المغرب

Thursday, April 10th

Once upon a time, on a Thursday, long long ago, Karin, Stephanie, and I met at the train station to go to the airport to get on a plane that would take us to Marrakech, Morocco. We just hung out at the airport until we boarded our flight. The flight was only two hours and it went pretty quick especially since we played MASH and no, I don't mean the 70s hit T.V. show, I mean the popular preteen life prediction game. Want to hear what my future life will be like? I will marry Tim (my boyfriend..¡Qué suerte!) live in an apartment in Detroit, MI, have three kids, be an animator, drive a Toyota, and have a pet sloth. I don't know about you, but that seems like a pretty good life, besides living in Detroit..eww. Anyway, once we landed in Marrakech, we arranged for our hostel to pick us up. They weren't there right away so we kind of did quite a few circles around the airport before our guy actually showed up. We definitely looked lost in front of all the other Moroccans waiting to pick up people, but who cares, we made it safe to the hostel, that's all that matters. Once we got to the hostel, we drank our first of many teas for the weekend (tea is a popular drink) and we talked with a hostel employee about Marrakech and what to do and such. Then, it was off to bed.

Friday, April 11th

Friday was really our only day to walk around Marrakech, so that's what we did, but not before eating breakfast at the hostel. We had a nice breakfast with freshly squeezed orange juice, bread, this crepe-type thing, and jams. Then, we walked around. I was expecting Morocco to be scorching hot and it was hot, but not as bad as I expected. It wasn't humid, so that helped and walking in the sun was nice. So, we walked to see the main mosque in Marrakech, Koutoubia Mosque, and walked around the park that surrounds it.

Then, we went to the main square, Jemaa el-Fnaa, where you can find a plethora of things, like a bazillion stands selling the same things: nuts, dried fruit, and freshly squeezed orange juice. You can also find snake charmers..yep, snakes, just out and laying on carpets in the main square and men "charming" them. And you can also find women asking if you want henna done, which brings me to my next story. I'll call it, "The Attack of the Henna." Basically, a woman asked us if we wanted henna, we kindly said "no thanks" and kept walking. She followed, we kept walking. Stephanie and I turned around to find Karin getting it done. The woman had grabbed onto Karin's hand and wouldn't let go. Obviously, when she was done, she kept following us for money. We gave her 10 dirhams. The equivalent of $1.22. Then, she kindly said "Eat s***" and walked away. The End. Good story, huh? I felt bad for Karin and couldn't believe that the woman just grabbed onto her hand. That is one cultural difference that we noticed right away. Just the people on the street calling and always trying to make money and rip you off. It was hard for us because we're not rude people, but you kind of have to be if you want to get out of there. If you say "hi" back it could mean that you want to buy something and they will proceed to show you five different things even if you continuous say that you don't want anything. Also, walking around the markets, everyone thought we were Spanish and gave us names..the most common being María José, but we also got María Carmen and María Clara. I will also take this time to say that the market workers know how to say "hello" in more than one language. At one point, we were walking behind some girls who were clearly speaking American English, but were of Asian descent and a worker said "Nǐ hǎo" to them. Needless to say, I don't think they were too happy about that and we couldn't believe our ears. We walked to the city wall and back and saw a bunch of school students and teachers. The teachers had on a white doctor-looking coat and we found out that that is what they have to wear to school to keep from distracting the students.

We then went to Ben Youssef Madrasa, an old Islamic college in Marrakech. We got to walk around and see all of the rooms and the main patio of the university, it was pretty. I will say the I really like the Arabic architecture (<--man, it took me a long time to figure out how to spell that in English).

After the university, we decided to dive in and try our first meal out. We heard to be careful with the food, but I wasn't too too worried, but we definitely were just eating street food, so I can see why we were warned. Our first meal was tagine (again, something that we would eat a lot over the weekend). Tagine is "a historically Berber dish from North Africa that is named after the type of earthenware pot in which it is cooked." (Wikipedia). I got the vegetable tagine all weekend, which had potatoes, zucchini, peas, carrots, a bunch of spices, among other things. Our lunch also came with Moroccan bread and salad, which is similar to pico de gallo.

It was a good lunch and after, we went to the Marrakech museum. I really couldn't even tell you what was in it. They had some art and furniture I think, but mostly I was looking at the building in general. It was super pretty and we made our way back to a corner of the museum where a guy was doing calligraphy, which was awesome. We stood there for soo long looking at his work and watching him do it and then we each got one. I got one that says what other than "Don't Miss Out." Actually, literally translated, it says "Live the Moment," but that's the best translation he could come up with from "Don't Miss Out" and I would say that is a pretty good synonymous phrase, so that's what I got and I think it's gorgeous!

