It's Friday! I mean...Thursday!!

Hola!

Another week of school is finally over! This week I have been teaching my students about Halloween, because although they know of Halloween and in recent years more people in Spain have kind of been celebrating this "holiday," Halloween is primarily an American tradition. Anyway, all of the activities I have been doing with the kids has been putting me into the Halloween spirit. I decided that I am going to try to track down a pumpkin to carve and try to make a Halloween dessert to get into the spirit of things. If all works out as planned I'll be sure to post pictures!

As I have been doing some research on Halloween this week so that I can better explain to the kids about the different traditions associated with Halloween and the origins of it, it quickly became apparent that I know so little about a celebration that is largely considered American. I mean, for most Americans anyway Halloween is about dressing up, trick-or-treating, and eating ridiculous amounts of candy. I read that Americans spend something like $6.9 billion on Halloween annually, which in retrospect shouldn't have shocked me like it did because isn't is just so American to take anything we possibly can and sacrifice any true meanings of it in order to make it commercial? Anyway, a few things I was surprised to learn was that Halloween started in Ireland; originally in Ireland they would carve turnips instead of pumpkins, but when Halloween came to the US we had lots of pumpkins lying around and since they are much bigger and easier to carve we began using pumpkins instead; and finally, the tradition of trick-or-treating came about when back in Ireland/Scotland on Halloween (the eve of the day of the dead) poor people would beg for money or food and the more affluent would give them sweets in exchange for them praying for their dead family members. Anyway, I also read about a lot of other really interesting traditions I had never heard of before, but I thought I would share these few facts with you, dear friend or family member.

As an additional Halloween treat, I have Monday and Tuesday off next week because of some Spanish holiday (please note once again, the Spaniards love their holidays). So I have a nice long(er than usual) weekend ahead of me. I'll post whatever pictures I take this weekend as I take them! Love you guys!

XOXOXO

I have Internet!

Hola!

I am so sorry that it has been so long since my last post! Everyday for the past week I have been falsely led to believe that I would be getting Internet in my apartment finally, but friends and fam, I am so very happy to tell you that today is the day I have been waiting for my whole life (or so it feels like anyway). I finally have Internet! Woo!

Celebrations aside, school has been going well. I am settling into my classes and all of my students seem to really like me :) The weather has finally turned a bit colder. (The Internet came just in the nick of time! No treks to McDonalds for me in this cold weather.) Sunday it began to rain a little and it is the first time Salamanca has seen rain for several months. Also it has been in the 50s this week, so my 30 minute walk to school is nice and chilly in the mornings. Despite the change in weather, the old men have still been playing bocci ball outside of my apartment. In fact, I am looking out the window at them right now :D

Well, just wanted to give a quick update so that you all know that I am still alive over here. Now that I have Internet (again, FINALLY) I will once again be much better about keeping up with this blog, and it will be much easier to skype with everyone that I havent talked to in ages. I love you all and miss yall to the moon and back! More updates to come tomorrow (I promise!).

XOXOXO

Sunday/laundry day!

Hola!

I'm sorry it has been so long since my last post, I have been sick this whole weekend. Thursday I was very tired and I could feel myself coming down with something. Sure enough, Friday and Saturday I was pretty miserable and hiding out at home. So basically, this weekend consisted of a lot of reading, movie-watching, and sleeping. I don't have a TV and I still don't have Internet, so I'm pretty much in the Dark Ages having to watch movies that I rented on my MacBook and reading books from my Kindle. Go ahead, feel sorry for me.

Today I am feeling much better, I just cant stop blowing my nose. Lovely, right? Anyway, since I have been pretty unable to do anything this whole weekend if it involved getting off the couch, I had to start being productive today and this morning I started laundry. I thought you, dearest friend or family member, would find it interesting how different doing laundry is here. In my apartment I have a washing machine (as does pretty much everyone here), BUT there is no dryer. I think very few people, if any, own driers here. Instead, everyone line-dries their clothes. To be perfectly honest, when I first moved into my apartment I spent a few days looking for the dryer. There was a brand-new washing machine, so surely they hadn't forgotten the second half of the clothes-washing process, right? I'm such a silly American. I mentioned my lack of dryer to a friend here, and very politely she told me I could buy something to hang my clothes on to dry them at Carrefour (the Walmart of Spain). Hahaha, oops.

Drawbacks of not having a drier: well, it takes much longer for my clothes to dry and I have to start laundry first thing in the morning if I want my sheets dry by the time I go to bed, and I tend to run out of places to hang my wet clothes.

