Oh No She Madridn't

Caras de Madrid: Laila

2012-03-02T12:22:00.000+01:00

I met Laila when I was a student in Madrid during the 2009-10 academic year. As you may recall, I volunteered at a center every week, helping students with their homework for two hours after school. Laila was one of those students, and has since become a friend of mine. She is a bright, book-loving teen with a desire to travel and write. I have translated this interview from Spanish to English.

[THE BASICS]

Name: Laila

Age: 15

Work/Study: Laila is a student in her fourth year of ESO. (Next year she will start her first year in bachillerato, which is two years long, and usually followed by college).

From: Madrid

How long in Madrid: 15 years (lifetime)

Languages: Spanish, Arabic, English, and a bit of French

[THE INTERVIEW]

Rebe: What has been the best moment in your life thus far? Laila: I've had many good moments in my life, but nothing that stands out enough to make me say, "This is the best moment in my life".

What has been the worst moment/ most difficult time in your life thus far? When my grandpa died.

What's your favorite book, movie, and music? I'm reading The Hunger Games right now and I can't put them down, but my favorite book is Rabia by Jordi Sierra I Fabra. Music: I love Adele and Bruno Mars; their voices are so natural. Movie: The movies that have affected me most are the Harry Potter movies... but a favorite? Titanic has also affected me. I think my favorite is Remember Me.

What is your opinion of Americans?
From what I've seen in the movies, they want to be popular. They're very competitive and smart, because they have a good education. They're cool.

What is your opinion of the United States as a country?
Everything there is very expensive and extravagant. They should worry more about their health care system, and they have a good education system. (Laila mentioned earlier that next year upon starting bachillerato, she has to decide what she wants to specialize in. She likes the fact that in the United States you have more time to decide this specialization. )

What would you like people to know about Spain/Spaniards? That we don't just party. That right now we're in a moment of crisis, but I'm confident that we're going to come out of it. We're warm and friendly people.

What is the biggest problem in the world right now? The crisis. And also, that it's the people with money who control us, as if we were dolls.

Where do you see yourself in five years? In my final years of university, studying in England. I'll be on track to be a Spanish teacher in England or an English teacher here in Spain.

What is your favorite food and drink? Food: Lasagna. Drink: Orange juice and Coca Cola

What mode of transportation do you use most often? The metro.

What advice would you like to give to others? You always need to keep an open mind, and not think in terms of labels. For example, don't just think, "He's an American. He's not an American." Believe in something, and never lose hope. Cry to cry, and smile when you need to smile.

Why you should always return missed calls from unknown numbers

2012-03-01T09:14:00.002+01:00

I don't like answering the phone if I don't know who's calling. Rather, I won't answer the phone if I don't know who's calling.

Here in Madrid, not many people have my number. If someone does have my number, I have theirs; which means their name will pop up on my cell phone when they call. (And I'll answer. See how this works?)

Additionally, these last couple of days, my phone has said "Servicio limitado" more often than normal. As in, when I'm in my apartment. I usually only don't have service when I'm underground in the metro.

Bueno, so jump to yesterday. I'm on the bus to teach at my Tues/Weds school, which means my phone was on silent. One minute from my stop, I could feel my phone vibrate once through my purse. This could only mean one thing: SMS (text message).

I sort of forgot about it until some point later that afternoon when I looked at my phone again. I had a text message that said a number had called me 8 times. It was from a landline, not a cell phone, and I didn't recognize the number at all. I figure these calls must have happened while I was service-less in my apartment that afternoon, as the number didn't show up on my "Missed Calls" list (and my phone never rang). But still, that text said they called me eight times. So did I call back?

Of course not. I didn't know who had called, so I just went on with my day. Finished classes, changed, went to frisbee practice. Got home a bit after midnight, then woke up at 7am this morning for early class at my Mon/Thurs school.

I arrive at school, and the secretary tells me they were trying to call me all day yesterday. Oh crap. She said class had been moved two hours later today, so it wouldn't start until 10:15. They tried to let me know so I could get a little extra sleep.

Lesson learned: If you receive missed calls from an unknown number, maybe you should call back.

(Side note: Last time I lived in Spain, I would receive a text every time I had a voicemail, with the voicemail message transcribed! It was a terrible phone, but somehow had that awesome feature. This year, I still haven't set up the voicemail on my phone, so I don't think people even have the option of leaving me a voicemail. But I've made it to March without needing it, so I don't see myself looking into the matter further.)

Las Palmas International Beach Ultimate Tournament

2012-02-29T00:53:00.001+01:00

The Torneo Internacional Beach Ultimate in Las Palmas this weekend was an absolute blast. It was a hat tournament, which means you sign up as an individual and rate your ability, then the organizers make equal teams (or draw names from a hat, hence the name hat tournament).

We arrived around midnight in Las Palmas (1am Madrid time) and took a taxi straight from the airport to the bar where the welcome party was being held. This was the event during which they drew names to form teams. We walked in with all of our stuff right as they were finishing the last couple names.

There were nine different teams, and you had to complete a word search type puzzle in order to figure out your team name. Lacking a pen, my team was not one of the first ones to figure out our name. In fact, we never even finished the whole puzzle. After a couple teams had finished, they put the names up on the projected screen.

Every team was an animal or plant found in the Canary Islands. My team name was Pinzón Azul (Blue Chaffinch), named after a bird that lives on the islands of Tenerife and Gran Canaria.

I thought we were just going to stop in at the welcome party and find out what teams we were on, maybe mingle for an hour tops, then head to the hotel for some shut eye. Nope.

Somehow we ended up being some of the last people in the bar. It was after 4am by the time we left the bar (5am Madrid time!) to check-in at the hotel.

Friday morning my team played in the first games at 10:45, which really wasn't that early of a start time. But after getting back so late the night before and waking up by nine for breakfast, I was running on sleep-deprived mode all day.

We're at the beach! Time to sunscreen-it-up

We won our first game, during which I caught three points! Believe it.

My team played two more games that day and lost both.

After our last game, I hopped in line for a free massage right there on the beach. A massage school had a tent set up all three days of the tournament to give free massages to whoever wanted them.

Free massages

There was always water and fruit available to all players. If you wanted to buy other food (tortilla española, pasta, etc.) or drinks (read: beer), you could do so in another tent right there next to the fields. Instead of carrying money around with you during the tournament, there were lists of players' names at the food tent. You simply added a tally next to your name in the appropriate food/drink column when you ordered something. It made ordering go a lot faster, and then you just paid off your tab on Sunday before leaving.

Friday's games all ended by 3:30pm, which is when "Accuracy" began. The first 40 people who signed up for Accuracy could compete. There were seven cones set up in different locations from a net, with four discs at each cone. Each person had six or seven minutes to throw all of the discs, trying to get as many as they could into the net.

This lasted for hours, so at 5pm I decided to head back to the hotel for a shower, and to try to fit in a nap before dinner. I met up with my team at 8:30pm to go to dinner. On the walk to the restaurant, we saw some impressive sand creations on the beach.

Impressive Sand Creation #1

Impressive Sand Creation #2

We finished dinner around quarter to midnight and walked back to the hotel. I was so full and exhausted I could have gone straight to bed but alas, it was the costume party night! The theme of Friday night's party was "Zebras and Leopards," so I wore some great leopard stuff that Hannah found and bought the week before.

Hannah and I

Along with zebras and leopards; there were some safari guys, hunters, and even a circus ringmaster.

The next morning my first game wasn't until 11:30am, but we didn't want to miss breakfast so we were up by 9:00 again.

My team had four games on Saturday and we won one. In the middle of the day there were Accuracy finals, between the top 10 from the previous day.

Accuracy

We were at the tournament playing or watching games until 5 or 6pm that day, then it was back to the hotel for showers before dinner. Dinner on Saturday was included in the tournament cost, and it was at an Indian Restaurant. Buffet. Yummm.

My dinner Saturday night

There was a slideshow of pictures from Friday and Saturday playing on a big-screen TV during dinner. After dinner was... the Saturday night party. And once again I was super full and exhausted, but the organizers said there would be una sorpresa (a surprise) at the party, so that's what drove me to go with everyone to the bar.

The surprise was a musical group that got everyone to their feet!

I left the bar quite early and got back to the hotel sometime after 2am -- my earliest night yet! I simply needed to sleep.

On Sunday morning after breakfast we packed up our stuff and brought it all down to the beach for the final day of the tournament. Since my team had had four games on Saturday instead of three, we only had one game on Sunday -- and we won it! It was nice to be able to relax and watch all of the other games that day (including the finals) after I was done with my single game.

Our friend Hermann's team was in the finals that afternoon. Here are some pictures of the game:

Spectating at the finals

After the finals we had some fun jumping into the ocean before we had to catch a taxi to the airport.

In sum: Great tournament. Sunny weekend. Met lots of people (many Germans). Played and watched lots of ultimate. A highly recommended tournament.

To the Canary Islands I go!

2012-02-23T18:38:00.000+01:00

In about 15 minutes I'm leaving for the airport. I'm going to Gran Canaria, one of the Canary Islands, for an ultimate frisbee tournament this weekend. It's a beach tournament, which means I will be dying after the first two minutes of running in the sand. Yet somehow I'll play three days of games. I think I'll fall fast asleep once I get back to Madrid on Sunday night.

I'm not leaving Spain, just the peninsula. Here's a map for anyone who's unfamiliar with the islands:

It's like Spain's very own Hawaii. But a lot closer. And much more affordable to travel to.

Have a good weekend everyone! How does your weather compare to mine?

Temperatures are in Celsius, don't forget!

Pronouncing English Words

2012-02-22T19:22:00.003+01:00

One of the things I'm sometimes asked to do during class is read aloud short texts or vocabulary words from the textbook so that students can hear the correct pronunciation.

Every once and a while, but not often, a word will pop up that I've never seen before. And sometimes the pronunciation of this word isn't so obvious. Luckily in a classroom of ESL learners, I can make-up a pronunciation and chances are good that no one will notice.

This happened today in my pharmacy class. I'm reading a care plan for a minor burn, and come to the following step:

"3) Gently remove any rings, watches, shoes, etc., to avoid having an oedema."

Oedema. Oh-DEE-mah? OH-dih-mah? EH-dih-mah? OH-dee-mah? No idea. I think I read it "OH-dih-mah" when I got to the word in class.

Later on came the sentence, "The burn exudes a lot and it's very painful". Another word I was unfamiliar with, but this time I could easily pronounce it.

You should have seen me cringe when I had to read this sentence:

"Do not remove any clothes sticked to the burn."

It took every ounce of strength to not say "stuck" instead.

So how would you pronunciate "oedema"? Have you seen this word before? Is it a word I should be familiar with?

Kintaro Asian and Japanese Fine Food

2012-02-19T14:28:00.000+01:00

After visiting the Museo Sorolla on Friday morning, Gregorio and I had lunch at a Japanese Restaurant called Kintaro

Restaurant Kintaro

It was a unique dining experience for me, as the food came around on a conveyor belt. You simply grab whatever looks appealing, without getting up from your seat! Amazing idea.

Happy Rebecca, seated next to a conveyor belt of food

There was no limit on how much you could take, and no one counts your plate stacks on the table. They simply keep clearing them away so you have space to grab more.

IF YOU GO...
What: Kintaro Asian and Japanese Fine Food
Where: c/ Fernández de la Hoz, 70
Metro: Gregorio Marañón
Price: Buffet Giratorio - 9 euro (drink not included), Carta is also available

Museo Sorolla

2012-02-18T14:56:00.005+01:00

On Friday morning Gregorio and I went to the Museo Sorolla here in Madrid.

Museo Sorolla

Joaquín Sorolla Bastida was born in Valencia, Spain in 1863. The museum is in the artist's impressive-sized house, which he moved to in 1890 with his wife and children.

Stairway, Museo Sorolla

Nearly all of the furniture and objects inside the museum are the very ones that filled the house when Sorolla lived there.

Studio on first floor, Mueso Sorolla

I was drawn to the globe sitting on a desk in Sorolla's studio (as seen above), and was quite excited when I saw what cities had been labeled near the Great Lakes. The names are only partially there, but can you make them out?

Madison and Milwaukee labeled on Sorolla's globe

The first floor featured many joyful seaside paintings, while the second floor displayed paintings the artist had made in Granada.

"Sail Boat"
First floor, Museo Sorolla
Photo taken from canvaz.com

Second floor Granada exhibit, Museo Sorolla

For me, the Granada paintings had a less than cheerful tone, so I was eager to go back downstairs again. Back on the first floor, the dining room was one of the last rooms we saw before leaving the house.

Dining room, Museo Sorolla

Outside, the three-story house is surrounded by gorgeous gardens and small fountains.

Museo Sorolla

Gardens, Museo Sorolla

It was a great, inexpensive way to spend one of my Friday mornings, and I would recommend it to others. I liked the smaller size of the museum; I didn't get that overwhelming feeling that I had when I went to the Prado. I'm really not very enthusiastic about art museums in the first place, so the fact that Museo Sorolla is in the artist's house with his original furniture and belongings made it a lot more interesting for me.

IF YOU GO...
Where: c/ General Martínez Campos, 37
Metros: Rubén Darío (Línea 5), Gregorio Marañón (Líneas 7, 10)
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday: 9.30 - 20.00, Sundays and holidays: 10.00 - 15.00 (Note: Closed on Mondays)
Price: Free on Sundays! Otherwise, normal admission is 3 euro.
Everyone under the age of 18 gets in free, and if you're a member of the European Union you can get in free if you're over 65 or a university student.
FYI: We saw a total of three different school groups of youngsters during our short visit (some were waiting outside to get picked up by a bus, another was in the gardens ready to enter the museum, and the third was inside with us). I was only in the same room as that last group once, then somehow never saw (or heard) them again. But just know that you could very well be ~~distracted~~ accompanied by young Spanish children, as the museum seems to be a popular choice for elementary school field trips.

I got paid! (And then I rant a bit about inefficiency in Spain's government)

2012-02-14T22:30:00.003+01:00

I got paid... from one school, that is.

Although they still haven't received my money for January from the Consejería de Educación, my Tues/Weds school fronted me the money today.

Halfway through February, and the Consejería de Educación still hasn't sent out the money to pay many auxiliares their January stipend. I haven't yet seen any news stories about it like there were in December, but I'll keep my eyes open.

Since my Mon/Thurs school doesn't have enough money to pay me for January out of their own funds, we're still waiting until the Consejería deposits the money into the school's account.

From the auxiliares' facebook page, I know that some of the unpaid auxiliares were planning to go to the Consejería's office on c/ Gran Vía this afternoon to submit a formal complaint about not having been paid. For the auxiliares from the United States, this much of a delay in getting paid is simply not acceptable. But after spending a year and a half here, I know that this is Spain, and one must be patient. The money won't come any sooner next month, so you might as well expect it and plan ahead.

This is one of the areas in which Spain falls short of the United States. I'm not actually sure what to call it, but it encompasses government workers, administrative processes, legal documents and applications, and the like.

For starters, though not the most directly related, the technology in this country is about 10 years behind that of the United States. The ancient computers in my schools are slower than slugs. I remember when I was a student at the Complutense here, it was risky to work on a university's computer with a flash drive because they would almost always give your flash drive a virus. The ten-year lag is also easily noted in web pages.

A majority of all the Spaniards I know have either a yahoo or hotmail email account. See what I mean? 10 years behind. Only an elite few have discovered the beauty and efficiency of gmail.

Take a look at a clip of a typical email we receive from the program's staff:

Notice how the caps, bright colors, and underlining make the e-mail so official and easy to read.

But I digress.

After months of collecting documents this summer to apply for my visa, I was convinced we had the slowest governmental systems ever in the United States.

And then I applied for my residency card (TIE) in Spain.

I won't go into detail, because you can read about TIE confusions from the beginning of the year here; but when auxiliares were calling to make appointments to apply for this card, some were told that there weren't openings until September 2012. September! They would have been back in the states by then! And that's just to apply. They would then need to wait another month or two for the actual card to be made (if the applicant had had all of the necessary documents at the appointment).

It's common that asking different workers the same question will result in completely different answers. How can there be that much uncertainty/variation when dealing with important legal applications and documents? Or you may get sent to another office on the other end of the city. Once you arrive, don't be surprised if they tell you that you should actually be in the office you just came from.

It took one of my roommates two years to transfer his degree from Venezuela so that it would be recognized here in Spain. Two years of papers and signatures and stamps and seals and fees.

Two weeks ago the morning English teacher at my Tues/Weds school was late to class because she had spent hours in a governmental office trying to complete some documents needed to renew her teaching license. The week before she had gotten these documents from the same office, but the workers forgot to fill in a date in one part. So she returned the following week - the day she arrived late to class - to have them fill in that date they had missed.

Of the twenty-five desks in the office she went to, only five actually had people behind them, working. So she waited over an hour in line until she could finally talk to one of those five people. The first person wouldn't fill in the date for some reason or another. They couldn't find a record of the date she needed, so they couldn't write it on her form. In the end, she had seen three of the five workers who were there that morning, and none of them would fill in the date (which they should have done the previous week, but forgot to do). Clearly, she was frustrated and bothered when she finally made it to class. I can understand why.

So now I'll leave you with a short video. It pokes fun at government employees (funcionarios) in Spain. Maybe it will better show what I was trying to explain. And no worries, there are English subtitles!