After all that, we walked around the markets more and bought a few things after bargaining. I think I have said this several times before throughout the last three years of blogging, but I love the markets! I could look at place after place, even if they have the exact same things (and usually they do) and there are hundreds to see in Marrakech, which is awesome. However, the not so awesome part is that you can't look without being hassled to buy something. I mean, I get it, they want you to buy something, but it makes for annoying shopping, so we mostly walked and didn't look, which I guess is okay, otherwise we would have been out for HOURS! We made our way back to the hostel and chilled for a little bit on the roof. Our hostel was right next to a mosque so when they had the call to prayer for the Friday prayer, we sat there for quite awhile listening to the men sing the Jumu'ah. After that, we ventured back out for dinner. We went to the orange juice, snake charming square for dinner and found a place to eat. They have all sorts of make shift restaurants in the middle of the square at night and that's where we ate. This time, we got couscous, which was also really good. I don't eat near the vegetables that I do when I am in the U.S., so it was nice to have a lot of veggie dishes in Morocco. Dinner was good despite being slightly ripped off for the bread and we made our way back to the hostel and went to bed.

Saturday, April 12th

At 7 a.m. on Saturday morning, Stephanie, Karin, and I got picked up for a two-day desert tour. We were joined by our guide, Mustapha, our driver, and an Italian couple. A lot of the weekend consisted of driving and stopping and more driving. So, of course, we started in the car and drove for quite awhile and made our first stop for breakfast. While at our breakfast stop, Mustapha gave us some information about the area (which was the start of the Atlas Mountains), the Berbers, and what we would be doing for the next two days. He told us that the Atlas Mountains is a mountain range that extends for 2400km through Morocco and Algeria and it's highest peak is at 4167km and it is not accessible by car. There are three sections of the range in Morocco: high, middle, and anti. I don't remember which one we spent the majority of our time in, but if I remember right I think the highest point we hit was 2750 (not sure though). We had our breakfast apparently in the only area in the mountains where there is green and clay (see picture below).

Mustapha also told us about the people that live in Morocco: Berbers and Arabs. The Berbers were there first. They were free noblemen that came form Holland and Germany. Then, the Arabs came, looking for peace and freedom and with them they brought Islam. Berbers were not Muslims before, but now 98% of Moroccans are Muslims with 20% being Arab and 80% being Berber. As for the languages, there are four spoken in Morocco: Classic Arabic, French (because it was a French colony at one point), Berber (three dialects, which is only spoken), and Popular Arabic (which is only spoken). He told us a little more about the Berbers, too, like how they marry in the family and "have babies like printers." He finished it off by telling us that Morocco has the 3rd best weather in the world. Don't know if that is really where they are on the list, but I did find that they have good weather. It can be super hot temperature wise, but you can't feel it. 

The windy road in the Atlas Mountains

Then, we got in the car and drove some more. Because I am writing this so late, this may not be in the exact order we did things, but we stopped at an Argan place, which produced and sold Argan food and hair products. We got to sample the food and they had this delicious spread that tasted like peanut butter. Also, I should say that we stopped there because Argan is common in some places of Morocco. Also, I learned that goats climb Argan trees, weird...here's a picture though.

We also stopped at Ksar of Aït Benhaddou, which is a World Heritage Site and is important in the movie industry. Apparently most major movie producers know about that site and movies like Lawrence of Arabia and The Gladiator, were filmed there. We then sat in an apparently important cave room of a house (its appeared in films, too) and talked to a local who was in The Gladiator as an extra. He still had the shield that he used in the movie and he talked about how they got paid for the movie; however, they didn't see a lot of the money, because they government took it from them. We also drank tea in the cave, of course, and they told us about the process of making the tea. It is a pretty lengthy process and the act of pouring it, is pretty important, too.

After that, we had lunch and I had tagine again. It was good. The potatoes in it are delicious.

We then got in the car and drove and drove and drove, until we reached where we were supposed to get on the camels, but a different group had stolen our camels so we had to wait. We used our waiting time to play soccer with the local children, but actually, we didn't play with the local children, our tour guide paid the children to let us use their ball. I don't know why we didn't just play with them, but whatever. We played guys vs. girls and Karin rocked the girls' team and we won. YAY! Then, our guide paid the children, but the thing was, the children were from two different villages and he did not have change for his bill, so what did he do? He ripped the bill in half and gave one half to each group. He told them to go to the nearest store get scotch tape and then split the change. This is the only solution he had because if he would have given one group the whole bill, they could have taken it and ran, but they were forced to go together to get the money. I don't know how it works in Morocco, but I was thinking about how a lot of places don't accept damaged bills like that, so maybe neither group got money that day. :/

Anyway, our camels finally arrived and we got on them and rode to our camp. I named my camel Carl, well actually, he named himself. I told him/her to grunt when he/she liked a name. I got through about 12 or so names and I got a grunt after the name Carl. So, Carl was his name. I don't have any pictures from the first camel ride because it was dark out by the time we got on them. I was super excited to see the stars in the desert, but actually the moon was full so I didn't see as many as I wanted to, but I will say that it was still really cool to see the moon almost reflect off of the sand. It was so bright out that we could still see a lot of our surroundings. I will say that the camel ride was advertised as an hour and a half and I'm super glad that that meant 45 minutes at night and 45 minutes the next morning.

