My new home

Just kidding. But really, this house is for sale in La Moraleja, Madrid, and it could be yours for only 15 million euros! Idealista.com just published a list of the 88 most expensive houses they are currently advertising. Check it out! The most expensive house is in the Balearic Islands for 18 million euros. Joder.

This has been a really nice, tiring week. On Tuesday, my friend Jessie and I went to see Future Islands at a club in North-Central Madrid. I just saw them in Raleigh during Hopscotch in September, and that club was completely packed--apparently it was one-in, one-out by the time they started playing. Not surprisingly, the show was set to begin at 9pm but got pushed to 1030pm because Real Madrid was playing in town (across the street, no less) against AC Milan (final score, 2-0 Madrid) so Jessie and I went to a bar around the corner called Klippers for a drink before the show. Moby Dick, where they played, wasn't packed, but it was certainly full. There didn't seem to be too many people there who knew the band, but I wasn't the only one singing along!

The kids at school are really starting to respond and I can tell that a few of them are actually understanding the words that I teach them. I'd hoped to avoid having "favorites" but there are definitely a few kids that I enjoy working with more than others. I also get along very well with my teacher, María. At first I was a little nervous to work with her because she seemed very serious, but in the past few weeks we've worked out a good system and we are able to laugh with each other when we have a little downtime. I am also getting along well with the other assistant, Jennifer. We get to chat during recreo and on the bus to/from Madrid/Torrejón and discuss how things are going in our classes, since we never actually work together except for special events.

On Wednesday, all of the first and second-grade classes took a field trip to see La Flauta Mágica at a nearby theater. Jennifer and I got to go watch the play with them, which was of course entirely in Spanish, but very easy to follow and of course none of the words were too complicated. I hadn't even thought about that because I am so accustomed to only speaking English with my classes, so it seemed very strange to go do something with them in Spanish. The play was weird, but it was a semi-opera, so all of the characters sang at one point or another. The kids went crazy there, shouting at the stage constantly... I just sat with the other teachers and enjoyed a few hours of sitting in a comfy chair while the kids were entertained. We got back to the school right at recreo so all of the teachers retreated to the lounge for break time, and I inadvertently ate empanadillas with tuna in them. Boke. But fortunately today there was a tray of different types of ham (very important in Spain, as my friend Meredith eloquently writes in her blog) and cheese to be put on baguette slices. Also in school today the students made pumpkins using orange paint to decorate the classroom for Halloween and somehow I ended up with orange hands and spots  on my clothes, despite never painting anything!

Hmm, what else? During my session with the 4/5 year-old class this week, a teacher came into our classroom asking if my teacher, Sara, would help her look for a missing boy from the 3/4 year-old class! She agreed and asked if I'd go watch the 3/4 year-old class, but they haven't learned any English yet, so I finally had a chance to speak a bit of Spanish with some incredibly cute little ones. And the missing boy? It turns out he followed the wrong class inside after recreo and was enjoying a second music class that day.

Mom is hoping to buy her ticket out here for Christmas soon! I am so excited! It is going to be cold at Christmastime, so we might take a trip elsewhere for a few days... the only problem is that we want to go to even colder places like Germany and Austria to enjoy good beer (almost non-existent in this country) and reenact The Sound of Music. Heh. I don't have any big plans for the weekend except for maybe visiting the railway museum and making a few stops on the free coffee day in honor of Fair Trade month. Un beso a todos!

On Learning English

That's right--I'm learning English. "But Shana, you already speak English! And you are in Spain," you might say. However, because my roommates are from England and Scotland, I have been learning all kinds of fun new English words and phrases and realizing that even though the three of us speak the same language, we really don't speak the same English at all. Here are a few words I've picked up from them so far:

• bolt - Scottish; get out of here, go away, etc.
• busker - English; street musician. Verb: to busk.
• boke/boak* - Scottish; to vomit, or to feel sick. "Total boakfest" or "That gives me the boke."
• knackered - English; tired, exhausted.
• steaming - Scottish; drunk.
• skip - Scottish; dumpster.
• Hank Marvin - Scottish; hungry, or if you're really hungry, you're "Hank Marvin and all his pals."
• fit - English; extremely attractive (person).

