The past month in "short"

I have been quite lax with the blogging recently. I do have excuses, not that you’re interested in my lame excuses. But the bottom line is that the 12 hour Spanish work day is not agreeing with me. (obviously.) I am very happy with my job(s) with the exception of a one private classes and the crazy schedule. But, of course I am sick every month, even though I swore I wasn’t getting sick again. But at least a day at home gives me some time to catch up on things, like my blog.

So here’s a “quick” summary of the month of November:

November 10:

Went to a wedding at a castle in the outskirts of Madrid. It was a very nice event that lasted over 12 hours. (yeah 12) The ceremony was at 2 and we left the wedding site at 3ish. It was grueling, but a lot of fun. The bride was Spanish and the groom English, so they tried to combine some traditions of both cultures.

Thanksgiving was prepared by a fellow Middleburiana, Vanessa. Way too much delicious food and a lot of people, but of course there were no cowboys, pilgrims or Indians, so it cannot even begin to compare with the festivities of last year. That will remain a legend for many here in Spain.
(Sorry no pics for this one.)

November 25: Paco’s birthday complete with two family meals…yep two…in one day. However we didn’t go out much because we had both had long weeks so we waited until the following weekend to really celebrate, along with the great news that he was granted a huge research grant from a major insurance foundation. Don’t ask what he will research because I don’t understand even the title. Needless to say we went all out, and I actually think this is what pushed me over the edge into sickland.

I finally met baby Javi, and saw proud parents Javi and Marta, who are gleaming with excitment. And, who wouldn't be with a baby this tiny and cute who barely makes a sound! I am only speaking to the little guy in English and have already arranged that he will be my exchange student in the US when he is older.

I also saw all of my "Spanish family" (the Paredes) which was nice becuase I haven't seen Javi and Laura's parents since before I left.

Welcome to the world Javichu!

This past weekend I also decided to deck my little halls. After decorating my 2 foot tree and hanging the stockings with care (from the bookshelf, obviously, we don’t have a chimney) my place has a nice air of Christmas spirit. Madrid is lit for the holiday as well. It’s nice to walk down the streets in the evening with the holiday lights shining, it makes me want to fill my MP3 with Christmas carols….but I don’t have any. I’ll work on that.

This weekend is supposed to be La Rioja, but seeing as though I am sick again, it’s in limbo. I will be so mad!

Last interesting bit: Remember how I notice now all the English language clothing? Well, I get to see a lot in school. It seems kids’ clothes are not produced in Spain, only English speaking countries. (Or probably not even, more likely China or Taiwan, but the point is that any words are almost always written in English.) Normally the kids’ clothing is pretty innocent; superheroes, princesses, sports phrases, etc. However yesterday in school I could not stop stating at one boy’s sweatshirt. I mean really, I may have made him uncomfortable. The poor kids kept looking back at me like “But I am not doing anything wrong!!!” I was quite close to whipping out my camera phone to document the insanity, but though better of it given the situation. (class and what not.) The thing about this particular Bart Simpson sweatshirt was that it said “Show business is a hideous bitch goddess.” Profanity on a child’s sweatshirt aside, does that even make sense?? Anyone want to help me explain that one?

Our House

As promised, a guided tour of my new apartment. Although it is not completely done (we are still in need of a few esthetic updates) you can get an idea of what it looks like.
Turn your computer screen or your head...it's sideways. (still can't figure out how to flip it.)
Enjoy and come visit soon!

Random thoughts about this week

Good things that happened this week:
1) I have recuperated my voice!
2) I got my first pay check!
3) It’s Puente! (when they extend a holiday to make a nice long weekend…for example the holiday is today, Nov. 1, but tomorrow there is no school.
4) We made plans to go to the wine country of Spain, Rioja for next puente.

Bad things about this week:
1) The kids at school were so excited about Halloween I still had to yell over them.
2) My paycheck is long spent on Middlebury tuition
3) My Thursday and Friday classes have been cancelled because everyone in Madrid is gone “de puente” and I am not going anywhere.
4) I have no idea what I will do with Lucky while we are away.


Autumn has arrived in Madrid and I am loving it. It has always been my favorite season. There is nothing better than a crisp sunny fall day filled with changing leaves, football games apple cider and chili. Well, Madrid doesn’t have all that an American fall offers (no apple cider or football) but the weather is unbeatable..it is true fall weather and I have chili on the stove. The days are sunny and vary between crisp and warm and the nights are cool, perfect for a fire. (Not that I have a fireplace, but whatever.) Last weekend I took a little day trip with some friends to Aranjuéz, a small town outside of Madrid, just to disconnect from the city and maybe see some changing leaves. We had a perfect day and it really made me appreciate Spain in the autumn. I will post some pics later on.