And I think it goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway, that the opinions expressed in this post were formed by my experiences growing up in the states, and my experiences here in Spain. I realize my views are probably tainted. So please do share yours!
For anyone who lives/has lived in Spain, what are your thoughts on the efficiency of the governmental offices? What experiences have you had? How do they compare to those from your home country (if you're not from Spain)?

Auxiliares Updates

2012-02-09T21:04:00.001+01:00

It's been a while since I've said anything about my auxiliar job here on the blog. This is mostly due to the fact that this blog is public, and any student or colleague/boss could easily find it at any time. Thus I'm mostly keeping my thoughts to myself, or at least out of the public scope for now.

With that said, here are some facts to update you on the program:

I still have not been paid from either school for the month of January. This should have happened at the end of January, beginning of February. After how long it took to get November's paycheck, I'm really not surprised. I kind of expected it.
There was a required jornada (program meeting) in January for all auxiliares except those that teach in a non-bilingual instituto secundario.

I teach in two non-bilingual institutos secundarios; thus, I didn't have a meeting/orientation with the program in January.
Via the auxiliares' facebook group, I learned that at this meeting they explained how to renew for a second year in the program, should auxiliares desire to do so.

(They apparently also told auxiliares not to bring water bottles to class, nor to take naps at their schools, among other important information)

Apparently the directions about renewing weren't clear at the jornada, since the facebook group has exploded with renewal questions since that meeting. For people teaching in an IES non bilingual, however, we were still told nothing about renewing.

Yesterday on February 8 I received an email whose subject line was "renovar - DAT Capital". The email said:

Please DO NOT REPLY.

Find attached information about RENOVAR para el curso 2012-13.

(Which I thought was kind of ironic, because my secretariado class this week learned about polite business email correspondence, and how you shouldn't use CAPS...)

If you want to renew, you must reapply to work at your current school for another school year. No switching schools unless you apply in a different comunidad (for example if I applied in northern or southern Spain, and didn't renew in Madrid). I have decided not to renew my current position. Time to make some real money and teach those interest-accumulating student loans who's boss.
On Tuesday we were surprised to find a printer in our English class at my Tues/Weds school. We finally have somewhere to print?!

Nope. There's no toner. So the printer's out of commission, but now it sits on a desk in the front row, behind the computer, taunting us every day.

From small talk I've heard between the English teacher and students at my Mon/Thurs school, it sounds like our two classes of students will finish the year in March. I have no idea what this will mean for me come April, May, and June. No one's said anything to me about it yet, so I'll cross that bridge when it comes.

The English classroom at my Tues/Weds school

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's... le musée de l'air!

2012-02-08T22:33:00.001+01:00

This past weekend Gregorio had some friends from Paris visiting him: the sister of a woman he had gone to elementary school with, the sister's husband, and the husband's parents.

Since this was the perfect opportunity to immerse myself in some French, I was up bright and early to go to Madrid's Museo del Aire (Museum of the Spanish Airforce) with Gregorio and the two French men on Saturday. The wives went shopping in Getafe.

Saturday was our coldest day yet, probably due to the chilling wind. (I'd like to note that it was actually cold out - unlike earlier last week when I complained that the madrileños should stop complaining about the cold)

So of course, the museum was part outdoors, part "indoors" in cold warehouse/sheds where the doors were for whatever reason kept open all day.

Here's a bird's eye view of the museum, where you can see both the aircrafts that were outside, and the giant un-insulated sheds.

Bird's eye view of the Museo del aire
Photo credit: http://www.ejercitodelaire.mde.es/

Gregorio and his friends were all very into this type of thing. They would point and discuss the inner workings of whatever craft or specimen was in front of them. Spaniards love to use their hands when they talk, and he actually got told firmly at least three times that day, "No se puede tocar!" (No touching!) by the museum workers.

¡No se puede tocar!

Here's a clip to give you an idea of what this was like in French. (There's even a "No se puede tocar" at the end, which up until now I hadn't realized that I'd caught on film!)

I can't say I was quite as passionate as they were about the museum's contents, but I found other details that were interesting to me:

Creepy mannequin holding his legs out straight

Playing quidditch, perhaps?

Neat calculating devices

Reminder painted on the aircraft. Close-up is below:

Reminder up-close reads: ¿Está cerrado el depósito?

Popeye!

Old technology

Can you tell how cold I am?

When our museum visit ended, we went back to their hotel to meet up with the wives. We went out for tapas and drinks until about 6pm, and later met up at 9.30 for a dinner of tapas and raciones at Rincón de Jaén.

I learned that his childhood friend's sister has a Spanish mother, a Portuguese father, and grew up and lives in Paris; so she speaks Spanish, Portuguese, French, English, Italian, and some Polish. Wow.

It was great to listen to French all day, though it will take many consecutive days of French in order to actually boost my level. Someone needs to go to France...

There may not be snow, but Madrid still has basketball

2012-02-06T23:59:00.000+01:00

After last night, I can now cross off another item from my Madrid Bucket List: Go to a basketball game.

Rather,

~~Go to a basketball game~~

That's better. And now for the visual proof:

Hermann, Hannah, Max, and I in the Palacio de Deportes

Winter just isn't winter without some basketball, and I never went to a game the last time I lived here. In fact, I almost didn't go this winter either, due to the fun time we had buying tickets online.

I offered to buy the four tickets online so that we'd have seats together, sin duda. Wednesday night after practice I grabbed my Spanish debit card out of my wallet as I pulled up Real Madrid's basketball team's website to purchase tickets. After entering my personal and credit card information, the following screen asked for my card's pin. Just below the space to enter the pin (in the same window), you have to select a piece of identification from a pull-down list (pasaporte, DNI, tarjeta residencia, etc.) and then enter that ID's number.

I entered my four-digit pin into the blank, and proceeded to select "pasaporte" then typed in my passport number. When I clicked "next," I had an error message of some sort, and had to re-enter the information on the pin/identification screen. I entered the same information, choosing passport again. When I got another error, I assumed something was wrong with the identification document I selected. I decided to try using my TIE (foreign identity card) number instead, since that's the card I used to open my bank account in the fall.

I click next.

This time my error message is different from the first two times. It says that since my pin was entered incorrectly three times, my card ha sido bloqueada (has been blocked) from this type of online purchasing until I call to have it unlocked or do something on my bank's website. Grrr!

It was late, and since Thursdays are my early teaching days I just went to bed and figured I'd resolve this the next day.

After teaching Thursday morning, I figured I'd stop by the bank near that school to try and kill two birds with one stone: I'd ask about getting my SpanAir tickets refunded and how to get my card unblocked.

I started with the SpanAir question. The man working at the mesa I went to was helpful. Not particularly friendly or talkative, but helpful and patient. I guess SpanAir must have notified banks of a reimbursement procedure, as he filled out some paperwork to mail to SpanAir. He made a photocopy of my debit card and my TIE, and then he let me log in to my email on his computer to print my purchase confirmation from SpanAir. He gave me copies of all the paperwork that he's sending to SpanAir. So now it's just a waiting game. Any bets on how many months until I get reimbursed? The closest guess gets a postcard from Madrid!

With one bird down, the man asked me if my debit card was new since his computer system showed that it was blocked. I told him that this was precisely my next question, and proceded to explain how it got blocked the night before while trying to make an online purchase. He said that if I went outside to the caja (ATM) and inserted my credit card, that would unblock it. I put in my card, entered my pin, then asked for an account balance; as I was instructed to do by another bank worker that I ran into outside near the ATM.

Then I headed to the metro, feeling quite productive and good about the purchase I'd make later that day. When I got home I tried to buy the tickets again. No luck. Said my card was still blocked, and to either call this number or go to the website to unblock my card.

I went to the bank's website as the error message suggested, but discovered I needed to enter a username and password to get to where I needed to be on the site. I was never given a username or password when I got my bank account, and I wasn't sure how to go about setting one up.

So I called the number, talked with a woman. She explained that the pin this site was requesting was not the pin I normally enter in when I buy stuff in stores or use ATMs. Rather, I needed to log in to the bank's website in order to get this special pin used for certain online purchases. So she transfered me to another line in order to get me set up on the website.

I followed the directions and typed in all the info to make a new user on the website, assuming the username and password would be emailed to me, since I supplied my email address with all of my other info. Later that day, still no email about the bank login information. (In fact, to date I still haven't received an email about this...)

So I sent out an email to my dear friends and asked if someone else wanted to buy the tickets, as I didn't see my debit card issue getting resolved anytime soon.

My friend who has lived in Madrid for years knew what special pin you needed to buy the tickets, and said he could buy them from the website if needed. I didn't know if he bought them or not, but we all had plans to hang out together Friday night, so I figured we'd discuss it then.

Friday night we gathered for a German night of fun, and I asked about the tickets. Turns out said friend had bought them, phew. They were already printed and sitting on the table.

And then we discovered they were for the wrong date; we had four tickets to a game on Thursday, February 23. Alright, alright, we can just skip practice that Thursday night and go to the basketball game instead. Problem solved.

Except then we realized that three of the four of us would be on a plane to Las Palmas, on our way to a tournament on the 23rd. Oops.

In the end, we decided to buy four more tickets to go on Sunday. I think we've already found two people who will go to the game on the 23rd, so we just need to find two more people to go, and then case closed.

That being said, if anyone is ~~brave enough to~~ interested in buying tickets online, you can do so here. (Good luck!) You can even change the page to English if you'd like, in the top right corner. Just don't forget: If you get an error when you enter your pin, don't enter it three times! Your card will be blocked!

So Sunday afternoon, we printed out the tickets just outside the Palacio de Deportes in Goya, then grabbed a few cañas at a nearby bar before the game.

In front of the Palacio de Deportes

The game we saw was part of the Liga Endesa. I couldn't help but compare the whole experience to a Badger basketball game. Here are my observations:

On Sunday I didn't have to unzip my coat when I walked through the front doors as my ticket was scanned. Nor did anyone ask me to open my huge purse, which I was allowed to bring in. And let it be known that had it been raining, I would have certainly entered with an umbrella in hand, no problem.
Under each seat there were two - uh, what do you call them - those tubes that you blow up and smack together. I guess I'm going with tube-clapper things.

Tube-clapper things

The refs were not in stripes, but rather in bright red/orange shirts.

No-stripe refs

Real Madrid has something that the Badgers absolutely need: a remote-control blimp! It flew around the court and crowd during breaks, and was oh so very entertaining to watch.

Rather than having cheerleaders, poms, and a dance team; Real Madrid just had cheerleaders. But they didn't do any cheers. Nor stunts. There were only eight of them, and they just ~~shook it~~ "danced" 30 second bits during time outs and such.

They did this dance with the banners last night

Real Madrid baloncesto animadoras

Unfortunately Real Madrid lost 90-93, just as the Badgers recently lost to Ohio State, though the Badger game would have been undoubtedly more exciting to watch and attend.

Despite not being a Badger game, it was quite a fun Sunday afternoon. It feels good to be making progress on my Madrid Bucket List while spending time with friends before the time pressure hits.

Chill out, Madrid!

2012-02-02T19:23:00.004+01:00

It's currently 1 degree outside at 6:48 in the afternoon.

Celsius, that is. Which is 33.8 degrees Fahrenheit for those of you who aren't used to converting. For the next few days our temperatures are actually quite comparable to those in Madison. We've just got more sun.

So what? Well, the city's in a panic. We've had a mild and very sunny winter up until today, in comparison to the city's usual 43 degree (F) Januarys (that's the daily mean in January according to wikipedia -- the lowest temperatures all year). So the weather outside right now, this is freezing to them. The whole country is under a yellow alert due to the cold and the wind.

Citizens are instructed to fill their gas tanks and not to go driving without a charged cell phone. They are to be careful when driving because ice could form! (gasp)

While walking home from my private English class this afternoon I noticed that salt has been spread on the corner sidewalks of crosswalks, even though we have no snow or rain. To be fair, it ~~rained~~ sprinkled for about 10 minutes last night, but I still think the salt is an overreaction.

That's because this is the warmest winter of my life. (It's been warmer than my last winter I spent in Spain, or at least a lot less rainy and a lot sunnier).

So chill out and toughen up, Madrid; this isn't so bad.

SpanAir Magic: Disappearing before your very eyes

2012-01-30T23:59:00.000+01:00

Some big news this week in Spain is that SpanAir, a Spanish airline, has stopped all of its flights due to financial circumstances.

If you try to go to their website, you will see the following message:

It basically says that as of January 27, the company has stopped all operations. Just out of nowhere, poof, they're done.

Its last flight was this past Friday night. In the CNN article I linked to above, it quotes the following statement from SpanAir: "Because of a lack of visible financing in the next couple of months, the company has chosen to case the operation of its flights as a prudent and secure measure, and it will now take all legal pertinent measures."

Luckily I wasn't out traveling anywhere, so I'm not stranded in an airport as some travelers were. In fact, I don't have any travel plans until the end of February when we have an ultimate frisbee tournament in the Canary Islands.

Canary Islands. Islands. That means flight.

Let's see, I bought my plane tickets for this tournament back in December. From Madrid to Las Palmas I'm flying on RyanAir. Phew, we're safe.

And my return ticket I bought from, uhh, oh dear. You guessed it: SpanAir.

NOOOOOO!

It was a pretty expensive ticket, too, because we wanted to leave later that Sunday night so as not to miss the end of the tournament. I have no idea how to get a refund for the ticket, and I'd better find a new one asap through another airline.

Oh Spain. Always so full of surprises. And magic.

Madrid Fusión 2012

2012-01-29T16:00:00.001+01:00

On Thursday morning after I finished teaching, Gregorio called to see if I wanted to go to some event with him for lunch. His description of this event was vague; there was mention of tapas and famous chefs. I had been looking forward to taking a nap before my private English lesson that afternoon so I would have some energy for frisbee practice that night, but in the end I ~~got dragged out of the house~~ decided to go.

I imagined this tapas event to be an outdoor market with different stands where one could purchase tapas for reasonable prices - maybe something comparable to the Taste of Madison. Let's just say I was a bit off with my prediction.

This event took place in Madrid's Palacio Municipal de Congresos.

Palacio Municipal de Congresos

We walked into the lobby and I immediately felt underdressed. There were lots of professional-looking people walking around with an entrance pass around their necks and conference folders in their hands. Jumping out from the background of Spanish, I heard some women speaking in French, and then some English from two men walking in the other direction.

I quickly learned that this "lunch-event" we were attending was actually a small part of a three day annual gastronomic conference called Madrid Fusión. There were over 800 journalists - including 200 foreigners from a total of 36 countries - participating in the tenth edition of Madrid Fusión, according to this news article. (T.J. - you probably would have liked going to the exhibition hall that afternoon)

Madrid Fusión

Gregorio called his friend who was working at this conference (he works for a ham company in Spain), and the friend gave Gregorio some guy's name and number. Gregorio calls this guy and says that his friend told him to call. Gregorio continues to tell the guy that he's down in the lobby with one other person.

We continued waiting around, and ten minutes later the man Gregorio had called came down and had two conference passes with him. He quickly handed us each a pass (with a barcode) to wear around our necks. Then we followed him into the conference, where our passes were scanned upon entrance.

We took an escalator up to the third floor, then boy did my eyes pop.

Live cooking competition with famous chefs judging

We went to Gregorio's friend's ham stand, but he wasn't back from his lunch break yet. The guy who brought us up took our passes back as soon as we arrived to their ham booth. Booths lined the walls, and in the aisles there were square tables every few yards where people could set their wine glasses down and eat all the food samples they were being given.

Now, when I've been at big conferences where booths might be giving out free food, you take whatever serving they're giving out and you don't push your luck. If you want seconds, you usually try to be sneaky and get a friend to go up for you, or you pretend you're getting food for two so you don't feel guilty.

There was none of this guilt at Madrid Fusión.

Apart from all of the booths giving out their food products, there were people walking around with trays of bite-sized tapas. These servers were seemingly trying to empty their trays as fast as possible. Once empty, they return with a full tray of some other tapa. One server made me feel guilty for not eating!

He came by and asked if I wanted one of whatever he was serving. I said "No, gracias," because it wasn't clear what it contained, and I didn't want to eat anything that would upset the stomach. I had also just eaten some tortilla, a mini-hamburger, and a bunch of other tapas. More people walking by grabbed samples from this guy's tray, and then he came up to me again and said "Take one, take one." Programmed to follow directions, I took one. It was actually really good. He saw that I was done and asked if I liked it. I told him I did, and he shoved the tray in my face and told me "Take another, take another." I hesitated, but he commanded "Take it." So I took it and ate it. He left, and my growing stomach was relieved he didn't make me eat a third.

For the first forty-five minutes or so, we were standing by the same table in the aisle next to Gregorio's friend's booth. Although his friend wasn't there yet, servers kept walking by with trays full of samples. We didn't even have to move; the food came to us!

Here are a few pictures of what we ate. Just a few, because I often devoured the food before thinking to take a picture of it:

Mini-burger

After the first hour or so, we started exploring the rest of the booths, as there were many to be seen and more food to be eaten. Although there were certainly other types, the majority of the stands fell into one of three categories:

1. Olive oil

OliBar

2. Wine

3. Ham

With respect to the wine, take a look at this picture:

These tables were all over the exhibit: Open bottles of wine. Clean wine glasses. Self-serve.