The sunset and our goalie

That was just about too much. Ha, but we made it to our camp, sat down, and drank tea with a bunch of other tour groups. The biggest group there was actually a group of Moroccan high schoolers. They were visiting from the north of Moroccan and were on a school trip. Our tour group ate dinner, what other than tagine, and then we sat out by a group of musicians that were playing music for everyone. Then, our guide showed up and kind of took over. He was already kind of rubbing me the wrong way, but then after this night I think I decided that I definitely didn't care for him too much. We were obviously with a huge group of tourists and the musicians were playing their music and he told the musicians to quiet down and pretty much demanded the attention of the group. Also, we knew he had been drinking so maybe that played a part in this as well, which is a whole different story. If you are a tour guide in a group, you probably shouldn't get tipsy and you probably should sit at meals with your groups and answer questions because you're getting paid for it, but that's a different story. Anyway, he demanded the attention of everyone and told stupid, but somewhat funny jokes and then took our group to the sand dunes and talked about himself. Not all about himself and maybe at this point I was annoyed enough that I had just stopped listening, but all I needed to know is that I asked him several questions about Morocco, the Berbers, etc. and I did not feel like my questions were answered. I think I was just hoping/expecting to learn more than I did, but it's okay. After that, we went to bed and had one more day in the desert.

Here are the two popular songs from the weekend: Aïcha and C'est la vie by Khaled. I also have posted a French/Spanish version of C'est la vie because I like it. :) Also, I should say that Stephanie, Karin, and I were graced with Moroccan names, but we think our guide messed up because my name was Karima and Karin's was Aïcha, and Stephanie's was .

Sunday, April 13th

All the camels in the morning

On Sunday, we got up early and watched the sunrise and our camels get saddled up. We packed up our stuff and got back on our camels..ouch. My butt was already aching and chaffed from the night before, but we survived. I tried naming my camel again, but I got no grunts, so I can only assume that it was Carl again. Once we got back to the road, our driver took us to a hotel for breakfast and we ate bread and jam and drank tea. We then headed off, but we didn't go too far because we stopped in the same town to see the Tombouctou sign that says it is 52 hours by camel to get there. OUCH! An hour and a half total was enough. I don't know if I could do 52 hours, but I can see myself walking a camel for that long, I mean I would probably start to see mirages or something like that, but yea 52 hours... Pulling out from the sign, our driver ran over the curb or something and a little bit farther down the road, we got a flat tire, but that's okay because we got it in a spot that we were going to stop anyway, the largest oasis in northern Africa. So, we stopped and took pictures and our guide and driver changed the tire.

Our camp

Then, we drove and drove and drove and we came across an accident that still bothers me to think about to this day. It was a two vehicle accident with a car and a tourist van. When we passed by, there was a guy that seemed to be stuck in the driver's seat and all of the tourists were out of the van and seemed very shaken up, I would be too. Everyone seemed to be safe though, but it just really bothered me, because it could have been us. We were driving through mountains on the windiest road in Morocco. So windy that they shut it completely down in the winter when it gets snow. The previous day, in my head, I was thinking that I hadn't felt unsafe at all yet, but driving on those roads was risky. And then to come across the accident just worried me and to top it all off, we found out later that a 5/6 year old Moroccan boy had died in the crash, which just made it all worse for me and I probably thought about it for the next couple days even after leaving Morocco, but yea, on a lighter note, after seeing that sight, we stopped for lunch. I bet you can't guess what I had? Okay, you're right I had tagine. I really didn't realize just how much I had it, until I wrote this blog. I pretty much ate it for every meal.

