the commercial have.
You continue to feel joyful, Naya! Don't let the negative comments crush that feeling. America is beautiful. I have hope for the future, even after the negative comments, because of comments like this: "America is one union, but with a mix of cultures and it doesn't matter who you are. We should always be friendly to each other no matter what difference you have."

The United States does not have an official language for a reason and "American" is not a language, and neither is "Mexican" while I'm at it (but I can save that discussion for a different blog). Also, since I am on the topic of misused words, "America" can refer to the combined continents of North America and South America. And "'murica" is also just a ridiculous word that I personally have a problem with. I realize that the word stems from extreme patriotism, which is a great feeling to have, but there is a difference in having patriotism towards ones country and "patriotism" towards English-speaking, white 'murica.

Although this video generated a lot of negative comments that I am truly embarrassed about as a U.S. American, I am still proud to be from the U.S. It really is a beautiful place with beautiful people in it. And I look forward to the future where people from diverse backgrounds come together for the same thing, just as those young girls united to sing about the beauty that is the United States of America.

Huele bien

Today was a pretty good day at school. My first graders finished up the family chapter and started on the clothing unit today. Some students already knew a lot of the clothing items, which is awesome. On another note though, I hope that we teach them more than what is in their book, especially since they have a good grasp on the basics. Also, I think it's really good that they have a C.D. for pronunciation because the British accent is something that I can not impersonate. My version of shirt is a lot different from the British version. I don't even pronounce the "t" and my "ir" sounds different. I'm still so confused as to why they hire the majority of U.S. Americans to teach British-English, but it doesn't matter, it usually doesn't affect my teaching. The students are also still working on their animal projects in science and they are doing great. I will show you pictures of some when those are finished. On another note, you know how I told you that I finally bought good hair products? Well, I got told by some first grade girls that my hair smelled good. Yay, shampoo is first grader approved. Thank you, Garnier Fructis! Anyway, the afternoon consisted of the same clothing and animal units and then I had private lessons after school. My lessons went well and I continue to question the English language. One of my students asked me what "meant" meant...in the sense of "He meant what he said." Luckily, I am a native English speaker and I can usually explain words in another way, but boy, sometimes I am thrown off by words that my students have questions about because it seems so natural. Anyway, that was my day. Pretty typical. Nothing special. Except my hair smelled good. :)

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Solicitudes

School was pretty good today. In science, the students are working on animal projects in partners. They got to choose an animal, bring in a photo, and now they are writing what they know about it. Is it wild or domestic? Oviparous or viviparous? A carnivore, herbivore, or omnivore? It was a pretty good day in science and most of the students seem to be enjoying the project. As for English, we are still winding down on the family unit in some classes, but the exciting thing is that two of the classes that I have been working in didn't have interactive whiteboards before, but they have them now! They aren't as cool as Promethean boards from what I can tell, but hey, we're moving up in the world and the class today liked having it. Although, in my opinion, it's mounted too high for a bunch of 1st graders. It's funny, those things really are important aspects to think about.

Anyway, in my kindergarten class today, the students had their stations as usual and it was so cute because some of them were working on making adorable flower costumes for Carnival, which is happening at the end of February. I can't wait to see them in their costumes as daisies, violets, dandelions, lilies, etc. It's adorable.

After school is what I really want to talk about. I started the application process for teaching positions last night and oh boy is it a process. There are so many things to do and write and figure out. My poor family and friends have been attacked by me with questions and favors to help in this giant task that sits ahead of me. Today I wrote two responses to questions and a cover letter (my first one ever) and I still have one more question to respond to, plus a lot of proofing. Plus, I have to ponder that one statement that says "Please provide any additional information which will help in determining your professional qualifications for a position." How the heck are you supposed to answer things like that?! I'm not so good at this talking myself up. Plus, I had to do one of those online questionnaires that I think can just make you or break you before you even get the chance. They are nerve-racking. So, that's enough with my rant about applications, but that won't be the last, because I know once my applications are submitted, I need to start pondering the interview (if I get one), which will be interesting and also nerve-racking because it will most likely be over Skype. GAH! So, that was my day, I got a TON accomplished, but still have a lot to do in the respects of job applications. Wish me luck.