We had some really good wines that afternoon. And tons of amazing food. I really wished I hadn't had to leave for my afternoon private lesson! Here are a couple more pictures from that afternoon:

Really delicious tortilla

Italian meats

Cheese!

On our way out of the conference, when we got to the bottom of the escalator a woman was waiting to scan our passes. Uh oh...

Gregorio told her we left them upstairs and she let us leave with no hassle. Phew!

After learning that this wasn't an event for the public, and that so much free food was served, I was curious as to how much conference participants (or their companies) had paid to send them to this conference. I found this pdf online that shows a price of 400 euro to attend the whole three-day conference, which included the food in the exposition (where we went on Thursday).

I'm lucky to have attended, even though I wasn't really supposed to be there. You know what they say, "It's not what you know, it's who you know."

Getting Crafty: DIY Kindle Case

2012-01-22T21:16:00.002+01:00

Ever since my HelpX time in Válor, I've been itching to craft. This interest was sparked by two of the other HelpXers I was with: Ida from Denmark and Kayleigh from Wales. They were always doing some sort of creative craft. One night Ida dyed pages of paper with red wine to use them for a book. Kayleigh made a journal by stitching pages together. It had a cardboard cover that was stitched to the pages, and she knit a cover for the journal as well.

Upon my return to Madrid (and the internet), I started spending some time ~~every week~~ every day browsing craftgawker.com.

Two weeks ago this DIY Kindle Cover caught my eye. I decided I'd make it once my kindle arrived.

Last weekend while continuing my never-ending cleaning/organization project at Gregorio's house, I kept my eye open for materials I could use for this project or other crafting endeavors. Although the DIY Kindle Cover directions called for a hard cover book, I found an agenda book from 2008 with removable pages on one of Gregorio's shelves. It was less sturdy than a hardcover book, but it would allow me to skip the step of cutting out the pages from the binding from a hard cover.

2008 Agenda cover with calendar inserts removed

I also spotted a mini hot glue gun, but he had no idea where the glue sticks were. I took the glue gun home with me, as I figured it would come in handy with the case.

Since my kindle arrived this past Friday, I was anxious to make the case as soon as possible. Saturday morning before I had to leave for frisbee, I went to my closest chino shop in an attempt to buy everything I needed at one location. I could have searched around for a fabric shop, but if I could find everything I needed that morning then on Sunday I'd be able to make it (even though all of the shops would be closed).

For the kindle case project I bought mini hot glue gun sticks, a vinyl table cover, and elastic. Each of those items were a euro or less, except for the vinyl table cover which was 2,50 euro. I also picked up some shoelaces, two small dish towels, and sewing needles and thread to be used for future projects.

I'll show you step-by-step what I ended up doing. Remember, credit for the idea goes to Lori at Crown Hill. I made some changes due to the materials I had available to me.

Step 1: Cut the book cover to fit the size of your kindle.

I was able to use a pair of scissors instead of an exacto knife since my cover was softer than a hard cover book.

Cut the edges to fit the size of your kindle

Just the right size

Step 2: Make four holes on the right panel of your book for the elastic.

I made sure the holes were in line with each other and that the elastic would fall where I wanted it to on the kindle.

While Lori used a drill for this part, I found a nail and hammer and was easily able to make the holes.

Making holes with a nail and hammer

Step 3: Thread the elastic through the holes. In the picture below you can see how the length I cut the elastic compares to the size of the right book cover panel. I'd rather trim the elastic a bit than finish threading it through and discover it's too short.

Cut the two elastic strips longer than the right panel's length

In order to get the thick elastic through these small holes, I ended up using the nail again. I folded the corner of an end of the elastic over so that it was twice as thick and pushed it through with the nail. I found that if you don't fold over part of the elastic, the nail will simply poke a hole through the elastic instead of pushing it down.

Being resourceful and threading elastic with a nail

Step 4: Adjust the elastic straps to the tightness you want.

I put my kindle in and pulled the elastic on the back side until I was happy with the tightness.

Adjusting the elastic straps before gluing them down

Step 5: Glue down the ends of the elastic straps on the back cover.

I used the hot glue gun for this part. I tried to make the elastic lie as flat as it could when I glued it, but I knew the back would still be a bit bumpy after covering it.

Glue down the ends of the elastic straps

Step 6: Cut out your vinyl (or in my case, table cloth), leaving about an inch overhang on each side. Then glue the vinyl to the outside cover.

I think Lori used some type of fabric glue for this part, then let it dry while being pressed under heavy books for many hours. Since I only had the hot glue gun, that's what I used to glue down the cover. Thick lumps of hot glue can dry quickly leaving an undesired bumpy texture, so I was careful to only squeeze out a little bit of hot glue at a time. I would smooth it out right away so that the glue would set as flat as possible. I quickly turned to using the handles of my scissors to do the pushing and smoothing out, as that glue is quite hot - even through the vinyl!

Glue the vinyl to the cover

Step 7: Cut a diagonal at each corner, as pictured below.

Trimmed corners

I realized at this point that I hadn't left enough space along the right side between the elastic strap and the edge of the case. This was problematic because when I folded the vinyl flap over, it covered up part of the elastic straps.

To fix this issue, I made the cuts shown below so that the vinyl wouldn't overlap the elastic. The first indent I cut was on the right side, but I went too deep. The indent on the left side worked a lot better, as the material folded right up to the edge of the elastic.

Creative problem solving

Step 8: Fold the edge flaps in and glue them down.

Flaps glued down

Although this was just the inside of the case, I thought it looked a little sloppy since I hadn't made my edge lines very straight. Then I had the idea of using that shoestring I had bought to make it look neater. I'm very happy with the addition:

Looks better with shoelace

And that's it! For now I'm just using some shoelace scraps to keep the cover closed, but on my next craft adventure I might try to make a more decorative elastic strap like Lori did. Here are my current results:

DIY Kindle Case success!

Ta-da!

I'm off to do some reading. (On the kindle obviously!)

Snail Mail in Spain: Slow as a Snail?

2012-01-20T17:49:00.003+01:00

When I got back to Madrid after my two weeks away over winter break, my grandma asked me if I had received the package that she and my aunt had sent me for Christmas.

Package? Uh what package? Negative.

She said they had sent it before Christmas, and by this time it was January 8. I figured I would wait a bit longer; perhaps the postal service had been backed up with the holiday season (and for being closed on all of the Spanish holidays). I read on the auxiliares' facebook page posts from some auxiliares about receiving packages a month after they were sent. (Other auxiliares also have shared horror stories about needing to go to the Barajas airport to pick up packages -- which is a far ways out of the city. Once they got there they had to pay huge custom fees, between 50-100 euro, if they wanted to see their package!)

It was also during that first week back in Madrid two weeks ago that I decided to buy a kindle. After dragging four books with me to Válor then meeting another HelpXer with a kindle, I saw how useful it was for a reading traveler (and daily metro-rider). So I made up my mind and when I got back to Madrid I ordered one from the U.S. Amazon.com. Due to the mailing horror stories mentioned above, I had my kindle shipped to my home in the states (free shipping), and then planned to have my mother ship it to me here. I thought that if I had it shipped straight to Spain, I might have to pay custom fees since it would clearly be new.

So I instructed my mom to wrap the Amazon box so the U.S. post office workers couldn't tell it was brand new when she went to mail it. I told her to say it was a book that cost less than $20 when she filled out the contents sticker (to avoid the custom fees). When sending things here from the states, your recipient should be safe (and fee-free) if you say the box/package contains "personal items" that are worth less than $20. Just don't let them know if it's anything new or valuable. (If you insure the package, your recipient will surely be charged)

The kindle arrived in Wisconsin this past Saturday. On that same day here in Madrid, I was at frisbee practice talking with a fellow teammate about the shipping issue. She told me that she had ordered a kindle earlier this year from the U.S.'s Amazon, and had it shipped directly to Spain. The Spanish delivery people actually called her to see if she'd be home when they were trying to deliver it. Since she was never home earlier than 6pm because of work, they asked for her work address and delivered it right to her school.

And here I thought I was being sneaky and clever, when I should have just had it shipped directly to me in Madrid. I still hadn't received the package my grandma and aunt had sent me before Christmas, but it was too late to change my mind with the kindle shipping issue.

My mom sent my kindle to Spain on Tuesday of this week, and I've decided it will either get here in a week, a month, or never.

When I send letters from Madrid to the United States, they usually take between one and a half to two weeks to arrive. But I remember when I sent some study abroad documents from Madison to the coordinator in Madrid the summer before I studied here, they arrived to her in three days. Most cards from home only take a couple of days to get here as well. That United States is pretty good at shipping mail out of the country.

Then last night when I got home late after frisbee practice (first practice since fall league ended -- yay!), my roommates told me I had an aviso de llegada from the post office. That means they tried to deliver something that's too big for our apartment's mailbox when I wasn't home, so I needed to take that slip of paper and some ID to the post office to pick it up. My grandma and aunt's Christmas package! At last!

Their names are Kathy and Bernice, but on the aviso de llegada the Spanish postal service person had written that the package was from "Kathy y Bernicéé" haha

So this morning I walked down to the post office with the slip of paper to pick up my package. The woman took my slip and was looking on two shelves of packages. She'd pick up a package, look at the address, then set it back down. I watched her pick up the same packages multiple times. Then she asked a taller coworker to help her. So the two of them are double checking these two shelves of packages. There couldn't have been more than 25 packages between the two shelves. At one point there were three workers standing in front of this shelf looking. Oh great, I'm thinking. A month later, it finally arrives, and now they've lost it?!

The three continue looking as I imagine hopping the counter to take a look for myself. And then finally the woman comes back to the counter. She has a box in her hands. Thank goodness.

As I'm walking home this morning, excited to open the package, I was composing this very blog post in my head. I wanted to be sure to include the fact that the package was mailed on December 20, 2011. Do you know what day it is today? January 20, 2012. (Happy Birthday JB, btw!) So if mother sent the kindle on January 17...

I seriously considered taking a detour back to the library where I had returned some books before I went to the post office. If I won't be able to read my ebooks for another month, maybe I should check out a few more.

But I'm reading a book now that I'm borrowing from Gregorio, and I wanted to open the package so I went straight home. I walk in the living room, box in hand, and here's what I see:

Living room as it always is, plus a little something on the table

My attention was immediately drawn to the table. What's that?

Well would you look at that

No. Way.

No. Freaking. Way.

During the half hour that I had been out walking down to the post office, they had delivered this envelope aka kindle. Luckily my roommates were home this time, so the mailman brought the package to my apartment instead of having me retrieve it from the post office tomorrow.

I couldn't believe it. I was already so thrilled to have a box to open, and now I have a kindle to open too?!

I brought both packages to my room and just stared for a while. There was no rush to open them because here they were, both packages sitting safely on my bed. Not lost in the mail. Not waiting at the airport for me to come pay.

Thank you Grandma B and Aunt Kathy and mother! Now I feel like I celebrated Christmas 2011 with the family, and I have visual proof:

The family will understand this picture

My Friday surprise

When you think about it, Tuesday to Friday is pretty fast for getting a package to an airport, on an airplane, flying across the Atlantic, unloading it, getting it to the correct post office in Madrid, and delivering it to moi.

So I still have mixed feelings about the efficiency of the Spanish postal service. If letters can get to me from the states in a few days, why does it take over a week and sometimes two for my letters to arrive there? Is it Spain's fault? Or does the United States take their sweet time checking all letters that enter the country?

Maybe we could turn this into an experiment: you guys can send me letters and I'll see how long it takes for them to get here. Ready? Let the experiment begin!

Spanish Lottery and Blind People

2012-01-18T00:34:00.003+01:00

Spaniards love the lottery. There are Loterías y Apuestas del Estado stands all over, like the one pictured below.

Loterías y Apuestas del Estado

That picture looks a bit abnormal sans people, though. Come on Google Images, help me out.

Lottery booth with people

Ah, that's better.

One time Gregorio dragged me in there and made me buy a ticket. I think we won something like six euro in the end, though I haven't seen a cent yet. (I'm pretty sure it went to more lottery tickets...)

There are also ONCE booths on nearly every other block, which also sell lottery tickets.

And then there's the Spanish Christmas Lottery. An estimated 75% of Spaniards buy a ticket for the Christmas Lottery. These tickets cost 200 euros a piece, so many people will either pool together to get one ticket or buy a décimo, which is 1/10th of a full ticket (That's 20 euros if you were still calculating...) The top prize this year was 4,000,000 euros! But I'm getting sidetracked. Read the wiki article if you want to learn more about the Spanish Christmas Lottery (but not on January 18 because wikipedia will be down, in protest of SOPA.)

Lines for lottery tickets grow as the Christmas season nears

So what's the point? The point is that buying lottery tickets is very common here. I'm used to seeing the stands all over; they blend in with the streets and I hardly take notice.

Now jump to last Sunday. I'm talking with Gregorio, and he's telling me once again that I should get laser eye surgery like he did last year. "When are you going to fix your eyes?" he's asking me. I tell him I'm not going to have laser eye surgery because, besides the cost, if they mess up I could go blind.

Saying this jogs another thought to mind that I share with Gregorio, "By the way, I've noticed lately that there are lots of blind people in Madrid." I see at least one blind person every day, either in the metro or out walking around. In Madison, that simply wasn't the case.

I thought I simply have a foreigner's perspective, but Gregorio agrees with me. "Well yeah, that's because blind people live really well in Madrid."

I ask him to explain what he means by that.

"Well you know, they all are given jobs in the ONCE stands --"

I interrupt him, "Wait, wait, wait. ONCE. Like, as in the lottery stands ONCE? Those are all blind people working in the booths?!"

"Yes," he assures me, "ONCE. O.N.C.E. It stands for Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles [National Organization of Spanish blind people]. They can work in the stands, and the money made from the lottery tickets goes towards providing services for the blind and seriously visually impaired."

Say whaaa. Well I'll be darned. I had never realized.

Then on Monday as I was walking to my library, I was reminded of my recently gained knowledge when I passed the ONCE stand on the way. You'll never guess what I saw:

ONCE lottery ticket booth

In the ONCE logo, there's a clear picture of a blind person using a white cane to walk. I had somehow never noticed this before!

ONCE logo

Don't worry pops, I'm clearly learning new things every day. And to top it all off, I haven't acquired the Spanish hunger for lottery tickets, nor has Gregorio convinced me to get laser eye surgery!

Ice Skating in Madrid

2012-01-14T13:18:00.004+01:00

I have a bucket list of things I want to do here in Madrid this year, since I'm still not certain how long I'll be here.

One item on this list was to go ice skating, which I got to cross off this week. An ultimate frisbee teammate invited all of us to go ice skating on Wednesday evening.

Los Quijotes on ice

It was fun to do something out of my normal weekday routine, and to catch up my Quijotes friends after the holidays.

If you want to go ice skating at the Sagardi Palacio de Hielo, here's what you'll need to know:
Where: c/ de Silvano, 77 Metro: Canillas (Line 4)
Hours: Wednesday and Thursday: 20:45-22:15, Friday: 17:30-24, Saturday: 12:30-15 and 17:30-24, Sunday: 12:30-15 and 17:30-22:30
Price: It cost 6 euro to skate with skate rental on Wednesday night. I only glanced at the weekend prices, and I believe they were all above 10 euro. Obviously, I'd recommend going on a week night.
Other: The "Sport Hielo" ice skating rink is located within a huge shopping mall. There were tons of rebajas when we went this week, so bring some extra money if you want to go shopping as well. The mall includes a 100 Montaditos (other restaurants too), so you can have some drinks and eat a bit before/after skating.

HelpX en Válor: Christmas Celebrations

2012-01-13T18:50:00.000+01:00

At my HelpX gig in Válor I worked for one day on Friday the 23rd, and then it was time for a weekend of Christmas celebrations!

On Saturday morning I decorated the Christmas tree with the decorations available:

Christmas tree

Then everyone helped to prepare food for the following day so that no one would need to cook on Christmas, just pop things in the oven.

Chopping vegetables

Making sugar cookies

Down at Tog's house there's a projector and screen in the living room, so we watched "Black Swan" in there on Christmas Eve.

On Christmas Day us HelpXers slept in, then one by one we made our way down the hill to Tog's house.

Christmas breakfast with my fellow HelpXers

My HelpX hosts had told me the night I arrived to start thinking of a game we could play on Christmas. I had a couple ideas in mind, games that we've played after ultimate frisbee games here in Spain.

It was known that Terry (one of the hosts) wanted to somehow make people jump into a pool during his game, since the water was still too chilly for a swim. When we saw Tog's pool after breakfast, we noticed balloons in the pool that weren't previously there. So Terry explained his game: Each balloon had someone's name written on it. Attached to each balloon was a string, with a rock tied to the bottom. On the rock was a symbol. Under the Christmas tree were presents, each containing a symbol drawn on the wrapping paper. Thus, in order to open a present you had to jump in the pool, retrieve your balloon, then match your rock's symbol to the corresponding present under the tree.

I stared at the pool for a minute thinking there was no way I'd jump in. I didn't have a towel down at Tog's house, and hadn't even brought a swim suit with me to Válor.

