One week to go....

Eight months after I arrived I didn't know what it would feel like to be at the other end of my experience as a Language Assistant in Spain. It feels good. I've had a great year and now I can't wait to go back home. Today all of the 65 (or so) Language Assistants from the whole Autonomous Region of Extremadura met up in Mérida for a farewell meeting. We watched a DVD put out by the Extremeño tourism board (don't worry, I'll bring it home for you all to see). We also received our certificates of achievement from the Board of Education. I got to catch up with some people that I hadn't seen since our orientation in Madrid. It was good. In Badajoz we're planning a dinner for all 10 of the people that live and work around here. I've met some really great people here, some of whom are sticking around for another year. One girl is even getting married to a football (soccer) player and sticking around forever! I'm hoping that maybe I'll get an invite to the wedding. ;) The cool thing is that I'll always have people here to visit.

I'm planning to stay in Badajoz this weekend and start packing/cleaning. I also have to prepare a final presentation for the kids. I think I'll show them the places I've visited here in Extremadura, in Spain, and in Portugal. I think they'll like that better than playing hangman. Last week I had a ton of success teaching them a free-verse poem about summer and showing them photos of summer activities in the US. Unfortunately they're getting pretty restless as their school year comes to a close and they behave even more like hyenas in the zoo. I'm grateful that my time is coming to a close because it's been tough learning how to give discipline and control a classroom. On the other hand, I think they'll be sad to see me go because I have a pretty good relationship with them. It's a shame I don't have an oven, I'd bake brownies for them or something as a farewell.

Well, I'm looking forward to my mom's visit. She's coming on June 11 with her sister and a friend from work. We're planning to rent a car in Madrid, briefly visit Extremadura, then go to Sevilla in Andalusia, and on to Zaragoza for the World Expo and we'll probably fly out of Barcelona. Luckily my friend's Aunt and Uncle lent me their GPS so we should be able to travel with ease (dad, it got us through Sintra flawlessly!). Before she comes I think I'm going to hitch a ride down to Málaga with a friend's parents to get in some beach time ;)

No. 12

Here's a photo of one of the schools that I work in, No. 12 "Ciudad Jardin" - Garden City (the name of the neighborhood).

Man, I want to be home NOW! LOL, I've got one more month here, but only two more weeks teaching the kids. I actually had a pretty good day today. I taught one class about parts of the body and illnesses, another about prepositions (on, above, behind...) and we played Pin the Tail on the Donkey, and in my last class we just read a short chapter book. They really like to make the Spanish kids read abridged Sherlock Holmes novels. Also, I gave a presentation about being Lutheran as a favor to my friend Ines who is the religion teacher. (Even though it's a public school, Spain still offers religion as an optional subject in it's secondary schools). I gave it to the little first years and I think they totally liked it! Crazy!

(a nativity scene that was put up in my school at the holidays)

Then, the principal decided to pull me into her office and explain to me her current project on the role of the woman in the Spanish household during the dictatorship.....all I can say is the repression in this country was more than suffocating. The dictator held so much sway even over the most intimate parts of your life. It was a really really long day. Teaching wears me out. My week finishes on Thursdays at 3, then I fall asleep and always miss my 6pm pilates class :(

Now, I've got a translation to send to my old boss, and then I'm off to Portugal for the weekend. If I stayed in Badajoz during the weekends I'd go nuts. The perk of the job is definitely being able to take weekend trips. Hasta ahora.

Virgin of Rocio Day and only three weeks to go!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39_NVvZRRU4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGtWpir7bX0&NR=1

Hey all, I've put up two links to a pair of you tube videos. Yesterday was the day of the Virgin in Rocio, an Andalusian town on the coast. It is the day that they take the image out of the church to parade her around the street. The first video is of some crazy guy who decided to jump up onto the Virgin's platform, the other is when the people rush to the altar to take her outside of her church.