This week I had my first grade school disaster experience. A kid puked all over the classroom in the middle of class. On the one hand, I felt sorry for him (how awful!) on the other hand….run to the bathroom kid! I learned a lot from the seasoned elementary classroom teacher who did not even remotely freak out and from the poor little girl sitting next to him who, despite having been puked on, did not cry or freak out. (Can’t say I would have done the same.) I guess maybe puke isn’t a big deal in Spain? What really struck me as odd however, were the lengths we had to go to in order to find cleaning supplies, because naturally, the cleaning people don’t come in until the afternoon. (Wait a second, this kind of thing doesn’t happen frequently? And why is there no Mr. Klush?) And to answer your question- no I most certainly did not clean it up.

Halloween in Madrid….They say that Halloween is not celebrated in Spain. It’s an American/English tradition. Well, judging from the decorations in my school, I think “they” are wrong. Every inch of the school had a ghost, bat, spider, pumpkin, witch on it. Halloween is catching on in Spain. The kids are obsessed with it! Many even have told me that they will go trick or treating in their neighborhoods. I think that in the next 10 years Halloween will be just as much of a Spanish tradition as the Three Kings. After all, what’s not to like about trick or treating?

Well, that's all I have for this week. Hope everyone had a spooktacular Halloween. (I am officially a grade school teacher...my dorky side is out and running rampant!)

PD oh wait that's Spanish, I meant to say PS

I do not know why the format of my last blog is messed up, but I have tried to no avail to change it. It is bothering me.

One other thing, not that I am fishing for a care package, but if anyone has the desire to support the US postal service while helping me ensure my health, I'd really love some anti-bacterial hand cream. I can only find gel here and it has my hands cracking dry, which in turn makes me less likely to use it regularly, which as a result of being surrounded by 2nd and 3rd graders all day means my hands are full of germs and illness. My goal for the rest of the year is to not get sick. Who wants to support the "Julie's hands" foundation?????

mute.

It just seems that I can't get anything going here. It's one thing after another. After finally solving the problems with the furniture, the washer, the plumbing and finally (finally!) the phone and internet, one might think that things are looking up for me. Despite the fact that I have my schedule set with school and classes and am settling into my routine (which I so desperately needed) I am faced with a problem that I have never had to deal with before. I am mute. Laryngitis. Ok, well the illness I have dealt with before, and while it sucks, it is kind of fun during that period of "sexy voice" when you are initially losing your voice. At ACHS having laryngitis meant a day of not having to talk to the kids, or taking a day for lots of fun alone time. Now, seeing that my job is to talk, losing my voice means I can't work. Period. The bad news about that....if I don't work, I don't make any money. In the school I may have to make up the hours and my private classes are a complete wash. Que putada!!!! (I am not going to translate that for reasons you can assume.)

Conclusion: I do not like working for hourly wages.

On a lighter note, it never ceases to amaze me the amount of people in Spain that I encounter wearing clothing with English phrases. I'm not talking about "Levi's Brand Jeans" pasted across the chest of a t-shirt or anything like that, I am referring to the current trend of wearing tshirts with quirky phrases on them. The thing is, I don't see many in Spanish, but I always notice the English ones. (Perhaps a language bias, but I don't really think so. I even see English phrase clothing in Spanish stores, but not any Spanish phrase clothing.) You might think that, well these people must be English language nerds, similar to how Julie is a Spanish language dork, but for some reason you can just tell that the majority don't have a clue what is advertised on their chest. At least it makes me chuckle.

So, I have decided to keep track of some of my favorites-I wish I had thought of it earlier because I have seen some really good ones- and every now and again for your entertainment and reading pleasure post some of the better ones.

This week: Picture a scruffy, middle aged, (50+) man not exactly in his best shape walking toward you with a bright blue t-shirt that reads: Warning: Hot Zone. Hmmmm....I am not sure, does that mean I should walk the other way? What exactly is the message there? Or how about the otherwise normal looking middle aged woman in a white long sleeve t-shirt that has sexy bedazzled across her boobs. At least she has good self-esteem.