The fact that we were unprepared for swimming didn't stop Ginny. She was the first to bravely jump in. Others followed, each with their own style of entering the pool:

After two or three people had gotten their balloons and there was a towel nearby, I decided what the heck, here I go! I got in the pool wearing what I had on underneath my clothing, and quickly retrieved my balloon. The water was cold, but it was bearable. I wrapped myself up in a towel right away once I got out.

Someone jumped in right after me, so I was taking pictures with my camera and watching. Out of nowhere, someone grabbed my balloon and threw the rock back in the pool! I hadn't looked at the symbol yet, and the others seemed to have noticed. Mostly dry and somewhat warm, I jumped back in the pool to get my balloon again. This time I looked at the symbol right away.

The symbol on my balloon's rock

My corresponding present

Our hosts had bought these little gifts for all the HelpXers from a chino shop, so I wasn't expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised when I opened up my gift. It was a cute little phone case that perfectly fits my Spanish cell phone. This phone case will always remind me of that Christmas in Válor, and how I jumped into a cold pool twice for it.

A phone case

After playing the first "game," I went on a walk with the other HelpXers. From where we went, you could see where Terry and Ginny's properties reside from a distance, just up the hill from Tog's:

When we got back from our adventure through the hills, we all ate a starter course of prawns. Next came Ginny's game: a wheelbarrow race -- with real wheelbarrows. People formed teams of two; one person pushed and the other sat in the wheelbarrow. After pushing the wheelbarrow over the starting line, there was a ramp maybe 12 yards away that you had to push the wheelbarrow over, and then there was a turn-around point you went around and then headed back.

Wheelbarrow races

My partner was the guy from Sweden. At first he was in the wheelbarrow and I was going to have to push! Someone else asked if that's how we really wanted to do it, so then we played rock paper scissors and I won the spot inside the wheelbarrow. He ended up being a super-fast pusher and we won the first race!

Later there was a race between the two winners and the two losers. We won that race too (he pushed again), so we won a prize! Around five o'clock that afternoon we ate lunch: all of the food we had prepared yesterday, plus a turkey.

When the sun went down we went inside Tog's, ate some cake, and then played more games for the rest of the night. They were all entertaining, new to me, and required only a few simple household objects. I'll write a post describing all of the games soon, that way your next party will be a hit! I'll definitely be pulling out these games at future events (Watch out family, these may reappear Christmas 2012...)

It was a great weekend, and I'll always remember that year I spent Christmas in Válor.

First guests in Madrid

2012-01-11T13:11:00.000+01:00

My first guests to stay with me this year in Madrid arrived Monday night, and have already finished their stay; they're headed to the airport as I write. Who were they? I'll give you a hint: I didn't know these people a month ago.

It was the young Welsh couple I met during my two weeks HelpXing in Válor. My fellow olive pickers!

Welsh friends

Last night we went out for cañas near my apartment -- I finally had people to go with in my neighborhood! They are now headed to France where they'll continue HelpXing.

Second television appearance in Spain

2012-01-09T17:51:00.000+01:00

Those of you who followed the blog through my first year in Spain may remember that I was on the news in some footage about Madrid's downtown Sol. Well friends, it's happened again!

A few weeks ago our ultimate team found out that a news segment had been recorded during our tournament in Valencia. Hopefully you can watch the video by following that link, but if not here are a few screenshots:

Have I been on the news more in Spain than in the US? I'm not sure, but it very well could be true.

HelpX en Válor: Photo Tour

2012-01-08T14:04:00.000+01:00

As I mentioned in the last post, Terry and Ginny have two houses side-by-side in the Válor countryside. The first house is one large room and a bathroom. It has Terry and Ginny's bed, a sofa (for the dogs), the kitchen table and the food, but no sink. This house hasn't been rented out before, but their next big project will be fixing up this house to be able to rent it out (put in a fridge, kitchen sink, etc.)

Since there was no sink in the main house, the washing of dishes was done in the helpers' "dormitory," where we slept. Dishes are moved back and forth between the two houses in the large orange bin seen below.

The kitchen in the helpers' dormitory

My bed during the last week of my stay

The helpers' dormitory is a property that they do normally rent out to British vacationers.

Walking up to the next level on the hill, above/behind their houses, you'll find the pool, gardens, solar panels, and compost.

Scary stairs: One of two ways to get to the pool

The pool

Garden

Solar panels for electricity

A view of the main house from the pool-level

Terry and Ginny's friend Tog from England just bought a neighboring house on the bottom of their hill. It's already booked to be rented out in February, so we spent lots of the days working on Tog's house.

Tog's house from above

Pool at Tog's house

We celebrated Christmas at Tog's, so when I post about that you can see more pictures of his house that we worked on.

When needed, we would refill up jugs of water from this nearby fountain at the bottom of the hill. It was naturally carbonated water from the mountains-- an interesting taste when you're expecting crisp water sin gas.

Refilling water jugs at Cuesta Viñas

And thus ends the tour of where I spent my winter break. What were your initial reactions? Would you want to spend a few weeks in Válor's countryside?

HelpX en Válor: Success!

2012-01-07T10:41:00.001+01:00

I'm back in Madrid after spending the last two weeks on a Help Exchange (HelpX) in Válor, Spain.

The weather was perfect: sunny days in the 60s. The countryside was gorgeous and quiet. Although wifi was available, I left my laptop at home and didn't use any of the other helpers' computers. During the two weeks I read three books, spent every afternoon soaking up the sun, journaled every day, and was able to hear myself think. It was very relaxing to strip down to the basics. A simple, fulfilling stress-free life.

Where I sat and read many afternoons

I wasn't sure if there would be other helpxers while I was there or not. Luckily, there were. When I arrived on Thursday night, I sat down at a full dinner table of eight. Five of those were helpxers; I was the sixth. During my two weeks the number of helpxers got as low as three, and when I left it was at five. The other helpxers throughout the two weeks included: A girl from Denmark, a guy from Sweden, a young couple from Wales, a girl from Ireland, and a man from England. Needless to say I was never lonely, and I learned lots of UK English expressions (and occasionally found myself talking in a British accent...)

Taking a walk on Christmas Day with other helpxers

Our hosts have two properties side by side, so the helpers were sleeping in one house, and the two hosts slept in the other. On a normal work day (M - F), we get a wake-up knock on the door at 7:30am, followed by "Buenos días, son las siete y media!" Us helpers get up out of bed, brush teeth, then head next door to the hosts' house for breakfast. In the hosts' two-room house there is a kitchen table, the food, and two hot plates for cooking; so all meals are made and eaten in the house where the hosts sleep.

Where the hosts sleep and everyone eats

During breakfast, our hosts would tell each person what they'd be working on that day. At 8:00 we begin working, then there are two half-hour breaks at 10:00 and 12:00, during which we'd drink coffee/tea and perhaps eat some toast or digestives. At 2:00 the work day is done and lunch is eaten. Then helpers had the rest of the day to do as they please, with dinner eaten around 8:00pm. Some of the work I did during my two weeks includes: painting, picking olives, kitchen duty (the washing up and cooking lunch & dinner), shoveling rocks to move them by the pool, and insulating a roof.

Scraping the roof to lay the insulation

I'll be writing more detailed posts about my time in Válor soon, but for now know that I'm back safe and sound; it was a wonderful way to spend my winter break. I know that this will be the first of many helpx experiences.

Quijotes Frisbee Christmas Party

2011-12-23T21:55:00.000+01:00

After finals on Saturday, everyone went home to shower (I'm assuming....) and then we regrouped that night for a Christmas party at the apartment of a couple on our team.

The apartment was gorgeous, spacious, and well-decorated for Christmas. The lights were off, as many candles were lit and the drinks had glowing ice cubes that changed colors!

Festive ice cubes

We each brought some food to share and something to drink. If you wanted to participate in secret santa you also brought a gift that cost under 4 euro. I learned that secret santa in Spanish is called "el amigo invisible" (the invisible friend), though I still have no idea why -- invisibility has nothing to do with it!

After munching, drinking, and visiting with each other for an hour or so, we all gathered around for el amigo invisible. As guests had arrived, if they had brought a secret santa gift it was placed under the Christmas tree.

El amigo invisible gifts under the árbol de navidad

Here are the rules we followed: The last person to arrive started by selecting a gift from under the tree, and didn't open it. The next person grabbed another gift from under the tree and could either hold on to it, or swap it with the first person, still not opening anything. As more and more of us had gifts in our hands, we were instructed to hold them up so that people taking their turn could see what their options were as far as trading goes.

Holding those gifts up high

After the last gift was picked from under the tree, we went back to the first person and one by one we each opened whatever present was in our hands.

In the end, I opened a glow stick and a grow-your-own cowboy (put him in water, three days later he's full-size)

Grow Your Own Cowboy

Some of the other gifts (that I remember) included: a mini first aid kit, a scarf, BINGO, a towel, condoms, a beard, a stapler, silly string & a beer, champagne, "sexy music" CD, a thermostat filled with a warm wine drink, socks, and some chocolate & tea. There was a nice mix of practical, random, and dirty gifts.

We didn't end up leaving until around 6am, which meant I got home and went to bed at 7am. A Spanish night out!

Cutting the ham

Away for the holidays

2011-12-21T23:22:00.004+01:00

Tomorrow (Dec. 22) I'm leaving Madrid and will be gone without internet access until January 6.

I'll be taking a bus to Valor, Granada in southern Spain for my first Help Exchange (HelpX) experience.

Helpx.net is an online listing of host organic farms, non-organic farms, ranches, lodges, B&Bs, and even sailing boats who invite volunteer helpers to stay with them short-term in exchange for food and accommodation.

"HelpX is provided primarily as a cultural exchange for working holiday makers who would like the opportunity during their travels abroad, to stay with local people and gain practical experience. In the typical arrangement, the helper works an average of 4 hours per day and receives free accommodation and meals for their efforts."

I knew I definitely wanted to do a Help Exchange this summer when I'm done with my program, so I paid to become a member when I discovered the site a month ago (to be able to contact hosts and read all host info and volunteer reviews of hosts). There are HelpX hosts all over the world. The site is divided into these categories: Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Canada, USA, and International.

Christmas break kind of snuck up on me and I hadn't made any plans, so Sunday night I sent off a bunch of messages to different HelpX hosts, to see if anyone had space and was taking volunteers over the holidays. On Monday I got a positive response from a couple in Valor, Granada; so yesterday I bought some bus tickets and tomorrow I'm off!

Here's what their HelpX profile says:

We own 2 properties in La Alpujarra, Andalucia. A village house which we let during the summer months and a small finca where we are growing organic fruit and veg and a few almonds & olives for our own use. We need help mainly with building at the moment so there is quite a lot of heavy work.

We ask that people work 5 hours, 5 mornings a week but are willing to be flexible with times/days, if, for example, you want to take a long weekend to go off exploring. Granada & the coast are both easily accessible by bus as is the local town of Ugijar.
The farm is between the pueblos blancos of Valor & Yegen (30 mins walk along a good track to either) both with shops, bars and restaurants.

When working at the Finca, you will be accommodated in the "dormitory" casita consisting of large room with beds and bathroom.

We live on the property with our two very friendly dogs and we will be working alongside you. We cook, eat and socialise together and there is always food available if you fancy a snack between times.

We have solar power in the main house where you can charge phones and laptops but there is no power in the smaller house, we use solar lamps and candles instead and there is ample hot water for showers. What else do you need electric for when most of your life is lived outside? Trust us - you won't miss it!!

We have solar power in the main house where you can charge phones and laptops but

We do have good internet access for checking emails, making travel arrangements etc and also have lots of books and games available.
We don't require any experience, simply enthusiasm and a smile but do ask that you are over 20!

Feel free to drop us an email or give us a call if you have any questions.
Hope to welcome you soon!

And here's the website for their properties.

I'm looking forward to the change of scenery, disconnecting, and enjoying the countryside. I'm excited to be busy working on whatever I end up doing, and hope to learn a thing or two.

I've scheduled a couple posts to publish while I'm away, since I'll be without internet.

Hope everyone has happy holidays and a happy new year. See you in 2012!

Ultimate frisbee fall league finals

2011-12-20T02:40:00.000+01:00

This past Saturday my ultimate frisbee fall league had its final games. My team won our first game all season in the semifinals two weeks earlier, which put us in the running to win finals. (Brief summaries of all the games from the fall league are up on the team's website, in case anyone's interested in reading.)

We played at the field we use on Saturdays for pick-up (all the rest of the fall league's regular games were played in a different field). This is the field where we force either "graffiti" or "trees," as you'll see in the pictures. In fact, there were a bunch of guys spray painting graffiti on the walls while we were playing. Gotta keep it fresh!

Ignore the frisbee players. Notice the people spray painting graffiti on the walls

First, the two teams that had lost in the semifinals played each other.

And then my team played the other winning team from semifinals.

A time-out during the game

I won't leave you in suspense; we lost our game, but the whole afternoon was lots of fun.

Frisbee friends

After our game finished, there was an informal awards ceremony for the league. The first category was perfect attendance, so people who came to all of their team's games during the fall league were recognized (I got this one!).

Team captains handing out prizes

Players gathering around for the awards ceremony

Since stats were recorded every game (assists, points), next came a bunch of stat-based awards (girl with most assists, boy with most assists, girl with most points, boy with most points, etc.). There was also girl with best lay-out, boy with best lay-out, best girl who had never played ultimate before this league, best boy who had never played ultimate before this league... and others I'm probably forgetting.

After all of the individual awards were done, each of the four teams came up one at a time to receive hand-made bracelets and a bottle of champagne. Then team pictures were taken, often disrupted by the popping of a cork.

Nice team picture

Pop goes the cork!

My team: Río Aluche

Río Aluche captain kindly pours champagne into everyone's mouths, instead of drenching them

When the awards ceremony ended, most headed to the nearby bar that we usually go to after pick-up on Saturdays.

Los Quijotes post-finals

After socializing, eating, and drinking a beer; most said "see you tonight" to each other when we finally parted ways, as that night was the team's Christmas party. Post to follow!

Oliva: Day 1, Segóbriga

2011-12-19T00:35:00.000+01:00

[This post is part two in the Oliva series. Read part one, Uclés, here.]

Gregorio had asked me the week before our trip if I had seen any Roman ruins in Spain before. I had, on our WIP trip to Extremadura two years earlier with a tour guide, might I add. I thought this meant that we wouldn't be seeing any Roman ruins on our trip to Oliva. Once again, I was wrong.

After leaving Uclés, we weren't in the car very long before Gregorio exited the main highway again. We were headed to Segóbriga, an archeological site located in Cuenca, Spain.

We got there about ten minutes before a free tour started, so we waited and joined the huge group and tour guide.

Roman theater

Our tour guide was quite something. She could rattle off her facts and memorized script without hardly pausing to breathe. Want to hear for yourself?

The whole tour and walk through the ancient ruins lasted over an hour. It was a perfect day to be outside in the ruins; there was lots of sun. I felt as though my face were getting burnt at some points, and definitely didn't need the coat I was wearing. It was a lovely reminder to appreciate Spain's winter this year, as it will be much much milder than Wisconsin's. Hardly comparable.

When the tour was over, we walked back to the principal building where Gregorio bought some type of souvenir before we headed back to the parking lot.

We continued driving towards Oliva, and once again I had no idea when we could stop next.

Where's My Money?

2011-12-14T02:27:00.002+01:00

Unfortunately, paying the auxiliares de conversación on time seems to be a huge flaw within the administration of this program. There was actually an article in El País the other week about auxiliares in Cataluña who haven't yet received any payment from the program! The Consejería de Educación is supposed to transfer each auxiliar's stipend to their school each month, so that the school can then pay the auxiliar.

Last month I received October's stipend at the beginning of November from both of my schools, as I should have, because both of my schools received the money from the Consejería, as they should have. But according to fellow auxiliares' posts in our facebook group, this wasn't the case for everyone. Many people weren't paid on time since their schools didn't receive the money from the Consejería.

I am now in that boat for November's pay, as during the last two weeks both of my schools have told me that they haven't received any money yet from the Consejería.

At IES P, Paloma said if the money didn't come by this Monday, they would try to front me the money before they got it from the Consejería. However, she didn't know if the school would have enough available funds after paying the heating, electricity, and other bills. I haven't yet been paid by IES P for November, and don't think it will happen until they get the money from the Consejería.

On the plus side, today IES M paid me for November and December -- even though they haven't yet received a cent from the Consejería. Yay! The secretary was able to give me the money up front, and decided to pay us for December now so that we wouldn't have to deal with it over winter break when the schools are closed. I'm so happy/relieved that he did that.

So to date, I've been paid by my schools for all of October, half of November, and half of December; but the Consejería has only paid them for my October stipend.

As you'll see in the comments at the bottom of the El País article "Hello, where is my money?", it's a shame that this program can't follow through with its contract. You are to receive a stipend every month, not simply whenever they have enough money to pay out. Although I've been able to cover all of my expenses, many people had to borrow money to pay their rent, or had to dip into savings they weren't expecting to use.

So just a warning to future auxiliares: be prepared for some delay when it comes to getting paid. If the Consejería doesn't transfer your school the money on time -- which it sounds like this has been a problem every year of the program -- your situation is completely dependent on your school and the people working in it.