Karin, Stephanie, and I on our camels

We drove and drove and drove until we got back to Marrakech. Once we got back, we showered and relaxed for a little bit. Then, I bought a pretty painting from the markets and our tour guide from the tour actually picked us up from our hostel and took us to dinner. We also went with another girl from our hostel who had been in Marrakech for quite some time at that point. Anyway, we went and got some delicious soup in the main square and I will say that our tour guide paid for it, which was a really nice gesture (even though it was only 3 dirhams), but we also thought he was just trying to get a good review out of us, which technically is a good business plan. Anyway, our tour guide left and we walked around for a little bit with the girl from our hostel and once again, I couldn't believe my ears. The girl was getting called Rihanna, Serena Williams, Halle Berry, etc, but man, did she have a great attitude about it. I could definitely see how she had been there for so long. She definitely was confident and had the right attitude to walk those streets every day. She let everything roll off her shoulders, talked to people when they talked to her, and took being called Halle Berry as a compliment. Maybe, we would have gotten used to it after awhile, too, but maybe not. It also helped her that she spoke French. Speaking the language of a place is always a plus in my book. Anyway, she took us to a place that she knew about to get ice cream and then we went back to the hostel and went to bed, kind of. Once back at the hostel, Karin and I found out that our host for our next stop, Granada, had bailed on us so we took part of the night to search for a hostel or another place to stay. Luckily, we found one for at least the first night so we took it.

52 hours to Tombouctou

Me at the largest oasis in northern Africa

Monday, April 14th

On Monday morning, Karin and I walked Stephanie to the bus, so that she could go to the airport. Karin and I were on a different flight because we were heading to Granada, Spain and Stephanie was heading to Istanbul, Turkey. After we took her to the bus, Karin and I walked back to the hostel, packed up our stuff, and just relaxed for a little bit. One of the ladies at the hostel, also kindly showed us how to wrap a head scarf, which I have since practiced a few times. :) Karin and I then left the hostel and went and got freshly squeezed orange juice in the square. It was delicious and we also got to take a picture with the guy who sold us the juice. We still had a little bit before we had to be at the airport so we sat in a park for a little bit and then took a taxi to the airport. At the airport, we ran into Stephanie again because her flight time changed so we hung out until she left and then Karin and I didn't leave too long after her. Karin and I had a layover in Madrid, where we ate lunch and just waited for our flight to leave and then we had a quick and easy flight down to Granada, which is in the south of Spain. The Granada airport is outside of the city so we had to take a bus to the center and then we walked to our hostel. We spent the rest of the night relaxing and we went ahead and paid for the rest of the nights to spend in the hostel. It wasn't the ideal situation because we spent more money than we intended, too, but in the end it all worked out. Stay tuned for stories and pictures from Granada. :)

Una semana normal

Okay this is just going to be a general blog because my days are all jumbled together in my head, plus nothing too exciting happened this week. Monday was my day off and I blogged a lot! I actually finished my Spring break blogs, but I still have to blog about Munich and Feria de Sevilla, so I am going to hold back on posting them, so I can just post them all at once. :) On Monday, I also cleaned the kitchen and my room and then did homework for Spanish class, then I had Spanish class. It was a good class, but it wasn't so challenging for me this time. I already knew most of the stuff we were reviewing that day so it didn't push me, but I still did learn and practice a few things. :)

For the rest of the week, in general, all the classes are doing the same thing. In science, we are working on the projects. I have two classes doing their projects on transportation and one doing their project on jobs. It's actually a really difficult thing to do and involves a lot of translating for them because they bring the information in Spanish and we have to tell them what it is in English so they can write it down. Beats me how they still don't know I know Spanish. Ha. Actually I think a lot of them have accepted that I can understand it, but don't speak it, but who knows? In English, we are finishing up the action verb unit and starting on a unit about the beach and sea with words like sea, turtle, sand, sun, rock, etc. :) And then in the kindergarten classes, I played alphabet bingo, watched a weird version of Beauty and the Beast and colored, and got a lot of pictures. My favorite one that I got is of Elsa from Frozen. It's adorable and the girl who gave it to me is also named Andrea. :)

As for my private lessons, this was my second to last week for them. Crazy! It will be nice to have all of the extra time, but I will also miss them. I told them that they can get a hold of me if they need any help on studying for finals in June though. :) One of my students is preparing for the Trinity Exam, which is an English exam that students must take and pass to continue on in the language. I don't really know what happens if they don't pass it, but I know it's important to pass it, so this week we played a game to help him practice for that. In another lesson, we have been reading a book all year and we are about 20 pages short, so hopefully we will finish it next week, but that's a lot to catch up on. I told her that I would stay late next week to finish the book, if we don't during the class hour. Heck, I want to know how it ends, too. The other two older girls that I have for class were supposed to read during lessons, too, however it turned into a strictly conversational class, but one of the girls saw the movie for her book, Bridge to Terabithia, in class. The teacher put on the movie and she was like "Hey, my book.." Ha. So now she knows the ending and probably will never read it. :) But, I'm going to encourage her to anyway.

Another exciting thing that happened this week is that I had a phone screening for a Spanish teaching job in the U.S. I really couldn't tell you how it went. It's a toss up. I don't think it went horribly, but it wasn't fantastic either, but the assistant superintendent guaranteed that I would hear from the principal of the school at some point (good or bad news), but she couldn't tell me when. I know a lot of the schools in the United States are still wrapping up, so I am anticipating that I will be contacted a lot next month. Well..I'm hoping I will. :)

As for today, Friday, I went to school and worked helped the students work on their science project and then the school had an assembly to inaugurate their showcase. They have set up this amazing showcase of all the different things that the students have worked on throughout the school year. I would say it's like the open houses that we had growing up, but kind of on a more extreme scale because the displays are amazing.