Monday, February 3, 2014

Las ventajas de un puente

Yesterday (Sunday) morning, Karin, Stephanie, and I arrived back in Madrid at around 6:20 and we arrived home soon after that. I relaxed for a little bit and then went back to bed until noon. I had no intentions of sleeping that long, but it felt so great to be in a bed, so I let myself sleep. Once awake, I ate and spent the afternoon blogging and editing pictures and watching episode after episode of How I Met Your Mother. It was a pretty relaxing day and I don't regret it at all. Well, not really. I still have some pretty important things on my list to do, but yesterday was still a good day. In the evening, I went to Karin's house and we did more Spring break planning. We now have our trip to Morocco planned and our trip to Granada partly planned. Yay. Anyway, that was my Sunday. It was a nice day after a quick trip to Lisbon.

Today (Monday) was another great day. The perks of puentes (long weekends) are that I have enough days to travel and relax. It's so great. Today, I got up and got some grocery shopping done. I bought a lot of stuff that I normally don't so I'm excited to eat for the next couple weeks. Also, I finally bought good shampoo, conditioner, and mousse. My hair feels amazing...it's the little things, you know? Ha. Then, I blogged some more and got Lisbon blogging done and again I watched many episodes of How I Met Your Mother. ALSO, it snowed again today! When I was shopping, I glanced out the door and saw stuff falling from the sky, but just brushed it off as leaves or flower petals..I have no idea why I thought that, there are no trees with flowers around. :) Anyway, when I looked back a few minutes later, I realized that it was, in fact, snow! It didn't snow for very long and none of it stuck to the ground, but I don't even care. It was awesome! Also, it snowed enough in the mountains that my Spanish professor couldn't make it back into the city for class tonight. So, Spanish class was cancelled, which kind of stinks, but it was also good because maybe I will actually get an important thing on my list done. I did my daily cleaning chores and now I'm just relaxing and hopefully getting things done for the night. I hope you all had wonderful weekends and have a great week!

Sintra

On Saturday, Karin, Stephanie, and I got up early-ish and got ready to go on a day trip to Sintra. Sintra is a town that is a little northwest of Lisbon. It is a quaint little town and I loved it. So here it goes, our day in and around Sintra. Paulo, our host, and Bruno accompanied us to Sintra and I am so happy they did because we got to see so much more than we would have seen without them. When we first arrived in Sintra, we got breakfast at a place called La Piriquita and ordered once again another pastry famous in Portugal, specifically in Sintra. And again, it was delicious.
Travesseiros..yum
After breakfast, we briefly walked the streets of Sintra and then got in the car and took the windy roads to Quinta da Regaleira, a beautiful estate that is in Sintra. It is included as a World Heritage Site under "Cultural Landscape of Sintra" and really, the landscape was beautiful and you can see a lot of castles and estates along the hillsides. I was really happy we chose to go there, because not only was it really pretty, but also, Bruno and Paulo had never been there before so they were interested in it, too. The palace and gardens were owned by Carvalho Monteiro, a millionaire and entomologist. The millionaire hired Luigi Manini, an Italian architect to design and build the palace and gardens and the entire place has many symbols throughout related to alchemy, Masonry, the Knights Templar, and the Rosicrucians, don't ask me what all those are or what all the symbols are on the estate, but I still think it's interesting. On the estate there is a palace, chapel, park, wells, tunnels, and lakes. Here are some pictures from exploring the estate. We were there for around three and a half hours.
Sintra downtown
The palace
The chapel
The inside of the chapel had great acoustics and for some reason, Stephanie, Karin, and I decided to sing. And what better song than The Doxology. I'm not sure why we sang it, but to be honest, it felt good to be in a church singing a simple little hymn. :)
Inside of the palace in the dining room
Awesome library with mirrors on the edges
It really messes with your head.
Want this library!
Fun fact about the library, the books were cut so that they all fit perfectly into the bookcases just for show.
The gardens
Castle on the hill

Initiatic Well--symbolic of the trip between death and resurrection
After visiting Quinta da Regaleira, we took a quick stop at Sintra National Park-Cascais to see the views to Lisbon. Unfortunately, it was kind of overcast so you couldn't see it too clearly, but it was still awesome. After the stop at the park, we stopped for lunch/dinner in Azóia and I had an amazing ham and cheese panini and then we went to the most western point of continental Europe. I had no idea that it was even in Portugal, let alone that we were close to it, so I'm so happy that Paulo and Bruno took us there. It's pretty cool to say that I've visited there.

Cabo da Roca

Most western point of continental Europe
After that stop, we drove along the coast all the way back to Lisbon. It was nice to see the water and Paulo and Bruno told us many times that we need to go back during the summer. I don't know if that will ever happen for me, but it might. I loved Sintra more than Lisbon, but I also don't think that Lisbon got a good chance with me. So, if I ever do go back, I plan to be there for longer and I would want to get to know the city more.

