Christmas in España

Seeing as I spent my Thanksgiving very homesick, I only assumed that Christmas would be much harder on me.  Especially considering I had never spent a Christmas away from my family.  I would say that the days leading up the Christmas were filled with much more melancholy than Christmas itself.  I would be walking around the city and admiring the holiday lights or see a sign for Christmas sales and feel a ping of sadness in my heart for being so far away from all my loved ones.

Christmas celebrations started the week of Christmas in my classes.  Starting Tuesday, the 21st my classes were working on Christmas vocabulary, doing holiday crosswords and even singing Christmas carols along to audio cds my professors had prepared.  I decided I wanted to bake cookies for my classes.  Christmas at my house is always a time for baking a ton of different types of cookies, then freezing them and setting them out on Christmas Eve to enjoy with the family.  So I found a few recipes online for chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies and peanut butter blossoms.  The main obstacle was finding all the ingredients.  I had no such luck finding baking powder or vanilla extract for example so had to make a trip to the American Store off of the metro stop Islas Filipinas on Paseo de San Francisco.  After spending about 30 euro I had everything I needed, including hersheys kisses, powered sugar, vanilla extrachen was impressive- especially for someone like me who lacks the basic skills to cook.
ct, cookie cutters, light corn syrup and brown sugar.  Tuesday afternoon around 4pm I started the task of baking about 90 cookies in my apartment.  My first batch of sugar cookie dough was an utter fail.  I had tried to substitute baking soda for baking powder and my cookie dough resembled bread dough.  After only a few minutes in the oven the middles of the cookies were still raw and the bottoms were black.  I threw all the dough away, searched online for a sugar cookie recipe with baking soda instead of baking powder and tried again.  This time I had success.  Unfortunately for me, the recipe called for four cups of flour so there was so much dough to work with.  I was rolling out dough with a glass cup (since we had no rolling pin) and then using my star, ornament and present-shaped cookie cutters to create tray after tray of cookies.  I think with that recipe alone I made about 70, decent-sized sugar cookies.  I also made some peanut butter blossoms which turned out slightly more greasy and doughy than I had planned but were still tasty.  After the sugar cookies were done cooling I whipped up some very expensive frosting (a bag of two cups of powdered sugar was almost 7€ which equals over $9 USD).  The finished product after about 5 hours in the kitchen was impressive, especially for someone like me who lacks the basic skills to cook.

Wednesday I overslept and was about two minutes late to my first class.  The 4th grade students were happy to see me and also looked curious as to what I might be hiding in the bag I had brought to class.  We worked on some Christmas vocabulary and crosswords and at the end of class I gave them each a sugar cookie.  Everyone had smiles on their faces which was the only thing I had really hoped for.  The class following this was a 5th grade class with a professor named Mario.  We spent the entire class trying to sing "On the Twelve Days of Christmas."  The students particularly had a hard time saying "Seven Swans a-swimming" and "Eleven Pipers piping."  Eleven pipers piping sounded like "eleven peepers peeping."  After going through the vocabulary in the song, listening to the audio recording of it and then practicing it a few times we finally were successfully able to sing it all the way through.  These kids got to try my peanut butter blossom cookies.  Some of the students looked nervous to try them since they are so oddly-shaped and with the hershey kiss on top but they all seemed to enjoy them.  Some of the professors even got to sample a few of the cookies and finally 6th period, my last class of the day, the most wild group of kids I've ever encountered: 4th graders group C.  We sang carols the whole class and then the kids were rewarded for participating in the songs by my sugar cookies.  This class seemed the most excited about receiving a treat from me and even asked me for the recipe!  

Thursday was the last day of class before winter break for the students and the staff.  Students came to school for the first two periods and then were given their report cards and then could either stay and watch the school concert- which consisted of ONE student band, or they could go home.  There were probably only 50 people that stayed to watch this concert and many were staff or family of the students in the band.  The band of high schoolers, three boys, played a number of American songs by ACDC and the Foo Fighters for example but none of us could really tell they were these songs because it sounded so horrible.  I feel bad saying this but sitting through six songs was enough to give me a headache.  I couldn't even in all honesty tell whether it was english or spanish that they were singing in, and neither could the other teachers.  After every song a few more people would leave the gym.  The poor band sure didn't have much of an audience at the end but they seemed to have at least enjoyed themselves.

Following the concert was the staff Christmas party in one of the meeting rooms at 2pm.  It was much more exciting and drawn out than I thought it would be.  There was bread, cheese, olives, pickled artichokes, salmon, ham (of course), sardines and chips.  In addition there was a TON of alcohol.  Me and the other teaching assistant soon realized that our fellow staff sure liked to have a good time.  There was red and white wine, alcoholic cider, champagne, port wine, beer, sparkling wine and soda.  Some of the professors even lit up their cigarettes in the room which I had thought was not allowed (smoking on school grounds).  We sang Christmas carols in spanish and chatted and chatted for a total of about 3 and a half hours and ended the party with some delicious cake.  The sun was starting to set by the time we got on the metro train.  It was a lot of fun though and a happy way to start my holiday.