*this is my favorite one so far.

There are more obvious ones of course, like lift, flat, dodgy, bin, rubbish, etc, but I don't think those need much explanation. I've also taught them a few that they particularly enjoyed, like "blowing up" in reference to an especially active cell phone, and "book it" for doing something really quickly--we were walking down Gran Vía and when a man ran past us I said, "wow he's really booking it," to much comedic effect.

More to come!

School is in session

I know, I know. It's been a while. I hadn't been updating because there was nothing going on, but now it seems like so much has happened since I last posted! Where to begin?? I had orientation about two weeks ago. It was useless at times and really helpful at others. However, the important stuff, like things regarding health insurance, national ID cards, etc, were all told to us in Spanish, while the less-important things, like ideas for teaching English, were told to us in our native tongue. Funny. I made a few friends, though I've only seen two of them regularly since then. One of them, Jessie, asked if I've heard of Broken Social Scene. Instant friend.

Last Tuesday, I went to visit my school so I'd know where I was going, how to get there, etc. before my first day. It was sort of overwhelming--hopping on a bus to a random suburb 22km (metric!) outside Madrid and having no idea where I was going or who I'd meet--but a nice lady from Torrejón sat with me and helped me get off at the right stop and pointed me in the right direction of the school. After a bit of trouble with the entrance (you have to use a buzzer to get in and out of the three choices on the buzzer I managed to choose the correct one last), I was met in the lobby by the director and the head of studies, who took me to meet the two English teachers in first grade, Inma and María. I'll be working exclusively with María this month, until I switch horarios with the other assistant and work only with Inma. The way our schedules work is that we switch each month to spend that time with one teacher and two of the four first grade classes. Right now I'm working with groups C and D.

Anyway, I digress. I went to visit the school, met the teachers, saw the kids, and then after school let out, Inma took me around the entire building (which is enormous) and introduced me to every teacher who was still around after the kids went home.

The next day was the 29th of September, or 29-S, the day of the Huelga General, or general strike. The recent economic crisis caused many of Spain's civil service workers to take a 5% pay cut, and it left a lot of people who lost their jobs without the typical severance package, about a month of pay minimum. The metro system was (allegedly) running 50% of its normal services during rush hours, and 20% for the rest of the day. I didn't notice a lot of strike-related changes in town other than some roads being shut down because of a bunch of protesters gathering in some plazas and roundabouts, but I also spent most of the day lying around in the park with my friends, eating bread and cheese and getting some sun.

My first real day at school was Friday, and I mostly observed but I did get two gifts already--a boy and a girl both said the pictures they'd drawn were for me, but unfortunately I couldn't accept them because they were in their student workbooks and part of the day's assignment. Hopefully they'll make some more for me!

Friday, I went out with my roommates to a pub quiz at an English bookstore in the Malasaña neighborhood. Photo of me, the roomies, and our friend Rachel (blonde) crammed into our tiny old-school elevator on the way to the pub quiz. We did pretty terrible. Considering the questions were done by an English guy and a lot of them were fairly UK-centric and we had a team of 3 Brits and an American, I would have expected to do a little better (especially considering my history with trivia nights!) but I guess not coming in last is good enough for our first try. We are probably going back this Friday, and the store has an intercambio night twice a week, and we have also been considering finding one to attend regularly so we can meet some more people and hopefully find someone to help us with our Spanish, since we really aren't supposed to speak it at school. I wouldn't mind meeting someone from Brazil, though, since I think it will be pretty easy to find Spanish speakers here (imagine that) but I'd really like to keep up with Portuguese in some way. If not, I'll just start skyping my old professor and classmates all the time. Hah. Speaking of skype, I have it! Add me by my email address if you have it, too!