Once back in the city, we grab our bags and headed to the bus station. We got some snacks and then boarded another night bus back to Madrid. I slept the whole entire way. I mean I woke up now and then, but I didn't even put my head up long enough to look at the clock. I just laid my head back and fell right back to sleep. It was amazing and the bus was more comfortable than the first and I had two seats again. Yay. Read the next blog to find out what I did once back in Madrid



Lisboa

Okay, so on Thursday night, Karin, Stephanie, and I boarded a bus at 11 p.m. to travel to Lisbon, Portugal. the trip started out pretty interesting. We met a lot of U.S. Americans that were also traveling to Lisbon for the weekend. Also, a woman stole my seat on the bus. I really don't know why, but it turned out for the best for me because I had an empty seat next to me, which made for better sleeping on the bus. The ride was eight hours long. I tried to sleep for the majority, but it was slightly hard for a little bit with talking U.S. Americans and a crying baby., but honestly, I got more sleep than I thought I would so that's good.

Ponte 24 de Abril--looks like Golden Gate bridge,
but it's actually based off of the
San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge
Once in Lisbon, it took awhile to find the bus that we needed to get on to go to our hosts house. We asked a man at the metro stop and he gave us directions and while we were waiting for the metro he came back and told us better directions. We (I) was really surprised with how kind and helpful the people were as soon as we got there. Once off the bus, again we had a tough time finding our hosts apartment. Luckily, there was a police station right there, so the officer personally walked us to the street and apartment number that we needed. Check. We were one step closer to getting to our hosts place. Unfortunately, we had no idea what apartment number he was. We were supposed to call him once we got off the bus, but none of our phones were working for some reason. :/ So what did we do? We guessed. Luckily, there were only eight apartments to choose from. We buzzed the first one and no one answered, then the second one..and we got buzzed in! But we still had no idea if it was him, because he said nothing, but when we got to the door, it was him! Lucky us. We got settled in and relaxed for a little bit and then he drove us to work with him. We got breakfast together and talked for a little bit and then we went our separate way. Pastries are a really big thing in Portugal apparently so we definitely got our share of pastries for the weekend.

We left to meet up with a free Sandeman walking tour and that's what we did for the morning/afternoon. We started with a huge history lesson of Portugal and Lisbon. I am not going to bore you with all of the history, because honestly, I don't even remember half of it, but I will tell you that Lisbon is the oldest city in Europe...did you know that? I had no idea. It was founded in 1000 B.C. by Phoenicians. And then there was a long history of the Visigoths coming and then the Moors, then Napoleon at some point, etc. Lisbon has a long history because it is such an old city and I couldn't even keep up with everything. I personally didn't like the tour as much as other ones so in between the information I give you, I'm going to sprinkle some random pictures for your entertainment. :)
The next stop on the tour was to talk about a guy named Joan Pujol Garcia, also known as Garbo. Garbo became a double agent during WWII and spent a lot of his time in Lisbon. He is known as the only person to receive medals from opposing sides. He received an Iron Cross from the Germans and a Most Excellent Order of the British Empire medal from the British. He originally wanted to become a spy for the Allies, but he was denied a spot there so he became a "spy" for the Axis and spent a lot of time in Lisbon creating false reports to give to the Germans. The British saw his work and then finally hired him as an Ally spy. He played a key role in Operation Fortitude, which was the "operation that misled the Germans about the timing and location of the invasion of Normandy" (Wikipedia) Apparently Lisbon was a big spy city during WWII, known as "The Capital of Espionage." Also, Portugal was helping both sides so they pretty much stayed neutral during the war. They were shipping tungsten to the Axis powers and allowing the Allies to sail on their waters. Speaking of the waters, while I'm thinking of it, Portugal is (or is soon-to-be) one of biggest countries in the world because it will be gaining a huge part of the Atlantic Ocean and that land counts in the area for countries. Also, the borders of Portugal (I think on land) supposedly haven't changed since the 14th century.
Lisbon and the Castle of São Jorge
Church of Sao Roque
A Jesuit church that has a lot of gold inside
After all that info, we talked about the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake, which destroyed 85% of the city. The earthquake was a 9.0 on the Richter scale and it reached Finland. An estimated 30,000-40,000 people were killed and even more people were killed because of the aftermath of the earthquakes. Lots of fires burned in Lisbon and tsunamis caused even more causalities and destruction. Many people think that the earthquake led many people to start thinking in the sense of the Enlightenment because they wondered why God would do something like that and that there must be something with reason that caused the earthquake. On the other side, some people thought that the earthquake was a form of judgment because Lisbon was such a sinful city, but that didn't make sense to others because Alfama, the most sinful neighborhood in Lisbon, survived the earthquake. Marquis of Pombal, a Portuguese statesman, was known for his leadership after the earthquake. He played a huge role in rebuilding the city and it was rebuilt in less than a year.
Carmo Convent--roof collapsed during the earthquake, but
the entrance and archways inside are still standing
We also learned about Fado, which is a music genre in Portugal, which is kind of sad, but I don't think it's really meant to be. The music usually has a feeling of fatefulness, melancholia, and longing, but it's supposed to be happy because it also is a music that gives people hope. Hope for tomorrow, hope for the future. Here is an example of what fado is:
On the tour, we also learned about the Carnation Revolution, which took place on April 25, 1974. This was a military coup which overthrew Estado Novo, which was a corporatist authoritarian regime in Portugal (look it up, I'm not going there). Anyway, the coup was successful and it happened with absolutely no shots fired. After all that, we got a typical Portuguese drink called Ginginha. It's a cherry liqueur and the best part is that it comes in a chocolate glass, yum!
There was still quite a bit of tour left, but I'm gonna go ahead and kinda finish the tour up here and just post pictures with some captions. Enjoy.
Praca Dom Pedro IV
Statue of Pedro IV or Maximilian from Mexico
Pedro IV was the King of Portugal and founder and first Emperor of Brazil, he was a pretty important guy in both countries and the only reason that I am bringing this up is that apparently the above statue is supposed to be Pedro IV, but it is also rumored to be Maximilian from Mexico. The story is that apparently the statue was on a ship about to leave to go to Mexico, but then Lisbon got word that Maximilian had died so they decided to keep the statue and put it up as Pedro IV. I have no clue if that's really true, but it's an interesting rumor.