I decided I didn't want to go and fight the crowds which looked terrible today on the news. I saw people lifting their babies up dangerously to perch them on her platform for a few seconds. Can you imagine dropping your baby in a stampeding crowd? It looks so stupid and irresponsible. Anyway, I thought some of you might be really surprised to see what this tradition actually looks like, so watch the videos if you want.

Other than that there's not much going on. This week I have extra translation work here and at home, so I'm pretty busy. I might hitch a ride to Portugal again next weekend so that I don't have to sit around Badajoz all weekend. I've only got three weeks left of teaching, then I'm free! The kids' behaviour is worsening (if that's possible) now that summer vacation is approaching. I hope that they behave on my last day...I'm planning to play hangman with American cultural words and phrases, i.e.: Mount Rushmore, New York City, Denver Broncos... Got any better ideas? I was told that a pizza party would be too messy.

Lagos, Portugal

Dear family and friends,

We've just had our final "puente" or long weekend of the school year. I went to Lagos to stay with a friend who is living there right now. Her name is Michelle and I met her through Erin who is teaching in Algeciras, Spain. Michelle invited a group of us down to spend the long weekend there.

Lagos is on the southern coastline of Portugal called the Algarve. I took a bus from Elvas (right across the border from Badajoz) to Lisbon, then to Lagos. It took about 6 hours with a two-hour stop in the middle. I got there on Thursday evening and stayed until Sunday. On Sunday I got a ride back to Sevilla from Monica, a Spanish girl that came up with Erin and the Algeciras teaching assistants.

We spent the weekend walking around the town of Lagos which was having a festival. It was a Festival of the Discoveries to honor Vasco de Gama. There was medieval music and belly dancing and the like. Then we went to the beach and swam in the Atlantic. It was cold at first but then we got used to it. We made dinner at Michelle's house on Friday and Saturday nights, but ate in a Portuguese restaurant for lunch on Saturday. I had Chicken with a spicy puri puri sauce(?). In my opinion, Portuguese food is much better than Spanish food. We also visited some art galleries, one of which is in the old slave market building. None of the art was very impressive, but some of the nearby jewelery galleries were good. I didn't buy anything while I was there except a T-shirt for my brother and some gym socks at the gypsy market. Oh well.

I'm now back in Badajoz, and I am happy that I only have three more weeks of teaching after this one. It's kind of boring now because the kids have to finish studying all of the material for the final exams and I have to correct exercises with them instead of teaching them fun stuff. I hope they've learned something from me.

It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

Dear all,

I've had a wonderful weekend away in Guadalupe, a small town of 2,000 in the Cáceres province of Extremadura. There is another language assistant there named Christine who invited me to stay with her. Her town is famous for the monastery that dominates the skyline of the town (Can you say skyline for a small town?) It's a very pretty town with rustic buildings and it is surrounded by tree-dotted hills and fields. The only problem is that there is nothing to do there, and she sees her students everywhere she goes. Everyone knows who she is and where she lives. Luckily in Badajoz, I rarely see my students because I live in a different part of the city from the school's neighborhood.

In Guadalupe, I visited the monastery's museums (embroidery museum, choir hymnal museum, sculpture and painting museum, etc.) and went to mass on Sunday. There are paintings by Goya, El Greco and Zurbarán there! There is also a famous icon, the Virgin of Guadalupe, who was said to have been buried with St. Luke, disinterred and brought to Spain and later discovered in a well by a peasant (Hmmm, sound familiar to the Mexican story?). Anyhow, the religious image is a small statue who is made out of a dark wood. She has a very primitive looking carved face. Anyway, on the tour we were allowed to enter a small chapel behind the altar where they rotated the icon so that people could see it up close. The tour group I was with was a group of retired Spanish people who all wanted to kiss a picture of the icon. They did that then they left some coins in a offering box to the side of the statue. The little framed photograph that they kissed was placed back at the feet of the Virgin by the Franciscan monk who lives there.