Dessert at the party- a type of moist cake.

Friday, Christmas Eve I woke up and went to the Christmas market in Plaza Mayor which is in the center of Madrid.  There were many festivities going on such as Micky Mouse walking around and handing out balloon animals, a merry-go-round and people trying to sell those annoying pieces that you put in your mouth to make every noise from your mouth sound like a series of squeaks.  I just walked around and watched all the happy families and children and took some pictures of the festivities.  I didn't buy anything but was very tempted by the displays of lights and Christmas trees.  Had I come a few weeks prior I might have bought some.  Though it hardly seemed worth it at this point since it was already the day before Christmas.

This is what Christmas trees look like in Spain (pretty pathetic if you ask me)

Having Nativity Scenes are much more popular than trees

After the market I headed to Corte de Ingles which is essentially a huge department store.  There are multiple locations of Corte de Ingles' in Madrid but they all seem to have a grocery store on the bottom level.  It's the best place for Americans to come in search of familiar foods since they often carry a wider selection of about everything.  I bought some necessities- things that I haven't seen at any other grocery stores- bacon, free-range eggs and Tropicana orange juice NOT FROM CONCENTRATE!!!!  Orange juice does happen to be popular here but its the non-refrigerated type that is full of sugar.  I was in desperate need of real OJ that was not from concentrate.  I took the metro ride back to my apartment and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and talking to my family and boyfriend on Skype.  I then had to get ready around about 7pm because the Metro happened to have limited hours on Christmas Eve.  I needed to get back to the center for "La Misa de Gallo" (literally translated: the rooster mass), which is the midnight Christmas Eve mass.  I definitely wanted to experience a Catholic mass here in Madrid and especially on a big holiday like Christmas Eve.  I arrived in the center at 10pm (two hours before the mass since the metro closed at 10pm).  I met my fellow teaching assistant at my school and we walked around the desolate and freezing streets of Madrid, admiring the lights until the Church of San Isidro FINALLY opened a half an hour before the service started.  

The church was beautiful.  Though it was the alternate mass location since the Almudena Cathedral was currently under construction.  The congregation, not to my surprise, appeared to be many other foreigners like us.  The service started around midnight and as a Catholic I didn't really know what to expect, even though it was a Catholic service.  It was very similar to a service in the US except for the minor detail that everything was in Spanish.  There also happened to be many priests (about 6-7 on each side of the alter facing the main presiding priest).  The other main difference occurred after the sacrament of communion when the priest took a baby Jesus doll from the Nativity Scene on the alter, blessed it and then each of the priests proceeded to kiss the doll.  The doll was then brought down to the congregation, similar to the way communion had and people got in a line and each kissed the baby Jesus.  Seemed slightly odd and very unsanitary but interesting nonetheless.

The beautiful choir on the balcony

The baby Jesus in the center is the one everyone kissed.

After the mass we had about an hour to burn before my night bus came to Gran Vía.  Normally it runs about every 20 minutes but on Christmas Eve there was a bus only every 90 minutes.  So since I had no chance of catching the 1am bus I had to wait until 2:30am to catch the next one.  We walked near Puerta del Sol where this is this wonderful Chocoletería named San Gines that happens to be open 24-hours a day.  Truly a life-saver since it was not only shelter from the cold but a wonderful place to sit down and enjoy some churros, porras, coffee or hot melted chocolate.  Casey and I each got a porra and a mug of hot melted chocolate to dip it in.  Delicious!  Churros or porras (which are just like churros but larger) are like greasy donuts that you dip in hot melted chocolate.  It's a specialty of Spain!

I was very tired by the time I got home but knew I had just experienced by first Christmas Eve abroad and alone but that I had enjoyed myself.  

The next morning I finally pulled myself out of bed around 11am.  I wouldn't have slept so late had I not gotten home at 3:30 in the morning.  My roommates seemed to all have left by the time I made it to the kitchen.  I was attending a Christmas lunch with some Americans not far from where I live but I was supposed to bring a dessert so I had to not only get ready and eat breakfast, but also make a dessert and get to my friend's apartment by 3pm.  So I mixed up some dough for cookies- AGAIN but this time to make chocolate chip cookies.  It's very hard to find chocolate chips here and if you do they are usually a fortune so all the Americans I know just buy a bar of chocolate and cut it up into pieces which is exactly what I had to do.  Not after long I was sitting in the kitchen with a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies and enjoying some scrambled eggs, bacon and fresh Tropicana Orange juice.  I was in heaven.

I got a little lost wondering the streets of my friend's neighborhood but I arrived in "spanish time" which was about 20 minutes late.  Lunch was already ready, it was prepared by my friend's roommate Wally who loves to cook.  He made us a wonderful meal.  I really wish I had taken some pictures because not only was it very delicious but it also looked wonderful.  We started off with a typical spanish soup.  There was chick peas in it, some ham and some roast beef.  Then we had the main course which was a cabbage salad with peas and red bell pepper, a seasoned chicken breast, red potatoes, more ham (or sausage) and some mashed potatoes made by our girl from IDAHO!  My friend Lindsay made some sangria for us as well.  It was such a spectacularly amazing meal with some Christmas music playing in the background and some lively conversation.  We all ate way too much but were completely satisfied at the end.  We finished the meal with my cookies, wine and cider.  Then proceeded to converse for the next four-five hours until we decided to go out to the center since we heard it was the "it" night to hit the town in Madrid: Christmas day night.