Praca do Comércio
After the tour, Karin, Stephanie, and I took a train to a little area outside of the city center called Belém. There are two, really three, important sites there to see. The first is the Torre de Belém. The Torre de Belém is a fortified tower "built to commemorate Vasco da Gama's expedition [to the Indian Ocean], is a reminder of the great maritime discoveries that laid the foundations of the modern world" (UNESCO).
Tagus River
Torre de Belém
The second place is the Jéronimos Monastery. I would have loved to go inside, but we didn't, but anyway "construction began in 1502 and it exemplifies Portuguese art at its best" (UNESCO). And here's a picture.
Jéronimos Monastery
The third and final place to go in Belém was the Pastéis de Belém. It's a pastry shop and we were told to have the pastel de nata by about five different people before we even left Madrid. So that's what we did. After getting a kabob for lunch, we tried the pastel de nata from the best place in Lisbon. And it was delicious. I was tempted to get two, but I didn't. Now I wish I would have gotten a whole box. Ha.
After the pastry, we made our way back to the Parque das Nações to meet Paulo, our host. We picked up his friend, Bruno, and went back to his place briefly and then went to dinner at Taberna Maria do Correio. If you're going to Lisbon, go to that restaurant. It was delicious! Luckily, we were with Paulo and Bruno, so they ordered everything and told us what everything was. We got a whole spread of food as appetizers that came with the meal. On the list of appetizers was wild mushrooms salad (salada de cogumelos selvagens), cheese with honey and almonds (queijo com mel e amêndoas), chorizo (chouriço), and blood sausage with fig (morcela com doce de figo). Then, the main course came beef--it was pretty much steak (postinhas mirandesas) and sausage with cabbage (Alheira) and both plates came with delicious roasted potatoes. All the food was so good and I highly recommend the place. We also heard an interesting story about the sausage. It was chicken sausage instead of pork sausage and the origin is from when Jews were banned from the country. Jews had to move, convert, or hide and the ones that hid started making chicken sausage to make the rulers think they were eating pork when really they were not. Then, for dessert I had sweet rice 
(arroz doce) and that too was good.
Chicken sausage with cabbage
Beef
Sweet rice
After dinner, we went to a rooftop bar called PARK, which I would also recommend, but us girls were wiped out after the full day of walking and we asked to go home and we passed out once home. We had a great day and we were thankful for the good company of our host and his friends. :)