The sunny side: I'm saving that much more energy, I have less of a chance of my clothes shrinking, and I'm learning about that one virtue, patience, and knowing that I will never again take driers for granted once I go back home!

Hope everyone is having a lovely Sunday! And if it is laundry day for you, be thankful for the convenience of having a drier :)

LOVE AND MISS ERRBODY!

XOXOXO

Happy Día de la Hispanidad

Hola!

Goodness, I had a busy Monday and I never got a chance to make it over to McDonald’s. Yesterday I did make the trek over to McDonalds but of course the Internet wasn’t working. Classes are still going well. I had to teach a biology class yesterday and Monday, and I think the Spanish may be a bit confused over what exactly biology is because the lesson I was told to teach them was over rocks and minerals. I am getting more and more comfortable with being at the front of the classroom, although I have to admit that the 16-year-olds still scare me a bit. Overall, however, I really think I am going to enjoy teaching this year.

Today I actually have the day off because it is a national holiday here in Spain. It is Spain’s National Day (Día de la Hispanidad) and it commemorates the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus. It is celebrated with a huge military parade in Madrid and it marks the day that the Spanish language and culture was spread across the world. I have asked many of the Spaniards I work with about the holiday and none of them could really give me a clear answer (I had to look up what the holiday was all about on Google), and then I realized that it really doesn’t matter what today is celebrating. The Spaniards love their holidays and they don’t really need much reason to take the day off of work to celebrate. And, hey, I’m with them.

So, in the spirit of embracing the Spanish culture and work attitude, I’m cutting this blog post short so I can get out of McDonalds and enjoy this Spanish holiday. Happy Día de la Hispanidad to all of you!

Sunday, lazy Sunday

Hola!

So, as today is Sunday, I have to confess that writing this blog post is the most productive thing I’ve done today. I was just discussing with some friends last night how glorious Sundays are here in Spain because one can feel absolutely justified in doing absolutely NOTHING all day long. The reason: NOTHING is open on Sundays. The grocery stores are closed, banks, clothing stores, everything. So instead of being frustrated at the fact that I can get nothing accomplished on Sundays, I am learning to embrace this day as a day to be as lazy as I want, and enjoy drinking my coffee and reading and sleeping to my heart’s desire.

The business hours in Spain are pretty conducive to laziness in general, and not just on Sundays. In case you weren’t aware, the normal business hours during the week are 10am to 2pm and then 5pm to 9 or 10pm. From 2pm to 5pm is siesta time where everyone goes home to have lunch with their families and take a bit of a nap. Literally EVERYTHING is closed. So if I need to buy food or run any errands, I need to make sure they are done by 2pm or else I have to wait until after 5. I have to admit, this can sometimes be a bit frustrating when I have classes until 2:30pm and have to wait until after siesta to buy whatever groceries or run whatever errands I was hoping to do for the day. But at the same time, it forces me to slow down a little and take a break during the day, enjoy life a little, let’s say.

I also find the Spaniards’ idea of a 24-hour convenience store to be quite hilarious. There is one right down the street from me, and they are open during siesta, so if I am in dire need of something I can run down to the 24-hour store and buy whatever it is that I need (but for a slightly elevated price). They aren’t, however, open 24 hours. They are closed by midnight and don’t re-open until 7 or 8 in the morning. They are allowed to call themselves a 24-hour store because of their extended business hours, and because they are open during siesta.

Basically, the Spaniards are not exactly keen on working. This, while admittedly frustrating at times, which I realize is because I am used to the convenience of the American lifestyle, living here in this culture is forcing me to be flexible, and also to slow down and learn to enjoy life in a way that Americans cant really do without feeling seven different kinds of guilty. This is not to say that American business hours or outlook on life is necessarily better or worse than the Spanish way, but while I am here I am going to embrace it and enjoy it.

Well, I am off to make lessons plans for the week and to make my Sunday somewhat productive. How American of me. Have a wonderful Sunday friends and fam! Will update again soon (tomorrow?)!

XOXOXO

Week one of teaching=success!

Hola!

Sorry I didn't update yesterday. The Internet company still hasn't come to install internet for me and I was so tired after my classes yesterday that I really didn't feel like making the trek to McDonald's. Luckily I have Fridays off so I got to sleep in a little bit today :) Classes went well again yesterday, but my last class was quite interesting. This was the first non-bilingual class I've had to teach and the kids know absolutely NO English. Allow me to set the scene for you, dear friend or family member, so that you can better understand what I will be dealing with every Monday and Thursday...