Some schools have enough in their budget to front you the money (like my IES M), while others might not have enough money so you'll be stuck waiting until the Consejería pays up (like at IES P). Some schools will be active and contact the Consejería to question why they haven't received the money, others will just wait. I've read about coworkers of unpaid auxiliares that have offered to lend them money until they get paid. It all depends on your school, coworkers, and city (It seems like everyone in Madrid more or less has at least been paid for October, while the auxiliares from Cataluña mentioned in the article have been working for over two months without receiving a dime - or rather, a euro).

Don't let this turn you off from participating in the Auxiliares program altogether, just be aware and try to save up as much as you can before you come, in case this happens to you.

Oliva: Day 1, Uclés

2011-12-12T10:28:00.001+01:00

[This post is part one in the Oliva series.]

On Thursday morning Gregorio and I left Madrid around 8:30am, destination: Oliva. His parents live in Oliva, which is on the east coast, south of Valencia.

Oliva, Spain

It was a bit foggy on the way out of Madrid through the mountains, but then minutes later there would be clear skies. Then fog, then clear.

It would normally take about four hours to get to Oliva from Madrid, so I thought we would get to Oliva somewhere around lunch time and eat with Gregorio's parents. I could not have been more wrong.

Little did I know, Gregorio had a whole day of stops planned. Our first stop was about 40 minutes outside of Madrid, in Uclés. The air out here was so fresh and quiet; it was a nice change of scenery from the city.

The castle in Uclés

There was a plaque at this look-out point that read: "In this spot on May 29, 1108 Christian and Arab forces met in a bloody battle. Nine hundred years later we commemorate in peace, this day."

After seeing the castle from a distance, we drove up to the top of the hill to explore the area on foot.

Entrance to the castle we did not enter.

We didn't go inside the castle because it cost 4 euro/person. This is a typical admission price for some cathedrals and other castles, but we had seen plenty outside the castle and didn't feel it was worth the money. Here's what we saw outside of the castle:

Creepy faces on the molding all along the castle walls

The faces, staring at you

Pretty, rustic windows

Right across from the castle entrance, we saw these doors opening up to some old ruins.

Gregorio had quite a laugh when we walked in and saw that the ruins had been converted into a basketball court. "Only in Spain," he said between chuckles, "would they have historical ruins, yet instead of preserving them, they turn it into a basketball court!"

On our way out of the town, we were turning around on a road right next to a lovely fountain. I really wanted to take a drink from the fountain, so I jumped out of the car and headed straight towards the water, eyes on the prize. BOOM, next thing I know I've face planted onto the ground right in front of the fountain. I hear Gregorio laughing as I push myself off the cement to see how the heck this happened.

My left foot was in a two-foot deep trench that encircled the fountain. There was a small bridge to walk across, but since I was staring at the fountain and not the ground, I completely missed it.

Beware of trench

No hard feelings, lovely fountain, you were worth the tumble

After capturing the photos I wanted of the lovely yet sneaky fountain, we headed back to the highway and continued towards Oliva.

Two-Day Week

2011-12-07T18:59:00.001+01:00

Yesterday was Constitution Day here in Spain, so there were no classes. I slept in and went to frisbee pick-up in the afternoon.

Today was a normal day, but tomorrow is another holiday: the Day of the Immaculate Conception; so we don't have school tomorrow either. And when holidays fall one day away from the weekend, what they often do in Spain is give you the next day off too, making a puente (the word literally means "bridge," but it's also the name for these long weekends). So this weekend is a puente since there are no classes on Thursday or Friday.

To get out of Madrid and take advantage of the days off, I'm headed to Oliva (near Valencia) tomorrow morning, where Gregorio's parents live. Gregorio and I are driving there tomorrow morning and I'm taking a bus back to Madrid Sunday night (he's staying longer, using some more vacation days from work).

What are you doing this weekend?

Paparazzi

2011-12-02T18:17:00.000+01:00

This afternoon, Gregorio and I went to a shopping area in Sebastián de los Reyes, in the north outskirts of the city. He was looking for a television and a scanner, and I was looking for a voice recorder. We first went into the Media Markt, which was right next to an Ikea.

Media Markt: The equivalence of our Best Buy, plus books.

Neither of us had any luck, so Gregorio wanted to check at the Worten to compare TV prices.

We just had to walk past Ikea to get to Worten. So we're walking past Ikea's revolving doors, and there's a camera man taking pictures of people leaving the store. I thought they were doing it for an advertisement or something, but it was a little weird that the camera man started running urgently all over for different angles.

I just kept walking, but Gregorio stopped to watch a bit more. When I realized he was still stopped, I turned around to see what was going on. Gregorio told me that they were taking pictures of Carlos Baute, a Venezuelan singer and television host.

Carlos Baute

Once I took a closer look, I saw that there were at least five or six different men with cameras, flashing away at Carlos and the woman he was out shopping with. The two slowly walked through the parking lot, surrounded by the paparazzi. It was a funny scene to watch, because Carlos wasn't driving away in his car, he wasn't in a hurry, he was just calmly walking around the parking lot looking for his car. Yet the paparazzi continued snapping away, as if he were some extraterrestrial never before seen on Earth.

Once Carlos finally found his car, he was sure to open the passenger door for the woman - while smiling at the cameras.

Gregorio talked to one of Ikea's security guards, and he told us that those men had been waiting outside of Ikea for four hours while Carlos and his woman friend were inside shopping.

People's obsession with celebrities is silly. We're all just people.

So although I left our shopping trip empty handed, it was neat that we had left Media Markt just seconds before the celebrity left Ikea, and were able to watch the paparazzi show.

I'll leave you with some Carlos Baute (the second one's for you, Vickie!):

Amarte bien

Colgando en tus manos

Victoria para Río Aluche... por fin!

2011-12-01T11:50:00.001+01:00

This fall, my Wednesday nights have been spent at frisbee entrenamiento (practice), and my Thursday nights consist of playing a game with my team Río Aluche against one of the other three teams in the fall league.

As of last night, Río Aluche had yet to win a game in the fall league. Last night being a Wednesday, I headed to frisbee practice, knowing the fall league's semifinals were this week on Thursday.

I got to the field and quickly learned that the semifinals were actually that night (Wednesday), because we no longer had this field come Thursday. I had gotten the emails with that week's schedule, but somehow didn't realize the semifinals were on Wednesday. I quick threw on my cleats, grabbed a pennie, and ran out onto the field.

The game began and... we scored first! And then we scored again! We may have scored a couple more before our opponent started scoring. So for the first chunk of the game I knew we were ahead, but had no idea what the score was (I never know the score). But I didn't want to hear it.

At some point during the game when I had subbed out for a point and was on the sidelines, I heard someone who played in the game after us ask what the score was. When someone else told him that Río Aluche was winning, he could hardly believe it and said, "Río Aluche's winning? Really?" Hah. You'd best believe it.

Game continues: they scored some. I thought I heard someone call out "five minutes left" from the sidelines. And then we scored. And scored again! Those ended up being the two last points of the game. WE WON! Victory for the underdogs!

Later I learned that we had been tied 7-7, but won with those two last points, 9-7. I also learned that whoever won the two games last night had a spot in the finals; your record during the season didn't matter. On top of that, turns out they had put the lowest ranked (us) vs. the highest ranked last night, meaning we had beat the team with the best record during the fall season.

I'm really glad I didn't know all of this coming into the game, or I might have psyched myself out.

So we'll be playing in the finals on Saturday, December 17. I don't know what I'll do with my free Wednesday and Thursday evenings now. I sure hope they get a spring league organized come 2012.

Caras de Madrid: Gregorio Luna

2011-11-27T00:01:00.000+01:00

[I am introducing a new type of post to the blog, which will be tagged "Caras de Madrid". These are interviews with people who live in Madrid. I hope they will expose readers to a new perspective, while allowing you to get to know some of the people I meet and interact with here.]

This week's interview is with Gregorio, one of my roommates when I studied in Madrid during the 2009-10 academic year. I have translated this interview from Spanish to English.

[THE BASICS]

Name: Gregorio Luna

Age: 45

Work/Study: I work as a night security guard for an official government office building.

From: I was born in Paris with Spanish parents.

How long in Madrid: 17 years. I lived in Paris for 29 years until 1995, and the last 17 years I've lived in Madrid.

Languages: I speak Spanish, French, and a dialect from Valencia.

[THE INTERVIEW]

Rebe: What has been the best moment/happiest time in your life thus far? Gregorio: When I worked driving car prototypes for Citroen in France from 1991-92. I had great coworkers, a good work environment, and you could drive really fast. In fact, there were some tests where you had to drive as fast as you could!

What has been the worst moment/most difficult time in your life thus far? When I met my ex-girlfriend. Also, when I started working as an auxiliar of security, a job I had from 2005-2007. I worked 12 hours a day and didn't make very much - 4 euro/hour. I worked at least 440 hours a month.

What is your favorite book, movie, and music? My favorite book and movie would be anything related to World War II. As far as music, I like a little of everything, especially rock and roll.

What is your opinion of the United States as a country? And of Americans? It's a country of contrasts, from the most developed to the most archaic; where you will find quality research about psychology, medicine, and science; yet if you make one wrong move on the street you may find yourself face to face with a gun. That's the impression that we have here [in Spain].

In general, the people are simple and nice. Normal. But too closed in and focused on themselves. I think following this dynamic, the government makes the people think that the United States is the best, and that they shouldn't get to know other ways of living, other ways to enjoy life. Watching the movie Sicko by Michael Moore got me scared about traveling to the United States. If I'm traveling in the USA and get sick or have an accident and need to go to the hospital, I could be in serious trouble since I'm not a medically insured citizen.

What's Spain's biggest problem right now? The unemployment. Justice is very slow. The lack of employment is due in part to the globalization, and part to the ability to employ workers in countries where they work in slave-like conditions. They work for a dollar or two a day, for 14-16 hours at a time without breaks.

What would you like people to know about Spain/Spaniards? That it's a country where the quality of life is very good. You can live here without too much money, and it's a country that likes to enjoy their free-time and party. Also it's very unlikely to have problems when you go out at night. Here the people know how to drink. It's very rare to have a fight between two drunk people at night.

What is the biggest problem in the world right now? Manipulation. From this problem arises all of the rest. And with how things are going in the world these days and in the geopolitical world, the problem is guessing how much time will pass until World War III comes - and that will be the last war.

Where do you see yourself in five years? In a boat in the Mediterranean.

What advice would you like to give to others? Everyone should study in a foreign country for 1-2 years. I think one should travel to open the spirit of your mind. You should travel so that you know things not because someone told you about them, but because you have lived it and experienced it.

Also, the United States needs to change. It can't be the greatest world economic power and still have a health system like the third world.

Finally, consider this: in other developed countries employees have 4-9 paid weeks of vacation per year, and the companies continue to make money. So how much are the U.S. companies profiting by only giving their workers 2 weeks of vacation per year?

Is there anything else you'd like to ask Gregorio? Are there other questions you'd like to see included in future interviews with people I meet in Madrid? Questions you'd prefer were left out next time?

Model Students

2011-11-24T10:14:00.001+01:00

Today at IES P my "chatty boys' class" was held in the computer lab instead of our regular classroom so that I could use the projector to give my powerpoint presentation about Thanksgiving. (Happy Thanksgiving, by the way!)

In all of my classes, I think the students get a lot more out of the visuals, rather than just listening to me speak. Seeing pictures of gourds, cornucopias, and Indian corn was especially helpful, as most of my students had never seen these before.

In fact, in a class yesterday at IES M, when I got to the symbols slide of Indian corn, some students asked me, "But it's not real, right? Is it painted?"

They were shocked to learn that it's natural.

But back to this morning: I'm setting up in the lab, and another teacher comes in and talks to the English teacher Paloma. He mentions that someone will be here to take pictures around the school from 9am-11am today, including pictures in the computer lab. Our class goes from 8:30 - 10:15. We didn't know any more details, but Paloma had me start with the powerpoint just in case we had to move from the room later.

The presentation was fine, just like all the other times I had given it in my other classes. This time I got to say "It's today" when I told them it takes place on the fourth Thursday in November. Then I taught them how to tell time in English. (No worries, I taught them they can say "twenty AFTER five" instead of only teaching the book's "twenty PAST five"-- which you must read with a British accent in your head).

Then around 9:30, the same teacher that had come in earlier said they wanted to take pictures of the computer lab now. Paloma and I got rid of our stuff from the front of the room, and the teacher began to instruct the boys on what program to open on the computers in front of them.

Paloma left the room and I followed, then headed to the library where I normally go after class to do two hours of prep work. There was one other woman also working in the library.

The computer I use in the biblioteca

Then one of the jefes de estudios came in to look at the library, as the photographer was coming in here next. The man mentioned that it looked a little empty. I think the other woman was thinking of leaving (or fixing her hair), but the man told her that no faces would appear in the pictures. Bueno, mejor así.

The man left. I continued to work. Then five minutes later, the library doors burst open and in walks my English class of chatty boys. Apparently the library looked too empty with just the woman and I, so after taking pictures in the computer lab, the same boys were asked to come fill up the library.

I got lots of "Hi teacher"s from the boys as they walked past me to fill in the seats. Some sat at the computers, and the others grabbed books and pretended to read at the table on the right.

Some of those boys were so good at keeping straight faces when the camera man was up in their grill! Such serious looks. I would have laughed for sure. I just kept working on my stuff while the camera man took pictures, so my computer screen was filled with English -- not tech-school picture worthy!

I think the pictures are going to be used in advertisements for the school, but I'm not sure where or in what format. It was just funny to see these boys posing in the library as model students.

And when the camera man was all done with the library shots, all of the boys got up and filled out of the room, following the camera man to their next location. And silence refilled the library.

N20: Election Day

2011-11-20T23:26:00.001+01:00

Spain's General Elections were held today.

Someone here told me candidates can't start campaigning until two weeks before the election. I've tried to find that in writing somewhere so I can share the fact with confidence. The closest I've found is this article about the start of campaigning for the elections, which is dated November 4, so I think there's some truth to what I was told.

When I was in Pamplona two weekends ago I remembered seeing lots of advertisements all of a sudden for the PSOE (a political party). When I got back to Madrid after that tournament, the metros were filled with these ads:

Cada voto vale, tú decides (Every vote counts, you decide)
Unión Progreso y Democracia

Pelea por lo que quieres (Fight for what you want)
PSOE

If you go to El País's home page right now, this is what you'll see:

The Popular Party (PP) has won a majority of the votes. Here are a few more graphics from the newspaper's website tonight:

Here's an article from CNN if you'd like to read more about the elections and their results.

Un torneo en Valencia: Sunday

2011-11-17T14:40:00.000+01:00

This post is part 2 of Un torneo en Valencia. Read part 1 here.

After getting to bed around 4:30am, we woke up at 9am in order to partake in the hostel's free breakfast from 9-10. After getting up and going to the kitchen, I quickly learned that I should have slept an extra hour. Oh well.

After packing up and checking out, we tossed our stuff in the car and started walking around the city. I love walking around Spanish cities; everything is gorgeous.

While walking around, we stumbled across the Torres de Serranos (Serranos Towers), which happened to have free admission that day. It didn't look so tall from the bottom, but once we had climbed up I discovered there were some great views of Valencia.

Once we walked back down to street-level, two players from Valencia and one from Barcelona met up with us, and we went to lunch together.

My first plate was Valencian paella, a well-known rice dish with meats.

First plate: Paella Valenciana

Second plate: Lomo

We headed back towards the car after lunch, and on the walk I saw lots of awesome graffiti/murals.

It was a safe, three and a half hour car ride back to Madrid. I think I passed out a couple of times due to being so tired, but we were playing more car games for most of the ride.

As always, all photos can be seen on my Shutterfly page.

Un torneo en Valencia: Saturday

2011-11-14T12:26:00.001+01:00

This is post one of two about el torneo en Valencia.

On Saturday morning I was up at 5:30am to go to an ultimate tournament in Valencia. I had visited Valencia once before, in December of my study abroad year.

The cities that had teams attending were Valencia, Madrid, and Barcelona.

Hannah had rented a car, so four of us from the team could drive to Valencia. I think three other cars of Madrid teammates went as well, but those were cars that they owned.

In the car ride on the way there, it came out that we'd be playing on the beach. I learned this meant there was no need for the cleats I had brought; you play barefoot.

It was completely different playing beach ultimate - something I'd never done before. The field was smaller than normal, and we played 5 on 5 (2 girls, 3 boys / team) instead of the normal 7 on 7 (3 girls, 4 boys / team). It was very windy since we were right there on the shore, so luckily we got there early enough to practice throwing around.

Throwing around between games

With advice from teammates and lots of bad throws to Hannah, I finally figured out how to change my backhand throw into the wind. I never had a good forehand into the wind that morning though; those would just catch air and float around and turn and crash...far away from Hannah. I'll have to practice them at some point - it's just hardly ever windy in Madrid. Until the next beach tournament I guess!

Apart from all of the wind, the most difficult part of playing on the beach was probably running in the sand. I have no experience doing athletic things on the beach, so I hadn't realized how hard it would be. I'm not fast to begin with, but I felt so slow during the games. To cut well you need to be fast and sprinting, but in the sand we had to adjust to the slowed running pace. Even after a short point of only a few minutes, I'd come off the field out of breath as we rotated players. My conclusion: It's really hard to run in sand!

As I've mentioned in previous ultimate posts, after post-game circles we usually play some sort of game with the other team. One of these games is called "Ninjas," and I was finally able to capture pictures of people playing!

