More Time With Kim!

Kim and İ just finished our week and a half together, and she continued to thrive the whole time she was here. For Christmas Eve and Christmas day we spent time in Santiago exploring and immersing her a bit more in the Spanish culture, she's quite the trooper. On Christmas Eve İ introduced Kim to what appears to be her new favorite food, hot chocolate and churros (a trip that turned into two more trips to the same place). On Christmas day we went to the cathedral to see the botafumeıro, the incense burner, and a Catholıc service, in Galician and Spanish, an amazing experience. Also a very long experience.

Botafumeıro

My Christmas gift

Kim and İ gave each other scarves, of our favorite colors on the other person, that together were Christmas colors, a sign that we've been friends for a long time ;)

İ was able to chat with my family on Christmas, in extra high quality thanks to my new gift. İt was hard to not be hard for my first Christmas, but it helped to have Kim with me, I really am lucky to have such great frıends. On Christmas evenıng we went for a walk on part of the Camıno de Santıago, something that is a must for any person just visiting the city.

Kim by the mystery house

Camino de Santiago

Kim got this awesome shot of the sunset at the end of our walk

The day after Christmas, we went to Pontevedra (a small town just south of Santiago de Compostela), and spent the day wanderıng through the town and drinking cafe con leche ın the plaza. 

Kim's first cafe con leche, it even came with churros for her

Igrexa da Peregrına

Roman brıdge ın Pontevedra

Kim testing her luck....(it's bad luck to stand on your soccer ball)

Boa what? (Boa means good ın Galician)

Cathedral ın Pontevedra

Kim's last full day was spent getting chocolate and churros, gifts for my family and wandering the streets of Santiago. İ had so much fun with her, and she definitely got more of an immersion in the culture than most tourists could ever hope to get. 

My hot chocolate (Kim's shots of chocolate are in the background with our churros)

We parted ways yesterday, after a hectic (my fault) time in the Madrid airport  she headed back to the States (but the poor girl got rerouted, delayed and got home much, much later than was anticipated). İ, however, am now in Turkey (hence all the funny lookıng İ's and typos ın thıs update, can't be helped). İ wıll wrıte more about ıt after my trıp, but here ıs a small prevıew...

Blue Mosque (across from my hostel)

Kim's Here!

 A lot has been happening since my last blog update, but the number one thing is the arrival of Kimberly! She got in on Wednesday and we have been exploring Galicia and testing the sink or swim method in Spanish immersion. She's a good swimmer. Wednesday she arrived to Vigo and I went to meet her there. Seeing someone from back home was an overwhelming feeling, I couldn't even talk to kindly ask the man next to me move so I could run and jump on her, instead I kind of squeaked and pushed him, then ran and jumped on her. Kim is quite the trooper so we took a bit of time to explore Vigo, a nice city, but ultimately just a city. Then we came back to Santiago de Compostela, where she was greeted by rain. We went for a walk through the old town, but stopped to buy umbrellas first. I broke three this last week and the new one from Wednesday is on it's last leg. The following pictures are typical Santiago shots. Rain, coat, gloves, umbrella and the cathedral. It does not get more authentic than this.

Kim in the Alameda

 

Me in the Alameda

On Thursday Kim came to school with me and watched me teach the students about Christmas in Idaho, and the students were so intrigued by her. Everyone was staring and asking me who she was, but some were really excited to practice their English with another American. I was also given this Christmas card from the 7th grade class, and yes, it made me go "awwwwww"

After class, Kim and I took some time to walk around Santiago and look at the Christmas lights that are hung up everywhere. All the towns are decorated for Christmas with intricate lights hung over the streets on the telephone poles. A process that looks quite difficult, but that leads to an amazing result. Along the way we also stopped for tapas, in a restaurant that had an overwhelming selection for Kim (not so much for me, as tapas don't cater towards vegetarians).

Ever plaza has a tree like this one

 

 Lights above the plazas in the Old Town

Me on my street

 Iberian Ham with Pepper from Padron, something fishy, stuffed pepper

 A happy pre-tapa Kim

 My tapa, red pepper, eggplant and goat cheese

Bon appetit!