As I was walking down the hall approaching the class room, I heard a small roar of voices and immediately I knew that I must brace myself for what I was about to walk into. The hum of shouts and screams grew to a full out death metal concert volume of noise as I made it to the door. Peering in I saw two kids standing on two separate desks trying to knock each other off, a boy trying to pull a stuffed animal snake away from the death grip of another bigger boy, another small group of student throwing balled up trash and notebook paper at each other while laughing hysterically at the top of their lungs, another boy screaming angrily at another and pushing him up against the wall and they were clearly on the verge of a fight, and then two girls with big earrings, lots of makeup, and perfectly done hair sitting in the corner meticulously applying some lipstick. After 10 minutes when everyone was finally quiet enough so that I could at least hear myself thinking, I started giving my introduction in English as I have been doing in all the other classes, but halfway through I started busting out laughing because their faces had a blank and almost pained look of complete lack of comprehension. So I stopped and started again in Spanish. The rest of the time it killed me to have to speak in Spanish to them when the point of me being there is to be teaching them English but they even stumbled over trying to say, "Hi, my name is..." In fact, I was trying to review objectives they should know from the previous year (they are in their second year of English), and I went up to one of the girls in the front row and shook her hand and said, "Hi, my name is Monique. What is your name?" She replied, "Hi, my name is Monique. And you?"

So, basically, this class will be my challenge for sure. Still, I'm pretty excited about it. I just really hope that they will get something from me this year. We'll see how it goes!

I'll update again soon! Happy Friday!

XOXOXO

Top 10 reasons why I love Salamanca

Hola!

Today is another beautiful day in Salamanca and it was another good day of teaching. On Wednesdays I get done with my classes for the day by 10:15am, which is awesome because now I have to rest of the day to get things done (or relax).

On my way home I started reflecting on how awesome it is that I am back in Salamanca and living in one of my favorite places in the world. Immediately, a million things I love about being here came to mind. I decided that y’all may be interested in why it is that I love Spain so much, so here’s a list of the top 10 things I love about Spain/Salamanca:

10. Wine is cheaper than water. No, really. A half-liter bottle of water costs me 2 euros. A bottle of wine costs me no more than 1 euro.

9. Siesta.

8. The plaza mayor.

Enough said.

7. Salamanca is the cleanest city I have ever seen. They have trucks that go around every single night that pour water onto the streets and scrub them clean. So clean I could eat off the ground. Just kidding.

6. Panaderías. They are on every street corner because no one here can have a meal without bread. I swear to you, I am eating a whole baguette every single day.

5. THE WEATHER. I don’t think one day has gone by without me walking outside and sighing and thinking to myself, “goodness, it is a beautiful day!” So far it has never been above 85 degrees and there is never a cloud in the sky.

4. The cathedral. See previous post about the cathedral. But also, as a reminder…

3. You don’t need a car because everything is within walking distance. This also helps keep the weight off because I probably, on average, walk at least two hours a day and it is pretty hilly here, so I’m staying in pretty good shape and not even on purpose.

2. Spanish is the official language (duh), which means I am forced to speak Spanish all day, every day.

1. The people! The people here are so caring. I mean, they cant be bluntly honest, which is something I am not very used to, especially living in the southern United States my whole life, but the people here are so warm and genuinely care for one another.

So while being here is obviously wonderful so far, I do think about home every single day, and there are definitely things I miss about Texas/the United States…

10. Bryan/College Station and getting brunch at the Village café

9. Roxy and Marley! Every time I see people with dogs here it makes me miss them so much!

8. Texas BBQ and bagels from the Bagel café

7. Good beer. Also, home-brewed beer made by the Coolmans/Batistas

6. Going shopping with my mom and Abuela

5. Driving. As much as it is nice to walk here, I miss my car. I just don’t miss having to fill it up with gas!

4. Southern hospitality. Service at restaurants here sucks.

3. Free water at restaurants. Like I said earlier, wine is cheaper than water.

2. Air conditioning.

1. YOU, my dearest friend or family member reading this blog. I honestly think about all of you every day, and no matter how wonderful the Spanish people are here, none of them could ever replace you in my heart.

Happy hump day, errbody!

XOXOXO

First day of teaching

Hola!

I had a pretty fantastic first day of class! I had four classes today, and although I was nervous this morning on my way to school to get up at the front of the class and address a group of kids that may or may not understand me, as soon as I got to my first class, all the nervousness went away.