We made it to the Metro around 9:30pm since we weren't sure if the train had limited hours again like the night before.  In the Metro we saw the first indication of "spaniards gone wild" with a young man passed out on a bench near the platform of the metro.  This was even before 10pm.  

We went to a few bars in the center but I was so tired from being out late the night before that I ended up leaving my friends around 1am to head back to my bed.  It was a very chilly night, or so I thought.  I later found out that at 2am, when so many of us were complaining about HOW freezing it was, it was actually 28 degrees Fahrenheit.  I seem to have lost my tolerance for cold, or merely just become accustomed to a winter in Madrid rather than a winter in MN.

I went to bed Christmas night content.  I spent the holidays with good company, met some new people, enjoyed some wonderful food and when all was said and done, hardly felt homesick in the least.  I hope this is the last holiday that I spend away from my loved ones but I surely will remember this holiday for the rest of my life- the Holiday season that I spent abroad in España.  

Oh Happy Day!!!

In an effort to soothe the pain of possibly never receiving the original care package my parents sent, they sent me not one but TWO christmas packages.  This time they had them sent to my apartment which turned out perfectly.  I was in my room taking a siesta and my roommate came home from work and left my two packages on the kitchen table.  I had no idea they were (1) going to be sent to my apartment and not my school, or (2) that they would arrive so quickly!  I went into the kitchen to get a glass of water around 8:30pm and there they were sitting on the kitchen table.  Such a wonderful surprise!!!!

The contents of my two packages (minus two magazines not included in photo)

The best part about receiving the package was not expecting it would come so soon and without any problems (unlike the first, mostly likely lost package).

The contents of the package:

-Sour patch kids

-Orbit gum

-SWEET TARTS 

-Herseys Miniatures

-Herseys chocolate bar

-Hersheys cookies 'n' creme

-Reeses

-Animal crackers

-How to Lose a guy in 10 days dvd

-Overboard dvd

-Thelma and Louise dvd

-EVER AFTER dvd

-two beautiful Christmas cards

-Emily's dark chocolate peppermint fortune cookies

-TWO boxes of Kraft mac 'n' cheese

-People magazine (not shown)

-USA Today magazine (not shown)

In addition to receiving these WONDERFUL packages this evening I also had a nice and unexpected surprise from three of my female students today.  They are all 11 yrs. old and in one of my 4th grade classes (1˚ ESO).  They stopped me in the hallway and said they had something for me!  One pulled this out of her school binder:

The students names are Yashira, Carla, and Yamilet

Yashira wrote, "I love you, my favourite teacher, never let you get de parte de: Yashira"  (spanglish at the end)

Carla wrote, "Merry Christmas Emily, your my favorite teacher and I love you"

Yamilet wrote, "Never say never.  Happy NEW YEAR and Merry Christmas.  I ♥ U!"

Today I am reminded of all the things I am truly thankful for, most importantly my family but also the opportunity to be abroad and teach my native language to Spanish children who are grateful to have me be part of their educational experience :)

Breakthrough

Somewhere between this past weekend and today I had a breakthrough.  I woke up this morning and realized I wasn't having a hard time anymore.  It wasn't necessarily caused by something I, myself, did.  It was simply a matter of me finally emotionally settling into my new surroundings.  I woke up feeling refreshed and comfortable with living in a foreign county.  I realized that I had a routine without even knowing it.  Easy tasks such as pulling out my Abono (metro pass) and walking confidently through the school gates had made me feel not only comfortable but empowered.  Instead of worrying about every little thing going wrong while abroad I had mentally taken a deep breath and exhaled.  I felt free today.  I felt like I was walking on air and nothing, (not even the fact that I still haven't received my parent's package that was sent a MONTH ago) was going to get in the way of me feeling content and happy.  A month ago you couldn't have said a single thing to convince me that things would eventually start to look up.  However, today I finally realized that there wasn't going to be some huge event that would suddenly make me change how I was feeling, I simply needed to change my attitude.  And somehow, without me even knowing, my attitude had changed itself.

This is how I feel today (taken in 2008 in San Sebastián, Spain)

I know that every day I won't feel confident with my decision to put my American life on hold to move to a foreign country, but I know that with the opportunity I was given I will try my hardest to make the best of this experience.  Therefore, so when it's all said and done and I have returned back to the U.S. I will look fondly on my second adventure in Spain and feel lucky to have simply gotten the chance to teach abroad.