The day before the visit to the Monastery, we went to Christine's friend's country house. It was only a five minute walk outside of the town, but it was in a very rural spot. It was a modest but handsome house filled with local artisan ceramics. It also had a pool and an orchard. The neighbor didn't have a house on his land, but he had animals, so while we ate we heard the bleating of sheep and the ringing bells around the goat's collars. There was a kid (goat baby) that had been born the previous night which was learning to walk and there was a watch dog named León and he was truly as big as a lion. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we had a barbecue and played Trivial Pursuit (in Spanish!) and sang Karaoke.

Now, I'm back in my school, Nº 12 Ciudad Jardin, in Badajoz and I'm preparing a lesson for next week. My second year students are about the age of eighth-graders in the US. They are learning about food and are going to being learning vocabulary for reading recipes. I'm going to teach them how to make a PB & J sandwich next week. The teacher is worried that it'll make a mess, but I say phooey to him....I think the kids need a hands-on lesson from time to time.

Córdoba, the mosque

Hello all! It's been sunny and rainy all this morning here. There was a thunderstorm about noon and I had to pull in my laundry a second time out of the rain. It hasn't been able to dry for two days. :(

By default, I'm stuck in Badajoz this Sunday. Sundays can be pretty uneventful around here. so I had planned to go up to Guadalupe with the people that I dance with. They are going to see the black Virgin and the Monastery there. Unfortunately, I just couldn't get up and down to the bus by 8 this morning because I went to Córdoba yesterday with some friends.

We went to see the Cathedral of Córdoba which was originally the most important Mosque this side of Baghdad. We also saw one of the few remaining Synagogues in Spain.

So, I'm just sitting in my room today, reading a book about a Jewish family during the Spanish Inquisition and listening to a Lutheran podcast. Someone speaking Arabic keeps calling me from Morocco accidentally which was kind of exciting the first time it happened. It's raining again, so I think I'll go make myself some loose-leaf almond tea that I got yesterday. Ciao for now!

Sevilla

I just got back from the Feria de Abril of Seville. I had a good time, but with some weird experiences. I went with a girl from NY who has a Puerto Rican and African heritage and she got a lot of weird looks and awkward treatment from the Sevillians. I felt powerless in the face of so much racism. But, later we met up with one of her friends from Seville who treated us like royalty and bought us drinks all night, and by that I mean until 6am! He and his family were really good to us and let us hang out in the caseta (tent) all night. Then, I went to a bull fight and was taking a video of it when the crowd stood up to cheer. I stood up too and this French man behind me had a hissy fit and pulled me down to my seat by my arms. I shouted "No me toques, no me toques otra vez" in Spanish (I should have said 'Ne me touchez pas' in French to rattle him a bit). He grumbled something about me taking a video, but the Spanish man in front of me was taking one too. He was just being really machista and psycho. I stood up immediately and kept on blocking his view because I could. The Spanish man sitting next to me didn't like how he treated me either, and I felt like if he tried anything else that the people around me would have intervened. I think many people got frustrated there this weekend by all of the crowds--It was tiring fighting them all the way across town to get to the Feria grounds. I'm just glad the French guy didn't attack my friend. Anyway, I'm safe in my house and about to make some food. I'm posting this not to make you worry about me, but to share the experience. I think being here has made me a stronger, if not better, person and I hope that you can appreciate it too.

La Alberca and Valle del Jerte

Hello all! I'm exhausted after a weekend trip to two towns Alberca and Jerte. I probably won't type much because I'm about to hit the hay. Anyhow, my friend Sydney and I rented a car with two other friends (a VW Polo, if you're wondering). We drove up to the northern province of Extremadura, Caceres Province, to pick them up in their small town (Thank God I live in Badajoz!). We drove from there up through a region called Las Hurdes (within Extremadura) and had some typical local food. I wanted to stop there because in my Spanish film class we studied a Buñuel film called Las Hurdes: Tierra Sin Pan (Land without bread). Let's just say that the region has come a long way since 1933.

