Hala Madrid!

It's a dreary, rainy Sunday in Madrid, after a chilly, mostly uneventful weekend, but quite a busy week! The above photo (click to enlarge) is from Wednesday night's Real Madrid v Real Murcia game. Madrid won, 5-1, but it was far from a dull blow-out game. Madrid scored within the first five minutes and the ref ended up throwing out Madrid coach José Mourinho and giving out eight yellow cards, one of which turned into a red card for Madrid defender Álvaro Arbeloa. It was really interesting to see the highlights after the game, since Bernabeu lacks a replay screen (perhaps an American indulgence but I still really wish there had been one). Mourinho was thrown out of the game--and suspended for the next two games--for badmouthing the ref and stepping outside the coach's area. The entire stadium went wild and started shouting at the referee, who is also notorious for making calls just like this one. Mourinho said in a post-game interview that this ref averages about six yellow cards per match, and considering the first card he gave out in this game was after only about ten minutes of play, many more cards were bound to follow.

Wednesday's game was part of the Copa del Rey, and since Real Murcia is in a lower-ranked division than Madrid, the tickets were absurdly cheap, only ten euros for seats on top! We'd originally planned on spending more for the "good" seats in the lower sections, since they only would have cost us about 20-30 euros each, but we bought our tickets too late and the upper levels were the only seats left. There isn't a bad seat in the house, really... the rows are pretty stacked and each row had a crossbar in front of the seats because they just know we're all going to be jumping out of our chairs every few minutes! The best part was that the upper levels have heaters on the ceilings, so even though it was freezing that night, we were nice and toasty. Overall I had a really great time and I can't wait to go to another game!

The next day at school, we had an excursion to the Parque Europa, a big green space in Torrejón with loads of European monuments in a miniature form. It does seem a bit cheesy, but I think the kids had a lot of fun. I was, however, exhausted after this trip. My normal day at school consists of talking to the kids or telling them to be quiet, but never actually trying to corral them into the room. This was not the case on Thursday. We had to shout so loudly just to get their attention and tell them what monument we were looking at. The first half of the trip I was with Inma, the English teacher, but halfway through I had to switch to be with Inés so that each group would have one teacher speaking English and one speaking Spanish. It's really incredible how easily the kids stop what they are doing to listen to someone speaking Spanish, but I understand that it's so much easier for them to tune out a different language... I was a student in language classes once!

As I mentioned in my last post, I am completely obsessed with the Spanish dish, pimientos de Padrón. Well, at the supermarket on Friday afternoon I saw a packet of these little green peppers that caught my eye, especially the part on the label that said the variety was "PADRON." Naturally, I bought a pack, brought them home, and attempted to make my new favorite dish. Success! They were delicious and just how I'd hoped they would taste. If you can get your hands on these peppers, all you have to do is wash & dry them, fry them in olive oil for a few minutes until they start to blister and shrivel a bit, and then sprinkle them with salt. Pick them up by the stems, take a bite, and hope that they don't pica!

I changed the memory card in my camera this weekend and discovered a long-lost gem--a picture of my first attempt at making a tortilla! After I returned from Spain last summer I was completely enamored with this dish (and still am) so I had some friends from my study abroad group over to my apartment for dinner and tried to have a nice tapas night. I saw this photo and thought, hmm, that looks a lot like the plates from my apartment, but I haven't made a successful tortilla in a long time... so I checked the info on the photo and it was dated 10-10-2009! Incredible! I certainly have something to live up to this time around. And if you're interested in sampling some of my favorite Spanish flavors, my friend Meredith wrote a nice blog post with a recipe for this dish in particular. My advice: don't be timid with the olive oil. You'll need it!!

I think I'm getting the Black Lung, Pop

No, I haven't started smoking or become a coal miner. But it's possible that everyone else in this city has. Smoking, that is. Not coal mining, as far as I know. It's impossible to go almost anywhere in this city without smelling like an ashtray. I had to find a new place to hang my towel because it was hanging next to my scarves, which of course smell like smoke. Yuck. The sad inevitable day finally came: the end of my first month of teaching. And the end of the month means time to switch schedules with the other assistant, Jen. Now I'm working with Inma and first-grade groups A & B. They are fine, but I miss my other classes! The worst/best part about the switch is that my old students always give me hugs and shout my name every time they see me outside or in the hallways. It really makes my day when they start the sports-style cheer: Shaaa-na! Shaaa-na! Shaaa-na!

So, what have I been up to lately? I've started going to a conversation hour type of thing in which we all speak thirty minutes or so in Spanish before switching to English for thirty minutes, and back and forth for about two hours. After last week's session, a group of us went to the Feria de la Cerveza that was held inside the Plaza de Toros. They tried to set it up like Oktoberfest, with long rows of tables and giant beer mugs that hold a full liter!There was also a variety of different types of sausage for sale, but to me they just tasted like hot dogs and breakfast sausage.