Kindergarten Maflada display

1st grade Peter Pan display

Pre-K and Kindergarten Wizard of Oz
and Alice in Wonderland displays

After school, I came home, ate lunch, and now I am getting ready to leave for Marbella to visit my friend, Tonisha. She is doing the same thing I am doing, but in the south of Spain. It has been raining all week all over Spain, but I'm hoping we get some good beach weather. I have an eight hour bus ride down there, so I'm hoping to finish my blogging so I can post all of those on Monday when I return. :) I hope you all have wonderful weekends and I will talk to you soon. :)

Una corrida de toros

Sunday, May 18th

Okay, as you might know, if you read my last blog, I went to a bullfight on Sunday. But I guess before I get to that I should talk about the rest of my day. I did nothing, I think. I chilled at home and I did some blogging! :) Then, the evening rolled around and I met Esther at the metro so we could go to the bullfight. First things first, I will say that the Plaza de Toros is really pretty. And I will say that if you ever go to a bullfight, be prepared. I was not. I mean, I was mentally, but be prepared in the sense that you have food, water, a hat, a fan, and something to sit on. We got "sun seats" because they were the cheapest, but it means that you are in the sun the whole time and that your seat is fried. Luckily, I had my jacket so that kept my butt from burning and I had sunglasses, but I had no water and no food, which was a pretty big mistake on my part. But yea, let's get to the actually bullfight.

I'll first start by telling you the structure of a bullfight. There are three toreros (bullfighters) and each torero "fights" two bulls. I know what you're thinking already or I know what I was thinking at least.."Okay, that's six tortured and killed bulls." Okay, so all of the fighters and the helpers (each matador has seven assistants: two picadores (lancers), three banderilleros (flagmen), a mozo (sword servant), and the ayuda (the sword servant's helper). The whole team is called a cuadrilla)...Anyway, they all enter at the start of the fights (paseíllo) to the sound of trumpets and they acknowledge the presidente (dignitary) and then exit or take their position if they are the first ones up. A guy comes to the center of the plaza with a board that has the fighter's name and the weight, age, and breed of the bull. Also, did you know the bulls have names? I can't decide if that makes it worse or better.

Then, the bull enters. There are three tercios (thirds/parts) to a bullfight: tercio de varas (the picadores third),  tercio de banderillas (the banderillas third), and the tercio de muerte (the death third). All of my pictures are from the first third. I may include some Google photos to illustrate the other two thirds, but before reading on, I guess I should advise that there is adult content. Ha. I'm not really sure what the rating on a bullfight is...maybe R due to violence? I don't know. Anyway, the bull enters...man, I feel like I should just direct you to read the Wikipedia page...nah, whatever..I'll tell you..so we're back to where the bull enters. Ha.

The first part consists of the bull coming out and the bull charges at several different banderilleros. For me, I just saw it as a way to tire the bull out and I thought it was unfair that the banderilleros get to run and hide behind these walls. I would want to hide though too if a bull was charging at me.

It also kind of reminded me of when you have a laser pointer and a cat, but imagine 5 laser pointers and one cat. According to Wikipedia though, the torero uses this time to see "how the bull charges, any vision problems he might have, unusual head movements, or if the bull favors a part of the ring called aquerencia, or territory. A bull trying to reach its territory is often more dangerous than a bull that is attacking the cape directly." After this, the bullfighter (matador or torero..I will be using all three of these words) shows off his skills in during the suerte de capote (literally translated--luck/fate of the cape). He just gets the bull to charge at him and he moves the cape. I have a video of this, but actually the one video I got, the bullfighter kind of messed up a bit. It's supposed to be flawless, but the cape gets caught on the bull's horns briefly:

Next, the two picadores enter the ring on horses with their vara (lance) and they get the bull to charge at the horse. When it does, the picador shoves the lance into a specific point on the back of the bull (morrillo) to weaken it and to make it bleed. "If the picador does his job well, the bull will hold its head and horns lower during the following stages of the fight. This makes him slightly less dangerous while enabling the matador to perform the passes of modern bullfighting" (Wikipedia). I didn't notice this, but I was mostly paying attention to the heavy breathing of the bull.

The next stage of the bullfight (tercio de banderillas) is when the horses leave the arena and the banderillas come out with these colored barbed sicks that they have to get in that same point on the back of the neck. They do this by get extremely close to the bull, then stabbing it, and then backing away quickly. I think there was a total of 6 banderillas, two per person. Once the matador has a little bit more "fun" with the bull, the third part starts (tercio de muerte).