Playing Ninjas after our first game

You all begin in a circle, then on the count of three everyone takes a huge jump back, landing in some sort of ninja position. One person begins, and they can make one movement towards any direction, moving the arms, body, legs, whatever. You can move all of those things at once, it just has to be in one swift, fast motion. The purpose is to hit the hand of one of the other players, but to not let your hands get hit by others. If you hand gets hit, you're out of the game. If the person to your left or right makes their movement towards you, you can make one defense movement, moving your hand away from them as they attack.

We played two ultimate games that afternoon, as we only had the space on the beach until 5 something. But it was just fine with me that we didn't play 4-5 games like at the other tournaments I'd been to, as playing in the sand was exhausting, and my left knee wasn't in the best shape.

Los Quijotes in Valencia

At some point after 6, we had a late lunch with all of the players, cooked by one of the Valencian ultimate players. Afterwards the five of us that were staying the night (the other Madrid players drove back Saturday night) drove around in search of our hostel to check-in and take showers.

It was another Hostelling International hostel! Too bad my free year-long membership when I worked for the hostel in Madison has since expired.

Hostelling International!

After taking showers and changing, we headed back down to the other side of town, where Valencia's ultimate team had organized a night at a local bar. We paid 12 euro each for unlimited beer, wine, sangria that night, as well as snack-y foods (tortilla española, ham, patatas bravas, etc.).

Hannah, me, Caroline

It was a fun night, though we didn't get back to our hostel until 4:30ish (am)... so it was nearly a 24-hour day for me! Needless to say I was exhausted.

Would we play a hat tournament on Sunday? Or see more of Valencia before returning to Madrid? Was I impressed by the city's graffiti or lunch? Stay tuned!

Un torneo en Pamplona

2011-11-09T15:19:00.004+01:00

Last weekend was lots of fun. Although transportation plans weren't finalized until Friday morning, eight of us (four girls, four guys) drove to Pamplona in two cars Friday afternoon for a tournament on Saturday. No car accidents this time!

For those of you who might not know, Pamplona is where they have the running of the bulls each year, during the festival of San Fermín. But no running with bulls for us last weekend, just running for discs.

We were a much smaller and less-experienced group compared to the Madrid players that went to Rivas-Zaragoza two weeks earlier. Oh, and guess what? 3/8ths of us were sconnies! Imagine my surprise when I found out the girl that organized the trip was from Janesville, and another guy was from Milwaukee. Represent!

It was raining when we got there Friday night, with 90% chance of rain on Saturday. We got settled into our hostel, then walked to the town center to find some dinner.

Saturday morning expecting the worst, we bundled up and walked down to the university's fields. Our first game was to start at 11am. There were five teams playing in this tournament, so that meant every team would play four games and one rest (There were always two games going on at once, so four teams playing and one not).

Games at this tournament were timed with no half, and each game lasted 40 or 50 minutes (I don't remember what length of time they were using). This meant games could end in a tie or one point apart, which isn't the case for MUFA games.

We played three games in a row, then it was our turn to watch, rest, and score-keep. After that fourth game, I think there was some type of lunch break scheduled. It was three something in the afternoon, and our team only had one game left to play. We wanted to play right away, then eat a nice big lunch.

The team we were scheduled to play last, Pamplona, had just finished playing three games in a row. We asked if they wanted to play right away, instead of after a lunch break. They asked for 20 minutes or so to recuperate, and then we got our game started.

During the last game the winds picked up, and it started to rain a bit. We finished just on time, and most of us walked back to the hostel in the rain, looking forward to a nice warm shower. I don't think we won a single game that day, but it was good practice, and our team had great spirit.

On the walk back to the hostel, we stopped at a grocery store and got ingredients for a spaghetti dinner and some after-dinner beverages.

Javier and Mary cooking dinner

By the time we got back to the hostel and some teammates made dinner, it was sometime after 6pm. This being our first meal after breakfast, we were starving!

It continued to rain all night, but most of us went out later to a couple of bars near the old center of Pamplona. There were sketchy plans to play a hat-tournament on Sunday, but when we woke up and it was still pouring, and since many of our players got injured the day before, we decided otherwise.

We met up with a couple of Pamplona's players at a tortilla place in the old center that morning (at noon).

Then it was a quick walk through the rain, back to the cars for a six-hour return drive to Madrid. My car entertained ourselves by playing the alphabet game, word association, a singing game (someone picks a random word, then we had to think of - and sing - as many songs as we could that contained that word in the lyrics), and "who am I" (one person picks a famous/well-known person, and the rest of us ask yes or no questions to try to discover the identity) during the ride.

If you know more car games, please leave comments! We need more ideas for future car rides.

I'm currently signed up to go to another tournament in Valencia this weekend (eastern coast), although I don't yet know how/when I'm getting there, nor where I'll be staying. I'm not worried though, because this is how the other trips have been, and I know things will get figured out between now and then.

Off to Pamplona

2011-11-04T11:40:00.002+01:00

I'm headed to Pamplona tonight for another frisbee tournament this weekend.

It will be a smaller group this time; not sure if we'll have enough players for a team or not (7).

I'll be wearing my seatbelt!

Updates galore: Frisbee, private English classes, more strikes

2011-11-02T23:59:00.000+01:00

Summaries of the second and third week of my ultimate fall league can be found here. My team (Río Aluche) has yet to win a game, but check out the summary from week two. Do it! Just click on the link and scan "Partido 2" for a familiar name...

Maybe we'll have our first win tomorrow night.

In other news, the other week I put up fliers in my neighborhood and an ad online for private English lessons. I received a handfull of messages from my online post, so I was able to sift through them and follow up with what looked best. The site I used (and would recommend if you're looking to give or take classes) is tusclasesparticulares.com.

I called the mother of one family before I left for my tournament the other weekend, and on the following Monday night I went to their apartment to meet the kids. And now I have students!

There are two 13-year-old girls, friends, that I meet with on Tuesdays and Thursdays for one hour of conversation practice. Then on Monday evenings I meet with the younger brother of one of the girls (he's eight years old) for an hour of conversation as well.

Originally I simply stayed for two hours on Tuesdays, first with the girls, then with the younger brother, but it ended up being too late for him. And since I have frisbee Wednesday and Thursday nights, we moved it to Monday.

One of the girls is crazy about Justin Bieber and they both spend their free time chatting with friends on tuenti. Reminds me of the middle school days and how we spent our nights chatting on AIM even though we'd see each other every day at school... ah young teens.

Today the students at IES M told me there's another huelga tomorrow, so we'll see if any students show up at IES P for class in the morning. After class today, the afternoon English teacher at IES M told me that there are planned strikes every 15 days on Wednesdays and Thursdays for the rest of the school year (or until the Consejería de Educación makes some changes, but this isn't likely). That's every other week. My Thursday class at IES P has already missed enough classes, they're a couple days behind our Monday class. I hope they show up tomorrow...

I love all the time I spend in the classroom, though I never expected all of these strikes. This is quite a year to be teaching in Madrid.

Málaga (and Gibraltar)

2011-11-01T22:15:00.003+01:00

This past weekend we had a puente, a longer weekend, since there were no classes on Monday (Oct. 31st) or Tuesday (Nov. 1st) due to All Saint's Day.

I wanted to take advantage of the extra days off and travel somewhere I hadn't yet been, but didn't have any travel companions to go with. There is a facebook group for auxiliares in Madrid, and someone had posted the same thing: that they wanted to go somewhere but was looking for people to go with.

I ended up going to Málaga, Spain with Emily, another auxiliar I met through the facebook group. Málaga is on the southern coast of Spain, along the Mediterranean.

We took a bus from Madrid at 11am Friday morning and arrived in Málaga around 5pm. The ride went by surprisingly fast, and I was able to nap some as well.

My name was ~~creepily~~ invitingly written on a chalkboard outside the hostel's front door when we arrived (The Melting Pot).

When we checked in, the guy working said that Emily and I got the best beds in the room. When we asked why, he just said "You'll see". Here's why: the two beds were in their own little nook, separated from the other eight beds.

Our corner of the room

We dropped off our bags then walked around for a bit. Here are some things we saw:

Plaza de toros

Hungry, we returned to the hostel where every night they cook a dinner you can purchase for 6 euros. It was a great deal - real food. So much real food. Our plate included cous cous and vegetables, chicken kebob, a piece of steak, some other meat -- maybe chicken, tortilla española, and some bread. It was all so delicious and I was completely stuffed after eating.

We took a short nap, then wandered back out to the hostel's terrace where we met and chatted with other hostel guests until a bit past midnight. We were both exhausted from the day's travel and decided to go to bed.

After a night of sound sleep, I could only smile when I woke up to this view from my bunk bed:

I spy... something that starts with the letter "b"

What's that a reflection of on the balcony door? Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, our hostel was 30 seconds from the beach.

The view from our room's balcony

After free breakfast at the hostel, we walked down to the center of town and met up with two other auxiliares that were in Málaga that day: Lily and Jamie. The four of us walked down to the beach to hang out for a while, enjoying the sun's rays and some tinto de verano.

When the hottest part of the day was over, we decided to walk up the tall hill downtown to see the Gibralfaro Palace, and great views of the city. Here are some of the views:

After walking back down the hills, Emily and I headed back to the Melting Pot hostel, while Lily and Jamie went back to their hostel. We showered, changed, and ate again on the hostel's patio - this time ordering Argentinian empañadas for 2.50 instead of a whole plate of food, as I wouldn't have been able to eat that much again.

Then we went back downtown to meet Lily and Jamie for some cañas in the older part of town. We sat outside at a bar, and saw a decent number of costumed people walk by (it was a Saturday night two days before Halloween, after all).

We didn't stay out too late (got back to the hostel sometime after 1am) because on Sunday we were planning to go with Lily and Jamie to Gibraltar. Lily had reserved a rental car through the airport, so the plan was to meet them at the airport around 9am, then spend the day in the British territory of Gibraltar.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the territory, here's some wikipedia knowledge for you:

Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of 6.843 square kilometres (2.642 sq mi), it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region.

An Anglo-Dutch force captured Gibraltar from Spain in 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession. The territory was subsequently ceded to Britain "in perpetuity" under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. It was an important base for the British Royal Navy; today its economy is based largely on tourism, financial services, and shipping.

The rental car plans fell through when at the airport we found out you need to rent it for a minimum of three days from one company, and the other company required you have a ticket for a return flight from Málaga (to prove you'll come back).

That didn't stop us though, as there was a bus that went from the Málaga airport to Marbella, and from Marbella we could catch a bus to La Línea de la Concepción (right outside of Gibraltar) for a total of about 11 euros.

Here's our first view of "the rock," still on the Spanish side.

We walked across the border to enter Gibraltar, only needing to show our passports to a British man at Passport Control.

Once we walked through passport control and crossed to the other side, BAM there's a British telephone booth, reminding you that we are no longer in Spain.

We're not in Spain anymore

Gibraltar was a strange place, clearly touristy, with overpriced food and souvenirs listed in pounds (though most places accepted pounds, euros, and U.S. dollars).

There were many different van companies that offered to drive you up the rock and take you to the main sites and lookout points for 25 euro/person. Due to the fact that we didn't have unlimited time (nor energy) to climb up and walk around the rock for hours ourselves, we took one of the vans up the hill.

Our first stop was a lookout point where you could see Africa.

That's Morocco

Our second stop was at St. Michael's Cave. Here's what two signs inside of the caves said:

In 1704, five hundred Spanish soldiers concealed themselves in this cave overnight before an unsuccessful surprise attack upon the British. The cave may have had earlier military uses dating back to Gibel Tarik's invasion of Spain in 711 A.D. During WWII the cave was prepared for use as an emergency hospital. Fortunately it was never needed, but this provided the base for its conversion into a unique auditorium for events such as concerts, ballet, and drama.

Inside St. Michael's Cave

The cave's auditorium

Next was a stop to see the monkeys. Wiki tells us "Most of the Rock's upper area is covered by a nature reserve, which is home to around 230 Barbary Macaques (commonly confused with apes), the only wild monkeys found in Europe.

Our driver had told us before we headed up the hill that we could take pictures with the monkeys on the rock. When we were nearing this stop, he warned us that the fine is 500 pounds for feeding the monkeys, and also that we shouldn't touch them -- they'll bite.

When he stopped the van, I saw him slip a bag of peanut M&M's into his pocket as he exited the van with an umbrella. Then he asked who wanted pictures with the monkeys.

He would point above your head with the umbrella, and a monkey would jump on your head to receive an M&M from the man. About five seconds later, after you took a picture, he'd shoo the monkey off with the umbrella.

I was the last of us four to let a monkey climb on my head. He bumped my glasses upon landing, but I eventually straightened them out. What an experience!

There were some nice views from this stopping point as well.

We walked down the hill after our last stop, as we were told it was a pleasant 15-minute walk to the older part of town. And that it was.

As it got closer to our bus's departure, we crossed the border and returned to Spain. Saturday night had been daylight saving's time here in Spain (as our hostel so helpfully reminded us), but some of the clocks we saw when we returned to La Linea were still an hour ahead. We were confused about the time, and walked to the bus station to make sure we were following the right clock, so as not to miss our bus.

On Monday I wanted to spend every moment on the beach until we left, as summer has ended in Madrid, and these kind of beaches are nowhere to be found in Wisconsin.

I had fun dozing off under the sun and later playing in the water. Emily and I got some kebap (yumm) on the walk back to the bus station, where we caught a 5:15pm bus back to Madrid, returning around 11:20pm.

It was a nice, relaxing weekend; I love how close Spain's coastlines are to its center. As always, all photos can be seen here.

Un torneo en Rivas-Zaragoza

2011-10-28T11:23:00.000+02:00

You may want to read Part 1: Ultimate in Madrid before continuing with this post.

Two Thursdays ago after our second game of the fall league, I was told the driver of the car in which I'd be going to the tournament, and the location/time of our car's departure from Madrid. An email went out that night with all of the cars and passengers, and locations/times of their departures.

My car was to leave at 6.20pm on Friday afternoon (2.30pm - 7/8pm is afternoon in Spain, then night. Yes, that means at noon and even at 1pm you would still say "good morning"). I found my driver and his car at the predetermined location. There was another car going to the tournament that was also waiting in the same spot. At about 6.30 our car was waiting for two more people. The other car had all of its passengers and decided to leave, since someone needed to arrive before 10.30pm to do the check-in at the hostel.

A few minutes later the other two passengers in my car had arrived, and we start driving out of the city. About five or ten minutes after leaving, our driver received a message via Wassap (an online messaging service that many Spaniards use in place of text messages, since you only have to have monthly internet on your phone instead of paying for every text that you send). Our driver let out some curses, and something about an accident.

Then I noticed the traffic slow down and we were nearly to a stand-still. Thirty seconds later two police cars with their sirens on attempted to make their way through the tight, slow traffic. I heard our driver say to the front-seat passenger something about how he had told the first car to leave Madrid that we needed to hurry to get to the hostel by check-in time. The front-seat passenger told our driver you can't think of those things, that it wasn't his fault. What wasn't his fault?

As more messages were received via Wassap, and through conversation between the driver and front-seat passenger, it sounded more and more like something had happened to the first car that left Madrid.

And then we drove past the accident. Sure enough, there were five of our players standing on the side of the road next to the car that had left Madrid five minutes before us. There were two other cars involved - one in front and the other behind our teammate's car, in the far-left lane. Behind the third car were the two police vehicles that had passed us earlier. Our driver pulled over to the far left lane in front the first car for a few seconds, but then decided not to stop for fear that the police wouldn't allow it.

So we pulled back into traffic and took the next exit on the right off of the highway. We waited at a gas station for over an hour in total, calling the other cars and trying to figure out what to do. Our car had room for one more person, as did another car that eventually joined us at the gas station. We also had to figure out who was already in Rivas, and ask them to do our check-in. In the end, two of the girls from the accident-car each joined one of the two cars waiting at the gas station. The other three from the accident went back to Madrid and decided to drive in early Saturday morning.

I guess what happened is that the car in front of them braked for no apparent reason on the highway, so our teammate braked as soon as he could and only slightly tapped the first car. However, the car behind our teammate's car didn't slow down soon enough, and rammed into the back end of their car, which caused the majority of the damage. (Don't get worried parents, I always wear a seat belt -- especially while in Spain, and I rarely travel in car here. You should wear your seat belt too, Andrew!)

It was a very unexpected and unfortunate beginning to our trip, but everyone was okay. We ended up leaving from that gas station located a few minutes outside of Madrid near 8pm. The car ride felt longer than I'd expected. We got to Rivas sometime between midnight and 1am and quickly dropped off our bags at the hostel.

I was really excited when we first drove up to the hostel and I saw this sign, since I worked at a Hostelling International hostel in Madison a few summers ago.

We then ate dinner at a place where the Zaragoza ultimate team was eating.

Dinner in Rivas-Zaragoza

We drove back to the hostel after dinner, and I was super tired and ready to sleep; I would need the energy for the games the following day. But alas, this is Spain! Mostly everyone was going out for drinks, and thanks to team bonding (or playful threats from the captain: "If you're on this team, you will come out!") I went with them.

Melanie (Germany), Maria (USA), Hannah (Canada), Me, Caroline (USA)

I only had one drink, and left with the group that returned to the hostel the earliest - yet this didn't happen until 3am.