I woke up Sunday with a sore throat and it has since progressed into cough and congestion. So, the bad news is that I've got my first cold in Madrid, but the good news is that I'm not necessarily allergic to Spain! Hooray!

This week, I've just been waking up at 7 (yuck) to catch the metro at 8 to the suburban bus at 820 to start school at 9 every day. I am in class from 9-2, and usually get home around 3 or 4, depending on which bus I manage to catch back to Madrid. A typical day has three sessions split between two classes, a 30-minute break, and then two more sessions with either one or both of the morning classes. During the 30-minute break, the kids go outside for recreo and the teachers hang out in the teacher's lounge which always has a delicious spread of coffee, juices, fruit, and a special tapa. Usually they are really good--today's was a slice of baguette with a red pepper/chorizo/cheese bruschetta-type mixture, but yesterday there was a plate of fried calamari rings, yuck! On Monday we had toasts with tomato, manchego, and the part that ruined it, tuna on top. I managed to find one that the chefs missed that only had tomato and cheese on it. Yum!

In general, I am really enjoying my "job" in the school (so far). It is obvious which kids are picking up on English quicker than others, and which of them are still afraid to try to use English with a scary native speaker. This is my school's first year doing the bilingual program, and when they start the program, they start from the bottom and work up. My first-graders are the only kids in the school taking English, and almost none of them have had much if any contact with English before now, so it is going to be an interesting year. I really hope I can make some progress with them, even if it is only that they know what "I'm fine, thank you" means rather than just knowing it is the acceptable response in the English classroom to the question, "How are you?"

fotográfica rápida

I don't have much to update on right now, as nothing's really happened for the past few days! However, I'll be taking a few quick pictures as I walk around town, so if you'd like to view what I've done so far, click on the Photos link or on the picture below:

Puerta de Toledo

Getting set up

We have internet! Woooooooo! The entire process was pretty painless, aside from a 20-minute wait at Telefónica yesterday and our technician having the thickest Madrileño accent ever--very difficult to understand on the phone.  Speaking of which, I have a cell phone now... not that it is very useful to those of you reading from the States, but if you happen to be a Madrileño (honorary or otherwise) let me know and we can get in touch! So, here I am, day 4 in Madrid. So far I've gotten some things set up, all that's left is to set up my bank account and get started on my National ID/residence card etc etc. We are supposed to hear a bit about that at orientation this week, but Erica, the girl who lived in this piso last year and helped me get set up here has been telling me a lot of useful information to keep in mind.

I've mostly been showing Tasha around Madrid since she's never been here before, and it's strange to think that I actually know this city better than someone after spending only a month here a year ago. We've been to the "must-sees" of Madrid already--Puerta del Sol, Plaza Mayor, shops on Gran Vía, etc--but we haven't yet hit Retiro or anything North of Sol, really. She said she's been giving an entire day for every task that she'd normally take an hour to do in England, and that isn't such a bad idea.

Last night, we watched the movie (500) Days of Summer to swoon over Joseph Gordon-Levitt rather than fight the throngs of people in Sol that we saw there all day yesterday. Near the end of the movie, around midnight, fireworks started going off very nearby. It sounded like they were going off inside our apartment and the ashes were falling on the roof! We couldn't figure out why fireworks would be going off aside from maybe the end of the Real Madrid game, but their stadium (Santiago Bernabéu) is nowhere close to where we live! Very strange.

This morning we woke up early and got out to the Rastro to see what goodies were being offered. Nothing special for me, unfortunately, but Tasha bought a few Spanish books to get back in practice. After that, a quick snack at 100 Montaditos before coming back here to deal with the internet (an obvious success) and watch Fear Factor in Spanish. Very strange.

Finally, Sonal has asked me to continue the Tour de Sangria, and so here are my first contributions!

Sangria 1: from La Soberbia, near Tio Pepe in Sol This sangria was absolutely perfect!

Sangria 2: from Cañas y Tapas near Sol This was on-demand sangria--wine, lemon Kas, and a few pieces of fruit.