The third part involves the matador with the infamous red cape (muleta) and a sword. Again, the matador just shows off his skill and control by attracting the bull, but avoiding injury. Wikipedia fun fact: "The red colour of the cape is a matter of tradition, as bulls are actually color blind: they attack moving objects (the real reason that a red colored cape is used is that any blood stains on it will be less noticeable." Nice, huh? The crowd claps and yells for the wonderful show. Then, the helpers come out with their capes and they kind of surround the bull and use their capes to disorient it until it lays down. Then, the matador uses his sword to perform the final blow (descabello) to around that same spot on the back of the neck. There are cases when this isn't successful, which is not good for the bullfighter's reputation or the bull, in my opinion. In these cases, the bullfighter uses a second sword to cut the spinal cord, then a helper further destroys the spinal cord with a dagger.

The matador wearing his traje de luces during the descabello

After the bull is dead, a group of horses, or mules or whatever, come into the ring and drag the bull off. According to Wikipedia (I have such a great source, huh? Ha.) Sometimes, but very rarely, a bull is pardoned if it has shown an exceptional performance during the fight. It seems like the crowd decides this by waving handkerchiefs in the air before the bull is stabbed by the matador. The matador stops what he is doing and the presidente decides whether the fight will go on or not. If it does not, the bull is "freed" in the sense that he retires and is raised as a stub..I imagine after a healing process... Oh also there is a crew that "cleans" up the ring quickly, kind of like a raker taking care of the long jump pit at a track meet.

After the whole fight, a trophy is given out to the matadors if successful. This may be a bull's ear, the two ears, or the two ears and the tail.

Okay, now that I have given you the whole low-down on a bullfight, I will explain my experience. So, you already know it was super hot and that I didn't have water or food and I wasn't anticipating enjoying it. So, I will straight up tell you that we left after two bulls. I knew that I would like it and I thought I could stay for the whole thing, but I guess not. After the second bull, I got super dizzy..like pass out dizzy and I was not about to stick around and see if my body was going to pass out or not. I don't know if it was the heat or watching the helper stick a knife in the bull and wiggle it around (because the matador apparently didn't do the job) or a combination of both. What I do know is that I got super dizzy, my hearing was fading, my stomach was grumbling, and I got really thirsty. So, of course, I put my head between my knees, Esther gave me some water, and we left after a few minutes. Part of me wishes that I could have had the whole experience and stayed the whole time, but looking back I'm okay with the decision of leaving. While there, I also learned some more news that I was unaware of before: the torture that takes place beforehand. Some argue that the bulls used for bull fights have good lives. They get to roam freely and live longer than a meat cow does and I'm not going to say how a meat cow gets treated because I don't know, but I will say that from reading, it seems that bulls undergo a lot before a fight even starts. A bull gets vaseline rubbed in its eyes to compromise its vision, cotton stuffed in its nose to mess up its breathing, its given laxatives probably to dehydrate it it and weaken it, it is kept in a dark place for a few days before the fight, among other things. I will say that these are just things that I found online and you can't always trust everything, but yea, there's that. Plus, the horses...I have no idea what kind of training they go through in order to remain calm and still while a bull is trying to get them. And I should add that the pads on the horse weren't introduced until the 1930s and before that, the horses usually died along with the bull. So there's that. I think I have said about all I wanted to about that. Obviously there is a huge controversy about bullfighting. There have been many protests and it seems to be a pretty common argument in Spain, but you can decide for yourself.

Spain bullfighting, 2012

Protesters against bullfights

Okay, one last thing and then I'm done with this... I read on the news that a matador got gored during a bullfight TWO days after I went! CRAZY!!!! Read the story here. Okay, now this is the last thing..why can't bullfighting just be the paso doble? Ha..

Wow, I had no idea that I would write so much about the bull fight. Hope you enjoyed learning about it as much as I did. Anyway, since we left early, we walked around for a little bit. I got some fresh air and we ended up running into the Atlético de Madrid parade! You know how the Chicago Blackhawks had that huge parade when they won the Stanley Cup. Well, it was like that. We got there just in time to see the players roll in on the bus. All of my pictures are of course blurry though.

Anyway, there are two fountains in Madrid, Cíbeles and Neptuno. Real Madrid (boo!) celebrates their victories at Cíbeles and Atlético (YAY!) celebrates at Neptuno, so that's where the bus was heading and this particular celebration was a big one because Atléti won the their league, becoming the first team in a decade to win La Liga that wasn't Barcelona or Real Madrid! And hopefully, they keep the momentum going because on Saturday they play in the Champions League (European Cup) finals for the first time in 40 years. And to top it off, they will be playing Real Madrid! A few weeks ago, I talked about this game and how exciting it will be to be in Madrid and guess what? I won't be in Madrid. I will be traveling to the south of Spain this weekend, but you can bet that I will be keeping my ears open to hear about the game. Hopefully, I will make it for some of the celebration, especially if Atléti wins! I wish I could be in Madrid, because they are even opening up both of the stadiums to watch the game (because the game is in Lisbon), but I am happy to be going to the south, too. It was just some bad planning and timing.