We brought two teams with us from Madrid. The first team had a game at 10am on Saturday, and my team didn't play until 11am. This didn't really matter though, as we all woke up around 7:30am to eat breakfast, pay for our beds, and check-out of the hostel.

It was great to play on grass instead of our usual Madrid fields of sand/dust. I had no idea how many games I'd end up playing that day, nor the schedule.

Rather than play to 13 points, the games in this tournament were 40 minutes long with no halftime. Halfway through the Quijote - Almudena's game at 10am, my team (Quijote - Aluche) started warming up for our 11am game. Since I was so tired from lack of sleep, that first game left me even more physically exhausted. I was not expecting to hear what I did when we finished our first game: Our second game began immediately.

Look, grass!

We were running low on water, but we started and somehow I made it through another game. After that second game both of the Quijote (Madrid) teams had a break for lunch. We refilled our water bottles from sinks in the bathroom and ate bocadillas de jamon and fruit. Each team got a homemade tortilla española.

Quijotes - Aluche eating lunch

More Quijotes eating lunch

After lunch my team had another game. Then another. And then our final game. Three games in a row with no breaks! It was exhausting, but nicer to go into it blindly. Had I known I'd be playing so many consecutive games from the beginning, my mind may have played tricks on me.

Quijotes (Almudena) vs. Quijotes (Aluche)

In my first frisbee post, I wrote about how we forced "grafiti" or "árboles" where we play on Saturdays. At the tournament, we forced either "pueblo" (town) or "río" (river).

Most of the post-game routine was similar to what I'd experienced at our fall league games in Madrid, minus an unexpected addition. After our first tournament game that morning, players walked around to shake hands (or so I thought). A guy from the opposing team stuck out his hand, so I shook it, and then he leaned in for some besitos -- the kisses on each cheek. I was not expecting this at all, so my first couple hand shakes and sweaty besitos were a bit awkward, not sure where to put my hands on them while besitoing.

After all of the besos, we got in a circle like we do after fall league games, and each captain spoke.

Post-game circle

Then each team forms a circle, one inside of the other, in order to give hand-fives by walking in opposite directions in the circles. Sometimes we'd play a short game afterwards too. For example, after we played the other Quijotes team and finished our post-game rituals, we played the looking game. Sitting in a circle, everyone stares at the ground and someone counts 1, 2, 3. On the count of three everyone looks up, staring at someone else (but not the person directly to your left or right). If the person you decide to look at is also looking at you, you both dramatically "die" and fall to the ground. This repeats until there is only one person left.

Near the end of the day, there were some spectators from Zaragoza to support the hosting team.

Spanish spectators

After our fifth and final game, someone from our team informed Hannah (a Canadian and fellow auxiliar) and I that we would be representing our team in the "wine race" after the award's ceremony. What?! We had no idea what this would entail...

A little after 8pm, once all the games were done, came the wine race. There were two lines of orange cones, maybe 7 yards between the two lines. Four people from each team lined up behind their orange cone. Sitting at the orange cone 7 yards away from each team was a plastic bottle of wine (though I feel like it might have been sangria? There was no time to look at the bottle, just time to taste it... though I think it wasn't as strong as normal wine).

Someone has to tie a bandana around the first person's head, and then they run to the wine. He or she has to do a little dance, singing something about la señora de guadalupe -- I don't remember the song at all. Then you click your heels together and drink as much of the bottle as you can. Then you have to spin around five times and run back to your team.

You take off the bandana, and once you have tied the it to the second person's head, then they can take off and do the same thing. The first team to finish the wine and run back to their cone wins.

At first, I thought we just keep rotating until the wine was gone. Right before we started, I realized the fourth person in line had to finish what was left -- that each person only went once. Poor Hannah, she was last. I was third.

When it was my turn in the relay, I ran and tried to remember the song. Did the weird dance/shoe clicks. Then I drank as much as I could, but you're trying to go fast, so after I thought I'd drank enough, I spun around 5 times and ran back to put the bandana on Hannah. We left too much for her, and she was still drinking when the first team finished. Oh well, we had some good laughs.

Then the winners of the tournament were announced: Quijotes Almudena took first, and our team was third. Winners of the wine race were announced as well -- Quijotes Almudena!

We left around 9pm; it was really chilly and we were all exhausted. Luckily I passed out and slept for the last 2-3 hours of the car ride, and woke up just as we were getting to my part of Madrid. I got dropped off right outside of my apartment, showered, ate something, and slept a good night's sleep.

More photos from the tournament can be seen here.

Best roommates ever

2011-10-27T00:17:00.001+02:00

This afternoon (6:45 pm) I got home from a long day, hungry, with only a half an hour before I needed to leave for frisbee practice, and what do I find on the kitchen table?

A 2-course lunch and some mail!

Translation: Rebe this is for you... we hope you like it. Bon appetite!!

Ultimate in Madrid

2011-10-26T00:53:00.004+02:00

Doing a quick google search of "ultimate frisbee" and "Madrid," I discovered the Quijotes + Dulcineas, an ultimate team/club in Madrid.

On Saturdays they have pick-up where anyone with any skill level can come and play. So three Saturdays ago I went and played ultimate for a couple of hours, which got myself out of the apartment and meeting people -- double plus.

During the beginning of the game, I kept hearing people shouting "árboles, arboles!" (trees, trees) and "grafiti, grafiti" (graffiti, graffiti). I thought it was a name of a play or something, until someone else asked about it 15 minutes into the game. It was how they were calling the force! (In ultimate, you often choose to force the opponent to one side, either "home" (the sideline where your team and all your teams' stuff is) or "away," (the opposite sideline) while playing defense. The field where we were playing had trees on one side, and a wall of graffiti on the other side. This was interesting to me.

That Saturday, there was mention of a fall league on Thursday nights. If you were a socio (a paid member) of the group, you could play in the fall league, which started that Thursday. Wednesday night practices and Saturday pick-up are technically open for anyone, socio or not, but the team has to pay to reserve the fields, so if you regularly come they'd like you to become a socio.

I thought it'd be fun and good for me to join the fall league, so early that week I signed up and on Thursday I played my first game on team Río Aluche. Here's a summary of the first week's games (My team played in the Partido 1 -- the first game). There are four teams in the league (much, much smaller than MUFA. Not even comparable), so there are two 40-minute games each Thursday night.

At the end of an ultimate frisbee game in MUFA, the teams line up on the field and we walk in opposite directions towards each other, giving high fives and voicing "good game." Then, the teams have the option of doing a cheer for the other team, all part of the Spirit of the Game. In past teams, sometimes we do cheers at the end of games, sometimes we don't. If we do, it's usually a play on the opponent's team name, or something notable that happened during the game.

At the end of our first game that Thursday, we kind of walked around and gave unorganized high fives, and then the captains called us into a circle. Both teams mixed up so that everyone was standing between two people on the opposite team. Then everyone put their arms around each other, standing in a circle. The captain from my team spoke for a little bit, making comments about both teams, how we played, thanking everyone for a good game, that sort of thing. Then when he was done talking everyone clapped, then put their arms around their neighbors again while the other coach spoke. And then everyone clapped again. Then one team entered the circle, the other stayed on the outside, and by walking in opposite directions we were able to high five everyone. And then we played a quick game together, ninjas or something, which concluded my first fall league game.

Between that game and the next, there were emails going around about a tournament the weekend of the 21st in a small town an hour from Zaragoza (total 3.5 - 4 hrs from Madrid). It was a tournament where all levels could play, and the Quijotes wanted to bring as many people as they could. It wasn't clear how we would get there, when/where we would leave, nor the tournament schedule; but I decided to go. It would be a good way to meet more people on the team, a break in routine, and a good way to keep improving at ultimate.

To be continued with Part 2: Un torneo en Rivas

La huelga continues

2011-10-21T17:01:00.000+02:00

Since I bet you're all dying to know how the lesson went yesterday morning with the big class of talkative boys, I'll tell you: it didn't.

Only two students showed up in the class of 29. So I chatted with both of them in English for a bit, and then Paloma put on Simpsons: The Movie (it was the Monday group that watched it two weeks ago). The rest of the students were on strike yesterday.

Here's an article from El País with the latest on the huelga (strike).

For those of you who don't speak Spanish, here is the strike, in pictures. Just keep clicking on the arrow to the right to flip through them.

I've gotta get going, catching a car out of town in an hour. Where am I going and why am I bringing cleats with me? You'll just have to wait for the next blog upon my return on Sunday!

Confusion in vagueville

2011-10-19T18:14:00.003+02:00

Classes with Elena at IES M have been a bit confusing and frustrating. I still haven't met any of the classes on Wednesday, and here's how Tuesday went this week. There are two classes on Tuesday: A class of secretaries (all girls except one, varying levels of English -- from fluent to barely any), and then a class of nine boys, maybe they study electronics. The secretaries' class goes for an hour, then there's a half hour break, and then they come back for another hour of English. I haven't yet met the group of boys.

Last week, Elena had said I could "prepare something" about Halloween for today. I had already printed pictures and been working on a booklet about the holiday, so I finished and brought that along, as well as some questions for conversation practice/discussion.

I told them about Halloween in Wisconsin, from haunted corn mazes to Freakfest, while writing many words on the chalkboard and using the pictures from my booklet. Then, we talked about Halloween in Spain, and how it's different from the holiday in the U.S., as well as many other topics (scary movies, costumes, etc.) While I talk with them about Halloween, Elena sits in the back and watches. I didn't know if she wanted this to last the whole two hours, the first hour, a half an hour -- no idea, because I was never told what else was planned for the day.

While the students were discussing some of the questions in small groups, I asked Elena how long she wanted this to go for. So she asks me, "Well how long is it planned for?" I could have stopped the discussion at any minute, but I also had some back-up activities in case she had wanted it go longer. The Halloween lesson/part ended up going another ten minutes until their break.

During the break Elena told me it was good that I wrote some words on the board (she told me to do this last week after I met the class for the first time last Tuesday and talked without writing). She said she had found lots of it interesting, but there were at least 8 girls with very low English levels who didn't know what I was saying. Also, there are some girls in the class from other countries who speak English nearly fluently. Many of them had spoken during our class discussion of Halloween. Elena then tells me that some of the students in class said they could understand me better than those nearly-fluent classmates, since those girls talked faster -- as if this is my problem.

After the break, we split into two groups (Elena took the lower-level English speakers, and I took the advanced students) to go over some photo copied pages from a textbook.

Oh, that's the other part -- no one has a textbook yet. I'm not sure what the hold up is, if the school orders them and students can purchase them through the school, or what, but no one has them yet. At least with this group they had some photocopies to use. This is the first I've seen of any textbook materials, so I'm given a copy and work with the advanced group in the back. That goes well.

Then Kaye joined us for the second class of nine boys. There's a gap between the secretary class and the nine boys' class, so Elena went to eat something and said Kaye and I could work up in the classroom. What exactly were we supposed to work on? Keep in mind, I have never met this class before. I don't know their level. There's no textbook. I don't know what Elena has planned for class, or what she expects Kaye and I to have ready for class. This information would be helpful but no matter what I ask, we never receive it!

Kaye is at IES M Monday-Thursday, so she's spent more time in classes with Elena than I have. She suggested we plan what we're going to talk about for the boys' class, as Elena will probably want us to present something to them. Kaye's from NY and had made a poster about it, and I had my poster about Wisconsin, so I thought we could each tell them about where we're from.

We also decided to put a mini-comparison on the board between my university: public UW-Madison, and hers: a small private liberal arts college.

The class went alright. It's shorter than the secretary class (only one hour), so Kaye and I shared information about our states and colleges, and then the boys could ask us questions if they had any. Very basic, beginner level of English in this class.

After class, Elena told Kay and I that the students would be on strike Wednesday, and that she would be striking on Thursday ("but I'm not going to tell the students because it's my strike, not theirs"). I asked her if we should still come to class on Wednesday, not wanting to make the trip in to school if we wouldn't be doing anything. "Yes, of course -- the students are on strike, not the teachers."

Alright. So I went to class today (which started at 11.40), and no one was upstairs outside the classroom. (Sidenote: The classrooms are always locked, so after the 30 minute break every day from 11:10-11:40, students wait around outside their classroom until the teacher opens the door). Then Kay came upstairs, and we both waited outside of the English room until Elena got there a few minutes later.

As we could see, she told us no English students had come to class for that hour. She showed Kay and I the library where we could potentially work downstairs, and then I asked if there were a place to print in the library. If we need to be in the school when we're prepping, it would be pretty inconvenient if we had to go elsewhere (and pay) to print, too. In my other school, IES P, we can print in the teacher's lounge, then take it to the consejería for them to make copies. Elena said there wasn't a printer in the library, and she didn't know where we could print -- that she doesn't know where she should print. (what?)

Kaye asked her if we were all going to plan together now, since all three of us were there at the same time with no students to tend to, and Elena said she was going upstairs to the classroom. She didn't know what we should do -- we could stay and work down in the library or we could go, she didn't care. And then she started walking up the stairs.

!!#$%ˆ#!

Kaye wanted to plan what we'd be doing for next Tuesday with me, since I wouldn't see her again until then. We quickly worked out a rough plan between the two of us, but I still couldn't get past the fact that we had no idea what the lesson plans would be for next week anyway. What Elena wanted to get accomplished in each class and what she wants from us auxiliares is still a mystery. How do you prepare a lesson or activity when you don't know the level/topic/purpose!?

Hopefully things will get clearer as time goes on, and if these students ever get textbooks.

¿Hoy quieres dar clase tú sola?

2011-10-18T15:56:00.000+02:00

I finished my Wisconsin poster over the weekend, and brought it with me to class at IES P on Monday.

When you say Wisconsin...

I came an hour early so I could leave an hour earlier (Monday afternoons are two hours of class (4.20pm - 6.10pm), followed by two hours of prep work).

When I went to Paloma's office to tell her I was there, she asked if I wanted to just teach class by myself that day. Ummm it explicitly states in our "contract" that auxiliares are not to be alone with the students; a teacher must always be present in the classroom. We're not supposed to take the place of teachers (nor are we being paid what a full teacher would make). Rather, we're supposed to assist.

So I told Paloma that we're not supposed to be alone with the students, and she said she would be close by. I didn't know if close by meant in the same room or down the hall, but in the end I said okay, I'd try it. This was the older group of students, smaller, and well-behaved. We have a textbook to follow, so I knew what concepts had yet to be taught.

The 1 hr 40 min class started with a vocabulary list of electronic devices that the Thursday group received last week, but Monday's class had not. Paloma was sitting at a desk in the front row but off to the side, listening. Then, I talked a little bit about Wisconsin, using the poster I made this weekend. Here are a few close-ups:

The deer got added for you, Chamwick

And this got added for all you crazy cheeseheads!

And then we went to the textbook to finish learning the last couple of grammar concepts in the first chapter:

a/an/some
some/any
there is/there are

In Spanish, the same word is used (hay) to express that something exists, regardless of the quantity. For example:

Hay diez estudiantes en la aula. (There are 10 students in the classroom)
Hay una ventana en la cocina. (There is one window in the kitchen)

So it was a bit confusing for the students since they had to choose between two different phrases in English when just one word is used to express the same thing in Spanish. Also, since "there is" is used with singular countable nouns and uncountable nouns, students had to grasp the concept -- that words like coffee, tea, water, and money are uncountable.

Although class is usually given in Spanish and some of these students (especially the ones older than 40) have never taken English before, I tried to only speak in English when I gave the lesson. It's what we were instructed to do at our auxiliares orientation, and I think it's best for them to hear as much English as they can (they only have class once a week). That being said, I did lots of pointing, writing on the chalk board, and talking slowly.

A majority understand what's going on. However, when they had to try an exercise in the book, I walked around the classroom and saw that one man hadn't written anything. He was just staring at the book. I came over to ask him how it was going, and he said he didn't understand anything. This is after we had covered all three new grammar topics, one at a time. So I helped him start the exercise, by explaining things to him in Spanish, but I'm afraid he'll fall behind or feel overwhelmed the further we get in the book. I'm looking online to try to find explanations in Spanish of what we learned on Monday in class, to prepare some additional resources to give him next week.

Even though I don't think we're really supposed to be giving entire lessons ourselves, I really enjoyed class on Monday. I didn't spend time planning it, as I didn't know I'd be giving the whole lesson until an hour before class, so it didn't take extra time. The students are mature enough and the material is basic enough that I could wing it. I like the freedom and casualness of each class with Paloma at IES P. I want to slowly incorporate more activities and conversation practice throughout the weeks.

In every Spanish and French class I've had, we were always talking with different classmates, playing games, doing activities, standing up, and moving around the room, so I'd like to make English classes more dynamic here. Currently, they seem to follow the model of every other class, like what I experienced two years ago at the Complutense: lots of sitting and listening.

As for now, I don't think I could give the same lesson to the Thursday morning class. Those boys have so much energy and would talk through the whole explanation. We'll see what Paloma wants to do Thursday morning!

We are gardeneres.

2011-10-14T19:24:00.003+02:00

Wednesday was a holiday -- no classes, but Thursday morning I finally met the other class of students at IES P. This group is all boys, ages 16-20 would be my guess, and boy do they love to chat.