We continued driving north and crossed into the Autonomous Community of Castilla y Leon. We drove up a winding mountain road to a town called La Alberca which looks much like it did in the Medieval period. Here´s a picture:

The next day we drove over to El Valle del Jerte. Jerte is a town in the valley that holds it's name. It is known for the springtime blooming of the cherry trees and for it's beautiful natural parks. We hiked up to a place called Los Pilones along the river Garganta de Los Infiernos, Throat of the Underworld. It turned out to be the most beautiful place that I´ve seen in Extremadura, if not Spain. Here´s a picture:


Ok, goodnight!

Spring Break, a.k.a. Holy Week

Howdy all! I arrived back in Badajoz on Sunday afternoon after a really busy week of travel. I caught a 6am flight from Barcelona to Seville, then took a bus back to my town. On my last night in Barcelona, I went to a Spanish guitar concert in the Catalan Palau (Palace) de la Musica. Earlier that day, my friend Vicki and I went to see the artwork of Joan Miró and did a little bit of shopping. We went out for Crema Catalana, a regional dessert much like Creme Brulee. The day before, we walked around the Gothic part of town, then saw the Modernist works of Gaudi.

This is the Casa Batlló which, to me, resembles a coral reef.

We also went to the Dalí museum and the Cathedral in Barcelona. At the Cathedral, people were lining up to buy specific herbs to put in their homes and on their door frames. I lit a candle and remembered the words of a Taizé song that I learned in the Catalan language: L'ajuda em vindrá del senyor (Help comes from God).

The day before Vicki and I went out to watch the Valencia v. Barcelona match in an Irish pub just after our arrival from Valencia where we had been at the Valencia stadium buying football souvenirs. Unfortunately, tickets were 85 euro and we had to leave Valencia on our bus before the game started. Valencia won 3 to 2 and eliminated my team from the King´s cup. :(

We were in Valencia for the fallas. We waited for about four hours near one of the largest ones before the firefighters deemed it ready to burn. The burning of the fallas was accompanied by fireworks and firecrackers. It was so loud that we wore earplugs.

Also, in Valencia, we saw the City of Arts and Sciences where there are many interesting looking buildings including an IMAX theatre that resembles the Sydney Opera House and a giant aquarium complex called L'Oceanografíc (in Valenciano). In the science museum they had an interesting exhibit about genomes where they detailed the function of each chromosome and the diseases that occur in them. I learned some good stuff.

Vicki and I stayed in a campsite just outside of the city near the coast. Luckily, I had brought a two-person tent with me so we were able to save money on a hostel. Unfortunately the bus stopped running at 11 pm, so we spent money on a taxi in order to get back there at night (fireworks stopped around 2am). Oh well, it was still cheaper than staying in town.

On the first day, after arriving from Seville, we walked out to the beach and sat there until we could no longer stand the wind. It was a really beautiful beach with soft sand right next to a golf course. I'd go back, but next time with a camper so that we don't have to sleep on gravel.

Before we flew from Seville to Valencia, we saw one of the famous Holy Week pasos and the procession of Penitents that followed it. The brotherhood had many members and they trailed out for hundreds of meters behind the Virgin. The airport bus couldn't get through, so we had to wait quite a while before we got to the airport. But, we made it! And we had a great trip.

Ho Hum

There's not much going on for me this weekend, but I might take a trip to the nearby Regional capital of Mérida to see the Roman ruins. However, for Holy Week, I'm off to the eastern coast of Spain. I'm going to visit Valencia and Barcelona. I found some pretty cheap flights on Spain's discount airline Vueling, so I'm flying from Seville to Valencia, then taking a bus up to Barcelona, and then flying back to Seville. I'll be gone from Monday until Easter Sunday. I'm hoping for good weather because my Canadian friend and I are going to be camping out in Valencia. We couldn't find any hostels because of the the fallas festival. It is a festival where they construct 200 or so figures out of cardboard and paper maché, then they judge which one is the best and burn the rest! It should be great fun! Well, I'm off to yoga. Ttyl!