Anyway, since I have already talked about other serious issues here in Spain, I might as well add that on Sunday, Spain has their elections for the representatives of the European Union. So, the big game is on Saturday and voting is on Sunday. I've heard that a lot of people are not going to be voting, but we'll see. I honestly am not one for politics, but I may take this time to care for a little bit. Also, here's a political cartoon because I think it's a good one.

European weekend: Saturday to jump up and down! And Sunday to vote!

Wow, well I guess I will end it there. I feel like I talked about a lot this blog! Hope you enjoyed it, sorry if it was too long.

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. :)

El color esperanza

Tuesday, May 6th

Tuesday was my first day back to school after the puente (long weekend). Karin, Stephanie, and I spent the weekend in Munich, Germany and you will hear aobut that eventually..you know, once I write about Morocco, Granada, and Málaga, too. Whoa, wayyy behind on blogs, sorry, but I promise you will enjoy them, once they are up. Anyway, on Tuesday, in English, we finished up the toy unit and we played memory and a detective game to review the words one last time. When we went to play the detective game, one student said it was super boring and he didn't even know what the game was yet, then five minutes later he was saying "¡Qué guay!" (How cool!) Ha. It was amusing and he definitely had to wait his turn before he got to play the game. After that, I had another English class where we started the new unit, action verbs, like swim, skate, jump, fly, swing, hop, climb, etc. They got to learn a fun little song that has a little dance with it. Think of it as the Cha Cha Slide.."Now hop to the right, walk 1, 2, 3.." :) I constantly have the school songs in my head. After breakfast, I had Science and in this particular class, we are behind the other classes. They just learned plow, hoe, spade, but don't worry, we caught up (you'll see that on Wednesday). After lunch, I had a kindergarten class and I got to play with them in their stations. They have a new experiment station and they are pretty psyched about it because they have snails and worms in the station. I don't think I have ever seen a real snail before, but now I have. They are pretty cool. I could do without the maggot looking worms though (I get that from my mom). They are also learning about the planets so some of the other stations were doing things that had to do with that, like placing the planets in the correct order. After school, I had class with Esther and it went really well. She helped me practice answering random speaking prompts to help prepare me for my test that I have in July. Then, I helped her with some of her master's work. Once I got home, I was supposed to have an initial phone interview for a job in the U.S. for next year, but that fell through, but that's okay because the interviewer e-mailed me back offering me a formal interview, which will probably be over Skype or something like that. So if you could, please pray that that goes well and please pray that my wifi works. I think that is what I am most nervous about is that the internet connection won't be good. Anyway, I ate dinner and then I was off to bed.


Wednesday, May 7th

On Wednesday, we worked on the verbs again in English and in Science, we worked on the transportation unit and reviewed the means of transport and communication. So they had to tell us if a car was a means of transport or communication and stuff like that. Then, we had a lot of fun in kindergarten. They checked out their library books and then they sang me not one but two songs! One was a planet song, that of course had been modified because Plutón (Pluto) was in the lyrics, but it was so cute. Then, they sang me a song called El color esperanza by Diego Torres, an Argentine singer. It's a really pretty song and I had never heard it before so I am sharing it with you here. :)

During lunch, Julia and I worked on translating a school powerpoint and then after lunch, in another Science class, we worked on transportation by land, air, or sea. All I could hear in my head was "One if by land / two if by sea / and I on the opposite shore shall be / ready to ride and spread the alarm / to every small city, village, and farm." I'm not even sure if those are the correct words (P.S. I was soo close change "small city" to "Middlesex"), but with all the land and sea talk that's all I could think of. I'm pretty sure we had to memorize that whole Longfellow poem in like 5th grade. Too bad I don't remember all of it. Ha, but really don't hesitate to ask me to sing the preposition song or the first paragraph of the The Gettysburg Address. :) Oh, the things you learn when you're young. Anyway, after that, we finished up the farming science unit in the class that was behind and that was a big accomplishment. At the end of the day, I had my private lessons, which all went really well. The two older girls went on a field trip at school to see El señor de las moscas (The Lord of the Flies) I haven't read the book or seen the movie since the 8th grade, but I never forgot how weird it was. Ha. Both girls really seemed to like it though and apparently a famous actor was in it and another cute guy was in it, so I'm told. Also, I had a pretty serious conversation with one of the girls about being stuck on an island, concentration camps, and immigration. Don't ask me how we skipped from one topic to the next, but it still amazes me that she can speak in English at a level like that.