Friday we went back to the school for the winter assembly. Holy cuteness. There were preschoolers trying to dance. But mainly just bounced. Elementary students dressed like seasons quoting poetry and doing interpretative dance. Middle schoolers and high schoolers playing the recorder, singing Christmas songs and dancing. The big bang was a 'surprise' ending with the 10th graders (the oldest) dancing Gagnam Style.

 Gagnam Style. Spanish style.

After the assembly was the Christmas meal for the teachers. And this is where Kim showed her true ability to swim, and not sink. 32 Spaniards, Kim and me. Kim does not speak Spanish. Most of them do not speak English. We sat by Rodrigo (the principal), Paco (PE teacher), Julio (math teacher) and a few other teachers, but who did not partake in the same exact activity as we did. In typical Spanish style there was an abundance of food, only surpassed by the amount of alcohol. I was informed by our waiter that our little group was the only group asking for more bottles of wine. And this was a frequent request. Rodrigo made it his job to ensure that my glasses never actually emptied. If it neared the dangerous point of empty, I was told I wanted more. As the wine flowed, so did the jokes. At one point Rodrigo offered a toast to Idaho, it went around our section with glasses being lifted "FOR IDAHO" and when it reached Paco, with a limited English speaking ability, the toast became "FOR OKLAHOMA". Wrong. And as I explained after I was able to control my laughter and tears, of the 49 states that are not Idaho, Paco had picked the one with which we have a rivalry (Fiesta Bowl anyone?). This means that the rest of the night toasts were made (like the official one of the night) to wonderful company, the teachers, the students and Oklahoma. Kim and I were dying. After the meal we went bar hopping with about half the group, we were the youngest by about 10 years, and I acted as a translator most of the time between Kim and the group. Kim and I talked about how not many tourist are that lucky, she had the chance to be fully immersed in the culture, without speaking the language, and wow did she come out like a champ. Couldn't be prouder. It was clear that the teachers adored her, and she really enjoyed getting to meet them too. We both agree that Paco took the cake for life of the party though, as seen below.

In England, double yellow line, no parking anytime

Today Kim and I went to A Coruña to enjoy the historical monuments the city has to offer along with the amazing views of the ocean. A Coruña is located on the Northwestern most point of Spain, in Galicia, where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Bay of Biscay. We spent the day walking the outline of city along the boardwalk to see the monuments. Here are our pictures from today.

 

 Clock Bush

 Sunken boat (blue and orange Mom, just for you)

 Panoramic view of the coast

La casa de las palabras, an old Moorish cemetery

Tower of Hercules

 Kim snapping a shot of the tower from a distance

 Plaza de Maria Pita

 Maria Pita

A Bit More of Santiago

First I just want to take a moment to acknowledge the shooting in Connecticut, and explain a bit the differences between the schools in the USA and here. My heart breaks more and more with every new piece of information that comes out, and my friends here are sending good wishes to the families in Connecticut, along with me. I also got to thinking about my students here, and how not a single one of them has any reason to fear that something even remotely similar to this would happen here. Lock-down drills do not exist. Teachers are not trained on what to do if a gunman comes to the school. No one is shot in a mall. Gun violence does not exist here. Violence hardly exists here. All I can think about in relation to my students is how they are so lucky to not have to know what to do if someone comes to your school with a gun, like we all had to. I also have to say that not being in my country when a tragedy of this magnitude occurs is really difficult, it's not something I had even thought about, but of all the things that I miss about home, I miss the mutual understanding that comes after an incident like this. Although my friends offer condolences, it is nothing close to when I spoke with my family and friends back home.Of all the trials of being here, this one is the hardest. My heart goes out to all of those affected.
Moving on from this tragedy, I will update everyone on my life here. Things are going great at work, the students are learning so much and are so much fun. They have just finished their finals and this next week they are preparing for a Christmas assembly, I hope to be able to attend. To prepare for the assembly I have been asked to help teach the students how to sing. I'll pause here for laughter, for those of who have had the chance to hear me sing, I'm sorry, for the rest of you, you're welcome. I can only assume that this will help my admirers to stop admiring me.
At my apartment things have been going great as well. We all adore our new roommate, it was quite the upgrade from the last one. As it turns out Andrea stole from us, making this the second time I've been robbed in Spain. We all had given her money for the bills, and she pocketed it. We found out when our electricity got cut, a couple months of bills hadn't been paid, because she lied. So needless to say we all extra peeved with her, but there is really nothing to be done about it. Now we are all thrilled to have Francesca, and our money. And a clean apartment. With electricity. All of the things any normal person could possibly desire. I've been spending lots of my free time with Francesca and her friends, Giorgia and Giuly. They are all incredibly nice, and incredibly Italian. I am even learning how to speak some Italian, with my first full phrase being pezzo di merda (piece of shit). Galician men seem to think that foreign women like to have their asses pinched while walking down the street. We don't. We actually really despise it.
Tonight we went out and took photos of Santiago at nighttime, it is truly breathtaking. Here are some of the photos we took.