"Today I know that I cannot control the ocean tides.  I can only 
go with the flow. . . . When I struggle and try to organize the Atlantic 
to my specifications, I sink.  If I flail and thrash and growl and grumble,
 I go under.  But, if I let go and float, I am borne aloft." -Marie Stilkind

EL PUENTE

Here in Spain there are federal holidays for everything.  Spaniards will make just about any excuse for a "festivo." I've been here for about a month and a half and so far I have had off about five days for different holidays.  I couldn't even in all honesty tell you what all the holidays were either because I simply don't remember.  It's not like the US where the holidays are generally well-known: Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, the 4th of July.  The holidays here can be anything from celebrating a patron saint to the creation of a constitution. During holidays in Spain the only things that are open are generally Chino stores (convenience stores run by Chinese people) or restaurants and bars.  So for example if you need to go to the grocery store, post office or library you will have no such luck because they will all be closed.  In addition to the actual day that IS the holiday- Spain will add the day before or after as an additional holiday and call it a "puente" (bridge).  This past holiday was a puente because I believe today was the actual holiday but the weekend was "bridged" into a longer weekend.  So instead of simply having off Wednesday, Spaniards took off Monday and Tuesday as well.  This left an extremely long and random holiday of Saturday-Wednesday.  The working life here in Spain sure is rough!

So I spent the majority of my puente here in Madrid.  Sunday I was able to go back to the amazing city of Toledo with two of my new friends from the UK.  Two years ago I spent six months in this wonderful city studying abroad.  I lived in El Casco which is the "old" part of the city with all the real history.  Coming back to Toledo brought back many fond memories of my last time abroad.  And even though it was rainy, cloudy and cold I was still so in love with the city.  You can almost physically feel how much history this city has simply by walking down it's narrow cobblestone streets.  In addition, the view of the rolling terrain from across the Rio Tajo is spectacular!  I plan on going back there several more times before I leave Spain.  If there is one city in Spain that I would recommend visiting it is Toledo.  Regardless of it's small size it is truly very beautiful and I feel so lucky to have been able to live there at one point in my life!

outside the stone walls of "El Casco."  Notice

the unlit Christmas tree in the center of the roundabout

unfortunately the only picture I got standing outside the walls.  

I'm smirking and Anni's eyes are closed!

So beautiful!

Monday I spent resting in my apartment.  I went outside once in search of food and only found one store open- a chino store.  I was able to find food inside- not healthy food though.  Tuesday evening I went to the center of Madrid with some of my friends to go to an intercambio (language exchange) at a bar called O'Neills.  My friends and I met up around 10pm and since everyone in Spain was on the "puente" there were more people than usual roaming the streets and admiring the Christmas lights.

Christmas tree in La Puerta del Sól in the center of Madrid

Inside the Christmas tree!

holiday lights

Anni and I at O'Neills on intercambio night

It's back to school tomorrow after a six day break!  However, since I only work Mondays through Thursdays here it will be another very easy work-week followed by another long weekend.

A little side note:  Here is a song I re-discovered the day I visited Toledo.  I remember hearing it back when I studied abroad and loving it but never knowing what it was called.  I finally figured it out!  It's a group called Macaco and they are from Spain.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IieiaDMiNUo

Los Correos/The Post (angry post)

In the hustle and bustle of last-minute packing the morning I was leaving for Spain I decided to reduce the weight of my suitcase because it was just too heavy.  So I started to take things out that I didn't think I would need.  For example I had packed two pairs of sneakers so I took out pair.  They were both converse sneakers but one was a high-top pair and the other a low-top pair.  I somehow managed to take out one shoe from each pair and didn't realize this UNTIL I arrived in Madrid.  Not only this but both shoes were the left foot so I couldn't even pull off wearing them!  So the first thing I did was email my parents and ask them if they could send me the right foot of each shoe so that I would have more than heels, running shoes and a pair of flats to work with.  Little did I know that boot season in Spain starts in like September even though it was in the 70s well into October.  Upon arriving I didn't have much money at all.  I had money to fund living expenses for a month until I was paid and money for a deposit and first month at an apartment.  I literally had no extra money for shopping.  So I wasn't able to just go out and buy a pair of shoes or a pair of boots.

My parents sent out a package for me with various items, the two right feet of my converse sneakers, an extra sweatshirt, a few dvds, a picture of me and my sisters, candy and kraft mac 'n' cheese and vanilla extract (because it's extremely hard to find vanilla extract in Spain).  They sent the package out over three weeks ago- they waited until I found and moved into my apartment.  They had the package insured and certified and the USPS told them it would take 6-10 days for me to receive it.  I had them send the package to my school because I had heard of nightmares of people not being home when their package was delivered and going around to multiple post offices to try and track down their package.  I was told it was easiest to have it sent to the school because this would be less likely to happen.

So anyways, here I am on December 3rd and no news on my package.  My parents seem to have misplaced the tracking number so have contacted a 1-800 post office number and will be figuring out this weekend WHERE my package is.  I tried going to the nearest post office to my school (because this is where it would be if it had failed to be delivered to me at the school) and they wouldn't even attempt to look for it without a tracking number.  I haven't been this frustrated over something in a long time.  I mean I figure it probably took 1-3 days for the US to deliver it to Madrid and that at this point Madrid is just taking their sweet time delivering it to me.  Here in Spain they have no concept of doing things efficiently or in a timely matter.  It's always "manaña, manaña" (tomorrow, tomorrow).  I suppose being an American I just don't understand how a country can be so inefficient and take SO long to do things.  I mean I am being serious when I say that it takes about 5x longer to do anything here than it does in the US.