Anyway, once I got home, I was feeling sick and tired. I have been sick since Germany, but on Wednesday night it really hit. I felt like my grandpa, I resorted to using a handkerchief. One, because it is a lot softer on my nose and it already hurt enough from all the paper towels I was using at school. And two, because I am trying to conserve toilet paper. Ha. Remember when I said I was probably on my last package of toilet paper before I leave. Well, with all the mucus that my body is expelling (sorry, TMI) the toilet paper is dwindling fast...hence, the handkerchief. It's actually not a bad idea either. I can see why my grandpa always carried one around. Despite feeling sick, I stayed up and watched El Hormiguero and Lucia (my roommate) actually met one of the guys, Mario Vaquerizo, that is always on the show on Wednesday. I thought that was so cool. She got a picture with him and everything and said he was really nice. Also, for weeks now, El Hormiguero has been randomly selecting telephone numbers and calling people and when the people answer they ask "¿Sabe usted lo que quiero?" (Do you know what I want?) and the people should answer "Regalarme el coche del Hormiguero" (Give me a car from El Hormiguero). Like I said, this has been going on for weeks and I still don't think anyone has won a car. Clearly, not all of Spain watches the show, but they should. Lucia, Rocío, and I are waiting for our phone to ring sometime and we will know the answer to the question. Anyway, after that and watching Glee, it was off to bed.


Thursday, May 8th

On Thursday, we started the verb unit with one of my English classes and then in the other class, we started learning "I can" and "I can't." For example, I can't fly, I can't jump, I can walk, I can swing. Sidenote: Did you know that skipping is jumping rope in British English? So my question is what do they call what we know as skipping? Anyway, after a lunch of translating and eating, I got to see more worms in another kindergarten class and play with them. Then, in Science, the students started learning about the parts and people at an airport: pilot, flight attendant, controller, runway, etc. After school, I had my lessons. The younger boy has a big English exam this month that is part of the whole school system in Spain. You pretty much have to pass it to move on, so we started prepping for that. Then, his brother had a possible English test the next day, so I helped him study for that. Then, I had one more lesson that went well and I was off for home. Once at home, I relaxed and started packing for Sevilla. That's right, I am going to Sevilla this weekend, because why not? Ha. And that's that.


Friday, May 9th

Today has been a good and productive-ish day. I went to school and had P.E. where I helped Esther translate her instructions into English. Next week is cultural week, so all of the classes have to exchange something with another class and the 1st graders are learning a Peter Pan song and dance to share. So, they were practicing that in P.E. Then, in the English class, every single student got their work pages done and then they worked on coloring a backdrop, which will also be used for cultural week. Then, I got to play with kindergartners (no worms this time, but we did make a volcano erupt. :)) and I learned something awesome! Well, you might not think it's awesome, but I think it is. The students were coloring Van Gogh's Starry Night and guess what they were coloring with? Chalk. I know that doesn't sound out of the ordinary and maybe you're thinking, won't that rub off of paper? Well, you'd be right, but they were dipping it in water first and then coloring. It was making the chalk a more vibrant color and it stayed on the paper better. It was pretty cool, so if you like arts and crafts I would suggest just trying to color with water and chalk. It was pretty cool, mostly because I had never seen it before. As for the teacher's English class. I didn't have it today. I hung out for a little bit and only had a few "students" pop-in, but it wasn't worth it to stay, so my coordinator said that I could go. Once I got home, I finished packing, ate lunch, and watched last night's Grey's Anatomy episode, because you just can't keep me away, and then I got on the bus to Sevilla. I am actually currently on it while I write this. It's a 6-hour bus ride and my computer won't last that long, but I'm hoping to get at least the Morocco blog done while I am on here. I would like to make it a productive bus ride, if possible. We will see. Also, I guess I should tell you why I am going to Sevilla, or maybe I already have, but just in case, I will repeat myself. I am going because it is their Feria de Abril (April Fair). Yes, I know it is not April, I think the time of Easter this year threw it off, but nonetheless, I am going and I am planning to flamenco the night away. Ha, not really, but maybe. :) I will be staying will Lucia's family again, like I did at Christmas, so that should be fun, but unfortunately Lucia couldn't come because she is living the college life and has an exam tomorrow. Anyway, I am pretty excited and that will be one more blog to write once the weekend is over. I will get them done sooner or later. :) Hope you had a great week and have a great weekend! :D


Also, in my last post, I talked about hoping that Atleti and Real Madrid play in the finals and I'm an idiot because they already are playing in the finals. The game will be at the end of this month. Madrid is going to be a madhouse. It should be fun. :)