Primavera!

Hello all! It´s been steadily warming up here since my dad´s visit and I´m so happy that Spring is finally here. I´ve started to take Sevillanas dance lessons again in order to get ready for the April Feria in Seville. I go to a place in the old town of Badajoz called the Hermandad, or Brotherhood, of Our Lady of Rocío. The building is an old house with a central patio which belonged to some rich family. Now it is where the Rocío Society gathers for their activities. Inside is a small chapel devoted to the Virgin of Rocío (Spanish for dew, but also a girls name) where they keep all of their banners and standards for the yearly pilgrimage down to the Andalusian coastal town of Rocío. They travel in covered wagons pulled by huge oxen while singing flamenco songs, and when they get there they have a big party and dance and also adore the virgin.

This weekend, my friend Erin came to visit. We stuck around Badajoz except for a quick trip into Portugal for lunch. I took her to the Contemporary Art Museum here which is housed in the old Panopticon-style Correctional Facility from the period of the dictatorship. We got lunch in the old town and discovered that there was a Rastro, or open-air market, going on. We found some cool old books and stamps. I bought a copy of Huck Finn in Spanish and Erin found a book on a Doctor who used to graft monkey glands onto humans! We got some Iberian ham for lunch, bleck!, and then visited the Cathedral. They have two very important Renaissance pieces there, one is a marble portrait of the Madonna and Child, and the other is a large bronze cover of a tomb which is rather cool. It´s a departure from the traditional tombs in Spain which show the defunct person in repose, but rather it shows the man alive and young. It summarizes his life saying, "When he was young, he did what was appropriate for a person of his age, and when he was in war he used his arms for their purposes." It doesn't really go in to any details about his life or war glories or anything. Also, the Cathedral houses some books from the 1500s...hot off the printing press!

Well, I've got to get some rest before beginning a new week. In my schools, I've started an English Club during recess. It´s once a week and anyone can come. My first week was successful because I had three students come who I didn't know, in addition to some of my students, and a teacher! I think the kids like the fact that they can put their studies to use. I hope they continue to come.

Dad's Visit

Hi all! My dad has come to visit and gone already. We met up in Salamanca and visited the famous University there. We enjoyed some "pinchos" which are like tapas (small appetizers) only they come free when you order a beer. We then took the bus back to Badajoz where I live.

Here, we visited the Archaeological and Carnaval Museums. We saw some fabulous costumes for Carnaval which was coming up in one and a half weeks. Unfortunately dad had to leave before the Carnavales got underway, but he did get to watch some of the competing singing groups called "Murgas" on TV. The first week, he came to some of my classes to talk to the students. I think they liked it, one boy asked if he could come back. They all thought he was really tall.

We went to Portugal at the weekend. In Sintra we saw a Moorish castle and a beautiful fairy-tale castle called Castelo da Pena. We took a 5km hike on a winding road up to the castles, through a valley with a special climate where plants from all over the world are able to grow. Then, we drove out to the coast to see Cabo da Roca, the Cape of the Rock, which is the western-most point on continental Europe.

Next, we went to Óbidos, a medieval walled city. We stayed in a government-owned Pousada, or hotel, in a castle. The next day we walked up on the city walls and then drove out to the coast to a fishing village called Nazaré. The women there were dressed very strangely, in argyle socks and sandals, seven-layers of skirts, and sweaters. We found out that the city was holding Carnaval celebrations, but the women actually were in their typical dress, not in costume.