So at this point I am simply crossing my fingers that the package wasn't lost and that at some point I will receive it.  Who knows how much longer I will have to wait?  And I am sure after this experience my parents won't want to send me any other packages while I am abroad- and honestly I don't blame them.

Health Insurance (angry post)

Through the Auxiliares de Conversación program I am provided health insurance through a company called Mapfre Familiar while in Spain.  When I arrived, my school was supposed to have received a packet about my health insurance information and my card.  However, they never did because a week into my stay in Spain they asked me for a copy of my insurance card and I said I didn't have one yet and that I had been told my school was supposed to receive the card.  That week I had made a trip to the Consejería de Educación (part of the Global Ministry of Education in Spain that funds the program that I am in) to drop of documents concerning my NIE (temporary residence card).  The lady that I spoke with told me that my school should be receiving my medical card but in the meantime if I had any medical emergencies she gave me a number to call that would be able to help me.

Fast forward to two weeks ago when my school finally receives my medical insurance packet.  They are sent an email detailing my account number and the directions are for ME to call them and give them the number in the email and confirm my address.  So I call them and granted my spanish is still rusty I am told that they don't have my medical card- that supposedly it was already send on Nov.3rd to my school.  What?  So I go back to my school and tell this to José María, the director of the English Dept. that handles everything dealing with the auxiliares de conversación in our school.  He calls the insurance himself and finds out that I was right- they did send the medical card to the school but the school never received it.  So he tells them to send ANOTHER card but this time to my apartment address.

Fast forward to yesterday.  I check my mailbox and there is mail addressed to me!  I open it to find about four sheets of paper from the medical insurance company and no card.  The sheets of paper with info regarding my policy are sheets that I already have that I already received with my information packet.

So six weeks into being in Spain and I still don't have an official medical card.  I can only imagine how José María is going to respond to this next week when I tell him.  

Teaching Abroad vs. Studying Abroad

Teaching abroad in Spain, I quickly realized is nothing like studying abroad in Spain.  In the study abroad program everything was taken care of for me and I could simply go about and explore and enjoy the adventure.  Teaching abroad has really challenged me to be independent.  I always thought I was independent, living in Minneapolis alone in my own apartment, having my own car, going to school and paying for everything myself.  But regardless of the things you do to be able to call yourself "independent", its more about the attitude you must have.  Independence requires resilience to be able to adapt to an often scary situation.  Independence in a foreign country really tests ones ability to stay motivated and stay positive.

I guess all I can say is that I'm still trying to get there.  Still trying to get to that point where I can call myself independent once again.  It's been a month and other than simply getting used to my routine and schedule here I haven't done very much.  This is largely due to lack of money and the fact that prior to MOVING to Madrid I had visited this city numerous times because of its proximity to Toledo were I studied in 2008.  I've already seen all the major tourist sites, know how the metro works, visited my fair share of restaurants and bars and gone shopping.  Therefore, I've actually been quite bored.  I feel horrible saying that I'm bored while in such a fascinating European country like Spain but maybe its because I've simply seen myself change from a juvenile to an adult.  I think I have already gone through that whole phase of feeling like my life lacks adventure and therefore NEEDING to do something spontaneous and crazy- like traveling around Spain alone for a month (which I did back in the summer of 2008).  I guess what I'm trying to say, rather unsuccessfully, is that I've grown up.  Instead of idealizing a place in my head like Spain for example, I now see both the positives and the negatives.  I used to have no doubt in my mind that Spain was far superior to any other country in the world and now I know that maybe at that point in my life I was just a different person.  This is not in any way saying that I've "scratched the itch" to travel and explore the world.  Rather now I don't feel like I need to leave my home country for multiple months to do this.  I think now I would be perfectly happy to take a few weeks a year and travel and see places that I've never seen.

I'm not trying to be pessimistic about being in Spain for 8 months.  I'm very lucky and very fortunate and I will do everything I can to fully appreciate this time here so that I don't look back one day and ask myself, "Why did you spend that whole time homesick?  What a waste."  I guess returning to Spain naturally made me realize how lucky I was back home and how I so often took my life and the people in my life for granted.  I've truly developed a new-found pride for being an American and specifically being a Minnesotan- something I spent the better part of my life denying.  I've often found myself daydreaming about snow as well which is something I would never have done even as little as a year ago.  My family was telling me the other week about the first winter snowfall and how they were all cozy in their house, drinking hot chocolate and listening to Christmas music.  All I could think was that that is what I wanted to do too and how regardless of the long and often cold Minnesota winters, I love Minnesota.  I now can say with certainty that Minnesota is my home and that I will never feel more home than when I'm back there.  So I suppose something positive DID come out of being homesick- I realized that I'm a true Minnesotan and that I will never again take my time with my family and friends there for granted.  They are the world to me and even though I'm over 4,000 miles away from them, I still feel a strong connection to my home and the people there.  When I get back early summer I will fully enjoy all the things that I missed so much while abroad and I will never again think about how I'd rather be off on some adventure alone when I could be with the ones that I love.

