Thanksgiving Abroad

Tomorrow marks not only my first Thanksgiving abroad, but also my first Thanksgiving away from my family. Now Thanksgiving of course is an American holiday, so while my friends and family back home will be enjoying their turkey dinners, I’ll be busy working (in full disclosure, by the time you’re enjoying dinner, I’ll probably be asleep given the 6 hour time difference). But do not fear, since us expats stick together for the holidays. Tomorrow, besides working, I’ll be getting my haircut (should be interesting), preparing some croquetas de jamón for the apartment, and enjoying some Turkish kebab with my Madrid family. Since we are all working tomorrow, we are going to have our real Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday. I’ll be preparing the Tyrrell family stuffing recipe, and I’m also in charge of trying to find a turkey, which is a little more difficult than going to Kroger and grabbing a Butterball. Most likely, tomorrow I’ll be going to my local butcher and placing an order for a turkey for Saturday (which reminds me to look up the Spanish words for “take out all the guts, please”). Expect some pictures of my Madrid family tomorrow enjoying our kebabs and of course the Spain family (some of my friends live outside of Madrid) and the real dinner on Saturday.
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I do want to share what I am thankful for. I am thankful for all my friends in Spain, without whom I would surely not have made it thus far. The government of Spain for offering me this once in a lifetime opportunity. My fellow teachers and students, who have made my job so much easier with their compassion and understanding. And of course my friends and family back home, for all their love and support while I’m abroad.

Longer Trips: Malaga and Barcelona, Spain

So in my haste to post pictures, it turns out I forgot to post about some of my trips. Well near the end of October, the Madrid schools had a break (puente). Given this opportune moment, a group of 10 of us decided to embark on a 6 hour bus ride to Malaga, in the southern part of Spain. After the harrowing 6 hour, did I mention SIX HOURS, bus ride through tight roads, mountains, and one of the nicest rest stops I’ve been to, we arrive in the oasis that is Malaga. While Madrid wasn’t too cold at this point, 40-50 degrees Fahrenheit, Malaga was a pleasant 70-80 degrees; it even had palm trees!

I enjoyed spending most of time on the beach, as well as getting to explore the city. While not as culturally significant as Madrid, Malaga had it’s fair share of history, including being the birth place for Pablo Picasso and the world-renowned Antonio Banderas. Along with laying on the beach, days before Halloween, we visited centuries old castles, a museum with the strictest security I have ever encountered, an outdoor party in the plaza on Halloween night, and a quick trip to Nerja to see the caves.

Two weekends ago, a few of us went to Barcelona for three days. Rather than taking an even longer than Malaga bus there, we decided to fly since it ended up being significantly cheaper than the train (which is unbelievably quicker than flying). I think I can sum up my thoughts on Barcelona in one sentence, “Barcelona, being the second most populous city in Spain, is huge!” In those three days, we didn’t even cover a fraction of the city, but from what I saw it was quite an amazing place. Being on the coast, the weather was more humid and temperate than Madrid. Since we had such a short amount of time in Barcelona, we focused our attention on the coastline and seeing the different Gaudi buildings. Just these two things easily filled our three days and we could have spent another week just on Gaudi. His work just reminded me of how us humans are capable of such incredible, and destructive, things.

Well my next trip will be to Bilbao, in the north of Spain, thus concluding my visitation of the center, south, east, and northern parts of the country. We are leaving for Bilbao in just over a week and a half, so you can expect new pictures then. Following Bilbao, I’ll be embarking on my Christmas/New Year adventures, which will surely take me to places outside of the land of jamón.

Barcelona, Spain (Click picture for more)

Malaga, Spain (Click photo for more)

Segovia, Spain (Click photo to see more)

Alcala de Henares, Spain (Click photo for more)

Madrid, Spain (Click photo for pictures)

A Normal Day in my Spanish Life

 

Let me start out by saying, that I am indeed still alive.

I wanted to give you all a break down on what a normal (or as close to normal as it gets) day in my life looks like.

So for those of you who don’t know, I’m in Spain to teach (American) English and about American culture (whatever that is). I’m contracted to work a whooping 16 hours a week, which breaks down to 4 hours a day, 4 days a week, leaving me with a 3 day weekend. Don’t worry, we have plenty of breaks and holidays, so I’m never working too hard.

Monday through Thursday I normally wake up about 6:30am, read the papers (online of course), maybe watch a TV show from the other day, have a little breakfast, get ready, and am out the door by 7:40am. Everyday I take the Metro, which always lends itself to providing me some unique experience that forever changes my view on society, and my trip is about 30 minutes to either of my schools. By the time I walk to the building, it’s about 8:15am and I’m generally one of the first teachers to arrive for our 8:30am start time. The 8:30 classes always start late, normally the teacher shows up about 8:40, so this gives me plenty of time to prepare for the day.

At Juana de Castilla, my Monday and Tuesday school, I teach four gym classes, two technology/woodshop classes, one social studies classes, and one biology class, with ages ranging from my first ESO (12 years old) to second ESO (13 years old). All of these classes are taught in English, since Juana de Castilla has a bilingual program. In addition to these classes, all the classes are taught in English with the exception of Spanish (of course), literature, and math. Normally I work here until 2pm, which includes many hours of breaks.

I work at my other school, Las Musas on Wednesday and Thursdays. Las Musas is a non-bilingual school, so I only teach English classes. In Spanish non-bilingual schools, English is compulsory and all students have to have 5 hours a week. With the majority of my classes, I’ll take two groups of 2-3 students down to the library, over the course of a class period, and we’ll just talk. I introduce them to new words or concepts, and also teach them a little bit about American culture. For example, to illustrate typical American food and portion sizes, I showed them this clip:

I actually explained how this clip illustrates a false American stereotype, and told them why Paula Deen is one of the worst things to happen to American culture.

At Las Musas, I tend to teach older kids, from 13-18, and with varying levels of English; some classes we just talk about conversation skills, other classes we talk about American politics, literature, and news articles. I end at this school about 1pm everyday.

After work, I head home and do lunch with a siesta. Normally I don’t nap for my siesta, but I use the next hour or two to just kind of relax, read my kindle, watch a TV program, update my blog, etc. After siesta, I start preparing for tomorrow classes, go grocery shopping, apply to law schools, and any other not so fun stuff I have to do. About 9-10pm, I’ll have dinner (9 is considered a little early for Madrid dinner but I haven’t quite gotten used to eating so late) and I try to cook about 4 times a week and go out for dinner once a week, to save my money.

During the weekends I like to travel (I’m leaving for Barcelona tomorrow after work!), cook larger meals, hang out with friends, and try to enjoy the Madrid nightlife (read morning life since the last few times we wound up being out until about 4am).

I hope you enjoyed my little snapshot of my life in Madrid, be on the lookout for more regular posts. In addition, I’ll be adding some pictures that I’ve taken over my time in Spain.