All of my classes today were the bilingual students, so their English was very good. My first class was level 3 English so all of the kids in there are 14 years old (high school here, and the school system in general, is very different from that in the United States, but more on that later). My second class was level 1 English and all of the kids in that class are 12 years old. My third class was biology, but the teacher wasn’t ready for me to start teaching today so I had a little break during that time. Basically, in all the classes that I taught today I just introduced myself, told them a little bit about me, and jumped into whatever grammar or reading lessons they were on.

A few things about the school system here: first of all, they learn British English, so the grammar and vocabulary is a bit different. For example, the students corrected me today when we were going over a grammar exercise and the sentence read: “You ____ park your car here. You will get a ticket.” I told them that the answer to the blank is “cannot,” but the actual correct answer is “must not.” Excuse me. Also, instead of “eraser” they use the word “rubber” and I had to keep myself from giggling when one of the kids asked another if they could borrow a rubber.

Also, secondary school goes from age 12 to age 16. Before that is primary school which goes from age 3 to age 11. After age 16, school is optional and some finish through 18, others start going to a professional school if they know what they want to do, and others never do more school after that or go back to school later on.

Like I mentioned earlier, all the classes I taught today were the classes with the bilingual students, so they have been learning English since age 3. Thus, their English was fantastic and some of them spoke it better than some of the English teachers there. Later on in the week I will have some “normal” English classes in which the students are not bilingual and their English is not nearly as good. From what I hear, there is a very big difference between the two groups.

Anyway, I have been saving the best for last: my last class of the day. This was the level 4 English class with all of the 16 year olds. As I walked into that class, I was immediately struck by the huge cloud of perfume/cologne and I’m sure I winced as I entered. The class was mostly boys with a few girls who spent the entire time giving me sour looks or just pretending like I wasn’t there at all. I definitely had the boys’ attention, however. The only ones who weren’t looking at me were nudging each other and making comments and laughing. I immediately spotted the cool kid when I walked into class because he was the one standing in the corner with the popped collar, the severely gelled hair, and the two gold earrings. I got the nod of approval from him, and all I could do was roll my eyes and try to contain my laughter. I forgot how ridiculous being 16 is. As I introduced myself my hands were shaking so badly and I was trying to appear cool, calm, and collected so that they wouldn’t be able to sense my fear and try to take advantage. After I told them I was from Texas, a lot of them were like “oh, I know about Texas. I’ve seen those western movies.” None of them could really tell me where Texas is (although I did get some smart-aleck answers like, “in the United States” or “in the universe”), but after the class clowns finished putting on their show and I told them that Texas is in the south United States, and shares a border with Mexico, and is actually bigger than Spain, and etc. I think they realized that I do know some stuff that they don’t (because they were, in fact, in awe that the state I am from is bigger than their whole country) and I do believe I earned myself authority in that class.

Bottom line: I survived day one as a teacher. The kids had a lot of questions about Texas, which I gladly answered (with pride, duh). For some reason I was asked several times if I had ever been to San Francisco. One boy also asked me what race my dogs are. Lots of really funny questions. I know it’s only day one, but I’m really excited about this year! I’ll be sure to keep you updated with any more interesting stories!

XOXOXO

Graffiti post 2

Hola!

Sorry to be just now updating since last Wednesday. My trip to Madrid went well. I mean, the meetings were very, very boring, but I did learn some useful information, I guess. Sorry to sound so unenthusiastic about Madrid, it’s just that Madrid isn’t my favorite place in the world. We stayed in a four-star hotel, so the rooms were very nice. I actually shared a room with my friend Laura! The food was pretty okay and the coffee was awful. It definitely felt good coming back home to Salamanca.

Saturday night I went out with some new friends of mine, Hanna and Cara, and another Spanish girl, Paula. It was probably the most fun night I’ve had since I’ve been here, and it reminded me so much of when I used to go out in Salamanca with my friends last year when I studied here.

Also, I have some good news! I had a meeting with my school earlier today and I finally have my schedule. I start teaching tomorrow morning at 8:30am. Most of my classes are just English classes, but I am helping out in one Biology class. I will have an update tomorrow with how my first day went J

More good news! I finally have my identification number here, so I will be getting Internet installed in my apartment this week. Keep your fingers crossed!

As a side note, I was walking home one night this weekend and I went a way that I don’t usually go. I know I already had a post about the graffiti here in Salamanca, but I just had to show y’all these pictures.

I’ll let y’all know how tomorrow goes! Until then, happy Monday!

XOXOXO