Minnesota Winter 2008-2009

Friends

The two loves of my life: my boyfriend and Tabby

My family

Los Gitanos/Gypsies

I think when most Americans think of gypsies they picture wandering nomads; a group of Roma people that dresses in a sort of hobo garb, wears exotic-looking jewelry and wanders from place to place.

In Europe the word gypsy has a negative connotation to it.  In fact I heard that France has even started to expel gypsies from their country and that Spain may be next to follow.  In Spain, gypsies are seen as a group that is completely separated from the Spanish culture and people.  When Spanish people talk about gyspies you hear words like, "lazy, dirty, bad, and unemployed."  At first I thought it was just a silly stereotype and even though people said these things, they really didn't mean them.  Wrong.  The majority of Spaniards- people who were born in and live in Spain- don't think too highly of gypsies.  Now I know that every country has their problem with discrimination but in the school system of all places I thought there would NOT be problems with discrimination.  Wrong again.  Across the board, I have heard every professor that I have worked with make a negative comment about the gypsy kids that are in their classes.  In my school there are maybe 1-4 gypsy kids per class.  I personally, cannot always tell which kids are gypsies but they could very broadly be described as having darker skin than Spaniards and different features.

I have heard one of the professors that I work with say verbatim, "He's a bad kid.  He's a gypsy."   After nearly a month on the job and overhearing numerous comments made about these kids I finally played dumb one day and asked one of the professors WHY there was such a negative stereotype against these people.  Her response was that gypsies exclude themselves from the Spanish society.  They don't try to learn the language, they don't work, they don't care about education and they simply follow the norms of their own group of people.  She said that gypsy kids do not care to learn and therefore didn't try.  The gypsy kids, she said, are always the troublemakers, they never pay attention in class and always act out.

In response to her I asked her if it is POSSIBLE that the reason these "gypsy" kids act out is because they are treated differently than the other kids.  You see it is very obvious that teachers here pick favorites.  First are always Spaniards, then Latin Americans, followed by Moroccans and then lastly the gypsies.  The gypsy kids are always overlooked and the teachers never pay attention to them.  My professor said that gypsies don't WANT to be part of the Spanish culture.  She said they purposely exclude themselves and don't speak the language well because they don't want to.  Well than maybe its possible that the reason these kids act this way is because of the self-fulfilling prophecy.  It's simple.  When you predict something will turn out a certain way, you either directly or indirectly CAUSE it to turn out that way.  Therefore, if the gypsy kids are treated differently from the moment they step into kindergarten then in turn they are will act out and become the troublemakers because it was only expected or assumed that they would.  My professor responded that maybe 40 years ago this might have been true but that she had been teaching for 20 years and had always seen the same outcome, regardless of her actions.  She said in the beginning of her teaching career she felt bad for the gypsy kids and actually made an effort to give attention to these kids and not overlook them but that she always saw the same thing happen- they wouldn't try and didn't care.  She said professors simply know that this is going to happen and so don't expect them to succeed and that ultimately it's the gypsies fault because their culture resists immersion into the culture in Spain.

I guess I see both sides of the argument, however, I don't agree with Spaniards.  I think these kids act out and don't try BECAUSE of the way they are treated.  If I was a student and my professor didn't believe I could succeed than I don't think I would believe in myself and of course I would fail.  It's hard being here in Spain and seeing this happen and feeling powerless.  Because regardless of how I may treat these kids it ultimately won't change anything because in the rest of their classes they will be overlooked and ignored by their professors and fellow students.  Therefore, what am I to do?  I've been very torn about this.  I guess the ONLY thing I can do is set an example to not discriminate against this group of students.  So I am going to try my best to give these kids attention and treat them exactly the same as I treat the other students.

After all is said and done I would say this has really become the low-point of my job.  It truly is unfortunate that even in a developed and modern European country like Spain, that this type of discrimination and stereotyping exists in such an obvious way.

Spanish Education and Children

The first day at my school in Madrid- Instituto Gómez Moreno (IES) I was very confused about the levels and stages of the education system in Spain.  After a few weeks here I better understand the levels.

First is Educación Infantil which is essentially like kindergarten for kids age 6.  Next is Educación Primaria which is obligatory and free and it consists of six academic years of school so kids are ages 6-12 years old.  Educación Primaria would be the same as the US- primary school.

Then there is Educación Secundaria Obligatoria (ESO) which is also obligatory and free and consists of four years of education with kids between the ages of 12-16 years old.  This would be comparable to middle school and half of high school in the US.

The last level of education before college is Bachillerato (Bach).  This level is not obligatory and the students in this level must have graduated from Secondary Education.  It consists of two years of education and if the student completes these two years successfully and pasts necessary exams, they may then continue on to the University.  Students in this level are 16-18 years old.  At IES I teach kids in the Primary, Secondary and High school levels.