I guess that's how it goes when you're trying to eat German food in Spain. Speaking of which, Jen and I are going to Germany in December! We have a long weekend, or puente, at the beginning of the month so we spent an evening looking at cheap flights all around Europe and found some cheap ones to and from Düsseldorf and Frankfurt, but our itinerary between the two stops is currently undetermined, so please send suggestions! We are hoping to see Berlin, Dresden, and Munich, but I am still very open to suggestions. Also, Mom booked her flight to Madrid for Christmas, so we will probably travel for a few days before or after New Year's Eve, which I have decided we must spend here to be a part of the NYE tradition in Puerta del Sol, where the madrileños eat twelve grapes at midnight--one for each chime of the clock.

Yesterday I had my first session teaching the teachers at my school! As part of my program, the school can choose to have the English assistants help with teaching English to the other teachers. On Wednesdays, they meet with an actual English teacher, but on Monday afternoons they meet with Jen and me and we split into two groups for an hour of conversation. Jen has had some experience teaching before and, well, she tends to talk a bit faster than I do, so she has a group of six teachers who already know a bit of English. I have a group of fourteen (!!!) teachers who know less English, but their levels range from a few who really don't know any English to a few who will probably move up to the second class once they feel more comfortable speaking English. One of the teachers in my class, María (not to be confused with the first-grade English teacher María), lives near me and we've gotten the chance to talk on the bus to and from school nearly every day, so it's nice to have a friend in my group to help me relax! The teachers have all told me that they're very nervous and embarrassed to speak English, but yesterday I was extremely nervous to teach them! The class went well and was mostly me getting to know them and answering their questions more than I was asking them questions. Jen and I will be meeting with the Wednesday afternoon English teacher sometime this week to discuss her lesson plans so we can sort of echo what she teaches and reinforce the ideas in practice. Listen to me, all teachery.

This weekend was known as "MTV Week" because the European Music Awards (EMAs) were held in Madrid this year. What does this mean? Parties, concerts, and more parties going on all week, all sponsored by MTV and all free! Well, sort of. A big stage was set up in the city center at Puerta de Alcalá where a bunch of Spanish artists played a show on Saturday, and on Sunday, during the actual EMAs, Katy Perry, Linkin Park, and 30 Seconds to Mars performed. Of course, Kanye West had to show up and do a song in the middle of one of the performances, and Jackass came out and crowdsurfed. My roommate managed to see Snooki and Pauly D from Jersey Shore at a hotel downtown, while I was out and about all weekend and managed to not see anyone. Such is my life. My friend Josh and I tried to go to the EMA afterparty that was held in Parque Retiro, but much to our dismay the doorman told us it was invitation-only, and since it was late on a Sunday night we couldn't stick around to see the celebs arriving.

Aside from celebrity-stalking, I spent most of my weekend with some people from the conversation hour, going out to lunch, visiting the Sunday morning market aka El Rastro, tapas-crawling on Cava Baja and around La Latina, and generally wandering around the city and speaking lots of Spanish. It's just so incredible how much better my Spanish has gotten, not that it was bad before, but I'm not nearly as afraid to use it as I used to be. At times I really miss my family, my friends, and my old routine... I am especially missing Raleigh's fantastic breweries. I haven't found anything to compare to Sweet Josie Brown, and the recent return of Aces & Ates has me feeling extremely nostalgic for tasty beers. But I guess that's why I'm going to Germany!

To be fair, what Spain lacks in amazing wintry brews, it certainly makes up for in fantastic food. I've recently become obsessed with Pimientos de Padrón, a dish of fried peppers from Galicia in the Northwest of Spain. There is a saying about the dish in the local language, Galego: Os pementos de Padrón, uns pican e outros non, which means: Padrón peppers, some are spicy and some are not. Padrón is a town in the community of Galicia where the dish originated. Usually, it tastes like sweet fried peppers, but sometimes you'll get a spicy one. I had some at a small bar near the Plaza Mayor a few weeks ago and have been crazy about them ever since. If you have the means, I highly suggest picking one up.

I have added lots more pictures to my albums online. Click here to see them, and until next time, un beso!

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!

Books!

After being a really lazy reader, I've finally finished Colum McCann's Let The Great World Spin. I really enjoyed it, so it totally validates all the long hours I spent gazing longingly at it from across the counter at Black Bear. But now that I am finally in a routine of reading, I still have quite a stack of books to get through as I move into the world of libraries and Spanish literature. Audience participation time! [polldaddy poll=3958718]

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!