At some point during the class, they received a two-page vocabulary list of different jobs. The teacher, whom we're calling Paloma on the blog, told them to write a sentence for each profession, rotating between the different forms of the verb "to be".

For example:
I am an accountant.
You are an artist.
He is a barman.
You are cooks.
We are gardeners.
They are hairdressers.

And then they start over with I, continuing down the list of professions.

They haven't yet learned how to create plurals of English nouns, so someone raised their hand to ask Paloma the rule. I believe she said something along the lines of, "Add -es if it ends in a consonant and add -s if the word ends in a vowel".

I didn't completely hear what she told the student, but I knew it didn't sound right to me. I walked around to see how the sentences were coming along, and saw words like: "artistes," "priestes," and "gardeneres". When I saw mistakes like these, I told the boys it was only an "s".

They wanted a rule based on if the word ended in a consonant or a vowel, but I knew pluralization wasn't that black and white.

There was one word on their list that ended in a "y" - "nanny," - so I told some of them about changing the "y" to "i" and adding "es" (know that rule by heart).

But for every other profession on their two-page list, I only saw words that require adding an "s" at the end. So when is it "es"? I couldn't think of a rule to tell them that would explain every situation. Since I had so many words in front of me that didn't require -es, it was hard to think of some.

Then the words "church" and "bush" popped into my head. So I showed one kid in back that, for example, you add "-es" to write the plurals "churches" and "bushes," but it really bothered me that I didn't know a rule to teach them.

After class, I went to the library for my two hours of prep time, and the first thing I did was look up English pluralization. No wonder I didn't have a clear, easy rule in mind -- see for yourself!

"If words end in -ch, -x, -s, -sh, -z or s-like sounds", that's when you add the -es.

Now take words that end in "o". Sometimes you add "-es," like for the word potatoes. But sometimes it's just an "s," like for the words pianos and photos. There are rules for if the word ends in a single "z," and don't forget about the words that end in "f"! (leaf - leaves). To read the whole mess, visit the "see for yourself" link above.

So I spent the first chunk of my time creating an informational sheet about pluralization in English which I'll show to Paloma next week and see if she wants to make copies of it. We could at least hand it out as a resource...

I'll leave you with a picture of the library at IES P where I've been working during prep time.

IES P library

It's small, quaint. I'm not sure how it works if you want to check out a book though, because every time I've been there so far the library is locked. I have a key that opens it, so I can get in and work.

On Thursday at one point there were two kids "being punished" that were sitting at the table you see on the right. However, there was a teacher sitting on the other end of the table to supervise them. It seems like you can't be in the library if there isn't a teacher present.

Next Monday I'm going to teach the older (20-45 yrs. old), well-behaved IES P class a bit about Wisconsin! They just began learning English, so I'm making a poster to have visuals. What should I be sure to tell them?

Surprise behind the curtains

2011-10-10T23:57:00.000+02:00

Let's set the scene. It's about 8:30pm, I just got back from my afternoon at IES P, so I grab something to eat from the kitchen. I know Jacqui doesn't get back from work until closer to 10pm, and the rest of the apartment is dark, so I assume Alex is out somewhere too.

I bring the plate of food into my room, slide open the window for some fresh air, then see from an email that my friend Chad is callable at this moment.

So I sit down, call him from my computer, then begin talking as I'm munching on my dinner.

This is the standard view of the wall and window from my desk:

I start telling an animated story about my Sunday lunch with Gregorio. Right now I can't remember why I did it, but halfway through the story I reach over to tuck the white curtains back behind my desk.

Pulling the curtains back, as I normally do

I completely forget about my story and jump back a foot when pulling back the curtain reveals this little guy:

A lizard in my room!

Chad asks what's going on, because I had stopped my story mid-sentence and gasped, followed by an "oh my gosh, oh my gosh"

"There's a lizard in my room!" I frantically let out.

I had been at the peak of all the action from my Sunday-story, so I try to finish telling it, as I stare intently at the little lizard, making sure he doesn't go anywhere.

Lizard staying very still

After my story is done, I realize that I need to get rid of this lizard asap. I do not want him still running around my room when I'll be ready for bed in a few hours. I wonder how long until Alex gets home.

Chad suggests I take a folder or something and move it towards the lizard from the bottom, and maybe he'd back out of the window. After all, about an inch of his tail isn't yet in my room.

So I grab a newspaper, and just as I start to get up from my chair, the little guy goes running down the wall but to the left, behind my desk yet still behind the curtain (the curtain goes all the way to the floor).
He was a lot faster than I'd thought.

So at this point I don't know where he is, because he's behind the curtain. I run into the kitchen and grab a square plastic blue tub thingy and another plastic bag. Adding this to my newspaper and other bedroom items, I'm not yet sure how I'll use everything to get rid of this creature.

When the critter ran down towards the floor, I had hopped up on my chair, looking at all the places he might run to. Please don't run under my bed. Please don't run into the closet.

Then out of nowhere there's movement, and he runs past the corner to the other wall, under my desk.

Fierce square bucket. How do I get the lizard in?

Chad tells me I should get him in the bucket, or throw the bucket over him... but the bucket I found has a huge open area on top, so it would be hard to trap him inside. Also, that little guy can clearly scale walls, so he'd climb out of the bucket in .2 seconds. Finally, he was in an inconvenient location, with part of his tail between my desk and the wall.

So I decide to try to chase him back to the window.

I grab the newspaper and bring it towards him, and he scampers away.... to the ceiling.

Get down from there!

So he's up in the corner, and starts to turn himself facing my other wall, not facing the window. So if I try to chase him again, it looks like he'll start moving towards my dresser/closet wall, and not towards the window. Of course.

I move my computer off of the desk to my bed, as I'm freaked out he's going to fall and land right on my desk.

Then Chad asks again, "Are you sure none of your roommates are home?"

I said, "I don't think so," since there was no light on in their room and I hadn't heard any noise, and I knew Jacqui was gone working. But I go over and quietly tap on their bedroom door, and to my surprise (and joy), Alex comes out!

I ask him if he'd help me get rid of this lizard, and show him where it is, up in the corner near the ceiling. He goes to another part of the apartment, then returns to my room with a broom and a plastic bag.

I had thought he was going to sweep it down, then somehow catch it in the bag and toss it out the window.

He looks like he's ready to make a move, but keeps looking down at my desk, which is right below where the critter is. Then he moves my desk back away from the wall a couple of feet.

Next thing I know, he throws the broom up to the corner and had trapped the guy underneath the broom. He holds it there, pushing hard, then when he moves it a little something drops to the floor.

The lizard runs towards my dresser, but Alex sweeps it back with the broom. Then he bangs it with the plastic part of the broom, yet the critter keeps running around my floor really quickly. Alex pushes it back again with the broom bristles, then bangs it again (ask Chad if you want to know what all this commotion sounded like).

Finally he had hit it enough that it stops moving, and Alex scoops it into the blue bucket. Then he turns around to show me, and notices that I had taken many steps backwards during the whole process, and was now out of my bedroom door into the hallway.

I slowly come forward and look at it, then he tosses it out the window.

He said that's the first time he's ever seen one come inside, but I won't be sleeping with the window open again any time soon.

I close my window, then proceeded to put my bedroom back in order.

You all know what I'll dream about tonight.

Institutos de Educación Secundaria: M & P

2011-10-05T23:58:00.001+02:00

Here's a brief rundown of my understanding of Spain's public education system:

Educación Infantil (similar to our preschool)

Not required
Students are 3 - 5 years old

Educación Primaria (required, similar to our elementary school)

Attendance required by law
Students are 5 - 12 years old
Schools are called colegios

Educación Secundaria Obligatoria (required, kind of like our high school)

Attendance required by law
Students are 12 - 16 years old
Schools are called institutos

At this point, after completing the country's required education, students have a couple of options:

Bachillerato

Takes 2 years to complete (Usually age 16 - 18)
Not required, only necessary if the student wants to go on to educación universitaria when they're 18

Formación Profesional

Similar to our technical colleges
The type of classes they take/degree they're going for depends on whether or not they got a bachillerato after their ESO

Trabajar

Get a job, start working

Why am I telling you this? Well, before I came here I had told some friends and family that I thought I'd be teaching in two high schools, but that I wasn't sure. Good thing I added the uncertainty, because I was wrong. I'm actually in two schools that fall under the formación profesional category. So these students are studying for a very specific career - maybe electrician, secretary, nurse assistant, etc. Here is a list of the degrees offered at IES M, and here is a list of those offered at IES P.

As I mentioned earlier, last Friday morning I went to both of my schools to figure out where I would start working on Monday. I went to IES M first, and they gave me hours on Monday and Wednesday, telling me to report to work Monday morning. Then I went to IES P, where I found out they only have two English classes, one on Monday and one on Thursday. If you're split between two schools, you're not allowed to go to two different schools on the same day, so IES P called the jefe de estudios at IES M and told them they'd need to change my schedule. IES M told the jefe de estudios at IES P over the phone that I should report to IES M on Monday at 9:30 to re-figure out my schedule, but I'd be working at IES P on Monday afternoon.

Monday morning I go to IES M and find another auxiliares participant, Kay, trying to figure out a schedule with the jefe de estudios. After about an hour, we had determined that I wouldn't come on Monday to the previously assigned classes, but rather come for four hours on Tuesday. The English teacher had to go start class with Kay, and said she would see me on Wednesday, not Tuesday, because she would be on strike on Tuesday.

That afternoon I went to my first class at IES P, where the English teacher (let's call her Paloma) told me she actually got her degree to be a Spanish literature teacher. But most likely due to budget shortages and what not, since she had some English background, she also got assigned to teach English this year. She gave me a copy of their textbook and workbook, and explained to me that many of the students had never had English before. Also, many didn't plan on using it outside of the required English classes to graduate, so they had little motivation to learn it. That day in class (which was mostly taught in Spanish), we watched the Simpsons Movie in English with Spanish subtitles. Then Paloma went over a page out of the textbook with the class before letting them leave. The students ranged in ages from 20-45. She told me the group on Thursday morning is younger, but will be doing the same things as the other group.

Hopefully I'll be able to plan some activities and games to break up the class time and make it more fun for the students. Making some posters to brighten up the empty white walls is an idea that has also crossed my mind.

Tuesday I didn't have class at IES M since the English teacher (we'll call her Elena) was on strike with many other teachers in Madrid.

This morning I got up, got ready, and walked to IES M for classes, yet quickly learned from Elena that there was another strike today, so we wouldn't have class. She apologized for forgetting to let me know, since she had to leave in a rush on Monday when I last saw her.

So I haven't yet had any classes at IES M, but tomorrow morning I'm assuming I still have class at IES P with the younger group. I wonder if we'll just watch the Simpsons Movie with them, too.

Elena asked I prepare something to share with the IES M classes about life in Wisconsin. All I brought with me as far as materials is a map of Wisconsin, since we had little information before we got here about the age-level we'd be working with, type of things to bring. I'm thinking visuals will be a must, since these kids know only about a week's worth of English.

I'll be able to print off pictures at the kodak picture-printing shops, and can go to a locutorio to print on regular paper, maybe a map or a picture of Bucky or something. If anyone wants to send me a local or state newspaper, campus map, postcards, beer labels, a brochure (the Dells??), Great Dane menu, something about dairy or farms, picture of a cheesehead, anything, email me and I'll send you my address (and I'll send you a piece of mail in return!)

Also, since Halloween is right around the corner, I thought I could make something - perhaps a booklet - about Halloween traditions. Carving pumpkins, trick-or-treating, and of course Halloween on State Street. I'll try to get some pictures printed tomorrow to work on it this weekend.

If you have ideas about things I should share about life in Wisconsin, leave a comment!

UPDATE: One student showed up today (Thursday) at IES P, the rest were on strike. I emailed my high school's newspaper this morning to see if I could get copies of the Sage throughout the year, we'll see what they say. I also emailed the WI Tourism Department today -- they're going to mail me stuff! Awesome!

Super Nanny in Spain!

2011-10-02T22:14:00.000+02:00

She might not be JoJo, but tonight I discovered Super Nanny on channel cuatro, that you can watch online here.

If seeing Spanish kids misbehaving is your thing, or for real life examples of mandatos, check it out!

Tour of my piso

2011-10-02T13:24:00.003+02:00

My bedroom

Bed

Desk/Dresser

Other end of bedroom

Why look! A mirror! #WillProbablyNeverUseIt

Bathroom

Living Room

Other side of living room

Kitchen

Other side of kitchen

Piso News

2011-10-01T23:40:00.002+02:00

As you know, this week I've been searching for housing. My previous roommate Gregorio graciously let me stay in his piso while I'm apartment hunting. On Tuesday at one of the pisos I went to see, I ran into a British girl who was already looking at the room when I arrived.

She, like many others in this program must be, is staying in a hostel until she finds housing. Therefore, every day that goes by without an apartment is another night she has to pay for. She told me that she's getting tired of eating out and having to go to a coffee shop to use internet.

So I was fairly well off, not having to worry about those types of things. After returning from the first two pisos I looked at on Tuesday, I found an apartment on Easy Piso that looked really good. The price was low: 240 euros/month plus around 15 euros/month for gas. It was near both of my schools that I'll be working at, and the pictures showed an organized, well-decorated living room; and a bigger-than-normal kitchen (by Madrid's standards). The description said it would be living with a young (30-35) couple in a zona tranquila (calm, quiet neighborhood).

So I used the website (this is website where you make a profile) to send a message to Alexander, the person who had placed the ad, and asked for his phone number to call. Later had an e-mail from Easy Piso saying my message had been read, and that I had a new message on the site.

I went to the website and saw I had a message from Alexander, but I could only see the title, "Me interesa!". Then the website kindly notified me that since Alexander and I are both basic members, I can't read his message. One of the two people needs to be an premium member (aka pay) in order to read what the message said.

Before I realized this, I think I tried sending another message to him. I don't remember how many messages went back and forth, but all I could see were the subjects of the messages - which you select from a list of prewritten subjects. "Me interesa!" I was interested in their room. They were interested in having me live there. But I had no means to contact them.

I checked the other sites to see if they had posted the ad anywhere else. At some point I found it on one of the other sites, but when I clicked "Show me their phone number," it took me back to the profile on Easy Piso.

So I let it go and kept hunting. Went and saw another one on Tuesday night. I liked the bedroom and the roommate I met, but it would be a little longer commute to my schools than I wanted.

I spent Wednesday afternoon/night at my program orientation, followed by a not-so-pleasant metro ride back to the other end of the city - thanks to digestion issues. After having the orientation, I realized I was running out of time to find a place, as I wanted to be settled in before we started classes on Monday. Also, I still had to contact my schools and figure out a schedule.

So I didn't sleep too well Wednesday night. My cough kept me up lots, plus everything else I still needed to do. On Thursday morning after breakfast, Gregorio told me that my phone had rang while I was in the bathroom. I looked at the number and didn't recognize it. I was just going to ignore it, but with his persistence, saying it might have been my program calling about our NIE/TIE appointments or one of my schools, I called back on our fijo.

It was Alexander from Easy Piso! He had become a premium member to be able to see my contact information. I asked when I could come look at the apartment, and he said his wife wouldn't be home from work until 10pm that night, but it wasn't too late I could come then, so that I'd meet both of them.

After that call, I called both of my schools until I reached someone on the other end, and made arrangements with both of them to visit Friday morning and figure out when I'm working. I had been so worried that no one would answer, or that the school I never heard back from via e-mail wouldn't know that they were getting an auxiliar de conversación. But they both knew, and I had plans to see each the next day.

At this point I had a good feeling about the day. I was able to relax that afternoon, and at 10pm I arrived at the apartment from Easy Piso.

The couple (Alex and Jaqueline) are from Venezuela, and are incredibly kind and welcoming. We sat in the living room for a while, before looking at the piso, to chat about what they were looking for. They don't rent out the room to make money off of renters, just to help pay the rent. They had rented out the room the prior year to an American, Samantha, and really enjoyed getting to know her. Her boyfriend came and stayed with them for a couple of weeks, and maybe her parents at some point too.

They said that they like living with someone from another culture, that they can both learn things from one another. They were looking for someone with whom they can convivir -- to share the space so that whoever rents out the room feels like it's their house. They said, for example, if I didn't come home when I normally do, or they don't see me for a few days -- they'll call. So, they'll look out for me. They understand that I'm here without any family or many connections. They also said, but if you want to sleep all day - you sleep all day, we won't come wake you up. You do what you want to do. If one night you want to go out with your friends, you can come back at any hour, it's okay.

So they were really friendly, and big on the idea that we'd all live here together. If you want to come out and read in the living room, or fall asleep on the sofa- they told me-then sleep out here, sin problema. They also said that they'd have to agree on the person who ends up living there (obviously); before offering anyone the room.

Then I got the tour of the apartment. And then we sat down again and they asked me my thoughts. I told them I really liked it. They told me I had the "green light" from them, so did I want it - final? Yes! There were no doubts in my mind. So we made plans that I would move in this afternoon (Saturday), so that was a huuuge weight off my shoulders. It's not exactly what I had envisioned (this time around, I wanted to live with some Spanish girls my age) but it's better than I could have imagined.

The next morning (Friday) I went to both of my schools, which I'll write about tomorrow, but for now I'm all moved in to my apartment! It's so nice to finally be done living out of a suitcase and settle in somewhere. Stay tuned for piso pictures.