It makes me want to start selling cute t-shirts with things like "I am an @ss" or "Tell me how stupid I look" on them. I bet I could make a killing in the metro....hey, maybe that could make up for the money lost due to my laryngitis.

Believe it or not.....

Any events that could have happened to me this week are overshadowed by the tremendous milestone achieved on Friday afternoon. Here in Madrid we celebrated el Dia de la Hispanidad, the country's national holiday which celebrates the country's armed forces and ultimately Cristopher Colombus' discovery of the Americas. At 32 General Pardinas, we celebrated a more important, yet completely unrrelated milestone. Check out the link on youtube. I promise you, no stunt doubles were used in the filming of this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k8ymDWn5X4

Spain: love and loathe

I started my job...finally... this week. After various unsuccessful attempts to get my schedule ahead of time, I finally got it the first day if school. The problem apparently was that they didn't know how many auxiliares (which is my official title...auxiliar de conversación) were placed in the school. Oh. hmmm. ok. So when 4 of us showed up the first day we were finally able to work the schedule out. The coordinator apologized for not having the schedules done beforehand. You see she lived in the US for 4 years and realizes that we (3 of us are Americans, the other is Australian) are used to having things planned out... in advance. But she apologized saying that Spain is the country of improvision. Well, that's one way to put it. Here in Spain things happen when they happen and everyone just has to adjust accordingly. Thankfully I have my experience of working in the chaos driven, improvision as a rule Atlantic City school district, so I am confidant I can handle it, at least in terms of school. More on that later.

So next question would be, "well Julie, what is your schedule like?" It's actually pretty good, save the fact that I have class after a 2 hour lunch break every day. On Mondays and Thursdays I have the good fortune of not having to go in until 10 and stay until 4 with no breaks except recess and lunch. Tuesdays and Wednesdays I have to be there for 9 but I get to leave before lunch on Tuesday. Wednesday is my only crappy day. I finish t 3:15 but might have to do a class with the staff from 4 until 5. In all despite the fact that I am only "working" 16 hours a week, I am at the school much more. Still I got a better schedule than some of my counterparts, so I am happy.

I am in English and Science classes for 2nd and 3rd graders. The kids have a decent level of English....definitely better than any of my kids in AC did in Spanish! The teachers I collaborate with are a bit spastic. I wanted to hand out xanex the first day. One speaks English pretty well but seems on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The other can use some private English lessons for herself (she asked me if I would be interested in teaching her children.) I think she is just nervous to have a native speaker there judging her English. I want to say that it is ridiculous that this woman teaches in the bilingual program but then again I taught Spanish for 5 years and was constantly waiting for someone to figure out that I really didn't speak much Spanish at all. I guess it is the same thing. And, anyway, that is why I have ehis job now, so I can't complain. In the meantime I will brush up on my CPR in case of any emergencies.

The apartment is still coming along. We have had some setbacks. The curtains I wanted are out of stock so my bedroom is still ugly. There is/was a clog in the main plumbing and all the water from the washing machine and kitchen sink came through a pipe in the bathroom causing a mini flood. The plumber says he's coming today. We'll see. The washing machine that we had was older than Adam. We convinced the landlord that we needed a new one, however when they man came to install it there wasn't enough room to get the old one out and the new one in, so now we have the washer disconnected in the middle of the kitchen and the new one waiting in the hall. In the meantime we figured out that the new one isn't going to fit anyway. Fun! Not that I could do much laundry anyway because it has been rainy and as Spaniards don't believe in clothes dryers, so you have to wait for nice dry sunny days to be able to do laundry. (People tell me that Madrid has a very dry climate, after living here over a year I cannot comprehend where that erroneous idea came from.) Now Amanda's telling me the hot water is out. greeeat. How I'd just love to make some comfort food, like chocolate chip cookies, but that would require an oven, which we don't have either. Another little used electrodomestic appliance that Spaniards often have but don't use, so yeah, we don't even have one. Adjust.

Last complaint. We got our internet yesterday. Except for the fact that we didn't. The tech people are "working on it." What's a few more days when we've already been waiting a month? Oh and in the confusion we lost telephone service, so don't call me.

Really it's not all bad, I am actually happy, it's just sometimes I miss the conveniences of the United States that I took for granted. Even though I was here all last year and should be used to it, I guess a few months at home de-programmed my Spanish mentality. So looking on the bright side, it's the weekend, the plumber is here and I am going to look online at washer/dryers to see if we can get one of those.