 Cathedral of Santiago

 Shadow of a pilgrim, amazing detail

 Plaza de Platerías

 Francesca, Giorgia, Giuly

Happy Holidays (in Galician)

I am really excited for this next week, because Kim gets here! I have been planning all sorts of great things to do with her, and then it's off to Turkey!

Two Weeks in Two Minutes (for Kim)

Happy December! It has been two weeks (plus some) since I last updated my blog, and I am sorry for the delay. I haven't done much worth writing about, and that is why I will make this entry short and promise to update in a week with something a little more interesting.
Last week Andrea moved to London to work as an Au Pair and so that means I now have a new roommate. The day she left we found someone to take her room. Francesca is from Italy and doing Erasmus, just like Pedro is from Portugal. She is fantastic and we get along great with her. Toxo is especially fond of our newest roomie.
My job is still absolutely fantastic. I have so much fun teaching and planning and everything that is involved in educating. This week I had one student profess his love (14 years old) and another asked if I wanted to marry him (16 years old). So that's great.
Francesca, Angel and I went to the bar across the street the other night, Brooklyn Bar, because it was country night. Nothing has made me so happy since I got here as this bar. 1-Spanish look like dorks dressed like cowboys 2-Ring of Fire is a great song and 3-the Confederate flag was in the same bar as a USSR flag, and I am the only one who found it amusing. Needless to say, they haven't quite got the American theme pegged.
I am getting really antsy for Christmas break, not having a Thanksgiving break makes the semester go by slowly, but now it's December and break is almost here. The Spring Semester has a lot of breaks and will fly by I'm certain.
So that's it, the highlights of the past two weeks in two minutes. You're welcome Kimberly.

Quick Update

So far this week has been one of those weeks, you know the kind where you never know what day it is and can't remember what your to-do list composed of....one of those weeks. Somehow I made it through. I even had all my classes prepped, but some of the professors forgot to mention that Tuesday was field trip day, and Thursday was Drug Free Assembly day....so half my classes were cancelled. Something I found out after arriving to the classrooms, void of students. Must have missed the notice.
Wednesday was a general strike in Spain, as well as other European countries, formulated by the European syndicates. Ideally everything was closed for the day as a form of protest against the direction the governments are heading. There were groups picketing through the streets to assure that no business was open, upon finding one open on the day of strike, they stood outside and chanted extra loud to make sure it closed. In theory this is how the strike worked. In reality it went more like this: lots of businesses were closed, in the morning. Those that were brave enough to open in the morning kept the black-out blinds 3/4 closed and when they heard the picketers coming, they lowered the blinds the rest of the way until the picketers passed. I watched from my window as the people enjoying their morning cup of coffee in the cafe across from me were locked inside the cafe to avoid having to deal with the chanting. However someone inside wanted to leave. They had to open the blinds over the door. The man squatted to duck out, and the chanters hung out for awhile and posted signs on the blinds saying the cafe was closed for strike. Then they left. Then the blinds went back up. Fail? The protests were peaceful, though mildly obnoxious, in Spain. Portugal was not as lucky. Lisbon experienced violent protests, though the people there are at a different level of desperate than those in Spain. The Spanish picketers were just loud. And after the siesta, everything opened back up in Santiago. This is a video of the picketers on my street, you can see the man leave the cafe. And then they all stayed for a long time. The chant is in Gallego, estamos en folga, hai que pechar, we're on strike, close up.