We stayed in Lisbon two nights in order to go to a Sporting-Porto soccer game (football match) and visited the aquarium. We ate well everywhere we went, thanks to my dad. Then, it was back to Badajoz, with a pit-stop in Évora to see a roman temple. Dad was able to accompany me on a Badajoz city-tour where I translated for visiting teachers from Sweden, Estonia, Belgium, and Poland. He also got to work on his Spanish a bit talking to some teachers and to my roommate Laura. He took a bus back to Madrid last Thursday to get to Colorado in time for the Primary Caucuses there.

This week, we went back to school on Wednesday after Carnaval, and found mold in the school hallways. Yesterday, the students were organizing a strike to protest the lack of heat in the school, and, I hope, the presence of the mold. You would think the principal would take responsibility for the mold and have something done immediately, but things just work slowly and differently here. I don't think I'm allergic to it, but it is a bit worrying. We'll see what it's like next week.

Bombones y Bombonas

Today I was lucky enough to receive chocolate bonbons from two of the students to whom I give private English lessons. It was much better than getting an apple. They are ¨posh¨ kids according to the British professor I work for. I think they are sweet. I enjoy their class even though the conversation can sometimes turn tedious because of their level. But, they actually want to improve their English, so they value what I say. I'm sure they can tell that I enjoy class with them.

In general, I enjoy my private lessons better than my classroom duties. I feel more productive because it's much more interactive. When I'm in the classroom it is more difficult to connect with the students. They think I just say "Do you understand?" as a rhetorical question. I usually get a few nods and proceed with the lesson hoping someone will raise a hand if he or she gets lost. Rarely do they raise a hand, so after I explain everything as thoroughly as I possibly can, someone will say, "I don't understand what we have to do." Duh! It's a fill-in-the-blank exercise. What don't you understand?!?!?

It's easy to get frustrated, but luckily, there's always someone in the class who gets it and participates regularly. Well, except 3rd C at my village school, but I don't think I'll have to go back to that classroom, ever. Even with five students we couldn't manage to play Christmas bingo. One of the boys had to go sit in the back by himself....and they're 15, 16 years old!

Anyway, back to the ones that get it. There was a girl today, the only girl who had done the homework, who was answering all the questions. I felt bad because I didn't want her to do all the work. Also, I feel that by interacting with only one student it can be misinterpreted as favoritism. However, that's how it works here. The teacher usually just calls on that one, or those few who understand, and asks them to transmit the message to the others. It's just such a different atmosphere than in an American school.

On another note, the apartment (or "flat" as I'm teaching British English over here) runs on butane gas, it's time to call the bombonero for another gas tank, or bombona. They have the same joke about being the child of the milkman here only it is the child of the man who brings the bombonas of gas. (Cultural moment). The nice thing is that I get to cook on a gas stove, the not so nice thing is that I don't have an oven! I can't bake stuff :(

I'll talk about food another day. Ciao!

Howdy y'all!

I just rode up the elevator in the dark with my neighbor. Seven stories of in-the-dark awkwardness. Lord only knows why the lights go out in the elevator from time to time. I mean, this is Spain, but one would hope that basic security features of one's building would work. She turned on her cell phone to make it less strange, but I couldn't help but feel that something would go uncannily wrong. Needless to say, we made it up to our floor and here I sit typing my first blog. I figured it was about time to start telling you what life is like here.


I'm back in Badajoz after two and a half weeks of glorious Christmas break--something I thought I might never experience again after graduating a year ago. Nevertheless, I (above right) enjoyed two weeks of sleeping on the floor of my friend Betsy's (above center) London flat, then a few days with Erin (above left) in Algeciras, Spain. Two of our Italian friends, Michele and Enrico, came to visit us in Algeciras, and we took them to Gibraltar and to Tangier in Morocco. We saw the African apes on the rock of Gibraltar and gazed at Africa across the Straight. The next day we took a ferry over there and dined on cous cous and chicken tagine. The Italians passed me their wretched cold, so I've stayed in this weekend to recuperate and work on lesson planning.

My dad's coming to visit next week, so hopefully they'll fix the elevator so that it doesn't look like I live in a dump when he arrives. Hasta pronto!