IES is a public school with a small English Department.  There are students of varying levels of comprehension of english.  For example, some of my primary students seem to have a higher level of comprehension of english than some of the students in Bach.  It's frustrating because even though more advanced levels of english comprehension are separated into classes called Sección, the classes that remain have such different levels of comprehension that it's often very difficult to teach.

Each level of education has a certain number of hours a week of english classes.  I can't say with certainty that I know how many hours each level receives but I believe that the primary levels only have about one to two hours a week of english classes whereas the high school level has about five hours of different classes in english.

Now onto the topic of spanish children.  I would have to say that my first day in class made me realize the lack of discipline of children in the spanish culture.  I have talked to other teaching assistants and they all say the same thing.  It's not that the children are necessarily defiant to their professors, they simply aren't disciplined in the way that many American children are.  Maybe it's the fact that all the teaching assistants I've met, including myself, work in public schools.  I myself, attended a private school from k-8th grade and found that students in my school had much more respect for their teachers.  It's a whole other story here.  Many teachers spend a fourth of the class simply trying to get students to pay attention and to calm down. The kids are rowdy, loud and have more energy than I can even explain.  I thought to myself, "are ALL children this crazy and wild?!" In addition, these kids are not taught to raise their hands because they are often just shouting out what they think.

I've definitely had my good days and my bad days.  The good days are when the students seem excited to learn and excited to specifically learn lessons from me.  The good days are when students see me in the hallway and say "hello" to me and smile.

The bad days, however, were like my last class yesterday (Primero C- primary education, group C).  These kids are something else.  I can pick out about six students from the entire group of 27 and say that these kids actually want to learn and actually understand what I try to teach them AND actually listen to me.  The other 21 students are crazy.  I literally mean insane.  They were standing up, moving around, talking, shouting, passing notes, almost dozing off, you name it.  These 21 didn't seem to care in the least that I was standing in the front of the class and trying to teach them about Thanksgiving or punctuation!  After that class I was so frustrated with those kids.  They simply do not have any respect whatsoever for authority or for their elders for that matter.  These kids are almost impossible to teach.

Even after a few weeks on the job I can say that I definitely have more respect for teachers, especially those who teach young kids.  Teaching anyone under the age of 16 requires a certain level of patience.  Having patience is key on this job!  Lets just hope my level of patience increases rather than decreases on my stay here in Madrid!

El parque de la Dehesa de la Villa

Last friday, November 6th, I decided to go to park located not to far away from my apartment.  I had found out about this park from an interesting circumstance; I was moving into my apartment and my new roommate Pablo had made me come to his work to pick up the keys to the place.  The metro stop near his work was sort of out of the way from the apartment so he told me the quickest way to get back would be to take the number 46 bus rather than hop back on the metro.  He told me that I should signal my stop when I see a gas station on the street of the bus drivers side.  I should have asked him WHAT the gas station was called but I didn't and of course ended up getting lost and had to get off at a random stop and ask a pedestrian on the street where the nearest metro stop was.....seeing as I had come unprepared and had no map of madrid on me!  Though, it must have been fate that I rode that bus because we passed this absolutely beautiful park that had the most interesting-looking trees.  It seemed to be a pretty large park and luckily I saw a sign of the name, so when I finally got to my new apartment I looked up directions to get back there.

So on Friday I decided to go back to the park on my day off.  It was a beautiful day, high 60s, maybe even low 70s and it was sunny with no clouds in the sky.  I got off at the Francos Rodríguez metro stop which is on the same line as my apartment, only five stops away.  I walked around the area for about a half an hour until I finally stumbled upon the entrance of the park.  It was breathtaking.  I had done a little research about the park the night before and had read that in 1152, King Alfonso VII gave these woods to the township of Madrid as hunting and pasturing lands.  Over the years the size of the park had diminished due to Madrid's city council selling or leasing some of the property but after 800 years there was still 60 acres that had survived!

I spent nearly two hours wondering around the park.  It helped clear my head and I realized how much the busy climate of Madrid had been affecting me.  Coming to the park was like an escape from the hectic hustle and bustle of the city.  I was able to breathe, not just physically but mentally.  I felt refreshed and rejuvenated by the time I left.  I know that I will be coming back to this park many more times in the coming months.  It will be my place to take a break and enjoy the scenery of mother nature.  Sometimes something as simple as taking a walk can change your attitude or your mood which is why I am so happy that something good came out of me getting lost.  I discovered this captivating park which helped clear the lingering fog in my head and truly made me appreciate the importance of silence and reflection.

Two weeks after Arriving

Coming back to Spain was very bittersweet for me.  The first time I came here was back in 2005.  My sister Sheri had just finished a summer session of classes in the city of Toledo and I met her in Madrid.  We traveled for roughly two weeks and visited the cities of Toledo, Madrid and Barcelona.  It was my first time out of the country and I was scared of trying new things and seeing new places.  I spent the majority of my time feeling homesick and missing my boyfriend at the time.  When I came home I was full of regret for not having more thoroughly enjoyed the little time I had spent abroad.  I promised myself that I would go back and make sure to not take the experience for granted no matter what happened.