Folga xeral in front of my apartment

On a lighter note, Toxo is just as cute as ever. And is struggling to understand the washing machine. Poor fella, it's not going well for him. But my goodness is it cute.

 

Toxo

I don't have any big plans for my weekend as of yet, but I have planned a trip finally. It's not until the end of next month, but it'll be worth the wait. After Kim leaves, I am going to Turkey. I bought my ticket today and am now working on a plan for my time there, December 28-January 6. It should be phenomenal. 

Paychecks=Freedom, so does Obama.

I am now two months into my stay in Spain (the amount that remain is up in the air) and I am finally starting to get the ball rolling on life. *a word of caution, the Spanish rub off on you quickly and it's hard to shake the laid back attitude* It helped that I was finally paid by the program, and now I can start to plan trips, a feat that is easier said than done. I am also thrilled to be planning to be a tour guide for Kim in just over a month. Kim, one of my best friends (the first friend I made in Star), is coming to spend Christmas with me, and I get to show her Galicia. The pressure's on, and I'm counting the days until I get to see her again!
This week I had my first negative experience in the classroom, and I had to lay down the law. I am used to the students not being as well behaved as the students in the USA, but on Thursday they pushed it too far. In the seventh grade class I was with half the students, reviewing for an exam, something they desperately needed to do. There are four students that just do not care to learn English, and that in no way bothers me; however the incessant need to talk and throw things and not sit in their chairs did bother me. I calmly explained to them that I understand English is not everyone's favorite, but that regardless there was still going to be a test and if they wanted to pass it was in their best interest to pay attention. This worked for about two minutes, then they started again. For the first time I lectured in Spanish, explaining (in the most professional way possible) that I don't really give a crap if they ignore me, as long as do it quietly and while sitting in their own chairs, está entendido, chicos? They were so taken aback by that they actually shut up, win. But then when two students, who really do try to learn, but struggle immensely with the subject, made a mistake, the whole class laughed at them and called them stupid. Cue lecture number two, a little louder than lecture number one and much more harsh. In Spanish (because I wanted nothing lost in translation) I snapped that I, being the best at speaking English in the whole school, am the only one with the right to laugh at mistakes. If I am not laughing, you should not be either. I do not want to hear you call another peer stupid, apologize and let's continue. The four troublemakers lost the right to be with me and instead have to stay in the main class doing grammar exercises that they hate until they learn to be nice. I knew it was only a matter of time for something like to happen, and it would have been much easier to handle if I was the actual teacher, but I am just the assistant and so I have to follow the rules of the teachers (but I am lucky enough that they support me in whatever decision I make in regards to discipline).
I have also received many congratulations from the Spanish this week on the re-election of President Obama, something I receive with great pride. Good work America. I also started private lessons with two more families. On Monday I went to Ana's house and spoke with two of her children for an hour. They are absolutely adorable, and her daughter told me she has always wanted to try peanut butter, because it's in all the movies. This week we will be making PBJs. Friday I began with the neighbor's of Roi and Iria (my normal Friday classes), the family has two little boys, five and seven (Anton and Roi), and they were so excited to play. Anton was very confused as to why I was speaking English, and Roi was embarrassed that he forgot so much English this summer (adorable). I had so much fun with them!
Last night I got to Skype with my daddy and Tonka and Zar. My three favorite men. From 5000 miles away the dogs listened to my commands (my dad, not so much).

It does not get much cuter than this.

Today the sun came out for a few hours and Angel and I took advantage of it and went for a walk. The old town is so charming, the stereotypical European town with cobblestone streets and stone buildings. And after a rain shower it is nothing short of charming.

