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!