So in 2008 I went back to Spain. This time for not just a few weeks but six months.  I took advantage of the amazing study abroad program at the University of Minnesota and did the same program that my sister did; the Study Abroad Program in Toledo, Spain.  The program made the adjustment into the country very easy.  All the difficult things were taken care of for us.  In addition we lived in the dorms with other Americans and were able to share all of our experiences, both good and bad with our fellow peers and really feel like someone understood where we were coming from.  Studying Abroad in Toledo became the best and most amazing experience of my life.  I enjoyed every single moment of it and savored it to the last minute in the county.  I did not want to go home and wanted to stay in Spain for the rest of my life.  2008 was the year I fell completely and utterly in love with Spain.  I loved everything about it, the culture, the language- the accent, the food, the music, everything.  Being abroad in another country also really opened up my eyes to the amazing places that can be explored outside of the comfort of my city in Minnesota.  I visited numerous cities in Spain, wanting to truly soak up the culture to its fullest.  I went to Segovia, Salamanca, Sevilla, Córdoba, Granada, Málaga, La Ciudad Real, Valencia, Oliva, San Sebastián and of course Madrid and Toledo.  So ever since 2008 Spain has been this perfect memory in my head.  A place of comfort, almost like my second home.  I knew as soon as I came back from studying abroad that I had to find a way to go back.

So here we are now in 2010.  I found a way back to my second homeland through the Auxiliares de Conversación.  A scholarship through the Spanish Ministry of Education.  Auxiliares are essentially teaching assistants for subjects and classes in the english language.  I was assigned to a public 4th-12th grade school in Madrid.  My school is named Instituto Gómez Moreno and has roughly 700 students.  I am a teaching assistant for kids of many different ages and levels of the english language.  The youngest class I teach is age 12 and the oldest class has students up to the age of 18.  The English Department in my school is relatively small- there are only about 8-10 professors.  They teach every different subject in english and myself, or my fellow Auxiliar at the school, Cassandra, are there at their side to help with lessons, questions, and pronunciation.

I arrived on October 23rd.  I flew into Madrid around 9:30pm and had to take a taxi to a hotel that I stayed in the first night.  Plans to stay with another Auxiliar in Madrid for my first night fell through so I literally had one day to search for a hostel in Madrid and finding one for a Saturday night was impossible.  Thus, I stayed in a hotel my first night.  Expensive yet comforting.  The next morning I moved to a hostel in the center of the city.  It was cheap- 13 euro a night but I had to share a room with 4 other people.  The next morning after that- Monday morning I braved the metro alone and went to my school which is located on the outskirts of Madrid.  It was about a 45 minute commute there with transfers on the metro.  I arrived at the gate surrounding the school and had to be buzzed in.  Then the front door was also locked and also had to be buzzed in there.  I asked the front desk for the director of the English Department who was in charge of the Auxiliares at the school.  Little did I know there would be two José Marías!  Luckily, I was directed to the correct one and he greeted me in english and showed me around the school.  It was overwhelming and I was still super jet lag but I managed to get through the first school day.

The first week in Spain was a blur with numerous highs and lows.  The biggest stress seemed to be the fact that I needed to find an apartment as soon as possible because living out of a suitcase was not ideal.  I also had a long list of things to do such as applying for a temporary residence card, get a bank account and get a cell phone.  Coming back this time around required me to be more independent and fend for myself.  It wasn't like study abroad where they take care of everything for you.  I had to find an apartment in a foreign country and simultaneously get in the routine of my new schedule at school.  I felt pushed to the limit of my patience to deal with such a situation.  Before coming to Spain I felt I was invincible.  I had convinced myself that since I had traveled once before alone around a foreign country that I could handle anything.  Wrong.  I guess I would describe my first week in Spain as pretty miserable.  For the first time I felt homesick and missed the efficiency of the United States.  Having to be independent in Spain and deal with adult situations made me realize how efficient the US is and how INefficient Spain is.

A week and a half in I finally started to stabilize.  Instead of having extreme emotional highs and lows I knew that I needed to stay in the middle.  This is the only way to adjust.  Because lets face it, the adjustment period is the most difficult and painful period there is.  Im finally starting to adjust.  Its a slow process but I'm slowly getting there.  I've found an apartment which was the most difficult and stressful feat, I've gotten a cell phone and started my application process for my temporary residence card.  Im also starting to get the hang of being in front of a class of spanish kids who are all staring at me and feel confident with what I am saying.  This is not the time to be intimidated or else you are sure to fail.

In my two weeks so far abroad I've learned a lot about myself.  I've learned that in order to succeed you must keep trying no matter how hard and impossible it seems.  I've learned that there are positives and negatives to every country.  I now see how naive I was about having this idealized vision in my head about Spain.  I also learned that I must not spend my time here being frustrated and homesick.  I must look beyond all the stresses of being independent in a foreign country and simply experience this experience.  To enjoy this experience while fondly remembering everything I left back home.  Because those things will still be there when I return.