 

Casco viejo 

No cars on these streets

Praza da Inmaculado

 

 Praza da Inmaculado

 

 Rainbow (if you look closely)

 

 

Too Many Topics for a Cohesive Title

This week has flown by, once again. I was slammed the first few days of the week with work, prepping the presentations for Halloween and planning lessons for school as well as the private lessons. This week I am supposed to begin with Ana's kids, Ana is the teacher who drives me to school in the mornings, and I am setting up a time with another family for the following week. I am really excited to have the opportunity to give more private lessons, and it is really convenient for now because my program has yet to pay me. Urgency is a word that does not seem to exist the Spanish language. But I do just fine with my weekly lessons, my salary is for traveling.

Monday Isabel took me to the top of the "mountain" to see Santiago from above, and the view was breathtaking. The road up was a death trap, a common design in this region I am finding, but with my fingers tightly crossed we made it to the top without incident. The trip was unplanned so I was armed only with my iPhone to take pictures of the whole city, but we were there at sunset and the clouds were like nothing I've seen before. Sadly these photos do them no justice.

 Amazing.

 Mountain trees aka wannabe-pines-but-in-the-wrong-climate

The students were all s antsy this week because it was a three day school week, Wednesday was Halloween/Samhain and Thursday was All Saints Day, then Friday was a school holiday. I gave presentations on Halloween and How to Carve a Pumpkin, we watched The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and read Halloween stories. The students were so into learning about Halloween in the USA and loved seeing the costumes and the Haunted Maze/World/Houses that we have in Idaho (though after I explained the chainsaw men and traps they seemed less keen on going). I had a 'moment', for lack of a better way to explain it, with the fifth grade class on Tuesday while reading the Halloween story. It was a story about a kid that goes to his grandmother's house alone, where all the servants are typical Halloween monsters. The story was full of difficult vocabulary and hard to follow for their level, but there were parts that repeated, and they repeated with me (including the actions and silly voices I made for these parts). I was so proud of them. All of the students are learning so much, I am always impressed by the students. To celebrate Samhain, the holiday from which Halloween originated, the students decorate pumpkins, and bring them to school, these are my favorite ones.

 Native American, in Spain. 

 Skater by a student in fifth grade (though I have my assumptions that there was a touch of parental supervision...)

And the winner is...this fridge. The cutest pumpkin I've ever seen

Wednesday night we had a small party for Halloween and went out. It was really fun to celebrate Halloween in Spain because costumes are not seen as an excuse to slut up, but rather an excuse to go all out and be as realistic an interpretation of your character as possible. Just like kids in the USA. Andrea did our make-up and we had homemade goodies to much on while we waited until an ungodly hour to leave the flat.

Zombie Angel, with a paper mache wound on his neck

Not sure what I was, but it was a costume that rolled over to the next day, when I woke up looking like a hungover prostitute. It was a massive amount of eyeliner that refused to come off in the many attempts before bed, and held strong for the next couple of days at that matter..

Happy Halloween!

Thursday and Friday were lazy days where I fought an annoying cold that came back in full force, bringing headaches as reinforcements. Then there was today, one of those "the-grass-is-probably-maybe-greener-on-the-other-side-of-the-globe" days. Then I found out Toxo had fleas and I realized that the grass is definitely greener on the other side of the globe. Andrea and I combed, bathed and collared the little fella. Then we fumigated the flat. My inner hippie didn't even fight it, fleas or carcinogenic chemicals, we all know which of these is the worse of two evils. I emptied that spray can.

Flea free and oh so very happy

Following the motherly advice given to me by the world's number one mom, I went for a walk to shake my stinky attitude this afternoon. Shockingly enough, my mom was right and the walk did me wonders. ;) Fall is in full swing here and the Parque de la Alameda is absolutely gorgeous. 

 Spoiler alert, there are a lot of trees in this park

 The branches blow my mind, someday I'll find out what kind of trees these are (I'm sure I could ask anyone in the park since the Spanish are all somehow experts in flora)

 Notice the mix of tress in this photo, there oaks, pines, palms and so many other species of trees here

 Rosalia Castro, a poet native to Santiago de Compostela

 The funky branches, again

 So many colors, how is this not everyone's favorite season?

 More colors

One final photo

We shall see what this next week holds in store for me, I hope it full of paychecks but free of fleas and sneezes. Love.